"Looks like a bomb went off..." Rouge mumbled.

From the reports given by bystanders and witnesses, that most likely was what occurred. The death count was steadily rising as time had gone on, but it was still less than ten by the time Team Dark arrived. In the darkness of night, it was hard to overlook the entire site at once, but what was left of the building was now crumbling walls and smoking stone.

"Let's be thankful the majority of the public was in town for the festival..." Shadow murmured, "Why would someone attack the science center? What was going on there?"

The guard frowned, "Soleannan business, rodent. None of your concern."

Shadow frowned right back; the Soleannans seemed rather tight-lipped about what all of these scientists were doing in the lab in the first place. The Duke of Soleanna was sponsoring whatever had been going on here, and it was sounding more and more like he was messing with things that shouldn't be.

Hedgehogs are not rodents. Omega informed in as firmly a tone as an emotionless robot could muster.

"Stand down, Sparky." Rouge warned, "The last thing we want is to lose our permission to be here."

Shadow bent down to the edge of the south outer wall, running his fingers over the stone. "...What do you think, Thaw...?" He whispered.

Whatever happened here, it wasn't caused by something outside the center... and look at how the stone is broken up like this? It wasn't blown out...It was blown up first.

Shadow growled, the explosion's epicenter was underground, and there was no way these guys were going to let them go down there... Not unless there was another reason.

He walked a little bit further into the rubble, looking around casually until one step found no floor, and he was sent tumbling down into the hole. "Gyah!"

He heard Rouge call out his name as he rolled down the slope, which turned out to be a stairwell, finally coming to a stop at the bottom. He unrolled from his curled position, lifting his head and coughing while waving dust out of his face. "...Oops." He murmured with a smirk, and then he pulled his flashlight out of his pocket. "Okay...Let's see what we can find down here."'

Nicely done...

"Glad you approve...Sometimes a little false incompetence is necessary for getting answers."

He searched the room with the flashlight's beam, finding the stone below was even more crumbled and blackened down here... This was definitely in the right direction. But in the center of this room was a large pedestal that looked like it had held a large machine of some sort, and shards of glass and metal was strewn about the room. "...The machine down here must've exploded somehow... But if it was just an engine or something, then they'd have told us, right? So what was the machine for...?"

He turned as he heard sliding, and then Rouge appeared out of the stairwell. "I'm going to assume that since you're fine and you didn't answer, that you fell down here on purpose."

"You're so smart...Help us look for evidence down here."

Shadow resumed his search for a few seconds, but then looked back as he didn't hear her move. "What?"

"Us? " Rouge accused, "Are you talking about the other voice in your head that you were talking to back at HQ? Come on, we're teammates, I need to know if you're going kookoo."

Shadow sighed, "...It's complicated. I'm still trying to figure it out myself, so I didn't really know what to tell you. It's the reason I was able to survive the molten metal, but that's all I can say at the moment."

Rouge was quiet for several seconds and then shrugged. "Fine. You've never been very good at telling us everything, so I don't know why I was so surprised."

Shadow managed a smirk, and then he began pulling rocks back to look for clues. Blood coated some of them, but then he found a few stray bullets embedded in one piece of stone. "...Someone was firing down here."

"And I found this."

Rouge held up a piece of paper, stained with blood as well. "It says 'Nice try, Jerkwads. -Elinor.'"

Shadow took the paper and then slipped it into a plastic bag. "Perhaps this blood can help us determine who this 'Elinor' is, and who she's talking about."

He broke off the piece of stone with the bullets as well and slipped it into a small plastic bag as well before hiding both in his satchel. "We'd better cut our losses while we still can, and make sure that Omega hasn't blown anyone else up."

"You gotta admit, he loves his job."

"Yes...Perhaps a little too much."

It was a dump, that was the best way to describe it. The 6th district had been the slum of the city ever since the stock market crash of '47 when so many jobs were lost and factories left abandoned. It was the kind of place where mission trips decided to go for the week, walking around feeding the homeless, building a new house or two, but it hardly changed the atmosphere or the people that were forced to make it their home.

But it was the perfect place to go if you didn't want to be found or bothered, which was exactly what Zero needed right now.

As he passed an old shop, he saw the news report flicking on a TV screen, the headline Soleannan Research Facility Goes Up in Flames spread across the bottom of the screen. Images of crumbled walls, smoking piles of rubble, and injured scientists and faculty being unearthed by rescue personnel flashed by, crying echoing through the speakers.

He pulled his coat tighter around him, marching through the dark, dirty streets towards home if you could even call it that. Others looming the streets eyed him as he passed, but they didn't dare approach him; they knew his blood, and some had tried to attack him and failed miserably.

The apartment building was missing some windows, and nobody manned the lobby so anyone could come and go. He hurried inside and then entered the stairwell. The sound of his boots hitting the concrete steps echoed off of the walls as he ascended, and when he reached the third floor, he hurried down the hall and rushed into his apartment. "I'm back."

"Fleeing roaches told me that."

The weasel stood at the window, peering down at the street through his sniper rifle. "That and seeing you rushing down the street...I'd say the mission was a success, based on the news."

"...Nobody was supposed to get hurt."

His housemate turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow, "Zero. You're a member of a family of world-renowned mercenaries. What makes you think that nobody's going to be hurt in your jobs?" His eyes then shifted to the way the jackal was holding his coat as if hiding something under it. "What you got there?"

"You're not going to like it, Nack."

Zero walked over to the bed, opening his coat carefully and revealing the toddler snuggled up against his chest.

"...You're right, I hate it. What the hell, man!?"

Fast asleep, the toddler seemed hardly disturbed by Nack's shout, only one ear twitching as he sucked on his thumb. They'd barely gotten out of Soleanna's capital when he'd started getting into the cranky, whiny mood an exhausted toddler would get into without a nap. He was out like a light as soon as Zero had picked him up so they could keep going, and had been for hours now.

"You never told me that abduction of a baby was part of the plan...!"

Zero's eyes narrowed, "It wasn't. Everyone's always saying to 'take care of loose ends', and he was a loose end."

"So you decided to take care of it...? Brilliant. What happens when his parents come looking for him!?"

"I'm going to wait a few days, let the situation cool down a little, and then I'll take the kid to a home and we'll be rid of him, okay?"

"We? What's with the 'We?' I didn't agree to this!"

"Yes, you did. You did when you told me that if I ever needed to crash at your place for a few days, that the door would be unlocked."

Nack groaned, glaring out the window for several seconds. "...He'd better not pee on the carpet. It stinks enough in here as it is!"

"Right, we're going to need to get you diapers, aren't we...?" Zero sighed, "I don't know how long I'll be here... My family thinks they took me out back there."

"What makes you say that?"

Zero slammed the bullet down on the sill, "This falling out of my ear."

Nack took the slug and examined it, "...Uh-huh. That's one of theirs alright. I should know, I used to snag spare ones out of your pockets."

"They never wanted me anyway... I gotta figure this out on my own, starting with what to do with Tiny here."
He then went to the fridge and pulled out a warm bottle of soda, "No wonder your place stinks, your fridge is dead again."

"Great... Might as well throw out everything in it, then...Except for the beer, keep the beer in there."

"Can do..."
Zero removed all of the rotten food, leaving anything that might still be edible, and then walked over. "Hand over your wallet, I'll head down to the shop and get stuff."

Nack snorted, "If it weren't for the fact that I trust you, I would never hand you my cash, Z."

"But you do." He took the wallet and then headed for the door, "If the kid wakes up, just tell him I'll be back. And don't let him eat the slugs."

"Why would he eat the slugs?"

Zero just groaned, walking out the door and closing it behind him. He'd had enough of tonight already, but he wasn't finished yet... "Dumb babies needing diapers and juice boxes..." He muttered.