First was a pinch.
.
"Shadow? A-are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"I'm … fine. Just a sore—"
BOOM!
Second was a bite.
.
"Shadow!"
"Maria!? Maria! Where are you?!"
.
Third was a shred.
.
The ripping sound exploded within a second. What had been poking out in disturbance was finally bailed out. The force he felt before, sent him on the floor along with red stinky fresh blood splattered around.
He couldn't scream. He couldn't shout. He couldn't move. Whatever came out on his back drained his energy to get up. His whole body almost went into a seizure as his back kept extending. Fast.
Another crunched noise pushed him to stay lower on the floor whereas the thing on his back went higher. a new sense began to reform, a new bones hardened. those sounds scratching his sensitive pointy ear inside out. Without stopping, that gurgling sound quickly solidified. It spread long and wide. Big enough to cover his whole miserable appearance.
The whole evolution was beyond painful. Drained with no will to move an inch. His body slobbering like a jelly. He never knew how heavy the air was whenever he breathed.
Yet…
That shredded pain suddenly went away the moment that … thing was released. It… healed his never-ending back sore. His shoulders felt … lighter. For the first time, he felt … relief?
It didn't make sense…!
He slowly looked at his hands and his lower body. Not even any scratches were made.
So… where was the problem—?!
His eyes shrunk as he finally adjusted to the huge winded thing that covered almost entirely of his body. It branches like a tree trunk with its sharp edges dangling on each side of its wings.
Wings…
The immense pain in his back…
The shredded wide open scar…
The cracked bones…
He had just unleashed another form in his body.
"Shadow…"
The bump shocked his track. His head abruptly flew to his left:
Nothing.
To his right:
Also nothing.
So where did the voice come from?! It sounded abruptly close to his ear!
Without missing a beat, a sharp pain stung all his nerves. The stinginess electrocuted every fiber sense inside his body. The sudden numb losing his stance as he slumped onto all four once again. This time, waking up was a pulling waste of energy and his breathing became more unbearable to do.
What just happened? Why he suddenly—
BOOM
Explosions erupted and voices screamed in dissonance woke him up. The tall, black smoke that arose behind buildings caught his attention. Was that what caused it? Was there a burned house? He had no idea. But that quake was not a mere explosion. He lost Maria and that smoke gave him an awful suspicion.
Wait…
Maria!
His eyes squinted sharply at the smoke. What if one of those screams was her's?! What if she was injured too?!
What if she's….badly hurt...?
He did not know how to compensate, he could not stood, and or thought for the moment.
All he knew was the image of her laying down on the pool full of a stinky metallic smell coming from her stomach. Was it true? It all seemed too real.
No…
Her eyes were staring at him and not at the same time. Those cloudy colors of the sky slowly fade into dull. The eyes of warmth he wished he had instantly gone in a blink.
No…
Her lip that was once curved up, slowly followed as same as a hand falling down to the floor.
He couldn't save her, again.
He couldn't protect her, again.
He failed her…
All because of them…
They must pay...
They must pay!
"Awaken"
The agonizing roar surged the pool of black liquid as it was reacting to him. The calming substance abruptly jerked into a wave, covering his entire appearance into a cocoon. The ebony hedgehog was not startled by this quick envelopment surrounding him. The hot boiling veins were the only thing he cared about as the bones started cracking furiously like crushing a shell. Bit by bit, part per part. He could feel he already lost his footing to stand, his breathing chest and his raging mouth became one with the black goo itself.
Those hatred emotions fueled his obsession that he did not notice his body slowly swallowed into the goo until his voice stopped. At the moment the dark stinky liquid swiftly splashed down into the same pool from the start. Then, in a quick second, it rippled as if the ground felt an earthquake, but in reality the pool fluctuated the motion of the beating sound.
The sound of a living heartbeat echoes. The swirling pool flew up like a fountain. It awakened the trapped creature back from his unconsciousness. He could not grasp his body yet he could still sense his surroundings. In fact, his nerves spike up to beyond hundred. He not only heard, but also felt every drop of his blood as the goo kept reshaping in abnormal form. Rounds, cubes…any kind of mold shape somehow seemed disturbing to some people but not him.
As if he experienced this phenomenon. A bit too natural to be exact.
The abstract shape quickly pulled their blood work as the form started to become a two legged figure. The goo curled back to solidify his majestic wings. Showing a new appearance that was absolutely unrecognizable.
The whole skin all peeled up and left with bare muscles and veins in the open. The changes were also significant in his moveable organs, the hands and feets had less fingers into three rather than the usual five, with bulkier form and claws as sharp as a razor. Next to the upper part, the white sclera in his eyes replaced fully into red pupils. Those black tinted red quills are no longer solid,they exchanged to six long spike tentacles swinging alive non-stop. His pointy ears and nose blanketed by his muscles, somehow he could still breath normally. He could locate every fiber of the hot boiling blood rushed in his body. Waiting to use it in the tip of his claws.
It was a majestic quick experience. He felt something open, a chain that strangled his pains, his struggle, his burden. At long last, he felt… free.
As if he was naturally living with this form before.
As he stood the last gurgling sound above his red pupils, another lid opened. Showing a new yellow tinted red one eye. The iris thin as a needle with black the sclera aiding to the theme.
"Rise my creation."
The middle eyes glow by the ancient sound booming inside his head. It soothed through every veins, every sense, every muscle. The voice unlocked the deepest memory box that he was proud to become his only servant. He never saw his master's face, yet his words were absolute.
His wings flapped big waves as he suspended to the air. He may not be able to see clearly with his red eyes but he could distinct the smell of blood miles aways. Not only smell it, through the fiber of his tentacles, he differentiate every blood that has been splattered. Humans, animals, and this weird smell who has a similar chemical as him… but somehow unfamiliar?
"If you let me, my creation…"
The cracking sound awakened his observation and slowly the middle eye released itself from the head. Leaving with big holes that almost saw the bone inside his head. He did not feel any pain as he recovered it quickly. But the middle part which was shaped like a starfish somehow has an ability to fly with it.
His blurry red vision suddenly became clear and the first thing he saw was…himself. He never knew how different he looked before until he viewed it from the third eye. It was a surreal moment to witness.
The Middle eye suddenly dash to the right side of him as the view followed a bunch of people being slaughtered by monsters. Not just any monsters, it exactly clones himself! But they… also didn't exactly like him? Big, small, various tentacles and many indescribable things he could not decipher.
He was supposed to be the only one who was created by his master! What was going on?!
"Do not be afraid, My creation."
The voice booming inside him again. But this time, he felt reassured by the tone of it. It knew his struggle. Que enough, it gained his confidence back as the starfish eye rocketed from its sightseeing back to the top of his head. He could not tell how appeased the sensation was. The missing puzzle finally became one again.
"Now, do as I command."
The second his middle eye shone, his wings gave a big wave. He dashed towards the area with unbreakable speed.
He was ready to share his pain to everyone against him.