The hooded silhouette walks through the dark alleyways and lays eyes on a warehouse named Shining Tower. It is called Shining Tower, despite it not being shiny or a tower. It's named like that because it looks like a tower, and that the building is rumored to have many rare treasures in the warehouse. The silhouette climbs up the building from the outside with his spiky gloves, with the moon in the sky reflecting on him. Once he arrives at the top, he uses his spiky glove to lockpick the door and enter through it.

Inside the building, he sneaks through the dark warehouse. He is very stealthy and knows how to navigate through the warehouse without using a flashlight thanks to a map of Shining Tower. His footsteps are undetected, but the second he hears the slightest movement of a guard, he hides behind a shelf rack that is thrice his size. The figure doesn't want to get caught, as all security guards in Shining Tower are equipped with tactical lights, which are firearms with a flashlight attached to them. They also wore a bulletproof suit and a helmet. The animal species of each guard is unidentifiable due to the ongoing power outage.

Once he sees a guard's flashlight a few meters next to him, he pushes off a large package box from the shelf, which makes a clang when hitting the ground.

The sound draws the attention of the guard. That guard thinks that maybe the package just wasn't placed well and just fell off. But he then gets punched from behind, becoming unconscious. The intruder then hears another guard shouting "What's going on!?", which could be heard from many meters away. The hooded figure looks very serious now.

One of the guards runs to where they heard their ally fell to the ground. They see the unconscious guard, but no sign of the intruder who knocked him out. Despite that, their instinct tells them that the intruder is nearby. The guard used the tactical light to look left, right and behind, but wasn't able to see anyone. Little did the guard know that the intruder is actually above him, using his spike gloves to hang on the ceiling. He got up there by climbing up one of the shelf racks. He then purposely falls off the ceiling to punch the guard down into the floor. However, during the punch the guard managed to shoot an aimless gunshot before he got KO'd to give away his location so that the other guards find the intruder and ambush him.

The hooded figure, despite the bad situation, is just annoyed, not scared. He quickly uses the guard's tactical light to look what items they have. He spots a pack of cigars, which he sees as useful, not because he smokes but because another use they could think of. The hooded figure then places the flashlight back, then takes a different route. He sneaks near the left wall of the warehouse so that he avoids being confronted with incoming guards.

After a few minutes, he sees the flashlights of 3 guards heading to where the previous guards were knocked out. However, due to looking more to the right than what's in front of him, he almost trips over a package and grabs the shelf rack out of reflex to not fall to the ground. He looks very disappointed with his failure in stealth. The 3 guards hear that and now run towards him, shouting: "There's no escape now! Catch the thief!!"

Tension is in the air now. The hooded figure gets concentrated and grabs the package he nearly tripped over to throw it at the guards. One of them ducks under it, which causes the one behind him to get hit by the box in the face and fall to the ground. Despite the guards being equipped with guns, the intruder rushes towards them. He rolls under the gunshots, and then knocked out one of the guards with an uppercut.

The other guard wants to shoot at the hooded figure, but the hooded figure holds with one hand the guard he knocked out in front of him to use them as a shield so that the guard won't shoot at him. The intruder then throws the unconscious guard towards his enemy, who dodges it by quickly stepping to the side and then fires a shot at the intruder.

However, the hooded figure stops the bullet by piercing it from below with his glove spike. This shocks the guard so much that he didn't react to the intruder running towards him. The intruder punches the guard in the stomach, then knocks him out with a swinging punch.

Thinking he won, he turns his back to the unconscious guards and walks off. He is unaware that the guard who got the package thrown to his face is still conscious. He is angry and tries to shoot at the hooded figure from behind. He pulls the trigger, but his enemy, despite not looking to the guard, dodges the bullet with minimal movement to the side. He then turns around looking very pissed. This horrifies the guard so much that he looked like he was going to shit himself. They shoot multiple times, but keep missing due to being blind of fear. When the gun runs out of ammo, they pulls out a pocket knife out of his suit to try slash the hooded figure, but he parries it with his glove spike and follows it by grabbing his terrified enemy's head. He angrily whispers with his deep voice to him:

"Only cowards shoot people from behind!"

and then throws him against the wall behind him which knocks him out.

But at the impact, the hooded figure can't help but think he heard a scared gasp. There's no way that guard wouldn't be instantly unconscious after that throw, it couldn't have been his gasp. The hooded figure takes the guard's tactical light to look for something in the wall. After a little bit of searching, he finds a locked door. He uses a spike from his glove to lockpick the door and entered a room where a very scared guard is talking through a corded phone. That's a huge problem. Corded phones work during power outages! The hooded figure sneaks up on the guard who is still talking.

"P-please come here quickly!! Send many soldiers!! That intruder is terr- wait...oh no...NO!!!"

They stop when they notice the hooded figure behind them. The intruder punches the guard, knocking them out.

Sonic jumped from rooftop to rooftop, so in case if any crime happens during the power outage, he can step in and help out. He can't see in the dark, but hearing them should be good enough. Atleast that's what he thinks.

"Hmm, I don't find any crime scene. I might be wrong, but I can't shake away the thought that someone intentionally caused that power outage! Lost Angels is a city known for it's high amount of electricity, and it has tight security to complement that. After I checked on the safety of the people in my apartment, I asked some of the older citizens about when the last power outage happened. They said it happened so long ago that they don't remember. And now it happens again, at night. Could be a coincidence, but it also could be the work of a mechanical genius."

Sonic then heard blaring sirens, which he notices almost immediately that those sirens were the G.U.N's sirens.

"The G.U.N, huh...normally they only send 1 car for a regular crime, but this time it's 3. Must be a big thing happening, so my hunch about an intentional power outage is probably right! Well, it's time to use the power outage to my advantage and follow the G.U.N in secret."

The G.U.N, short for Guardian Units of Nations, is a controversial organisation that serves as both the military and the police in all across Mobius. They seek peace through force and destruction. Prisoners are tortured to get information drawn out of them. Leaders of gangs, mercenaries and revolutionaries are gruesomely executed in public to spread fear on their remaining members. Countries which declare war on others get crushed and get turned into vassal states under strict rules. The G.U.N is not only feared by the criminals, they're also feared by the citizens they're supposed to protect.

While the G.U.N followed by Sonic are on their way to Shining Tower, the hooded figure as mentioned from before finally found the treasure room of the warehouse. It's was covered by a giant steel door, locked by a digital 7-digit code. He doesn't know the code, so he tries to punch the door. However, the damage is only minimal, so he pulls out a small time bomb from inside his jacket. That yellow time bomb has the word "TAILS" inscribed in white. The hooded figure sends the digital timer on 10 seconds, then casually walks away while the bomb explodes.

Meanwhile, G.U.N soldiers with guns in their hands are already in front of the building. There are about roughly 14 G.U.N soldiers there right now, looking kinda nervous. They wear long blue suits, with black bullet-proof vests, black gloves, black knee protection, black boots and night vision goggles. On their vests, the letter G is inscribed in white with white stars around it, and also have multiple pockets on their vests contained with guns and bombs inside. Sonic is hiding behind one of the G.U.N cars, eavesdropping on a conversation between three nervous soldiers. Sonic expected these soldiers to be exactly what they're feared for, but these here seem inexperienced.

The first solder is a male blue falcon who is about 39 years old. Despite his age and having joined the G.U.N few years ago, he is inexperienced here due to being rarely tasked with thief capture missions. He is scared but also angry and shouts: "Damn it! What was that explosion!? I thought we were going to capture a thief, not a terrorist! Do we really want to go inside a building to that "thief"?!"

The second solder is a 26 year old female purple weasel. She feels very uncomfortable with this unusual mission. "And during a power outage, too! These night vision goggles make me very uncomfortable, I'm not used to seeing all red!" She seems to have low experience with pitch dark places.

The third solder is a 21 year old male cyan mouse. He is scared and wants to go home. He must have the lowest experience. "That reminds me...some soldiers suspect the power outage was intentionally caused. Y-you don't support that claim, right?"

The falcon seems to be irritated by what the mouse says. "You're new to Lost Angels? Power outages never happen here! The last one was 22 years ago! This must have been intentional!"

The weasel then looks suprises and then speaks up: "22 years, huh? Impressive that you know the time it happened, all the other soldiers I asked don't remember."

"That's because I had the worst experience out of it. On that day at lunch time I was in my girlfriend's apartment using the lift because she lived at the top. Then, the blackout happened and I was stuck in the lift! Young me was so scared, I kept crying out for help. And my girlfriend...my one true love, she...she was silently listening the whole time!! She was so embarrassed by that, she broke up with me!" The blue falcon cried.

"That's rough, buddy", the purple weasel says.

"But this crime right n-now makes no sense! If that thief is a genius, why are they blowing things up!?", the mouse screams around.

"The more obvious conclusion is that some assistant caused the power outage for the thief!", the purple weasel says this, feeling more confident now due to feeling superior to her younger comrade. But then all three think about what she just said, and then they feel enormous fear.

"Oh shit! The thief has assistants?!" The weasel shouts.

The blue falcon screams too now. "And how many?! What if the thief can also call backup to rescue him and kill us?!"

The cyan mouse is trembling in fear. "No...no no no!! I don't want to die! My wife is pregnant, I want to live at least until I see the baby...I don't want to die!"

Sonic facepalms at the incompetence of these G.U.N. soldiers. In every city Sonic has been, the G.U.N soldiers he saw there terrifyingly competent, but in Lost Angels they're so trash they seem like bad faker version of them. But then he heard mechanical footsteps and a deep robotic voice.

"GUARDIAN UNITS WHO ARE AFRAID OF DEATH?! PATHETIC.", the hulking figure said in a deep robotic voice.

The cyan mouse only looks more scared now. "Ah, i-it's the lieutenant, Omega! S-sorry, I know that w-w-with you on our side..."

"SPARE ME FROM YOUR COWARDICE.

INSTEAD OF FEARING A KNIFE CUT YOU SHOULD FEAR A SALARY CUT." , Omega replied coldly.

The G.U.N soldiers seemingly fear their robot leader more than the thief now.

The robot lieutenant is 1.5x taller than the average soldier, who are a head taller than Sonic. Omega has a small platform-like dark-gray head with no neck. He has no face but he had two red circular lights as his eyes, that made up for his lack of face...as he was a robot and they don't have faces.

And then there is his huge, wide body. He has wide dark blue stripes around his torso where his chest area is, with two small horizontal black vent holes on each side which Omega speaks and hears through. And yes, Omega talks through his body. On the lower right side on his blue stripes, there is a bit of red color , implying that Omega was originally a red robot but then was recoloured to blue to fit the color scheme of the G.U.N. Between the blue stripes, there is a strip of gray metal that runs from his head to his stomach. On his stomach, there is a small TV-like screen which isn't activated yet. His lower abdomen and upper torso are black and his upper back he has a red horizontal stripe. On both sides where the red stripe ends there are long guns attached, pointing upwards. If Omega wants to use them, he can drive them up next to his shoulders to shoot at enemies in front of him.

Speaking of his shoulders, they are black and block-like with a visible G.U.N logo, with a white "G" that had white stars surrounding it. His upper arms are gray and thin, but his forearms are thick and black dark blue and have black wristbands with silver spikes. His hands are four-fingered steely sharp claws.

He has a gray circling pipe around his waist. On the back he has two small twin jets below the pipe. His thighs are gray metal bars, but his black dark blue shins are thicker. Above the thighs are two dark blue blue flaps attached. His legs are overall smaller and less thick than his arms, however. He has two-toed black feet with red space between his toes and long heels.

Sonic is rather surprised and confused at seeing this huge robot with free will lead a bunch of G.U.N soldiers, considering most mobians are afraid of robots due to a some sort of war many years ago.

Sonic hears the purple weasel ask a question. "Lt. Omega, I don't want to disrespect you, but isn't it a leader's role to raise the troop's low morale instead of humiliating them for it?" Omega pauses a bit before speaking his long answer.

"YOUR LOW MORALE IS IRRATIONAL. WHAT IS INSIDE SHINING TOWER?

A MORTAL.

WHO IS HIS TECHNOLOGICAL ASSISTANT?

A MORTAL.

WHAT IS THE POSSIBLE BACKUP THE THIEF CAN CALL?

MORTALS.

MORTALS ARE DEFINED BY BEING KILLABLE.

THE CONCEPT OF FEARING OTHER MORTALS IS INHERENTLY WRONG.

YOU SHOULDN'T THINK

"OH NO, THAT CRIMINAL'S GONNA KILL ME!",

YOU SHOULD THINK

"OH YES, LET'S KILL THAT BASTARD!"

YOU MORTALS SHOULDN'T FEAR AN ENEMY YOU KNOW YOU CAN STOP AND KILL WITH YOUR GUNS."

"But we die instantly from a headshot, too! What is wrong with caution?" The blue falcon asked, thinking that Omega doesn't understand the problem here.

"CAUTION IS IMPORTANT.

FEAR IS POINTLESS.

FEAR IS AN AWFUL AND USELESS DEFENSE MECHANISM OF A MORTAL'S BRAIN WHICH MAKES THEM NOT THINK RIGHT.

FOR EXAMPLE, YOU PATHETIC MORTALS RIGHT HERE.

YOUR FEAR MAKES YOU SO DUMB, YOU FEAR GOING INSIDE THE BUILDING DESPITE NOT KNOWING YOUR ORDERS YET."

"But as a robot, you can't- wait, what?", the blue falcon replies confusingly.

Omega then raises his voice to give orders to the 14 G.U.N soldiers.

"EVERYONE, HEAR MY ORDERS!

I WILL GO INSIDE THE BUILDING, ALONE, TO FIGHT THE THIEF!

YOUR MORTALS WOULD ONLY HOLD ME BACK UF YOU WOULD GO WITH ME! INSTEAD, SURROUND THE BUILDING!

ARREST EVERYONE WHO LEAVES THE BUILDING!

IF ANY SUSPICIOUS PEOPLE APPROACH THE BUILDING, ARREST THEM ALSO!"

At the relief of not having to go inside the building, all soldiers salute respond with a confident, "Aye!"

All of them except for the cyan mouse. "B-but what if it's some of the guards of Shining Tower who leave th-".

"ARREST.

EVERYONE.

WHO LEAVES THE BUILDING.

CAN YOU MORTAL NOT EVEN LISTEN TO SIMPLE ORDERS?!

PERHAPS A SIMPLE SALARY CUT WOULD BE TOO MERCIFUL A PUNISHMENT FOR YOU.", he replies coldly.

Omega now walks through the building's entrance doors while the cyan blue mouse looks upset and the other 13 soldiers surround the building. Sonic was very annoyed now.

Damn it! He wanted to see the thief himself and ask questions, but now it will be too difficult. Even with his speed he would have trouble escaping a circle of soldiers, let alone the robot lieutenant. Sonic now struggles to decide what to do next. Should he wait until the thief maybe escapes out of this situation, or should he go home and call it a day? There is no way a thief could escape from a surrounded building...right?

After Omega enters the building, he uses high quality x-ray vision to see through walls. He spots the hooded figure on the west side being two floors above him. He drives the left long gun up next to his shoulder and then shoots a laser beam.

The hooded figure was in the treasure room. There is a lot of rare and expensive gold, jewelry and other stuff, but he doesn't seem happy, like a normal mobian would be after seeing a ton of treasure, he looked pissed.

"Where is that damn Chaos Emerald!?"

he retorts in a gruff voice, until he notices something from below. Out of reflex he took a few steps, which made the laser beam barely not hit him. The thief is surprised, but not scared. He leaves the room and tries to run off all the way to where he entered the building, but after 15 steps, something jumps out the floor beneath the thief which sends him vertically flying. It's the robot lieutenant, flying with his twin jets. Omega grabs the thief's leg, does a spin and then throws him all the way sideways to a wall. The impact hurts, and the hooded figure's back is now against the wall, both metaphorically and literally. While he stands up, the robot uses his TV-like screen to flash his opponent. He took a photo of him.

"FREEZE!

I AM OMEGA, THE STRONGEST ROBOT!

GIVE UP OR YOU'LL REGRET IT!

THIS IS THE LAST BUILDING YOU BROKE INTO A BUILDING. NOW YOU'RE THE WHO GETS BROKEN!

THERE IS NO ESCAPE!!"

Is this the end for the thief? Can he make it out of this situation? And who is the thief anyway? Who is his assistant? And what will Sonic do?

To be continued...