I'm so glad everyone is liking the story! My state is under major quarantine right now so there will be updates hopefully once a week!
The black hedgehog scowled at the floor as he walked away from Sonic's house. He knew what he was supposed to say yet he deliberately told the blue hedgehog everything in hopes that he would understand to some degree. But in turn, Shadow DIDNT even know what he wanted Sonic to find out. Sonic claimed to know him from before he met the Doctor, but how was that possible? The Doctor had saved him from the cryogenic chamber, he knew this to be true because he had memories of it! How could it be faked? Then again.. the Doctor did invent the inhibitor rings that surprised his powers that he currently wore against his will, maybe the memories were faked somehow. But that could be possible, it's impossible to have fake memories, isn't it? No.. the wandering black hedgehog remembered reading a passage about a lawyer or therapist invoicing fake memories to someone who then began to believe they did remember even though they never had done it in thefirst place just by the sheer over confidence of manipulation.
But the Doctor wouldn't do that.. yes, on occasion, he beat the poor hedgehog to the brink of death while he wore the surprising inhibitor rings but that was because he was training him to be a better fighter and become someone who was more obedient. A perfect soldier.
The Doctor always told Shadow to avenge Maria, but from what, he didn't know. She was taken from him many years ago, but that was all he knew. He had hoped to find her while being freed from cryogenic captivity but this was the first few days he had been outside. Most times he was kept secret underground, on miniature missions with Metal securing locations throughout the sewer systems and attacking smoke bombs filled with toxic gas-
Oh no.
'Shit, I forgot about the missions metal and I were sent on,' Shadow mentally face palmed, Eggman was planning to set the bombs off around the city to contain everyone including capturing Sonic and his group of friends. How the hell did he forget?
He growled as a high pitch ringing came from deep within his ear canal, his ears pinned back as the ringing got louder. Using his hands, he covered his overtly sensitive ears to no avail, the ringing was coming from inside his head. He collapsed to his knees, his ebony body shook and trembled as the ringing continued.
It was getting too much to bare get he still felt the metallic claws of Metal Sonic wrap around his body and lift him into the air. Through the extremely loud ringing and hum of Metal's jets, he heard the robot say,"The Doctor is very displeased with you."
...
Sonic tapped his foot as he watched Tails tinker with his miles electric, trying to find the wave frequency that Shadow's tracking chip had previously been on.
"Find anything, Bud?" The blue hedgehog didn't dare look at the device in his little brother's hands, knowing he wouldn't able to understand a thing on it.
The golden furred kit sighed,"I had it, but something blocked it. Like a higher frequency near by over flooded the systems and fried the mainframe. It's an easy fix so we'll be on our way to him soon. Have you called Rouge and Knuckles?"
The blue hedgehog nodded,"yeah they're on their way. We don't know what we're up against so we need all the help we can get."
They both collectively went back to their own thoughts, Sonic thought about his feelings towards his new enemy as Tails fixed his tablet. A few minutes went by before a knock on the door to their shared house.
Sonic quickly stood up and headed to the door, stepping aside to let the newcomers inside, he motioned for them to sit at the table.
"What's going on, Big Blue? Why the sudden urgency?" Rouge's normally sultry voice was now laced with concern, noticing her friends depressing features and posture.
"Whatever it is, we can help," the master emerald's gaurdian chimed in, knowing Sonic needed their help one way or another,"but if this is another prank I'm going to kick your ass."
Sonic chuckled and rolled his eyes,"not a prank, Knucklehead. It's about Shadow-"
"Oh yeah, I noticed how you stared at him when he first came to my house, sugar," Rouge winked, her statement making the cobalt hedgehog blush if only slightly.
"No, no, not that," Sonic waved her off,"he's been working for Eggman. Now, I know what you're thinking, but we believe he might have been brainwashed by Eggman since he's a bio-engineered hedgehog."
"Bio-engineered? One, that's a big word for you, might even be your word of the day. Two, what does being a specimen born in a lab have to do with Eggman?" Knuckles crosses his arms over his chest.
Mocking Knuckles, Sonic put his hands on his hips,"one, you're an ass. Two, I was getting to that. His way of thinking can be modified forcefully by a tracking chip that was in his ear, but we're pretty sure Eggman took it out and has it in his base. We're tracking the location right now, but we don't know what we're up against so I called you two. Shadow wasn't harmful in any way, but he admitted to being on Eggman's side and that he didn't recall anything before he was taken from our house."
Taking a second to breathe, Sonic spoke up once again,"you guys saw the shape Shadow was in when he arrived at your house, so it's obvious Eggman is beating him and starving him. He had food while he was here but he ate like a starving child. I think he said something about living off Chaos Energy fueling himself so he didn't have to eat."
A few moments went by before Rouge spoke up,"so.. we're on a mission for what exactly?"
"Right, sorry, it's a possible rescue mission. If Shadow is in harms way, despite him deceiving us all, he should be set free. No one deserves to be someone else's puppet or punching bag," the cobalt hedgehog looked at his friends for confirmation on if they were joining or not.
All it took was one glance from Rouge to make Knuckles sigh and agree. The trio stood up and left to the garage where Tails was working on his miles electric.
"How's it going bud?" Emerald eyes scanned over the tablet in his kid brother's hands.
"Great, actually. I pinned down the location of the tracking chip to around sixty-three miles south-west of here. The signal is weaker than I'd like but it's something," his twin tailed swished behind him as he spoke to his friends."
"Great! Let's go!"
