Knuckles grunted slightly as he hoisted the unconscious form of the little fox over his shoulder once again, he had decided to leave the bloodied form of the "great" Sonic the Hedgehog in the now damaged atrium of the sacred Emerald…The Echidna felt a great deal of shame in his heart as he looked back through his memory to the image of the atrium before and after he and the hedgehog had brawled…Centuries old glyphs and depictions of his tribe's long lost glory shattered like glass and lost forever, all because one damnable blue hedgehog refused to stand down.
Well, as much as he hated the hedgehog for the destruction he had inadvertently caused, he still felt guilt for the way he had brutalised the small fox, the poor kid couldn't be much older than eight and yet he had savagely beaten the boy all because he couldn't keep a hold of his rage…It was something he certainly struggled with controlling it before, but it had ever gone as far as this…Well, he just hoped that his pay wouldn't be deduced for, "Damaging the cargo." As G.U.N would put it.
His stomach twisted as he walked down the steps of the ziggurat, past the clad forms of G.U.N soldiers who were rushing into the pyramid in order to seize the hedgehog, their lack of expression underneath their combat gas-masks unnerved him. As did their large, high calibre assault rifles…His face hardened as he saw, standing at the base of the pyramid, their…Commander.
There he stood, grinning devilishly , his eyes fixated on his unconscious and bloodied prize, his face tomato-red and burnt from the harsh, unforgiving jungle sun, making a sharp contrast with his ash grey mutton chops and moustache.
"Ah, here he is. I trust that the asset is in…pristine condition I hope…Mr…Knuckles wasn't it?" the Commander spoke, his voice eccentric and overly excited for what was happening at the moment.
Knuckles shook his head quickly and gently laid the fox down on the ground, allowing the commander to take a look and asses the damage.
"He got injured in the fight with me and the hedgehog, it's nothing too serious I hope." The echidna said, his attempt at hiding his worry for the boy's health failing miserably.
"Hmmmph…what a shame, oh well. He'll heal naturally within a few days. But I am afraid that damaging G.U.N property will see you a 30%cut in your pay for this job. Try not to do so again Mr Knuckles."
The echidna swore under his breath and tightened his fists, he wanted to wipe that smug, shit-eating grin off of his face…He wanted to do it oh so badly, but he knew that if he did, he could kiss his chances of saving his people goodbye…So for now, he allowed himself to take this disgraceful insult to his work and let it go…However he did allow himself to hazard a question.
"Excuse me…Sir but, you said that the fox is G.U.N property, what do you mean by that?"
The Commander chuckled at the request of the mercenary…It was not in his contract to ask questions, however…it didn't matter much. He had what he wanted and he was satisfied to be able to leave this jungle, so what did it matter what he said?
The Commander grinned and then spoke to Knuckles,
"Tell me my boy, have you ever heard of Project Shadow?"
Knuckles shook his head, he wasn't familiar with all of G.U.N's secret projects that were hidden under mountains of red tape and black ink.
"Well…You see, 50 years ago…There was this brilliant scientist called Dr Gerald Robotnik, he was a spectacular man he was, he was G.U.N's lead geneticist for many years, his research helped to save and end thousands of lives, now he joined G.U.N to help create vaccines and genetically engineer crops and whatnot, all goody-two shoes business to make the world a better place…Many of the vaccines used to today were created under his work in fact. However…His granddaughter Maria fell ill with a condition known as Neuro-Immune-Deficiency-Syndrome or N.I.D.S for short.
Now poor old Gerald loved his granddaughter more than anything in the world and he desperately pleaded for the funds needed to create a cure for his grandchild…However we couldn't and refused, that is when he went behind our backs, using his brilliant mind, he created a hedgehog known as Shadow to act as Maria's guardian, even allegedly using Alien D.N.A to create the being…Now Shadow was no ordinary hedgehog, he was faster, stronger, smarter and more resilient than any other, a super-hedgehog if you will, not only that, but he had immunity to all diseases and functional immortality too…He had cheated evolution and produced the perfect potential soldier.
We bargained with him for his research, wanting to use his knowledge to make our forces better, to ensure that G.U.N could have the best soldiers possible, yet he refused…So we told the United Federation that Gerald was planning on unleashing Shadow on civilian centres all over Mobius.
This was the cover up we needed to find his Space Station, the Ark to…Discuss our terms…Sadly we faced sharp resistance from Shadow as he tried to flee as well as defence bots, sadly Miss Maria died in the confrontation."
"Oh, that's…Horrible…" Knuckles whispered, the story making his face go white with shock, how could G.U.N do something like that to an innocent old scientist who just wanted to cure his granddaughter? It was an outrage! A scandal!
However the Commander kept going, continuing his story.
"Sad I know, but she was just another girl out of hundreds who suffer from N.I..D.S what was important was that we found the research we needed…In the decades following our success, many attempts were made to replicate the success of project Shadow…but all of them sadly failed, be it either the result of still-births, a failure for a foetus to develop or the wrong research being done…In fact, a decade ago we were on the verge of giving up on the project entirely, however we suddenly struck gold.
You see around 9 years ago, there was a Vixen who worked as a cleaner in our labs, a nice young lass only around 19-20 years old, called Rosemary Prower, she was poor, hungry and desperate enough to do anything, her parents had kicked her out and she was living out of a crappy apartment in one of the worst areas of Station Square…So we offered her a blood test and discovered something remarkable…She had damn near perfect genetics, something ideal for repeating Project Shadow…So we gave her an offer, if she was willing to take part in the experiment, then she would be heavily compensated for it.
It didn't take much to convince her, hell it only took the allure of the money and escaping poverty for her to accept it. We took and artificially fertilised one of her egg cells and ran experiments in the labs, 50 year's worth of trial and error meant we knew what to do...We couldn't repeat Project Shadow in it's entirety so we resolved for something…more stable.
We made sure that the genetics of the boy would allow him to have some of Shadow's abilities, access to harnessing the power of the Chaos Emeralds, greater, strength, speed, reflexes and physical immortality. However mutations in the process meant that the boy's intelligence would far exceed even that of Gerald Robotnik, he would be damn near omniscient by the time he was an adult…And those are just the things we genetically engineered him to be, we still don't know his full potential…He is potentially the greatest asset that G.U.N will ever have, he's a marvel of genetic engineering and science…We need him…He was always created to be a perfect soldier…And now thanks to you…We have him back!"
Knuckles was blown away by what he had heard, could this boy really be…that important? If so then he was by all means vital to G.U.N however…something concerned him…What of the fate of the boy's mother?
"Excuse me Commander…But may I ask what happened to the fox's mother?"
The Commander's face darkened,
"Well…For the first few months after the asset was born, he showed an extremely high degree of intelligence, he was speaking and walking hours after being born, his brain was developing at an astonishing rate…We had to perform more tests…However it appears that Miss Prower didn't want to comply, so she tried to flee with the boy…we found her and one of our agents idiotically shot her and caused her to drop the boy into a river…she died…but we don't know what happened to the asset after. We only discovered he was alive six years ago! But now he's back in our possession…We'll be sure to make him ours…after all we created him, we patterned him, we own him."
The Commander sighed looking down at his unconscious prize,
"Well I'm afraid that's all I can tell you Mr Knuckles, here is your pay." He announced, handing the Echidna a large sack of cash, all the while two G.U.N soldiers dragged Sonic down the steps and tossed him into a jeep.
But then the echidna noticed something else being carried…A large emerald that a group of soldiers were carrying together.
"What the hell?!" Knuckles exclaimed, his fists beginning to glow red once more with rage as he turned to the Commander.
"You said you'd leave that here!"
"Well…Why ever would we do that?"
"That was our deal you bastard!"
"Hush now Knuckles, you have your money…Be satisfied, my boys will take real good care of it…After all…That's our job."
