The (*) symbol used ONCE signals the start of a new scene while the (*) symbol used TWICE signals the END of a scene.

Chapter 8

Sixty Years Ago…

*Peter Justice watched the small, young hedgehog walk with difficulty as he held his father's hand down the hallway toward him. The two of them had just returned from the sergeant's office. The child had lost his mother a few weeks ago, and the father was hoping that the sergeant would take the child to raise him and train him to become a soldier, just like the rest of them.

"Derrick, were you successful?" Peter asked. The father sighed wearily, but nodded.

"Yes, he's your responsibility now," Derrick confirmed. Peter looked down at the lad holding Derrick's hand.

"You better watch your equipment. The lad is three years old, and yet, he has already taken a very great interest in mechanics. You should see him sitting on the floor examining wrenches…" Derrick commented, but his voice trailed off as he thought about that. Peter grinned.

"We'll take good care of him. Feel free to come and check on him whenever you'd like. After all, you owe us one," he pointed out. Derrick sighed wearily again.

"The boy has been drawing pictures. Some dome-shaped thing. He likes to call it the roboticizer," he said. Peter frowned.

"Roboticizer?" He asked. Derrick chuckled.

"You'd be quite surprised what kids could think up these days," he said.

"What is his name?"

"Charles. But we call him Chuck."**

*Peter sat in the passenger's seat of a roofless jeep, wiping his laser rifle with a rag. The driver was a good friend named George. He wore an average soldier's outfit with a small cap over his head. Mobius was in an uproar about how there seemed to be less humans and more of other creatures. Most of the Overlander empire was made up of humans, and their goal was to increase the planet's population with Overlanders, even if it meant getting rid of all other talking creatures. Humans on Mobius were normally hostile toward these talking animals, but the Freedom Fighters fought for the freedom of these creatures, and to find peace from the empire's tyrannical grip. They believed that there was something special about these hedgehogs, echidnas, bats, and foxes. A good portion of the Freedom Fighters was a variety of creatures, working with the humans to gain their freedom and independence.

Now there were rumors of the empire using very special equipment to transform soldiers for their own use. This equipment was not technology or electronic. It was raw power from special artifacts that people searched the entire world looking for.

In the back seat sat two other soldiers, one human, and one fox. The human's name was Carl and the fox was Jason.

"This is a good place to stop," George suggested, halting the jeep in the middle of a war-torn field. Peter got out of the jeep, holding his laser rifle in two hands and looking around at his surroundings. The field had once been beautiful, with green grass sparkling under the sunlight. But the war had torn the field apart, burning away a lot of the grass and vegetation. Peter could see that anybody could pass by and mistaken the field to be a desert. Noticing something in the ground, he bent down and moved a gloved hand across a clear, fresh footprint.

"Someone was here. This track is fresh," Peter told the others, who walked over to him to investigate. Carl, who was younger than Peter and George, bent down beside him.

"Yeah, you're right," he said, aiming his rifle in all directions, tensing for danger. Peter felt his spine tingle in anxiety.

"If it's an ambush, we'll need more men to reinforce us," he said, and he turned to Jason, "contact command and request reinforcements."

Then, as he got back onto his feet, not taking his eyes off the prints, the explosion happened.**

*Present Day

During the same time that Sonic and Amy were at Chun-Nan, W and W.L. cautiously walked across a boardwalk wearing G.U.N. commando armor that they were given back at The Trident to infiltrate the enemy base over the river. This was the location where Mario was abducted by the enemy, so the two brothers knew that they had to stay together. Their mission was to steal a sample of an old virus that the G.U.N. forces were able to take and obviously planned to use for their own purposes. The sample would be analyzed back at the Trident to see what the virus was capable of and how they could possibly stop it.

"Stay sharp. We need to find the lab and steal a sample. It doesn't matter if they eventually find out we're here," W whispered to W.L beside him. W.L. nodded, and trotted just a few steps ahead of him. The two of them were growing more and more restless in the past few days. He wanted answers about a recent project only known to everybody except the Chairman as Project 60, but the Chairman continually refused to give him answers, which was something that that he detested. W.L was also irritated because he desired to see it. To use it.

During their brief meeting with the Chairman immediately before they left, the hedgehog Sonic and the other new recruit Amy were being briefed as well for their mission to Chun-Nan. W had been glancing at Amy with a little suspicion as to her interest in his and his brother's mission as if she was supposed to remember their task. Amy appeared to be somewhat of a mystery to him. She didn't seem to come clean with everybody all the time, as if she was hiding something that she did not want everybody to know.

Shaking these thoughts out of his head for now, W continued the casual walk to another building built atop a platform, connected with the intersecting boardwalks that led from one place to the other. A screen on the wall indicated that it was the storage facility. Injecting a G.U.N. military ID into a slot on the wall, the door willingly slid open revealing a room full of crates, creating towers, some touching the ceiling above. The light inside was very dim, and even flickered. In one special corner was a desk where small glass tubes containing a red liquid were lined up carefully. The liquid in the tubes bubbled and spat up drops into the air.

"I'll take a sample. Watch the door," W whispered, approaching the tubes. He removed his helmet and placed it on the desk next to the tubes. Carefully, he picked up a tube, then removed an empty glass canteen from his belt and very cautiously poured a little of the red liquid into the canteen. A scarlet smoke leaked from the canteen as he poured. He screwed the lid back onto the canteen and clipped it to his belt.

"Done. Let's get out of here," W whispered to W.L. W.L nodded, and the two of them quickly left the storage room, sealing the door up before leaving. Now all they had to do was get back to their stolen G.U.N. shuttle and get out of there. The mission was going smooth so far, maybe a little too smooth. As they walked leisurely down the boardwalk, the two of them heard a strange purring sound.

"Why leave so soon?" A sadly familiar voice purred. W decided to turn around and look up at the familiar figure on the roof of the storage facility. Crouched there was a special G.U.N. agent with a black cloak, with a hood thrown over her head which shadowed her seductive eyes. Black wings opened up on her furry back.

"We're kind of in a hurry, Rouge," W complained. W.L growled next to him and attempted to approach her, which W stopped by putting a hand on his chest.

"Wait," he ordered. It was time to ask this agent a couple questions.

"The whole base here knows we're here don't they?" He asked. Rouge shifted her pose on the roof.

"That's right," she replied.

"How would they know that?" He asked. He heard a low sigh from Rouge.

"Not everybody in your freedom fighter team is trustworthy," she answered. W looked at his brother beside him, who was beginning to get more and more restless. Judging from his movements, he wanted to get at Rouge's neck.

"So you're saying there is a spy in our midst?" W asked, knowing pretty well that Rouge wouldn't give him an adequate answer, but he needed to buy time. Rouge let out an annoying laugh.

"Silly boy, like I would tell you," she said, then she stood up and jumped into the air, her wings fluttering, so that her landing in front of W and W.L on the boardwalk was without any noise.

"The G.U.N. soldiers cleared out so that I could take care of you two myself, now, if you would be so kind as to hand over the virus sample," she challenged.**

*Sixty Years Ago…

Peter's eyes shot up open in alarm. His breathing was harsh and fast, but it sounded strangely unnatural. Above him was a bright light, but he couldn't feel his eyes watering. He actually felt extremely light, like he had no weight. He almost couldn't feel his legs. He felt like there was a tube in his head, and electrical energy seemed to be zipping through the tube and into his head. As he lay there trying to remember what happened before he found himself here, he couldn't really recover any of his memories. Everything felt like a blur. The only thing that he could remember was an explosion, which he guessed was what got him here. He could hear voices, some far off, and some very close by.

Confused, he realized that his hearing seemed to have improved. He seemed to be able to hear everything around him. He could hear the energy in the tube on his head, he could hear the voices near and far very clearly, and he could hear crackling, humming energy that seemed to come from seven different sources.

"…The emeralds did their job. This is a successful attempt at seeing all seven of them revealing its power combined…" Peter could hear a gruff, scratchy voice announce. Peter than began to feel uneasy and nervous. He made grunting sounds that did not sound like him. He held up his hand and glanced at it, and gasped. He seemed to be able to see through his hand, seeing the wall through his palm. He heard many people gasp around him, and nervously step back. Peter got up from the cot he was lying on, feeling so light. Nothing weighed him down. Then he saw his reflection on the wall from the bright light shining down above him. His shadow looked like a floating, weightless ghost.

"Take him! That black doom cannot be let loose!" Someone screamed. Peter tried to grin, and then realized that he couldn't. He could feel so much power radiating off of him, and somehow, it felt so good. The overwhelming power was too tempting to resist. Nothing was weighing him down. He was invincible. Immortal.

"Black Doom. I like the name," Peter said. He couldn't feel lips moving as he spoke. The voice seemed to come out of every part of his body, so that his voice was everywhere, striking terror into the onlookers surrounding him. Then, he lashed out at the terrified soldiers that surrounded him.**

*Present Day

Shadow bolted upright underneath a tree in the woods. A crash of thunder had jolted him awake. Rain beat down around him, droplets splashing onto the leaves of the tree and then dripping onto him. Huddling closer against the tree branch, he closed his eyes to try to fall back to sleep. He had a strongly uneasy feeling in his stomach that kept him awake, drawing him closer and closer to fear.

NOTES: I hated the character Black Doom from the video game Shadow the Hedgehog because he was so one-dimensional. He had no background, no clear goals, nothing. Just some villain that came out of nowhere and wouldn't shut up long enough for Shadow to talk himself. Here, I had the opportunity to give Black Doom his own origin. Slipping in a scene from Shadow's point of view right after Peter's discovery of what he had become was a great way to foreshadow the dark menace that threatens to loom over him, hopefully making the reader fear for him.

Rouge the Bat is not a favorite of mine either, but it was a lot of fun to write about her, taking her personality and going with it, and having her talk to W and W.L was great. Here, we return to W and W.L after quite a few stories without them save a brief mention of them in Chapter 8, which heightens the tension as to where these characters are going to end up. Their anger towards the Chairman is emphasized here.