I Am...All of Me

A New Dawn (Hedgehogs and Pixie Dust Arc 2)

Another older piece that I'd thought to just add to this collection and continue this story a little bit. Hope you all enjoy!
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   It was a beautiful, September morning, and the sun had only just begun to rise over the horizon in Mystic Ruins, where a certain ebony hedgehog snored softly from his perch on an oak tree. Rays of sunlight peeked through the branches and struck his eyelids, forcing him to open them slowly to reveal crimson irises. He mumbled and sat up, surprisingly keeping his balance and stretched.

   Shadow yawned and looked around. "I stayed out here again? I need to stop doing this before Rouge comes to find me," he sighed to himself.

Ever since what he now refers to as 'the incident' had happened, he had begun to pick up on a few odd behaviors with himself. Sleeping outside, normally up in a tree, had become one of them. He took a quick glance at the sapphire medallion fastened around his neck and released a deep sigh, knowing it was possibly the only thing keeping him from reverting completely back to his six-inch troublemaking self.

    With one last, fanged yawn, he jumped down from his branch, landing with the lightness of a feather. That was another thing that had changed for him physically. Even though he looked the same, he had lost a considerable amount of weight, to the point health professionals at G.U.N. were beginning to worry about him, not that it concerned him.

    Shadow wandered around the forest for a long while, unaware of how the grass became greener and livelier under his footsteps, only enjoying the fresh woodland air and how the rising sun warmed his body. The native, nonmobian residents had grown comfortable with his presence, some even trotting up to him in greeting before wandering off. It truly was a peaceful morning.

    A timer on his communicator beeped, and he glanced down at it, "Huh, looks like it's about time for the team to get up. Better be getting back. Chaos control!"

Team Dark Residence

     Shadow arrived in his bedroom half a second later. The room, which had once been barren of everything save what was considered essential, was now haphazardly decorated with various odds and ends, anything from the bird nest that held his keys and geodes to shiny screws and metallic ribbon.

    "I really need to clean up. Omega will zap this stuff in a heartbeat," he mumbled to himself, wanting to protect the little 'finds' scattered around his room. Zooming around at supersonic speed, he collected the random bits and hid them or displayed them expertly, even though it messed with his head to disrupt his organized chaos. Once everything was properly set, he sneaked into his bed and pretended to fall asleep just as a knock came at his door.

    Agent Shadow. It is the designated time for you to wake up, Omega's voice stated evenly.

    "Thank you, Omega," Shadow replied, doing his best to mask his voice to sound as if he had just woken up.

You are welcome. I shall go waken Agent Rouge.

    "You do that," he mumbled and climbed out of bed, for arguably the second time, even though his first bed was a tree.

He glimpse at the calender for a moment. September 16, he had the day off from G.U.N. and that meant he would probably be helping his other two flatmates clean the apartment they shared, which was why he felt the need to hide most of the trinkets he had collected over the past two months.

He turned to get one last look out of his window before he felt something shift. Something felt different, even more so than usual, and he couldn't explain it. But he thought he might know who could.

     "Omega! I'm going out! I'll be back in a bit!" he called and chaos controlled before he could get a reply.

   He reappeared in a familiar glen with a rundown cabin standing on the edge. Smoke billlowed out of the chimney in white-gray puffs, signalling that it was occupied. Without a second's hesitation, he scaled the steps and went straight for the door, knocking lightly a few times. It opened moments later to reveal an old grizzly adorned in a simple blue robe, the only accessory he had being a gold loop dangling from his ear.