Shout outs to Hawk, AlexJ and emzhao07010. I loved your reactions to the abduction! This chapter was soooo much fun to write! As always, drop a review! Get a shout out!
You know it! Don't own it! Enjoy!
Rouge paced the living room feeling the eyes of the others on her. Espio had arrived a few minutes ago, but Sonic, Shadow and Maria hadn't arrived back yet. It figured the two fastest things alive would be the ones late to the party. Somehow, she didn't think Maria was responsible for this.
"I'm sure they have their reasons," Espio said as she passed him for the third time.
"Maybe it's university stuff," Tails said. "When I was going through that, Sonic practically had to stand on his head to get my prior field experience to count as credit towards my degree."
"Well if they're any later, I think we'll have to start without them," Rouge said.
"Perhaps we can fill them in when they get here," Espio suggested. "I have to admit, all this secrecy has piqued my curiosity."
Rouge stopped with a sound of discontentment, putting her hands on her hips. "Well," she said. "I suppose we should at least get you caught up with the situation."
"It all started about three days ago," Tails began.
Shadow woke up with the sense that he shouldn't have been unconscious in the first place. There was also a slight stiffness in his muscles that he associated with electric shock. His shoes were gone and the space he was in felt enclosed. He listened first trying to get a sense of where he was. Sonic's rapid heart beat was just beside him, and there were two others in the room.
"I don't understand it," a voice said and Shadow's mind blanked out with surprise. He knew that voice! That could only be Sally Acorn. "There isn't even a speck of technology on them."
"That is the traditional Robotnik method." This was a male voice he didn't know. "Maybe it isn't tech this time."
"Well thanks for checking anyway, Rotor," Sally said. "Perhaps this might be some form of brainwashing or manipulation."
"Good luck with that," Rotor said. "Technology is so much simpler in some ways."
They walked out of the room, closing the door behind them. Shadow opened his eyes and was greeted with the bars of a cage. Memories of the Ark pressed at him and a tight band of panic wrapped its way around his chest. He closed his eyes again and breathed, forcefully reminding himself that there was plenty of air to be had, he just needed to stay calm.
Taking a second try, he opened his eyes again and examined the cage. The bars were thick leaving gaps that he could almost get a hand through, but not quite. The lock was built into the door, and the corners were reinforced. He had to hand it to the Freedom Fighters. They knew what they were doing.
He considered using a short chaos control to get himself outside the cage at least, but the energy drain on that would be severe. Testing the bars told him there wasn't a lot of give to them, but perhaps they'd underestimated his sheer strength. There was just enough space for him to brace his feet against one side of the cage and his hands on the other. He regretted the loss of his shoes. This was going to hurt.
Shadow pressed outward, putting both the strength of his arms and his legs to bear against the cage, and with a low groan of metal, the structure began to deform. Pausing to breathe a bit and relieve the pressure biting into his feet, he gathered himself for another push.
That's when Sonic woke up. Shadow could just see him if he craned his head around, and he watched the blue hedgehog discover the cage. Those green eyes went wide with panic and he began to hyperventilate.
Shadow knew he had about five seconds or less before Sonic started thrashing.
"Sonic!" he said in a sharp whisper. "Stay calm. We need to stay quiet."
Sonic's eyes darted over to him, looking a little glassy at this point, and Shadow wasn't sure if his words had even registered. To his relief, the hedgehog curled up instead into a shivering blue ball of spikes.
He needed out of this cage. Shadow braced himself again to push, heaving against the cage. There was a satisfying pop as the door sprang open, no longer fitting into its housing, but one of the bars under his feet broke loose at the same moment and his leg shot into the opening, the broken jagged metal left a line of fire on the inside of his ankle almost all the way up to his knee, and he barely held back a cuss word.
Pulling his leg back carefully into the cage, he began to work his way out of the door. The dart they'd hit him with was still an annoying pinch on his chest and he ripped it out, throwing it on the floor.
The room they were in looked like it had been set up as an infirmary, though a small one. He only gave it a cursory glance over and was just about to see to Sonic's cage when he noticed a set of keys on a nearby counter. He snatched them up and began trying them one by one. The third try fit and he opened the door.
"Sonic, you're free," Shadow said, but the other hedgehog was unresponsive.
In the end, Shadow ended up tipping the cage until Sonic rolled out the opening. He recognized complete shut down when he saw it.
"Sonic, I want you to listen to my voice," Shadow said, and carefully began smoothing down his quills. "I got you out. You're not trapped anymore. Can you lay your quills flat for me?"
Three seconds passed, and Shadow almost held his breath, but then Sonic began to respond, quills lowering with what looked like some effort. "Shadow?" he asked, though he still hadn't uncurled.
"It's me," Shadow said. "Do you think you could uncurl for me?"
"The cage-!" Sonic said, a note of panic returning to his voice.
"I got you out," Shadow repeated. "You're free."
Blue quills rippled slightly as Sonic uncurled enough to peek out. After a cautious glance, he uncurled entirely and sat cross legged on the floor burying his face into his hands which were shaking badly. There was still a dart in his shoulder as well.
"Can I touch your arm?" Shadow asked.
Sonic looked up and glanced at his arm, going still when he saw the dart. "Oh," he said, and started to reach towards it but hesitated when he saw the tremble in his hand.
"Let me," Shadow said, and Sonic nodded.
Taking hold of Sonic's arm first, Shadow gently pinched the dart and removed it.
"Thanks," Sonic said, still sounding pretty subdued. "They took our shoes. My chaos emerald is gone too."
"I noticed," Shadow said. "That doesn't make us any less dangerous."
Something in Sonic's eyes turned hard. "No it doesn't," he agreed. "And if they hurt Maria…"
"We need to find her first," Shadow said, approaching the door. "Are you ready?"
Sonic stood and shook himself, and it almost seemed like the fear flowed off of him like water. The emerald fire was back in his eyes. "This had better be a misunderstanding," he said.
Shadow opened the door and strode out into a short hallway and came face to face with a coyote in a fancy blue dress coat complete with gold shoulder tassels. The righteous anger was instantaneous, and the air crackled with undirected chaos energy feeling very much like the moment before a lightning strike. "You have five seconds to tell me where Maria is!" Shadow growled.
The coyote's eyes went wide as his perfectly coiffed fur stood on end. "Mon Dieu!" he proclaimed in a quavering voice before fainting dead away.
Shadow blinked at the fainted coyote in surprise, the chaos energy dying away abruptly.
Behind him, Sonic began to snigger. "Yeah, that's Ant for you," he said.
The statement did absolutely nothing to clear the situation up for Shadow. He looked around. There were a few doors going further into the hall, but the hall itself stopped at a dead end on one side. The other side was a doorway with tattered plastic strips that looked like it might open into some kind of warehouse.
Sonic grabbed the coyote and dragged him into the infirmary using some handy zip ties to secure him to one of the beds.
That was kind. Shadow would have just locked him into the usable cage. He was still tempted.
Two of the doors were labeled men and women's restrooms, and he peeked into both just to confirm. The last door down looked like a dormitory set up. Rows of beds occupied the wall, each with a foot locker. He closed the door.
"Guess we're just gonna have to investigate the main area," Sonic said and began moving down the hall.
They paused at the doorway.
"I don't know about this, Sally," Bunny was saying. "She doesn't have any technology on her either, not even a cell phone. And I can't be exactly sure, but she strikes me as pretty skinny for an overlander. I think she should have woken up by now."
"It doesn't change the fact that she's a Robotnik," Sally said, but even her voice was starting to lose confidence.
That was why?
Shadow growled, and the air started to feel charged again. A red haze began to swirl around Shadow's feet. He marched out into the open, gaze narrowing in on Maria who was tied to a chair, slumped forward unconscious.
Somebody shouted in alarm, and Shadow's gaze snapped upward to the lookout on a catwalk overhead. The mobian pointed a weapon at Shadow and fired. The dart hit the crimson haze, stopped cold and fell to the floor.
Shadow raised a hand, chaos energy slowly gathering into a spear.
"Cease fire!" Sally shouted, eyes large and round with fear. She was backing slowly away from Maria. "Everyone cease fire!"
"Wise move," Shadow said, allowing the spear to dissipate. He made his way over to his sister and lifted her face gently in his hands. She was pale, but other than being unconscious, she seemed unharmed. He didn't like the ropes on her wrists and ankles. With a spark, the red haze dissolved them away, and he lifted her into his arms.
Maria stirred then, opening her eyes, blinking a few times as she woke up. Memory came back to her and she threw her arms around Shadow. "Shadow! Did they hurt you?"
The red haze melted away, and Shadow closed his eyes. "I'm fine," he said. "What about you?"
"I'm… a little dizzy," she said.
"That will pass," Shadow said.
"What about Sonic?" Maria asked, looking around.
"Right here," Sonic said cheerfully, coming in close to reassure her.
Maria smiled and caught one of his hands. "We're all okay," she said, sounding relieved.
"Are you sure that's a Robotnik," Bunny asked, tapping one metal foot and giving Sally the stink eye, arms crossed.
"Sal?" Sonic said voice hard. "You wanna explain what's going on here?"
The chipmunk gave a little start and took in the way everyone was now staring at her. "I… may have made a mistake," Sally said slowly.
"I think I know what happened," Maria said, patting Shadow's arm to get him to set her down.
Shadow did so with great reluctance.
"When we met, I didn't give you my last name," Maria said as she balanced herself. "Somehow, you found out that I'm a Robotnik on your own."
"Oh mah stars, it is true," Bunny said, a wary look crossing her features, but it was at war with a look of confusion. "I don't see it…"
"That's because I take after my mother in appearance apparently," Maria said. "I saw some pictures once. Most importantly, I did inherit my grandfather's genius, and you…" She pointed at Sally. "Put my last name together with my skills, but there was one thing you didn't consider."
The entire crowd was waiting with baited breath at this point.
Maria gave them a little smile. "I did not inherit his ambitions," she said. "Poor Ivo got it all, including the nose."
There was a smattering of chuckles.
Bunny shot Sally a look. Shadow was fairly certain that Maria had just won the rabbit over.
Sally looked as if she'd just bitten down on a peppercorn. "Perhaps we should take this somewhere private," she said.
There was a little pause, and then they all heard it.
"'ELP! 'ELP! ZEE 'EDGE'OGS 'AVE ESCAPED!"
Sally's poker face went up.
Bunny rolled her eyes. "We know Antoine," she said. "We know. I'll get him."
A few minutes later, they were all seated around a conference table, minus Sonic who was tucking a blanket around Maria's shoulders. Shadow had his chair positioned flush with hers and was sitting so close that he was all but in her lap. Sonic joined them in a chair on Maria's other side.
Maria turned to Sally. "I can see that you're not convinced that I'm not…" she started then frowned. "What did you think I was doing?"
"You've got us under some type of mind control," Shadow said flatly. He hadn't stopped glaring at Sally.
Sally sighed. "All I can do is ask you to understand my position," she said. "Dr. Ivo Robotnik was a trusted advisor to my father, and one day… It was like he flipped a switch. I later learned about Dr. Gerald Robotnik and some of the questionable experiments that occurred on the Ark space station. Something about that never added up to me. Robotnik senior struck me as exactly the type to try his hand at world domination. Every single one I've heard of was at least… problematic."
"I think I can explain my grandfather," Maria said. "He was definitely interested, but he had a problem. Neither of his children inherited his genius, until me, but it was still a problem because I was barely more than an infant when I came down with NIDS."
Bunny sat back and covered her mouth. "Isn't… isn't that fatal?" she asked.
"I thought there was no cure," Sally said. "It's an autoimmune disease that targets the nervous system."
"That's correct," Maria said. "So my grandfather had an heir who was only expected to live about six years. My parents gave me to him right away because he promised to spare no expense looking for a cure. It put all his world domination goals on hold because there was no point in handing the world to a little girl who was just going to die. Because the Ark was in space and also the fact that it was a research facility meant that it was a controlled enough environment that my life expectancy was extended by about four years."
Shadow's head came up sharply. "That would have put you at ten years old," he said. "You're fourteen."
"I have a theory about that," Maria admitted. "And it has everything to do with you, Shadow."
"He… you were one of the projects on the Ark at the time," Sally said, casting Shadow an apologetic look.
"Yes," Maria confirmed for him. "My grandfather had exhausted so many different lines of research that he began looking at non-human solutions. I'll spare you the details because it was most certainly unethical. He thought if he could create a being that was immune to everything, he could isolate that ability and give it to me. He would be the ultimate life form. Project Shadow originally started as an attempt for a cure, but you saw his chaos abilities."
"Oh mah stars, did we ever," Bunny said. "I thought he was about to bring on the apocalypse."
"Let me guess," Sally said. "GUN caught wind of him."
Maria nodded, and cast Shadow a curious look, but she continued. "They had a number of scientists on the Ark for separate research and they began demanding the ability to do their own tests on Shadow, and to keep them happy my Grandfather agreed. The things they did were…"
"Dangerous," Shadow cut in, his gaze dropped to the table. "There was an accident. Some people died, and a few weeks later, a GUN strike team boarded the Ark and began arresting the scientists. They gunned down anyone who showed resistance of any kind. Dr. Gerald Robotnik learned that they were there to destroy me, so he told us to flee. They caught up to us. Maria pushed me into an escape pod and activated it." Shadow swallowed hard. "Then they killed her in front of me."
Maria leaned against Shadow, managing to get an arm around his shoulders. Everyone was quiet for a bit.
"So then…" Sally started hesitantly. "That explains the whole thing with the Ark a few years ago and why you attempted to…"
Shadow nodded. "I'm immune to many things," he said. "Grief is one of the exceptions."
"If you're dead…" Bunny began speaking. The rabbit was looking at Maria as if the girl could potentially start trying to eat people. "Then how are you back?"
"That's more recent history," Sonic said. "And it actually starts with GUN's new toy. Shadow and I got hit, long story short, my theory is that when the Master Emerald sensed Shadow's grief, it attempted to heal that as well, but there was only one cure."
"We thought I was on borrowed time at first," Maria said. "But it's been… It's only been two days?!"
"Almost three," Sonic said with a shrug. "And we've already been through so much together…"
"Sally!" Bunny said suddenly. She put a hand on the chipmunk's arm. "That green flash in the sky three evenin's ago!"
Sally looked a little stunned.
Maria yawned and frowned, blinking as if she was starting to get a little light sensitive. "If you want more corresponding evidence. The Ark is still in orbit. All the records are still up there I assume?"
"They are," Shadow said. "But I think you need a bed."
Maria nodded.
"Right," Sonic said. "You take Maria home. I think I can handle the rest. But we kinda need our stuff back, including the chaos emeralds…?"
"Of course," Sally said, and reached under the table. She set two separate boxes on the table and pushed them toward the hedgehogs.
Shadow went for his shoes first, and Maria couldn't help picking up the white chaos emerald for a closer look. The facets of the gem flashed with a gorgeous rainbow light and it wasn't just a cold rock either. It was warm to the touch and a pleasant warmth traveled up her arm. She turned it, admiring its shine, handing it off to Shadow when he was ready for it.
"I hope you find the proof you need," Shadow said to Sally as he helped Maria stand. "Because I will not tolerate any further threats to my sister from the Freedom Fighters." With one final glare, he vanished taking his sister with him. He hadn't even said the magic words.
Sonic shook his head. "Man he's pissed," he said. "You really put your foot in it this time Sal-ly. So, uh… could we go to the Ark now? I'm actually late for a meeting."
Bunny gasped and turned a pleading look on Sally. "This might be my only chance to experience instant travel… and space for that matter!" she said. "Can I go, too?"
Sally shook her head but smiled. "You'd be welcome company, Bunny."
"Let's get this show on the road then!" Sonic said, offering a hand to Sally and an arm to Bunny." Chaos… control!"
Shadow opened the front door for Maria and nearly ran into her from behind when she stopped just short of the living room. He looked around her to see Knuckles, Tails, Rouge and Espio all looking at them, expressions ranging from askance to mild curiosity.
"And what took you so long?" Rouge asked, setting her hands on her hips.
Shadow gently pushed his way in front of Maria. "We got held up," he said with a perfectly straight face.
Espio stood. "I think you actually mean that," he said. "You're bleeding."