Awareness Bringer: That's a fair point, but here is a new chapter!
Chapter 4
G.U.N. Headquarters - 9:20 AM
"I hate these engine rooms."
Shadow dashed through the hallways as fast as he could reasonably go with a human holding his hand.
"Yeah, even I still get confused sometimes," responded the blonde girl running along with him.
The hedgehog grunted and prepared to turn down a corner, but instantly stiffened at the sound of military boots on the floor. More of them.
"Get back," whispered the Mobian as he let go of the human's hand and hopped into view of the five humans wearing tactical gear.
"It's the super-soldier!" exclaimed one of them, cocking his gun. "You know what to do!"
The humans trained their weapons on said super-soldier, but the striped Mobian had already sprung into action as the gunmetal-colored hallway quickly became a flurry of bullets.
It had all started this morning when a squadron of gun-toting men wearing military gear appeared on Space Colony ARK. After a quick word about some nonsense about crimes against the state and biological weapons of mass destruction, the humans began gunning down random people and the two survivors had just barely managed to make a successful getaway.
"Strange how these soldiers keep finding us, then," thought the hedgehog, his thoughts as dry as a desert as he sweep-kicked a soldier and flipped out of the way of another wave of bullets, strictly adhering to the "Ultimate Lifeform" training protocols which he had been rigorously taught since he was able to compose coherent sentences.
The hedgehog leapt off of the wall and curled into a ball, bouncing off of a soldier's head. The spiky ball ricocheted away from the unconscious man and collided into another's chest.
Still airborne, Shadow unfurled and stuck a well-executed three-point-landing before disappearing in a black blur as he swiftly knocked out the rest.
"Maria, it's safe now," he called. His friend peeked into the hallway and moved closer to the Mobian, taking his hand as the two continued their sprint down the hallways.
"Do you still have the Chaos Drive?"
"Yes," came the response as she produced the cylindrical object they had managed to swipe during the chaos. A red shard of crystallized Chaos Energy could be seen inside the object and Shadow nodded in appreciation. The drive would provide a good energy boost if it ever came down to it.
"Good. Can you lead the way to the escape pods?"
Maria responded with an affirmative and Shadow hummed as they entered another room filled with soldiers, who subsequently came to realize that challenging the Ultimate Lifeform was a very bad idea.
"There's the escape pods, Shadow!" exclaimed Maria, as they walked over the unconscious agents and entered the room filled with pods. "We did it!"
"I... suppose we did," said Shadow, after a pause. "This thing needs someone to pull a lever."
"Get in, I'll pull the lever!" said Maria, with a determination that suprised even Shadow, in all the years he'd known her. The hedgehog shook his head, however.
"No. I'll do it."
"B-but... you'll die.."
"So will you. I'm the only one who can hold my own out here."
The hedgehog stared into Maria's baby blue irises as they stared each other down. On the one hand, he was touched by Maria's concern for his well-being, but she had so much to live for on the sky blue planet below, and he...
Well, he'd been trained his whole life for battle and if he died in one knowing that his best friend would be safe, so be it.
"..Wait. The professor told me that the pods have a fifteen second countdown." said Maria, thoughtfully. "Maybe I could pull the lever and enter afterwards?"
The hedgehog mused on it and eventually nodded, entering the cylindrical pod. The blonde-haired one brightly smiled as she tossed the Chaos Drive to her Mobian companion, who tucked the drive in his quills. Maria pulled on the lever...
Only for that smile to morph into a pained frown as a bullet entered her side.
"Maria!" shouted Shadow. Maria looked at the wound and gave Shadow a sad smile. The hedgehog attempted to fight his way out to no avail, for the reinforced glass had closed up, leaving the Mobian to punch the glass in desperation.
"I guess... This is where it ends," came her voice, barely audible through the glass.
The hedgehog silently screamed in his capsule as she spoke up again.
"When you get back to Earth... If you find any people... Help them. G-Give them a chance to be... happy."
The hedgehog could only collapse to his knees as his best friend fell to the ground, her eyes closing peacefully as a splotch of red stained her blue dress.
The last thing the hedgehog saw before the pod was ejected from the space colony was Maria's pale face and a soldier entering the room and lowering his pistol in seeming regret.
He.. he had no right to look remorseful over what he had just done.
That man had no right to look sad about killing a child in cold blood.
The hedgehog shut his eyes as the pod was soon bathed in re-entry flames.
Maria had stuck with him as he had endured the training he had gone through to become the ultimate super-soldier. She had been his closest guide, supporter and friend since his creation. Along with Professor Gerald, they had treated Shadow like family.
He'd vowed to protect her.
He'd vowed to keep her safe.
He'd failed.
The flaming capsule soon entered the atmosphere and continued on its crash course. The hedgehog peeled his eyes open and looked below him to see a mass of glistening blue below him.
The sea.
The pod entered the water with a mighty crack, allowing the cold, salty water to gush in. He didn't even attempt to fight it as the liquid soon solidified, trapping him in ice as he felt his vision fading and his lungs seizing-
"Mr. Hedgehog?" came a voice, snapping the hedgehog out of his thoughts.
Shadow's gaze darted around, noting the prescence of the two agents around him. The hedgehog did his best to calm down, placating his unsettled mind with the fact that he was not in a compromised space colony watching those closest to him die, nor in a freezing ocean. He was on the surface, on Earth.
Granted, he had woken up several years after the fact, but still. The hedgehog would make do with the circumstances. He was nothing if not adaptive. He was designed to be.
Anyhow, after waking up from his long, unexpected slumber, Shadow had been faced with these two humans who apparently wanted to make a deal with him to enlist him in their military peacekeeping organization, the Guardian Units of Nations, in exchange for lodging and help to get Shadow adjusted to life on the surface in a new time period.
The Ultimate Lifeform was not a gullible person in the slightest. His training protocols had drilled a clear lesson into his head: Never take anything at face value and never drop your guard.
However, the striped hedgehog had to admit that it was a good enough deal. The hedgehog was legitimately cosidering accepting their proposition until one... issue rose its ugly head.
Whilst discussing what occured aboard the Space Colony ARK, they had let slip that the G.U.N. of fifty years ago had orchestrated the "incident".
Rage boiled underneath the surface as he spoke, "Your organization killed civilians, innocent people. On top of that, they killed the only friends I ever had. And you want me to join you."
Shadow's voice was outwardly calm, but the words were laced with a dangerous venom.
"Now, here's a bargain of my own: state one good reason to keep me from doing something that I will not regret."
The hedgehog did not move from the chair he was seated on, but the glare he fixed them with sent across a clear enough message: whether or not Shadow decided to unleash his veangeance was decided by what these humans would say next.
From the corner of his eye, he could see the woman, Topaz, she was called, place a hand on her thigh holster. The hedgehog did not show any acknowledgement of the motion, keeping his gaze straight ahead.
To his credit, the grey-haired man, Tower, returned his gaze with steely eyes.
"Reformation."
Shadow said nothing in reply, and the man continued, "The Guardian Units of Nations were founded for the express purpose of neutralizing threats to global peace and protecting the innocent. Unfortuntely, somewhere down the line, something changed. G.U.N. was, for lack of a better word, compromised. Corrupted, in a sense. The organization began to solely make decisions that would only benefit them in the long run, regardless of the legality or morality of their actions. G.U.N. became the very thing it was made to take down. I have spent the past decade making efforts to reshape G.U.N. into what it was supposed to be."
Tower gave him a hard, determined look as he straightened up, "I give my sincere condolences for the loss of your loved ones. But in order to change the system from within you have to be part of it. And that's why we are here."
The hedgehog lost the glare as he ran the words through his head but still kept his features sharp as he searched the human's gaze for any signs of deceit. However he could tell that Tower was being genuine- or at least genuine enough about his intent to reform. And the hedgehog supposed it would be a decent avenue to put his more militaristic skillset to use.
At that moment, Shadow recalled Maria's last words to him.
She wanted- would have wanted him to protect the innocents in this new world he found himself in. And if working with G.U.N. helped him get closer to that goal, then so be it.
"Fine," stated the striped Mobian eventually, getting to his feet, "But I have one condition."
"And what would that be?" asked Tower.
"If I find out that anything is being done under the table, I want to be able to take whatever measures I see fit."
After a few beats, Tower, surprisingly, accepted. "Very well. We will begin an asessment of your skills whenever you are ready."
Shadow merely nodded as the G.U.N. commander stuck his hand out. After a pause, Shadow reached out and firmly shook the human's hand.
"Welcome to the Guardian Units of Nations, Agent Shadow."
Unknown Bunker - 9:57 AM
"For being an almost inescapable bunker, the plan seems to be going very smoothly," noted Sonic as he trudged through the halls.
"The Jackal Squad are a very skilled and persistent bunch," responded Chuck, looking around as he did his best to make sense of the layout.
The younger of the two blue hedgehogs just snorted derisively. "Persistent maybe, but skilled I have yet to see."
"Well, they can't exactly fight something moving at your speeds."
Sonic smirked. "Darn straight, unc."
"This way," said Uncle Chuck after a few moments of silence, guiding them to a hallway on the right-hand side of them.
The hdgehog spoke up again, "You know, maybe we should get some chilli dogs after this is all saidway and done."
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, now." There was a beat of silence. "Do you still remember our chilli dog recipe?"
"How could I forget? They're a staple whenever I'm on cooking duty."
Chuck turned to Sonic. "Cooking duty?"
"Tails and I rotate on who gets to cook dinner," replied Sonic, waving his hand noncomittally.
"Turn left," replied Chuck, before continuing, "Still not keen on trying out Star Light Zone's chilli dog vendors?"
"Eh, their 'dogs are good but most of the chilli isn't spicy enough. On another note, Apotos-based vendors can make a mean chilli sauce."
"Better than Green Hill?"
"Nope, Green Hill all the way."
Chuck just shook his head playfully. The older Mobian was about to say something until a low humming was heard.
"Quick, hide!"
The humming was rapidly coming closer.
"Sonny-"
"I've got this, unc!" replied Sonic. Charles ducked behind a large enough crate just as a trio of egg-shaped drones came into view. These were the same type as the drones the Blue Blur had dealt with a few days ago during the start of this whole debacle. This was going to be easy.
Blasting into action, Sonic hopped and springboarded off the nearest wall, landing an axe-kick on the first drone. Effortlessly dodging the bullets being sprayed at him, the hedgehog repeated his action of wall-jumping and landed on top of one of the drones, forcefully spinning it towards its comrade. The result was exactly what Sonic expected: the drones blasted each other to bits.
Hopping off of the now useless drone, the hedgehog noticed that the first drone had just barely survived Sonic's initial attack and had even managed to shakily resume hovering.
The issue was soon resolved, however, as Sonic leapt into the air and, curling into a ball, bashed into it with the force of a freight train.
The next moment, a slightly frazzled Charles exited his hiding spot to find Sonic brushing bits of displaced metal off of his quills.
"Well? Lead the way, unc,"
Chuck hummed before shouting. "On your six o' clock!"
Sonic ducked as a sword embedded itself in a crate at the far end of the hall. The hedgehogs tensed and whipped around to see Zero emerging from the shadows, sword at the ready.
"I must say, I am impressed at the fact that you managed to evade the others."
The blue hedgehog snorted. "What did you expect? Maybe you should've killed me when you had the chance."
The older cerulean hedgehog sent him a vaguely concerned look, but the jackal smirked dangerously.
"I guess I will rectify that mistake."