Chapter Text
Smoke curled up from the hills outside Central City as a familiar voice crackled over loudspeakers. “AHEM! ATTENTION PATHETIC RESIDENTS OF MOBIUS!” A giant robot stomped forward, metal feet the size of cars flattening the grass beneath it.
A screen flickered to life across its chest, and the unmistakable mustache of Doctor Eggman filled the display. “I, the magnificent genius Doctor Eggman, have returned once again to remind you all that resistance is futile and extremely embarrassing for you!”
He dramatically slammed a button on the console and the robot fired a laser with it missing completely. A blue blur shot past the beam. “Man,” Sonic said, skidding to a stop atop the robot’s shoulder, “you’d think after all these years you’d at least learn how to aim.” Eggman squinted at him through the monitor. “You again,” he grunted.
“Yep.” Sonic stretched casually. “Pretty sure I've got a loyalty card for stopping your schemes at this point.” Eggman slammed a hand on the console. “DESTROY HIM!” The robot’s arms whirred to life. Missile pods opened along its shoulders as metal claws snapped forward. Missiles launched. A streak of blue spiraled around the machine like lightning.
Explosions burst in the air as Sonic ricocheted around the robot faster than the eye could follow. Across the city, a red blue smashed into one of the smaller robots. Knuckles drove his fists into a metal join with enough force to dent steel. “Gotta admit,” he laughed, stepping back as sparks flew,”these are sturdier than usual!”
High above, a yellow blur zipped across the sky. Twin propellers hummed as Tails hovered overhead as he tapped the communicator on his headset. “Guys! I scanned it!” he called. “The core of the main robot is in the upper torso!”
“Got it!”
A pink blue leapt into the air. Amy spun her Piko Hammer once before slamming it into the robot's chest plate just as one of its arms swung toward her. CRACK. The armor fractured and Sonic reappeared beside her instantly. “Nice shot!” Amy smirked. “Please. I’ve been practicing.” A red targeting laser suddenly sliced through the air and the robot aimed again.
Everyone jumped back as the beam scorched the ground where they had been standing. Standing on a nearby cliff was a black and red figure with folded arms.
Shadow. “Chaos control!” In an instant he vanished. The next second he appeared in the air directly in front of the giant robot. “Chaos spear!” three glowing lances of chaos energy streaked forward. They punched straight through the robot's torso and the core shattered and the machine froze.
Then it exploded in a spectacular fireball.
The remaining robots across the city sparked violently before slumping to the ground, their systems shutting down. Ash drifted through the air as the wreckage settled. A panel on the destroyed robot's head suddenly popped open and Eggman rose out of it in his Egg mobile. The blur blur skidded to a stop atop the remains of the robot. Sonic dusted ash off of his gloves and looked up with a grin.
“Better luck next time, Egghead!” Eggman’s face twisted with rage. “You irritating hedgehog! You will cower before me soon enough!” With that, the Egg mobile blasted off into the sky. Smoke drifted lazily through the battlefield. The fighting was over. Sonic stretched.
“Alright,” he said. “That was a decent warm up.” Knuckles appeared beside him with a laugh. “Barely.” Amy walked over, her hammer resting on her shoulder, while Tails landed beside her. “He’s getting predictable," Amy giggled. Tails adjusted his goggles. “I’m just glad nobody got hurt.”
He paused.
“Well… other than Eggman.”
High above them, Shadow remained standing on the broken leg of the destroyed robot, watching silently as the others talked. For a moment, the battlefield was quiet. Then it came, a faint ripple of chaos energy. So subtle Tail’s scanners didn’t register it. But shadow felt it instantly. Across the field, sonic did too.
Their eyes met. Neither of them spoke, they didn’t need to. Someone was watching them.
...................................................................
Across the city, a blur of blue and magenta darted across the rooftops. Nyx landed on the edge of a building, shoes scraping lightly against the rooftop. She balanced easily on the ledge watching the smoke from the battle drift into the sky.
“AW MAN!!” she groaned, rustling her hands in her quills. “I missed it~” Nyx stretched her arms overhead before hopping down to the street. Chaos energy flickered nearby reacting with hers. It crackled at her fingertips, not bright just a faint shimmer. There was a faint shadow in her eyes as she looked around.
Nyx landed near the wreckage “Seriously? You guys couldn't stall him for five minutes?” Sonic gave a chuckle and before she could blink he was behind her rustling his hand in her quills, messing them up. “You snooze, you lose!”
Shadow stood by studying her carefully. “You felt it.” Nyx paused, the same shadow in her eyes as before. “... yeah.” For a moment the three of them just stood there. The smoke from the destroyed robot drifted overhead, turning the sky a hazy gray. Sonic’s smile faded slightly.
“You too, huh.”
Nyx shrugged, trying to play it off, but her eyes kept scanning the horizon. “It was weird,” she said. “Like chaos energy but… idk? Kinda like when dad uses Chaos control but … fuzzier.” Shadow’s gaze sharpened. Across the battlefield, the others were beginning to regroup. Amy was brushing dirt off her skirt while Tails hovered nearby checking something on a handheld scanner.
Knuckles was already kicking apart on the broken robots just to make sure it stayed down. Shadow spoke quietly, “We should talk to them.” Sonic nodded. “Yeah.”
Nyx blinked. “Wait what?” can i-”
But Sonic was already turning toward the others. “Tails!” he called. “Hey, buddy, you still got the workshop open?” Tails looked up instantly. “Yeah, why?”
“Perfect.”
Sonic flashed his usual grin, but nyx could notice. It didn't quite reach his eyes. “Let's all head there.”
……… A little while later…
Inside Tails’ workshop, the garage door slid shut with a soft mechanical hiss. As the group all stood around another figure came out of the shadows as tails flicked the light on. Rouge. “Well, I was wondering when all of you would get here. By the way, shadow, thanks for inviting me.” she smiled.
Tails just gave a side eye to shadow, sonic too. “She needs to be here.” Sonic shook his head with a smile before putting his hand on Shadow's shoulder. Tails sighed and smiled too. “Nice to see ya Rouge. It's been awhile.” Rouge smirked and flew closer to him. “Nice to see you too prowler~”
Knuckles clapped his hands. “We all know why we’re here. Shadow, sonic, you needed to talk to us?”
Before Sonic could speak, Shadow stepped forward and spoke. “Yes, let's go somewhere private.” Sonic sighed and nodded. Everyone started to follow shadow into the other room. Nyx was halfway through stepping forward when suddenly Sonic held out a hand. “Hey kiddo.”
She blinked. “Yeah?”
“Give us a minute.”
Nyx’s ears flicked. “... why?” Shadow suddenly spoke, he was standing outside the room's door as everyone else was already inside waiting. “Because this conversation is for the adults.” Nyx groaned. “Oh come on!” Sonic rubbed the back of his quills. “We’ll talk after, promise.”
Nyx squinted at them. Very sus. But eventually she stepped back with a dramatic sigh. “Fine.” As both Sonic and Shadow stepped in, the door slid closed. And Nyx waited.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three
Then she quietly crept to the side of the door and pressed an ear against the door. “Adults only conversation,” she muttered “Puhlease.”
Inside the room…
Tails had already pulled up several holographic screens, data streams flickering across the air. “I've been scanning the area since the battle,” he said quickly. “There's nothing unusual that I can discern concerning chaos energy.”
Shadow folded his arms. “There was.” Sonic nodded. “Definitely, both me shadow and Nyx felt it.” Tails frowned at this then the readings. “This doesn’t make any sense.” Across the room, Rouge leaned casually against the console. “These two aren’t usually wrong about chaos energy.”
Knuckles crossed his arms. “So what exactly are we dealing with here?” Shadows' eyes darkened slightly as he turned his head to the window. “Something new.” Amy tilted her head. “You think it's another emerald?”
“No,” Shadow said. Sonic shook his head. “It felt.. Different.” Outside the door, Nyx’s ears twitched. Her curiosity peaked. What would the others say? What would tails say? Inside, Tails was already frantically checking another scan. “But my sensors would’ve picked that up! I calibrated them last week!”
Rouge smirked. “Sweetie, machines can miss things.” Knuckles nodded. “Especially when chaos energy is involved.” Rouge shrugged. “Well speaking of things we missed,” she added casually, "I'm going to have to leave this party early.” Knuckles glanced at her and nodded. Tails was still looking at the scans. Sonic looked to rouge confused. “Why?” Rouge smiled and looked at knuckles. “Parent duties,it's my turn and tonight I'm taking Dante to a little get together.”
Knuckles chuckled then scoffed. “You mean you’re going to have you and him crash a gala or something. I know you, Rouge.” Rouge then stuck her tongue out playfully. Amy giggled and leaned back into a chair. “Well my house has been getting a little chaotic…”
Rouge raised an eyebrow. “Oh?” Amy smiled fondly. “Well, Volt has decided he wants to become an inventor. The thing is, he keeps trying to use his powers to do it.” Rouge smirked. “That sounds familiar, what's surge telling him?”
Amy smirked back. “She cheers him on. That and our daughter has discovered dramatic poetry.” Knuckles groaned. “Good luck with that.” outside the door, nyx rolled her eyes. Suddenly sonic clapped his hands. “Alright guys, I know talking about our kids is fun” he said, glancing around the room, “But let's try to get back on track. I think shadow might be about five seconds away from pacing a hole through the floor.
Shadow didn’t deny it.
He stood near the window, arms folded, red eyes narrowed at the skyline. “That chaos disturbance wasn’t random,” he said quietly. “Something or someone caused it.” Tails frowned harder at the holographic readouts. “But there’s nothing here!” he insisted, flipping through layer after layer of scans. “No spikes, no fluctuations, no chaos signatures outside of what you shadow already used during the fight.”
Sonic leaned against the table. “Well, something's out there.” knuckles cracked his knuckles in thought. “Then we find it.”. Rouge pushed herself away from the console. “Which would be easier if we knew what it was.” Shadow’s gaze didn't leave the window.
“We will.”
Rouge checked the time on her wrist device and sighed. “Unfortunately,” she said, stretching her wings, “That investigation will have to happen without me tonight.” She gave knuckles a playful look. “Duty calls.” Knuckles rolled his eyes but couldn't quite hide a smile. “Yeah, yeah.”
Rouge headed for the door.
Outside , Nyx immediately jumped back from it and tried to look extremely casual. Like she had not been eavesdropping on the entire conversation. The door slid open and Rouge flew out. She paused and looked directly at Nyx. Nyx froze. Rouge slowly smirked. “Well now,” she purred, folding her arms. “If it isn’t the world’s most subtle eavesdropper.”
Nyx coughed. “I wasn’t-” Rouge raised an eyebrow. Nyx sighed dramatically. “Okay maybe a little.” Rough chuckled. “Relax, kid. Your secrets safe with me.” She flew down slightly. “But if you’re going to spy on people,” she added, “You should really work on the whole standing directly outside the door thing.”
Nyx grinned sheepishly. “Noted. Rouge then flew off into the evening sky. As Nyx watched her go, the faint echo of chaos energy she’d felt earlier flickered in her memory again. Her quills lifted slightly. “Okay…” if they were going to sit around analyzing it…
She’d just find it first.
Nyx pulled out her communicator and tapped it. The device rang once. Twice. Then a voice answered. “Yo?” Nyx grinned. “Hey Pierce.”
“Nyx? What’s up?”
“You and Quinn busy?” Pierce paused for a second. “... define busy.” Nyx leaned against the wall, excitement creeping into her voice. “So there was this weird chaos energy disturbance today.”
“Oh… Nyx don't say it.”
“I think I can find out what's causing it.”
A beat of silence, then Pierce laughed. “Oh this sounds like a terrible idea.” Nyx grinned wider. “Exactly.” she pushed off the wall. “Meet me near the canyon trails.” “Alright, alright,” Pierce said. “I’ll call Quinn and Dante.”
“Nah don't call Dante, Rouge is I guess taking him to a party.”
Pierce chuckled again as there was a bit of shuffling going on in the background. “Yeah? Heh, you and I both know they weren’t invited.” Nyx went to put on her air shoes. “Yeah but who are we to judge, sounds fun. Wish my dad would let me crash a party or two.”
This got Pierce to really laugh. “You know he’d chaos control his way in and drag you by the ear and give you an earful if you even tried that shit. Anyway, ill be there as soon as I can. See ya!”
With that the line clicked dead.
Nyx’s grin slowly turned mischievous. Her air shoes hummed softly as she stepped out into the street.