As per usual, thank you for your reviews, Hawk, AlexJ and emzhao07010. Now I feel the need to post a warning for this chapter. There is a description of some things that happened to Shadow that gets pretty intense. I'll put some stars on either side if you think you can't handle it. Use your judgment!
You know it! Don't own it! Enjoy!
Sally, Sonic and Bunny stood in a hallway made of stark metal walls. The fluorescent lights overhead only added to the feel of the cold sterile atmosphere. The place had the feel of a ghost town.
"I might just regret this," Bunny said, rubbing at her flesh arm.
"Sorry to disappoint," Sonic said. "It isn't exactly a desired tourist destination."
"Hmm…" Sally said thoughtfully. "Let's find the main servers so we can get out of here. This place is making my fur stand on end."
"Feels an awful lot like one of Dr. Eggman's bases," Bunny agreed.
"Servers, huh?" Sonic said. "I think I saw something like that over this way."
He led them to a room deep inside the station that had a high ceiling. There were three levels in the room with cat walks along the wall that intersected in a bridge across the middle. Every single path was lined with row upon row of servers all quietly churning away, storing years and years of data.
"Sonic, this is perfect," Sally said, tapping away at her wrist console. "I just need a few minutes."
Bunny walked around a little peering down the empty rows. "Maria said she grew up in this place…" she said. "This is no place for a little girl. Please tell me the entire Ark isn't this… cold."
"'Fraid so," Sonic said. "It's all metal and this crappy lighting."
"And her parent's never even tried to visit?" Bunny said.
"Maybe they couldn't," Sonic said. "She hasn't said much about that, so I'm not sure."
"That's it!" Sally said, walking back towards them. "I have all the relevant information. I'll sort through it back at the warehouse in Station Square."
"Yep," Bunny said. "Am I ever done with this place."
"Let's blow this popsicle stand!" Sonic said and reached for his emerald again.
He set them down in the main part of the warehouse.
"Well! I have a meeting to get to! Toodles!" Sonic said the second they arrived and activated chaos control again.
Bunny and Sally were quiet for a second.
"He's so much like Olly, it's scary," Sally said. "He even called me Sal…"
"I noticed that," Bunny said thoughtfully. "One's blue and the other's brown though…"
"Nicole," Sally said. "Remind me again what year Olly disappeared."
"Olgilvie Maurice the Hedgehog was listed as missing in action at the end of 3235, just before you became the leader of the Freedom Fighters," Nicole listed off for them.
"And is there a known date for Sonic's first appearance?"
"There is," Nicole said. "Sonic first appeared in the Green Hills Zone in the spring of 3237. There is roughly a year gap in those dates."
Sally tapped her foot just like Olly used to. "Are you sure?" she said. "There are no sightings of Sonic at all before 3237?"
"None," Nicole confirmed. "I have also just found a relevant article published by the Chaotix Detective Agency in their frequently asked questions that you may be interested in."
"Read it off for us, sugar," Bunny said.
"We have had many people interested in the origins of Sonic the Hedgehog, from news casters to private individuals. Save your time and money people. His birth certificate was destroyed along with many others when Dr. Eggman was still on his first rampage. We couldn't find anything leading beyond the Green Hills Zone where he made his first appearance. We regret to inform you that there is just nothing. Sorry!"
"Either Vector or Charmy wrote that," Bunny said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "And my money's on Charmy."
Sally took a breath. "If this is Olly… why would he act as if he doesn't know us?" she said. "He was my best friend, Bunny. It doesn't make any sense."
"I don't know, hon," Bunny said, reaching over to rub Sally's shoulders. "Maybe he's scared? It also might not be him at all. Come on, we've got a few days before our flight back to the western continent. Let's go dig through that stuff you got from the Ark."
It was pure nightmare fuel.
They had quickly verified Maria's timeline, and they saw a countless number of entries in Dr. Gerald Robotnik's attempts at a cure. Then Shadow entered the picture. Some of the records about him were missing, including all of the initial research notes on his creation. All they had were a cringe worthy number of previous attempts, including the biolizard, the very beginning notes on Shadow, and a celebratory note of success. They found nothing about the methods Robotnik Senior used in Shadow's development, at all.
The second Shadow was stable enough to breathe on his own, Robotnik had him out of the life support pod and started by injecting him with illnesses starting with the common cold and working up to typhoid and even the bubonic plague. Shadow hadn't even been a week old.
There were some excited notes about how Shadow had started producing antibodies to all the illnesses within minutes or even seconds. They found copious amounts of notes on Shadow's resilience and his ability to learn.
Sally and Bunny exchanged apprehensive looks when they found the entry about GUN's request to run their own tests on Shadow.
"GUN approached me about Project Shadow today," Robotnik Senior wrote. "I have to say, I myself am curious about how far they can push my creation. We do not truly know the extent of its strength, or how many injuries it can sustain before intervention becomes necessary. If it proves to be immune to various poisons and toxins, then all the better for Maria. I think this will also serve to fill their itchy palms for some time, too."
"Son of motherless goat! Sally, look at this," Bunny said suddenly in an angry, urgent tone. "I can't believe this man!"
Sally rolled her chair over to the other computer screen where Bunny had been working. It was another entry by the old scientist himself.
"I must admit that I'm procrastinating at this point," Gerald wrote. "Maria's cure is staring me in the face with a set of red eyes. I just can't bring myself to do it. A… relatively simple spinal bone marrow transplant from Project Shadow would be more than enough to replace my granddaughter's immune system. On a whim… I ran some tests, and chaos knows how it's possible, but they are compatible. Perhaps it has something to do with the unique DNA that… but I digress. It would forever mean that my granddaughter is only mostly human mixed with a small part of a lesser species. She should have died almost four years ago, but she is nothing if not a Robotnik. That does not change the fact that we are on borrowed time, but this is one line I never wanted to cross."
"That dirt bag!" Sally exclaimed. "He had it figured out! And we are NOT a lesser species!"
"My thoughts exactly," Bunny said.
Nicole spoke up, startling them. "Sally, I have just managed to recover a short bit of footage from a GUN test on Project Shadow," the AI said. "The content is disturbing, but I believe it will give you better insight to the character of Maria Robotnik."
Sally and Bunny exchanged another look. "Go… ahead and play it for us Nicole." Sally said hesitantly.
The AI commandeered the monitor they'd been looking at.
The figure on the screen was unmistakably Shadow. He sat in a metal chair that had wrist and ankle cuffs welded to the arm rests and front legs, and they could clearly see he was in those restraints, unable to move or defend himself. A few white bandages stood out starkly on the screen, but there were other places where his wounds had been left open to bleed. The black fur was soaked in a combination of sweat and blood. Shadow's ears were pinned back, and he was breathing hard, his entire body wracked with tremors. He coughed roughly, and more spots of blood appeared on his white fluff.
There was an IV line attached to his arm.
"This is the ultimate life form?" a male voice asked. "Pathetic. Increase the dosage."
A woman in a white lab coat walked into the screen, but the poor camera angle cut off her head. She was carrying a syringe and was about to add its contents to the pack attached to the IV line when the door opened.
The woman hesitated.
"Maria? Does your grandfather know you're here?" the male voice asked.
"He does," Maria said, walking into view. She looked so out of place in her knee length blue dress. Her hands were folded primly behind her back, giving her the look of absolute youthful innocence. "Grandfather requires project Shadow for more testing, so record your results now."
Maria stood primly next to Shadow, those big blue eyes tracking the activity happening off screen, until they heard the sound of a door closing. The girl burst into action, immediately going for the restraints.
"Don't… touch…" Shadow coughed out. "Bag… Ricin."
Maria gasped and stood up, indicating the IV. "They injected you with Ricin?"
Shadow managed a little nod.
The girl ran off screen and came back with a set of gloves, scrambling to put them on. She turned off the flow on the IV and carefully removed the needle from Shadow's arm.
"C-can't… breathe!" Shadow said. "Hurts!"
"Oh, Shadow, I'm so sorry!" Maria said, sounding as if she was close to crying. "Just hold on. I can fix this. I promise it's going to be alright. I love you so much!" She gently lifted Shadow's quivering form into her arms and walked off screen. The picture cut out, leaving the screen dark.
"I found this in the archives, and it was marked for deletion, but the command never went through," Nicole said. "Maria never intended for anyone to see this footage."
Sally sat back, letting out the breath she'd been holding. "...I think I've seen enough," she said quietly.
Bunny nodded, her long ears pinned back. The talkative rabbit was silent.
Shadow sat on the edge of the bathtub, the ankle of his injured leg resting in Maria's hand. His sister was on her knees, leaning over the edge and was carefully cleaning the injury. He had wanted her to go straight to bed, but the look in her blue eyes had told him that she wouldn't sleep until he let her do something about his leg.
Rouge was standing in the doorway with the others peeking in around her. Shadow had just finished telling them about their evening.
"I suppose it could have gone worse," the bat said with her forehead in one hand. "I'm surprised they got that information about Maria. That would have taken a lot of digging, and who would have thought to check back as far as fifty years?"
"Sounds worth looking into," Shadow said, glancing back over his shoulder at her. "But we have bigger problems at the moment."
Espio materialized at Rouge's shoulder. Tails squawked in surprise and disappeared from the doorway.
"The others were filling me in on the situation," Espio said. "The stakes here are set unusually high."
"I'm glad you understand," Shadow said. "It isn't just our own well being at stake here. We got lucky with the Green Hills Zone."
"So I heard," the chameleon said. "I've seen some pictures, and the depth of the destruction is… breathtaking."
Maria finished wrapping Shadow's leg with bandages and sat back.
Shadow lifted his legs over the side of the tub and stood somewhat gingerly. "Let's take this to the TV room."
Sonic joined them as they were making the migration. He and Shadow both tried to get Maria to go to bed, but the girl had quietly refused.
"I just don't want to be alone," she'd said, looking subdued.
Sonic and Shadow had exchanged a look, knowing they were done for. That is how they all ended up stuffed into the TV room with Maria lounging in one corner of the large sofa with Shadow on her lap.
"I can see why you wanted to call me in for this," Espio said, glancing over the few photos of Mt. Freedom that Rouge was able to grab before the evening set in.
The mountain itself was fenced off in chain link topped with razor wire. The road leading inside the fence had a security checkpoint complete with a guard house and barrier arm that closed off the road. Beyond that the complex had one main entrance that burrowed straight into the mountain, and it was large enough to drive a truck right in, but they couldn't see past about thirty feet inside. Men in the GUN uniforms were dutifully patrolling the road, and it all looked depressingly competent.
"I'm sorry I have so little information for you, Espio," Rouge said. "We have no idea how big the place is, or even how many people are stationed here. Once you get inside, everything is going to be up to you."
"This may be my most difficult assignment yet," Espio said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "But you aren't exaggerating the consequences if their weapon gets put into regular use."
"We have actually discussed what would happen if we let them find out about it the hard way," Sonic said. "This wouldn't be the first time they've had to call me in to clean up their own mess, but we think they'd leave it too long to tell us, and given what Shadow, Knuckles and I faced in the Green Hills Zone? Anything much larger than a mile across and I think we'd need all seven chaos emeralds to get the Master Emerald to where it needs to be to fix it."
"I concur," Espio said. "We need to take this thing away from them before that becomes a problem."
"I'm going to be honest," Rouge said. "The last thing I want to do is put you in danger, Espio, but I don't think we have any other options. At least, not without all seven emeralds. We can't always depend on Sonic going super to fix everything."
"I think I can at least get inside the complex," Espio said, studying the pictures carefully. "If I think I might be risking discovery at all, I will abort."
"If we can't achieve this with stealth, Knuckles and I have been discussing the merits of a full frontal assault," Tails said. "With Sonic and Shadow working together, I think we might actually be able to do it, but the casualties on both sides would be pretty high. Stealth isn't our only option, but it is the best one."
"So now we just need to figure out when to do this, and if there will be a way to mitigate the risk to me," Espio said.
"A diversion?" Sonic said.
Shadow crossed his arms. "That might just work, Commander Towers wants nothing more than my head on a silver platter."
"Towers?!" Maria exclaimed. "Abraham Towers?"
"You know him, Maria?" Rouge said, raising an eyebrow at the girl.
"He was one of the few children who ever got to see the Ark," Maria said. "He treated me well enough, but… He didn't like Shadow."
Shadow found one of Maria's hands and gave it a squeeze. "He's the Commander of GUN now," he said. "It was a shock to see him grown up with gray hair."
"Right…" Maria said. "He's got to be in his sixties at this point. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."
"A personal grudge could work in our favor," Espio said. "But how do we use it…?"
"I think that option is only going to work if we need to resort to a full frontal assault," Maria said. "If you draw out Towers and his men, there will be less people inside the complex and a small strike team could get inside to handle the scrambler and any blueprints."
All eyes went to Maria, surprise on all their faces. Shadow was the only exception, and he looked very proud.
"That's a good plan…" Rouge said, looking just a little bit stunned.
"I'll still try to get inside to give you an edge on information," Espio said. "But it looks like this hinges on me getting in and out without backup."
"Sorry Espio," Sonic said. "I could stand by with a chaos emerald if I think something's gone wrong."
"That will be the best we can do," Espio said. "Still, this is exactly the kind of job I've been training for. I'll need a day to prepare, but we should move on this as soon as possible."