Distortion

Chapter 4

With a flick of a finger, the small room came to life in a flash of light. Rouge the bat looked over the place, still in the same shape it had been since the day before. Almost. Shadow's chair was pushed to the side, just as he had left it when he took off running, but her computer was now closed. She hadn't returned after the scene at Downtown, and she was pretty sure she hadn't shut down the device. She strolled over, running a hand over the white cover of the laptop with a knowing smirk.

Her ear swiveled to the side when she heard the door click open, turning her attention to see the hulking machine that now stood in the doorway. A shiny red and black coat of paint decorated the layers of metal that belonged to the robot. She gave a wave of greeting to the machine while she collapsed back into her chair, folding her arms over her chest as she did so.

"You left the lights on," the machine spoke, eyes looking down to where Rouge sat. His robotic voice made it somewhat hard what emotion it was that he was trying to convey, whether it be sarcasm or just pointing out the obvious. Either way, Rouge didn't care. She just gave him a half-hearted shrug as she pushed her computer open and powered it on.

"You're so strict," she commented, leaning back into her chair while her computer loaded. "You know, just because Shadow does it doesn't make it cool."

The machine tilted its head to the side the best it could, staring blankly at her. Rouge waited for a moment, staring back and trying to decipher what the look could possibly mean. She sat there for about five minutes before it occurred to her that there was no emotion to decipher. She laughed at herself, hardly believing for another time that week she had attempted to read a robot.

"Hey, Omega," she said as she calmed down her laughter, "be a dear and get me some tea? Thanks."

Omega hesitated, processing the request, before giving a nod of confirmation. She hardly had to convince him this time, she noted, as the giant robot went stomping out of the room to fulfill the task given. She breathed a sigh of relief, glad that she wouldn't end up being the only one in the office today. She pulled in her chair and immediately got onto work, her fingers clicking against the white keyboard. It wasn't as lovely as the one she had at home, but it was good enough.

She began with her usual, checking her emails to make sure they weren't being requested to go out on some sort of mission. Very rarely did she ever receive any kind of request in her inbox, but she had been proven otherwise. Today would not be one of those days seeing as the most she found in her inbox were ads for makeup and other "questionable" services. Not even something on jewelry now wasn't that a waste.

Closing that window, she decided to open a Word document and begin writing down a report. One that told a lie that she could feed to the higher authorities. She didn't care how it would make its way up, but she needed the message to be believable. She had promised Shadow all the time he needed, and that wasn't obtainable when he just so happened to be as famous as he was. But she already had some ideas.

Perhaps a story about Shadow finding a lead? The robot that had attacked the city had certainly not been one of Eggman's, and if it was, then it had had quite the upgrade. If this was a new threat, it was hard to argue against a further investigation. She wasn't too concerned about whether or not it made perfect sense. It's only purpose was to make sure Shadow was in no sort of danger of being found out. As long as it served that purpose, then that was all that was needed.

She had just reached a paragraph into her story when she heard her phone buzz by her arm. Both ears swiveled in the direction of the device, tilting her head a little to the side in curiosity. Rouge wondered who could be texting her at this hour. The only one she could think of was Shadow, but he rarely used the phone for such purposes. But then there was no one else who came to mind other than the last people on earth. Gently, she picked up the phone and read who it was contacting her. Her eyes went wide when she realized that it was her first guess, after all.