Chapter 7

The medical lab; A medium-sized room with a low ceiling and a counter down one side, teeming with vials of vile substances, charts, computers, medical equipment, medical supplies, and more. A cold, solid steel table sits in the middle of the room, and two deactivated Medi-Bots stand tucked away in the cupboards – Eggman had designed this room to normally upkeep and run itself in the rare instances it needed to be used. The lighting is dim, but can be brightened if needed. There is one door at the front of the room, next to a command console where the Dark Legionnaire, Julie-Su, is sitting. Shadow is leaning against the furthest darkest corner of the room, waiting for Eggman. The air reeks of chemicals and blood, and a dull silence fills the air. Both characters keep to themselves until Dr. Eggman finally arrives.

SCHOOMPHHH. The door slid open and Eggman stepped through. Julie-Su promptly left the room, cloak fanning out behind her, before the door closed with another hiss.

"Shadow." Eggman crossed his arms as he sat on the edge of the counter.

Shadow stepped out of his dark corner and crossed his arms as well, almost in mockery.

"That was a very close call. You're lucky to be alive, and you have the Legionnaires to thank for that."

Shadow turned his head away from Eggman, trying to show that none of this had affected him one bit. Seeing that he wasn't up for discussion, Eggman changed the subject.

"Anyway, thanks to you and the Legion, we are now in possession of two emeralds. However Sonic still has two, GUN has two, and Metal Sonic has one."

"…but the scale is tipping." Shadow smirked at Eggman.

"Yes. The Legion managed to get the yellow emerald from that fox boy. However, they underestimated him and had to hightail it out of there before they lost any more resources."

"How much did they loose?"

"All the Mechidna they brought and both tanks."

"That would be all of the resources, then."

"Well, uh… yes." Eggman stammered, "Tails had some sort of machine of his own and went up against the tanks. Tails managed to contact Sonic, and when he eventually arrived, the Legion abandoned the Mechidna to fight Sonic while the rest of them ran off with the emerald."

"Huh!" Shadow almost laughed at his mental picture of the situation, "Inexperienced… you should have sent me up against them."

"After your… display at the echidna's inner city, I don't know if that would have been a good idea either."

Shadow's smirk turned neutral again and he raised a peeved eyebrow at Eggman.

"I don't want to loose you, Shadow. You're a valuable ally." Eggman changed the subject again, "I was very disappointed that we were only able to get one emerald from Sonic. I thought we could hit them fast and get all three at once. I guess that was hoping for too much."

Shadow gave a slow nod; he couldn't agree more. While he was sure he could have made a better example of an attack against Sonic, he knew the blue hedgehog was not someone to take lightly. Eggman knew this as well, but his ego often blinded him to that fact.

"When the Legion retreated, I gave an order for a few of them to check up on you on the way back. I sent you to the Red Rock Canyons, as I managed to pick up the white emerald's signature up on radar there for a moment."

"Yes… about that." Shadow uncrossed his arms and slowly made his way towards Eggman, who regarded him cautiously, "Never ever send me through that tunnel again. Or I'll keep the emerald for myself next time." Shadow sneered as he stopped within a pace of Eggman, "Why on Earth do you even have that tunnel?!"

"Camouflage, of course. I don't want people simply wandering into my base, now, do I?" Eggman cleared his throat, wanting to get back to the original subject, again, "Anyway, when you didn't return as quickly as I expected, I became concerned that the emerald had already been moved to another location, or you were having some kind of difficulty. It just didn't feel right, and now I'm glad I sent those three to check on you – according to Kragok, if they hadn't rescued you, you would have died at the hands of medieval warfare." he paused, "That's not like you, Shadow. You're the Ultimate Life Form for heaven's sakes! What happened out there?!"

Shadow again looked away, embarrassed, but trying not to show it. Eggman shook his head and continued…

"Before they came to rescue you, Kragok, Kommissar, and Julie-Su planted numerous bombs around the underground dome. After they slipped away from the massacre, they caved in the place… burying the city and its inhabitants forever with the evidence that we had been there."

Shadow's eyes widened slightly as he considered this. All those innocent people were now dead, their culture crushed. They had tried brutally to see Shadow's end, and even though Shadow could be quite brutal himself, he couldn't seem to hold that against them; Shadow had been trying to steal a cultural icon of sorts, and his reputation on this planet was far from 'goodie goodie'. He had not wanted to fight with the echidna; he had no quarrel with the city; he had no reason to kill the citizens… Yet he was considered an unforgivable threat on discovery; they were trying to protect their homeland from the menace they thought Shadow was.

Was it not unlike the situation on ARK? The ARK would have eventually been a threat to the Earth and its inhabitants… and GUN was only trying to protect their homeland. Shadow and ARK were 'unforgivable threats', and yet Shadow had (for the most part) not hesitated in butchering the infiltrating soldiers. Was he wrong in killing those soldiers?

'Wait a minute?! Whose side am I on?! No! At the time that was my purpose! I had every right to slaughter them!' said one side of his head.

'…but was it your true purpose?' said the other, 'Don't forget what Maria said."

There was a pause.

'What?! How could I forget?! I just-I just…Stop it! Don't think about that! I just don't know anymore!' Hitting a mental wall, Shadow closed his eyes for a moment and shuddered it off. He then turned to Eggman, "I was unprepared for their numbers. There were simply too many foes for speed and agility to be effective." he explained as matter-of-factly as he could.

"I see…" Eggman stood up, thought for a moment, then spoke again, "Next time I'll have to send you with a few of the Legionnaires, then—"

"Huh!" Shadow huffed as he uncrossed his arms, "They'd never be able to keep up with me."

"Don't worry, you just said speed wouldn't be useful in those kinds of situations – and it's likely you'll be facing a situation like that again." Eggman grinned, "Yes… this is a good idea. I'll organize you all into small teams of three—"

"Organize them." Shadow glared at him, "I fight alone." then passed him and started to walk out of the room.

"Hold it, Shadow." Eggman turned to face him, "Don't forget who set you free. …and who called me 'Master' when he was released? Hmm?"

"I already gave you your wish, Eggman. I led you to the Eclipse Cannon and lent you its power."

"…but it failed!"

"Humph! That's not my concern. I granted you your wish, and now I work for you only because I need something from you." Shadow shot him an ineffective piercing stare, "Remember that." and resumed his path out the door.

"You just remember that it's an eye for an eye. You have services I need, and I have information you want."

"I don't know why I even bother…" Shadow turned again from the door, irritation rising, "Why don't I just go and find those files myself? All this trouble for—"

Eggman laughed, "So naïve… do you underestimate me, too, Shadow? Just like you underestimated the power of the echidna?"

Shadow was suddenly standing on top of the metal table, top quills grazing the ceiling, and sharp red eyes glaring down at Eggman, who turned to face him once more.

"Do you underestimate my power?" Shadow threatened coldly.

Eggman was not at all afraid of Shadow's threats, and so took on a challenging tone, "Go ahead and try to find them. I guarantee you won't find a trace."

Shadow grabbed him by the collar with both fists, "I could kill you, you know… right here, right now. Then go and find the files on my own… I don't need you, and I happen to have a lot of time to spare."

"What good would that do besides proving something we already know?"

"—and what's that?!"

"That you're a pompous, arrogant son of a hedgehog. That you don't realize it even proves its own point and validity."

"What is this irrelevance?!" Shadow growled as he forced down a fit of rage and instead gripped Eggman tighter. Eggman simply chuckled at his small victory and smiled wryly.

"Only I know where the files are and how to access them. You know that as well as I. So go ahead… make my day and finish me right here. I'd die laughing because you'd just be damning yourself. If I die, your history dies with me." he paused for a moment, "Doesn't matter how much time you have… doesn't matter how clever you think you are… you won't find them. I can't stress that enough."

Shadow paused a moment to consider this, then abruptly pushed Eggman away with enough force to make him stagger back a few paces. Eggman composed himself and grinned again, totally at ease and confidant that Shadow would not dare kill him right then and there; he wouldn't risk loosing the chance to find out exactly who he is.

Shadow, very ruffled, stared at him with smouldering eyes. It enraged him that Eggman was un-intimidated, unafraid, able to hide from his stare behind those dark glasses, and at the same time, be a complete hypocrite.

'Pompous, arrogant bastard indeed…' he thought of several violent ways to retaliate, but found that each one would probably result in Eggman's imminent death. He liked those thoughts, and turned his back to Eggman as he smirked, elaborating those thoughts.

"Have you finished your little temper tantrum?" Eggman asked.

Shadow flipped him off without turning around, but the gesture was ignored.

"Now, listen carefully…"

Shadow turned an ear in Eggman's direction, as if to prove he was listening.

"Sonic's team thinks that the attack made by the Legionnaires was made by GUN, though they also have suspicions that it is a new group wanting the emeralds for themselves. They don't yet know that the Legion works for me, and I want to keep it that way. If they don't suspect us, they won't come after us for the stolen emeralds and make our plans more difficult than they already are. If they think it was GUN who stole them, they'll go after GUN to take them back, eliminating the need for us to go through the trouble to get GUN's emeralds ourselves. Once Sonic gets the emeralds from GUN, we can take them from him, eliminating the need to beckon GUN at all. We can stay out of GUN's fury altogether and just have to worry about defending against Sonic's team and attacking Metal Sonic's army."

"That's a little wishful… Why don't we just team up with Sonic and put GUN and Metal Sonic out of their miserable existences once and for all?" Shadow asked lowly.

"Because it would put us out in the open and in a vulnerable position for Metal Sonic or Sonic to attack, and we need those emeralds before we can take on that challenge." Eggman raised a clenched fist to punctuate his frustration, "I'm not going to allow myself to be railroaded a second time!" referring to Metal Sonic running off with his clone robot Shadows, "It's too dangerous right now. Attacking GUN is something that will take a lot of planning; as once we've engaged them they will hit back and not cease until my operations are flaming ruins. They are a very large and very sneaky organization and I don't want to start another tedious war with them. Right now we are fortunate to be in a position where we know more about what's going on than the rest."

"You hope." Shadow rolled his eyes.

"I know this because none of them have bothered seeking us out – Sonic nor GUN nor Metal Sonic. Metal Sonic is the hardest to track, but I do know that he has been building up resources by making attacks on small, mildly defended military bases and warehouses then taking all the useable weapons and supplies he can. When he's ready to go against the world, he will either attack Sonic or us first, but I'm not certain." he paced a bit, "However none of them suspect that we are a major threat."

"So basically, you're trying to play ghost… manipulate Sonic into getting the emeralds from GUN, steal the emeralds from Sonic when he's not looking, hoping that he'll think it was GUN or Metal Sonic. Then once Sonic has weakened one or both, you can step in and take them all out at once with your emeralds."

"Precisely…" Eggman grinned wider than ever.

"I like it…" Shadow turned around, forgetting the brief conflict, and smirking at Eggman, "We keep our heads low until the last minute, and let them do most of the fighting and work." Shadow's tone then suddenly changed to something much more negative, "…but I highly doubt it will work. You're one to sit out when chaos is afoot, Doctor – everyone knows that your empire is usually the cause of chaos."

Eggman nodded, and then insisted, "I can make this work, but I must have those emeralds. If any side gets all seven, they will be unstoppable."

"…but how are we to get the emerald Metal Sonic possesses?"

"That's where you come in, remember? That will be the last emerald we will try to take. My current plan is to send you in alone, flash & crash style. Simple as that."

'I like flash & crash style…' Shadow's smirk broadened. The flash & crash style referred to when Shadow would simply warp over or into the enemy's place, seize, destroy, or kill what was required, and then warp out, leaving the enemy to figure out what the hell just happened. It could be dangerous, as if Shadow somehow lost hold of the emerald or sucked too much energy from it, he could get stuck in the heart of some foreign fortress. On top of that he had to have a clear picture of where he was going, or else the Chaos Control would be useless.

"Now, getting to our current status. Sonic has his friends keeping watch over their remaining two emeralds; one is at Knuckles' shrine, and the other is with Miss Rose, though probably with help from Tails. Sonic himself is searching the globe for you. They don't yet know that you work for me either. Again, I want to keep it that way, as it keeps Sonic away from the emeralds and will make our job a whole lot easier." he paused for a moment, "We must be very careful in any attacks we attempt now, for if they manage to contact Sonic, he can likely get himself to the emeralds from wherever he is in a matter of minutes. I was hoping that we would be able to get all three emeralds from them on the first strike, but…" he sighed, "Since that didn't happen, we will have to switch to plan B…"

"Get the last two and get out?"

"Exactly. I want to send you and two Dark Legionnaires after the last two."

"Why don't I just flash & crash this one alone?"

"I want a Legionnaire to go in, to avoid you being seen. One Legionnaire goes in, you and the other watch their back. Then when they have the emeralds you can warp them back to avoid leaving a trail for Sonic to follow."

"How far from the base are these emeralds?"

"A few thousand miles, why?"

Shadow made a mental calculation, "It's too far. We wouldn't make it without risking the emeralds warping." Shadow held up to fingers, "Two emeralds, two presences." then he flicked up a third, "Three emeralds, three presences – for that kind of a distance, anyway." he dropped his hand.

"I could give you… no… never mind." Eggman waved the thought off.

"I suggest you let me have an emerald anyway; it helps a lot in battle." Shadow said carefully. He was hoping he would be able to hold onto the white emerald he stole for his next mission. It would make battles so much cleaner.

"No… sorry, I can't let you take one with you." Eggman rubbed his chin, "For two reasons. One: if the emerald falls out of your hands or warps we're down one emerald. Two: warping isn't exactly subtle. It creates vast amounts of energy that could attract the attention of GUN or maybe worse, Metal Sonic. If you warp in, by the time you're ready to warp out you could be caught. If you just warp out you'll be gone before you can be traced." Eggman thought for a moment, "How far could you get the three of you… before it gets risky?"

Shadow calculated again, "Probably a couple hundred miles from the base… and that's pushing it." then he lowered his voice, "Who are you planning on sending with me?"

"If you behave, I'll let you pick your own team."

"What's your definition of 'behave'?" Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"No in-fighting. No destroying my base or its contents. No running away and getting yourself seen or killed. No playing with the emeralds. No showing off to the Legion."

"Hummm…" Shadow crossed his arms again as his smirk faded. He disliked these rules; it was going to be one boring stay at the base, "If I can't do any of that, I at least need to be able to run, Eggman." He said seriously.

"Run around inside the base. Just don't hit any windows this time…"

'How did he know I—?!' Shadow was about to vocalise that thought, but Eggman explained first.

"I was wondering what that noise was that night, so I checked the security cameras."

Shadow pushed aside rising embarrassment with a shake of his head, "No really, Eggman, I need the chance to get up to full tilt. I haven't had the chance to break the sound barrier for a long time. If I don't keep up to speed, I'll lose it."

"Humm…" Eggman knew this was true, and was actually prepared for it, "Come with me."

Shadow followed Eggman out of the room. They walked down the dark metal hallway and into a closed lift. As the doors closed, they did not notice a dark figure flip down from the ceiling outside the medical lab, make a silent landing, and sprint away.

"Basement five." ordered Eggman.

The elevator promptly obeyed, and with a stomach-flipping drop they were rushed down into the ground.

"Where are—" Shadow began.

"I'm taking you to the training room."

Shadow felt cold sweat start to bead down the back of his head and neck. He remembered the holographic training room where he was forced to battle for hours back on ARK. It was not something Shadow generally looked forwards to, due to the fact that even though the threats and enemies weren't real, holographs, fakers, he could still get seriously injured or even killed. Added to that stress, Professor Gerald purposely demanded that Shadow always be kept on the brink of loosing, just hard enough to keep him down, but easy enough that he could prevail – they were to keep him fearful and angry with tormentful foes. This caused fierce, frequent adrenaline rushes in Shadow, which the Professor found increased his physical energy and his speed of thought. There was a drawback to this however, it had a similar effect as a powerful stimulant drug; afterwards Shadow would often experience full-blown rebound, and if he was especially wound up, he would get nervous tics in his hands or up the side of his head. Gerald had considered this 'good exercise' for the mind and body, and few dared to challenge his method based on the results – Shadow's skill as a fighter improved drastically, even though this method pushed him deeper and deeper into melancholia.

Shadow ran his hand back along the side of his largest spine nervously, "…and just what is this… training room?"

"Did I say training room?"

Shadow nodded.

"Oh… well I meant training level."

The elevator stopped, giving the two another stomach flipping dose of gravity, and the door opened with a hiss. Eggman motioned for Shadow to follow him into the hallway. It was dark, cold, and damp down here. The only lighting was small clusters of green LED lights staggered along the walls.

"This entire level consists of any kind of physical or mental training equipment you could ever need. Shooting range, holographic simulators…" Shadow shuddered at that but Eggman didn't notice, "et cetera." Eggman motioned again for him to follow – he led Shadow to a small door marked 'Launch Tunnel' which Eggman promptly opened. It consisted of an open, spiral metal staircase.

"After you…"

Shadow made his way through the door and was followed by Eggman, who shut the heavy metal door behind him. The staircase was short and led to another hallway. This hallway was lit with continuous rows of red and white LED strips across the ceiling and walls. The hall as a whole had a very interesting perspective effect as Shadow glanced to his right; it seemed to continue forever as it had a very distant vanishing point. Shadow looked to his left and found himself looking at a large metal disc hooked up to thousands of wires and thick cables.

"Pay no attention to that, it's just the power generator. Down there is what's important." he looked to Shadow's feet.

Shadow looked down. He was standing on black, ridged, rubber flooring, wide enough for at least three Shadows to skate on simultaneously.

"It's a conveyer belt." Shadow observed.

"Yes."

"I suppose you want me to run on this? …but then why is the hallway so long?"

"At your discretion, the conveyer belt will start to move against you, according to its calculated speed of your acceleration. It will hold you in place until you are ready, up to the speed you desire, then at your signal, the conveyer will change direction and launch you down this tunnel, allowing you to run on the flat, and in your case, break the sound barrier."

"Launch tunnel… that's why…" Shadow mused.

"There's more. The tunnel only goes for around thirty miles before it stops. If you cannot stop before the end – and I don't expect you will – a door will automatically open and you will find yourself running across the desert. Since you will be going so fast, I suggest that you break through to the outside, arch around the back of the base, and then return through the hidden door on the northwest side immediately."

"Wait… how hidden is hidden?" Shadow turned to face him.

"There is a short segment of wall that is a darker shade of tan than the rest of the base. Go there and you should be able to figure it out."

Shadow nodded, "Is that all?"

"Mmm... You should know that I will be briefing you all for the next mission tomorrow night. I will alert you all when it is time. Until then, you are free to do what you like, other than what I previously mentioned you cannot do."

"Why not right now?" Shadow asked neutrally.

"W-what?" Eggman was unclear.

"Why don't we start another mission right now?" Shadow repeated.

"Oh! Well, I want to see how things settle out a little more before we make another attempt for the emeralds." he then added as he started up the stairway, "Dimitri is out on a solo mission anyway, and I would like it if only one thing is going on this time. It was hell trying to keep track of you and the Legionnaires all at once…" he stopped for a moment, pondering, before moving towards the exit, "When you end up outside, remember not to stay out in the open for too long. You're not exactly camouflaged on the light sand, Shadow."

Shadow looked at his black fur for a moment; indeed he stuck out against light coloured sand.

As Eggman disappeared through the ceiling and out the door, he called back,

"Oh… and this particular machine has remnants of a personality your creator designed when he was toying with artificial intelligence. She's a little temperamental; don't let her get to you."

The door closed with a bang and Shadow was left in silence in the Launch Tunnel. He looked at the power generator, then the treadmill like conveyer, then down the long hallway. He stepped off the end of the conveyer and onto the interlocked, blue-grey metal floor, and started his warm-up. Normally Shadow didn't even bother with a warm up, as there seemed to be no consequence if he didn't for some reason, though little did he know it was because the heavily reinforced tissues in his body were able to compensate. After having lain on a metal table for an extended length of time however, he felt in need of a good loosening up. He started by skating slowly back and forth a few hundred meters down the hallway. Having been stationary so long, the familiar push & glide movement of his gait felt good. After he got bored of that, he stopped and stretched out his legs, arms, back, and shoulders, then went back and did his legs once more. He turned to face the treadmill, then leapt up onto it, suddenly realising that he had no idea how this contraption worked.

"Shoot…" he muttered and looked around for any sign of instruction. There was none. He remembered that Eggman had told him 'at his signal' the machine would do as he wished. Shadow thought hard.

"Start." he barked.

Nothing.

"On."

A humming… silence.

"Activate."

If he were in the desert, a tumbleweed would have taken its cue at this moment. Shadow rolled his eyes, and crossed his arms, irritated.

"Embark… initiate… power up… commence… launch-hhhit!"

WHAM! Shadow swore as he was flung back first into the now sparking power generator. Steadying his anger, he peeled himself from the generator. The static had made his fur stand on end, and he sincerely hoped there were no security cameras in this hallway watching him this time as he stepped onto the narrow ledge between the wall and the wide treadmill, which was still rolling rapidly.

"Stop!"

Nothing.

"Off!"

The whirr of the treadmill and the spark of the generator still hung in the air as he flattened the fur on his head as best he could.

"Alright you half-assed, fatuous, machine…" Shadow growled, feeling silly talking to a machine that clearly didn't listen very well to begin with, "Shut yourself off before I find better things to do! Let's go!"

The machine suddenly reversed the treadmill's roll and at the same time jolted foreword in a flash, like the catapult of an aircraft carrier. It then slowly shifted back to its original position, and powered down.

"Humm…" Shadow uncrossed his arms and looked crossly at the now silent machine. He suddenly noticed a small digital screen glowing red on the side plate of the conveyer. It had a number on the screen and three buttons. Remembering something Eggman had said about 'calculated acceleration', and not knowing what else to do, Shadow pressed the button that said 'SET 1'.

"Please stand on the conveyer within the ring." a mechanical female voice said.

Shadow hesitated, and then climbed onto the tacky rubber surface. He noticed that there was now a red, laser emitted circle projected on the surface. He stepped inside it.

"…and for your information..." the machine said, with what almost sounded like a hint of indignation, "…that unpleasant remark did not go unnoticed, ass hole."

"…" Surprised, Shadow opened his mouth to requite, but at that moment the treadmill began to slowly move. He started to walk, bulky shoes impeding him, and the metal jet exhaust rings on the bottom softly clicking against the surface of the conveyer.

"Speed will now increase. Please adjust stride accordingly to stay in the ring."

The speed increased and Shadow had to jog to keep centred.

After a few seconds, "Speed will now increase. Please adjust stride accordingly to stay in the ring."

The speed increased again and Shadow's Air Shoes came to life, finally allowing him to skate. The speed then increased several more times, each with a warning as annoying as the last, until Shadow was skating rapidly, arms swinging wide, and head low. The red ring finally disappeared.

"Warning. Speed will now decrease."

The speed decreased much more rapidly than it had accelerated, and soon Shadow was standing on the motionless treadmill.

"Acceleration has been calculated. Name of user…"

"Sha—" he started to state his name.

"Asshole." she stated mechanically,"That wasn't a question, imbecile."

Shadow muttered with a scowl, "Impertinent aren't we..?" but he knew how to use the machine now, so no further 'discussion' would be required.

"Launch." he commanded coldly.

As the machine started up, Shadow accelerated the way he normally would if starting a sprint. In a matter of seconds, his hover shoes were blazing as he skated in perfect form.

"Lets go!" he shouted over the hum of the machine.

FOOOOM! Shadow suddenly felt airborne as air rushed by him at tremendous speed. Had he not been prepared for the launch he may not have been able to react in time. The LED lights became long blurred streaks as he literally hit the ground running. He took in a deep breath then poured on the speed as he exhaled. Suddenly he could feel it… he could feel it against his face, his arms, and his legs. There was an invisible wall in front of him, a crushing wall of sound that he must break. It was strong, so he pushed even harder off the ground and his hover shoes burned brighter. He could see the pressure building, the shockwaves trailing around him, then suddenly a deafening explosion of sound as he met Mach1.

Tearing up the tunnel at a little over 758 miles or 1220 kilometres per hour, Shadow was having a blast. A fast but maintainable speed for Shadow would be at the subsonic speed of around 680 to 700 miles per hour, but he enjoyed a good run at breaking the barrier every now and then – It was an excellent workout. He narrowed his eyes and smirked as he rocketed along, straining to keep the pace as long as he could bear it. Suddenly the lit tunnel ended and he found himself outside under a twilight sky. Had it not been for the sudden change in air temperature and the strips of LED lights ending, he would have probably not noticed the transition. He flew across the desert, sand fanning out behind him. Then without warning, he started to feel a slight burning in his legs and lower back – lactic acid build up – but he pressed on for a few more seconds, mesmerized by the feeling of freedom. After all this effort, after being insulted by a simple machine, after waking from the greatest nightmare of his life, he just wanted to run… run away from it all.

…but not even the two fastest beings on the planet – Sonic and Shadow – are truly capable of running from their problems.

In an instant he turned to do a hockey-style stop, but instead of wasting his momentum completely, he made a very wide, arching turn to the left. Like a downhill skier after the end of a good, fast run, the combined force from his momentum and shoes created a gigantic wave of sand shooting into the air in his wake. The sheer size of the sand wave dwarfed him as he turned, feet parallel to each other and body at a sharp angle to the ground. His left side was so close to the ground that when he stuck his left arm out, he could feel the warm sand brushing against his glove. As he finished the turn he crossed over several times, and then poured on the speed again to return to the base. He was not able to turn nearly as fast or as sharply as Sonic, but he enjoyed the gliding and sliding he was able to do as he braced against the forces of gravity and inertia – it had almost an artistic air and he felt it took more finesse.

Skating along at a medium speed now, he took a look at his surroundings. It was much like the Arizona-style desert he had warped to after his strange experience with the white emerald, and the hole in his hand. He couldn't be sure however, as there seemed to be a lot less canyon and a lot more dune. As he approached Eggman's base and looked ahead he suddenly noticed the sheer size of it. He knew it was big, but never knew how much was actually above ground. It was a great mound of a thing, jutting out of the ground several hundred feet, and expanding wide enough to block the horizon. It was mostly beige and tan to blend in with the surroundings, and even though most of the base was underground, Shadow failed to see how a jet or other aircraft overhead could miss it. On top of all that, as if to make it any more obvious, the base was on the edge of a tall Eggman-made cliff – looking back to the doorway where he had blasted out of, Shadow could see that the opening was sunk into the very bottom of the cliff side.

Getting closer now, Shadow ran wide around the base, to the northwest side where Dr. Eggman said an entrance would be. As he crossed over to make the turn, he noticed out of the corner of his eye, a dark silhouette sitting on the edge at the very top of the massive structure. He glanced up for a moment, but saw nothing of interest, and so continued on his way.

A ridiculously long time later, he finally found what he thought was the door. Thoroughly miffed from wandering aimlessly around for such a length of time, he walked up to the wall that was an ever-so slightly different shade of tan (it was hard to tell now in the dark), and looked at it. It was seamless – no handle, no keypad, no doorknob. He went closer to the door and brought his foot back in preparation to kick it, then realised that he could damage the jet on the front of his shoe that way on such a hard surface and stopped in mid-kick. Instead he rapped several times on its surface with the back of his gloved fist.

Silence, apart from the singing bugs in the desert.

Shadow was about to resort to making his own door, when suddenly some mechanical clicks were heard, the segment of the wall shuddered, and it slowly popped out and slid open. Shadow stepped through and the door abruptly closed behind him. A security camera peered down at him and a door stood closed in front of him. He walked up to the door and pushed down the lever to open it, as the camera followed his every move. As he stepped through the self-closing door, he made a point to flip off the camera.

Walking into the hallway, he noticed its familiarity. Looking up he saw he was standing in the yellow glow of the clock. This was the hallway where he had previously run laps. He skated down to the 'Y' split and followed the hallway towards the warehouse style armoury, where he had first stepped foot in the base. He spotted the open double doors to the steel catwalks on the upper level of the warehouse. He was about to pass the entrance to look for the elevator, wanting to find out how to get back to the training level from the hidden entrance or perhaps find a map, but he stopped abruptly and glued himself to the wall on the same side of the door. Someone was down in the armoury.

The warehouse lights were powered down except for the strips of rope lights along the bottoms of the walls, and along railing and steps. It was very dark and Shadow could just barely make out the silhouette. Shadow slipped into the darkness of the room and hugged the wall, keeping his eye on the suspicious presence he could see below.

It looked like a Dark Legionnaire, as when it moved a little closer to the light he could see what looked like a dark cloak wrapped around the body. It was searching for something, and didn't quite look like it knew what it was doing; didn't seem like it was a member of this base.

'A spy?' Shadow thought, undecided about what to do. Silently, he moved to a corner and looked up. There was a security camera, but it had a disc-like thing stuck on the lens of it. He reached up and carefully pulled it off. He held it up to the strip light at the bottom of the wall. It was a lens cap. The inside of it had been showing the camera a picture of the empty, dark room in night vision.

'It is a spy…' Shadow could feel the excitement of a chase or battle rising up inside of him, though he kind of wished it had been before his running workout.

Turning the cap over in his hand he spotted a very small and subtle indented logo on the rim. He ran his finger over it and strained his eyes to see it.

'GUN!' he exclaimed in his head, recognizing it immediately. He cast the cap aside, leapt off from the catwalk silently, landed many meters below on the cold metal floor, and looked around for the figure again.

Behind him a voice suddenly cried out, "HA!" and a blow to the head, WHAM! sent Shadow sailing through a stack of plastic crates. Shadow whipped to his feet.

"YA!" the voice cried again, but this time he was ready. He ducked under the swift roundhouse to his head, spun around to get behind his attacker, and grabbed… a wing?!

"Rouge…" Shadow released the wing and jumped back in surprise, "What the hell are you doing here?!" he assumed an angry, but defensive stance as the silhouette of Rouge slowly backed up towards the wall. Rouge was not someone he considered trustworthy, especially under the current circumstances.

"Shadow." she stepped into the light as she pulled off her ninja-like black mask, "I should ask you the same. Last time I saw you, you were standing with Metal Sonic, his right hand man." she stuffed the mask in a pocket, "I'm surprised you've suddenly decided to remember me again." she accused, "So what are you? The Shadow I released, now Metal Sonic's aid? Or one of those mindless clones?" she also assumed a defensive stance.

Many things raced through his mind at that moment. Released? Shadow remembered Eggman's words – Rouge had released Shadow's backup and teamed up with him for a while. Now Metal Sonic had control of all Shadow's copies and his backup. Shadow quickly realised that Rouge had no idea she was talking to the real deal. The true Ultimate Life. Shadow did not want to have to resort to lying again, but Eggman had told him that he didn't want outsiders to know that the real Shadow had been found alive.

"I am his consociate…" Shadow said darkly, lying.

"Humph… figured as much." She backed away from the fallen crates further, trying to get as close to a wall as she could before possibly triggering an attack from Shadow, "At least that bolt head is smart enough to send something with a half-decent brain in its head to go spying…"

Shadow simply smirked and tilted his head to that in the dim light.

"Not doing a very good job though... heh… I managed to catch you—" she started.

He interrupted, "I've been watching you sneak around for some time now. The rooftop? The little camera caps?" He tried to make it sound like he had actually been following her for some time, though he wasn't even sure if the figure on the roof had been her.

"Oh! So you've been stalking me?!" she brought a hand to her neck in surprise, giggled, "Creep…" and winked.

Shadow rolled his eyes, dropped his arms and took a half step back, "We are enemies…"

"So?" she took a few paces forward in her usual, seductive way. She came very close to him, "Who was it that said 'keep your friends close…'" she came within inches of Shadow's face, so close that he could feel her body heat, "'but keep your enemies even closer'?"

To put it bluntly, Shadow was not impressed, but her presence was so alluring that he didn't move. He could feel his face burning in a mixture of rage and… discomfort. She was so close now that he could feel the slight wind of her breath. He tensed up, ready to retaliate, and still thinking this was some kind of trick. He could have sworn he felt a presence behind him, but he felt dizzy, heavy, and numb as Rouge leaned over and breathed in his ear, "I've always liked you, you know…"

'Damn this female…' he thought, struggling to keep focused. His ears and eyelids drooped a bit. He was sure there were others in the room now, but Rouge was knocking him senseless without even landing another kick. He took a weak step back trying to pull away from her bewitching aura.

"…it's too bad…" she continued, "that you had to pick the wrong side…"

Weapons clicked as Rouge suddenly threw herself to the floor and Shadow's senses pricked up again.

BLAMBLAMBLAMBLAMBLAM— semi-automatic laser blasters fired continually as Shadow leaped into the air, executing an artistic back flip as he landed on all fours behind the line of GUN soldiers. As they turned, Shadow raced towards a wall, and with lightening speed flew along it, a trail of lasers hot on his heels. Rouge got off the floor and watched as Shadow, in a matter of seconds, sprang off the wall to a catwalk, then onto a chain, then onto another wall, lasers following him and lighting up the room.

A rough, empty, metallic sounding alarm went off as Shadow spun straight up a wall and took cover in the steel beam rafters of the armoury's high ceiling as he had his first day in the base. Laser energy bounced off the metal surfaces around him – the guns must have been set on stun, for a higher setting would have scorched or melted the metal. …but why were they trying to stun him?!

"What the hell is going on down there!?" Eggman's voice suddenly bellowed over the base's audio system, "That better not be you, Shadow!"

The GUN soldiers plus Rouge started to run for where Shadow assumed they had entered from; a narrow, crude cut they had made in one of the walls. …but it wasn't so easy. Three Legionnaires, each wielding a laser rifle, suddenly flowed out of the hole and opened fire. Caught off guard, a few of the GUN soldiers fell. The remaining group, around seven or eight of them, fired back. The three Legionnaires split and seemed to melt into the darkness as they dodged the shots. Another Legionnaire appeared behind the group, holding a laser blaster-style machine gun in each… hand? Shadow swiftly hopped towards the group from beam to beam to take a closer look. This Legionnaire simply had a mechanical, very evil looking claw for one hand. The 'clawhand' raised his weapons, and the GUN soldiers dove to flatten themselves behind crates as he fired at them, cackling madly. The room filled with bright yellow light as lasers danced through the air and hit every surface imaginable, except for the intruders. It was apparent that he was trying to terrify them, rather than kill them.

A thought suddenly occurred to Shadow, 'Where's that Rouge?'

ZAP! "KUUYA!" Shadow managed to spurt out as he arched his back and fell, partially stunned, from the beam. He hit the floor hundreds of feet below on three limbs and one rigid leg, head millimetres from having hit the floor full force. His arms, having absorbed most of the shock, trembled, and then collapsed under him as he sunk face first against the piercingly cold floor. His left leg and most of his back and neck had gone rigid and numb; stunned. Struggling, he tried to push himself up with his arms, but it was too late…

GUN's reinforcements arrived, soon forcing the four Dark Legionnaires to take cover behind their own crates and other objects as GUN fired away with laser machine guns of their own. Shadow struggled to get up as he noticed some of the reinforcements carry off the fallen. There was a soft 'pat!' soundas Rouge suddenly landed in front of him, hand on one hip, other hand holding a stun gun. She smirked, and Shadow struggled harder… but his body simply wouldn't obey as he wiggled about on the floor, trying desperately to at least curl into a ball.

"You're not a very good liar Shadow… never were…" she said as she admired the stun gun, "You're what we've been looking for, aren't you?"

Shadow suddenly felt strong hands grabbing his shoulders. Two solders lifted him into the air, and he twisted and struggled as best he could with his stiffened leg and side as they hog-tied him with energy ropes. Seething and panicking at once as they carried him off (they wisely avoided his spines), Shadow yelled back to Rouge, "You're still a worthless, pathetic creature!" while making valiant attempts to free himself from the restrictive binds as they tossed him into a small black metal box, then locked it firmly shut. Rouge simply winked and pocketed her stun gun, though she knew Shadow couldn't see out of the dark box. The two solders picked up a handle on each side and quickly carried the box – now violently lurching as Shadow flailed about in claustrophobic rage – away from the scene. The rest of the troops and Rouge soon followed them.

GUN ran down the narrow utility hallway – Shadow cursing them all to hell and other nasty places from inside the box – Rouge out front and swiftly taking out each laser turret and defence robot that managed to get in the group's way.

"Imbeciles! What are you doing in my base?!" Eggman's voice came loud and clear out of the loudspeakers again, "What are you doing to my base?!"

GUN ignored him as they hurried outside, all the while Shadow struggling inside the box and making it difficult to carry. Far in the distance, a helicopter emerged from behind a tall sand dune, pushing sand every which way as it hovered a few feet off the ground.

Eggman now opened fire as the group sprinted away from the base. Hundreds and hundreds of missiles screamed and whistled through the air, targeting the group.

"GET DOWN!" someone bellowed.

KA-BLAM! The first missile exploded against the sand, sending a good quarter of the group flying into the air, and flattening the rest against the ground with the shockwave. Shaking off the blast, Rouge urged the living to get up, and more explosions sounded behind them as they scampered into the helicopter. The two soldiers responsible for Shadow's box quickly buckled it to the floor as the craft took to the skies, explosions lighting up the desert as they shot into the sky.

Shadow was having visions of the last time he was captured by GUN.

Shadow was not the only one throwing a fit as he lay, uncomfortably bound, in his box. Back in the base, Eggman was slamming his fists repeatedly on the control panel, his cursing enough to make a sailor cry. A distance behind him, a torn and bloodied Julie-Su watched on, her cloak shredded to ribbons – you could just see a bit of orchid colored fur and a glimmer of metal between the rips and bloody gashes as she sank to her knees, exhausted. Another Legionnaire with two red glowing eyes under his hood, none other than Moritori Rex, glared furiously down at her.

The four Legionnaires previously battling in the armoury gathered on the rooftop, watching solemnly as the helicopter disappeared from range, and missiles still falling with deafening blasts that rocked the ground.

Kragok threw his weapon down and stamped on it, smashing it into sparking pieces, "Shhhit!"

"I'd say this qualifies as shit-on-a-stick." said Kommissar quietly, her face angry under her hood. She turned to walk back into the base, but stopped suddenly.

"This isn't a good sign." said a male voice from under another cloak, yet to be identified, "Are we sure that this Ultimate Life Form is who he says he is? …how do we know this wasn't a staged event and he is not simply a double agent?"

"Oh really!? I never though of that!" Kragok yelled with heavy sarcasm, then yelled again in exasperation, "Exactly why do you think I'm so angry!?" the sarcasm started again, "Oh yes… I'm deeply distraught that Shadow may never return!" he made a scene of sarcastic wailing and crying, he then turned to the hood who had spoken and grabbed the front with his clawed hand, red eye gleaming with rage, "Look you moron… You are Julie-Su's direct superior, and she was the one who let all this happen, so you better have a good excuse for not keeping an eye on that worthless runt!" he let go of the now silent Legionnaire, stepped back, and said truthfully, "They didn't just take Shadow, you fool! They took valuable data on the Mechidna as well!" Kragok stamped a foot.

"… and surely you don't blame this on Rykor?!" Kommissar walked back to the three, cobalt blue eyes shining with pure evil as she slowly pushed the hood off her head, "I don't."

Three hoods stared at her as she flipped her long metal-banded dreads (one was completely robotic), and wavy, medium length red hair out from under her cloak. Four glowing red eyes blinked from beneath the the hoods.

"I don't blame Rykor at all for not watching that bugger. I don't know how anyone could stand her." she continued, "For future catastrophes… when something goes wrong," she said matter-of-factly, "…just blame it on Julie-Su." she smirked, "Everything's her fault anyway… so don't fret, brother." she looked to Kragok, still smirking "…if anyone is to be punished it will be her. In fact, Rex is… looking after her right now…"

A neutral grunt emitted from beneath Kragok's hood, "…lets go and watch the show then… Rykor… Xenin…" he turned to each of the hoods in turn.

The other two nodded and followed Kragok and Kommissar into the base.

Far away from the base in the noisy helicopter, Rouge sat across from Shadow's box. The box was silent now, Shadow trying his best to conserve energy until he had a chance at freedom. She stared hard at it, neutral expression. For a moment she almost felt piteous, but then pushed it aside. Her mission was to help collect data on Eggman's current operations, and she had done well. GUN had recently had a small base obliterated single-handedly by Shadow's copy, and so after Rouge's detailed report of Eggman's Shadow-backup and copies, they placed the blame on Eggman and went to investigate his base. They did not yet know that Metal Sonic was the true reason behind all this, and they did not yet know that the Shadow they had captured was the true Ultimate Life – though Rouge had a great suspicion it was the real one.

Rouge pulled out a small black silk cloth out of her pocket and carefully unfolded it. Concealed within was a very well polished gold band – one of Shadow's that he had lost post-Finalhazard. She gazed at its shiny surface but her thoughts were soon interrupted and she quickly pocketed it.

Shadow lightly banged his head in frustration against the bottom of the box, and then stopped, straining to listen to the conversation outside.

"Well done Rouge." a male voice yelled over the noise of the helicopter, "That may have been a less than graceful exit, but we got all the information we need, plus a little extra to make up for the losses." Shadow couldn't see, obviously, but the man had gestured to the box.

Rouge yelled back, "Sir. What plans do you have for this Shadow?"

"I imagine they will want to take him apart at the lab, see what he's made of."

In the box, Shadow's eyes widened in horror.

"You know… see if there's any technology there we can use." the man continued.

Rouge nodded and looked back at the box, trying to put aside a worried expression, "What about questioning, sir?"

"Questioning? He's a robot!" the man almost laughed, then he noticed that Rouge was serious, "Oh…"

"Are you sure he's the backup? I've known this guy for a while… and… I have a suspicion that this robot may be more than we think…"

Her superior raised an eyebrow, "Are you suggesting this may be Professor Gerald's Shadow? The original? The one we've been looking for all this time?"

"Maybe…" Rouge crossed her legs and leaned against the back of her seat.

"Well… we'll soon find out at the lab." sighed the man.

Shadow listened intently as the helicopter suddenly descended and slowly touched down. He heard the chopper power down and all the people inside clear out, then was suddenly slammed headfirst, very hard, into the wall of his prison. A trickle of blood dripped down his forehead as his box was carried roughly from the craft.

He didn't know exactly what they were going to do with him, but he did know that now that GUN knew the location of Eggman's base, what exactly was being kept in the base, and how hostile it really was, Shadow's allies would be in big trouble. On top of this they now had possession of him -- the real Shadow. They didn't yet know for sure, but if they tried to take him apart they would soon find out.

Shadow's skin crawled at the thought of being frozen for another fifty years… or maybe longer… maybe forever… then he would never get the chance to die and be reunited with Maria…

Shadow resumed banging his bleeding head against the floor of the box, trying to knock visions of her death out of his mind.