Sonic, Shadow, Tails, and Knuckles congregated at the entrance of a graveyard located near the edge of Death City. Tall, black metal fencing surrounded the area.

"Our remedial lesson is in a graveyard?" Tails wondered aloud.

"This is the address," Sonic confirmed. "We can open the instructions now,"

Tails brought up a large envelope, opened it, then took out the documents inside. He didn't need long to read them over.

"Wait, this is a mission briefing!"

"Like, an actual mission?" Knuckles asked.

"We're looking for a rogue scientist who's been stealing and modifying Eggman's tech for his own purposes. No name is listed, just a picture of this house. The scientist is using this house as a base of operations located in there," Tails pointed at the graveyard, holding up the picture for the others.

"So we can expect resistance from the bots on our way?" Sonic already knew the answer.

"Yup. We're encouraged to exercise caution while repelling any modified robots that pose a threat." Tails replied.

"Sweet! Is this really supposed to be a punishment? I was worried we'd end up doing chores or something!" Knuckles celebrated.

"Dunno. I guess it could just be grunt work. Maybe no one else wanted to clean up bots at night?" Sonic added.

"Let's find out," Tails opened the gate.

The group of four entered the graveyard. Chirping crickets could be heard, scattered throughout the grass. A few lampposts were spread out along a path that led deeper into the sea of tombstones. The darkness was barely kept at bay by the minimal lighting. Grave markers of varying shapes and sizes sat motionless in the dark.

"I like how dark and moody this place is," Sonic took a moment to soak in his surroundings.

"Sonic, let's ready-up, just to be safe," Shadow said.

"Good idea," Sonic caught his partner once he turned into a scythe.

Tails and Knuckles were thrown off by Shadow chiming in so casually. Knuckles transformed shortly after. At first, Tails had been annoyed over being dragged into the remedial lessons by his partner's misbehavior. Now that he was getting a chance to fight side by side with Sonic, he felt a lot happier. Moments like this were the reason Tails became a weapon meister, after all.

"Incoming," Shadow alerted.

An object was flying through the sky followed by a glowing trail. Sonic and Tails had been spotted by a robot. They prepared to dodge any long ranged attacks but the robot landed a short distance away from them instead. It had red and black metal plating covering its thick, bipedal body that towered over the meisters.

"Greetings students. My name is E-123 Omega," The robot began.

"It knows we're students?" Tails wondered.

"[Meister: Sonic] [Meister: Miles Prower] identified. Both armed. Instruction shall commence in 3...2...1…" The robot held out its arms. The metallic hands shifted into cannons. "Die die die die die die die die," The robot chanted while firing a barrage of laser blasts from its arms. Sonic and Tails took cover among the tombstones.

"Looks similar to the classroom instructor models. It's been modified," Tails observed.

"You don't say?" Sonic replied.

Blobs of energy whizzed past the meister duo. The shots that did collide with the graves did little to damage their stone structure.

"Commencing close combat tutorial," Omega announced while advancing.

"Looks like the fighting's started," Eggman commented.

Back at the DWMA, Eggman was watching the battle on a large screen. Surveillance devices hidden throughout the graveyard gave him a full view of the fight between Sonic, Tails, and Omega. Blaze was in the room, watching as well. Silver had been lying on the ground, bored. He jumped up to join in after hearing Eggman speak.

"Glad I get a chance to see Sonic fight with his primary weapon," Silver said.

Omega grabbed a large tombstone shaped like a cross. He then slammed it into the ground with a crash. Sonic jumped right, and Tails left in order to dodge. A muffled clank came shortly after the tombstone landed.

"This bot's got some thick armor," Sonic had managed to stab Omega with Shadow's blade, but it barely broke the surface of the metal. He withdrew his weapon to dodge the counterattack.

Tails attacked next. He jumped while using his two tails to propel himself up higher. Omega dodged the gauntlet hit then spun his torso on its axis to bring his weaponless arm around to swat Tails away.

"Yow!" Tails landed. "Sonic, if you can restrict its movements, Knuckles and I can break through the armor,"

Sonic hadn't seen Tails fight with Knuckles for a while, but decided to trust his younger brother. "Got it,"

"Movement restrictions not authorized," Omega brought down the tombstone again.

Sonic made a minute adjustment to his positioning before the hit came. The tombstone crashed into the ground next to him, only a hair away from hitting. Sonic jammed Shadow's blade into the robot's left armpit and leaned forward to keep his partner in place. The snath of the scythe ran diagonally across the robot's body while looping behind its right leg. Omega could no longer rotate, run, or use his left arm.

Tails jumped in again, this time with his gauntlet glowing. He landed a direct hit onto Omega's right arm, tearing it off completely. After landing, he threw out another strike to break off the right leg as well. Sonic jumped away with Shadow in hand. The two watched their metallic opponent tip over and flop onto the ground with a thud.

"Nice resonance Tails!" Sonic said.

"It's just a slight increase in power. I can only keep it stable for a bit," Managing to impress his older brother made Tails smile.

"Congratulations students. You have passed the combat lesson," Omega stood up despite his now lopsided figure. "Instruction complete. My work here is done." Omega activated the thrusters on his back to take off, but couldn't re-balance his damaged right side. He corkscrewed through the air violently, leaving a winding smoke trail. The robot crashed a fair distance away. Sonic and Tails watched the spectacle with perplexion.

"Calibrating," Omega's distant voice could just barely be heard across the graveyard.

"What kind of scientist would want to waste their time with Eggman's crummy bots?" Sonic sighed.

"Looks like the house we're looking for is over there. We can go ask them ourselves," Tails chuckled. The two headed toward their objective.

Eggman scoffed at Sonic's comments. He would have rather watched Omega knock the blue hedgehog down a peg, especially since Blaze and Silver were watching.

"Your first impression was right, Silver. Sonic moves and attacks with the precision of a high level meister," The princess observed.

"That dodge was very risky though. If he could resonate with his weapon beyond the base level he could play a lot smarter," Eggman contested.

"If he's doing this well while being limited he'll be that much stronger once he does improve his resonance with Shadow," Silver noted.

Eggman didn't have a response. Blaze glanced over at Lord Death, noting his expression of distaste. It was obvious that he had it in for Sonic, but she didn't really care why. She wanted to evaluate Sonic's performance to reach her own conclusion. He was the first person she'd seen wield a weapon from the Black Arm series, after all.

Sonic and Tails arrived at the small house. Miscellaneous robot parts were scattered about the lawn that was contained inside the perimeter of a crooked fence. The house was also crooked, with many harsh looking pipes winding in and out of its walls.

"I don't really feel like sneaking in there," Sonic stated.

"Let's smash the door down, Tails!" Knuckles commanded.

"That robot, Omega, found us really quick. I wouldn't be surprised if our target already knew we were here,"

Just then, the rickety garage door opened with a prolonged creaking sound. A white platypus man exited the garage while riding a petite office chair. He stood upon the wheeled chair with one pointed boot atop the back, as if he were the captain of a ship. The man wore a purple collared shirt with a magenta vest and gray pants. A pair of orange spectacles were perched atop his beak. His white hair flowed neatly off to one side of his head, with a darkened highlight at the front.

"Hello there!"

"General Kenobi!" Tails changed his voice to be deep and guttural.

The scientist reacted with a delighted gasp. "You're the first person who's gotten that reference!" He clapped his hands together and held them close to his face while grinning. His left hand was bare, exposing the webbing between each finger. His right hand touted a gray glove that looked to be made out of heavy duty materials. "Do you think the chair makes it unclear?"

"The inflection of your voice was spot on, at least,"

"I really should have jumped from the roof," The scientist pondered, looking back at the house.

"Can we save the nerd crap for later?" Sonic groaned.

"Yes, of course. We're supposed to be fighting, aren't we?" A playful expression appeared on the man's face. He hopped off the chair to meet the four students.

"Are you the scientist who's been modifying DWMA robots?" Tails accused.

"That would be me. My name is Dr. Starline," The doctor bowed once.

"You sound like you're expecting a fight, Starline," Sonic spun his scythe around and readied his stance. "But it'd be a lot easier if you'd just surrender now,"

"Easier? Yes. But would it really be as fun?" Starline grinned before looking his opponents over. "Although, four-on-one would be rather difficult without a weapon," He sat down on the office chair backwards, coolness emanating from his non-conformist seat posture. "I'll just use this,"

"We're going in first Tails," Knuckles said.

Tails felt a slight hesitation. He and Starline had shared a brief moment of camaraderie upon meeting. Now, all of a sudden, they were opponents. The fact that he felt comfortable while being so outnumbered didn't sit well either. The fox decided to attack regardless.