White Acropolis base, night
"Transmission from HQ."
Shadow crouched half-hidden among the trees, watching the base and trying to ignore the freezing, bitter cold of the snowy landscape around him. A faint alarm was audible from where he stood, and he could see the slow brightening and dimming of a roving searchlight somewhere within the base's walls.
"Agent Shadow, respond."
He slid a finger beneath the cuff of his glove and pressed a button on his communicator, bringing his wrist to his mouth. "This is Agent Shadow."
"Would it kill you to answer the first time we call once in a while?"
"Just give me the report."
The voice on the other end of the line let out a frustrated sigh, and Shadow smirked quietly to himself. "We have some last minute information for you. About two hours ago, we received an SOS coming from the base, sent by standard equipment inside the base."
"It wasn't coming from her communicator?"
"All external signals to and from the base are being jammed. The last direct communication we had with our agent was twenty-six hours ago. That's why we sent you."
Shadow never took his eyes off the lights above the base's walls. "I know the doctor's engineering style. This isn't really his base, is it?"
"Just get her out of there." Shadow's mouth tightened, but he said nothing. "We expect an immediate rescue, Agent Shadow. If only so that you can keep insisting to the rest of us at HQ that she's just your colleague."
Shadow glared down at his communicator as it clicked, shutting off contact. He knew the other was just doing this to piss him off, petty revenge for the delayed answer, and it irritated him that it was working.
What a good chance to blow off some of that steam, then. He stepped forward into full moonlight and kicked forward, the jets on his shoes activating to let him skate forward smoothly over the snow. Just outside the main gate into the base, a full battalion of Eggman's robots awaited him, all turning and cocking the guns and cannons at the end of their arms at the sight of him.
Shadow slid back just as they fired, keeping his balance, ducking backwards under the wave of bullets and pulsing with energy. He left a wave of destruction in his wake as one by one, every mech in the company overloaded, many bursting into flames instantly. The one directly in front of the door Shadow used as a stepping stool, leaping onto its head and letting the superheated air from the jets of his shoes do the dirty work for him as he pushed off into the air, landing easily on the other side of the huge metal door. Behind him, he felt a wave of heat wash over him, providing temporary relief from the biting cold, as the company exploded all at once, leaving a smoking wreck behind.
Just in front of him he saw the exact sight he had been expecting - open outdoor spaces built among the rocky slopes, filled with more mechs and active searchlight columns. He smiled to himself as the first few robots took notice of his dramatic entrance, and readied himself.
It was time to cause one hell of a distraction.
Rouge hid in the dark shadow of a rocky outcropping halfway down the base, shivering from the cold. In her left hand, she gripped her prize tightly, and despite her predicament she couldn't help smiling down at it. A gleaming silver scepter about the length of her arm, wings framing a red jewel set at the top, its stem a strange, pulsing purple.
Not quite her usual type of gem, but she'd take it nonetheless.
Alarms had been blaring all across the complex ever since she'd sent out the SOS from the doctor's own private computer, and she'd been forced to hide from pursuers. She was no coward, but Rouge knew that there was no way she could take out an entire base full of reinforced robots and security measures on her own. She'd barely gotten in undetected as it was. Her specialty was charm and clean theft - not power fighting.
So there she sat, wrapping her wings around her for what little warmth they could provide her, and waited, holding her breath every time a sentry robot crossed nearby her, pouch of tiny bombs at the ready in case one of them spotted her.
Eggman had tried to take those from her too, but everyone always underestimated her skills in one way or another.
Rouge's ear twitched as a new sound reached her, one she could hardly have been happier to hear. The sound of explosions and crunching metal, further out toward the north edge of the base. Looked like someone at GUN had gotten her message after all. She got to her feet, still clutching the scepter, and then winced, her free hand going to her side. Her injury had gotten stiff in the cold - she needed some solid rest, and soon. But right now, it was time to make her final getaway.
There were several active searchlight towers between her and the commotion, and while mechs were likely already converging on this sector of the base, she'd rather not bring any more attention this way. So she stuck to the edges of the walls, timing runs from cover to cover between sweeps of the lights and staying out of the sightlines of patrolling guard mechs, slipping a little here and there on the icy rock underfoot.
Rouge could see a solid mechanical gate just ahead; the commotion was coming from just beyond. She paused, an ear quirking as she caught a series of very familiar grunts and yells, and grinned to herself. Of all the people GUN could've sent….
Well, she might as well work on opening this gate, make things a little easier on him. Rouge did a quick sweep over the area to locate the switch to unlock it, and found the controls half-hidden by the edge of the surrounding metal wall enclosing the area. She gripped the switch, nearly as tall as she was, and tugged - then winced as it made her side throb with heat. Grimacing, she stepped back and gave it a hard upward kick, sending the lever clicking upwards into the open position just as the entire gate illuminated with blinding light.
Rouge spun to see a spotlight shining directly on top of her - and beyond, all the guard robots in the area swiveled to face her.
Damn it.
A barrage of missiles and gunfire came her way, and she dodged - not to the side but up, taking to wing and already reaching into her bomb pouch. The first bomb she flung hit several of the aerial mechs dead on, taking them out in a shower of sparks and dismembered metal parts, but already, more were converging on the area - including several of the giants, miniguns at the ready.
Rouge landed back on the packed snow, backing toward the gate, which was still sliding open. She reached into her bag for another bomb, but before she could toss it, a black and red streak flashed by her, straight into the center of the pack. She shielded her eyes, figuring she knew exactly what was about to happen; sure enough, a second later a wave of heat hit her hard as the explosions began, far bigger than her little bombs could have done individually.
She got back to work, picking off the few stragglers at the edge of the group with a few well-placed kicks, and landed again just in time to watch as Shadow ploughed into the midsection of one of the giant mechs, sending pieces of it flying off in all directions as if it were made of no more than children's building blocks.
Rouge put one hand on her hip, the other still gripping her scepter, as Shadow landed down on one knee, his back to her. She sauntered up and resisted the urge to comment on his dramatic stance as he straightened and turned to face her, breathing heavily.
"Well, well, Shadow," she said, grinning. "What a coincidence, running into you here."
He nodded as if he hadn't just take out an entire pack of Eggman's robots nearly single-handedly. "Agent Rouge."
"Oh come on now, Shadow, there's no need to be so formal." She nudged him, and he seemed to relax a little. "Glad you came! I was beginning to think I'd be on my own from here on out."
He folded his arms and stared off back where he'd broken in from, and Rouge raised an eyebrow. "The president requested I be the one to rescue you from the base when we received the SOS," he said.
"And you had no hand in influencing his decision, I'm sure. Pure serendipity that he sent you."
Shadow glanced back at her, and she was pleased to see a ghost of a smile cross his face. "I may have mentioned my past experience with the doctor's handiwork within his earshot," he said. "But this isn't one of his ordinary bases, from what I can tell."
"Yep." Rouge pointed at the nearest searchlight, which seemed to have shattered in the chaos - it was old and the outside of the column was rusting over, but the faded stenciled letters on the outside were still visible. "This base used to belong to GUN, but from what I gather they all but abandoned it almost a decade ago. Just a few days ago we started getting reports of intruders in the base, and security footage told us it was our good friend the doctor."
Shadow folded his arms. "So they sent you to fight him off? You're not exactly heavy artillery."
Rouge huffed. "I wasn't supposed to take the base back, I was just supposed to do some recon, see what he was doing - and retrieve a little prize forgotten in the vaults beneath the base." She waved the scepter around a little. "Weren't you wondering what this is?"
"I was more interested in getting you out of here per my orders." He gestured back the way he'd come, his path littered with mech parts and scuffed-up snow, and Rouge couldn't help letting out a small breath of laughter. Not very subtle, is he? "We can talk once we're back at GUN Headquarters."
Rouge stepped forward and grabbed Shadow's wrist just as he started to walk away. He stopped and stared at her. "Wait, wait. Chaos Control?"
"Not without an emerald."
"Short-range teleportation?"
"Only works on myself."
"Then we go this way." She jerked a thumb the opposite way. "I've been in here for over twenty-four hours by now, I'm tired, and I'd rather not have to walk down an entire mountain to get out of here right now."
"That looks like further in, not out."
"It's the fastest way out, trust me."
Rouge began to walk, beckoning Shadow to follow, and he did, though somewhat reluctantly. "You're forgetting I was better prepared for this mission than you were," she said. "Sounds like they didn't even tell you it was one of our old bases. I got a good look at the schematics of this base before I came out here, and there's a handy little surprise further in."
Shadow picked up his pace, and Rouge realized that more guard mechs had arrived just up ahead, presumably to investigate why their friends had gone offline.
"You handle the navigation," he said, clenching his hands into fists as he walked toward the group. "Just let me handle the fighting."
"That's what I like to hear," she called after him, smirking to herself and holding her side, which had begin to ache again.
They made their way deeper into the base, Rouge leading, Shadow handling the bulk of the robots in their path. She would have preferred to sneak, but Shadow had never been particularly good at stealth - the torn-up battlefields of mech parts he left in their wake were clear proof of that. And given that he was fresh and ready for action in contrast to her exhaustion, she was content to let him do what he did best.
Rouge stopped as she encountered what looked like a small open-air garage set into the side of the mountain rock. Only two robots were inside, and she lobbed a bomb at them before Shadow could make it past her, watching with satisfaction as their joints ripped apart at the seams from the blast.
"Since when did you start using bombs?" Shadow said, stepping further into the garage from behind her.
"Since Omega convinced me that blowing things up is fun." She tossed a bomb up and caught it. "I had them specially made to help me combat Eggman's robots. Plus, they come in my color!"
She held it out to let Shadow see the small pink heart embossed on the bomb's surface. He only shook his head and hit the switch on the opposite wall, letting the door set into it slide into the ceiling and open the way forward.
"It's just up ahead," Rouge said as they stepped out to the edge of a huge, open circular space enclosed by high metal walls. Several high lights shone from atop the walls into the space, illuminating it brightly like a football stadium. She could see that the sky had grown slightly lighter as they'd ventured through the base, no longer black but a sort of thick, dark gray. "This place used to be the main aircraft landing zone for the base. We just need to get to the other side - there's a way out there."
Shadow folded his arms again. "I smell a trap."
"Oh, definitely." She nudged him with her hip, and he glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "And I'm counting on you to trip it and provide me with a little diversion while I sneak around the back and ready our escape route. Think you can do that for me, handsome?"
He closed his eyes and nodded, then strode forward into the light. Rouge smiled as she watched him go, ready to slip around to the other side once all eyes were on her friend.
Of all the people GUN could have sent, she was glad it was him.
Shadow stood alone in the exact center of the arena (he could only think of it as such) and waited for the trap to spring.
Something about this whole mission felt odd to him. The doctor had a penchant for personally contacting those who assaulted his bases, in the middle of said assault, yet he'd heard not a word out of any loudspeaker, seen not one floating monitor with the doctor's face on it coming his way. Perhaps Rouge would have an explanation once they'd escaped, but something felt wrong - there was more to this than perhaps even his well-informed partner knew. The doctor didn't just leave his bases unattended - and particularly not a stolen military base.
Shadow's eyes were drawn to movement as a cluster of mechs flitted in over the high surrounding walls, tiny mechanical wings on their backs providing them enough lift to fly over and land with thuds on the ground surrounding him. If this was the trap, it was a disappointing one. Shadow took care of them one by one, shredding their chassis with his spines, impaling them on Chaos spears, or simply kicking them into submission, drawing out the fight as long as he could until once again he stood amidst a pile of mech parts.
He could hear alarms wailing quite close by - the entire crew of the base must know they were here by now, and were converging on them for one last capture attempt. More robots entered the area, and Shadow disposed of them as well, more and more arriving as he fought until Shadow almost felt as if he were standing at the end of one of the doctor's robot assembly lines.
As he sent a spear lancing through the chest of another mech, a sudden, deafening mechanical roar made him spin. Gripping the top of the rock face that the garage they had emerged from was built into was a large, lanky figure - clearly modeled in a basic canine shape, but robotic, with a heavily armored plate covering its head and a strange red antenna poking out of its mechanical skull. It let out another buzzing screech and leapt from its perch to land at the edge of the arena on all fours, its eyes fixed on him.
Ah, the doctor's guard dog.
Shadow was just beginning to feel pleased that a real threat had decided to face him after all, when his wrist comm began to beep again. He glanced down at it and sighed. It seemed Rouge had finished whatever she'd been preparing on the other side of the landing area - it was time to leave, not fight.
He couldn't just cut and run without leaving the doctor one last mess to clean up, though.
So he bared his teeth at the dog and yelled, "Come on!" It snarled at him in turn and rushed him, and he turned and skated for the wall just fast enough to stay one step ahead of it. Its heavy footsteps thudded behind him, and after a few seconds he leaped up and flipped backwards, grabbing hold of the antenna on its head.
It skidded, then bucked, trying to throw him off, but the pressure of his grip on its antenna seemed to confuse it. Shadow regained his feet on its head, then yanked forward, and as he'd hoped, the dog charged once again - and just before it hit the wall he let go and pushed off backwards, generating enough opposite momentum to let him land safely as the dog crashed headlong into the wall, denting the armor on its head deeply and leaving it seemingly dazed.
Shadow stood and smirked back at it - then someone grabbed his wrist and yanked him back.
"This is no time to be playing with Eggman's pet, Shadow!" Rouge said, dragging him along behind her through a small doorway in the wall that he hadn't noticed before.
"I wasn't playing," he protested as they ran along a short hallway, but she paid him no mind, leading the way into a small room filled with blinking lights and a complicated-looking console against the opposite wall.
"Stand there," Rouge said, pointing him toward a large glowing circle on the floor. She tapped away at the console as Shadow did as he was told, still a little ruffled, then stepped onto the circle beside him a moment later.
Bright light began to arc from floor to ceiling, the outline of the circle they stood inside becoming a line of pure fire. Shadow closed his eyes, felt a strange sensation as though he were dissolving….
A moment later, he felt the ground underneath his feet again, felt that the air had become distinctly warmer - almost too warm, after the freezing cold of the mountain base. Shadow blinked his eyes open to see that he and Rouge seemed to have landed in a different, but similarly-designed, room. This one's console had a display above it, currently showing some kind of map.
"Ahh," Rouge said beside him, stretching. "I'd almost forgot what it felt like to be warm." She took a few steps forward and collapsed into a cushioned desk chair in front of the console, sinking into it and letting her eyes drift closed.
"A teleporter," Shadow muttered thoughtfully, taking a few aimless steps after her. "Where did it take us?"
"The only pre-loaded destination in its databanks," Rouge said, gesturing vaguely at the map on the screen with her eyes still shut. "This little lab in Soleanna's New City. Though why a GUN base's teleporter would lead to an independent lab in the middle of Soleanna is beyond me." She yawned. "Wish I hadn't gotten held up in that damn base. The parade was tonight, I was hoping to see it…."
"Wanted to take advantage of the distraction to pick up a few new treasures, more like."
She peeped an eye open at him. "You know me too well, handsome."
"I know you well enough to know that you're usually not the type to need a rescue. What exactly happened in there?"
Rouge sighed and sat up. "Eggman was ready for me, that's what. I've never seen him better prepared for intruders into one of his bases."
Shadow's brow furrowed. So he'd been right - there was more going on here than they knew.
"His robot's caught me when a searchlight passed over me. One of them gave me a nasty bruise too." She winced slightly, a hand going to her side, and Shadow frowned as she continued to speak. "They tossed me into one of the prison cells they've got deep in these GUN bases and just left me there. I was expecting a personal audience with Eggman, but apparently he's got better things to do than talk to beautiful women trying to rob him blind."
Shadow snorted.
"Those robots of his don't do a very good job checking for personal items, though." She winked at him. "I left a little surprise in there for him when I broke out. Next time he engages one of those electronic locks on the cell doors, it won't function properly. Give his next victim a better chance than they'd have otherwise."
Rouge leaned back in her seat again. "Then I just retrieved this beauty here -" she waggled her scepter at him - "and sent the SOS so I could get out in one piece."
"How badly were you injured?"
"It's just a bruise, Shadow."
"You weren't fighting at peak efficiency back there. Don't think I didn't notice."
"I was tired!"
"Let me see."
She glared at him, and he glared back, resolute, until she sighed in resignation and set the scepter down in her lap, reaching for the zipper at the side of her outfit. She peeled the fabric back just enough for him to see the large purple splotch on her side, and he studied it carefully.
"You're no doctor yourself, you know," she grumbled at him.
"Maybe not, but I did grow up in a science lab." He straightened back up and fished around in the small pack he'd brought with him, bringing out a medicinal bandage. "It doesn't look too bad. GUN thought you might be injured, so they gave me a few basic medical supplies to take with me."
"Huh. Handy." She took the bandage and began to peel back the wrapper. "And stop worrying, I should be back to normal after a rest."
Shadow's attention drifted away as Rouge stuck the bandage on her bruise, and his gaze landed on the map again. It showed what mostly looked like coastline, with a few inland settlements marked, but the biggest two were located right along the coast.
Rouge zipped her outfit back up and noticed him studying the map. "Soleanna's quite a nice little country," she said. "People call Castle Town the 'City of Water,' because of all the canals running through it. It's more of a landmark than New City, their one big metropolis. Primary industries are tourism and crafting precision machinery."
Shadow glanced to his left, noticing something he hadn't seen before - a framed portrait of a human girl in her teens, with a pale complexion and auburn hair. Her mouth was smiling, but her eyes were not.
"They have a constitutional monarchy, and…." Rouge followed his gaze. "And their current sovereign is Princess Elise III. That's her. Pretty young for a human ruler, too. Normally they don't like to let 'em start until they're at least eighteen, but she's a year younger.'
"Hmm."
"Anyway, Shadow," Rouge said, drawing his attention back to her. "If you don't mind, I really need a few hours of rest, but after that I have a little favor to ask of you. I could use an escort to the GUN rendezvous point where I'm supposed to drop this beauty off." She ran a finger along the jeweled scepter in her lap.
"What is it, exactly?"
"I know I led you on back in the base, but the truth is, I have no idea. I just know it's apparently the one thing of value GUN left behind when they abandoned that base, and they didn't want it falling into the hands of an evil genius like Eggman." The purple glow along the handle reflected into her sea-green eyes. "Sure is pretty, though…."
Shadow couldn't agree, though he said nothing. Something about the object made his spines tingle with uneasiness.
"So where's the rendezvous point?"
Rouge pointed to another spot on the map, what looked like a castle a few miles away from the Castle Town marker. "It's in the ancient castle of Soleanna, in what they call Kingdom Valley. Normally only members of the royal family are allowed access, but for some reason the government has agreed to give GU limited access for this exchange only."
Shadow frowned. "That's definitely more than a pretty jewel, then."
"Oh, certainly. Maybe we'll find out more once we get there." Rouge slouched back into her seat. "But first, I'm sleeping. I haven't had any in over a day. GUN's waited twenty-seven hours for me, they can wait a few more."
Shadow gave a small huff of laughter. "You rest. I'll send my report that we got out safely."
He needed far less sleep than the average Mobian, and he'd rested up before he'd been called out to Soleanna, so Shadow merely settled down into another nearby spinning chair and began typing up his report. All the while, he couldn't help his eyes flicking back to the scepter every now and then.
There were a lot of unanswered questions here, and he was determined to get them answered.