Slowly, the black hedgehog opened his eyes. All members of his little 'family' hold their breath.
Shadow slowly stepped out of the tank. "Who...? Where...? What...?
Pluto grinned. "Yeah, that were my own words as well. Don't worry. You'll feel fine in a few moments."
Shadow looked around. "This is... the ARK, right?"
Pluto was amazed. "How do you know that?"
"It'sss being programmed into hisss brain," Bio hissed in a quiet voice.
Shadow looked at the professor. "And you are... my creator?"
Gerald nodded. "That's right, Shadow! Welcome to this world, if I may say so. And these are your siblings." He gestured towards Pluto and Bio, who waved.
Shadow walked up to them and smirked. "Dark fur seems to run in the family," he chuckled while looking at Pluto. Then he turned around to Bio. "But you seem to be a little different from us, huh?"
"Doesssn't matter," Bio responded. "Important is not how I look, but how I feel."
Shadow nodded and looked at Maria. "And who are you? Another sister of mine?"
She giggled. "No, no! I'm just Professor Geralds granddaughter. I'm Maria... nice to meet you, Shadow."
Shadow took her hand and smiled. "Maria..."
Maria giggled again and blushed when he looked intently at her.
And from that moment on, they were good friends.
----
The professor was sitting in his laboratory, at his desk. In front of him were lying several brochures and a big stone tablet. Gerald's body was leaning forward, and his eyes were closed.
He snored.
Shadow came walking into the lab. "Professor, I just wanted to... professor?"
Gerald jolted awake and nearly fell from his chair. "Wha...? What? Oh, Shadow..." He sighed. "It's you! How are you faring?"
The black hedgehog shrugged. "Pretty good. Pluto and Maria showed me some old earth movies they thought I would like. They were okay. 'Titanic' was a little boring, though."
He looked at the professor's work. "What are you doing?"
The professor coughed. "Well, I'm just doing some research... about a special kind of jewel."
Shadow looked interested at the old stone tablet. On it, he could see some old carvings... some sort of shrine, and on its top, a big shining jewel. Next to the shrine, some undefinable blue shape was pictured. "What kind of jewel?"
"Well, they're called the 'Chaos Emeralds'. According to these old stone tablets, they were part of an ancient culture of echidnas that once lived on earth. They called the Emeralds the 'controllers'. What they were supposed to control, I have no idea... But one thing is sure: They're called emeralds, but actually, they have different colors. I believe there are seven of them, and everyone of them has its own color."
Shadow looked at the tablet. Over the shrine were seven colored spots. Those were the emeralds? "And what about that big, green one?"
Gerald shrugged. "No idea! I can just imagine that it was used to contain some ancient god of destruction... the writing wasn't very accurate, and I had problems translating their old language."
Suddenly, the door opened again and Pluto came in. "What are you two up to?" she asked. Shadow grinned. "The professor just showed me some of his research."
Pluto looked at Gerald with worried eyes. "You seem tired, professor! I think you should go to bed soon. Staying up that long isn't good for your health."
Gerald chuckled. "I guess you're right, dear... Well, I think I should go. Maria will be worried as well." He stood up, stretched his back and switched out his lamp. "Good night, you two. Don't stay up for too long, right?"
He left.
Pluto looked around. "Where's Bio?"
Shadow shrugged. "Beats me."
Pluto seemed upset. "He knows he can't survive for long if he doesn't connect himself regularly to his life support system. Now where did he go? Shadow, help me find him!"
Shadow sighed. "And I was looking forward for a good night's rest..."
----
They slowly walked down the sloping corridor. "We looked everywhere," Shadow growled. "Where is that cursed lizard?"
"Hey, don't call him that," Pluto scolded. "He can't help how he looks. That's just the way he was created, okay? Well, if he isn't in the rooms up here, that means..." She gasped in alarm. "He must be somewhere in the lower levels."
Shadow cursed. "And the professor told us exactly NOT to go down there."
"We have to find him before the security robots get him," Pluto said. "Come on, hurry up!"
"Oh, when I'm getting my hands on that lizard..."
----
Coughing, Bio closed the massive door. "There," he mumbled. "That should be ssssufficient. Thossse humanssss... they'll think twice about laughing at me..."
Suddenly, two hedgehogs came running down the corridor. "Bio, what are you doing there?" Shadow shouted angrily. "You know that's a restricted area."
Bio fidgeted nervously. "I... I jussst..."
Pluto frowned. "Hey, Shadow! It's enough. We have to get out of here. Those soldiers are just waiting for an excuse to blame us for anything that happens. Come on, you two, let's get out of here!"
But before they could leave, a hatch in the ceiling opened, and a beetle - a GUN security robot - came floating down into the corridor.
"This area is off-limits," it said in a mechanical voice. "Surrender yourselves!"
Pluto sighed. "It's no good, we have to... BIO!!"
The prototype snarled angrily at the machine. "You're not getting me that easssily, humans," he hissed and spat a dark ball of gravity at the beetle. It was destroyed instantly.
But before that, it managed to send an alarm signal to one of its brethren. Suddenly, red lights were flashing all over the corridor, and another artificial voice was shouting: "INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!"
"Now look what you've done," Shadow grumbled and gave Bio a light smack on his head.
"Quick, we have to get away before they find us," Pluto shouted. In a hurry, the three humanoid animals ran back the way they came.
The two hedgehogs were quickly running ahead, but Bio had his problems keeping up with them. "Sssstop," he hissed. "Not ssso fassst!"
Shadow turned around. "Hurry up! You want the soldiers to get us?"
Suddenly, voices could be heard in front of them. "They must be in here. Quick, before they escape!"
Pluto looked around and pointed to a pile of crates. "Over there, we hide behind them!"
Shadow and Pluto dove for cover and Bio tried to follow them. But, he tripped over his own tail and fell down to the floor.
While he got up, the soldiers appeared in front of him. "There he is! Get him!"
Their leader raised a rifle and pulled the trigger. A small dart hit Bio's side and made him hiss in pain. Then, his eyes slowly closed and he fell down to the ground.
Pluto and Shadow didn't dare doing anything, as the GUN soldiers picked up the unmoving body of their brother. "Inform HQ," one of the soldiers said. "It looks like in the end, one of the professor's experiments got out of control after all."
And while the soldiers carried the lizard's body away, Pluto hugged Shadow and let out a small sob. "What are they going to do with him?"
"I don't know," Shadow murmured. "I just don't know..."
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Thu, 10 Aug 2006 17:02)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.