Chapter 2

Invading Egghead's Lair

The trio of Tails, Knuckles and Shadow gathered outside the front of the GUN HQ building.

"Hey Shadow, why not get Omega to come help too?" Knuckles said as they strolled outside, the corner of his mouth tilting upwards in a smirk. "The more the merrier."

Shadow shot him an irritated look. "Omega is getting a tune-up," he said in reply, the irritation evident in his tone. "He got a little dinged on the last mission."

"Ah, too bad."

Tails frowned. He suspected Knuckles was just trying to annoy Shadow, and well it seemed to be working, so he decided to put a stop to it before the two of them were at each other's throats again.

"Guys, we need to focus," he said emphatically, fixing them both with a pointed look one after the other. "This is for Sonic's sake."

Knuckles caught his gaze and immediately backed down, scratching at his head. "Right."

Shadow only grunted in response.

Tails took out his Miles Electric device and fiddled with a few things on it, then he looked up at Shadow. After all, they'd come to him because they'd been at a loss for what to do next. Tails figured a fresh pair of eyes might be of help. And besides, as an agent, Shadow should have experience searching for people who had gone missing.

"What do you think we should do, Shadow?" he asked. "We've checked Sonic's house and found nothing. It kind of didn't even look like he was there last night, unless he just cleaned up really well before he left this morning." Which if he knew Sonic, was very unlikely… "And we've checked everywhere else we thought he might be. Where do we go now?"

Shadow met his gaze, though his eyes went distant as he sank into thought. However it was only a few moments before they cleared and he spoke.

"Have you checked the place you last saw Sonic?"

Tails stiffened. Now he was smart, no one would doubt that. As he and Knuckles had searched, he'd even used his gadgets to hack databases and scour the news for any inkling or mention of a blue hedgehog, or even just a blue blur. But perhaps he'd been overthinking so much, one simple thing had slipped his mind. Of course! The first step to take when you lost something. Retrace your steps. Though it kind of pained Tails to think of Sonic as a 'thing', but the principle still stood.

"Umm… No…" he admitted almost shamefully.

Though Shadow didn't seem to notice as he simply nodded. "Well let's try there then."

Tails straightened, hopeful now that they had some kind of purpose, some sort of lead. "Right! It was just near my workshop. Follow me."

And with that he wound up his two tails and shot forth, boosted by the speed they granted him as he spun them like a propeller. Within seconds he caught sight of Shadow skating alongside him, and Knuckles scurried up to his other side. Tails had left the Tornado back at his workshop, not wanting to take it into the city, so they had to hoof it, but with their speed, it was hardly an issue. It was less than an hour before they made it back to Mystic Ruins. Tails led the way to the bottom of the cliff where his workshop resided.

"This is where I last saw Sonic," he pointed out to Shadow. "He walked me home before heading off himself."

Shadow examined the ground, then glanced off in the other direction. "And he would have headed straight home? To Green Hill?"

"As far as I know," Tails answered a little bewilderedly. "It was already pretty late."

Shadow nodded and turned back to them. "Then we sweep the area between here and Sonic's place in Green Hill Zone. If something happened to Sonic along the way, we might be able to spot some sign of it."

"And what exactly does a 'sweep' entail? Mister Agent Guy?" Knuckles asked disdainfully.

Shadow seemed to make the conscious decision to ignore the echidna's smart alec tone for now. "For humans it's typically a lot slower, but for us… We pick a reference point and run in a dead straight line from Point A to Point B, looking for any sign of an abnormal occurrence. We repeat this process until we've scanned the whole vicinity that we suspect Sonic might have travelled since Tails last saw him. That being a decent-sized radius spanning here to Green Hill."

Tails frowned, then nodded his understanding, though Knuckles still seemed a little confused. He'd get the gist of it. "Got it." Though his mind immediately went to the possibility of what would happen if they didn't find anything? What would they do then? But he tried to push those thoughts away. They'd cross that bridge when they came to it.

"Now I think it's safe to assume if anything did happen to Sonic, it didn't happen here. Or Tails would have noticed," Shadow continued. "So let's start on the other side of the cliff."

Tails nodded. "Okay."

And with that they made their way over the cliff, Tails grabbing Knuckles and simply flying him over since it was quicker, while Shadow was able to make his own way over.

"We'll start from here," Shadow said when they reunited. He pointed at the ground. "Knuckles, make a mark right there."

"Uh, okay…" Knuckles mumbled, and with some quick easy work with his fists he pummelled a nice distinctive indentation into the ground. "How's that?"

"Fine," Shadow grunted, then lifted his head and eyed them both. "We travel an arm length's apart, keep level with each other. Eyes mostly on the ground. Go." And with that he took off with a burst of air and sparks from his rocket propelled shoes, leaving Tails and Knuckles to stare after him gaping before scrambling to catch up.

Thankfully Shadow only set a moderate pace, still fast in a normal sense but for them it was rather casual. Tails hovered next to Shadow at his right, eyes examining the ground as they went, trying to search for any little sign that might have indicated something leading to Sonic, though he glanced up occasionally to double-check where he was going and that the path in front of him was free of any obstacles. Luckily it was a mostly clear run between Mystic Ruins and Green Hill Zone, it was mostly just an expanse of semi-dusty, semi-grassy plains until they crossed into the latter's lush green hills. And it wasn't very far as it was, especially with their speed. Several laps would probably only take them under a couple of hours. A good thing because there wasn't a whole lot of daylight left, the sun was already inching closer to the line of the land.

Their first lap took them all the way to Sonic's place without spotting anything worthy of note, so Shadow simply moved them a little to the right and they zoomed off all the way back. For a while they remained this way, going back and forth all the while diligently analysing the ground, when suddenly out of the corner of his eye, Tails saw Shadow vanish in a flash of blue.

"Wha-?!" he exclaimed and manoeuvered his tails to pull him to a sudden halt.

"Whoa!" Knuckles shouted as he skidded to a stop in a much less graceful fashion, shoes sliding through the dirt.

They both spun around to see Shadow had reappeared just a little back down the track and had crouched down to examine the ground. Tails felt a small surge of excitement as he and Knuckles approached.

"What did you find, Shadow?"

Shadow nodded at the ground. "Take a look."

Tails did so and his breath caught. By Shadow's feet, a quite sizable skid mark desecrated the grass, churning up the dirt at its roots. And at the upper edge, there was no mistaking it, there was a shoe print. Distorted and smudged into the ground, but it was there.

"That's Sonic's shoeprint!" Tails shouted. "I'm sure of it!"

Shadow stared down at it and grunted before turning his head to stare in another direction. "It seems something brought Sonic to a sudden stop…" he mused. He strode off, seemingly scanning the rest of the area, and after a moment he stopped and studied another spot.

"Find something else?" Tails asked, scampering over to join him while Knuckles went wandering in the other direction.

"Another scuff."

Tails followed his gaze and indeed, there was another spot on the ground where the grass had been scuffed and ripped up.

"Hey! There's one over here too," Knuckles called, and Tails and Shadow turned to see him several paces away in the other direction from the original skid mark.

Tails frowned. A pattern was starting to form. If these marks had been caused by Sonic, then he'd clearly been engaged in combat with someone… He glanced to Shadow. "Do you think he was attacked?"

Shadow's eyes didn't leave the ground. "Certainly seems likely." He glanced between the three spots. "This tells us two things. It doesn't seem like Sonic is responsible for his own disappearance. As that's a likely prospect at times." He shot a look at Tails, though continued on. "But it does seem like this time, someone confronted him." His eyes darted in the general direction of Sonic's house. "And perhaps he never made it home…"

Tails stilled, feeling icy claws of dread take hold. Just what had happened to his friend? He frowned and focused back on the ground. "What now? Apart from the scuffs there aren't many signs of a battle. If Sonic was attacked by Eggman, you'd think there would be metal fragments from badniks Sonic destroyed, or burn marks from Eggman's lasers or whatever else. But there's nothing of the sort…"

Shadow grunted. "I agree, it's a little strange. But perhaps the Doctor simply attacked with a different kind of weapon. After all, if he's managed to catch Sonic somehow..." He eyed the mark at their feet. "He clearly caught him very much off guard."

Tails looked down at the ground, his fist clenching a little. Had Eggman really managed to capture Sonic for once? Surely not? Out of the corner of his eye he saw Knuckles cross his arms.

"Well, what's the next step here then?" the red echidna asked.

Shadow lifted his head. "Guess our only option is to pursue possible candidates who might have attacked Sonic." He met each of their gazes. "And obviously, the Doctor is our mostly likely suspect. So, perhaps we should pay him a visit."

At that Knuckles grinned and punched a fist into his open palm. "Alright! That I can get behind. Let's invade Egghead's lair!"

Tails nodded determinedly. "I've been keeping tabs on the activity of Eggman's known bases. We can head back to my workshop and see which one he's been the most active at. Then take the Tornado straight there."

"Sounds like a plan," Knuckles declared eagerly.

Meanwhile Shadow nodded. "Let's go."

()

With what one might call supersonic speed, the trio returned to Tails' workshop. Shadow took up a spot by the wall, propping one foot against it and folding his arms as Tails studied his computers to determine their destination. He stared at the ground, though more accurately stared into space, as Tails chittered with Knuckles, not paying much attention to their conversation. In all honesty, it took enough focus for Shadow to keep himself awake. His tiredness was really starting to catch up to him, and it was these moments where you stopped and breathed for a moment that it really swamped you. Shadow glanced at Tails and Knuckles, and since their eyes weren't on him right now, he decided to allow himself to lean his head against the wall for a moment. He stared across to the other end of the workshop for a while, fighting against the heaviness in his eyelids, before his eyes eventually closed in a slow blink. But oh that might have been a mistake as closing his eyes even just for a moment had been such a good feeling. They came back open, but then almost immediately slipped back closed of their own accord and that was where they stayed, Shadow telling himself that it was just for a few moments. Tails and Knuckles' conversation faded into white noise and Shadow figured it was because he was merely zoning out – not that he was thinking much as his mind teetered on the edge of a microsleep – until Knuckles' voice suddenly came booming through the fog.

"Uh, Shadow?"

Shadow's eyes flew open to see Tails and Knuckles staring at him. Though he managed to show no outward sign of being startled his heart jumped a little. He expelled the energy by pushing off the wall and lowering his foot, meeting their gazes expectantly as if he'd been the one waiting for them.

"Are we ready to go?" he asked.

Tails gawked at him in surprise before exchanging a glance with Knuckles. "Uh, yeah. We're ready."

"Right well, let's go then." Shadow said quickly and strode for the workshop entrance, resisting the extreme urge to clear his throat. Great, the two of them had caught him looking as if he was dozing off… Hopefully he'd covered it up well enough.

"Shadow wait! Aren't we taking the Tornado?" Tails called.

Shadow glanced over his shoulder then waved a hand dismissively. "I'll go by foot. You two take the plane." He was pretty sure that if he was forced to sit cooped up in that plane for any decent period of time, he would fall asleep.

Knuckles spoke up and Shadow could practically hear the shrug in his voice. "Eh, fine with me. Plane gets a bit crowded with three in there anyway."

"Okay…" Tails sounded a little more hesitant. "Be careful, Shadow."

Shadow grunted his acknowledgement though really he didn't think there was any need. What did he have to be careful about? He was faster than the plane anyway, he'd have to slow down to match whatever pace Tails set for them in the sky.

As a result, Shadow stood and waited as Tails and Knuckles boarded the plane, rolled down the runway, lifted off into the sky and circled to the desired direction before he finally moved himself, zooming off across the ground.

Eyes straying up to the plane on occasion to check that it was there, Shadow glided across the ground as they made their way to Eggman's lair. The sun started to set during their journey, and night fell as they neared their destination. Shadow realised he had no idea where exactly that was, and he cursed himself inwardly as he gathered that he must have nodded off in the specific moment Tails had identified it. But he was saved from having to ask the question as Tails manoeuvered the plane to fly low, almost alongside him and shouted to him.

"We'll be at Eggman's base once we clear the next hill! Knuckles suggested we attack from three fronts. He'll dig his way in, I'll approach from above, and you blast your way in head on. We'll stretch his defences thin. I have my sensors locked on Eggman's exact location so follow my lead."

Shadow nodded. It was a sound plan.

Knuckles climbed out of the plane and leapt out, hardly breaking stride as he hit the ground running. He streaked up the hill along with Shadow, then they separated as Knuckles broke off to find a spot from which to dig his way in.

Shadow narrowed his eyes as the base came into sight, a large, white fortress-like structure surrounded by high walls and lit by searchlights. He doubted any of it would be a problem though. Craning his head to the sky, Shadow checked for Tails' plane so they could at least somewhat coordinate their attack, then as he saw it hurtling towards the base, he picked up the pace and leapt into action. Literally. He cleared the wall with an easy, rocket propelled leap, then proceeded to do exactly as Tails had said. Blast his way in.

The flood of robot sentries rushing towards him were swiftly put out of commission by a wave of chaos spears, and he spin-dashed a bunch of flying bee-bots into smithereens with barely a dent in his speed. He then chaos controlled to a higher balcony, watching as Tails' plane soared downward and opened fire onto a spot at the centre of the base, making quick work of the laser turrets that tried to shoot back. Shadow jumped and ran across the roof towards where Tails' plane was approaching, then before Tails' plane got too close, he chaos controlled so he was smack bang between them, right in front of the wall and gritted his teeth as he summoned his energy.

"Chaos…. Blast!"

The explosion of power emitted tore right through the wall, clearing the way for the Tornado to sail in as Shadow chaos controlled out of the way and reappeared on the plane's wing. Tails drove the plane to a sharp landing before leaping out of the cockpit and hovering down to the floor with his spinning tails. Shadow hopped off the plane's wing to join him. And a moment later, Knuckles burst out of the ground with a triumphant yell, plonking himself down by Shadow's other side.

It seemed Eggman had already gone scrambling for his Egg Mobile and he hovered towards them now. He looked annoyed but not completely taken unawares. The Doctor's gaze darted between them, and his face morphed into a slightly bemused expression.

"Hm? Tails? Knuckles? Have you two gone colour-blind? You seem to have picked up the wrong hedgehog."

Immediately Shadow lowered his head and gritted his teeth, his spines stiffening in anger. There it was again, others comparing him to Sonic. Maybe Shadow didn't let on how much it actually annoyed him. How in some way, ironically, he was always living in Sonic's shadow. It seemed people never saw him in isolation from the blue hedgehog, especially in the context of their group. Maybe that was why Shadow preferred to be alone most of the time. At least when he was alone, it made the constant comparison to Sonic less overt.

Meanwhile, Eggman's comment seemed to infuriate Tails for an entirely different reason. The two-tailed fox stepped forward and pointed at Eggman, face twisted in rage seldomly seen from the kid.

"Eggman! What have you done with Sonic?!"

The Doctor straightened, seemingly in surprise. "Sonic? Why… I've done nothing with Sonic. Whatever do you mean?"

"Tails…" Shadow growled, shooting the young fox a sidelong glare.

Since this had been an investigation meant to gather information he hadn't exactly wanted to reveal to Eggman straight away that they were looking for Sonic, or that he was in fact missing, for this very reason. Maybe Eggman wasn't even behind Sonic's disappearance after all. Because it certainly seemed that way as Shadow's eyes darted about the room, scanning every inch. No sign of Sonic anywhere, and he highly doubted the Doctor would leave his nemesis unguarded in some other part of the base. Now it wasn't the most desirable development to have the Doctor learn that Sonic was currently MIA.

Tails glanced at him and within a moment seemed to catch on, the fury fading from his face and his tails drooping slightly. However Knuckles took up the ball and stepped forward.

"Listen Egghead, you're gonna tell us what you're up to or we'll make you!"

Eggman only frowned. "I do believe you three have already overstayed your welcome. Since you were never invited in the first place." Then the Doctor swept out a hand to point at them and screamed, "Attack!"

Instantly robots dropped from hatches that opened up in the walls and from elsewhere in the room. Eggman quickly cleared out of the way as laser guns also swivelled from their positions in the walls, taking aim.

Shadow tensed. Time to move.

As a robot shot a mini rocket at them, he, Tails and Knuckles each sprang out of the way. Shadow hoped the other two could fend for themselves because he wasn't about to baby them. Well, he mused to himself. Best to remedy the unwanted situation of Eggman knowing that Sonic is missing by sufficiently trashing this place so he'll become preoccupied with dealing with that.

Shadow tucked himself into a ball and spin-dashed into a horde of robots, blasting through them with ease. He cast a cursory glance around for Knuckles and Tails and saw the former brawling his way through robots with punches strong enough to knock their heads right off their shoulders, while the latter was hovering in the air, dodging projectiles and striking back by throwing what appeared to be mini bombs that exploded upon impact.

Shadow shifted his focus back to his own efforts of trashing robots, skating towards another horde and dispatching them with a sweep of his hand and a flurry of chaos spears, not minding at all when some stray ones struck some of Eggman's many computers or whatever other devices. Either they'd put this place completely out of commission, or they'd total it enough that Eggman would have his hands full with repairs. An advantage for them both ways. He spin-dashed through more robots and landed in a crouch, about to leap back into the fray when Tails' voice suddenly pierced through the commotion.

"Shadow!"

Following the voice, Shadow looked up and spotted Tails hovering near a balcony with a monitor close by. The fox was gesturing urgently.

"You and Knuckles cover for me! I'm going to try and see if I can learn anything from Eggman's computer."

Shadow clenched his jaw a little, they didn't want to make this any messier than it already was, but he obliged. He chaos controlled to the balcony, balancing on the railing while Tails flew past him and touched down by the computer. Shadow spared him a mere glance over his shoulder before tensing as several flying robots advanced, and he spotted Eggman float over as well.

"Hey! Get away from there!"

Perhaps Tails would get something useful from the computer after all. Shadow leapt and unleashed a barrage of chaos spears at the approaching flying robots, and they fell to the ground as scrap metal. He glimpsed Knuckles down below as he fended off most of the robots on the floor level, although some managed to get past him. One shot upwards towards the balcony he and Tails had claimed, its leap propelled by robot legs and springs. Shadow chaos controlled, reappearing to roundhouse kick the robot back to the ground, then immediately teleporting and reappearing back on the railing guarding Tails. He looked over his shoulder at the fox.

"Don't dawdle Tails," he growled before facing back ahead as a horde of flying robots advanced, and he leapt to meet them.