It opened its eyes slowly, wearily observing its surroundings... the first thing it noticed was the bright light, which immediately hurt the sewer-dweller's eyes. After a few moments, it came to realize that the surrounding walls were all white, save for one - a transparent space. And through that space, it could see... people... not unlike the people it had met in the sewers, but also different. These people wore long white coats, and were very busy working with various items such as small animals. A few of these humans couldn't help but look at it - two, in particular, stood uncomfortably close. This annoyed the creature. Lunging suddenly from its long slumber, the predator shocked those two stupid humans that came too close - only to realize that it could not reach them. Something invisible was in the way. Maybe the creature just miscalculated the jumping space? It tried through the transparent space two more times, but to no avail. And as the beast fully came to its senses, it came to a startling realization:

It had been captured. And in addition, it vaguely recognized its human captors.

"Well? What is it?" Knuckles asked a scientist that had examined the beast.

"It seems to be an unnatural organism," the scientist responded, "A mutant, or perhaps a result of genetic testing."

Knuckles wasn't satisfied with such a simple answer. "Any idea where it came from?"

"Well we do have one theory," the scientist said, "But it's so far unconfirmed."

"Well? What is it?" Knuckles asked.

"You see," the scientist began, "about three years ago there was a man who worked in a lab branch of ours just downtown, named Adrian Drake. He specialized in cross-species genetics and selective breeding. Among his numerous experiments, one in particular held special interest to him."

"Which one?" Knuckles asked, "What was it?"

"It was a reptile-like creature," the scientist continued, "but it was unlike any reptilian species that we know of. It could thrive underwater almost like an amphibian, but its bodily structure more closely resembled a lizard. Its diet consisted exclusively of flesh - its body could not digest herbs and vegetables as easily as it could digest meat - and the strangest part was that it..." the scientist paused, "it was warm-blooded."

Knuckles' eyes widened as the description of this creature progressively matched the monstrous predator that he had encountered. And not only that, but there was more to it than he had initially thought.

"So this thing... it could be that mutant of his?" he asked.

"It's a possibility," the scientist responded, "but we can't jump to conclusions. Besides, Adrian Drake said that he personally discarded his experiments when our labortory could no longer afford to fund his research. We were working with medicine at the same time, you see, and so we had to devote more effort in that department as opposed to animal experiments."

Knuckles was now at least given enough information to regard his efforts as valuable. He thanked the scientist for her help, and made his way out of the facility - but not before looking over his adversary one last time before he left. It met his gaze with a deathly glare, recognizing its enemy with every ounce of hatred that it could summon. It wanted to kill him, to feel its claws and teeth sinking deeply into his flesh as it tore open his body and feasted on his flesh... but it could not do that yet. It had to wait for a chance to escape this imprisonment. Thinking of this possibility, Knuckles turned to a security guard on his way out.

"Hey, is there any chance that this thing can get out of here?"

The security guard chuckled. "Not a chance," he said, "that door is locked electronically. It can't break out."

As Knuckles walked through the sprawling city, he felt a few drops of water fall on his head. Looking up, he noticed some particularly dark storm clouds looming overhead.

"There's a mighty big storm comin'," a local food vender remarked, "Could knock out our city's power for a little while. I'm bettin' on it!"