Chapter 1: Orders

Eggman was alone in his base, working tirelessly.

"At long last, I have created the ultimate weapon." He said. "A robot capable of destroying my grandfather's greatest creation. E-123 Omega, the 24th of my E-100 model machines. I can get rid of Shadow with him, as a test. A test to see if he can defeat that horrible blue hedgehog, Sonic. Without Sonic and all his Freedom Fighter friends, Mobius is mine! Muhahahaha!!!!"

Shadow was still sulking about being beaten by Enerjak.

em'A creature such as I, defeated by an echidna?'/em He thought.

The other members of GUN had been pushing his buttons by constantly rubbing it in. When he first joined GUN, he was his usual arrogant self. He showed off at all the training sessions GUN had. The other members there thought he was being a real pain. And when Enerjak beat him, they thought it the perfect opportunity to get back at him. The only ones that didn't insult him were his girlfriend Rouge, and her ex-partner Topaz.

"Ignore them Shadow." Rouge said. "You'll get back at them by completing your next mission with an 'ultimate' victory."

Rouge had warned Topaz not to insult him, as he was kind of sensitive, and very powerful.

"Rouge is right you'll get back at them by redeeming yourself as the Ultimate Life Form in your next mission. And it looks like it's on its way."

The GUN commander had just shown up. Shadow and Rouge usually received their missions from him personally.

"Shadow, Rouge. I've got a top priority mission for you two. Freedom HQ just called in saying that Dr. Eggman challenged them and you to fight his next robot in the Great Unknown."

Interested, Rouge took the report that had been handed to her by the commander.

"Satellite photos show that the robot is approximately five metres high and weighs about several tonnes."

Rouge pulled out a satellite photo and saw a huge grey bulky machine, it had spikes on the top of its head and shoulders, bulky arms and legs, and a single green eye in the middle of its bike helmet shaped head.

Shadow took a look at it. "This piece of junk is going take us down. Heh. I would have expected better from the grandson of my creator."

"This thing is tougher than it looks." Interrupted the commander. "The Freedom Fighters known as the Wolf Pack, tried to take it down, only to find that it was loaded to the brim with weapons."

"That's all." Shadow said.

"These weapons are powerful. We're talking missiles, machine guns, the whole nine yards. This thing has to be taken down."

Topaz took a look at the report. Not wanting to let her two closest friends take on such a big mission without her; she took a step up to the commander.

"Permission to go along as back-up, sir."

"You think you can handle this kind of situation, soldier?"

"Yes I do sir."

"Well, that isn't your decision to make. But you do have six successful missions under your belt. Four of them were to help take down the Eggman Empire. Very well, soldier. Permission granted."

"Yes sir. Thank you, sir."

"Now, you three are to head over to New Mobtropolis and meet up with the Freedom Fighters. Once there they'll fill you in on what you need to do. Move out."

They were taken to New Mobotropolis by one of GUN's fighter jets. There were only two seats, and Topaz was the only one that could fly it. So Shadow and Rouge had to squeeze in to the same cockpit together.

They were there in under twenty minutes. When they landed they were greeted by the Freedom Fighters.

"Hey there, Shad'." Said Sonic, his cheery welcome got him an angsty look from Shadow. "Nice to see you too."

Rouge went over to say hello to Knuckles. "Hey there, handsome. How's it going?"

Julie-Su was right next to him and had a very miffed look on her face. "Relax, I'm only teasing." Rouge said. "I've got my own boyfriend now."

They all went over to the Council of Acorn's meeting room. Once there they all sat.

Princess Sally was in the chair that her brother, Elias usually occupied, NICOLE in hand. "NICOLE got a message from Robotnik saying that he had a new robot that would defeat the Freedom Fighters and anyone that opposed him. He tested it out on the Wolf Pack and they barely survived the battle with that thing."

NICOLE displayed a video of the Wolf Pack fighting the robot.

The Wolf Pack were bravely defending there homeland against it with bombs but they never even scratched it. The robot took them down with a barrier shield that expanded at a high speed. Like someone getting blown off their feet near an explosion.

"In the message Eggman sent us he said the robot is called E-53. E-53 is equipped with missiles, machine guns, lasers, bazookas, you name it. It's an immensely powerful machine. The only way to defeat it is if we take Robotnik's challenge together and destroy the robot. My question now is: are you all in?"

Sonic instantly got to his feet. "You can count on me."

"Me too." Said Knuckles.

"You've got this fox at any rate." Said Tails.

Within a few moments everybody was standing up.

"Good." Said Sally. "Then we head to the Great Unknown first thing tomorrow."