"Eclipse?" I wake up rather suddenly to someone shaking me, groggily raising my head.
"Ergh?" I groan unintelligently, reaching up automatically to wipe drool off my face.
"It's time for you to talk to the Commander. So, come on." I let out a hefty sigh at this news, realizing I still feel quite tired, but my mind starts turning gears, and, by the time I am out of my warm bed--what is it with these humans and their freezing air temperatures?--I am fully awake.
"What is it he wants to talk about?" I ask, starting confusedly as someone tugs my hands behind my back. To my dismay, they are shackled there, but I try to ignore this and focus on Ayers.
"You'll find out," she replies mysteriously, and I squirm as my hands are now attached to a metal clamp placed around my waist.
"Is all this really necessary?" I question, looking, I am sure, very peevish. The human woman nods, giving me a side glance.
"Yes. It's all part of a very important appearance by yourself. This is how you're going to be getting around for a while."
"Urr..." I groan again at hearing that, letting my head drop in annoyance as my tail is also attached to my waist through small, ring-shaped manacles. "This is going a bit far..." Professor Ayers makes an amused sound, but I am still irritated. "It's not like I can go and leave again, you know," I add a little snarkily, and she shakes her head.
"Just put up with it. You'll see why you're restrained like this when the Commander explains it to you." Still skeptical, I nevertheless let the matter drop, and, soon, I am being paraded through the building again. We head up in an elevator, which thankfully has no other passengers.
It is bad enough I have to be stared at by all of these humans. Now, I have to be stared at while wearing all this tomfoolery. How embarrassing.
The door we come to is set into a wall, and Ayers presents a card to the two guards flanking it. One swipes the card through some sort of slot, and I shift my weight as a small, green light flashes, uncomfortable with the open gawking I am getting from the soldiers. As the entrance opens, I notice that there are actually two separate doors, the one behind this one sliding the opposite way, that lock into place with a solid sound. I am ushered inside, and I try to keep an air of confidence despite my restraints.
"So, we finally meet," addresses a man in the room whom I have never seen before. I peer at him, his rigid form seated at the end of a long table, baffled to my core for a moment, then close my eyes to rest them.
Heh, I am tired. For a moment, I could have sworn he had two different... I look again, becoming completely shocked.
"Your eyes!" I gawk, never having seen this before. "They're different?"
"Indeed," replies the human, sounding amused. Still surprised, I take notice of the other people in the room for the first time.
"You." The word comes out before I can think, eyes instinctively narrowing at the Mobian in front of me.
"Took you that long to notice, huh?" The bat-woman says dryly, shuffling her wings. I flush slightly, greening in embarrassment.
I should have noticed her sooner. I have been far too off my game lately.
"...you look well," I say to her, trying to at least be polite.
"Oh?" Her eyebrows shoot up. "So, you can be civilized."
"I am not a monster," I huff in response, miffed. "Believe it or not."
"I don't." The reply should not affect me, but it does. I feel a subdued uncomfortableness at being here, around people who still do not trust me and who do not even think of me as a person. It is, well, hard. I am an alien, disliked and outcast. And, right now, I feel quite alone.
"Rouge, we're not here to start an argument." The voice of the human with two-colored eyes interrupts, and I start as I finally recognize it.
"You're the one from the radio communication I made!" I exclaim, having almost forgotten him. "Back when I made the truce! The Commander of G.U.N., right?"
"Correct," the man nods stately, and I decide he acts as dignified as he sounds. Turning to the bat-minion, he continues his point. "Rouge, I don't want to have this conversation again. Eclipse is going to be an important ally in the coming days, if he so chooses." The stern gaze on me with that sentence makes me shrink out of instinct, but I straighten up out of shock when the words register.
"Ally? But--" I gesture with my chin at my restrained limbs. "--I am in chains! I thought I was to be punished!"
"Well, that's an option, if you'd prefer it to cooperating. It's your choice." Feeling very small before these humans, I resist the urge to make the snarky remark I am currently thinking.
Yeah, my 'choice.' Assist or be manacled. Equal options, totally.
"I would prefer to cooperate," I say, forcing myself to sound neutral. It is not the nicest thought, working under orders, but it is better than being led around in chains. Heck, it is probably better than my position was before.
"Good. That's what I was hoping for."
"Right," I reply, struggling to smile conversationally without baring my teeth. "Now, if I'm a partner..." I trail off, suddenly feeling sheepish. "...can you unbind me?" The sentence hangs for a moment, but the man nods.
"Alright. But, I warn you, I will shoot you if you attempt to escape or attack. I don't suggest that. This is the same weapon that nearly killed Shadow with his powers on." I nod, swallowing a little nervously.
I have no doubt that I do not want to try anything. Captain Andrews walks over to me, using some piece of technology to open the shackles around my wrists, waist, and tail. I sigh once they are off, rubbing my skin where it has been pressed against the cold metal.
"Thank you," I say, nodding at him. He looks surprised that I said that, but he nods in response out of habit. "What am I to be helping with, may I ask?"
"Well, the idea is that you'll work with G.U.N. as a temporary replacement for Shadow. If you prove you can be reliable, you'll continue after he recovers as well."
"Working as Shadow?" My eye ridges knit together, not having expected this. "Why do you need a replacement?"
"I'll tell you, but I want your word that you'll accept the position."
"Then, I agree. Please, explain." I detect a hint of amusement on the man's features, and I feel the oddest urge to smile in return.
"Good. Here's what G.U.N. is going to do in response to this unknown organization attempting to kidnap both Shadow and yourself."
And, he explains, in great detail, a plan that involves tricking all but the highest parts of G.U.N. into believing I am being incarcerated more severely now, while actually allowing me to work for the organization in secret. He waxes on about how his scientists have discovered, based on Chaos process and output measurements, that I am second to only Shadow in inherent abilities, far beyond what was expected.
I try not to feel insulted by that last part, knowing the man does not mean offense.
Anyways, I, a creation built for the stealthy, tracking-oriented, and cutthroat acts necessary to fulfill my role as an assassin, will not serve the same role in G.U.N. as Shadow. I am made for slinking around and surprise attacks; he is a more endurance-oriented commando built for raids or serving as the vanguard for missions into dangerous territories. I have to restrain comment on the last bit, feeling quite reminded of how I first came to meet Shadow.
On missions, I will serve as a scout and a trump card, staying out of sight, always ready for battle but not engaging in it unless necessary. Meanwhile, G.U.N. has a large portion of its intelligence forces focused on finding out everything about what they are pretending was an attack on Shadow unrelated to my abduction. Only the highest in G.U.N., of Commander rank and higher, with the exceptions of Agatha, Captain Andrews, and Special Agent Rouge, know everything about this plan. It is the highest level of secrecy that can be reasonably maintained, and communications are not being sent to other branches of G.U.N. for fear of interception.
It is simply those few in this room, minus Agatha, who is sleeping after managing the emergency scene most of the night, that know about this. The 2 regional Commanders, Commander of G.U.N. Abraham Tower--whose name I finally learn--Captain Andrews, Field Leader of Team Dark Rouge the Bat, and myself. No one else.
Oh, except for Professor Ayers knowing some of it. She was one of Tower's consultants on whether or not I could be trusted, as was Captain Andrews, who I learn was sent to talk with me last night. It explains a lot about his contradictory behaviour, but I have a feeling that runs deeper than just orders with him.
Beyond that, the plan is yet to be formed, as not enough information about who we are up against is available. Now that I have been added to the group, I will start training in tandem with Rouge (a great joy, I am sure) and Captain Andrew's Spider Troupe. Personally, I quite like the 'Team Dark' title, but Commander Tower decides to come up with a special code word to discreetly describe the team-up. Gibbous Unit, he says, is the new name, derived both from my moon-related name and the Palpamanus Gibbulus spider (inspired, of course, by Spider Troupe), a heavily-armored and powerful spider that, appropriately to me, hunts its own spider relatives and is supposed to represent Shadow's formidable strength and surprising stealth. I am surprised by the depth of thought into the name, and I find it fitting.
Gibbous it is. Time to show these mortals what I can really do.
As we go through the finer points of the plan, I do not ask many questions, focused instead on being attentive. But, the toll of being awake after such a long night begins to catch up with me, and I am trying to maintain some adequate level of mental function when a rather embarrassing interruption occurs.
My stomach growls. Loudly. Loudly enough that Commander Tower stops mid-sentence, looking at me in surprise.
"Sorry," I say, blushing slightly. "I had to heal an armsworth yesterday, and it took a lot of energy. I need to eat at some point today, if possible."
"That can be done," he replies, but Captain Andrews butts in before I can thank Tower.
"Heal an 'armsworth'? That is, officially, the weirdest expression I have ever heard."
"It isn't weird," I frown, a bit miffed. "As in, heal enough for a new arm. It makes perfect sense."
"You can regrow arms?" The Commander moves to cut the incredulous captain off with a wave of his hand, before the red-haired human can ask any more obvious questions.
"That's neither here nor there," he says calmly, the authority in his voice making the tone effective. I make a mental note that he is far better at deescalation than that blasted nurse from yesterday. As I think that, an important question occurs to me.
"Er, Sir," I begin, unsure how to address someone of higher rank, "is Shadow going to heal all the way? Or did that Chaos-blocking device stay on too long?" The note of anxiousness in my voice is undisguisable, but the question does concern me quite a bit. Not only would it be at least partially my fault if he is permanently injured, I might not be able to have another chance with him if he is in a coma or similar state.
"Shadow is projected to fully recover, yes. It will probably be about a week before he entirely returns to his duties, but
"The question is," the bat-woman says, bringing me out of my thoughts, "can you actually work with Shadow? You two can't even go near each other with having a shouting match. How can we trust that you won't do the same now? Or get in an argument in a crucial situation?"
"Look, I'm not going to pretend that I like Shadow," I say, placing my hands on my hips. "But, I'm not about to ruin my future prospects over him. He's not that important to me."
"Seemed pretty important last night," muses Andrews, obviously trying to get a rise out of me. Unfortunately, it works.
"Last night did not count. He was dying. That definitely counts as an outlier."
"Well, it was very touching, seeing you fretting over him. Almost adorable."
"I am not adorable," I snap, clacking my claws on my crests. "And I was not fretting."
"I don't think either of those words mean what you think it does," Andrews grins, smirking at me. "Because you most definitely were."
"I was not!" I exclaim, thoroughly miffed by this point.
"Oh, relax," the bat snorts, rolling her eyes. "You aren't adorable."
"Now that's just an insult," I mutter, scowling. "Don't think I can't tell."
"I'm surprised you're intelligent enough to." The blatancy of this remark ticks me off, and I snarl.
"Now see here, bat-girl," I begin, glaring at her.
"Mmh, I prefer to not look at you, thanks."
"Rouge." The word is short, but it squelches my fuming mood with abruptness. The human Commander is observing us, obviously dissatisfied. "You too, Eclipse. I'm only going to repeat myself once: Don't antagonize each other. Got that?"
"Yeh, sure," the bat mutters. "Fine."
"Yes, sir," I grumble. I really do not like being told what to do, but I will admit that not arguing is probably for the best. I content myself with lashing my tail back and forth a few times, mouth closed and remaining out of trouble.
The bat and I exchange a glance, mutually distrustful and disliking.
This isn't going to be the easiest team-up, for sure. But, I'll succeed, against the odds.
I will not waste this chance.