ZONE 1: THE FOREST

ACT 1: I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE

When they had first woken up, the sky was bathed in oranges and pinks. Now, as Shadow trudged through the thick forest with Sonic held tightly in his arms, it was almost completely dark. The only light came from the twinkling stars overhead, and they did little to illuminate his path.

"That's a neat trick," Sonic said. His voice was very quiet, and Shadow had to strain to hear him over the sound of crickets chirping in the brush. He was doing his best to keep his promise, to keep his eyes open, but as the minutes wore on, so did his stamina.

Shadow hummed absently as he stepped over a fallen log.

"Your eyes," Sonic continued. "You sure there's not a flashlight rattlin' around inside that head of yours?"

Raising an eyebrow, Shadow asked, "What are you talking about?"

With the most enthusiasm he'd had in at least an hour, Sonic replied, "They're glowing!"

Unfortunately, there were no mirrors in the woods, so Shadow had to make do with peering at his reflection in the stream he was walking alongside. Sure enough, two glowing red eyes stared back at him, their brightness sticking out like a sore thumb against the blackness of night.

How peculiar.

Then, without stopping, Shadow tilted his head to the side and locked eyes with Sonic. "Yours aren't," Shadow observed.

That got a snort out of Sonic. "Bummer," he said. He wasn't surprised, though. "Maybe if I think about it really, really hard, I can change that. Wanna find out?"

But Shadow didn't respond. He also stopped walking, which made Sonic frown. "Stripes? What's–"

"Shh!"

Suddenly, Shadow dropped down into a crouch. Now, the tall grass came all the way up to their ears and hid them both from view. The only bad thing about it was that Sonic had to fight back a sneeze when it tickled his nose. He choked it down with great effort.

"There's someone up ahead," Shadow whispered. Every muscle in his body was clenched and on edge as he watched the person–a human–pace back and forth. Their hand was held up to their ear and Shadow could see their mouth moving. Were they talking to someone on the phone?

Both of the hedgehogs listened carefully. However, they could only catch bits and pieces of the person's conversation. By the end of it, all they had gathered was that this person was out here looking for something, and that they hadn't found it yet.

Sonic cast a tense glance toward Shadow. "You don't think…?"

Shadow sunk even lower into the grass. "It's a possibility," he said grimly.

Yeah, it was a possibility that the person decked out in power armor was looking for them. Neither Sonic nor Shadow had any clue as to why, but if their instincts were correct, then they didn't want to be found. Especially not while the guy had a gun strapped to his hip, something that was clearly visible even in the dim light of the moon.

Shadow watched as the person angrily snapped their phone shut. Then, they muttered something about how they should've joined that workers' union when they had the chance, before stomping away in the opposite direction.

Shadow exhaled slowly. Sonic did the same.

"That was close," Sonic said. "Who was that guy, anyway?"

"Trouble," Shadow replied simply.

He didn't want to confirm his suspicion that they were what that person was looking for, and so Shadow waited another minute before straightening and leaving the safety of the grass. Then, he adjusted his course slightly, leaving the stream's winding path behind in favor of the denser cover of the forest.

Finally, once he thought it was safe to do so, he asked, "Have you been able to remember anything yet?"

Sonic shook his head. "Nope. You?"

"No."

They were both quiet for a moment. The trees seemed to be thinning out, which was a good sign. It meant they were getting closer to the end of the forest. And closer to a hospital.

Sonic broke the silence first. "Well," he began, "there was one thing." He spoke slowly, for once struggling to find the right words. "I saw it back there in the crater. It was something… yellow. Or maybe gold. I can almost picture it now–almost, cuz I couldn't see the whole thing. But it felt big. Important. I just don't know why."

Shadow frowned. Something gold? That was about as vague as vague could get. But… "It's a start," Shadow said. It was more than he could remember, at least.

A cold wind blew through the trees. Sonic shivered and drew closer to Shadow. To be honest, he was starting to feel a little dizzy. Probably from blood loss. It was a good thing that the person from before didn't have a dog with them, or else they would've been able to sniff out where the hedgehogs were in a matter of seconds.

Something was a little weird, though. Despite his injuries, Sonic wasn't really in pain anymore. He didn't understand it. It wasn't like his leg had magically gotten fixed–when he looked down at it, no, yeah, it was definitely still in rough shape. So, why didn't it hurt anymore?

Maybe he was just that tough. He could break his leg and not break a sweat! That made his ego happy, but he doubted it was the truth. He was just a regular hedgehog, after all. Shadow, on the other hand…

Sonic looked at him curiously. The hedgehog's odd pattern and alien-like features were somehow even more striking in the dead of night.

There was a piece of the puzzle that Sonic was missing. Well, okay, several pieces. Or maybe it was just the entire puzzle that he lacked–but he was doing the best with what he had to work with, and what he had to work with was amnesia and his hedgehog-given intuition. And his intuition was telling him that somehow, Shadow was the reason why his injuries weren't screaming in pain anymore.

Sonic let out a breath. "Thanks," he said.

Shadow blinked. "For what?"

"For this." Sonic gestured vaguely to the both of them. "It beats having to crawl out of the woods myself!" When Shadow just hummed in response, Sonic added, "I appreciate it. Seriously."

"We're not out of the woods yet," was all Shadow could say.

And he was right. At that moment, the crickets abruptly fell silent. Shadow's ear twitched, and all of the fur on the back of his neck stood up. Something was wrong. That was when he heard it–a muffled bang. He dove behind a tree, and–THUD. Something hit the tree where he and Sonic had been just a second ago.

"A dart?" Sonic said, looking up at it with a frown.

"A tranquilizer dart," Shadow agreed. It looked like the person from before had found them after all. "Hang on tight," Shadow told Sonic. "And don't let go."

"We're in for some turbulence, huh?" Sonic squeezed Shadow's shoulders. "You don't need to tell me twice!"