Shadow: The Origin Of A Legend

Chapter 12

Sonic looks around desperately. "He was just here..." He mutters, pacing. "Where did he go?"

Tails shrugs. "I dunno." He steps up beside his hero and turns to face him. "Sonic, we might as well just admit that we've lost him. The helicopters have done a city-wide search over the past three hours and there's not a trace of him."

Knuckles folds his arms and scowls. "I don't like this," he growls. "He can't have gone that far in such a short time."

"On the contrary," Tails replies wisely, "we're dealing with someone who has shown the same abilities as Sonic. He could be halfway across the country for all we know."

The blue hedgehog shakes his head. "Whatever. He'll turn up eventually. Or he'll go running back to Robotnik."

"I'm not so sure on that last bit, Sonic," Tails interjects. "Robotnik clearly wasn't taking good care of him, so I'm not sure if he'd go back to him." He bites his lip, then adds, "though I guess it's possible...But for his sake I really hope he doesn't."

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A few miles outside of town, I was jogging through the forest. Fortunately, despite all the highway-building the city was doing, there were forests they hadn't leveled yet, and they provided some decent cover for me. Every now and then, a helicopter hovers above me, shining spotlights down into the trees, but they always pass without seeing me, much to my relief.

I trek for several hours, finally reaching the edge of the forest at sunrise. The helicopters have stopped searching by now, but I'm not out of the woods yet. My main concern is Robotnik finding me. God forbid he ever get his hands on me again; he could undo everything I've been striving for!

I yawn, feeling tired, but I can't stop right now. I have to make my way to the next city, over these hills, before I collapse from hunger again. Once there, I think to myself, I'll rummage around in back alleys and such, gather a bit of food and then set off for the next city or town. I'll use that process until I have enough reserves to explore that mountain range I haven't explored yet.

They are known as the Heaven-Scraping Mountains, due to the fact that their peaks pierce through the bottom-most layer of clouds. Few people have scaled them before, Sonic being one of them. It was the last landmark on this continent that I hadn't explored yet, and I needed a large amount of food and water to ensure that I would be able to survive the trip. I have no idea what kind of fruits and such grew there; if there are any anthropological texts on the range, I haven't read them. So I was more than a little under-informed, but that didn't worry me. When you look at it, I hardly know anything. I'm not even sure of my own name, but that doesn't really matter too terribly much.

I glance around. Are there any streams or anything nearby? I'm parched. Sniffing the air, I try to pick out the smell of water, but to no avail. I can only smell grass, tar pavement undoubtedly used on the highway, and car exhaust. The last two make me nervous--I'm still not far enough from the city, not as far as I need to be. I break into a sprint across the wide green field in front of me; thankfully, no one seems to have ever mown this grass, so it's tall enough that I can almost barely see over it, meaning that I'm more difficult to spot. Unfortunately, that comes with its own detriments--within three minutes I've most likely picked up ten ticks, a spider and thirty different grass-induced cuts. As if I wasn't enough of a mess already...ugh.

Well, no one said finding yourself was easy.

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"No sign of him? None at all?" Robotnik growls, furious. "You're telling me that a completely unique hedgehog who looks like no other has managed to completely disappear off of the face of the earth?!"

The robot beside him cowers, shivering. "None at all, sir. I don't understand it either, sir."

"This is all your fault!" A disembodied voice roars, shaking the room. "I should never have charged you to take care of him!"

"Hey, we were in this together! I had the best resources, that's why I was given custody of him first!" Robotnik snaps.

"Well, you're clearly not the best for the job anymore!" The voice shouts. "If you can't find him, I'll just do it myself!"

"Wh-What?!" The fat man turns to face the giant screen. "N-No, give me more time, I'm sure I can-"

"Enough!" It bellows. "I am finished waiting on you!" Robotnik cringes, and it removes some of the anger from its voice as it continues. "From now on, I will take custody of Shadow. It was almost time for this anyways." The dark mass on the screen shifts, and then with a small POP the screen goes black. Robotnik stares, speechless.

"S-Sir?" The robot taps his shoulder. "Do I have any further duties to preform for you?"

"No," he sighs, leaning heavily against his control dashboard. "Go back to your dorm and await further instruction." His tone is bland, defeated. It's too late. I've really messed up this time, and now I won't even be able to protect him anymore...

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Rouge flaps her wings earnestly, having spotted a blue hedgehog on a roof rather close to where she and Shadow had been chatting. A small smile slipped across her face as she thought back to it--he was so serious, and yet so sweet. It was more than a bit baffling, the idea of such a sweet kid doing such horrible things, being hated by the entire planet...Robotnik was one messed-up guy, turning him into a weapon the way he did. She shakes her head, forcing herself to focus on the matter at hand--pretending to help Sonic find Shadow.

"Hey there!" She calls down, catching the blue hedgehog's attention. "What's up, handsome?" She purrs, landing beside him and smirking.

He brushes off her affectionate words, paying them no mind. "Rouge, have you seen Shadow?"

"Shadow?" She blinks, feigning confusion. "No. Why, did he annoy you again?"

"He just ran off from a nearby hospital, breaking two windows in an office building," Knuckles attempts to explain.

Rouge stares. "Uh, how are the windows in the office building related to the hospital again?"

Tails sighs. "He scrambled up this building, ran along the rooftops for 30 minutes, then went missing after utterly destroying two windows, presumably using them as entry and exit points."

Rouge whistles. "He must have really wanted to get out of there."

"The G.U.N. operatives believe that he only ran this far because I chased him." Sonic grumbles. "He probably would have done a lot more damage if I hadn't been around."

Rouge laughs inwardly. Yeah, right. The poor kid just wanted to get the heck away from here. It's pretty frightening, how badly they've misjudged him. "Well, I haven't seen any sign of him, but I'll keep my eyes peeled. Where d'you think he may have gone?"

"We're not sure, but he probably went for areas of maximum coverage." Tails replies. "He's most likely gonna lay low for a while too, so we might not find him for a while."

"Alright," she nods, "I'll make sure to let my branch of G.U.N. know that he's on the watch-list." She lies, smiling cutely.

"Thanks, Rouge." Sonic replies with a cheerful grin.

"No problem," she replies as she leaps up into the air, flapping her wings, "you can count on me!" She poses, flashing a peace sign and winking, and then she dives down below their line of sight, trying not to laugh. I'm absolutely not going to help them find him. Knowing him, he'll be the one to decide when they meet. And that's just fine with me!