Chapter Text
“We finally meet, Shadow the Hedgehog,” Commander Tower said. After GUN detained Shadow, the commander requested the hedgehog be brought to his office.
“I am,” Shadow replied, “what is this about?”
“You attempted to destroy the world,” the commander answered, “over one girl.”
“She wasn’t just ‘one girl’,” the hedgehog said, barely containing his anger, “she was my world.” He calmed down and sighed. “And in doing so I nearly betrayed the last wishes of my closest friend.”
“Maria always did think more of other people than herself,” Tower said, “I can understand Gerald’s desperation to save her, and his pain at losing her.”
Shadow was confused. “You talk like you knew her,” he said, “just who are you?”
“My apologies, I never introduced myself,” the commander said, “I am Commander Abraham Tower. I was a resident on the ARK before Gerald had his breakthrough.”
“Abraham… Abe,” Shadow mused, “Maria spoke of you.”
“Once upon a time, the ARK was open to the researchers’ families, though there still weren’t many kids on board,” Abraham confirmed, “until I saw… something, and non-essential personnel and families were evacuated off the station as a result.”
“And that’s why you wanted to talk to me,” the hedgehog concluded.
“Partly, yes,” the commander said, “we do have some business to discuss. But more than that I wanted to talk about Maria.” Shadow looked at him with surprise. “The last ones with any personal memories of her are in this room. She was my friend once too. I’d like to know how she was after I left.”
Shadow hesitated. It had been 40 years for Commander Tower, but for Shadow, Maria’s death had only been a few days ago. He didn’t know how to respond. “You certainly have your privileges, bringing a terrorist in to discuss an old friend,” the hedgehog finally said.
“You’re not wrong,” Abraham said with a chuckle, “but now might not be the best time. Consider it an open invitation.” The human looked at Shadow knowingly. “Onto business then. Word about the ARK and Project: Shadow is getting out. While none of the actual files have been leaked, my agent’s report has.” He turned on the TV in his office to a news report.
“…detailing the government’s involvement in the cover-up of the ARK 40 years ago, despite the administration at the time assuring the public it had rooted out government and military corruption,” the repot played, ”To correct this error, the president has vowed to release all files pertaining to Project: Shadow and the ARK after redacting the names of researchers involved. The report also lists Shadow, the subject of Project: Shadow, alongside renowned hero Sonic the Hedgehog as having stopped the ARK’s crash. We will update this report with new information as it comes. In other news, the former Secretary—”
Commander Tower turned off the report. “That report seems to leave a lot of information out,” Shadow noted.
“Does it?” Abraham asked with a knowing tone. “I’ll have to have a talk with Agent Rouge when she and Topaz are back from their vacation. But the president can hardly allow one of the heroes who saved the world to be indicted, yet you do represent a security risk. Quite the problem.”
Shadow read between the lines. “’Leaked’ report indeed,” he mused with a knowing tone of his own, “yet I feel like you already have a solution.”
“I want you to join GUN,” the commander said bluntly, “between the files recovered by Knuckles the Echidna at Pumpkin Hill and secret files we managed to recover from the former Secretary of Defense, it is clear there are still unauthorized weapon projects going on, recreations of Project: Shadow in particular. These won’t be your only duties, but I want a team deputized to investigate these projects and shut them down if necessary. Agents Rouge and Topaz have already agreed.
“You want a dark team to handle potentially messy projects then,” Shadow said, “why else include a thief?”
“’Dark’ is as good a team name as any,” Abraham replied, “and you’ve got the gist of it. The Guardian Units of Nations is an independent global peacekeeping force. Which ultimately means we answer to no nation and all of them simultaneously. I want a team that can ignore the bureaucracy.”
Shadow thought for a moment. “If I do this, I’m doing it to protect the world Maria loved,” he said finally, “and I will not hesitate to turn on anyone who threatens this world, even you.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Commander Tower said with a smile. He walked around his desk to offer Shadow a handshake. The hedgehog accepted. “While the rest of your team is on vacation, I want to put you through our ‘Expert’ trials, to gauge the full extent of your abilities. After that, I already have a couple of targets to start investigating, the Ultimate E-Series and Project: BD.”
“Here we are!” Tails exclaimed. “Angel Island!”
“Thanks for the ride,” Knuckles said as the Tornado landed.
“I’m a bit surprised you had me bring you back though,” the fox said, “it seemed like you wanted to start searching for Shade right away.”
“I do,” the echidna admitted, “but I am still Guardian. I have my duties to the Master Emerald and Angel Island to consider.”
“I guess I should have known you wouldn’t abandon your duties after what you learned about the Master Emerald’s past and your predecessors,” Tails said.
“No, this is still my duty,” Knuckles explained, “but that’s not to say I haven’t gained a new perspective. I shall be the last Guardian this duty is forced upon. I will pass on all knowledge I’ve gained so that my successor may choose if they shall be the island’s Guardian.”
“And if they choose not to?” the fox asked.
Knuckles sighed. “Then I shall find someone who will accept the burden,” he said, “Shadow was made from genetic samples of Shade’s predecessor, and if he is truly immortal, he would make a good backup Guardian, should he choose.”
“You know, I would have thought he’s too similar to Sonic in certain regards for you to trust him with that,” Tails teased.
“Unlike Sonic, Shadow actually understands responsibility,” Knuckles scoffed.
“Sonic understands responsibility,” the fox countered, “he just doesn’t like to take it on.”
“Hmph,” Knuckles grunted with a smile, “have you thought about how you’re going to tell Sonic and Amy about staying behind?”
“I have,” Tails said, “and I’m still not quite sure. I could use the excuse of needing to rebuild the Cyclone to stick around longer, but that wouldn’t be honest. And it would only delay things. I just need to say it outright, and trust they’ll understand.”
“That’s the best thing to do,” Knuckles said.
“Well, enough about that, do you know how you’re going to track down Shade?” the fox asked.
“I will travel to Outland City,” Knuckles said, “he mentioned that was where he learned the truth of the Guardians, so I may get some clues by following his footsteps.”
“Well, if you need a ride,” Tails said, tossing him one of her custom phones, “just give me a call! It should be intuitive to use!”
“I appreciate it,” the echidna said. He watched the Tornado take off, then turned to walk towards the Master Emerald.
Eggman sat at his computer. He had managed to sneak off and use the shuttle to escape the ARK. Using the teleporter like the rest would hardly do, not when GUN was crawling all over his base. No matter. He had managed to make off with his own copy of the ARK’s research data. He gleefully got to work going through it.
Only to see nothing but the taunting image of a yellow fox on his screen. “What?” he yelled. Somehow Tails had gotten the better of him and managed to cobble a virus together to delete all of the data he tried to swipe. “Damn, you fox!” The worst part was how he was once again having to admit he underestimated the fox. He quickly quarantined and deleted the drive to keep it from infecting his other files. “Even I have to admit you are Sonic’s sidekick no more it seems,” he said to himself angrily. He sighed. Well this whole endeavor was a waste of time.
No matter. He pulled up files on other projects. “Hmm, I could go after the Sol Emeralds,” he mused,” no, the Chaos Emeralds are more powerful and can be more discreetly gathered. I still don’t have enough information to pursue this ‘Dark Gaia’ entity. The ‘Neo Metal Sonic’ project would be just what I need to cheer myself up after such successive failures, but Metal Sonic still refuses to let me upgrade them. Interstellar amusement park? Bah! I’ve had my fill of space stations for now.” The doctor rubbed his chin thoughtfully before grinning ear-to-ear. “I’ll check in on how the Egg Fleet project is going! By my calculations, the construction bots should have it 70% completed. Even though I had two Egg Carriers destroyed at Station Square.”
The door opened behind Eggman. He turned around. “Ah, Metal Sonic! Reporting in?”
“MMM!” Amy exclaimed, spoon in her mouth, “you were right, this is the best soft-serve ice cream I’ve had!”
“Well, if you want seconds just let the server know,” Sonic said, “the owner said I can get as much free ice cream for life, what between saving the world and his shop from looters.”
“Why would anyone bother trying to steal things when they think it’s the end of the world anyway?” the pink hedgehog said between bites.
“That’s what I thought!” the blue hedgehog said, shaking his head.
“Well, this will certainly be a nice treat whenever I come back to visit Rouge,” Amy said.
“You know she was a government agent spying on you, right?” Sonic said.
“No, she was a government agent spying on you!” she corrected. “And she said the same thing! Why should any of that matter? Sure, she lied to me at the start, but it doesn’t count since I knew that’s what she was doing!”
“Well, if you want to be friends with her, who am I to say no?” the blue hedgehog said.
“Excuse me, are you Amy Rose?” a man in a delivery uniform walked up and asked.
“Yes!” Amy answered, “who’s asking?”
“I have this package for you,” he handed her a familiar bag and a note and walked off.
“It’s from Rouge!” the pink hedgehog said excitedly. “Ah, it’s from when I first heard you were a fugitive! I accidentally left my shopping bag behind when I ran off. See, we are friends!” She handed him the note and peeked in the bag.
“’Plus a little something extra for you-know-who’,” he read. Sonic looked up to see Amy peering down into the bag, blushing profusely. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine!” she said with an embarrassed smile, yet somehow she still seemed excited. She snatched the note and closed the bag. “It’s nothing!”
“Sure,” Sonic said with a sly grin.
“Enough of that!” Amy said. She calmed down and went back to her ice cream.
Sonic stared at her for a moment and his gaze softened. He took in the smiling pink hedgehog eating her ice cream. “You’re pretty dazzling,” he said softly.
"Did you say something?" Amy asked.
“The view from the ARK was pretty dazzling!” Sonic said, not missing a beat.
Amy detected a hint of bashfulness in the blue hedgehog’s normally confident voice. She was about to speak up when another voice cut her off. “Excuse me, are you Sonic the Hedgehog?”
“Yeah, who wants to know?” the blue hedgehog asked nonchalantly as both hedgehogs turned to the source of the voice, a lavender cat with a regal yet somewhat plain purple outfit.
“My name is Blaze the Cat,” she said with a modest bow, “I am seeking your assistance with a private matter. Is there some place we can discuss this more privately?