Welcome. Before we begin, there are a few things I must get out of the way. Firstly, all the Mobians are called 'anthropomorphs' only by the humans. Otherwise, they are known as Mobians. Secondly, the disclaimer:

I DO NOT OWN SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, NOR ANY OF THE OTHER CHARACTERS SEGA OWNS. I ONLY OWN THE CHARACTERS I OWN.

(THIS DOES NOT MEAN THERE WILL BE ANNOYING OCS OR MARY SUES WHO WILL GET IN YOUR FACE. I DO NOT HAVE ANY CHARACTERS THAT ARE HEDGEHOGS MADE IN AN UNDERWATER VOLCANO LAB IN SPACE, NOR ANY PINK CHARACTERS NAMED 'SAKURA'. NOBODY IN THIS STORY IS BASED ON ME.)

Thank you. Now, on with the story!

The Book Of The Third Eye

Rouge: Part I

Rouge was not exactly pleased with her current situation. The short message she had received from her friend Shadow left a very odd taste in her mouth, to say the least. It wasn't the length that bothered her, (knowing Shadow, the occasional string of three sentences was an actual speech), nor was it the hedgehog's stern way of getting the message across. It also wasn't the fact that she had only gotten back from a spy mission an hour before, after having made perfectly clear that she wanted at least twenty-four before GUN even attempted to send her on another one. Hell, it wasn't even being interrupted during a rather flirtatious argument with Knuckles that set her off. However, even knowing Shadow as well as Rouge did, there was still something quite suspicious about being asked to meet at night, behind a building, as far away from the GUN headquarters as possible.

Dammit, Shadow, the bat thought as she walked through the strangely empty streets of Station Square, knowing that she would enjoy the night air if she were actually to be in the air, couldn't you have at least let me fly? And what's wrong with letting a person know why they're being dragged out in the middle of the night? If this thing was as urgent as you said, couldn't you have just come over to the club? I had better get something good for this.

She wasn't really surprised at any of her partner's behavior, (mostly because you come to expect the unexpected when you go on missions with Shadow), just mildly annoyed and insanely curious, a feeling Rouge did not relish. There had always been a little information hungry monster in the back of her mind that gnawed obnoxiously whenever she was out of the know. The beast wasn't nearly as ravenous as Amy's, but still irritated the hell out of anybody unfortunate enough to withhold information from her.

Rouge approached the building her friend had told her to meet him behind; it was some old brick building with the remnants of a sign, but not enough to read. She walked around to one side of the building, but was rewarded with only locked fence. The jewel thief knew that she could easily pick the lock, or go around the other side, (But where's the fun in that? She thought with a smirk), but didn't have the patience for either and simply spread her bat wings and flew over…landing about a foot in front of a certain black and red hedgehog.

Shadow simply crossed his arms and gave a light glare. "You had to fly at least once didn't you?"

Rouge walked past him and examined the back lot she found herself in. Garbage. Broken streetlamp. Ultimate Lifeform. Yep, I'm in the right place. She really doubted whether Shadow wanted an answer to that question, but she answered it anyway, along with one of her own.

"Of course. Now," she turned to face Shadow, ice blue meeting ruby red, "what kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into this time, hon?" The hedgehog took a few steps closer and uncrossed his arms. "Where you draw your conclusions from is a mystery to me," he stated, keeping a stone expression, scowl a seemingly permanent fixture, "but all I really need is your help, surprisingly enough." Rouge had to stifle a chuckle at this, and struck Shadow an accusatory stare. "So," she said, using a tone of voice used only by therapists and disc jockeys for radio stations that play only classical music, "you haven't gotten yourself in any trouble, and you just called me out in the middle of the night so I could help, right? With what," her voice returned to normal with this line, "your shoes run out of gas?"

"I assure you, this matter is definitely not one to take lightly." The Ultimate Lifeform strode over to behind one of the trash bins, obviously ignoring her jab. Rouge followed, knowing that she was most likely expected to do so, smirking as she rounded the dumpster, giving a small gasp at what she saw.

"Shadow, is that…?"

"Yes, Rouge. It's the Commander."

"But…why…?"

"I don't have time to explain."

"Is he…dead?"

"No, just heavily sedated."

Rouge very much wished she had dropped her communicator in hydrochloric acid this morning. "Where I draw my conclusions is a mystery to you?" Her voice rose ever so slightly. "I'd say they're pretty spot on!" Shadow looked completely unfazed. "You asked me what I had gotten myself into. I can assure you that this is not my fault." The jewel thief could almost hear the Ultimate Lifeform's mental tacking of the word 'mostly' to the end of that sentence.

"Then can you please explain why the Commander of the GUN headquarters, both mine and your superior, is drugged behind the dumpster of an abandoned building with you conveniently standing over him?" It was this moment when she noticed the black hedgehog's lack of gloves, leaving only his inhibitor rings on bare wrists. Rouge found this very odd, considering the fact that she had never seen them off. It somehow made him look…powerless. They really have nothing to do with his use of Chaos energy; the bracelet things are there for that. I mean the gloves don't really do any thing except…What? Why am I focused on Shadow's hands? There is a really serious issue here, Rouge. Chaos, I blame lack of sleep. "And where are your gloves?"

"Oh, those," Shadow said, eyeing his bare hands, "I gave those to that blue hedgehog, after he…" The bat gave him a look that said 'Really… tell me more. I'd love to tell embarrassing stories about it…' "Er, uh, I mean, the Commander, yeah, like I said. It's complicated." Hmmmm… I don't think I've ever seen Shadow trip over his words like that… and right after mentioning Sonic, too…

Rouge normally would have pointed out the Ultimate Lifeform's stumbling, but decided that the issue with the GUN Commander was much more pressing, especially after seeing a little leg twitch from under the blue suit pants of the man behind the dumpster. "So, what do you want me to do, hon?" Shadow seemed relieved at Rouge not saying anything about his slip-up, and crossed his arms. "While my reasons for wishing you to do this might seem very confusing, I have no time to explain." He reached into his head quills and pulled out a small object. "I need you to steal something; something in the GUN headquarters. After stealing it, you will put this in its place."

Shadow handed Rouge the object, and she examined it with interest. It was no bigger than her thumb, and seemed to be made of a smooth, shiny, metal. She looked up from it with a questioning glance at her partner before noticing a small green button. Well, how often does something dangerous have anything other than a red button? Her odd logic pushed her to press it, and as soon as she did, a blue light popped out, seeming to scan the nearby dumpster. The light soon dissipated, and Rouge now appeared to be holding an exact replica of the dumpster in one gloved hand. Shadow smirked as she pushed the button again, terminating the hologram and leaving only the device once more.

"How did you get this?" Rouge questioned as she once again closely examined the device. I wonder if I can find a way to keep this… The ebony hedgehog shrugged. "Courtesy of Tails." I'm surprised at my non-surprisedness… "So," her partner continued, "are you in, or are you out?"

Rouge was at a loss. It was true that she would always help Shadow if ever he needed something from her, but to steal something from GUN… let's just say that they were the last people she wanted to be on the bad side of. Not to mention the temper the Commander's gonna have when he wakes up. However, there was always a certain…animosity when it came to the Rouge and the Commander, the thief never quite knowing whether to be intimidated, impressed, or just downright irritated. I think the irritation happens most, she thought, still debating whether to help, but is it enough for insubordination? Yeah, I think so. Not to mention, I haven't gotten to steal anything in weeks.

Shadow was still rather expectant of an answer, and seemed to get a certain dark twinkle in his eye, (just a twinkle, mind you. It's not like his whole face lit up. That might be the end of the world, Rouge thought, suppressing a chuckle), at the bat's response. "What do I get to steal?"

Tails: Part 1

Miles "Tails" Prower had most definitely lost track of time, something that would not be surprising to anybody who knew him. He had been spending increasing amounts of time in his workshop since GUN had begun taking notice of his work. The fox didn't mind the extra hours in the workshop, but actually enjoyed them. Using GUN's increasing amounts of requests, (Requests is putting it lightly, Tails thought, make that demands.), as an excuse to improve his already substantial mechanical prowess. I might even invent something I didn't even mean to one of these days. Kinda like that stealth bot that makes for a useful paperweight. Tails chuckled to himself as he attached a pair of wires, his namesake twin tails twitching behind him.

The latest request from GUN had been rather ridiculous, in Tails' opinion. The Commander had contacted him a few days ago blustering about a lack of capable soldiers, yelling something or other about "damn softies" and "peace mongering". Tails really hadn't paid much attention to the first part, mostly because it had been largely incomprehensible. The only part of the transmission the Commander had successfully gotten across was that he wanted holographic soldiers made. "Not robots," he had said, face beet red from his passionate speech, "those have already been proven too easy to defeat!"

So far, it had been three days, with no success yet in creating a holographic supersoldier. In fact, Tails' first test had resulted with a hologram you could stick your arm right through. Not to mention the fact that it looked like a large mass of purple jelly. It was at this point that the fox decided he needed to have a human model programmed into the device, his second test resulting in an unmoving hologram of a semi-intimidating average army grunt that you could still walk right through. It then occurred to him then that ten to fifteen "people" in the same room looking exactly the same would be disconcerting to say the least. Maybe I'll just put a scanner… that way, it can look like anybody you want…

And this was what Tails' was working on when he was interrupted by the hero of Mobius. "Hey little bro!" Sonic greeted as he appeared behind the fox seemingly out of nowhere. Tails did not turn around immediately, and he could almost feel Sonic's disappointment at not startling him. "Hey, Sonic. You should know that you've done that enough times now for me to be immune to it." Tails heard the blue hedgehog sigh as he leaned up against something, probably his plane, the Tornado.

The fox turned around, holding a small device with wires still protruding and a small red button on the side. He had hoped to test the scanner on Sonic, but he seemed to know exactly what was going to happen and put his gloved hands out in front of him in a sort of 'stop right there until you tell me what that thing is' gesture. "Hey, no way Tails. You are not testing that thing out on me." Tails stopped and crossed his arms, tapping his foot similarly to a certain cobalt hero. "Come on, Sonic. It's completely harmless. I promise." Sonic put up a show of being mildly afraid, but had a joking tone to his voice as he spoke. "Then why is the button red? What kind of harmless device has a red button?"

Tails wouldn't have admitted it to Sonic, but he had a good point. Also, I guess once it's finished it won't really be harmless… Wow. It only just occurred to me that I'm creating a deadly weapon… The last thing I want to do in life is be a cause of death. Maybe I could attempt to convince the Commander to let him just make it a portable hologram generator. It would still be very useful. Then, almost subconsciously: Mental note: repaint the button.

The fox knew he probably wouldn't get Sonic to willingly cooperate, (and had to admit that it probably was safer to not try it on a living thing), so he just motioned for the hedgehog to get out of the way, pointing the device at the Tornado. Sonic moved in less than a second, and Tails pressed the button.

A blue light shot out and scanned the plane, and the image began to flicker around the device. The fox felt a gloved hand on his shoulder from behind. "Congratulations, Tails. It's a model plane." Tails swept his other hand through the small replica of the plane, slightly distorting the image. "If you don't mind me asking," the cocky voice behind him said," what exactly was that supposed to do?" Tails thought of responding with either 'use your imagination' or the more blunt 'what do you think it was supposed to do', but instead opted for the more serious choice of, "It was supposed to create a life-size, moving, solid replica, and obviously the checklist is still empty."

Sonic shrugged as Tails returned to his workbench. Maybe I should magnify the output from the power source. I should probably insulate the coils, too. Prolonged use could overheat the… "Actually, little buddy," Sonic began, interrupting Tails' train of thought, "I came here because I kinda need your help with something." Sonic? Needing help? This is rare. Tails gave him a look that said 'go on'. "Amy's in jail. I need to break her out."