Puzzle Pieces

"I need to introduce you to someone after that last mission you accomplished. I am aware of your injury, but this individual and his group are going on your next mission with you. Don't worry it's an easy one. It is a mission that shouldn't be compromised from that injury." Abraham Tower spoke solidly.

"I work alone. You know I'm solo." I sighed, rubbing my shoulder from a bullet wound.

"You have until now. I believe you will be surprised about this team. They are at the top, and I do not believe you have met any of them." He disregarded simply.

I growled under my breath, "Why do I have to be teamed up with some idiots. I've been doing everything perfectly on my own. It's just one damn injury. Nothing will be compromised." I urged.

"My word is final. Don't speak to your superiors like that. Now go train and rest up. You have a long day ahead of you tomorrow." He ordered.

With an insignificant sigh, I walked back to my permanent room in the base. I stretched and tested my shoulder out some, studying when and where I felt the most pain. Finally sitting on my bed, I began reminiscing as to how I got here, and perhaps, I should treat Abraham better.

Two years ago:

Opening my eyes I found a group of soldiers huddled around me in close proximity, asking one another questions. Slowly forcing myself into a sitting position, I continued to look at them, completely dumbfound, wondering why there were so many males. I held my head, quickly realizing that they were not friendly. Guns of many varieties were pointed all towards me, their silhouettes shimmering in the sun.

"Who are you and how did you get in here?" An old man asked calmly.

I looked down thinking. I reached for answers, for memories, nothing but blackness was there.

"Answer." He pushed, fewer patients than before.

"I… don't know… I don't remember…" I spoke quietly, nervously, and shyly.

All the soldiers looked at one another before one from the crowd spoke out, "Well what are we to do Boss?"

"Hmm… Well we are low on recruits…" The two eye coloured old man spoke.

"But, Sir, she's a hedgehog." One of the soldiers pointed out.

"Hedge…hog?" I looked at myself studying and comparing the differences between the soldiers and myself. I was a tan hedgehog with red patches on my quills, having a black strong outline encasing the red, and they were all human, mostly consisting of white skinned people.

"We already have recruits like her. I don't see the issue." He brushed the soldier off and stood in front of me. He crouched down in front of me. "So you truly don't remember anything? Not even your name?" He questioned.

I closed my eyes thinking once more. "No… not really… My name… I think… maybe, it started with… a C sound…" I gripped my head getting a headache, as well as instantaneously being light headed.

"One of you, pick her up and follow me." He ordered. Many of the soldiers were very hesitant but one of them finally came forward and lifted me into his arms.

I grabbed onto him, nervous of falling. I stared at the 'boss' as they both walked along into the base that had been approximately fifty yards away. I let my eyes drift closed and fell into deep slumber.

I awoke to being warm and quite comfortable in a bed. Snuggling up more, I studied my surroundings. It was quite homey, except for the thick metal walls. It was quaint, filled with odd knick-knacks, and had no true colour scheme. Each piece of furniture had real wood in it somewhere, with old material over them. I slowly sat up and looked at the entrance, and exit, to the room. Wondering if I should investigate what was beyond the door, it suddenly opened. The old man, a soldier, and a doctor came through the door.

"Well, the results say there isn't anything wrong with her. She doesn't have any injuries…" He mumbled then looked up at me, "Oh, she's awake." The doctor continued.

"Good. We need to give you a name of some sort in stead of something with a "C" sound." The boss of this place looked at me sternly.

I looked down and thought once more, slowly began to grasp what I believed to be my name. "I… I think my name is Cathy…"

"You think, or do you know." His voice became sterner.

"K-know…?" I tried to hide the hint of a question in my voice, and in my own belief.

"Good. Now to your feet. Since we don't have any files on you, this is now your new home, and where you will now work. You are under my command, unless I say other wise. Understand?" He stated, rather than asked.

"But… I-" I began.

"The decision has been made already. You start tomorrow after a good long rest." He walked out, both the soldier and doctor following him, a bit hesitant and perhaps a bit stunned.

Present day:

I sighed softly, and hid under my covers. I closed my eyes and began to think; Whom will I be meeting tomorrow? Whom haven't I met here? On second thought, that's probably a lot of people… Well then, what is this mission, and why do I have to do it with a group if its so 'easy' that even my injured shoulder wouldn't compromise it… Well whatever, I'll find out tomorrow, all I can do now is rest. I urged myself to sleep, and after an hour of restless moving in between the polyester material, I slipped into unconsciousness.

I woke up, and slipped out of my bed, fixing it and making it penny bouncing tight. I stretched my injured shoulder out gently, easing it into movement as I made my way to Abraham's office, my boss. It's kind of hard to believe I still don't remember anything and it's been two years since I've arrived here. I knocked on the door and waited for some sort of response.

"Who is it?" Abraham's voice called through the door.

"You know who it is." I folded my arms.

"Come in." He called out. "The team I mentioned to you is in here waiting to see who you are."

I walked in and found myself shocked. There was a hedgehog, a bat, and a robot. I looked at the black and red hedgehog, picking up that he was not happy about this, the white bat seemed uninterested and the red robot was just standing there, obviously with no sense of emotion about him.

"This is Team Dark." Abraham began to introduce, "Team Dark, this is Cathy."

"I'm Rouge the bat. This here is Shadow," She motioned to the black and red hedgehog, "and this here is Omega." She gestured to the robot.

"Whatever. What's this stupid mission we have to do?" I looked at Tower's, clearly unhappy.

"All you have to do is go to this location, steal some information, plant false information, make sure you aren't found out, and make sure your identity isn't breached. Team Dark will back you up and assist with anything. Don't do anything to irritate that shoulder." He did a quick overview.

"Coordinates, dagger, handgun, and what's the info to steal and to plant, and where." I quickly questioned, wanting to get straight to the point.

"Take this device and plug it into the main computer and upload it into the system to plant the false info. Shadow will be taking care of retrieving info. Your target is all the way in Restropolis, their main government facility. Make sure you plant the info into their main computer. As long as no one is breached, it should be a piece of cake for you all. You all leave at twenty two hundred hours. Now go chat, I have other things to do." He went back to the papers that were on his desk as we all left the room.

"I don't care what you guys do, I can do this myself." I began to walk away, Rouge then slipped in front of me.

"Sorry sugar, but we were ordered directly to help you. It is our assignment and we are going to do it." She insisted.

With a slight growl I responded, "Fine, but don't get in my way. I work solo."

"Then don't get in my way either." Shadow spat coldly.

I heard rouge let out a sigh before I spoke, "We all meet back here before we initiate the mission. I'll see you in seven hours." I walked off silently, getting some early preparations completed.

My ear flicked as Team Dark walked though the door. I studied them for a second before standing up right from my leaning position. "Good to go I presume?"

"Humph. Are you ready?" Shadow emotionlessly said.

"Obviously. Let's get this over with then." I sighed and departed with Team Dark. Walking out into the vehicle lot, we headed over to where the aircrafts were and hoped into a helicopter. The helicopter was a tested and proven prototype that was almost dead silent compared to the standard helicopter. I hopped in and watched Team Dark get in.

"IF ONLY THERE WAS MORE DESTRUCTION ON THIS MISSION." Omega stated. It brought out a small smirk on my face.

"Well unfortunately we don't get to blast down walls and empty our magazines of bullets. This is supposed to be a silent mission." I took a good look at Omega, "However, I don't see why you are here. You're a robot, a program. You cannot hide your voice, and you cannot deny your form. How are you supposed to assist when we have to sneak in?"

"I WILL BE ON A ROOF IN THE DISTANCE READY TO ASSIST WITH ANY FIRE POWER IF NEEDED." He stated.

With a sigh, I just looked at him, "Well if we do need the fire power than we would have failed our mission."

"That is not an option." Shadow stated, looking out of the helicopter.

"Also, I don't know if you are aware of this, but Restropolis is human territory. So do either of you have a good disguise?" I looked at Rouge, then to Shadow.

"Do you?" Shadow spat back at me.

"Yes." I snapped my fingers and turned human who had short brown hair with side bangs and pale skin as well as hazel-green eyes. "I can make the both of you human as well if need be."

Shadow just glared at me before continuing looking out at the vast land and sky: Rouge then spoke up, "Well… we could find another way in. It will be late evening so we could sneak in though the air vents and work our way to the main computer room." Rouge suggested.

"I suppose we could…" I thought for a second and gave a swift nod. "Yeah I'm good with that." I glanced over to the one who was flying, "How much longer until we are at our destination."

"About five minutes." He grumbled.

I changed back into my hedgehog form and looked upon the world. There was a lot of green in this area, and many thick woods; Restropolis…, I muttered gently in my mind. I glimpsed over to Shadow then studied the helicopter for a few moments. I laid back and closed my eyes, listening to the drum of the blades overhead, taking in the cool wind that whisked away the sweat, and just took a moment to relax.

My ears perked up, Shit! In a matter of seconds, we were hit with a RPG. The helicopter spun quickly before it smashed into the ground. Everything went black for a bit until I regained my senses. Pain split up from my leg, the helicopter was torn apart and on fire off in the distance. Glimpsing down at my leg I noticed I had a compound fracture. Blood quickly escaped my body; the blood from my face drained and I felt sick to my stomach as I looked away. I focused on trying to keep my breathing steady and controlled.

I felt a hand push at my neck causing my body to jerk instantly away. I then felt the hands grab my leg and force my bone back into place causing a small scream out of me. I looked up; vision blurred, the pain pounding with every heartbeat, and watched Shadow quickly fix me up. I studied him as best as I could, my vision going in and out of focus. He had some cuts, but he was fine.

"You're going to be okay. You might have a concussion. The pilot is dead. We need to move, now." I then felt myself lift up; a sharp coolness came over the side of my head. Blood.

I looked at the one who lifted me; Omega stood proudly, virtually unscathed from what had just happened. "I WILL CARRY HER TO SAFETY, SHADOW." Shadow gave a nod and looked at Rouge. I tried to study her too. Her arm had a good gash in it with blood running down along her arm until it dripped into the now stained ground. She had a few other cuts and bumps but overall was fine.

I heard gunshots come from all around us, as they seemed to echo through the air. I vaguely felt Omega carry me; however, my vision was beginning to lose any focus it had. My vision began to turn black; attempting to focus on my wounded leg and the blood soaked bandage, I heard Omega call out to Shadow and Rouge. I finally slipped away into darkness.

"Cathy. Wake up." I heard Rouge's voice call out.

"Mmph…" I unwillingly opened my eyes and looked around. It was very dark; Rouge's face blocked my view of pretty much anything else. "Rouge… What happened…? Where are we…?"

"We are hiding out in a basement of an abandoned shack. The enemy has us surrounded." She explained quickly.

I tried to sit up, but got extremely dizzy and settled myself down. My body was sore; I noticed my fangs were showing. I need to feed.

"I don't know how much longer the door will hold. We need to get out of here." Shadow spoke sternly.

"I need some blood… To drink…" I began to try to sit up again, this time Rouge assisted me and I was able to steady myself.

"To drink? You mean you're…?" Rouge looked at my fangs.

"Yeah… I am… It will heal me, and I'll regain my strength." I looked at Shadow.

"And what will you do once you're healed up." Shadow asked me sternly.

"I'll kill them all, and we can get on with our purpose for being here." I placed my hand down on the cool surface realizing I was much warmer than usual.

"There will be no killing!" He growled; the basement door rattled and cracked as someone attempted to open it.

"We don't have much time, we either use Chaos Control or we kill them!" I tried to speak quickly, just as I finished my sentence a gun shot cried out, my ears rang. The door was breached. Shadow swiftly darted towards us crying out "Chaos Control!" bringing us to safety.

I looked around before falling back and looking into the deep blue sky that had no clouds to be seen. The field we were in had very tall thin grass that had a mixture of a very light brown and the classic grass green. The brightness of the day was quickly shaded by Shadow.

"How can you even suggest killing people?!" He growled.

"What do you mean? They shot at us first, they wanted us dead, and they killed the pilot. In this world, with what we do, its kill or be killed. Don't you understand that? They aren't even innocent civilians. We had the clear to kill them. They probably deser-" I was cut off quickly as Shadow's fist met with my jaw. He then grabbed my shirt and pulled me up closer to him, hate and disgust filled his eyes.

"There is always another way! So don't you dare feed that shit to me! You disgust me!" He growled. I moved my jaw cautiously; It's just gonna be really sore. It's not broken. I spit up blood.

"Shadow…" Rouge said softly. He glimpsed over to her then looked at me. He slowly dropped me to the ground and walked away, off into the trees to cool down. I sighed softly and closed my eyes.

"We are going back to finish this mission. She can bleed out and die here." He started heading in the direction of the target.

"We are not leaving her Shadow." Rouge called out.

"Whatever. I'm not carrying her, or dealing with her. Do what you want." He growled lowly.

"I WILL CARRY HER." Omega spoke as he began to pick me up. I grunted lightly.

I looked at my wound. The cloth was soaked, the movement only making the bleeding worse. I closed my eyes, wondering what I could contribute to the mission now.

I started feeling extremely weak and faint, my breath getting raspy. "SHE IS LOOSING TOO MUCH BLOOD." Omega sounded distant. I saw a blurry black head form over my plane of sight.

"Hey can you hear me girl?" Shadow asked his voice remaining monotone.

"You… sound so far away…" I muttered softly and closed my eyes. "I'm so… tired…"

"Keep your eyes open. Stay awake." I felt him tap my face and have me look at him. I opened my eyes trying to make sense of the images. I felt my eyes get heavier; the burning in my throat only aspiring into the only thing the last ounce of pure consciousness I could comprehend.