Author's note: I like toast.

Besides talking about bread… lots of jumping between characters in this chapter – hopefully things won't get too muddled for you readers! What can I say, it's time to check what the different characters are doing…

Chapter 8

Rouge shifted her position, careful to not make any sound. She had done this plenty of times before and was well accustomed to remaining in place, not moving a muscle as she waited. Hanging at some odd angle or other was nothing new to her and, true to her species, she could attach herself to almost any surface. Every part of her attire was chosen for this demanding job – her tight-fitting clothes didn't make even the faintest sound as she moved a slender leg ever so slightly, shifting her weight to relieve a cramping muscle. The tight leather pants weren't just for showing off her curves. That they did was just a fortunate bonus.

Silently and patiently waiting was more than could be said for the hedgehog accompanying her, though. Sighing in frustration, Rouge glared at Sonic as he tried to not wriggle in his own hiding spot not far from her – she was hanging upside down above him, attached to the ceiling itself, well hidden in the shadows, while he was half-laying, half-sitting in one of the air ducts. He smiled sheepishly at her as she bared a glistening fang at him. No words were necessary, and none were exchanged. He knew he had already tested her patience – and then some - today, and he was trying to avoid making her even more pissed at him. Rouge may have been one hell of a spy, but she preferred to work alone during missions like these. And if any hedgehogs were to accompany her, she very much preferred the company of Mr. Dark and Foreboding, not Impatience Personified. At least Shadow could remain in one place for more than ten minutes…

Sonic didn't know what the plan was, exactly. The bat has basically led him here and told him hide in one of the air ducts and left it at that, while she'd busied herself with the gadget on her wrist to keep herself up to date on what was going on in the base. Villains never learned, apparently, so they'd been able to remain undetected for at least an hour now in the shallow vents. Staying undetected for so long in one Eggman's bases must have been some sort of personal record for Sonic. So far he had, by his own standards, done a spectacular job at remaining still and quiet, though the bat clearly wasn't impressed with his progress.

Part of Rouge's annoyance came from the simple fact that she hadn't taken this into account when planning the little rescue attempt. Already, her cover was so close to being blown – Eggman knew that Shadow was here now, and they had to work fast to take care of things. He would almost certainly try to bring his plan into action now, before he was overpowered by the black hedgehog. She hadn't had time to find out whether missiles were ready to be fired or not, or even if the mad scientist truly did intend to fire them off at all… or if it was just supposed to be a threat, did the governments not bend to his will. She wouldn't put it past him, given his history of crazy schemes.

Everything was working against the spy today, it seemed, and she suspected it would all blow up in their faces before the end of the day – one way or another. She wasn't looking forward to it, to put it mildly.

Closing her eyes for a second, considering their options and coming to a decision, Rouge rose a gloved hand to call into the bracelet.

"Shadow, you there?"

Elsewhere, though actually not that far away, an exhausted fox was busy considering his options. After trekking through the woods, Tails had paused outside the base. He almost couldn't believe his luck. He had found the base on his own, without the use of his plane or any of his gadgets, instead working off instinct and wit alone. He had alternated between running and flying, going in the general direction of their last encounter with Eggman and hoping for the best. Adrenaline and worry for his friend had kept him going long past where he'd normally require a break. He knew every second counted and he simply had to try to find his brother before it was too late.

To his surprise, towards the end of his journey Tails had heard the noise of far-off explosions and alarms, urging him in the right direction. Had Sonic wrecked the base? He had felt hope surge in his chest again – his hero brother must be near!

His surprise at seeing not a blue hedgehog, but instead his dark rival, had been unmistakable once he reached the source of the commotion. He'd had the wits to remain hidden (he hoped), wanting to approach the dark-furred one before him but being unable as long as Shadow was busy battling various bots and automatic intruder-sensitive weapons surrounding the base.

Then again, to be honest, he always felt uneasy talking to Shadow even under normal circumstances… Tails wasn't sure he'd ever be able to talk to the dark hedgehog without getting tongue-tied. While Sonic seemed to consider Shadow as harmful as a frightened kitten and would happily engage him in all sorts of silly games, not to mention taunt him endlessly until they got into fights, Tails felt a lot of respect – and even a little bit of fear – towards the rather evil-looking hedgehog. Those death glares he threw left and right as he blasted his Chaos Spears at the robots didn't help, either.

After his initial surprise at seeing Shadow instead of Sonic, Tails had considered if perhaps Sonic had found Shadow and asked him to help him while he was working on things elsewhere. He knew that for all their fighting and bickering, the blue hedgehog enjoyed the black one's company and that they were a force to be reckoned with when fighting together, even if they usually seemed to fight against each other rather than as one… Nor did he think Sonic would ask Shadow to take part in any battle he wouldn't be participating in himself, either. There was no sign of the blue one at all.

He had watched Shadow wreak havoc left and right, robots flying and electronics sizzling around him. After what had seemed like an eternity, reinforcements had stopped arriving and Shadow had gradually moved in closer towards the opening of the base itself.

A few times he'd thought he'd heard Eggman's voice calling out, but he couldn't be certain over the cacophony. Surely the doctor must be close, at any rate…

But where was Sonic?!

Slowly, it had dawned on Tails that Sonic wasn't part of the action after all. Worriedly, he had considered where the hedgehog might be. Had he missed the base, still trudging through the rainforest? That seemed very unlikely. He'd had plenty of time to find it. Had he fled, realizing his disadvantage? That wouldn't be like him at all. That left only one option, that Sonic was captured and held hostage… or worse. He didn't want to think about it, but forced himself to consider it. Was that why Shadow was attacking the base with such apparent rage… was Sonic… indisposed?

As the battle gradually died down, Tails almost called out to Shadow, but before he had the chance the hedgehog had already run into the base. Tails almost ran after him, but knew robots would probably continue to swarm to that place any second now. Eggman was bound to have plenty of reinforcements just waiting to join in and it would be a stupid risk to get into the middle of it.

Instead of going towards the main entrance, the young fox twirled his tails together and hovered up towards a window a few stories up. He glanced inside it, looking for any signs of trouble. It looked empty enough. A storage room of some sort? After spending a few moments ripping a part of a pipe off the wall, he braced himself. Here goes.

With a crash, the window broke and the fox carefully climbed inside. Time to find his brother.

Worth a shot. Maybe they'd get lucky.

"Sonic?"

No real reaction, though an ear did flick for a moment. She felt hope surge, then leave again as a gloved finger rose to scratch inside the blue appendage. Just an itch. Still nothing, then. Even so, Sonic seemed to notice that he was being watched and turned his eyes up, his expression quizzical.

"What?" he inquired softly. His tone seemed more even, less high-strung than previously. Perhaps it was the fatigue coming back to haunt him.

"Nothing" she smiled sweetly, though there was just a hint of fang in it. She still hadn't entirely forgiven him for interrupting her plans earlier. She turned her eyes again and he sighed, assuming he'd done something wrong… again. Rolling his eyes, Sonic turned his attention elsewhere again.

Both of them had watched Eggman walk past below them moments before, just barely visible through the cracks of glistening metal in the ceiling. He had, to be put it lightly, been in a bad mood. Clearly he'd realized that the blue hedgehog was missing, though he couldn't for the life of him figure out how he'd disappeared. He'd even considered if one of his pre-programmed robots and found him and… disposed of him. A careful search of his databases brought up nothing suspicious, though. Where he was now, Eggman had no idea, though he assumed he'd left the base to run back to his furry little friends. If he'd remained, there'd be no way he'd been able to remain hidden – he didn't have that kind of patience.

Either way, Sonic wasn't his main concern right now. Damn that Shadow! Showing up at the worst possible time, too! Eggman had cursed and ranted as the black hedgehog took out almost all his defenses. And now Sonic was missing on top of that. Things suddenly looked a lot worse than before and he wasn't sure what action to take next. If the black hedgehog knew where he was, he could bring back-up any time he wanted. GUN could be on his tail within hours, at which point he'd be at risk even if the missiles were sent off – he had no good back-up hideout ready for this. There simply hadn't been time yet, seeing how he hadn't planned to announce his plans just yet… That idiotic blue hedgehog! This was his fault somehow, he was certain of it.

Cursing his bad luck, the doctor hurried back to the control room. Time to salvage what he could. He just may have to give up his grand plan for now, knowing there was no time left to put it into action, but he knew there was one place that he could get his revenge on before he fled – the place responsible for bringing his hated opponent to Adabat in the first place. How fortunate that it was currently full of the scientific masterminds of the worlds. Nothing like a little revenge to brighten your day. And taking out the scientific competition of Mobius at the same time would be a sweet bonus indeed. That'll teach them to leave him out of their community!

Shadow stopped behind the edge of a hallway, listening and looking for any signs of trouble. Confident that he was alone, he cautiously walked past the short row of prison cells, his destination clear. He threw a quick glimpse at the last cell as he passed it, the barred door still open. A quick look inside showed chains and cuffs on the floor along with a piece of black cloth. Dried blood littered the floor as well. Not a large amount, more a sparse scattering of drops here and there, but still. He could imagine the stay hadn't been pleasant. Not that he had much pity to spare his blue counterpart. As far as Shadow was concerned, Sonic could blame himself for allowing himself to get captured.

Shadow was a little curious to see the blue hedgehog in his current state, though. Rouge had put him up to date as well as she'd managed during their mission. He knew that Sonic had been… damaged, in one of his last encounters and Shadow had to admit he was a little curious to see how well he was dealing with it. A small part of him was slightly worried about the prospect of the hedgehog no longer being able to partake in the fight against the mad doctor, too. While Shadow could handle things himself thank you very much, it had been good to know that the hedgehog was doing his part to keep Eggman occupied as well. If nothing else, it had meant a smaller workload for Shadow and Rouge. He'd been quite annoyed to be dragged out to this Chaos forsaken jungle in the first place. On top of that, he enjoyed their rivalry (even if he'd never admit it to anyone else). Sonic was a worthy opponent to hone your skills against.

Closing the door silently behind him, Shadow left the hallway and continued ahead. He was close now. Silently, he went over the instructions in his head. He had to do this just right…

When he had reached his final destination, Shadow once again paused and listened for signs of movement. Almost jumping out of his skin as he heard the faint beep on his arm, he lifted his wrist to his mouth and hissed into the receiver.

"What, Rouge?!"

"Where are you?"

"Right outside the control room. Going in now, keep me updated on his whereabouts"

"Roger!"

As Shadow slowly stalked into the room, Rouge put him on hold, now busily tracking another signal on the gadget. She appeared fully focused on her task, not paying attention to anything around her.

Sonic, meanwhile, shifted once more in his hiding place inside the vent. He itched to move, to do something already. All this waiting was just wrecking his nerves. It almost began to remind him of the endless wait in the cell. Okay, so it wasn't as bad as that had been, but it was still annoying…

He mumbled something to himself, only to guiltily quiet down again after turning his gaze up, the white bat glaring at him from above.

"You. Be still and shut up!"

Rolling his eyes, Sonic tried to lie comfortably on his stomach, chin resting on his hands. He amused himself by flicking his ears back and forth. Left, right. Both forward. Both flicked back. Right back again, left back…

Rouge almost threw her boot at his head, hissing at his stupid antics. He threw her an innocent glance when he noticed her death glare.

"You know, if you don't want me here, I could run off and help Shadow cause some more trouble for Baldy McNosehair down there…"

Rouge stopped for a moment, actually considering this. At this point, she was willing to take the risk to get him out of her sight. Maybe… She lifted her wrist to her mouth again.

"Shadow?"

"What now? I'm busy."

"Eggman appears to be near the tunnel, going by the latest issued commands in his database. I'm considering sending Big Blue down there as a distraction."

"Why? He'll just get caught again. Better he ran off with his tail between his legs." Shadow's voice sounded strained, as if he was lifting something heavy. "He's of no use to us now."

Rouge paused, eyeing the blue hedgehog who seemed to have noticed they were talking about him. He looked impatient as well as curious. He couldn't very well tap his foot while on his stomach, but he was having a good try.

"You know him, though. He's not gonna give up. And I can't keep him here much longer. Either he'll give our position away, or he'll run off on his own, I'm sure of it."

"Fine"

Shadow ended the transmission, more occupied with his current task inside the control room, with little thought to spare for the impatient one currently keeping his work partner company. Not his problem, anyway.

Turning his attention to the blue hedgehog again, Rouge smirked at him.

"Alright Sonic, ready for some action?"

Sonic didn't need to hear her words to read the expression on her face.

"Bring it on!"

Rouge hoped he'd instructed him clearly enough. Mostly, she'd gestured, pointed and spoken, slowly and loudly, to get the message across. Go into the tunnel. Distract Eggman. If possible, get him to follow you to the surface. GUN is coming. Bring Eggman to GUN. Don't do anything stupid. Don't take risks. And most important of all, don't get yourself caught again, you spiky blue idiot.

She had stressed the last part especially.

Without further ado, after that she'd waved him off as he gleefully raced down through the rooms and hallways.

Sighing in relief at being alone again, Rouge once more turned back to tracking the signal, whispering to no one in particular.

"The rest is up to you now, boys…"

Tails had been in many fearful situations in his young life, but he had gotten spoiled, in a way – it had been many years now since he'd been in one of them alone. He missed his big brother with a fierce passion, and it was even worse to not know where Sonic was. Or even if he was still in the base!

He had been stalking through the upper levels of the base, ever mindful of any signs of robots or worse, Eggman himself. So far, things had seemed unnaturally quiet and he had begun to fear a trap of some kind. Hopefully Shadow was still keeping Eggman busy elsewhere.

Not knowing the layout of the base, he had moved around in a haphazard sort of way, hoping to come across some sort of holding area. After almost twenty minutes of nerve-wracking searching, he had been rewarded – this was definitely a prison area stretching out before him. He had carefully walked along the rows, looking for any signs of life and fearing for the worst.

Gasping when coming upon the last cell, he had noted the chains and even worse – the blood, now dried a dull brown, on the floor. Sonic must have been here. But had he escaped, or been moved elsewhere? Was he already too late? Tails hugged himself, feeling a chill go through his body.

"Sonic…" he whispered, ears flattening themselves against his skull.

After what felt like an eternity, he continued forward, now feeling even more nervous. He severely hoped he wasn't too late.

Eggman heaved himself into the waiting hover pod with a strained huff. So much running! This was not good for his body and he deserved a rest already, Chaos dammit. He could feel disgusting sweat down his back and his breath was hitching in his throat. How did the hedgehog make this running business look so easy, anyway?

Speak of the devil… Just as the pod left the ground, hovering tentatively a metre or two above it, he heard that familiar high-speed swoosh, his face a show of purest surprise as he blinked and looked down.

"You…?!"

Sonic stopped below him, grinning widely.

"Hey! Ready for another round? I was thinking best out of three, since we've scored even the last couple of times…"

Not sure if he was very lucky or very unfortunate, Eggman had the pod climb higher into the air. He knew from experience that the hedgehog could jump like a cat and he wasn't thrilled with the idea of having him reach him. He had to get to the launch pad, and fast, or it would all be over.

"I've no time for you, blasted insectivore!"

The indignant yelling was unnecessary, of course, seeing how he wouldn't get a reply, but he couldn't help himself. How did the hedgehog know when to appear, over and over?! He had assumed that he was far gone by now and he could feel his rage instantly boiling the minute he saw that trademark grin.

Sonic felt a dull roar, familiar by now, course through his skull as the adrenaline poured through his veins, followed by what felt like just the slightest hint of Eggman's voice, though he couldn't make out what he said. Was that… did he…? He almost stumbled on the spot before catching himself and continuing forward.

Shaking his head, Sonic took off after Eggman. He had no time to stop and ponder things now. Still, he couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of hope in his chest. Could his hearing be returning? Even if it was to remain… different from here on, it would still be a huge improvement. It was gone now and the world was dead quiet again, but this time he had been almost certain. He had heard something!

Laughing gleefully, his voice containing just a slight hint of exhilaration as well as the barest touch of his usual foolishness, he tore off after the doctor above him. The pod was pretty fast, but nowhere near as fast as the overexcited blue hedgehog below, of course. For Sonic, this was little more than a pleasant jog. A warm up. Nothing. Should he run off ahead or stay behind? So many options for distracting his nemesis…

Eggman noted the hedgehog's excitement with some worry, to put it lightly. Especially at his unexpected laugh. Perhaps Sonic was going crazy by now… who knew what the… excitement… in the last couple of days had done to his mind. He had pushed him pretty far during their "games". Or perhaps the screech had damaged more than his ears. Not that he had considered Sonic to be fully sane before that, mind you. Still, he had a few tricks up his sleeve before he was ready to throw in the towel.

Bringing up his trusted intercom, Eggman roared a command into it. At almost the same time, he flicked a switch on the pod's controls, turning off the small light on the front. With another quick flick, the internal auto-pilot was activated, the destination set on the launch pad, kilometres away, outside of the tunnel. Soon he could simply kick back, relax and let the rest take care of itself.

Suddenly, the tunnel was bathed in complete darkness at the doctor's whispered command. The long passageway was completely devoid of sunlight of any kind and now missed the faint yet crucial electronic lights above as well. Sonic stopped with a low curse as his world was once more not only completely quiet, but utterly dark as well. He had no way of navigating – again.

"Damn…"