1. Far Beyond my Time
Shadow the Hedgehog was suddenly, acutely aware of a machine humming nearby and a feeling of motion. He was rising, or the surface on which he lay was rising, and he could feel the unmistakable blaze of a Chaos Emerald nearby. Only...that's not the Emerald I know; has the Professor found another, or GUN? He drew a breath as his chest muscles 'awoke', recognizing the metallic tang of the Prison Island stasis bed while still unable to open his eyes. Something was different though. The air smells stale. Is there something wrong with the ventilation? Or maybe it's been more than a few days since the Professor was down here last... The last thought seemed to have merit, after all the stasis beds and their inhabitants didn't need to breathe, and it would save on energy not to keep the air conditioned and circulating in unused areas. And the professor might well have hesitated to return too soon after– his mind flicked away from too-painful memories, grasping at a current puzzle as a distraction. The air seemed far too stale for a few weeks, or even a few months of disuse. His eyes flicked open at last and he realized his bed was rising well above the floor - and that this was NOT the room he'd seen last time the Professor had awakened him, after GUN had 'rescued' his escape pod. Is it not the Professor then? He spotted a large, oddly-shaped figure on the floor. A wry curl of one side of his mouth, The moustache looks big enough.. As the canopy slid aside and the bed ceased rising, he pulled himself up, standing on top of the bed.
His vision finally focusing, he realized that the odd silhouette below was that of a man in some sort of two-legged walking machine. A very large human; not only his moustache but his glasses and jutting nose were strongly reminiscent of Professor Gerald.
"What's that?" the man sputtered, looking up at Shadow. "Is that you, Sonic!? Are you trying to spoil my plans again!?" He sounded both indignant and outraged, but slid quickly towards shock as he got a better look at the black and red dokan above him. "Wait a minute... you're not Sonic! This is impossible!"
Shadow had no idea who - or what - Sonic was, but it sounded as if he were an enemy to the human below. And people with enemies were generally interested in weapons. He thinks I'm a weapon; the military would have listed me as such, however he found out about me. And if he is interested in a weapon... It did not occur to him, then, to wonder how he was so certain of that. "My name is Shadow. Since you were so kind as to release me, my master... I will grant you one wish." One wish? Why did I say–
Shadow was interrupted mid-thought as red lights began flashing and alarms blared outside in the corridor. He heard the human below exclaim in irritation as a metal door in one wall rolled up to allow entry of a small flying craft. The black hedgehog welcomed the chance to relieve his confusion and growing sense that something was wrong with a bit of physical destruction. "Behold, the true power I possess," he declaimed grandly. He kicked on his hover shoes and leapt into the air, holding the position as long as the shoes permitted before dropping to the floor between the walker-bot and the flying machine. Gliding forward he positioned himself on top of a nearby crate to get a better look at his opponent.
The machine glided forward, spraying bullets as it went. It was child's play to dodge them, and even easier to avoid the missiles that followed as the vehicle settled onto two massive legs. Shadow dashed forward and did his jump-curl, leaving a sizable dent in the nose of the craft; he caught a glimpse of two eyes wide with shock beneath a GUN helmet.
Kill the soldier!
Shadow! you have to save them!
Two voices yelling conflicting orders inside his head were enough to distract him and he barely moved out of the way of the next stream of bullets as the guard vehicle took to the air again; he then used another crate as a launch pad to home in on the craft's nose three more times. As he tried to target the fourth attack the craft simply sank to the ground. The pilot scrambled out an escape hatch and fled. Shadow ignored him, shaking his head in an attempt to dislodge the voice that was yelling at him to prevent the man's escape. Maria's voice had wanted to save them, of course, but the other voice... surely it wasn't the professor - he'd always wanted to help people. The black hedgehog looked up quickly as the human who'd awakened him clomped over in his walker-bot.
"Destroying that guard robot was spectacular!" the man enthused. "So, Shadow, YOU are the military's Top-Secret weapon." His eyebrows lowered slightly as he looked down at the dark dokan before him, "But what did you mean when you said you would grant me a wish?"
Shadow didn't answer - he was not actually certain himself, though he took care not to let any of his internal confusion show. He could feel the Chaos Emerald blazing in the machine that had awakened him, but all seven would be needed. "Bring more Chaos Emeralds," Shadow ordered as he turned to walk out the door. He could certainly acquire his own without help, but let the human gather the other six, as a sort of test.
"Shadow, wait!" The human didn't try to pursue him.
Shadow didn't even turn around. "I'll be waiting for you, in the central control room, on the Space Colony ARK."
"ARK!?" The confused reply followed him out the door. Shadow ignored it and kept walking, annoyed by the continuing alarms. Several times he ducked behind equipment to avoid squads of GUN soldiers, or patrolling robots. The robots were of two types, tall bipedal ones and the elongated flying-saucer types that Maria had called 'Beetles'; Shadow had seen prototypes of both on the ARK. The soldiers' uniforms were not what he remembered, although they bore a variation of the GUN insignia he knew. How long has it been, he wondered, and where is the Professor? He felt as if the last three days had been one unending nightmare - first Professor Gerald, the man he called 'Father' being called to Earth, then the alleged disaster on the ARK that had merely been a cover for the GUN raid to kill all the doctors and researchers. That had culminated in Shadow's terrified flight with Maria and the far, far worse moment when he stood, trapped in the escape pod that was supposed to have saved them both, and watched her fall dying outside, inches away and yet impossible to reach. The pod launched automatically, and the next thing he knew was the Professor awakening him, warning him to pretend to be a servant as both were captives of GUN, making him relive those last dreadful moments on the ARK, then returning him to the non-sleep of stasis.
With an effort, he shook off the memories and focused on the problem in front of him. Now what? I need information...a computer. He experimentally pressed the pad on the next door he came to, and it slid open. Careless, these humans. The room actually had a computer in it - that was not locked out. Very careless. Were they that frightened by the alarms? He hopped up into the chair so he could reach the keyboard - and snorted as he got a better look at what was on the screen. Naked humans were of no interest to him so he keyed in the name of a world-wide news channel. When the current headlines came up, he felt his jaw drop. No. That- that can't be the date! That's...fifty-one years from now. From then. I'm...in the future. He saw the headlines without quite reading them - something about a place, Station Square, rebuilding after a disaster, no leads on a hunt for a Dr. Eggman, some medical company had lost a billion dollars when it had to cancel a drug during trials...
He was wasting time, he realized, closing his mouth and calling up a search engine site...which the computer didn't recognize. But he noticed a blank area at the top of the screen following the phrase 'Search for:' and entered 'Chaos Emerald locations'. A lot of entries came up, but four or five repetitions of 'National Reserve Bank' caught his eye, so he called up one of those.
Glancing over his shoulder at the door, he quickly read 'One of the Chaos Emeralds used in the great fight between Super Sonic and the Chaos monster has been loaned for permanent display to the National Reserve Bank in Bay Port. Contained in a specially secure case, it may be seen during regular bank hours 8:30am to 5:00pm, Monday through Friday.' Directions on how to get to the Bank followed, and he quickly memorized them. Now, if I only knew where I actually was, I could find out how to get from here to there. Hearing another squad tramping by the door, he backed the computer up to the original nude human screen and slipped out into the halls. He decided to follow the next squad of soldiers but had to wait for several patrols of the Beetles to pass through before the humans appeared.
Following them from the shadows, he eventually reached a door labeled 'To Supply Dock' and slipped through it after allowing the troops to move out of sight. A short hall led to an open area surrounded by storage sheds and open to a dock that had several cargo ships tethered to it. As he settled himself among a stack of crates he noted that the alarms had ceased. Guess the guy that freed me has either escaped or been caught. Eventually the all clear was given and one of the ships cast off. Before the tug had pulled it more than a few feet from the dock, a black-and-red blur had raced up the dock and jumped the distance to the rail. Once on board, he searched for a safe place to wait for the ship to reach its destination.