All I could see was the sword, nothing else. I felt nothing. I heard nothing.

I examined the sword, and noticed electricity crawling around my fur. It felt weird, but it made me feel powerful, even when having power was the last thing on my mind. All of a sudden, an image filled my head, again.

It was me holding that two bladed sword again. But why?

The sword in front of me was single bladed.. it lit up, a blue orb appeared in the rain-guard, and it started floating. "Hi!" It-She..said?!

It can TALK?! "Woah!" I was completely shocked. I decided to introduce myself.

"Hi, my name's-"

"Tails! Nice to meet you finally!" She spun around in excitement. There was a crystal on the grip and it changed colors from yellow to bright orange. "My name's Clare!" Her tone was very happy, and excited.

"Thanks? How did you know my name?" I asked, trying to hold back a million questions.

"I'm connected with you, silly. Right when you touched the handle, your memories, thoughts, feelings, and personality transferred to me."

I nodded in response. I began to feel weird. It wasn't my stomach... or my head...

"Oh, it's nothing. That's just your power you unlocked!" She was doing a cartwheel in mid-air.

"What power?" I cocked my head.

From behind me came a new voice. "In time, you will find out about this power."

I knew immediately who it was. So I turned around and kneeled. It was the universe.

"Uh," She smiled, "Are you going to do that every time?"

I could tell she didn't like people doing that. "I feel like it's necessary to be honest." I stood up, looking back and forth from Clare to the universe.

"Just because I'm the universe, doesn't mean I'm always super serious." A chair formed behind her as she sat down and crossed her legs.

"So, you finally found her." She smiled and waved at Clare.

"Hiii!" Clare responded with excitement. I didn't respond. I was too busy thinking about what I saw in those tunnels. Those... Black monsters.. I looked up to see the Universe looking at me in confusion.

"Crawlers?" She stood up slowly. There was a surprised tone in her voice.

"Yeah, a handful I think." I shook my head. The image of that one crawler was stuck in my brain.

"No... Not just a handful.. When there's one, there's hundreds. If not, thousands." She formed a hologram of one. It looked exactly like the ones I saw.

"Crawlers are a type of shadow demon created from the power of Arthas. They're fast, and deadly. They have a special poison on their claws that paralyze their prey momentarily, leaving them defenseless while they pile up and feast." She looked away. "They're nocturnal, so they only attack at night, or, in darkness. Easy to kill with the basic galaxy sword."

She looked at me.

"That must explain the split mouths." I shivered in disgust. Gross.. Clare was just floating there, staring at the image.

"Scary." She said as she moved next to me.

"Now what?" I asked, clearly clueless about my next part of the mission.

"That," the universe smiled, "Is for you to find out." She waved her hand.. And in an instant, I was back at the shrine. I looked around, observing the small lake around me. Towering walls were in the distance, but so far from the shrine that they were barely visible. And the waterfall was splashing away. This was all happening in a rush.

"We're under the city apparently." Clare said, startling me.

"Yeah, I noticed." I thought for a moment. "What can you do?"

"Well, raise your hand." She stood still.

"Okay?" I raised my hand, and she moved towards it, making me grab the grip. "Summoning?" I was amazed.

"Yep, you can do that anywhere in the galaxy!" She flew around me slowly, but I was lost in thought again. The whole world around me turned into a blur, and my ears tuned out any sounds nearby. I thought about how I should tell Sonic and the gang what I was going through.

That's probably not a good idea... I should keep all this a secret. For now.

"Did you even hear me?!" Clare got in my face and broke my train of thought.

"Huh? What?" I was kind of annoyed about that. "What happened?"

"We have crawlers!" She pointed at the shadow demon with her blade.

I raised my hand and grabbed her by the handle, ready for a fight. One crawler came up from the water. It had black water running off of its stony skin. Glossy black protruding eyes focused on me. Then two crawlers came out. Eight. Twenty six. A hundred. They kept coming out of the water.

"Why aren't they dying?! It's not dark here!" I stepped back as they crawled forward.

"It must be the water, it's acting like some kind of protective coating!" Her mood crystal turned red, for anger.

A crawler lunged at me, and my instincts kicked in. I swiped right and cut its abdomen off. All the others split their mouths open and screeched in anger.

"Oh shit." I stayed in position, ready for another one.

They all charged at me, wailing like some kind of battle cry.

I sliced right. Then left. Killing four in one hit. Then I spun around and sliced the crawler in front of me while I hit another one behind me with my two tails, slamming it back a few feet. I thought for a moment...

Perfect idea!

I flew up above them with my tails and watched as they piled up on each other, desperate to grab and kill me.

I smirked and waited until they all gathered in one pile. Then, I used my two tails like a fan to blow and dry the water off, so the light burned them to death. The one on top of the pile blistered up and fell down, shriveled like a raisin.

Soon the rest burned, screeching in absolute pain, but staying in their piled up position.

And then, they all stopped.. Perfectly still, silent. Like a statue. I landed next to the pile, observing them in curiosity.

"Gross." Clare exclaimed. She was right. The blisters were still bubbling.

"And the stench!" I covered my nose. "Good grief!" I laughed, amazed that I took on what seemed like a hundred of them.

Seemed pretty easy.

The sounds of the wind blowing through the trees, the waves crashing in the distance, and the water fall roaring away. And all of this.. Is underground of New Vancouver? I looked up and saw a distant ceiling. Probably the same ceiling that holds up to thousands of people. At this point, I didn't know what was possible, and what wasn't.

"Everything I've seen so far... The universe making things just appear and disappear with the wave of her hand? An evil being traveling through space killing everyone? And now, all this?

This all defies the laws of physics! I'm in a fucking dream!" I put my arms out and waved them around, pointing at the ceiling and the distant waves. "There is NO possible way this is real! A whole entire city, right over my head, a magical talking sword, and these monsters?" I shook my head disbelief. Clare just floated in the air, looking at me.

"Please just say something." I sat down in the grass, looking back at her.

"I know this all seems... A little odd. But you have to trust me: This is all real. The universe, me, the monsters, Arthas, everything." She said as she floated slowly towards me. "And it'll only make more sense if you continue on your mission." She slammed her blade down into the earth, and a circle of symbols appeared in the grass around her.

"If you just give up now, NOTHING... Will be real anymore. Your friends, your family, the universe you live in." Her mood crystal changed from yellow, to blue.

I looked down and wiped my eyes to try and keep myself from tearing up in front of her.

"Hey, no pressure of course!" She said, trying to lighten the mood. That's not why I was sad.

"It's not that..." I looked up at her, my eyes red from holding back. "It's just that... This is a whole lot to process... Within the span of a day or two, I'm the universe's ONLY hope?" I felt a tear trickle down my white cheek fur.

"Because deep down, I know the hero you always wanted to be. And so the gift chose you, it thought-" She stuttered, "It KNEW, YOU were worthy enough to use it for good. Out of the Googolplex of living beings in this Universe..." She started to float again.

"It. Chose. You."

I looked at her in shock. I was speechless.

"Okay." I got up. "You're right, I do want to be the hero. And not just to protect the Universe, but to protect innocent lives, no matter the cost." I examined the shadow demon statue as I walked towards her, lifted her out of the ground, and watched the electricity flow around my hand. This felt different though..

"Lets get out of here." Right before I got in position to start flying, everything went quiet. I looked around and everything stayed perfectly still. Or everything was moving extremely slow.

The water fall was still. No movement whatsoever.

"You okay?" Clare was looking at me.

"Yeah.. Everything just.. Stopped." I pointed at the water fall.

"Oh you have no clue do you!" She got super excited.

"Huh?" I looked at her, and decided to fly towards the waterfall to get out of here. Once I got close, I put my hand in the water, and made the water scatter slowly. A couple turns and corridors later I climbed back out onto the street.

Cars were jammed in the street, people were honking. Back at normal speed apparently...

And everyone stopped and looked at me.

Oh yeah.. Big sword..

I waved and walked casually. "Hey how ya' doin'?" I smiled at a person walking by.

I need to get out of here...

I Started running before some news people got here. I turned right, towards the city entrance. Almost there!

I got out and ran to my plane, put the key in the ignition, and started the engine.

Step one, get the sword.

Step two... make a super hero costume.

END OF CHAPTER FIVE, THE GUARDIAN

Daily info:
Shadow demons
Type: Crawlers

A low level shadow demon. They're fast, they travel in large quantities, about a thousand, and their claws are laced with poison that temporally paralyzes their prey while they pile on and feast. They're extremely nocturnal. If they so much as step foot in sunlight, they burn and boil. Their mouths split into three sections, to bite off of larger prey. A crawler is vulnerable to a basic galaxy sword.

Flight: No
Speed: About 30 mph
Powers: None, besides the poisonous claws
Size: 2 ½ feet long, 1 foot wide
Nocturnal: Extremely nocturnal
Habitat: Caves, or extremely dark places
Weight: About 120 lbs