I Am...All of Me

The Ultimate Weapon (Part 1)

Secret Base

          Almost precisely two years ago, Earth lost a valuable hero, Shadow the hedgehog. He was allegedly on his way to meet the Sonic Team for the birthday party of Cream the Rabbit but never arrived. It seems he has simply vanished off the face of the planet. But a new terror who call themselves the Dark Legion have launched open war on the world and have put up a substantial fight with their Chaos Cannon. Even Sonic himself has found the situation dire, and unless Shadow is found, the world may not be free for much longer...

    "Ha! Ha! Get a load of this! It seems even the great Sonic is losing hope!" a human in a black military uniform laughed to his comrade beside him. The two men chuckled darkly, as they entered the main lab.

     In the center stood a giant metal ring with two identical circles crossing over it. In the middle, a black and red-striped hedgehog was chained to it in a standing position with his arms stretched out on either side of him. Normally, such primitive binds couldn't hold him, but the glowing red shackles around his wrists and ankles stripped him of his power until it was needed by the humans who held him captive. At the moment, the grim hedgehog's eyelids were shut tired, his strength waning. For two years he had been chained there. For two years, he had been tortured and sapped his power like a living battery. He was the missing hero-- Shadow the Hedgehog. 

     "Hey Stripes!" the man holding the newspaper called with a smirk, waving the paper up to him. Shadow only acknowledged him with a light flick of the ear, and his eyelids tightened. 

      "Seems like you're the world's last hope again," he bellowed and read the article loud enough for everyone to hear. 

     "Only this time yer a bit tied up!" someone yelled from across the lab. A deep, throaty growl erupted from the hedgehog's throat, but his eyes remained shut. Jokes and harsh mockery echoed all around him, and he folded his sensitive ears from the deafening noise. 

     "Attention!" a hard, all too familiar, voice boomed. A lone human male with dirty blond hair in a crew haircut, blue eyes, and a scar across his left cheek entered. He was dressed in his normal black uniform and trench coat. At his voice, the Ultimate Lifeform open his eyes to reveal deadly, hateful ruby irises. When the two made eye contact, Shadow let out a feral snarl with his canines bared, while the human sneered devilishly. The man stepped gingerly up the metal steps to the platform and stopped a foot away from the restrained hedgehog. Shadow fought against the chains with as much power he had left, if only to land one hit on his captor. 

       "Craig Jones," he spat, although his voice was cracked from lack of water, "G.U.N. should've never trusted you."

     "That was their mistake, and my gain," Craig answered, "I read the papers; things aren't looking too good for the world, what with one Earth's main heroes gone and all. I wonder if his friends are still looking for him, or if they even miss him? I heard he wasn't much of a social type."

       Shadow fought against the chains, but couldn't move more than a few inches. He leaned his tan muzzle as close as could to the man's face, as he threatened, "My friends will come for me, and when I'm free, you are the first person I'm coming after."

      Craig crossed his arms and yelled an order to his soldiers, while never breaking eye contact with his powerful prisoner. 

     "Prepare the cannon and set coordinates for Mystic Ruins. I don't think we've striked that area yet."

        Shadow's mind swerved, as the human he despised walked back down the steps. Sonic and Tails lived there, and with the war outside, Angel Island would be in that vicinity, meaning the echidna, Knuckles. Amy Rose and Cream also lived in a cottage with the rabbit's mother near that area. Rose! he inwardly gasped and fought harder against the binds specifically engineered to hold him.