From a dark alley, Shadow was watching. He had been monitoring the guards outside of the natural history museum for a while. He also didn't want to be here, convinced that this was a false lead. So far their target had hit mostly tech related thefts, why now swap to a history museum?
"See anything your side?" Shadow asked Rouge via walkie-talkie.
The bat responded quietly. "Nothing here, what about you Omega?"
From Shadow's position, he could see just the tip of the robots head on a rooftop across the street. "Negative." Omega replied.
The black hedgehog paced the alley. He had a good vantage point here of two of the museums main entrances, and could see all the windows visible from this side. But, at this time of night, very little was actually going on. Practically no vehicles moving around and even fewer people.
"Is this source even reliable?" Shadow asked.
"I trust them," Rouge responded.
"How much?"
"Enough," the bat replied, "They've only let me down twice before, and nobody gets to let Rouge down three times, I'll tell you that for nothing."
Shadow leant against the cold wall of the restaurant. Opposite him was a dumpster, half full, and all things considered not that dirty. Certainly smelt bad though. It was part of the reason Shadow was eager for something to happen.
"Incoming!" Omega alerted through the radio.
Shadow stepped forwards to the edge of the alley. Still in the dark, but enough to give him the widest possible view of his surroundings. In front of the museum landed a red creature, no a machine, Shadow observed. It looked vaguely like that echidna that Sonic hung out with, but clearly moved much faster.
"Is this our suspect?" Shadow asked.
"That is one of Eggman's machines." Omega confirmed. "Prototype number…"
"Spare us the details," Shadow said, "Besides something's not right here. This isn't Eggman's style."
The robot looked around, taking a moment to look at the front of the museum before turning around. Its mechanical eyes scanned the area before locking firmly onto Shadow's position.
"It's seen me," Shadow said.
"Do not engage," Rouge responded, "that machine isn't our suspect."
The machine lurched forwards towards Shadow, its gaze still fixed on the hedgehog.
"I may not have much choice," Shadow replied, "You two stay focused; I'll deal with this machine."
The robotic red echidna jumped to the left to narrowly avoid one of Shadow's attacks, only to be knocked over by an unexpected punch in the back of the head, "Why are you here Eggman?" Shadow asked.
"I'm not here representing Eggman," the robot replied as it got up, "and I'm not here to fight you."
Shadow stood on guard waiting for an explanation. Then his radio crackled once more "Shadow, the suspect's entered via the rear, I'm going to follow, Omega's keeping watch."
The hedgehog raised the radio to his mouth, still focused on the robot, "Copy that. I need to deal this robot first." The hedgehog lowered the radio, "So what are you here for?"
"Your blessing." The machine answered.
Shadow looked at the robot. Slightly dented, an obvious sign of a recent fight or two, a few menial weapons, nothing the hedgehog wouldn't be able to dodge, and a design based loosely off the Echidna, which to Shadow suggested it's likely to try and attack from above. But there was something else about this robot, something Shadow couldn't consciously see, but he could feel. It was almost like Chaos energy, but felt much less comfortable to him.
"And just what does that mean?" Shadow asked.
"It means we do something for you, and in return we obtain our freedom."
Shadow rolled those words around in his head. 'We obtain our freedom', clearly meant there was a group of them, but what made it dependent on him? "So you need me to do something for you to earn your freedom from Eggman?"
The robot nodded.
"Alright," Shadow replied, considering how useful Omega had been, "What do you need me to do?"
"We don't need you to do anything," the machine replied, "We need you to grant us your blessing."
In his gut Shadow could tell this was a bad idea. This was highly suspicious, and Shadow wasn't willing to simply agree to something. There had to be a catch, the hedgehog was convinced of it.
"Shadow, are you done?" Rouge cried out in the static of the radio, "We could really use your help here." In the background several explosions could be heard. Whatever Rouge had intended with this mission, it was clearly going horribly wrong.
Shadow looked back to the robot. Everything in him now was telling him not to trust it. "What are you?" he asked, suspicious of the machine.
"I am one of the Monsters of Chaos," the machine said, "and I am here to make a deal for the freedom of my brethren."
That name didn't mean anything to Shadow, but he knew of the artificial Chaos' aboard the ARK, not to mention had read the case reports on numerous other monsters appearing previously thought to be myths. The hedgehog now had even less idea why this monster sought him out.
"Hurry up Shadow," Rouge cried urgently into the radio, reminding Shadow what was at stake.
"I'm coming Rouge," Shadow eventually relented, before returning his gaze to the monster stood before him, it's mechanical joints ready to move. "You want my blessing so bad? There's only one thing I want," he paused, "'Give them a chance to be happy'," he said sternly, remembering his promise to his earliest friend. "If the entire world is safe and at peace, only then will you have my blessing." With that the hedgehog dashed into the museum, eager to assist his other friends with their mission once again.
The monster stood there for a moment. It was certainly doable, but this was far greater a request than anyone else had asked for.