Time marches on. o_O

Holy hell the holidays are hectic. X.x

-Chapter 91: Informants-

BG laid a knock on Tails workshop door. Cream answered and let in her sister and the small gaggle of teens, which included Staci, Anne and Rolph. The youngest members of the Lightening Bolt Society were all present: BG, Staci, Munkey, Stratford, Beth and Reindeer Girl, otherwise known as 'Pinkie'. They gazed at Tails workshop interior in awe.

"I've known you how long, and this is the first time I've been in here," Stratford put a fist on his hip as he looked at the back shelf full of gadgets.

"I keep a lot of my tech secrets in here. It makes no sense to share them with a rival," Tails said over his shoulder with a cheeky grin. He plugged in a large monitor he installed in the corner and allowed it to boot up.

"You wish you were good enough to steal from," he said as he pretended to pick something from his tusk and nonchalantly flicked it away.

"Come on, rich boys, play nice," Staci said.

"You should save yer pissin contest for when there's snow on the ground, I betcha'," Beth remarked sweetly.

They laughed.

Tails smiled as the monitor booted up successfully and displayed a channel from overseas on a commercial with a yellow duck with red hair screaming about corruption. He muted it.

"Casual rivaly aside, let's get down to business," Staci said as she poked a gyroscopic, prepetual motion bobble on a nearby table. The silver device generated electricity and powered a small spiral bulb on the desk next to it. "We secure?"

Tails watched the security system fire up. He gave a thumbs up.

"You're lucky I saw your message when I did." Staci pulled a list up on her phone. "When we didn't see Amy at the resturant with Orbot, we thought this whole thing was a bust." She planed a fist on a popped hip position. "Colurs say we move the goods." She looked up. "Already done, by the by." She looked back down. "Position in the restaurant said the location was Sticks burrow." She held up three fingers and lowered them as she spoke. "Conversation choice says that Eggman is a threat, Shadow and Rouge can be trusted, and we're all good to get paid while we casually await our new orders and..." She cringed with the last finger she held up, being the middle most one, "Behave ourselves." She stopped flipping Tails off.

He rolled his eyes as the rest of the room roaned. "That's a relief."

"In many ways," Cream said as she tended to her wooden Chow bed. She lined with some of BG's spare fabrics she brought.

BG pointed at her, "Catty, I like it."

Munkey laid the box of fabric bolts next to a sewing machine.

"Is it wise though to let Anne and Rolph hear all this?" He displayed the well dressed twins to the group. "As of right now, they're staying at Eggman's."

Rolph sneered, "Listen ya little snot! We haven't decided what side we're on as of yet. So zip it and stop assuming we'll rat you out."

Anne admired her makeup on the camera screen of her newly gifted phone. "If your little plan doesn't harm us in anyway, why in the absolut fuck would we care about it? I mean, we're glad to help, you've all been kind, but backstabbing isn't our default."

"Don't fault us for our past, you ass. You and your leader are both really stuck up, you know..." Rolph paused then huffed, "You know what?!" He opened both eyes wide and took a second to look at each person in the room indiviudally. "..." He shut his right eye again. "...I'm going to start on this eyepatch." On the way by he touched fingertips with sister and made it obvious he did so.

Anne smiled wide and made a heart with the furthest end of her long tail. "I have good news. We both like you all. Chill out. Okay?"

Rolph strung the sewing machine and grunted in approval. He opened both eyes and drew a pattern on the eyepatch lining fabric.

"Aren't you going to measure that?" Cream asked as she observed him politely from his left side.

"I did." He kept working steadily.

Tails tilted his head to the side slightly. "Uh, can I ask-"

"No," Anne said and took a sultry selfie.

The youngest members of the oposistion hung out until Rolph finished.

After they left, Tails immediately texted Sonic.

Back at Sonic's place, the blue blur broke the silence, shortly after he received Tails information. "Shadow, I want to know one more thing: Why are you in the military? Was it really to get to me?" He held up a paper that said 'Eggman may be listening, he cannot be trusted'.

Shadow wrote a reply. "What good would it do if you knew that?" He put down the paper he'd written on in pen. The three letters 'duh' on the page.

Sonic smirked and shrugged.

Shadow gave him a blank stare and saw no contempt. He huffed in defeat. "The last time we fought...what was I called?"

Sonic looked into memories of words said during their fight. "Faker?"

"And?"

"...jerk?"

"And?" He grew frustrated.

"...douchebag?"

Shadow grit his teeth, "After the fighting stopped!"

Sonic continued thought processes and rubbed his nose with the back of his finger. "Uuuh...jeeerkfaccce?" he said and trailed off.

Shadow sighed and calmed himself. "It seems I put more importance on those words than you did." He sat back against the couch. "Between you and the Lightening Bolt's new leader I was called a pest. A nusiance. A disease, specifically 'The Black Death'. And-"

Sonic snapped and pointed, "-And a scourge on our town!"

"Mmm." Shadow deeply nodded then shook his head in disgust. "I wasn't created to be any of those things. It was like I betrayed the only people I considered family." Maria and Gerald came to mind. "I felt terrible."

"You should have. The entire town was nearly flattened and it took over a year to rebuild."

He hung his head. "I know. I'm sorry. After I heard how slow the progress was going, I felt I had to repent in some way. The military wanted to send aide but were short handed. I went in and flattened an entire camp of Duchad's enforcers to free up resources. It took time to find their location, but I teleported in and took every one of them out-who were present at the time." He corrected his statement at the end.

His blood ran cold. "You killed them?"

"Yes, I killed war criminals. I'm talking about scum who put their prisoners heads on pikes." Shadow flexed his fists angirly. "My only solice over missing a few is that a couple years later, one of their 'soon to be victims' not only escaped, but they bludgened the leader so badly, the whole left half of his body is permenantly paralysed."

Sonic grimmaced, "I'm having a hard time feeling bad for the guy," He thought of feeling happy about such an event. His skin crawled.

"As you should." Shadow continued his reasoning. "The military gave me structure, guidance and protection. Being called those names not only made mee feel useless, but it was a matter of controll and how I had none."

"You don't seem to be the type to need much protection. Without those rings on, you're untouchable, aparently." He recalled something Rouge said a while ago.

He shook his head. "That's only a recent development." He looked down at his ringless gloves and shoes. "Before, without them, the Black Arm had a lot more control over my actions than I'd care to admit. I've improved with the structure and stability the military offers. It's easy for me to be around people who dislike nonsence, and...I..." He struggled with words.

"Thanks for telling me, Shadow." Sonic finished organizing papers for Anne and Rolph.

"I trust you or yours won't mention about my ability to heal. It's bad enough Eggman knows about it, I don't need other war criminals using me for their own gains either."

Sonic agreed with a nod. "Me and the others already talked about that behind closed doors; yeah, we keep it under wraps. Only the team and Chaotix knows."

Shadow perked up at the mention of Vector's group. "That's right. Chaotix added two members." He pulled up a message on his glove's built in communicator. "Espio and Ray. Since we haven't fully vetted them, we'll hold off telling them all the details for now."

He nodded in agreement. "I saw that Espio guy in action during the 'robo-fights'. He's pretty slick."

"He also has ties to the ro-" Shadow's attention was broken.

Sonic noticed. "What's wrong?"

"Hugh wants to talk to me. Hold on," he said and shut his eyes.

"Do you really need to close your eyes for that?" Sonic leaned forward and watched Shadow speak with his sibling via telepathy.

"No. But it's better than blankly staring across the room."

"Fair enough."

He paused and listened. "...I see."

"Hmm?"

"Hugh wants to speak to Anne and Rolph. Apparently, he's been snooping on what I've been reading and he's learned more about the twins. Now he wants to apologize to them."

"He was ready to turn them into paste last time. He's being sincear, right?"

He nodded. "I read about their imprinting conditions." Shadow picked up some papers and sifted through them.

"Imprinting conditions?" Sonic tilted an ear in confusion.

"It's...difficult to explain." He located the information in question. "Do you mind if I speak to him in private?"

"No prob, man." He wrote another note and it read 'Find out about Rolph's eye'; he got a nod from Shadow. He went to the kitchen and straightened the documents he had wait a tap on the counter top. "I've got to drop these off at town hall, so you got the place to yourselves." There was a knock at the door that surprised them both. "Already? It's open."

Hugh entered. He was his regular size and somewhat out of breath. He went right to Shadow who extended the proper documents. "Let me see." With the clutch of papers in hand for only a moment, he lowered them again and mouthed the words. "I can't read English."

Shadow poked him in the head for a second.

Hugh then understood and mouthed again. "Thank you." He got to reading. "Water?"

"I thought you were up north for a while," Sonic asked as he shimmied out of his kitchen through a narrow gap between boxes of water damaged goods on a blue tarp.

In a monotone voice of concentration, still slightly winded, "I was. Ran here. Going back shortly. Need carbs. Food?"

Sonic looked impressed. "Hmm, possibly. We still didn't get a big grocery order yet. We keep buying day to day stuff. It's weird, I know, but we throw out less food wast because of it." He went back to the kitchen and opened his freezer in search of a meatless 'anything'. He grabbed Rouge's icecream. "I'll go get her another one while you guys talk." He handed it to Hugh over the back of the couch and left them to their devices.

Hugh read for several minutes and allowed distance develop between them and Sonic. "I knew who these two were before." Hugh said and pointed at the paper. "They were one person before. A guy named Mex. They pushed him too hard and he reverted." He looked up and saw a confused expression on his brother's face. "It's the closest thing we have to dying on our own. We revert to egg form in extreme circumstances." Hugh shook his head in disgust. "If I knew that...I would have gone easier on them. They spent forty years underground because of me." Hugh looked upset.

"I doubt they remember being down there. I know that in stasis you don't have memories created, to save energy, so it makes no sense they'd remember the catacombs at all." Shadow held up his glove and pulled back the cuff. A small black communicator showed the date. "When I came to, there was a print on here that wasn't mine. Anne must have looked at it and figured out the date. They're smart, mindgames played up the sympathy card."

Hugh was relieved somewhat. "Still. They probably learned about where they came from, which is why they turned on the scientists. Dammit," he said and laid the papers down frustratedly. They slid off the top of the pile. "From the looks of it, the information of who they imprinted with is gone. Which means one of two things. Either they were forcably imprinted with one another. Or each of them has a partner that they were separated from. Tell me...did either of them mention having children at any point? I know Anne said she wanted children, but does she have any currently?"

Shadow shook his head. "Not that she's mentioned. Why?"

"Because if she imprinted with her brother, there should be a child between the two of them."

"Excuse me?"

"Imprinting causes pregnancy. Which is why you and Rouge haven't, you know...imprinted. You ain't ready," Hugh curtly said and lounged back on the couch. He sniffed the air then sat forward to examin the alien food Sonic had given him.

Shadow was put off and at a loss for words. Before he spoke up, Hugh began again.

"Or! Or...or Rolph is actually Anne's son. She had him, they placed her in stasis, aged her child to maturity and when she woke up, she didn't recognize him because they reprogrammed her to think she had a brother."

Shadow held up a paper. "They had two eggs after they introduced new gene's from the specimine known as 'X'."

"They're only half sibilings to us then." Hugh nodded. "How many offspring though? More twins, or what?"

"No clue. Anne was pretending to feed a doll earlier today, so that's a clue." Shadow off handedly mentioned.

"We act strangely when we're hungry. Don't you? Never mind. Was Rolph involved at all? With the feeding, I mean."

Shadow shook his head. "Not willingly." He recalled the applesauce covered sibling jammed into a highchair.

Hugh gave it thought and scooped up a glob of icecream obscured by fudge. "I suppose this is the kind of thing you can't really ask someone. If you think they may have actually have lost a child, it might hurt to bring it up again. It would also justify their anger towards Project Shadow."

Shadow nodded. "Exactly. I'd also like to know why Rolph keeps his eye shut like that."

Hugh dug into the chocolate fudge sunday and spoke eith a full mouth. "No clue. He had it open as an adolescent." His ears folded at the tast of chocolate melt over his tongue. He let out a small groan of delicious approval.

"It doesen't look to be injured. He mentioned 'expirmentation'."

Hugh was lost to the flavour of chocolate.

"Foucs, a little, at least." Shadow sighed.

"What? Sorry. Whatever this is, it's divine." He consumed another spoonful of delightful sweetness.

Shadow sighed that everyone who was supposed to help him read kept getting distracted.

This is the level of focus that jingling keys could disrupt. XD