Shadow turned past the observation deck, ignored the door he oh so wanted to go inside but was banned, and sat in front of the last door. The tile was still cold, and the door still had scratches and scuffs from the many… experiments that happened there.

He raised his hand and scratched gently at the metal, a soft scoring sound unlike any noise to happen inside the room, and soon, the door opened.

"Project," he was greeted, by someone he hardly met before. Shadow just knew he was Gerald's assistant, and the other just knew Shadow was one of the few successful projects.

"Gerald." he grunted back, got on all fours, and crawled past him.

It was for everyone's protection for him to crawl. So many projectiles went sailing due to one thing or another, and with him going through rigorous training, his brain always told him to deflect and reflect any and everything that came his way. A hazard to anywhere important.

"He's…" the other trailed off, pointing despite Shadow already leaving him. "Whatever…"

Shadow stopped next to his father/creator and nuzzled against his leg, stepping back a second lated at a hiss of utter agony that sounded familiar.

"Shadow, you're just in time. Can you calm F103 for me?" Gerald asked, voice strained and obviously exhausted. It was then that Shadow finally stood up, looking down at the creature thrashing on the table. It was some sort of lizard he had seen before, but it had metal encasing its chest and blood pumping everywhere. Instead of its normal dark green scales, they were thinner, pale, as if he had been losing a steady amount of blood for a while. Its tail had been dropped too, and Shadow worried. Something was poking out the back of its neck and it looked overall painful.

"Fire," he whispered, setting his hand on the others back, where the metal wasn't. "Fire, listen? Please stop, you'll hurt yourself more."

The lizard raised its head and cried out, groping at Shadow's wrist with claws so sharp they easily sliced his skin. The thrashing slowed, but it was clear he was still in distress. His jaw dropped often to show off teeth in a threat, but he was far too scared for any of that. If lizards could cry, so would Fire right now.

"Take this off of him, it hurts." Shadow warned, looking around desperately. He fully ignored the steady stream of green blood now flowing onto the table. He was aware he was hurt, and he was aware he was extremely abnormal. "It hurts him and he can't do anything about it."

"We can't, either." someone spoke, and Shadow looked up as he kneeled to be at eye level with his experiment friend. "It's… going to be permanent, he has to adjust."

"No! He can't adjust, it hurts too much!" Shadow retorted, flat out lying on the table to hug the bloody lizard. It stopped thrashing, wheezing gasps coming from his mouth while airy hisses escaped the tube coming from the back of its neck. Slowly, it calmed, a warm,buzzing feeling having spread through its body as Shadow began to accidentally heal it. The blood slowed to a simple trickle.

Again, Fire lifted its long neck and moaned in exhaustion, turning to lie his head on Shadow's arm. The gasping eventually stopped, and the wheezing hiss grew more constant.

"Perfect." Gerald commented, petting Shadow's back. The hedgehog squeeze a bit harder around his friend, and in turn the lizard did so as well. Shadow's quills splayed and bristled in fear, and Gerald sighed, pulling his hand away. "I'll give you two time, it's clear a lot has happened here."

"But we've finally gotten the subject calm! We should continue now!" An assistant called, rushing over with the intent of pulling Shadow away "Finally, we have a shot--!"

The lizard snapped his head up, turning to the other and dropped his jaw to shoot a plume of fire in his direction. Too short and mostly smoke escaped, but the threat was clear. Shadow slowly let go to look at Fire, then the other.

"No, he needs a break."

"It. The lizard is an it, Project."

"No. He's a he and he needs a break." Shadow threatened, and, after the other raised his hands in surrender, Shadow picked up Fire and waddled to the other side of the room to sit and hold him. He was simply just so large and heavy, but the lizard appreciated it always.

Shadow closed his eyes and let the cold lizard rest his entire body weight onto him. He only knew him for a few days, this large lizard, but Shadow didn't hate anyway. Especially not an experiment, they needed the most help out of all of them.

Fire made a small sound, nuzzling its head to Shadow's cheek, and Shadow understood. He didn't let it go, though.

Fire calmed down. He took a wheezing breath through his metallic lungs, closed his eyes, and went lax as he expired. The wounds were too great and traumatic to adjust to, even with Shadow's attempts of healing him.

Shadow swallowed a lump in his throat and sighed, then lifted his head to look at Gerald.

"He couldn't do it." he spoke, voice full of emotion. "He didn't want to, but he couldn't do it. Not any longer."

The scientist looked up from cleaning off the table, staring at Shadow and the pale lizard for a few seconds as his brain pieced it together. "What?"

"Fire… didn't… make it." Shadow drawled, then, was struck, forcing him to drop the body of his friend and fall to the ground.

"You idiot! That's why we shouldn't allow that project in here! We just lost a good test subject because of it!" A man cried, eyes wide and full of anger. "All your fault! You should just stay out of the way!"

"Carl!" Gerald snapped, grabbing his wrist and yanking him away "We all know there was a high risk he would not make it on our first try, but we tried anyway, and he passed because of it. It's entirely our fault." he let go, eyes narrowing dangerously "Now, clean up, and make sure Fire is properly put to rest. I have my son to take care of, if you don't mind."

With that, the head scientist walked over to Shadow and bent down, offering his hand for him to take. Shadow lifted his paw and took it, using the other to push himself up and wipe away his tears in a hurry.

As they left the room, Shadow stared at the ground.

"I'm sorry."

The words didn't register at first, and Shadow frowned. "Yes, I'm sorry."

Gerald shook his head "No, I'm sorry. Sorry about… sorry that Fire didn't make it, and I'm sorry you had to see him go, and I'm sorry that you were hurt. None of that should have happened."

"That's fine. You're just… trying to help. That's what you do. You try to help, and when it fails, it fails. Like me!" Shadow tried to smile, but was met with a sad gaze.

"You aren't a failure. You're Shadow, you're family."

"I was made to heal Maria, but I haven't done that. If I was a success, she would have been better by now." Shadow added "I don't think Maria's better."

"What Maria has is a special case that needs special care. It's slow, but you are making a difference. Maria didn't use to smile as much, and hardly ever played around. Now, I can hardly get her to sit still as soon as she feels just a tad bit better!" he laughed "And that's all because of you, Shadow."

The experiment laughed kindly and smiled, then looked himself over and frowned. "I do need to shower, though, sir-- Gerald."

"Indeed." Gerald ignored the slip up and let Shadow go, right outside his personal lab/bedroom. Shadow hurried inside.

He didn't need to be told twice as he kicked off his shoes and tore off his ruined gloves to hop in his chemical shower. As his feet touched the plate at the bottom, a clear glass tube came sliding down and trapped him inside. A spray of treated fluid came cascading down, cleaner and more convenient than soap and water. It could even be reused with no lingering effects, but only when it came to Shadow.

He scrubbed the blood from his body and rinsed his quills and stared at his wounds as they slowly sealed shut under his very eyes. He had ten minutes before he went back to training. The flow shut off automatically and a large fan turned on overhead, blowing his fur dry a bit roughly.

He stepped out overly fluffy and soft, and tried his best to look normal once again as he took his claws to his quills.

"What am I going to be tested on, father?" Shadow asked, looking at Gerald as the scientist cleaned off his glasses.

"Endurance. Before you say anything, I'm sorry in advance."

Shadow's face must have displayed his displeasure, as Gerald raised his hands in defence. "I'm not fully in control of this, son. While you are Maria's half brother and her saviour, you're also a project."

"I…" he closed his eyes, balling up his fists as thoughts flooded his mind. He closed them off with a sigh; he would tell Maria later "Understand, Sir."

"Gerald."

"...yes."

He left, mind blanking as it simply had too much to process all at once. His feet carried him on autopilot towards the testing chambers.

Endurance.

That simply meant "what all can we do to you until you crack?"

Anything could happen, then.

Shadow tried to cheat. He fell during the first test once, where he was being tested on how much electrical shocks he could take before his vitals began to plummet. Upon the first shock, much worse than it should have ever been, he cried out in agony and fell to a heap on the floor. He wheezed and heaved in effort, wanting the test to already be over, but was shocked again. And again. Over and over, until Shadow's eyes rolled back in his head, his body stiffened, and his fur began to sizzle.

It was awful. He couldn't control his body for days on end afterwards, and even took the day off completely once when he realized he was simply not fit enough to function.

The door opened with a hiss, then there was a slam and a steamy, brisk and frigid shower of a treated mist. Once it was over, Shadow took a few steps forward and was stood in a large observation deck, right in the middle. Surrounding above were other scientists, including Gerald. It was rare he showed up to these-- in fact, it was rare for this many people to show up. Something big must be happening.

"Welcome, Project SH02." was spoken to him, a woman in a full body suit of operational gear leaning down to him. He figured she was smiling, but he couldn't see it, so he didn't smile back. Her hand pressed to the back of his head and ushered him forward. He didn't trust her, and slowly raised his quills. She didn't move.

"Today, we have a special test for you."

xox

what's this? a double upload??? surely, you jest, Speka!

i do jest

i only have like 2 1/2 chapters written, and this is the second.

validate me

on a side note, you know one of the vines that make me laugh the most? the one where the dude goes into the bathroom, whips his dick out, and it just falls into the toilet with no commentary