The Next Morning...

"Anything on this Ansem?"

Shadow was back at G.U.N. Headquarters (Guardian Units of Nations), trying to gain information on Ansem.

"Agent Shadow, sir! Our analysts believe Ansem could be an alien or some other foreign life form. He has no history as far as Earth goes." the lesser ranked soldier reported to Shadow.

"Thanks. Dismissed." Shadow replied, and the soldier marched elsewhere.

Another ran up and saluted to him. "Shadow, sir. We have a problem. E-123 Omega has reportedly been shut off...permanently."

"What? Are you sure he's not on stand-by?" Shadow tensed.

"Sir, we ran several diagnostics; it was concluded E-123 Omega disconnected from our radars twelve hours ago, last night. We've managed to retrace his heat signatures and found him en-route to Dr. Eggman's base. Soon after, his power core went completely cold."

"Why would he go there?..."

"Our investigators said his last report was that he was on a hostage rescue operation for Rouge The Bat."

Shadow was now angry and confused.

"Agent Shadow, please report to the Infirmary." the base's telecoms sounded.

Shadow disappeared in a blink of light and teleported to the Infirmary's entrance. The nurse was already waiting there, expecting Shadow to pop up out of nowhere like he usually does.

"Come! Quickly!" the lady badgered.

She sped-walked with Shadow following close behind, to the fourth room down the cold hallway. They paved left into the room, where Rouge lied weakly on the white bed. Another nurse was in there, scavenging the cupboards.

"We're out of bandages!" she shouted.

"On it!" the nurse with Shadow responded, storming out of the room.

The other nurse stopped searching and hurried out the room as well, in the opposite direction.

"What were you thinking?" Shadow growled.

"Please keep your voice at that volume, my head is killing me...Blaze wanted to avenge Silver, so Sally, Amy, and I, joined her...We found them at Dr. Eggman's base and we barely made it out, but Omega came...he-"

"Yeah, I know..." Shadow interrupted Rouge.

She continued, "Amy's next door right now, but she was knocked out cold. I don't know how she is now, but doctors say she'll be good in no time...Shadow, it was devastating! Their power is immense."

"What did you expect?!" Shadow raised his voice.

"Ahh! Shh...Keep it down, ya muscle-brain! Metal Knuckles got me good in the head."

"There's a Metal Knuckles?" Shadow's face twisted.

"That's what I thought. Anyway, when we got there, we fought off Eggman's reinforcements then found his main lab, but Mephiles and Ansem were there instead. Then Metal Sonic, Metal Knux, and two Metal Shadows came and wanted all of us out of the base, but that lead to a three-group fight. The Metals were scrapped and we were overpowered...I don't think you understand how powerful they were, Shadow...Mephiles is already in his final form."

"How?!"

"I don't know! Maybe Ansem helped him...Even Ansem is stronger than he looks! Blaze and I even felt like he was toying with us and holding back."

"Yeah? Well I won't be!" Shadow snapped, turning the other way.

"Shadow, you can't go alone!" Rouge retorted, holding her forehead.

"Watch me. Tell the Commander I'm going on raid mission."

"Like hell it's a raid mission! This is suicide!"

"Then you tell him I'm on a suicide mission!" Shadow bursted, leaving the room.

"Shadow! Ow..." Rouge shouted, forgetting about her headache.

The nurses returned with the necessary equipment and continued to tend to Rouge.

Shadow pulled out his Chaos Emerald once he was out of the Infirmary.

"Chaos Control!" he declared, then teleported out of there.

At Dr. Eggman's Base...

A light flashed and Shadow appeared. He stood eyes-wide at what he saw. The entire building was leveled. Minions scrapped, computers blackened, walls decimated, and fragments of glass scattered about. The junk pile was a third of the height of the original height; all collapsed together in an merciless fashion.

"What the- huh?" Shadow stopped, hearing something. It was faint, but most likely louder from its source. Shadow moved closer to the pile, listening on.

"Help! Is anyone there?"

Shadow recognized the voice, "Doctor!"

"Who's there? Hello? It better not be another seagull...Hello?" Dr. Eggman continued.

Shadow found no use in trying to communicate with him, so he got straight to discarding some of the wreckage. He started with the heaviest- the ten-foot supercomputer was easily tossed elsewhere. Then a wide desk that once held test-tubes, also thrown with simplicity. Then Shadow started working on the smaller chunks of rubble. The deeper Shadow dug, the more he could hear Dr. Eggman's banging and complaining. Somehow, Shadow reached the end of the pile, but no Eggman.

He started scavenging elsewhere, when he heard, "I'm down here you fool! Underground!"

"I'm starting to think that's where you belong." Shadow replied.

"I heard that!"

"I know."

"Wait, is that Shadow?"

Shadow balled up and repeatedly bounced up and down vigorously on the damaged floor, in hopes of destroying it more with each impact. Eventually, the dent he created was fragile enough to hit once more, so he bounced back to his feet, and stomped his foot through the panel, which fell far into Dr. Eggman's testing basement- forty-feet below. There, hung Dr. Eggman's containment cell from several thick wires. Shadow leapt on top of it roughly, purposely rocking the cell.

"DON'T DO THAT! Get me OUT OF HERE!"

"Just shut your mouth for a second." said Shadow.

He placed a hand on the hood of the capsule and teleported back to above ground. It was now standing implanted in the sand, and Shadow hopped off it to see the Doctor face-to-face.

"Ah, so it was Shadow!" Dr. Eggman smirking, this tempting Shadow.

Shadow punched through the glass, grabbed the Doctor by his red jacket, and yanked him out onto the sand, shattering the rest of the glass.

"I know you were the one sent Ansem after us." Shadow snarled, standing over his former mentor.

Eggman rolled himself over to face his grandfather's creation, and slid back onto some rubble to rest himself on.

He sighed, "For once, I'm not going to lie to you, or everyone else for that matter, considering this information may be vital to all of you. It's true, I suppose my plan to use Ansem to eliminate Sonic was a failure. I offered Ansem the Scepter Of Darkness on the condition that he'd eliminate Sonic. But, he wanted his reward first, and I foolishly gave it to him. Nevertheless, I figured he'd do the job adequately, because my scanners detected his energy levels within our dimension, and I was greatly impressed!

"However, I also knew he was searching for something. Whenever he'd return to our dimension, he'd always have traces of energy from the dimension prior. So I came to the conclusion that he was on a personal conquest for something...When we met, something about him reminded me of myself: the crave for power! I could see it in his face when I even spoke of power to him. He even knew I had something worth offering him...I thought it was a good opportunity for me..."

"Seems like it was more of his opportunity than yours." Shadow commented.

"Don't rub it in...Shadow, I can't believe I'm saying this, but you need to stop him...you and that pesky blue hedgehog. Without the necessary resources, I'd be of no help anyway. My plans for world domination will have to wait I suppose..."

"Hmph. That'd sound nice if we weren't in a bigger situation." Shadow chuckled.

"Oh, and I forgot to mention, Mephiles is in his final form." the Doctor added.

"So I've heard."

"I wouldn't be surprised if he's out there looking for the Chaos Emeralds. With him allied with Ansem, it could mean the end of all worlds."

Shadow thought about the scenario.

"Hey uh...this, probably isn't something I'd usually ask, but...do you think G.U.N. would let me stay there and...oh, I don't know...help them with this problem?" Eggman asked.

"Oh yeah, that reminds me..." Shadow threw a quick punch at Eggman's face and coldcocked him, "Sure. You could stay at G.U.N., but if they give you a computer or even so much as a free-will to talk, there's no guaranteeing that you'd be on our side. You could be secretly plotting something after this is over."

He gripped Eggman by his collar and used Chaos Control to head back to G.U.N. HQ. Shadow reappeared in front of a jail cell and dragged the limp, six-foot, heavy-set Doctor into it.

"See? Now you're at G.U.N., just like you wanted!" Shadow quipped, exiting and closing the cell behind him.

"I need to tell the others about the change of safety precautions...Without those Chaos Emeralds, safety will no longer be applicable..." muttered Shadow.

He pulled out his false Emerald and saw it lost its color, now gray.

"Looks like I won't be using Chaos Control."

Shadow was still able to teleport without the use of Chaos Control, just over short distances. He teleported to the charging station where he charges his fake Chaos Emerald, alongside several cable phone chargers, then he teleported to the vehicle lot, where his custom G.U.N. motorcycle, "The Dark Rider," waited for him.

*For the record, this is really turning out ENTIRELY different from my original "Resurrection,"  same concept, but totally different flow. I'll have to tell you readers about it after I'm done! Personally, I like the way this one turned out better! What do you guys think of this whole problem so far? Let me know in the comments and don't forget to vote! Thanks.