[Episode 169207] [Episode 169207]"I'll ask you one last time: Where are the other experiments?" The tall man wearing the grey uniform was practically shouting into Bio's face.
The lizard struggled a little within his bonds. "I don't know... what you're talking about," he growled.
The commander snarled angrily. "Professor Gerald created three creatures like yourself! Two of them are still aboard the ARK! So where are they?"
"There are no creaturesss asss me on the ARK..." Bio lisped. And it was the truth: Shadow and Pluto may be his siblings, in a way of thinking, but they clearly weren't like him.
Commander Barrel cursed loudly. "Get that creature out of my sight," he snapped. The soldiers guarding the lizard saluted. "Yes, sir!"
Barrel shook his head. Doesn't matter! The professor clearly stepped over his bounds. This had to stop. Experimenting with those abominable life forms... it was a crime against life in the commander's eyes. He had to be stopped at all costs. The president HAD to accept that.
He activated his communicator. "Attention all units! Order 578 is now active. Clear up the ARK... shut down the research facilities... find the experiments and take them down, dead or alive! I don't care what it takes, but stop that madman!"
He made a fist. After his son saw that mad scientist making a pact with that gruesome alien, he was sure that some day, he would find a chance to make Gerald pay for his crimes.
And this day... was today!
----
Gerald sighed. "I don't blame the two of you," he said sadly. "Bio was always suffering, not only because of the soldiers. Most of my colleagues feared him as well. It was just a matter of time, before..."
"Without his life support system, he won't survive," Maria sobbed. "Why did this have to happen?"
Shadow looked down. "I really wish I had been able to save him..."
Before anyone could say anymore, something shook around the walls of the ARK. "W-what's happening, grandfather?" Maria asked in fright.
The loudspeakers of the colony came active: "All residents of the space colony ARK, listen up! This is the Guardian force of the United Nations (G.U.N.)! This space colony will be shut down, together with all of its research facilities. Surrender yourself to the members of our clearance teams, and no one will be harmed. Anyone that knows about the whereabouts of Professor Gerald Robotnik, or one of his research experiments, has to report it immediately!"
"Oh no!" Maria cried. "Why are the soldiers doing this to us?"
The professor grumbled. "I knew it would come to this... I always knew... they always feared my work."
He looked at Pluto and Shadow. "You two, bring Maria out of here! Guard them with your lives and try to escape as well! The escape pods are in Sector 3! I will try to save my research records and the Chaos Emeralds I managed to collect so far. Do not come back for me! Understand?"
Pluto wanted to object, but Shadow shoved her away and nodded. "Understood, professor! I swear it, I will protect Maria." He looked at his two female friends. "Come, we have to go!"
"Grandfather!" Maria shouted, while Pluto and Shadow were pulling her with them. Gerald took one sad look after them, then hurried into his laboratory.
He breathed a sigh of relief. "Luckily all of my records are intact." He went to pick everything up, when suddenly, GUN soldiers came storming into the room. "There he is! Professor Gerald Robotnik, you are under arrest on orders of Commander Barrel from GUN. Please make no attempts to resist and everything will work out fine." The captain motioned to the notes, the machines and everything else. "Burn it! Burn everything down!" He walked over to a small chest and pulled out three Chaos Emeralds: A red one, a purple one and a light blue one.
After he left the room, soldiers carrying flamethrowers came in. While the professor was being dragged out of his lab, he had to watch how they were burning everything down. "No!! Not my research results! My laboratory! My life's work!! NO!!"
----
The two hedgehogs and Maria hurried through the corridors of the ARK.
"There," Pluto shouted. "Only past that hall, and we have reached the escape pods. They will get us down to Earth safely."
Shadow nodded, while Maria only sobbed. "Grandfather..."
But when they opened the door, something happened that should change everything... forever...
The only thing Pluto saw was a giant shape and a voice that shouted: "There they are! Fire!"
Then a gunshot.
Shadow really didn't understand what happened. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. The gun's bullet flew over his shoulder, past his head and hit the object that was directly behind him...
Maria's chest.
Pluto shouted: "NOOOOO..."
Again, like in slow motion, the small blonde girl fell down on the ground. She looked up one last time at Shadow's face and whispered: "Shadow... I beg of you... please... do it for me! For all these people on that planet..." She whispered something else that Pluto couldn't understand, then: "Sayonara, Shadow... the hedgehog." Then her head fell back.
She was dead.
While Pluto looked at Maria's lifeless body stunned, a primal rage awoke inside Shadow's body. A flame of fury lit up in his eyes as he turned around to the big combat vessel that was hovering in front of them. It was round, like a flying saucer, had some guns under it's frontal cockpit and various other weapons all around its body.
"This is Heavy Dog, headquarters," the voice of the pilot exclaimed. "I found the two hedgehogs! Will now try to capture them!"
"You... you pathetic humans," Shadow growled. "YOU'RE GOING DOWN!"
And deep within his mind, an evil voice seemed to whisper: 'Yeeees, Shadow... submit to your fury... release your rage and direct it against those humans that made life so miserable for you...'
Pluto shouted: "Shadow, no!" But it was too late. The black hedgehog hurled its spiky body against the hovering craft while dodging its gunshots. He smacked against a missile launcher, it fell to the ground, he picked it up and fired a missile... right into the cockpit window of the Heavy Dog.
"GYYAAAAARRRRRGGHH!" the pilot screamed, as his vessel exploded in a shower of sparks.
Shadow fell down on the ground, unconscious.
Pluto ran to his side and checked his pulse. He was alive.
She looked back at Maria's body and tears flowed down her face. "Oh, professor... is it really true? Can the human society accept us if everyone is reacting like this? I think not!" She collapsed in tears and only broke out of her misery when she heard other soldier's voices approaching. Quickly, she picked up Shadow's body and carried him over to one of the escape pods. They were only big enough to carry one body at once, so she stowed him inside, shut the door and let it fly to earth. Through the window, she could see the pipe-shaped capsule flying towards the blue planet.
She looked one last time at the dead body of the girl and sniffed. Only then she entered a capsule herself, shut it from the inside and let it fly.
The professor used to say: There's always hope when you have your friends and family.
But what if they took them away from you?
Hope turns into despair...
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Thu, 10 Aug 2006 18:05)
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