Disclaimer: All non-original characters are property of SEGA, Egmont and/or their respective creators.
Inescapable Past, Act 3: Hog Eat Hog
It was dawn in Metropolis, and Sergeant Topaz of GUN's Intelligence Wing was lost in her thoughts. The lioness was remembering an episode from her time in boot camp. Her drill sergeant had summoned her to his office. She'd expected to be reprimanded for her lackluster gun maintenance. However, instead of chewing her out, the grouchy hyena had simply made Topaz stand in front of his desk while he glacially tended to a mountain of paperwork.
Her current predicament was provoking serious déjà vu. She'd arrived at GUN Commander Volta's office before sunrise, her report on last night's failed ambush in hand. Far from dismissing her to catch a quick nap, Volta hadn't even let her stand at ease. Creamy sunlight was now pouring through the windows behind the olingo's desk. Not that Topaz needed the sun's help to remind her how long she'd been stood there. Her feet, wedged into a pair of high heels, were managing just fine.
The only silver lining the lioness could find in this situation was the novelty of seeing an officer reading a report in depth. The lioness kept stealing glances at the Commander, watching his single cinnamon-hued eye dart furiously back and forth as he read. On the next attempt, Topaz craned her neck, hoping to see how many pages he had to go. In doing so, she glimpsed the 'EYES ONLY' label on the report's manila cover beneath the 'OPERATION SHADOWHUNT' heading.
Suddenly, the lioness found her mind transported a couple of hours back in time. While she was binding the freshly-printed report, she'd been seized by the temptation to scribble out the 'S' in 'EYES'. She'd stopped herself then, but now, the lioness sniggered before she could stop herself.
"Something funny, sergeant?" asked Volta coolly, looking up.
"N-no, sir. Just a…just remembering a remark Lieutenant Warrigal made," said Topaz haltingly, "Sorry, sir. Didn't mean to distract you."
"I think I've read enough," said the olingo, placing the open report on his desk, "Tell me, sergeant, why did you deem it necessary to deploy an EMP grenade?"
"To immobilize the target, sir."
"To immobile the target?" echoed Volta, "From what I gather, the target's mode of transport had just blown up. How much more immobile did you need him to be?"
"Our agent was emphatic the target's footwear was still operational, s-"
"The target had just faceplanted the sidewalk! Why didn't you simply open fire, sergeant?"
"As you're no doubt aware, sir, the EMP grenade is still in the testing phase. I saw an ideal opportunity to gather field data for R&D-"
"Are Research & Development running this operation, sergeant?"
"No, sir."
"I'm glad we've cleared that up."
Volta wheeled his chair back from the desk and stood up. Walking to the nearest window, he sighed.
"I can only imagine how it must be for you Intelligence Wing types, sergeant. Half the Unit think you're cowards dodging the frontline. The other half think you're just out for yourselves-"
"And what do you think, sir?" Topaz cut in.
The olingo whirled round, his face like thunder. "I think my opinion is irrelevant, sergeant. Whether I like it or not, Operation Shadowhunt is only happening thanks to you and your – no, sorry - 'our' agent. Wasteful as that EMP stunt was, my first duty is to the Westopolis battalion."
Topaz furrowed her brow as the Commander turned back to the window, letting his words hang in the air.
"Does that mean I'm still on the op, sir?"
"Yes, sergeant," replied Volta without looking round, "But I've assigned Vice Commander Trusk to serve in an advisory capacity. Now proceed."
It took all Topaz's restraint for her to not vault over the desk and deprive the olingo of his remaining eye. Balling her trembling left paw into a fist, the lioness threw a brisk salute and hastily exited. Slamming the door behind her, she found the outer office - usually occupied by the Commander's adjutant Zamzi - empty. With a second thought, the lioness spun on her high heel and swiped at the door, leaving three perfectly symmetrical scratches in the polished wood.
Topaz left the room wearing a sly smile. Alas, she knew no amount of impulsive vandalism would improve her new situation, much less her mood. For that to happen, she'd need to swipe at the porcine bastard who was about to hijack her operation. Making for the nearest elevator, she spent the ride down to Operation Shadowhunt's makeshift command center trying to soothe her temper.
However, as she opened the door to the repurposed conference room, she almost went feral. In the middle of the room stood a stout warthog, garbed in the male variant of the standard-issue black dress uniform. He didn't look around. The officer was too busy examining some small cellphone-like object. Without announcing herself, Topaz stalked over and snatched the device out of Vice Commander Trusk's hands.
"Please refrain from handling the tracker, sir," she said as she handed the device to a white tigress dressed in mottled grey fatigues. They'd been looking on nervously.
"As you wish," muttered the warthog, eyeing the lioness like a banker sizing up a beggar, "How does it work, anyway?"
Topaz bit her tongue. She would have liked to have reminded him about the several test reports she'd typed up and sent to his office in recent weeks. As it was, she feigned a smile and turned to the tigress in the grey fatigues. "Corporal Jian, press the button."
She saluted and flicked a switch on the nondescript black box where the phone-like device sat in some kind of docking station. Instantaneously, the command center's bare far wall was filled by a projected topographic map of the supercontinent Gran Mobia, Mobius's biggest landmass. All the geological features were rendered in green lines on a black background. The only exception was a pulsing red dot in the map's top-right corner.
"So, that dot's Shadow?" said Trusk, "Is that the best it can do?"
"A little patience please, sir," said Topaz, giving Jian a nod. The continental map was promptly replaced by one of Station Square.
"What's it locking on to?" asked the warthog, a little less brusquely.
"Shadow's DNA, sir."
The Vice Commander nodded passively, studying the projection. "Can it tell us how long he's been at that location?"
There was a flurry of keystrokes from the white tigress. "Approximately ten hours, sir."
Trusk raised his eyebrows. "Does he live there or something?"
Topaz cocked an eyebrow. "More likely he found some help, sir. Jian?"
More keystrokes. "Cove Heights in Queensway, ma'am. Currently leased to a Miss…wait, let me run that again."
Topaz and Trusk stood watching Jian type away frantically for nearly thirty seconds.
"What's the hold-up, corporal?" asked the Vice Commander.
The tigress looked up from her monitor, face aghast. "The city records say the apartment the target's in is leased to a Miss Sally Acorn."
"It can tell us which floor he's on?" blurted Trusk.
"Uh, yes, sir," said Topaz, confused by his sudden excitement.
"Perfect! Sergeant, prepare your strike team for immediate departure."
Jian looked at the lioness in alarm. She looked at the warthog in turn. "A strike team, sir? You want me to raid an apartment owned by an Acorn in broad daylight?"
The Vice Commander scoffed. "As if royalty would lease property in that part of town. It's clearly either a smokescreen or a bad joke, sergeant."
"What if it's not, sir?"
"Then it's Her Royal Highness's fault for harboring dangerous criminals!"
"But sir-"
"But nothing, sergeant! Station Square's skies are the busiest on Mobius. No one will think twice about an unmarked helicopter circling a neighborhood for half an hour. If you think your doodad screwed up, you have my permission to not kick down some grandmother's front door. That said, this looks like a better chance than the one you blew to end this preposterous vendetta. So, as our fearless leader would say: proceed."
〜
Shadow's scarlet eyes shot open as a lancing pain in his right leg roused him. Too weak to sit up, he lifted his head. His quills instantly hit the pillow again as the sun shining through the window beside him scorched his retinas. Then, he heard rustling. Prodding the surface of whatever he was lying on, he felt the rigid folds of a tarpaulin sheet. Suddenly, another jolt of pain made him wince bodily.
"Would you lie still?" grumbled Amy Rose.
Shadow's ears pricked. His head sprang up, eyes wide in spite of the solar glare. The pink hedgehog knelt by his bedside, hunched over his leg. Was that a pair of tweezers he could see in her hand?
"What're you doing?" he asked groggily.
"Cleaning you up," said Amy as she looked away from his leg, not to look at him but to pick up another cotton ball.
"How does it look?"
"Like you got shot," said the pink hedgehog without a hint of sarcasm, "What happened?"
"I'm not…exactly sure," said Shadow, pausing midsentence to try and suppress his next full-body spasm. It wasn't very effective.
"I guess that'll do," said Amy, sighing. Shadow heard a metallic chink as she put the tweezers down on a tray, next to a bowl of bloodied cotton ball. "How can you not be sure?"
"I couldn't see the shooter."
"Do you think it GUN?"
"It…shouldn't be," said Shadow, as if entertaining the possibility for the first time.
Then again, between running for his life, Rouge's miraculous appearance and his first Chaos Control in months, he literally hadn't had a chance to really think on it. He wanted to think it had just been a particularly murderous scavenger gang, but the smoldering wreck that'd been his motorcycle suggested otherwise.
Conversation lapsed while Amy went about applying a fresh dressing. Shadow let his gaze wander. He nearly flinched (and not because of anything Amy was doing) as he noticed Sonic's embodied head grinning down at him from the lampshade. His sense of alarm only dissipated when his eyes saw the Forget-Me-Knots poster on the back of the room's door. He'd heard enough of their music to know when to switch radio stations.
"When did you become a medic?" asked the black hedgehog, eager to distract himself from the beaming blue hedgehog.
The pink hedgehog smiled wryly as she bit off a strip of medical tape. "Never. This was like Freedom Fighter 101 in Knothole. Sally literally made everyone do it."
"Huh. Remind me to thank her sometime."
"How about thanking me? Those stairs didn't clean themselves, y'know."
"Stairs? What stairs?"
"Err, the ones I had to drag you up/ We're on the third floor, remember?" said Amy, tilting her head as she saw Shadow's mystified expression. "Wait, so how did you know which buzzer to press?"
"The 'S. Acorn' label didn't leave much to the imagination."
The preteen giggled. "Oh right, that. Yeah, Sally had to sign the, err…I think she called it a lease."
"Anyway, you have my apologies."
Amy shrugged as she bit off another strip of medical tape. "It's cool. I'm just glad none of my neighbors saw me. You're lucky so many seniors live here."
Shadow scoffed quietly. If this was lucky, what did misfortune look like?
"By the way, where did that Chaos Emerald come from?" asked the pink hedgehog as she prepped a roll of bandages.
Shadow hesitated, unsure if there was an honest answer to that question which didn't sound either absurd or like the most convenient coincidence imaginable. In the end, he told it straight.
"Are you sure you didn't, like, hallucinate that bit with Rouge?"
The black hedgehog snorted. "Would you prefer I said the Emerald was just lying there?"
"It'd sound about as believable."
Amy turned her attention back to his leg until his right thigh was swaddled to her satisfaction. Then, peeling off her plastic gloves, she turned both inside out and dropped them on the tray of medical detritus.
"Y'know, you still haven't said why you came here," she said, getting to her feet with tray in hand.
"I, uh-"
Shadow faltered as he raised his head off the pillow to find the pink hedgehog smirking.
"It's okay if you need to work on your excuse. I'm going to get rid of this and take a shower."
Left with his thoughts, the black hedgehog didn't know where to begin. It wasn't like he didn't have secluded bolt-holes dotted around the supercontinent and beyond. Alas, most of those weren't much more than glorified weapon caches. On the rare occasion he needed anything resembling medical attention, Rouge had always been there to either handle it or call up someone who could.
The more he pondered it, the surer he was his panic-stricken mind had simply zapped him to the last safe place it could remember being. After all, it wasn't like he'd ever taken the time to grapple with the precise mechanics of the Chaos Control process. Indeed, on the rare occasions he'd had Chaos Emeralds to hand, running controlled tests was the last on his mind. Rather like now.
Hearing the door's handle turn, Shadow feigned sleep until he heard Amy close en-suite bathroom's door behind her. He didn't open his eyes. In fact, he soon found himself drifting off. Just then, he heard a loud slam nearby. His first instinct was to call Amy's name. His second instinct was to not make any intruders' jobs easier for them.
His discretion paid off as the boom of back-to-back shotgun blasts sounded elsewhere in the apartment. Shadow scarcely had time to prop himself up on his elbows before the hinges on the bedroom's door exploded in a cloud of splinters and sawdust. The remains of the door toppled forward onto the carpeted floor.
Through the lingering haze of dust and gun smoke, Shadow locked eyes with the shotgun-toting intruder. Their face was covered by a sleek black ski mask. Before they could level their submachinegun at him, the black hedgehog grabbed a handful of the half-open curtains beside him and rolled off the bed. Under his weight, curtains and curtain rings parted company, flooding the bedroom with daylight.
He landed heavily on his front as the dazzled intruder's first three bullets ripped into the tarp-covered mattress. Shadow lifted his head in time see Amy cannon into the shooter. Wrapped in a towel secured with by a chunky yellow barrette, the pink hedgehog grabbed the barrel of the shotgun dangling at his winded assailant's side as they staggered backwards.
Yanking so hard its sling snapped, she clubbed the intruder over the head with the firearm's stock. She dealt likewise with the intruder's similarly ski-masked colleague, pummeling the hapless trooper as they fumbled their submachinegun.
"Where's the Emerald, Amy?" wheezed Shadow as he crawled towards the door.
"In the kitchen, uh, down the hall."
"Grab whatever you need. We need to move."
"Can I get dressed first?"
Shadow paused mid-crawl to glance up at the pink hedgehog. His resolve to say no softened at the sight of water dripping off her braided quills. "Hurry!"
While Amy dashed about a frenzy, the black hedgehog helped himself to the contents of the unconscious troopers' webbing. First, he grabbed a smoke grenade, pulled the pin, and tossed it out into the hallway. Next, he used one of their knives to cut free a submachinegun and fired off a couple of three-round bursts.
The look of disapproval Amy gave him as she rejoined him almost moved Shadow to apologize. She'd pulled on a white camisole, a pair of magenta leggings and some flipflops. Her damp quills were restrained by one of her familiar red headbands.
"What's in the bag?" he asked, eyeing the backpack slung over her shoulder.
"A towel."
"Fair enough," he said flatly. "I can't stand up. You'll need to drag me."
With a firm nod which failed to disguise the abject terror in her green eyes, she ran around behind him. Threading her arms under his armpits, she heaved him off the floor until his uppermost quills brushed her chin.
"Ready?" asked Shadow, bracing the submachinegun's stock against his shoulder. Meanwhile, both the troopers' chest-mounted radios started to crackle incessantly.
"Ready," said Amy, spluttering as the smog the smoke grenade was belching out grew thicker.
As soon as Amy hauled him into the hallway, Shadow glimpsed the fragmented red beams of multiple laser sights dancing in the smoke. Scarlet eyes wide, he thumbed the selector switch to full-auto and squeezed. Blinded by muzzle flashes and deafened by crackle, the black hedgehog didn't know to stop shooting until he felt linoleum under his backside as Amy dropped him and kicked the kitchen door shut.
There was a smash of ceramics as Amy swept a mixing bowl off a countertop, climbed up and reached the blue Chaos Emerald down off the refrigerator. The ringing in Shadow's ears was too loud for him to make out what the pink hedgehog said as she dunked it in his lap. Placing one hand on the oversized jewel's culet, he offered her the other. She grasped it accordingly.
"Chaos Control!"