Rouge the Bat was the top agent and spy in her field.

Efficient, arrogant, and not adverse to using sly tactics to get the job done. She was G.U.N's best tool for tough tasks that required someone quick, quiet, and clever. Whether the assignment was scouting out threats, infiltrating high-security facilities, or ripping weapons away from dangerous organizations without detection, she was the ace up their sleeve. She had a morally gray stance on the methods she often used to complete a mission, which made the President uneasy, at times.

Occasionally, he feared that she or the other high-status military personnel might go too far one day. That if she got to be too self-serving, she might persuade their soldiers to bend more rules than they were allowed to. But Rouge hadn't let him down yet, being reliable in succeeding while not technically committing crimes that could be considered immoral. With this in mind, and with the knowledge that they needed her talents, he trusted her as much as he respected her; which was plenty enough to consider the bat more of an asset than a liability.

On one particularly cloudy day, just after she completed a rescue mission for one of their teams that'd gone missing in a high-risk area, her boss received a report that a classified weapon of theirs was stolen by the endlessly troublesome Dr. Eggman. He looked to Rouge, who lounged in the brown leather armchair that'd unofficially become hers – it was where she'd been seated when she first met the President, and it had become her regular sitting spot when she collected her reward for a job well done.

"Agent, I'm sorry to ask you to stand up so soon," he started, watching her shoulders slump and her head tilt to one side. She wasn't tired, but was clearly a bit annoyed at having to go on another assignment already. "I've just been informed that Dr. Eggman stole something of ours, and it's urgent we get it back."

"Oh," she said, perking up from her vague exasperation. "That's all? Well, sneaking into his base is a piece of cake, I can do that again and be back in no time!"

She stood up, stretching out her arms and wings while the President spoke of her payment. "I hope you understand we can't afford to pay in priceless jewels every time. Since that scientist has never been much of a challenge for you before, I have to be more mindful of what can be spared from the budget."

"Hm," hummed disapprovingly from her closed mouth, which pulled into a doubtful line. Her hands found their place on her wide hips. "That's a shame, Mr. President. Truly, a pity you can't match the value of urgently getting back what he stole…"

The human man was worried she would refuse if not compensated to her liking, so he started trying to bargain with the treasure hunter. While he offered rings, vacations, and anything else that might be of lesser value than her typical taste, Rouge's mind wandered off to a rumor she'd heard about the doctor's secret stash of precious gems. She didn't know for sure if it was real, but she reckoned even if it wasn't, there must be something he'd gathered or stolen that would look better in her collection.

"Tell ya what, Prez," she said, cutting off the overlander's offer, "I'll accept payment in the form of keeping anything I might decide to grab while I'm in his base. Sound fair?"

The man hesitated. "Well… I don't like encouraging you to steal."

"Oh, darling," Rouge chuckled, swatting the air and flashing her signature charming smile. "Stealing from a menace like Eggman is hardly a crime!"

A small sigh left his lips, but he didn't have much room to try and change her mind. She had a point; and it was more beneficial for him than having to spend from his own pocket. So, the President agreed to Rouge's terms, and she set off to complete the mission.

Shadow the Hedgehog was an experiment recently revived by G.U.N.

He was awakened when his cryostasis pod was opened, where he was immediately defensive towards the men pointing guns at him. Distrusting of his lucidness after coming out of a frozen state, they tranquilized him before transferring his unconscious body to a room where they could monitor his next awakening. They strapped the lifeform's body to a table to keep him restrained and checked his physical state to determine the risk of attempting to reprogram him to their liking. His vitals were perfect – a marvel to them, as he was created decades before, unable to grow in size or strength since he'd been sealed away.

Regardless, they had gone long enough without using his powers for their own duty of establishing order in the world. He was an artificial being, and thus could be changed and taught to obey as one of their soldiers; but as it stood, he was too powerful to let loose yet. So, he would remain detained on Prison Island, and would be sealed back into containment once they finished the initial testing of his potential. Pacified into inactivity, he was left to lay still while the scientists assigned to analyze him prepared elsewhere for the research they would conduct on his sleeping form.

When he woke a second time, sooner than they'd thought he would, Shadow first felt a sense of confusion at where he was, seeing no one in the empty room. It was a different place than the last location his memories held, and when he tried to sit up, he found himself strapped down. Oblivious to what was happening, he started to feel a pang of panic and worry growing in his chest as his heart rate rose. He looked over at the beeping monitor beside him and saw it spiking with his heart beat. It was something he was familiar with from the Ark, something humans used. And he remembered briefly being released by them.

'What do they want with me? They were the ones who… locked me up before… right? Do they wish to question me? Dissect me? Or is this… an experiment?'

He couldn't pin down the memories from before they opened his pod, brief flashes of dreadful images flittering in unpleasant snippets. All he knew for sure was that these were humans he couldn't trust, and that asking questions in his head would get him nowhere. So, he started feeling out the strength of the straps. They were tight, but not unmovable if he put a decent amount of effort into straining against them. He spent a minute getting the straps loose enough to give him a chance at slipping out. But then, he heard the far door begin to open.

They were coming.