Silver the Hedgehog: Hero, or Villain? - Chapter 3

"Alright Eggman, me, Espio, and Charmy are all here just like you asked, so what do you want now?"

"What I want, Vector, is for you and your team to look into something for me.  Watch the screen, all three of you.  Once you see what I saw you'll understand the situation."  Eggman had called the three Chaotix members to meet him in an older base that Sonic and co. had already been through multiple times.  It was very barren by his standards, not having the surplus of guards, death traps, and new inventions that more recent bases got.  But it served well whenever he had to suck up his pride and negotiate with his enemies.  Eggman showed them the footage he had of Silver trashing his base that had the Shadow Android, and would have chuckled at the shocked looks he saw the Chaotix give as what was happening became clear if the situation was different.

"Doctor Eggman, do you have any idea who that hedgehog might be?  I've personally never seen him before, and I don't have any information on a planned attack against you specifically."  Espio, Chaotix ninja, was always kept up to date on any important news that happened in the world.  The fact that no word of an attack on one of Eggman's bases reached any of his source's ears was very disconcerting.

"No I don't.  That's the reason why I called on the three of you specifically.  I need your detective skills to find out who he is and what he's up to," Eggman replied to Espio, turning off the screen and having an egg pawn bring him a drink.

"What's in it for us if we help you, huh Egghead?"  Charmy hadn't liked seeing the footage Eggman had on the destruction of his base.  Having to find that guy and possibly have to fight him was not something he wanted to do anytime soon.

"Charmy's right Eggman.  We need to know what's in it for us of we give you the information you want to know.  Last time we did a job for you we never got paid for all the trouble we had to go through."  Vector was glad Charmy brought that point up.  He had almost gotten wrapped up in the mystery of this unknown hedgehog and forgotten that their primary goal was to make money from the potential job offering.  

Eggman sighed after taking a sip of the drink he had brought to him.  He knew that he really had no choice but to pay them something if he wanted to figure this mystery out.  He sent two egg pawns to fetch the payment he had scrounged two bases for.  The pawns came back with two briefcases.  One of them was tossed over to Vector, who caught it easily.

"What's inside?"

"Open it and find out.  That should be plenty enough to convince you I'm really giving you a paying job.  The other case…" Eggman himself took this case into his hands and opened it, revealing the white chaos emerald, sparkling with its unlimited power.  "The emerald is yours if you give me sufficient information.  Now, be gone!  I have other matters to attend to that require all of my attention.  I assume you can let yourselves out.  There's a communicator in the briefcase.  Let me know if any new developments arise."  Eggman had said all he needed to say.  He turned from the trio and quickly walked through a door that lead deeper into the base, it locked shut behind him with an audible click.

"Vector, while Eggman does indeed have the real white chaos emerald, are you certain he won't try and give us a fake?  I doubt we'd be able to tell the difference since none of us can use chaos control."  Espio was more than a little dissatisfied at the way Eggman handled this meeting.  He had expected more than just an actual meeting in this old base, but reminded himself that the less trouble this turned out to be the better.

"Have a little faith Espio; this briefcase is heavier than it looks so it must have a lot of cash inside it.  Whatever's going on, we've finally got a paying job again, so we can't waste the opportunity.  If you feel like you need to go gather some info on your own go ahead.  Just make sure not to get too wrapped up in the search that you forget we're going to need you."  Vector could tell when Espio was concerned with anything at this point, the two being closer than they let on to be.  He knew that the chameleon needed to do some solo work to straighten things out in his mind.

"Thanks vector, I won't be gone long.  I'll contact you guys if I find anything out."  And with that the chameleon turned invisible and vanished from the area.

"So what are we gonna do Vex?  Are your detective skills pointing you in any particular direction?"  Charmy had been busy flying around Vector and didn't feel the need to interrupt his talk with Espio. Now that it had ended, he wanted to know what would come next.

"Remember when Knuckles called us a few hours ago?"

"Yeah, so?  What does that have to do with anything?"

"I'm not entirely sure myself, but it's the only lead we've got until Espio finds something useful while he's being a ninja.  Come on Charmy, we'll head back to the agency and pick up some supplies."

* * *

"My name is Cream, and this is Cheese," the young rabbit said as she introduced herself and her chao.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Cream.  I'm Blaze.  Those bullies didn't hurt you did they?"  Blaze was certain she got there in time, but had to make sure all the same.

"Not at all Miss Blaze.  Cheese kept the big one away and just as he was about to try again you came and saved us."

"That little chao of yours kept that big oaf away?  He must be quite the brave warrior then."  At the sounds of these words Cheese puffed out his chest and floated around Cream like he was the toughest thing on the planet, eliciting a small laugh from Blaze.

"I don't come out to the city that often but I've never seen you here before Miss Blaze.  Are you new here?"

The question caught Blaze off guard more than she would have thought.  The truth would be yes, and no.  While Blaze wasn't born in Station Square, she had moved there with Silver in their time and it became her home.  This Station Square, while similar in more aspects than one would have expected, was still quite different.  So what was Blaze to say?  For some reason she didn't want to lie to the overly polite Rabbit.  But she went through all of these thoughts quickly and made her decision.

"Tha-that's right Cream, I am new to the city.  I've been looking around and enjoying the sights all day."  Blaze inwardly sighed to herself.  Why was she acting so strange around this kid?  "Oh, and you don't need to call me 'Miss Blaze', I'm not anyone special.  Just call me Blaze."

"Okay!  Since you're new here would you like me to show you around?"  Cream had decided she really liked Blaze.  Something about her told Cream that they could be good friends if she worked at it.

"That's very sweet of you Cream, but I have to get back to my friend I left behind.  He'll be lost without me if I leave him alone for too long."

"Would it be alright if Cheese and I came with you then?"

"Umm…."  Blaze was very tempted to say no, but one look at the pleading rabbit was all it took to shatter her resolve.  She sighed before saying, "Alright, you can tag along with me if you really want to."

"Yay!  Did you hear that Cheese? Blaze is letting us join her!"

Cheese made the usual chao sound of joy as Cream hurried over to Blaze's side so they could walk together.  She immediately refueled the conversation by changing the topic as they walked, inquiring all about Blaze and answering some of Blaze's own questions as well.  The two talked all the way to the café, where they arrived at a very bad time…
* * *
"…Control!"  Shadow finished his trademark shout and landed in Station Square, not far away from the café Sonic and Amy were at.  He looked behind to see if his two teammates were with him before saying, "Alright, now that we're here in Station Square, where do we go next?"

"There are four chaos emeralds in the area including ours.  Their frequencies are synchronizing….becoming difficult to trace abnormal chaos energy……The trail is gone."  Omega may have gotten system upgrades, but the unknown forces at work were too much for even the G.U.N. soldiers to anticipate.

"Then it's safe to assume that two chaos emeralds are likely the cause of the energy then?  If that's the case then leave it to me, I'll find those emeralds easily."  Rouge was now very interested in their mission.

"Thought you wanted to go home?  Had a sudden change of heart now?"  Shadow wasn't really amused with Rouge's sudden change in temperament.  He knew she wanted those emeralds all to herself.  Suddenly a thought came to his mind that he asked he team.  "If the abnormal energy was caused by chaos emeralds, then doesn't that mean there are now more than seven of them?"

"Not entirely Shadow.  There were only two separate energy trails that both lead here.  The two chaos emeralds we have dealt with are giving the new ones similar energy readings.  The possibility of a space-time rift replacing two of our emeralds is likely."  Omega answered Shadow's question easily enough, but the robot was busy calculating and recalculating likely causes.

"Well then if that's the case all the more reason for us to find whoever has those emeralds.  Think we should split up and search?  There'd be one for each of us."  Rouge was even more intrigued by the possibility of trans-dimensional chaos emeralds, and was ready to fly off in search of them.

"No….Rouge, you're with me, but Omega…I'd like you to run some reconnaissance.  Use your new upgrades to gather information and get back to me if you find anything useful.  I have a bad feeling about sending you out into a possible battle.  With, or without us…"  Shadow's voice was lightly coated with worry.  To the untrained ear, he'd sound no different.  But with Omega's sensors and Rouge being a bat, even if they weren't close, they'd notice it instantly.  Rather than confronting him about it however, they merely followed his instructions.

"So where do we start looking?  I've got a feeling there's at least two down the street here."  Rouge was on guard now, but didn't let Shadow on to her mood change.

"Give me a second to focus…I'm going to try and use the chaos emerald I have to locate the others…"  Shadow concentrated for about two minutes holding the emerald in the air and making it glow red softly.  When he opened his eyes, Shadow pointed towards the direction of the café.  "There's one over there, and two are making their way over here.  We should locate the one that's closest and let the other two come right to us."

"Sounds like a plan to me.  How're we going to search?"

"I feel that their all outside, so search from the skies, I'll cover the ground.  Whoever has the emerald won't notice the emeralds reacting.  As we get closer, the emeralds will shine brighter until I stop sending my thoughts to the one we have.  Let's go Rouge."

The two Team Dark members sped off towards the café, closely inspecting everyone they saw but finding no trace of the emerald…That is, until Rouge spotted a suspicious looking silver hedgehog on top of a building.  She went over to investigate, but got a lot more than she bargained for when she approached the hedgehog.