Bygone Adventures: Episode 1 "Wild Side"

Puzzling

     "An Alpha always goes with his pack during the hunt," Shadow quoted with his arms crossed, "I am perfectly capable of handling myself."

     "And I am not questioning your ability. But it is our duty to make sure that you are safe, just as it is for you to protect us." 

     "I can handle one night! I can sleep and rest all I want tomorrow, but something is not right here, and I want to join the hunt to make certain nothing goes amiss. That human is still out there, and I wish to deal with him without alerting him to your existence." 

     We can avoid the human easily enough. The fat one is loud and easy to pinpoint, another member of the pack voiced mentally. 

     Shadow sighed, knowing that there was no way he would be allowed out of the den with the entire pack voting that he stay there. If he didn't listen, they would have to result to force. He knew it was a hard decision, and he hated having to remain where he was. But they did have a valid point. They didn't know the extent of how much power he had released, but they knew enough to not let him leave. Still..., he thought privately, I'm supposed to be one of the providers for my family. I can't show weakness when I have to be their protector. 

       "None of us think any less of you, Shadow," Fireclaw continued, and hurrs of agreement could be heard throughout the cave, "Rest well, my friend." 

    "I do need to tell you something before you leave," he replied, turning to the hunting party as he spoke, "I don't want any of you going off alone. When you split up, go in groups of two, three, or four. The doctor has been playing too close to our borders recently, and he would take any of you in an instant, if he could. Look out for each other, and contact me the moment you think trouble is close, no matter how small it is." 

    "We'll be fine, Shadow," Fireclaw barked in amusement and nudged the smaller Lifeform back towards his ledge. The Black Oak roared his leader's orders to the others before the large group set off into the night. 

     "Then why do I feel like something is about to go wrong?" the hybrid Alpha mumbled before he was pulled unceremoniously into the remaining members of the pack. 

In Eggman's Base

    Dr. Eggman grumbled to himself as he scrolled through the footage detailing his eggmobile's malfunction a few days ago. He couldn't figure out what had gone wrong, and he knew that it couldn't have just been Cubot, even if the machine was an idiot. 

    "Wait a minute," he said to no one in particular as something caught the corner of his eye. He typed a command into his computer and watched as the video feed slowed down so that it only moved one slide at a time. The image was brief, but it was enough. A mere flash of black with hints of red, but he knew that color pattern anywhere. 

     "What do we have here?" the doctor chuckled as he zoomed in on the familiar face of Bygone Island's most notorious boss villain. Shadow stood in his normal stance and was looking up at something out of the camera's view. Eggman pushed a button that allowed the audio to play, although most of it was static. 

     *curzzk* human...decided *curzzk* borders...home *kssh* disappointed...How *ksssh*...pack? *currzzzk*

     "I didn't get most of that. Did you, Sir?" Orbot, the more competent of his lackeys, asked. The robot's master stroked his bushy mustache in thought. 

                     "Hmm, not sure."

   However, before he could say anything else, his miniature spy cam flew into the room and buzzed around the mad scientist's head. After a few moments of struggling, and Cubot's unnecessary cheering, he managed to capture the excited robot and plug it into the system. A few minutes later, he was able to watch and listen to the Sonic team's conversation, which had happened only a little while after he left that cave. Unfortunately, the fly bot only caught the ending of the conversation, which was Stick's suspicions about their breakfast trying to destroy them, but it did lead him to question what they were doing in the jungle so far from Hedgehog Village. 

    "This was recorded several hours ago, which means that those meddlesome rats are already back at the town. And since Shadow should be back in his canyon by now, that means that the cave is open!" Eggman rambled. 

    "What makes you think Shadow left that cave, Sir?" Orbot asked. 

    "Well it wouldn't be called Shadow Canyon if he didn't live there, would it?" 

      "He's got a point," Cubot agreed, only to get smacked on the head by Orbot, "Hey! What was that for!?" 

  The red and black robot didn't respond but haughtily crossed his arms. Eggman rolled his eyes and continued to type in commands into his master computer.

    "Orbot. Cubot. Get the eggmobile ready; we're leaving in an hour." 

    The two robots saluted and took off to complete their task, while Eggman combed a finger through his mustache in deep thought. 

    "Black monsters on the hunt. Sonic and his dumb friends hanging out in the jungle. Shadow messing with my stuff and then threatening me when I try to explore a simple cave in the same general area. Something isn't adding up here, but it will all come together soon enough," he chuckled, "I will crack this little mystery wide open tonight!"