ADAPTION chapter three

Tekno and Porker worried.

Sonic wasn't rushing around in a frantic state as they expected him to in this situation.

He just sat and stared out the window, hands clasped in his lap, unblinking, just staring intently. It was as if he wasn't Sonic anymore, just a mannequin with his face. Occasionally though, he'd mumble something, but they never caught what he said.

"I think this is the final straw for him, I think he's finally broken."

Tekno sat down and looked at her old friend. Porker looked up from the desktop computer he was working at, glancing at Sonic.

"I wouldn't blame him if he gave up now. I don't think even he could stand fighting the two people he loves most in this world. I sure as hell couldn't."

Tekno nodded, "I can't believe it happened to them Porker. Tails and Amy, they've been fighting at his side since the beginning, longer than any of us. why them?"

Porker put a hand on her shoulder, "I don't know Tekno, but we have work to do now. We've managed to break the programming before, even in the cyborgs. We just need to find a way to help them, as only we know best."

Tekno wiped her eyes, "Right. you get hacking, I'll get designing."

She looked over at Sonic as she stood.

"First I'll see to Sonic, he broke not only records on that run, but bones as well."

As Tekno approached him Sonic took a breath, "I can still hear her screaming.I got there just in time to hear her stop screaming and pass out."

He looked up at her imploringly, "What if they're both still screaming? Just in a place where no one can hear them? What if they've locked them away in there?"

Tekno hesitatingly put a hand on his shoulder as he returned his gaze to the window. She realised then that he wasn't still at all, he was vibrating so fast that his bare skin nearly burned her.

"Sonic" she said quietly "come with me, I'll have to sort you out." she paused "Porker and Kintobor are hacking Dr Bowen's files. They'll find what we need to get them back, don't worry"

Sonic stood and went with her back to the ward.

Soon Tekno had him placed in a dreamless therapeutic sleep.

Dr Bowen stood in the darkened laboratory, typing a few additional notes up into the computers. Behind him, lit only by the glow of the monitor screens, Tails and Amy floated in their separate rejuvenation chambers, blank eyes staring out at him, seeing nothing.

After a moment Bowen stopped typing and turned to face his latest creations. He reached up and placed an affectionate hand on Tails' glass.

"Yesss." he muttered "Perfect, utterly perfect."

He looked into Tails' eyes then looked at Amy's, for moment he simply stared, then he pressed a button and the glass emptied as before, the front shooting out and up.

Amy blinked, "Amy, registration number oh four one six oh. Rejuvenation is not yet complete. What is your command Dr Bowen?"

Amy's voice was almost dead, completely flat and emotionless as she spoke to her gaoler.

"Step forward for inspection"

Amy stepped gracefully out of the chamber and then stood facing Dr Bowen, hands clasped behind her back, military style.

She was slightly shorter than Dr Bowen, so she was staring blankly at his chin as he looked down at her.

She blinked once as he reached up and brushed her damp hair from her face, revealing the previously damaged eye.

"Remarkable, before your transformation this eye was permanently damaged, inoperable. All you have now is a scar."

He dropped his hand, as if realising for the first time what he was doing.

"Why is this, agent?"

Amy stood for moment in complete silence, Dr Bowen shifted, moving his eyes over her body, then back up again when she spoke.

"Internal analysis suggests that the emerald shards merged with biological entities produce healing properties."

Dr Bowen faced her again with an interested look in his eyes, "What other properties does this merging produce?"

Once again Amy went silent.

"Healing abilities are accelerated, maximum control of master emerald energy, increased intellectual capacity, increased psychic activity in my own case, maximum control of infused nano technology, increased speed, strength, agility and stamina. In agent oh six one five oh, increased flight capabilities."

Dr Bowen listened intently then grinned.

"Perfect."

Much later that night, when even Dr Bowen had left, and the only light in the room was from a single light in the caps of each tube, Amy blinked.

She slowly looked around, not moving an inch, pinpointing the cameras in the room.

She closed her eyes again, and one after another, every one of them turned off. Then she opened her eyes again and turned to look at Tails. He was already looking at her.

He put a hand on the side of the tube, palm towards her.

She nodded once, closed her eyes for a moment, then stared at the controls for their chambers. The button Dr Bowen used to empty and open them, slowly pressed downwards.

They were both ready for it, as the chambers emptied they squared there legs to take their weight. The fronts hissed slightly when they opened, surprisingly loud in the silence of the room.

Then they both stepped out. Silently and gratefully, they hugged, relieved to finally be out of the restricting chambers.

Tails looked around the room, and noted the fact that there was only one door.

He turned a questioning look on Amy. She shrugged, 'I'm sorry, the room's shielded against any psychic activity. I can use it in here, or out there, but not from here into the hall.'

She was talking directly to his mind, it was a strange sensation, for both of them, but extremely helpful. Tails sagged into one of the chairs, and Amy sat next to him.

'We can't get out then' he thought, knowing she could hear him 'you can't even tell the others we're ok.'

Amy visibly sagged, she looked around the room, thinking.

'Maybe we don't have to.'

Sonic slowly came to.

He was comfortable, warm, and in some sort of muggy daze. It felt good.

He wallowed in the happy feeling for a while, then slowly yesterday's events came back to him.

He sat up and looked around.

I was very early according to his watch, about three in the morning.

He guessed that healing ability of his had eaten away the sleeping drugs quicker than Tekno had thought it would.

Something was going on.

He looked down to the end of the room, the door was open slightly, a faint electrical light was showing. Porker must still be up.

He smiled grimly. Porker must still be trying to hack into Bowen's files. Sonic felt stupid suddenly, he realised that while Tekno and Porker had got straight to work, he'd broken down.

He'd not only failed to rescue Tails and Amy, he'd reacted stupidly afterwards. That was going to change now though.

He was going to do his best to help them, whatever Tekno and Porker were working on, he'd help them.

He swung his legs off the bed, tried, and failed, to stand up.

He sat on the floor for a moment, wondering just what the hell had happened, then Tekno came in, a suprised look on her face. When she caught sight of him she couldn't suppress a giggle.

She stood and looked down at him as he glowered up at her.

"Sorry Sonic, I should have told you, you fractured a few bones in both your legs, so I gave you an extra drug to make sure you didn't go running off anywhere before you were finished healing"

She turned, "Porker, could you come and help please?"

A few moments later they had man handled Sonic back into bed where he sat with his arms crossed looking rather unhappy.

"Ok, I'm fine now. What are you two still doing up anyway?"

Porker gave Tekno a worried glance, she nodded.

"We've been trying to decipher Bowen's files. Kintobor and I managed to hack in, but they're encrypted, so we're still working on it." he paused and Tekno took over for him.

"We still had one of the monitors tacked into the security cameras in the room. about an hour ago all the cameras turned themselves off."

Porker watched Sonic, "We don't know what to make of it really. Nothing happened to them, they just switched off. We been watching all night, the only thing that's happened is Bowen let Amy out and spoke to her." He didn't mention the fact that Bowen had touched her, or the way Bowen had looked at her.

"I want to see the tapes."

A few minutes later Sonic was alone, they'd wheeled the monitor in so he needn't get up, the screen was split in four quarters, showing the images from all four cameras at once. He watched everything in fast forward, from Amy waking up, through the procedure, to the camera's switching off.

When he was done, he hated Bowen even more than he thought he ever could. Then he noticed something.

Just before the camera's turned off, Amy had blinked.

He wound the tape back and put it in frame by frame play. There it was, unmistakable, she blinked, and not only that, but as he watched, her eyes were slowly roaming the room. Then she closed her eyes again, and one by one the camera's turned off, but not fast enough, Sonic saw Tails move slightly, in the last image from the last camera, Tails started turning his head toward Amy.

Sonic whooped with joy and Porker and Tekno came rushing into the ward.

"She's fine! They're both fine! Look!"

He made them watch the tape again, slow mo, until they all three of them were sure of it. Amy and Tails were still them.

Sonic couldn't help grinning as Tekno administered some more of the sleep drugs a few minutes later.