The white hedgehog set the basket down, straightening and wiping his brow, panting slightly. Out of all days for it to be unbearably hot, it had to be laundry day.

He looked around him, putting his hands on his hips. The laundry line was dangling down, the string torn in half. He sighed. The string broke regularly. He had to look for new types of rope with more strength.

He approached it with some duct tape in his hand, putting the two pieces of string back together with it. He stepped back to admire his work. Not too shabby, considering it was the eighth time he had repaired it.

A crash from the neighbor's yard startled him. He turned around to see Mrs. Schmit, his elderly neighbor, glaring at him before walking back into her house, slamming the door behind her.

He sighed. It's been who knows how many years, and people still looked at him suspiciously.

It was sort of understandable. He looked pretty weird on the outside.

He was a pure white young-looking hedgehog with crimson-amber eyes. His five quills on the top of his head were all over the place, giving him the look of being messy.

He wore golden bracelets with a cyan strip on his wrists, which glowed brightly. They connected to off-white gloves with a cyan circle in the middle. The circle was filled with red instead of cyan.

He also wore boots with the golden bracelets on the top. They had a navy blue base with a white strip in the middle, and a tiny golden-red buckle on the top. He thought they were stylish.

His neighbors thought that he had a pretty weird name, too. Who names their kid Silver? they whispered. Such a weirdo.

Silver paid no heed to such comments.

The two qualities that attracted unwanted attention the most were his eyes and his weirdly growing body. Both made sense.

His eyes were a startling crimson-amber that shimmered in the sun. A weirder quality about them was that the colors didn't even have a pattern. One eye had amber on the top and crimson on the bottom, while the other had crimson on the top and amber on the bottom. Other people with heterochromia¹ had a single color on the left and a different one on the right. He had two colors per eye. Kind of creepy.

His body has been stuck as a fourteen-year old's for over five years. He was technically supposed to look like he was in his twenties, but he was stuck with a teenager's body. It was attracting more attention that a teenager barely older than the orphans was the headmaster. It was creepy.

Of course, he had aged mentally, even though most people didn't believe him. They didn't think that he was responsible enough to care for children just because he looked so young.

Eyes deceive you most of the time.

While he was stuck in these troubled thoughts, he heard a loud beep. He jumped, startled, and started swiveling around, looking for an attack. Once he realized that no one was trying to attack him, he relaxed. Silver looked down and found out that the continuous beeping was coming from his communicator, which was displaying an incoming call. He cursed himself for being so jumpy and answered his communicator, which was displaying a familiar profile picture.

A microphone symbol appeared below the picture, and a voice started speaking. "Silver?"

Silver smiled happily. "Shadow! I haven't heard from you in a long time! How did the mission go?"

"Er…" the voice hesitated. "It's not done. We got a little setback and I'm still not home."

Silver sighed. "Oh jeez. I thought that since you were Commander, you didn't have to go on missions anymore. I guess I know what this means."

"Yeah," Shadow replied. "I can't come to the court today. Can you go in my place? I'm sure Sonic won't mind."

Silver rubbed his forehead, wiping away sweat. "Sure, I can do that. I'll call him. Be sure to keep me updated, okay? Talk to you later."

"Thanks, Silv." Shadow sounded relieved. "And definitely."

The call disconnected, but it wasn't silent for long. Almost immediately, it was ringing again. This time, Silver was calling somebody.

It was answered pretty quickly, and another picture popped up. "Hey, Silver! What's up?"

Silver hesitated, but only for a second. "I'm so sorry, Sonic. Shadow just called. He's still on his mission and can't make it today."

"Dang it. Let me guess: he asked you to take his place."

"Right in one. Is that okay with you?"

"Sure, sure," Sonic sounded a little disappointed. "I just miss him. He's been away for so long. He shouldn't have to go on these missions anymore." He sighed. "Anyways. I'll see you later today, Silv. Bye."

"Bye." The communicator went silent. Silver picked up the basket again and walked towards the laundry line, panting again under the heavy weight.

All of a sudden, a strange sensation rippled through the air. Silver stopped and lifted his head, peering at the sky and his surroundings. Nope, nothing unusual. He shrugged and started walking again.

The ripple tore through again, and it was stronger this time around. Silver halted yet again and shifted into a defensive pose, still holding the stupid basket.

The air itself crackled in front of him, and then seemed to split. A dark gaping hole filled the void and started spinning. Streaks of purple tore through it along with bolts of pure energy.

Air started to flow toward it, almost mimicking a black hole. Silver dropped the basket, and it spun into the void. The white hedgehog stared wide-eyed at the portal before realizing that it was starting to suck him in.

Silver attempted to lift himself into the air and away from the void with his psychokinesis, but it was useless. With no alternate solution, he grabbed the ground, holding on tightly as the void started spinning faster and the pressure grew stronger. He started tilting until he was completely horizontal.

Silver tightened his grip, but he knew that it was no use. The grass itself started pulling in his hands, but when he dug them into the ground, dirt and grass came in his palms, staining his gloves a muddy brown. However, his red circles were still visible.

Silver could not fight back. He was sucked into the void, screaming. When he was completely inside, it shut in front of him, leaving no trace of his world and surrounding him in a deep darkness.

To be continued…

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