Child of Delphinus

by SEGAMew

A six year old half hedgehog half dolphin was found dying on the beach by Sonic. After caring for him, he eventually adopts him, much to Shadow's disliking. Unknown to them, the kid has a dark past. Warnings: Sonadow, yaoi, fanchar, abuse to a minor

1. Discovery

Child of Delphinus

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By SEGAMew

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Disclaimer:

Ecco the Hedgephin, those with a background in science, and those who are the results of science belong to SEGAMew

Everyone else © SEGA

Any likeliness to any non-SEGA employee(s) created character are purely coincidental. Don't sue meeeeee D= I have a mom and two sisters to feed, plus a house to pay off! Plus I go insane if I don't buy at least one Sonic-related item biweekly.

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Author Notes:

After not submitting a Sonic fanfic for nearly 10 years due to being mean to me and deleting all of my non backed up fanfics, I finally got around to typing a fanfic. If you people reading this don't like fanfics that are centralized around a fan character, TURN BACK NOW. If you don't like reading yaoi stuff, keep reading because you may end up being converted :3 Anyway, chapter 1 is boring because I have to get all of my setting up the story details out of the way. However, the next nine chapters will pick up the pace hopefully, so please bare with me.

Also my story telling skills are teh suck. And I'm not very proficient in telling a story with flowery language, so A LOT of my fanfics will be rather straight forward. Aaaaand there are a ton of PoV hopping, so watch out for that.

Story Notes: This fanfic takes place after my Sonic fancomic "Like a Reflection". To read this, go visit my deviantart page and look around for my gallery folder labeled "Like a Reflection". You can alsmo PM me for the link. I will warn you that the comic may seen not very serious at times, especially at the beginning. And since I wrote the story and drew the whole thing, 'condensing' it was necessary to finish the comic in that year. The most of the first half was done on MSPaint, the later pages were done on Easy Paint Tool Sai (a page in the middle was done on Adobe Photoshop Elements though).

Rating: T

Warnings:

Profanity

Violence (most of which is inflicted on a minor, possibility of getting bloody later on)

Yaoi/Shounen-ai pairings

- Sonic x Shadow - union/married

- Silver x Shadow - minor secondary pairing, mostly one-sided

Unoriginal Fan Character(s)

- You may think some fan characters I made up are original, but it's really hard to be original nowadays.

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Chapter 1 - Dicovery

"Am I… to… die like… this…?"

Who would have thought a leisure activity such as basking on the sandy beaches and allowing yourself to soak up the warm rays of the sun could have devastating effects? We're not talking about skin cancer, crocodile skin or even sun burnt skin either. However, the strange half-dolphin half-hedgehog creature would rather taken on skin cancer than being beached with a few plastic soda can rings tangled up with other plastic soda can rings wrapped around his body. His high body density in combination with the unforgiving ball of fire and explosive gases in the sky left him with a dangerously high body temperature and severe dehydration. All that was needed to top it off was a thick coat of oil from some over broadcasted oil spill incident to give him all sorts of health problems due to toxin exposure.

Even maintaining an automatic bodily function such as breathing proved to be a very difficult task. With his body well passed the safe operating temperature, each breath served a secondary function of cooling his body. Think of it as something similar to that of a dog sticking its tongue out and panting in the summer heat. Unfortunately for the dolphin-like creature, it felt like he was breathing through one of those very thin coffee straws. When in the water, his dense body was supported by the it, making breaking the surface for air very routine and not something you would worry about (aside from possible drowning if you were too far below the surface). Now, imagine taking water out of the equation and adding one hundred percent of the Earth's gravity pushing you into the sand. The feeling was very much like having about ten king size mattresses laying on top of you.

His pale yellow eyes tear up as he yet again inhaled bits of sand and went into a weak coughing fit. His pale gray body shook with each gasp as he tried to replenish his body with oxygen. His tiny hands gripped and pulled at the chain of plastic rings wrapped around his neck in a futile attempt to free himself of the trash. They remained tightly wound against his body, threatening to cut through his dry skin if he even twitch in a wrong way.

He struggled against the urge to pass out, for if he did, he feared he may not wake up. Even though death would relieve him of his current misery, it was a very permanent 'solution'. He wondered though… was there something worth living for? He could not say, nor could he be bothered thinking about such a thing. His mind was thinking of nothing but the mass amount of pain he was in. He wouldn't be surprised if every pain receptor in his body shut down due to the sheer amount of agony. He actually wished that would happen.

His desire to live started to waver as he lay there drawing inadequate amounts of breath. If only he could at least wash his face in something cooler than the smoldering hot air he was probably burning his lungs with…

He shut his eyes and buried his face against the sand beneath him.

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Flashback

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A part dolphin part hedgehog creature stood at semi-attention in front of three people wearing lab coats. His wrists were shackled behind him, but his legs remained free of any restraints. The room they were in requires a badge and retina scan of those with a certain level of clearance to enter and to leave. This made any escape attempts very unlikely to succeed. You would need the power to be able to go through three feet of wall and insulation to get out of here. Or be Houdini.

The three figures spoke amongst themselves. While the subject matter was mostly about the creature standing before them, they did not talk to him directly, even to went as far as insult and demean him while he was present. The three, though all assigned to this department due to their aptitude in similar scientific aspects (their job objective in their resume had no bearing on the decision based of job assignments by the higher ups), they all possessed very clashing personalities. It was a wonder how could anyone expected them to work together.

"Like I said before, there is absolutely no way that incomplete thing could possibly perform such difficult exercises. It's quite evident that this one does not even have the proper intelligence for such a task."

The one who just spoke was currently the most senior member in the room. His name was Professor Hector Barley and was a badger in his early sixties.. He may have wrinkled up a bit with age, but the amount of knowledge he gained over the years proved to be a very valuable asset. He was not your typical kind hearted old man though. He seemed to always find something to nitpick about. If he found something he didn't agree with, he didn't hesitate in offering his own suggestions with an air of superiority, almost as if the best course of action was his suggestion. If one could tape his picture (or several) in the dictionary, it would be next to 'pompous old coot'. If only he would swallow his pride and wear those thick glasses that his optometrist have been trying to get him to wear for the past twenty years...

Next in the ranking tier was a female falcon with mostly blood red feathers on her body.

"What was he thinking when he assigned such a difficult training regimen to experiment 005?"

Her name was Carmine Madeira She wore a black silted skirt that was knee length and a beige colored blouse along with the usual lab coat. She was in in her early forties. However, with the time she spent before (and sometimes during) work applying various make up products, she often times appeared like she was in her late twenties. This usually resulted in her not being taken seriously as if she was someone fresh out of college, instead of being treated with respect that she thinks she deserved. She also have the tendency to belittle others of the same or lower rank in order to make herself look or feel better.

Lastly, the lowest on the ranking ladder was a musk deer. He goes by the name of Murk Chardonnay.

"Heh… I doubt he was thinking at all, you know? Heheh…"

He looked like any other deer… except the fact that he have tusks that grew downward, making it look like he have large fangs. He was particularly fond of his 'saber tooth' look. Who could imagine that a docile animal like a deer could sport such awesome looking fangs? He wore the standard lab coat like most other scientists in the building. What made it stand out were the various safety pins he decorated the front edges of his lab coat with. They didn't serve any purpose other than pure decoration (or a substitute in case a button popped out). Unique looks aside, he was in his mid twenties and was a rather… interesting person. Whenever he spoke, he always talked in a quiet tone and most of his sentences included him chuckling this creepy chuckle. When allowed to go off topic, he certainly spiced up the conversation by talking of 'experiments' he had 'conducted' during his time in high school and college. These experiments usually involved ethically questionable things such as 'How long did it take to properly drown in salt water compared to fresh water' or 'How much amperes you need to expose someone to in order to induce a cardiac arrest'. People wondered why he didn't apply for the position of 'Mad Scientist' instead.

The falcon snapped at the deer's thoughtless words concerning their supervisor, Chief Professor Ashura.

"Fool! Consider where you stand in the ranks before you open your mouth in such a callous manner!"

The deer, unfazed by her words, continued to speak in his nonchalant way. Even though he was a latecomer assigned to this section, he have grown use to the often harsh words of lady falcon. Ranks hardly mattered to the deer. It's not like you magically got smarter the fatter your paycheck was.

"For someone claiming to having three different degrees in three different areas of science… could try for a fourth degree in common sense… you know? Heh…"

The old badger let out an exasperated sigh. He knew not many people in this department saw the Professor in charge in a favorable light. However, the rule that 'if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all' should be one of those rules that would probably be in your best interest to follow. That and following proper electrical safety procedures when handling equipment capable of high voltage. That poor fox didn't have a chance without properly rated rubber gloves. In any case, if that tusked deer said something at the wrong time, it could mean that the whole team could face the angry wrath of the professor. In these hard times, no one could tank a pay cut.

Various thoughts ran through the head of the shackled creature. How long would it be until the Chief Professor arrive, shut these scientists up, and state his fate? He knew that all the past specimens born in this facility would never expect to enjoy a happy life, especially if you possessed an uncorrectable defect in your genetic code. His own defect was predicted to not show up until much later in his life, so it was overlooked since his unique genetic make up of dolphin and hedgehog could proved to be a very interested specimen to present to G.U.N.

His ears picked up the sound of footsteps just outside the room. The mechanical sliding doors opened and the Chief Professor made his grand entrance, immediately ceasing all conversation (and bickering) in the room.

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Present

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"Answer me this, Hedgehog… does your heart beat faster when you're with a love, or with a fear?"

It was two weeks since Sonic declared his love for Shadow, and two weeks since Shadow presented Sonic the Chaos Energy inhibitor bracelet on his right wrist and snapped it around Blue's left wrist in an act of proposal. That day two weeks ago was one heck of a day. It was filled with too much water for Sonic's liking, but if it's the only way to prove himself to Shadow… well the Blue Blur didn't cooperate at first, but the end result was all that mattered to Shadow.

A private wedding was held amongst a few friends the following day. No need for holding a normal public wedding day bash for every news reporter from Acropolis to Westopolis to shove so many microphones in Sonic's face that there would be no place to 'Kiss the Bride'.

Now it have been two weeks since then, and Shadow have yet to persuade Sonic to 'do the deed' with him at night. Sure there was more to love and union ceremonies than sex, but he couldn't help but feel slightly entitled to doing various ravishing things to the blue hedgehog. Or perhaps he spent a little too much time at Club Rouge prior to this.

Each afternoon Sonic visited Emerald Coast Beach for a good long run. One reason was because it was closeto the area where Shadow proposed to him. Second reason was because he wanted to build up his courage around large bodies of water so he didn't freak out all the time. He almost lost Shadow to the ocean two weeks ago because he hesitated (well, more like completely horrified and wanted to run away screaming). Shadow occasionally accompanied him to ensure that Sonic didn't test his bravery and swimming abilities by saving some unfortunate fish caught in a fisherman's net.

During the times when he didn't accompany him, he would be in his house (well, more like his and Sonic's house now) located in the outskirts of Central City. The house was originally given to Shadow by the President as a thanks for saving the planet on various occasions. Also, Commander Tower of G.U.N. wished to make amends with Shadow during the Black Arms invasion, so he offered a high position in G.U.N. to Shadow in hopes that he would accept and lend his strength to the cause of protecting the nation. Shadow accepted the offer, so the gift of the house ended up being built in Central City for convenience reasons since G.U.N. was based in Central City. Another reason for the location was so Shadow didn't have to be bothered by the ridiculously noisy environment of places like Station Square and Westopolis. He also seldom have to worry about mingling people he never really cared to associate himself with, namely Sonic's group of friendly friends tied together by strong bonds of friendship. Rouge dropped by every now and then because she recently got hired by G.U.N. under the recommendations of the president and was now his partner. The black hedgehog suspected that she joined as soon as she realized that Shadow wouldn't be living at Club Rouge anymore and would miss him oh so much.

This afternoon was just one of those afternoons with no missions in queue. Shadow skated right beside Sonic as they ran at a leisurely pace across the sand. Sand was not Sonic's favorite choice of terrain for running across, but little could be done about that. It didn't really bother the dark hedgehog much since he didn't actually make any frictional contact with it. Sand clouds shot up in the hedgehogs wake, salty smelling ocean winds blowing the sand particles far along the beaches… and sometimes an unfortunate sand castle builder or two wound up getting sand in their eyes.

Sonic glanced over to the Black Blur beside him. He smiled, enjoying these daily runs a lot more when Shadow was nearby. As cliché as it sounded, his lover's presence did make his heart soar with happiness. He wasn't entirely sure why he found himself very fond of Shadow. Maybe perhaps it was his mysterious aura? The fact he's the only person he knows who could keep up at these speeds on foot? Or perhaps… he just loved him? Who says you need a reason to love anyway?

The blue hedgehog then reached over with his left hand towards Shadow and tapped his shoulder. The black hedgehog turned his head towards the hedgehog beside him, wondering what Sonic wanted.

Sonic quickly landed a quick kiss on Shadow's cheek and grinned at him. "Tag, you're it!" He then shot off ahead of Shadow, kicking up sand behind him, some of which hit Shadow's face. The nicely sanded hedgehog grumbled under his breath, then followed suit after the speedster.

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Location Change

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Crashing waves. Squawking seagulls. A sonic boom not too far off in the distance. The decibel rating of these noises easily overpowered the weak frantic gasping coming from the strange looking creature lying on the beach. Tears streamed down his eyes, forming a river-like trail down the side of his face and effectively washing off some the sand covering all over his face. He blew and spitted out all the sand that managed to get into his mouth and throat. Well, since his mouth was extremely dry, spiting proved to be not an easy task. So he settled for coughing out the sand… which wasn't a much easier task either due to how little air he could get down his lungs from such an action. His small hands clawed at the plastic rings and his throat, almost as if trying to scratch the sand out. Not only did he have to deal with severe dehydration, overheating body, inability to respire, he now have to deal with the disgustingly grainy feeling in his throat and mouth.

After what seemed like an eternity, he relaxed his hands from his neck and continued his miserable attempts to avoid an excruciating death. Yep that was going real swell. If only his special accessory wasn't taken away from him… his neck felt so bare.

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Flashback

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The room went into an eerie sort of silence. Chief Professor Ashura was a dark green porcupine with a white patches of fur over his right eye and spreading to his forehead. Combined with his long spiky tail, it gave him a rather dog-like appearance. Though he was in his early forties, he proved to be a very capable person. Extremely dedicated and would sacrifice anything (and anyone) in order to progress the mission objective. As soon as he took a step into the holding room, everyone grew quiet… as if anxiously awaiting the verdict of a mere common criminal.

The Chief Professor walked on with his hands behind his back until he stood directly in front of the shackled creature, his pale red eyes never gave much more than a quick glance at the being. It was almost like the sole purpose of this action was to confirm that this was the right experiment to be dealt with. He briefly grinned a toothy grin that no one in the room saw, except perhaps that vile failure of an experiment. No more than fifteen minutes ago, he have received the order given by the one person that outranks him in this department, and this person was the liaison between them and G.U.N. And this order… was something he dreamed of saying in front of this abomination of an experiment for as long as he existed. Not moving, not even turning, he spoke in a calm voice as if this was a normal routine to him.

"Experiment 005ECHO has been declared unfit to fulfill the goals laid out by G.U.N. It shall receive Formula N.1.D5, followed by an injection containing bacterium #080809. 005ECHO's creator shall be the one to administer this. Decide amongst yourselves who shall escort the scientist responsible for this failure to the Purge Room to monitor and confirm that 005ECHO is no longer breathing. Confirm that he is not breathing for twenty minutes. Minimum."

He turned his head slightly towards his subordinates. "Is that understood?"

The three scientists nodded in unison, then talked amongst themselves to decide who gets to perform the escort duty. The porcupine turned his attention back to the small grey creature under him. He knelt down and gripped the creature's chin with an uncaring hand, forcing the creature to meet his equally unkind eyes. This time around, the Professor spoke in a very delighted tone of voice.

"I hope you have come to realize how much of a failed experiment you truly are, especially considering your poor performance earlier this week. Your value to us and G.U.N is not even worth the slop we feed to prisoners of war. You are worth less than a fetus of a normal born."

Then out of the blue, the hand not gripping on the ECHO's chin swiped over and grasped the necklace accessory the creature was wearing. He yanked on it and snapped it off of him, causing the bonded creature to yelp out in pain. The necklace was made up of light orange shells and a red gem imbued with Chaos energy. This special necklace allows the dolphin-like creature to be able to sustain his normally heavy body on land by lowering his body density. This would rid all other issues that would arise from high body temperature and respiration problems.

The idea on how the necklace works is based on the effects Chaos Emeralds have on Chaos, the God of Destruction. The world renown scientist, Professor Gerald, have created experimental beings called 'Artificial Chaos'. Though their power pale in comparison to Chaos, the research conducted in order to create these watery experiments proved to be very valuable. Later generations of scientists managed to recover the research and findings of Professor Gerald and most attempts to replicate the Artificial Chaos to be used as a line of defense have been successful. In another area of science, namely the department experiment 005ECHO is born from, certain strands of DNA from the Chaos experiments have been added to his developing DNA in hopes of possibly utilizing Chaos driven force to induce a sort of form change in the dolphin-like creature. Imagine a genetically engineered soldier that's both deadly in and out of water! It'll make those amphibious assault vehicles a joke.

ECHO went wide-eyed as he could feel his body immediately transforming. Though he didn't look any different externally, he felt himself getting heavier. His legs started to shake from the sudden shift in weight, and he found himself taking in much deeper breaths.

Ashura smiled, finding pleasure in causing as much discomfort for this mongrel possible. He relaxed his grip on the creature's chin and ran the tips of his fingers up the side of his cheek, then up the side of his head, and ending with a painful pinched to his small angular ears. ECHO cringed at the sudden surge of pain, but refused to give the professor the satisfaction of hearing him yelp. He was too focused on breathing anyway. The Professor would toy with this failure some more, but he have an important conference to attend to. He decided to end this quickly, but very painfully. He twisted his ear then pulled down his ear backwards and let go. This caused ECHO to lose his balance and fall backwards, landing hard on his back and dorsal fin. He cried out when he impacted the cold hard floor. The toothy porcupine grinned in sick satisfaction.

"Don't worry, I'm sure my son will be much happier with a real person as a friend. One with real intelligence, soul, and overall not a complete utter failure such as you."

And on that note, he stood up and scanned out of the room.

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Present

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An annoyed blue hedgehog sat on the wet sand, salty ocean water washing over and making him soaked from the waist down. His head and upper body were covered in sand and seaweed. He crossed his arms and frowned, starring at the black figure in front of him.

"That's cheating ya know." Sonic pounded the side of his head with the palm of his hands, trying to knock the water out of his ears.

Shadow smirked at the hedgehog sitting in the ocean water. "It's an ability that is naturally ingrained into my being. However, if you were to cease using your speed during our little chasing sessions, then maybe perhaps I'll consider not 'cheating'."

Earlier, he used Chaos Control to put himself right in Sonic's running path. The blue hedgehog tried to run around him, but the sand provided very little traction, especially at the speed he was going. Shadow then grabbed the peach colored left wrist as Blue made an attempt to run around him. He then used Sonic's momentum against him as he swung the blue hedgehog towards the ocean and released his hand. The blue hedgehog was thrown off balanced, tripped on seaweed, and fell in the water with a splash. To finish it off, Shadow skated off then u-turned back to where he was and abruptly stopped, succeeding in dashing sand all over Sonic. Revenge was so sweet.

Sonic lifted a hand up and rubbed his face trying to get the sand off. He soon let out a growl in frustration as sand got into his eyes and the salt water didn't exactly help. Shadow watched Sonic as he lifted his other hand towards his face. The dark hedgehog sighed and walked into the water and knelt in front of Sonic. He held both of Sonic's wrists and lowered them away from his face.

"Stupid, you're going to rub your eyes raw. Look at me, hold still."

Sonic opened his eyes partway, it was difficult to comply with painful stinging in your eyes… especially as large as the ones on Sonic's face. Shadow shifted closer towards the blue hedgehog and leaned over. He gently blew over Sonic's eyes, much like how a mom would do for her child when they get foreign debris in their eyes and couldn't get it out. Sonic flinched when he felt Shadow's cool breath being blown into his eyes. A blush crept over his cheeks, finding the situation to be slightly awkward. He also didn't like how the dark hedgehog have more control in this. On the other hand, his eyes were relieved of the grainy stinging pain. He blinked a few times and gave Shadow a smile.

"Thanks." He waited a few seconds for Shadow to respond. When he didn't give much of a verbal reply, his emerald green eyes looked side to side at his wrists, which were still grasped in Shadow's hands. "Hey Shadow, you can let go now ya know."

Shadow leaned in closer until his face was just a hair away from Sonic's. Crimson eyes met emerald. "Hmm… nah. I like it just like this."

As soon as he finished his sentence, he pushed his body forward against the blue and peach body and forced him on his back in the warm ocean water. As soon as the blue hedgehog felt the water rising up over his head quills, he jerked upwards in an effort to sit back up. With Shadow's hands still holding onto Sonic's wrists, he felt blue's pulse quickening. He feigned an expression of disappointment.

"Is that your heart beating faster when in the presence of water instead of myself?"

Sonic blinked, then glanced back at the water behind him, then back to Shadow. He then made an angry expression.

"If that is another one of your tricks to get me to drown myself for you, it's not going to work again, Faker!"

"Oh? Then perhaps… this?"

Sonic suddenly found his mouth being invaded by an alien tongue. Well actually it was just Shadow kissing him.. Not that there was that many differences between the two cased. Blue naturally returned the kiss, closing his eyes and enjoying the moment.

That was until Shadow pushed Sonic back down into the water, causing the hero to break out from the kiss and yelp out in fear. Even though the water is roughly five inches deep at the moment, that was more than enough to send Sonic into a fit of anxiety. He shut his eyes and tried to squirm out from underneath Shadow. The darker hedgehog felt his partner's heart thumping rapidly against his white furry chest and listened to his panicky breathing. He brushed his face over the side of Sonic's face and spoke in a gentle tone into Sonic's ear.

"Shh… I love you."

Upon hearing the last three words, Sonic stopped squirming underneath him. He opened his eyes slowly and focused his attention on his lover. He then pressed the side of his face against Shadow's. After he gained control over his breathing he smiled.

"I know." Sonic pressed his lips against Shadow's. In response, Shadow released Sonic's wrists and glided his hands over his arms, then down the sides of his torso, finally resting them on the blue hips. Shadow's tongue fought to dominate against Sonic's and soon won. The Black Blur relished every single intimate contact he made in Sonic's mouth with his tongue. Likewise, the Blue Blur enjoyed Shadow's style. Voracious you could say, and he found it quite attractive. He closed his eyes and allowed the Ultimate Lifeform work his magic. Since he was pretty new at this whole love couple thing, he didn't mind when Shadow is in absolute control… occasionally.

Sonic's eyes shot opened and gasped. He immediately grabbed Shadow's invasive hand that was caressing his blue tail. The section of the tail that was closer to his rear. Sonic needed to draw the line somewhere, and generally anything below his waist was off limits… until he felt ready that is. Sure, they' were married, but he always found the act of love making to be a very adult act, and he felt he wasn't quite ready to plunge in that direction quite yet. He sighed, nuzzling against Shadow's face apologetically.

"I'm sorry, Shadow."

Shadow shook his head and nuzzled back.

"There's no need to be, you were not in the wrong."

Sonic sighed a breath of relief and smiled. Shadow was surprisingly understanding, who would have thought? Maybe Maria passed that trait on to Shadow, who knows? A sly smile then crept onto Sonic's face.

"Hey Shads, by the way…" He quickly landed a kiss on Shadow's cheek and jumped away and back on the beach. "You're it! Nyah nyah and no cheating!" The famed Blue Blur dashed off into the distance, leaving Shadow still sitting in the water. He rubbed the area between his eyes with his index and middle finger.

"As if running at his speed is legal on this beach..."

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Location Change

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A low snarl emitted from the dolphin-like creature, his hands clenched at the sand as his mind recalled upon an unwanted memory. That professor… THAT professor… Rage could be seen in the young experiment's eyes. That grinning porcupine professor hated him for reasons relating to his performance in his training as a perfect genetically engineered soldier for G.U.N.

At least, that was the professor claimed is the reason why the organization should dispose of the little imperfect experiment.

Naturally the professor would never say that he wanted to get rid of the 'failed experiment' was because his own son took a liking to said 'failed experiment.' Many people who worked within the facility didn't like the idea of the Lead Professor bringing in his young eight year old son to work everyday as if it was just another normal line of work. The professor made sure everyone knew that the reason he often let his son run loose was because he needed to be exposed to these things at a young age if he was ever going to take over his leadership job in this department.

Unfortunately he did not expect for his son to think that Experiment 005ECHO was awesome looking and always wanted to play with him. Scientists who were assigned to ECHO kept warning the professor's son that 005ECHO was a trained killer and was not capable of 'having fun' or 'playing' with children. The son could not grasp the idea of someone who looked like a kid to not know how to play. It was practically mandatory for kids to know how to play with other kids!

The pale gray creature's eyes softened. The professor's son mentioned often that he loved his father a lot… 'Love' he said. That concept is so foreign to him. Perhaps it's an alternate word that younger people use in the place of 'need'? He applied this word association to his own situation. This would mean that since ECHO was no longer useful, he is not needed.

He is not loved.

Anger washed over him thinking back to his past. Surely with all of his training, getting out of his current mess should be no problem and without help. He grabbed hold of the rings around his neck and pulled as hard as he could. All he managed to do is probably leave imprints on the back of his neck and back. Deciding to try an alternate method, he started biting on the rings around his chest and yanked it at all different angles. He rolled over to his back, rolled over to his sides, all sorts of positions. No matter what he did though the plastic rings proved to be quite resilient. Which ever terrorist group invented these things, they were very sadistic people!

After a few seconds of rolling, biting, clawing, and pulling, he was halted very abruptly by a strong tugging sensation around his neck. He reached back to feel around and it seems that the plastic rings got caught onto a metal object of some sort. What he didn't know was that the metal object was a leftover hook-like piece from an old volleyball court that was relocated elsewhere on the beach.

After all of that struggling he did in trying to get the plastic can link off, lightheadedness started to hit him more so than before. Why was that… oh yes this was why, he was holding his breath the whole time so he didn't get sand in his mouth while he was kicking up a sand cloud. He tiredly reached up to pull on the plastic ring that was nice and snug against his neck… only to find that he couldn't even slide his fingers underneath them. His eyes grew wide and quickly reached over behind his neck and tried to undo the rings entangled on the metal bolt. When that was futile, he switched back to clawing the front of his neck.

Little black spots danced about in the corner of his eyes as he struggled to get air, any amount, into his starving lungs. His tail twitched involuntarily due to natural dolphin reflexes, even though he haven't been in the water for a long while.

He was wrong, he needed help. Badly. He couldn't get free by himself…

He managed to let out a single dolphin squeak before succumbing into the dark world.

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Flashback

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Cold. Hard. Emotionless. That was how the floors in this room felt against ECHO's bare feet. He was stripped of his shoes and gloves as ordered by the Chief Professor. He growled as the thought of the grinning porcupine lingered into his thoughts. His hands were shackled behind him just like before, and there was a tight-fitting collar snapped around his neck and clipped with a very short chain attached to a bolt on the wall right above him. This forced him to stand up, and was the only position he could be in. It was also a rather uncomfortable condition without his shoes. The shoes were specially made by his creator to help with balance if he finds the need to walk on land. The special footwear were also imbued with Chaos energy, just like his necklace that he no longer have. Without the shoes, he was rather... Clumsy. Dolphins were never meant for walking on land. He took a deep breath to try and calm himself down and purge the thoughts of that green porcupine from his mind. He coughed a bit after taking a deep breath. He had a suspicion that someone decided to set the thermostat for this room to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Not that he minded too much since after all, his body was meant for cold waters. If someone turned the heat up to anything over 80, he would be slightly uncomfortable.

He heard the electronic door opening, but did not raise his head. No reason to be curious since you knew who would be present for your own execution. Soon after the door opened, it is followed by three sets of footsteps.

Wait… three?

The experiment looked up and began identifying the individuals. One was his creator, Dr. Aural, an elderly dark blue furred hedgehog. His eyes hid behind a pair of black goggles. He wasn't sure if they're there to improve his vision or so he could look straight into the sun. The second person is the falcon lady, Carmine. She appeared to be holding what appeared to be a large metal briefcase. Her tail feathers twitched as she stepped foot into the cold room. The third person would make ECHO sweat… if he had the ability to sweat. Dolphins never needed a reason to evolve with the ability to sweat.

Professor Ashura almost smiled at the sight of the failed experiment being chained like that. He took his sweet time walking over towards him, looking over his restraints. He then turned to face the experiment's creator.

"Doctor, how confident are you that these bounds…" he reached over and grabbed the short chain linking the creature's collar to the bolt on the wall.

"… can keep the experiment from…" he then yanked the chain upwards without warning, causing the small gray body to be completely suspended off the floor.

"… going insane from immense pain and break free from them and attack us?"

The elderly hedgehog looked deep in thought. He rubbed his chin and made "hmmmm" sounds. In reality though, it pains him to see his works being treated in this way, whether they were scientific failures or not. You couldn't tell behind those dark goggles, but his eyes were not looking directly at ECHO, but at the creep that was literally pulling him on a very short leash. He quickly glanced at his little creation. The child clenched his eyes tight and was facing away from the Lead Professor, the ends of his tail twitching in an erratic manner on the floor, as if trying to support his body up and loosen the tightness against his throat.

Finally the doctor replied, "I assure you, even these chains can keep a rabid bear in check."

The professor nodded, then let go of the chain, much to the relief of the gray creature. "We'll see about that. Prepare the formula."

The experiment stumbled as he felt the cold hard emotionless floor hit his feet. He leaned against the wall with his head tilted up, trying to catch his breath. It took a lot of will power to not lash out against the professor. It really did. He was trained to go for killing, not to stand there waiting to be killed. He watched as the falcon and his creator prepared the two injection guns. The first one he was to get was Formula N.1.D5. Basically what that injection did was completely disable his immune system. The second one was a fluid that's filled with living bacteria that generally causes cold related symptoms. Of course with his immune system disabled, there was no way he could fight it off.

To explain how the Formula worked would take all day. To put it simply, if there were experiments that proved themselves to be a threat to society or just failed to meet certain criteria, there needed to be a way to kill them without using a shotgun. That would cause unwanted publicity if word got out that the Novotrade employees were treating unnatural creations inhumanely. Lethal injections were also frown down upon, so another department of the lab have been working on a type of injection that made it look like the creation died from other causes, such of pneumonia or diabetes. These formulas only reacted when injected into a scientific creation due to how the scientists built their DNA initially. They were completely ineffective on those that were normal born, which was very beneficial to use. If an experiment were to turn on their creators, they couldn't use the injection on them since it would have no affect. On a last note, there were many different 'flavors' of the formulas. ECHO was to be given the formula that induced NIDS.

Of course no one died from the NIDS injection alone. They died usually from what bacteria or virus hits them next. That was where the injection of Bacterium #080809 came in.

"Mind if I test these restraints?"

The creator and creation looked at Professor Ashura. The falcon continued setting up the tools to be used. The doctor wondered what did he planned on doing, since it was not initially planned that the professor was to attend them. It could never be good if it involved his poor creation that is currently chained up. However, he could't exactly deny the request of someone who ranked higher than himself. He simply nodded.

After getting the permission he would have gotten anyway, the porcupine walked over and stood in front of the experiment. "Attack me, Experiment 005ECHO."

The experimented looked at him questionably. What? Attack him? Was this guy serious? As much as he did wanted to rip his head off, he continued to stand there leaning against the wall, looking at him attentively, watching his move. He watched the professor put his hand in his lab coat pocket and took out what looked like a pen. He pressed a button and a thin red beam of light shot out from one end. He asked his question again, but with a more serious tone.

"Are you deaf?" He pointed the laser towards the bottom the creation and singed one of the tips of his fluke. "Attack, mongrel."

ECHO gasped and withdrew his tail from the hot painful touch of the laser. This. Guy. Was. Insane. He glared at the professor, but made no movement to attack. This had to be a trick. Professor Ashura kept a professional demeanor, but the he knew that he was going to enjoy this. He pointed his pen again at the small gray body and singed the side of his left thigh. The creature leaped as far as he could to the side and away from the burning red light. He then jolted back to where he was when he felt the searing pain against his right shoulder. Okay, now he was angry. Before the professor could point the beam at him again, he planted his bare feet against the wall behind him and propelled himself using the chained collar as a swing of sorts towards the professor. He stretched his tail out and knock the pen out of his hand and went off rolling to another part of the room. He landed back onto the cold hard floor and smiled in self satisfaction. The porcupine still kept his emotionless expression as he walked back towards the hedgehog and falcon. He eyed the doctor.

"He thinks he's so crafty. If the preparations are complete, go ahead and administer the first injection."

Dr. Aural nodded. Carmine handed him the injection gun and he walked over to ECHO. The other two followed behind him. The falcon possessed a taser ready just in case the experiment showed any hostility. Though it was actually more for defending herself rather than her two superiors.

ECHO kept his eye on the injection gun and that orange fluid swishing about in the bottle sitting on top of it. Eventually, his creator knelt in front of him with the gun in his right hand. The experiment tried to read what the doctor was thinking about, however it was difficult to read the expressions of the doctor. He's very good at concealing them and it didn't help that he could not read the elderly hedgehog's eyes through those goggles.

However, the doctor could definitely see his precious creation's golden yellow eyes. He could see his little creation trying to read into the doctor's very being, trying to find some sort of heart beneath that dark blue fur. No matter how much he wants to do things differently, he couldn't disobey orders, especially with the Chief Professor in the room with him.

The green porcupine crossed his arms. This old man was taking his sweet time. "In his upper arm if you please, good doctor."

ECHO watched as his creator pressed the shooting end of the gun against his gray left arm. He cringed and shut his eyes as he felt a very sharp and painful jab piercing his skin. He could feel the cold fluid being forced into his blood stream and spreading its immune system shutting code throughout his body. He let out a breath he didn't realized he was holding as the doctor removed the gun from his arm. Drops of his blood seeped through the pierced skin and dripped down along his arm. He opened his eyes and found himself shooting a glare at his creator. He wasn't totally sure why, but he almost expected his creator to do something... Different. Was this how betrayal felt like?

The doctor felt almost hurt to see his own creation starring him down with such hostile eyes. Even though it wasn't much, he placed his free hand on his star decorated forehead and stroked him. The creation flinched at the touch. He then swung his head and tossed the doctor's gentle hand off of him. His golden yellow eyes shot another glare at the doctor. However this time, they were shining as tears started to form at the corner of his eyes. ECHO spoke for the first time in what seemed like forever.

"Doctor… I… do you really want to do this?"

End of Chapter 1

What do you think? Leave your reviews, comments, critiques, etc! Also, thanks to the following two people for beta reading!

Shots of Sunshine
Rooty the Hazard

They're awesome =3 My original chapter size was 9.3k words, so I had to chop it down a bit so they don't feel overwhelmed every time they're presented a chapter 8D