-Chapter 24-
Two weeks later, by Shadow's command, the Dark Presence went into silent running. After analyzing the environment of the Dragon Kingdom and studying how the Four House functioned, the ebony hedgehog decided to try a different strategy of invasion. Instead of a direct onslaught like before, he thought it better to infiltrate the clans with his own men. They would have to be specially trained so that they would appear more than convincing-but not too much, so it wouldn't arouse suspicion-and not become indoctrinated into the clans' philosophies. In this way, the moles would be able to report back on the best way to attack.
Another reason to go dark was to throw the Acorns off their guard and off track. The royals were already on edge after the Downunda incident. It was also an opportunity to sow discord in the morale of the Acorn forces. Shadow's thoughts on the matter were interrupted when his communicator started vibrating.
"Report." he commanded into the receiver.
"Sir, you ought to come to the G.U.N. storage facility right away." the legionnaire said in reply, prompting Shadow to arch a brow.
"For what purpose?"
"The men have uncovered some sort of robotic arsenal."
At first, it struck Shadow as odd since he failed to recall that G.U.N. even had such artillery outside of tanks. Then he suddenly remembered what Rouge had previously told him.
"And does this arsenal have an operating number?" he asked again, tightening his fist.
"We're trying to find it. It's practically covered in dust and grime."
The crimson-splashed male went into thought. It wouldn't hurt to inspect it himself.
"Get a tech team to begin cleaning and repair. I'm on my way."
The legionnaire acknowledged the order and disconnected the call. Shadow got up from his desk to head for his personal transport. He was no sooner out the door when his communicator buzzed again.
"Yes?"
"Apologies for the interruption, my lord. But General Dimitri insists he have a word with you."
Shadow slightly gritted his teeth. He had been keeping the cybernetic echidna at arm's length for the past few days as he wasn't quite ready to journey into the Dragon Kingdom yet. In short, Dimitri didn't have much to do. And the title of General was merely that. A title.
"Inform the general that I will speak with him later this evening if he shows a little more respectful patience."
"Of course, my lord."
xxxxxxx
Dimitri growled in frustration. Although he supposed that he should be a bit more patient with his new 'Grandmaster', he felt that his presence here was absolutely pointless. He'd already impressed upon Shadow that he was completely disinterested in regaining control of his old forces, so he wasn't a threat to Shadow's plans. Perhaps he felt that Dimitri would be used by the Acorns to pinpoint weaknesses but even that was stretching it. Dimitri could already see that the Dark Presence was radically different than they were as the Dark Legion. All the more frustrating was the fact that while Shadow wasn't asking Dimitri to do anything unreasonable...yet, the floating patriarch was literally sitting around doing nothing. The identification of this 'principle vessel meanwhile was beginning to be a bother to him. Chatter from the foot soldiers didn't seem to point to Shadow acquiring the Master Emerald-which provided Dimitri some relief since these guards almost bragged about everything-and eavesdropping on the higher-ranking officers didn't provide much on the subject.
"Perhaps it's time I do some digging..." Dimitri finally muttered to himself.
He wasn't worried about getting caught. If he did, oh well, what did it matter? Death would probably be a better place considering his current circumstances. At the very least, Shadow trusted him enough to have full and free access of the entire compound, including a computer. However, the fully cyberized echidna didn't go underestimating the security of their network so he was careful not to go anywhere near places that would allow him to share information. Doing so would not only foolish, but would gain him nothing.
"Hmm, this is all very interesting..." he said pointedly with an arched brow.
Now that Dimitri thought about it, if the Master Emerald was actually stashed away somewhere, he would probably need a high clearance code to gain access to any files. But before Dimitri could consider trying his hand at hacking, a keyword search gave him hard proof that the Master Emerald was still atop its shrine at Angel Island. So, if that wasn't it, what on earth was this 'principle vessel'? And what interest would it be to Knuckles? Was it even here at this compound? Dimitri brought up the security surveillance system and began looking at every feed screen that was attached to a camera whether it was micro or a typical security camera. Dimitri was slightly amused to find that the more high-tech cameras were placed on the exterior points. Any poor soul that came within range of the perimeter, despite being a good 50 miles away would have a battalion upon him in seconds. Then he came upon one screen that appeared to be from the master bedroom of the mansion. Dimitri nearly skipped it when he suddenly saw a peculiar looking figure walking anxiously around. It appeared to be female, though Dimitri had a hard time making out the person because the feed was attached to a micro camera and thus was stationary. Once the figure came a little closer it was definitely female. Dimitri thought she looked particularly and rather wretched. So, who was this that was so important that she had a whole room to herself? Or was she a prisoner?
'Wait, she looks...rather familiar...'
After a few minutes of studying her, the patriarch finally recalled where he had seen her before. She was one of those Freedom Fighters that every so often fought alongside Knuckles and his ilk. He didn't show it, but Dimitri was rather surprised to find her here of all people and places. Why on Mobius would have her under tight lock and key? Dimitri continued to study her movements and started noticing that they were awkward and wobbly. Every 5 minutes or less, she bent over and wrapped her arms around her midriff. While the black and white screen didn't offer much clarity, it wasn't much for Dimitri to correctly deduce that she was expecting. Then all the elements slowly came together. Could this be the 'principle vessel' that Shadow was referring to?
xxxxxxx
Shadow arrived in Station Square where a whole troop of legionnaires keeping their weapons pointed at the mystery arsenal, were waiting for him. They had it surrounded and only parted to allow Shadow through after which his chest tightened a little. Sitting in the middle of the small crowd was what he thought it to be: E-123 Omega. The robot looked rather poorly maintenanced and covered with at least four or five inches of dust and dirt. In this state, Shadow wouldn't be surprised if his main hard drive or motherboards were corrupted. Or if Omega would still even function.
"Where was he found?" Shadow inquired.
"Inside storage unit number forty-two." a legionnaire replied pointing towards the left.
"Place him in the lab in the north building for extensive maintenance. And use extreme caution."
If Omega still had any functionality, that last thing Shadow needed was for him to go AWOL. At least now the robot would not be found by the opposition. And if all turned out well, Omega could be very useful as an ace-in-the-hole.
XXXXXXX
In New Mobotropolis, the winter weather was worse than it was in Station Square. Along with the heavy snow, came fierce thunderstorms. The lightning spread across the sky like a spider web, as the thunder shook the buildings. While Sally went over a few files on the Four Houses, a particularly loud clap nearly made her jump.
"Jeeze..." she muttered, placing a hand over her thumping heart.
She went over to her laptop and tapped a few keys.
"NICOLE, are you and Rotor done analyzing the weather patterns, yet?" she asked impatiently.
"Almost, Sally. Is there anything wrong?"
"Not really. But I don't recall we ever had a violent storm like this..."
"As far as we gather, you'll be seeing storms like this for quite longer."
Sally let out a groan. First the Dark Presence had went underground, making it almost impossible to track their movements, and now the bad weather was screwing up the radars and the communications.
"There might be something to that though." NICOLE added.
"What do you mean?" the monarch asked.
"Rotor's been looking into the data a bit more thoroughly than I have. He seems to think there's an anomaly."
"What kind of anomaly?"
"Something about the lightning wasn't natural. I have to agree that there's something strange about it. Anyway, he's holed up in the lab right now."
"Does he have Tails helping him?"
"Not really. Tails has been in and out of the lab though."
Sally stopped to think. Rotor knew well enough of their situation, so he wouldn't start a science project now.
"Do you really think it's important?" Sally inquired.
"Well, if it'll help us get our communications back online I think it should." NICOLE replied honestly.
"Oh, very well."
Hopefully, Rotor would find viable solution soon. There were three people she needed to contact. One of them being Knuckles.
XXXXXXX
The guardian of angel Island himself came into a room where Julie-Su and Espio were going over their tech for the mission. Everything had to be in perfect working order for this to work. Vector was testing a head set, while Charmy and Saffron were checking the camera feeds on a laptop.
"Well? How's everything coming along?" he asked.
"Smooth as silk." Julie-Su replied. "Mighty and Ray are out scouting locations for us."
The ruby echidna frowned at that last sentence.
"Shouldn't you have sent Espio for that?!"
"Oh, come off it. The island's hovering right over Station Square and they've got a warp ring handy."
"Still, what's going to happen if-chaos forbid-they get caught? Our cover might get blown."
"Knuckles for heaven sakes, they're on a strict no contact search. If they get spotted, they'll throw stun grenades and haul ass out of there."
"You know I had a thought..." Espio interrupted.
"WHAT?!" Knuckles and Julie-Su barked in unison.
"I'm wondering if Shadow is truly in Station Square per se."
"What do you mean?" asked Knuckles.
"While there's no doubt that it's become a base for the Dark Presence, are we completely sure that Shadow's physically there?"
"He has to be." Julie-Su protested. "Station Square is the center of the whole thing. That much we know for sure."
"Then kindly explain why Amy's signal is coming from at least forty miles away from the city."
Both echidnas stared blankly at the computer screen their comrade was sitting in front of. Knuckles was flabbergasted.
"Okay, when the hell did Amy get a homing device planted on her?!" he ranted.
"It's not ours." Espio responded coolly. "Earlier the Colonel confided in me that she might have been planted with homing or tracking device. It was a matter of locating the signal."
"But Shadow's not stupid." Julie-Su interjected. "He wouldn't leave a signal out in the open."
"Agreed. Which is why it took me at least five hours to track the frequency. And even then, it's still coming in fuzzy."
There was a silent pause.
"If Shadow's got a homing device on Amy, that complicates things a bit." Knuckles said thoughtfully. "We'll have to figure out a way to jam its signal."
"Anyone want to place bets that, that's what caused that safe house to be discovered in the first place?" Vector added.
"It's not like Amy knew that jerk planted that stupid thing on her!" Julie-Su exclaimed.
"I'm not saying she did!" the crocodile replied defensively. "I'm just pointing out a probable contributing factor."
"In any event..." Knuckles continued impatiently. "Is this signal coming from a building, an outpost..?"
"From the looks of things, some sort of compound. No doubt it's heavily armed." Espio told him.
"Then we'll have to strike hard and fast."
XXXXXXX
Back in the compound, Amy meandered about the bedroom looking for something to keep her busy or preoccupied. The babies were constantly nudging at her from within. Amy half wished that Shadow would hurry up and finish whatever the hell he was doing and get back already. It seemed like any time he was physically there, the twins weren't so active. As she went about attempting to clean things up a little, Amy noted that the hall outside had become rather quiet. Though she had no intention of escaping, Amy did pluck up the courage to venture out of the room.
She poked her head out and found no one in the hall in either direction. Amy crept out and slightly leaned over the banister and discovered that the downstairs area was almost empty. Then the temptation to sneak whatever food there was from the kitchen raged wildly when she felt her stomach rumble. Looking both ways, she carefully walked down the hall, the two stairwells, and into the lower level kitchen. Amy downed a few apples, a part of a ration box, and a glass of water as quietly as she could so no one else who happened to be walking on the landing above would hear. Not that they would harm her anyway, but it would be lovely to avoid Shadow's wrath if she could. As carefully as she did before, she went up the stairs to the first floor. Still no one around much to the cherry-pink female's relief. After climbing the second stairwell, she suddenly came into contact with a rather bored and annoyed looking Dimitri.