"We need to start looking out for new places… he needs to plant the red fruit trees, so I'd imagine he'd try somewhere where there's lots of vegetation."
He spread the map on the table as his partners glanced at each other. The constant twitching, pacing, and snappy responses were starting to wear them down. Rouge sighed. She knew this was important to him, but she hated how serious this particular topic got.
"Any suggestions?" He looked at them expectantly.
"O-oh alright, so like,"she was caught off guard, " somewhere like Mazuri?"
Shadow looked at his partner with a slight glare.
"Please tell me you're taking this seriously and not just naming places you'd like to travel to."
"I'm taking this seriously, but also, I'm naming a few places that would definitely catch my eye if I were an alien," Rouge smiled a bit, but when she saw her partner's frown she sighed and scratched off the two places off the map as possible locations with a black marker.
"May I make a suggestion?" Omega offered.
"If it's another Eggman base, no." His alien teammate immediately shut him down.
"Actually, I was to propose we backtrack to the places we've been."
"Hmm, maybe," the hedgehog nodded, "but what would we do differently this time?"
"We burn it to the ground to make sure we didn't accidentally miss Eclipse."
"Nevermind." He sighed. Rouge held back a laugh.
"...We are still left with a lot of possibilities. You know, maybe we should, I don't know…. Investigate one of those supposed 'alien sightings' in rural areas and cities? Maybe they're onto something-" Rouge suggested.
"Black Arms don't leave crop circles, if that's what you're thinking."
"I mean, it wasn't exactly what I was thinking."
"And they don't kidnap livestock, either." He crossed his arms and glared at Omega as the robot put his hand down, "only humans…"
"Ah, well, there's plenty of those in Station Square," she said, anticipating a scowl.
The hedgehog had a thoughtful expression."I doubt he'd want the attention, though."
Rouge bit her lip, thinking. "Just wait."
Rouge pulled out her phone and started a call. She placed the phone in the middle of the table on speaker. Shadow looked closer and noticed she had called their newest G.U.N. recruit, Dr. Snively.
Immediately, the image of a bald, angry short man with a red beard and pointy nose invaded her phone screen and started shouting:
"Rouge! This better be important! I was just-"
"Zip it. I just want you to tell Shadow what you found," Rouge held the phone towards Shadow's direction so the scientist could see him. Snively rolled his eyes but nodded in acknowledgement.
"Ah yes, the alien thing. Of course." He smirked and continued, rather excitedly. "There was a recent case reported to the Station Square police that a mysterious creature raided a fisherman's home in Mystic Ruins! I'll say, the very least we ought to do is-"
"Wait," the hedgehog interrupted, "And how long ago was this?"
Snively made a scowl at being interrupted. "The reports are around 2 weeks old, however, due to the ongoing world crisis at hand, I only just received these reports 3 days ago."
"Two weeks!" He repeated, shocked. "You had information on him and you weren't even planning to tell me?"
"Did you skip the part where I said I personally only received them three days ago?" The human rolled his eyes.
"Well, I told you now, did I not?" Rouge smiled.
"I want to speak to the witness right away," Shadow demanded.
"I was planning on interrogating the witness myself," Snively said impatiently, "but since you're eager for more work, I can send you my telepod and have you lead the interrogation."
"That's fine with me," he crossed his arms.
"Farewell, I look forward to finally capturing that alien nuisance."
After that, Rouge ended the call and looked at Shadow, who had a serious but thoughtful expression on.
"I'm telling you, if you're eager for clues you might want to look at this. I'm not saying this will definitely lead you to Eclipse, but it's something."
"Alright then. I'll keep looking and see the reports." Shadow nodded, got up, but before leaving said in a low voice, "I really appreciate it, Rouge."
Rouge smiled as he teleported out of sight. She let out a tired yawn and turned to Omega.
"He's not making us run around in circles in a forest anymore, right?" Omega asked.
"Oh, he better not."Rouge said. "But if that alien is out there… Well, we should stick together this time unless we want a repeat of last time."
There was heavy rain outside of the G.U.N. shuttle in Mystic Jungle. The thunder's loud roar and sudden flashes of light scared the baby aliens into huddling with their caretaker and shivering in fear.
Eclipse stared at the distant lightning flashes through the windshield in awe. He had to admit, he'd never seen anything like this on the comet, and he didn't spend much time on any conquered planets either to experience anything similar. He knew what was going on only because of the information his master shared with him about Mobius when he was very young. It was called 'weather', if he remembered, and could vary depending on temperature and moisture... and the accumulation of weather over time was 'climate', which depended on several geographical factors such as latitude and vegetation…
He sighed. He wished he'd paid as much attention to Black Death's warnings as he did his teachings. At least this place was thriving with wildlife and plants, which meant it would be a perfect spot for them to survive off of Red Fruit trees. Again. Unless he could find any living creature, though that would be too risky.
Rhygenta rubbed her head against his chest, expecting some reassurance. Eclipse hugged her, feeling the tiny creature's violent shivers.
"Calm down… it'll be okay, I'm here," he scooped the little wisp hybrid in his arms and began gently rocking her to calm down. In just a few minutes, Rhygenta's trembling seized and the little creature fell asleep.
Eclipse softly laid Rhygenta next to her siblings, who had all already fallen asleep around him. Seeing them so tranquil and safe gave him an inner peace that he'd never thought he'd feel again since the Black Arm's demise.
He couldn't recall a single full night's sleep since then, either. Besides the trauma from being the only left of his kind, he also found himself the only one responsible for the wisp hybrids. When the Dark Arms had newly hatched, they were extremely needy. He had to rock them to sleep in pairs, and if just one of them started crying or calling to him, the rest would start doing so as well. And like newborn Black Arms, they needed to be fed constantly. They were only on Angel Island for a few weeks, but the constant repetitive tasks made it feel much longer.
Still, they were all he had left, and they meant the entire world to him. Despite the fight they put up against Shadow and the red creature aiding him, they were still mere infants. He realized that he had to start being more considerate to that fact… letting them fight was out of the question for the meantime, unless they were in a desperate situation.
He bit his lip slightly. How were they supposed to win this? He had to start planning soon… Surely, Shadow wouldn't take long to find them. Especially since they already disrupted the local wildlife…
One thing at a time… He took a deep breath and sighed. He went outside, the pouring rain had turned into light drizzle and the lightning had stopped. He could start planting the Red Fruit trees.