Chapter 7

Shadow sat in one of the entertainment rooms in GUN HQ. It's where soldiers rested between shifts. Most of the rooms had a few vending machines, a coffee machine, a radio, and a TV, amongst many comfortable chairs. Shadow always took the small armchair in the corner of the room. He laid sideways across it, leaning on one armrest as if it were the back and rested his elbows on it; he also propped his legs over the other armrest. He preferred this than to take up a whole sofa. This wasn't like Rouge's place. This was a room shared by many others, and he didn't want to get in anyone's way.

He watched the human soldiers chat and watch TV out of the corner of his eye, but didn't say anything. He didn't make eye contact. He just kept to himself.

If he had the choice, he would have sat outside, or in a room of his own, but the Commander insisted that Shadow stay in the view of at least one soldier at all times.

Shadow wasn't an employee… he was a prisoner… awaiting 'execution'.

OOOOOOOO

"Stop pacing."

Sonic didn't respond, he just walked up and down his cell between the two bunk beds on either side of the small cramped cell that he was in. It was dimly lit. There were no windows, because the room was far underground.

"BRO! STOP PACING!"

Sonic stopped and glared at the cell mate sitting on the bottom bunk to the right. It was a sapient, just like him; also wearing an orange jump suit, just like him. All four cellmates were wearing it.

"Look, I know you're like, fast and all that, but could you just stop pacing! It's driving me insane!"

Sonic continued staring at his cellmate. Then, a wide smirk grew on his face, and he continued pacing.

The cellmate started to look more and more angry. He was brown and scruffy with small pointy ears. He stood up and stepped in front of Sonic. Sonic stopped and grinned in the guy's face.

"Y'think I'm scared?" Sonic asked.

"Well, Y'should be," his scruffy cellmate remarked. A purple feathered sapient jumped down from the opposite top bunk, and a green scaled sapient stood up from the bottom one on the same side. They stood behind Sonic.

"A little intervention, huh?" Sonic remarked.

"Look, we don't wanna hurt you," the purple one said. "But… we're gonna have to if you keep doing that."

"Botherin' you guys that much, huh?" Sonic asked. He folded his arms and tilted his head, forcing a sarcastic grin. "Kinda strange. It's almost as if we're in prison or somethin'."

"I swear to Chaos, hedgehog! If you make that joke ONE more time-!" the green one exclaimed.

"Aww, don't like that back talk? It's almost like we're-"

The brown one threw a punch, but Sonic ducked, so the brow one punched the purple one because he was standing behind green one tried to grab Sonic, but Sonic rolled out between the two cellmates behind him and backed up against the cell door.

"Do you know who I am?" Sonic said arrogantly. The three cellmates stormed towards him. Sonic just jumped over them and landed in the middle of the room. "Try all you like! You can't catch me!"

Suddenly, there was a sliding sound. A tray with four bowls of grey slop was pushed onto a tray hanging below the window of the door. The brown sapient sneered at Sonic, then smirked. He took one of the bowls, and used the spoon in it to start shovelling the contents into the other bowls equally. Sonic tilted his head, watching in confusion. Then he realised what was happening.

"Guys, c'mon," Sonic said in exasperation.

"Great, we all get extra today," the purple one said, ignoring Sonic. Sonic clutched his abdomen with his gloveless hand. The other three began eating and walking over to the bunk beds.

"HEY!" Sonic yelled. "I'm hungry!"

"Doesn't seem like it. You've got lots of energy," the brown one smirked. "Besides, you hate this stuff. Consider this a favour."

Sonic glared at the others with gritted teeth. Then, he scoffed, jumped up onto his bed, which was a top bunk, then sat leaning against the wall with his legs pulled up to his arms, and sulked to himself.

By the side of him on the wall was a tally chart carved into the brick… with only 10 scratches.

OOOOOOOOOO

Rouge walked through the doors of GUN, having been called in urgently. The Commander greeted her in the hallway. The two of them stopped.

"Agent Rouge," he said formally. "As you may have heard, there's a threat from Eggman at the edge of the City. "You should go and retrieve your new partner from break room 6." The Commander gave a slight smile, then stepped aside to let Rouge through.

"A partner? But I've never worked with a partner, not since-" She stopped herself. Then she took in a deep breath. She promised herself that she wasn't going to cry over losing Shadow again. "Okay." She walked swiftly towards the break room.

OOOOOOOO

Shadow was sitting in his usual seat with his head tilted back, staring up at the ceiling. A few of the soldiers hanging out in the room suddenly stood up. Shadow noticed and tilted his head to glance at them. One of them was left sitting.

"Wait, don't leave! I'm the last one here!" he suddenly exclaimed. Chuckles came from outside of the door. It was just Shadow and the man left. "So. I'm on Project Shadow duty."

"Yes. It seems so," Shadow commented absentmindedly and looked back up at the ceiling.

"OH! Agent Rouge! Thank you! Now I can leave!" the young soldier said. Shadow sat up and looked at the door with wide eyes. The soldier was running out of it, and Rouge walking into room. She stopped at the doorway suddenly and looked at Shadow with a blank expression.

Shadow stood up and stared back at Rouge with a similar one.

"Oh, Shadow," Rouge rasped. Shadow noticed that her eyes were leaking. He ran over to her to wipe the tears away from her muzzle. "I th-thought…"

"The Commander and I had an agreement," Shadow said hurriedly. "I'm here for now."

"For now?"

"W-why are you here?" Shadow suddenly asked. Rouge frowned at Shadow, but answered anyway.

"We have a mission. To take down Eggman before he can get anywhere with his new evil scheme."

"Are you sure? That means I can leave!" Shadow said. "I've not been outside since I got here. I've not even seen a window."

Rouge smiled at him.

"Well, not you can go out in the sun… while we beat Eggman," Rouge said. Shadow suddenly grabbed Rouge by the arm whilst smirking at her. "It's on the east side of the city." Shadow nodded.

"Chaos control."

The two of them teleported. A large robot the size of a large building was approaching the city. Shadow smirked and walked over to it, outstretching an arm and forming a chaos spear. He threw it at the cockpit.

A few moments later, a speaker crackled.

"Oh! You blasted blue hedgehog! I should have known you'd turn up!" Eggman's voice yelled out of it. Shadow tsked and folded his arms.

"Look down," he called out. The Robot tilted forward. Shadow looked at Eggman through the thick, clear glass of the cockpit. Eggman's head ducked back when he noticed Shadow.

"Oh… uh, Shadow. It's you. I wondered when you'd show up… ever since I noticed you'd gone missing from my vault."

"And who do you think I was during your 'Metal Sonic's' rebellion?" Shadow remarked.

"One of my androids," Eggman said rather nervously.

Shadow grit his teeth, formed a large chaos spear, energy rattling from his hand. Then, he swiped it at the leg of the large robot. All it did was make a deep scratch.

"HEY!"

Shadow chuckled darkly. He formed another spear. Small doors slid open at the front of the robot's torso; lasers shot from it. Shadow flipped backwards. That's when Rouge joined in. She flapped her wings and rocketed towards the cockpit. The gave it a firm kick. Eggman hoisted the control sticks inside, making the robot swing to turn. The hand reached up and grabbed Rouge. She cried out.

Shadow gasped, then did Chaos control. He teleported to the robot's arm and landed on top of it. He stumbled, waving his arms about to keep his balance. Then, he lifted his arm and brought his hand down to whack one of the joints in the robot's large metal hand. Nothing happened. Shadow growled and threw a spear at it. Again, it did nothing. Then, the large arm suddenly flailed and threw Shadow into the wall of a nearby building. He grunted as he was struck in a crater, made by his impact.

"No more playing around," He growled in frustration. Then, he rolled up into a ball and flew into the robot's metal shell. Then, he hit it over and over and over again, rapidly. The large robot began to vibrate.

"GAH! Stop that!" Eggman called out. He made the large mechanical claw drop Rouge. She fell for a second, then flapped her wings. Shadow stopped and landed on top of the cockpit. "CHAOS…"

"N-No! Shadow! Please don't!" Eggman cowered.

Shadow was glowing red and standing straight and tense. He tilted his head and looked down at Eggman in disdain.

"So. You can deal it, but you can't take it," Shadow said. "I have a right mind to teleport you right to Prison Island. Why should I be the only one to suffer the consequences after our attempt to destroy the world?"

"Attempt to dominate the world!" Eggman corrected. "You just hijacked it!"

"I used you," Shadow smirked. His red glow died down.

"S-so you should be a in prison… a-and I should be let go, b-because you manipulated me!" Eggman stuttered nervously.

"Nice try!" Shadow clasped his hands together, lifted them above his head, and smashed down onto the glass of the cockpit.

"Shadow! Leave that to me! You'll hurt yourself!" Rouge called out. She spun a screw kick at the cockpit again. It made a scratch.

"I-" Shadow hit it again. "Don't!" SMASH, "CARE!"

The cockpit clicked and the round machine detached from the large robot. Shadow stumbled back after the sudden movement, but he managed to grab onto a hinge at the bottom of it and clasped onto it. Eggman flew right up into the sky, but Shadow grit his teeth and bared it.

"Oh, what do you have in here, doctor?" Shadow asked, seething in anger.

"A claw, for grabbing things- It's NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!" Eggman suddenly exclaimed. He rocked his flying machine back and forth, then side to side, shaking the whole thing around, but Shadow stayed latched on.

Rouge pulled up beside them, gliding at full speed.

"SHADOW! Grab my hand!" she called out to him. Shadow growled.

"NO!"

"Just give up, Shadow! We can get him another time!" Rouge called out.

"Yes! Another time!" Eggman exclaimed in delight. "Goodbye!" The cockpit suddenly turned on its side, doing a complete 360 turn. It threw Shadow into the air. He grit he teeth, concentrated and landed on top of it when it was upright again.

"Ugh! Get lost you pesky little hedgehog! You're just as slippery as Sonic," Eggman scoffed. Shadow just stared ahead, concentrating hard, trying hard not to get thrown off the slippery glass top to a round, fast, flying machine.

"Where is he, by the way?" Eggman asked nonchalantly.

"Trapped on Prison Island" Shadow said. "You should be there, in his place," Shadow growled down at Eggman.

"How? We blew that place sky high!" Eggman said and waved a hand.

"The sub-basement was spared," Shadow said.

"Hmm. Interesting," Eggman commented, then plunged his gearsticks forward.

But Eggman sped up and rushed forward. Shadow slipped and fell off of the machine.