Shadow shoved the doors open into a wide open office. Abraham Tower seated in the middle of the room ignored the hedgehog's sudden presence.
"Commander! How dare you force me to leave one of our own behind."
"I'm disappointed in you. Not only did you not retrieve the chaos emerald, but half of your assigned crew is wounded." His' grey slicked back hair faced Shadow as he busily wrote down on some paperwork.
Despite being just as tall as the desk, Shadow pointed at him accusingly. "I want a rescue team sent to Mirage Canyon now!"
One of the medics rushed in, "Commander! Excuse my intrusion."
"What is this about Robert?" Tower stood from his chair.
Shadow held up the blue emerald, "I used Chaos Control to get us all out of here, but-"
"- you did everything you could."
"You lifted those rocks to free that soldier?" The physician spoke out.
"Yes."
"That killed her."
Silence.
"The pressure was keeping her alive. Once you take that pressure away you have internal bleeding. The reason why chaos control didn't take her was because she was already dead."
"She was still alive then and could still be."
"She was probably already dying. The emerald sensed it."
Shadow's' eyes narrowed into a thin line. "This soldier deserves to be rescued. She saved my life. Check who was assigned on my team."
Tower reached for a tablet inside a drawer and scrolled down the alphabetical list. Everyone's names were outlined in blue.
"Are you two playing games with me?"
He tossed the tablet over to Shadow, "Everyone here is accounted for."
Shadow and Robert scrolled through the list. Her name wasn't there.
"But I thought…"
"Do any of you know the name of this soldier?"
The medic shook his' head.
"No. No I don't." Shadow lied.
"So, this soldier defied orders, snuck aboard your shuttle and ends up getting killed?"
"That is correct sir."
"Bush. You are dismissed."
Shadow scanned the list over and over. "I apologize Commander. It seems there has been a mistake."
"I appreciate that you want everyone to return home safe. However I fear it's too late to save your rescuer. We will investigate and find out who this was."
Shadow's ears drooped.
"We've both had our fair share of deaths. But we can't save everyone Shadow."
White noise of whirring and beeping brought the recruit back to the living. The young woman fluttering her eyes open, but quickly closed them shut from a bright, blinding light. A rhythmic beeping became slightly faster as the G.U.N. soldier attempted to sit herself up.
Smooth metal walls and shiny clean black floors adorned the hospital room. The curved beams and horizontal lights on the walls help made everything seem a bit brighter and futuristic. The only color in the room was green screen monitors that hung from the ceiling. A simple nightstand, monitor and IV pump stood by the patient's bed.
A brown bear wearing a white nurse's uniform rushed by her side in a panic, "Miss you must not move!"
The young woman scanned her wrapped arms and felt semi-cool patches on her face. After a minute of panicking the nurse was able to calm her down.
"You were in a bad situation there. I'm surprised we were able to bring you here in one piece."
"Where's Shadow?"
"I'm afraid we have no visiting hours at the moment," she grabbed a clipboard and scribbled down some notes. "Not until tomorrow."
The woman was tempted to scratch her itchy arms, "How long have I been out?"
"Hmm.. A couple of days. A week probably."
"What did you do?"
"Gave you a few surgeries, some blood transfusions. You know you could just save your questions for the doctor."
"I should have been dead."
The mobian placed a covered tray of hospital food and glass of water on the nightstand. "Now you eat up okay? Take one of these as well." She placed a small orange tube of full of painkillers.
"Could you, by the way let my uncle know that I'm awake? He's probably worried sick about me." She adjusted the pillow upright and scooted back.
The nurse paying half-attention swatted her hand back as she left the room. "Yeah yeah sure. Whatever."
