The Return

Chapter One; Shadow.

It has been 70 years since Maria died in the A.R.K; where I have been created. We have no way in finding the ship, although we search for it frequently, now especially since it has been giving off some radio transmitter signals. But all we find are floating parts coming closer to the atmosphere in the current planet I live on called Tala. It is a basic copy of Earth except for the people and the pollution. When we returned from Earth in the portal that Tails managed to create with Silver and Blaze's help from the other side. We changed into more human-like figures, and apparently so did everyone else. But over the years, people coaxed with them since it didn't change their life style. I currently live with Tails; although its more on rare occasions than anything. His body recently turned 24, which means in a few hundred years he will become 50; which Silver estimated. Although not everyone have the gift of slow growth since not everyone have powers. Sonic, Silver, and I are now immortal. Along with Knuckles, Mia, and Amy.

The parts of the ship, I mentioned, are now falling down to Tala, and the agency I work for, SHIELD, quickly clean up and inspect, maybe finding trails to get to the ship. But lately, a banished dark material has been lingering on most of these items, and I fear that the A.R.K will be in the hands of someone horrible. But for now, we must be kept on daily orders before that day comes.

Leaning against a 300-year-old oak tree, I watched as Sonic and his brother practice fighting, or more like letting off steam from the looks of it. Manic and Sofia, his siblings, were not blessed with immortality as Sonic, but their aging has slow down lately.

Looking away, there was the usual media, acting as if we were celebrities. But we weren't, we were just different. Shaking out of my thought, a loud horn came from Scrooge's car. Some heavy music followed and Manic had to leave Sonic to hang out with that group. Sonic waved as the hovering van disappeared, and walked towards me with an indifferent smile. "Hey Shadow, seen Amy" he asks me, hands on his hips. I scanned around, "surprisingly, no. She may be hanging with Sally again." And his face cringed. Amy has been getting close to Sally since her and Sonic are having an on and off relationship. "We should head to Angel Island" he offered, smiling confidently. Shrugging, I followed him to the sidewalk, picking up a hoverboard that Tails personalized me. It was a sleek black with a faint red trail on the side. Sonic had his upgraded many times and It looked pretty much like a lightning bolt than anything else.

Zooming past neighborhoods, the two of leaned forward, looking at each other, with myself nearly smiling. Sonic laughed, but a fly flew right in his throat and he gagged, slowing down ever so slightly. "Gotta get protein somehow," he choked out once he recovered. Smirking to myself, the ramp appeared nearly a mile away. The ramp was made by Tails who added some speed boosts onto it. And about 10 miles out was Angel Island.

The island itself was being more heavily guarded now that everyone knew the risks of losing the Master Emerald. Knuckles can now take vacations and relax; but if you knew him, that wasn't his speciality. Luckily, the guards would let the force field down for us... For a minute, and that is all we had.

Flying through the sky was pretty dreadful. If you weren't educated correctly; clouds were made of water. And it was a very cloudy day on this side of the planet. Luckily, none of our equipment would get damaged by the water, unless it got into the ocean. Then you probably won't have a good chance of getting rescued because, once again, this was a restricted area. Or the immortals and famous people use it as a nice getaway.

As we landed roughly onto the surface of Angel Island, we turned our boards off. "Do you think Knuckles will be happy to see us?" Sonic looked over, hands on his hips with a grin. I only shrugged, beginning to walk through the thick jungle. Pushing leaves, moving branches, crossing streams, and jumping boulders was easy enough to get to the ruins of Angel Island, and sitting in a dazed on the top of the flight of crumbling stairs was the man himself, Knuckles. He looked over at us just as Sonic began to say, "Yo! What is up?!" Knuckles grunted, standing up tiredly, "What do you two want?" Sonic gasped, pretending to be offended, "Did thou not want to see us? Is thou not happy that his best friends decided to show up?" The two of us stepped up the stairs, Knuckles leaning against a pillar, rolling his eyes. At the top of the stairs was the Master Emerald. This was the biggest and most powerful out of any chaos emerald.

"You need a love life, friend," Sonic says, poking Knuckles bare chest. Knuckles shrugged and raised a hand to the sky, "Pfft, like what? It isn't like the 'love of my life' will just fall out of the sky." Sonic stared at the sky, squinting. "I don't know, I might see something..." he says, jokingly. Knuckles exhales, looking away to the Master Emerald. "Wait... I really do see something, guys," Sonic says, looking back at me then to the sky. Knuckles and I looked and it was a black, rectangular... something. "Some more ship parts. Let's go," Sonic smiled. "Wanna come?" I looked at Knuckles. He sighed, considering. "Fine."

We all linked arms with each other, then with a breathe, I yelled, "CHAOS---!" And there was a flash of green before us and suddenly we were standing outside of Silver's home, and I finished my sentence: "---CONTROL!"

The box grew closer as Sonic grabbed Silver and Blaze to get outside. Silver was next to me before I knew, holding binoculars. "It is definitely a box. But it looked like it was on purpose since it has writings... It must be dangerous. Everyone," he lowered them, "be on high alert. Even I don't know what it could possibly hold. Blaze, lower the heat on the surface so it doesn't melt the writings." Blaze nodded, and I grabbed a hold of her, throwing her up into the sky. "Sonic, contact Tails please. We will need him to bring that translation device," he ordered. Sonic got on his phone.

Knuckles and I stood there, arms crossed, watching it fall slowly. Tails arrived in a few minutes in his jeep. "Hey guys, what's happening?" He looked at Knuckles, avoiding eye contact with me but was blushing anyways. Tails had an obvious crush on me, Mia, and some Fox girl that turned him down in the most cruelest manner. "There is a box. There might be something in that box," Knuckles answered easily. Tails nodded, looking to the sky. Suddenly, it picked up speed, and crushed into the planet, dirt flying everywhere. We raced over, and looked into the hole. It was more like a large coffin made out of black stone and black matter. Blaze fell next to us, peering at it.

"We have to act fast," I said and we ran towards it, jumping into the ditch. Dust was flying around still, and I looked at Tails. "We are teleporting to the cabin," I told him and he stiffened, know what the cabin was meant to be used for but he nodded. We all grabbed each others hand and I laid a firm one on the coffin, and I yelled, "CHAOS--!" And the green flash followed.