"Did she get the letter?"
Shadow walked over to Rouge upon her return. He was relatively satisfied that she brought the emerald back securely, but anticipated someone else to have come back with her.
"Yeah, I gave
it to her. I think she would have gone with me, too, if that blue hedgehog
didn't talk her outta it!"
"That blue hedgehog…I've only
run into him once yet he's becoming quite a nuisance to me…"
"Shadow, why do you want her on our side anyways? It's not like she's that important-"
Shadow kept silent for a few seconds before inaudibly responding, "You have no idea…" as he slowly strode away.
"Before you go," Rouge intermitted, "I want to ask you something…why does she look so much like you? You're not clones or-"
"Mind your own business, that's information you don't need to know…"
******************************************************
The newly risen sun shone over the horizon as Sonic, Tails, and Amy slept soundly back at Tail's workshop. Angel, however, was once again lying among the grass, gazing at the slowly fading night stars. She held the note from Shadow in her hand, wondering if he knew where she was that very second, but doubted it.
Trying to get her mind off of the subject, she snuck back into the workshop, being vigilant not to wake her snoozing friends, and went into the room where Tails drew all his blueprints. She grabbed a sheet of paper, a hardback, a few pencils, and headed outside towards the cascade. She sat down as she held the pencil in her hand, gliding it on the paper while drawing her tranquil environ as if by instinct.
"This should help me relax a little bit…" She said to herself as she continued to doodle, "Hmm…"
"Hiya! Watcha doin'?"
Angel jumped up instantaneously as she became startled by a proverbial bouncy voice from behind her.
"Did I scare ya?"
"No Amy…you…uh…just surprised me…"
"Wow, did you draw that?"
"…Yeah…it's nothing specia-"
"That's so cool!! Can I keep it?"
"Oh...uh…sure I guess"
Amy held the picture out in front of her, looked at it, and then to the waterfall.
"This looks just like the real thing! How'd you learn to draw so good?"
"I dunno, I just take the pencil and just…draw I guess-"
"Hey, what are you guys doin' up so early?"
Amy and Angel turned around to see Sonic walking towards them, yawning and scratching his underarm as he approached the two hedgehogs.
"I couldn't sleep," Angel responded.
"Me neither,"
"You guys had me worried there for a sec, I wake up and neither of you are there! Thought you were kidnapped or somethin'…"
The two girls chuckled at Sonic's concern. He yawned again, and gestured for them to follow him back inside where they sat down in Tails-who was still sleeping soundly-'s many assorted colourful bean bag chairs in the central part of his shop.
Amy and Sonic smiled at Angel, but quickly turned their expressions to a more serious matter, "Angel...it's about that note Shadow gave you…"
She glanced at the note that was in her front pocket, taking a deep sigh as she answered, "It's nothing…"
"We'd really like to know what was on it-"
"What, you don't trust me?"
"Angel, that's not what we're trying to say. We want to know if it was a threat of any kind. We'd like to keep you safe and out of danger because you're part of the team now, and being part of the team means you can share things with us."
"Well…um…it wasn't really a threat…he just wanted to talk to me about something…uh…private."
"Private? You two aren't going out are you-"
Sonic slapped Amy on the arm as she spoke, making he and Angel crack up laughing as Amy gave them a sour look.
"Ha ha…no, nothing like that, Amy."
"Anyways…if Shadow gives you trouble in any way, just tell me. I'll beat 'em up before he touches you!"
Angel smiled at Sonic as he said those words. She felt safe around him and the others, even though she and he met but a few days ago with first impressions that weren't exactly what you would call welcoming.
Trying to get off topic, Sonic announced, "Anybody up for breakfast?"
******************************************************
"Uh…this is SO boring…I haven't gotten a signal on this damned radar for what seems like ages!"
Rouge was sitting down in front of a hefty computer screen displaying a map of the city, as well as other various charts of different locations across the globe. She gave out a yawn of sheer boredom, wishing the radar would pick up something-anything.
"Hmm…I wonder what else is on this computer…"
She minimized the windows of the maps and started aimlessly browsing through random files, trying to find anything worth reading.
"'Projects'," she read as she clicked on the file of the appropriate name; "This could be interesting…"
She scrolled through endless entries of logs from projects as old as 70 years ago and beyond. To her surprise, there wasn't very much information on Project Shadow, except for an article featuring a picture of an overgrown lizard. The remaining files on the subject were password protected.
"What's this? That doesn't look like Shadow at all…"
She clicked the 'print' button on her screen and stashed the article away in her pocket 'just in case'. Moving on, she clicked on a document including information on everything and everyone aboard the ARK just a few weeks prior to the attack. No doubt about it, Dr. Gerald Robotnik, Maria Robotnik, and Shadow were listed, but up popped a name Rouge was half expecting, but wasn't entirely sure she'd see.
"'Angel'", she said as she clicked on the name, "Maybe this could explain a few things…"
To her revelation, the document required a password, however, someone had inserted it in recently -Shadow must have she thought. An image appeared -which was without question the girl she met at the vacant building-along with a profile about her.
Rouge read through it slowly, sinking in everything on the screen to make sure she did not miss anything. Some things stated were obvious, others mind-boggling and jaw dropping. Scrolling down, a particular word caught Rouge's eye right away.
"Breeding??"
The monitor shut off before she was able to read on, or to even know if that's really what the word was. She turned around, seeing the outline of a figure holding the cord leading to her computer.
"I told you that is information you don't need to know."
"Shadow…is what was on that file true? Was she really-"
"You can forget everything you read, there's more to it then what was written on there and more than you could ever understand."
"So, she's just like you…isn't she?"
Shadow turned away from Rouge, ready to walk out the door but suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"I suppose you could say that…"
Before Rouge could say anything else, Shadow's cell phone began to ring. He flipped the screen up, seeing that it was none other than Dr. Robotnik calling.
"Shadow! Have you found anything?"
"No, doctor. We're not receiving any signals from emeralds anywhere."
"Hmm, well I've found something interesting. It seems that Sonic and his friends have a chaos emerald! Rouge, I thought I told you to take any that they had when you met them yesterday!"
Shadow tossed the phone over to Rouge, "Sorry, take a chill pill! I didn't know they had one, it was an honest mistake!"
"Well, don't let it happen again! We have to find out where they're hiding, that's probably where they're keeping it. And the second they leave, you'll sneak in and snag it. Got it?"
"Got it Doctor…" Rouge replied with an exasperated sigh. She handed the phone back over to Shadow.
"Call me back if you find out anything."
Shadow pressed the disconnect button and put the phone back in his pocket while Rouge walked over to the wall to plug the computer back in.
"I'll try to locate them-"
"Not with this computer."
Shadow went to the monitor and unplugged the cable, taking it with him as he left.
"Use a different one."
Rouge folded her arms and mumbled to herself, "God damn computer…why don't they work on batteries…" as she took the disk containing the emerald tracking program out of the disk drive and made her way to another computer. While on her way there, she caught a glimpse of Shadow leaning against a window overlooking the earth with a quite pissed off expression on his face. She didn't bother him, knowing he was already irritated with her already, and opened the door to a large computer lab consisting of what had to have been over 60 different monitors on various desks while broken test tubes, files, and bullet caps most likely from the G.U.N. soldiers littered the ground in which she stood.
"I can't imagine how terrifying it must have been when they raided this place…" Rouge thought to herself as she examined the old broken down room. Shaking the thoughts from her mind, she sat down in front of a random computer and inserted the disk in the drive to run the program.
"Installation complete," A computerized voice announced as two windows popped up, revealing that nothing had been found yet.
"You piece of shit, pick up SOMETHING!"
Rouge put her hands on the monitor and shook it in pure frustration, only to realize that the sound was turned off.
"Oh…um…heh…this could be the problem."
As soon as she un-clicked the mute button, a loud beep emitted from the speakers
"Hmmm…let's see where this is coming from," she said to herself as she punched a few keys, "The Mystic Ruins?"
Already having an idea forming in her head, she clicked a button labeled, "Get Aerial Shot" to get an overhead view of the area to pinpoint the exact location.
"C'mon, load quick-…well, well, what have we here?"
A wide smirk formed across her face as she closely examined the photos the camera received.
"That's the plane Sonic and Angel came in the other day…"
Becoming quite delighted with her find, she reached for her own cell phone and speed-dialed.
"Doctor…I think you'll be very pleased with what I found"