Chapter 1 (Shadow): An Immediate Rescue
Dark clouds were usually a sign of three possibilities: heavy rain, a snowstorm…
Or an ominous threat.
The latter two fit the bill this time.
The snowstorms in White Acropolis were usually worse this time of year, yet tonight was a rare exception where the sky brought nothing more than a light snowfall.
It made it easier for the Egg Gunners – simple warmongering robots designed by Dr. Eggman – to scan for the intruder that tripped the security line, setting off the loud siren inside the Sector 5 storage facility. For the past few days, this intruder had destroyed several of Dr. Eggman's storage facilities near the main base centered in this mountainous region of white hell, but this time they were ready. They had spotlights, traps, and a larger number of Badniks defending the iron wall surrounding the facility compared to the others.
All the intruder had was the darkness of the night and his own abilities.
Best of all, he wasn't the Priority 1 Hedgehog, so his speed won't be fast enough to dodge their weapons.
This will be easy. They would succeed where their inferior models had failed.
After a few seconds of waiting, the intruder appeared, swerving around the corner of the path covered in snow and surrounded by tall trees. He was shadowy in appearance – a black hedgehog with crimson red streaks that matched his focused eyes.
And he was fast. About as fast as the blue one!
The Egg Gunners immediately realized both who they were dealing with and the folly in their logic. This wasn't Dr. Eggman's arch-nemesis. This was the other hedgehog.
The darker one, and an agent of G.U.N.:
Shadow.
The Egg Gunners raised their arm guns and fired. They knew it was a futile effort. Shadow's power exceeded that of the blue hedgehog's, his white Air Shoes even allowing him to match the blue one's speed.
But for the Egg Gunners, there was no higher honor than to be destroyed fighting for the glory of the Eggman Empire.
Besides, at the moment, Shadow was swerving between their bullets. If he got close enough, there would be little room for him to move. They could…
Shadow rushed past them, but not without leaving them with a small bright ball of orange energy in their chest plates.
A signature attack of his: The Chaos Spear.
The Egg Gunners felt their insides explode, and soon all but one robot from the battalion was left. It tried to shoot Shadow, who had stopped right next to him, but Shadow was too quick. Jumping on top of the robot's head, Shadow increased the pressure from his shoes, allowing more thrust and heat to be emitted. When he jumped, he reached a phenomenal height that allowed him to pass over the large iron gate. As Shadow landed, the final Egg Gunner, unable to contain the energy transferred into him by Shadow's shoes, blew up and became the last member of the newly formed Badnik graveyard outside.
Too easy.
Shadow observed the surrounding facility for any additional guard robots, only taking time to move out of the way of an approaching spotlight. He took advantage of the nearby barrels and boxes and hid behind them for cover. Getting spotted would have alerted more of the doctor's Badniks, which would have made his mission longer than it needed to be.
Not that it mattered to him personally. The mission called for him to destroy the facility, after all. A few more pawns would've made the whole thing closer to a fair fight for Eggman.
Still, Shadow noted the security measures added when he tripped the wire on his way here. If Eggman added any other traps, it would be harder to avoid them while fighting.
The sound of static drew his attention to his standard GUN wrist communicator. The alert sounds the communicator produced varied based on the level of importance. A small beeping sound indicated a personal message from another member of GUN. An urgent buzz sound would be followed by information on a crime or attack in progress.
In this case, static represented a message of utmost urgency – a presidential request. Shadow listened carefully.
"Transmission from HQ. There's an SOS coming from Dr. Eggman's base. Our last communication with our agent was 26 hours ago. We expect an immediate rescue, Shadow The Hedgehog."
Shadow answered back. "Understood. Initiating the mission now." Once he finished, he closed his eyes.
The president wants a GUN agent to be rescued, he thought. Generally speaking, the President of the United Federation wouldn't make requests for such a matter; rather, he would ask for extra security for an event or have troops moved to a region for war.
There was at least one exception: a 'friend' of the president and GUN's top spy – albeit a part-time spy.
Shadow grunted. If that troublemaker was involved in espionage against Eggman, along with all these facilities in White Acropolis, it only made the question resurface in Shadow's head:
Dr. Eggman… What is he up to this time?
Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik – great-grandson to Professor Gerald Robotnik – was one of the world's greatest minds and a terrorist. Known for his IQ of 300, Eggman's scientific ingenuity allowed for him to build an army of robots known as Badniks and other machines that he constantly used in attempts to take over the world. While the doctor started out turning animals into machines – some by placing them inside of Badniks while others he roboticized – he has since performed more devastating acts.
When Shadow first met him, he assisted Eggman in a scheme to use the Space Colony ARK's Eclipse Cannon to destroy part of the moon, threatening the people of Earth to surrender to the Eggman Empire or face oblivion. In truth, Shadow was carrying out the will of Professor Gerald, who secretly altered his memories and developed a special program in the ARK to crash into the Earth.
It was an act of revenge against humanity, and it almost worked.
Except Shadow recovered one important memory of his past – the only one that mattered.
A promise to a friend.
Shadow shook his head to regain focus. That was a long time ago. He had put the past behind him and was keeping his promise to protect humanity. Other than that, his past was nothing more than a calling card for trouble.
It was better left forgotten.
Shadow knew he needed to complete the rescue mission immediately, but he still had a facility to destroy. Teleporting away using Chaos Control, Shadow proceeded to blow up the facility and make his way down the mountain, to the main base.
Rouge the Bat hated cramped spaces, especially air vents. Just because she was a spy and a treasure hunter – two professions that would, generally speaking, involve such a phenomenon – she did not find moving through tight areas comfortable at all. Her wings especially wounded up aching after the fact.
In this scenario, though, the only alternative was getting captured by Eggman.
"Ugh! You would think for a guy of Eggman's weight, he would want more air coming through these things," Rouge said to no one in particular.
Finally reaching the end of the labyrinth that was Eggman's air conditioning system, she kicked the small grate blocking her path off of its hinges and crawled outside. Immediately upon landing on the snowy ground, she stretched her wings and body, sighing in satisfaction.
"Much better!"
Rouge then shivered a little bit when the cold finally settled into her body. She had gotten used to the temperature inside the base that she forgot how freezing it was outside. Still, better to be out here than in there.
Okay, we got out of the base, but security's really high… Let's see…
Based on her memory of White Acropolis' layout, the base was built on a mountainous terrain, resulting in a more stretched layout over multiple sections. Some sections were divided by barriers; others were separated by natural boundaries like the trenches in front of Rouge right now. Consequentially, the base suffered from a security issue via blind spots.
Eggman wasn't an idiot, however. He compensated for these natural limits by incorporating spotlights, robot lookouts, and traps.
With her wings, Rouge could avoid the traps effortlessly. Similarly, the spotlights were programmed to follow a particular radius; if she stayed well above the spotlights' range, she needn't worry about them either.
The robots were a different matter. While they too were programmed to follow a routine, they had enough sensors built into them to detect moving objects if said objects produced sound or gave off a heat signature. Plus…
Rouge reached for her pocket to feel her objective, as if making sure it was still there. No doubt they will pick up on this thing, too.
But Rouge wasn't a spy and a thief for nothing. She knew if she passed underneath the machines positioned at sniping points on the canyon walls while still maintaining a high enough altitude to avoid the spotlights, she could escape the area without being detected.
And so, Rouge the Bat began to scale the wall. Her time as a treasure hunter allowed her to hone her wall climbing abilities, making traversal of the rocky terrain a breeze. As she started to get close to the robotic watchmen, she climbed lower to avoid their gaze. At one point, she was spotted by one of the Egg Gunners, but through a quick Heart Bomb to the head, she disposed of the threat before things escalated.
Upon reaching the end of the trench, she found that most of the patrols were stationed around the new ground level, surrounding the now-visible spotlights. Extending her wings, Rouge jumped and flew over the guards, dodging the spotlights as their beams slid across the air and ground. It took a few seconds, but she reached the end of the trench area, landing before a set of doors.
Glancing back, she gloated, "Ha ha! Dr. Eggman is no match for me." She reached into her pocket and pulled out what she had snuck in to steal (back). It was an ugly wand, glowing purple and white with a shadowy mist emanating from a red, spherical gem tucked in at the top; the wand extruded from the gem on two sides, making it appear to have closed wings of sorts. Despite its dreadful look, the wand had a Gothic allure to it, especially its gem.
"This treasure…ha ha!"
BOOM!
The sudden explosion prompted Rouge to instinctively cover her head. When she turned to see what had happened, she noticed the doors in front of her had a large, uneven hole in them. Swerving through that hole was her teammate, Shadow, in a G.U.N. armed buggy.
"Shadow, why you?"
Rouge remembered sending an S.O.S. when security got rough, but she had gotten her objective and escape from the interior halls of the base on her own. If she had gotten a little further, all she would've needed was a simple evac.
It's not that she didn't trust Shadow to get her out of White Acropolis. As his teammate, she knew he was more than capable of demolishing Eggman's toys without much effort. Still, sending him was a bit too much, so why?
Shadow replied instantly. "It's a request from the President."
"The President?" If Rouge were anyone else, it would've been an honor to have the President of the United Federation care enough to make a request for an agent's recovery, yet she knew better. Is this ugly thing really that important? She wondered.
Shadow couldn't afford to wait around any longer. "Get in!"
His attitude stunned Rouge for a moment, but a sudden foray of bullets from behind her knocked her back into reality. Looking back, she saw the guards that she had snuck past flying towards them; the spotlights shined heavily on their position.
Looking back at Shadow, she responded sarcastically, "Like I have a choice?" and she jumped in.
Shadow floored the pedal and began to drive away from the robots closing in from behind. He had experience driving these vehicles in tough spots from previous 'adventures,' as Sonic would put it. Thus, when more guards tried to assault him from the front, instead of panicking like a rookie agent, he launched a series of rockets that annihilated them on the spot.
It was fortunate Shadow had managed to find one of these lying in the mountains, most likely left behind during a G.U.N. reconnaissance mission that went awry. It certainly made getting Rouge out of here easier. Speaking of which, Rouge acted very sarcastic to him just a moment ago. Perhaps he should return the favor.
"I didn't know you were the agent who failed to infiltrate the location."
It wasn't technically a lie. The message from G.U.N. only stated an agent sent an S.O.S. from inside the base; it did not specify who, even though Shadow had a fairly good guess.
Bullets from their pursuers landed hits on the back of the buggy, almost like rain. Regretfully, the buggy wasn't equipped with weapons in the back, instead opting for reinforced metal plating to extra protection.
Rouge held on to her objective closely while keeping her head fairly low. "Come on! Don't underestimate Rouge the Bat!"
As she said this, Shadow launched another set of rockets at the base of a spotlight; it fell and crushed a couple of the robots behind them, though quite a few remained. Shadow then looked at Rouge with a straight face.
Rouge sighed. "I got in successfully, and got the treasure, too. I was…only a little slow getting out. Woah!" She held on to the door as Shadow swerved around a corner, and lurched forward when he accelerated again. "But it's great to know your driving's improved!"
Before Shadow could respond, one bullet from behind hit the rear-view mirror. When he glanced back, he saw the Egg Gunners were almost on top of them.
Shadow gritted his teeth. We need to get out of here quickly. But I can't shake them at this rate.
He then quickly formed an idea.
"Take the wheel!" He let go of the wheel and climbed over his seat, landing on the back.
"What the…!?" Rouge did as he said, albeit with shock. "What are you doing?!"
Shadow didn't respond, instead pulling out the G.U.N. pistol he carried with him. During the Black Arms invasion, he took advantage of the numerous weapons lying around from victims on both sides of that conflict to assist in his finding of the Chaos Emeralds. Now that he had his memory back, his knowledge of his abilities came back, reducing his need to rely on simple weapons. Still, nearly every member of G.U.N. was required to carry a basic weapon.
Rouge had her bombs, and Shadow had his gun.
Since he didn't have one of the Chaos Emeralds with him, his use of Chaos energy was limited. And with the attack on that storage facility taking up a bit of his energy, Shadow needed to conserve his power. Plus, the gun was easier to aim in this situation.
Shadow began to fire back at the robots, dodging their bullets and reloading every so often. Slowly, their numbers began to wane.
"Shadow!" The black hedgehog turned to see what Rouge wanted, realizing they were about to ram into a wall. He climbed over to the front seats, hit the rocket launcher button and pulled Rouge down into a cover position.
The robots watched as their targets went through the hole they had created in the wall, only going through when the smoke cleared up enough. They found the vehicle turned upside down, a complete wreck. Landing around it in a circle, the Egg Gunners raise their weapons, approaching cautiously.
Beep!
They stopped walking as soon as they were right next to it.
Beep! Beep!
One of them lifted the buggy up to see what was underneath.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The Egg Gunners noticed several spheres with hearts on them.
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
Boom!
Shadow and Rouge watched from the wall as their pursuers finally met their end in a fiery explosion. Rouge couldn't help but be impressed by Shadow's quick thinking. Once they went through the wall, he grabbed a set of Rouge's Heart Bombs, stuck them to the buggy, and pulled her out of the buggy as it fell to the ground; moving them to the position of the wall where the vehicle entered, they avoided the Egg Gunners' field of vision, watching as they passed over them and towards the buggy, falling right into his trap.
"Finally!" Rouge sighed, only to realize Shadow was already making his way towards the grand entrance. She swiftly caught up to him.
For a while, neither of them said anything as they made their way to the gates. Rouge knew Shadow wasn't one for conversation, yet even now, she tried. "Don't you want to know what this is?"
Shadow turned to see the item Rouge held out in front of him. It appeared to be a wand or scepter of some kind; Shadow could feel the dark energy radiating from it.
But whatever it was, it had nothing to do with him.
"My assignment was to rescue you, nothing more."
"Hmph! Fine. With you, it's always business."
Just as Rouge finished her comment, the ground beneath the two began to rumble. Shadow and Rouge looked around for the cause, eventually noticing a security gate opening up at one end of the snowy plain. Emerging from the gates was a large, red-and-gold robotic dog. Perched atop its head was a glowing antenna. It made a sound akin to a growl as it slowly walked towards them.
"The doctor's guard dog," Shadow said.
The two agents knew what the 'dog' was. According to intel provided by G.U.N., one of Dr. Eggman's newest ideas was a large dog creature with three heads, which was capable of separating into three separate machines, each with unique abilities. Supposedly, he had finished two-thirds of his creation, and as he continued to work on the remaining 'dog,' he had the finished two serve as extra security bots at two different bases.
Each robotic dog, and the three-headed behemoth they could combine into, were named "Egg Cerberus."
"It seems they don't want us to leave," Rouge remarked.
Shadow took a defensive stance, grunting. "Let's get this over with."
The Egg Cerberus charged straight at the two; while its movement was slow, each step sent tremors through the ground that grew as it approached. Shadow took off skating to meet the robot head-on, leaving Rouge behind in the process. As soon as he was close, the Egg Cerberus opened its mouth and unleashed a stream of fire.
Shadow quickly reacted and jumped to avoid being barbecued. Rouge, who had begun flying to catch up to her teammate, dodged as well.
Once he was safely out of range of the fire, Shadow homing attacked the guard dog's face, only to find his attack deflected, sending him back into the snow.
"Damn!"
The Egg Cerberus finished off his fire breath and turned to face Shadow, growling in annoyance that its attack didn't hurt the black hedgehog in the slightest. It started to circle around its opponent slowly. Shadow knew it was trying to figure out the best way to kill him, so he did the same. He knew his opponent had a lot of plating with a slight shield effect, preventing him from landing any hits. In addition, the robot seemed to be the most dangerous when it came to frontal attacks.
It wasn't hard to figure out how to go about beating the machine.
I see… Shadow thought. That armor on his head is protecting its weak point. I'll break that first.
"Rouge!" Shadow called out to the bat girl hovering above them. "Bomb his face!"
Rouge nodded and flew right towards the guard dog. It watched as she dropped a set of Heart Bombs around its head, howling in pain when they detonated. Yet the bombs didn't do much damage to break the plating.
Egg Cerberus, enraged at Rouge's pitiful attempt to hurt it, sent fire her way.
"Ah!" Rouge flew out of the way, but the Egg Cerberus followed her path of flight as it tried to burn her into a crisp. Growing tired from flying and needing to escape its line of sight, Rouge flew closer towards the guard dog's head, avoiding its fire attack. She grabbed on to the plasma rod sticking out of its head.
Facing Shadow, she yelled, "Any more bright id… Woah!" The Egg Cerberus began to jerk around while Rouge held on, adjusting her grip on the rod as the movement became worse. Eventually, unable to hold on anymore, she lost her grip and was flung into the snow near Shadow. The guard dog then shook its head as if to regain focus.
Shadow recognized what had happened instantaneously: When Rouge touched the robot's antenna, the dog reacted to her. It was a receiver of signals, most likely for when Eggman is present in the battlefield. If Shadow could reach the antenna, he could force it to do what he wanted, even if it was crashing into a wall.
As Rouge got up from the snow, Shadow explained his findings. She agreed with the idea, but warned, "The front's too dangerous, Shadow! Can you get around to the back?"
"I can. Keep him distracted in the meantime!"
"Oh, goodie! I get to risk being his chew toy!"
Shadow was already on the move before he could hear Rouge's sarcastic remark, keeping his eyes trained on the Egg Cerberus as he approached. Before he got close, the guard dog took off towards the other end of the area, jumping on top of the circular wall surrounding them.
As it eyed Shadow, the black hedgehog knew it was going to pounce on him like a cat, but Rouge caught its attention with a Heart Bomb to the head.
"Hey! Over here, Bite-o!"
The Egg Cerberus snarled and jumped towards Rouge's position on the ground. She moved out of the way as it landed with force. When it attempted to recover from its failed attack, Shadow took the opportunity to slide around the back, grind up its tail like a rail and, somersaulting over its back, grabbed onto its antenna.
The creature roared in pain as soon as Shadow took a hold of its sensor, running around aimlessly trying to shake Shadow off, yet the hedgehog stubbornly refused to let go.
Seeing her ally hanging on, Rouge shouted, "Shadow! Make him crash into something!"
Shadow struggled to make the Egg Cerberus move in the direction he wanted, almost getting thrown off a few times when the machine made a quick U-turn in the snow. "Ngh… Do what I tell you!"
Unable to resist any longer, the Egg Cerberus finally gave into Shadow's commands reluctantly, though it continued to fight as Shadow steered it straight towards the exit gate. Right before the guard dog hit the gates, Shadow at last let go and leapt over the gates as the Egg Cerberus crashed into them.
The black hedgehog landed in the snow, his back towards his opponent. As he looked back, he saw the Egg Cerberus still functioning, struggling to get up. The antenna, along with the rest of the protective layer that was on its head, were gone.
"Looks like that armor's gone," he told his opponent. The guard dog barked in frustration. Still undeterred, it charged once again at the black hedgehog.
But Shadow didn't waver. In fact, he smirked victoriously.
"Now it's my turn!"
Raising his right hand to his left shoulder and enclosing it, Shadow summoned an orange-yellow energy. Then, with a swift swipe back to the right, he unleashed a torrent of projectiles towards the Egg Cerberus' exposed skull.
"Chaos Spear!"
The balls of energy rippled across the Egg Cerberus' head like a current, damaging it enough to make it lose control of its limbs. It falls to the ground, defeated yet still active.
Shadow walked over to his opponent, seeing the anger in its eyes. Pulling out his pistol, he aimed it at the damaged interiors of the head and fired, putting the dog to sleep.
Rouge flew through the broken entrance and landed next to him. "Nice job."
Shadow gazed back at her and nodded. He then turned towards the mountainous terrain before them. "Let's go."
Rouge frowned. "Do you even know where to go?"
Shadow looked back at her, expecting her to elaborate.
"There's a teleporter outside the base that can take us to where I need to go. You can come with me, or you can take the long way back to HQ. Your call."
Shadow didn't care about which path he took. It would all lead to the same place.
Still, his mission was to rescue Rouge, who herself had a mission to complete. It was best to be efficient and go along with her idea.
Seeing Shadow agreeing to her suggestion, she took the lead as the black hedgehog followed behind her. But deep inside the object Rouge carried, a grave voice murmurs repeatedly after hearing the one who was responsible for his imprisonment, growing louder each time.
"Shadow…"
Yet no one heard him.
