For how Long will the Red Rose Grow

Emerald Heist

It rather impressed Shadow how silent Rouge and Knuckles were as they slunk through Eggman's sterile base. Though he had been there previously, Eggman had certainly changed up the base since then. There were more cameras, more Badnik patrols and sentries, more traps, everything. Hell, getting into the base would've been a trick if Shadow hadn't just teleported them in with Chaos Control.

Locating safe places to hide was far from fun, the whole situation being less than ideal. He'd had to shoot mini and weak Chaos Spears at the cameras on occasion to short them out enough for the three to slip past. Shadow was garnering a massive headache having to try and pin down each camera.

Rouge, at least, was helpful enough in locating hidden cameras. Knuckles acted like the bodyguard of the group, assassinating any Badnik that happened to notice them and hiding the evidence well amongst their hiding places. Avoiding a full scale battle was the main goal, and avoiding any sort of detection played into that. Eggman sure made that difficult.

He was glad Rouge and Knuckles were working together almost in unison. Avoiding the bickering between them was something he was concerned about going into the mission, but so far they'd only had one silent quarrel. Shadow had also been able to dispel the fight rather easily, thanking Chaos for that afterwards. Since that, they'd been pretty focused and on target.

Shadow was using his tie to the Chaos Energy emanating from the Emeralds as his compass, guiding them through the labyrinth of monochrome halls. The energy pulled him in only one direction, meaning the Emeralds were likely stored together. As they reached a fork in the halls, however, he hesitated.

"The hell?" Knuckles hissed harshly to him from behind, nearly crashing right into him. "Why did you stop?"

"I'm being pulled both directions," Shadow explained in a whisper, eyes tracing the junction, "he split the Emeralds up."

Rouge pouted. "Smart move, unfortunately."

"Then how do we get them?" Knuckles grumbled. "You're the only one that can feel where they are."

"The fastest way is to split up." Shadow rubbed his temples and closed his eyes. "I can grab one, while you two go and grab the other two. Of course, you'd have to hunt them down." He opened his ruby eyes again and gazed at the other two.

"At least you're talking to two master treasure hunters," Rouge chuckled, "leave it to us."

"Where should we meet you when we're done?" Knuckles gazed down the left hall with determination.

"Back here." Shadow replied. "I'll Chaos Control us back to the workshop when we're done." He gazed back at the split and closed his eyes to sense where they could be. "There's two down the left, one down the right. I'll fetch the one on the right if you two track down the ones to the left."

Knuckles nodded curtly and smacked his namesakes together as Rouge gave him a confident smile and said: "You can count on us."

Shadow covered the two as they sprinted down the left hall before turning to head rightward. He used the Emerald stashed in his quills to create an energy field around him, short circuiting every camera in the hall around him. He dashed down the hall, his increase in speed activating his air shoes. They gave his speed a boost, and he skated down the hall as swiftly as Sonic had been able to run.

He used his momentum and his circuit frying Chaos Energy aura to zip by patrolling Badniks, knowing they couldn't detect him fast enough before they were rendered useless. This section of the base was a maze, but he was able to navigate it thanks to the Emerald pulling him towards it. He would have to use the trail of disabled robots to find his way back to the fork he was to meet the others at.