Rouge looks around, surveying the area around the base. It had been abandoned for so long, the plant life was beginning to take over. Large bushes had grown and some trees were beginning to take hold; there was even a decent amount of bamboo. I stare at the wildlife, fascinated. Everything around me feels so new. The glittering sunlight, glinting off the dew-stained leaves; each blade of grass reaches up to tickle my calves, brushing my skin and fur. The birds sing, fluttering about, a few scattering feathers to drift casually through the breeze. A multitude of different plants bloom and thrive here; if I knew these people a bit better, I would ask them what the names for all the plants are, as well as why this building had been so empty.

"Well," Rouge stretches, yawning, "we'd better get going. I'm sure waking you two up set off some alarms, so the defense team is probably on its way here," she turns back to us. "We better beat it before they get there!" She grins at me. "You two ready?"

Omega lifts his arms, the weapons within them rotating. "Warning: any and all Robotnik creations will be massacred."

I snort, ignoring the robot as I walk past the bat. "Hope you can keep up with me," I growl, beginning to sprint. The trees fly past rapidly, and I decide to leap from tree to tree, bouncing off the bark. Thankfully, I appear to be the fastest of our group...If not, I would've seemed like a serious jerk. I cringe inwardly, cursing my flippancy. I'm not even sure why I decided to say something that confrontational. I'm going to have to be more careful about what I say, and to whom I say it...

The white bat catches up to me, flapping her wings hard. "Hey," she calls, and I flick my ears towards her, sparing a glance in her direction. I hope she's not annoyed, I think, but once I look at her I notice that she's smiling cheerfully. I sigh with relief inwardly. "My name's Rouge," she says a bit awkwardly. "What's yours?"

"Shadow," I growl almost instinctively, trying my hardest to not pant with exertion. I feel like I haven't run in eons, but the motion is still natural to me...somehow. More like, my legs are used to it, but my lungs? Not so much. "Shadow the Hedgehog."

She grins. "Heh, maybe I was wrong about you not remembering anything, after all!"

"No, you were right." I reply flatly. "I don't remember anything. But that feels like my name, so I'm going to stick with it."

"Oh," Rouge replies, looking surprised. She bites her lip, and I look over at her for a bit more than a few seconds. Her outfit isn't as peculiar as I'd first thought; though it was frighteningly skin-tight. Hope she can breathe properly, wearing that, though I suppose it is convenient for aerodynamics. After all, she flies, so clearly she needs her form to be streamlined. She wore what appeared to be a purple leotard, with a plate of armor covering her lower torso. A belt with a heart-shaped buckle, made of metal as well, looped around her hips, and it appeared to hold a few cases. I wondered what they were used for, but I didn't dawdle by staring at her-that would be weird. I turned away, focusing again on the trees in front of me and, most importantly, not crashing into them.

----------------

After several hours of running, we stop at the edge of a city. Rouge skids to a standstill, landing abruptly, panting, and she wipes her brow. "Sheesh!" She wheezes, "That took a lot more effort than I'd thought it would."

I look over at her, barely breaking a sweat myself. After a short while I'd become more accustomed to running, and it had seemed effortless. For whatever reason, I had presumed she would have more stamina... Shaking my head to clear it, I squint up at the bright city. The sun has begun to set, and the city is alive with light. I turn to face Rouge. "What are we going to do now?"

She grins at me. "Well, this area of the city has been heavily infested with Eggman's robots," the white bat pauses to run her fingers through her short-length, fluffy hair, "and I figure the best way to get Robuttnik's attention is to start taking out his armies."

"Affirmative," Omega drones flatly. "We must destroy all of Robotnik's robots."

I smirk. For whatever reason, this sounds like it'll be fun to me. "What are we waiting for?" Not bothering to pause for a reply, I take off into the city.

Rouge turns to Omega and chuckles. "Hey, was he always this hotheaded?"

"Indeed he was," Omega replies, "but he hid it well."

----------------

Fifteen minutes later, the streets are littered with robot parts. I look around, noticing the lack of average city life. Why are all these lights on if there's no one around? I blink up at a well-lit building that holds only a few occupied rooms, marked by light from within. I pity the suckers who are stuck in this dump. Too close to all these robots for my liking.

Omega withdraws his weapons, opting for his average hands. He turns to Rouge, who is currently looting the robots, looking for jewels. "Scan detects minimal robot activity in this sector," he informs her, "they appear to be fleeing towards the center of the city."

"Let's go, then," I turned away from the building to face my two teammates. I was struck by a peculiar sense of déjà vu when I looked at them, but I shook it off. Weird.

"Just, uh, give me a minute." Rouge rummages through another robot's carcass. I step forward to stand beside Omega, looking down at her. She doesn't appear to be finding anything useful, and it looks to me like she's just moving things around until I realize she's picking up random bits of the robot. What on Earth does she plan to do with those? I look over at Omega, about to say something, but he isn't paying attention, so I keep my trap shut. Eventually, Rouge gets up, looking annoyed. "Alright, whatever," she sighs, "let's go, boys." She leaps up, flapping her wings rapidly.

I glance back at the robot Omega, who fires off his thrusters and shoots up a foot or so into the sky. "Tch, no thanks," I mutter to myself. The idea of being more than a few feet off the ground sounds terrifying to me. "I'll just follow on foot." I jog after the two, keeping up easily. The closer we get to the center of this city, the more damage and destruction I notice. I can see people huddling in doorways, peering out the windows, and I find myself becoming angry. How dare these robots invade these poor people's homes. How dare they take the streets from them, how dare they make this place unsafe for the local people. They don't even belong here! Scowling, I quicken my pace, hoping to catch up to the robots before they do too much more damage.

----------------

At the center of the city, Sonic smashes yet another robot into a wall, easily crushing two more beneath his feet. Behind him, his fire-engine red friend punches through three robots at a time, roaring, while the orange kitsune hovers above, throwing random objects through the swaths of robots with a peculiar invention he created. It attaches to his shoulder and arm, lending him more power for a perfectly-aimed pitch every time.

"Ugh," Knuckles growls, back to back with Sonic, "there's just too many of them!"

"You're tellin' me..." Sonic replies, sweating nervously. "I don't even know how he's made so many of them on such short notice!"

"Doesn't matter!" Tails calls down. "Just do your best! The police are on their way!"

"Yeah, right..." Sonic sighs, "they won't be of much help. They hardly ever are." He grumbles, smashing another robot.

"Any help is better than no help," Knuckles reminds the blue hedgehog, who rolls his eyes in response.

----------------

Far above the city, a large vehicle hovers. Painted a gaudy red and gold with green and silver accents, with a caricature of Robotnik's face emblazoned on the side, the vehicle was more difficult to look at than actually intimidating. Robotnik, in his control center, scans the city beneath him. "Hmm, less than 40 percent of my robots remain." He scowls at the map, sipping his coffee. "Unusual. I already know that Sonic is battling at the center of the city, so who's cleaned out that area on the edge?" He presses a few buttons, and a magnified view of that chunk of the town displays on a screen. The computer scans over the sector, and then makes a loud "DING" noise as it zooms in on three figures, one running and two flying, making their way to the center of the city.

At the sight of the three figures, Robotnik coughs, choking on the beverage, and leans forward to inspect it more closely. "My God..." He gasps, then turns to the robots standing by the door. "You two! Get to the Hawk and grab one of my android selves-make sure to capture the black and red hedgehog if possible!" He whirls back around to the control center, sweating with terror. How is this possible? He was supposed to remain locked up until Sonic was taken care of... What happened?

He frantically smashes a few more buttons, deploying dozens of robots to that area rapidly. I have to stop him, before he starts to remember! Master will kill me if I don't...

----------------

The drones streak across the sky, howling towards Rouge, Omega and me. I'm the first one to notice, smelling their exhaust fumes. I stare up, skidding to a stop. Rouge lands next to me, with Omega following suit and cracking the pavement with his weight. "Look like we've got company," Rouge remarks with a smirk. "You boys ready for a fight?"

Omega lifts his arms to the sky, beginning to fire at the drones before they even land. I take a running start, then spring up onto a nearby lamppost, leaping straight at the lowest robot from there. Rouge sighs. "Guess so," she grumbles, wondering why she had to get herself stuck in a team with two near-mute members.

I crash straight into the lowest-flying robot, flipping it over in order to stand on it. Its engines sputter under my weight, and I use it as a springboard, launching myself at the closest robot. With a kick, I smash straight through it, keeping my leg perfectly rigid flipping elegantly to bash three others in my arc of descent. Whirling rapidly, I crash into several others, knocking them to the ground. Omega, firing with reckless abandon into the robots, can't seem to tell friend from foe; as I fall, I feel a few bullets graze me. Annoyed, I make certain to land near enough to him that the shockwaves cast him slightly off-balance-he stumbles, pausing for a moment. By the time he regains his balance, Rouge has already destroyed the remainder of the machinations. Omega turns to look at me, almost glaring (as much as a robot can glare, anyways), and I smirk at him. "Guess you were just a little too slow, big guy."

He continues to stare at me, and I shake my head, still smirking, and trot forward to join Rouge. She lands gently on the ground, surveying the damage. Before I can open my mouth, the sound of an engine roars above us, the wind buffeting my fur. Bright lights shine down onto us, and I shield my eyes with my hand, squinting in the harsh whiteness of it. An ominous voice booms from a speaker above us as the vehicle lowers in front of us. "So, you're the ones who have been playing games with my army!" It bellows in a harsh, scathing tone.

Omega steps forward, raising his guns again. "Primary objective detected. Must destroy Robotnik!"

"You must be Omega," the voice growls, and I'm struck by another odd sense of familiarity as it continues, "now, is that any way to treat your creator? I'm going to have to teach you a lesson!" Several weapons unfold from panels on the ship's wings and body, and the engine roars fiercely.

Rouge bends her knees, preparing to take off, and I assume a fighting position. "You ready, boys?" She turns and smirks at me, then glances back at Omega.

I nod in response. "Ready when you are."

"Let's go!" She shouts, leaping up into the air as the bullets start to fly, chaos breaking loose.

I tumble forward, rolling end-over-end on top of the concrete and dodging bullets. The bright spotlights made it difficult for me to see anything on the ship. One thing I know instinctively is if you take out a wing, the thing's grounded, so my first move is to take out the closest wing. I leap up, snagging onto the slick side of it. I dig into it, and suddenly realize that there's something else at the tip of my fingers. I pull one hand back and stare for a moment at the small black knife-like shapes protruding from my gloves. "I have claws," I remark aloud, surprised. "Neat." Turning back to the ship, I dig my newly-discovered talons into the metal, ripping off a plate easily. Hefting myself up onto the wing, I plunge a hand into the hole I had just created, yanking out more wires than I would think necessary for a plane wing. The engine sputters for a moment, and the vehicle skews to one side. Omega fires directly into the cockpit, eliciting a shower of sparks. Hopping up from my crouched position, I dash along the wing, heading for the glass semicircle, marking the pilot's seat. The vehicle dips, with the righthand wing--the one I just tore to bits--clipping the ground and exploding in a shower of flames and a screech of tearing metal. I fling myself upward, curling into a ball, and then crashing back downward with intense force. The metal beneath me tears, and the ship explodes, throwing me back upwards. I wince as my fur singes, but other than that I appear oddly unhurt. Rouge, flying above, catches me before I fall back into the burning vehicle, locking her arms together around my chest. I look up at her, and that same déjà vu sensation strikes me. She glances down, and concern fills her eyes. "Hey, you okay?"

"Hmn?" I blink in confusion.

"You looked kinda...dazed. Are you sick?" She lands, putting me down, and brushes her fingers softly across my forehead, looking me directly in the eyes, uncomfortably close. "Hmm, you don't have a fever," she mutters. Wh-What am I, a child? Cut that out. I feel myself begin to blush, so I pull away, shaking her off.

"Sorry. Guess the explosion rattled me for a moment." I reply gruffly, turning away. "So, that Robotnik is behind all of this?" I query, changing the subject.

"Looks like it." Rouge sighs. "He's been a source of trouble here for a long time. We'll have to take care of his newest 'campaign' before I can return to my work." She walks past me.

"Work?" I trot to keep up with her.

"Yep," she replies. "I'm a jewel hunter. Sometimes I just hunt treasure in general though. Anything valuable that I can get my hands on." She smirks. "Don't worry, it's all legal--I only take what I'm hired to get. Usually."

"Interesting," I remark, still slightly puzzled. She's a professional thief? Those two don't seem to really go together.

"Yeah, yeah," she chuckles, "look, we oughta pick up the pace. Omega, how many robots are around now?"

"I detect several enemy machinations at the center of the city." The robot pauses, analyzing. "There appears to be a force at the center of the machines that is destroying them."

"Huh," Rouge muses, beginning to jog, "wonder who that could be?"

"Tch, does it matter?" I fall into step beside her as the clunky machine behind me does its best to keep up.

"Not really, but it'd be interesting to know," The white bat replies casually.

I snort in reply. What does that matter? Who cares, so long as they're working towards the same goal as us.

----------------

A short while later, we arrive at the center of the city, where robots are being destroyed very rapidly by three unknown fighters. Our team leaps into the fray without hesitation, Omega once again firing haphazardly. At this point, I'm more than a bit concerned that he's trying to hit me. After the fifth bullet narrowly misses my eye, I whirl around and snap, "Hey, watch where you're aimin' those! What're you tryin' to do, blind me?!"

In response, Omega shoves me out of the way. "Do not leap into my crosshairs and we will have no issues."

Annoyed, I growl at him, but decide it's not worth it. If the idiot can't be bothered to control himself, that's not my issue. I leap up into the air, kicking at a robot carcass that was just sent flying by a red blur down on the ground. Spinning midair, I gather momentum and crash down onto the robots below, bouncing up to land on my left hand, kicking my legs out in front of me and whirling about, using my dense metal shoes as weapons. The robots around me crash to the ground, a few exploding upon contact, while some are just damaged. Before I can do anything, though, something very speedy and very blue zips past, decimating them. I get to my feet, confused, and notice that there aren't any robots left. The blue streak skids to a stop a few feet away from me, and I blink at the striking electric-blue hedgehog standing with crossed arms in a cloud of dust that he kicked up.

Rouge walks up beside me, facing the blue hedgehog and his two friends. Yet again, a foggy sensation of I've-experienced-this-before descends on my mind but I force myself to ignore it.

"Hey, there, Sonic!" She calls, waving.

The cyan hedgehog walks over, chuckling. "Well, talk about stubborn and full of surprises," he remarks in a not-too-terribly-friendly tone. Something about him raises my hackles, and I don't like it...not to mention the fact that I have no idea what he's talking about. Or what that's supposed to mean.

"Yeah, long time no see, whatever." Rouge flaps a hand at him. "We can take this from here."

"Oh, really?" The hedgehog's bright red friend snaps in a rough tone, and he raises his fists. I notice the alarming claws protruding from his knuckles. Dear jesus, what on earth are these people?

"Really," She assures firmly. "You came all this way for nothing. What a pity." I glance over at her, concerned. Why is she being so confrontational? What's going on here?

Omega interrupts with a slight beeping noise. "Sensors locked on Eggman," he intones flatly. "Non-compliant intruders will be destroyed." I look between my two teammates, both bristling for battle. Why? This isn't solving anything... What benefit could fighting these people possibly give us?

"Heh, didn't you know?" The blue hedgehog replies arrogantly. "We have a date with Eggman too!" He gives me a rather peculiar, almost goading look. It's almost like he doesn't like me. I can't possibly fathom why, since we just met. I'd really appreciate it if we could just go our separate ways now, but a fight is clearly brewing between our teams. It's ridiculous, true, but I don't think I'd mind another fight. I find myself enjoying it. Besides, his cheeky manner is rubbing me the wrong way.

Smirking, I step forward. Whatever Rouge's reasons are for disliking this guy, they're probably solid. He seems pretty smug, like he needs to be taken down a peg or two. "Well, then, it'll be a date to die for!"

Sonic looks annoyed. "Hey, that was my line!" He protests, childishly.

"Too bad," I hiss under my breath as I lunge forward.