It was a good thing Shadow had decided to go on a mission of his own before rescuing Rouge. Eggman's newest base was only a couple hundred miles away from his position, which made chaos control easier for him and less draining. He had found Rouge trapped inside of a room, angry and kicking at the locked door with her drill kick. Shadow leaned against the wall unnoticed and smirked at his partner's rant.
"How dare he trick me with a hologram!" she fumed, "When I get my hands on him, I'll--"
"Trouble, Rouge?"
At his voice, she stopped and turned around, her anger evaporating instantly, and her face held an almost coy grin.
"Not anymore," she replied, "Mind helping a girl out? The service here is terrible."
Wordlessly, he took her free hand and teleported outside, earning a startled gasp from his female companion. She frowned once he let go, but she didn't hold the grudge for long. He had rescued her and the scepter she was holding without drawing attention to them.
Shadow stared at the item in her hand. It was only a foot or so long and had two wings sculpted on either side like a dragon's. The handle was clear with a glowing purple substance inside wrapped with metallic stripes to hold it to the ornate top. He wouldn't say it out loud, but it gave off a dark energy he didn't like.
He turned around and continued walking in the snow, leaving his partner to follow. After a moment, he could hear her white boots crunching through the snow along with him. Once he was certain, he began to think about the unusualness of it all. Where did the doctor find this bizarre artifact? What use was it to him? Why did GUN want it? What are Eggman's plans? Why is he taking to the shadows instead of openly attacking? Did he finally change tactics? How long will this take; he has his own mission to accomplish.
Rouge's silky voice cut through his thoughts. Apparently, she wasn't as fond of silence as he was, "Don't you want to know what this is?"
He turned around, clearly annoyed that he had been interrupted for a simple SOS, "My assignment was to rescue you. Nothing more."
"Fine," she retorted, "With you it's always business."
A tremor shook through the ground before he could respond, and his ruby eyes glanced around to find what caused it. Three forms enlarged as they flew closer to the ground, and he instantly recognized the doctor's new large robots. These would definitely be more difficult to defeat than the government's cheap copies he had decimated earlier that night. They both knew the silence of Rouge's escape wouldn't go unnoticed for long.
"It seems they don't want us to leave," she remarked casually, while keeping her grip on the staff. Shadow, on the other hand, got into a battle position, his patience thinning rapidly.
He hmphed before stating darkly, "Let's get this over with."
Before the machines knew what happened, the ebony agent charged and attacked the center leader, dodging blasts from the others while tearing it apart. His chaos powers were limited, but he had enough to destroy three petty guards. Chaos spears sliced through another one's armor, as he finished with the leader. Before it even finished falling, he was on to the next, hitting it in every vulnerable spot he could find while enhancing his strength with his powers. His fists glowed green as he cut, punched, sliced, and tore through the machinery and ripped out delicate circuitry. The last robot standing wasn't smart enough to flee, and was left to the hedgehog's mercy like its fallen brethren. Soon, it too, was a pile of scrap for its inventor to pick up.
"Come on," he ordered Rouge, "We need to leave before the doctor send replacements."
Her painted eyelids lowered at his seriousness before she spotted a platform not too far from their position. "Hey! What's that?"
He glanced at what she was pointing at and rose an eyebrow, "It looks like a teleporter of some kind, but I've never seen one in Eggman's bases before."
"Well, let's go check it out," she said and strutted over to it. After releasing an exasperated sigh, he quickly caught up with her. The two agents stood in the center of the ring and looked for something to activate it. But they didn't have to search long, when Shadow's skate hit something, and the two were caught in a reddish pink vortex.
After a brief second, they landed on the adjoined platform, which happened to be in the center of an underground bunker. They stepped off and looked around their current surroundings. It was a small, square-shaped room, with a giant computer on two of the four walls. The wall behind them held supplies of varying kinds, and the fourth held an odd assortment of things as well. The massive screen in front of them displayed a map of a familiar part of the world.
"Ah, Soleana," Rouge sighed, "the city of water. It has constitutional monarchy, you know," she explained as if he cared about the country's politics, "The primary industries are tourism and crafting precision machinery," Shadow walked closer to a painting of a human female with short, red hair, dressed in royal garments and observed it as she continued, "The current sovereign is Princess Elise the Third."
He stared at the image a moment longer, before crossing his arms in thought. This was too weird for his creator's grandson, and he voiced it to his partner as he turned to face her.
"Why does Eggman's base lead to an odd place like this?"
"How should I know?" she asked calmly with a hand on her hip. Shadow bit back a smart remark about her extensive knowledge for the sake of completing the assignment. Rouge held the glowing staff in both hands and looked down at it, as she replied, "I just followed my orders and retrieved the item. Anyway, I have a favor to ask of you."
She gently waved said item, and Shadow nodded for her to continue.
"Could you escort me to the GUN rendezvous point?"
Shadow's deep, smooth voice answered sharply, "Where's the rendezvous point?"
She pointed to the green outline on the main computer, "It's the ancient castle of Soleana in Kingdom Valley."
Shadow agreed and put his initial quest on hold. He wanted to see this through, even if it ment that his alternate mission would be put on standby. Something wasn't adding up, and he was determined to see Eggman's new scheme crumble personally.