3. A Weapon's Pursuit
Shadow twisted, turning in place, trying to see through the darkness that surrounded him. There was something out there, he was certain of that, but he couldn't see anything but blackness. It was so dark that closing his eyes seemed to make things slightly brighter. He raised a hand to his face to make sure that his eyes were actually open, and the - thing - out there started to speak.
"I was . . . created . . . ." A mournful, moaning voice, as if the winter wind had gained the power of speech.
"Awaken!"
"The Ultimate Life-form, Shadow the Hedgehog!"
Two voices, both different from the first. Black Doom's voice he recognized with a chill, but the last statement - had that been his own voice?
"Please, Shadow . . ." That voice struck him to the soul; that one he'd never forget, or mistake.
"Maria," he called into the void. Was he dead? He couldn't remember how he'd gotten here, only the image of shattering glass. No, I feel . . . Miles away, it felt like, his hand slid along smooth metal, a slender bar somewhere far from where he seemed to be. "I can move," he said to the darkness, "I'm still alive . . ." He kicked, struggling against distant restraints that seemed wrapped around his legs - but how could he be kicking his feet while he was standing on them? He turned again, pivoting in the absolute darkness. Even the glow from his hovershoes was missing; even the glimmer inherent in the rings on his wrists and ankles.
"I need to go," that was his own voice, echoing back words he'd never spoken, "to it . . ." It? What's it? He felt his mouth open and move with those questions, but heard no sound.
"Are you really Shadow!?" Doctor Eggman's voice rang through the darkness. "You can't be the military's top-secret weapon!" The scientist's Eggmobile whined invisibly past, like a giant mosquito, and back again, circling the battle outside his casino-themed park and urging his robots to attack. No, wait, that wasn't the Doctor, but Metal Sonic in disguise . . . wasn't it?
"Doctor . . . Must not repeat . . ." Was it his voice? There were overtones of someone else; had the Shadow androids found him? ". . . the tragedy!"
Tragedy? Which tragedy? He'd known too many in his short waking life. He saw suddenly, as if a window had opened, a golden, robotic form marching steadily through the corridors of the ARK. The Gizoid! he recognized. It strode right past a black hedgehog with red stripes and hover shoes, forcing the Shadow-through-the-window to chase it back to the lab, before opening its chest plate to reveal the erratically pulsing gem within. I remember that! That was when the Biolizard and the artificial Chaos went berserk; it was the reason that GUN wanted to close the ARK down, they heard about them and were afraid. Shadow watched from the darkness as his past self ran out of the room, watched himself racing through corridors attacking the blobby blue shapes of the artificial Chaos, then realized that something - the something that had always been there - was standing right beside him. He spun, and although the light vanished the instant he took his eyes off the 'window', he could still clearly see the blank golden face beside him. The blue eyes - the only feature other than the backswept, blunt horns - stared mockingly, and he knew, as if the Gizoid had shouted aloud, that this robot was the reason the Chaos energies had been unstable that day, and that it was no accident; the robot had deliberately engineered the crisis that had led directly to the GUN invasion and Maria's death. With a sudden surge of rage he lunged for the robot–
And found himself blinking in the light streaming through white blinds into a stark white room. His hands, which he had raised above him, dropped limply onto his chest, and he honestly could not recall ever feeling as weak as he did at the moment. Or as sore; he felt as if he'd been hiding in a punching bag that Knuckles and an entire army of echidnas had been practicing on. Drawing a careful breath, he looked around. He was firmly tucked into a metal-framed bed with guard rails on one side. The sheets and blanket were stark white, clearly the recipients of much washing and bleaching. A small table near the bed held a small black device with a button on it, and a lamp was attached to the wall above it. Fluorescent strip lighting was spaced among the ceiling tiles. After a bit of struggle, he managed to loosen the sheets enough so he could sit up. Immediately the room started to spin. He clapped his hands (gently!) to the sides of his head, to try and prevent it splitting in half, and tried to work out what had happened. Presumably, he was in a hospital, judging by the resemblance to the sickbay on the ARK. And the amount of pain he was in suggested he'd lost a fight. Who had he been fighting?
Ow. Last thing I remember . . . I was catching Comet fragments. Did someone attack me while I was doing that? Or maybe I lost control of one and got hit? That last one was huge . . . . No, wait. He tried to ignore his headache and reconstruct that last deflection. There was . . . another Chaos Emerald. Maybe more than one. And I was pulling power from it - or them - when . . . When what? When, when they . . . exploded? No, they were broken. Can you break a Chaos Emerald? He'd never heard of such a thing, but that seemed most consistent with the available impressions. He certainly remembered the backlash that had accompanied the mental impression of shattering. Well, he knew how to speed his own healing process. He reached for Chaos energy –and aborted the act instantly, as it felt like a steel rod was rammed through his head, from temple to temple.
Gasping and clutching his head in pain, he didn't hear the door open. It was only when the shadows of two humans fell across his lap that he realized that he had company. He looked up to see two people he didn't know - although he recognized what they were. The military bearing and uniformly dark, plain clothing spoke of a 'secret' government organization. He looked at the pair sourly, doing his best not to squint; he did not need this right now.
Seeing that they had his attention, the female agent stepped forward. "Project: Shadow," she began in a brisk tone, "another of Professor Gerald Robotnik's ill-conceived weapons has surfaced, and you are hereby instructed to either capture or destroy it, before it goes berserk again and kills more people."
Shadow bristled instinctively at both the woman's tone and the implication that he was a servant to be ordered around. "If I am so ill-conceived, why are you telling me to stop this thing, rather than doing it yourself?" he asked, in a deceptively mild tone. "Besides, I'm busy fielding the meteorites from the Black Comet."
"Were you not ill-conceived, you would have destroyed the Comet properly in the first place," snapped the man. "And you'd know better than to answer back to your owners." The woman raised a hand sharply as if to stop him but it was too late.
"Owners?" hissed Shadow. His pains were momentarily forgotten as his temper flared at the insult. "Nobody owns me!" He clenched his fists, and remembered just in time not to summon a pulse of Chaos energy. They can't do much in a hospital, and I don't need the extra pain right now. He reined his anger in; anger could lend strength, but it dulled the wits, and he suspected he needed his about him now. "What is this weapon that's surfaced? I assume you don't mean the Eclipse Cannon."
The man started to speak but a glare from the woman cut him off. "One of Professor Gerald's robots has fallen into the hands of Doctor Eggman. The President gave the mission of recovering it to Rouge the Bat," she pronounced Rouge's name with distaste, "but we have learned that she intends to make off with it and use it in her thefts. Therefore, you must recover it and return it to its rightful owners."
"Meaning you, at GUN," suggested Shadow, trying to watch both agents carefully without being obvious about it.
"Meaning us, exactly," replied the woman, with a curt nod. But the scarlet eyes had noted the slight relaxation in both agents when he named GUN. Whoever they were, they weren't with that particular organization. The woman placed a small bag on the table by the bed. "You may find these useful in your mission. Use the phone to contact us when you've completed it." Then both humans turned to leave the room.
"Wait," said Shadow. Not that he wanted them to stay, but, "You haven't told me what robot; the Professor designed rather a lot of them, you know." A single robot in the Doctor's hands didn't seem particularly worrisome, since the man had created thousands himself. He'd inherited Gerald's blueprints for robots made or merely designed. And he'd had ample opportunity to examine the ones used by GUN and the artificial Chaos, which still could not be made to function in Earth's gravity. For a single robot to be a concern there had to be something more going on.
The man walked on out, but the woman glanced back. "The one called Gizoid," she said, and left.
Shadow sat motionless for a long time. The Gizoid. Not one of the Professor's inventions then; he'd found that robot, not built it. Odd that it should resurface now, right after his dream. Although, given that it and he both had a link to Chaos energy, maybe it wasn't so odd at that. Huh. That's the one that Father was always afraid of. And with good reason, considering what happened with the Biolizard, and later when the Gizoid destroyed ARKauai. Hmm, I never did find out what happened to it after that. Although, 'afraid of' was perhaps not the right phrase. 'Worried about' might be more appropriate. It wasn't the Gizoid itself that had scared the Professor, but what might become of it in the wrong hands. And the President has sent Rouge to find it, and she wants to turn it into a thief? Shadow frowned unseeingly at the far wall. Rouge hardly needed a robotic assistant, and he'd thought she took her job as an agent more seriously than to steal what she was tasked to deliver.
He riffled through his memories of the Gizoid as he reached for the bag on the table. Father said that he found it in a government warehouse, and that it was designed to use Chaos Emeralds for energy. In fact, all his Chaos energy designs were based off of its circuitry. It has the ability to absorb weapons knowledge and fighting skills, but if it overdosed on such information, it could go out of control and be very destructive; he said it had destroyed the Fourth Great Civilization, the one of the Babylonians. That was why he kept it close most of the time, and didn't let it go near the weapons testing areas or watch me practice, he was afraid it might absorb too much, or that it would transfer its Link from him to someone with more 'power' but fewer ethics. And when he finally had to give it up, that's exactly what happened; they broke the Link by showing it stronger weapons, then fed it information until it destroyed everything, and nearly everyone, on ARKauai. He opened the bag and spilled the contents out onto his blanket. A small cell phone, with a single preset number, another communications receiver/earpiece with several small gadgets that appeared to be listening 'bugs', a pocket-sized disc-recorder and several discs. Most of them did carry the GUN emblem, he noted. He put the sole labeled disc into the player, and listened to Rouge talking about museums and stealing gems, and yes, teaching the robot to be a thief. He wondered how dense the humans were to actually believe all that, if they really did. He was quite certain she was aware she was bugged and talking nonsense. There was an odd gap in the midst of the recording that made him certain that she knew someone had been listening, and the final bit - where she dropped her voice to encourage close listening - warned him to cut the volume way down instead of up, before she crushed the bug, or whatever made the awful feedback squeal.
He stowed the assorted electronics back in the bag and decided he'd had enough of the hospital. He was still sore, but feeling much better than when he'd awakened - although he still wasn't ready to pull Chaos energy yet. Therefore he walked out of the hospital on his own two feet, not deliberately hiding, but simply avoiding attention. Once out, he flagged down a taxi and returned to his apartment. After the Black Arms had destroyed Westopolis, he had been assigned a new apartment in the undamaged part of Central City, at least until he had a chance to decide where he wanted to live. It was sparsely furnished, and the only personal touch was a framed photo beside the computer, depicting Shadow, Maria, and Professor Gerald Robotnik. He'd brought it back from the ARK after blasting the Black Comet. Shadow tossed the bag on the table, heated up a frozen dinner and went to bed. He'd track down the Gizoid in the morning. He had no intention of handing it over to whichever agency had contacted him; he merely intended to Link the robot to himself for the same reason that the Professor had: to keep anyone else from setting it off. What he'd do with it after that he hadn't decided, but he was certain that he didn't trust humans with it, and he hadn't had enough experience with dokan to know if they were trustworthy either. Therefore, the only one he could trust to not use the Gizoid's power was himself. But, quite frankly, he didn't have the energy to search it out at the moment. He closed his eyes and was asleep at once.
He dragged himself out of uncomfortable dreams to see that it was morning. Images of the Gizoid looming over the ARK faded rapidly in the morning light. He decided to check with Tails, the two-tailed fox that was Sonic's friend, both to see if the cub knew anything about the missing robot, and to ask him to check the equipment Shadow had been given. He wasn't certain that Tails would help him, but the cub had seemed to be the friendly, helpful sort. To his utter surprise, as he approached the fox cub's house he saw the Gizoid itself standing in the street. Immediately he charged at it, hoping it hadn't Linked with anyone yet.
"Shadow!"
"Huh?" Oops, he hadn't seen Sonic, knocking on Tails' door. "Sonic . . . sorry, but I don't have time to play with you now. Hey!" he called to the Gizoid. "Can you hear me? Respond!" The robot gazed blankly ahead. "No!" Shadow groaned, more to himself than the robot. "You must have already established a Link!"
The golden form continued to stand motionless. The bulbous eyes made it difficult to know just what it was looking at. "Shadow!" repeated Sonic, this time sounding more annoyed than surprised.
Shadow tried again. "Hey! You, over here!" He raised a hand and summoned a Chaos spear. Well, intended to summon a Chaos spear. The pain that lanced through his head killed that idea in a microsecond. Well, there was another way to show the Gizoid his 'power', and his body seemed recovered this morning, even if his Chaos powers weren't. "Won't listen to me, eh?" he challenged the robot. "In that case, I'll beat you with my bare hands!"
"Hey, stop that!" hollered Sonic, but Shadow ignored him. He'd finally gotten the Gizoid's attention, although it moved like it was feeling every one of its presumed four thousand years. He wondered if it would make it any easier to impress.
Except suddenly Sonic was in front of him, slamming Shadow to a halt by planting a hand on his chest. Shadow grunted at the impact. "Get out of the way, and give me that robot!" he growled at the blue hedgehog. He didn't particularly want to fight Sonic, although it was becoming evident that Sonic was probably the one who'd Linked with the Gizoid already. A display of force to Link the robot was one thing, but fighting Sonic without using his Chaos powers was something Shadow was not at all certain he could succeed at.
"And if I say no?" Sonic cocked an eyebrow at his black rival.
"Then," Shadow hesitated, but didn't see an option; explaining the Gizoid would take too long, and Sonic probably lacked the patience to listen, "I will beat you too."
It was a mistake, he quickly realized; his speed rivaled Sonic's, and the hover skates gave him an edge, but he'd never realized how much his fighting moves were enhanced by Chaos energy. Instinctive attempts to use the power hurt, and between the abrupt pain spikes and the resulting disruption of his attacks or dodges, he missed too many blows and received too many of Sonic's. Trying to not draw on the Chaos energy was a distraction itself, and had a similar effect. Suddenly he realized that Sonic was aware of this; with increasing worry on his face, the blue hedgehog was pulling a lot of his punches, not knowing what was wrong with Shadow, but aware that something was. Caught between indignation and shame, Shadow skipped back. Sonic didn't follow, but watched him with concern.
Shadow snarled with frustration. I still haven't regained my full power yet. "Listen to me!" he called to Sonic, who'd opened his mouth to ask what was wrong. "Whatever you do, don't let Dr. Eggman get hold of the Gizoid. I'll be back," he stepped forward suddenly, palming one of the bugs he'd been given, "until then, take care of it." He slapped the Gizoid on the top of its head, lodging the bug behind one of the horns. Then he skated off in a hurry, fuming inwardly.
I shouldn't have tried to do that; once I saw it was with Sonic, I should have changed plans. For that matter, I should have seen Sonic was there before I jumped at the Gizoid. Am I that rattled by a nightmare? I hope I'm not going to be without my Chaos powers too long, though - that could be very bad. Could I just tell Sonic about the Gizoid? He shook his head at that. I remember how he reacted to the whole Black Arms threat. Not to mention that idiot attempt to 'catch' a meteorite from the Comet. He'd either treat it all like a joke, or set out to prove the thing's harmless. Or both. He pulled out the receiver for the bug and clicked it on.
"Sonic!" Tails' voice came from the speaker, a bit fuzzily. "Are you okay? I thought I saw Shadow . . . ." He sounded as if he were approaching, and his next statement came through clearly enough to make his puzzlement obvious, "And what is that? A robot?" Shadow smirked; the fox cub's tone was part disbelief that Sonic would have such a companion, and part professional disgust at the condition of the mech. I have to admit, wherever it's been the last fifty years, cleaning hasn't been high on the priority list.
"Oh, I found this robot by the beach," Sonic sounded a bit distracted, although Shadow wasn't sure but what that was the blue's usual state. "This thing's about to fall apart. Can you fix it, Tails?"
There was a faint 'hmm' sound from the cub, and a few moment's silence. Then, "Where are you going, Sonic?"
"I spotted a bat that I'm a little too familiar with lurking around. Take this robot to the lab, Tails!"
"What? Sonic!" A faint crackling sound, apparently from the robot. Then a heavy sigh from the fox cub. "Man, he's always on the run. Oh, well. I've got a job to do here! Let's head to the lab. Can you walk?"
Shadow made it back to his apartment, half listening to the cub nattering on, to the accompaniment of various clanks and machine noises. He wondered what Rouge was really up to. Pity I couldn't slap a bug on Sonic. Of course, she probably won't tell him the truth. I wonder if it would be useful to talk to her? He sighed and sank down onto his couch. He might not hurt physically, but he was far more tired than he ought to have been, considering that he'd fought so pathetically. Guess I'll get some food and sort out my next move.