Being Free
I don't own Shadow, but Shadow ownz.
Chapter 16 - Awakening
"Amnesia - The loss or impairment of memory."
"This better be good Corporal…" General Walker half threatened, still sipping at his cup of coffee as he walked with the lower-ranked soldier at his side.
"Oh, I assure you Sir, it is very much worth every valuable second of your time." Corporal Jenkins replied.
'For your sake, it better be…' Walker thought to himself. Things had been hectic enough around the base since last night.
"Well? Where is it?" He said aloud.
"Right in here Sir!" Jenkins stated, motioning to a large, reinforced security door, as he placed his hand on a blue panel by the door.
Walker recognised the entrance to the base's high security medical area, usually only reserved for VIP casualties or cases the government didn't want out in the public hospitals.
The panel lit up as a green beam travelled up and down the man's hand, scanning it. After a few seconds, the beam stopped and the panel turned blue.
"Identification accepted. Welcome Corporal Jenkins." An electronic voice confirmed, and the metal doors slowly began to open.
"Corporal? Did you bring the General?" A voice inquired from inside.
"Yes, I'm here." Walker answered himself. "What have you got in there?"
"Sir, I don't think you're going to believe this when you see it…"
"I'll decide!" The General moved past the Corporal, entering the room. "Where is it?" He practically demanded from a scientist in a common lab coat, impatient at the lack of information he had been supplied with.
"Just over there Sir, behind the glass…" The scientist meekly replied, pointing to a surgical bed in a separate room to the one she, the two entering men, and the fully armed security team were in.
Walker looked over at the bed. He blinked. Before his jaw seemed to hit the floor faster than an elevator in overdrive, as the cup fell from his now motionless hand, smashing to the floor and spilling the hot, liquid contents.
"No… That, that can't be…" The General stuttered.
"It is Sir. We've already confirmed it, at least over five times. What you see on that bed is Project Shadow."
Shadow's mind was blank. A void, almost devoid of anything and everything. All he had learned, seen, experienced, wanted and needed was gone. It should've been deleted forever.
Then again, he also shouldn't have gone back in time. So his memory only being temporarily removed was another problem on the hedgehog's shoulders that he didn't know about.
He was lying, in a coma-like state, on the soft, white material of the surgical bed. His breathing was slow, steady, and tamed. His body was stretched out, allowing a green beam to scan him, collecting data on the current state of health of the hedgehog. Everything seemed normal, and healthy.
Despite this, the soldiers placed to guard the area Shadow was being kept in felt safer behind thick glass, and with large weapons armed and ready to fire.
What was about to happen next was not going to help them.
Suddenly, a rush of thoughts charged into Shadow's brain, released from their temporary confines. To Shadow, it felt like a fireball had been sent though each of his ears and into his brain, and caused the hedgehog to scream out in pain, his eyes snapping open, and his hands clutching his head.
"WHAT THE HELL?!?" Walker exclaimed, as he stepped back. At the same time, the security in the room assumed an aiming position, their rifles pointing at the shaking form of the hedgehog.
"Lower your weapons you fools!" The female scientist stated. "It's bullet-proof glass!"
"What's it doing??" Walker again demanded.
"It's something… With his mind, but I have no idea what it is!" She replied, looking at the readings on her computer. "I've never seen brain patterns like this before…"
"It looks like it's shivering." The Corporal stated.
"What I want to know is what it's doing here!" Walker pointed a finger at the hedgehog. "We all saw what it could from last night!!"
"General, please! I know that this is very strange, and potentially dangerous…" The scientist tried to say, but was cut off.
"Don't lecture me about that thing Miss Edmonds! We all saw last night what that thing can do!"
"General, Sir?" Jenkins asked.
"WHAT?" Walker snapped.
"It's… Stopped Sir."
Shadow gargled out a stream of random and senseless words, as he rubbed his throbbing head, trying to remove the burning feeling from inside.
"P…P…Pain…" Shadow stuttered. "It… hurts… bad…" His words were understandably childlike, considering the circumstances.
He slowly opened his eyes, looking around him. "Wh… What is this place… Where am I…?"
Carefully, Shadow steadied himself with his hands, and sat up, looking around.
"This is… Very strange…"
Shadow looked to the glass panel, and the people behind it.
"Who… Are those people?"
'I am the ultimate life, a flawless existence…' A cold sounding voice whispered into Shadow's mind.
Shadow quickly spun his head around, looking for the source of the voice. "Who… Who said that?"
'Nothing is unpredictable to me, nothing can surprise me…' The voice said again.
'That voice…' Shadow thought for himself. 'It... Sounds like… My own…'
'I am the mystery of the world, I can tell it by the cold eyes…'
Shadow was quiet, listening to the voice in his mind.
'I am the warrior, it's my way to go…'
Then, it was quiet. There was no voice, no sounds, only the low hum of the green light above Shadow.
'Maria!' The voice whispered again.
Shadow felt a sharp pain in his mind upon hearing that name, which caused him again to hold his head in his hands.
"…Can you explain that?" The General asked the Scientist.
"Would you understand the answer?" She replied.
"Good point."
"Sir, you know that unless we can break that 50-year password of Robotnik's, then we aren't going to learn more about Project Shadow…"
"Yes…" The General said, this time more thoughtfully. "That is a problem… Unless of course, we can…"
A thought struck the man at that point. One that was both dangerous, but at the same time could give the army, the government, and the free world a decisive advantage over Eggman.
Without giving any indication, General Walker walked over to the bullet-proof glass door that connected the 'holding' area of the room to the 'monitoring' section, and put his hand on the blue panel.
"GENERAL!" Corporal Jenkins shouted in shock. "What are you doing?!??"
"Watch and learn soldier. I didn't get to my position by not taking risks."
"Identification accepted. Access granted to General Walker. Welcome Sir." The electronic voice confirmed, as the door slowly opened.
Shadow watched cautiously as the door opened, and the man walked in.
"Who… Who are you?" The dark hedgehog asked.
"I am General Walker, of the National Defence Force. I am in charge of this base." The man smiled a welcoming smile.
'At the moment, while those agent slime balls get taken down a notch.' He added mentally.
"Wh… Where am I?"
"You are inside the Prison Island complex of GUN's Prison Island."
Author Notes: Interesting eh? Thanks to reviews from Celestial the Hedgird(Tell Yang that if he doesn't watch what he says, there's gonna be a fist with his name on it direct from me!) & Katrina Madd. I'm not gonna say much, to annoy all of you! Ha! Keep sending in reviews!