This is part 2 and/or 3 in the huge monolith of literary masochism I call "Sonic Forces: At Full Force" which attempts to rewrite the entirety of Sonic Forces in a way that feels satisfying and complete compared to the Forces we got.
Where as "Creating a Phantom" attempted to rewrite Infinite's character arc and backstory in regards to how he became the Infinite we know him as, this fanfic follows up with Shadow and rewrites both Episode Shadow and the comic Looming Shadow. If you haven't read "Creating a Phantom" I suggest doing that now and then coming back to this fanfic.
While working on this fanfic saga and my thesis on Sonic Forces in terms of story I had to figure out a timeline for all of the stories (the comics, Forces itself, and Episode Shadow) and it seems like Looming Shadow and Episode Shadow are happening at the same time. I'd ask why in the world we couldn't just get all of Looming Shadow in game form but that's another argument for another day. The first solution to fix the story would be to simply combine them and expand upon them in either comic or game form. Another discrepancy is that Episode Shadow/Looming Shadow have to take place 1 month prior to Sonic's defeat AT MOST – so why is the first level Park Avenue in a state of chaos? Eggman hadn't taken over the world yet! The timing is also way off. There could've been so much more game play to Episode Shadow is they had stuck closer to the Looming Shadow comic.
Needless to say Episode Shadow drives me nuts in terms of story...
So I hope you enjoy me gutting it and rewriting it as I present:
Sonic Forces: At Full Force Part 3:
Episode Shadow: Looming Shadow
At her computer set up with multiple monitors strung together with headset on her head and a water cooler directly to her right, Rouge listened in for information sent over the radio to her by GUN while looking over multiple live feeds from GUN drones that were surveying the desert base Eggman's army was gathered in front of.
It was a base that – according to the Intelligence Division – had been left abandoned for months and had no real strategic value. It was no more than a replica pyramid taking up space in a dry, vapid desert and even though it was indeed an Eggman base, everything had been shut down and non-operational for months. She was told that agents were sent to investigate the base and the agents hadn't even been able to get the power up and running and trying to get any information off of the computers using SATA to USB adapters yielded no valuable information. No evil schemes, no schematics for new robots, no blueprints for the base – NOTHING.
Of course they took the opportunity to destroy a few of Eggman's things while no one was home which would surely have set the doctor back (an order from a chain of command Rouge had no part of). However it appeared Eggman had set up shop in that base again, a large army of robots being spotted traveling to the facility from an unknown location.
Over the past few months several teams of GUN agents had been sent to various Eggman bases only to find nothing there, the power not working in any base and finding no robots, no traps. Every agent reported that everything was fine and if they were given the order to destroy the place anyway, they did as they were told before packing up and going home.
The Mystic Jungle base also yielded no suspicious activity. Several teams of GUN agents were sent to the known Eggman base in that location and came back reporting no suspicious activity – the base already disheveled and in ruins due to rough weather conditions that buried most of the facility in mud which made it useless to Eggman anyway. Trekking through the filthy and mold-ridden facility to destroy the technology would be a waste of time for the agents on the ground so they were ordered to go home.
No Eggman activity for several months and now a desert base that a team had destroyed becoming fully operational again out of the blew. Rouge sighed, refilling a glass of water at the water cooler and rapidly typing out commands and information on her keyboard. After the agent hung up she called Shadow.
"Shadow, we've got a report from the Intelligence Division. They've located a base of operations that seems to be totally outside the chain of command for Eggman's army. There's a large-scale troop presence – suspiciously large for a place with no strategic value."
"And there's been no activity in any base for the past few months..." said Shadow. "I can't imagine the Doctor would do something like that without a reason but no other teams have reported any activity from Eggman or any of his other bases."
Rouge nodded, holding her headset to her ear and taking a sip from her glass of water. "No kidding. All this time without any activity whatsoever and then a large army in the desert? Definitely suspicious."
Shadow smirked. "This isn't going to be any ordinary recon mission."
"Omega's already been sent ahead of you, so link up with him on-site and make sure he doesn't cause too much trouble, okay~?"
"I'm more than enough on my own. I'll handle things my way."
Rouge giggled. "Omega said the exact same thing. You two really are peas in a pod." she felt Shadow rolls his eyes at such a comment. "Where are you now?"
"I'm on my way." Shadow skated through a town he didn't know the name of. A town clean, pristine and lined with townhouses and parks. No doubt him rushing through the streets – trying not to go too fast as to cause collateral damage – was getting the attention of the townspeople, all stopping in their places to watch him for the few seconds he was there before going back to their mundane activities.
"E-123 Omega here. Extermination proceeding without incident. No problem to report."
"Extermination?! This is supposed to be a recon mission! You can't go making a big scene!" Rouge scolded Omega over the radio though her scolding was ineffective.
Shadow sighed, swerving through traffic before jumping off of a large hill onto a sky bridge that connected two buildings across parallel streets together. "You should've known better than to send Omega on a job like this."
"Omega, Shadow will join you shortly. Remember, your job is to infiltrate the facility and see what Eggman and his army are up to."
"I am more than sufficient on my own. Eggman's forces outside of the base have already been annihilated. Infiltrating base now..."
Rouge sighed, hands on her head and elbows touching the keyboard on her desk. "You're hopeless..."
Shadow had to enjoy the rapport Team Dark had with one another as he hopped across rooftops and sky bridges to get to the coordinates Rouge had sent to him.
…
Omega shot down the doors of the base lining the walls with a barrage of bullets as he walked. Every turret, every trap door or wall, every other robot in loyal service to Eggman shot down with no mercy. He furiously stomped down several corridors to locate Eggman and shooting everything in sight only to find that he wasn't there... It angered the murderous machine, risking his circuits going up in smoke.
He took a short break to reload and report to Rouge once again
"E-123 Omega here. Extermination proceeding without incident. No problems to report. Currently looking for Eggman. Will eliminate him on sight."
"Omega, I know you have beef with the good Doctor but you can't just KILL him!" Rouge pleaded. "Whether you like it or not you have to keep him alive. Won't seeing him rot in a jail cell be more satisfying than straight-up MURDER?!"
"Negative. Eggman must be eliminated. Eggman WILL be eliminated." he cocked his arms back, guns reloaded and ready to blaze through the facility once again.
Shadow popped in. "And people call ME edgy..."
"Shadow?! Where are you right now?" Rouge asked, desperately hoping he was close by so he could talk some sense into the machine without mortality that was E-123 Omega. "I need you to make sure he doesn't commit some awful war crime on my watch..."
"New enemy type detected. Combat ID unknown. Mission: defeat Eggman. All other obstacles will be eliminated."
"Wait, what? What are you talking about Omega-?!" a loud static caused Rouge to keel over and scream in pain as her ears couldn't handle the awful sound – something too high pitched yet too low pitched that were moving in such a rhythm enough to make her rip off her headset (though that didn't help, she could still hear the sound due to her sensitive hearing).
"Rouge? ROUGE?! Rouge, come in! Are you alright?!" Shadow shouted over his communicator, being the only normal sound Rouge could hear and tolerate.
"I'm... I'm not alright..."
"What was that static?"
"I... I don't know but-." Rouge tried to hold back the urge to vomit, forcing water down, wiping her mouth before putting the headset back on once the noise was gone. "Omega? Are you there?"
"Position coordinates lost! Current location unknown!" his voice turned to a normal robotic static that her ears could tolerate.
"Omega?! What's going on?! Respond!" Omega's signal disappeared completely, his side of the call was disconnected and no matter how much she forced him back in, no sound could be heard – a sign that his communicators were damaged beyond repair. "I've lost Omega's signal..."
Shadow looked down at the graveyard of mechanical monstrosities that surrounded the pyramid base. "I'll head to his last known coordinates now." Shadow smirked. "Are you sure you'll be okay, Rouge?"
Still trying to fight the nausea that her anxiety brought back at full force she grumbled. "I'll manage. Just find Omega and provide support."
"Take care of yourself." Shadow hung up, wanting to give Rouge a break and some time for herself, sprinting to the doors of the facility at the speed of sound – blowing away the robot wreckage into oblivion. "So much for a recon mission."
Chapter End