A/N: Hey, all, I hope everyone is having a nice and hopefully warm Spring so far! This is a shorter chapter, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

*Requested by my dear friend, ShinyShiny9. :)

"How many more tests are you going to run today?" an annoyed black and red hedgehog asked, his arm folded over his chest. "I thought we were done."

"Well, not quite," said a brown-haired scientist with a bushy mustache and spotless lab coat, "you see, Shadow, Steve and I were thinking about running a small psychology examination on you. It'll be quick, painless, and won't involve taking blood or anything of the like."

Shadow growled in frustration. He was getting tired of feeling like nothing but a lab rat and sprinting on a metaphorical exercise wheel as the scientists scribbled in notebooks. He pursed his lips.

". . . One more test, you say?"

Both scientists nodded.

"Only one."

"And it'll be quick?"

"Well," Steve spoke up, "we hope so. Right, Harry?"

"Yes, it should be," Harry replied, nodding rapidly. "No guarantees, but you can count on it being much less longer than those tedious medical examinations you've received."

Shadow sighed in defeat.

"I'll come, then," he muttered.

Steve, Harry, and Shadow all walked down the hallway. The hedgehog sincerely hoped that this test would be the very last of the day.

Maria Robotnik had only been passing by the small room, but in the quick glance that she gave, out of the corner of the eye the girl saw Shadow in a glass chamber, looking miserable. Curious, the girl stepped into the room and took a closer look.

"Excuse me," she asked timidly, startling one scientist, "may I ask what's going on in there?"

"Oh, well, we were just taking a deeper look into the Ultimate Life Form's psychological makeup," Harry said proudly, grinning ear to ear. Maria caught a glimpse of Shadow rolling his eyes as he was encased in the glass.

"I see," Maria replied faintly, only barely hearing the scientist's response, "now, may I ask why you've put him in a glass cage?"

Harry and Steve both glanced at each other and then at Maria. Steve turned back to the computer he was at while Harry explained the experiment to the girl.

"This is an experiment that your grandfather gave us personal permission to conduct. We're going to put two objects into the glass case with the Ultimate Life Form, and he's going to choose one of the objects—whichever one is more appealing to him. We'll try to determine whether he thinks with a more violent mindset, or a more childish mindset based on whatever he selects."

Maria frowned, slightly offended and even angered.

"We can't exactly determine that now, though," she protested, "shouldn't we wait a few more years, when he's ready and his brain is more fully developed? My grandpa did say that he has a conscience, too, you know. We just have to teach him what's right and what's wrong. Everyone says he was created a weapon, but-"

"That's what we're trying to find out. His brain should be developed already," Harry snapped, irritated, "Please, don't interrupt our experiment. You may watch, but we can't have children messing up our hard work."

Maria pursed her lips. She bit back another argument, deciding that she had no business intruding on the scientists' work, even though she was truly annoyed with them. Now she understood Shadow's scowl.

"All right, Steve, let's get this started!" Harry exclaimed, clearly excited about the experiment. Steve nodded and began scribbling something down on a clipboard. Harry placed two boxes on a small platform and pressed a button on the control panel in front of him to transfer the platform into the glass chamber. Once the platform disappeared and reappeared through the floor of the case, Shadow glanced apprehensively at the boxes. Every move he made, Steve would scrawl something on the paper. The hedgehog picked up both boxes and delicately shook them both to attempt to judge what was inside. He set them down and opened them both up, blinking at the items inside them. Steve and Harry both watched intently, eyes wide with childlike curiosity. Even Maria seemed less interested than they were, but she still looked on as Shadow continued to stare at the boxes. In the boxes was a small black pistol and a white teddy bear.

The hedgehog peered through the glass at the scientists and gestured with his pointer for one of them to come in with him. Because Steve was too busy scribbling down tiny details, Harry ran around to the other side of the round glass chamber, sighing in frustration, and opened the door.

"What is it, Shadow?" he asked breathlessly. Before he had even finished the sentence, Shadow was gone in a flash of green light. The hedgehog appeared behind the open door and shut it, locking in the confused scientist. Content, Shadow walked slowly around the cage and took a seat in front of the control panel. He smirked, put his feet up on the panel, and his hands behind his head. Maria stifled her fit of giggles, covering her mouth with her hand.

"Now pick one," Shadow drawled, slowly turning the wheels of the chair around by pushing off of the panel with his feet. Steve, alarmed by the deep voice, looked up from his paperwork and at the short figure in the chair. He blinked when he and the hedgehog met eyes.

Shadow jumped off of the chair and beckoned for Maria to come with him. Maria nodded willingly and headed out of the door with the satisfied hedgehog. Steve watched as they walked out and unlocked the glass chamber where Harry was sitting, dumbfounded.

"What just happened?"

"The results are in," Steve remarked before his astonished companion could complain, "he's a smart aleck."