A/N: This chapter is very peaceful, or, if you want to call it, boring. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless! Please review! :)

Sonic, Knuckles, and Gabriel ran to the side of the house to find out where the explosion noises were coming from. Sonic looked around the space between the house and the woods, where there was a spot of slightly singed grass. Sonic knelt and smelled the smoke that still came from the burned grass. Knuckles and Gabriel caught up with the hedgehog, still panting and out of breath.

"What is it, Sonic?" Gaberiel managed to ask. Sonic stood up and continued to stare at the burnt grass, confused.

"There's a spot of grass . . ." he started, "and it looks like it's been fired at by something. Some sort of explosive item."

Gabriel held his bebe gun steady and pointed it towards the woods.

"The grass looks like it's been trampled here," Knuckles observed. Sonic gave him a thumbs-up.

"Good work, Knucklehead."

Knuckles grunted in annoyance.

"Well, what do you think happened here?" Gabriel pondered aloud, "Are they trying to ambush us?"

"No one's going to ambush you. Not that I've seen, anyway."

Rouge stepped out of the woods and pushed away a branch that blocked her face. Gabriel held his gun up, pointed at the woods as a precautionary measure.

"Easy, sport," Sonic said, "it's only Rouge."

"No, no, faker," Rouge said, "you mean Team Dark."

Shadow dramatically walked out from behind the tree he was hiding behind to join Rouge. Sonic scratched his head, confused.

"Uhh . . . guys?"

The sound of loud thumping metal on the ground rang out from in the woods. Everyone looked behind Shadow and Rouge to get a glimpse of what the sound was. Sonic and Knuckles got ready to fight, and Gabriel held up his gun, ready to shoot. The thumping grew louder and then revealed two glowing red eyes. Sonic and Knuckles lowered their fists, having a good idea of who was walking through the woods. Gabriel couldn't help but utter a slight gasp.

"Hey, it's all right, sport. I think I know that big piece of metal."

Gabriel, baffled by everyone's calmness, stared into the dark woods, curious. The red eyes came closer until the hulking metal mass stepped into the moonlight.

Knuckles and Sonic widened their eyes.

"Omega?" they said in unison. Rouge nodded.

"Yeah. The big guy decided to venture out here on his own, poor thing. Anyway, he's looking pretty good, and I thought he might be valuable to our little service. We explained the situation to him and everything. Whaddaya say?"

Sonic and Knuckles shrugged.

"Well, it's okay by me," the blue hedgehog stated. "What about you, knucklehead?"

Knuckles rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Uh . . . I guess," he replied with a shrug. Omega then focused his monotonous gaze on Gabriel, who jumped back in alarm.

"What . . . is that?" he asked quietly to Sonic.

"Him? That's Omega, an ex-robot of Dr. Eggman's."

Omega thumped closer to Gabriel and stared him straight in the eyes. Being stared by a pair of unblinking red eyes owned by a bulky robot in the middle of the night was almost too much for the boy. He trembled slightly as Omega looked him over.

"Analyzing."Omega turned to Rouge and Shadow. "Is this boy a threat?" he asked with more human-like tones. Rouge shook her head.

"Nope! He's with us," she replied cheerfully.

The robot turned the boy once again.

"Good. Gabriel Charis."

He said Gabriel's name in some sort of strange greeting. The boy ran his fingers through his hair nervously and waved shakily.

"Um . . . hello, Omega."

"Hello."

Omega moved his long fingers in a similar motion as the wave that Gabriel had offered.

"Well!" Rouge suddenly exclaimed, "I think it's about time that the rest of you boys go back to your posts. Team Dark will be right here."

The three boys went back to their posts. Sonic and Knuckles didn't seem to mind that Omega had joined their team, but Gabriel was still a bit wary about it.

"So . . . he's not dangerous?" the boy asked nervously as they walked away.

"Nah, he's a good guy! Just don't do anything to make him upset."

When they returned to Mr. Charis, who was still unaware of the source of the explosion noise, Sonic explained to him what had caused it and how Omega is not dangerous. Peter, retaining a twinge of nervousness like his son, simply nodded his head and mumbled an "okay".

The night went by with no real troubles or confrontations. Team Dark hung out together, all somehow strangely happy to be reunited. Omega told his story of how he had arrived on Earth and what he had done since then. Sonic, Knuckles, and the Charises tried their best not to fall asleep, which was extremely difficult for all of them. Shadow, Rouge, and Omega were all night owls and had no trouble trying to stay awake.

"Do you suppose anything will really happen?" Shadow inquired, "I mean, this house is in the middle of nowhere. There's no neighbors to report us, and they haven't even discovered the wreckage of the helicopter yet."

"Right. And once they do, you're the one being shipped off to prison," retorted Rouge. "You're the one who caused that trouble."

Shadow chuckled deeply, a rare occurrence.

"The government here is imbecilic."

"You got that right," Rouge muttered in response.

A short silence passed between them as they watched the stars above. The clouds were beginning to move away from the sparkling stars, thus providing a beautiful view for Team Dark.

Shadow stared at the sky. The way the stars shone down on the black hedgehog reminded him of the ARK. He saw Maria's face in his mind's eye as he gazed up.

"Isn't that nice?" Rouge asked dreamily, "There's something that I never see in Night Babylon."

Shadow continued to look up and then sat down in the grass. Rouge and Omega followed suit, both relaxing for a bit as they kept watch.

"Ahh, this is great," Rouge sighed, "do you guys agree?"

Shadow looked at the shadowy grass below him. He could barely agree because of the painful memories that he bore.

"Sure," he mumbled.

Omega responded with a short,

"Affirmative."

Rouge chuckled grimly.

"Too bad it won't last."

Sonic yawned for the umpteenth time that night. His eyelids drooped so much that he paced around to attempt to keep himself awake.

"We need someone to take shifts," he said, stifling an impending yawn. Knuckles leaned up against a tree, exhausted and ready to drop off.

"Mmm . . ." he grunted as some sort of reply to Sonic. Peter and Gabriel walked aimlessly around the yard, trying not to fall over from exhaustion. They said nothing to each other nor to the Mobians they stood guard with. The group remained silent for a while, bored out of their wits. Sonic and Knuckles couldn't even find anything to do with each other. Nothing eventful happened since Omega had appeared that night.