The Speed of Sound

Danger!

        Crash!

        Your eyes immediately snap open and you lift your head off the fluffy pillow in confusion. What had awoken you? You can't seem to remember hearing anything until the muffled noise of scattered glass tremors through the ground. Cursing yourself for being such a light sleeper, you rise from the bed, stumbling to the door as your eyes adjust to the darkness. Without a clock in the room, you have no idea what time of the night it is. Opening the door you peer down the hallway. Perhaps Sonic or Tails is awake and had gone downstairs. Your heart pumps a little. Creeping to the stairs on tiptoes, your bare feet make no noise as you silently descend.

        Upon reaching the bottom you can see that all the lights are still shut off. That is, except for the light glow emitting from the stairs leading to the garage. Maybe Tails is working on something. You begin to calm down, believing that Tails may have dropped something, which would have caused the crash that woke you. Knowing that it wouldn't be very polite to intrude, you still need to see if Tails is alright.

        Walking across the room, you turn left and slowly travel down the stairs toward the light shining from under a door. Your (e/c) eyes glow, reflecting the little amount of light in such dark surroundings. Grasping the doorknob, you twist it around and creak the door open. What you see within causes your eyes to widen in shock. Inside the garage is a small red plane with a logo of two fox tails twisting around each other. And inside that plane is a spiky black shape bobbing up and down.

        Your jaw drops open. Your breathing stops as you hold in a gasp. Whatever is in the red plane has not spotted you yet. However, the door that you had entered through seems to wish you ill. It closes by itself with a shuddering slam. A spiky black head instantly looks up from inside the plane. It turns to face you. Black body with red stripes and red eyes. Oh Chaos!

        "You! (Y/a)!" The black hedgehog jumps up with surprise.

        "Wh-What...are you doing...?" You can hardly get the words out of your mouth as your body trembles in a paralyzing fear.

        The hedgehog leaps out of the plane with a shining green jewel in hand, and lands to the concrete flooring. Narrowed eyes blaze in fury as he gets to his feet and slowly approaches you in a threatening stance. You are so frightened, you can hardly think. A piece of you breaks free from the terror. Run, it says. When Shadow is only a few feet away, you turn on your heel and swing the heavy door open. Using your speed you sprint up the stairs, just making it to the top.

        Before you are able to race away, you suddenly feel a hand clutching your leg. With a loud shriek you are pulled back, falling and rolling down the steps along with the black hedgehog. The two of you crash to the garage's concrete floor. Shadow quickly gets to his feet as you lie on the hard ground, feeling battered and bruised. You can feel him standing over you, menace in his crimson eyes. He begins to growl something but is interrupted by a concerned call coming from upstairs. Sonic must have heard your screams! Already you hear the quick padding of footsteps as they echo from above. Looking up you can see Shadow giving you a deadly glare as he holds out the green gem.

        Just as Sonic is speeding down the garage stairs, a bright light emanates from the gem as Shadow bellows, "Chaos Control!" The light disappears, taking the black hedgehog with it.

        Warm hands pull you to your feet, holding onto your shoulders to keep you in balance. "Are you alright, (Y/n)?" Emerald eyes full of worry gaze into your eyes. Only a tiny whimper is your response. Sonic hugs you tightly, trying to offer some comfort. From behind him you can see Tails running down the stairs.

        "What happened?!"

        Sonic releases you from his embrace and turns to the fox with a hand on your shoulder. "Shadow's what happened," he mutters in a grim tone. "He must have broken in...and now he's got an emerald."

        Tails brings his hands to his head and whines, "Oh no!" Maybe I could have stopped him, you think. Your ears lay flat against your head in anguish. "Shadow's even more dangerous now that he can teleport with the emerald," Tails continues. Remembering how the hedgehog had disappeared in the light of the glowing emerald, you look up to the fox with confusion.

        "How is he able to do that?" Sonic and Tails both take turns explaining to you that some Mobians have the ability to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds. You look at them in disbelief.

        "Really! Even I can use their powers to some extent," Sonic says. You rub your eyes, still confused about the whole idea. Tails and Sonic lead you back upstairs, avoiding the broken glass of a window near the front door.

        "We'll have to clean that up in the morning," Tails sighs.

        The three of you head back to bed. However a few minutes of being alone in your room causes you to become frightened. You race down the hallway and enter Tails' room without knocking.

        "Uh?" Tails looks up from his bunk bed. You stand in front of him nervously scratching the back of your arm.

        "...can I sleep here?"

        The boy nods, understanding that you would be quite afraid of what had happened earlier. He points up from where he lies. "You can sleep on the top bunk."

        You climb up the ladder to the top bunk and cover yourself with blankets. From below you can hear Tails' breath becoming slower as he returns back to sleep. It is a bit difficult for you to fall asleep because an annoying buzzing sound is coming from a strange-looking computer on the other side of the room. Why doesn't he turn that thing off...? Don't kid yourself. You are awake because of Shadow, not the buzz of a computer. Tails' message keeps replaying in your mind.

        "Shadow's even more dangerous."

        "Shadow's even more dangerous."

      "Shadow's even more dangerous."