"Sonic?!" Shadow called, hastily shutting the apartment door. "Sonic, you in here?"

But he wasn't.

Instead, Shadow was answered by a voice exactly identical to his own, the source of which was located in the kitchen.

"Sonic's not here." With these words, a single teal-streaked Shadow Android stepped out from behind the counter, into plain sight. A commonly-seen scowl crept its way onto Shadow's features.

"Then where is he?"

Instead of answering, the faux hedgehog handed the one after which he was made a small device that almost looked like an iPhone and instructed, "Press the button," referring to the small, circular button below the device's screen. In doing so, Shadow played a previously recorded transmission. Dr. Eggman's less-than-appealing face took up the entirety of the screen.

"Why, hello there, Shadow," he beamed. "If you're watching this, then I'm sure you're concerned as to your little butt buddy's whereabouts, am I correct?" That remark didn't make Shadow's frown any better. The robotics expert smugly twisted a strand of his overgrown moustache between his thumb and index finger as he went on, "Well, I'll just have you know he's perfectly safe here with me. Actually," he acted as if he was just realizing this, "he's right here in this very room! Care to say hello, Sonic?"

He stepped out of the camera shot, revealing a bound and gagged Sonic the Hedgehog. To add to this, the furry was still handcuffed to the same Shadow Androids, and Neo Metal Sonic was still standing nearby. Shadow growled at the sight while Eggman laughed sadistically in the background and Sonic seemed to be desperately trying to warn Shadow of something, but the tight muzzle over his mouth and handcuffs keeping him from removing it disallowed him from speaking clearly enough for anyone to understand a word.

"Now don't you worry your pretty little head," the evil genius falsely reassured, stepping back into the camera shot behind Sonic and his captors. "All you need to do to save him is come to my base and give me a sample of your DNA. If you must know why, it's because my 1,000 Shadow Androids could use a few upgrades and using materials from the real deal would be most beneficial. Do that, and I'll let Sonic leave this place unscathed. If you agree to my terms, let Shadow Android 301 there guide you here within the next 24 hours," Eggman was suddenly much more formal.

"But if you don't," he warned, "then I'd be more than happy to use Sonic for genetic experiments, or animal testing, or maybe target practice for my best shooting robots. What do you think, Sonic?" he chuckled, knowing full well the teen couldn't answer, and then the transmission ended abruptly. Sable handed the device back to sable.

"I take it you're Shadow Android 301?"

"Correct. I take it you want to leave immediately?"

"For how much that kid drives me up a wall, I'd do anything for him."

"Your choice," the robot humphed. "Follow me."

And Shadow did.

He followed his near-perfect mirror image miles away from the apartment building, through forceful wind and rain, past the electricity-enforced, well-guarded gates surrounding Eggman's fortress, through the sliding doors, up countless flights of dimly-lit stairs and machine-filled rooms, and finally up to the hall that gave way to Eggman's control room. Once there, the android left Shadow on his own to enter. In doing so, he found that only the man himself was there, in his computer chair, back turned, and Sonic was nowhere in sight. He pressed on anyway, demanding,

"Where's Sonic?"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a crack of booming thunder ripped at the air outside.

Eggman rotated in his chair to face his visitor, drumming his fingers together in a way that matched the infuriating smirk across his face.

"You need not worry about him; he's safe and sound asleep right now. Am I to assume you're here to take his place?" The hedgehog made no hesitation in answering, "Yes."

But then, the smirk on the scientist's face widened a little.

"Too bad."

"What?"

"Now!"

In a split instant, while Shadow's focus was still scrambled, two of his robotic doppelgangers used Chaos Control to warp into the room, grab Shadow's arms at both sides, and hold him in place while another two handcuffed him to themselves. Against four enemies as strong as himself, no amount of kicking or struggling did any good, and for whatever reason his Chaos Control was failing him at the moment. It felt as if the power was being drained out of him somehow…

With rage overthrowing his ability to speak at the moment, Shadow had to settle for glaring at Eggman while the latter cackled, "Gotcha!" then continued laughing for a moment. After the fit of seemingly hysterical laughter ended, he explained, "I'm sure you're wondering where your powers are going. Well, they're being drained into those handcuffs on your wrists, and deposited into the androids connected to them. But don't worry—the effects are only temporary. You'll recover so that I can do the same to power up all the other ones." Shadow hardly cared about that at the moment.

"What about Sonic?" he growled, trembling slightly with rage.

"Why, he'll be overjoyed to see you. When you join him in his prison cell," he stressed the last part, milking the sentence for all it was worth.

"WHAT?!" Shadow bared his fangs. "That's not what you said before!"

"Times change," the only human within miles shrugged as casually as if he were a New Yorker who didn't care for sports talking about a baseball game the Yankees lost. "Take him away."

The robots followed his orders without a second thought, dragging and shoving their master's prisoner out of the room. No matter how much Shadow yelled, threw his fists and tried to shake them off, it was futile, and it wasn't helping that he was still getting weaker every passing moment. Before they made it much farther, black clouds obscured the edges of his vision…




Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog, Neo Metal Sonic, Shadow Android, Dr. Ivo "Eggman"Robotnik © Sega