Teaching Darkness: Flux C19

WHAM!

Dark bounced back, uncurling from his strike as he landed on the floor and sprung again.

WHAM!

Still nothing. Panting and gulping from being out of breath, he clenched his fists and punched at the wall again and again. He had been at it for a half an hour at most by now, perplexed that the clear wall had yet to give way.

"It's not... It's not glass, for sure..." He mumbled between gasps for air, starting to wear out from working so hard at freeing himself, and not getting anywhere. The warm temperature didn't help much either, which he found quite uncomfortable.

His fur slick with sweat, he tried to catch his breath before he tried again. This time, he struck with his claws, hoping to wear away at the wall enough to punch through. Sparks flew and he quickly jumped back, terrified that something would catch fire.

"I don't think that's going to work..."

Dark flinched and spun around, finding out that he wasn't the only one in the cell.

A green, tan bellied, tan armed, tan muzzled hedgehog with peculiar black markings looked back at him from the ground. He seemed to have more quill clumps than an average Mobian hedgehog, with two thin ones growing the same direction as his ears, which the grew behind, two outside ones growing downward at the bottom and the rest bent up, each tipped in black. Markings around his eyes covered his face like a mask, with two black tufts sprouting from his forehead. Streaks of two, also black, lined under his eyes, which were blue and red, with blue being the left eye, and red being the right. His feet and legs were black up to his knees, even, and he wore nothing more than brown sandals and black wristbands, no gloves.

Immediately put off my the excessive use of green and black, which seemed to oddly be his all natural fur coloration, Dark just stared, wondering how he hadn't noticed him before.

"I'm Shu, who are you?"

Dark just looked at him before returning to his task of trying to escape, not saying so much as a word.

Shu sighed.

"I don't think that's a good idea..."

Dark ignored him, rolled into a ball, spun in place and hit the wall... Ricocheting off at an angle and hitting the floor hard, skidding on his back.

"The walls are made up of a material that's meant to contain his own robots... I doubt it's gonna give for you..."

"I don't see you trying anything..." Dark snapped. "I have to get out of here right now."

"Well, obviously, if you're a prisoner." Shu shrugged.

"Someone very dear to me was attacked and injured in the process of my capture." Dark growled, glaring in Shu's direction. "He is laying in an alley as we speak, quite possibly snowed on, hardly conscious, and only I know where he's at..." Dark shifted his ears back, baring his teeth. "I would appreciate it if you stopped trying to shoot down every one of my attempts."

"Is he a good friend..?" Shu seem unfazed by Dark's aggression.

"Brother." The shadow corrected swiftly.

"I had a brother a long time ago." Shu looked up again.

Noticing the use of past tense, Dark gained a slight bit of interest.

"Had..?"

"I did something stupid..." Shu half closed his eyes. "I don't want to talk about it. I'm Shu, by the way."

"You already introduced yourself..."

"I know... You just haven't told me who you are yet. It's only fair, since you know me now."

Dark was a little bit amused at this logic. He had expected this kid to be annoying, and hadn't wanted to bother with him, but realized that he judged too soon.

"I've always been called 'Dark'. Just 'Dark'." He explained, picking himself up off the floor. "It just kinda stuck as my name years ago."

"Didn't your parents name you something?" Shu looked at him after looking at the ground.

Dark twitched a bit at that. 

"I... I don't..." He stammered before inhaling sharply, and glaring again. "Watch it. You're getting too far into things you shouldn't be getting in to."

"What? I just asked about-"

"SHUT UP!" Dark barked, gaining silence from the hedgehog.

Mephiles was starting to come around. His head hurt terribly, and his nose itched. He sneezed, curling slightly, realizing slowly that he felt sick. He moaned.

"Hey! I think he's waking up!" An unfamiliar voice shouted over a loud roaring sound.

Mephiles opened his eyes slightly, squeezing them shut quickly when the brightness made it too painful to see for a moment. Then he eased them open again, seeing a blurred shape in front of him. He blinked his eyes clear and he could see a mauve face with yellow eyes looking right at him. He realized this small doglike creature with tiny fairy wings was sitting on his chest, leaning forward and watching him closely, while Mephiles lay on his back.

"Sonic! His eyes are open!" The pixie dog shouted, looking over to his side. "What should I do now?"

"I don't think we're much further from the next place, Chip!" A somewhat familiar voice called back. "Tails! Are you sure you can handle him while we find the next temple!"

"Depends on how bad it is!" Yet another somewhat familiar voice called back, opposite of the other. "It looks like hypothermia and some kind of hit from an animal or something! We'll have to wait until we land before I can give a clear diagnosis!"

Mephiles didn't quite understand what was going on. He was still trying to process what must have happened before now.

"I'm positive he's that kid Shadow and Rouge look after!" Sonic shouted over the loud buzzing sound.

"What! Rouge and Shadow had a kid!" Tails shouted back.

"No! I said he's probably that kid they kinda took in! I think it was... Mikey or something!"

Mephiles closed his eyes and muttered something under his breath, which the fairy dog caught.

"I think he said his name is... Meff-less?!" He shouted.

"Mephiles! Yeah, that sounds right!" Sonic confirmed. "I've seen him at their place, usually hiding! I think Shadow said he was shy or something like that! Apparently, they found him in Soleanna! No family, or anything!"

"That was nice of them!" Tails added. "I think I saw him there, too! Wasn't he the one who gave us the Emeralds!"

"Now that you mention it, I think so!"

While the two of them continued talking, Chip brought his attention back to Mephiles.

"Do you know me? I don't remember if we've met before." He asked. "I lost my memory, so Sonic and I are asking everyone we meet if they've seen me before. So far, no one has."

Mephiles opened one eye to look and him, and shook his head real slowly.

"Oh. That's okay, there's still a lot I can ask." Chip shifted his ears down slightly. "Sonic calls me 'Chip' for now. I don't think that's my real name, but I like it."

Mephiles mumbled something, which Chip could hear, being so close.

"Oh. We're in an airplane. Why do you ask?"

Mephiles whispered something in a strained voice, looking a bit paler.

"Huh. Hold on..." Chip looked up and over the back of the seat in front of him. "Hey, Tails! What's 'airsick'?"

"It means being in a plane makes you throw up. Why?"

"Meff-less said he's airsick." Chip didn't seem to see the seriousness of the situation here. "What do you mean by 'throw up'? Like, he's gonna toss something?"

Tails seemed a bit panicked now.

"Get him one of the bags before he gets sick!"

"But he's already airsick."

"Oh, Chaos on Mobius! This is not happening!" Tails shouted, switching on autopilot to let go of the controls and rummage through the satchel himself. "I just had it reupholstered in here! Where are they!"

Tails then froze at the sound he was dreading, pinning his ears back, his blue eyes big and wide as he turned his head slowly to look over his shoulder, a look of absolute disgust and fear written all over his face.

Chip and Sonic, who was riding on the tail of the plane, holding onto a sturdy handlebar to keep from falling off, looked over at their new riding buddy, who was sitting up now, hands to his mouth, eyes watery and sick pale face red with embarrassment. Sonic and Chip looked back at Tails, who looked like he was going to have a screaming fit, pulling his ears in opposite directions, squeaking in speechlessness, no words to microbe how he felt at the moment.

"Eeeeeeeewwwwwww..." Sonic and Chip said at the same time.

"It's getting dark... He said they would back before then..." Shadow pulled back the blinds and peered outside. "I don't like this... I should have gone with them..."

Rouge had been trying to keep him from worrying all day, but had to admit she felt a bit uneasy about the situation. Mephiles had promised to be back by the time the sun set, and the both of them knew that Mephiles was very precise about time. The both of them also knew that Mephiles was scared to go out passed the mailbox at night.

"Every time he's alone with him, something happens..." Shadow growled.

"You're exaggerating..." Rouge offered, knowing it wasn't that far of a stretch. "But it's not right to assume that Dark did something he could have very well not have."

"After what's gone on this week?"

"You antagonized him, too." She reminded him. "It's not entirely his fault for his behavior. You know that he hates being goaded by you. And it's not like you've tried to be pleasant with him."

"I tried, and he threw up on me!" Shadow tossed back.

Rouge shook her head, sighing in exasperation. Shadow would never drop it if he didn't get some form of retribution.

An hour passed, and the street lamps turned on and the snow fell more heavily. Shadow narrowed his eyes.

"It's getting late. I'm going out there." He said, going to the closet and pulling out the hat and scarf he saved from the time they were in Ice Cap. He grabbed the furry lined hooded jacket and tossed it to Rouge. "Something happened, or he would have been here by now. We'll run, so I can save Chaos Control in case he's hurt..."

Rouge nodded without a word, knowing he was right. Mephiles would have been back by now...

Within fifteen minutes, they were in the city, which was now deserted due to everyone's nighttime paranoia. They didn't know where to look first, and decided to simply search in a sweeping fashion, checking every alley, open store and street they could reach. No one had seen such a hedgehog recently, it seemed.

"Wonder what happened here..?" Shadow mused over the strangely indented brick wall of one particular alley. "It's like something stuck to it..."

Something caught his eye, an odd discoloration in the snow, very faint. Reaching down and brushing some of the snow away, he uncovered a pale blue hat, decorated to look like a sleepy eyed Chao face.

"Didn't Meph get a hat like this for Dark..?" Shadow said to himself, pulling it out of the ice. He was sure of it. "So they were here..."

He looked up, deciding to show Rouge what he found in hopes of narrowing down their search to one area. Leaving the alley, he headed down the street to meet up with the bat, who was using her excellent sense of hearing to listen for what Shadow could not, and was farther ahead than him.

"I found Dark's hat, so they were definitely here..." He said, not yet looking up from his find in his hands. "How are you doing on the-?"

He looked up and realized she was frozen in place, staring fixedly at something. Following her gaze, he saw a piece of fabric, torn with clawmarks and discounted with something reddish. The fabric had been the same color as the hat he was holding now. He dropped it.

"No..." He whispered inaudibly. He hurried over to it, and saw that there was a heart shaped decoration on the top, much like the happy Chao hat Mephiles had...

Shadow stood there in mute shock, hands shaking, eyes wide, lightheaded and weak kneed.

I knew it... I knew it... I should have gone with them... Dark must have went crazy and attacked him... I knew it... He would have never fought back... I should have been there to protect him... I could have stopped it... I knew it...

Falling to his knees in the snow, he stared at the hat, growling lowly, teeth bared slightly, eyes starting to get livid and angry.

The last time Rouge had seen him so viciously worked up was when Black Doom had convinced him that all of Humanity was to blame for the incident on the ARk, namely the wrongful executions of Maria and Professor Gerald.

She knew who he must have thought who had done this, but because of another piece of fabric, she thought otherwise.

"Shadow..?"

"I'll kill him. I mean it this time. No more second chances."

"Shadow?"

"What!" He snapped more harshly than he intended.

Rouge lifted another fabric item out of the snow, also bloodstained. A blue scarf. Dark's scarf.

Shadow quickly grew horrified. This meant that whatever happened was not Dark's fault, and moreover, he could easily be in the same condition as Mephiles.

The question was, where were they now? And what happened to them?