AN: Pesky bee-oops, wrong word!

Can't believe that it took a whole month to get this down. Been focusing on other projects and yet, I'm late as usual. Hopefully, I won't burn out on this. Yet, it's literally around midnight as I post this up before my computer dies! Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 5

It was mostly a dreamless sleep. I'm surprised by this as I thought that I was gonna have nightmares ever since I left Zero and my birthtown. Especially since I was a ball of stress last night. It must be due to the ruby warming me up to feel sleepy and comfortable in my new surroundings. Speaking of which, opening my eyes, I realized that it acted up again to make me comfortable.

My nose was touching the ceiling.

Turning around, I found that I was high above my bed. Still curled up in a ball with my arms crossed and my tail beneath it due to having it between my folded legs. My entire body was glowing green, but it actually felt kind of nice. As if I was inside a cloud where all the soreness in my bones was gone. It was neither lying on a fluffy pillow or needing to stand upwards to walk around.

I was about to wonder why I was up here, but then, I smelled something. The first thing that came to mind was something from the door. It smells like burning…wait, no, not a fire. Somebody was cooking downstairs.

OK, there IS some kind of fire in the kitchen as well aside from the cooking. And it smells horrible like one of Eggman's test tubes I came across before.

The second smell was in the same room. More specifically, it smells stronger underneath me. It was coming from the bed. Looking down, I noticed that the blanket was torn off and there was a dark spot right on it.

My eyes widened and I sniffed on my body. I felt something dried between my legs and a bit of smudge on my tail.

I cringed to myself. I wet the bed again. But I made sure that I didn't drink too much. Maybe it was due to me drinking too much water when I was eating dinner? I wondered how Topaz and Stone would take it. I'm not sure if this is a sort of normal thing, but I can agree that it's a bit embarrassing. A lot of people have trouble with holding in urine during night time.

But how come that happened when the ruby could function on my body?

"You did this, didn't you?" I hissed.

The Phantom Ruby prototype on my chest glowed. Even though I couldn't hear it saying anything, I could sense what it was trying to tell me something innocent.

"OK, but you don't have to keep me high like this," I said.

It glowed again. It was at this point when I realized that it wasn't trying to overwhelm my mind. Thanks to the Inhibitor Rings I still wore. However, I could still feel that it was trying to convince me to take them off and help me. I wasn't convinced nevertheless.

"What do you mean giving me the best service you can possibly offer?" I said back. "You and your influence are just gonna want to rack up my brain once again."

It hissed, trying to lash out at my body. The only thing it got was a pain in my stomach. I groaned a little, but it wasn't as bad as the headaches it gave me before.

"If you really want to be my friend," I said, uncurling my body. "Then you have to stop acting out like this. I don't care how powerful you are. Just because you are glued to me doesn't mean that you're no longer a product of Eggman."

The ruby hissed again and this time, I could sense how angry it was.

"J-Just keep it down and behave, alright?" I snapped. "I'm supposed to test you out as well, so …settle down and don't do anything stupid, alright?"

Finally having enough of talking to myself, I tried to get myself back on the ground. I would have been able to turn off my levitation ability, but I decided that it might be best to try to take it slow and easy. A bit of a self-test for myself. It was when I came to my senses of how strange it was to feel like you weren't standing on anything. The feeling of floating in space and you could control yourself on where you want to fly to.

This actually made me feel great, but it made me feel homesick of preferring to travel by feet. I concentrated a little and it turned out to be simple. I don't know what I have to worry about as I slowly descended before landing on the floor.

I turned back to the bed, inspecting the dark spot. It seemed that most of it was dried since the center of it appeared to be more wet. Looking at it, it didn't seem as huge as the ones who didn't bother going to the toilet at nighttime. It was still a spot and it would just rot the bed.

I tried ripping the sheets off, only to move the entire bed forwards to me. My tail quickly saved me from falling down when it crashed into my stomach. Boy, I forgot how strong I could be.

Looking at the bed frame, the sheets were tucked in. I wondered if that was necessary since it might have mean needing to keep tucking the sheets in and out. Just as I was about to get down into removing the sheets properly, my ear flicked up upon hearing a…cooeing from the window?

The same pigeon from yesterday right there at my window, cocking its head curiously.

"Oh, hi there, fellow!" I said. "Surprised that you're still here, aren't you?"

It was a bit childish to be talking to a barely sentient bird like this. However, I kind of like having the attention from non-anthropomorphic animals, especially when in the wild. Wild jackals in the desert could be troublesome at first, but they won't harm you when you show that you're not a threat. Vultures are often annoying to me. Maybe this bird won't be too bad to me.

"Are you hungry, buddy?" I asked. "Well, I don't have much except those leftover energy bars in my bag."

It didn't respond back. It cooed again, tilting its head before eying the nearby desk. The pigeon looked right back at me as if wondering if I'm a threat. I just grinned like an idiot, waiting for it to take up my offer. When I thought that it was going to fly towards me, it immediately flew to the desk.

"Oh, that's a desk table there," I said, acting as if I was talking to a child. "Ta…ball? Wait, that isn't the right pronunciation to teach. But you get what I mean, right?"

The pigeon wasn't even bothering to look at me. It just walked forwards, bobbing its head. I held back a chuckle to try not to give it reason to fly away. As I took a few steps closely, I noticed that it was heading towards my green bandanna I left there.

"Oh," I said. "You're interested in that thing?"

The pigeon wasn't paying attention, but it did chirp in response.

"Ah, so you like it," I said, smiling. "Well, you can say that it's greener than the grass, don't you think?"

Maybe that pigeon thought that it was grass to be eaten as it began pecking right into it. The second I saw it making HOLES right in the bandanna, I nearly found myself freaking out.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!" I said. "Hold on there, buddy! That is not food!"

At the sound of my voice, the pigeon grabbed the bandanna and flew upwards.

"HEY!" I shouted. "That's mine!"

When I tried to grab it, it tried to fly away. Seeing that it was heading to the window, I slid across the room and slammed it close.

"Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way," I growled. "Either you give it up or-"

But the pigeon was already flying in the other direction, banging against the wall pathetically.

"I haven't even explained the hard way yet…"

One thing I knew was that the pigeon was too high up for me to catch. This room really had a high ceiling, so even if I could use my agility to bounce higher, it would just fly away. A nearby broomstick caught my eyes. I grinned, snatching it and raising it above my head.

"I don't want to do this," I warned. "But at least this is large enough to not-whatever, GIVE ME THAT BANDANNA!"

Would have predicted that it was quick enough to get away when it flew downwards to avoid the broom head. I had a better range when it was flapping towards my eye level, swinging my broom at it. It dodged again and the broom hit the wall. And the broomhead actually came off. I yelped upon it bouncing off and whacking me in the face.

This was worse than I thought as dust flew in my eyes and mouth. Choking and wheezing, I flopped to the floor while the pigeon flew around innocently. God, that was why I prefer using my tail instead of sharp brooms.

I escalated to using my bag as if it was a butterfly net, leaping upwards to catch the pigeon. It took quite a while since I was bouncing all over the place. It was really fast and also going crazy as it kept banging into walls when speeding in one direction. A few times, I tried using my claws to grab it, only accidentally scratching the walls.

Got a bit too much into wanting to grab my prey.

Finally. I managed to catch the pigeon with the bag.

"HA!" I said, lifting it up and facing it towards me. "There's no escaping now, fiend!"

Immediately, it flew out right into my mouth. Never before I had the head of a bird squirming around in my jaw. I don't remember if I did have a tiny rat in my mouth before. The rest of the Jackal Squad would have fare much better due to our hunting experiences, but for me? Not so much.

With a muffled scream, I hopped backwards, trying to pull the pigeon right out. It just continued flapping as if trying to go further in dumbly. My eyes were close to avoid being poked by the feathery wings whacking my cheeks. It felt like a bundle of needles poking both inside AND outside.

Falling onto my bed, I eventually managed to pull the pigeon right out of my mouth. And choked out the bandanna as well, covered in my own drool.

"I'm NOT gonna be eating chicken," I said, absent-mindedly grabbing the bandanna.

The other side of it was suddenly lifted up by the pigeon. It really wants it so badly. It pulled back and we got into a tug-of-war. Or at least for the pigeon. For me, I didn't really need to do much since I was a bit more stronger on keeping my grip on the other strip.

But I shouldn't underestimate this pigeon.

I pulled my arm back to see the pigeon being thrown behind and splatting on the wall behind me.

Yep, shouldn't underestimate it.

"Rise and shine, buddy boy," said Topaz unceremoniously, opening the door. "Brush your time, comb your hair and-wait, what is that?"

The pigeon rose up as quickly as it could fly before making a beeline straight towards the opened door. It crashed into Topaz's chest, causing her to drop several files she was carrying. One thick one landed on her foot, provoking her to start hopping on one leg. I immediately got up and grabbed a dropped ruler just as the bird flew towards the staircase.

Like it was a javelin, I threw the ruler in a straight line. Unfortunately, it missed and the pigeon flew down.

Topaz gave me a look.

"...sorry, Topaz," I muttered. "Force of habit."

"...how many people did you exactly kill?" asked Topaz.

"I swear that it's five."

"I-I mean animals."

I thought about it. "Usually with my squad, we kill a lot for us to feast on."

"Right, right. Well, please don't go out catching a dead bird or rat in your mouth whenever you go outside."

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Because it's actually illegal to kill any animals here in Central City," said Topaz, scratching the back of her head. "It might not be good for you since…you know that they don't technically live in the society. But we don't go out hunting on birds for a late night snack."

"I thought you might be alright if I caught that bird," I said.

"Yeah, but it's kind of a thing with harming animals. Especially sentient animals living here."

"Good point there."

"Seriously, what really happened there?" asked Topaz as she began to pick up her files. "Did you let one in?"

I grinned sheepishly, squeezing on the wet bandanna. "I didn't know that it would make room with the window open! I thought it would be alright to leave it open like this."

Topaz paused for a while. "That is a good way of letting strangers in, Obsidian."

"Well, but…it kind of happens a lot where I came from."

"Then that must been a really hard time for you. With so many robbers getting in to steal your stuff."

I was about to remark that when I told myself again that I'm not back in my birthtown. This felt really different since Topaz didn't sound happy about this. Must be due to people here having more security than out in the wild.

"Right then," I said. "That pesky bird tried to take my bandanna as well."

Topaz wrinkled her nose upon seeing the wet bandanna in my hands. "Oh dear…" She looked back inside the room to see all the claw scratches on the walls. "Must have been a 'vicious' battle. You could have used your powers to catch that bird instead of running around with nothing."

"Sorry about that," I said nervously. "I don't want to use my ruby. I-I could fix this! Maybe I could…use some white ash or paint to cover up the mess? I'm a good brusher when it comes to painting, even in the wild."

Topaz smiled a bit in appreciation for me offering to fix the damage. "Sure then. But don't think of using your tail for it."

"Aww, why not?"

"There's a bit of another way to do so if you don't want to get yourself dirty."

"Right then," I said, tying my bandanna around my head.

Topaz bit her lip. "But first, maybe we should put you in some new clothes. You must have been wearing that bandanna for a week now."

"Nah, I have been wearing it for as long as I can remember," I said happily.

Later on, I wasn't really happy that I had to wash my bandanna. And my jacket as well. Maybe I wasn't used to cleaning clothes on a regular basis or at least needing to leave it to dry properly after being dunked into soapy water. Topaz showed me the specific way of cleaning clothes using laundry machines. I was surprised by how these machines could do a task so mundane as using your hands to rub on clothes. But I guess that they didn't really have the proper time to do so.

Eventually, I was given a fresh new set of clothes. I wasn't sure about it since I didn't really want to wear something that wasn't mine, but Topaz insisted. She even pointed out that some of them were for my size as well. It took me a while to find something that was dark or at least green. The best I could find was a dark green parka jacket and a green headband.

This headband was what Topaz called an 'exercise sweatband'. Compared to my favorite bandanna, it more looked like a toy.

I felt like hiding away as I made my way downstairs to the kitchen. Stone was already there, seemingly cooking something. I let my smell took control, catching a whiff of what must be fried eggs. I kept my mouth from watering upon the smell. Been a while since I had warm food before. Having food cooked over a fire or on a pan is simply the best.

There was a small equipment set right there that had one beaker filled with brown liquid…with the top appearing to be blown up. That must be why there was a fire judging by the dark bits on the cracked glass.

"Morning, Agent Jackal!" said Stone cheerfully as always. "Had a good night sleep."

"Well, nearly felt like I was being lifted up to heaven," I joked. "Literally, I suppose."

"Sounds good!" said Stone.

"Wait, Stone?" asked Topaz worriedly. "You wouldn't have seen a pigeon in our house just now?"

"No. If I did see one, I would have chucked it out of the house."

As he said that, he opened a jar of biscuits and out popped in the pigeon's head. While munching on biscuits. Stone yelped, jumping back.

In the span of seconds, he hurriedly emptied all the contents of the jar outside the window until the pigeon splat on the grass. Once done, he slammed the window.

"Oh man, that was close!" he said. "Last time I let one in, it had a very bad effect with one of my chemicals!"

"Pesky bird!" I said, watching the pigeon flying away. "Good riddance."

"Please don't start chasing it," said Topaz.

"Let him try actually," said Stone. "I always wonder how it would be like to test on a dead pigeon."

Topaz rolled her eyes. "Anyway, is that burning I smell?"

"Not again!" said Stone, turning back to his frying pan. "Not today, Miss!"

As me and Topaz took our seats by the table, I made sure to zip up my jacket to hide the Phantom Ruby prototype. Still small enough to hide. However, focusing on it again made me remember that I would still need it for training. And I'm not sure how it is going to act out on me. While it is for my own good, I can't really say that there won't be a disaster since I don't know everything about it. Especially with what it keeps trying to do with me just now.

Would it lash out again and try to take control of me during training? Would it deceit and make me do an accident? I don't really want to think about it, but I know that if the ruby goes out of hands, then that means I might end up in the slammer until that thing gets out of my chest. The Inhibitor Rings do help keep it under control, but…I don't know what else it can do.

Pushing my worries aside, I was greeted with a plate of warm breakfast. A toast with two sunny-side eggs and greasy bacon on top. Boy, I started to see why Zero likes eating toasts a lot. Usually, I'm not really a toast fan since it's just burning plain bread. However, it seemed that it requires more flavor to it due to the toast having a more goldish brown color than just brown.

"Want some latte as well?" said Stone, handing out two cups of creamy coffee. "Whipped nicely with streamed Austrian goat milk!"

"Oh boy, do I!" said Topaz, already taking her drink and drinking hers.

Stone looked like he wanted to say something about Topaz drinking her latte in one go, but he just chuckled before going back to prepare his own breakfast. As Topaz gulped her latte, I decided to try my own cup. I took a good sip and to my relief, it didn't burn my tongue.

The first thing that came to mind was how bitter it taste. However, unlike the previous coffee drinks I took at desert bars, this one has a touch of sweetness and creaminess. It gave me the feeling again of sleeping on a cloud. Now that is gonna be one way of having a pleasant drink to fuel me up with energy.

While Topaz continued gulping down her drink, I moved towards my plate. Curiously, I picked up the long piece of bacon. It looked a bit like jerky except flatter and with those stripes on it. Taking a bite, I expected to feel a completely crispy taste. To my surprise, it felt even soft on the inside. Like eating real meat. It was really salty, but there were some hints of honey glaze added to it. I placed the entire piece of bacon in my mouth and it exploded in flavor.

I was about to move onto the eggs, scooping one up, but then Stone lowered it down.

"Hold on there," he said. "Don't eat it one at the time. Picky on what you eat first can slow you down."

"I'm usually a picker on the top skin," I said. It was kind of true since I usually find it relaxing with stringing the top layers of my food every time.

"Well, take a bite of the whole thing," said Stone. "Trust me, you'll like it."

I took his advice and lifted up my piece of toast, careful not to spill the eggs and bacon on it. I went for the corner since that was where the yolk was around. With a large bite, crumbs and a bit of the soft yolk fell onto my lap.

It tasted like all the layers were aligning with each other smoothly.

"Wow!" I said. "This actually tastes really nice there. Got to say thanks to you for that, Stone."

Stone grinned, looking down and laughing a little. "You got some leftover yolk goo on your lap."

"Wait, what?" It didn't always come to me about if I made a mess with eating like what happened last night. Mercenaries always have manners, though I grew up eating outside a lot that I kind of forgotten about how much I am allowed to spill. I found a nearby tissue paper, quickly grabbing all the crumbs and orange yolk I could pick up. "Oh, I'm sorry about that."

"At least the other agents make a bigger mess during lunch break," joked Topaz, putting her cup down. "Floor in the break room is always filled with pieces of sandwiches and cigarettes!"

"You eat cigarettes?" I asked curiously.

"Absolutely not!" said Topaz, shrugging.

"About 15 seconds to the world record of longest sip in the world," said Stone, ruffling Topaz's hair.

"Can't blame me," said Topaz, licking her lips. "You sometimes make the nicest lattes. Though, I still wonder how you try to make a combination of coffee and chocolate ice cream without making it a plain mocha."

"I can reassure you that it will come soon," said Stone winking.

"Quite a lot of nice-looking food that is around here," I commented. "I can tell that food like this can be hard to scavage around in the desert. Some of the more decent and cleaner ones reside in public bars."

"That kind of reminds me," wondered Topaz. "Apologies if this sounds insensitive, but how do you often look out for food?"

I thought about it, thinking back to the good old days. "There were some markets me and my squad could buy at, but we prefer to get our own. We tried stealing a couple of times. Most of the time, we went out hunting for the fatest calf and bring it back to cook over a campfire. We had to be careful or we might get ourselves messy through the whole ordeal."

"So your group always have camp food like this?"

"Yeah, that's right," I said, smiling. "Though, don't worry. The wilder animals would have torn this plate to shreds."

"I was nearly thinking of asking about that, but good thing I didn't ask!" said Stone blankly.

Topaz raised an eyebrow. "You can say that again. And Obsidian, there's gonna be a lot more 'nice-looking food' out there. You might be in for a real treat."

"I'll look forward to dining on them," I said.

The rest of breakfast came through like a blur since I listened along to Topaz and Stone discussing about what they are supposed to do today. It feels pleasant getting to be talking with others again. It still feels different since I am still in a new place without my squad, but looking here, it seems that I might have a grasp on this new life.

I don't really remember if me and my squad had training rooms like this before. Usually, back in the desert, we would sometimes have to scrap around what we can be able to afford. Outside gave us more space as nobody would get hurt, but the problem came due to the high wind factor and if there was anybody or anything wandering by. Doing it inside huts and courtyards brought a bigger challenge since we were in an enclosed environment.

And props were hard to come by. We had weapons, but unfortunately, that didn't mean we had sustainable or replaceable targets and dummies. We might have to make a scarecrow and once you tore it to shreds, next thing you had to do was to get more supplies to rebuild what you destroyed. Guess that sought of taught us that when you break property, it became your responsibility to fix it.

The training room in the G.U.N HQ was like it made the previous training spaces I was in like it was nothing. It wasn't that huge since it was fairly small, but I couldn't believe how much space there was. The grey walls didn't look like they need to be refixed despite numerous dark stains on the walls. Soft pads for landing, pull-up frames for doing pull-ups or acrobatics and even a trampoline near the wall! There were a couple of fake dummies, circular targets attached to the wall and strangely, cannons poking out from walls.

The surprising thing was that there was a testing lab attached to the training room, right next to it. Entering the laboratory, I found a long rectangular window that showed the training room on the other side. The whole room was white with light blue and grey accents. There were a couple of shelves and benches, but they must have pushed aside the tables for today.

In the large spacing were a few equipment already set up. I never seen those kinds of things before except for the…steel-made dumbbells and leather-covered punchbag. It kind of left me a bit baffled since I wondered what was the point of using those things since it looked like just something you take from a museum.

Interestingly, there was a large computer desk (that had wheels for some reason) on the side with a couple of monitors. They looked like the type of monitors you would see from the hospital that report your heart rate and…

I shivered when I saw the flat line on the screen. It reminded me back when I was forced into surgery to have the ruby on. Eggman had attached vitals on me and as I went through feeling numb and watching some robot latched the ruby on my chest, I was watching the monitors the whole time. Seeing my heart rate, breathing pattern and worse of all, the blood pressuring rising and falling…

I shivered, taking a step back. One of the agents watching over me stuttered before pushing me forwards. I must have got him upset since I could smell how suddenly scared he was. I didn't want to admit it since the lab was purely white instead of the evil black and red, but…this didn't make me feel safe.

A panther scientist was nearby, walking up towards me. He had a stoic expression, having a scientific stance. However, he seemed to be friendly enough as he lifted his hand up to give me a handshake.

"Mr. Obsidian," he said. "Glad to meet you. I have to say that you are one of the first to have a magical object implanted in you, so this is gonna be interesting."

"Right," I said, rubbing my hand through my mohawk. "Right. So…you're the guy who records down the agents' abilities?"

"I'm one of them," said the panther. "Though, the past few ones who exceed above normal agents have shown to display high peak abilities. I don't know how endurable or strong you really are when combined with the Phantom Ruby power, but hopefully, not too badly." He scanned my entire body, more specifically at the kind of clothes I was wearing. A smile formed, revealing some of his canines. "I see that you got yourself prepared for this special training day."

"Sort of, prepared," I sighed. "I mean, it's going to be easy, but I'm-"

"I'm referring to that sweatband you are wearing."

"Oh, you mean this stupid thing?" I said, stretching the headband. "It feels much tighter."

"Correct, but it might be a good thing to wear along for today's session. You see here, the equipment are usual facilities used in a gym. Means that you'll be breaking a lot of sweat. We'll be monitoring your vitals while you do simple exercises." He paused, looking at my jacket. "And please take off that jacket. It's too thick."

"But it's the only jacket I have here," I insisted.

"And am I the only one wearing pants here?" sassed the panther, curling his long tail as if pointing at himself.

I groaned, throwing the parka jacket off. I felt much exposed since that revealed the glowing Phantom Ruby prototype. A couple of agents besides me were muttering to themselves. Some of them were surprised or impressed with what they see. Others appeared to be concerned. I am concerned myself since I don't want to expose it too much.

I flinched upon seeing the panther carrying a couple of wireless sensor chips in his hands. There were a lot of them!

"What are those?" I said, trying to hide the discomfort in my voice.

"These vitals will measure your heart rate, muscle pressure and breathing patterns," explained the panther. "Don't worry. They won't electrocute you. I'll be measuring these rates as you do these exercises to compare how you do exercises without the ruby and then with the ruby. We will proceed soon, but if you want to withdraw out of this experiment, then let me know at any time."

As he begin to attach the sensors to my body, I nearly felt the urge to curl up on myself. I didn't really like this feeling of being touched all over. I had sensors attached to my arms, my chest, my ruby, my legs, and even my ears and tail. To my surprise, the panther casually took off my Inhibitor Rings. It was as if they were trying to find some way to control my ruby's powers through these exercises. Thinking about what would happen if I reached a higher peak…something could happen.

What if the ruby's power became too much that I self-destruct? What if they would use the sensors to electrocute me? What if something lashed out at me in my body? Worries ran through my head as I remembered back to when I was tested on by Eggman. Feeling nothing but coldness as a hundred wires attached to my body. The feeling of your mind being blurred, following the desire to want to speak your mind out when your mouth was shut…

I didn't notice that my shoulders were trembling until the panther's look softened. The agents took a step closer, but he raised his hand up to not come closer.

"You seem tense at the moment," said the panther.

"Oh, i-it's just that I'm not wearing my jacket," I said, grinning.

"It's not even that cold in here."

"Just not wearing the jacket, that's all…"

It came to me how much of a coward I was showing myself to be. I felt ashamed of being this scared. I should be prepared. I should be strong for this, not for remembering about the past!

The panther sighed, rubbing his golden eyes. "Look, buddy. I know that you are nervous now, but if we don't start, then we might not be able to give you the answers you may need."

"What answers do I need to have?" I said. "I-I don't really own this ruby. I mean, the scientist guys are probably prepping a machine to remove it out, hello? Why waste this time when I could be just…not needing the ruby?"

The panther's shoulder drooped. "OK, you can withdraw now. However, if we don't get the results, we may not be able to find a safe way to eradicate the ruby's source from you. We don't know how strong or influential it is towards you, so this is the best way to test it out. Trust me, I can't go to extreme measures to hurt my clients and their safety."

"You don't say?" I said, chuckling anxiously. "Perhaps those rubbish bags over there are body bags?"

"I can't go hard on you. I don't even want to hurt you. The method chosen for this has already settled to the best point of not causing any physical or physiological harm. These exercises will go for how long you can be able to go for. Not how long we want you to do. Please understand that you will also need to understand about your own ruby's powers because you don't know as well when you need it or how long you will keep it for."

"I find that hard to believe," I muttered.

"What can I say?" said the panther, spreading his arms out. "In this society, people use their gifts for good. And if they don't know how to use their gifts, then they'll get nothing. You have one and it would be worth the effort if you just try."

I blinked, hating how much I was confused. "It's…not exactly a gift. This isn't really normal."

"There's no such thing as normal," said the panther simply. "It's just what we are given as people. More impotantly, what we can do with them."

There was something different in the way he told me this. Compared to Zero of how much he fantasized using the Phantom Ruby prototype for our own strength, the panther scientist had his own different approach towards powers. Here, he is patient and knows that it's not gonna be up to his expectations. He doesn't even have the zealous look alike Eggman's constant attitude.

He doesn't even seem to be interested in my ruby or what potential it has for him. Only for how I can use it for my own. It felt much different when compared to how much mercenaries always use their gifts to the very last sip. The voice of the ruby told me quietly that maybe this guy wouldn't be as bad as Eggman. Someone I could trust.

Eventually, I decided to trust its words.

"OK," I said, taking a deep breath. "I trust you."

"Good," said the panther. "Remember, you don't have to make your results perfect during these exercises. Just go with what you can, but not in small quantity. And remember, you can withdraw from any time. Now, everyone, if anyone has a reason why Obsidian shouldn't partake in these exercises, say now or he will do them anyway."

Judging by the silence, it seemed that nobody had an objection.

"Wait, are you talking to us?" said one of the agents.

"Yes," said the panther flatly. "This is an experiment. You're the environmental variables."

"We're supposed to be guarding Obsidian. Not being part of this."

"Scientifically speaking, having watchers who can turn to be hostile may make the participants completely distressed and thus making the original findings of the study unreliable."

For some reason, I found that makes a lot of sense. "Yeah."

"Are we ready?"

The panther led me to on top of a flat object with a control panel at the top, waist-length. The bottom part appeared to be some kind of roller-material like the ones that carried Eggman's bots around when not carried around. It smells like some sort of couch chair and even sweat.

"Uh…what's up with this thing?" I asked.

"This here is a treadmill," said the panther. "It's an exercise machine where people use it to walk or run on a continuous moving belt."

"Walk on it? Wouldn't I just end up walking off it?"

"You're on the belt at the moment, so it would continuously move as you walk along."

I looked back at the control panel, trying to figure out what I was supposed to do. "OK, I'm kind of lost here."

"I'll guide you through this," said the panther, pressing a few buttons on the console panel. "This one is a more complex treadmill since it's an exclusive, state-of-art machine. So, this will first start off at a very slow rate around walking condition. Every 10 seconds, it's going to speed up and you'll be going into a running condition. Use the handlebars, but don't use them to cheat. If you feel that you reach the limit the belt should stay on, then let me know. When you're done, tell me as well."

He pressed the red button and the belt suddenly shifted. I tried it out, walking slowly. This felt really weird to me since there wouldn't be one machine that could continously go on without me leaving while I was using my legs. When you live in the wild, all you have to do is go and never stop to know where you are going. Here, this is slower and like a baby toy.

The treatmill belt was slowly going much faster. I barely used the handlebars, not wanting to rely on them. At least two minutes in and the treadmill belt was already picking up the speed of how fast I usually run. I found myself needing to pump my legs, not wanting to accidentally get sent flying behind. I called out to the panther on stopping the belt from going faster, allowing me to get used to the current speed.

"Interesting," said the panther, looking back at the monitors. "It seems that you have good speed and leg muscle. It says there that you are using only 2% of the ruby's power."

It didn't take long when I was starting to wear out. When I called out, the panther pressed the stop button and the belt slowed down. I nearly ran off before I grabbed the handlebars. Must be due to going so fast that I didn't expect anything to stop me. Once the belt wasn't moving anymore, I fell down right onto my tail, huffing.

Sweat was forming on my forehead. I tried wiping it, but more replaced them. I used the headband and it ended up absorbing the sweat drops.

Wait, so was that why they were called 'sweatbands'?

"Good work, Mr. Obsidian," praised the panther, taking down notes. "I analyzed the data collected. The use of the ruby's power at this point is significantly low when not in use. You prove to have great leg muscle and enough stamina to last for this long."

"I'm always a runner," I huffed, sticking out my tongue playfully. "When you live on the life on the run, you'll never stop running."

The panther smiled. "Glad to hear that. Now, we'll be doing this again, but I need you to allow your Phantom Ruby prototype to be activated. You'll be using its power as you run on the treadmill again. I'll be comparing this with the previous data to compare the gap between and how strong you ruby is."

I felt the Phantom Ruby prototype practically beaming inside of me. I rolled my eyes, slapping it to hold onto its excitement.

The same procedure with the treadmill happened, but to my surprise, it took much longer until I needed to call out to stop making it faster. Looking down, my feet were already a blur, coated in a green glow. The other agents watching me were whispering, amazed by this feat. It even took a longer time until I wanted to stop.

To my surprise, I felt as if the new stamina helping me was…natural. It came from the ruby, but it gave me enough energy to run this fast. I wouldn't be as fast as some famous hedgehogs in the world (maybe Shadow, but he must be cheating with his roller shoes), but I might be able to catch up. As always, it didn't last long despite how super it was. By the time the belt stopped moving, I bent down, panting.

"Great job," said the panther, scanning through his notes. "Now let me see here…there's a couple of effects when the ruby kicks in. It could be said due to how much you put into your muscle work, breathing patterns and heart rate, but the most accurate description is that you surpassed the normal speed rate and time of running with your ruby."

"Really?" I said.

"Approximately around double the usual speed rate you can take. And there's a nearly perfect score of your running time being double the previous running time. What's similar is that you still get exhausted like a normal person and slow down at nearly the same time in both runs. So that ruby apparently can't give you all the needed stamina."

I wondered how much Eggman put his heart out into my prototype since by the sound of this data, it didn't seem to be that powerful. I burnt myself out normally and the ruby didn't give me more replaceable energy to burn. Whether it's due to having a limit itself or not wanting to make me overwhelmed, this would mean that I might a good amount of time if I end up using the ruby when running.

"Phew!" I said. "I was worried that it would make me invincible."

"I hypothesized that you would have gone longer without falling into exhaustion quickly," said the panther. "But it seems that it might be rejected. We'll see if it goes the same for the other exercises. Take a break first."

AN: I'm gonna need some of my high school science experience and psychology lessons for this...basically, I'm gonna need to address a lot of research methods for this kind of experiment. My brain is gonna burn out at this point, ugh...

Today, we are given a Tom and Jerry parody in the form of Obsidian chasing an oblivious pigeon! For this, I actually took inspiration from 'Rat's All, Folks!' from The Cuphead Show since it's a taller person chasing a small animal. Except this one is a clueless, hungry pigeon. It was a bit hard at first, but I manage to fill in the slapstick needed.

It seems that Obsidian is slowly learning along the way. From what is acceptable in what to kill to the best eating traditions to modern technology used in gyms to modern experiments (that don't of course use guinea pigs as their test subjects, that's for sure!).

The panther scientist in this chapter is somewhat interesting. He might not have that much appearances, though if I have to make him a major character, then there is a lot to do. What do you think I should name him? Let me know in the reviews.

Thank you for reading this chapter! If you enjoy this story, be sure to follow or favorite this story, so you can get updates about this story. If there is any feedback or constructive criticism you want to share, let me know in your review. It would be nice to hear open thoughts so that I can know what to improve.

Until next time, keep on rocking!