Ch 3. You, Me, and a Whole Pack of Robots.

The whole of team dark packed themselves into the car before they took off for the night.

"She tried to manipulate me, get me to let my guard down so I'd talk." Shadow hissed out in the passenger seat.

Rouge blinked at the unprompted exclamation. Then she remembered what Shadow had said four hours prior. The bat gave a soft smile. Shadow must have been dying to tell someone, to let his anger out.

"And how did she do that?"

"By pretending to be..." the hog motioned erratically with his hands trying to find the right words, "nice, I guess."

Rouge gazed at the hog with half lidded eyes,

"And what did she do that has you so riled up?"

Shadow stiffened, then looked away silently. Rouge hummed as she kept her eyes on the road,

"Hun, I know you want to let your anger out. If you won't talk to her talk to me."

Shadow looked over his shoulder to peek at the bat before breathing out slowly preparing himself for the conversation,

"She asked me about Maria."

The smug grin on the bats muzzle fell away,

"Oh... I'm sorry Shadow."

Defining quite engulfed the car once more. Rouge cleared her throat as she thought about what she should say,

"You know it's her job to ask you those questions, it's her job to talk about the tough stuff with you and help you sort it out."

Shadow looked like he was breathing out steam,

"I'm upset because she knows about... my business already. It's like I have no privacy!"

"I know, but she is the only one aloud to see your records. And she is sworn to secrecy."

"Rouge do I look like I'm an idiot, I know G.U.N can do whatever they please."

"Here me out though, when it comes to her, I feel like she really does want to help. And like I said, she is just doing her job. How would you feel if someone got pissed at you every time you destroyed a robot?"

"But I can't do my job without destroying robots."

Shadow locked eyes with Rouge, who was raising her brows at the male. Shadow felt a tinge of guilt,

"Okay I see what you are saying... so you think I overreacted?"

"Well, I'd say she has people get mad at her all the time." Rouge said as she cut someone off causing them to lay on their horn.

"I destroyed her chair and threatened to dismember her."

Rouge creased her brows,

"Yeah, maybe just a smidge."

Rouge drove past Club Rouge granting her a confused glance from Shadow. The dark hog realized they were heading in the same direction they had gone the other day,

"Are we going to the store again?"

The bat pulled into a parking lot and began looking for her wallet to pay the parking fee,

"No, I'm hungry and I figured that you might need some stress food."

"Rouge, I won't have you paying for me again."

Rouge only proceeded to exit the car and unload the robot in the back seat. Once she was done and had successfully ignored the protesting male, she closed the door leaving Shadow alone in the car. Shadow pinched the bridge of his little black nose and groaned. The striped male stepped out and fallowed his companions.

The group walked a couple blocks from the lot and found themselves in a cute family own restaurant. The sign read, Chun-nan Buffet. Shadow turned to Rouge,

"What?"

The bat answered his unasked question,

"This is place is owned by some family of mine, not close family but family. They got really good food and it's one of the few places that let me bring Omega in."

Shadow cocked a brow,

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, their kids love him. They keep calling him a... gun-dam, or something like that."

They all walked in and were met by a short, deep violet, bat woman. Shadow noticed however that she didn't look exactly like Rouge. Unlike Rouge the older woman had the dark fur covering the entirety of her body, not just her head and tail. Her wings connected to her arms, instead of separated on her back. The woman's eyes were also almond shaped and the hair on the top of her head was tied in a bun.

"Hello Rouge." The woman said in a thick accent.

"Hey Chrissy, me and my friends just would like to do the buffet."

Rouge continued to chat with the lady while Shadow noticed a large fish tank. Fish of all shapes and techno color hues glided by each other gracefully in the tank, with their beautiful, long fins trailing behind them. Fake coral of pinks, greens, reds and blues, were scattered across clear pebbles along the faux ocean bed. Large plastic decorative pieces, held more fish that would occasionally peek from there hiding spots. All the creatures in the tank seemed to almost glow and reflect the light from the violet bulbs at the roof of the encloser. The colorful underwater display was suddenly disrupted by a sickly yellow and brown puffer fish emerging from behind a golden, plastic dragon, haphazardly bumbling about. The creature's eyes went out in two opposite directions and its mouth was at a constant gape. It was deflated but still round and a few of its spines had long since snapped off. Shadow was entranced by the stark difference between the lovely aquarium and the ugly creature floating in it, lazily.

"Hey, let's go to our seats… Oh, I see you've met Greg." Rouge said snapping Shadow from his thought.

"…Greg?"

"Yeah, that old puffer fish has been here since they opened this restaurant. And yes, he has always looked a little derpy, age just hasn't done him any favors." Rouge laughed into her hand.

Shadow tore his eyes away from the tank,

"Why?"

The bat honestly had not expected the question. Her face dropped,

"I don't fallow, hun."

"Why keep it. It doesn't match the tank. It throws the display all off."

"They bought him. It's not his fault he is a little different from the others. They aren't going to just get rid of him because he doesn't fit the scenery."

Shadow took in the words, then looked back at Greg's separated eyes,

"But it would be easier than having to care for it, less expensive too, and time consuming. Then they could have a perfect aquarium."

Rouge had the feeling that they weren't talking about the fish anymore. She looked deep into Shadow's red irises through the reflection of the glass,

"Well… They care more about Greg's happiness and wellbeing then the draw backs. But Greg isn't a nuisance, he brings in customers, he helps business, people comeback all the time to see him. Sometimes lonely people come to eat, and they feel a little better with Greg around, because they feel like they are sharing a meal with a friend."

Shadow continued to peer into the watery habitat. The bat nudged his side,

"Besides look he's kind of cute in an ugly fish way. Hey, come on, lets grab our seats, I'm starved."

They all sat around a table. Even Omega, who had managed to squeeze himself beside Shadow. The waitress came around soon after and asked the gang what they were going to have to drink. Omega blurted out that he did not require sustenance, and the waitress only ignored him with a knowing smile, as if it was a common occurrence. She turned to Rouge who ordered an ice water with lemon. After the bat's order, both women looked at Shadow. The hog was caught off guard by the whole situation but quickly recollected himself,

"I'll just have a water too."

The waitress left and Rouge got up from the table. Shadow held his hand out to stop her,

"Where are you going?"

Rouge paused for a moment before realizing that Shadow had probably never been to a buffet before, let alone any restaurant for that matter,

"You're supposed to go fill your own plate. Come on I'll show you. Omega watch my purse."

"Affirmative."

Rouge grabbed Shadow's arm and lifted him out of the seat. She dragged him to the buffet and handed him a plate from one of the racks. Shadow watched the bat fish food out of the deep dishes lined in a row. Shadow then noticed the tongs she was using,

"Does everyone use the same tongs?"

Rouge snatched up the last of the seafood salad that was left in the bowl,

"Yeah, is that a problem?"

Shadow blinked. He looked Rouge in the eye and gave her a face as if to say, are you crazy,

"Isn't that unsanitary? You don't know who has touched those, let alone the food."

Rouge gave Shadow a reassuring smile,

"Don't worry, they change the utensils out every two hours and they keep it very clean, trust me."

Shadow looked unconvinced. Sure, the owners might try their best to keep everything clean, but they have no control over their coatomers. Some people are downright disgusting. Shadow recalled the scientists aboard the Ark that would not wash their hands after using the restroom. Sterilization had been a key factor to life on the Ark, but most of the scientists would break such a simple and mandatory rule. He often wondered if they even thought about what they could infect Maria with, or cared. Shadow glanced up to Rouge's face and noticed she was waiting for an answer,

"Alright… I guess it's not like I can get sick anyway."

The truth was that Shadow would have refused if it not been for the fact that Rouge already paid for his meal. He placed a couple of skewered and honey glazed pieces of meat on his plate.

"Ah, rat on a stick, a fine choice."

Shadow looked at the meat then back to Rouge with disgust and horror. Rouge laughed at his reaction,

"I'm joking, its only chicken, you should see the look on your face though."

Shadow huffed annoyed and decided to return to his seat next to his robotic companion. Rouge soon joined them with a full plate. She dug in and Shadow carefully inspected his meal. He took a carful bit and decided that it wasn't half bad; great even. He had to admit that it was a thousand times better than the prepackaged meals he had to eat in space. Shadow was not used to all these new foods, he used to get excited when he was aloud those hard as brick, oatmeal cookies that sometimes came in when the Ark would get supplies. Eating an actual meal for once reminded him of what he had done earlier to Julia and the pasta she had given him. Shadow frowned to himself, then looked to his empty plate.

"Is that all you're eating?"

Shadow acknowledged the voice with a questioning glance,

"That's all I took; I didn't know if I'd like it so…"

"Honey, you can go get as much food as you want, as many times as you want. That's the point of a buffet."

Shadow looked back at the buffet behind himself then back to Rouge with a childlike gleam behind his crimson eyes. Rouge responded by wiggling her brows. That day the bat learned that Shadow could pack it away. She was extremely jealous of the boy's metabolism. He hadn't commented on the more savory foods, however when Rouge mentioned that they had an ice cream machine, Shadow almost dragged her out of the seat so she could show him. She pressed down a lever filling her cone with chocolate ice cream, all while Shadow watched intently, waiting for his turn. Rouge tried her best to hold in her chuckles when the strong and silent male would stick his pink tongue out to lick his strawberry cone, like a kitten lapping up milk. Upon returning to their seats they saw that Omega had an audience. six rowdy bat children, of varying purple shades, were hanging from the robot's hefty arm plates like a jungle gym. Once the kids were spotted, they all started yelling to Rouge, each one interrupting the other. The youngest of the six, a small magenta, colored girl, tugged on Shadow's leg to get his attention,

"Hi. I'm Kimmi. What's your name?"

Shadow halted the devouring of his sweet treat,

"I am Shadow."

The girl blushed and hid her face in her hands. Shadow coked a brow at the child's response. The oldest boy now realized Shadow's presence as well,

"Hey, are you a cool soldier too?"

Shadow puffed up his chest at the statement,

"Yes I am."

"Sweet!" Shadow felt his ego inflate with the kid's amazement, until his next statement came out, "Do you know Sonic, you kind of look like him."

"I look nothing like that faker besides the fact that I too am a hedgehog," the salt was real, "can Sonic do this?"

Shadow didn't know if it was the sugar, but he felt the need to show off and impress these children. He held his hand out and with a shout,

"Chaos Spear!"

Summoned the yellow energy projectile in his hand. Rouge almost spit out her ice cream as all the kids looked at him in wonder,

"Shadow! Not inside! Put that away!"

Shadow realized that he had the attention of the whole restaurant. He looked out at the horrified faces of the adult patrons and quickly extinguished his power as his cheeks turned red. With his enhanced hearing he could hear their hushed words of disapproval and judgment. He wasn't able to dwell on it for long though, because one of the kids spoke up,

"That was the coolest thing I'd ever seen!"

Damn right it was, Shadow thought, I'm the coolest. Omega piped up after carefully plucking a young boy off of his head unit,

"Shadow is also very skilled in hand to hand combat, as well as a multi range of weapons expertise, in comparison to Sonic the hedgehog."

Rouge examined the scene with a smile. Maybe she could get used to having these two around.

The next day all three agents were packed and ready to go. They had been briefed on their mission, which involved breaking into Dr. Eggman's base and uncovering his next move, as they prepared to jump from a helicopter. Pretty standard stuff, except for the fact that G.U.N's guy on the inside had reported a lack of the Dr's actual presence at his main base. This gave the team a perfect opportunity to wreak the place and learn something new in the process. Omega cocked his machine guns, that he had equipped to his arms, in excitement. Rouge made sure her outfit was on point; had to make sure she looked good while she kicked ass. Shadow inspected his hand gun once more before smirking to himself and jumping from the air craft first. They all landed safely on the roof of the towering structure of the not so secret base, in their own preferred ways. Omega simply landed without trouble, Rouge fluttered down and Shadow spun into a ball and crashed through the ceiling. It didn't matter how loud they were anyway, the whole point was to destroy the place. Omega hopped through the opening next with Rouge seated on his shoulder. She quickly soared away once the trigger-happy robot began firing at all the Egg pawns that Shadow hadn't yet hit with his homing attack,

"Finally! Witness my power, inferior Eggman robots!"

Rouge allowed the two to clear a path for her while she trailed behind searching for the control room. They raced through the base causing explosions left and right. Omega was like a kid in a candy store, and Shadow wasn't far behind. The hog had needed to get out some aggression. Rouge soared down the hall finding nothing but useless rooms but having a good laugh at her boys' excitement all the same. She could see the happiness in Shadow's serious face. She peered into one of the rooms but this time a robot had been lying in wait to get the jump on her. It didn't have the chance however because Shadow cast out a Chaos Spear impaling the machine. The dark hero glided in front of Rouge and the bat thought she was about to be reprimanded for her carelessness. Instead Shadow granted her with a smirk and said,

"Look, rat on a stick."

He then skated away leaving Rouge dumbfounded. She laughed out into the air; it was just like old times. The gang were on the fifty-seventh floor of the massive tower when Rouge finally found the control room. Shadow and Omega guarded the door while the spy did her thing. She typed away at a massive computer and plugged in a recovery disc to download all the files onto. The agent paused reading something that caught her eye,

"Um... well that's interesting."

"What is it?" Shadow called to her from the hall.

"It looked like the reason we haven't seen the Dr is because he is in space."

Shadow looked to Omega as if the robot and him had some sort of secret language, even though one of them had limited facial expressions. He returned his attention to Rouge,

"The Ark?"

"Don't think so. It seems he is building something. Big."

She tried to access the file listed under Project Gaia, but upon opening it a cartoonish depiction of Eggman's face appeared on screen. An obnoxious high-pitched giggle came from the speakers and four steal walls dropped down around the bat. Shadow yelled out for Rouge but she was trapped in the tight cube. Omega fired everything he had at the box but the material was tough. Shadow stopped the frantic robot,

"Omega, even if you do break through, you'll hit Rouge. Let me think."

A muffled voice came from inside the trap,

"Guys hurry up the walls in this thing are closing in!"

Robots began filling the room, surrounding the hedgehog, robot, and trapped bat. A count down started on the screen that once held the Dr's secrets,

"Hold on we have problems of our own!" Shadow shouted.

"Omega!" The muffled voice said, "The floor isn't reinforced!"

"Understood."

The mechanical man burst a hole in the ground dropping to the floor below. Once down, he tore through the approximate area where the trap held his friend and the bat appropriately hung upside down from the fresh opening. Shadow dropped to their level as well,

"We have fifty seconds before this place goes! Hold on to me!"

Shadow reached into his quills and pulled out a green Chaos emerald. Rouges eyes went wide,

"Great! Chaos Control us out!"

"I can't Chaos Control all three of us with only one emerald." Shadow grunted before holding up the gem.

"Then what?"

"Omega blow a hole through the ceiling! Rouge help fly Omega up!" the hero yelled to his companions.

They both did as they were instructed as Shadow watched the count down. He took his raised hand and with a shout thrusts it toward the ground,

Chaos blast!"

The powerful blast directed at the floor launched Shadow up and caused a chain reaction with the detonation. The hog flew up and grabbed a hold of Omega s feet and pulled both himself and Rouge into the safety of the robot's chest plate. The pressure of the Fire and blast forced the backside of the bot's body to the surface while the organic life forms hid protected from the blast. A mechanical voice rang out into the air as the team erupted from the top of the base like a volcano,

"Weeeeeee!"

Once in the air Omega turned on his rocket thrusters aiding Rouge in carrying the groups weight. Shadow held on to the robot's arm and with the biggest, happiest smile, barked out a laugh,

"Ha ha! I'd like to see Sonic do that!"

Rouge looked down in wonder at the adrenaline induced outburst and smiled.

After they had returned to G.U.N headquarters they gave the run down on what had happened, to Towers. They would complete their official reports on the fallowing day but for now speaking with the Commander and getting some much-needed rest would do.

"The control room was a trap, and the whole place was set to blow anyway." Rouge said sitting on the edge of the human's desk.

"If I know the doctor, then that means that he has moved his true base of operations elsewhere already. This was merely a distraction." Shadow stated with his arms folded

Rouge turned her head to meet Shadow's gaze,

"A distraction for whatever he has going on in space? Still it was pretty brazen to put some actual info in his trap. Project Gaia sounds very interesting."

Towers spoke from behind the desk,

"Unless it was a red herring."

Shadow looked as though he was more talking to himself than the others as he stared at the carpet in thought,

"Not likely. That is just how the Dr. likes to play his games. We need to dig up anything we can find about this Gaia."

Towers looked almost proudly at Shadow,

"I will get my intelligence team on that at once. You did excellent work today Team Dark."

Shadow only nodded his head to the man, but secretly was soaking up the praise like a sponge.