A/N: Happy One-Year Anniversary to me! :D
The idea for the "prison cell" in this chapter is not really mine... I took it from Sonic X. ^_^;; You'll all see it whenever they start airing new episodes...
"Okay... so this is new."
Sonic looked around his prison cell, a clear box with completely solid walls. Whether it was made of high grade plastic or tempered glass, he didn't know...
All he knew was that it was pretty strong.
His prison cell did have a door. The only problem was, his cage was suspended about five feet off the ground, from the ceiling, and on all sides.
As the guards who had thrown him in walked away, via a bridge that extended from the outer wall to the glass cage, the area outside of Sonic's cage began to fill with...
...water...?!
Sonic blinked in disbelief. A room made of glass, contained within another room, and the space between the two, blocking his way to the exit, was occupied by something none other than water?
Looking up, he sighed in relief as he noticed there was an air vent, connecting his prison to the ceiling of the larger room.
'At least I won't suffocate before I think of a way to get out of here,' he thought, trying to be optimistic...
As Sonic began to pace his cell, which was only about seven feet wide and ten feet long, a voice over an intercom came from somewhere...
"So, how do you like your new home?"
Sonic paused and looked around for the source of the noise. Realizing there wasn't really anyone around, he grinned and said,
"It's alri-- Ah, it's fine," he said, remembering who he was trying to be. "What, couldn't afford wallpaper?"
"Don't be so cocky. You're in a prison, remember. Look around you," the voice growled. "It's perfect... completely designed to suit you. Thick glass walls, suspended within another room. And even if you could get out, you can't escape. Water surrounds you on all sides..."
'I hate to admit it, but he's right...' Sonic bit his lip.
"And in just a minute, we'll come down and have a thorough look at you..." The intercom clicked off.
Sonic sighed, then sat against one of the walls.
'Great. Now what am I going to do? There's no way that they'll mistake me for Shadow if they look close enough. Fooling those kids back in the forest was different...' Sonic sighed.
'What am I going to do when the others show up?'
~*~
Back in his office, the leader of G.U.N. was busily questioning his workers.
What color was it? Blue...?
Did the quills jab upwards at the ends? No...?
But we've got it captured? Yes, sir...
The old man sighed. It didn't sound like the Project: Shadow they were after.
But maybe this hedgehog was just as good as the next one.
After all, if not Shadow...
...perhaps they'd captured the one called Sonic.
~*~
As Sonic stood with his face pressed against the wall, knowing better than to try and break it, the same thought ran through his mind, over and over again...
'This... really... blows...'
Suddenly, the walkway from the outer room extended from the wall, attaching itself to the cell door. Sonic stepped backward, not quite sure what to expect...
Along the walkway, as if it were a conveyor belt, a small, clear cube made its way to Sonic's cell. Three people were in it, two of which had probably been there at Sonic's capture. The third was an old man, probably the age of the doctor that Sonic had seen back in the forest.
The door opened. At the old man's nod, the two younger assistants brought forth a slew of sophisticated-looking equipment.
And, although Sonic could not possibly know this, the equipment that the G.U.N. members carried was none other than the equipment taken out of Prof. Kagaku's home.
"Hedgehog," the old man spoke. Sonic snapped to attention.
The old man's face seemed to grow gentler... but there was still something suspicious about him. Sonic shivered.
"Now, now... don't be so nervous... Here, why don't we just get better acquainted?" The old man smiled and held his hand out.
Despite himself, the fur on his back bristled. Sonic bit his lip. 'Okay... should I just keep up this thing that I'm Shadow?'
The old man raised an eyebrow, still smiling. "Hey, I know you can speak. Don't pretend to be a mute."
Sonic looked at the man. His natural courage welled up in him as he casually stated, in his "Shadow" voice, "You're part of G.U.N. Why should I have anything to do with you?"
The old man sighed. Resuming his smile, his eyes were somehow cold as he said, "Give it up. The young ones around this place may not have realized it, but I know enough to know that you are not Project: Shadow."
"Who are you...?" Sonic found himself asking.
"Just call me Dasendo. And to whom would I have the pleasure of addressing?"
"I... I'm Shadow. Got it? Shadow," Sonic lied.
"...as you wish," Dasendo agreed. Even so, Sonic knew that the old man didn't believe him...
"Now, 'Shadow'... anything you would like to talk about?" Dasendo tried to get Sonic to open up a little more.
'Now's my chance...' Sonic thought. "Why am I here?"
"Pardon?"
"Why am I here? In this prison? A prisoner? What do you want with me?"
"Oh, my friend, you are most definitely mistaken..." Dasendo waved off the question. "It is just that I and my company find you... an interesting creature to study. It is nothing."
'Sure doesn't seem like nothing,' Sonic muttered to himself. He glanced at the door, which had unfortunately been shut when the three members of G.U.N. had entered. 'If only that door was open...'
As Sonic looked from the door back to Dasendo, he noticed that the two assistants were busily analyzing something on their equipment...
'Crap... I've been distracted!'
A hopeless sense of desperation shot through Sonic's soul like lightning.
He leaped across the short room...
'If I could just reach that door...!!'
"Oh, no you don't!"
"No! You don't!!" Sonic whipped around in mid-air, his back to the door.
However, those few seconds were enough.
Sonic saw Dasendo adjust a knob on something that appeared to be a large remote control...
...then felt as if he'd suddenly gotten weaker...
But not so weak that he couldn't fight back.
"What do you want with me?!" he screamed as his hands instantaneously grabbed the item that Dasendo was holding.
Without actually meaning to, Sonic managed to wrench the object out of Dasendo's hands and smash it on the ground.
Shhfpt!
"Aaaah..." Sonic felt his body go numb as a tranquilizer dart hit his side. As he fell limply to the ground, his seething eyes saw one of Dasendo's assistants, holding a small tranquilizer gun.
Dasendo himself looked down at Sonic, who was quickly losing consciousness. "Learn a lesson, animal," he said quietly. "Do not try to interfere."
The three humans gathered their equipment and the broken item on the ground.
As his eyelids began to close, Sonic laughed quietly.
"Hehe... but I broke your precious machine, huh?"
But to his disappointment, Dasendo waved it off. "There are more just like it... and there will be more to come. Thank you for your time... and energy."
The door to the cell opened and closed. The conveyor belt elevator carried its passengers through the wall of water.
'I guess I panicked... should've held my head,' Sonic thought as his mind began to cloud.
'But what did he mean? Energy...?'
'And what the heck did they do to me? It was as if... as if...'
Sonic could barely stay awake...
'As if they were taking my energy away...'
Sonic yawned. He fell into a deep, drugged sleep...
But somewhere, in the back of his mind...
...he remembered Rouge's warning...
"The thing is, I don't think they need him so much as they need knowledge about Chaos Energy. Sonic, please don't give them any answers..."
'No...'
~*~
As they walked down the hall, back to G.U.N.'s main laboratory, the two young men by Dasendo's sides were quiet.
Finally, the old man asked them, "What's on your minds?"
"Sir...?" one asked. "Why... why did you tell him about the Chaos Energy?"
"Ah, young man..." Dasendo shook his head. "First of all... that animal, whether it talks or not, is no more than a dumb animal. So no more of calling it a 'he'... it is nothing but an 'it'. Secondly..."
Dasendo looked ahead.
"That creature's destiny is to stay a part of G.U.N. So there is no need to keep secrets from it."
"You're... sure?" the other assistant asked nervously.
"Quite sure. Now..." As the small group reached the laboratory, the old man turned and held his hand out. "Would you be so kind as to lend me your computer?"
"Yes, sir." Dasendo took a laptop from one of his assistants and opened it up.
Studying the screen, a faint smile flickered across his face.
"Hm... it's just a faint signal... but it's there.
"That hedgehog definitely has a trace of Chaos Energy in his body."
Dasendo studied the readings on the computer screen. The readings had been picked up using Kagaku's instruments...
"But this definitely seals it. That hedgehog is not Project: Shadow."
"Oh...!" One of the assistants sighed in disappointment.
Dasendo turned around to face his colleague. "Oh what?"
"Nothing, sir... it's just..." The assistant sighed. "I thought we couldn't complete the project without Project: Shadow."
Dasendo shook his head. "That is what I thought before... before we found this specimen. And, if all works out, it may be just as useful as the actual Project: Shadow would be. And, if you two will excuse me, I will be in my office."
As the old man shuffled up a flight of stairs alone, he pondered the mystery of Project: Shadow...
'Project: Shadow was to be a weapon for us, the military... why did things go so wrong?'
As he sat down at his desk and opened the laptop, his eyes desperately searching the Chaos readings for clues, his mind reviewed his twisted plots...
'If we could only find the secret of this Chaos Energy... if only Project: Shadow had not been released!
'But continuing to think, "what if?" Nothing can change what has already happened... so it's probably best to work with what we've got.'
Dasendo scowled. 'If only those fools in the jungle had not lost the professor! Then we would have all the answers we need...
'For did he not only help to create Project: Shadow, but attempt to revive it, almost two decades ago?
'Kagaku was the next best thing to Professor Gerald Robotnik himself... and we lost him!'
Quietly, Dasendo shut down the laptop and closed it. 'I should count my blessings, I suppose... capturing the one called Sonic must have been no easy feat...'
The old man stood and walked to the window. Looking out and down to the left, he could see the general area where the underground prison was located.
His mind turned to the past... twenty years ago...
'Project: Shadow 02... a failed attempt to restore what was rightfully ours...
'Fate is cruel...' the old man sighed.
'And as long as that flawed Project: Shadow roams the earth, untethered... who knows what damage it might do?
'Someone must bring it to justice...
'For a weapon without a master...
'...is a very dangerous weapon, indeed.'
~*~
"Oh, Talula, I'm so sorry about this... I hope I'm not imposing too much on you," Kagaku apologized as he admired Talula's small home.
"Not at all, sir... not at all." The roan hedgehog smiled. "It's really the least I could do to pay you back, for everything you did for my family."
"I'm honored, young lady." Kagaku smiled, loking over Talula's herb garden. "My, my..."
Meanwhile, overlooking the peaceful scene...
...was none other than Shadow.
After moving south from the Chao Garden for two days, sometimes running, sometimes dashing, sometimes just walking and enjoying the scenery, Shadow had found himself truly going where his heart took him...
...a kind of freedom he had never known.
And, purely by accident, he had stumbled onto the small valley near the ocean where the jungle hedgehog, Talula, lived.
Down by her house, Talula's ears pricked up. Looking up the side of the cliff that surrounded her home, she spotted a bright flash of red.
Kagaku noticed that something was distracting Talula. "Hm? What is it?"
"We've... got a guest," Talula whispered.
"What?" Kagaku looked up and also spotted the figure standing alone on the cliff. "Oh, dear. We'd better get inside." Kagaku knew that part of the reason why Talula led such a solitary life was the fact that her house was well-hidden among the thick foliage of the forest. As a result, the few people who even found the small valley never found its inhabitant.
As the two friends began to head indoors, Talula risked one last glance at the person, who was beginning to head down the sloping land.
"Sir?"
Kagaku turned to face his friend. "What is it?"
"Didn't... didn't Nina say that her new hedgehog friend was black with red stripes...?"
"My goodness..." Kagaku quickly removed his glasses, wiped them carefully, then took another look at the visitor. Squinting, he was able to see the vague shape of a black and red hedgehog...
...and his mouth dropped open.
"Sir...?" Talula stared at the professor's surprised expression.
Suddenly, Kagaku smiled.
"Talula, what are we doing just standing here? We have a guest."
As Shadow skidded his way down the mountain, hoping he was not wearing out the soles of Sonic's shoes too much, he noticed an old man and a young hedgehog walk out from the shadows...
...and something about that old man seemed...
...familiar...
As he hopped down to the level ground, the two people ran towards him, as if they were greeting him...
The old man waved. "By any chance, would your name be Shadow?"