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Chapter 4
     “Ever wonder how longs its been?” A voice asked. The owner of the voice poked the fire with a long stick, stirring the still charred wood into glowing embers. His eyes glistened with the heat of the flame, dancing off of them in a lucrative dance. His sharp spikes glistened off the fires, giving him the glow of power.
     “Whenever I do, I just think of long it’s going to be,” his partner coolly replied. He looked away from the flames out into the distance of the valley below. Like his nearby accomplice, the fire danced off his own spikes, though they were already shining in the darkness.
     Neither said much more than that. It was how it usually occurred each night. A single comment. A single response. No more reason to continue. But to one of them, this night, in particular, seemed different than the rest.
     “Can you imagine what everyone else is doing back home?” One of them asked. He stopped poking the fire long enough to ask it. His partner turned his head in a very slight manner, a gesture to show that he had heard, but still needed time to think. It passed very slowly as the one peering into the valley attempted to think of a response. The original was patient, a virtue that he had gained with the long journeys and travels he had gone through with his friend.
     The places they had gone.
     Across worlds, dimensions, and no doubt, universes. Each searching for a piece of themselves that they had lost. Something out of their control, an act neither could prevent, but nonetheless, were required to suffer for. Very little was gained through their travels, the only proof of which was their growing concern and devotion for not only their lost aspects, but also each other.
     “All I can speak for is Rouge and how much closer she is getting to that red echidna’s emerald.” His voice still carried the same lack and loss of care that it had almost all his life. His friend knew, if the only one, that it was just a wall. Something that he put up around himself. His only hope for keeping out the pain that he had seen. So much lost, and so little gained. It tore at his mind every with every breath he took, why he was allowed to live, a killer and sadist, while the angels of his life suffered for him. Maria.
     “Well, if I know my friends,” the first one started again, gently rubbing his long nose with his gloved index finger, “Tails is still thinking of a way to help me out, all though it would be nice if Cream got him off his computer now and then. They’ve had it bad for each other for so long now. Knuckles will be fighting off Rouge no matter how close she tries to get to his ‘precious emerald’. God, they have it for each other too, ya know?” He didn’t expect an answer, as none was given. “Amy probably has gotten over me by now. I only hope permanently. She’s a great fighter and all, even a better friend, but I just had trouble with her clinging to me every other second as if I was her ‘knight in shining armor’.”
     “You are to most.” His friend quickly responded, catching him off guard.
     “Did you just make a joke?”
     “It seemed like the appropriate response.”
     “Whatever.” He gave up. No use prying into a matter so small. It wouldn’t get any where with him any way. Like talking to a wall most of the time, he swore.
     “What of that other hedgehog. The one who referred to you as “The Iblis Trigger”?” It must have been something in the air. They would never talk like this on any other knight, no longer than a sentence or two. Never an entire conversation.
     “Silver? He’s probably sticking back in this time with Amy. They did get close together when that whole mess started up. The real proof was probably how he refused to hurt her when she protected me.” He smirked, very briefly. “He’s probably staying here because… yeah.”
     “Yeah? What’s yeah?” He knew. He definitely knew. But even after an entire year together, he still had yet to lose his prying attitude and destructive personality.
     “You already know.” Why wouldn’t he let go of it? There was no question he knew, but still he had to ask. Couldn’t he just leave him alone?”
     “Pretend I don’t”
     “I’d rather know you do.”
     “You can’t pretend she isn’t there.” That was too far.
     “Of course I can’t pretend she’s not there!” He stood up away from the fire, letting it dance across his back as he faced the back of his own friend facing the valley. There was anger in his eyes, and he knew why. “I can’t just think her away! That’s why I’m out here looking for her! We’ve gone to so many different places, and we have yet to reach hers! Does that sound fair to you? Huh Shadow? Does it?” The other hedgehog didn’t respond. He hadn’t expected such an outburst from his companion. While his back remained the primary wall for his friend to speak into, the black hedgehog let his mouth hang slightly open, and his eyes wider enough to see from the side of his face.
     “I wouldn’t know Sonic. Do not forget that too am looking for one I have lost.” His voice was soft, but the line was sharp. A quick slap to the conscious of the blue hedgehog. Of course he knew what he was going through, he had spent a year to understand it, for both of them to see just how similar their suffering was.
     “I’m sorry,” he quickly replied, “I just-“
     “Think nothing of it Sonic.” The black hedgehog commented with a wave of his hand. Still, he never gazed over to his partner in pursuit. “We both suffer a similar fate, so it makes sense for us to both know of how it feels, though we act differently for it.” The blue hedgehog began to chuckle when his friend finished his short speech.
     “You’re always the deep one.”
     “And you the A.D.D. one.” He smirked with, what he thought to be, a well deserved joke. Sonic, on the other hand, merely gave a blank stare.
     “Is that the best you got, emo boy?” Both of his gloved hands made themselves comfortable against his hips, ready for a challenge from the black hedgehog. In silent agreement, Shadow rose and turned to meet his opponent in speech.
     Due to their increased speed, both of the hedgehogs were natural adept to think at speeds that rivaled that of even super computers. Such process of information was needed in order to intake the environments around them when they moved at speeds fast enough to rival aircrafts. But with the ability to process information at the speeds at which they do came the gift of understanding and thinking of responses to statements much faster and quicker than most other creatures across Mobius and, so far, all the other worlds they had visited.
     “I can think of a few more. But do your really wa-“
     He stopped.
     He had to.
     Sonic had tackled him to the ground.
     “Sonic! What are you doing! Get off of me!” To say that the black hedgehog was upset would be like saying a cat being thrown into water was only a bit annoyed. Shadow was ready to kill.
     “Shut up and stay low man!” The urgency in the hedgehog’s voice surprised him, but still, the anger of other was great.
     “Unless you’re about ready to die, I suggest you get off of me now!” When their eyes made contact, however, Shadow grew concerned. The normally green and peaceful eyes of Sonic were now small, open, and scanning every little bump in the night. “What is it?”
     “I heard a gun shot. Listen.” For minutes it seemed, both of the hedgehogs made no movement, letting the still night grow more and more silent with their void of sound. Not even a cricket was heard. Shadow, presuming the worst of Sonic, was ready to yell at him some more, until he heard it.
     Laughter.
     “There.” He pointed into the woods beside the fire. Might as well of waved a white flag.
     As soon as the hedgehog pointed towards the sound he heard, a bullet did indeed go off. Instinct alone, Sonic pulled Shadow off the ground with the aid of his speed and mind set. Without a break for thanks, Shadow dashed into the woods after the sniper fire. Sonic close behind.
     “Make any new enemies without me knowing Sonic?” Shadow questioned during their pursuit. He didn’t bother to look at the blue blur behind him.
     “Your guess is better than mine!”
     The trees whipped around them as both of the hedgehogs moved their feet towards the attempted assassin. Both of their eyes dashing side to side along their head in search of the perpetrator. Their ears were twitching with acute sense to hear event the lowest whisper audible to them. Black noses twitched in attempt to smell out the gun powder that would be required to fire the shots.
     The time snailed by to the two speed demons. But in the end, nothing came up. No smoke. No tracks. Not even broken branch of the bullet. As far as the forest was concerned, there had never been a single bullet fired.
     “What was that?” Sonic asked his friend, half expecting an answer. His head continued to sway in the forest, unexpectedly looking for anything he might have missed. There was no real idea of what they were looking for, but anything out of the norm would do.
     “I wish I knew faker.” Shadow replied as he himself continued to search the trees aimlessly. “But it must be go-”
     Once more, he stopped. Not because he was tackled this time. He stopped by his own choice. A choice his thought was appropriate for what he saw.
     A small red laser on his friend’s head, right between the eyes.
     “Sonic! Move!” He shouted. He yelled. He cried.
     All. Too. Late
     The sound of the gunfire never even reached Shadow’s ears. The black hedgehog’s mind had shut off at the sight of his friend’s falling body. He caught him before he hit the ground.
     Nothing.
     There was nothing he could say.
     Holding his friend, blood slowly trickling out of his head, there was nothing the horrified black hedgehog could say. He had seen the horrors of life, many times over. Most he had even seen with his friend that now lay motionless in his arms. But of all his dark memories, there was always a light to bring him back from the break of insanity. Now, with the light slowly dying in his arms, so did the sanity within his own mind.
     ‘Please. If there is a God, don’t take him. Please. I beg of you.’
     “Don’t.” His thoughts became words as choked them out. Small tears beginning to trickle down his face. “Don’t.” The black shadow repeated once more. It was too late. He was too late. The world was too late. After so much they had gone through. After so many battles they had fought together. After so many lives they had saved. After promise they had made to each other. After all of it…
     He was gone.
     “Why? Why did you do this?” Shadow’s eyes never left his friend’s body. His mouth hung slightly open, and eyes already glazed over. The site was horrible, but he could not turn away. Not after all that had happened. Not after all they had done together, saved together. He couldn’t let his friend die like this. But at the same time, he already had.
     “I’ll ask again,” The hedgehog’s voice grew dark and full of malice as if a switch was flicked. The very tone was ready to kill any unfortunate soul foolish enough to try to even look at him. “Why did you do it?” The white of his gloves began to grow red with the blood of his friend. Sonic’s blood, staining his glove. The black shadow only clenched the body harder. “Why?”
     “He had to die, man.”
     Shadow spun his head to see the speaker of his voice. It was just an outline among the shadows, but it was clear what it was holding. Two guns. Not a sniper, but that wasn’t of concern to the scorn hedgehog. As far as he was concerned, this black cloaked man deserved to die.
     “Show me your face coward!” The malice was either convincing enough to the perpetrator that he would do as asked, or he would kill him there and then. Slowly the hood of black gown fell back to reveal his friend’s murderer. An odd site, but still a face to remember. Long black hair, tied in a large tail with silver streaks among the top. It played down the back of his cloak, somehow managing to avoid the trees. But that still wasn’t the oddest part of his appearance. Not only was one of his eyes covered by a black eye patch, but theeye showing was nothing but a yellow socket with black pupil. In any other circumstance, he might have been curious, but most certainly not now. The man’s face had several choice scars across is, no doubt from a battle gone wrong. His weapons were purple, still melting into the darkness of his cloak. The almost appeared to be automatic, but from what he had just done, at the very least, they had some form of long range firing power.
     Even now, with his friend dead in his hands, the black hedgehog never stopped thinking of how to strike in battle, and he knew a battle was coming. To him, only an acute sense of intellect and quick judgment could decide a battle. He would not underestimate his opponent now.
     “Why did you kill him?” The anger in his voice was unfolding and unrelenting. It was a bad mistake for anyone to anger someone as powerful as Shadow, and this assassin just had. The man smiled, fuelling his rage even further, but he held himself, somehow, he held back.
     “Nice to meet you too, little dude. I’m Xigbar,” He put one of his guns to his chest, “and you are?” Pointing one of the guns at the hedgehog. Shadow flinched. This man, Xigbar, was too happy. No sense of worry about him. He was either a genuine idiot, or extremely confident, which would make him an idiot.
      “I am Shadow the Hedgehog,” with the aid of his speed, the angered hedgehog whipped out his red Chaos Emerald before the man could make a move. It glistened under the pale moonlight of the trees, reflecting not only the power it held, but also the hate he carried. Strong enough to let it glow, and burning enough to let his enemy know. There was no pause, no hesitation in his actions. The creature knew what he wanted, he knew what this thing deserved. It didn’t deserve to be called living, it didn’t deserve to live, it deserved to die. Eyes glistening with hate, he muttered only a single comment before charging at Sonic’s assassin with every idea to kill.
     “I’m, you’re maker.”
     “As if.”
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     “C’mon dammit!” He yelled. The young body was running. Running as fast as it’s legs would allow. It still didn’t seem fast enough. “Please! He cried.” The young child was afraid, afraid for his very life.
     “Now now child,” a figure whispered behind him. The boy turned his head midrun, eyes full of the fear and face numb with cold, “You cannot escape me.” The black cloaked… thing raised its icy blue shield, high above its head.
     “Aaaaaaaaaaaahhh!” The boy cried. It stung. The icy cold wind and ice stung. Where did it even come from before? It was spring! “Please Stop! I’ll do anything! Please stop! It hurts!” He was crying, tears pouring down his pale cheeks as the ice stung at his body. The child almost regretted crying as his own tears froze to his skin.
     “You can die for me. That is all the data I need.” The figure responded coolly. The wind didn’t stop.
     “No! Please mister! Please!”
     “Please die.”
     The body of the still weeping child was completely encased in ice.
     The figure of darkness released its shield, letting it separate and scatter into its self created wind, waiting for the call of its master. As each foot of the heartless creature set foot on the ground, it pulled back its black hood, giving his plank green eyes the full view of his work. His hair was blonde as the sun, and long enough to travel past his waist. His face was still, no emotion showing, dead almost to life he just took and actions he had just committed. There was no regret, no remorse.
     With a hand on his chin, the same piercing green eyes that had watched the child needlessly die peered into the ice block, examining its work. By all accounts, the figure thought it was an impressive job.
     ‘Perfect execution of wind elements and exact right measurements of ice. The specimen was perfectly preserved.’ His hand withdrew from side, running across the ice block containing the cursed youth. ‘Even the texture was crafted for a correct transportation environment, just another perfect execution on my part.’ He grinned wickedly. Eyes were furrowed in sadistic amusement as he saw the face the child had left at his final seconds. Pure fear and regret was written all over his face, and he relished it.
     “This was enjoyable,” he commented to the dead, hands returning to his sides as he made move to walk away. His small task was done, but there were many more to do, more than he had time for. “But I must continue my research of this world for Xemnas.”
     The wind began to blow again, carrying with it the other worldly chill that had draught death upon so many. It carried the sadistic intellectual into the air, pushing from the ground as if wings had grown from his body. “I, Vexen, the Chilly Academic, will see to it my debt is repaid.”
     He left the body of Chris Thorndike frozen on the very land on which he had grown from.
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     “So,” the fox began rubbing his furry temples, “You’re saying that these… Heartless, are beings of pure darkness crafted from the hearts of slain people of the worlds.” The doctor nodded, and turned his attention to the equally brain stressed silver hedgehog.
     “And they serve a group of beings called Nobodies that operate within a group called Organization 13 with currently eight members, the rest being killed off in a way you didn’t learn of.” Another nod, another direction change.
     “With which you told the leader everything you personally know about us to expand your life and learn more about them before your “Great Escape”.” Amy spoke with clenched teeth and closed eyes. Even the doctor had a side of his now that feared she would slaughter him. It wasn’t an impossibility.
     “And lastly, you didn’t tell him where Mr. Sonic was… do you?”
     All eyes shot open, including the doctor, who had already made himself as comfortable as possible on one of the fox’s small chairs, leaving the table as support for his still wrecked arms. The question was so sudden that it rendered him speechless. How do you respond to something like that?
     “Well-um…ah-that’s not a fully true statement… and with-uh-proper ideas… and logic-“
     “Do you know where Sonic is or not!” Silver yelled at the rambling doctor. The hedgehog’s patience was thinning. This man, who had done so much to hurt them before, and now came the possibility that he had known, for possibly the entire last year, where one of their greatest friends had been hiding! Oh, he was beginning to understand Amy’s pent up anger at this man perfectly well now. God knows how she had held it under control for so long, he himself was ready to burst.
     The doctor sighed. This was what it had come down to. Breaking a promise he had been hesitant to even accept. Ironic, holding on to something that his enemy had given him.
     Trust.
========
     “Ah! Sonic! Have you come to fight me once more?” The doctor declared loudly as he old adversary walked into his domain. His head was low, matching his shoulders, most unlike the usually peppy and ready to go hedgehog that the doctor had battled for so long. It threw of the genius, if only for a second, but no longer than that. What did throw him off, where the hedgehog’s next words.
     “Gerald, I need a favor.”
     Countless times before had they fought. Even more had they sworn each other worst enemies. For him, the Blue Blur, fastest thing in the world, to suddenly come and ask the doctor for a favor was completely out of the norm. Not just norm, all possibility. It was like seeing a rare meteor shower that could never be witnessed again.
     “Wh-wh-what!?!” The doctor was needless to say, astonished. “You come in here, after so many times I have tried to defeat you, and you me, declaring ourselves bitter rivals, and ready to fight to the bitter end, yet you say that you need a favor from me!”  The blue blur looked up to the doctor.
     The sadness in his eyes was plain.
     It made Dr. Robotnick shiver with cold. The green eyes, they were gray, uncaring and unseeing. Empty was the best word to describe them, void of all hope. The blank character of his eyes was also shown through his body. The hunched over figure and almost dragging arms, the will to live was almost lost. Lost being the keyword.
     “Why so down hedge rat? Someone finally get to you before me?” Despite the mockery in his tone and name, the question remained genuine to the hedgehog. Whether Sonic knew whether it was or not, he still answered.
     “I’ve lost her, twice now.” So it was a person he was missing then. That explained the blank look in his eyes and down appearance. Even the doctor had to admit that his determination for his friends was far above admirable. It made sense that losing one of them would hurt, but who would hurt the most? Amy? No, all that pink thing did was wave its hammer at Sonic asking him out on dates for no reason other than admiration. Had to be a girl though, he said her. But who had he lost recently? Ah! That was who!
     “So the fire ball is gone? So what!” Eggman yelled to the hedgehog with pride. He wanted a fight; he wanted to face off against the hedgehog again. Riling him up would be the perfect way to do it.
     “So I want to see her again, and I need a favor from you.” He was dead. Next to just his eyes and body, even his voice was void of emotion. It was like talking to a wraith. The doctor only grew more and more weary of the presence he was making. This wasn’t the same Sonic that he had fought and always came out alive with barely a broken bone with. For intents and purposes, this new Sonic, void of life and seemingly emotion, could do things he dare not test. Not yet at least.
     “What’s the favor then pest? And make it quick! I have much planning to do for the ‘Egg-’”
     “I need you to hold off on your world domination plots, for a while at least.” The request was shocking. Sorry, it was astounding. So many times before had he, and his friends, yelled, fought, and saved to disrupt and end his plans. Hell, there were times when they made the first strike against him just to make sure he didn’t do anything. But never before, in all of the months to years that they had fought each other, had the hedgehog simply walked in and asked for it to end.
     The obvious reason why?
     It was a stupid and fool’s request.
     “Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HA!” There was neither sarcasm nor acting in the fat man’s laughter. It was a genuine laugh. To him, the hedgehog had lost his mind. To others, they thought the same thing. A desperate attempt at something that could never be done. How do you convince someone to stop something you have fought him or her over countless times before? You couldn’t! Not that easily at least.
     “You’re making a fool’s attempt to do the impossible Sonic!” Eggman spun his hand to point the accusing finger at the emotionless blue blur. “What could you possibly do to allow me to not wish for total rule, of which I so rightfully deserve!” There was nothing! The doctor was sure of it. If there was, he would have asked for it immediately. But now, he had his archrival in a position that had forced him to grovel for a favor, and he had little idea how he got there!
     “I didn’t expect you to say yes…” The dead voice compelled Eggman to listen, “That’s why I brought this. I hope it’ll keep you occupied for long enough for you to realize what this means to me…”
     Doctor Gerald Robotnick could not answer. In fact, he could not breath.
     The very thing that this hedgehog had brought him was the one thing that he had fought tooth and nail to keep away from him. An object of such power, that he could destroy Sonic with the chance to use it. And here, the hedgehog was simply handing it over to him.
     “Do we have a deal? For now?” Sonic asked, the smallest bit of hope in his voice as he questioned the doctor’s still jaw dropped face.
     “Ye… Yes. Yes! YES! Give me that and I promise my word on science that I will not strike a city or life until you say I can!” He would really give anything for what the hedgehog had. So he would even do the impossible. Give up world domination. A claw grew out of one of the far walls, moving slowly and carefully towards the item it had been instructed to take. It’s metal hinges were ready to grasp the item before it, rip it out of the hedgehog’s hands. But it couldn’t…
     Sonic was holding the arm away from him.
     “One last reminder Dr. Robotnick.” There it was again, the same dead tone that had actually forced the man to pay attention, “If I get even a whiff that you’re trying take over the world… Shadow and I won’t hold back until your with Cosmo. Got it?” The deadness of his eyes was very persuasive.
========
     “I haven’t seen him since.” The doctor finished to the crowd of animals around him. They were each shocked in their own way. He didn’t make a comment on it. Instead, only let the cold truth seep in.
     The kit was the first to talk.
     “What… what did Sonic offer you? What was so worth to you that you didn’t attack us for all this time?” His natural curiosity out weighed the severity of the situation around them. It involved one of his oldest friends, and he needed to find out all that he could.
     “Something, very personal to me. The very thing that my grandfather had created with his beloved Maria.” The room broke out at the sound of the name.
     “Shadow’s involved now!?”
     “What did you grandfather have?”
     “You know of something that would ease Shadow’s sufferieng?”
     “Is Mrs. Maria okay?”
     Like before, it was the rabbit’s question that had caught everyone off guard. They looked to the doctor, who held that same face of shock as when he was asked of the where about of Sonic. Shifting one of his bloody arms, the doctor mumbled something under his breath.
     “What was that doctor?” Tails questioned very ominously.
     “……….Maria,”
     “A bit louder please.” Cream asked, hugging Cheese now like a doll. It cooed happily in the warm embrace, mute to the conversation around it.
     Instead of answering like he had before, the doctor instead pulled out the last thing any of them had expected. There was no doubt it was what Sonic had offered the doctor, and they saw now why he had taken it. The question of how Sonic had obtained it would be answered later. Now, it was for a situation much more important.
     “So, Eggman, how do we stop these Heatless?” Beneath his thick glasses, the dark eyes darted to the twin tailed genius as he asked the question. When their eyes met, a silent treaty was formed. A signed agreement within the minds of two beings of science, so adept in their knowledge, that just the way their eyes met, they knew. They knew what they had to do, and that trust could be obtained. All the pieces fit, all that was left was how to work off of it.
     “Anything that can burn or cut will do.” He answered Tails with no sense of sarcasm or hate. They both smiled, bright and honest. This, of course, left everyone else in the room quite confused.
     “What just happened?” Amy asked Silver as they continued to watch the two converse. “One second, Tails is ready to rip his head off. Now, their as good of friends as he and Sonic!” The silver hedgehog only sighed before responding.
     “I call it telepathy. They call it brain power.”
     “Hey, Cream,” Tails called kindly to his beloved friend. At the sound of his voice, she moved over to him, curious for what he would want. “Do you remember that friend of mine.” Her head tilted to the right in confusion, “Ya know,” The fox waved his hands above his head. “He controls lightening and all that fun stuff.”
     The rabbit’s eyes brightened in response. Her ears rose high above her head as she let go of Cheese, letting the blue chao fly around her in its shared delight.
     “Mind calling him up for me?”
     “Of course Tails!” She cooed happily. She was about to beat her ears, fly to the terminal, and call up their lightening friend in a second, if it weren’t for one small detail.
     The furry fox lips that had been planted on her own.
     “Oh, he will never live this down.” Amy chuckled at the sight. Robotnick gave his own snicker, only to be silence by Silver’s still untrusting eyes.
---------------
     He stood there, shocked and scared. The sight before him was small in comparison to the things he had seen, and even smaller to the things he could do, but the size did not matter now. It still held a very horrible sight within it’s crystal beauty. The large green eyes stared at the structure before him, well over twice his height. As slowly as one could manage, his black footed feet moved closer to the structure before him, the frozen ground beneath him crunching with each step.
     He didn’t like it.
     The cold was the one thing he truly hated, and here he was walking towards, what he could only assume to be, the source. His nose was close enough to touch the sculpture, his warm breath leaving fog across it like glass. Maybe it was just glass. He ran one of his gloved hands across it, the open tips of his finger brushing across the surface, stinging him with the cold.
     Definitely not glass.
     He pushed one of his hands through his silver hair, messing up his tied ponytail, unknowingly unraveling it. As his hand came back down through his hair, it brushed up against his ear. It was considered deformed by most, but to him, it was a mark he did nothing to hide. An ear sharpened and lined like lightening, a permanent reminder of what he was capable off.
     His worry was starting to settle in. This was bad. Very bad. There was nothing he had seen comparable to this…. Torture. His hands rubbed up and down each of his many pockets, lining almost every inch of his trousers. Even his dark cloak was being muffled in his hands constant fidgeting. What was he supposed to do with this? Wait? No, whatever did this could come back, as even an idiot could tell, this as no accident. This poor soul, this poor child, was killed in cold blood. Well, there was no blood, but there was certainly a lot of cold.
     He practically screamed when he heard a tune start to play, pulling him from his worry. The familiar tune of “Two Weeks” by All That Remains playing through his phone gently reminded him that it was his. A quick zip of one of his pockets, and the phone was out and in one of his black gloved hands.
     “Hello?” He answered weakly.
     “Nova? Is that you?” A gentle voice replied on the other side of the phone. He recognized the voice immediately.
     “Cream, you’re not going to believe what I found.” His spoke to his rabbit friend as his emerald eyes continued to boar into the ice sculpture before him.
     “Mr. Tails and I could say the same for what we have found. Even Mrs. Amy and Mr. Silver are here and scared.” The last word hooked.
     “Scared? Cream, what I’m seeing is scary.” He replied almost sarcastically.
     “Worse then a destructive force killing innocent people?” The façade of joking left immediately.
     “Wait… what’s going on?”
     “Tails says you have to come back to his house as fast as you can.” There was a muffled talk on the other line before the rabbit continued. “Mrs. Amy says to Ride The Lightening.” The familiar hum of a dead line followed.
     He stored the phone, eyes never leaving the unfortunate child before him.
     ““Ride The Lightening”… that’s a good song.” Even now, he couldn’t help but crack a joke. Put his hand back on the ice block before him, the screaming face of the child embedded in his mind as he looked at it.
     “Whatever did this to you, Chris Thorndike, I swear…. I’ll kill them.”
     A storm began to brew.

Description
Chapter 4
     “Ever wonder how longs its been?” A voice asked. The owner of the voice poked the fire with a long stick, stirring the still charred wood into glowing embers. His eyes glistened with the heat of the flame, dancing off of them in a lucrative dance. His sharp spikes glistened off the fires, giving him the glow of power.
     “Whenever I do, I just think of long it’s going to be,” his partner coolly replied. He looked away from the flames out into the distance of the valley below. Like his nearby accomplice, the fire danced off his own spikes, though they were already shining in the darkness.
     Neither said much more than that. It was how it usually occurred each night. A single comment. A single response. No more reason to continue. But to one of them, this night, in particular, seemed different than the rest.
     “Can you imagine what everyone else is doing back home?” One of them asked. He stopped poking the fire long enough to ask it. His partner turned his head in a very slight manner, a gesture to show that he had heard, but still needed time to think. It passed very slowly as the one peering into the valley attempted to think of a response. The original was patient, a virtue that he had gained with the long journeys and travels he had gone through with his friend.
     The places they had gone.
     Across worlds, dimensions, and no doubt, universes. Each searching for a piece of themselves that they had lost. Something out of their control, an act neither could prevent, but nonetheless, were required to suffer for. Very little was gained through their travels, the only proof of which was their growing concern and devotion for not only their lost aspects, but also each other.
     “All I can speak for is Rouge and how much closer she is getting to that red echidna’s emerald.” His voice still carried the same lack and loss of care that it had almost all his life. His friend knew, if the only one, that it was just a wall. Something that he put up around himself. His only hope for keeping out the pain that he had seen. So much lost, and so little gained. It tore at his mind every with every breath he took, why he was allowed to live, a killer and sadist, while the angels of his life suffered for him. Maria.
     “Well, if I know my friends,” the first one started again, gently rubbing his long nose with his gloved index finger, “Tails is still thinking of a way to help me out, all though it would be nice if Cream got him off his computer now and then. They’ve had it bad for each other for so long now. Knuckles will be fighting off Rouge no matter how close she tries to get to his ‘precious emerald’. God, they have it for each other too, ya know?” He didn’t expect an answer, as none was given. “Amy probably has gotten over me by now. I only hope permanently. She’s a great fighter and all, even a better friend, but I just had trouble with her clinging to me every other second as if I was her ‘knight in shining armor’.”
     “You are to most.” His friend quickly responded, catching him off guard.
     “Did you just make a joke?”
     “It seemed like the appropriate response.”
     “Whatever.” He gave up. No use prying into a matter so small. It wouldn’t get any where with him any way. Like talking to a wall most of the time, he swore.
     “What of that other hedgehog. The one who referred to you as “The Iblis Trigger”?” It must have been something in the air. They would never talk like this on any other knight, no longer than a sentence or two. Never an entire conversation.
     “Silver? He’s probably sticking back in this time with Amy. They did get close together when that whole mess started up. The real proof was probably how he refused to hurt her when she protected me.” He smirked, very briefly. “He’s probably staying here because… yeah.”
     “Yeah? What’s yeah?” He knew. He definitely knew. But even after an entire year together, he still had yet to lose his prying attitude and destructive personality.
     “You already know.” Why wouldn’t he let go of it? There was no question he knew, but still he had to ask. Couldn’t he just leave him alone?”
     “Pretend I don’t”
     “I’d rather know you do.”
     “You can’t pretend she isn’t there.” That was too far.
     “Of course I can’t pretend she’s not there!” He stood up away from the fire, letting it dance across his back as he faced the back of his own friend facing the valley. There was anger in his eyes, and he knew why. “I can’t just think her away! That’s why I’m out here looking for her! We’ve gone to so many different places, and we have yet to reach hers! Does that sound fair to you? Huh Shadow? Does it?” The other hedgehog didn’t respond. He hadn’t expected such an outburst from his companion. While his back remained the primary wall for his friend to speak into, the black hedgehog let his mouth hang slightly open, and his eyes wider enough to see from the side of his face.
     “I wouldn’t know Sonic. Do not forget that too am looking for one I have lost.” His voice was soft, but the line was sharp. A quick slap to the conscious of the blue hedgehog. Of course he knew what he was going through, he had spent a year to understand it, for both of them to see just how similar their suffering was.
     “I’m sorry,” he quickly replied, “I just-“
     “Think nothing of it Sonic.” The black hedgehog commented with a wave of his hand. Still, he never gazed over to his partner in pursuit. “We both suffer a similar fate, so it makes sense for us to both know of how it feels, though we act differently for it.” The blue hedgehog began to chuckle when his friend finished his short speech.
     “You’re always the deep one.”
     “And you the A.D.D. one.” He smirked with, what he thought to be, a well deserved joke. Sonic, on the other hand, merely gave a blank stare.
     “Is that the best you got, emo boy?” Both of his gloved hands made themselves comfortable against his hips, ready for a challenge from the black hedgehog. In silent agreement, Shadow rose and turned to meet his opponent in speech.
     Due to their increased speed, both of the hedgehogs were natural adept to think at speeds that rivaled that of even super computers. Such process of information was needed in order to intake the environments around them when they moved at speeds fast enough to rival aircrafts. But with the ability to process information at the speeds at which they do came the gift of understanding and thinking of responses to statements much faster and quicker than most other creatures across Mobius and, so far, all the other worlds they had visited.
     “I can think of a few more. But do your really wa-“
     He stopped.
     He had to.
     Sonic had tackled him to the ground.
     “Sonic! What are you doing! Get off of me!” To say that the black hedgehog was upset would be like saying a cat being thrown into water was only a bit annoyed. Shadow was ready to kill.
     “Shut up and stay low man!” The urgency in the hedgehog’s voice surprised him, but still, the anger of other was great.
     “Unless you’re about ready to die, I suggest you get off of me now!” When their eyes made contact, however, Shadow grew concerned. The normally green and peaceful eyes of Sonic were now small, open, and scanning every little bump in the night. “What is it?”
     “I heard a gun shot. Listen.” For minutes it seemed, both of the hedgehogs made no movement, letting the still night grow more and more silent with their void of sound. Not even a cricket was heard. Shadow, presuming the worst of Sonic, was ready to yell at him some more, until he heard it.
     Laughter.
     “There.” He pointed into the woods beside the fire. Might as well of waved a white flag.
     As soon as the hedgehog pointed towards the sound he heard, a bullet did indeed go off. Instinct alone, Sonic pulled Shadow off the ground with the aid of his speed and mind set. Without a break for thanks, Shadow dashed into the woods after the sniper fire. Sonic close behind.
     “Make any new enemies without me knowing Sonic?” Shadow questioned during their pursuit. He didn’t bother to look at the blue blur behind him.
     “Your guess is better than mine!”
     The trees whipped around them as both of the hedgehogs moved their feet towards the attempted assassin. Both of their eyes dashing side to side along their head in search of the perpetrator. Their ears were twitching with acute sense to hear event the lowest whisper audible to them. Black noses twitched in attempt to smell out the gun powder that would be required to fire the shots.
     The time snailed by to the two speed demons. But in the end, nothing came up. No smoke. No tracks. Not even broken branch of the bullet. As far as the forest was concerned, there had never been a single bullet fired.
     “What was that?” Sonic asked his friend, half expecting an answer. His head continued to sway in the forest, unexpectedly looking for anything he might have missed. There was no real idea of what they were looking for, but anything out of the norm would do.
     “I wish I knew faker.” Shadow replied as he himself continued to search the trees aimlessly. “But it must be go-”
     Once more, he stopped. Not because he was tackled this time. He stopped by his own choice. A choice his thought was appropriate for what he saw.
     A small red laser on his friend’s head, right between the eyes.
     “Sonic! Move!” He shouted. He yelled. He cried.
     All. Too. Late
     The sound of the gunfire never even reached Shadow’s ears. The black hedgehog’s mind had shut off at the sight of his friend’s falling body. He caught him before he hit the ground.
     Nothing.
     There was nothing he could say.
     Holding his friend, blood slowly trickling out of his head, there was nothing the horrified black hedgehog could say. He had seen the horrors of life, many times over. Most he had even seen with his friend that now lay motionless in his arms. But of all his dark memories, there was always a light to bring him back from the break of insanity. Now, with the light slowly dying in his arms, so did the sanity within his own mind.
     ‘Please. If there is a God, don’t take him. Please. I beg of you.’
     “Don’t.” His thoughts became words as choked them out. Small tears beginning to trickle down his face. “Don’t.” The black shadow repeated once more. It was too late. He was too late. The world was too late. After so much they had gone through. After so many battles they had fought together. After so many lives they had saved. After promise they had made to each other. After all of it…
     He was gone.
     “Why? Why did you do this?” Shadow’s eyes never left his friend’s body. His mouth hung slightly open, and eyes already glazed over. The site was horrible, but he could not turn away. Not after all that had happened. Not after all they had done together, saved together. He couldn’t let his friend die like this. But at the same time, he already had.
     “I’ll ask again,” The hedgehog’s voice grew dark and full of malice as if a switch was flicked. The very tone was ready to kill any unfortunate soul foolish enough to try to even look at him. “Why did you do it?” The white of his gloves began to grow red with the blood of his friend. Sonic’s blood, staining his glove. The black shadow only clenched the body harder. “Why?”
     “He had to die, man.”
     Shadow spun his head to see the speaker of his voice. It was just an outline among the shadows, but it was clear what it was holding. Two guns. Not a sniper, but that wasn’t of concern to the scorn hedgehog. As far as he was concerned, this black cloaked man deserved to die.
     “Show me your face coward!” The malice was either convincing enough to the perpetrator that he would do as asked, or he would kill him there and then. Slowly the hood of black gown fell back to reveal his friend’s murderer. An odd site, but still a face to remember. Long black hair, tied in a large tail with silver streaks among the top. It played down the back of his cloak, somehow managing to avoid the trees. But that still wasn’t the oddest part of his appearance. Not only was one of his eyes covered by a black eye patch, but theeye showing was nothing but a yellow socket with black pupil. In any other circumstance, he might have been curious, but most certainly not now. The man’s face had several choice scars across is, no doubt from a battle gone wrong. His weapons were purple, still melting into the darkness of his cloak. The almost appeared to be automatic, but from what he had just done, at the very least, they had some form of long range firing power.
     Even now, with his friend dead in his hands, the black hedgehog never stopped thinking of how to strike in battle, and he knew a battle was coming. To him, only an acute sense of intellect and quick judgment could decide a battle. He would not underestimate his opponent now.
     “Why did you kill him?” The anger in his voice was unfolding and unrelenting. It was a bad mistake for anyone to anger someone as powerful as Shadow, and this assassin just had. The man smiled, fuelling his rage even further, but he held himself, somehow, he held back.
     “Nice to meet you too, little dude. I’m Xigbar,” He put one of his guns to his chest, “and you are?” Pointing one of the guns at the hedgehog. Shadow flinched. This man, Xigbar, was too happy. No sense of worry about him. He was either a genuine idiot, or extremely confident, which would make him an idiot.
      “I am Shadow the Hedgehog,” with the aid of his speed, the angered hedgehog whipped out his red Chaos Emerald before the man could make a move. It glistened under the pale moonlight of the trees, reflecting not only the power it held, but also the hate he carried. Strong enough to let it glow, and burning enough to let his enemy know. There was no pause, no hesitation in his actions. The creature knew what he wanted, he knew what this thing deserved. It didn’t deserve to be called living, it didn’t deserve to live, it deserved to die. Eyes glistening with hate, he muttered only a single comment before charging at Sonic’s assassin with every idea to kill.
     “I’m, you’re maker.”
     “As if.”
---------------
     “C’mon dammit!” He yelled. The young body was running. Running as fast as it’s legs would allow. It still didn’t seem fast enough. “Please! He cried.” The young child was afraid, afraid for his very life.
     “Now now child,” a figure whispered behind him. The boy turned his head midrun, eyes full of the fear and face numb with cold, “You cannot escape me.” The black cloaked… thing raised its icy blue shield, high above its head.
     “Aaaaaaaaaaaahhh!” The boy cried. It stung. The icy cold wind and ice stung. Where did it even come from before? It was spring! “Please Stop! I’ll do anything! Please stop! It hurts!” He was crying, tears pouring down his pale cheeks as the ice stung at his body. The child almost regretted crying as his own tears froze to his skin.
     “You can die for me. That is all the data I need.” The figure responded coolly. The wind didn’t stop.
     “No! Please mister! Please!”
     “Please die.”
     The body of the still weeping child was completely encased in ice.
     The figure of darkness released its shield, letting it separate and scatter into its self created wind, waiting for the call of its master. As each foot of the heartless creature set foot on the ground, it pulled back its black hood, giving his plank green eyes the full view of his work. His hair was blonde as the sun, and long enough to travel past his waist. His face was still, no emotion showing, dead almost to life he just took and actions he had just committed. There was no regret, no remorse.
     With a hand on his chin, the same piercing green eyes that had watched the child needlessly die peered into the ice block, examining its work. By all accounts, the figure thought it was an impressive job.
     ‘Perfect execution of wind elements and exact right measurements of ice. The specimen was perfectly preserved.’ His hand withdrew from side, running across the ice block containing the cursed youth. ‘Even the texture was crafted for a correct transportation environment, just another perfect execution on my part.’ He grinned wickedly. Eyes were furrowed in sadistic amusement as he saw the face the child had left at his final seconds. Pure fear and regret was written all over his face, and he relished it.
     “This was enjoyable,” he commented to the dead, hands returning to his sides as he made move to walk away. His small task was done, but there were many more to do, more than he had time for. “But I must continue my research of this world for Xemnas.”
     The wind began to blow again, carrying with it the other worldly chill that had draught death upon so many. It carried the sadistic intellectual into the air, pushing from the ground as if wings had grown from his body. “I, Vexen, the Chilly Academic, will see to it my debt is repaid.”
     He left the body of Chris Thorndike frozen on the very land on which he had grown from.
---------------
     “So,” the fox began rubbing his furry temples, “You’re saying that these… Heartless, are beings of pure darkness crafted from the hearts of slain people of the worlds.” The doctor nodded, and turned his attention to the equally brain stressed silver hedgehog.
     “And they serve a group of beings called Nobodies that operate within a group called Organization 13 with currently eight members, the rest being killed off in a way you didn’t learn of.” Another nod, another direction change.
     “With which you told the leader everything you personally know about us to expand your life and learn more about them before your “Great Escape”.” Amy spoke with clenched teeth and closed eyes. Even the doctor had a side of his now that feared she would slaughter him. It wasn’t an impossibility.
     “And lastly, you didn’t tell him where Mr. Sonic was… do you?”
     All eyes shot open, including the doctor, who had already made himself as comfortable as possible on one of the fox’s small chairs, leaving the table as support for his still wrecked arms. The question was so sudden that it rendered him speechless. How do you respond to something like that?
     “Well-um…ah-that’s not a fully true statement… and with-uh-proper ideas… and logic-“
     “Do you know where Sonic is or not!” Silver yelled at the rambling doctor. The hedgehog’s patience was thinning. This man, who had done so much to hurt them before, and now came the possibility that he had known, for possibly the entire last year, where one of their greatest friends had been hiding! Oh, he was beginning to understand Amy’s pent up anger at this man perfectly well now. God knows how she had held it under control for so long, he himself was ready to burst.
     The doctor sighed. This was what it had come down to. Breaking a promise he had been hesitant to even accept. Ironic, holding on to something that his enemy had given him.
     Trust.
========
     “Ah! Sonic! Have you come to fight me once more?” The doctor declared loudly as he old adversary walked into his domain. His head was low, matching his shoulders, most unlike the usually peppy and ready to go hedgehog that the doctor had battled for so long. It threw of the genius, if only for a second, but no longer than that. What did throw him off, where the hedgehog’s next words.
     “Gerald, I need a favor.”
     Countless times before had they fought. Even more had they sworn each other worst enemies. For him, the Blue Blur, fastest thing in the world, to suddenly come and ask the doctor for a favor was completely out of the norm. Not just norm, all possibility. It was like seeing a rare meteor shower that could never be witnessed again.
     “Wh-wh-what!?!” The doctor was needless to say, astonished. “You come in here, after so many times I have tried to defeat you, and you me, declaring ourselves bitter rivals, and ready to fight to the bitter end, yet you say that you need a favor from me!”  The blue blur looked up to the doctor.
     The sadness in his eyes was plain.
     It made Dr. Robotnick shiver with cold. The green eyes, they were gray, uncaring and unseeing. Empty was the best word to describe them, void of all hope. The blank character of his eyes was also shown through his body. The hunched over figure and almost dragging arms, the will to live was almost lost. Lost being the keyword.
     “Why so down hedge rat? Someone finally get to you before me?” Despite the mockery in his tone and name, the question remained genuine to the hedgehog. Whether Sonic knew whether it was or not, he still answered.
     “I’ve lost her, twice now.” So it was a person he was missing then. That explained the blank look in his eyes and down appearance. Even the doctor had to admit that his determination for his friends was far above admirable. It made sense that losing one of them would hurt, but who would hurt the most? Amy? No, all that pink thing did was wave its hammer at Sonic asking him out on dates for no reason other than admiration. Had to be a girl though, he said her. But who had he lost recently? Ah! That was who!
     “So the fire ball is gone? So what!” Eggman yelled to the hedgehog with pride. He wanted a fight; he wanted to face off against the hedgehog again. Riling him up would be the perfect way to do it.
     “So I want to see her again, and I need a favor from you.” He was dead. Next to just his eyes and body, even his voice was void of emotion. It was like talking to a wraith. The doctor only grew more and more weary of the presence he was making. This wasn’t the same Sonic that he had fought and always came out alive with barely a broken bone with. For intents and purposes, this new Sonic, void of life and seemingly emotion, could do things he dare not test. Not yet at least.
     “What’s the favor then pest? And make it quick! I have much planning to do for the ‘Egg-’”
     “I need you to hold off on your world domination plots, for a while at least.” The request was shocking. Sorry, it was astounding. So many times before had he, and his friends, yelled, fought, and saved to disrupt and end his plans. Hell, there were times when they made the first strike against him just to make sure he didn’t do anything. But never before, in all of the months to years that they had fought each other, had the hedgehog simply walked in and asked for it to end.
     The obvious reason why?
     It was a stupid and fool’s request.
     “Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha HA!” There was neither sarcasm nor acting in the fat man’s laughter. It was a genuine laugh. To him, the hedgehog had lost his mind. To others, they thought the same thing. A desperate attempt at something that could never be done. How do you convince someone to stop something you have fought him or her over countless times before? You couldn’t! Not that easily at least.
     “You’re making a fool’s attempt to do the impossible Sonic!” Eggman spun his hand to point the accusing finger at the emotionless blue blur. “What could you possibly do to allow me to not wish for total rule, of which I so rightfully deserve!” There was nothing! The doctor was sure of it. If there was, he would have asked for it immediately. But now, he had his archrival in a position that had forced him to grovel for a favor, and he had little idea how he got there!
     “I didn’t expect you to say yes…” The dead voice compelled Eggman to listen, “That’s why I brought this. I hope it’ll keep you occupied for long enough for you to realize what this means to me…”
     Doctor Gerald Robotnick could not answer. In fact, he could not breath.
     The very thing that this hedgehog had brought him was the one thing that he had fought tooth and nail to keep away from him. An object of such power, that he could destroy Sonic with the chance to use it. And here, the hedgehog was simply handing it over to him.
     “Do we have a deal? For now?” Sonic asked, the smallest bit of hope in his voice as he questioned the doctor’s still jaw dropped face.
     “Ye… Yes. Yes! YES! Give me that and I promise my word on science that I will not strike a city or life until you say I can!” He would really give anything for what the hedgehog had. So he would even do the impossible. Give up world domination. A claw grew out of one of the far walls, moving slowly and carefully towards the item it had been instructed to take. It’s metal hinges were ready to grasp the item before it, rip it out of the hedgehog’s hands. But it couldn’t…
     Sonic was holding the arm away from him.
     “One last reminder Dr. Robotnick.” There it was again, the same dead tone that had actually forced the man to pay attention, “If I get even a whiff that you’re trying take over the world… Shadow and I won’t hold back until your with Cosmo. Got it?” The deadness of his eyes was very persuasive.
========
     “I haven’t seen him since.” The doctor finished to the crowd of animals around him. They were each shocked in their own way. He didn’t make a comment on it. Instead, only let the cold truth seep in.
     The kit was the first to talk.
     “What… what did Sonic offer you? What was so worth to you that you didn’t attack us for all this time?” His natural curiosity out weighed the severity of the situation around them. It involved one of his oldest friends, and he needed to find out all that he could.
     “Something, very personal to me. The very thing that my grandfather had created with his beloved Maria.” The room broke out at the sound of the name.
     “Shadow’s involved now!?”
     “What did you grandfather have?”
     “You know of something that would ease Shadow’s sufferieng?”
     “Is Mrs. Maria okay?”
     Like before, it was the rabbit’s question that had caught everyone off guard. They looked to the doctor, who held that same face of shock as when he was asked of the where about of Sonic. Shifting one of his bloody arms, the doctor mumbled something under his breath.
     “What was that doctor?” Tails questioned very ominously.
     “……….Maria,”
     “A bit louder please.” Cream asked, hugging Cheese now like a doll. It cooed happily in the warm embrace, mute to the conversation around it.
     Instead of answering like he had before, the doctor instead pulled out the last thing any of them had expected. There was no doubt it was what Sonic had offered the doctor, and they saw now why he had taken it. The question of how Sonic had obtained it would be answered later. Now, it was for a situation much more important.
     “So, Eggman, how do we stop these Heatless?” Beneath his thick glasses, the dark eyes darted to the twin tailed genius as he asked the question. When their eyes met, a silent treaty was formed. A signed agreement within the minds of two beings of science, so adept in their knowledge, that just the way their eyes met, they knew. They knew what they had to do, and that trust could be obtained. All the pieces fit, all that was left was how to work off of it.
     “Anything that can burn or cut will do.” He answered Tails with no sense of sarcasm or hate. They both smiled, bright and honest. This, of course, left everyone else in the room quite confused.
     “What just happened?” Amy asked Silver as they continued to watch the two converse. “One second, Tails is ready to rip his head off. Now, their as good of friends as he and Sonic!” The silver hedgehog only sighed before responding.
     “I call it telepathy. They call it brain power.”
     “Hey, Cream,” Tails called kindly to his beloved friend. At the sound of his voice, she moved over to him, curious for what he would want. “Do you remember that friend of mine.” Her head tilted to the right in confusion, “Ya know,” The fox waved his hands above his head. “He controls lightening and all that fun stuff.”
     The rabbit’s eyes brightened in response. Her ears rose high above her head as she let go of Cheese, letting the blue chao fly around her in its shared delight.
     “Mind calling him up for me?”
     “Of course Tails!” She cooed happily. She was about to beat her ears, fly to the terminal, and call up their lightening friend in a second, if it weren’t for one small detail.
     The furry fox lips that had been planted on her own.
     “Oh, he will never live this down.” Amy chuckled at the sight. Robotnick gave his own snicker, only to be silence by Silver’s still untrusting eyes.
---------------
     He stood there, shocked and scared. The sight before him was small in comparison to the things he had seen, and even smaller to the things he could do, but the size did not matter now. It still held a very horrible sight within it’s crystal beauty. The large green eyes stared at the structure before him, well over twice his height. As slowly as one could manage, his black footed feet moved closer to the structure before him, the frozen ground beneath him crunching with each step.
     He didn’t like it.
     The cold was the one thing he truly hated, and here he was walking towards, what he could only assume to be, the source. His nose was close enough to touch the sculpture, his warm breath leaving fog across it like glass. Maybe it was just glass. He ran one of his gloved hands across it, the open tips of his finger brushing across the surface, stinging him with the cold.
     Definitely not glass.
     He pushed one of his hands through his silver hair, messing up his tied ponytail, unknowingly unraveling it. As his hand came back down through his hair, it brushed up against his ear. It was considered deformed by most, but to him, it was a mark he did nothing to hide. An ear sharpened and lined like lightening, a permanent reminder of what he was capable off.
     His worry was starting to settle in. This was bad. Very bad. There was nothing he had seen comparable to this…. Torture. His hands rubbed up and down each of his many pockets, lining almost every inch of his trousers. Even his dark cloak was being muffled in his hands constant fidgeting. What was he supposed to do with this? Wait? No, whatever did this could come back, as even an idiot could tell, this as no accident. This poor soul, this poor child, was killed in cold blood. Well, there was no blood, but there was certainly a lot of cold.
     He practically screamed when he heard a tune start to play, pulling him from his worry. The familiar tune of “Two Weeks” by All That Remains playing through his phone gently reminded him that it was his. A quick zip of one of his pockets, and the phone was out and in one of his black gloved hands.
     “Hello?” He answered weakly.
     “Nova? Is that you?” A gentle voice replied on the other side of the phone. He recognized the voice immediately.
     “Cream, you’re not going to believe what I found.” His spoke to his rabbit friend as his emerald eyes continued to boar into the ice sculpture before him.
     “Mr. Tails and I could say the same for what we have found. Even Mrs. Amy and Mr. Silver are here and scared.” The last word hooked.
     “Scared? Cream, what I’m seeing is scary.” He replied almost sarcastically.
     “Worse then a destructive force killing innocent people?” The façade of joking left immediately.
     “Wait… what’s going on?”
     “Tails says you have to come back to his house as fast as you can.” There was a muffled talk on the other line before the rabbit continued. “Mrs. Amy says to Ride The Lightening.” The familiar hum of a dead line followed.
     He stored the phone, eyes never leaving the unfortunate child before him.
     ““Ride The Lightening”… that’s a good song.” Even now, he couldn’t help but crack a joke. Put his hand back on the ice block before him, the screaming face of the child embedded in his mind as he looked at it.
     “Whatever did this to you, Chris Thorndike, I swear…. I’ll kill them.”
     A storm began to brew.