Shadow gave the base psychologist a tiring time, but he was at last cleared for duty again. He went straight to Dr. Eggman's base and had a serious talk with the good Doctor. It was a tense discussion.
"Are you implying that my base is not secure, Shadow?" asked Eggman darkly. "I assure you—"
"I am implying that nowhere is secure, Doctor," said Shadow, unruffled. "However, G.U.N. may possibly be comparatively more secure. Fiolet has already targeted the headquarters, and would probably see no reason to attempt another attack—especially since everyone there is now ready for him. He has not, however, attempted an attack on your base, and he is probably considering it." He paused, relishing the slight ripple of fear that passed briefly over Eggman's features. "Of course, I'm sure he'd be interested in biting you, but think of Maria. Do you really want to risk her life like that?"
Eggman grunted. Only his fingers betrayed the difficulty of his decision—they were fiddling absently with various switches and levers on the control panel before him, without any regard as to what the switches actually did.
"My translations of the text said nothing about killing a maiden," he said gruffly.
"Oh? What did they say?"
Eggman grumbled something under his breath. Shadow snorted quietly.
"I assume you were unable to translate that line at all."
Eggman glared at him, his fingers twitching over some dangerous-looking red button.
"How do I know your precious translators haven't botched it? It was not even a full sentence. Taken out of context, anything can seem threatening."
"It was a somewhat uncertain translation, yes," said Shadow coolly. "We are not sure if it implied the deed was already done, or if it prophesied it would be done. We are certain, however, that it was preceded by the word 'prophecy.' Do you want to gamble on that kind of scale?"
Eggman growled, his moustache convulsing.
"All right, all right then. The girl can stay with you until this is over. But if something happens to her while she's there, on your own head be it!"
"Of course." Shadow nodded gravely. Rocking back on his heels, he transferred smoothly to the next subject. "By the way, I also wished to discuss if you would be willing to enter a cooperation. We would much appreciate your promise of a cease-fire and aid in fighting Fiolet, in exchange for the same from us."
"I am not interested," retorted Eggman.
"Oh?" Shadow raised an eyebrow. "Of course, I suppose you have no need of an antidote against Fio's venom, seeing as you have not yet developed one yourself."
Eggman twitched his moustache irately, eyeing this spiny three-foot bundle of arrogance. Shadow was his sometime ally, and quite a useful one if he could just be properly convinced (read: hoodwinked). Still, sometimes he hated this hedgehog's attitude even more than Sonic's. Sonic, at least, had a fast-paced adrenaline-powered brand of arrogance, stemming from his determination to protect the world; even Eggman could very grudgingly appreciate that. Shadow, though—his was just a natural built-in arrogance, purely supercilious. He was simply stuck-up.
"I am still not interested," said Eggman coldly. "Get off my base. If you are not here to see Maria or offer your services, I have no use for your presence. I shall fight Fiolet on my own terms."
Shadow shrugged.
"Very well, Doctor. Best regards to you."
"Likewise," retorted Eggman.
Shadow returned to HQ afterwards and went down to the tech room. There he found Maria, a book still spread open in her lap, teaching a studious Omega the basic principles of Cat's Cradle. Shadow bit back a grin.
"Having much luck with that?" he asked, stepping closer.
"Oh—hi Shadow!" called Maria cheerfully, looking up. "It's going pretty well, but Omega doesn't want to try."
"No?" Shadow glanced at Omega mock-seriously. "You should study it. Those salad tongs you call fingers could use a little motor refinement."
Omega's only reply was a series of clipped electronic tones that, while not English, got the message across perfectly well.
"Watch your language," warned Shadow. Maria giggled.
"So, what did Uncle Julian say?"
"Not much different from expected. He said you could stay here, but he doesn't want an alliance."
"Oh, that's too bad . . . " Maria sighed, wrapping the cat's-cradle string around her fingers. "You would have been stronger together."
"Negative," grumbled Omega. "An alliance with Doctor Eggman would only hinder our efforts. His influence is never beneficial."
"Uncle Julian's not that bad," said Maria reproachfully. "You just have to get to know him a little better."
Shadow stifled a sigh. Better to leave the girl her innocence while she still had it.
"But you know, Omega might have a point," he said gently. "You know how Eggman and the Faker are. They would be so busy arguing with each other that we would never get anything done."
"I guess so," said Maria ruefully. She unwrapped the string and looped it around her fingers again, offering it to Shadow. "Here, you want to try?"
"Uh—" Shadow shook his head awkwardly and tried to ignore Omega's amused look.
Maria still wanted to speak to Tails and the others who had translated the ancient text, and it seemed unkind to keep her locked up in HQ non-stop. Shadow was uneasy, but at last agreed Maria could visit Tails, provided that he came along too. Still, there wasn't much for him to do there except sit aside and watch as Tails explained the translation process to a fascinated Maria. Not that it was that bad a deal; there was something oddly touching about the sight of two golden heads bent over the same piece of paper, one small gloved hand eagerly leading the other to salient passages in the document.
Sonic suddenly materialized at Shadow's side.
"Yo, Shads," he murmured, elbowing the other hedgehog. "Check it out. Your little sister seems to be awfully happy hanging out with my little brother."
"Both of them adopted, interestingly," remarked Shadow. He watched Maria's innocent blue eyes flickering shyly to Tails' face. "I would appreciate it if you told the fox cub to be careful. Not that I don't trust him, especially at the age those two are, but I would still like him to know that—should he cause Maria any harm—I will damage him. Severely."
"And you want me to tell him this?" Sonic looked surprised.
"Yes. There is no way I could give him such a message without coming across as threatening."
"And you . . . don't want to be threatening," said Sonic slowly, as if trying to puzzle it out.
"Should I?" Shadow raised an eyebrow at him.
"No, no way," said Sonic, shaking his head. "I just hadn't expected you to be . . . okay with this." He scratched his ear, then smirked slightly. "Can you believe we might become brothers-in-law someday?"
"Please, Faker," said Shadow. "One more comment like that, and there will be a scene of violence inappropriate for young eyes."
Sonic chuckled slightly and turned to watch the youngsters continuing their efforts.
Still, it was inconvenient for Maria to visit Sonic and Tails' house too often, especially since she wanted to show Tails many of the historical books from HQ's library. Since Tails was practically an honorary G.U.N. member by now, what with all the collaboration on the venom antidote, he managed to obtain permission to enter without too much hassle. He began to spend much of his time in Team Dark's no-longer-so-secret tech room, devouring stacks and stacks of dusty old books and comparing notes with Maria. They didn't seem to make much progress, but in their youthful enthusiasm they kept at it.
It was a few days later that a forceful knocking brought Sonic to the front door. It was quite fortunate for the visitor, since Sonic was rarely home anyway, but he happened to have been fixing a chili dog in the kitchen just then. Opening the door, chili dog still in hand, he found Knuckles.
"Knux? What are you doing here?"
"Is Tails home?" asked Knuckles grimly.
"Nah, he went over to G.U.N. again this morning to keep reading stuff with Maria," shrugged Sonic. "Why, you need him?"
"I think something's wrong," said Knuckles quietly. "I was sitting by the Master Emerald just a little while ago, and a Flicky delivered this to me." He held out a piece of paper, which Sonic took in his free hand and read aloud:
"Help! I've been kidnapped by Dr. Eggman. I think he wants me to give him the formula for the antidote. I can't escape. Send help if you can . . . "
Sonic stood staring at the note for a moment, oblivious to his lunch dripping chili steadily onto the floor. The note was definitely in Tails' handwriting.
"This is a problem, isn't it?" asked Knuckles grimly.
"Yeah." Sonic looked up, his eyes already hardening in preparation for battle. "Problem."