Chapter Text
Everything turns on.
That’s the best way he can describe it. Everything suddenly comes to life; he feels his lungs fill with air, sudden enough to make him cough and wheeze. His ears involuntarily twitch and swivel towards a distant humming sound to his left. His fingers and toes twitch, and he tries desperately to move his limbs, but they’re dead weights.
He feels as if he’s been resurrected from the dead, like he’s forgotten how to live. His brain sluggishly tries to keep up with everything around him, even if all he can sense is the sounds of humming, and a smell that reminds him of strange chemicals and cleaning supplies. His eyes stay firmly shut, and he isn’t sure if he’d even be able to open them just yet.
Shadow feels like how he felt when he was first extracted from his incubator- confused, alarmed, scared.
“It’s a miracle you’re still alive.”
Shadow’s ears suddenly swivel towards the sound of a voice, quickly followed up by the clacking of keys. He can barely make out muttering amongst the typing, and he only tries for a moment to try and decipher it.
“Though, of course, you are immortal- at least I assume so. That’d be a good reason you’re still here even after your pod went out of date.”
The clacking stops, and footsteps approach him. Shadow closes his eyes harder, eye ridges furrowing slightly. After gaining the slightest bit of his bearings, questions fill his head. Who was talking to him? Why couldn’t he control his body? Where
was
he?
…
When
was he?
Before he could begin to overwhelm himself with more thoughts, the figure continued to speak. “Can you try to talk for me?”
Shadow’s ears flattened against his head at the notion, before he could even realize it. Of course he could! He wasn’t some newborn hoglet, even if he was still having troubles trying to move or properly articulate anything beyond sounds and smells. He let out a loud huff through his nose, and felt his mouth pull into a grimace.
Much to his immediate frustration, the figure above him let out a breathy snicker. “As much as I appreciate any signs of sentience, showing off how grumpy you are won’t do us any good. You pull your ears back exactly as Sonic does, he’ll definitely get a kick out of that.”
It was the sudden overwhelming indignation that enabled Shadow to speak. He opened his mouth, chapped lips splitting slightly, and sucked in a huge breath before he let out an ever eloquent “Fffff’ck off.”
It sounded a lot better in his head.
The figure let out a bark of laughter, and Shadow, through his immediate embarrassment, slowly forced himself to open his eyes. It was instantly painful- he hissed slightly as his eyelids broke away from the eye crust that had formed, and momentarily slammed them back shut when he saw a glimpse of a bright, blinding light.
“Oh! Oops. Sorry, let me fix that.” The owner of the voice spoke through the tapering ends of his laugh, and footsteps shuffled away. Shadow heard a soft
click,
and he inferred that it meant the lights were now off.
He was proven correct when he fluttered open his eyelids. At first, all he could see was a dark, metallic ceiling. There were black rectangles that dotted it, no doubt being lights. He could barely make out the tops of cabinets, a digital clock that read fifteen thirty-seven, and a closed door. He couldn’t see who the voice belonged to, and his limbs were still too heavy to maneuver, so the hedgehog resigned to huffing quietly through his nose and lying there, head facing upwards.
It was easy to keep his mind occupied with his swirling questions and confusion, his mind trying to pick up any sort of memory, though it never did find one. All he could recall was an all encompassing feeling of terror, overtaking his heart and clutching it tight. He could remember vague hallways and rooms, windows looking out into blackness, a hand on his shoulder. But it was too shattered to form anything coherent. All he knew was his instincts, and they told him that he was not where he was supposed to be.
They told him he should be doing something important, but he didn’t know exactly what.
His eyes, hazy and unfocused whilst in his thoughts, immediately snapped onto the shadow of the approaching figure. At first he could see nothing, but eventually, the person- no,
mobian
- came into view.
They were undoubtedly taller than him, he could tell. Covered in slightly dulled orange fur, with an off-white muzzle, Shadow immediately recognized them to be a fox, even though he couldn’t recall why he knew this. They wore a striped turtleneck of multiple colors, with a black lab coat above it. They had large circular glasses, making their bright blue eyes glint, and small fangs poked out of their mouth. Shadow could see the distinct lines on their face that gave away their age; they were not old enough to be considered elderly, but they certainly weren’t spry either. They had scruffy fur and long, visible black whiskers. They were squinting their eyes, gloved paw tugging at the fur on their chin as they looked down at him.
Shadow stared as the mobian nonchalantly pulled a small flashlight out of their coat pocket, and promptly turned it on directly in the hedgehog’s line of sight.
“Hey-!” Clamping his eyes shut, Shadow forcefully turned his head to the side, instinctively curling his lip and showing his teeth.
“Welp, you certainly aren’t intoxicated!” The fox joked, and when Shadow eventually turned his head back in the direction of the older man, he could see that they were grinning.
“Heheh, sorry about that.” They continued idly, slipping the flashlight back in their pocket. “I’m required to give you some tests to see if you’re aware. Basically, I’m trying to give your brain a kickstart, in case it’s running a little slow.”
Shadow rolled his tongue again, wetting his lips before he attempted to speak. “Who…
hhhh.
Are you?” That was his first question; Shadow felt the need to map out everything around him, to try and uncover as much information as he could, to understand what was happening. He didn’t know why he was here, why he had felt dead before- he didn’t know where he was or when he was, why he was being tested for signs of sentience, or why his body wasn’t listening to him. His memories were a swirled, jumbled mess, and he couldn’t parse what was even happening that well-
He didn’t even realize that he had been hyperventilating until the older fox placed a paw on his chest. “Woah, hey! I’m sorry to freak you out, really. This must be… very overwhelming for you.” Their face, which was playful moments before, melted into something more sympathetic.
“My name is Miles, but everyone calls me Tails, on account of these guys.” Lifting their paw from Shadow’s chest, Miles (or Tails?) turned around, showing off what was undoubtedly two big, fluffy tails. They turned back around to face the hedgehog. They no doubt were aware of Shadow’s confusion, as they continued to speak. “You’re in the infirmary. I was assigned to make sure your body integrated appropriately to the environment. I don’t know why, I’m not in the medical field at
all.
I suppose it’s probably ‘cause I’m so close to Sonic, and he’s always been interested in you… Sheesh, they’re always trying to get on his good side!”
Miles continued to speak, eventually rambling about something completely unrelated. Shadow deigned it to be appropriate to start ignoring him at that moment.
The infirmary? Evidently, he wasn’t in a hospital; Miles would’ve said hospital if he was. The room around them both supported this theory- Shadow could feel that he was on some sort of bed, but everything else that he could see of the room was decidedly not hospital-like. That didn’t even take the second sentence into account; why would his body need to integrate into the environment? It must’ve been a very long time since he was last awake, if he couldn’t remember anything beforehand, and the fact that it’s taking so long for him to remember how to move his body. Was he in some sort of comatose state? If so, for how long?
Miles’ words drifted into his head.
Though, of course, you are immortal.
Shadow didn’t question the fact that he didn’t outright object an otherwise ridiculous notion. Instead, a simple thought came to the forefront of his mind, completely blocking out all the others: How long was he out of it?
His eyes followed the older mobian as he paced back and forth across the room. “...I suppose he’s just itching to get out of the house more often, even though there’s no world ending threat on the horizon anymore. He’ll be delighted to see you, you know- Oh!” Miles stopped mid pace, face quickly flushing a deep pink. “Uh. Sorry! I tend to go on and on nowadays. Especially with no one to talk to- got it from my older brother. Anyway!” Making their way back to Shadow’s side, they reached for his arm, but paused when the hedgehog instinctively flinched.
“...I need to make sure your limbs are in working order,” They spoke, voice softening a bit. “will you let me?”
There were a few long moments of silence before Shadow cautiously nodded. Miles smiled, more of his fangs being shown, and gently lifted up his left arm. With one paw on his upper arm and one on his forearm, the fox began to gently stretch and bend them, and Shadow could immediately sense more feeling entering the limb. He let out a sigh he didn’t know he had been holding, and let his eyes wander.
For a moment, he contemplated an escape plan, but it was quickly trashed soon after. The last thing Shadow wanted was to be needlessly looked after like he was now, but he knew that, logically, it would be a detriment if he escaped. He didn’t know the extent of how much energy and stamina he had, nor did he know where he even was. The older fox was absolutely holding things from him (why wouldn’t he explain what type of infirmary he was in in the first place?), and Shadow had to admit that it was probably for at least a decent reason. He had so many questions to answer, and running off to find them himself would only make it harder.
He resigned himself to allowing Miles to look after him, at least for now. It just wouldn’t be smart to go gallivanting on his own.
Next came his left paw, where his fingers were curled and stretched until Shadow felt feeling come back into them. As Miles rounded the bed to reach his right side, the hedgehog gently lifted up his arm on his own, curling his paw into a fist and folding his forearm over his upper arm. He still felt immensely wobbly, but it was ten times better than being completely immobile.
As his right arm was lifted, Miles started to talk once more. Annoyingly, Shadow suspected that this was normal for the mobian. “Limbs so far working perfectly fine; no intense sign of atrophy, but that might change with the legs. You’re doing very well!” They lifted their head and give him a smile, before looking back down. “I’ll have to note all of this down once I’m done with the legs. If you feel any pain or discomfort, let me know, okay? We’ll get an actual medical professional in here soon to give you a once over, and if everything looks fine, we’ll be outta here by the end of the day!” His right arm is placed back down, and they move towards his right leg.
Well, that only raised
more
questions, and Shadow felt he was very quickly running out of brain space for more. It was easier to work his mouth into speaking, though his voice was immensely quiet and scratchy. “Where am I?”
Miles visibly paused, fingers gently tensing on Shadow’s ankle. Shadow felt a surge of discomfort fill his chest- not due to physical pain, but due to the fox’s strange caution as he spoke “...You’re in G.U.N’s main headquarters. Do you know who they are?”
Shadow’s ears instinctively flattened against his skull, and he felt a small throb in the back of his head, causing him to wince. He tried to find the source of the sudden reaction, looking for any reason as to why he would have an immediate response to a thing he didn’t even know existed- but he couldn’t find any. He mumbled out a small “No.”
“Well,” Miles sounded awkward, moving onto his left leg. “they’re a massive organization that wants to keep everyone safe. They’ve been keeping you while you’ve been… comatose.” There’s a small pause before they continue. “They transported you from your first location to here about a few months ago. I’ve been monitoring you since.”
His left leg is placed back down, and Shadow tries to lift himself into a sitting position. Unfortunately, even though he could now move his arms (and he could assume legs, even though he hadn’t tested it out yet), he still found it nigh impossible to lift himself up. Miles quickly reaches under his back and assists him. Shadow only has the energy to hiss quietly at the help.
Now sitting on his rump, Shadow feels the shift of something around his torso, and he looks down to see what he can assume to be a hospital gown. It makes sense, even though he feels weird at the idea of him wearing clothes.
“How long have I been comatose?”
Miles pointedly doesn’t answer. They instead move to a desk with a small, compact computer on top of it. Shadow can vaguely recall vast, sprawling machinery with many screens and long lines of buttons and keyboards, but nothing like this. It’s enough to push down his immediate frustration at the lack of an answer and make him stare interestingly at the machine, until the fox is done typing. “Uhh. I’ll go get that doctor now. Be back in a jiffy!”
The door is pulled open, and the fox is gone in a swish of orange tails before Shadow can properly process the words. For a moment he can see a lit up hallway, but it’s soon replaced with the cold metal of the door closing.
The clock reads sixteen ten. Shadow looks down at his lap, and tries to articulate everything that just happened.