Chapter Text
It's just another day in Sonic's life. Wake up, scarf down whatever is in the fridge, and then run out the door before Tails can even say hello to him. Morning runs are important, okay? Sonic runs along a usual path, which is a beaten-up dirt track running in the woods behind the house that he lives in with Tails. Though, more often than not, Tails finds him asleep anywhere else, such as in the woods, a tree, on Angel Island, etc. Sonic's a busy guy.
Though, after he arrives back from his morning run, Tails greets him with a sense of urgency. "Sonic!" he calls.
"Huh? What's up?"
Tails types away at his tablet, and shows Sonic the screen. An Eggman base is highlighted in red, a fair distance away from their current location.
"My sensors picked up another Eggman base! It's either new, or we haven't discovered it before. Knuckles and I have something else to do with Amy, so can you please check it out?" Tails asks, looking at Sonic with puppy eyes.
He laughs. "Of course, bud! I'll be back in just a minute."
"Wait, before you go–" Sonic bolts out the door, not hearing the rest of Tails' sentence.
Tails sighs. "I was going to tell him that the base contained government secrets…"
Sonic runs towards where the base is supposed to be. It was located in a thick, overgrown forest, which seemed odd for an Eggman base. Usually they were in clearings, or in towns, anywhere that seemed discoverable at all. Sonic approached the large, moss covered concrete building.
More of this seemed odd to him, especially considering the lack of flair that the building came with. Usually Eggman bases were teeming with technology and flair, having some indicator of the mad scientist, screaming that he was there. The only thing that even indicated that someone was there at some point was a beaten, rusted truck of some sort that was parked out front. It looked like it hadn't been touched for years.
Sonic stopped. This was already giving him really weird vibes, and he was not a fan. "What's wrong with this building.." he trailed off, starting to look for an entrance of some sort. He ran around the perimeter, looking for weak spots.
Out front was a large door, which gave easily to Sonic's push. He wasn't super strong, and there was no alarms that blared or annoying visuals, so it only served to put him at more guard. It was beaten up, and old, so definitely not anything new. And it was so uncared for that it didn't seem like a trap, but Sonic felt like he should at least try to be careful.
He turned a corner and tripped over a rock on the floor. So much for that. Sonic picked himself up off of the ground, and groaned. This was already annoying. He was grateful for the sky-lights and somehow still active emergency lights that dimly lit the many pathways through the building.
One of the doors was labeled, a conference room. This was definitely not something of Eggman's design, it didn't even have his logo on it. Sonic shoved open the aging door to enter in a very dusty room, unused for what seemed like years. Folders lay on a back table, seemingly shoved there haphazardly. Sonic drew closer, looking at the documents. Most of them were filled with legal jargon, with the occasional news clipping and report.
…Though, almost all of these were old . Like, older than Sonic by a long shot old. Scrunching up his brow, Sonic made a mental note to keep that in mind to let Tails know. What had he stumbled upon?
He turned and walked out of the room, missing a folder labeled in big, red letters: Project Shadow.
The halls all looked the same, which mildly confused Sonic. He didn't want to get stuck in a labyrinth, not again .
He jogged deeper into the complex, passing signs until eventually all of the halls were unmarked. It was clear that, even in the age of the building, this part hadn't been touched for even longer. Sonic was drawn to a dim green glow at the end of one of the long, wide hallways, which was accompanied by moss and blackened rock.
Curiosity getting the better of him, Sonic ran his hand against the aging, stone brick walls. They were firm, but crumbled just a little under his hand. Jeez, how old was this place? Sonic glanced at the ceiling, seeing thick, metallic tubes running along the ceiling. Some looked brand new, and others were old, hung up with zip ties and other seemingly temporary security. He half expected one of them to fall on him.
Regardless, he trudged forward, entering past long-stuck open doors that were the sole visible entry point to an impressively large, somewhat dark room. No windows adjourned this room, save for a single skylight which beamed down in the center, high above from the floor. The window was made of dirty glass, uncracked.
Sonic looked around the large room, noting old computers, shelves, and messy tables. It was as if whoever was here last left in a hurry. And they even forgot their large, green sludge tube, which glowed in the dark of the room, only counteracted by the afternoon light from the ceiling window.
Well, there was also someone inside the tube, and Sonic recoiled as soon as he noticed. Upon further inspection, they didn't seem to be decayed at all, rather suspended in green sludge, which still bubbled with the run of decaying propellors. Just how old was this thing? How did it even run? Was the person inside even alive, if they ever were?
So many unanswered questions. Sonic looked further into the murky green, and made out a hedgehog who looked somewhat similar to himself. Black was their main color, and red accents were along their arms, legs, and head quills. What was distinctly non-Mobian, though was the fact that this stranger had claws on their feet and hands.
It wasn't dissimilar to a cat, Sonic thought, and circled around the tube. Mostly hedgehog, part something else with all of the random bits and bobs on the other. They were mostly suspended, but had nodes and wires hooked up to a few places in their body. Their eyes were shut, as if they were simply in a peaceful slumber, and not likely in a coma. Sonic winced at the thought, sympathy bubbling up in his stomach.
He spared a glance at the messy tables, deciding to nose around. It's not like anyone was around to tell him off, and it would be beneficial, right?
Many of the files seemed out of order, and a lot of them had a lot of words in small-print font, making it hard to read. There was so many of them, they almost seemed to blend together. And while it looked neat, it was also.. annoying. For someone nosy like Sonic, you can't be nosy if you can barely read what's on the paper!
However, something caught his eye, a large folder with the words "PROJECT SHADOW" written on it in bright red. Sonic snatched it up, leafing through the contents of the manilla folder to see if anything caught his eye. Lots of words, just like all the other papers so far. He looked closer. Wait, was that… experimentation? Sonic glanced back at the glowing, green tube, and walked to it. He held the little picture within the folder up to the hedgehog suspended in the tube.
This, he deduced, required more investigation.