So instead of a new chapter all I've had time to do is re-write the first one. I've worked in characters that will be needed later though and some confusion should be cleared up

Now however it was used as a training room, separated into sections. The main one was for drills and target practice (held at different times of course), held on the side farthest from the door in order to be the least interrupted. Others were shoved next to each other and into corners once they were deemed less important, a series of bars that held weights on them that had been found in an adjacent room, a section covered in mats for teamwork drills (which were actually more often used by agents trying to sneak a quick nap in), and a rarely used corner that held horizontal bars of different lengths that no one had ever really been sure of the use for, though they had tried to figure it out. In the very center of the room was a long rope that stretched up to the ceiling, meant as a challenge to strengthen arm muscles. At times everything was shoved to the side (which had created a few groves in the ground from the weights) and 'games' were played with different groups of the underground, some resulting in more injuries than run-ins with bots did.

However neither of the two Mobians were much interested in any of the equipment or activities done in the room, fully focused on the other both unaware when the sirens had started blaring and the red lights had started flashing. They were a strange mirror image almost, not only alike but also flipped. Black eyes common in the royal family stared into the fiery scarlet eyes found only on a Chaos User, and only one at that.

The owner of the black eyes stayed where he was, panting as he tried to catch his breath, keeping focused on the stranger. The stranger had fur the color of the smog at night, with crimson stripes on his quills and limbs like warning signs on a dark road. A fluff of white fur rested on his chest contrasting with the appearance, but at the same time complemented it. Around his wrists and ankles were golden bands that held on his plain white gloves and strange black, red, and white shoes. All in all he had a very foreboding appearance.

The dark hedgehog looked back at the other as well, furrowing his brow when he saw how labored breathing had become. His opponent had dark blue fur covering most of his body except for his chest and arms, an oddity that often showed now-adays, instead they were covered in a light peach fur. Protecting the other's back were six spines much like his own, only all of them pointed towards the ground as if weighed down by gravity. He wore simple white gloves and red shoes with a white stripe. Another oddity considering that most Mobians had begun covering themselves as much as they could in cloths. He was smaller and rounder, apparently not keeping the best diet.

"Are you Sonic?" The darker, older male asked, one of his first sentences since he'd appeared and chased the blue one around the empty room.

"Who wants to know?!" The younger shot back, immediately affirming the fact that, yes, he was Sonic and yes, he had a temper.

"Do you know who I am?" The intruder asked, as he stepped forward and watched Sonic tense up.

"How would I?! You just burst in here!"

Red eyes focused in on Sonic's hand as it travelled towards a silver, strange shaped medallion hanging from his neck. Best to focus on possible threats first, he'd heard what that thing could do. "Your necklace is a strange one. Does it stand for anything?"

His hand faltered for a second before finally reaching up and grabbing it, "It was a present from my mom, and if you don't wanna see what it can do, then you'd better tell me why you're here." He threatened, baring his teeth angrily.

Instead of caving to the threat the stranger took a couple more steps forward, making no threatening motion but still managing to unnerve the other. "It creates a ray of condensed energy that can cut through the hardest metal. Have you ever wondered how it worked though? Where that energy came from?"

The peach jaw clenched and a swirl of blue surrounded his hand as he felt the metal transform into a two handles guitar in his hands, pointing the handles towards the intruder, "Who are ya and what do ya want here? Ya've done yer research."

Hands raised in a peaceful gesture that somehow seemed mocking from the dark stranger, "I actually came here for some answers myself. You never answered my first question, Blue Hedgehog."

The back of his mind tingled at the title but the more conscious part ignored it as he narrowed his eyes and tightened his grip on the weapon, "If yer not gonna answer me I guess I'll just hafta knock ya out and let one a the leaders deal with ya." And then the end of the guitar glowed a light blue causing red eyes to widen in slight shock before it shot.

Years of reflexes that had once been ingrained shot through him and before he could think the words leapt from his mouth.

Even for the speedy hedgehog that prided himself on being faster than anything, everything happened before he could do anything. The words 'Chaos Spear!' shot through the air and an arrow of blinding golden energy shot from the stranger's hand. It crashed with the beam and there was a brief invisible struggle of power before the beam vaporized and the spear crashed into his weapon, making it turn back into a medallion before shattering. He felt his body spasm before he hit the ground as the energy faded.

Then the door slammed open, the noise echoing over the suddenly silent room where the ebony was staring with shocked red eyes, before turning to face the newcomers. Two more hedgehogs rushed into the room with a cat following behind them. The first, faster one was a dark pink hedgehog with seven spread out quills outlined in a lighter pink, the same lighter pink that colored the fringe of hair that rested between her ears. She was wearing a red leotard with a golden belt and dark purple gloves and boots as clothing. A silver medallion rested on a string around her neck and black eyes quickly took in what was going on.

The second hedgehog was green with peach arms and stomach like Sonic. Only three quills covered the back of his head, but that was more than made up for with the multitude of smaller ones that grew wildly between his ears. He wore simple white gloves and red and white shoes much like the blue one, but instead had opted for also wearing earrings and spikes along with an orange vest and… was that a fanny pack? The same silver medallion and black eyes could be found on him as well.

The third appeared to be a guard that had tagged along. A male blue cat wearing a sci-fi looking red suit and green helmet.

All three pairs of eyes rested on the prostrate Sonic on the floor groaning about a giant truck with saws before turning to the darker stranger. Before anyone could do anything however he had vanished in a blast of wind and a golden streak.

The pink hedgehog, Sonia, quickly instead refocused her attention on her brother and turned towards the guard, "Go alert Cyprus and command about what happened. Manic and I will get Sonic to the infirmary."

Within a few minutes the two were lugging the eldest down the hall towards the clinic.

XXxxXX

Sonia and Manic watched from a couple of chairs set off to the side as the doctor examined their brother. At the moment the dark green duck was holding open a blue eyelid and looking at the eye with a small pen-light, having to regularly dodge small swats from the unconscious hedgehog. After a time and more tests he sighed and stepped back to face them, shaking his head.

"He's going to be unconscious for a little while, but he should be fine; however!" He began, interrupting as the two siblings began to celebrate, "His condition was not caused by the attack, in fact the attack may have saved him. He's been coming in regularly to get pain pills since he was a kid, he's had this headache that's always there except for when he was sleeping and I couldn't pinpoint the reason." He elaborated, before reached a plastic covered hand out and tapping on Manic's medallion, "I think I've found it though. The medallions made out of some sort of metal that's been reacting badly with him, but he's had it so long that he hadn't noticed. The only reason he passed out when it got destroyed and not before was because your medallions have some sort of energy in them that's been keeping him up, I wouldn't be surprised if he's been having trouble sleeping lately. He'll stay in the clinic and I'll keep an eye on him until it's out of his system."

As if on cue Sonic began shivering in the bed causing a nurse that had been standing nearby to rush out of the room and come back in with an old, worn blanket, that none-the-less stopped the shivering.

"You two need to be careful when you're around him now though." Doctor Quack continued, turning back to them with narrowed eyes, "Not only are you still wearing them, but the metal has been absorbed into your own bodies, any body fluids that he touches from you, blood, puke, or even a shared drink, could poison him and send him back here worse." He ended, letting a foreboding feeling come up in the room and causing a chill to run up the twin's spines.

They left later in the evening, driven by hunger and tiredness, leaving Sonic alone with only a nurse coming into the room once in a while to check his IV or replace the blanket when sweat soaked it, his body finally getting a chance to reject the poison.

Around dark the doctor came in and sat in a chair facing the bed, mulling over his choices. He could inform command of what he'd found, or help the hedgehog when he woke up.

One thing was for certain though, when he'd checked his pupils to make sure there was no vision damage it wasn't royal obsidian eyes that stared back at him, no, instead he'd been met by a bright emerald green.

By some chance the medallion had been both hiding and poisoning one of the most powerful Chaos Users he'd ever seen, and now he was stuck with the choice of whether the boy would wake up in the clinic or a cell.

XXxxXX

The scene played out before him like a movie, only it was a strange unnerving one where everything was seen through the eyes of the main character instead of a random passerby. There was pain too; his throbbing arm reminded him that this couldn't be a movie.

He wandered the darkened corridors of the base silently, listening carefully for footsteps. Red lights dully illuminating his path as he trudged on further, watching carefully for the glowing optics that would give away a robot's location so he wouldn't be caught off guard again.

"Sonic." The voice was quiet and deep as he turned towards the caller, wondering how he'd managed to sneak up on him in those metallic shoes of him. They made a soft swishing noise as the other slowly glided towards him, answering his unspoken question quickly. "Where are the others? I thought we were travelling in groups."

"I could ask the same of you." He shot back with a small grin, only dampered a bit by the ignored pain, "Knucklehead thought that the Master Emerald might be able to counter the Chaos Emerald and Tails, ehem, 'borrowed' one of the airships to give him a ride. Where's Rouge and Omega?"

"Rouge is hacking into one of the computers to track down the robot. I lost track of Omega when we passed by one of the rooms where Eggman stores his robots." Almost at that exact moment a loud explosion came from the direction Shadow had come from and Sonic winced as he imagined what happened. "It means less robots to fight and more distractions for the doctor." Shadow muttered with a small smirk before glancing towards the red stained arm, "Speaking of, why is your arm wounded?"

Blue ears folded back and Sonic looked slightly sheepish, "It's kinda dark in here, so I can't really see where the bots are that well…"

He trailed off and Shadow sighed out his nose before… "I understand, we should stick together and keep searching until Rouge contacts me with the location."

XXxxXX

The next few days went slow. Wake up, be bugged by a nurse, asked questions by the Doc, get cold, go back to sleep. It was getting annoying and monotomious. And then it changed.

The room was a light yellow, or some color like it and there was a pale light shining in through the closed window, the moon hidden behind smog like always. Nearby him was an IV stand that he'd refused to use once he was awake enough and somewhere nearby was the heart monitor. Standing next to his bed was something, or rather someone, different from usual. A tall, full-grown, female cat, with black fur and green eyes like his own. She was wearing a light purple shirt that had two flaps hanging to the side and one covering her front. Like many females, at least from his memories, she wore two golden cuffs around her wrists.

They talked for a while. Him demanding to know who she was and her explaining that her name was Ebony the cat and that she'd been sent by a group of chaos touched called the 'rebels' to find out what the sudden spike of energy was. Eventually they just fell to talking, Sonic listening to her stories of life hidden from everyone.

"There's hundreds of us. And the Resistance intel knows it, they don't lke to let anyone else though." She said causing him to grin and chuckle, "We all have jobs and work together like a family, that's the only way we'll make it, there's a lot of us but there's more against us."

"And you're a scout?" He asked, remembering why she was here.

She laughed softly, "They were out of scouts to do it. There's been a lot of flares lately. I record our stories and history. Haven't gotten a chance to do much of that though, no one remembers it…" She had trailed off, a softer tone to her already gentle words.

And he'd grinned, slowly sitting up in bed before leaning forward on his hands. "Have you ever heard what happened when a man called Eggman tried to conquer the South Islands?"

She shook her head and grabbed a pad of paper that someone had likely put there for when he got bored.

"Well, it all started with a young orphan in a place called Green Hill Zone-"

The hours ticked by as he went through his own childhood, the stories a turtle had told him about the great war years before, meeting the strange scientist Kintobor… all the way until after he and Knuckles had parted on good terms for the first time, even recounting ever story anyone ever told him and redrawing the murals on scraps of paper for her, each memory as if it had happened the day before. And they had, at least in his own dreams. To his credit he tried to stay as close to detail as possible, even mentioning when he failed in battle those few times. He could brag another time.

The smog outside was lightening by the time Ebony at last stood from the stool she had found and left him to sleep.

She'd returned the next night and he'd immediately jumped into the story of Metal Sonic and the Little Planet, when he got to Amy's slight knowledge with the future and magic she'd mentioned that it might be something like her own abilities. After that he'd mentioned when Eggman had stolen his shoes and he couldn't run anymore, breezing over the talk about the Labyrinth where he'd gotten trapped and nearly drowned. The rest of the time was spent talking about how Eggman woke up Chaos, and then later in the early morning hours how he'd woken up Shadow.

And again she'd left, vanishing out the window.

The next night was a bit different. Along with her usual notes, Ebony had also brought a small bag with her.

Out of it she had dragged a pair of fingerless black gloves with a green stripes going down them. To someone passing that knew the codes they would represent three things. The fact that they didn't cover his fingers would show that he was undercover, the green stripes would show that he was of the green life emerald, and the black background would show that he was a chaos master.

Next she'd pulled out a pair of shoes, and after much bribing and sweet-talk she'd managed to exchange his now to small shoes for these. They were a combination of black and grey with the same green stripe as the gloves. The grey, however; showed that he was young and learning.

Finally she'd pulled out a necklace like ones he'd seen surfers wearing when Amy dragged him to the beach. It looked like it was made out of light brown wooden beads that felt smooth to the touch.

"These are special beads made by our tech for covert missions. When you wear them you appear as a normal Mobian to the eye and machine. Others that are Chaos touched will see you when they're looking through the field though."

After he had exchanged all of his clothing for what she brought they had spent the night going over codes and signals that he needed to learn. Ebony had only left when they finally heard Doctor Quack's footsteps coming towards the door to check on him.

The next night she came was the one Doctor Quack had informed him would be his last. He was stable and would be able to resume 'normal' life soon. So when she'd walked in he had quickly given her a notebook where he had scrawled all of the stories he could think of throughout the day from his adventure in the world to king Arthur to the barely remembered rescue of Princess Elise.

Once the book was in her hands he started rattling off about the adventure that had ended the world, and began the new one. All the way until the time when feral birds should have been singing and the doctor would be coming.

And he could hear everything like he re-living it again. The blast as the machine exploded, a sound like shattering glass, before silence took over.

"I have to go now, Sonic. Your doctor is coming and I need to look in one of my books. That last story sounds something like a legend I've heard." Then she left, slipping a slip of paper into his glove before jumping out the window like every time before.

An orange beak followed by green feathers entered the room seconds later. "Sonic? Hey, you just need one more checkup than I'll have someone drive you to your siblings. They said that they have a surprise for you."