CHAPTER 04:

It took some extra time to sneak around the city to get to the hideout, but once the two hedgehogs were in, Sonic breathed a sigh of relief. “Well, we're gonna be here a while, best to get comfortable.”

Shadow looked around. The hideout, which had been set up in the middle of the junkyard, was a rather metallic looking room, though it was dark. “There a way to see in here?”
Sonic looked around. “Don't tell me it's too dark in here for you.”

Shadow looked in the direction of Sonic's voice. “Yeah, can't you tell?”

“Lighting seems fine to me. But let me see if I can find a light source...”

Sonic searched the room for a bit before finding a small LED light on a desk where a computer was set up. “Here we go.”

He flipped it on and Shadow could see a bit better, though it mostly illuminated the desk area. “Not much, but it works.”

“I think because too much power diverted would of drawn Robuttnik's attention,” Sonic said, settling at the desk and turning on the computer. “Let me see if I can get a cooler fan running in here. It usually gets like a hot box in here with Robotropolis's pollution trapping heat in the city. Uncle Chuck needed a fan to keep his circuits cool.”

Shadow nodded, watching Sonic work. “You definitely seem different.”

“You mean the part where I seem smarter than before?” Sonic asked.

Shadow had to think about it a moment. “Don't get me wrong, you definitely start to understand a few things better when you're older. But you've never been exactly tech savvy. You always had Tails and Rotor for that stuff.”

Sonic nodded, continuing to type on the computer. “And my Uncle Chuck. I wonder just how smart I'm getting. I can't explain it, but I actually would like the idea of being able to help Uncle Chuck with a project. Maybe even help find a deroboticizing solution for him and the other victims of Robotnik.”

Shadow patted Sonic's shoulder. “But why is this happening? Having that extra knowledge is good, but the fact that something IS affecting you, bothers me. It tells me something is wrong and we need to find out what it is.”

Sonic paused after a moment, his ears twitching as he looked around. This concerned Shadow. “What is it?”

“Do you hear voices?” Sonic asked.

Shadow blinked and shook his head. “No. What kind of voices?”

Sonic shook his head. “Hard to say. I want to say more like whispers...maybe even digital. In fact, I don't know if its actually VOICES...”

Shadow tilted his head at this. “Well that doesn't make much sense to me.”

“I don't know how else to really explain it,” Sonic said, scratching a bit at the bandages on his chest. He looked at his hand a moment before quickly wiping it on his leg and getting back to work on the computer. “Hold on a sec, let me get the fan on.”

Shadow nodded, watching Sonic as he typed a few commands on the computer before an overhead vent fan began to whirl to life. “There, that should draw the heat out.”

“Good, it was starting to get warm,” Shadow said, wiping some sweat from his brow. Having black fur didn't help.

Sonic looked to Shadow after a moment, leaning back. “So, you seem to know about me. Is there anything I can know about you?”

Shadow frowned. “Not sure if that's a good idea...”

“Right the whole time travel thing. But if what you're saying is true, things are already changing, and there's not much point in holding back information.”

Shadow had to sit there for a moment. Sonic could see that the hedgehog was deep in thought, debating the information. Shadow inhaled after a moment, looking up at Sonic. “I'll talk about myself...and only myself. That good enough for you?”

Sonic nodded in agreement. “Seems fair to me.”

Shadow nodded, trying to think on where to start. “Well, for starters, I'm not a normal hedgehog.”

“Nooo, I couldn't tell,” Sonic snarked with a grin. “So what makes you so special?”

Shadow looked at him with a serious deadpan tone. “I was created.”

Sonic's ears perked up in interest and genuine surprise. “Created? How?”

Shadow frowned. “Well, the scientist that created me was trying to create the Ultimate Life form. Someone who could live practically forever, resistant to disease.”

Sonic nodded, listening intermittently as he was starting to get a thought in his head. “So you can live forever? Can't get sick?”

Shadow nodded. “That's right.”

After a moment, Sonic began to get up and started to rifle through tools on the shelf. Shadow looked up to him. “Now what are you doing?”

“Not sure. I think I'm getting some kind of idea in my head. I wanna see if I can bring my uncle's tools to him back at home.”

Shadow continued to watch as Sonic grabbed a backpack and began to toss random items into it. “Okay...I would help, but I can barely see in here as is without the light.”

“That's alright. I think I got most of it...” He looked back to Shadow. “So...ultimate life form, able to live forever. What happened when you were created?”

Shadow rubbed his arm, looking down. “Well, I got to spend time learning about the world around me. The scientist who created me was like a father to me, and his granddaughter and I were close. She was my sister, my best friend.”

Sonic could detect some sadness in Shadow's voice, and he approached him, sitting down. “...what happened?”

Shadow inhaled deeply. “The military, who was keeping tabs on my development, decided that they wanted to raid the station that we were on and capture me. They wanted to use me as a weapon.”

Sonic frowned at this. “Military? What military was this? Surely not Mobotropolis...”

“No no no...this...this was LONG ago...and somewhere that Mobians don't actually know about. No, this was a different military, and let's just say, back in those days, they were incredibly corrupt.”

“I...I see..what...what happened next?”

Shadow looked down when Sonic asked. “The raid on the station was...violent...scientists were captured...or shot...Maria...she was trying to help me escape...”

It took a moment for Sonic to understand the gravity of what happened and covered his mouth in shock. “Oh...oh Shadow...I'm so sorry....”

Shadow nodded. “It took...a long time to move on. But I feel I finally have.”

Sonic smiled a bit. “That's good-”

Sonic suddenly paused as his ears twitched, like he was straining to hear something. Shadow looked to Sonic. “More voices?”

Sonic held a finger up. “Shh...”

The two sat in silence for a moment before Sonic began to put on the backpack. “SWATbots. They found the hideout and have it surrounded. Get under the desk, they're gonna try to blast the entrance open.”

Shadow began to crawl under the desk where Sonic joined him. “Then what?”

“We're going to run.”

As Sonic got under, next to Shadow, the black hedgehog looked to Sonic. “How ARE you able to hear them?”

“Shh!” Sonic said and grabbed his own head, curling up. Shadow looked at him before the place suddenly shook, an explosion, causing Shadow to follow suit and grab his head, curling up.

The whole place filled with debris and smoke, and general light from outside began to illuminate the room. The SWATbots had blown a sizable chunk of the entrance wall and were now marching in, scanning the area for signs of life.

One SWATbot swung its arm around, and spotlighted the spot where Sonic and Shadow were. “PRIORITY ONE: HEDGEHOG.”

“RUN!” Sonic yelled, darting forward and spin dashing into the SWATbots. 

Shadow surged forward, and on pure instinct, leaped up to deliver a swift roundhouse kick to knock out another robot. He focused for a moment on trying to chaos control to another robot, but upon forgetting that he didn't have a chaos emerald with him, he instead fell clumsily to the ground. “DAMMIT!” 

He scrambled to his feet as Sonic landed from a second spin dash. He looked to Shadow. “I'll clear the way, you just run! I can handle this!”

Shadow grumbled a bit at this. “Make sure you're right behind me.”

He took off, bolting for the blasted hole in the wall, dodging laser fire as more SWATbots were starting to gather in the junkyard. Shadow dodged behind a scrap metal pile and yelled out. “SONIC!!!”

It took a moment for a blue blur to dart out, rushing to Shadow's side and looking to him. “Okay, so at this point, we're going to HAVE to cut through the junkyard to get out. SWATbots are covering all the exits.”

“Tell me you have a plan,” Shadow said, exasperated by the situation.

Sonic looked at Shadow. For a moment, he wasn't sure. But then he started scanning the junkyard, analyzing them. He suddenly pointed to a pile. “Run for that pile and hide behind it.”

Shadow looked at Sonic for a moment, looking unsure. But he's been right so far, and began to make a wild run for the junk pile, dodging more laser fire as Sonic followed suit. Once they were behind the pile, which was quite a distance away, Sonic looked to Shadow. “It'll take them a while to detect us, there's scrap copper in this pile that will block their scans.”

Shadow looked to Sonic. “How can you tell?”

Sonic frowned, looking around at other junk piles. “I...don't know...”

“That does it, you're seeing the doctor when we get back. This is NOT normal,” Shadow stressed.

“No kidding! It's freaking me out too!” Sonic responded, continuing to look around. He pointed to another junk pile. “Run there.”

Shadow sighed and nodded, and the two hedgehogs took off again, running a long distance across the yard towards the pile. Some of the robots spotted them, but giving chase was useless when they couldn't keep up, so they lost track of them when they got behind the new junk pile. Shadow looked to Sonic. “Did I mention I hate time travel?”

“I can see why,” Sonic panted. “Everything's getting messed up ever since you showed up.”

“Trust me, it wasn't my choice to be dropped back in time,” Shadow sniped, rather cranky by this point. “Let's just get the fuck outta here already.”

“Dude, quit with the swearing already!”

Shadow growled, his old rivalry instinct kicking up. “Make me!”

Sonic, rather aggressively, grabbed Shadow by the wrist with unusual strength and began to throw him to the ground. “I'm more than willing to do so!”

“AAARGH!” Shadow yelled and darted forward to tackle Sonic to the ground, wrestling him and rolling around in the grime and dirt, rolling against a rather unstable pile of scrap. “You are such full of crap, you know that?!”

“I'm not going around changing time with my mere presence!” Sonic sniped back, trying to throw a punch to his face. Shadow moved his head to one side to dodge the punch, causing Sonic to hit the already unstable scrap metal pile behind him.

Shadow looked up, to see the pile begin to tumble down. “Sonic, look out!”

Sonic barely had time to look up before the two hedgehogs were piled on with extremely heavy scrap metal, effectively burying them...