Omega closed up his arm and coiled the chain at his side once more. And then, he took off running in the direction that Sonic had been running. He still needed to stop him… In time, he came to a city. He slowed down, and began to walk through the crowded streets. Suddenly, they weren't all that crowded anymore. People, cars, they all hurried away from him. People looked at him from windows, and whispered. What were they whispering about? He decided to ask someone. Omega walked up to one of the few remaining pedestrians, and said, "Excuse me…"

The man took one look at him, gasped, and ran off. "Wait!" he shouted after him. "I know I have a robotic arm, but that's nothing to be worried about! I don't want to hurt anyone…"

"Don't bother," a voice came from a dark alleyway.

Omega turned quickly to see who was there. A shadowy figure, his face totally hidden, was standing framed in the space between 2 buildings. "Who are you?" he demanded, flexing his claws.

"That doesn't matter right now. You were about to ask that guy a question, right? So ask me, instead," the figure replied, not moving so much as one inch.

"You… oh, all right. What are all those people whispering about in those buildings?"

"Is that all? It's YOU."

"But… why? And why did he run from me?"

"Both those questions have the same answer, kid. Take a look at the back of your hand."

Omega did as he was instructed, though he was still suspicious of the whole thing. On the backs of his gloves, there were 2 matching insignia, Doctor Robotnik's. "It's the insignia of Doctor Robotnik… but-" he started.

"Bingo," the figure interrupted. "You've fallen in with the good doctor, haven't you? Well, here's news for you; Doc Robotnik, AKA the Eggman, ain't exactly benevolent. You could go so far as to say that he's outright evil. The people of this city are afraid of him and his creations. They've done a lot of damage."

Omega was shocked at this accusation of his creator and father figure. "You can't possibly expect me to believe…" he started, than stopped.

Things that he had taken for granted on Robotnik's island were beginning to look a little fishy. Why did he have so many weapons and robots, if he was so good and kind? He had said they were for defense, but aside from the training robots he had used, all of the robots on the island had fairly bristled with weapons. It was tantamount to an… invasion force…

The seed of doubt had been planted in his mind. Now all it needed was some good fertilizer. The figure smiled to himself. "Now, you're looking for Sonic, right, kid?" he asked.

Omega nodded silently, contemplating what this strange man had told him. If it was true… then Sonic might well be a hero. The figure pointed down the road, toward a green plain. "The mansion he's living in is over there. But now, I have to go…" the figure said, and began to back away into the shadows.

"Wait!" Omega shouted, and grabbed for the man. "Who are you?"

But his hand encountered nothing.

He stared into the darkness, and shook his head. That wasn't possible. He couldn't have MISSED… could he? He was supposed to be the best of the best! That's what Dr. Robotnik had told him… but doubt was growing in his mind. So many things he had been told seemed to be called into doubt. It was… no. Best not to think right now. He had to run. So he started to run, in the direction that the man had indicated, because it coincided with the direction that he had been heading… and in about 10 minutes of hard running later, he came upon a large mansion. He was just about winded… but he could still sense some sort of… power… emanating from the building, in the back of his mind. He was too tired to register it consciously, though. Omega slowed, walking up to the front gate. It was unlocked, so he went in.

As he went into the main compound, he noticed that something was off… for one thing, there was an old man staring at him. The old man was almost bald, with a shock of white hair, and he was rubbing his chin, muttering to himself. He then reached over to Omega and started examining his mechanical arm. "Interesting…" the old man said.

By this time, Omega had had enough. He jerked his arm out of the man's grasp. "What the heck do you think you're doing, old man?" he demanded, showing his teeth and lashing his tail in annoyance.

"My, you're interesting. Where did you come from? Was it Mobius, like Sonic?" the old man asked, unperturbed.

"No," Omega replied, calming down slightly. "I'm from somewhere around here. Dr. Robotnik…"

"Robotnik! The Eggman? That explains the mechanical arm, then. But what are you doing here? If you were here to steal the Chaos Emeralds, I'm sure you'd be more stealthy than that!"

"Um… Sonic invited me…" Omega began, scratching the back of his head. "I sorta tried to kill him, and accidentally wounded his girlfriend, and now I'm looking for information on the good Dr…"

"Yes, Sonic is a good source of information on Robotnik- wait, YOU wounded Amy?"

"Yes, but I patched her back up again. I don't want to hurt people… I just want Justice…"

"You should go talk to them, then. Tails will probably be waiting for you, too. He's a little genius, with machines."

"Um… all right then… which way?"

"Down this corridor, to the left."

"Thank you. Oh, and by the way, NEVER do that to me again," Omega said, and began walking in the direction indicated by the old man…

Soon, he came upon a room with a bed, a huge television, and a big couch. Amy was on the bed, and Sonic was on the couch along with an orange fox with double tails, a rabbit in a dress, and some sort of blue and yellow thing with a bowtie. This seemed to be par for the course, as he was a black and white cat in running shoes, wearing a chain around his waist. "I'm here, Sonic," he said quietly.

Sonic looked up at him, along with the fox and rabbit. "Omega, you made it… what took you?" Sonic asked.

"The fact that this place is about 10 miles from where we met. I'm not as fast as you are; you know that. So, are you going to tell me about Dr. Robotnik, or not?"

"Oh, we'll tell you, all right… but first, I want you to meet my associates. The orange fox there with the twin tails is named Miles, but we call him Tails. The little rabbit girl is Cream, and the Chao is Cheese."

"Cream and Cheese? Someone needs a lesson in comparative naming… but I want to know… if you're not evil, why does Robotnik want to kill you?" Omega asked.

"It's because HE'S evil," Tails interjected. "Sonic keeps ruining his plans for world domination here, just like on Mobius!"

Omega stood aghast. "Evil? He's evil? And where is Mobius? I'm so confused…" he moaned.

Then, Sonic began to tell Omega all about the things Robotnik had done, here and on Mobius, the planet they were from. He told him how they had arrived on earth, through the power of the Chaos Control. Finally, Sonic detailed out how he had been stopped each time. "That's terrible!" Omega exclaimed. "I had no idea about how much he's done… and now everything that didn't make sense before is clear… well, almost. If I'm thinking about this correctly, the power of Chaos is Life… the power to give, and to take away Life. So why can't anyone else transform with the Chaos Emeralds?"

"No one else has ever tried," Sonic said, and shrugged.

"Mr. Omega…?" Cream asked tremulously.

Omega looked at Cream. "Yes?"

"Mr. Omega, why did you hurt Amy like that? Why were you trying to kill Sonic?"

"Robotnik has apparently tricked me… and he's not going to get away with it. Amy getting hurt was entirely an accident, little girl."

Cream turned away from Omega, refusing to even look at him any longer. Omega shook his head, and sighed… then Tails said, "Well, as long as you're going to be on our side… would you like an Upgrade?"

Omega perked up at this. "Upgrade?" he asked, curious.

"For that arm of yours. As far as I can tell, it's pretty basic… no weapons or anything useful, except for a storage compartment."

"That would be nice, yes… I'm going to need some more firepower, something not built by Robotnik, if I'm going to go up against him."

"To the Lab!" Tails exclaimed, and ran off.

"Is he always like that?" Omega asked before running after.

Sonic shrugged. "Mostly, yeah. He loves working with machines…"

Omega smiled a bit, and ran off to follow Tails. In the lab, Tails strapped his arm down to the table, and opened it up with a screwdriver. He prodded around, and pried a microchip out. Omega's arm went totally limp, and he shouted in alarm. "Don't worry, it's the Control and Override chip… if this were still in when you fought Robotnik, your arm would work against you," Tails explained.

Tails fished around in a drawer and began to modify another chip, modeling it after the original; except for one detail… this was only a control chip, without an override. Before installing the new chip, he took off some of the motors in the arm, replacing them with more powerful, advanced versions, with separate power sources. In the storage compartment, Tails installed a small plasma torch, one that would be useful for welding and cutting metal.

Omega was truly confused. His entire memory was only of Robotnik, and now he was told that the good Dr. had been lying to him the entire time? It wasn't easy to take… but now it made sense. Some of the things that hadn't fit before were clicking into place. As Tails was installing the last wire to the small generator in his arm, he became aware of the power he had been sensing all along, much, much closer than before, when he hadn't recognized it. It was there, waiting to be used. But then something changed… an antithesis to the power here, rapidly approaching. Yet, it wasn't quite an antithesis, it was more of a complement… a harmony to the melody, constraint to power, focus to energy. It was becoming unbearable. As Tails finished up and shut his arm, his head was pounding. He moved his hands to his head, holding it… it felt as though he was going to explode. "Omega?" Tails asked. "What's wrong?"

"It…" he struggled to say. "The power… approaching power… and the power that is here… that way…"

As he said this, he gestured in the direction of the first power he had sensed. "It's killing me… I can't live like this! I must… must stop them! Must prevent them from coming together!" Omega shouted, and ran off into the hallway.