Name and concept of Team Darkblue was inspired by the `What if Sonic lost his memories?´ series from The Sega Scourge. I can only recommend Sonic fans to watch his videos on YouTube.
"Ruby, can you pass me the screwdriver?" Tails asked. Ruby gave him said tool. They were tinkering on the detector for hours now. They were so focused on their task, especially with Tails explaining some of the technology to Ruby, who put all of her focus and attention to his words, that they even forgot to go out and get lunch. Sonic had to come and bring them some food and drinks. Now the hedgehog and the two non missing members of Team Dark were waiting for the duo to finish their project, so that they could start their search.
"Okay, I think that was all you needed to know and could help me with, Ruby. I will take care of the rest."
"Are you sure I can´t help with anything else?", the silver eyed girl asked the two tailed fox. He shook his head.
"Sorry, but the rest is some fine tuning stuff that needs someone of high expertise and experience to handle. Just step back and take a break, you have helped me more than enough."
"Okay, if you say so."
Ruby went to the waiting Mobians and robot and stood beside them.
"So…", she started. "How are you doing?"
"YOU SAID THE PROCESS OF CREATING THE DETECTOR WOULD BE FINISHED HALF AN HOUR AGO. BOREDOM HAS INCREASED TO 20%. ANY LONGER AND IT WILL FURTHER INCREASE."
"Sorry Omega, it took longer than expected. I tried to follow as best as I could, but Tails had to explain a lot of stuff several times over."
"Hey its alright. With the fastest thing alive being around, any lost time is no time at all", Sonic proclaimed proudly, getting some chuckles from the others. On a more serious note, Sonic continued: "But I´m actually glad that you and Tails get along so well. He never had someone being so enthusiastic about tinkering as him."
"And I have to say that watching you kids be so excited on working on this stuff was pretty adorable", Rouge pipped into the conversation with a smile.
"Hey! I´m not a kid. I´m fifteen, a teenager!", Ruby pouted. Rouge just looked amused.
"Fifteen is closer to childhood than adulthood if you ask me. Doesn't mean you cant achieve amazing things in life early on. Omega here was praising your combat abilities. That is not something he does lightly."
Ruby´s pout lessened.
"Oh… well… thanks. So, you are Rouge then? One of the members of Omega´s actual team?"
"Yup. Rouge the Bat. Special Agent of G.U.N. and the world´s most successful treasure hunter."
Rouge said it in a playfully smug tone, with a fitting smile to match. But the smile didn't really reach her eyes.
"Everything alright?", Ruby asked.
"Oh well… it´s nothing, really."
"SHE IS WORRIED ABOUT THE WELL BEING AND CURRENT WHEREABOUTS OF SHADOW."
The bat sighed.
"Alright, I am. But I know you are worried as well. So is everyone really, even if they don´t want to admit that. Especially Tower."
"Who is Tower?"
Sonic answered that question.
"He is the leader of G.U.N. Or at least used to be, with, you know, the whole organization having being destroyed by Eggman. He is helping out Knuckles and Amy with leading and managing the Resistance. Or at least he does when he isn't busy out in the field. Rouge, the mission you had in Efrica, wasn't he there as well?"
"Yes, we had sent Topaz and her team there before the war broke out and lost contact ever since. Only a few weeks ago we got a signal from them. Me and Tower went to retrieve them…"
The way Rouge just went silent and her ears dropped down made Ruby look at her in concern.
"Did… something go wrong?"
"The group had gone trough hell and back. They tried helping others, but between Eggman´s forces and hiding out in the harsh wilderness of Efrica, it was a game of survival. A game not everyone won. And unfortunately, when they send their signal, we weren't the only ones that received it. An army of Egg Pawns lead by Metal Sonic attacked us during our rescue. We barely managed to fight them of and escape. We lost more people during it and Tower got injured heavily. As of now he is in the hospital wing and not in the greatest of moods." Rouge looked at Ruby. "I heard you and Tails during your tinkering of how you want to create new types of weapons. If you want Tower´s approval for some of the designs, you better wait until he has recovered."
"I will keep that in mind… thanks."
While Ruby tried to sound grateful, Rouge´s story made her very thoughtful. The Huntress-in-training had already fought trough several battlefield in this world and survived the catastrophe in Beacon. Yet she still had trouble comprehending the whole severity of the situation. This was a WAR she was part of.
The civilians that were tormented by the bladed spider robots.
People got hurt.
Cinder, Pyrrha´s killer, remorselessly throwing a knife into Ruby´s back.
People could die… including her.
"Everything alright, Ruby?", Sonic asked.
"It´s just… this whole thing is hard staying positive about." She rubbed her arm, a slight shiver crawling over her skin like a swarm of icy ants.
Sonic laid a hand on Ruby´s shoulder and squeezed it reassuringly.
"Hey, I know things look grim… well, because they are. But that's all the more reason to stay determined and continue to fight. It´s in a hopeless situation that people need hope the most. Including one self."
Rouge concurred.
"He is right. Even if the mission in Efrica was hard, I was happy seeing Omega waiting for me in the hangar. Speaking of…"
The bat gave the silver-eyed girl a genuine smile.
"Thanks for bringing him back online."
The compliment and the reassurance from Sonic helped Ruby to ease up. She returned Rouge´s smile.
"You´re welcome. Omega is pretty awesome and I hope me and Tails will be able to help bring your other friend back as well."
As if on Que, Tails snapped up from his work, proclaiming: "I got it!"
He held up a device that looked like a high tech compass with a round screen as its center.
"Its not perfect, but with this and Chaos Control you should be able to quickly cover ground and locate Shadow´s signal, especially with the fake Shadow gone. I powered the thing with a miniature version of a Chaos cartridge, thanks to the red Emerald, and linked the device this way with the gemstones. While it will show Shadow energies as a red dot on the map, it will also locate Chaos Emeralds currently not under our possession and show them as golden dots."
Tails gave the locator to Rouge and handed Sonic the red Emerald back. The former looked at the gadget with interest.
"Such a useful device… mind giving me a copy of this after the war is done. For… reasons."
"Well, I wouldn't mind giving you this."
Tails hold out a USB stick. Rouge looked at it in confusion.
"What do I need this for?"
"I have a suspicion that Shadow is being held inside an Eggman base. If this is the case, load all the files you can find onto this USB stick. We´re gonna need the information about Infinite, his abilities, Eggman´s alliance with Cinder and what other kind of battle plans he may have."
Rouge hummed thoughtfully.
"I guess that's the least we can do for you after your help. And generally makes sense."
"CAN WE FINALLY START? BOREDOM HAS INCREASED TO 25%."
Sonic gave the E-series robot a nod.
"You bet we start! Now nothing stands in the way of our personal rescue mission. Let's go Team Darkblue!"
With a Chaos Control, the trio vanished. Tails and Ruby blocked their eyes with their hands to not get blinded by the white flash of light. Once it was gone, Ruby said: "Team Sonic… Team Darkblue… maybe it is hypocritical coming from me, being the leader of Team RWBY… but Sonic seems to have quite the ego."
Tails couldn't help but smirk.
"Oh so you noticed? Sonic is not one to shy away from being cocky. But in my opinion it is one of the things that make him likable."
Ruby thought about her mission with the blue speedster. That cocky, yet somehow reassuring smile. The pride in his abilities, but still trying to be level headed and showing genuine care towards people. It reminded Ruby about her sister. She smiled.
"Yeah… it does."
Two hours later... break of dawn...
"Okay now we should be there."
"Sonic you've said that for the last eight times!"
"BOREDOM HAS INCREASED TO 70%!"
"But this time it's true. Look!"
The blue hedgehog pointed to a huge steel, building that stood in a small valley. It was simplistic in design, shaped like a box with nothing but a large door interrupting the smooth surface.
The trio was on the slope of one of the many mountains that encircled the place. Omega rotated his head around, scanning the surroundings.
"THIS AREA IS EXTREMELY REMOTE." He looked at the building. "AND THE ARCHITECTURE IS OF AN UNASSUMING DESIGN BY EGGMAN´S STANDARDS. THIS PLACE IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE DISCOVERED."
"To bad for old egghead that we are here. If you ask me, we should definitely investigate further."
Sonic ran down the slope. Rouge and Omega followed. The bat flew to Sonic's side with a serious expression.
"Careful. If this is were Shadow is kept, we should expect robots and other tinkering from Eggman."
The blue hedgehog nodded. While he usually was the guy to just jump head first into danger, this was different. He and the others were here to find someone missing and that wouldn't be possible with activating every single security measure in this place. Sonic knew that stealth would be important and was ready to follow Rouge´s expertise on that side of things.
Team Darkblue came to a halt on a boulder, taking cover behind the massive rock. They waited for a while, surveying the valley's surroundings closely.
Four of the spider-like robots with blade arms were patrolling the building. Their search light like eyes became brighter the further the sun disappeared behind the mountain peaks, the lights ready to catch an intruder. The machines scanned the area, stopping for briefs moments before stalking on with her mechanical spider legs.
"Those things again. Was hoping not to see them since the last mission", Sonic said in a quit tone.
"If one of these things catches us in its light, an alarm will surely be raised. And if they notice one of them getting destroyed, it will certainly lead to the same result."
Rouge, having often infiltrated bases of Eggman or criminals that where using his technology, had gotten familiar with the design of the security.
"What about cameras and other stuff?", Sonic asked.
"I will take a closer look once it goes completely dark. It will make it easier for me to go unnoticed."
Sonic gave her a thumps-up to show that he understood. Omega, being of course familiar with the routines of his partner, just silently waited.
Once night had taken completely hold, Rouge took of and silently disappeared into the darkness. After several minutes she returned.
"I managed to disable the cameras from their blind spots. Besides them, there are only the robots left. The best course of action would be to destroy them all at the same time."
"And how do we get in? We can probably destroy the door, but that would cause a ruckus."
Rouge smirked. "Don't worry, while searching around I found an air vent. I will use it to open the door from the inside and let you boys in after we destroyed the robots."
"If there were only three, this shouldn't be a problem. But with the fourth..."
"LEAVE THAT TO ME", Omega said confidently.
The robots never knew what hit them. When all four stopped and looked around in different directions, Team Darkblue struck. Rouge flew in and kicked her robot so hard that the back of its head dented and partially tore open.
Sonic spindashed through his machine's body. Omega shot down the other two enemy robots with both his cannon arms at the same time. Instead of using rockets or regular bullets he used electrical projectiles and (for Omega´s terms) silently terminated his fellow machines via short circuiting.
The Team waited anxiously for an alarm system to blare. But the night stayed silent. Sonic eased up.
"All right then. Rouge, be so kind and open the door for us."
"You know, usually its the man that hold the door open for the ladies. Guess its one of the reasons why your dates with Amy never worked out", Rouge said with a teasing tone and flew up towards the air vent.
Sonic just rolled his eyes at the comment and wondered how Shadow could handle it if Rouge was constantly like this. Or maybe that's why he was always so grumpy.
The gate opened and Rouge stood behind the doorstep, beckoning Omega and Sonic towards her.
"Come on in."
The inside of the building was filled with large boxes and containers, most of them open and empty. There were several platforms that acted as elevators. The trio stepped on one, and Sonic looked at the labels on the buttons used to select floors.
"Okay, we´re currently on the ground level. All the other ones are down below. We have the choice between laboratory, production facility and, uh, storage and capsule chamber? Why does Eggman store capsules in a chamber?"
Rouge and Omega looked up alarmed.
"Maybe it's the capsules that store something," the bat mumbled, lost in thought. Memories of an old mission, the first one Team Dark as a whole ever had, flickered in her mind.
"Omega check the contents of one of the locked containers."
"UNDERSTOOD."
The E-Series robot stomped towards one of the objects in question and effortlessly opened it with his brute force.
Luckily the loud sound didn't cause any alarm.
Omega stared silently inside the container.
"… ROUGE, YOUR GUESS IS CORRECT. SHADOW MUST BE DEFINITELY HERE IN ORDER FOR THEM TO BE PRODUCED AND STORED HERE. IT WILL BE OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE TO LIBERATE OUR COMRADE AND OBLITERATE THIS PLACE COMPLETELY."
"Wait, what's going on? What's in the containers?" Sonic didn´t get what the two were on about.
"You'll see about that in a moment."
After Omega stepped back onto the elevator, Rouge pushed a button labeled
Rouge said, pressing the button labeled 'Storage and Capsule Chamber'. The platform started to descend. The rooms of the other floors passed by Team Darkblue. The production site, the laboratory and finally…
They came into a vast hall that must have stretched far below under the mountains. Roughly worked stone walls and a cave-like ceiling that were covered in a sparse amount of orange lights that illuminated the hall in an artificial twilight. The floor was lined with metal roadways that ran between huge rows of capsules. The pods were filled with a greenish liquid and in each one was floating…
"Shadow?" Sonic asked confused.
"These are Shadow Androids, bio mechanical clones of the original. We encountered them while Neo Metal Sonic was on the loose and Shadow had lost his memories. Omega was able to destroy all of the specimens before they were activated, but now Eggman has started producing them again."
Sonic´s expression hardened once he realized what was going on.
"Let me guess: the reason he's doing it now is because he once again has the source of DNA to create these fakes."
Rouge and Omega nodded. They wandered between the pods, looking at their containments. The Shadow Androids floated lifelessly inside the liquid. Wires clung to their heads and their eyes were closed. Each of them looked almost identical to the real Shadow, except for the yellow coloration of the usual red stripes and the ebony fur being more of a very dark metallic gray.
Seeing how many there were, it would take too much time to find the real Shadow among all the androids. Rouge flew up a bit to get a better view of the area and something immediately caught his eye.
"Boys follow me! I think I found him."
Sonic and Omega ran after the bat. They reached a pod that was slightly elevated and positioned in the center of the hall. Even tough the coloration was right on this one, Omega scanned the black hedgehog inside just to be sure.
"IT IS INDEED HIM. WE HAVE FINALLY FOUND HIM."
Omega´s usual loud tone of voice became a tad louder trough his excitement. Rouge visibly perked up his statement.
"Let´s just hope he doesn't have amnesia again. Let's get him out quickly."
Before Rouge could take a step towards the comatose hedgehog, her sensitive ears twitched. Her eyes widened and she quickly jumped back. An arrow struck the ground before her, its orange glow intensifying. Sonic grabbed Rouge by the shoulder and, using his speed, got the two of them behind Omega, who shielded them form the explosion.
"Too bad and here I thought I could just ambush you guys. But clearly you have more brain cells than Amber did", said Cinder, emerging from behind a pod with a bow made of volcanic glass in her hands.
Omega's eyes lit up.
"HOSTILE DETECTED! IDENTIFIED AS: CINDER FALL! THIS UNIT WILL BE ABLE TO FINISH WHAT IT STARTED IN MYSTIC JUNGLE!"
"Don´t think I will be as easily thrown off like last time", the Fall Maiden hissed. "You surprised me and got some cheap shots that managed to destroy my Aura because it was already weakened! Because of that I got transferred here. The Doctor was sure that someone would come to this factory after Shadow's phantom was destroyed. He sent me here to play watchdog as punishment. I'm pleasantly surprised that someone actually came. The boredom is finally over."
"Why didn't we see any signs of you?"
Cinder gestured towards the central capsule with Shadow inside of it.
"Because I´ve been patrolling down here, babysitting the most precious thing of this facility." She tapped her mechanical eye. "And this here alarmed me when the cameras and Egg Cutters stopped sending signals up there."
"That is not a thing, that is may friend!", Rouge growled. She always hated it when others derogated Shadow, either because of his past or his artificial origins.
Cinder just rolled her eyes.
"Of course you do, you´re just like him. Unlike Faunus, you Mobians really are just better animals."
That comment really riled up Rouge and Sonic. Omega turned his hand into canons, aiming towards Cinder. She just smirked by the open display of animosity. Flaming energy pulsed from her amber iris. The red one from her cybernetic eye intensified its glow.
"Having the tin can that humiliated me, put me to this place, now appear here is truly a sign of destiny."
She broke her bow into two halves and heated them up.
"To test my power, show the truth that I am worthy of it."
The glass glowed orange and softened. It changed shape and the two bow halves formed into sabers. The glow disappeared as the volcanic glass solidified, except for some veins and flames on the edges of the blades.
"To make you and the friends of the little rose and the mutant cub suffer!"
And here we have another boss fight coming. Like Frontiers9 had hoped for, there will be Cinder Vs. Sonic. Except Rouge and Omega are along there for the ride. Most of you (justifiable) think that the odds are stacked against the twisted Fall Maiden, but she will pull out some new tricks in the next chapter. Remnant is often called a place of bloody evolution, but it is here on Mobius where Cinder encounters worthy foes that force her to further develop and hone her abilities.
To Guest: People did make fun of her obsession with weapons. But the focus of the scene where her eyes. With people on Remnant being rather xenophobic towards others with differences, having an unusual eye color can be an open spot for jerks to bully someone. As for when it happened: Before Ruby went to Beacon. I left the exact time period vague on purpose so readers could imagine in whenever it feels more natural. Kindergarten, elementary school, Signal, you can choose.
Who has said that any of them didn't face some form of problems? People in life get lucky or unlucky what kind of crowd they encounter. But this fic focuses mostly on Ruby on the Remnant side of things, on her experiences. Be it past, present or future ones.
To Guest: Well, we got one little scene here. There may be more in the future.
You might´ve given me an idea for a small scene, I´ll see where I will put it in the story.
To ambifin10: I´m not sure how canon that is to RWBY lore. But like I mentioned at the start of this fanfic, I will kind of do my own spin on the RWBY lore because of its inconsistencies in the show. So the silver eyes don´t damage/weaken magic. Why? Because… uh… of something spoilery that will happen muuuuch later on.
As for why Cinders eye got damaged; the Grimm beetle fused with Cinders arm once the glove magically created by Salem was destroyed. But just like the Grimm arm Cinder would have gotten in Season 4, it slowly infected her and started spreading inside her body. At the climax of Season 3 the infection already reached Cinders left eye and it, alongside her arm, got severely damaged when the Grimm essence was burned out.
I hope my reasons are understandable and I am still very grateful for your will to inform me.
To Zerofox1: Honestly, I don't really understand what you mean. Why would Ruby be confused by the different coloration of the hedgehogs. If humans and Faunus can have different hair colors, why not Mobians?
To Sakha: Thank you. Unfortunately Tangle, Whisper and the Diamond Cutter will not appear. But the latter will definitely get a mention, since this chapter shows where the Shadow Androids that killed the Diamond Cutters originated from.
To Guest: Glad you think so. I wanted to give the heroes a break from the battlefield. And I'm happy that you like my idea with the silver eyes and how they could have affected Ruby growing up.
To Monster King: Always early to leave a compliment, I really appreciate it.