Act VI: Secret Sabotage
Amy's car slowed to a stop in front of the rundown apartment building she'd been given the directions to. The napkin didn't have just directions to the place, instead there was the address of a gas station a few blocks away, then directions to the apartment building. Amy assumed Rouge didn't want her Map Questing the address of their safehouse, which made sense. Holy shit Amy had been dealing with secret agents for like, almost a whole decade now.
She pulled into the parking lot behind the building and parked her car under the overhang. Stepping out, she couldn't help but walk quickly to the door. This was kind of a really shitty neighborhood, she was surprised Rouge and Shadow would be hiding out here. Down the long parking lot, she saw a couple of rats close together talking, and she could almost feel them stealing looks at her. As the instructions indicated, the door to the building was unlocked, and the smell of moldy carpet struck her as she entered the hallway. Following the green, faded carpet stairway up, she found room 2E and knocked softly.
As the seconds passed, Amy could feel her doubts creeping back over her. What was she doing here, she's out of this crazy lifestyle, she doesn't belong here. One of those rats are probably breaking into her car right now, she should just get out of here, it probably isn't the right place, I mean how could it be- The door opened, interrupting her frantic thought process. Rouge was wearing a light purple robe with a matching towel wrapped around the top of her head, and standing out of the way for Amy to enter.
"Sorry for the delay, hon, I lost track of time, and you caught me while I was drying my hair" she purred, poking her head out once Amy was in. When she verified no one saw her, she shut the door behind them. Amy was amazed by the disparity between this room and the neighborhood it was in. Sure, it was clearly for practical use, not really a vacation home, but it had money put into it with several computers set up in the living room. Turning back, she saw there was more than just a single deadbolt lock on the door.
"Don't worry about it! Um, just you here then?" Amy asked.
"Shaddy got caught up with work, but he'll be here soon. In the meantime, come with me." Rouge half-skipped to the bathroom, which was clearly stocked by her. Hair and body care products filled the shower and sink, and a large make up bag was spilling out contents. It didn't matter much, the sink was massive after all. Rouge stood in front of the mirror, and began putting on foundation.
"So, um... How'd you guys decide to ask me? If you need someone with physical power, why not Knuckles? Or, again, Shadow? Can't he level a city block?" Amy asked, leaning against the doorframe.
"A couple blocks, actually," Rouge said, not breaking her makeup application. "Which will get him worse than reprimanded by the Commander, who's already royally pissed with us." Rouge moved onto her eyes. "And Knuckles? You might not know how he and I ended up, but I try to avoid him. Plus, he went a little crazy. I take full credit, he said he'll have me shot if I set foot on his island again." She said it as though she was enamored by the threats on her life.
"Okay, so why me? I know you said I was strong and gutsy but... come on, there has to be someone stronger than me at G.U.N."
Rouge paused, then continued working on her eyes. "Amy, I've always respected you. Even when you were a dumb kid chasing Sonic across the world, convinced he was going to marry you, I respected you." Amy crossed her arms and pulled back a bit. "You present yourself as you are, unfiltered, unashamed. Even if you're embarrassed by how you used to act, which I can tell you are from how you retreated after I brought it up, you still acted proudly, with determination. It's very 'me.' I like that.
"So because I respect and like you so much, I'm going to be honest with you. And don't let Shadow know I was this open with you, because even though he's on board with you helping us, he wants things kept very no-questions-asked. Unfortunately for him, he and I are fighting, so I don't care what he wants right now. More or less, we're being blamed for Metal Sonic getting Shadow's emerald. I don't think I need to explain why. Well, maybe I do. We have the almost-genocidal black ops science experiment, world class jewel thief who was exonerated of dozens to hundreds of high profile crimes, and a weapon of mass destruction built by the biggest Mobian rights violating monster of a human in Mobius history on one team. We aren't exactly liked by anyone, not even the people we get results for.
"Now one of us is gone. Taken by the enemy. We lost two pieces of G.U.N. property, very valuable pieces of G.U.N. property, one to a Badnik, and one to Sonic, who G.U.N. is not a fan of after a series of public statements he's made talking shit about us. G.U.N. is being made a laughing stock right now, and it's our fault. We have no room for error. We need to fix things immediately or we're fucked. Ever wonder why Shadow and I aren't in jail for our various crimes? It's because we're with G.U.N. If they decide we're not worth keeping around, it's jailtime or life on the run for us. Well, for me, it's life on the run or death for Shadow. May I remind you, he almost dropped a space colony on the planet.
"We're out of options, Amy. We don't have friends at G.U.N. No offense, but we didn't want to bring you in on this. And I'm not emphasizing the word 'you' there, we're happy to have you on board, but we didn't want to bring anyone in on this. But we have no room for error going forward. We're desperate. Fuck, we're desperate. So that's why we got help outside of G.U.N.
"As for why it's you, well, I think I've more or less already told you why I want you working with us. You're confident, don't take people's shit, shameless, you get the job done, yadda yadda. And most importantly, we can trust you. We don't have many people like that in our world."
Rouge finally finished the last of her makeup, and she exited the bathroom. Waving Amy along, she led the pink hedgehog to her bedroom. There was still a burn mark from when her cigarette fell on the bed. Shame.
"But Shadow wanted me to? He trusts me?" Amy asked, sitting on Rouge's bed.
Rouge nodded, and approached the closet. "Yup. He wouldn't tell me why, but anyone else I suggested he had a million reasons why they wouldn't work. He had no complaints about you though." She turned back with a smug grin. "Maybe he likes you." Amy's cheeks turned red at the notion of Shadow finding her- or anyone really, truth be told Amy was pretty sure Shadow was an asexual- attractive, and the blush deepened when Rouge dropped her robe to the floor. Now, Amy wasn't into girls, but she could recognize that Rouge had a beautiful body. And, it took her by surprise, so of course she was a little (lot) flustered when Rouge exposed it to her. She turned quickly away, but she couldn't help but notice the red marks and scratches on Rouge's ass and back respectively.
"I doubt it!" Amy said quickly, trying not to glance over at Rouge.
Rouge giggled, and sighed. "I know, I know. But you two always have had a weird relationship," Rouge said, withdrawing an outfit from her closet.
Amy didn't need to ask what Rouge meant- Shadow had always been polite to her, ever since day 1. Where Shadow was often combative with everyone, Sonic; Tails; Knuckles; hell, even Rouge, he'd never acted aggressively to Amy. Well, overly aggressively. He was pretty pissy at the restaurant earlier today, but other than that, he'd always treated Amy softly. "Yeah, I know. I think Shadow is just weird," Amy finally said, laughing at the end.
Rouge laughed at Amy's joke too, before slipping into a skintight suit that resembled her usual outfit, but if the heart was gone, and that space was just the same material as the rest of the outfit. "He's weird alright. Anyway, I have confidence in your abilities. But, well... there is one other reason..."
Before she could explain, the two heard a soft boom from the living room. Rouge zipped up her suit and headed for the door. "C'mon, Shad's here!"
The two entered the living room, and found Shadow hunched over a computer, focused on whatever he was pulling up.
"Shad, you don't wanna say hi to our company?" Rouge asked, wrapping an arm around Amy. Now, under normal circumstances, Amy wouldn't have cared, but after just seeing Rouge naked, Amy squirmed a little in Rouge's grasp.
"Hey," was all Shadow said, barely taking his attention off the computer. Rouge rolled her eyes, and Amy bit her lip shyly.
"Uh, hey, Shadow!" Amy said, giving a tiny wave that went unnoticed.
Shadow continued working for a minute, leaving the two girls standing around, waiting silently for him. He finally finished, and turned to them. "Amy, I'm glad you found the place alright." The sudden kindness threw her off guard, but it was appreciated.
"Oh, yeah, thanks! I was surprised to find it in this part of Station Square though! Considering who you keep company with, I'd have expected a more luxurious spot!"
"That's why no one would suspect this place," Shadow replied. "Do you mind letting Rouge and I talk in private?"
Amy started to turn to the hallway, but Rouge held her firmly. "Hang on, Shadow," Rouge said, sternly. "Didn't we agree to be transparent with Amy? If it's connected to our mission, she needs to know."
Shadow growled at his bat partner, but he didn't argue further. "Fine. Long story short, G.U.N. has a lock on two Emeralds right now. Team Dark has the shittier of the two to retrieve."
"Splendid!" Rouge replied, leading Amy to the couch. The two sat, and Shadow allowed himself to sit as well, spinning a computer chair around to face them. "And, that one is...?"
"The one in Casinopolis. The President's office is in mayhem right now, and the Commander is using that to move forward with securing Emeralds, no matter who owns them."
Amy kept her thoughts on that to herself, letting the two agents continue leading the conversation. She'll ask Rouge about it later, she doesn't have a read on Shadow yet and doesn't want him to doubt her place on their team.
"So, we're stealing a Chaos Emerald in Casinopolis. When?" Rouge asked, leaning forward.
Shadow flicked the television on and began working on the computer. "Tomorrow. We don't have time to lose. Realistically, HQ wants this thing today, but we obviously... you know."
"Shadow, you can Chaos Control without an Emerald, right?" Amy asked. "I don't see why you don't just teleport to it, grab it, and teleport away."
Shadow turned back to her, with a furrowed brow that he pinched between two fingers. "Normally yes, but right now, we're under close watch. We're going to be ghosts here, and I don't know where it is, I can't guarantee it isn't being watched, or being guarded. We need to first find it, isolate it, disable any security, and extract it."
"Okay..." Amy began, taking in all this information. "So, what do you guys need me for?"
"Well," Shadow said, pulling up a window on the TV. A blurry image of Mammoth Mogul was displayed on the monitor, in his signature white suit, with a regal wood cane topped with a giant, cyan gemstone.
"Mr. Mogul..." Amy whispered, turning to Rouge. "That was the other reason, wasn't it? You wanted me because I'm close to him."
Shadow kept his eyes on the TV screen. Rouge could cover this one. Rouge turned to Amy, and cautiously explained, "In part. I was trying to build to it, but Shadow..."
"I understand," Amy said quickly, cutting Rouge off. "I get it, it's good to have someone on the inside, yeah. But I mean... Unless G.U.N. is gonna hire me full time, I can't go getting fired."
"Don't worry about that," Shadow said quickly, joining in on the conversation. "Rouge'll be the one doing any major moves. Your real jobs are to help us with information we don't have and be an eye on the inside for us. I'll be a few buildings away watching from the outside, sure, but you'll be able to keep a better eye where I can't. Hallways, parts of the office not visible through windows, etcetera. Anything happens to go drastically wrong, you aren't involved at all, Rouge and I handle it all."
"So... You just need me for information and to make sure Mr. Mogul doesn't catch her?" Amy asked, crossing her arms.
"Correct," Rouge said, jumping back in. "I already have a meeting set with Mogul tomorrow, he believes me to be the owner of an exclusive club in Casinopolis which, well, on paper I am, yeah, and we're considering being bought out. Again, hell no, especially not to someone as shady as him, but when he has to deal with the office computers malfunctioning tomorrow, he'll leave me alone for a good amount of time."
"The office computers malfunctioning tomorrow?" Amy asked, interrupting.
"Correct. Okay, maybe you'll be doing one more thing, but it won't be a big deal. Walk into the server room, plug a USB in, wait ten seconds, unplug it, leave."
Amy tried to memorize that. Fuck, ok, this was sounding more and more risky... She hated that the riskiness excited her, but what was she gonna do?
"So, I'm left alone. We'll work out where it may be stored tonight, tomorrow when Mogul goes to deal with that I'll have free reign to snoop around the private areas of his office."
"How do you know it's in his office though? Or, the building? Wouldn't it make more sense if it was in his house?"
"That's why I was late," Shadow said. "I was getting a Chaos reading at his office. I followed him home, and it stayed consistently on him. It's at the office, he keeps it with him. Ideally, not every second, but if he does, we'll figure something out for that too. Rouge can place a trap in his office to put him to sleep if need be. Anyway, I'll be nearby, I can dowse the Emerald from a distance."
"Wait, seriously?" Amy interrupted. "You have that power? You can just dowse Chaos Emeralds?"
"Basically. My body was made specifically to be attuned to them. It's kind of like a magnet, I can feel a pull towards them. The Black Arms worked with Gerald Robotnik with the goal of me collecting the Chaos Emeralds for them, of course I'd be able to naturally find the damn things."
"So," Rouge continued, "I get the Emerald, am escorted out, you finish your workday. Or the computers don't get fixed and you go home early. Easy."
"So, what would I be looking out for?" Amy asked.
"Well, you make sure Mogul, or anyone else, doesn't go down to where I might be. We have a watch, totally subtle spy gear, that you can notify us with. You click the wind up mechanism and we'll be alerted."
Amy slowly nodded, before standing up and looking down at them. "Alright. I'll do it. I'm risking my job for this-"
"And freedoms, seeing as you're being brought in off the books and if you're caught we've never heard of you," Shadow added.
"- but we're doing this to save lives. Plus, just think, if Metal Sonic is after the Emeralds, Mr. Mogul could be next! If anything, we're protecting him by robbing him."
Rouge smiled in relief. Okay, good, Amy wasn't put off by them kinda (majorly) manipulating her. "Thank you again for helping us, Amy. So, let's go over the more intricate parts of the plan. You have a good memory, right? Because you can't write any of this down."
ooo
Amy pulled into her parking space as she would any other day. She had to keep that mentality in mind: this was a normal day, just like any other. Just act like everything is fine, because it totally was. She wasn't doing anything different than she usually would be. Other than sabotaging her boss's entire company. Oh Lord...
Throughout the elevator ride up to the offices on the top floor, she suppressed her growing anxieties, keeping them from being visible to her coworkers that rode up with her. She's totally normal. Today is totally normal. She walked over to her desk and placed her purse gingerly on the ground. She reached into her pocket and thumbed the flash drive. Plug in. Ten seconds. Pull out. If her ex could manage to do that, so could she. Mr. Mogul always showed up at exactly 8:53 every morning. He'd then walk through the room, then enter his office. After that, she'd go to the bathroom, slip into the server room, and do... the deed. Oh lord.
Mammoth Mogul arrived, just on time. He led with a cocky stride, almost as if he was more confident than normal. Or, maybe Amy just didn't normally pay attention to him when he came in. Today her attention was captured by him, as her fingers stopped moving on her keyboard so she could watch him pass by. When he began walking down her aisle, she immediately went back to work, trying to remember what it was she was even working on. Mogul stopped at her desk, and stepped into her cubicle. Holy fuck what the hell why was he walking in today-
"I don't think I thanked you for payroll yesterday, Ms. Rose," he said, gently.
Oh thank fuck. "O- oh! No it's okay, uh, sir! Don't worry about it!" she replied, a little quicker than she'd have liked to.
He didn't seem to notice it. He only smiled, and nodded. He then walked back into the aisle and continued to his office. Once his door closed, she wiped the beads of sweat that had formed around her forehead. She was a wreck! Back in the day she'd go looking for as many badniks as she could and kick the crap out of them! Nowadays, her boss standing behind her scares her shitless.
She took a deep breath, and stood up. "Bathroom" time. As she passed by the window, she tried to spy Shadow on a nearby roof, but seeing the building from inside the office, and not on a map of the area, she realized just how far away he was. Sure, he could teleport over, but the distance didn't help her anxiety. Keep moving, Rose, you have an Emerald to steal. As she continued down the hallway, and slipped into the server room, she couldn't help but think about how this must be what Shadow and Rouge do every day. The notion of being a part of that thrill brought a smile creeping onto her face as she sealed the door behind her. No one saw her. Probably. Ohhhh fuck.
She pulled the flash drive out of her pocket and examined the machines. She saw a picture of this model at Shadow and Rouge's safehouse, and where to put it. She just had to remember... She pushed the drive into the slot, then looked down at her watch. 8... 9... 10. She pulled the stick out, and put it back in her pocket. She clicked the mechanism of her watch, and slipped out of the room. She glanced back and forth, and saw no one in the hall. Good. She had an excuse planned, but she wouldn't need to use it.
She went back to her desk, brushed off her pants, and sat down. Okay. Now to just get through the day...
ooo
Rouge waited in her government given sports car in the parking lot. She loved having such a high success rate. Now she just needed to get it back. Her earpiece buzzed, good. That means it was time for her to head up. They had decided to not give Amy an earpiece just in case she was caught, or someone was able to hear it. Sure, they weren't meant to do that, but it'd make more sense for Rouge, a high level "executive" of another casino had a state of the art micro-communicator than a generic wage slave.
"I'm sensing for the Emerald now," Shadow announced over the headset. He was in position now, a quarter mile or so away on another roof, keeping an eye on things through the scope of a sniper rifle. He wasn't going to use it, but they couldn't be too careful. "Currently, it should be in his office, but from this distance I can't exactly detect depth beyond far."
She strutted through the garage, up the elevator, and through the office. The men in the office couldn't help but place their full attention on the curvaceous bat who wore a pair of tight black pants; a black button-up shirt; and a sharp, red vest. The latter of the two being only partially buttoned, showing off a gratuitous amount of cleavage certainly didn't help the men of the office stay on track. She didn't make eye contact with her new colleague, but she was certain Amy was keeping her head down. At least, Rouge hoped Amy was.
She was met by Mammoth Mogul, who had been notified by his secretary that Ms. Bat had arrived. "Hello, so nice of you to stop by," he said, with a deep, warm voice.
"The pleasure is all mine, Mr. Mogul," she replied, smiling innocently up at him as she entered his office.
"Please, dear, call me Mammoth," he said, shutting the door behind him. "We are equals, after all."
"Then you can call me Rouge. Now then, let's get down to business," she said, sitting down in the firm, leather chair across from his.
With a devilish grin, he sat down, and nodded. "Yes, let's."
ooo
Shadow muted himself at this point. The trick was to not set the computers off seconds into Rouge arriving. He'd wait five minutes and then hit the switch. From what he'd heard of this Mogul guy, he was easily distracted and longwinded, so he wasn't worried about being tight on time. So far, the mission was going well, but they hadn't really run into the risky part yet. Oh, who was he kidding, Rouge is a natural at this, Rose's part was the risky one. Heh, Rose working for Team Dark. He thought he'd never see the day. Or at least, he shouldn't have had to.
He threw a punch at the brick vestibule on the roof that led to the staircase down. They'd get Omega back god damn it. He returned to the sniper rifle and gazed through the scope. He couldn't quite see into Mogul's office, but he felt the energy coming hard from there. In a few minutes, Rouge would have it, and they could get the hell out of there. He tilted the rifle over, and started peeping into the main office. He could just barely see the top of Rose's head, but even from the tiny strip of her he could tell she was struggling to keep it together. He took a deep breath in, and slowly exhaled. It's ok. It's her first time under any real pressure in years. You two brought her on board for a reason. You can trust her, damn it.
Shadow looked down at his watch. It should be enough time by now. He pulled out his laptop and woke it up. Opening the window that controlled the program that had been unleashed on the server room, he activated the meltdown, which he could then observe the chaotic consequences of. Gazing through the scope, he saw computers begin glitching out, crashing, going wild with opening and closing windows. Printers began spewing blackened sheets of paper, and scanners began glowing up and activating. Beautiful.
He heard a knock through his headset, and a feminine voice- not one he recognized- was barely audible. "Sir! We're having major technical problems out here!"
A deep, masculine voice- Mammoth's, could then be heard. "Is it really that important that you need to interrupt me here? ... Okay, alright, that's fine. I'll be out in one minute. Excuse me, Rouge, I'll be right back."
"Don't worry about it, Mammy~ Just don't keep a girl waiting too long." He heard in response, very loudly. There was Rouge. He focused his senses was once, trying to feel if the Emerald was still in the room. He heard the door shut, and he lost it. He felt a little to the left, and caught it, then lost it, then caught it when he readjusted again. "Ok, he's gone. Shadow, I'm going to start looking for it."
"Don't bother, it's not in the room," Shadow replied, tilting the scope to find Mogul out in the main office.
"What!?"
"It's on him. He has it on him right now. DAMN IT!" Shadow roared, slamming his fist down on the half-wall along the roof.
"It's okay, I can try to put him to sleep when he comes back. It's not a surefire strategy but it's the best we have. And... yeah, it's risky, but what else can we do? Shadow? ... Shadow?"
Shadow didn't mean to ignore her, but something had caught his eye outside. He'd perked his head up from the scope to see a black helicopter gaining altitude in the city... rather close to the building his two colleagues were in. He redirected the scope at the helicopter to try and peer inside but, the windows were completely blacked out. He considered maybe that he was being paranoid, but when it came to a stop only a few yards away from the floor the girls were in, he knew he had to act fast. "Rouge, get down. Get under the desk, now!" he ordered, before double clicking his watch. Amy would feel the slightest of vibrations in her wrist. Hopefully she'd realize what was going on.
"What? Shadow-"
"DON'T ARGUE, WOMAN, JUST GET UNDER THE DESK NOW!" He brought his eye to the scope and tried to see what was coming out of the helicopter. But this damn angle... He took a few steps to the side to get the reflection just right, and brought the gun to his face. In the reflection of the windows he could just barely see Omega standing in the helicopter, both arms pointed forwards, while his hands were spinning. Then, the windows were shattered, as Omega began firing his miniguns into the office building.
