Mirror Image

Interlude - Reasonable Doubt

For Abraham Tower, the day could have gone better. The Supreme Commander of GUN sat within his cavernous office, casting his eyes over the bulky report lying on his imposing oak desk. He had read it multiple times already, but still felt the need to study the facts and figures again, as if re-reading them might make them change to something more palatable and restore what little colour his hair once had.

The report made for grim reading. Over two hundred and fifty military and clerical service personnel killed, wounded or missing, the regional commander dead, several high-ranking officials including General Tarquin killed in action, the building itself nothing but a smoking ruin. Add to that the apparent total failure of their Chaos management system, Sonic and Shadow going AWOL yet again, and Agent Rouge's sudden strange turn and need to be rushed to the infirmary, and he found himself considering a very long holiday.

Thumbing his way through Rouge's report, his mind rested uneasy. He may not have always seen eye to eye with Sonic and especially with Shadow, but he would never have believed they could be capable of something like this. He still didn't believe it, but he couldn't argue with the evidence before his own eyes; it all pointed to them being responsible for the earlier attack on Station Square, and it would be hard to argue that they didn't have some involvement with the latest disaster. The cards were stacked firmly against the two hedgehogs.

A knock at his door made him look up from his reading, and he looked over to the oak panelled double doors. A white fox peeked their head around the door, and he guessed them to be female; after all his years on their world, he still could never be quite sure with Mobians, often using their clothing to determine gender.

"Um..." she said, "Supreme Commander? Have you got a moment?"

"And you are?" he said, furrowing his brow.

"Doctor Samuels, Sir," said the fox, stepping into the room clutching a large bundle of papers, "Kate Samuels. Head Chaos Analyst at GUN East Coast Command Centre." The Supreme Commander rose to his feet, placing his hands on the edge of the desk.

"Oh good," he said without a mote of happiness, "I was hoping someone could explain to me how your facility made such a monumental fuck-up."

"I-if I may, S-sir..."

"No, you may not!" he barked, rounding the desk and making her shrink before him, "An Omega-level Chaos entity spontaneously manifests within your laboratory, with the sensors failing to detect it until it's too late, and with the purge protocol locked down for no good reason! The damn thing escapes and slaughters most of my best men, only to be stopped by a god-damn kindergarten student! How the hell did this happen?"

"Sir," Samuels said, trembling as she made her way across the velvet carpet, "Commander Baxter..."

"Is a pile of ashes, thanks to you."

Samuels hesitated for a moment, clearly disturbed by the revelation, and from the imposing human towering over her. A lump rose in her throat, and with it her courage seemed to find her. She stood upright, staring ahead with determined eyes, but not meeting his eyes.

"Supreme Commander, Sir!" she barked, making him step back, "I wish to report that I did not leave the facility until the crisis was resolved, but stayed behind to collate all available information on the Chaos Robots before and after the crisis occurred."

"You stayed behind in that hellhole?" he asked, impressed by the seemingly timid fox's statement, "what could possibly have been so important that you would risk your life like that?"

She thrust the bundle of papers into his hands, her determined stare still straight ahead.

"Evidence," she said, "enough to prove Sonic the Hedgehog's innocence beyond all reasonable doubt."

~o~