A/N: To avoid confusion, I'm going to state up front that this is a prequel to an ongoing series of fan fictions I've been working on for quite some time. ("Esplouge," "Return," and "Identity" in order from first to last.) As this takes place before the other stories, you don't have to read them to understand what's going on in here.

Also, as I have the first few chapters of this already typed up on my computer, I will actually be updating this regularly (once a week, so every Tuesday) for a while.

Disclaimer: (I realize putting these here is redundant, but old habits die hard.) The only things I can claim ownership to in this piece of writing is the story itself and the character Esplouge. Everything else belongs to Sega/Sonic Team.

He laid there, on that cold table. Everything was lost in a void of black, just out of reach. All he could do was lay there and wait silently for his own activation.

Yet somehow, thoughts and feelings had begun to enter his not yet fully alive brain, crashing into his semi-consciousness like violent ocean waves. Thoughts of power, thoughts of destruction...

And thoughts of who he was. What he was. A creation, an experiment. His intended purpose to destroy anyone who got in his master's way. Of course, in his barely conscious mind, he had no master. No one could control him. He desired power, and if that meant the destruction of his own creator, then so be it.

Robotnik. That was the name of his creator. His mind had been preprogrammed with at least that knowledge. But what were these other things? Memories? He had not yet awoken, yet he somehow had memories?

Esplouge...

That was his name. His creator had programmed him with a name, and that name was "Esplouge." A meaningless name, which held no purpose aside from easy identification. Just as he was sure he held no meaning to his creator, aside from destroying his enemies.

If that had to be the case, then so be it. Esplouge didn't care if he was meaningless to his creator, because Robotnik was meaningless to him as well.

That was his last thought before the rage overtook him.

Doctor Robotnik (or "Eggman" as he was often called, despite hating the nickname) was feeling truly triumphant for the first time in a long time. After all of the events that had happened on the Space Colony ARK, he had managed to keep a hold of all of the documented information on how his grandfather had created Project Shadow all those years ago.

And, of course, evil genius that he was, Eggman had used that information to create his own little project. And that project, an artificial fox which he had named "Esplouge" was finally close to waking up. In only a few more hours, his project would be awake and ready to obey his every command.

The chance of something going wrong hadn't even occurred to him.

"This is wonderful!" Eggman proclaimed happily, caught up in his own excitement. "In just a few more hours, Project Esplouge will be awake, and..."

"Master..." Metal Sonic interrupted. "There is something..."

"What is it?" Eggman asked, sounding as though he were being horribly inconvenienced. "Can't you see I'm gloating?"

"But master..."

Eggman turned to see what Metal Sonic was looking at and saw that his project had already woken up somehow and was leaning heavily against the table he had been on, not quite used to his legs yet. Esplouge stared at him, appearing furious, although Eggman assumed that was just from not being able to stand.

"You weren't supposed to be awake for another few hours," Eggman said, walking over to Esplouge. "I'm not sure if you're ready to be awake yet."

Esplouge glared at him, which startled the mad genius slightly. He certainly wasn't used to his creations disobeying him.

"You do know what you are, don't you?" Eggman asked.

Esplouge nodded and finally seemed to get his footing.

"And you understand your purpose?" Eggman asked.

Esplouge nodded again.

"I am Project Esplouge, which you created for the sole purpose of destroying everything that gets in your way," the fox said.

Eggman seemed satisfied and turned back to Metal Sonic.

"You see, he's just fine!" Eggman declared. "He just woke up a little earlier than expected, but that's..."

"Of course," Esplouge interrupted, causing Eggman to turn back around, "things can go... unexpectedly wrong."

Metal Sonic immediately put himself between his master and his master's newest creation, ready to protect Eggman if it was necessary.

"What do you mean?" Eggman asked, finally seeming to grasp that maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

Esplouge smirked and walked up to Metal Sonic, stopping just short of bumping into the robot. Metal Sonic looked to Eggman, unsure of what to do. Eggman appeared equally confused. Esplouge smiled, although something about his smile was unnerving.

"I wonder how many times I'd have to hit that big computer on the wall to break it?" Esplouge wondered, his voice one of mock innocence. "And if it'll make a nice, loud, explosive noise when it finally..."

"You are forbidden from destroying anything unless I say otherwise," Eggman said.

Esplouge side stepped Metal Sonic and walked toward the computer.

"Esplouge!" Eggman said, sounding much like a parent scolding a misbehaving child.

Metal Sonic grabbed Esplouge's arms, trying to restrain him, shocked when Esplouge put up a fierce struggle.

"Let me go, you worthless pile of trash!" Esplouge shouted, thrashing and kicking violently in his attempt to free himself.

"It looks like you weren't ready after all," Eggman said smugly, approaching the struggling pair. "It's too bad; I spent quite a long time working on you."

"Let me go!" Esplouge shouted again.

"Metal Sonic," Eggman said, uncaring, "dispose of him."

Esplouge suddenly stopped struggling.

"With pleasure," Metal Sonic replied.

Before Metal Sonic could react, however, Esplouge had a surge of strength and managed to tear himself away from the robot, running directly for the computer. He picked up the chair and smashed it into the monitor, causing the screen to shatter, littering the ground with hundreds upon hundreds of shards of broken glass.

Neither Metal Sonic nor Eggman made a move, as both were momentarily stunned. Esplouge took the time to stare down at the glass, enjoying the sight of something as shattered as his mind was feeling, finding some perverse joy in merely causing destruction.

Esplouge turned to Eggman and Metal Sonic after several silent moments, arms wide as if asking for a hug.

"You want to kill me, you stupid robot?" Esplouge asked. "Go right ahead."

I'm taking you both with me...

Metal Sonic rushed at Esplouge, fully prepared to kill him, but as soon as Metal Sonic got close enough, Esplouge grabbed onto the robot's arms and swung him into the computer, causing a very concerning number of sparks to fly, as well as smoke to rise and various alarms in the base to go off. Metal Sonic climbed out of the wreckage and looked at the monitor, seeming to assess the situation for a split second before coming to a conclusion as to what to do. When Metal Sonic looked back to Eggman, however, his master was already running for the escape pod. Without even thinking about Esplouge, Metal Sonic ran after his master, wanting to escape as well.

Esplouge stood and watched the two escape, feeling his anger rise. He grabbed everything he could get his hands on and threw it aimlessly, ignoring the alarms, ignoring the smoke, and ignoring the survival instinct telling him to run away. All he wanted to do was destroy everything he could get his hands on, and when the only thing left for him to grab onto was the shattered glass, the computer finally exploded, setting off the rest of the technology in the base. Esplouge braced himself as the walls and ceiling collapsed on top of him before everything went black again.

It was a bright, sunny day in the city, one of those perfect days that makes one wish they could just kick back and enjoy life as leisurely as possible. Amy Rose and Shadow were walking together in the outskirts of town, a very unusual sight. The two hadn't really talked much in the time that they had known each other, but Amy had asked Shadow if she could talk to him in private today, and before Shadow had had a chance to say no, Amy had decided she wouldn't take no for an answer.

So here they were, walking together, Amy seeming nervous while Shadow was confused and just a little annoyed, thinking about all of the productive things he could be doing right at this moment.

"So... Are you going to tell me what you wanted to talk about?" Shadow asked after a moment, trying to keep any bitterness out of his voice.

It's got to be something about getting Sonic to like her, Shadow thought bitterly, having a very low opinion of the blue hero. He's the only thing that's ever on her mind.

"Um... It's about Sonic," Amy started, confirming Shadow's thoughts. "It's... I don't know. How do I get him to like me?"

"I... I really don't think I can answer that," Shadow said. "I don't even like Sonic, I have no idea what he looks for in girls."

"Well, what do you look for in girls?" Amy asked, probably getting to the exact point of conversation she was aiming for.

Shadow blushed, thinking of Maria and how much Amy had reminded him of her back on the ARK.

"I... I don't know," Shadow said. "I guess... I like girls that are really nice. And caring. I think as long as you act pretty much the same as you already do, he'll grow to like you eventually."

Well, Shadow thought, aside from your... hyperactivity.

"So... I should just be myself?" Amy asked. As though she had read Shadow's mind, she added, "Maybe I should tone down my affection a little..."

"That would probably be a good idea," Shadow agreed. "As long as you do that, I'm pretty sure he'll come around. Was that all you wanted to talk about?"

"Yeah," Amy said thoughtfully, as though she was trying to commit the advice Shadow had given her to memory.

"Did we really have to come out here for that?" Shadow asked.

"Nah," Amy said, smiling. "I just felt like going on a walk. It's really nice here, isn't it?"

Just then, the two hedgehogs saw what looked to be a massive pile of concrete, as though a building had been demolished and just left there. It gave Shadow an uneasy feeling, although why he had no idea.

"That's weird," Amy said. "What on earth is all that garbage doing here?"

"I have no idea," Shadow said, making sure to keep himself between Amy and the fallen building. "Let's get out of here."

Shadow and Amy turned away from the fallen building, beginning their walk back into the city. Shadow's uneasy feeling only grew worse, and moments after the two had turned away from the rubble, Shadow felt something hard and blunt hit the back of his head, sending him to the ground. He could feel it strike him again and again, and with every blow, he could feel his awareness slipping more and more into nothingness...

Amy stared in horror at the scene in front of her, her mind temporarily frozen. What on earth had just happened? She and Shadow had merely been talking, had been walking back into the city, when someone appeared seemingly out of nowhere and began beating Shadow over the head with a piece of rubble from the downed building.

And where did that leave her? Amy certainly couldn't just leave Shadow here to die, but at the same time, what on earth could she do? She was completely defenseless, and now the maniac who had attacked Shadow had his sights on her.

Amy was shocked how much like Tails this guy looked. He certainly couldn't have been much older than Tails, and he had much darker fur, but he had the same trademark twin tails that had earned her friend his nickname.

What on earth was going on?

"Who...?" Amy began to ask.

Before Amy could say any more, the fox's clawed hand was around her wrist, tugging her away from Shadow. Amy shrieked with surprise.

"You're coming with me," the fox said coldly. "Miss Rose."

"How on earth do you know my name?" Amy asked, nearly screaming as she tried to struggle against the fox's grasp. "Who are you?"

Amy looked to Shadow hopefully, hoping that he would get up at any moment and protect her, but he appeared to be unconscious. Or, at least, she hoped he was just unconscious.

"Relax, I'm not planning on hurting you," the fox said. "At least not yet. I'm going to need you alive for a while..."

Before the fox could say any more, Amy swung her piko piko hammer into his stomach, sending him to his knees. Amy ran back to Shadow immediately, breathing a sigh of relief when she realized he was still breathing.

"Shadow, are you okay?" Amy asked. "Can you hear me? Wake up..."

Amy nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt the fox's clawed hands on her shoulders, pulling her back up. She pulled away from him, which only seemed to irritate him.

"Look, I can use you whether or not you're actually conscious, so if you'd rather I..."

The fox stopped when he felt one of Shadow's hands on his shoulder, causing him to completely forget about Amy for a moment in favor of turning to glare at Shadow. Amy, on the other hand, was relieved that Shadow was still conscious, even though the hedgehog looked as though he could pass out at any moment.

I'm not going to let you hurt her... Shadow thought angrily as he glared at the fox.

"Amy, get out of here," Shadow said, keeping his eyes firmly trained on the fox in front of him. "Go to somewhere that's safe."

"I'm not going to just leave you here!" Amy argued.

"Then go let Sonic know about this," Shadow said, frustrated at being argued with. "I'm sure he'd love to stick his nose in this."

"O- okay..." Amy said unsurely, running off as fast as she could.

"Oh, you're going to bring Sonic here, too?" Esplouge asked. "Wow, you're just making everything so much easier for me, aren't you?"

"Who the hell are you?" Shadow asked furiously.

Esplouge smirked.

"I'm your worst nightmare, Project Shadow."

Amy ran down the sidewalk, determined to find Sonic. She was still terrified and confused, but she knew that if she found Sonic, he would make everything better. Sonic always made everything better, always saved the day. That was what she loved about him.

She headed toward Tails' house, knowing that it was more likely that Sonic would be there than anywhere else. That was, assuming he wasn't out for a joy run, but if that were the case, he'd be back at Tails' house soon enough anyway, which was just as well.

When Amy finally reached Tails' house, she found Sonic, who seemed to have been just returning from a joy run. Sonic heard her and turned around, shocked to see her, seeming a little concerned when he saw how tired she was.

"... You haven't been trying to follow me, have you?" Sonic asked awkwardly, not really in the mood to deal with Amy's constant flirtation.

"N- no..." Amy panted, trying to catch her breath. She briefly wondered how on earth Sonic had the stamina to run as fast and far as he did. "It... It's Shadow..."

"What about him?" Sonic asked, only caring because of the urgent look on Amy's face.

"S- someone attacked him..." Amy explained, feeling her breath finally starting to return to her. "We... We were walking... And somebody attacked us..."

As much as Sonic didn't like Shadow, he was still a hero by nature, and he had to protect the darker hedgehog. After all, what kind of hero would he be if he allowed people to attack the innocent?

"Where is he now?" Sonic asked.

Tails looked to the clock, wondering why Sonic hadn't returned from his mid-morning run yet. He felt a little concerned, but figured Sonic had just found a new place to explore or had gotten wrapped up with one of Eggman's robots and was busy saving the day. Either way, Sonic was fully capable of taking care of himself, so there was probably no need to worry.

Tails felt his mind drifting to thoughts about his inventions. If he had a chaos emerald, he'd probably have enough energy to create a great new upgrade for his plane...

Oh, but he couldn't just leave without letting Sonic know. If Sonic returned home and Tails wasn't there, he'd probably get worried.

Tails quickly scrawled down a note to let Sonic know where he would be and dashed excitedly out the door. With any luck, he'd be able to find a chaos emerald to finish his upgrade with while avoiding a fight with one of Eggman's minions. Although, Tails figured, even if one of Eggman's robots bothered him, he could always beat it. After all, he had had a lot of practice defeating Eggman's robots with Sonic, and Tails was pretty confident he could take care of himself if he really needed to.

Sonic and Amy ran up to Shadow, surprised and very concerned to see him lying on the ground with small traces of fresh blood splattered all over the ground and trees. Shadow seemed okay otherwise, however, and luckily was still conscious, just injured.

Amy had filled Sonic in on the details while they were on their way there, so Sonic at least had a vague idea of what had happened. The two had been walking and then someone - a fox who appeared to be about Tails' age - had attacked Shadow and tried to kidnap Amy. Sonic had been having his doubts that someone fitting that description could do something like that, after all, Tails was still just a kid, so someone his age wouldn't be very strong, certainly not strong enough to hurt Shadow.

But still, the fact that they had clearly been attacked by someone who could overpower Shadow, if even for an instant, was concerning to Sonic. This wasn't one of Eggman's clunky robots, this was a living, breathing creature, and from the blood splattered on the ground around Shadow, it was clearly a violent one.

"Shadow, are you okay?" Amy asked, trying to force herself to calm down as she spoke. The sight of blood certainly wasn't her cup of tea, and the thought of how much of that was Shadow's made her downright terrified.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Shadow said, his voice suggesting he was probably not as okay as he tried to seem. He stood up and turned his attention to Sonic. "What took you so long?"

"Hey, it's not my fault!" Sonic said defensively. "I needed Amy to find you for me, I had no idea where you were. What were you two doing out here, anyway?"

"That's none of your business," Shadow said, figuring Amy wouldn't want him telling Sonic that she had come to him for advice. "If you haven't noticed, the freak who attacked me isn't here anymore, so I don't exactly need your help now."

"I'd still like to know what on earth happened," Sonic said.

"And you're hurt," Amy added. "We can't let you just..."

"Not all of this blood is mine, you know," Shadow cut in. "I'm fine. A little battered, but fine."

"Shadow..."

"I'd still like to know what happened here," Sonic cut in impatiently.

"Do you really have to stick your nose in everyone else's business?" Shadow asked, his patience wearing thin. "Not everything bad that happens is a chance for you to play hero, you know."

Sonic glared, frustrated with Shadow's refusal to just answer him.

"Look, Amy's my friend," Sonic said. "I don't care so much about you, but one of my friends was nearly kidnapped, and I'd like to know more about it so I can make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Amy knows about as much about it as I do," Shadow said. "Just have her tell you."

"But..."

Before Sonic could object any further, Shadow ran off, leaving the other two hedgehogs to themselves.

"... I really hate that guy," Sonic said. "Come on, I'll walk you home."

Tails wandered around, wondering why it was so easy to stumble upon chaos emeralds by accident, but almost impossible to find them when one was actually looking. He figured that if there was an emerald close by, it likely wouldn't be in the city; after all, if one was there, someone would have found it by now.

So Tails contented himself with looking for one just outside of town. After all, the weather was beautiful and sunny, which the trees seemed to clarify.

Tails figured after a while that the chances of him finding a chaos emerald among the trees was probably pretty low, but he was content just spending some time outside in the nice weather. He usually spent so much time working on his inventions, he hardly ever did simpler things like enjoying the sunshine or the crisp breeze. It was a nice change of pace, he decided, and he certainly needed to do it more often.

Sonic and Amy got to Amy's house after a while of walking. Sonic was glad to finally be done with walking instead of running, and planned to dash home so fast, he'd set a new record.

All he had to do was get Amy to stop talking.

"It was just so weird, Sonic," Amy said for what felt like the millionth time. "I mean, neither Shadow or I had ever seen this guy before, but he seemed to know who we were. He called me by my name and everything..."

"Amy, I really think you need to relax a little," Sonic said, more out of wanting Amy to not worry than anything else. "I mean, you hang around with me and Tails a lot, and we get put on the news pretty much every time something happens. So that wacko probably just remembered your name from the news or something."

"But it was still so weird," Amy persisted. "I mean, he looked so much like Tails..."

"What?" Sonic asked, surprised that Amy finally mentioned something new about what had happened. "You never mentioned this before."

"I didn't?" Amy asked. "I could have sworn... But, yeah, he looked almost exactly like Tails. Well, not quite..."

"What did he look like, then?" Sonic asked, planning to look for this guy for a bit before returning home.

"Well... He looked like Tails, but his fur was a lot darker. Brown," Amy explained, trying to remember exactly what the stranger looked like. "And he had red eyes. You know, like Shadow's. And... And he had two tails just like Tails does, which I thought was really strange."

"That is weird," Sonic agreed. "I thought Tails was the only fox with more than one tail."

"It was so weird," Amy said again. "You'd have to see what the guy looks like for yourself, but he really looks a lot like Tails. Like he could be Tails' twin or something. Well, his evil twin."

"I'll take your word for it," Sonic said. "I'll go look for this guy a bit before going home. And like I said before, try to relax, okay? You know I would never let anything bad happen to you."

Amy smiled.

"Yeah, I know. Bye, Sonic."

Tails noticed the sun was starting to get lower in the sky, which was his cue to head back toward home. He was a bit bummed about not finding a chaos emerald, but he had had a nice, peaceful day which was arguably better. After all, he rarely spent any time relaxing anymore, what with all of his inventions taking up most of his time, and Eggman's shenanigans taking up the rest.

As he walked down the sidewalk, Tails was surprised by the lack of people walking. It was still pretty early in the evening, and it was weird to see the city almost entirely empty. However, it was pretty peaceful without the extra noise, which gave Tails the feeling of walking on air. All in all, this day had been pretty nice.

All of a sudden, Tails had a feeling of dread. He couldn't explain why, but all of a sudden, something felt wrong, as though something bad were about to happen. Tails tried to dismiss this feeling as silly, after all, why on earth would he even feel that way? The day had been great, it had been completely peaceful and he was on his way home, where Sonic would likely be waiting for him, wondering where on earth he had been all day.

So why, then, would the feeling of absolute dread not go away?

Tails started to run, figuring it would calm his nerves just like it would calm Sonic's. Maybe he just had pent up energy from not being very active all day? After all, he had only been walking around, but he hadn't tired himself out or anything. Maybe all he needed was to exercise for a bit.

Tails made a wrong turn and found himself in a dead end alley. He paused for a minute, now tired, and turned around, his feeling of dread returning to him.

He wasn't alone.

But the other person was just a kid, a fox like him, so there was no reason to feel scared. Right?

Tails was shocked when he realized the stranger had twin tails just like his own. He had never met another fox quite like himself, although with the terrified feeling that only seemed to grow, he wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Good evening, Tails," the other fox greeted, his voice fairly quiet, although not so quiet that Tails couldn't hear.

"Um... Hi," Tails greeted, trying to cast off his uneasy feeling. The other fox probably just recognized him from the news or something, there was no reason to be concerned that this stranger knew his name. People recognized him and Sonic all the time.

"You're all alone, aren't you..." the other fox more said than asked.

"Um... Yeah," Tails said, hoping he wasn't coming off as being rude, but feeling really off put by this stranger.

Tails felt a shudder go down his spine when the other fox smiled.

"Perfect."

Tails wasn't even sure what was going on until he felt something hit him in the side of the head. He felt dazed, but he still tried to fight back, unwilling to let someone try to attack him. He felt another blow to the head, and after yet another one, he felt the entire world go black as he faded into unconsciousness.

Esplouge stared down at the small fox that now lay at his feet, wondering briefly if he had accidentally killed Tails. He didn't really care, he knew that if he simply had Tails' body, he could likely accomplish at least a part of his goal, but as he noted the gentle rise and fall of Tails' chest, he felt a flicker of excitement go through his body.

Things were going to be so much more fun with Tails alive.

Esplouge slipped his arms under Tails', lifting the smaller fox up. He held Tails close to himself and whispered into the smaller fox's ear.

"When you wake up, you're going to wish I had killed you..."

Laughing quietly to himself, Esplouge dragged Tails' body into the gathering night.