A/N Ok so long story short I didn't want to write and lots of work, lots of other stuff to do. So that's my explanation on why this took so damn long.

It's been awhile and I had to actually re-read a few chapters to remember a few things. But I got my bearings again.

Also I read a review awhile back from Archaon. You had a problem with Sonic being kinda a jerk. I'm sorry I meant make him subtly not want to Tails to leave because he could see where the fox was going. That he was drifting away. I realize I didn't convey that properly and will hopefully try to fix that somehow. So sorry for making Sonic a jerk I didn't mean it.

About a week since the quad of Mobians joined forces things were getting easier. The hardest transitions were learning how to live together and follow Tails' rules. It was also hard, but not easily apparent, that Shadow was having a hard time working for someone else.

The ebony hedgehog had been running a town for nearly two years and now he was suddenly second fiddle to angry fox that was younger than him. It hadn't happened often but he questioned the little foxes decisions sometimes. Like how he wasn't allowed to go out as much as he wanted. Silver was annoying him in these closed corridors. He liked the kid and, even if he didn't realize it, had a fatherly-like relationship with him.

Silver didn't have a hard time adjusting; because of his mimicking behavior to follow Shadow and listen to him he would do whatever the dark hedgehog said. He may have had problems with some of the foxes rules but he still told Silver to obey. In general the new arrivals followed the rules well and integrated with mostly no incident.

Like Fiona had said she left for awhile to check on her network. It wasn't refined but it worked well so far. She didn't learn much but got some general information on patrols and some rumors. Nothing truly worth going after.

When she returned she was a little surprised. Her patrol info was apparently different than Tails. He seemed happy to have an update on the information.

The fox also opened up a few rooms for then realizing he was being a little hard on rules. Among all these new rooms was a testing room for the various weapons he made. Shadow liked it since he was able to check his skills with weapons.

Silver had near no experience with such things and his telekinesis was a far more powerful tool. So besides some basics rules and techniques from Shadow he decided to not use his own powers.

The dark hedgehog still had someone to compete with in skill. Like Shadow had mentioned Fiona was quite skilled with her hand guns. They were near equal. He found it refreshing to be able to blow off some steam, and bullets.

Tails also gave them access to other equipment to some equipment. Nothing to extensive but it gave them some more pockets, holsters and light apparel.

Despite how simple they seemed knee pads and elbow pads were hard to come by, and make shift ones were uncomfortable, but Tails had them. He also had proper holsters for weapons instead of tattered, put together crap that Fiona had. The strap actually got tight and were very form fitting allowing them all free movement.

Mostly it was for equipment they'd use including communicators, gadgets, and tools. Not to mention their more specific stuff. Fiona and her two pistols and a pocket to hold specially made EMP grenades. She was still surprised Tails offered her even that much.

Shadow added to his equipment grabbing a small shotgun that would hang off his lower back that he could slide out from the side. What nobody knew was he had a pocket for some pain meds. Only mum knew this, she saw the discomfort and subtle pain he'd been feeling from his leg and nearly two years of fighting on it and knew it hurt. So behind Tails' back she offered something to help him.

Lastly was Silver he didn't carry much besides the stuff that everyone else had except some snacks. Mostly sugary snacks. The little fox didn't like it because they were in limited supply but as Silver had explained, extensive use of his powers got tiring and the snacks helped.

They also got light armor, nothing to protect from bullets since Tails was short on supplies to offer anything that heavy duty but more physical damage would be mitigated. Like falls or melee attacks.

Silver was sitting around fiddling with some rocks he got from outside, using his powers to assemble them in different ways or generally making them fly through the air to amuse himself.

Unfortunatly in his state he'd semi zoned out and as Tails passed by a rock nearly hit him in the face "Hey watch out pot head!"

"Huh? Oh sorry" he gasped making all the rocks land on the table nearby.

"Could have knocked me unconscious!" the fox continued still angry. "I said I was sorry ok?"

The fox rolled his eyes at him and walked away mumbling something about how living alone was so much nicer.

Silver just sighed throwing his face in his palms then slowly wiped down his face taking some sand from his eyes.

"God I'm so bored, what are we even waiting for?"

"An opportunity, just like back at our old place" Shadow said, he'd bee quietly sitting on the couch napping, Tails yelling woke him up.

"Ya but we had more people to speak, jobs, and things to do" the white hedgehog whined.

Shadow rolled his eyes and wanted to eventually teach Silver how to pre occupy himself with his mind alone. He was able to do it sometimes but not consistently, usually when he was so focused on something his mind drifted, not when he felt bored.

While they argued Tails went to Mums control room and asked "So any news today?"

"Actually you may find this interesting. I detected a single contact near edges of our territory. Shortly after it disappeared multiple contacts followed, the formation was typical of Eggbots, they were moving faster than a normal patrol"

The fox's ear flicked and asked further "How long ago?"

"The group was last detected only half an hour ago, the first contact had a ten minute head start"

Tails had a feeling someone was in trouble and quickly brought up the readings on his screen to inspect for himself and hummed in thought. After a few moments he got up and went back to the two bickering hedgehogs "Get up, saw something on the sensors, someone being followed by eggbots"

"FINALLY!" Silver yelled running past the fox lightly pushing him to get his equipment. Tails almost went to smack him but sighed and told Shadow he'd meet them at the elevator"

Fiona was informed being forced from her peaceful sleep and grumbled something about having a nice dream for once.

With them all suited up Tails waited tapping his foot impatiently in his personal armor. He almost chastised them for being so slow but decided against it and went up the elevator with Shadow.

Silver and Fiona quickly followed and the four headed out to intercept signals. Since Fiona was the slowest of the four and couldn't fly Silver lifted her with his powers. Tails suggested fanning out a bit incase the contacts changed direction. Shadow slid off along the ash covered ground kicking up dust and ash going in his own direction.

Tails flew off in another while Fiona and Silver continued on in their original direction. Tails predicted that if the speed hadn't changed Shadow would get relatively where they were first in a minute or two. Silver and Fiona second since Silver could fly faster than Tails.

Very soon Shadow stopped as he found some foot prints, all eggbots. Reaching into his left pocket he had a small communicator Tails made "I found footprints, still heading East, still can't see anything"

Tails ' voice came back "Follow them, if you see them, figure out and details we may need to know, wait to engage unless something drastic happens. Like if they found the other contact and they mean it harm, or if they see you"

"Sure" the dark hedgehog replied and continued following at a slower pace.

Another few minutes passed with Silver and Fiona catching up.

"Seen anything?" the female asked the older male.

"Not much, tracks are getting fresher"

"Means we'll be ale to smash some bots soon" his eagerness very obvious.

"If they have this other contact and are infact chasing it then we can't just smash. They could kill them"

"Oh... right" Silver scratched his head feeling dumb.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that" his mentor mumbled.

"Hey look" Fiona pointed ahead. There was a dust cloud building up ahead "That can't be natural"

The trio all agreed on that and ran to see what it was.

Tails was still getting there, only a minute or two away now so Fiona called him "Hey Tails, there's a dust cloud ahead, we're gonna check it out?"

"I see it too, be there soon"

After climbing a small hill the trio looked over the small lip and into a crater like formation in the ground. Inside were a couple eggbots. About eight in total. One was destroyed and another barely functioning, the others were shooting which was kicking up dust causing the cloud.

Because of the cloud it was hard to see. But something else was in the cloud besides the eggbots. They guessed it must have been the other signal.

"We can use the cloud to our advantage" Shadow commented ready to slide into the crater and join.

Fiona nodded getting to her feet and said "Time for some practice" right as she did a cry came from the cloud and the shooting stopped, time clearly of the essence now.

The fox and older hedgehog slid down the hill joining the fray while Silver quickly followed suit.

Almost instantly the eggbots noticed them and opened fire. The reaction time was too fast, they must have had upgrades.

Most took priority of Shadow and Silver for whatever reason with only two taking aim at Fiona.

Shadow quickly dove to the side but instead of shooting the bots held until he came out of the dive. They seemingly predicted his movements but didn't expect him to fire his jet shoes to travel further. If he hadn't he'd have been shot to a bloody pulp.

The extra action confused the bots apparently, seemingly losing him all together like they fully expected to kill him right then and there. The momentary stop in all action gave Shadow enough time to close distance and homing attacked the three threatening him.

At the same time Silver simply raised a psi barrier blocking all the bullets that went towards him. Once again the bots looked confused or couldn't understand what was happening as they expended their entire clips into the barrier. It made Silver laugh who simply pushed the barrier and the bullets stuck in it back at them destroying them in one massive attack.

Fiona drew her two pistols, it once again confused them, like they didn't expect her to draw a weapon. She, using her impressive aim, shot at the joint between their head and chest plate where a special component was and instantly shut them down.

The surprisingly easy battle was only noticed by Shadow, Fiona and Tails who showed up as they began and decided to watch thinking it'd be simple. The models were just simple eggbots, something they'd all fought before many times with ease. He noticed how awkward they acted and analyzed for anything that might indicate why.

His helmet brought up a few options, the first being dust damaged their systems, he disregarded that, the cloud had only been up for a minute. Defective units was next and he dropped that since Eggman kept all units in prime condition. The third and final option suggested that the bots ere programmed for a specific target, it was the only option that made sense. Considering they were confused by simple actions.

Following up on that his helmet analyzed connections to how they reacted. They predicted Shadows quick response and where he'd go but didn't predict his rocket skates. They prioritized Silver and Shadow or Fiona. They clearly didn't understand Silver was using his powers to block their weapons and they were confused why Fiona had weapons.

Narrowing options again he came to a single conclusion, the target was also a male hedgehog, unarmed and had similar speed and agility to Shadow. Only a few people like him.

His hopes got up at memories of his old friend, but how. Shadows story said he was killed, maybe Eggman kept him alive to gloat and he escaped.

Despite how they last met Tails felt good thinking it might be Sonic. He slid down the hill as the dust cloud finally started to disperse. The person in question appearing on the far side lying down in the ash, hurt.

Worrying for the person Silver was first to approach getting a clear view before everyone else "Hey it's a mobian, a hedgehog"

The other three approached Tails silently hoping for a miracle, if anyone could help it would be Sonic.

He was last to get close enough to see clearly but heard Fionas voice growl "You son of a bitch!"

An I'm sorry this took so long, I hate to make excuses and I'm sure you hate hearing them so, I'm just gonna be honest. Writers block, and more fun stuff around right now. Sorry to anyone.

Anyway who is the mystery person? And why is Fiona pissed. I think I gave enough clues to make it possible to predict. Hope you guys like and are ok with the shortish chapter, but I really wanted this out before I suddenly lost it again. I forgot how much simply listening to must while I type helps me focus, make it hard to listen to tv or something which distracts me.

Anyway thanks for reading.

Live long and prosper

Admiralkirk