Scourge reluctantly half-opened his eyes, he felt like his head turned into water. He tried to put his hand on his head, but found that he couldn't! His eyes shot open.

What the...

His body was secured firmly with a metal brace. The green hedgehog struggled – but to no avail. He grunted in frustration as he kept trying to free at least one of his arms.

Scourge perked up his ears – he heard footsteps!

"Hey, show yourself!" he called, eyes darting around for any signs of movement in the small dark room he was in.

And this room was small, he could probably reach out his arms and touch both walls. Scourge could see no point in a small room like this, other then a broom closet.

Or a cell.. He thought grimly. Great, I was taken out of one cell, and put into an even smaller one! What the hell is going on? Scourge bared his teeth – almost snarling. He was confused, frustrated, and – overall- angry.

"Hey! Whoever's out there, lemme out!" He called, but again, there was no answer.

Scourge's ears perked up again, he heard something else, like a machine was turning on. He strained his ears as he looked around, but there was no clue where it could be coming from, because- thanks to this tiny room- the sound seemed to be coming from everywhere.

Damn echoes.. Scourge thought, letting his ears relax.

Suddenly, a screen turned on in front of him, and several more around him followed. Scourge looked around – curious.

"What the hell is this?" He wondered aloud. "Are they gonna let me watch the Late Show or somethin'?"

A strange pattern appeared on the screen, Scourge looked at it curiously. The other screens started showing different patterns – all of them were moving in some way. Scourge couldn't help but to be mesmerized by them. He stared at the different shapes and colours, almost like they were drawing him in, pulling him into a strange geometric world. He felt his thoughts being pushed back, and replaced by these strange shapes. He couldn't move, and – at the moment – couldn't think, all he could do was stare at the screens.

The hell's happenin'..? He heard a distant thought, it was his own, but almost didn't sound like it. His own voice sounded strange, sounded different. He almost couldn't tell if it was his thought, or someone else's.

Suddenly all the shapes disappeared and were replaced by a black screen, and he could hear those distant thoughts more clearly.

I can't move, what the hell?

A door opened beside him, and the metal brace unlocked itself – letting Scourge free.

Normally, he would have instantly jumped out and attacked the first person he saw to get some answers, but right now, all he did was sit and stare at the black screen.

"Come out." He heard a voice say.

The green hedgehog did as he was told and hopped out of the machine.

The hell am I doing? It was that strange distant thought again, and he still couldn't tell if it was his, or something else. Attack him! He's the one who trapped me here!

Ignoring the strange, but familiar, thought, Scourge just stood there, staring into space, as if he could see something that no one else could.

"Good," The person said, sounding pleased. "Now, to set commands. You are now working with us, as my personal assistant. You will do whatever I tell you to, without a question. Got it?"

Scourge simply nodded his head, too dazed to do anything else. Meanwhile, the distant thoughts were having a fit, he could hear the thought's voice raise, and yell something indecipherable - but he could guess that it was some form of curse.

"When I snap my fingers, you will act and speak properly, you must have manners." The person continued.

Scourge, once again, nodded.

"Excellent," the person said, then promptly snapped his fingers.

Suddenly, Scourge had control of his body again, though he still had those orders, and he knew he must follow them, he could look at his surroundings. The room he was just in was beside him, it looked like something you'd see on Star Trek: it was a black cube with glowing green patterns on it along with one purple light moving through all the green lines. The rest of the room was rather dull, it was made of solid blueish metal. The cube was definitely the highlight of the room since it was the only object in there that was somewhat appealing, the only other items in the room were a small desk with a couple old computer monitors on top of it.

The person that had been giving him orders was a rather muscular male human. He was bald and had a small mustache and beard. His hair was a dark chestnut brown with a couple of silver hairs sticking out. He was wearing some sort of uniform, it was dark green with red stripes on the shoulders as well as on the cuff of his sleeve.

The man nodded to Scourge, "Welcome to the Black Star Military, Scourge the Hedgehog."

Scourge nodded back, "Thank you Sir." He replied, his voice considerably more formal and polite then it was before.

Sir? Are you kidding me? Scourge twitched his ear, it was that distant voice again. Now it was becoming an annoyance, he could think by himself now, he didn't need an agitated, uncivilized, voice in his head.

In all kindness, keep quiet. He told the voice – but it didn't work. Now the voice was even more talkative, it was yelling, cursing, and annoying the hell out of Scourge. He forced the voice to the back of his mind, so now all he could hear was a slight buzzing sound from the voice's constant yelling.

The person looked at Scourge questionably, but he didn't ask anything. The only thing he said was: "I am going to test you,"

Scourge nodded, "Fine," he replied. "When?"

"Here and now." The person replied quickly, as if expecting the question.

Good, maybe I could miss and hit him by 'accident'. It was that damn voice again, how did it escape the back of his mind? Scourge chose to ignore it, he wanted nothing to do with this voice – whatever it was. Though, he couldn't shake the feeling that it was familiar somehow, like he's heard it before.

Scourge pushed the feeling back and focused his attention back to the person.

"Are you ready?" The person asked the green hedgehog.

Scourge nodded, "Always." He replied.

The human nodded back and walked toward a door on the wall opposite to Scourge.

"By the way, call me General from now on." The man added before exiting the room.

"General..." Scourge echoed quietly.

General eh? Heh, I could beat him easily, then I would be in charge of whatever this place is. The voice said smugly.

Though he hated to admit it, the voice was right. If he killed the General right now, he would be the leader of this strange military, and possibly get out of this place. But, Scourge was going to follow his orders, and unless the General told him to, he would not harm him in any way. So again, he ignored the voice.

Scourge scanned the room with his eyes, the General said he was going to test him, and nothing happened yet. His eyes fell onto the cube, it was pulsing. Scourge watched it curiously. It started pulsing faster and faster until the whole room was encased in a purple glow. Scourge stepped back, alarmed.

When his foot touched the ground, the whole room transformed into a roof of a tall building. The sky above was clear, cloudless. Scourge was shocked, but he welcomed the warmth of the sun. It had certainly been a while since he'd been able to feel its heat outside.

"Priority one, destroy." Scourge spun around to face the source of the metallic-sounding voice. There, floating behind him was a large robot. It had two arms, and one had a sword where the hand should have been. The robot had several different guns protruding from its chest and shoulders. Scourge noticed that the one attached to its left shoulder was a rocket launcher, and the one on its right was a machine gun.

Scourge smirked in his usual way, "Doesn't look so tough."

"Priority one, destroy." The robot repeated in that same metallic voice. The machine gun started to turn.

Out of pure reflex, Scourge flipped backward – dodging the stream of bullets by an inch, and lightly landing on the edge of the roof. He looked over his shoulder; it was a long fall to the bottom.

"That could'a been bad." He remarked.

Out of the corner of his eye, the green hedgehog spotted a silver streak coming at him. Scourge quickly moved to the side and caught the silver rocket in mid-flight. Unluckily for him, the rocket was more powerful then he first assumed, and it sent Scourge over the edge of the building.

"Damn it!"

He lost his grip on the large, silver bullet and started to fall. The rocket blasted away and collided with another nearby building, exploding on contact. Scourge curled himself into a tight ball and let the force of the blast to propel him through a window. He gracelessly somersaulted out of the ball and tripped on his own feet, landing directly on his knees. Scourge gritted his teeth as pain shot through both of his legs.

That's gonna leave a bruise. Who the hell thought of cement flooring?

He pushed himself to his feet and brushed off his leather jacket. Thankfully, it didn't get ripped.

You're going to kill me. Scourge heard a voice in his head say, it sounded far, yet familiar. It defiantly sounded more polite and diplomatic, yet it had a slight attitude.

Scourge pushed the thought away, it was way too polite for his tastes.

"Priority one, destroy."

"I know that voice," Scourge sneered, then turned around to face the robot. It was hovering outside the window he just broke through.

Scourge hated losing, and being sent flying over the edge of a building implied that.

"Now you're dead," he growled under his breath. Scourge curled himself into a ball again and started spinning faster and faster, until his body was blurred so much that he looked like a single green ball. He shot himself forward. The momentum of the spinning hit the robot with so much force he tore through its metal body like it was tissue paper. Scourge shot through the air like a missile. The robot exploded, giving him an extra boost that sent him flying through a window in the building across from him. He landed hard on yet another cement floor. Coming out of the ball, Scourge was on one knee.

These damn cement floors are out to get me.

He stood up and walked back to the window, peering outside. He watched the robot plummet to the ground below. The impact made the robot explode once again, this time sending debris in all directions.

"Good job." As soon as Scourge turned around, he was back in the metal room. The cube was glowing normally again, and the robot – along with the buildings he was just fighting in - were gone.

"Thank you General," Scourge replied formally.

The General walked up to the green hedgehog, hands behind his back. "You have passed the first test. There will be more.. In between missions of course."

Scourge nodded respectfully.

This guy couldn't have done that, he probably couldn't even beat that little two-tailed traitor in a fight. Scourge heard that voice again, its rudeness toward the General was annoying, like it didn't know how to be polite!

"You will be sleeping here tonight." The sound of the General's voice snapped Scourge back into reality. "A bed is made already."

The General pointed toward a small bed in the corner of the room. Scourge was sure that it hadn't been there before, but it didn't really matter.

"Go to bed, in the morning you'll find your new clothes. Put them on." The human continued.

"Yes Sir." Scourge replied looking back at the General, who nodded in reply then left the room.

Scourge walked to the bed and sat on it, taking off his jacket and sunglasses and placing them on the floor beside the bed. The mattress was lumpy and he felt something pricking his legs. It was like sitting on a sack of potatoes and hay. Scourge twitched his ear, he was sure that sleeping on the floor would be more comfortable than this. The green hedgehog reluctantly tried lying down on the lumpy bed.

What the hell is in this mattress? Rocks? The distant voice complained. Scourge sat up and got off the bed. It was actually painful to lie on it. As annoying as the voice was, it was, again, right. It did feel like he was lying on a pile of rocks.

Pulling the pillow and blanket with him, Scourge lay on the ground and closed his eyes.

I can't believe you're making me just lie here, I could do some major damage to this place, and escape! I'm sick of being trapped in rooms. The voice was more clear now that Scourge's eyes were closed, but that only made it even more annoying. He rolled over and pushed the thought to the back of his mind, trying to get some peace and quiet so that he could sleep.

After a while of hearing that distant voice whine, complain, and yell, it finally went silent, and Scourge drifted into a peaceful, undisturbed, sleep.