"Sonic, seriously, you look bored out of your mind. Why don't you go out and do something?"

Sonic was slumped on the living room couch, his head tilted back. "I dunno, Ames. There's really nothing to do. Seriously, on the one day we have to close the restaurant…"

Amy was standing in front of him, her purse over her shoulder. "You know that I have to visit my OB-GYN. It's my yearly checkup. You knew about this day for a while! Why didn't you plan something with Silver or Shadow?"

"Again, I dunno. I guess the thought never crossed my mind."

Amy sighed, and turned towards the door. "Well, I've gotta get going. You figure out something, and I'll be back in a few hours. Okay?"

"Sure, sure," Sonic muttered.

"One last thing," Amy said. She walked back towards him and kissed him on the cheek. He looked up at her, smirking.

"Come here, you!" he said playfully, leaping up, pulling her into a big bear hug, and kissing her back. She laughed breathlessly.

"You hopeless romantic…"

She detached herself and started walking towards the door. "I'll be late! See you later, honey. Don't get into trouble!"

"No promises!" he called after her cheerfully. Once she closed the door and latched it, he launched himself back on the couch, groaning.

"What the heck am I going to do for three hours?! Silver's probably busy at the orphanage, and Shadow…"

An idea came to him. He turned his head to the window and smiled slyly.

"I wonder if Shadow will object to visitors?"

It didn't take long for Sonic to arrive at GUN Headquarters. He received clearance from the guards and walked up twenty flights to Shadow's office. He knocked on the door. A voice inside called, "Come in!"

The blue hedgehog pushed open the door. Shadow was standing up, facing away from the door. His arms were crossed and he appeared to be deep in thought.

"Hey, Shads!" Sonic said, rushing to stand behind his older brother.

Shadow whipped around. "Sonic! What are you doing here? Is something wrong?"

"Nah, everything's cool. I was just bored, so I decided to come and bug you!"

"Typical," Shadow muttered. "Am I always your go-to for fulfilling your bugging quota for the day?"

"Ya know it!" Sonic said cheerfully. And then he noticed the look on Shadow's face. "Okay, something's up. Spill."

"Nothing's up. I don't know what you're talking about," Shadow retorted, his face almost immediately becoming neutral.

"Aw, put a cork in it. You had this worried look before you pulled that poker face of yours," Sonic said. "What's going on?"

Shadow sighed and sat down in his chair. "This is probably going to sound like paranoia…"

Sonic sat across from him. "What is?"

"You remember that I sent three agents to investigate the abandoned Eggman base, right?"

"You mentioned something like that at breakfast the other day," Sonic replied. "But I didn't know about the Eggman base part."
"Well, now you know. They returned about an hour after I arrived back here, and they seemed…off," Shadow said.

"Off?" Sonic asked. "In what way?"

"I don't know, they were just…like robots, I swear. They had monotone voices, almost perfect synchronicity, and their eyes…" Shadow trailed off.

Sonic raised his eyebrows expectantly. "What about their eyes?"

"They just looked…dead."

Sonic stared at Shadow for a few seconds, and then burst out laughing.

The dark gray hedgehog flattened his ears. "What are you laughing at?! This is not funny!"

"Seriously, dude?! Dead eyes? Monotone voices?! You've got to be kidding me! You were right when you said that this was paranoia!" Sonic rolled on his chair, laughing his head off.

"Shut it, you blue idiot! You didn't even let me finish!"

Sonic stopped laughing immediately and set his elbows on the table, his chin propped by his fists. "Alrighty, then. Continue." However, there was still laughter in his eyes.

Shadow leaned back. "At first, I dismissed it. I thought that it was normal, since they had to be tired from their mission. However, I cannot ignore the fact that they are continuing to act like robots for the past few days."

"Huh. Now this is getting interesting," Sonic said.

"None of them are acting like their normal selves. Carmen loves getting on the nerves of the younger agents, but lately he hasn't even looked in their direction. Spot usually has ideas to improve GUN, but he hasn't said a word. And Leah is always chipper, from dawn until dusk. But she stays silent and doesn't crack jokes like she used to. And another thing…they're always together. Always traveling together throughout the facility, never separating. They seem to talk as one unit. I just have this gut feeling that something isn't right," Shadow said, staring into space thoughtfully.

Sonic shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe they became close friends on the mission you sent them on? Maybe their friendship was already strong but it solidified? Maybe they all matured and actually became adults? There are many explanations for this."

"You think I haven't thought through all of these? I have a contradiction for all three," Shadow replied. "First: it seems highly unlikely that they became close friends on the mission. Why would they? They hardly know each other, and friendship doesn't become that strong that fast, which also partly explains your second reason. They hardly knew anything about each other, apart from their names. Third: Spot is already mature beyond his years, and while Carmen is technically an adult, he acts like a child. No one can spontaneously change in one mission. And Leah is just a cheerful girl. That is her personality. So, as you can see, I have thought of all possible explanations and none came up true. There's something else going on here."

Sonic crossed his arms. "Okay. Sure, this may seem suspicious, but what's the true cause of this sudden mood change? There's really no plausible explanation for that either, Shads."

"Yeah, you're right," Shadow muttered. "But this doesn't resolve my suspicion."

"I guess all you can do is keep an eye on them. If you're right and something is really going on, you should be able to find out by observing them," Sonic reasoned. "And if something is wrong, you know you can always call me for backup! And Silv too, of course. You know we're always right here when you need us."

Shadow smiled. "Thanks, Sonic."

"No problem!" Sonic replied, grinning. "Now, enough of this paranoia stuff. I came here to get rid of my boredom and while your suspicions resolved that for a bit, now I've got nothing to do." He leapt up onto the desk. "Entertain me, big bro!"

Shadow crossed his arms and cocked an eyebrow. "You know that I've got a facility to run. Unless you want to help me out with something…"

Sonic jumped down. "Eh, why not? Whatcha got for me?"

Shadow stood up and plunked Sonic onto his chair. "Watch the security cameras, I suppose. There's around five hundred across the world and revolving in space, so it wouldn't hurt for you to keep an eye on them while I sort through some files."

Sonic leaned his head against his fist and started clicking through the cameras at lightning speed. Shadow sat across from him and started going into various files, sometimes making an entry inside them before putting them aside. There was a good hearty number of those to go through.

Sonic sighed. "This is so not my idea of fun."

A little ways off, a shape was crouched in the bushes, peering through a window into the building he was observing. He watched the small person moving inside it. You can tell even from the outside that the person was sad. They were hunched over slightly and moving slowly.

The mysterious peeper grinned. "It's already making a difference. Excellent! My plan is going smoothly."

To be continued…

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