Disclaimer: I don't claim ownership of Shadow the Hedgehog or Amy Rose (not that'd I want to…)
Inescapable Past
Part XI
For the headquarters of an organization as powerful and influential as GUN, its Metropolis City compound was a surprisingly modest affair. Built within the same walls that Robotnik's citadel had once occupied, the compound was little more than a networks of hangars and barracks, all built around a solitary, concrete skyscraper, which housed the organization's offices. In contrast with the previous tenant, there wasn't a GUN logo in sight, but for the flag flying atop the skyscraper, overlooking the rooftop helipad. At present, a detachment of troopers was assembled at the edge of the helipad, awaiting the return of Vice Commander Hugo from an operation in New Tek City. At the head of the detachment stood the imposing figure of Colonel Helmut von Stryker, GUN Chief of Staff and the organization's third-in-command.
Formerly a resident of Angel Island, the dingo had been forced to abandon his homeland after an unsuccessful campaign of conquest against the reclusive echidna tribes. Exiled with his surviving troops to the arid wastes of the Sandopolis desert, Stryker had spent his days fighting the remnants of the Dark Legion for what little food and water the desert had to offer. That was until one day when a GUN helicopter landed in the dingoes' encampment, and out had stepped Commander Danzarotti. Newly appointed to his post, and with a newly-liberated city to police and his ranks decimated by two consecutive conflicts, the leopard was in a real bind. Hence why he'd come to Stryker; defeated troops they may have been, but he was in desperate need of new manpower, and the dingoes had grown weary of the nomadic lifestyle they'd been forced to adopt, so Helmut signed up, and here he was.
Eventually, the helicopter touched down, and the first onto the tarmac was the portly VC Hugo, followed by the spindly meerkat Timo. Approaching the warthog and his lackey, Stryker gave a quick salute before telling him to report immediately to Danzarotti. Muttering something scathing about canines under his breath, the Vice Commander took his leave, escorted by the detachment of troopers. This left the Colonel alone with Sergeant Topaz as she disembarked the chopper.
"How was New Tek, Sergeant?" asked the dingo as he approached the lioness.
"Cold, sir," replied Topaz, promptly standing to attention and saluting.
"Would that explain the look on old Porky's face?" said Stryker, gesturing for his subordinate to stand easy.
"It hasn't been his finest hour the last few days, sir."
"Of that I'm aware," said the hound, turning his back to the lioness. "Now if you'll follow me."
Nodding, Topaz followed her superior's lead, walking the endless labyrinth of stairwells and corridors down to the Chief of Staff's office. Along the way, many a passing trooper stopped to salute the feline who, garbed in her black dress uniform, wore more medals and ribbons than would ever be expected of a Sergeant. It just went to show how much she'd accomplished in her time with the Unit, despite being only 25. Not that she was particularly disappointed to have not been promoted further just yet; the limited responsibility of her rank enabled her to better carry out her task as Rouge's handler, a connection that had been pivotal to her meteoric rise.
"I suppose you're wondering why I invited you here," said Stryker as they at last arrived at his office.
"Well you are my boss, sir," said Topaz, waiting for the Colonel to seat himself behind his desk before sitting down herself.
"For now perhaps, but that takes us quite nicely to the reason why you're here."
"Do tell, sir," said the lioness.
"When we received your report of this latest operation's failure, the Commander and I spent a long time in his office discussing certain things, and, to cut the crap for your benefit, we concluded it was a mistake to keep Hugo on as Vice Commander when the old man left."
"But I understood Hugo was kept on at the old man's recommendation, sir."
"Indeed, though it turns out that story was circulated so the men would think he had the old man's support if anything happened to Danzarotti."
"And he's being fired for that?"
"No, that would be for spending five million Mobian dollars in advance on a team of assassins who failed to accomplish their objectives," said Stryker. "But anyway, the point is Hugo's being retired and the Commander would like to offer you his job; how about it?"
"Sir, yes, sir," replied Topaz, practically leaping to her feet, standing bolt upright as she gave the Colonel a firm salute.
"You won't be doing that much longer," said the dingo, standing and extending a paw across the desk for the lioness to shake. "Ma'am."
SCENE
It was noon in Station Square, and Sally was starting to miss Nicole; not just for the pleasure of her company, but for her secretarial work as well. An hour and half she'd been off the phone, and she was still only halfway through the day's mail. On a brighter note, at least she'd gotten to talk to Sonic, who'd actually been awake prior to his phone ringing; something to do with an impromptu studio session with Manic and Sonia, to record a song for their mother's birthday. Seizing this opportunity to offload, she spilled her guts to the hedgehog about everything, starting with Vanilla's passing and the looming question mark over Cream having NIDS, and then about Amy's vanishing acts. She'd dwelt longest on the subject of not telling Amy about her and Sonic's reconciliation, about which she'd been feeling horribly guilty. However, her lover had done something to alleviate that guilt, reasoning that any private disclosure would soon enough become public, and it would eventually transform into a storm of unwanted media attention for both them and the youngster. It seemed fair enough.
Opening yet another letter asking if the Alicia Acorn Academy offered scholarships of any sort, Sally's attention was suddenly caught by a burst of white light, shining through the pane of frosted glass on her office door. Were they done already? Standing, the chipmunk opened the door to find Amy with her uniform still in pristine condition, and still supporting the hunched Shadow: "Done already?"
"Not quite," said the black hedgehog as Amy helped him onto a leather couch where misbehaving pupils normally waited for their appointment with the principal.
"We need to ask another favour," said the youngster, turning to look at Sally. "Could we get another uniform?"
"Who for? Espio?" queried the chipmunk. The pink hedgehog smirked as she shook her head.
"It's for Tekno, that old friend I used to talk about. Turns out she was in Robotnik's dungeons all along," said Amy. She wasn't about to tell anyone the truth of Tekno's captivity.
"Glad to hear it. Give me a few minutes," said Sally, taking her leave. Nodding her thanks, Amy turned to Shadow, gazing intently at her patient; there was a question about this plan with the school uniforms she simply had to ask.
"Shadow, are you sure dressing us in plaid is going to make a difference?"
"Why wouldn't it?"
"I hate to say it, but it's not like Maria's youth protected her."
"She wasn't wearing plaid."
"You know what I mean," said Amy, gleaning from the lack of a second rebuttal that she'd struck some kind of nerve. Shadow looked away, gazing down at the floor. The youngster sat down beside him, tentatively placing an arm round him, and resting her head on his shoulder. In stark contrast to their encounter on the cliff, the black hedgehog made no effort to shrug off this obvious show of pity.
"I thought it might be worth a try," muttered Shadow eventually, breaking the prolonged silence. "Most of the bastards on that assault team are dead and buried by now."
"At least you'll be armed this time," said Amy, nestling closer to her companion. "And so will we."
Silence reigned once more, neither hedgehog uttering another word until Sally returned, bearing the requested uniform. Before they noticed her, she caught a glimpse of Amy consoling Shadow, and at once almost regretting having confronted him like she did a few hours earlier.
"Here you go, kids," said the chipmunk, holding it out once Amy had helped her burden back to his feet. Taking it, both hedgehogs were taken by surprise as Sally embraced them simultaneously, placing kisses on both their cheeks: "Be careful, for Mobius' sake."
"We'll try our best," said Amy, smiling at the former Princess as she backed away, not wanting to watch them lay waste to the lobby like they had done her office. Waving to the duo, she closed her office door just as Shadow yelled his magic words. By god, she hoped they'd be alright.
SCENE
In the hedgehogs' absence, Espio and Tekno had been making good on Shadow's instructions to be ready to leave as soon as possible. Having settled on a pump-action shotgun for his own use, Espio was now in the process of gathering together enough ammunition and grenades to fight a small war. Meanwhile, Tekno was busy preparing Omega for his first combat situation since his rebuild, welding on extra armour plates wherever necessary, and stocking the robot with as much ammo as was safe. A bone of contention had even formed between the two, in the form of discussion as to what the most effective way of opening any stubborn doors would be. Schooled in the art of sneaking, Espio was adept with all manner of lock-picks, and probably thanks to Rouge, Tekno had a fair few. However, the canary advocated a far less fiddly solution, namely C4. With a lot of things to do and not very long in which to do them, they'd both agreed to let Shadow have the final say.
Still uncertain about teleporting underground, Shadow and Amy materialized outside the base and entered via the open hangar doors. The black hedgehog left it to his guardian angel to announce their return: "We're back!"
Putting down her welding torch, Tekno came dashing over, still in her bright orange coveralls: "Successful?"
"Sure was," said Amy, holding up the uniform on its hanger. Expressing her thanks, and ran off to the control room to change.
"If you're not busy, we could use your input on something," said Espio as he came over. Getting the nod from Shadow, he led the hedgehogs to the row of workbenches where the armoury was laid out.
"So, what it is?" asked the black hedgehog.
"What would your preferred way of opening doors be?" asked Espio, holding a lock-pick in one hand and a C4 charge in the other. As Shadow pondered, Amy did some thinking of her own; the lock-picking was easily the most impractical, considering how time-consuming they were, but whilst quick, C4 brought the question of collateral damage into the question, and seeing as they were mostly going to be fighting in a confined space, C4 was just as likely to toast one of them as any door they might encounter. There had to another way. Giving Espio custody of Shadow, the youngster ran over towards Omega, where Tekno kept her toolkit.
"Her Highness have any more stern words?" asked Espio in the preteen's absence.
"No, I think you convinced her," replied Shadow, but further talk was curtailed by the sight of Amy returning with a sledgehammer in her hands.
"Surely this would be more efficient," said the youngster. Both the guys simply nodded their agreement as the pink hedgehog added the hammer to the pile of gun magazines Espio had made. Soon after, Tekno reappeared, garbed in the full uniform besides the penny loafers, which she'd replaced with combat boots. Hopefully they wouldn't kill the illusion. In her hands, she was carrying some peculiar contraption, along with a pouch of some kind.
"Remember this?" she asked Amy, handing her the contraption. Turning the gun-shaped object over in her hands, the preteen's eyes widened as it dawned on her what it was. Back in their village, the canary's father had been a prolific inventor, and it looked as if Tekno had inherited some of that technical wizardry when, aged six, she produced from her father's spare parts a type of one-handed crossbow, ostensibly to shoot down hard-to-reach fruit in the surrounding Great Forest. When it came to testing it, Tekno had been quite frankly useless, but Amy had proved to be a natural. What she held in her hands was an enlarged, more refined version, and the pouch was in fact a quiver of arrows.
"How long have you been working on this?" asked Amy, attaching the quiver to her skirt's waistband.
"About four years, on and off. Whenever I got the chance, really," replied the canary, picking out her gun of choice, an MP5, and to Espio's surprise, a rocket launcher, which she slung over her back.
"Are you really going to need that?" asked the chameleon as he transferred custody of Shadow back to Amy.
"Omega's got no missiles, and I don't know if those bullets will be strong enough for the BIGFOOT mechs," said Tekno.
"What're you planning to do? Join him for the diversion?" queried Espio as he loaded Amy's trusty backpack, which Shadow had volunteered to carry, with the spare ammo and sledgehammer.
"Look, so long as she carries it, it's fine," interjected the black hedgehog.
"Have it your way," said the ninja, helping Amy put the backpack on their wounded companion, "Is Omega ready?"
"As best he can be," replied the canary.
"Then let's get to it," said Espio, cocking his shotgun.