It was a far-fetched notion, but perhaps this Mephiles is the one that escaped. Then again, if Shadow himself was being sent to capture and contain him, that might not be so far-fetched at all… Shadow's sensitive ears perk to try and hear the words bubbling through sudden static on his G.U.N communicator. One voice sounded like the Commander. This next feed would probably be very important. His informant gives a heavy sigh once the other voice leaves. "You better get back here, Shadow." He warns the ebony agent, "The Commander's real upset that you're not here yet." Shadow gives a soft 'Hmph', irritated and somewhat appalled that the Commander expected so much of him. "Tell the Commander I'm on my way." "Yessir." Without another moment's delay, Shadow lunges out of the treetops and lands smoothly on the ground, already moving at over 40 MPH from brute force alone. He gets lost in his thoughts a bit more, dodging trees and other objects in his path instinctively. So all the data was gone, huh? What did he remember about this Mephiles then, since his memory was the only thing they had left? After some moment's consideration, he started making a list of what he could remember about his mission. Mephiles was some kind of artificial being, part of a project undertaken by a foreign nation's duke. Mephiles is, or was, labeled as "extremely dangerous to society and the world at large." … And that was it. Shadow snarls to himself, displeased at his poor recollection and overall mental performance. Damn that concussion, or whatever had happened to him earlier… Suddenly his breath hitches as he subconsciously responds to something, bringing him to a complete stop. He turns to watch something in the distance, something bright, purple, and sparkling. "A Chaos Emerald…?" Shadow blinks, and the emerald vanishes. He shakes his head, perplexed yet again. He'd never had something like that happen before. He didn't even detect Chaos energy, but he was still aware that it was there, somewhere off in… whatever direction that was. Checking his internal compass, he determined that it was northeast. The G.U.N agent again mumbles through the communicator. "Shadow…" The Ultimate Lifeform was still staring off northeast, deeply concerned now. "… Coming." He pursed his lips, practically having to force himself to turn away. Whatever it was that was bugging him, it was seriously important in his mind. Even as he sped off to his job and duty, he could feel a nagging sensation at his back, like he was going the wrong way all the while.
As Shadow approached the gates of the G.U.N compound he was to report in at, just by glancing at the guards he could tell something was up. They let him in with a nod, and as he passed them by he could smell their fear on the summer breeze. Rushing through the artillery to the main base, Shadow could hear the Commander's yelling echoing through the vast concrete chambers. Once he got close enough to see what was going on, it seemed the Commander was grilling everyone over the sudden turn of events in his private seat over the data area. His best agents were lined up in front of him, giving their best salutes as he yelled, everyone else at hand rushing around in an effort to get things back on track. "..and I'll be DAMNED if I allow this to slip past us! As soon as the President knows what has happened here today, the whole lot of you will be FIRED! Do I make myself clear?" "Yes sir." The Commander was pacing furiously, fists clenched and brow furrowed. As enraged as he was, he was clearly very worried as well. "This is a potentially fatal breach in security – data just vanished into thin air, and nobody still has any clue what had happened! … Did you lot hear me clearly? FFIIRREED! We will all be, FIRED! And where in God's furious hell is Shadow? He's perfectly fast enough, he should have been here by now!" The Commander waves his hand in disregard, ready to move on without him. "Gah, who needs him-?" At that moment Shadow walks in, displeased by what he was hearing. "I'm here, Commander." The Commander only gets angrier somehow, his fists trembling with rage. "THERE YOU ARE! Where have you been? Didn't that worthless Sheckman tell you I wanted you here as soon as possible?" Shadow sighs inwardly. "I came as soon as I could, Commander." The Commander mumbles something no one but Shadow could clearly catch… "Damn right you did, pft…" He gives a sigh, taking a deep breath and composing himself. "Right. Now that we're all here, let's review what exactly is going on, to make sure that everyone is on the same page." The Commander looks over his agents, not looking at any one of them in particular, then turns back to the mob of techs scurrying for any scrap of information. "Earlier this morning, just before a very important mission to capture and contain a dangerous entity known as 'Mephiles', every bit of data we had on Mephiles and all things related to him vanished from all of our data bases. And we are stilltrying to find out what happened to all of it." He rushes over to the nearby stairway in time to catch one of the more important-seeming operatives. Shadow recognized him as someone he met before; Something like Zedrick "Zeddie" Thompson, one of the upper-most managers of the Data Management branch stationed at this compound. "Zeddie," The Commander taps his shoulder to get his attention. "Have you and your team found anything yet?" Zeddie pauses and shakes his head with a small, stressed sigh. "No sir. Nothing at all. It doesn't seem like anything has been left behind – the data is just gone, and there's not even a record of anyone accessing the data." As Zeddie slipped off to continue his research, the Commander just stood there pondering. "… Impossible. There must be an explanation…" He mumbled. Gritting his teeth, he ordered all of his agents to disband and assist within their professional fields, except for Shadow, who was now free to do what he desired. "Thanks to this mess, Shadow, the mission has been postponed until we can recover the details." The Commander mumbled at he slipped into his office. "You're free to do whatever you like until we get more information…"
Shadow paces in the hallways for a while, thinking about what he had seen and heard coming back to base. He crossed his arms and made himself comfortable standing for a while, wondering if he noticed anything that would point to a possible alteration in space and time. He considered everyone's emotions and body language first. Everyone was, of course, very stressed over the recent turn of events. Everyone deals with stress somewhat differently, he thought, but was there anything in common between people who might have been involved? He had woken up from a bit of a coma which was unusual, and it was likely he had been directly involved with whatever had taken place. What were human's symptoms when they first awoke from a coma...? Well since he believed himself to be short on time, he reasoned what might be most likely. A headache, perhaps? Shadow nods, a small smile rising to his face. This seemed to be a satisfying answer. He considered staying there and thinking some more, but something was telling him to get a move on, and his instincts were rarely wrong. With that the ebony hedgehog takes off in a yellow blur, darting down the hallways and angling corners with jumps and springs, eager not to waste a second. He runs until he returns to Data Management were the Commander had been yelling, then finally slows to a walk. Being careful not to disturb anyone, he slips down the stairway and into the crowd of agents still fumbling for information. He blinks and shifts his power rings just slightly, disguising it as just adjusting his gloves. He begins probing around the area with a faint, controllable veil of chaos energy, inspecting people's emotions and physical state. He's rather surprised to find how stressed people are, many of them very tired but just slaving on in an effort to get things back on track. The Ultimate Lifeform glances about, wondering if this was normal for people. He himself was hardly ever like that, and when he was he sat down and slept it off. He couldn't resist a small sigh, wondering if he was truly so perfect in comparison. "Pardon, Shadow…" Shadow steps aside to let the man pass him, a paper in his hand. Recognizing Zeddie yet again, Shadow jumps at the chance to inspect him, and finds that he's concealing a splitting headache. Measuring the amount of physical strain, he deems this wasn't your average headache, more like he had been ill. Intrigued, Shadow follows Zeddie a little, checking to make sure he wasn't just working sick. Scanning him, he finds he had a minor bacterial infection, but his immune system was handling it like a charm – he probably didn't even know he had it. He had no reason for that headache; no particular physical strain, no illness, no internal injuries, no nothing. The charcoal-furred hedgehog gives a nod, and slips off into the crowd once more.
So then, the head of Data Management possibly might have experienced something similar to what he had when he awoke. Yes, that would make sense, considering what his rank; Zeddie would have had practically no choice but to have been involved with such a secret mission. Shadow nods again to himself, sitting casually on the guard rail overlooking the data sector, at least a 38 foot fall, while still probing them all for unusual symptoms. Upon realizing not much else of interest was going on down there – except for that Jonathan "Johnnie Boy" Freidman who came into work sick and was probably going to give the entire group an extremely contagious form of the common cold – he considers taking this to the Commander now. He can't do this by himself, and the Commander was his boss after all. Shadow smirks quietly, swinging over and under the rail (noting the fact that everyone else would get sick and he never would made him feel unusually adventurous), and begins walking toward the G.U.N general's office. Perhaps the old man and his unshakable "Heart of Stone" were also feeling a bit under the weather.
Shadow walks swiftly toward the office, his quills bristling as his senses came alive over-… something. His heart began to pound as adrenaline flooded his veins like he was about to burst into a run, driving him to pick up the pace. He tries to calm his nerves though, as he approaches the glass-plated room with its see-through door. As soon as he can see inside, he watches the Commander take a swift drink of water and swallow something. Shadow smirks confidently and pauses for a moment. Did he just pop an Asprin? Suddenly a loud wail makes him jump as the red emergency lights paint the walls crimson, the particular echo of a top-level security breach siren screeching down the hallways.
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Author's Note:
Goodness gracious I stressed over this like I have never before over anything. o3o" I hope this update wasn't too late - I felt it knawing on my brains every minute I wasn't working on it. e_e I guess this is what they call paranoia, haha.
If you're reading please review - I'm still getting over this first fanfiction thing and so anything you could offer is still a big help. c: But most of all, I'd just like to hear that you're enjoying what you're reading. :)