Hex Value

ACT 2: New Directive

CURRENT DIRECTIVE: Clean-Up Duty.

After a reunion filled with feeble chatter, self-aggrandizing, and far too many half-prepared speeches, the message had remained the same. After seven long months of strife and destruction, the war was won. A glorious battlefield. One that Omega himself had missed almost entirely, on the count of his involuntary three-month suspension. He wasn't alone in having missed much of the war, to be fair - he couldn't fault the blue hedgehog for choosing to abstain from the celebrations. Had it not been for Rouge's insistence, he may well have done the same. But then again, it was...pleasant, at least, to be back with her again. His processors seemed to fail him in sparking up a dialogue in the midst of everything, but Rouge seemed just as happy to just have him back in one piece. That, and Omega wished not to divert too much attention to himself, he had done so little after all - much of the celebrations had instead been focused on a citizen-turned-soldier he'd never before encountered. Yet Omega had witnessed first-hand the end of the war, how this brittle recruit had dismantled the bizarre, "illusionary" threat they'd been under all on their own. Even now, after all was done, he wasn't sure if his processors had quite registered what had happened during the final battle: the cognitive tricks everyone else fell under had instead registered to him as garbled, unintelligible noise, like chunks of static clinging to his sensors. And even though they too had been under these illusions' true effect, it was this child, an everyday civilian in any other GUN mission, that had performed better under the weight of the world than Omega himself had against a sole foe.

"You did good out there!" His focus had been interrupted by Rouge suddenly speaking up, addressing the young one. Omega figured she'd noticed his surprise, as she continued speaking whilst glancing in his direction. "It's not like you just waited till the last minute to come in and act all cool saving the day~!"
He wanted to give some sort of proper reply, but still couldn't find the words - a new sensation for him, he then realized. Shadow, he'd also just registered, was standing across the room, more quiet than usual. Truthfully, he had even less of a reason to be there than the blue one, who was at least instrumental in turning the tides of the battle in its last few days. Shadow, meanwhile, had succumbed to a similar fate to himself for most of the strife. Or, at least, that's what he'd been told.

Omega's thrusters simmered at a steady pace as he moved across the still war-torn city streets, kicking up dust and debris remaining from the long-fought battle. He'd been given an assignment, a directive, after so long spent in isolation. And yet, though he should be content, it was as if that sense failed to compute. He'd taken many odd jobs and missions for GUN before, yet with all of them the core directive had remained, the main objective always in sight: Destroying Dr. Eggman. Yet that was the part of the victory celebrations that he still felt unable to process. The Doctor was gone. Not for good, certainly - the fox had noted that the fallout of his defeat must have spatially displaced him, warped him someplace else due to the strange artifact used as his power source. An unintended eject button, in other words; yet tracking him down was of no concern to anyone. Now was, apparently, the time for clean-up. He whirred, and sped up his thrusters, ramming right into a stray Egg Pawn, destroying it with little resistance. The cinders and scrap of the collision did little to excite him.

A ringtone - right, the GUN intercom. Omega answered, and Rouge's voice immediately registered.
"Hey there, tough guy! It was great to see you up in action again."
"LIKEWISE." Omega had never been built for proper conversing, but Rouge had made a dutiful effort to understand his attempts at inflection.
"Listen, I know the battle was tough on you. GUN gets it. We're still...we're still trying to work out what even happened to you."
"AFFIRMATIVE. REPORT WHEN YOU HAVE RESULTS."
"Wait, Omega!" He detected a sort of haste in Rouge's tone - had he came off as dismissive? - "Look, okay: GUN really doesn't want you in battle right now. I know clean-up duty isn't really...your tempo. But it's really needed, at the moment. There's nothing left to fight."
"I AM AWARE. CLEAN-UP IS ALREADY IN PROGRESS." As he spoke, his sensors detected yet one more rogue Egg Pawn, further down the road - he quickly took the opportunity to shoot it rather than ram into it this time, and fired away with a loud spark.
"No, no, no, Omega, look..." Rouge's frustration was obvious from the other end of the line. She'd heard the gunfire. "Those mooks don't matter right now. Sonic's handling that, I've gathered. They're not a threat. They-"
"THEY ARE EGGMAN'S ROBOTS. THREATS OR NOT, THEY NEED TO BE DESTROYED." Immediately after saying it, something there registered as wrong to Omega. It was the type of thing he'd often reaffirm during missions, part of his creed - but this time, he wasn't quite as sure of what it really meant. Eggman himself wasn't around to lead them, after all. So why was he making excuses? His processing lagged behind his words.
"Omega...okay." Her tone turned stern. "No more fighting strays. You're needed in Lost Valley, and I can see that you're en route there now already. There are a lot of hills and cliffsides that have become unstable danger zones due to Eggy's carelessness. We need a strong guy like you to do demolition. The parts that you should blow up have a big red X left on 'em. Okay? Okay."
Only as she was signing off did Omega realize what he'd wanted to say.
"ROUGE, HOLD-"
But it was too late - she'd already hung up. Despite how long he'd spent ruminating on the Arsenal Pyramid incident, Omega had once again failed when the time came. His thrusters came to a gradual stop as he'd reached the desolate outskirts of the war-torn city. From one cold world to the next. He'd been unable to apologize.