Among the Mystery (Open)

Station Square, a marvelous city, that was once destroyed. However, due to the kindness of someone that was close, the city was rebuilt to its better days. Now with it new and rebuilt, a police system was added to insure that everyone would be safe. Most of the locations that the city knew, was rebuilt as well, albeit not as perfect as they were before.

The City was bustling with activity, one of the busy days today. Cars rolls down the many streets, and people that simply liked to walk paced themselves on the sidewalks near the road. Many people here, used to remember what it was like back in the old Station Square, but with this new and rebuilt one, they almost feel safe and at home again.

Many tourists often come to Station Square, to see how it has lasted for so long and perhaps see one of the many sites that were left after the destruction. These tourists often go towards a hotel near the train station, that also linked to Emerald Coast, a beach that barely survived. The beach still has some places to fix, but it's safe to access to everyone.

But, along with this beach, there was another somewhere else. It was known as Sapphire Shore, and it's been closed for nearly sixteen years now due to water pollution. It's very dense, so the beach couldn't be saved, but they put a metal wall between the beach and the ocean, so that the pollution wouldn't transfer out to sea. It was a wide wall, stretching for miles to protect the ocean.

The water here was a dark grey, and a mix of many other colors, it was clear that no one would be able to even think about going into that kind of water. The palm trees here near the water, were old almost decayed even. You couldn't even recognize them as trees anymore, they were just large sticks in the sand. Not even the wind could make them move anymore.

To the west of the beach, there was rock formation, signaling the end of the beach, and where most of the pollution was condensed at. The rock formation was worn and aged, showing something that no one should really know. It was a door of some kind, designed to be a part of the rock formation. A secret that was closed off like the beach? How odd.

The sounds that were emitting from the strange door like object, were drones of machinery, sparks of wire, and a computer like voice saying that there was an error, though everything was very faint. It would seem that whatever was in there was deep inside, or perhaps under it even. Well, enough about this place, we should find the person who will uncover this mystery.

Now... where were they exactly?

Well, they're close by. Thing is, they're not expecting anything like this, nor did one of them want to.


Echo and Zetski were traveling together on Emerald Coast, rummaging through the non-fixed areas for spare parts for future inventions made by Zetski. They weren't looking for anything in general, just anything usable. So far they haven't found anything.

Until Echo picked up the faint sound of sparking wires and machinery.

His ears perked up as he turned towards where Sapphire Shore was. It came from somewhere over there. He turned back to Zetski. "I believe there might be more parts of machinery over there, but the area's closed." Zetski's eyes widened in fascination as soon as he heard the word "machinery", but almost instantaneously went to disappointment when he heard "the area's closed". He mumbled "Darn, and to think we'd find anything." Echo looked at him with concern. Then back to Sapphire Shore. They couldn't find anything at the Emerald Coast, but neither of them wanted to give up now. Then again, Echo would rather not mess with the authorites.

What to do... where to go...

To the disappointment of the two, the area was indeed closed off. No one could get in, unless they flew. But, for every entrance, there is a even more secret one to be close by. Sapphire Shore, and Emerald Coast were, relatively close to each other. And even though the sounds were faint, they could be tracked above ground if need be.

For this door, seems to be the main entrance, but it's off limits to those who don't wish to break the rules, and by consideration, themselves. There must've been somewhere else to get into that area, perhaps in Emerald Coast. It must've been well hidden to have it in a well populated area, but this was also in the unfixed areas, where it is recommended to stay clear unless you plan to help clean.

For instance, most of the unfixed areas were in much dismay, even the sand was discolored. Except for one circular area, large enough to be a manhole cover. It was surrounded by discolored sand, so it could be easily spotted. If removed, the same sounds from Sapphire Shore could be heard. The hole itself, was like that of a tube, where you have to slide down.

It was stainless steel, polished to a shine, slippery to even touch. It was a one way ticket in through, but more parts are needed, aren't they? If going down, you are greeted with a heavy dose of something that was burnt to a crisp smell, reeks of it everywhere. Followed by a long hallway, flickering lights that help to see.

The hallway itself was cluttered with debris, as if something terrible happened here. The sounds seemed to originate more into the hallway, and echo off the walls as if there were multiple coming from all surroundings. In this hallway as well, there was a ticking sound, like that from a grandfather clock. The hallway wasn't that spectacular, simple metal panes to support the hallway from collapse from the force above ground.

In fact, how far down was this area? It seemed so deep, they might as well be near the water of the ocean. Anyway, following the hallway, would lead to a large room, filled with broken machinery, debris from the supports, even some high valued material could be found if looking hard enough. But from all of this, what was most interesting, was that there were some working computers in this large area.

Looking at it closer, it was more like a lab than anything else, as if something highly secret was going on down here. It was a room filled to the brim with technology, it almost felt out of place for someplace like Station Square.

Zenn was in another dimensional plane running from a fight he had encountered there. The people were able to use the light to render his skills useless. He ran down an alleyway and met a dead end. As the mysterious people cornered him into the alley, he quickly opened a portal under him and closed it as soon as he went through it, leaving the "chasers" behind.

        When the portal opened up on the other side, he was on Emerald coast. He went and hid in some rocks to the side, then he heard a noise. He heard sparks and machinery. He backs away from the noises, a little shocked to be hearing such noises in an area like this. Even though he shouldn't be, he has the mind set to keep an eye on it.

        When he turns around, he sees Echo and Zetski a little far ways in the distance. He feels the need to confront them and ask what is behind the door looking structure, but he doesn't. He doesn't want to be at risk of opening another portal so early. Masamune talks inside his head. "Go talk to them," he says in a soothing tone. Zenn shakes his head in disagreement. He just wants to observe them to make sure that they aren't too dangerous, or in anyway of way hostile. So he sits, and waits.

Zetski spotted it first, and walked towards it without saying a word. Echo looked back to where Zetski was supposedly, quickly doing a 180 just to find where he was. "Hey, where are you going??" Zetski looked back to Echo as he walked closer to the manhole. "I don't think this is just an ordinary circle of decolored sand, Echo." Echo tilted his head, but reluctantly followed. Zetski had already arived just a foot away from the hole. "Well this is just a bit to obvious. The pattern is too perfect and the color just stands out. Isn't stuff like this NOT supposed to be found?"

Echo shook his head as he walked towards the cover as well. "I'm not sure, nor am I sure that we should go down." They both hesitate. "But that dosen't mean this area isn't closed off-". His sentence was cut off short when he heard several noises: a portal opening, and footsteps in the sand. Echo stood still, aside from his left hand making several gestures to Zetski, as if some sort of sign language. Then his arm went limp.

Zetski understood and still as well. Echo muttered something that hopefully Zenn couldn't here. "We're being spied on." Of course this was somewhat over-reacting, but both of them would rather not take the risk of who it was. Well, Zetski didn't. Echo slowly turned his head to the left, not making full eye contact with Zenn, but enough to see him in the corner of his eyes.

The lioness, shalina was walking around on two legs, reading a map on THE BEST tourist sites, occasionally bumping into somebody once in a while, then, after she visited all the tourist sites, and was getting ready to buy a train ticket to her home land, then she heard two ladies, a hedgehog and a swallow (Not wave ^^')  talking about the strange mystery of some sort of rock near a closed off beach that was said to hide a secret under or behind the rock, she asked them the location of the rock, and they told her the it was at sapphire shores, so she ran to the beach to check out to see if this mystery was true, she found the rock they were talking about, and put her ear on the rock to see if there were odd sounds like in the story of the mystery, no sound was heard, she felt tricked, so she took all the rocks she could find in the area, to throw to the other beach not that far away, to get rid of her anger, she grabbed every rock she could find and started to walk away from the rock

The beach wasn't the type of place that Shadow would normally find as a decent place for him to be, but he was told that there was a bit of a pollution issue, so he went to investigate himself. Zetski seemed to believe that someone was spying on them, and in a way, ha was right. Shadow had noticed the groups having their own little conversation, but honestly he didn't really care. His current objective was to see what was causing the pollution of the water, making it unapproachable.

 How could a body of water be so polluted that they needed a metal wall around the water to keep it safe? Was there anything they could do for it now? Without heeding the presence of anyone else, Shadow approached the water and scanned over it. His main priority was to keep this planet as beautiful as it had always been, and when it doesn't seem like it's working, Shadow would be there to fix it somehow, whether people are aware of it or not. 

 Maybe it was for the best that they didn't know. He'd probably want to figure it out himself. He noticed a fish scurrying into the murky water, trying to get out of it as fast as possible. More than likely, it would fail, because as far as Shadow could see, the water was grey. The metal wall was a great start to keep it from getting any dirtier, but Shadow wanted to find a solution to clean it. It's not like he was a pollution expert or anything, but he couldn't let this happen to this body of water.

The beach was one of the few places that people really wanted to see come back, but with the water like it was, it's almost impossible to clean it up without completely draining the beach. But with fish still swimming within this water, it could be possible to cleanse the pollution. The fish were indeed swimming away from the denser parts of the polluted water, which was west of where Shadow was scanning the water.

Also to the west of the beach, was the rock formation that signaled the end, where Nina was messing with a strange looking formation. Infact, due to erosion, it was revealed that it was more of a door than a rock formation. And with a turn of a single rock on that door, it started to open. Coming outward and soon splitting in half, as dust would fly out of the doorway, showing something that shouldn't be at the beach.

A secret doorway, a main entrance at that. From inside, there was noises of machinery, bits and pieces of sparks could be heard, and even a ticking sound, like that of a grandfather clock. There was a stair way that lead downward, leading to another that was more of a spiral style. It lead down into the underground, almost as if this was the place that was causing the pollution.

But with these staircases, there was debris on them as well, making them hard to traverse and explore the area. But once at the bottom, a single doorway would lead to the large area that was filled to the brim with technology, almost like that of a lab. But there was also a door to the east, where it was sealed shut and blinking red with light. It was almost like an airlock of sorts, only it was unable to opened. But there was a very horrid smell down here, almost matching the smell of the water outside to a punch.

Again, there was also some computers still online, which was remarkable considering the disaster of what happened here. On this computer, it showed many things, completed projects, recent notes, research notes, and a folder named "After math". strange that these folders were on the desktop of the computer and not in some secret place within the computer itself needing any sort of password.

shalina looked to find that the rock had split in two, she look around, put down the rocks and started heading inside, shalina coughed a lot, as dust puffed around her with every step, she slipped a few times, but quickly regained her bearings with her claws, it was to her amazement to find a bunch of tech, even to find computers still on, the smelly air quickly got to her, she opened her bag, and got her camera, there was little to no film left in it, but enough to get a good view of the lab, she checked the computers that were still online and climbed her way up as fast as she could, when she got back up, she saw shadow staring at the water, she dashes over to him,  "You will not believe what I found! Here, look at the pictures!" she quickly handed him her camera for him to look at

While he was examining the water, Shadow flinched when he heard something fall apart it seemed. However, he was so engrossed in what he was doing, that he almost didn't notice how close it was. In fact, had he not looked west at the rock formation, he wouldn't have noticed that there was something strange about it. When he first saw it, the formation hadn't been broken down.

 'Come to think of it,' he thought to himself. 'I didn't notice that formation there before. Who put that there?' Shadow hummed softly in suspicion as he glared at the formation, when a girl, a lioness to be exact, seemed to appear out of nowhere. That's what it seemed to Shadow, anyway. In reality, the female had simply ran out of an entrance by the rock formation that was now in pieces.

 Without saying a word at first, Shadow grabbed the pictures and looked over them with a glare. "Just as I suspected." he growled to no one in particular. "Someone put some kind of base here. But based on how careless they seemed to have scattered the information, I would be very surprised if the Doctor had anything to do with this." Shadow walked over to the formation, informally mumbling a, "Thank you." to Shalina before reaching it.

 "If the Doctor is behind this," he thought aloud. "Then maybe he thought this was a bad idea and scrapped it without cleaning up his mess. I may confront him about it later for wasting my time, but first things first. I'll have to investigate myself." He walked down to the bottom of the entrance of the base, cautious enough not to fall, and saw a door with a window on it. Sure enough, he saw exactly what the lioness had taken pictures of. 

 He also noticed how much this place smelled. Actually, he noticed that it smelled similar to the polluted water. Now he was sure that this was the cause of the pollution! But who would want to pollute the water? That seemed to be the only thing this place was doing right now. This sure didn't seem like a plan Dr. Eggman would conjure up, but then again, the scientist was quite the eccentric man. 

 Brushing his suspicions aside, the Ultimate Lifeform grabbed the door and struggled to pull it open with all his might, but it didn't seem to budge. "Urgh." he growled, starting to lose patience. "There has to be some way to open this door." That's right. There had to be. Shadow was no quitter. He was going to find a way to stop whatever it was that was polluting the water no matter what. Now all that mattered was finding a way to unlock that door...

Shalina followed shadow down to the bottom, and let herself slide down the last couple of steps for fun, she dusted herself off, "Elch! I hate the smell of this place, it smells almost as bad as the water at the shore. And with my great sense of smell, its even worse then it WOULD be!" she complained, she looked on the computers still on to find any clues of how to open the door, there was a picture of a key card, she had a flash back, *in flashback* she bumped into somebody ""Oof! S-sorry!"" the person replied, ""hmph! Kids and their maps..."" he grumbled, as shalina got up, she noticed a key card, ""Hm, maybe he dropped this...?"" she wondered, the stranger was long gone in the crowd, so she continiued to explore, *end of flashback* she shook her head, "Hey, what IS you name anyway?" she asked with curiosity

Shadow heard the lioness come back down, or should I say slide back down the stairs. Despite not wanting anyone else to get involved in case this base was full of traps that could really hurt someone, but if she really wanted to see what was going on, then he wasn't about to stop her... Okay he was gonna try a little. "What are you doing here?" he questioned. "Do you know how dangerous it is down here? You should get out of here while I figure this."

 It didn't seem like Shalina was really paying attention to him while he was talking. Probably thinking too much about something. The black hedgehog rolled his eyes. "Fine, do whatever you want, but if get yourself in trouble don't expect me to help you, or take responsibility for it." He continued looking over the room, trying to ignore the presence of this rather not welcomed guest.

 Shadow was surprised that she didn't know who he was. Due to his reputation he had received from helping save the earth multiple times, and not to mention defeating Black Doom and the Black Arms, Shadow had made quite a reputation for himself. "The name's Shadow." he said. "Shadow the Hedgehog." He looked over the lioness again. "And who are you?" He honestly didn't care all that much, but maybe it was the proper thing to ask her as well.

"My names Shalina, Shalina the lioness, and honestly, I don't remember who I used to be, and I'm not sure about about who I really am... No family, no memory of my past, all alone in the big world..." her ears fell back, "I just forgot for a moment..." she goes in her bag and grabs a key card, "I found this while I was at one of the tourist sites, maybe this goes to the door?" she wondered out loud, and handed the card key to shadow

Within this large room, filled with debris from the supports from above and many other sharp and deadly objects, the ticking like that of the grandfather clock was louder in here. It was coming from a location away from the sealed door, in the corner of the room, there was digital clock, counting down. Currently, it was at five minutes thirty seconds. A strange object to be sure, but the amount of numbers on this clock seems to be made to count down by months, years even.

Of course, there was no indication on the sealed door that it was going to be opened manually, so there had to be someplace where you could open it remotely right? The computer that was on still showed the files, under Recent Notes was an email of sorts. It said this:

"Title: Airlock Terminal Code

Micheal,

Make sure you get the code changed on that Airlock on Terminal 276, Professor Lo requested it so that no one without permission besides you and I would go for a swim. You know how she'll have a fit if someone doesn't change it soon. I have to leave for a meeting above ground, so I can't do it right away. Have the code be 17425 for safe keeping. Alright? Take care, Micheal.

Richard."

An email showing the code and where to activate it, how strange. There was also the folders for Completed Projects, Research Notes, and the After Math. But currently, the important bit is to get that door open. The Terminal that they were looking at was 298, saying so at the base of the monitor. Most of the terminals in this room was crushed to bits from the fallen debris that has been laying here for years on end.

Terminal 276 was almost gone, a large boulder was blocking the way to get to that terminal, but the terminal was still in working order. Activating it would show a sequence of folders throughout the desktop, labeled with strange names like "Yon" and "Meua". However, there was an icon on the desktop for "Airlock", meaning that it could be for the airlock itself!

Opening it would bring up a combination code message, starting with 00000. Above it saying "Enter passcode". Once entering the passcode, two screens popped up, one a camera for inside the Airlock, and another for the controls for draining water and opening the lab door, and one for sealing the lab door and opening the ocean door.

However, within the camera, there was something inside, a large object that seems to be getting crushed by the ocean door. Any attempt to open the sealed door would result in a message saying "ERROR: OUTER DOOR MALFUNCTIONING AND WILL NOT SHUT. LABORATORY DOOR SEALED SHUT FOR SAFETY PROTOCOLS."

With the camera on, the object was blurry for some reason, more than likely because it was filled to the brim with ocean water... murky ocean water at that. But it was so dense, this was possibly where it's originating.

The clock from before was still ticking down, currently at one minute fifty five seconds. What will happen if it reaches zero?

Surprisingly through all of the commotion, both Zetski and Echo stood still, besides a shift in Echo's left foot. He switched to his sonar vision to get a radar-like vision of what happened through all of the events that had just happened. He gave one last hand signal to Zetski, and he nodded in response.

Echo slowly shifted his right hand in the direction of the manhole cover, with his fingers positioned like a gun. He flicks his wrist, and an immediate blast of sound knocks the entire cover into the air, almost 15 feet high. Zetski flinched from this moved, but dived first into the tube, with Echo following close behind. For now, they had to escape from those who had seen the both of them.

They both covered their noses as they slide down the tubing, and landed feet first onto the hallways. Zetski almost instantly pulled out two flashlights, handing one to Echo. They both switch them off, using their free hand to still cover their noses. It didn't do much, but it was enough. Zetski then uncovered his nose. "Wait... I'm used to this smell..."

While the lioness was talking, he felt somewhat sorry for her mostly because he understood what it was like to be without a past. Regardless, Shadow ignored her past that, and then she was totally out of his mind when he heard a ticking noise. "Where is that noise coming from? Come to think of it, I heard that noise earlier today, didn't I?" 

 Shadow was then distracted when Shalina showed him the card that he recognized to be a key to some kind of door. "Hm. Well this is definitely a key." he admitted out loud. "But how do we know that it's a key to this door?" Then Shadow heard the ticking noise getting so loud that it was impossible to ignore. "Okay, where is that coming from?!" That was when he noticed the timer on the clock that said one minute and fifty-five seconds on it. The fact that it was counting down now made Shadow convinced that this was desperate now. 

 Then he noticed that there was something strange about the door he was trying to open. He could hear flowing water, and it wreaked. Stepping away from the door, Shadow ran to the other door and slammed it open tapping on the computer. There was only one thing that timer could be for. "Get out of here, now!" he yelled at the lioness, pointing at the stairs. "You know how to get out, so go! This thing could flood the whole city! Get everyone to evacuate, fast!" 

 Okay, change of plans. Focus on cleaning up the water after saving everyone from drowning. Brushing the plans aside, Shadow came across some kind of e-mail that said something about a code. What was that about? Looking back at the clock, there was one minute left. Okay, no time to think about it, time to act. He started frantically tapping the password, hoping that it was the right one, and that it was changed. 

 "Come on!" he growled, as the computer started loading. There wasn't enough time for mistakes, or delays.

Shalina made her way up towards the stairs, in a hurry, not just because the city was in peril, because shes terrified of water, (what cat wouldn't be?) she rushed the city shouting, "Evacuate the city there's gonna be a flood! Evacuate! Evacuate!" she shouted that through the town, but nobody would believe her, who WOULD believe a twelve-year-old, so she rushed to the city hall, "Mister mayor, call a flood evac, immeadiately, there is gonna be a flood soon!!" "I'm sorry, but without proof I can't call a evac on rumor, it could be false alarm." she grabs her camera and shows him the pictures and explains, "My, this seems proof enough!" he got the whitehouse emergency phone, "Call a flood evac immeadiatly! Theres gonna be a flood!"

With the password being put into place, and Shadow trying his best to get whatever it was out of the airlock so that the beach could some how be saved, the clock still ticked down. The same Error Message keeps appearing when Shadow tries to stop that airlock. However, the system knows that it should shut, and drain, but it's unable to. Something was blocking the way of the doors that led outside to the ocean.

Everyone was in a panic, outside in the city. A flood? What would cause a flood?! There's no hurricane on the way, no massive storm! What would cause a flood to engulf the city like that?! But as the clock ticked down to it's last remaining seconds. A robotic monotone voice rang out from that clock, saying these words:

"Project rejuvenation completed. Systems are bound to the nervous system and is ready to be established to the world. The subject will awaken in 5...4...3...2...1...0. Welcome to the world, Project A.V.E.R.Y. Your life begins now under command of Professor Lo and Cooperation. I hope that you will be raised with the greatest of respect that a person should have. Have a nice life."

As this robotic voice spoke about this project, a groan was heard somewhere in the lab. Under a pile of rocks and debris from the lab itself. Though with a little effort, it did move, as a large rock would fall over and cause a loud thud. Someone... was actually alive down here? There's no way...

But, infact, there was. After a few moments, a grey feline would emerge from the pile of rubble. Coated with dust and all that's nasty, but one matter of fact to point out, was that he was covered in wires. A strange sight for anyone, I'm sure. But the clock has now stopped ticking, and has been shutdown. The only thing left making noise was the loose wires that sparked as electricity still ran through, and the rushing of water that was present through the still sealed door.

However, the grey feline wobbled, and soon just sat down on a nearby boulder. He looked terrible, like he was here for years on end, given nothing but scraps of food to pick off the floor. His tail, which was forked at the end, limply lays to one side. His eyes were shaky, like he just seen something frightening. But with all of this coming at the cat, he quietly says something to himself.

"Where... in the world am I..? This place looks like it's been through an earthquake."

His voice was dull, but also trying to get dust out of his mouth as he was coughing in mid-sentence.

Shadow clenched his teeth as he tried to type through the computer, growling but never letting up until he heard that strange monotone voice. Project... Avery? What the heck was that? Suddenly Shadow's eyes widened when he heard movement around a pile of rubble, and as Shadow approached the cat, he did so with caution.

 He couldn't believe his eyes. Somehow he had discovered the presence of an underground base near the water for a project to create life? "Who in the world are you?" Shadow asked, totally perplexed and confused. "Are you maybe... Avery?"

 Shadow could also hear the commotion that was going on above ground, causing him to breathe in a deep sigh. Great, this was his responsibility now. This was so unlike him to jump to the wrong conclusion, but there was no time. "Great. Come on, we'll talk later. Now we have to calm everyone down." He motioned for the cat to follow him out of the base, before noticing the wires. "Wait, I can take these off, right?" He reached to pull the wires off of the dizzy cat.

Zenn seeing everyone enter through somewhat of an entrance, he just goes through the front following far behind shadow. He just stayed on the surface arguing with himself. Or...Masamune at least.

       "Why did you let them go?" Masamune said. "I don't want to cause trouble. Plus I'm still a little worn from the portal." Zenn replied. "We wait!" "Ok ok man just, calm down." Masamune said.

       He hears the noises from inside. "What's that?" Masamune says. Zenn just walks in to the lab. He walks through the corridors and staircases making little to no noise. He comes to a room where he heard, "The Subject will awaken in..." Zenn takes precaution but sees Shadow reaching for the wires from a short distance.

The grey cat looked up suddenly to a strange black hedgehog, he didn't know who he was but he was guessing on his name and... infact he guessed right. But he wasn't sure, he tries to look back at his memories but... none was there. It's just a black wall filled with nothingness, not a sound, not a soul, just nothing. It all hurt his head, he shook it and put a hand to his temple.

"...I guess so, that's my name anyway. And you..." he paused for a moment, as he looked over at Shadow's figure. "You look familiar, but I can't remember where from. Maybe from a story I heard once..? Hmmm."

The feline known as Avery, also heard the commotion going on above ground, it was crazy to hear, panicked sounds, even slight screams. What caused it though? Then Shadow suddenly told him to follow, he doesn't exactly have any choice in the matter, infact, he doesn't know where to go to get out. So following him might be a good idea.

Avery tries to get up, but the wires jerked back him to a sit. He winced from the sudden pull, it's tearing at his skin. Some of the wires were plucked off because of that, but the pain felt from each pull was like a sharp needle being pulled out with a barb at the end. Shadow went ahead pulled the rest of the wires off, Avery trying his best to just ignore it.

But now free from whatever place he was put in, he followed Shadow up the stairs to get outside. But, he was having a bit of trouble walking, it's like his legs haven't worked up until now, trying to adjust to the sudden weight that they were carrying. It was different, trying to actually walk after your legs have been out of commission like that?

But as time would pass, he got better to walk at a decent pace. At least the body knows what it's doing. But outside, was different story. It was a sunny day, a few clouds here and there, but what was completely different from before. Most of the people were in a slight panic thinking that there's a tsunami, or a giant blob of water was coming to flood the city, or even thinking that Chaos was back and angrier than before.

All this noise was sudden, and the repeating yells weren't exactly ear candy to the young feline as his ears folded over to stop most of the sound. But Sapphire Shore was still as it was before, barely a soul on it. Emerald Coast was bare now that someone spewed out "There's a flood coming! There's a flood coming!".

Meanwhile, back down below in the lab, it was like it was before. Still having scraps of technology to spare, even power. But it looks like it's on it's last resort, keeping the airlock from flooding the lab entirely and causing Sapphire Shore to become nothing but a death zone with the amount of electricity that the lab was producing.

Satisfied that the strange cat was freed from the wires, Shadow lead the cat out of the base, met with the less than welcomed voices of the panicking citizens of Station Square. "My name is Shadow the Hedgehog." Shadow admitted. " I know it must me a bit much for you to go straight to large amount of noise right now, but we have to explain something to them to calm them down. That base was there to keep you hidden until you were ready to come out, perhaps. I'll need you so that I can prove that the city isn't in danger."

 After walking for a while in the wake of a real panic, Shadow mounted himself on a spot where everyone would be able to see him. "Hey!" he called out without much, if any success. "Can I have everyone's attention?!" Shadow was waving a hand around to try and catch their attentions, but it was no use. They were too fearful. Shadow gave an aggravated sigh, he motioned for the grey cat to join him. "Cover your ears." he warned, giving the cat time to do so before letting out a loud whistle as a last dish effort to grab their attention.

 Finally, the panicking stopped, allowing Shadow to explain. "There was a misunderstanding." Shadow said. "This place isn't going to flood anytime soon, I don't think. I misunderstood the situation. Over at Sapphire Shores," he pointed at the beach. "There was a rock formation over there that held some kind of secret. There was a door that refused to open, and a timer. I'm afraid I came to the wrong conclusion, and thought that that door was going to open and flood everything. Turns out, the only thing that came from that timer was this guy."

 He showed the strange, confused cat, hoping that the people of the city wouldn't freak out more from the strange presence. There was a scientist, or two that was here. There is, or was, a Professor named Lo, and there seems to be, or has been, an organization called the Cooperation that created this thing. Or, at least that's what I got from the voice from the computer. I'll look more into the details soon. There are files in the base, but I don't want too many people going in there, okay? This kid needs his space right now, alright? So, it's fine. Go about your usual business."

 As the people of Station Square seemed to calm down, some glaring at the cat, Shadow turned his attention back at Avery. "It doesn't seem like you remember much, do you?" he asked the cat. "I'll help you figure the basics out, but don't expect much more than that. I'm not a charity, but I know what it's like not to know who you are." With that, he started heading back to the base where the formation once was.

Once hearing Shadow's name and what to do, Avery just shook his head and looked back at the source of the noise. Still with folded ears, he certainly didn't like repetitive noises. He would just sigh and say

"Yeah... whatever it takes just to get rid of this annoying noise."

Once going into the panic, it was hard to really keep up with Shadow, as Avery was being pushed around and making it hard to really follow. But once getting to a location where the both of them could stop, Avery looks up at Shadow to see he was standing on a large box that was meant to be moved elsewhere.

After a failed try to get the people's attention, Shadow warned him to cover his ears, and he does so as a loud whistle spread through the area, making the people stop and listen to what Shadow had to say. It was then that He was shown off to the people and the sudden sight of everyone looking at him at once caved in on him. The sight of everyone's eyes just watching your every move with some of them filled with anger was terrifying.

But as Shadow finished his speech, people went off back to what they were doing before, some people giving Avery a glare which wasn't exactly safe sounding. Once Shadow asked about him remembering, he nearly jumped at the sudden voice near him. But he shook his head and sighed slightly before speaking.

"I mean... yeah the last memory I can boggle up is meeting you. But it's weird that it only leads up to that. I mean, I know people can have amnesia and such, but they always have a... Idunno link? Like they can recall something about their past to a point, but I try to remember beyond that point and I... don't remember anything. But, I'm going to rest, my arms feel like they've been asleep this whole time."

With that said, Avery went towards a nearby bench to sit on. And when he did, he nearly fell asleep right then and there. From the looks of him alone, all dirty and even smells, it seemed like he went through a war three times over. But, can you blame him for being stuck under a rock for years on end?

The information that Shadow went back to get was still there on the active computer. "Recent Notes" didn't contain anything useful. "Recent Research" contained notes about heart beats, brain waves, blood flow, those everyday bodily functions. "Completed Projects" contained things that normal people would think about making themselves, but theirs blueprints for such things and ready to be made. And then there's "After Math" which contained only a simple text that read:

"This is Richard Conlock, one of the members here that used to work for Professor Lo and her Cooperation. It's been several hours since the explosion and my co-workers are trying to rid of the device that caused it and seal it in the Airlock. I'm surprised that I survived and some of my co-workers, the explosion broke nearly everything. This terminal is one of the few remaining that survived the disaster.

I'm leaving most of the work that was done here on this computer, so that it can be saved. But I'm taking something else that caught my interest in our latest project, known as Project A.V.E.R.Y. If the project is somehow alive, don't let the name fool you. I have suspicions that Professor Lo wanted revenge on the other companies that turned her down, and was making this. I have to research further, but time is on the line and I can't stay here for much longer. 

Whatever is left there, anyone can take it. This place is going to be abandoned, it's far too much to revive, nearly three fourths of the place was crushed under the pressure when the supports gave out. I'm going to go back to my home, and talk to my family a bit. This is Richard Conlock, signing out of the Cooperation for the last time."

An explosion, so that's what caused this place to become a mess. And whatever's inside of the Airlock is what caused it in the past. The text was dated nearly sixteen years ago. What on earth was this Professor Lo planning? One thing's for certain though, if any more information about Avery was going to be had, someone was going to have to track Richard Conlock.

As for the Airlock itself, it was still unable to be opened. Someone would need to come here later with a protective diving suit to see what was stopping the outer door.

Reading over the information that was left rather lazily around the computers, Shadow knew that he had a lot of work on his hands. To tell the truth, the majority of the information given by these papers were pathetic at best. There wasn't anything really substantial or anything of any real value, but he told Avery that he would at least get the basics, and that was a promise. He didn't make promises he couldn't keep.

 Suddenly, Shadow picked up on something very interesting. A note on the computer stated that a man named Richard Conlock seemed to have known about this base for a while. 'So there was some kind of explosion over sixteen years ago. So, that's why this place is such a mess. So then how did all of these plans survive? And why did someone build an underground base under the beach?' 

 There were so many questions like these that ran through the hedgehog's mind, but in the end there seemed to be only one person that could answer them, and that was Richard. But where in the world could he find this Conlock person? He pondered for a few seconds, but then he considered that key card that Shalina had. Maybe that was the missing link. Maybe whoever had that card was the guy they were looking for. But how could they know for sure?

 While he was pondering, he noticed a few cameras attached to the corners of the wall, and wondered. "Perhaps those could solve my little mystery if I could just get to them." Shadow leaped with little effort and grabbed onto the camera, carefully removing it, and looking around for some kind of plug to attach to the computer to play these tapes. If this Richard guy ever entered this place, this camera would have that info. He was gonna solve this mystery, and he didn't care how long it would take him to do it. He started this, and now he was gonna end it. He was sure that solving this mystery would also solve the issue with the water, so it would all come together in the end.

Zetski and Echo listened as the rest of what just happened went by, still standing in that lab. Everyone else seemed to have went back above ground, not even noticing the two and Zetski grew restless of waiting, more so confused on what they had just missed.

Echo crept up to that airlock door and pressed his hear against it. "Flowing water... this must be barricading it, and possibly what would cause some flood that everyone's been screaming about." He stood a few feet away from it. "But it's locked shut..."

Meanwhile, Zetski was storing whatever salvageable items he could find in a makeshift box, clearly content by his findings. He turned his gaze to the large computer screen. "Maybe it's the computer that's doing all of this." Echo glanced at it as well. "Perhaps your right, but I don't think we should touch it."

Zetski had already put the box of scraps and pieces down and stared at the remaining files on the screen.