Precious Memories

Written by Allie the Fox

Copyright information: The beginning of this story written as a fanfiction contest teaser. It is not copyrighted, and may be modified as the author sees fit. Any fanfiction written with this teaser may be freely distributed. The Sonic characters are copyrighted by Sega.

Author’s note: This will only be my second piece of submitted work; so do not expect much of it. However, I’ll do my best to make it an enjoyable story. Please bear with me.

Oh, but there is one thing you won’t have to worry about. There is a fan-character I created who ends up falling for Shadow. (Her last name, by the way, is pronounced “Koo-zy”. It’s the same as my Geometry teacher’s, because it’s a cool name.) But don’t worry. I didn’t make them a couple. I know from plenty of experience that one of the most annoying and frustrating things for readers and writers of fan-fiction alike is when someone decides to make a character of their own and then pair them up with an official one.

Of course, I make an exception for NetRaptor’s Zephyer. Zeff rocks, and besides, NR had a perfectly reasonable explanation for the creation of her. Ask her yourself. And my like of Zeff has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I get to play her in the RD…shifty eyes Why are you all staring at me?

Ok. I’ll shut up now.

xoxoxoxo

A ball of fire mushroomed into the sky, and Shadow fled along the steel catwalk leading away from the zeppelin. Each skating stride carried him forward twenty feet, and he was still accelerating, trying to escape the shockwave.

The catwalk sloped toward the loading bay far below. Shadow jumped onto the railing and grinded down it, sparks flying from the soles of his shoes. Behind him, fire and destruction consumed the catwalks, and debris pelted around him with the force of bullets. Shadow didn’t care. He had paid back GUN one more time, and that was all that mattered.

The catwalk turned left. Shadow jumped off the railing back onto the walkway, sprinted to the corner and leaped off the edge. He sailed across a twenty-foot gap, curled into a ball and smashed through a flimsy partition separating the upward-leading ramp from the downward-leading ramp. He fled down the stairs, taking them four at a time as the explosion rocked the steel supports around him. He had not anticipated such a violent explosion, and made a note to himself to check what the zeppelin was filled with before he smashed apart the engines.

Twenty feet from the ground now--he could see it through the steel mesh below his feet. The air was dark with acrid smoke, and he held his breath as he flew down staircase after staircase. He rounded a bend and plunged into a cloud of smoke so thick he was blinded, and he groped forward, trying not to breathe and willing the smoke to clear. If only he had a chaos emerald, he would be miles away by now--the power of Chaos Control knew no bounds.

He struck a wall unexpectedly and turned back, feeling for the next staircase. His foot struck something soft on the floor--a body. Probably a fallen soldier. He jumped over it, only to feel a hand close on his ankle. He stumbled and whirled about, ready to fight, and froze. The smoke was thinner near the floor, and he could see the shape of a young fox, eyes glazed with pain and fear, clinging to him by pure instinct.

Shadow did not stop to think. He grabbed the fox, threw him over one shoulder, and sprinted down the next stairwell, which opened before him. Below was the final door opening on the airport runway, which Shadow kicked open. He sprinted into the sunlight, dodging around the debris that littered the tarmac, and away from the roar and heat of the burning aircraft.

The fox's two tails blew across Shadow's face, and he swatted them away, ignoring the strange feeling that he knew this person. All that mattered right now was getting far, far away.

Though the explosion was widespread, his swiftness--aided by his hover skates--prevented him and the boy from receiving any serious injury, although a few small pieces of shrapnel managed to embed themselves in his back. He clenched his teeth together against the pain and continued onward.

When the hedgehog was sure that they were a safe distance from blast, he skidded to a halt and threw his passenger to the ground. The fox landed hard, yelping in surprise and pain. Shadow, annoyed that he had been soft enough to rescue the child in the first place, didn’t much care that the boy was wounded.

Wheeling around, he made as if to speed off, but a protest sprang from the lips of the fox. His ear twitched. He paused and glanced over his shoulder, wondering why that voice sounded so familiar. Feh. It was of no importance. He faced front wards again and shot off, leaving the kit to deal with the aftermath of his sonic boom.