Hey everyone! It's time for another chapter of Nightstalkers! But I've got a couple reviews from last time so let's do those first!

Void Reader: Robotnik's definitely got his own plans, but only time will tell exactly what he's up to.

1TGN: Robotnik's research is something to pay attention to, whatever he's got planned is going to be big either way. As for Tails, his nightmares and trauma are pretty deeply burned into his thoughts, so you'll have to wait and see how things go with the additional snippets that have been slowly emerging each time.

MiniTennyson: The Nightstalkers are a fun threat and it's been fun getting to write a very heavy AU like this! I'm glad you like it!

Carcab: How the Freedom Fighters and Robotnik respond to the new information remains to be seen! But hopefully you'll enjoy what's coming next!

That's everyone! Let's get this chapter started!

Nightstalkers

Investigation

Sonic and the other two Freedom Fighters watched as Robotnik exited, leaving the trio to their own devices. They soon decided to return to their quarters, it wasn't long after they arrived back in relative privacy that Sally asked the question that was on all of their minds.

"So…" She began, "You want to talk about you being the Hero of Legend now?"

Sonic sighed, "Alright fine… Maybe there's something to it I guess…"

"Well since you used the Chaos Emerald to do… Whatever it was you did back there with Robotnik's test, I'd say there's a little bit more than just something."

"Sonic," Tails began, removing his headband as he spoke. "Sally's got a point. I've never seen or even heard of anything moving as fast as you did back there…"

"And you think that's related to me being this Hero of Legend?" Sonic asked.

"I think so at least…" The fox somewhat sheepishly added, "You used the Chaos Emeralds to do that, and the gems were somehow important to sealing Hizarn away before, maybe it's something you can do since it's your destiny. But… I've been meaning to ask… Why are you acting like you don't want to be the Hero of Legend?"

The hedgehog sighed, "It's a lot of responsibility, but I'm fine with that… It's just… I'm not some hero… I'm just trying to do my best with what I've got, and my first responsibility is making sure you two don't get hurt…"

"Is that why you're just trying to brush this all off?"

Sonic hesitated for a moment, considering his response before nodding. "Look, you two have been through a lot already. Sally got to watch her brother attack us as we tried to escape Knothole and had to leave him behind, meaning she lost her family. Tails, I really don't even know where to start with you. You've been through way more than anybody else your age should have been through by now. You're twelve for crying out loud, nobody that age should be worrying about being half monster, or dealing with the nightmares and trauma you've got. Point is, I don't want to put either of you through anything else. I don't want it to be my fault that you got hurt because I dragged you into chasing after some destiny…"

The hedgehog's response stunned the other two mobians for a minute. Neither of them had expected anything like it, especially not from Sonic.

"And besides…" He continued, "Not a huge fan of everything I do being predestined by some prophecy…"

"Sonic," Sally responded. "If it makes you feel any better, we're choosing to be here. You're not forcing this on anybody. If we really didn't want to be here, we could have just stayed at Angel Island."

"Yeah!" Tails added, "I'm going to be honest, I was a bit scared leaving Knothole. Partially because I was afraid of losing control of myself and both of you discovering exactly what I was. I guess that still came true… But I'm happy to be here Sonic. We're with you."

The fox punctuated his sentence by walking over and hugging the hedgehog. Sonic smiled, returning Tails' hug. "What did I do to deserve you two?"

"You're family Sonic, don't forget that." Sally responded as the other two mobians broke their hug.

"Okay," Sonic continued after a moment. "So maybe I'm the Hero of Legend, now what?"

"We still need to get those two Chaos Emeralds from Robotnik, but how?"

"There's something Robotnik's after… Otherwise, why keep us around?" Tails added, "Maybe we can trade whatever he wants for the Chaos Emeralds!"

"Yeah, but what does he want? How do we figure that out?"

"We could investigate his laboratory, I didn't get much of a chance to look around when I was there, but maybe there's something we could find."

The other two mobians looked at the fox in confusion, "What laboratory?" They both asked.

"Oh… Right… I've been meaning to tell you… Last night when I had that nightmare, I couldn't sleep after. So I decided to go wander around." Tails explained, a bit of subtle embarrassment in his tone. He intentionally avoided talking about the panic attack he'd had, figuring Sonic had more than enough to worry about right now. "I ran into those two robots that seem to be Robotnik's lab assistants and they brought me to the workshop. He was working on that metal copy of Sonic he's got. We started talking and eventually, he mentioned that he knew I was a Nightspawn."

"Wait how?" Sonic asked.

"Turns out, Robotnik took DNA samples from our blood when we got access to these quarters. He talked about how maybe he could fix some of the… Side effects… I get being a Nightspawn."

From the tone of shame in Tails' voice as he said the word 'side effects', Sonic could tell he was referring to his hunting urges.

"Turns out," Tails continued. "He's got a whole genetic laboratory! He said he's tried other ways to fulfill the prophecy in the past, and that he's modified Nightstalker DNA before. He also mentioned something called Project Zero which apparently was something he tried in the past so he's obviously got experience with this sort of thing."

"But why's he helping us?"

"He said it's for research but I don't really believe that… There's got to be some other reason, and I'm thinking we could check out his laboratory to try and figure out why."

"Well, where's it at?" Sally asked.

Tails jumped off his bed, motioning for the other two Freedom Fighters to follow him. He led the group to the elevator, once they were inside he tried to reach the spot where Robotnik had pressed the wall but found it too far out of his reach.

"I need a boost," He said, prompting Sally to pick the fox up and set him on her shoulders.

With the extra height, the fox managed to reach what he was after. Pressing the section of the wall with his hand, it flashed a bright green as the elevator lurched, starting its ascent toward its destination.

"There we go." He said, landing back on his feet. "Hopefully we can find what we're looking for before Robotnik finds out we're here."

"I can be quick." Sonic responded as the elevator reached its destination.

The doors opened into the old genetics laboratory. A thin layer of dust covered every surface of the room, making the place feel positively ancient.

"Alright, let's see what we can find." Sally said as the trio stepped out of the elevator.

The three of them split up, looking over the entire room. It wasn't long before one of them found something interesting.

"Tails, you mentioned something about Project Zero right?" Sonic asked.

The fox quickly made his way over to Sonic, the hedgehog held a folder labeled with black letters that read 'Project Zero' in his hand.

"Just found this on a desk over here," The hedgehog continued. "Figured it'd be worth giving a look."

The fox took it from him and started to read through its contents as Sonic returned to searching. Dozens of documents were inside the folder, each of them detailing something about the Doctor's project.

"It's a jackal…" Tails began for Sonic and Sally to hear, "Robotnik fused him with Nightstalker DNA and somehow embedded a reserve of Chaos Energy into him. That's why he felt so confident about modifying my DNA, he's done it before with this jackal! How he did it… I'm not sure… I don't even understand half of what this says…"

"What happened to the jackal?" Sally asked, curious as to if Project Zero could still be around.

"It looks like it was eventually rendered obsolete by that mechanical hedgehog he's got. Lots of notes here about how the machine outpreformed him in just about everything, there's a section here about how Project Zero manipulated Chaos Energy and what it could do, but I don't understand all of it, lots of scientific stuff… It looks like Robotnik got rid of Project Zero, though how it doesn't say…"

"Maybe the robot killed him." Sonic added, "I don't get the impression that Robotnik's a fan of keeping old, outclassed projects lying around…"

"Me neither… Well there's not much else here…" The fox continued, returning the documents to the folder. "Sonic, make sure you put this back where you found it."

The hedgehog took the folder and returned it to the desk he'd gotten it from before continuing the search. He didn't find much else of interest though, just old documents and schematics for hundreds of robot and structure designs that it seemed never came to fruition. "Sal, you got anything?"

"No… Just lots of dusty papers… Unless either of you know how to get us access to the computers, I don't think we're getting anything useful from here…"

"Robotnik's got some sort of password," Tails responded. "We probably shouldn't even try in case he's got some sort of security installed…"

"Well, at least we learned about one of Robotnik's older projects." Sonic commented, "Still doesn't tell us anything about what he wants with us…"

"We'll sleep on it," Sally added. "Maybe we'll think of something better in the morning."

The other two agreed and the group exited the laboratory. It wasn't long after returning to their quarters that the trip decided to sleep for the night. Hoping that some new insights on their situation would come in the morning…

-X-

In the privacy of his personal quarters, Ivo Robotnik thought over his plans for tomorrow as he put the finishing touches on the upgrades to his magnum opus. Everything so far had been going exactly according to plan… Getting the information and data he needed out of that blue hedgehog was much easier than even he could have anticipated, and preparing his old laboratory to modify the DNA for the fox that was staying in his sanctuary had proved easy enough.

Referring to his schematics once again, he set another section of the Hero of Legend's mechanical core back into place, replacing the bolts that secured the part together.

Still, the fabled Hero of Legend landing on his doorstep had been a tremendous stroke of luck, even more so was that his abilities had been surprisingly easy to replicate. To think something as simple as super speed had eluded him all these years…

But that didn't matter anymore, tomorrow, everything would fall into place, his plans would come to fruition, and the trio of mobians he housed were none the wiser.

Nothing could stop him. Nothing except for one specific blue hedgehog…

Ivo knew this, of course, the blue hedgehog was the one destined to fulfill the prophecy.

"Prophecy…" He thought, almost snarling at the word in his head. He despised that word… It represented nothing more than superstitions of those that refused to look to sound logic and research for answers… Those that refused to acknowledge the world as it is…

But soon they would understand, everyone would understand. It was time for the great Ivo Robotnik to come out of hiding and show himself to the world. Everyone would know his genius. He'd be held as the one who finally vanquished the darkness that gripped this planet.

His mechanical Hero of Legend would make a big show about fulfilling their so-called prophecy, and after that, they'd turn to him to pick up the pieces of this broken world. Then, finally, he'd be on top.

Right where he belonged…

Alright everyone, that's it for this chapter! I know it was short but I'm going through some changes in life right now so I've been a bit overwhelmed. Hopefully the next chapter will be full length! In the meantime, let me know what you thought about this one in a review! Until next time!