Chapter Text
Hot wind blew through the abandoned mining pits, howling eerily among gray and brown stone. A steely, overcast sky hung over the cavernous gorges as thunder growled in the distance. Sickly trees, gnarled and damaged by machinery and pollution stood watch on the rim of the pit. They were the lucky survivors. The mining operations obliterated vast swaths of forest that once grew here.
Shadow the Hedgehog stood close to the weathered trunk of one of the trees. In silence, he peered down into the deep crater and recollected the locations of the entrances to the hidden laboratory. He’d diligently studied the blueprints that Rouge provided to him. Rouge the Bat--despite her dubious nature--seemed eager to help Shadow in regards to infiltrating the lab….
It didn’t surprise him.
But it did annoy him.
It wasn't that he didn't trust her, per se. He trusted her with his life--she was one of the few people he actually did . He just didn't trust her with his heart.
He wouldn’t have been surprised if she expected something more out of all of this. Payment or jewels or his undying adoration so that she could put him on her list of male conquests.
Ever since the Soleanna incident, and especially after Shadow stood up to Mephiles, Rouge had been spending more and more time with him. He liked her company, but that was the problem.
She was a coy one. And she flirted with just about every man she came across. But Shadow knew well enough it was all because she had motives.
He rarely knew what they were. He didn’t really want to. And unlike most men who would drool over Rouge and chase her like lemmings off a cliff, Shadow ignored her advances entirely. Or at least he tried to.
Which to his incredible chagrin made her more interested in him.
Shadow looked down at his wrist comm and frowned slightly. Still nothing. If she was going to give the all-clear, she’d better do it fast. Shadow wasn’t going to sit around and wait forever.
He glanced over at his newest ally….Silver the Hedgehog.
This one was almost as annoying as Rouge in his own way. He was like a lost puppy. Naive and too sweet for his own good.
To be fair he is lost. Shadow mused mirthlessly as he frowned at the other hedgehog. A kid from another time.
That was a bit of a problem, albeit intriguing. Shadow still wasn’t entirely certain how Silver had gotten here. He assumed it was because of Mephiles, but he’d never bothered to ask Silver for details. Stranger still, Shadow just couldn’t understand why Silver was still here since they’d fixed the devastated future that Silver came from.
He wondered if it was even possible for the hedgehog to go back. Regardless, Silver knew the secret of chaos control and could use it with a single chaos emerald, so he needed to be watched-- closely.
Clearly, the guy wasn’t capable of looking after himself if he wound up here in the first place. He’d been tricked into trying to kill Sonic, was too insecure to even sleep half the time, and that sort of youthful recklessness and anxiety didn’t mix well with the unlimited power of chaos control. The last thing Shadow needed was another all-powerful hedgehog wreaking havoc on his world. What was that saying? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?
Well...maybe that’s a little harsh. He’s not my enemy….. exactly. But he’s not my friend, either, so I need to watch him like a hawk.
"Shadow!" The younger hedgehog called out softly, "I think I saw something!" A radiant cyan light washed over him as he floated into the air to gain a better vantage point. He backflipped, hiding behind a tree in case anyone might have seen him.
His ears and quills perked forward. “I think it’s a guard!” He shot up. “Maybe they’re leaving and we can get in.”
He swooped back to Shadow, blocking his view. “Should we make any changes to our strategy?”
Shadow’s eyes flicked up to look at Silver, but he remained otherwise unmoved. This guy clearly has no concept of stealth...or personal space. He does have a point, though. Rouge is taking too long.
He activated his wrist comm and growled into the mic, “We’re going in.”
To his surprise, Rouge responded fairly quickly, “Hold on, Shadow! I’m still breaking through the security mainframe. It seems like the codes keep re-scrambling.”
Shadow huffed quietly. “I have another strategy for dealing with the security mainframe.” He abruptly turned off his comm to cut off Rouge’s inevitable argument. He turned to Silver. “Shut up and stay close. I don’t want to have to rescue you.”
And with that, Shadow hurdled himself over the rim of the pit and skated cleanly down the sloping wall.
Silver nodded as he lowered himself, only to realize Shadow was already ahead. With a frustrated grunt, he drew more energy from his reserves, a burst of light rippling up his arms from his palms as he bolted forward to catch up.
He grunted as the air quickly grew thick. He tried pushing it apart like a sludge, skidding to a halt as the airflow tangled around him. Reserves draining, he rolled to the ground, his light fading into vapor. Tremors surged beneath him, forbidding him to stand. He whined and grunted as he scuffled across the ground.
“Sha-” He yawped, face smacking against a rock. He tucked his scraped cheek between his shoulder and chest, thankful for his thick tuft of white fur.
Shadow half-glanced over his shoulder, perturbed. Sure enough, he'd lost Silver already. Gravity worked against him as he tried to wheel around and go back up the cliffside, and though he activated the boosters in his shoes, he couldn't get the momentum on such a short turn to make it up.
He considered chaos control but figured it was a waste for such a short distance and so trivial a reason. Better to save his energy for when it really mattered.
Making it just over the terraced edge of a walkway, Shadow looked up at Silver and scowled, then looked back into the farthest depths of the pit.
Leaving Silver behind was a liability.
Shadow activated his comm, rather than yelling up at Silver. "Stop messing around."
“I wasn’t!” Silver barked back into his comm, still tumbling. At last he stopped, landing on his back.
Shadow wasn’t affected by that?!
Silver panted and scrutinized the circuitry in his wrist braces. Eyes narrowing on their dimmed glow, Silver spoke into the comm again, “Be careful.”
Shadow snorted. "Don't worry about me." He started skating off again as he spoke into his comm. "Look out for yourself."
The bowl-like shape of the mining pit made it easy to make his way down, and when he reached another ledge, he found that it began the circular pathway to the bottom.
Somewhere further down the path were the upper entrances into the mines….and the lab. As he drew closer, Shadow scanned the dark openings. Most of them were sealed off haphazardly with wooden planks, but when he passed one that was barricaded by a metal door, he doubled back to check it out.
There's something strange about this place….but….
A movement at the corner of his eye caught his attention, and he realized it was a motion-sensing security camera. It trained its focus on him.
Naturally, he launched himself at it and destroyed it.
“TAMPERED DEVICE ALERT! MSC01902! TAMPERED DEVICE ALERT!”
Shrill alarms whooped as turrets erupted from the ground, spraying bullets indiscriminately.
Silver focused his energy on redirecting bullets in order to clear a path as the circuits on his gloves sparked and crackled. He strained, gauging how much psychokinetic energy he had left.
Too many bullets to control… Could I just move the air around them?
He attempted, surrounding himself with his cyan aura. The bullets deflected, bouncing off the aura and striking the turrets, tinging against their metal exteriors and zipping in other directions.
Silver felt his aura shrink as he exerted more energy, to the point where the bullets nearly touched him.
I need to be able to clear a path! I wonder if Shadow’s handling it any better. I don’t feel good about breaking into this lab just yet.
He tried flying in order to catch up to Shadow, but a throbbing pain swelled behind his eyes and his vision shook. He dropped back to the ground and ran, bullets flying off him.
As turrets emerged from the ground and walls at the entrance gate, Shadow sprang against the metal barricade and braced his hands and feet against it just long enough to draw the fire.
Then he seemingly vanished and reappeared a short distance away as the turrets blasted a hole through the door.
A brief dizzy spell washed over him--as if he'd expended a great deal of energy… except he hadn't. He gritted his teeth and scowled, pushing through the discomfort and entering the building.
Just beyond the entrance, a long, metal-lined hall crept into a mine shaft turned laboratory. Fluorescent lights flickered down into the depths, and red alarm lights flashed blindingly along the walls.
To Shadow's surprise, he was not met by guards. The hall appeared eerily empty. He radioed Silver.
"The coast is clear. Come in...but stay alert."
There's no way they don't know we're here.
Silver thought as he climbed onto a turret, his psychokinetic armor flashing and fizzling at the impact of each bullet. He angled himself and jumped, high enough to dive through the opening and roll into Shadow.
Shadow stumbled ever so slightly at the sudden impact, but he managed to balance himself and glance at Silver disapprovingly. He could have told the younger hedgehog to watch where he was going, but Shadow decided that his glare was enough admonition for now.
His comm crackled.
“Shadow!” It was Rouge.
What an unexpected delight. Shadow didn’t respond and instead skated forward, blazing down the hallway and keeping his eyes open for any sign of danger. Still, Rouge persisted;
“I haven’t deactivated all of the security systems!”
Shadow huffed and muttered into his comm as he ran, “No shit.”
Rouge seemed unperturbed by Shadow’s response, and she chided him, “We don’t know what lies down beyond the fifth floor, and if you charge in, guns blazing, you might get yourself killed.”
“Wanna bet?” Shadow snorted.
Shadow could feel Rouge’s eyes rolling on the other side of the radio. “Cute. Look, if you want to be impatient, at least give me a heads up.
“I did.”
Exasperated by Shadow’s lack of cooperation, Rouge changed tactics. “Silver, do you copy?
“Yeah!” He replied, panting as he struggled to keep up with Shadow. “I wore out my psychokinesis faster than I expected.” He listened to the hollow, metallic footfalls as he sprinted. He pressed a hand to the floor as he slid around a tight corner. “But I have an idea. Shadow!!” He shouted, nearly forgetting the comm.
Shadow briefly flashed a glare over his shoulder at Silver to shut him up, while Rouge answered Silver over the comm.
"Keep a low profile, kiddo. You don't want any more trouble than Shadow's already gotten you in." She paused for a moment. "Even though this security system has a built-in scrambler, it looks like most of the infrastructure isn't as complicated as I thought….. I'm going to try shutting down the turrets. What is your idea, Silver?"
“It would take less energy for me to break through the floors than to keep up with Shadow the entire way down.” Silver stood to his feet, flexing his fingers as light gathered around him. His quills lifted up as he prepared to fire what energy he had left.
“Try not to get separated.” Rouge warned, before contacting Shadow again, “Are you listening, Boss?”
“Shut up!” A loud explosion in the background suggested that not only was Shadow already well ahead of Silver, but he’d run into more turrets.
“If Silver drops down to the bottom level ahead of you, he might get hurt.” Rouge protested.
Another explosion, and then soft “hmph” before Shadow answered, “Silver. If you really think you can break through the floor, wait. I’ll come back for you.”
Come back for me?
Silver winced as his power built. He strained as the psychokinetic energy pulsed through his nerves. He shook his head defiantly and released a wave of energy, walls and floor crumbling around him as he spiraled down. He spread his arms apart, slowing his descent as he floated the glowing debris towards him, forming a hard shell.
“I’m not helpless,” He laughed into the comm. “I--” The signal went out before he finished.
“Silver?” Rouge’s voice called him over the comm. “Silver, do you copy? You cut out.”
The entire building rattled, flashes of blue reflecting in the hallways, rubble flying into ceilings, and widening cracks spreading out from the tunnel Silver drilled into the base.
Shadow braced his hand against the floor and shot a glance back down the hall he’d come from. He didn’t know exactly what was going on, but with Silver’s lack of reply and the shuddering of the walls, he didn’t ask any questions.
“Damn it, I told you to wait!” He snapped into the comm before he whirled and blazed back down the hall, skidding to a halt at the edge of a large, circular hole in the floor.
The destruction might have been admirable…..it was certainly impressive--except that Shadow heard alarms going off down below.
Well, there was nothing to do for it now but see what they’d done. He jumped down into the hole and fell past level after level.
“Shadow, I can’t get ahold of Silver.”
Don’t you think I know that? Shadow thought as he curled into a ball to obliterate the turrets that started sprouting up and shooting at him.
“Just shut off the turrets!!!!” Shadow shouted at Rouge.
But the turrets were the least of their troubles.
Shadow landed on the bottom floor and as he rose to stand, found his feet planted on filthy, heavily rusted metal paneling covered with some sort of thick greenish slime. He scowled and lifted his gaze to look around.
They’d landed in a dimly lit stone tunnel. Huge metal bars covered large holes in the walls, and they appeared to be sealed shut with electrical keypads.
There were no turrets down here….but low, gurgling growls emanated from the dark cells.
Silver charged towards Shadow, huge chunks of metal and stone still orbiting around him. His crumpled radio slipped off as he leapt over a heap of dismantled security cameras and robot guards, clunking as it fell to the bottom.
"Hi, Shadow!" He said abruptly, hands shining brighter as he shoveled up the pile into a barrier. "Don't move!"
He scooped more loose debris up into his hold and stacked it in a ring around them.
Shadow raised an eyebrow at the younger hedgehog and cast his gaze around at the barrier.
Well...at least he didn’t get himself killed. He didn’t even really need my help. Shadow folded his arms across his chest and turned slowly as he observed their protective cover of debris.
“We can’t stay here forever. We need to keep moving.” He strolled casually towards the ring of debris, laying a hand against a smashed hunk of metal. Still, he made no move to leave the circle...yet. “It looks like we’ve landed in some sort of dungeon.”
"I can see that!" Silver replied, teeth clenched as stones in the wall illuminated and tore loose, joining the stack. He kept an eye on his cuffs, the light within flickering.
"Do you think something down here can explai-"
A low snarl echoed through the chamber.
"Hurry!" Silver gasped, ripping more stones loose. "Fast fast fast!" Everything clunked and creaked as it pulled together around them.
"Okay so new plan, right?" Silver gave a half-hearted optimistic chuckle.
The ground rumbled as Silver backed into Shadow. The younger hedgehog spread his feet apart and bent his knees, bracing himself.
Impressed enough with Silver’s quick thinking and skill, Shadow decided to afford him a little more freedom. And, if Silver screwed up….well, then clearly he wasn’t as cool as he let on. He could also wind up dead, and that would no doubt eat at Shadow’s conscience, but….more time to worry about that later.
“You go on ahead,” Shadow ordered gruffly. “I’ll take care of whatever’s down here and catch up. Rouge can guide you until then.”
She knows what she’s doing.
He didn’t say.
Silver’s eyes widened as he looked back at Shadow, but he didn’t protest. He shoved the barrier forward, rearranging it into a shield as he plowed ahead.
He came to a grinding halt as something struck the shield, scraping at it with long claws. He grunted and pushed forward again, determined to run it over. The creature pressed into the shield, Silver’s psychokinesis keeping the metal and stone from crushing him.
“Rouge, I Could reallllly use a plan right about now. I--” Silver stopped, realizing his radio wasn’t connected.
Panicked, he flung pieces of his shield forward and into the creature, desperately searching for the missing radio. He ducked down as a massive arm tore through the gaps, metal squealing as it groped around. Silver grunted as he chucked a metal pipe into the creature’s gelatinous, reptilian face, its jaws snapping it in two.
“This is bad.” Silver didn’t need to see the full body of the creature to know that it could easily overpower him. He turned, whipping sharp pieces of scrap metal behind him as he bolted towards Shadow.
As if on cue, Shadow rocketed through the air and launched himself at the creature’s head. When it countered and tossed him away with its huge head, Shadow unrolled and thrust a chaos spear into its open mouth.
His fingers tingled strangely.
What is this thing? Shadow hovered momentarily and then landed smoothly as the creature rounded on him.
It didn’t look like anything he’d ever seen before, and more disturbing than that; it seemed to emit a great deal of energy….. Pure chaos. Yet it didn’t seem ready to use it….
Just then, the creature’s gaping mouth dropped farther open, and a bright beam flashed from its maw. Shadow just barely managed to initiate chaos control and avoid getting seared. A large pit was left in the wall, and rock melted into a molten puddle like candle wax.
My mistake.
Shadow frowned at the chaos mutant.
Silver flinched at the sound and looked up at the smoldering hole.
How?! That wasn’t there before! This monster’s faster than-
“Shadow?!” The words fell out. Silver shuddered, pulling the debris around him closer like a shell.
No. No!
He flipped to face the creature and screamed, not sure what to do or say, and flung rocks from the wall recklessly.
What the--
Shadow looked up sharply as rocks rained down, and with annoyance, he realized that Silver was the one throwing them. He skated between them and right up under the chaotic mutant, weaving between its legs and drawing its chaos to himself before blasting it straight back up at the creature’s belly, throwing the mutant directly into Silver’s barrage.
Then he took his brief moment of bought time and appeared next to Silver.
“Why are you still here?!” He snapped.
Silver jumped back and fell on his rear.
“You-” If the hedgehog could look any paler, this was it. “You-” Silver stammered, eyes darting between the hole in the wall and Shadow, “Ah-- you’re--I thought-- you -- the wall -- I didn--”
Shadow crossed his arms, resisting the urge to knock Silver upside the head. Behind him, he heard the creature growling, and knew it was starting to get up. “Are you going to answer my question? Or better yet,
just go!
”
Silver silently obeyed and dashed on ahead, keeping low to the ground to avoid the chaos beast as it lunged towards Shadow again.
Shadow vanished and reappeared alongside the mutant, swiping his hand along its side as his fist began glowing brightly with chaotic energy.
Of course.
Silver mentally kicked himself for forgetting so soon.
With chaos control you can be faster than light. That’s why I didn’t see any of it. This fight is theirs a-
He suddenly remembered.
“Wait! Shadooow!!!” He called out, igniting his powers to rush back into the fray. “My radio!”
He wasn’t sure if he overshot it, or if the chaos beast had something to do with it, but Silver zipped right between Shadow and the beast, into the wall.
A small explosion ignited and the monster bellowed, rearing up and nearly stomping Shadow to the floor.
Except that Shadow rolled out of the way and braced himself with his hand.
And there was Silver again. Face first in the wall.
Nice.
“What now?!” Shadow grunted as he grabbed Silver and used Chaos Control to move them both quickly away from the mutant’s exhaled beam-breath.
“I lost my radio.” Silver cringed at his own words, ears drooping. “If it matters at this point.” He sighed, looking at the chaos creature. It was only a matter of time before it found them again.
Shadow’s expression softened ever so slightly. At least he didn’t look like he wanted to strangle Silver anymore.
“Here.” Shadow unclasped the band that held his wrist comm, and he swiftly tossed it to Silver, “Take mine.”
Without another word, the black hedgehog bolted back into the fray, vanishing as he went and reappearing above the mutant to rain chaos spears down on it.
Silver adjusted the straps and flew overhead, keeping towards the wall to stay out of the way. His reserves drained again and he managed to cushion his fall by thrusting the rest of his energy at the ground.
He tumbled into an awkward roll as he activated the radio.
“It’s Silver. What’s the plan?” Static buzzed as he pushed himself to his feet and kept running, eyes fixating on opaque fluid streaming from the walls.
From whatever else lurked in those cages.
Hope they don’t escape. He reached towards the ceiling with a hand, ready to pull down any other security cameras.
“I’ve managed to disable the internal defense system,” Rouge spoke over the comm. “The turrets shouldn’t be a problem. The bad news is that I can’t get a lock on your current location, and the existing maps don’t chart anything below the fifth floor. You’ll need to be careful.”
Silver nodded and offered a faint “yeah” as he yanked a panel off an inactive turret and used his powers to convert it into a hoverboard.
Rouge paused, and the sound of typing crackled on the radio. “You’ll need to find the generator room to destroy the main power supply, and according to these files….” She paused again as if reading, “The Negentropic Experimentation room contains the subjects of Project Nil. If any of the subjects are active--whatever they are--they may impair Shadow’s chaos control. When you get your hands on them, try to neutralize them without destroying them. We’ll need a chance to analyze them if possible.”
“Are they anything like those huge garbage monsters?” Silver asked, surfing down the tunnel and checking for openings along the walls. “I think they impair my psychokinesis too.”
“I can’t find any information on the subjects’ specs. It’s unclear if they’re inanimate, robots, or living creatures.” Rouge informed regretfully, “It appears that all data on the subjects has been removed from the system as recently as yesterday. But I can’t figure out why. If these goons really are playing with chaos, though, we need to stop them, regardless.”
“Right!” Silver replied, static coughing in the comm. He veered left and right, the floating metal in his grasp briefly lighting dead ends.
Maybe this is just a sewer system.
He scrunched his nose and gagged, eyes squeezed shut against a plume of gas. He lost focus and the metal panel dropped. He hung on as it slid across the thin, slimy film covering the ground. He tightened his grip on the board as it skidded over rough, rusty patches, slowing down. He plucked at the bricks lining the pathway with his psychokinesis, checking for secret passageways.
Nothing’s standing out. Am I just going to be wandering until I run into it? He huffed and plopped his rear on the board, wrist braces flashing as he propelled it forward. His ears twitched uncomfortably at the metal grating against the slimy, rusty, bumpy floor.
He turned his head to another cage and stood up, stopping his board.
Are
they all dead?
He smelled it before he saw it. He cast a dim light on the bars, bending them slightly. The ragged outline of dead bodies wasn’t an unfamiliar sight to him, but still too much for his liking. He grimaced and buried his face into his shoulder, drawing a bar to him to use as a weapon.
Silver pressed his wrist close to his face as if to shield it with the radio. “Rouge, I think it’s a dungeon. There were other cages with those monsters in them, and it looks like there are prisoners too.”
There was a long pause before Rouge spoke again, and when she did, she spoke softly, “What kind of experiments were they running?” It almost seemed more like she was asking herself than Silver, and it was clear that she didn’t expect him to know the answer.
“How many prisoners?”
Silver winced and reached toward them with his powers to light them up. Though psychokinesis never let him sense anything beyond weight in his hold, a filthy, gritty, wet kind of dread crept up his spine.
“Nine? They’re not exactly in one piece…” His throat pinched as he lifted a few cracked bones into the air, dropping them the moment he realized what they were.
Silver wrung his hands, wishing he could wash them. “What should I do?” He didn’t
really
want to say that, but it was better than the jumbled thoughts of things he could say.
Rouge responded somberly, “Leave them….If there’s nothing we can do for them, the best we can do is bring them some kind of justice.”
The dim, yellowish lighting flickered slightly as a scream echoed through the long labyrinth. It sounded far away, and it was impossible to make out any words, but the tone sounded desperate, pleading.
More prisoners?!
Silver flinched and held the iron bar close to his chest. With a wave of his hand, he stripped the walls bare of the first few layers of stone, managing to keep the holding cells intact. He let them fall to the floor, skipping over them as he followed the faint cries.
Running past an exposed vent, Silver noticed the sound begin to fade. He slowed and cocked his head, noticing an exposed air vent. He pushed himself off a stone and floated backward, a scream becoming clearer and louder as he approached. His brow perked, followed by the tip of his tail.
“I’m going to see what that is!” He told Rouge, lowering himself as he rearranged stones in the air to form a crude stairway. Hopping up, he warped the grate with psychokinesis and tossed it aside. Then, he wedged himself into the vent, building up power and kicking off the last step for a boost. He whooshed through the small passage, leaving a trail of cyan energy curling outwards like smoke.
“Watch your step, kiddo. It looks like something might have gone terribly wrong.”
Rouge paused as Silver swiftly made his way through the air ducts. The screams weakened, sounding strained and agonized.
“According to recent reports….” Rouge paused again and then gasped softly, “Oh my. No wonder you haven’t run into as much trouble as we thought you would. It says here that the lab has been evacuated and the experiments transferred.”
“Transferred?!” Silver repeated, more to himself than Rouge as he snaked through the tight tunnel. Then why are monsters still here?!
Rouge started mumbling a little bit as if reading through parts of the report that may have been unimportant, or writing down critical information to memorize.
When she spoke again, her voice sounded even more surprised. “Looks like there’s been a number of unexplained deaths and disappearances among the scientists. This doesn’t sound good….”
Suddenly, just past a branch in the ductwork, the screams got louder, coming from a room just beyond a ventilation grate. They cut off with an abrupt gurgle, and then the sound ceased altogether.
Silver forced his knees down, metal thunking as the duct bulged beneath him. He thrust his momentum through his body and out his hands, recoiling as it blasted down each pathway, buckling the metal at every corner.
He waited until the sounds of grates tearing from the wall and clattering into rooms stilled and then crawled forward, taking one of the vents to his left.
Unexplained deaths…
His thoughts were interrupted by another loud clang. Someone, or something, had heard him. Taking a deep breath, the hedgehog shimmied backward, grimacing as his spines bent forward, and he took a right at another fork.
Suddenly, what looked like metallic hooks punched through the ductwork just in front of Silver. He watched, backing up as they sliced through the thin metal-like blades and tore it open. Two lime green eyes gleamed through the darkness as they peered into the ductwork, and slowly a shadowy form slid in through the gap.
Silver quickly manipulated the ripped metal, peeling back longer strips, ready to defend himself. He gritted his teeth and grunted.
Even in the tight space, the dark form moved lithely, leaping towards Silver. It seemed to be a person--Mobian-- as it extended its claw-like fingers towards him. The silhouette of the figure’s arms seemed to be lined with meathooks and spines, though whether they were natural or cybernetic enhancements, it was impossible to tell in the darkness.
Even more unnerving, the being’s eyes fixated on Silver like robotic tracing devices and glowed ominously.