I stared up at the sterile ceiling in the hospital room, counting the holes in the ceiling. I was getting around to the two thousandth when a small swishing noise caught my attention. I looked over to see Shadow standing by the window, the moonlight pouring in and accenting the crimson streaks on his quills with a small shine.

He seemed a little on edge about something "So what did they do?"

"They hooked me up to some drug that slows down a rapid heartbeat…"

"Any spikes sense this morning?"

I shook my head "No, thank God…" I let out a sigh "I've been here to many times…"

"I think I gave you too much energy- So it almost backfired." He let out a heavy sigh and rubbed his hand down his face. "This is my fault… I'm-" he stopped mid-sentence and clenched shut his jaw. His crimson irises locked onto mine and I was confused by the eye contact.

"Your eyes- they're… there's something different…" his voice was low and curious. "What do you mean different?" I didn't hide the worry in my voice- or how uncomfortable I felt with the connection between his eyes and mine.

"There's a small amount of red in them." He continued to inspect my hazel irises.

Red.

There should not be any of such color in my gold, brown and light green mixes. I spun my feet off the bed and he was next to me to lean on as I stood. He helped me to the mirror in the bathroom and I stared in bewilderment. A small red ring circled around my pupil and flaked out into my hazel irises.

A very minimal glow was barely noticeable as I scanned over the added in color.

"The energy must have infused into some of your DNA after the third dose." He spoke lowly. "What do you think caused it to fuse?" I leaned against the sink and closer to the mirror.

"The amount of energy and how many times you've had interaction with it."

"Interaction with it? This just happens after three times?"

"Well you didn't count how many times you've gone through chaos control- you obviously got used to it, seeing as how you don't lock up every time it happens."

"So that would put me a little over ten interactions… great." I paused for a moment and a thought hit me. "Wait how do you know all of this?"

"It wasn't an accident that I'm able to house this much energy and not-" he cleared his throat "-as you put it 'Explode'."

"You're telling me they testing chaos energy on humans?"

He nodded "the red ring was a normal occurrence in the subjects with warm colored eyes- cool colored irises where green."

"What happened when they cranked too much energy into them?" I asked, looking passed the sink and down to him. His attention was at the door "they exploded."

"Literally?"

"Yes."

"That's…" I searched for a term.

"Messy." He sighed out, finishing for me.

"So your eyes aren't red by coincidence?"

"No- However the striping was an added detail by the doctor. Test subjects that were able to house more energy than others had similar things happen- their veins gave off a luminescence and some hair follicles changed color. So the stripes were like a nod to that group."

"But why did they test on humans for a hedgehog?"

"We're not as easy to come by- not as easy to catch when you do find them." He looked up to me "besides- humans are willing to do anything for money."

There was a silence as I took in the knowledge I had gained from my little science/history lesson. "Well- don't learn that every day."

It was interesting knowing something about Shadow that wasn't in his bio; the little details. "And here I thought they did the red and black because it looked cool." I grinned and he scoffed.

His ears pivoted and he grabbed my arm, leading back to my bed "someone's coming."

I shuffled into the stiff sheets and watched the little feet near the door cut off the light.

"Does this make us even?" I asked, turning to see him halfway thru the window. He paused and thought for a second "Not quite- I'm pretty sure I've saved you more, human."

I let out a small laugh and an idea hit him; he snapped off one of the rings on his wrist and threw it at me. As I reached to catch it, the ring let out a small glow and expanded, sliding onto my wrist and snapping into place.

I let out a small wince as it burned in its' locked spot. It pulsed and the veins on the underside of my arm glowed for a moment. The beeps on my heart monitor slowed down to a more normal sounding pace. I looked up to ask him why he gave it to me but the window had been shut and the frame was empty.

The door to my room swung open and my doctor walked in, turning on a dim light and approached my bedside "Miss-"

I turned to face him and my skin grew cold as my eyes met slate grey ones. His skin was pale and his hard was charcoal black. "Besides the spike in your heartbeat this morning- everything checks out, normal."

He grinned with a sharp set of teeth and a shiver shot up my spine. "So we will be sending you home in the morning…" his skin rolled over like scales and his eyes where bright neon green. I shuffled away from him to the corner of my bed, terrified.

He let out a low chuckle "Now get some rest- sleep deprivation is one of the leading causes to night terrors…" he walked out of the room and flicked off the light.

The door shut heavily behind him and in an instant I was over to the window, pushing it open. I let out a gasp when I realized how high off the ground I was.

"Where'd that damned hog go?" I snarled I went to lean farther out the window but the cords that kept me attached to monitors tugged. I grumbled and swung back inside, undoing some of the cords.

"Last time I checked I was a hedgehog. Not a hog." I jumped at his voice.

"Oh thank god! Get me out of here!" I started pulling and detaching the leads. He leapt into the room "What's wrong?"

"That damned demon! He's here and we need to leave- now." I pulled my paper apron up to my ribs and tied it tight in the back. He averted his eyes as I stood there in my under-garments and a paper shirt. "Oh deal with it- you've already seen me without a shirt." I grumbled and got up onto the sill. He hopped up into the window with me and I grabbed his hand, pushing out of the window and starting a free fall. He pulled me over to carry me and his shoes awoke with cracks of energy. He was obviously disturbed by how much contact to my skin he had, his comfort zone was reaching its' edge. He began skating down the outside wall of the building, leaping off a few floors before the ground and we sailed through the air. We fell away from the hill that the hospital sat on and he braced for contact to the highway. The air cranked out of his shoes and he broke the fall enough to make a small bounce that transferred into a forward motion.

"Wrong way! Whip a U-turn!" I called out over the sound of the wind. He banked and hopped the median, skating faster and picking up speed. He wove between cars, passing them left and right. "Take the off-ramp, there!" I pointed to a road that split from the highway. He leaned and merged over the lanes, cars whisking by caused a strong blast of wind to him my paper shirt and the knot undid itself. The shirt returned to an apron like design and flopped harshly about.

"Through the light!" I shouted and he jumped over the cars that went the opposite way, a small flash from a traffic camera. As if in slow motion we turned over and he shot a chaos spear at the camera, it shorted out and popped light a small firework. He turned right-side forward and landed easily. "You don't know where you're going, do you?"

"Nope."

"Great."

Hey guys!

So i think i did an ok job bullshitting up a little history on shadow- or atleast i think it makes sense. hah.

what do you think?

and i think going on a mad dash like that would be exilerating and fun as hell!

long-ish chapter this time, hooplah!

anyway, gimmie your feedback!

~Furr Real