"So... How do we find Shadow?" Tails looked nervously at the other occupants of his living room, shifting deeper into the couch cushions as he nervously clasped his fingers together.
Sonic leaned against the wall next to his brother, foot tapping impatiently against the ground as he shook his head.
"No clue. It's been..." He looked up towards the ceiling, mentally trying to count the days since the black and red hedgehog's disappearance. "At least a few months now."
"IT HAS BEEN SEVEN MONTHS AND THIRTEEN DAYS SINCE SHADOW FORMALLY RESIGNED FROM GUN." Omega informed the rest, servos slightly humming as he turned his head to focus on the blue hero. "YOU WERE THE LAST ONE TO SEE HIM."
He felt his brow furrow at the statement. He wasn't sure, but... was Omega implying he was to blame?
"Oh, speaking of..." Tails began, looking towards the robot. "How is the new chassis working out for you?"
"NO ABNORMALITIES DETECTED IN LOCOMOTIVE FUNCTIONS OR TENSILE STRENGTH." The robot quickly reported.
"What about the autocannons?" The fox tilted his head. "I was a little worried about those since I don't often make projectile weapons-"
"TESTING ARTILLERY FUNCTIONS WAS DETERMINED TO BE UNNECESSARY."
The blank response made the young genius a little confused. "A-Are you sure? I'd prefer we make sure you're in good condition. We can go and do some tests right now if you'd like-"
"I AM NOT CARRYING ANY MUNITIONS AT THE MOMENT. TESTING IS UNNECCESSARY."
Sonic was taken aback by the response. That was definitely out of the ordinary.
Raising an eyebrow, he opened his mouth to speak- only to see Rouge staring at him, quickly using her fingers to make a cutting motion on the side of her neck.
Later , she mouthed to him. Glancing back at the E-Series robot. She cleared her throat, moving towards the center of the room as she took a seat on the coffee table itself.
"Let's just focus on Shadow right now, hon."
Tails cast a glance across the bat and hedgehog, pursing his lips as he put his concerns away.
"Yeah, you're right." He sighed, shaking his head. "I'm going to assume any safehouses you've got are a bust?"
Rouge shook her head, crossing her legs as she folded her arms across her chest.
"Dead end. I doubt he's going to be anywhere else we know of."
"Does that include the ARK?" Sonic asked, eyes wandering as he tried to think of anywhere else Shadow could be.
"If he's hiding, it'd be the worst place to do so since we all know where it is." Rouge offered. "Plus, once he gets wind of GUN going after him, it'll probably be the last place he goes to. He'll be putting the base in danger again."
"Yeah..." The hedgehog trailed off, his mouth contorting as he tried to think of any alternatives. With a huff, he shook his head and pushed himself off the wall. "Well, I'm out of ideas. We've got chili dogs cooking up in the kitchen, does anyone else want one?"
Tails shook his head, his appetite lost over recent events. Rouge grimaced, a look of disgust washing over her at the suggestion.
"Do you eat anything else, Blue?" She shook her head. "I swear, any time I see you eating, it's those processed sludge messes!"
"Hey!" Sonic indignantly called back as he went down the hallways. "They're the best processed sludge messes you'll ever taste!"
The bat looked over to the two-tailed fox, casting him a sympathetic glance.
"You need to get him onto something else, for your own sake." She chided. "You may be fine now, but when you grow up it's going to be hell on your digestive system."
"To be honest, I think it already is." Tails grimly confided, placing a hand over his stomach.
The blue hedgehog didn't take long to reappear, a pair of chili-smothered buns on his plate as he carried a half-consumed one in his hand. He remained standing, mouth half full as he spoke.
"So..." He began, gulping the rest of his food down. "We've got no leads on where he might be staying, but he has to be doing something, right? I can't imagine him just sitting around and twiddling his thumbs."
"That's... actually something that we can work with." Rouge nodded, placing her lips against her closed fist as she began to think. "Though he doesn't really have any real interests outside of what he was doing with GUN."
"IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SHADOW IS CONTINUING HIS WORK WITHOUT GUN."
"Honestly that's probably the likeliest answer, knowing him." Rouge sighed. "Even before we resigned, there was a decrease in the number of reports coming in about Badnik attacks."
"So what, he's just been going around and playing hero this whole time?" Sonic shrugged, shaking his head. Truth be told, he was already feeling frustrated with Shadow's disappearance. This emergency investigation only exacerbated that.
"I don't know how we'd find out for sure, though." The bad admitted. "We don't exactly have GUN's resources anymore, and I doubt we have a readily available list of bases to check against."
"We don't..." Tails trailed off, thinking for a moment. "But we could. Sonic, do you know of any abandoned bases that are still connected to the EggNet?"
"The only one off the top of my head is the one we found Rouge and Omega at, but GUN's currently in control of that one."
"We may have one..." Rouge trailed off. "It's a base in Shamar. GUN probably hasn't sent agents over there."
"How come?" The fox asked.
"Well, it's the place we got captured." She quietly shrugged. "We were out there to confirm rumors of a base. We never actually confirmed it with the org. I'd prefer not to go back there, if possible."
"That works for me. We can do it remotely." He pushed himself off of the couch, his namesake tails swishing as he stretched his fingers. "I'm going to prep our Moto Bug friend for deployment. Sonic, you mind making an express delivery to Shamar?"
The blue hedgehog stood to attention, plastering a giant smile on his face as he saluted.
"I WILL ASSIST THE FOX." Omega suddenly announced as Tails began to leave for the garage, causing everyone to pause.
"That's not needed, Omega." He slowly nodded, holding out his hand as a gesture for him to stay there. "You've done enough as-is-"
"I WILL BE ABLE TO GIVE YOU THE EXACT COORDINATES OF THE BASE." The robot interrupted, walking towards the fox. "EGGMAN ALSO CONNECTED ME TO HIS NETWORK WHILE I WAS CAPTURED. MY DECRYPTION KEYS WERE UPDATED AND WILL MAKE ACCESSING SENSITIVE DATA SUBSTANTIALLY EASIER."
Tails glanced back at the other two people in the room for any kind of advice on what to do with the imposing robot. They both shrugged, looking just as confused as he was.
"A-Alright, if you insist." The fox quietly backed up a few steps, before turning to enter the garage.
"I DO." Omega replied, following him in.
As soon as the door closed, Sonic looked back at Rouge.
"Alright, spill it." The hedgehog leaned back against the wall. "Usually when he's up to something weird, I just chalk it up to him being a killer robot. But that is not normal."
The bat sighed, shaking her head.
"Look, I don't know what exactly is going through his mind, but... he's been like this since his fight with you and Shadow. He refuses to use his guns- hell, he's never loaded the damn things!"
"Is..." Sonic trailed off, concern growing in his chest as he tried to choose his next words carefully. "Do you think he's... afraid to fire them?"
"Maybe, but he just refuses to acknowledge me when I ask. It's possible it's not even about being scared... I can easily imagine it being about some statistical likelihood that he's still not seeing things correctly and doesn't want to take the risk of hurting me or Shadow."
"...Is he going to be okay?"
"I don't know." She answered honestly. "I was hoping Shadow would come back at some point and talk to him, but... well, you know how it is."
Sonic huffed, looking off to the side as a scowl started growing on his muzzle.
At first, he was distressed about his rival's disappearance. Any time he went on a run, his mind would replay their last few conversations. Was he too forceful? Maybe the words he used came off the wrong way? Was it inconsiderate to be concerned about him when his closest friends were in danger?
But those questions started to lose their worth as the months went on. Especially after seeing the state Rouge and Omega were left in... he couldn't even think of a good reason to abandon them like that. The thought had begun to cross his mind- maybe the treasure hunter was right. Maybe he really was just kind of a jackass.
He couldn't bring himself to fully believe that, let alone use those words himself- but he couldn't help but start to feel more jaded about the other hedgehog than he used to be.
"Well..." The blue blur sighed, kicking the toes of his shoes against the floor, preparing himself for the trek to Shamar. "I'm sure we'll all have a piece of our mind to give him when he comes back."
Rouge chuckled.
"He'll be lucky if that's the only thing he gets."
Tails couldn't help but feel a little tense as he sat idly by his computer. Sonic had long left with the hijacked Moto Bug in tow, speeding across land and sea to deliver it to its destination. Rouge had left a few minutes ago, after informing them that she would be back once she found something "edible."
...And he was left here, trying not to seem too nervous as the killer robot stood behind him, its harsh red glowing optical sensors boring holes into his back as it ceaselessly stared at him. It wasn't the first time he caught the E-Series machine focused on him, but with it just being the two of them he really couldn't find a reason to ignore it.
The fox took a deep breath, trying to relax himself as he kept his eyes locked onto the screen. He wondered if the robot found it weird that the young genius was just... staring at a blank desktop. That thought only served to double the weight of his anxiety, feeding into itself like a snowball slowly rolling down a hill.
He sighed. It was going to be a while before he heard back from Sonic. He may as well nip this in the bud.
Tails spun in his seat, visibly flinching back as soon as he realized just how close the robot was. Its eyes immediately zeroed in on the fox as he did his best to recover from the unintentional scare.
"Well, I- ah..." The fox mumbled, eyes darting around as he tried to think of something to begin a conversation with.
He could... possibly try to discuss his inventions? It didn't work well with Shadow, but... maybe with this robot, it would?
"Wh-While we're waiting, would you like to check out some of the inventions I have laying around here? I don't think I have any geared towards you specifically... but I'm sure if any ideas come to your mind, we could work on something."
There was a tense silence in the air, Tails fidgeting around while Omega remained as still as stone. When the response finally came, it nearly made him jump out of his skin.
"THAT IS ACCEPTABLE."
The answer took the young genius by genuine surprise. Even while he was under repairs, the only time they spoke was when the robot wanted to bicker about some incredibly minute deviation from his chassis specifications. Even when construction was completed and he was integrated into his new shell, he simply left without even a thought of gratification. And now, he was... what was he trying to do, exactly?
"Well, ah..." Tails trailed off, trying to think of something to discuss. "Let's see what I have here..."
He noticed a small puck on a nearby workbench, its edges covered in coils of copper. He jumped out of his chair, scuttling across the garage to pick it up and present it to the robot.
"These here are the EMP charges I created a while back. I don't know how much you were told, but they're what disabled the Klagen holding Rouge hostage."
Omega reached out, his clawed fingers pinching the device and pulling it out of the fox's grasp. The fox seemed a bit off put from the amount of force by which the object was taken but didn't protest. The E-Series machine brought the object up close, its inexpressive red eyes analyzing the gadget up close.
"SENSORS DETECT A CHAOS DRIVE INSIDE, HOWEVER THE DIMENSIONS OF THIS DEVICE ARE FAR TOO SMALL TO CONTAIN ONE."
It held the device back out towards the fox, looking at him expectantly.
Tails' eyes widened, taken aback by the observation. Was... was he asking for more information? The young genius was almost never asked any kind of follow-up question for his inventions, and... he certainly didn't expect one to come from Omega of all people.
He quickly scooped the device out of the robot's grasp, grabbing the button in the middle by its sides and twisting it. With a pull, he extracted a small capsule from the EMP charge, a glass vial with a small purple crystal inside. It pulsed gently, its tint lightly shading the fox's white gloves.
"Be gentle." Tails warned, holding it out for Omega to see. "The vial is designed to break- without the rest of the device it won't make an EMP blast, but it'll still explode."
The robot grabbed it by its plastic button-cap, holding it in front of its sensors once again.
"ENERGY DENSITY COMPARED TO STANDARD DRIVES IS ROUGHLY TRIPLED." He noted, handing it back to the fox.
"U-uh, thanks?" Tails stammered; not really sure how else he was supposed to take the comment. "I mean... it's still not as much energy, even with the improved density it's only about forty percent the total capacity and it's a lot less stable, which makes it a lot better for tactical offensive capabilities instead of a regular power source-"
The fox cut himself off, realizing how much he was babbling technical jargon at the robot. It was a reflex that he had built for himself, since usually this would be at the point that Sonic's eyes would get glazed over or he'd make a glib comment about not understanding anything past the first four words of his explanation.
Yet Omega simply stood there, quietly staring at the teenage genius.
"A-Actually, why don't I show you how they're made?" He skittered to the other side of the garage, ducking under the tail of the Tornado and towards a large metal box built into the corner of the workshop. It was well over twice his size, its enclosure made entirely of aluminum sheets, broken only by the lines of welds and rivets and two niches- one clearly meant to house a chaos emerald, and the other meant to house the empty vials that sat in a crate next to it.
"It's not that complicated, really..." He began, pausing as he waited for the robot to finish walking over to him. "I followed the same general procedure as Gerald Robotnik, but I made a few changes... Basically, he viewed chaos energy more as a... I guess 'liquid' would be the right term? I made a few changes, similar to when I created a fake emerald to trick Eggman during the ARK crisis. I guess the best way to put it is that I made it act more like light energy... and once I did that, it became easy to compress the energy into a smaller chamber. Unfortunately, you can't really extract the power at a controlled rate- it's too unstable so it just... bursts out all at once. All the EMP charge does is modulate the energy into a magnetic field as the energy releases."
Tails paused, eyes snapping back to the robot, an unusual sense of excitement building in his chest as he waited to hear its response.
"LOGS INDICATE THAT EGGMAN HAS BEEN ATTEMPTING A SIMILAR PROGRESSION IN THE UTILIZATION OF CHAOS ENERGY FOR YEARS. THE IDEA OF MODIFYING THE EMERALD'S ENERGY NEVER OCCURRED TO HIM. HE WOULD BE ASHAMED IF HE KNEW YOU SUCCEEDED WHERE HE COULD NOT."
The fox's eyes twinkled, a smile growing on his face as he gestured to another part of the workshop.
"If you think this is cool, then wait until I show you some of the other stuff I've been working on!"
The last thing Rouge expected as she made it back to Sonic's home was to see Tails sitting on the floor next to Omega, surrounded by a number of electronic gadgets and plans as the fox excitedly babbled away. She felt as if the world had gone awry when she heard the robot actually reply to him, engaging with the fox in a way he never did to anyone aside from the other members of Team Dark.
She held back for a moment, observing them for a little while before stepping into the garage.
"Well, isn't this a sight to behold!" She smirked, watching as the fox squirmed to his feet, his face tinged with embarrassment as he quickly snatched up everyone on the floor around them.
"O-Oh, hey Rouge! We were just-"
She held her hand up, cutting him off as she chuckled. "No need to explain, I get it. Boys and their toys, after all. I take it Sonic is still out on delivery?"
"Uh, I guess so." He half-mindedly replied, hurriedly shoving away all the cluttering items into a cabinet and out of sight. "He hasn't gotten back to me yet."
As if on cue, he heard the familiar buzzing of his phone next to his computer. With a spin of his tails, he hovered over to the desk, snapping it up. Sure enough, Sonic was the one calling. He answered the call, putting it on speaker as he placed the device back on his desk.
"Hey little bro!" The cheery voice crackled through the speaker just as the young fox sat down. "I'm here at the base. Super wrecked- place looks like a Badnik landfill!"
"Any sign of GUN?" Tails asked, scooting his chair forward a little so he could make room for the bat and robot to stand behind him.
"Place is as dead as a graveyard." The hedgehog confirmed. "We should be good to go."
"Alright." He let out a sigh of relief. "Go ahead and take the Moto Bug and the antenna out of the box. As long as the antenna is high up or in an open area, we should be good to go. There should be a green button on the bottom, just press it and the Moto Bug will connect."
"Yeah yeah, I gotcha." There was the sound of rustling cardboard and metallic clanking. Tails could practically hear his brother grumbling under his breath, fiddling with the devices until there was an audible " Ah-ha! "
Just like that, a video feed appeared on Tails' monitor. As soon as the camera was online, the screen was filled with the face of a smiling hedgehog, who had apparently decided to lay flat in front of the Badnik's eyes and flash a pair of peace signs.
The fox smirked, and with a single tap on his keyboard he sent the Moto Bug revving in reverse, kicking up a small splash of sand aimed directly at the hedgehog's face. Within seconds, the Blue Blur was rolling on the ground, sputtering and hacking as he tried to spit the dirt out of his mouth.
He heard a snort behind him. Looking back, he saw Rouge with her mouth open, desperately trying not to audibly laugh as she braced herself against the computer chair.
"I hope you found that funny!" Sonic wheezed, sitting back up and sporting a devilish grin. "Because I've got a continent's worth of travel time to think about how I'm gonna get you back for that."
"I'm sure you will, Sonic." Tails chuckled, moving the Moto Bug back and forth to test its latency. "Stay in the area for now, just in case we need you to do something."
"Roger!" The hedgehog chirped. "It's a little chilly at this time of night so don't keep me waiting too long."
With that, Tails drove the Badnik forward, weaving in between the piles of destroyed robots that were already starting to erode from the months of exposure to the sandy winds. It wasn't long before he made it to the open doors of the base, the lack of moonlight shoving the entire interior into darkness.
He clicked the Moto Bug's night vision on, shades of grey and green cascading forward to reveal an ominous, empty hallway. Many of the doors were wide open, their insides being little more than entrances to branching caves that seemingly stretched far beyond what was conventionally possible.
"You know..." Tails trailed off, looking back at the two members of Team Dark. "When Sonic and I were looking for you, we learned that Eggman had built a network of caves to funnel all of his previously abandoned Badniks over here. Even though we already know that, it... still seems unreal when you see it up close."
"THOSE CAVES SHOULD BE DEMOLISHED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE." Omega replied without hesitation.
"Agreed. Even if he is in jail, that kind of access network is not good." Tails nodded. "But we'll need to handle that later."
The fox pushed the Moto Bug forward, deeper into the complex. Eventually, the caves subsided, their presence replaced with the familiar workshops and research stations that the Mad Doctor was known for.
It wasn't long before he found one with a data terminal. He swerved inside, parking the Badnik next to the computer. He reached over his keyboard, pulling out a serial cable and holding it out for Omega to take.
"Go ahead and transfer those decryption keys over to the computer. I can handle the rest."
"ACKNOWLEDGED." The E-Series machine replied, grabbing the cable and placing it into the pins in the back of his head. Within seconds, a notification popped up on Tails' monitor, notifying him that a number of files had been written onto his Desktop.
With a couple of keystrokes, the keys had been implemented, prompting the Moto Bug to extend a tendril into the transmitter receptacle on the computer. It immediately sprang to life, allowing Tails to see a somewhat familiar set of windows pop up on his own computer. There were a lot more files here than last time.
"This is... really high-level access." The fox admitted, glancing back at Omega. "You know why he gave you so little restrictions on the EggNet?"
"LIKELY SO I'D BE ABLE TO MONITOR THE BASES AND PERCEIVE THEM AS GUN FACILITIES."
Tails winced at the cold explanation. That... probably wasn't the best topic to discuss.
"Right." He shook his head vigorously, focusing his attention back on the computer. "Let's see what we have here..."
Within moments, he had a number of lists pulled up- some kind of status system linked with coordinates across the globe.
"Sonic, I think I've found it. Some kind of live reporting software for all of Eggman's bases. A lot of them are listed as offline- a lot of them."
"Does it say when?" Rouge asked, leaning further in. Tails leaned over, giving her a better view. This was the kind of work she was doing with GUN, she might see something he couldn't.
"There, that data column there." She pointed at one column of data. "Those look like UNIX timestamps. Sort them by most recent. Filter only the ones listed as offline, too."
The fox nodded, and with a few keystrokes the data was reorganized as requested.
"Blue, I think we were right on the money. Almost all the bases that are not up and running were taken down within the past seven months."
"...Right after Shadow left." The hedgehog quietly noted.
"Looks like the last one was in Holoska..." Tails muttered. "Wait, I can click on the base ID here..."
As soon as he pressed the button, he was greeted with a new window popping up. A number of photos were displayed, most of them shots of the exterior and interior of the base. He scrolled down, looking through the information available.
"Looks like this was another manufacturing plant for his bots-"
Tails froze, a chill going down his spine as the face of Metal Sonic appeared. He felt his hands tremble ever so slightly.
"Blue, looks like your metal doppelganger was being housed at the last place that was destroyed." Rouge filled in, squeezing the fox's shoulder to pull him out of his shock.
"...He rebuilt Metal Sonic?!" The hedgehog exclaimed over the speaker. " Please tell me he's gone with the base."
Tails scrolled further down the information file. With a sigh, he shook his head.
"Current status says 'Offline.' Whether he's been destroyed or not, I can't tell for sure."
"Guess I'll have to ask Shadow when we find him-"
"Tails, the report!" Rouge cut off Sonic, the exclamation making the fox jump in his chair. She immediately caught herself, looking back down at the phone. "Sorry Blue, I just saw the report update- I think one of the bases is under attack right now!"
Tails immediately clicked back to the base status page- and true to her word, a new entry had popped up at the very top.
"There's another base that just went offline. It's possible it's Shadow, but it could also be GUN..."
"That's a chance I'm willing to take, Tails. Where is it at?"
The fox clicked on the information page for the base, scanning through the location info at the top.
"Sonic, it's in Shamar! I'm sending the coordinates over- if you hurry you can get there in a few minutes!"
"What about the Moto Bug?" The hedgehog asked.
"We have almost full access to the EggNet in an empty base. Let's leave it there for now." Tails reaffirmed. "Now hurry up and get over there!"
"Say no more!"
With that, the call ended with an abrupt click.
Tails sank back in his chair, sighing deeply as he closed his eyes.
Honestly, he still felt like this line of investigation was going out on a limb. With Eggman gone, everyone was looking to take down what remained of Eggman's infrastructure. It could be Shadow, but it could also be the military- or even just a band of locals looking to finally do the Badniks in.
But even so, he still had hope.
Even if it was just so his brother would stop moping around.