Memories from the ARK

"I would have liked to get to know you…what went wrong? Why didn't you come back to us?"
He stared out the window at Earth. He couldn't quite believe it.
"It'll all turn out ok, you'll see" Rouge said grinning across at him.
"If you say so…"
He turned back to gaze at Earth, alone Sonic muttered something to himself, and for a moment he wondered if there was grief there after all. Briefly the reflection caught from the corner of his eye in the ARK's thick windows wasn't his own. He stared at it, but then it was only his own familiar rough face staring back. He was about to look away when he noticed for just a second his eyes seemed to have changed colour, they were red. At the same moment he realised the Master Emerald wasn't coming back to him. Sharp white hot pain lanced across his temples.
"Agh!" he grasped out but plunged to the floor faster than he ever had. Once there the pain didn't stop; it intensified. It was in his chest now too, burning. He couldn't draw breath; it was as though all the air had suddenly been purged from the ARK. The pain blinded him, tore at him, all he could hear was the rushing throb of blood in his ears, and above that his own cry of agony. He felt as though he was dissolving, his life force swirling and ripping away from his body. He didn't understand the significance of what he was feeling. All he understood was pain, and the burning need to draw air into his lungs. Then he seemed to drop into eternity.

There was roaring. Like a rushing river, but there was so much heat he may as well be standing in the centre of a volcano. The stench of blood and rotting flesh hung thick in the air, in his own mouth he tasted sour bile. The heat prickled his skin. At his feet ran a boiling yellow river, tugging at him, trying to pull him under and sweep him away in a scolding bubbling mass along with the fractured bodies of fellow creatures. Here even the air seemed to burn. Had he died and fallen into the Black Pit?

"Knuckles!" Sonic's voice, heard faintly over the roaring in his ears. His hand, cool against his arm. "Whoa! He's burning!"
He became aware of them around him again, and of the pain lessoning slightly. Still it reverberated through his body like a wave, beginning in his chest and behind his eyes and spreading out to his fingers and the back of his head. Nevertheless he had enough of his vision and hearing back to be aware of them. Aware of Rouge supporting his head.
"What's happening to him Sonic?" Tails asked pitifully.
"I don't know Tails"
He was aware of them talking around him. At one point he just discerned Eggman mutter:
"Grief does funny things to Guardians" But no-one seemed to notice him.
Knuckles tried to speak but all that came out was a gasping groan.
"Just breathe Knux" Sonic coaxed
After a few more moments the pain receded enough for him to regain most of his senses.
"Get-me-home" He managed to gasp out, aware his mouth was full of foamy blood.
"Can we move him?" Sonic asked
Eggman answered "It may be space that's doing this to him. I'd say yes"
Knuckles' world was returning faster now; though the pain was far from gone. By the time Rouge and Sonic hauled him to his feet he could manage to take some of his weight on his shaky limbs, aware that he must be very heavy for them. By the time they reached the shuttle he was able to tell them that he was alright, though his voice lacked any strength and much conviction. They refused to let him walk on his own. When they got into the shuttle Tails sat at his side in the pairs of seats. Knuckles noted now that he didn't look too great himself. He was holding back tears. Sonic and Rouge took up positions near the front, Eggman took the controls. As they pulled away from the ARK Knuckles couldn't help but feel they were short one passenger.
"Why'd he have to die?" Tails asked, tears streaming down his face.
"I don't know" Knuckles answered weakly, gathering him in his arms. As they returned towards Earth he allowed his tears to mingle with the little fox's. Tails against him could feel his muscles occasionally spasm with pain, until finally they both dropped to sleep.

He was back in the barracks at the Guardian School; staring at the dormitory fire. It was blazing brightly. Suddenly the fire changed colour to a deep purple and started to come towards him. But Knuckles wasn't frightened in the slightest, he was actually pleased. As the fire drew closer it formed itself into an abstract shape. It became what he only knew as the Fire Daemon. He was pleased to see it, or him as he believed he was. This time though the Daemon had changed, and that alarmed him. He hadn't seen him since he'd been Bonded to the Master Emerald. That in itself was not a good sign. He had never seen his flames all purple before. The flames had been many colours, but never completely purple. In the past every time he had visited his dreams he had been virtually the same, always a comforter in his times of need. That was what he had expected now. However the Daemon seemed different, changed, not his usual strong self. He almost stumbled up to him, as far as the seemingly skating Fire Daemon could, with a certain desperate urgency. To Knuckles' immense surprise he fell into his arms, his flaming form dwindling to a smoky wisp. The part of his shape that made his head pressed into the fur of Knuckles' chest, as though he wished to bury himself there. The Daemon seemed to tremble where he leant against him, Knuckles found himself in a role reversal, trying to comfort him rather than the other way around, but with mild pleasure he noticed the process worked both ways. When he'd woken on the shuttle again he hadn't felt quite so rotten.

Knuckles jumped awake, certain someone had called his name. He was sat up. He looked around, it was still dark but the first hints and sounds of dawn were breaking. He looked down. Shadow still lay unmoved to his right, Rouge to his left, Amy and Tails on the other side of the fire. Sighing he lay back down again, wondering if they should have posted a guard.

With his head leant on his arm he watched the fire over Shadow's slowly rising and falling chest. He'd never had the same Fire Daemon dream twice. In fact he'd never had a dream that followed the events of real life so precisely before. He couldn't help but wonder if his brain was trying to make a point. He sighed, the Fire Daemon had always appeared during his Training to offer him comfort in his dreams, but when he'd Bonded to the Master Emerald he had disappeared. Knuckles couldn't help but wonder why he had chosen that day on the ARK to return. He'd often stared at the flames in the barracks in his waking world, but no-matter how hard he had tried he'd never succeeded in making the Daemon appear. He'd never told a soul about him, he'd always thought that his fondness… relationship if you could call it that with him would be frowned upon by his fellows. Fire was seen as an image of evil by most of his people… the fact that he enjoyed the embrace of such a creature and a seemingly male one at that seemed wrong; or at least a little weird to him. He was afraid to tell anyone and saw better to keep his fiery friend to himself.

Shadow moaned in his sleep, Knuckles felt a strange kind of grief puncture through him like a blow. Sitting up he wondered what was taking Sonic so long and couldn't help but think Shadow must be running out of time. He put his hand over the wound in his abdomen. The moss there was soaked with blood. In the sparse light Knuckles did his best to pack the area with more moss and place more pressure on the wound. Shadow's strangled whimper left Knuckles trembling with guilt and mumbling soft apologies for the pain he had caused.

He got up and put more logs on the fire, listening mildly to the forest waking in the increasing light. He was often up before dawn and so doubted he would get anymore sleep. He was too worried now anyway. Sonic was definitely taking his time. Earnestly he wished he would return with help, any help. Pacing backwards and forwards he wished he had the knowledge to heal Shadow himself, he wished he'd been born clever. He sighed, for that he almost certainly wouldn't have been born Echidna and so perhaps never have become a Guardian, in that case he probably wouldn't be in this situation, wishing not to be who he was. Knuckles shook his head. For a stupid creature he did seem to think a little too much. Irritably he resumed his pacing around the fire, willing Sonic to hurry. Suddenly his senses seemed to snap into focus. Something in the forest wasn't right. All the normal sounds of dawn were suddenly absent. He listened intently, his fists bared and ready. To his right he heard branches snap. He turned to face that way, preparing his muscles for conflict. He could definitely hear movement now, something large coming closer. Maybe it was just some wild animal he could easily scare away. After a few more moments listening he managed to discern that it was not one large thing but 2 and several smaller ones. He doubted he would be able to take them on alone.
"Tails, Amy, Rouge wake up we've got company!" He said as loud as he dared.
"Huh?" Tails moaned groggily nearby
"Wake up!"
"What's wrong-"
"Shhh!"
"-should be around here somewhere" Knuckles heard the voice floating through the trees.
"Sonic!" He shouted.
After a pause there was a response
"Knuckles?"
Sonic appeared through the trees accompanied by Eggman and the whole of Team Chaotix.
"Man am I glad to see you!" Knuckles cried relieved "You sure took your time"
"I had to persuade team Chaotix they didn't want to kill Eggman"
"Hey guys" Knuckles said nodding his head and smiling. "Eggman Shadow is over there; I've done my best but… please… help him."
Eggman nodded and scurried off to where Shadow lay, followed by the scowls of all of his escorts. As he went Knuckles spoke again:
"Hurt him and I'll kill you myself"
Tails disturbed by the arrival of the others woke up fully and spoke.
"Welcome back Sonic"
The green crocodile approached Knuckles "I don't believe we've been formally introduced. I'm Vector, this is Espio and the annoying bumble bee flying around somewhere is Charmy."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Knuckles" Normally he'd have given his title too, but today he didn't "That's Tails, Amy, Rouge and Shadow" He pointed each out respectively
"Now that all the pleasantries are over" Amy said impatiently "I would very much like it if someone would explain… what the hell is going on!?"
"Can always count on Amy to be blunt as a hammer" Sonic chided
Knuckles answered her more kindly "Actually Amy none of us have much more idea than you, and until Shadow wakes up we may get no closer to the truth-"
"Unless Rouge tells us what she thinks Shadow meant by 'A thousand of me'"
"You know about that Bat Girl, come on spit it out!"
"Sonic don't talk to her like that!"
"Humph, I don't need you to fight my battles for me Echidna!"
"Would everyone calm down?" Vector broke in "We're all friends here now remember. Even Eggman has agreed to help us. Maybe if we stopped shouting at each other we could make some sense of all this."
"I'm bored!" Charmy moaned. A glare from Vector soon silenced him though. Espio had yet to speak.
"Who did this?" Eggman shouted back to the group, pointing at the moss.
Knuckles' posture fell a little "Err I did"
"Really… you're not as stupid as I thought Echidna"
Despite himself Knuckles smiled. "Will the rest of you join us at the campfire…? I'm sure you've had a long journey and are tired" At that moment Knuckles tried to figure out who he sounded like. Slowly everyone complied. Knuckles was mildly surprised, he wasn't used to being listened to. After a moment once everyone had settled Rouge broke the silence.
"We have a problem" Was all she said. Immediately all eyes were focused on her. "I don't think Metal Sonic is done with us yet. Actually I think we disturbed him a little sooner than he was expecting."
"What makes you think that?"
"Well Eggman called team Chaotix to come and rescue him. I think Metal Sonic captured him purely to keep him out of the way until he was finished. I don't think Metal was really ready for us"
"Why?" Sonic asked irritably.
"Because he's massing an army"
At that point Eggman looked round from tending Shadow's injuries more effectively than Knuckles had.
"You mean the Thousand? I've seen them too"
"I don't know what they're called, what I do know is that they'll make a fairly effective army, and that that Shadow laid before you may not be the one that fell from the ARK"
Knuckles felt his stomach do a back flip.
"W-Why not?"
"Because the scientists on the ARK and Gerald Robotnic were more sick than we realised. Not content with just creating the Biolizard and one of Shadow they've made more… hundreds. Metal Sonic has them in stasis on the Airbase, if he was serious about fighting us why didn't he let them out sooner and send them against us. If that one's anything to go by he won't have any problem getting them to serve him. I could have gotten him doing back flips if I wanted to. He didn't have any memories. These other Shαdøws aren't going to know that they're serving a tyrant. Also if they're anything like him I don't know they would care."
"Why have one when you can have a thousand?" Eggman muttered ominously, forcing a bright purple liquid down Shadow's throat.
Knuckles felt he couldn't quite take in all this information, it was as though his world was tumbling and spinning out of control. He found his hands digging into the grass to stop himself overbalancing.
"Y-you mean to say that there's more than one Shadow?"
"Yes stupid Echidna that's what I just said isn't it?"
"So he might not be the one from the ARK?" Tails asked
"No… no-one could survive a fall from space" Amy said
"Well he is the Ultimate Life Form; we don't know what my grandfather was truly capable of creating… Maybe-"
"Don't be stupid Eggman. It didn't make sense for him to survive before; this on the other hand does make sense"
"I think he's the same one" Knuckles muttered to himself
"Well you're a stupid Echidna!" Sonic growled. "He's hardly the Ultimate Life Form if there's a thousand of him"
"Hey guys what happened to all this teamwork stuff?" Rouge asked slyly
Knuckles muttered under his breath, Sonic grunted and looked away, Tails sent Rouge a helpless look.
"But the fact remains that Metal Sonic has a Thousand Shαdøws that he can send against us. That could be a problem for us. We cannot fight an army" Espio said, surprising them, speaking for the first time "Clearly Metal Sonic's intentions are serious, considering Shadow's condition. We have to decide, what are we going to do?"
"Like it or not we do seem to be in this together…"
"Metal knows how to hold a grudge, he won't forgive you guys for helping us stop him" Sonic said
"Big and Cream went off together, they should be long gone by now. The only one that leaves is that robot with you Rouge"
"You mean Omega" She asked. Amy shrugged.
"The last time we saw him he was with Shadow and Metal Sonic" Vector offered.
"So what happened to him after that?" Tails asked.
"Maybe Shadow can tell us when he wakes up?"
"Yeah… I guess he'll have a story to tell" Vector muttered
"I'm hungry" Charmy complained
"Charmy!"
"No, he has a point. You guys must be tired having been moving for so long…" Knuckles said, he suddenly remembered that Sonic had only had one night's sleep many days, it was no wonder he was grouchy. "You lot stay here… I'll organise breakfast" he wanted to take his mind off things. His brain seemed to be rushing at the speed of sound, it was making him dizzy, and he would do a lot to be able to slow it down. Without giving them time to object he darted into the trees.

One of Knuckles favourite duties at the Guardian School had been hunting. A small party of Trainees accompanied by a Guardian would go out every night to try their luck at finding food for the school. Some nights were better than others. They were never overly short, as some crops and animals were kept on the island, but they couldn't grow or farm everything the two hundred or so Trainees, their Guardians and their Masters needed. Back then Knuckles had been carrying a crude bow, crossbow or slingshot, he doubted he would have much luck catching any animals with his fists, but at the very least he hoped to find something. Wandering through the forest gave him something to think about, and forced his subconscious mind to work away silently, as long as it left him alone Knuckles didn't much care about the conclusion it came to. He scanned the trees looking for anything interesting; foraging was something he was used to. The Guardian of the Master Emerald was mostly expected to provide for himself. Knuckles nose brought him to the best bet, a sweet kind of mushroom, small because of the time of year, but extensive enough to feed them. The only problem was it grew on the trunks of trees several metres above the ground. Grimly Knuckles dug his hands into the bark and shimmied up the tree with surprising grace.

At the top of the tree Knuckles began pulling the wads of fungi off the bark. He had no wish to be in the tree for any longer than he had to. If Echidna had been meant to climb trees they would have been given opposable tails. Once he'd stripped one tree bare he moved on to the next.

When he returned with the mushrooms and some prized eggs he's managed to steal from an unfortunate bird's nest he found most of the group asleep. He offered the food briefly, having eaten more than his share on the way. He saved the eggs for Sonic and Eggman who were both sleeping as his own way of saying thank you. Watching the conscious ones he took up his place at Shadow's side again then stared up at the canopy. To his right he could hear Amy and Charmy's laughter and for a moment he thought things might not be so bad after all.

They raced along the track at the bottom of the ARK. Shadow couldn't entirely remember why it had been built. It had been something to do with his training. The long path reached round in a wide circle… it had been something to do with teaching him to run fast. Somewhere there was a switch which would purge the atmosphere from the whole area, Shadow remembered that much. If he could find it he would be rid of the annoying Blue Hedgehog once and for all. He was running next to him, keeping pace with him, grinning across at him, as though all this was just a game to him. Shadow dropped his head and ploughed forwards, pulling ahead of the Blue Hedgehog. He just seemed to be getting a good distance when he cried out.

"I'll use… Chaos Control!" The sound seemed to move from behind to in front of him. There was a bright flash in front of him. Suddenly the Blue Hedgehog was standing there. Shadow was so stunned he actually came to a halt. He'd told him but he'd never for a moment believed him. So this creature was going to take Chaos Control away from him too, the one thing he believed was unique to him. The Blue Hedgehog smirked at him tossing the fake emerald into the air.
"You're even stupider than you look Faker. I told you I learned Chaos Control, and I can do it with a fake emerald!"
The Blue Hedgehog laughed arrogantly. Angry heat seemed to fill Shadow's body. His mind chose that moment to remind him that he didn't need an emerald at all. But before Shadow could spit that back at him his opponent was on the attack and Shadow was forced to run again. The next time he used Chaos Control Shadow was prepared. He used his inexperience against him and struck hard and fast as he came back into time. Shadow ran on again.

Sonic picked himself up off the floor. This was getting boring. He called Chaos Control again. Time stopped, sort of. He had the strangest sensation he wasn't getting it quite right. Everything around him was slightly blurred, and it took him a great deal of effort to move forward through frozen time. Now he tried a new tactic. He raced to Shadow's frozen form and wrapped his arms around him just as time began again.

Something was suddenly restraining him. Oddly enough his first thoughts were of the Echidna, the Guardian. Echidna arms were known for their strength. Thinking that he didn't struggle.
"Gotcha!" A familiar voice said. Shadow struggled to kick out, but his adversary was larger than him. He was thrown, his back coming smacking down on the deck. Shadow leapt back to his feet. The Blue Hedgehog was facing him, still smiling.
"Ready to give up Faker?"
In answer Shadow ran at him and jumped. They met in the air. Shadow came off worse. He hit the deck, rolled and found himself sliding over the side. He scrabbled at the edge, but his hands weren't getting a grip. He was going to fall.
"Gotcha!" The Blue Hedgehog repeated. He'd grabbed hold of Shadow's wrist and was in the process of pulling him up. As he did so one of his gold bracelets came lose into Sonic's hand. Shadow wrenched away as soon as he was safe.
"You showed me mercy… Why?" Shadow asked harshly.
"I don't wanna kill you Shadow. I don't even want to fight with you" The Blue Hedgehog said exasperated.
Shadow stared at him for a moment. Stopped time, and ran away.

Sonic looked down at the bracelet left in his hand. On the inside there was an inscription:
Shadow Robotnic

Various members of the group woke up, ate, slept and ate again during the progress of the day. It passed slowly, Knuckles was sleepily aware even he must have drifted off at some point, his mind seemed to suddenly be full of fire and the taste of smoke again. The sun had passed through one part of its arc far more quickly than it had the rest. Knuckles was cold, clouds had crossed the sky since the last time he'd looked up, his fur was damp. The next time his eyes drifted closed he was aware of them. When he woke he half expected to be on Angel Island leaning against the Master Emerald, but of course he wasn't. All that had changed was a certain darkening of the sky. When he looked around again nearly everyone was awake. He judged Sonic might be in a marginally better mood and decided to stay awake for a while.

"You must listen to daddy's lessons Shadowkin. They're important"
"But I don't want to do lessons; I want to play with you"
"We can't play all the time"
"Why not?"
"Because sometimes you have to work"
"But I don't want to"
"We all have to do things we don't like-

"Maria?..."
"Who the hell's… Maria?!..."
Shadow opened his eyes. Knuckles was sat beside him.
"Hey, don't look at me like that. You just happened to wake up on my watch. A couple more minutes and it would have been Tails sitting here"
"G-Guar-Guardian?"
"Knuckles…"
Shadow closed his eyes again. After a long moment when he reopened them he saw Tails and Knuckles looking down on him.
"You're finally awake!" Tails cried "You've been unconscious for a long time; we got so worried about you we had to send for Doctor Eggman. We had to rescue him from team Chaotix" Tails giggled "I think he was grateful. None of us were expecting to be meeting up again quite so soon."
"Everyone's here?..." Shadow asked his voice unusually weak
"Yeah, except Big, Cream and Omega. We thought he was with you?"
"He's with Metal Sss…" Words failed him. Shadow coughed a few times.
"What? Did you lot hear that?"
For the first time Shadow became aware that the others were around him. He went to sit up but a pair of hands at his head forced him down again.
"They did this to me."
There was a murmur.
"Rouge? Are you here?" Shadow asked
"Yes" She stepped out from behind Knuckles.
"You saw them. The other me's… you didn't tell me"
"No, I didn't"
Shadow groaned and tried to move to face her more, but was restrained by that same unidentifiable pair of hands.
"Am I real, or not?"
"The question isn't so much are you real… as are you the original?" The owner of the pair of hands said. When Shadow identified the voice he was alarmed.
"Eggman? Let me go!"
"It's alright Shadow, he's on our side now" Tails said, trying to be reassuring.
Eggman slowly released his hands "You are real, that's certain, as real as Sonic or Espio… are you the Shadow that I worked with on the ARK… Though it's impossible to say if even he was the original"
Shadow moved a little so he could look around. True to word the whole group were gathered around him, though some more keenly than others. He could see Charmy buzzing over his head, his shadow occasionally flitting over his body. Shadow sat up.
"Careful!" Eggman said, putting his hand onto his back, though Shadow couldn't help noticing surprising others had moved to help him.
"How long has it been?" Shadow asked, directing his question at Vector who happened to be standing at his foot.
"This is the evening of the third day since we fought Metal Sonic. You found Sonic and Co early yesterday morning"
"You scared us walking into our camp like that" Tails said meekly "I though you were a ghost…"
"We all thought you were going to die… We had to send Sonic to find Doctor Eggman like Tails said… Though he didn't go too willingly" The last part Knuckles muttered, below Shadow's hearing. "So what happened?"
"I fell"
Knuckles, Rouge, Eggman and Tails all looked at one another. Sonic looked away.
"W-What do you mean?"
"From the airbase"
"Oh right"
"You fell from up there… Shadow can you fly?"
"Of course not!" Sonic answered for him.
"Then how did you survive?"
Shadow shrugged his shoulders. A gesture he regretted.
"When I hit the ground, I didn't expect to wake up again… but I did. The Airbase was coming in to land so I can't say how far I fell… The trees broke my fall… maybe I got lucky…"
Espio and Vector looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
"You got really lucky, you should have gone splatted falling from that height" Tails said.
"Tails Shadow doesn't need to hear that!" Knuckles laughed
"You must be made of stronger stuff than the rest of us…" Espio said.
Shadow closed his eyes and looked away.
"I don't know what I'm made of"
"Flesh and blood, like the rest of us" Rouge said
"That's what Metal Sonic said, and that flesh and blood couldn't be controlled, right before he tried to kill me"
"Metal Sonic tried to kill you? It took all of us to stop him! Why weren't you ripped to pieces?"
"I nearly was. Metal Sonic is weakened, but with Omega on his side I was nearly beaten…"
"Omega's working with him?" Rouge asked
"Yes. He was about to shoot me, but I used Chaos Control and got away and jumped off the side of the airbase."
"You jumped?!"
With a sickening sensation Knuckles wondered if Shadow had jumped before…
Shadow was about to shrug again but remembered just in time "Yes, it was that or hang around and wait for Metal Sonic to kill me. I didn't fancy my chances against both of them"
"I'd fancy my chances better than falling from up there" Vector said.
Shadow tilted his head on one side in a less painful version of a shrug. "I did what my instincts told me to do"
"That always works for me" Espio said
"Yeah, but you're you"
"Just don't go throwing yourself off any more high places ok Shadow?"
"I don't intend to" He paused "I'm growing scared of high places…" He frowned "Why is that?"
No-one answered him.
"What are we going to do?" Tails asked
"What we always do! Save the day!" Sonic cried "No worries, huh Knuckles?"
Knuckles didn't answer; he was staring at the ground, an unpleasant expression on his face.
"You're fools to think you can take on my clones in such numbers and win!" Shadow said dryly "if they were made after me they could be even stronger than I am. I'm on your side, but they're not"
"What else can we do Shadow? We're not in the business of surrendering"
"If you're supposed to be the Ultimate Life Form, you should be able to defeat them, or are you just a Faker" Sonic smirked, Shadow bristled, white hot anger burned through him, but before he could say or do anything Vector parted them.
"We'll deal with this when the fight comes to us, for now I suggest we don't go looking for trouble. Shadow, rest, everyone else, keep your eyes out for anything suspicious"

Shadow was aware his leg didn't hurt anymore, nor did the rest of him. Cautiously he pulled the moss bandage off his abdomen. He gently pressed where the wound had been, he felt no pain, when he looked he saw only his own faintly pink skin covered by a fine layer of new black fur. He frowned, that wasn't right. He picked at the throngs of bark holding a straight stick against his leg, after a moment it dropped away. He ran his hand down his leg, he couldn't feel a brake anymore… odd, he was certain he'd heard it snap…

"That leg was broken" Eggman said as they watched Shadow climb shakily to his feet, like a newborn animal. As he looked around he seemed as amazed as everyone else.
"No-one heals that fast" Vector muttered.
They watched Shadow take a few more faltering steps before he stumbled to the ground again.
"No-one survives a fall of more than about 75 feet!"
Shadow knelt on the ground for a moment, panting, apparently not noticing his audience. After a moment he gathered himself up and climbed back onto his feet. This time he was more stable.
"He walked on it before…" Espio said "he had to reach Sonic and the others somehow"
"I put that down to adrenalin and desperation masking the pain"
Shadow trotted forward a few strides and then stopped, uncertain.
"I wish my adrenalin could do that" Vector muttered
"Do you think he even feels pain?"
"As vividly as you do" Eggman said
Shadow took another few strides forward, then in a black streak he was gone, leaving only a gust of wind pulling at the leaves behind him.
Vector whistled.
"Listen" Espio said.
Distantly there were two booms as Shadow went through the sound barrier. Those who hadn't noticed what was happening heard them and looked up; upon finding Sonic still with them a certain amount of anxiety was displayed in their faces. Before Vector, Espio or Eggman could say anything Shadow returned in a rush to their camp.
Incredulous stares met his unusually happy face.
"I can run again!" Shadow shouted gleefully.
Stares turned to smiles on the most part as Shadow trotted over to the fire where they all sat.
"Are you sure it was broken?" Vector asked
"Certain" Eggman answered "And a few ribs along with it"
"Surely, that's impossible!"
"Not for Gerald Robotnic it wasn't"
"You can't seriously say that Shadow was engineered to heal that quickly?"
"What good is a weapon that has to sit around for months waiting to heal one broken bone?"
The others stared at him. "Do you think the others will be like him… if they are… they'll be almost invincible… how can we hope to stop them?" Espio asked
"We'll just have to hope they aren't all quite as… effective as our friend here"
"Friend, you could have fooled me, Sonic looks like he wants to kill him!"
"They go back a long way…"
Eggman proceeded to tell Vector and Espio the full story of what had become widely known only as "the ARK incident".