WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Found the notes I had for this story… I wrote this next part in about…three days after I found the notes again. :D Sorry for taking so long.

Shadow: It's about damn time! People love me you know!
Sonic: The love me more.

Shadow: You need me to kick your ass again?!

Sonic: Why you---


BOYS! Stop!!! Let them enjoy the next part for god's sake…. @_@;;;

Hope you like it! :D

            He didn't move. Even with the Chaos Emerald, Shadow wouldn't be able to get away in time before the gun went off with it being against his skin. The ebony hedgehog frowned, still glaring up at the scientist. The man was only grinning.

            " You can't try to warp now…can you?"

            He gulped a little in nervousness. This only sent the man into a laughing fit.
            " Seeing as that you can't do anything to stop me…"

            Just you wait, asshole… I'll get you yet…

            " Perhaps it's time for you to go back into the stasis tube…"

            The hedgehog's eyes widened a little. They're going to shut me away again… until they want to use me for whatever sick scheme of theirs… He bit his lip and growled softly. Attendants appeared, ready to restrain Shadow if he resisted. The leader's grin was still plastered against his face.

            " Don't worry…you won't need to fight them this time…"

            Shadow eyed him with an upraised eyebrow. What the hell is they guy blithering about now? The man moved his pistol into the air quickly, and brought it crashing down onto the hedgehog's skull. A spatter appeared in the air as Shadow cried out, falling to the ground. He laid there, dazed, blood running down his forehead.

            " See? I told you that you wouldn't have to…fight…them……" The man's voice disappeared as darkness soon entered the picture.
*** 

            It hurt. A lot. He squirmed.

            " What…the hell is happening to me…" He spoke aloud to no one.

            Burning pain flowed up and down his arms. He couldn't tell if it was his blood or something else inside of him now. It seared and slowly traveled on. If only I could move… why can't I move…?

            Sharpness. It bit into him as he tried to use his muscles. Ow! Son of a bitch…

            " Interesting," An unknown voice spoke out, but it seemed very distant to him. " It would appear that there is something extraordinary about him as well…"

            Wha…? Extraordinary? What is…it… talking about?

            " Continue the test."

            Pressure was applied to his chest. What? Now what? It felt as if someone was sitting on him or something.

            " Be careful or you'll get kicked off. Even though restrained---"

            " I know…" A quiet, annoyed voice spoke up. This voice was closer to him.

            Whoever said that is the one on me… or… whatever…

            The pressure on his chest increased slightly. He squirmed a little, trying to regain a sense of where he was. Then it happened. Something drove itself into his chest, practically all the way through him and to his back. His mouth and eyes flew open as the scream reverberated through the halls.

            " Continue holding it there until we get the complete readouts."

            " Yes sir."
            The metal inside of him stayed put, moving somewhat as the person holding it tightened their grip. The pain was unbearable. It was like someone stabbed him through the heart with a sword, and was holding it there as his blood flowed, watching him die slowly. Warm liquid collected on his chest, around the metal, and slowly ran down him as its pool overflowed. He could barely stand it. The instrument inside of him hadn't pierced any of his organs, and yet it continued to hurt him incredibly. His screaming became louder and more frantic, turning to pleas of death and relief from the anguish.

            " We collected a lot of information. Now just move it down a little more and we should be able to get the rest."

            The metal was shoved violently farther into the wound. Gasping, his head flung back, with wide, soulless green eyes staring off into nothing as he felt them tapping into his life force.

            The scream could be heard throughout the entire building.

***

            A shiver ran up his spine. My god… How… could I hear that… even though I'm stuck in here? What are those bastards doing…?! Freely floating in his acidic prison, Shadow contemplated. There must be a way out… If this keeps up, surely they will end up killing us both… I must think of something… Some of his blood swirled out into the bubbly water of the stasis tube, dissipating against the chemicals almost instantly. The ebony hedgehog continued to ponder, thinking of any way he could escape and manage to help Sonic as well. Wait… if I could just talk to Sonikku… I could find out what path he took when he rescued me from this hell last time… Then we could…escape… but… there's almost no way for me to be able to talk to him… They never let us out at the same time… Perhaps if I can regain some strength… I'll be able to break free from them the next time they want to test me… then get Sonic out of here… Hmm… He continued to think to himself. If…only……His head dropped a little, slipping into another resting state.

***

            " Zzz…zugh?"

            One purple eye opened. Morning already… The crimson echidna rolled over to look at the clock near his bed. Not too late in the morning yet. Ah well… Better skip the morning workout so I can help with the schematics… He stretched, cracking out the kinks in his neck and slowly got out of bed. Knuckles rubbed his ungloved hands a little, massaging his spikes on each hand, then snatched his gloves off the dresser nearest him. After putting those on, he slipped his green socks on, then his favorite shoes over them, snapping the metal on each of them down, securing them in place.

            Rubbing his eyes as he left his room, the Guardian lingered around for a moment in the open and then started looking for either Tails or Rouge. Hmm… He headed for the Computer Room again. Sure enough, both of them were in there, going over the schematics. Knuckles chuckled quietly and leaned up against the doorframe, folding his arms.

            " So…nobody bothered to wake me up?"

            The small kitsune looked over his shoulder at the older echidna, smiling slightly. Rouge's ears twitched, but she did not turn around.
            " I was up at the crack of dawn like usual and I figured that you needed the sleep." Tails said, somewhat cheerfully.

            Knuckles' raised one eyebrow at him. " What did you put in your cereal today, kiddo?"

            Light blue eyes met his purple ones.

            " I thought about what you said last night and well… why be depressed when I know that we're going to help the both of them?"

            The Guardian smirked. " Attaboy."

            Tails rubbed the back of his head a little and grinned sheepishly. Rouge continued to stare at the screen, observing everything that she had saved to disk carefully.

            " If you two are done with the pleasantries, I suggest you help me with this. The more time we waste, the more time those GUN bastards have to torture Sonic and Shadow." Her tone was serious and strong.

            The two boys nodded. Knuckles walked into the room and stood behind Rouge.

            " What's the scoop?" He asked, folding his arms again.

            " Well… the main labs are here." The mouse moved to the top part of the building. " Special projects are located at the top floors, because then only the right personnel can get in, using certain elevators and whatnot. Basically, no one but scientists and the head honchos can get past the twentieth floor."

            " So that basically means that we're not going through the front door…"

            " Exactly." She clicked a few keys on the keyboard, pulling up the ventilation system map of the entire building. " So… this is probably our best bet."

            " Going through the ventilation ducts?! That's so old…"

            " Maybe… but it's one of the only ways…"

            " Can I make a Mission: Impossible reference here?" Tails asked politely. Rogue gave him a look, which caused the young fox to hold up his hands in defense. " Sorry! Sorry! Hehe…"

            Knuckles snickered a little to himself.
            " Okay little Miss Know-It-All… what's the game plan then?"

            " Well, this is the security system of GUN Labs." She pulled that map up as well, which overlapped the ventilation schematics. " As you can see, GUN doesn't take any chances. But… the idiots leave this part…" She circled a vent system near the top of the building with the mouse. " …Completely unsecured at night. Something about the laser system that they have in the vents can fuck around with the machines in the rooms that are near this patch of ducts since they produce so much heat. Therefore, they turn them off at night so whatever experiments that they're working on don't… 'spoil' so to speak."

            " So it's a break in through the vent system in the middle of the night, sneak in, find the guys and then book it the hell out of there. What about the 'CC Project' information?" Knuckles said firmly.
            " We won't have enough time to get that in this run. We might have to break in again, or perhaps I can hack it through the Database. Right now our objective is to get Sonic and Shadow and get out ASAP. The two of them are probably going to need medical assistance right away, so we won't be able to slip up or all our asses are in trouble."

            Tails was hovering above them now, looking down at his friends.

            " So what is each of us going to be doing?"

            Rouge smiled as she looked up at him.

            " Well, we're going to have to get into this vent here." Her finger touched the screen. " Tails, you'll be in the Tornado, waiting outside this vent for Knuckles and me while we break in."
            " Aww…but…" He started to protest.

            " No whining. This is the fastest way. Knuckles and me can glide away if we need to, but we'll need you to transport Sonic and Shadow back here, so a quick getaway is necessary."

            " Yes'm." Tails said, agreeing.

            " And we'll be running around busting some heads?" Knuckles grinned, liking the idea.

            " Oh stop. At night there are barely any actual personnel there. If anything we might be running into GUN robots again."

            " Lovely…Ah well, they're fun to smash."

            She sighed, shaking her head a little. " I'll never understand men…"
            " Eh, you like kicking the shit out of things as well, Rouge, so don't knock it when you've tried it." He gave her a quick smile.

            " Point. Now, I've approximated that Sonic and Shadow are probably in THIS room." Her finger pointed to a room located in one of the middle areas of a floor. " This is one of the rooms with the most security barriers in the Database. It seems GUN doesn't want too many people figuring out what goes on in this room. So it's only logical that our friends are in there."

            " And so when we're running around in there, Tails will be giving us directions from the Tornado?"
            The female bat nodded. " That's right. Since I have this schema… I can plot our course like so…" She typed rapidly and the path was laid out on the schematics, along with a bunch of directions popping out in the sidebar. " Tails can give us the instructions while we're looking for the boys."
            The fox rubbed his head a little. " Will this upload into the Tornado?"

            " Of course. I'll make a copy for you to use."

            " Okay!"

            " What time does this all go down?" Knuckles asked.

            " The security doesn't go down until about ten at night. I'll give them about an hour to get all the personnel out, so we'll attack at eleven."

            " Sounds good to me."

            " Okay! I'll go make the modifications for the Tornado!"

            Rouge was already making the copy of the plan on another disk for him. Tails waited patiently for it to be done, took it from her immediately, and set off to work on the plane once more. Knuckles watched him depart and then looked at Rouge.

            " You alright?"

            She blinked, looking up at him. " Hmm? Oh, yeah I'm fine."

            " You're sure?"
            " I'm just a little worried about them."

            " We all are."

            " I know." Her wings flapped a little. " Look, I'm going to go get some fresh air. We have a lot of time to kill before we need to set out."

            He nodded and moved out of her way as she bypassed him and left the room. The Guardian looked at the screen again, eying the plan for anything that they might have missed. Hmm… seems as flawless as it's going to be, I guess. Sure we might run into some trouble, but I'm sure the three of us can handle it. He shut down everything and turned the computer out, after removing the disk with the original schematics on it, placing it in a case next to the monitor. He sighed quietly. I just hope the two of them are okay… With that, he set out from the room, heading toward where Tails was to help with anything that the small mechanic might need. 

***

            " Shadow… wake up… Shadow…" The voice was urgent.

            He opened his eyes slowly and shook his head. " What is it…?"

            " Hurry, come with me."

            His hand was snatched up and he was practically dragged out of the bed. Fumbling a little, Shadow quickly regained a steady balance and began to run a little, since he was being pulled along.

            " What's going on? Where are we going?"

            " Hush… we have to hurry."

            " But---whoa!" The black hedgehog was pulled into a room. " Wha…?"

            " Quick. Stand over there in that circle."

            " But I…"
            " Please, Shadow."

            His crimson eyes blinked a little as he did as he was asked. Sounds were heard from the hallway. He looked toward the door. Are there others on the ship?

            " Oh no… there's no time…"

            Beep.

            The young hedgehog looked back toward his friend, only to be suddenly surrounded by glass. His eyes widened as he ran up to the wall of the tube and pressed his hands against it. He opened his mouth to speak when the doors were kicked open. Soldiers stomped in with their rifles.

            " Freeze!"
            Shadow looked over at them in horror and then at his friend.

            " You can't have him!"

            A movement. Time slowed down for the black hedgehog. Loud noises were heard sporadically, followed by streams of red flickering into the air. His jaw dropped a little. Long chestnut hair twirled amongst the red as it descended toward the floor. Her hand slid down off the control panel and plopped against the ground, splashing blood up from the ever growing pool. His vision began to get blurry as water filled his large eyes.

            " No…"

            Her bright blue eyes. Once full of life and happiness, were now staring at him. Cold and empty. Nothing was there anymore. Just gore. He felt like he should throw up. Fists pounded against the wall of the tube as he stared at the lifeless body on the other side. I… His stomach started disagreeing with him this time and he retched. Now there was a warm pile of breakfast next to his shoes, with his hands on both sides of it. He wasn't looking at it though. His eyes were fixed on the corpse and those eyes.
            They would haunt him forever.

***

            His eyes opened again, letting the stinging liquid in. He regretted it and closed them again. Maria…I'm still sorry I couldn't help you… Shadow stared cursing the tube down his throat again. I hate this fucking thing… ergh… I wish at least if they HAD to use this tube for feeding, they'd at least FEED me more… Suddenly he felt bubbles rising faster around him. Nani? His body began to sink a little until his feet where on the floor of the tube. Shadow moved his arms slightly to feel if they were going to work for him or not. Sure enough, they did. Hot damn! The water slowly drained from around him and as soon as he could, Shadow started trying to remove the mask and tube from his face. The glass lifted and hands gripped his arms gently, which surprised the hedgehog. Two women were holding him, wearing white lab coats like everyone else had been. One of them smiled a little.

            " Here. Let us help you with that."

            Shadow didn't trust them, but so far they hadn't hurt him, so he remained still and listened to the attendants as they told him what to do as they removed the sensors and other equipment from his body. He gagged as they helped take the feeding tube out of his mouth, nearly causing him to throw up what little nutrition he had in his body as it was. One of the attendants apologized for it. He eyed her.

            " Why are you letting me out?" He asked.

            " Well… we were instructed to bring you to the training area."

            " Not afraid that I'll kick the shit out of you and run away?"

            " We were also told that you wouldn't do that because the project still has your friend."

            Shit. They have a point. Damn them and forcing me to cooperate… He held his hands up a little, in a gesture of accepting his fate.
            " Okay okay… just show me where I need to go."
            " Follow me." The first woman started off toward the door.

            The hedgehog nodded and did as he was told, being pursued by the second woman. He paid no attention to her and glanced to his left, where the tube that he was in was. There was another stasis tube next to it, but he could not see into it due to the condensation on the outside of the tube. I wonder… Sonic's probably in that one… He stored that into his memory and continued to observe his surroundings as they continued on. This might work out to my advantage… I can scope out the perimeter and plan out our escape… Yes…

            They continued out of the room and turned to the left, walking down the hall slowly. Shadow noted the security bots standing on their posts, mentally recording that information as well, and proceeded on. At the end of the hall, there were two elevators; one to the left and one to the right. He glanced up at the ventilation duct that was on the unused wall. Hmm… that might be useful.

            " This way please." The leading woman said, entering one of the elevators.

            He nodded and entered, followed by the other woman. After a button was pushed, the elevator started descending, stopping two floors down from the one they had been on. The doors opened and Shadow glanced around. The entire floor was basically an open arena; nothing else was there, except for a screen on the wall.

            " Um…" Shadow started, confused.

            " This is it."

            " I see…" He stepped out of the elevator and looked around.
            " Ah, so he came of his own free will." A familiar voice started.

            Shadow felt his eyes slant slightly.

            " You…" His voice was chilling now.

            The leader of the project smirked as he appeared on the screen.

            " Oh come now, Shadow. If you would only just do as I ask, half of your pain would be spared."

            " I'm sure…what is it THIS time…?" The hedgehog scowled.

            " We're going to test your physical abilities."

            " Like…?"

            " Simple aerobics and other things like that. We do not need the information on 'Chaos Control' since we obtained that from you already."

            " So what do you want me to do and how long is this going to take?"

            " Allow the attendants to apply the sensors and the course will begin. How long…well… that depends on your will to live."

            He didn't like the sound of that. Shadow made a face as the two women began applying the same sensors to his fur. There were no wires though, so the white little patches merely stuck to his black fur and cream skin. Once they were finished, the two attendants entered the elevator again and disappeared from the floor. Shadow turned his attention back to the screen.
            " Whaddya mean 'my will to live'…?" He glared at the leader.

            The man smirked and pushed a button on an unseen panel. Shadow wobbled a little, going wide eyed as he felt the floor moving.

            " What the hell?!"
            The obstacles were appearing now, from the floor and the ceiling. Even the walls opened up and produced weapons and cameras. Shadow felt his face pale a little. It's a fucking deathtrap…

            " Exactly what I said. How long the course takes depends on how long you can stay alive."

            " Jesu—YI!" Shadow jumped as a laser shot at the spot where he was standing.

            " I suggest you get moving."

            Don't need to tell me twice, fucker… He thought as he darted in a zigzag pattern around the room, trying to dodge the lasers. Floorboards moved and new obstacles were produces, such as a vaulting horse and aerobic rings from the ceiling to grab onto. You gotta be kidding me… Another shot zipped past his head, singing some of his fur.

            " HOLY SHIT!"

***
            Rouge sat on the edge of cliff near Tails' workshop, watching the sun over the horizon. Not too much longer… then we can depart for GUN Labs… The white bat looked back at the workshop. I wonder how the boys are doing with modifying the Tornado… Her ears flickered a little bit. I don't hear them tinkering anymore… She jumped a little when the garage door opened.
            " Ta-da!" Tails cried from inside the plane.

            " Hey Rouge!" The red echidna called, waving a little from his seat in the back of the plane.

            The female treasure got to her feet and looked at the blue with yellow stripes biplane. It didn't look that much different from its usual form. It was the same biplane, with two compartments for passengers. She raised her eyebrow.

            " What did you two do to it?"

            " Changed another mode and uploaded the compatibility matrix for the Tornado to be able to accept the GUN information from disk." The small mechanic said, smiling.

            " And that took you all this time to do just that?"

            " Hey!" Knuckles cried, standing up from the back passenger seat, gripping the tail as he put his foot on the plane. " I didn't see YOU helping us rebuild the new mode and do all the server checks!"

            " Oh pipe down!" Rouge folded her arms.

            Tails grinned a little, resisting making a comment about the two in Sonic's absence, then found himself frowning. He shook his head and looked at Rouge.

            " When are we setting out?"

            " I'm going to do a quick double-check of the system and then I'll give you the data. Upload it to the Tornado and then once it's accepted, then we'll head toward GUN Labs."

            " Okay."

            Knuckles nodded and hopped out of the biplane as the fox turned it off. The blades slowly stopped moving, coming to a halt and quieting completely. The bat nodded at the two of them as she continued back to the house and disappeared into the doorway.

            " Should we go help her?"
            The Guardian folded his arms again. " What do you think?"
            A snicker. " Of course not…"

            They looked on toward the horizon at the sinking sun. Swirls of red and orange blended in with depleting yellow. The yellow, in turn, had begun mixing with the blue of night descending upon them, turning a strip of the sky a lush green. Everything seemed peaceful right then and there and for a moment, both of them forgot about their mission and relaxed, only to be reminded of it a short time later. Soon we will be off to save them… Knuckles tightened a fist. Sonic… Shadows… hang on. We'll save you guys…

***

            SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT!!!!! He dodged another round of fire and landed on a patch of the floor, which stared moving. Now what the fuck?! The black hedgehog looked to see water. A pool?! Lasers zipped for him, forcing the hedgehog backwards.
            " Wha—ACK!!!!!!"

            A splash was heard and Shadow was now in the pool that had formed from the floor. Yet the lasers had not stopped their assault on him. Son of a bitch! He knew he wasn't the best swimmer in the world but he couldn't let himself be stopped because of it. Using powerful strokes, Shadow kept himself underwater and swam for the far end of the pool that he was in. It sickened him to know that this was just the GUN scientists way of testing his abilities and to gather information, but to keep Sonic out of harms way in exchange for it, he was willing to execute the tasks that the bastards wanted him to do. The attacks just kept coming, sliding through the water with no problem. Each time the laser fire was getting closer and closer to his flesh. Shadow growled a little underwater, releasing some air from his mouth, which traveled to the surface in a small dance of bubbles. He turned downward a little, arching his back as he kicked hard. Heading for the bottom of the pool, the black hedgehog braced his feet against the floor of it. Wait for it…

            Two shots from a laser gun entered the pool, heading straight for him. One…two… three! He moved slightly, letting the lasers miss him just by mere increments. Pushing off of the floor with his feet, Shadow launched himself for the surface. Water splashed up around him as he found himself slightly airborne after breaking the exterior of it. I only have mere moments before those fucking lasers start shooting at me again… In a split second, Shadow managed to will himself forward by rolling up into a ball, and jump-dashing to the side of the pool. Landing softly, he knelt down for a breather, letting the water from his quills slide down and band around him.

            The man on the screen looked pleased.

            " Status."

            One of his lackeys scurried over to one of the computers.

            " Vital signs are good… It's amazing at how long he's been doing this…"

            " The Ultimate Life Form SHOULD be able to handle situations like this."

            " Stamina isn't wavering yet, sir. He's tiring a little, but not that much. We expected him to be half drained by now. It's not even a fourth yet."

            The man smiled and nodded. " Continue gathering information. I want to compare it to the other's statistics as well."

            " Sir?"

            He glanced over at the attendant. " What? You've seen the connection."

            " Well, yes, sir…"

            " Then don't bitch about it. Continue your work."

            " Aye, sir."

            How long have I been doing this? Shadow thought as he continued to rest for a moment. It feels like I've been running around for hours…I mean, I'm not winded or anything but I don't see the point in making me do this for hours on end… His thoughts were interrupted by gunfire. Damn it! The hedgehog rolled away, then pushed off with one leg to sprint forward, breaking out into a run quickly. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed panels moving from the wall. Now what? New guns emerged from their place and promptly spewed fire at him. He felt his eyes widen as he dropped to the floor, pressing himself against it as hard as he could. The lines of flame passed directly over him, singeing the tips of his exposed quills. Shadow winced a little and waited until the flamethrowers stopped firing before making his move. I can dodge the lasers with no problem, but fire and myself never did get along that well…Now to take those guns out before they start firing on me again.

            He headed straight for the two guns, which were still locking on him, but were not ready to fire just yet. I have to time this just right or else I'm a crispy hedgehog… Shadow started running in a zigzag motion now, just to double check that they were still locked on him. Both guns followed his movements and began to hum again. Crap…got to hurry… He zipped toward the one on the right, charging right for it. The hum got louder and louder as he approached it. Three…two…one…GO! Shadow jumped and curled up into a ball, smashing into the gun at top speed, hoping to shatter its protective casing. The shell cracked, exposing wiring, but the gun continued to follow him. Luckily for Shadow, bouncing off of the gun caused him to head toward the second gun, bypassing it as the right gun charged and fired. The hedgehog dropped to the floor, as the left gun was destroyed by the right one, which in turn, was destroyed in itself when the wiring caught fire from not having its shell anymore. Shadow rolled away from the two small explosions, stopping and looking up at the flaming debris. I'm surprised that worked so well…

            There was another sound. Lovely…now what? The lightly singed hedgehog turned to see robots entering the arena now. His eyes widened slightly.

            " Oh…shit…"

***

            The sun had set a long time ago. A lonely rock was just sitting in the grass, minding its own business. Until the kitsune picked it up and hurdled the poor rock to its death over the side of the cliff. Then again, rocks aren't alive to begin with, so it merely joined many of its kin at the bottom of the sea after hitting the water with a soft plunk.

            " It's been awhile…"

            The Guardian sat up from his lying down position on the ground.

            " I'm going to go check on her…"

            " Don't bother." Rouge's snippy tongue got to him first.

            Tails sat up as well. " Well, we weren't sure if…"

            " I had a little problem with the Database. That's all."

            " I thought you had a backdoor into that…"

            " I did. I was trying to find the EXACT location that Shadow and Sonic are being kept. When I tried to access the information, the Database locked me out. Everything's protected."

            Knuckles frowned. " Well that's not good… we're going in partially blind."

            " Basically. But we expected to do that…"

            He nodded and got to his feet, helping Tails up.

            " So we're off?"

            The bat held out a computer disk to the small fox.

            " This has the information on it. Upload it to the Tornado."

            " Yes'm!" He took the disk and ran for the plane, hopping into the cockpit and starting it up.

            The Tornado's engine rumbled to life as the propellers began to turn. Tails inserted the disk with the GUN information into the newly made drive on the console. He pushed a few buttons and eyed the screen in front of him. The information uploaded safely to the Tornado and displayed itself onto the screen. The small fox stood up and gave the two treasure hunters a thumbs up.

            " Looks like we're set." Knuckles placed his hands on his hips, glancing at Rouge.

            " Yup." She was checking her bag full of equipment.

            " Ready to go?"

            After a few more seconds of double checking everything, the bat nodded. They ran for the plane, and Knuckles helped Rouge up into the second passenger seat. She looked down at him.

            " What about you? There's not enough room in here for both of us…"

            Tails looked back at them. " She's right…"

            The echidna only grinned. Green eyes blinked at him.

            " What?"

            " There's plenty of room."

            " If you think that I'm going to squeeze in here…"

            He was already climbing up now.

            " Hey! I mean it, Knuckles!"

            " Oh stop bellyaching!" He climbed up and behind her, standing on the tail of the plane, holding onto the rudder with his massive hands. " I'll be fine right here. If I fall off, I'll just follow you."

            The fox kitsune stared at him as he was putting on his pilot glasses.

            " You sure you're going to be fine back there? With all the upgrades that we made to the Tornado…"

            Knuckles waved a hand at him.

            " Kid, I'll be fine. Now let's go. We don't have that much time before the GUN securities go down for the night."

            " He's right." Rouge piped up. " We have about a half hour's travel time to get there, which should put us right at eleven o'clock. It will be perfect timing!"

            " Okay!" Tails said, sliding the glasses down over his large innocent blue eyes. He flicked a few switches on the console and pushed another button. The plane started moving down the runway and toward the cliff. " Here we go!"

            The bright blue and yellow biplane started slowly down the runway, picking up speed as it headed for the take off point. They had gained a healthy amount of speed by the time the runway disappeared. Tails pulled on his controls, pulling the airplane up into the air, and directed it toward their destination.
            " Next stop! GUN Labs!"

***

            It was too much. You don't want to die…you DO NOT want to die…I can't give up. Shadow ran amongst the hellish course, dodging laser fire from the guns mounted on the walls, and the fire from the GUN robots that the scientists had released after him. The hedgehog spin dashed through one of the scaling walls that had appeared, instead of actually scaling it, and continued on his unknown lap number around the arena. This is getting to me… I don't know any way I can get out of this one…Shadow mentally cursed and continued on his way, this time, jumping over moving platforms and dodging flamethrower fire again. Fucking sadists… A robot had closed in on him and fired. Bloody hell! He rolled to escape taking a hit, but the robot kept coming after him. The hedgehog looked over his shoulder at his pursuer. Aw man… get the hell away from me… just leave me the hell alone…just---WHOA!!!!!!!!!

            Shadow skidded to a stop when he realized that the robot chasing him had been leading him toward a group of the GUN robots. He was too close to them, therefore their sensors were triggered and the group lumbered toward him, ready to attack. FUCK!! The robot behind him fired again, causing Shadow to jump away, and right into the fury of the other bots that surrounded him.

            " Oh sh—ARGH!!!!!!!!" He screamed as a shot ripped into his back.

            The hedgehog dropped to the ground, twitching and convulsing a little. Feeling was already disappearing as the robots loomed over him, aiming their pistols. I'm going to die… There was a powering down noise as the robots seemed to stop their attack on him. Unable to move his limbs correctly, Shadow's eyes flickered back and forth, trying to find the reason why. The robots retreated, leaving him out in the open.

            " Did you really think that we'd just kill you off like that?" The bastard's voice sent a small shiver down the black hedgehog's spine.

            " What'd you expect me to believe? You've hurt me. You hurt Sonic. That's not exactly one of the top ten reasons to 'get people to trust you'…" Shadow snapped back, unable to see the man who caused him all this grief.

            " I suppose not. Anyway, you're not dying. The robots are equipped with stun guns. Feeling should come back soon. Mainly in your legs. Therefore, my assistants will help you back to your… 'bed'."

            You mean the "Tube of burning acid"… Shadow felt some tingly sensation in his legs and soon he could kind of move them on his own again. Two men appeared from out of nowhere and helped him stand up.

            " Can you walk?"

            " I'll try…" Shadow said, somewhat cordially to the assistant.

            Both attendants were being gentle to him, therefore, he didn't snap at either of them. He knew that some of the scientists in this little group didn't want to hurt either Sonic or himself, due to their actions when the torture sessions had gone on, so he remained somewhat grateful in a sense. No one else had cared to somewhat mention the immorality of what was going on. Sure, no one had put a stop to it, but Shadow knew. He knew if they had tried to, they would have been killed. GUN had done the exact same thing to Maria when she had tried to stop them from taking him from ARK.

            He was lead back to the elevator and then into it. One of the assistants pushed the button that allowed them to travel back up to the floor from which they had first came. Shadow was starting to regain some of his mobility, so soon only one assistant needed to help him with walking. The other one started on ahead to prepare the tube for sustaining the hedgehog in suspended animation. Shortly after the walk down the hallway, Shadow was led back into the room where the tubes were. He noticed that the assistant that had run ahead was checking the vital signs of the tube next to the empty one that he had been in. It's got to be Sonic in that one… It just has to be. The grip on his arm got tighter.

            " We're going to have to put all the sensors back on you… and put the tube down your throat again…"

            " Yeah… I know…" Shadow said sullenly.

            " Stand here." The assistant told him as he let go of his arm and began to help his partner reattach the sensors to Shadow's body.

            The hedgehog, on the other hand, stood there, thinking as fast as he could. I can't be shut away… I still have enough strength to take these guys on… since they stopped that damned program so soon due to those tricky robots…I still have like half of my stamina yet… The sensors were reattached and one of the attendants held up the feeding tube and the mask.

            " Okay… are you going to let us put this in or are we going to have to hold you down?"

            Shadow stared at him for a moment and smirked a little. The second man wrapped his arms around the hedgehog from behind, holding him still since he wasn't sure if he was going to cooperate or not.

            " Why don't I just say this…" Shadow started; his smile growing a little. " I won't let you put that fucking thing down my throat one more time if it was the last thing that I do!"

            With that said, the black hedgehog moved fast, and swiftly kicked the attendant in front of him in the groin, as hard as he could. The man yelped in pain and bent over, dropping the feeding tube on the floor. The man holding Shadow tried to restrain him but to no avail. The hedgehog, in his rage, managed to grab the guy's arm and flip him over his shoulder and onto the ground. A twist, scream and a kick to the face later, the second attendant was out cold. Shadow quickly knocked the first guy out and kicked him away from the tubes. He then set out with the removal of the sensors that they had strapped to his fur again, wincing here and there when he took them off. Once he was finished with that, the hedgehog looked up at the second tube. He walked up to it, looking at the console at the side of it. Sure enough, it had Sonic's name on the information. Shadow blinked a little and looked at the tube again. It was covered in condensation, so he could only make out a barely visible form behind it. Reaching up, the black hedgehog began to wipe at the glass with his gloved hand, so he could examine his friend before he let him out. His eyes widened as he got a good look and backpedaled a little, gasping.

            Sonic was floating in the middle of the tube, like Shadow had been at one time. Sensors covered his body, as well as the standard feeding tube down his throat and a mask around his face to help the hedgehog breathe. The hero's body had been deeply revenged. Chunks of flesh had been ripped away from his arms and legs and had not been tended to with bandages. Some of the wounds were still bleeding, causing little swirls of misty red to float up into the green water and slowly disappeared as mixed with the harsh chemicals. Cuts and gashes lined his skin but they appeared to be slowly healing. There was a gaping hole in the middle of Sonic's chest. Layers of his flesh had been peeled away as it appeared that someone stabbed him, almost as if they wanted to impale him right through his body. The blue hedgehog looked like he was in a lot of pain as the acidic water stung his non-bandaged tissue.

            Shadow's face paled instantly. My…god… is this…what Sonic saw when…he saved me from here…? His mind was reeling a little and he found himself on his hands and knees, throwing up what little nutrition he had in him. Coughing hard, Shadow wiped his mouth and slowly stood up. I HAVE to get him out of there. He raced over to the console that controlled the stasis tube and tried to unlock it. After pushing a few buttons, the hedgehog faced a problem. It needed a password to open. Fuck! I don't have time to hack into this! Panicking a little, Shadow looked around. Okay…okay think… You need to get him out of there… there's no time to fuck around with the damn machine… and you know that the assistants will be missed soon… THINK DAMN YOU!!!! He noticed a chair on wheels a few feet from them. Wait… that's it! He ran up to the chair, grabbing the back of it and lifting it up off the ground. With a turn, Shadow rushed back over to the stasis tube. Just hang on, Sonikku! He pulled back, almost as if he was a baseball player getting ready to swing. I'll get you out of there!

            The chair went sailing against the glass tube.

***

Sonic: ::jaw slack::
Shadow: ….
….What?
Sonic: HOW COULD YOU LET THEM DO THAT TO ME?! I'M A HERO!
I know.
Sonic: But…but but…

Shadow: You just HAD to leave off there… DIDN'T YOU?!

^^ I told you. I knew where I wanted to leave off.

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Sonic, Shadow and crew are copyright of SEGA! :)