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Rouge surveyed the contract before her longer than she spent reading it: no matter how she tried to make her eyes focus on it word by word, she was just looking and not understanding. She'd already seen the numbers, and the intelligence document detailing everything as yet known about Ivo Robotnik, up to the latest addition: he was spotted by a known criminal once contracted to hunt down emeralds for Chaos weaponry testing - there by chance, and let him get away.
And now, they trapped her by force: the carrot and the stick had both been ratcheted up to tower over her. We know what you were doing there, and we've looked into your records. We'll grant you total immunity from courts internationally if you become permanent here. Speak a word of Robotnik's plans and the world panics - you'd better align with us. We won't ask where any artefacts 'recovered' from this mission end up.
But, she preened herself as she internally insisted: she'd walked in willingly. The opportunities for espionage - true, high stakes, and scary - didn't often present themselves on a pleasant platter. And being a spy with no target was like being a gun deprived of game. Her fingers itched on the trigger, so she took the pen.
"Sure, I guess you need me. But don't expect to find me easy… to work with."
She blew a kiss at the commander, who's face soured more than she ever thought possible, which only made her smile more.
Shadow's gloved fingers traced the mounts where Chaos Emeralds would be, thinking about everything but unable to pin a single strand of thought down. He'd dreamt of this moment, of nothing else but this, for years - Maria's last wish, Gerald's hurried whispers in his sleeping ears as he was perfected under duress. He and this machine had waited for their destiny together for many long years, and in this time their noble family name had been inherited by this simple man with his tiny dreams about conquering and ruling. They were as sweetly pedestrian as Shadow's own initial purpose, and this mighty cannon's too: an ultimate cure for those selfish people below, and the mightiest weapon to protect them from harm. What good would either of those be, when there was no planet to live on?
But now this poor man's Professor was folded into the plan too, as long as he continued to be useful. He was compliant - and actually happy enough, like a baby with rattle - as long as he felt that he was the one in control of the missile. He hadn't grasped yet that when you point a weapon such as Shadow, everyone on both ends of the gun is doomed to lose, and badly. And with an ego like that, he wouldn't see it coming until the earth shattered beneath him.
Omega stared directly ahead. There was no use in patrolling this empty room. The body didn't move. The sensors didn't trip. The walls creaked once in a while, but otherwise there was nothing.
So he crouched in the shadows. A machine such as himself didn't feel boredom; he had a directive, so it couldn't be boredom. And boredom, Omega understood from his set vocabulary - was a mild inconvenience that could be passed or endured. What he was experiencing was something more akin to torture.
Conscious thought, even mechanical, wasn't meant to be left with no stimuli for this long. It wasn't loneliness that bothered him either: certainly, if Omega had been left with no other thinking thing to bounce off of but instead enough danger to fight off, puzzles to solve, or even enough sums to process one by one - he wouldn't enjoy it, but he would be fine. It was this stillness - it didn't feel still at all. He was painfully aware of every second that passed with a mechanical clock ticking no slower and no faster than the earth turned. All the while, he was bursting with kinetic potential energy. He treated himself to his hourly glare at the pod in the centre of the room. He thought, as he had been for the past few weeks at increasing frequency, about springing it open himself. How many shots could he unleash against that glass before it cracked, or split entirely? It was thinning before his eyes as he stared.
But he couldn't move. The ends of his limbs hung down and had pooled with residual obedience, locked in place and in waiting. And that's what he wanted too, when his logical processing unit was engaged, because while he sat here - frying his own connections - deep within him a spring-loaded trigger was coiling tighter and tighter. When the day came, he would be so wound that even he didn't know what he'd do, how his power output would feel when he could finally use it. He dreamed of tearing metal with his claws, burning through the steel fortress, into the world outside and the grey smog he presumed would greet him. He'd burn through that too, revealing the fire behind it and prove himself hotter than that still. Eggman might have imagined him a pistol when he left him unfired in this tomb, but through spirit and spite he would become a bomb, the timer of which he controlled with his own strength.
Rouge found Omega hunting the straggling remains of the dark aliens. She watched him from afar: he unloaded bullets into them forcing their gooey forms to scatter, then he let them reform just enough to attempt an escape before he fired at them again. She guessed that at this artillery load he would not be out of fuel for flamethrowers to put the beasts out of misery - so she didn't interrupt him, and hovered in the shadows to wait out his whim.
From her North side, somewhere near the ruined city subway entrance, she heard a rhythmic whooshing sound. She didn't need to turn to look - Shadow had found them again. She wasn't surprised, and she had watched that shining sprite touchdown on earth somewhere beyond the horizon before it dwindled out and made way for the light of the sun. He might have circled Earth in the time it took her to find Omega here. She kept her hiding place, out of habit or true fear, she wouldn't examine.
Shadow lurched down to them from the remnants of a highway that once swooped above this pedestrian zone. Omega swivelled his head once to confirm what the sound was, but returned his focus to the pitiful squit before him. If this shunning annoyed Shadow, he didn't show it - he strode to stand beside Omega, watched for a moment, then discharged a spear at the squishy mouse Omega was playing with. It shrivelled instantly into embers with a squelch and a squeal.
Omega glared down at it, then at Shadow, before he finally stood upright and scanned around.
"Immediate surroundings are clear. I will search for the next target."
"Don't bother." Shadow said quietly; "They'll starve anyway. Cut off from the main ship they lose instruction, and without constant reminders to respire they choke."
"Black Arms are pathetic beyond all prior calculations?"
"Sure."
"Understood. So I will not congratulate you. Success was inevitable."
"Whatever."
Rouge smiled, then opened her mouth to laugh musically. They both jumped and found her hanging above them, and she twirled her legs in a semi circle as she descended.
"Yes, absolutely no congratulations, and no thanks Shadow;" She snickered again behind her hand at how surprised two unmoving faces could look. It stroked her ego that despite how exceptional her friends were, she could still sneak up on them.
"I saw him, Omega, while I was all frozen with that toxic fume stuff. Not nice, but Shadow? He barely broke a sweat."
Omega scanned her body carefully with one eye glowing green.
"Hm. I don't sweat."
"Sure you don't. Oi, cut it out!" She knocked on Omega's head as he scanned her again with a purple sheen to his eye now.
"Irritation of the alveoli, recently caused. This must be rectified before maximum damage output is available."
"Thanks, I guess. Maybe it's time for a holiday, then - I'm sure G.U.N. won't have another contract for me straight away..."
She settled at Shadow's other side, and surveyed the city from below for once. Their alcove was silent. Shadow bristled.
"So, back to them then?"
"When they have a task for me. I know they haven't been wholly good to you, Shadow - but they still pay well."
"I think I've given them worse than they've given me. So, go - see if they'll have you back. Like I care."
He spat the words at her, but she just shrugged, stalking to the pillar to lean out of and browse the Military airwaves of her walkie-talkie, one ear out for Shadow and Omega.
Omega was frozen again, scanning Shadow too with first his green and then his purple laser. Shadow scowled at him until he stopped, and cleared his throat.
"A 'holiday', then back to the government. Hm. Omega: what's next for you?"
"Continue all prior directives."
"Yes. Directive. Back to pursuing Eggman."
"Pursuit never ceased. Black Arms were in the way. They are no longer in the way."
Shadow grunted, and brushed his own fur as he thought.
Omega eyed him with one lens, and imitated: "Shadow: ' What is next for you' ?"
Shadow sniffed sharply, and straightened his back; "Why do you need to know?"
Omega considered seriously, Rouge thought, for a full minute, while she picked out instructions through half remembered code words. Shadow tapped his foot impatiently, and asked again:
"Why do you need to know what I-"
"Allegiance is not target conditional. Your next target is actionable information to me."
Omega didn't often interrupt people he liked - his chosen methods of impoliteness were more explosive and unmistakable, and he preferred to log all analysis before deigning to speak. It surprised Shadow today - his ears flicked back along his head and he scowled. Rouge winced, and loudly inaccurately changed the radio frequency she was on so it buzzed loudly.
"Allegiance? I don't hold you to anything, and you couldn't hold me to one if you tried."
"Granted. My allegiance to you is not reciprocally conditional."
"You talk like you're diplomatic. Ridiculous."
"Ultimate life form, not Ultimate in mind and language."
"Say it again, if you dare."
"I will go where you go, Shadow. I will help you before you ask. Your targets are also my targets. Your goals are my goals. Your agreement to this is not required. 'What's next for you?' - and by extension, me."
"… When I know, maybe I'll tell you."
At the sound of a helicopter circling over them, Shadow and Omega tucked under the shelter in synch, and listened to the descent of G.U.N. troops mobilised to build the city quicker.
"First:" Shadow considered, "I had better get out of here. I've had enough of these 'soldiers' shooting in my general direction."
"Oh, they're looking for you, alright. But I don't think they'll be firing this time." Rouge chimed in with her ear to the receiver. He sneered at her.
"Thanks for the warning, I guess."
"Omega's right to ask Shadow: where are you going?"
"And why should I tell an agent? You made your loyalties clear."
"You shouldn't tell an agent. You should tell your ally, specifically perhaps the one who took your side, covered for you and has lied through her teeth about your whereabouts to keep the army at arms length."
He squinted at her like he could focus hard enough to read her mind. She rolled her eyes.
"What Omega said. I don't need your permission to be on your side. So, tell me where you want to go, and I'll tell them to look 200 miles the other way."
"Hm. Thanks. I save the world and go into hiding for it…"
"Touchy! I thought you'd appreciate the solitude! Give me some time to smooth things over, talk through and reform your image. When this all blows over, they'll be begging for your help next time the world ends." She grinned.
"Strategy is keeping enemies close?"
"Sure, Omega, if you want to see enemies everywhere, then yes. Those 'enemies' give me information I can use for other acquisitions. It's also decent work - well, decent in some sense. Keeps my mind busy, I…" She trailed off, considering Omega and then Shadow for a moment, before she shrugged; "I like having something to do."
Shadow ran a hand through his quills, feeling how the frayed ends were already melding back together so his points were sharp, ready for action.
"I think I like that to…"
"Agreed. Targets are needed for entertainment and practice. Destruction of Eggman must be executed perfectly."
"And you have to have something to shoot at, don't you?"
"Agreed. Targets must be found."
"Well, then you can understand why I keep the agency around. They've got enemies to spare, and there's always something shiny around somebody's neck."
"… Are there opportunities for violence."
"Oh yeah. Wa-ay more than the public know about. Mostly retaliation."
"… there is an appeal," Shadow grunted. Omega
"Yes." said Shadow quietly; "Tell me when things are clear with your Agency. I also need something to shoot at."