"Rise and shine, sleepyheads! Up, up, up!"
Ava groans and rolls over. "What the hell..."
The lights are back on, and Eggman is standing in front of the containment chamber. The badger rubs her eyes as she sits up. She notices the doctor looks more excited than usual. Behind her, Shadow is still snoring, so Ava jostles him awake before Eggman can yell again.
"What is it, Ava," the hedgehog mutters. He then notices the doctor and frowns. "Oh... What do you want?"
Eggman chuckles. "What do I want? Let's see...oh, that's right! I want one of you to be my guinea pig!"
Ava crosses her arms. "Right now? In case you hadn't noticed, both of us just woke up. You're expecting us to do your dirty work on empty stomachs?"
"So? Why should that matter?"
"Because I don't think you want to see an angry hedgehog and a hungry badger come after you."
The doctor scowls. "Fine." He leans out the doorway. "Orbot! Cubot! Get in here!"
The robots appear almost immediately.
"Yes, boss?" Orbot says.
"Get these two something to eat. And make it snappy! I want them ready to go in twenty minutes!"
"You got it, boss!" Cubot replies.
The robots leave the room, and Eggman exits as well. Just as Ava turns to Shadow, her communicator beeps, and she answers the call.
"What's up, Rouge?" Ava asks in a low voice. She turns up the speaker slightly so Shadow can hear the bat too.
"I figured out what the Doc's up to. He's negatively charging up the Chaos energy and combining it with a mind control serum. From what it looks like, he's going to use it on both of you."
"Is there anything that you can do about it?"
"Not without alerting Eggman to my presence."
"We can't afford to let that happen," Shadow says. "Rouge, I want you to follow wherever Eggman takes us and observe."
"Got it."
Ava ends the call. "I'll go first."
The hedgehog shakes his head. "Ava, no."
"I can handle it, Shadow. I've been mind controlled before."
"That's not the part I'm worried about. Rouge said it's negatively charged Chaos energy, and you've never dealt with that before."
"What's the difference?"
Shadow is about to answer when the robots come back. "Just let me go first," he whispers. "I'll be fine."
Ava swallows her tears. "Okay..."
Orbot and Cubot give each of them a bowl of steaming hot oatmeal. Shadow eats his right away without waiting for it to cool down, but Ava suddenly isn't hungry anymore. Her stomach is too full with anxiety. But she did convince Eggman to give her and Shadow food. She forces herself to eat at least half the bowl before the Doctor comes back. He walks in just as she finishes.
"Time's up! So, who will it be?"
Shadow grunts as he gets to his feet. Ava considers helping him, but the look in his eyes tells her not to. She stays where she is as Eggman makes Shadow put on a pair of electric handcuffs before letting him out of the containment chamber. The hedgehog follows the Doctor out of the room, glancing back at the badger as he walks out the door.
