"Hm? Going somewhere Knuckles?"
"Yeah, thought I'd go check up on the Master Emerald."
"Sure you don't mean Rouge?"
"She's just a friend, Morph." His face betrayed how he really felt.
"Go on, go play with your girlfriend."
"Hey! Stop that!"
He left Morph to tease the others, and headed off. At least Angel Island still wasn't far from the workshop.
Vector's clearly battered van was waiting nearby. The back doors were still open, but there was no sign of them, or anyone.
He glanced over the gorge to Angel Island. It looked the same as normal – but with a great many people stood around, uniformed and armed. He risked approaching, and immediately had more weapons pointed at him than he could easily count.
From here, he could see the Master Emerald back in place, along with the Chaos Emeralds laid out around it's base. There was no sign of Rouge or Vector.
This wasn't worth the trouble. He'd need some help for this.
Shadow looked himself over again, checking. Back to normal once again, despite Aqua's complaints. It'd been a nice change, and made for some interesting times, but he'd decided he'd have to change back before he decided to stay a panther permanently.
Bane had watched the entire process.
"That's slightly disturbing to watch," he commented. "It's like watching someone turn into someone else."
"Look on the bright side," Shadow told him. "At least you don't have to worry about Leo grinning at you any more."
"No, I get to do that instead," Aqua said, having nicked the idea for it from him.
"It doesn't have the same effect as when Leo did it."
"It's the colours," Shadow told him.
Knuckles came back in, looking irritated.
"Something up?"
"Bane? You're sure no one could unclear our names?"
"No one inside the city. Anyone outside would have to take some time to get it approved."
"Then did you order anyone up to Angel Island?"
"Not once. Except to make certain you weren't there, but that was some time ago."
"There's people up there now, uniformed and armed. Won't let me get near. Rouge and Vector aren't anywhere in sight."
"That's nothing to do with him," Tails told them from a doorway. "I've finished looking over what I've got. It's most likely Eggman. There's signs he's been sending commands to Bane recently. I've jammed the signal range the commands are sent on, but there's no way I can disable it entirely."
Bane looked thoughtful, then turned to Morph.
"Could I have a quiet word?" he asked, leading her from the room. "Knuckles, you too."
"What's got into him?" Sonic watched them leave curiously.
"The commands thing, probably," Shadow yawned. "I could sleep for a week."
"Didn't you get enough sleep with all those catnaps?"
"I'm still tired. I was out away from you lot for a long time."
Morph re-entered, looking tired. She took a chair beside the still napping Aqua, and flopped into it.
Knuckles followed, and then came in again.
Everyone stared at the twinned Knuckles.
Tails looked at each. "You're Bane," he said to the one on the right.
"Oh, come on. Give them a chance."
"What's it like being alive?" Tails asked.
"Not much different, to me. I was made to seem to be perfectly human, remember."
"So what are we going to do?"
"I have no idea. But at least it stops Robotnic trying to order me around."
Knuckles – the real Knuckles – looked around thoughtfully.
"Tails... I have a plan," he said finally.
"Oh, no. No, no, no. You're not getting me into that again."
"Oh, come on, it worked didn't it?"
"No. I'm not doing it."
"Have you got a better idea?"
Tails glared at him and left them again grumpily.
"What's the plan?" The question seemed to come from several parts of the room at once.
"Best if I don't tell you. Tails doesn't like it."
"With good reason," his voice called.
"So you'll do it?"
"Not a chance."
"We both know you're going to eventually."
"I'm not doing it."
"I guess I'll have to ask Sonic then, and see if he can remember how to fly the Tornado."
"No, you won't. Last time he flew it, I had to spend a week repairing it."
"That wasn't my fault," Sonic broke in. "If Eggman hadn't come after me-"
"And who taunted him into doing that?"