Chapter Text
"As you two are aware, Omega is still out of commission," Towers droned on over some data briefing and such, "But since you two did so well last time we've decided to let you two go again for another insight of one of Dr. Robotnik's bases."
"Sweet!" Rouge cheered looking over at her partner's hand and leaving the room, "Come on Shadow! We've got a base to explore!" Shadow rolled his eyes at the bat and with a huff he followed her out.
---XXX---
"Geez, this one is dingier than the last one we were in," Rouge exclaimed as her and Shadow surveyed the area for anything out of the ordinary, "Would it kill him to put in some lights?! It's so bloomin' dark in here that if Towers sent someone else in here they'd be lost for days."
"Well he's lucky enough to have us doing this," the hybrid told her, "Main computer room is up ahead. Let' go and get the information we need to get and get out."
"Why? Do you have plans or something?" Rouge asked. A long silence was her only answer.
---XXX---
"And...data retrieved!"
"Rouge, we gone over this, you don't need to yell into the communicator," Topaz sighed from the other end, "But I am getting the data in. Awesome work as usual. You two can come on back now."
"Alright! We'll be back within the hour! Rouge out!" the bat said excitedly. She glanced back at Shadow to see him staring at one of the monitors that was aglow.
"When did that come on?" she asked.
"Within the last 30 seconds," he told her. They both glared at the screen that logo that was infamous with Eggman when the computer blared noises at them.
"Well well well, if it isn't Rouge and Shadow. Nice to see you two both alive and well."
The duo searched scanned around the room to find something that could give the mad doctor vision of them in the base.
"Where's the camera Doctor?" Shadow demanded, only causing him to laugh.
"My my, such demands. Keep that up and I may need to pay a visit to your little blue boy toy and bring him back up for another round on the Death Egg."
Shadow froze.
"Oh hell no!" Rouge snarled, " You are NOT using my boy's boy against him! That's NOT happening Eggman!"
The sounds of cackling faded off as the screen turned itself back off. Rouge turned to Shadow. His wide eyes told her everything she needed to know, and it was a first to her to see this emotion from the Ultimate Lifeform.
Shadow was scared.
"This isn't happening..."
"Shadow, calm down," she tried to reason with him, "He's probably bluffing."
"And what if he isn't?! We haven't heard from him since the war and now after year's worth of silence he's decided now to pop up?!"
"Shadow...breathe hun..."
"Not only that, but HE knows! How does he know about Faker and I? We've kept this so quiet! Only you, Sara, the echidna and his brother know! How did he find out?!"
"Alright," Rouge snapped, grabbing his wrist to stop him from pacing around in circles, "What we're going to do is break protocol and I'm not caring about it. You are going to take a deep breath and then we are going to call him and get him to come over to my place. We are going to talk about this."
---XXX---
"And that's the last box!" Sonic yelled victoriously. The boxes containing memories of old and new were all down by the door. The blue blur took one last look at the room that was his bedroom.
"You know you can always come back if you need to," Tails told him.
"I know," Sonic sighed, "Are you sure you're gonna be okay?"
"I'm 18 Sonic. I think I'll be fine." The two laughed and Sonic gave his not so little brother a hug.
"Hey Sonic, Shadster with a heart is calling," Knuckles called up the stairs. Sonic squeaked as he ran down the stairs as fast as he could to get at his phone.
"Hey! I thought you and Rouge were on a mission," he answered.
"Yeah about that..." sighed the voice on the other end.
"Rouge? Why do you have Shadow's phone?"
"Because he's in no state to call you. I'll explain when you get over here but I need you three over now."
---XXX---
It took all of ten minutes to get Team Sonic over to Rouge's apartment that sat above her bar.
"Why does it have to look so tacky," Knuckles groaned as the neon pinks and purples of the lights flashed about as Sonic knocked on the door.
"Ugh! I thought you guys would never get here," Rouge said slipping through the door and closing it again quickly. She let out a heavy sigh as she turned to face the trio.
"Alright let's get this out of the way. There is a....bit of a 'flaw' in the Ultimate Lifeform."
"What do you mean by 'flaw'?" Sonic asked cautiously.
"He has no tolerance for alcohol. He's completely done after two shots, so the fact he's drank two bottles...." Rouge informed them as the four entered. Her apartment was full for glitz and glamour that one would think about the bat. The one thing that didn't match her home was the Ultimate Lifeform that was sitting on one of her bar stools.
"Hey Rouge! I found Jose!" Shadow slurred out looking at the bat as he lifted up a bottle of tequila.
"Jose is not your friend Shadow," she sighed walking over to the ebony hedgehog and taking the bottle away from, "Neither were the Gibson Brothers."
"Yes he is," he tried to argue back.
"Shadow, name me one person on the ARK that had the name of Jose?"
A long silence fell across the room.
"But Jose is right there," Shadow finally spat out.
"You sure you want to move in with him?" Tails whispered over to Sonic causing the other to snicker.
"I've never seen him drink so I say I'm fine," he whispered back.
It was at that point when Shadow's blurry vision fell upon Sonic.
"How long has the blue one been here?" he asked looking up Rouge.
"Long enough," Rouge laughed.
"He can't me drunk! He'd think I'm an indecent person," he looked over at the blue hedgehog then back at Rouge, "Did you know that he LOVES me? I don't know why though. "
"I'm well aware of this Shadow," Rouge sighed.
"Hey my lovely Faker," Shadow said rolling his head towards Sonic, "Did you know that stupid fat Eggman knows about us?"
"What?" Sonic uttered out.
"Yeah! He said that you were my blue boy toy."
"Hey Shadow, sweetheart, I need to take a couple pills for me okay?" Rouge asked handing over some pills and a glass.
"This is water," Shadow said glaring at the glass.
"No sweetie. It's vodka. Promise."
After that Shadow had no further reason to be suspicious over what was in the glass and swigged it back with the pills.
---XXX---
"What did you give him?" Sonic asked, poking the hybrid to make he was still indeed alive.
"Pills to make him sleep and pills to make him not throw up in the morning," Rouge sighed.
"He said Eggman knows," Tails pondered, "Did you guys have a run in with him?"
"Not exactly a 'run in'," Rouge explained, "Our mission was going to into another one of Eggman's bases and retrieve data. That went well until one of the screens lit up and his voice rang through the room." She turned her attention over to Sonic.
"Shadow wasn't lying when he said that Eggman knows Big Blue, because he does. He used you as a threat saying that he was going to take you for another round on the Death Egg. Shadow panicked, I made the call to break protocol and come back here where we both know we're safe. I took a super quick shower to calm my nerves down, came out and he downed a bottle and a half of whiskey."
"So you two haven't even made it back to GUN yet?" Tails asked her.
"Nope. Came here to get in contact guys so we can figure out our next steps," Rouge told the group. The group sat in silence, all thinking of what to do next.
"...he doesn't know about the cottage," Sonic mumbled out in thought.
"No," Tails sternly said, "You are not going there."
"Tails! What options do we have?!"
"You can barely handle being in a shower Sonic! What makes you think that being on an ISLAND will make this any better?!"
"You know anything about a cottage on an island?" Rouge whispered.
"No, I've also never seen Tails this heated before," Knuckles whispered back.
"Look," Sonic started, staring down at the fox, "Only you and me know where it is. It's the safest spot for us. I will deal with island situation as long as it means all five of us are safe." He sighed, facial expression changed from stern to comfort.
"I know you're scared. I am too, but I promise you if anything goes wrong, you'll be first to know."
"Okay," Tails sighed in defeat, "Just...be careful okay?"
"I will. I promise. And I'm not going alone, Shadow is gonna go with me whether he knows it or not."
"On that note then, " Rouge sighed, "I'm going to have to tell Topaz at GUN about you two or else they're going to think Shadow went MIA on them and hunt him down. Plus Topaz is way easier to tell than Towers."
"That's fine," Sonic told her. He walked over to the sleeping hedgehog and gently lifted him up and pulled the Chaos Emerald from his quills and within a flash of light the two hedgehogs were gone.
To Be Continued--