Shadow the Hedgehog

"Glad you like them." Hope tapped Shadow on the shoulder. "Can you get me a drink? I'm pretty thirsty." "Sure thing Hope." Shadow went and got her a non alcoholic pina colada. "Thanks Shadow." "If I got you the alcoholic one I'd probably lose my job." "It's fine. It's really nice.", she replied while taking a sip.

"I'll be right back." Shadow then walked to a drink stand, and came back with what looked like 2 coconuts with little umbrellas in them. "I got you both pina coladas. Hope you like them."

"Hang on, I'll go get you some. Anything in particular."

"Wow. I think you can out-yell Rouge. That's impressive. Must come in handy on the job."

Shadow just laughed. "Go right ahead. Don't want him making a fool of himself."

"Haha. You can say that again. At least it keeps things from getting stale and monotonous."

"Makes me glad the only time my superiors give an order is to hand me a dossier and say "go".." said Shadow.

"I can handle it. I get time to relax fairly frequently."

"Everything. Aircraft, vehicles, various experimental devices. Whatever I'm needed on really."

"Nice to meet you. Where are you from then?"

"Hi Melody" replied Hope. "No Skye, sorry. I haven't seen him, I've been away for a while on a little mission."

"A picture? Are you crazy Dylan? It'd tear you to shreds. Besides you can't even get down there now; we blew the elevators. And it isn't on any map you can get anyway. And hey Skye. This is Hope. She works at GUN." Hope waved at Skye. "Hi there."

"Thank you. I suppose he does. It's nice to know I've always got him to turn to if anything happens to me, and as you saw I'm more than happy to lend a hand if he needs it."

"A 30 year old bio weapon. About 10ft tall, massive clawed left hand, super stretchy arms. What I just took is the antidote. Otherwise I'd be mutating into something horrible. Whoever thought any of that research was a good idea needed the sense knocked into them.Don't worry, it's dead now, along with everything else down there... even if it's not fully dead, it's trapped 200m underground in the middle of an icy wasteland. So we're safe. Hopefully." "Er, hi there. Yes my name's Hope. I'm a technician. How do you know Shadow?"

"You still haven't answered my question Shadow." said an annoyed Rouge. "It was just a few turrets, a laser hallway.... and a lot of bio weapons of varying size. Nothing to worry about." "So what bit you?" "The big one that just wouldn't die. I tried stabbing it with a chaos spear, but that just made him angry. He would've been a great investment for GUN if he didn't try to kill everything in sight. But I'm sure Hope could've done something about that if she were alive back then." "No way, won't catch me anywhere near one of those things or anything like it."

"I'm just enjoying the beach. Shadow can drop me off later tonight."

"I won't need a few days. Just a few hours. And yes it was pretty bad. But we got it done." Hope's head was turned to the side. She could be heard talking to someone followed by a "woohoo". Her hologram then became a flash of bright light, and the real Hope was standing before them.

Rouge ran towards Shadow before being blocked by Hope. "Hi Rouge. Please don't get near him before he's injected himself. Wouldn't want anything to happen to you. Once it's done he's fine. "Hey Hope it feels like my my insides are on fire!" Hope breathed a sigh of relief. "Believe it or not that means it's working. If it didn't you'd instantly succumb to the virus and try to devour everyone here. Just a little longer..." shortly after a loud beeping was heard and Hope checked her watch. "Do it!" Shadow put the needle into his neck and pressed down on the plunger, a cooling sensation sweeping his body. "That feels nice." Hope stepped aside and let Rouge barrel into Shadow. "What happened to you down there?" she asked.

"I was called for an urgent mission. It was a complete success apart from the fact someone tried to eat me. Dylan, this is Hope Kintobor, or rather a hologram of her. She works at GUN. Such a shame you couldn't come down here Hope." "I couldn't get the time off so this is the closest thing. Nice to meet you Dylan."

Shadow interrupted them by appearing nearby, a bandage on his left forearm, a syringe in his hand, and what appeared to be Hope standing next to him. "Any reason your hologram has a bikini? "How else am I going to blend in? Now listen carefully. Inject yourself as soon as you hear the alarm on my watch go off. Take too long and you'll need a stronger dose, which means you'll have to come back here." "Ok I can do that. Thanks for helping me out Hope. Just wish I didn't get bitten in the first place." "It wasn't your fault Shadow. You had no idea what was down there..... hey is that grown man in a kid's sandcastle competition over there?" asked Holo Hope, pointing to Zet.

Julie-Su?

"I'm sure Shadow will tell us when he gets back, Red. I'm not finding out from his obituary." said Rouge, trying to stay composed.

Rouge looked st the map, scrolling to a single red dot in tbe middle of an icy tundra. "That place? It was shut down when Tower came in, a relic of GUN's less savoury endeavours. Must be destroying it for good now. Who know's what they were working on in there?"

"That might have something to do with it." he replied. Rouge got out her PDA and looked through it.

"Ah yes. They are much more pleasant after dark."