"Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts...perhaps the fear of a loss of power."

-John Steinbeck

Shadow blinked for a second, sensing himself coming to. Finally, the blurs separated and distinct forms were made out clearly in his vision. At the sight, he grimaced. The surroundings were unfamiliar, the scents were strange to him, and the feeling he had wasn't a good one. He resisted asking questions aloud, as he learned his lesson before when he had amnesia. He had to figure this one out in his head.

He took a small whiff of the air and could barely keep himself from gagging. His eyes caught the hazy trails of smoke precipitating at the ceiling, and the hedgehog determined that that was the source of the horrific smell. From what he could tell so far, it didn't seem poisonous but just utterly revolting.

Realizing now that he was sitting, he attempted to get up. A sharp clink echoed throughout the dank room. Chains?

In fact, chains were wrapped around his wrists and ankles, restricting any movement but an occasional shifting of the seat. His grimace became more defined on his muzzle. So he was a prisoner here? All hope of being somewhere safe was out of the question. Then again, that had already went out the figurative window when he had nearly choked on the smoke.

Every so often, his vision blurred, and he quickly debated as to what it was. A drug? Probably. He never was bleary-eyed when he came back into consciousness. Maybe for a few seconds but never this long after he came to. The black and red hedgehog carefully lifted his gloved hand to touch his forehead, massaging it gently against his temple in an attempt to refocus. Whoever or whatever gave him this drug must've injected it into him not very long ago. Usually, foreign chemicals would pass through or be dispersed by the Ultimate Lifeform's body before they did any real effect on him.

Shadow sneered to himself as he tried to gain more info on where he was and most importantly, how he got here. His memory, like his vision, seemed foggy at the moment, and the familiar, empty feeling of memory loss started to irritate him. Something must've happened...how it occurred wasn't entirely clear to him. How could he get captured without so much as a struggle?

Perhaps he did struggle; perhaps he did not. Time was something that he couldn't grasp as well. He didn't know how many hours transpired while he was in here, or maybe it was only a few seconds after he was placed here. Shadow tugged violently at the chains and growled. His restraints dug into his skin, and when the hedgehog attempted to use his muscles to further put strain on them, his limbs felt unfamiliar and weak as if he were trying on a new body. Quickly, he tried to call upon Chaos energy to break his chains, but the only effect was more fatigue on his mind and body.

"Blast it..."

He felt drained, somehow, of physical energy as if he had pushed his body to maximum power just recently. Shadow could sense no Chaos energy lingering there for him to use. If the smoke in the room was Chaos energy, he'd have a quite an abundance to use right now. Alas, that wasn't the case.

"Blast it!" the Ultimate Lifeform bellowed, yanking at his chains. As soon as his temper flared, it disappeared and he soon was cursing himself. Anger wasn't going to help anything and would most likely deplete the little energy he had left. His eyes scanned the room for a weapon, for a pin or needle, for anything. All he could see was thick layers of dust and statuesque figures of dust bunnies in the lonely corners of the drab, concrete gray room.

Finally, his crimson eyes fell upon his hands, which he knew were right now too weak to snap the inferior devices. But the familiar gleam of gold underneath the musty, rusting clasps caught his sight, and instantly he knew. His inhibitor rings...

Shadow was normally cautious about opening them, as they gave him power to eliminate nearly everything in his sight. But this was a special case; the snapping of those gold rings would certainly fill his energy for the time being. How to break them was the question...

The giant steel door lined with rust creaked and then was swung open to the hit the concrete wall, the noise loudly bouncing off across the room. Instantly Shadow's trademark steely-eyed glare came into position towards the flat, dark figure that wandered haphazardly into the room.

It was a human.

Normally, Shadow would've just assumed it was a gang member, but there was an air to the individual that seemed professional. Casual but still knowing what he was doing. With him were a rifle and a cigarette, oddly balancing each other out. The man wore a soldier's uniform- -Shadow started- -G.U.N.'s uniform, except that the logo was marked off with a large white star spray-painted on there. The man, his helmet concealing his eyes, pulled up a foldable metallic chair, set it up, and sat down in it casually, waving the source of the smog around precariously.

"So, I see that you've awakened," the man said, voice smooth and indolent, as he puffed a ring of smoke into the air.

Shadow blankly stared back. "I don't think G.U.N. is going to be very happy with your marking over their pretty little uniform."

The guard laughed nonchalantly and put out his cigarette. "Ah, already a G.U.N. loyalist, I see," he answered dryly, "I wonder if they programmed that into you from the start."

"So, what are you going to do? Interrogate me?"

"Pretty much," the man grabbed blindly at his gun, "Boss wants to know who our captive really is and I'm the guy to find out."

The Ultimate Lifeform shot back, "Well, isn't that quite obvious who you have captive here? Don't the red and black markings give a blasted hint? I thought my name was pretty well-known around G.U.N."

"Oh, don't worry, the name is famous around this place, too," the man assured with a chuckle, "Just not in the good sense. We ain't no G.U.N." Stroking his chin covered by his helmet, he gestured to Shadow, "But that's not important. We want to know who you are and where you came from. So get talking, duplicate."

Shadow blinked, then glared. "Duplicate? What on Mobius are you insinuating? You have every piece of information on me probably stolen from G.U.N.'s databanks. You know everything about my past."

"That's where you're wrong, buddy. We don't know anything about you," he said as calmly as could be, "Who are you?"

This man was seriously getting on his nerves.

"Who do you think I am? I'm Shadow the freakin' Hedgehog!"

His captor chuckled darkly, slipping his hands behind his head.

"Nice try, but the real Shadow the Hedgehog died years ago in a battleship accident. We're tryin' to find out why you're impersonating him."

"I've had enough of your blasted- -wait...what?" The revelation hit Shadow like a ton of bricks, and his crimson eyes revealed the shock, blinking as if to make sure he wasn't dreaming. That couldn't be possible...it wasn't! How could he have died and have no memory of it? He ran his gloved hands through his night black and red spines, his mind racing with the possibilities. Memories and past experiences of amnesia were beginning to haunt him again...

Then, he assumed his trademark stance, recovering quickly his angry demeanor. "I don't believe it."

"Well, we were considering you were an android like so many other copies of Shadow are," the cloaked man suggested, tipping his rifle up to meet Shadow's black nose, "And all androids are immediately destroyed. Perhaps we were right with our theory...?"

The black hedgehog smacked the gun away, and, glaring into the man's hidden eyes, demanded, "Where's the leader of this faction anyway? I'd like to speak to him about this."

"No need to get antsy. It seems you'll have to wait a bit longer to have your questions answered; Boss is on a mission right now," the man said chillily, leaning back in his seat and withdrawing the weapon. He then got up, the chair uttering an eerily creaky noise as it scraped against the concrete. "Now, I'll be back soon; just gotta get another cig. I can trust you to stay here now, can I?"

The teasing of the man followed him all the way up as he stood up and was about to make his journey to the door.

Instantly, the man fell to the floor, having been tripped by a jet shoe that Shadow had lashed out. In his shock, the guard had dropped his gun and let it skitter a few feet away from him. The Ultimate Lifeform saw this as his chance. He lunged for the weapon just not far off, fingertips almost reaching the sleek holster of it, until the chains snapped back against his wrists and ankles brutally.

He tried further to snatch the gun, but it was all in futility because his captor finally stole it back, pointing it at the hedgehog and laughing. "Sly one, ain't ya? You're dangerous, almost like the real one was. Now sit down in your seat." Shadow was forced to sit down, glaring mutinously at the oppressor. Once he was back in his seat, the man left with a sigh. On his way out, Shadow could hear, "I'm gonna make sure that they execute you nice and slow, android."

The door slammed shut, and Shadow slumped in his seat, tightening and loosening his grip on the chains. This was getting ridiculous.

Perhaps he should wait and speak to the leader?

Shadow dismissed the notion with an indignant scoff.

Unless the leader was someone he knew or would actually inform him on his so-called 'death'- -which to him was highly unlikely- -then this was a complete and utter waste of time. His best bets were to find Rouge and Omega to hear the real story; G.U.N. always had the files of agents on hand, so if Shadow truly died, then the record of this important event would definitely be in there.

Rouge and Omega...where were they now? It was years later, at least, if the man was telling the truth. Most likely they were in the same place as usual: G.U.N. He still grimaced, displeased with his answer. But if he had supposedly "died", wouldn't they have...?

"Let's get back to the interrogatin', android," the deep, raspy voice called as the sentry made his way back into the room with his gun and a new piping hot cigar, "And this time, I ask the questions."

Shadow rolled his eyes to set off his foe.

"What do you last remember?"

He didn't want to respond, but images flew through his head. Attempting to identify the most current one, he could not find it. At least, the one that was supposedly years old. "You know what I remember, so why are you asking?" the Ultimate Lifeform only answered casually.

The man groaned. "Smart aleck. G.U.N. really got your personality down when they cloned you. Honestly, why are there more than one of you in existence...?"

"How do you know it was G.U.N. that cloned me and not the Doctor?" Shadow shot back, red eyes calculating.

The man opened his mouth, about to respond, until he stopped himself and laughed. "Nice try, but I'm the one getting the answers around here," he said with a tone of hostility.

"Really? We must be seeing different things because I see this conversation circulating and going nowhere."

A sudden crash sounded, and Shadow was forced nose to nose with the sentry. From this close, he could see the vague outline of glaring eyes through the helmet's visor. "Look, buddy, we haven't got all day. You're nothing but a piece of cloned garbage in this world. If it were up to me, I would've just shot you and got on with it."

Stoic, the black hedgehog maintained eye contact and ever-so-slightly raised a gloved hand. The man grasped his foe's wrist. "Why don't you do it then?" Shadow asked grimly.

"'Cause it's not my place to do so," was the response. Putrid cigar smoke was blowing heavily into the hedgehog's face, and Shadow turned his head away and yanked hard his hand from the man's grip. At the same time, the interrogator spoke. "Let me tell you something... If you don't cooperate here, Boss is going to come back mighty upset. Then you'll be in some real trouble." The man sneered, hatred flickering in his half-covered face, as if the thought pleased him. "Torture is not out of the question for us, y'know, if it gets us the answers. We'll enjoy doing it to something like you."

"Well, it looks like you're going to have to give them some more upsetting news then," Shadow led on. He looked at his wrist, the one that the man had grabbed, and his foe followed his gaze. The force had broken the rusty chains...as well as one of his inhibitor rings. "Some cheap chains you've got there, huh?"

Instantly, the man was blown out the room in a blinding explosion, yelping in agony and sinking to the floor when he hit the back wall.

Grimly, Shadow stood up from his seat, using the Chaos radiating through him to melt the other chains as well as the other inhibitor rings. Energy coursed through him like a refreshing river, and he fought a smirk. Now he was glowing brilliantly, empowered and ready.

He exited the room and picked up the man's gun but then thought better and discarded it. Why would he need a mere weapon made by man when he had his own power at his disposal?

"It's the Shadow clone! It's escaped!"

The shouts he heard he deduced were other soldiers like the one he had interacted with. Of course they would notice something that looked like a moving nightlight on steroids. Shadow sprinted the other way. With his Chaos Energy fully released, he was able to skate down faster the corridors than he normally would.

He passed by hallways and rooms in a blur. Rows and rows of black weapons crates he noticed along the way; they were decorated with the same symbol over the letters G.U.N. that the man wore proudly on his uniform. So they also smuggled G.U.N.'s weapons as well. He would definitely have to ask the Commander about this later.

Piercing sirens sounded throughout the halls, and he was reminded of the present situation. He continued to skate and did his best to avoid the crowds of similar soldiers wearing the symbol. This must've been a base of some kind- -and a large one at that because the rooms went on forever in number it seemed.

Metallic, bolted doors began to close automatically at the sound of the alarms. Shadow winced but pushed on through the closed-off entryways. As expected, they melted away like butter, but he slowly felt his energy decreasing.

Was his seemingly ever-plentiful amount of Chaos Energy running out?

Gunshots rang out when he burst into another door. An ambush. He swore. Damage to his normally impervious armor wasn't going to help things. The small army started to close in on him, pelting him with bullets. Shadow reached to the peak of anger and power, crimson light taking over.

"Chaos Blast!"

Bodies flew back from the potent scarlet wave of Chaos, smacking into walls and allowing a clear path. The surge of energy he had seconds before now disintegrated. His supply was perilously low.

Another wave of soldiers entered, and Shadow cursed himself again. If he took the time to try and find the exit of this base, then his Chaos form would fade, he would pass out, and he would be back to square one. Calling upon his last element of energy, he cried, "Chaos Control!"

Normally, this move was used to transport him a few feet away, usually behind an opponent. But this wasn't what Shadow decided to use. He glowed a stunning blue, ignoring the shots, and flew past the army at blinding speed. Forget hallways and rooms moving like a blur, images changed in his vision at a fraction of a second. Not even bothering to navigate through the base, the hedgehog plunged forward. He felt a hazy sense of objects crashing into him, but the speed he was at prevented him from feeling any pain.

One second before Shadow's eyes it was dark and musty; the next was blinding light, and then a building in a snow white sky. At seeing such a different image, he lost focus and power, turning back into normal and smashing straight into said building.

He growled weakly as he threw off the rubble; luckily it seemed that there was nothing in the building itself except dust. His limbs quaked and his vision was blurry. He stepped gradually out the building and took in the sight of a white cloudy sky with skyscrapers stretching into the air.

Central City.

It had been years since he last saw it.

Supposedly.

"After all the junk I've been through, I deserve some blasted straightforward answers," he growled softly, bringing himself to his feet and taking his first step onto the sidewalk.

But were things ever straightforward for Shadow the Hedgehog?

So, the next story has finally begun! I'm just getting back into this, so a favorite, follow, PM, comment, and/or review about this would really do wonders. Thanks!

-JD