Chapter Text
Reality 72-
“Hey, Shadow! We need to get down to the meeting room right now!” Topaz’s shouting was heard loud and clear by the hybrid, despite his reluctance to answer her. The other agent had come into the locker room after his mission when he was removing all of his gear, for just a moment. She started yelling, delivering her impatient message before darting back out, thankfully giving the Hybrid his space before he could snap anything back at her.
His frustration flared a little as he let out a small involuntary growl. It was almost 5am and their mission had only recently concluded, practically going all night and Shadow just wanted a moment to himself to clean up a little. But here Agent Topaz was, full of energy and ready to start the day it seemed.
Topaz worked closely with team dark mainly due to her connections with Rouge. She was like a handler for them at times, other times she was picked to support them because of her experience with working alongside mobians. However, she never really wanted to interact with any of them at work, which was fair she was one of the busiest agents who also took no shit from anyone, she had no time for anyone before the point of being known as the agent that got along with the ‘furries’.
Shadow could respect her for that. She did her best working with everyone while also maintaining her reputation as a unbiased and highly effective agent.
Right now though he could practically feel her anxiousness about arriving to the meeting on time.
Quickly, he strapped on his boots after replacing the muddy socks and exited the locker area. Despite the whole of Team Dark finishing a mission not long ago, he was the only one who had gotten dirty and cared about it. Rouge happily flew above the mud and Omega could care less after-all.
Shadow wasn’t even showering or taking care of his appearance as he normally did, instead just removing the uncomfortable mess. Yet, the spunky Agent Topaz seemed to think he was lolly gagging if the sound of foot tapping just outside the door was any indication.
That also meant that she was waiting on him making sure that he made it rather than trusting him to get there himself. Great that meant he was going to escorted. That means he couldn’t conveniently get lost. Shadow let out a slight growl just deciding to push all of his equipment into the locker. He could just organize it later, Topaz was not really willing to wait any longer it seemed at it was grating on his nerves.
He really did not want to go to this meeting.
He had briefly looked over the meeting notes that had been sent to him during extraction and the words “Black Arms” and “remnants” stood out to him, and with just those few words he had no longer the will to look at the document. Nervous of what all was found, and if it would lead to his attempted arrest again. Or worse if it would lead to the same confusion and mess that his heritage had lead him down before.
Shadow quickly threw away his soiled gloves with a slam into the trash can as he got up and made his way to the door. Topaz was waiting and Mobian glove courtesy be damned. He almost reached the door when his mind wondered for a moment as he thought more about the topic of the upcoming mission, stopping his steps completely.
Even just remembering the incident that happened in Westopolis brought his mood and thoughts spiraling downwards.
What had he been doing at the time? Why did he let his anger take control of him, was it just the hive mind seeping into him? Was he receiving the anger from all of his brothers through that psychic link? Is that why he felt righteous in all of the atrocities he committed?
The amount of blood on his hands. Buildings seemed to crumble under his destructive power. Not a care in the world for the life of the planet. Just the need to burn it all down, destroying everything that was apart of the Black Arms in all of its imperfect horror. Not to mention feeling good about it all.
He could feel himself start to slip out of the present moment, thoughts of fire began to sting at the edges of his eyes. He could feel the anger in him rise, he could feel the injustice of what they had done, what the humans had taken from him. The revenge that Black Doom had offered, the freedom he promised that was only trading one prison for another, but a prison where he didn’t have to think about any of his choices. Just using himself to the fullest extent instead.
Then suddenly he was back in the present as a loud and annoyed knock banged against the door he had almost reached, his hand still out slightly to open it. Topaz opened the door letting the hybrid have a moment’s pause to adjust back to reality.
Shadow had not even realized that he had gripped the standard issue armored vest that was still loosely strapped onto himself so hard that he had actually managed to puncture through the threads a little.
That’s right, his gloves were off, he no longer had that protective barrier from his sharp claws.
He blinked a couple of times taking a deep breath.
His usually carefully organized mind seemed out of sorts as he looked up into the doorway to see the frown on the brunette’s face. She looked ready to burst despite it not being very long, then again he had no real idea how long in his head he was.
“Took you long enough. And they say you are one of the fastest things alive, hmpf, as if.” She had immediately turned around with a sharp pivot, already waking down the hall before Shadow could respond.
The hybrid just grumbled. There was no point in trying to argue with Topaz about anything she had a personality that would never admit she had any faults in her conduct and Shadow really wasn’t in the mood to make any remarks on her over exaggeration on how important this meeting was.
They moved down the halls quickly and quietly which Shadow could appreciate. He was still trying get all of his thoughts in order and calm down his breathing from his earlier slip up in thought and the only alternative was arguing in front of all of their co-workers which would do no favors to Team Dark’s already precarious social position in the organization.
He needed to properly clear his mind and focus on the now, he had a meeting coming out and if just thinking about the other half of his biology caused him to retreat in himself what was he going to do during a meeting that might solely focus on the fact? He had to calm down.
He took another breathe as they turned the corner, thinking about something else. Once his memories recovered and he was officially put on a team with Rouge, the bat insisted that he receive some therapy for her to feel comfortable working in the field with him. Of course Shadow just went to satisfy her without really taking advantage of the service. But there were a few things he did take away from the sessions. He was always told that he needed to go to a ‘happy space’ whenever he found himself starting to spiral.
Of course he had scoffed at the idea at the time, but secretly he often used this method when he went quite during a particularly brutal or compromised mission.
Instead of thinking about the grey brutality architecture of their HQ he tried to instead to imagine that the grey was a nice bright yet rich blue. Like the oceans that he used to spend so much staring at from the ARK.
He thought about the comfort of that color in the form of a soft dress brushing against him as he walked beside his sister. He tried to breathe to soothing thoughts of standing with her looking down at the unknown world below. Finally he found a state of calm and he tried to focus on that, anything else would be fine with the memory of his sister with him.
Sooner than he would have liked the two of them were outside of the meeting room and Shadow came back fulling into the moment ready to hear what the mission would be mentally shaking himself out of it.
Topaz typed in her security code to the room before stepping inside and moving over just enough to allow Shadow entrance as well as the door closed.
She gave a salute to the commander before sitting down at the table next to him, getting everything ready to record the mission parameters and filing the appropriate files into the database to be used for whatever mission was born from the discussion.
Shadow stepped in and gave his salute but waited by the door for the commander to reply back unlike Topaz. He gave a nod to Rouge who was seated right in front of him, and another to Omega who was seated next to her. The robot was hooked up to the computer on the table, for ease of processing the data better since looking at screens was surprising not the robots forte, preferring instead to directly download it then pay attention to some ‘inferior’ display.
The commander nodded at him before pointing over to chain across from Rouge, “Shadow. Glad to see you finally made it.”
Shadow wanted to roll his eyes, sometimes the humans got too much of a kick making fun of his speed. He took too much pride in it and so whenever he wasn’t the fastest many of his co-workers loved to point it out. However, he resisted the urge to snap back a response not wanting to upset his superior. Instead he simply nodded back and moved to stand behind a seat that seemed to have been pulled out for him, seeing a folder full of documents already sitting on the table in front of the chair.
Shadow took his seat as the commander started with his opening remarks.
“Let’s just get this meeting underway then shall we? An interesting but possibly urgent situation has come up. At exactly 2:34am this morning G.U.N. operative 2356 stationed on our global satellite had intercepted a message in space. The signal comes form an unknown origin. The ‘sending address’ seems as though it was sent encrypted in such as way that we could not decode it ourselves, but we were able to figure out that it was indeed meant to be sent to earth.”
He turned to hit a few buttons on his computer, the display screen, a message in an alien language appeared on the screen.
“Luckily the message it’s self was not encrypted and we were able to access the data file. We cross referenced it with everything we have in our databases, and only one match came up. This writing was also seen in the attacks on Westopolis and around the world during the Black Arms invasion.”
Shadow felt as though his heart skipped a beat, there might be a chance the Black Arms had not be wiped out as he had so wished.
Rouge sat up interrupting the commander, “I saw the brief, and that really brings one question to mind; the Black Arms were all destroyed, why would they be receiving messages, and in their language? Does that mean that they somehow survived?”
“We were also confused. Sadly we do not have the understanding or the tools to properly decipher what the message says. The one things our data experts were able to decipher was the age of the message in a sense. The level of digital corruption in the waves suggest that this message probably was slowed down by cosmic interference, arriving a year or so later than it was intended to.”
“A year? The Black Arms were here about that time. So, it was meant to happen around the time of the invasion then?” Rouge asked, a concerned look crossing her face.
The commander nodded. He then turned to Shadow with a serious yet skeptical look on his face.
“I know you have almost no knowledge of your Black Arms heritage besides the biological data that the professor recorded as you stated in your reports following the incident from a year ago, but is there any chance that you could indeed read this?”
Shadow wanted to scoff, his status as being an alien hybrid had alienated from many of the people he worked alongside. Despite his best efforts to help the people of Earth and cooperate with G.U.N.. There was a running joke amongst his co-workers of him attacking people and put eggs in them in attempt to take over the world…again. It was a sore subject nonetheless hating it when people brought up his alien half.
Sadly though the commander was right to ask him. He had not lied in his report that he really only had a understanding of the biology that made him so that he could fix himself if any flaws might appear. However, a decent chunk of that data was in the language of the Black Arms and so he had a basic to decent understanding of the language, at least with regards to the medical terminology.
He let out a sigh, crossing his arms, “Professor Gerald studied many of their texts for his research and was able to read and decoding most of it. He did teach me what he could, but my vocabulary is extremely limited to scientific terms.”
Rouge looked over surprised, she was one of the few that assumed that Shadow was like any other Mobian, one just raised by humans and that is why he was strange to others. She of course knew he was a hybrid but to her it had not affected him in any significant way besides his chaos abilities. Maybe she had even forgotten he was a half alien research project who was aware of all all the experiments on him.
Omega’s eyes lit up, also just now realizing how much knowledge Shadow could actually have on the subject of the aliens.
“THE BLACK ARMS WERE KNOWN FOR THIS EXTENSIVE MILITARY OPERATIONS. YOU MUST TEACH ME, SO THAT I MAY LEARN EVEN MORE NEW WAYS TO DETROY INFERIOR ROBOTS.”
Shadow comply ignored the robot, not wanting to go into that territory right now, even seeing the letters made his heart rate skyrocket flashing back to times where he had seen it on their ships. To times where Black Doom tried to get him to join the hive by showing how connected they were through their understanding of the language. Then knowing that Doom had used him as a living translator through the psychic link. He couldn’t imagine what it might happen if he read about their ‘extensive military operations’. Instead he moved closer to the screen trying to make out the letters pushing everything else aside.
“Hmm, I cannot be certain, but it seems to be some sort of congratulations? For assimilating another planet? I cannot tell what the rest of it really says it might be some slang or military specific jargon, but the words ‘joining hives’ and ‘arriving within the next two years’ appear.”
“But the brings us back to the fact that the Black Arms are dead.” Topaz spoke up after taking a long sip of a coffee cup that just seemed to appear next to her.
“It is possible to assume that since the message was sent and supposed to arrive before the invasion was even completed that they worked off of the assumption that the Black Arms would win. They were an undefeated race until that point.” Rouge supplied, stealing the coffee and taking a small sip after wiping off the lipstick stains with a playful glare at the other woman.
Oh, so it was Rouge’s coffee and they were probably flirting right now. Shadow looked away from the women, ignoring it. He could only assume they had been playing footsies under the table this whole time, or something equally as pointless.
The commander also seemed to be ignoring their antics and was scratching his chin before turning back to agents.
“It seems that there is a possibility of there being another hive of Black Arms. We all thought there was just one since Doom created them. But, this message could signal a splinter group. At the very least it’s an ally of one of our most dangerous enemies. It also seems as though they might be on their way to Earth.”
There was a pause as a heavy silence permeated across the room. Then suddenly the commander typed some more into his computer, his typing the only noise in the room. Then everyone waited as the commander continued to stare down at the device.
Not long after a loud ping sound rang out from the device before the commander looked back at the group, his mouth opening to reveal what he was thinking.
“Te-“
“IF WE ARE TO GO TO SPACE, I DEMAND A HEAVILY EQUIPPED BATTLE SHIP WITH ELECTRONIC WEAPONS CONTROLS THAT I CAN ACCESS REMOTELY.” The robot boomed out right as the commander started to speak.
Everyone else in the room looked at the robot with a surprised and startled expression, while the commander just looked annoyed. What did he mean space?
Coughing to get the attention back on him acting as if Omega had not said anything, he delivered his command, “Team Dark, to assess the threat and ti remove any potential harm to our planet: you are assigned to go into space to search for another Black Arms hive, and destroy it if it proves a danger to this planet.”
Shadow blinked, a bad feeling already making itself known in his stomach not liking where this was going, “And if it isn’t?”
“Then make sure it never will be, however that looks.” The older gentleman giving a hard look to the hedgehog before resuming.
“I have already talked to the space department and they will outfit a ship for your mission.” He then looked over at Omega, his eyes narrowing slightly, “And I will be sure to pass along your message Agent Omega.”
“GOOD.”
“If that is all, meeting adjourned. I will have the mission details provided in eight hours time, that is also around the time you all will depart for the mission, so be well rested and ready.” With that he started to pack up his papers and close his computer.
Rouge stood up, her eyes disbelieving,“Wait, commander, is this really the best idea? None of us have had any space training?”
“Omega can simply download the necessary data, Shadow has the most knowledge on this particular enemy, and you are the only one who can reign these two in.” He had hardly looked up as he organized the files.
Rouge just opened and closed her mouth several times before looking over at Topaz who just shrugged, and smirk on her mouth. Seeing Rouge speechless was always a rare treat for her.
“Not to mention you are the only Mobians working for G.U.N. and it has been shown that they can survive in space for a limited time without any life-support equipment, giving you a better chance of survival if anything was to happen.” She added, picking up her own files and leveling them out of tapping them against the table. Not giving Rouge’s complaints a second thought.
Rouge actually glared at her, her mouth twitching. Shadow understood the feeling, trying to keep in mind his nice calm blue as he digested just what was happening. Space, again.
“You best settle anything important, this could be a long mission depending how far away this hive could be.” The commander turned saluting them all before leaving the room. Topaz following quickly behind after she saved all the meeting details to the server.
After they were gone Rouge looked over at him with an annoyed expression across her face. Shadow knew it wasn’t directed at him but it took him off guard nonetheless.
“Well that’s just perfect. I have finally convinced Knuckles to go on a date with me this weekend, and then they drop this on us? Ugh, by the time we come back, he will have probably forgotten my name.” She crossed her arms leaning against the table, a grumpy expression twisting her facial features.
Shadow really didn’t want to think about the fact that they were sending him to confront one of the few things he thought was behind him and wanted to forget more about than anything else.
So for now he would forget about it and for once he actually choose instead to actually interact with Rouge’s drama.
“Rouge, there is no way that you are that forgettable. Your quite the opposite actually. If anything I’m sure he will be missing you and falling more for you.” Shadow gave a nod to her before waving his hand around the air as though he was trying to physically dissipate how awkward he felt about the subject, “Distance makes the heart fonder or something.”
Rouge let out a blink before smiling at him, “aww are you actually trying to cheer me up? That’s cute of you, handsome.”
Shadow rolled his eyes, no longer able to hold back after wanting to do it half of the day.
“I thought you were interested in Topaz anyways. You were even flirting with her during the meeting after all. Which you always do, I might add.”
“I CAN CONFIRM SHADOW’S OBSERVATION. MY SENSORS DETECTED THAT YOU EXHIBITED A RELEASE OF PHEROMONES WHEN SHE-“
“Okay thats enough of that Omega.” She gave a soft glare to the robot, not really offended by her personal business being on display.
“That’s just friends flirting Shadow. Nothing is going to happen, she isn’t interested in Mobians like that and frankly I’m not all that interested in humans. They have such strange cultural practices, especially with how they date. I can’t imagine having a successful and happy relationship with one. We are just too different in that regard.” Her nose scrunching up as she remember her days when she had tried to date a human for the fun of it and had since very much regretted it.
Shadow felt his brow furrow, he knew she didn’t mean anything by it. She had probably just wanted to say her true feelings while in the company of her closest friends. It wasn’t an attack on their cultural practices per say, they were just different. But still….
The hybrid had been raised by humans with only humans to interact with for the years he lived on the ARK. He had learned to respect and act based on human behaviors. He was more used to human customs and culture than mobian. And that fact that Rouge had found their practices disturbing not only reflected on humans but he also felt as though it reflected on himself.
Rouge seemed to notice her slip up, “Oh Shadow I didn’t mean that you-“
“It’s fine. I understand. I don’t really understand mobian practices myself too much. It would be difficult for me to have that kind of a relationship with my alien side anyways.”
He could barley keep up with everyday mobian norms let alone anything needing more finesse. He was lucky that his co-workers were humans and could not tell when he wasn’t following mobian practices and appreciated his understanding of humans.
Rouge cringed a little reaching her hand out opening her mouth, seeming to want to say something but the slowness of the action spoke volumes on how she was able to.
“I TOO DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE COMPLEXITIES OF MOBIAN OR HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS. THEY ARE BOTH UNNECESSARY FOR DESTROYING.”
Both Shadow and Rouge gave out a laugh at that. The tense atmosphere dying underneath it.
“Fair enough Omega, destroying things do not really need such social touches.” The robot just beeped in agreement with him.
The team then split up to attend to each of their personal matters. Omega going to observe the preparation of the ship and make sure it had enough ammunition.
Rouge had gone off to explain things to Knuckles, and possibly go on one last treasure hunt on the island as a going away gift (once again Shadow did not understand Mobians and how their relationships worked, wouldn’t it be better to just enjoy each other’s company or go on a casual date now?). Then she would return to pack up as much as she could for the mission.
Shadow went down to check out his personal armory, making sure everything was in order and having as much of it as he could sent to the ship.
Then he started cleaning up his locker and getting his thoughts in order. He tried not to think about him going into space again, or what he might face out there. He went back to his quarters afterwards to gather the few personal items he would need.
There was also the matter of his dark Chao. He had adopted the creature when he found it stranded outside of a Chao garden. He tried to return it to his home, but on the journey they took, it seemed as though he had gotten attached to him, even going as far to evolve to look like him and would not leave him alone.
Eventually he just choose to adopt the creature. It followed him around wherever he could and Shadow had gotten quite attached to it, doing his best to raise and care for it.
It was the only creature that seemed to expect nothing of him, simply willing to be around him and enjoy his company. The only thing the creature needed was food and affection, and although it took him some time to come around to the second need he eventually layered it upon the little Chao in droves the way his sister would.
Opening the door to his designated quarters, the creature greeted him and nuzzled against his face with a small noise. Shadow returned the action, letting a little purr at the comfort the little guy brought him.
The Chao didn’t really have a name, at least that is what he told others, in his own mind he did call the little guy Shade; which could mean a shadow of a shadow. It made his snort a laugh a little when he first thought of it since the guy was following him aimlessly just like a shadow would.
He tried to think of who he should leave the Chao with. His co-workers were all humans, and they could not connect with Chao the same way mobians could and he was worried that after a while that it might hurt the little guy, by not being understood on that deeper level or being able to feel Shadow’s chaos energy signature.
Of the mobians he knew the only one he really trusted was going into space with him. He didn’t really feel comfortable leaving him in the hands of anyone else. He knew Cream would have done a great job, but did not want to leave her with that responsibility for what could possibly be a very long time.
Hmm. He supposed that he could just bring him too. Yeah screw it. Chao could survive in space just as well as he could, and he was bringing a chaos emerald so he won’t hurt for the energy the little guy needed to be comfortable. Honestly, his own mental health could only benefit from Shade too.
Shadow then played with the little guy for a while before cleaning himself off remembering how dirty he was once the Chao started sneezing from the dust and dirt flakes falling off of him.
It was good to finally get cleaned up and fulfill his routine, making sure he still looked up to his normal standard of presentation.
He spent the rest of his time getting everything together for bringing the Chao along too. Making sure he had plenty of food, all of the toys and cuddly objects that Shade would want to was carefully packed away.
Shade had a bright pink nerf gun that he liked to use to pretend to be on missions with Shadow, not wanting a yellow one and trying to get close to red as possible. He also a small stone garden that was outfitted with lid allowing him to put it in his largest bag easily as well as several balls of various shapes and squishiness.
Shadow also picked up the favored soft objects of the chao: a medium size pillow in the shape of a blue chaos emerald; and oddly enough one things that he cried in a store for until Shadow caved in and bought for him, a well worn Sonic plushy. He would never go shopping with Chao again afterwards because of it.
He then spent the last few hours polishing his favorite hand gun and doing maintenance on his shoes.
When he was about an hour out he decided to find the hanger to move all of his stuff onto the ship. Quickly finding a pair of gloves before he forgot again and Rouge tell him off for showing them in front of strangers and co-workers. He picked up everything and found Shade curled up asleep and gently gathered up the creature as well.
Making his way through the hangers with several bags and the Chao. Shade was was all cuddled up in a hello kitty blanket in one of his arms he got several strange looks at the small creature that held a great resemblance to him, but when he glared at them for this unnecessary interest they quickly turned around.
After a short while, he finally made it to the ship. The commander was there going over several documents and Shadow walked past stopping briefly to acknowledge the man. After he nooded to the other Shadow noticed the questioning glade to the fluffy pink bundle in his arms.
“My Chao sir. It would be irresponsible of me to leave him here on earth.”
The commander just nodded. The confused expression never leaving his face, but he just walked past him and moved into the ship.
As he walked up the gangway to the ship. It glittered underneath the light, obvious new; clean and sleek. A dark gray just like the rest of G.U.N.’s assets. Along the side in big block letters was the word “FLEETWAY” followed by a call number, GSF081993. That must have been the designation of the ship. Shadow gave it one last look before walking up the ships stairs. Doing his best to remember it so he could report things properly.
Once inside he saw Rouge flying around commanding Omega to move her stuff around in her typical fashion. Shadow had been to her apartment several times just for the purpose of moving her furniture for her. She was very space conscious and fashionable in every way and he was not surprised to hear that her room in the ship would also reflect that. From the sounds of it, it seemed like she have brought both her bed and a dresser onto the ship for chaos knows what reason.
Shadow was thankful to whatever deities (that were not evil or died because of Sonic related incidents) out there that the ship had actual separate quarters. Most of G.U.N. stuff that were not permanent quarters were simple bunks. Built for efficiency and not comfort. He could respect that but he also quite enjoyed his personal space. It took him almost no time to get moved in.
The chao in his arms finally started to stir with all the noise of excitement through the ship and began to really wake up realizing he was in a completely new place. Shade was interested in the new environment and was flying all around the room inspecting every little corner. Happy to explore the space on his own.
There was just a simple bed and a desk with a shelving unit built into the wall made from smooth metal in the room. Everything was melded together so that nothing moved in the event of turbulence.
It wasn’t huge, but roomy enough that he could move freely in the space. The far wall mostly taken up by large thick windows that covered the upper half giving him a tinted view of the outside.
Once set up he went out to meet the commander. Rouge and Omega joined him after a short while.
“This ship is outfitted with a chaos emerald that we recently acquired, it should assure that you have enough energy to move without worrying about refueling. It should also allow you to move faster than the speed of light in a similar way that Shadow teleports. However, there is a spare ore engine as well if anything should happen, just know that it is more for emergencies.’
‘Next, Omega has been downloaded with the appropriate files for ship maintenance. He will also be connected to the systems weapons and steering, so that he can access them quickly. The ship flies like our normal jets here on Earth, so no extra training needed for you two if you have to take over for the robot. Most systems will be similar to others that you have encountered working here, anything else you can reference Omega’s files.”
The nodded along as the commander then went over the mission perimeters again. They had not changed from what they had mentioned earlier. They were not to return unless absolutely necessary or until their mission was completed.
Topaz then walked over to them, “There is a good chance your communication with home-base will go down while in space. Or at least be severely delayed once you leave the solar system. You should still send in daily reports as much as you can, but don’t be too concerned if you stop receiving messages from us. Just focus on the mission. It could mean the survival of the world after all. Last point, security, please don’t forget the ships name, call number, and your personal security word because if we receive even the slightest error it will be assumed you have been infiltrated.”
The commander nodded, “Correct. You are going to face a group that this planet has struggled with in the past. It could be dangerous in a way we cannot expect. I would love for this just to be reconn but if you have the opportunity to end the threat before it reaches homes, take it. there might not be a second chance. Good luck.”
They exchange salutes then Team Dark boarded the vessel.
Shadow turned back to see Rouge exchanging one last hug with Topaz, the human showing an odd amount of emotion for someone who pretended like she hated everyone. But he supposed she was Rouge’s partner before he was. Shadow just turned around and went into the cockpit giving them their moment.
Not long after Rouge came in strapping in next to him.
“Ready for this big guy?”
“Just another day at G.U.N., right?”
A screen flashed in front of them, Topaz coming into view from the command center below that was monitoring their spacecraft. She confirmed with them that everything looked good and that the Fleetway and her crew was ready.
Rouge hummed a little tune as she check over all the ships readings, “looks like we are all ready to go, Omega are you all hooked up?”
“CONNECTION STRONG AND STABLE. INITIALIZING AND CONFIRMING LAUNCH SEQUENCE.”
The engines roared to life, and Shade, sensing the change flew into the cockpit, burring itself into Shadow’s chest fluff.
Rouge looked up a little surprised, she had not noticed that little Chao coming on board, she she started to smile and Shadow brought a protective hand around him. She loved playing with the chao and was probably just as happy to have him here and Shadow was.
“LAUNCH CONFIRMED. THE FLEETWAY IS CLEARED. TAKE-OFF IN…10…9…8…7…6…”
The blast doors were fully opened now, showing off the clear bright blue sky. Ah blue. Shadow calmed himself down. Reminding himself that it’s just another mission. Nothing the ultimate lifeform can’t handle. Reaffirming himself while making sure he had a decent enough grip on Shade so that he didn’t go flying once they started moving.
“…5…4…3…2…1…LAUNCH.”
The ship started to shake as it slowly raised into the air and then the atmosphere. The sky slowly losing it’s color, growing dark. Gradually they made their way up into the inky blackness.
Shadow unexpectedly felt a new sense of calm come over him as everything turned into the endless void of space. It felt like…returning home in a sense.
The shaking stopped as they cleared the gravity of the planet. Both mobians on board letting out a breathe they were unaware of holding as the ship stabilized and artificial gravity was established. Overall it had been a very smooth launch. Hopefully the mission would stay that way. The screen in the console continued to buzz as the transmission reestablish itself to the satellites for more effective space communication,
“Everything looks good. Best of luck team dark.” Topaz reported before switching off the live communications link.
They then set in a course for the edge of the galaxy. Rouge looking out the window to see the planet below. She had not been in space often and her eyes grew with wonder and she looked at her homeworld.
Shadow looked down, but something twisted in his gut, and he really didn’t need to deal with that outside of the privacy of his own room so he moved his sights out into the space around the planet.
That’s when he noticed something odd. There was a satellite. But it was not orbiting like normal. In fact it seemed as though it was spinning out of control. A slight decline towards the surface of the planet.
Then suddenly there was an explosion that blew up half of the object and the spinning only seemed to get worse.
Shadow looked closer trying to see what kind of satalite had taken damage and if he needed to warn G.U.N.. It kind of looked like a face. A very familiar face.
“Omega, scan the space to our right for any of Eggman’s signals.”
Omega whirled as he commenced scans through his connection to the ship.
Rouge finally looked away from the planet to see what they were talking about.
“SIGNAL CONFIRMED. THERE IS AN EGGNET SIGNAL. IT APPEARS TO BE A DISTRESS SIGNAL FROM AN ORBITING SATELLITE DESIGNATION: E66-ORBITAL-LASER.”
“What’s going on?” She finally saw the satellite that was spinning and falling apart as debris was flung all around.
“Search for what’s responsible for the issue.” A few more beeps as Omega easily hacked through Eggman’s encryptions. The blessing of having an Eggman robot on their side.
“CODE: HEDGEHOG.”
Damnit. Why in the world that the stupid hero have to be everywhere? He wanted to just ignore it. The blue hedgehog obviously seemed to have destroying it under control. But his partner had other plans.
Rouge let out a laugh, “Blue is out there? Of course he is!Can you patch a commlink through to his communicator watch? I have his number here.”
She input the data and Omega processed it through the ship. After a few short seconds a ringing sound came over hidden speakers before the sound of gun fire loudly interrupted.
“Hey blue!” She smirked while looking a the satellite falling apart.
“Rouge? Is that you?” The hero let out a laugh, it sounded relieved.
“Got it in one. It looks like your having a lot of fun out here. Everything under control?”
“Of course, I enjoy nothing more than stress-testing eggbutt’s fine works.”
Rouge snorted before the hero continued, “I came up here in a little shuttle that I found lying around in one of Eggman’s bases. But, uh, sadly it was blow up when I crash landed onto this heap of junk. I got this all busted up, but I would really appreciate need a ride home if you can spare it.”
Rouge looked over to Shadow. They had a mission to get started on, but surly helping the hero of the planet wouldn’t seem like too much of a waste for G.U.N. when they were right there.
Shadow just shrugged moving the Chao onto his shoulder looking over the data readouts on the station.
“It looks like its ready to blow completely apart or at least fall back into the atmosphere, I doubt even the luckiest blue idiot could survive that.” He told the bat.
“Odds that good, huh? And hi Shadow!”
Shadow ignored him.
Rouge turned to the robot “Omega, send a message to G.U.N. explaining the situation. I am making the decision to rescue him, but have them advise us on re-entry.”
The robot beeped and complied but not before letting out a disappointed comment.
“IT IS TOO BAD THAT THE BASE IS ALREADY HEAVILY DAMAGED. IT WOULD BE THE PERFECT SUBJECT FOR TARGET PRACTICE.”
Rouge nodded to the robot before imputing commands into the ship.“Okay blue. We are coming for you.”
They moved in closer to the base, but there was no way that they could get closer enough to the near obliterated satellite for the ship to dock or for Sonic to be able to jump to them without sustaining damage.
“REPLY RECEIVED, THE RESCUE IS APPROVED, BUT RE-ENTRY IS STRICTLY DENIED, THE STRESS ON THE ENERGY DRIVE FROM SUCH A TAXING PROCESS WOULD NOT SAFELY ALLOW FOR ANOTHER TAKE-OFF FOUR TWENTY-FOUR HOURS. ADVISED TO CONTINUE MISSION.”
“With Sonic?” Shadow growled out, even more unwilling to interfere with the other’s business now than when he spotted the burning heap of junk to begin with. Damn his amazing eyesight for spotting this mess. “You know what, maybe he is lucky enough to survive that.”
“Thanks for your vote of confidence, Shadow.” Sonic voice came through with a warble as the sound of another explosion could be heard.
“Well you heard it all. We can get you, but we cannot get you home you would be stuck with us.”
“What are you guys even doing?”
“Space mission for G.U.N. not sure what all I can tell you right now but the way that satellite your on is starting to burn up, we don’t have time for that anyways.”
“Space mission? Ooo, that sounds like a fun adventure, sure I can go along with that. Not like I have any better options.”
Shadow flipped the hedgehog off mentally, of course he saw this as all fun and games.
Rouge looked over a him, “Shadow I’m afraid I got nothing and the situation is rapidly deteriorating.”
Shadow let out a growl before reaching into his quills bringing out his green chaos emerald. He moved to the center of the cockpit.deciding to just go grab the faker himself.
He placed Shade onto Rouge’s lap as he passed by.“Take care of him while I go and collect that blue idiot.”
Rouge smirked at the other’s compliance looking relieved that she would not have to do their normal song and dance of getting Shadow to do things outside of the missions boundaries. Normally Shadow would argue the point until he couldn’t anymore but time was not not their side. Surly Sonic could prove himself more of an asset than a pain. Right?
He gripped the gem in front of him tapping into it’s energy.
“Chaos control!”