He looked around himself, taking in the damage.
He must have not been on the ground floor before this, because the ceiling above him had a sizable chunk missing, presumably the floor that was underneath him that was now crushing whatever else was beneath.
He cringed. He hoped that nothing living was caught there.
He tried to suppress a cough, having found a few minutes ago that it seemed to worsen the pain in his head.
Squeezing his eyes shut, he tried hard to think. To remember something. Anything.
His ear twitched at a light clatter, and he snapped his eyes open to see what happened this time. Another. Something bounced off his head, making him look up, seeing more loose pieces of the floor above him starting to fall.
His eyes went wide as he realized that he needed to get out of this place as soon as possible, unless he wanted to pull himself out of a pile of plaster, wood, metal, tile and who knows what else, again.
About five seconds after getting to his feet and against the remains of a wall with what must have been a window, a heavy chunk of concrete and metal bars slammed down to where he had been.
After the initial shock of how lucky he had been to be spared whatever injury that might have resulted in that, he exhaled and turned his attention to the wall. Or what was left to call it that.
It seemed to be a way out, and at the way things were looking right now, he needed to leave this hazard trap and perhaps sit somewhere safe to take the time to remember what he could.
A few minutes later, he was sitting on the ground not too far away from the partly collapsed building, back against the trunk as he tried to stay out of the sun for some unexplainable reason.
The light just seemed to make his eyes hurt. Maybe he hadn't gone outside in a long time, and he just wasn't used to it...
Outside from where, exactly?
That building didn't strike him as a place to live. What had he been doing there, anyway? Was there anyone else? Did anyone know he was there? Did anyone there know him?
Headache again. Ouch. Maybe he was straining himself at the moment...
He rubbed his hand against the side of his face when he felt something run down it, and realized that he was indeed bleeding from some kind of injury to his head. He pressed his hand to it again, only able to apply pressure to it at the most, and could only hope that it stops bleeding before it was a bigger problem.
He didn't know how long had passed, but his thoughts were swiftly interrupted by a voice.
At first, he thought to ignore it, figuring that it probably didn't concern him. As it went on, it became quite frantic. It sounded as if whoever had the voice was looking for someone, and couldn't find them. How sad...
Not long after, a couple more voices joined in, considerably calmer than the first. The first raised in pitch, sounding panicked and hardly audible, now.
Curiosity got the better of him, and he looked around the tree to see what was going on.
"He's the only one unaccounted for! The only one!" An odd looking hedgehog (that's what it looked like to him.) was obviously distraught. "That's where his room used to be! Used to! As in it's gone! Do you see anything? I don't! Nothing!"
"Look, calm down..." A black hedgehog said in a surprisingly level voice, contrasting the other. "Just because he hasn't been found yet, doesn't mean he won't be. There are much worse... Uh... Eh..." He trailed off when the other hedgehog looked horrified and the white bat accompanying them glared disapprovingly. "I-I meant that... He probably got out alright... The chances of him being crushed-"
"Crushed?" The odd one squeaked in a strained voice, shaking now.
"Maybe not a good word choice... I meant that he's probably alright."
The other hedgehog didn't seem so convinced.
Watching them, he looked away for a moment and noticed something odd. His hands were covered in the same light blue stuff as the odd hedgehog. Feet too. In fact, he had the same dark blue fur covering the rest of him, and a white patch of fur as both hedgehogs.
Perhaps they knew him? What are the chances, after all, that he could resemble someone, and neither of them know each other... Besides right now, of course...
He coughed again, unable to fight back that bothersome tickle in his throat and lungs any longer, immediately drawing attention to himself.
What happened next was too fast to wrap his sore mind around. The odd one was kneeling in front of him a matter of seconds, catching him by the shoulders, asking questions in rapid-fire succession. None of which he could answer, due to being unable to remember anything that could help.
He noticed that the odd one kept using the word "Dark", as if it were a name.
He stared in blank confusion as the strange hedgehog's attention was drawn to his head.
"Oh, no, Dark!" He gasped. "You're bleeding! Something must have fallen and struck you really hard!" He waited for a response, and realized that the hurt one was silent, staring at him with wide eyes. He noticed that he had yet to speak, and didn't break his gaze. "Huh..? You're not in shock, are you?" The hedgehog was clearly worried. "Nothing's broken, right? Are you hurt badly? Dark..?"
Something about that make something click with him.
"..." He paused. Then he said, in a small voice: "... Is that... That's my name..?"
The identical one let go of him, falling back a bit, surprised not being a strong enough word to describe that.
"Oh, no..." He muttered, shaking his head and speaking louder as he looked back at him in near tears. "No. Y-you just got them back! That's not fair!"
Figuring that must be his name, "Dark" cringed. This wasn't the first time..?
He flinched, clutching his hands to his head as a sharp pain shot through it like an arrow. It hurt so much that he stiffened and toppled on his side, curling up as he forced back the urge to cry out in agony.
"Oh, dear... Let me help you with that!" He heard that hedgehog shout. He didn't know what he meant by that, and as he was already confused, in pain, and overwhelmed... He waved the hand from the side that didn't hurt as badly and tried to keep him away, moaning in protest. "Please, Dark! I can make some of that go away! I'm trying to help!"
Something clicked again. Something about that urgent tone. Worried. It made him feel bad. Not himself... But for the hedgehog. He felt as if something bad would happen to the other if this continue like this...
He let his arm drop, panting a little as he half opened his eyes to look at him. The corner of the hedgehog's mouth twitched, as if about to smile at his cooperation, but checked himself when he realized that there was more to worry about.
"... You can't just freak out like that..." He said in a light manner of scolding. "... It effects both of us... And... If you're scared... I get scared..."
"... What... What are you going to do..?" He still didn't understand. He also wondered why his own voice sounded so rough... Almost as if he was growling.
"Just heal as much as I can before I hurt myself... We need to stop the bleeding, first..."
He started to question how that was going to be done, but was cut off when the pain subsided noticeably when the hedgehog touched his hand to the injury. Then the hedgehog inhaled sharply, holding his other hand to his own head, right about where Dark was hurt as well. He seemed to be in pain now, too.
The black hedgehog quickly intervened, prying the other one's hand off Dark's head, the pain coming back, but on a smaller scale.
"Hey!" The odd one shouted, trying to pull his hand free. "Shadow! I wasn't done!"
"Yes. You were." "Shadow" said calmly, not fazed by the other one's frantic attempt to get free. "The moment you look like you're in pain... I think that's time to stop."
Dark coughed again as he sat up. No one seemed to notice that his eyes watered a little from the sting in his lungs.
He looked at Shadow, trying to see if something was familiar with him...
Nothing.
Not a surprise by now.
He cringed at the annoyed look that he had been given from Shadow. Did he do something wrong..?
"... I'm sorry... But I-I really don't remember any of you..." He said in a soft voice, looking at the ground, visibly distressed about this for the first time. "... I... I can't remember anything else, for that matter, as well..."
"Not even me..?" The odd one looked back at him with a hard to read expression. He didn't like the answer he got back. "C'mon... You've got to remember me!" He pulled his hands free and got in front of Dark again. "Remember? I'm Mephiles! Mephy? You call me that all the time! Mephy Boy? Hedgehog?" "Mephiles" was starting to get frantic, and started to name of some of the downright mean terms in a higher voice, which kind of alarmed Dark. "Stupid Hedgehog? Idiot? Dolt?" Did he really call him those? "You can't forget me! N-not after all that-everything that happened!" He caught Dark by the shoulders again. "th-there has to be something you can remember! You're a vegetarian! You hate bright lights! Green is not your favorite color! You have a cat! You're an element! You like cantaloupe! Fire makes you uneasy! You can do a spindash! You're faster and smarter than me!"
"Meph..." Shadow started to say slowly, trying to intervene.
"You're bipolar! You have occasional migraines! You sleepwalk! You hate hospitals! You can't swim!" Mephiles still rattling off, hoping to strike something. Dark simply looked like he thought he was insane, trying to work himself away from him and Shadow tried again, not in any real hurry, curious to hear some of the most well kept secrets of Dark.
"Mephiles..?"
"You like tea, and your favorite way to have it is oolong with two level teaspoons of sugar!"
Shadow made the mental note to use one teaspoon, and have green tea from now on.
"Uh... Mephiles..?" Shadow tried once more. He wasn't heard.
"We're brothers! How could you forget me? How!"
The bat finally stepped in, prying Mephiles' hands from Dark's shoulders.
"Don't you think that this might be overwhelming and a bit too much for him at the moment?" She offered to the distraught hedgehog. "You telling him too much all at once when he can't remember it will probably confuse him, or worse..."
"This is bad, Rouge! Bad, bad, bad, bad bad!" Mephiles shook his head. "He doesn't remember anything!"
"... I remember my name..." Dark said slowly, looking to the side.
"Only because I told you!" Mephiles snapped at him unintentionally. He blinked, and shook his head. "I'm sorry... I sh-shouldn't be yelling at you... This isn't your f-fault..."
"Maybe it's not all a bad thing if he's got amnesia..." Shadow said. "It might even be better for him..."
"It didn't work for you..." Mephiles shook his head again. "You said so yourself... Multiple times... Besides..." Mephiles looked sidewise at Dark again before gesturing at Shadow to lean forward to whisper in his ear. Which happened.
"... Huh... Anything? Like a sponge?" Shadow raised an eyebrow.
Mephiles nodded.
"... And you know what that was like..." He said. "... I don't wanna go through that again..."
"... Go through what..?" Dark tilted his head in confusion.
Mephiles shot a look at Shadow (kind of a "don't you even..." look) again before shaking his head.
"... Uh... Shoot... A-are you you sure you don't remember?" He was answered by a very certain and non-hesitating nod, to which he mentally groaned at. "... Uh... I'm not even sh-sure if it's a smart idea to tell you it..." That only seemed to make him more interested, which was the opposite of what Mephiles wanted. He tried to change the direction of the subject. "Before we do anything else, we need to make sure you're accounted for, and have you checked!"
"Strangely, he's the only one moderately affected by this..." Thizon carefully touched the bump on Dark's head, Dark crying out in surprise and slapping his hand away.
"Moderately?" Mephiles snapped, waving his arms around. "Moderately! He doesn't even know who any of us are! Wouldn't memory loss rank a bit higher!"
"It's moderate because everyone else faired quite a bit better than him..." Thizon said a bit flatly. "And my diagnosis can only be a loose guess, because most of the equipment and most of my supplies are buried under what used to be the hospital..."
"Loose..?"
"As in I can only confirm what caused the amnesia, and not the underlying effects that kind of bump to the head will exhibit... Follow the pen with your eyes..." He directed the last bit to Dark, who did. "Normal... Pupil dilation and contraction, also normal... Pupils equal size..."
"Why are you saying all this out loud?"
"My clipboard was also under all that, I'll remember this better if I say it out loud..."
Dark coughed for the forgotten number of times, and Mephiles finally pointed it out.
"You okay? You've coughed a lot since we found you..."
Dark shrugged, then his eye twitched before coughing again. To be honest, he didn't feel well, and wondered if he really was in... What was the term that hedgehog used earlier? Shock? Whatever that really meant...
Sliding his hand to his face, he was shocked to find that it felt warmer than he had expected. When he commented on that, Mephiles quickly reached a hand to his forehead, at first flinching as if he expected it to be shoved away, then holding it there briefly.
"You've got a slight fever, but it's probably because it's cold outside..." Mephiles looked at the collapsed building, frowning slightly. "Where's everyone gonna stay now that it's pretty much destroyed?"
"Yeah, that's going to be months of rebuilding before it's even usable again..." Shadow cringed.
"I suppose it's a good thing that I updated the digital records this morning..." Thizon's round ears folded back a bit. "My guess is that everyone will be transferred to available local hospitals at best..."
"What about Dark..?" Mephiles said, wide eyed. "This is the only hospital that would be willing to treat him..."
"To be fair, we were only housing and monitoring the infected... We have yet to uncover the cause and how to counter it..." Thizon explained. "We can only advise that you keep nighttime exposure to a minimum, because it seems to worsen at night. Do not let him be exposed to the night outside. Lock up the house, shut the blinds and draw the curtains closed."
"Are you saying that we can take him home..?" Shadow was the one who said this. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"He's not going to be sent even further away from us!" Mephiles snapped, grabbing Dark's arm and pulling him a couple steps closer. "Not when he's like this! We can handle taking extra precautions! Really! Don't send him away!"
It was now a couple of hours later, back at the house. It was very strange to Dark, to know that he was supposed to know this place better than he did now. Mephiles tried his best to trigger even the most minor of things.
"C'mon... Cantaloupe?" Mephiles tried again. "Even if you never admitted it, I know it's possibly your favorite, because you take every chance you can to get some. You even asked for a square one once!"
"Square." Dark said, indicating a box shape with his hands before looking very perplexed, as if to wonder why he did that.
Mephiles smiled slightly and nodded.
"Yeah... Just like that. Oh, look! It's Tape!"
Looking in the direction Mephiles was, Dark assumed Tape was the cat curled up on the couch, who was now yawning.
"Tape's your cat. You guys are about as inseparable as you and me." Mephiles explained. "He was really tiny when you found him in that alley with the white Chaos Emerald. You threw the puppy eyes, and we couldn't say no."
Tape stretched and looked at him with yellow eyes, as if to say "Bout time you got home.", and hopped off the couch to head over to him, mewed loudly, as if asking to be picked up.
Dark just stared.