I guess I could say the next few days were ‘peaceful’ but they really weren’t. We knew what were likely to be Shade’s next two targets, and Tails and even Rouge (who’d eventually shown up) were keeping them under a pretty tight watch…but, so far, there’d been nothing.

I wasn’t entirely surprised. As much as it was clear that Shade was trying to demonstrate that she was so far superior to us in strength that we shouldn’t even think of trying to oppose her, I suspected that our ‘battle’ (if you could call it that at the end, as one-sided as it had been) may have taken a lot out of her. That she’d need some time to recover (maybe even several days) didn’t seem unlikely. Still, we all knew she would eventually be back at it….Someone like Shade…she wouldn’t just quit…not for long.

“Any sign of her, buddy?”

My fox friend looked up from his monitor (one of three) and sighed.

“Nothing, Sonic….Maybe, maybe she decided she….”

Tails trailed off not really being able to finish. Oh, buddy, I wish. Tails and Amy, after they had fully absorbed the fact that I was, you know, still alive, had told me a bit more about what had happened there at the end. Apparently, besides being incredibly painful to experience, ‘Chaos Burst’ was also not just a little bit frightening to watch.

They described suddenly witnessing this burning maelstrom of what could only be Chaos energy enveloping Shade and everything surrounding her, including, well, me, only to leave a burned and even melted landscape behind. She had walked out of that apparently still radiating Chaos energy, her eyes glowing spheres, if only briefly, before she faded back to normal as she walked up to them and ‘asked’ for her Chaos Emerald back.

I was impressed that both of my friends had held their ground, as I think even I might have quailed for a moment after witnessing something and someone like that, and also relieved that neither of them had challenged her then, though both Amy and Tails admitted that my little fox buddy had tried. Fortunately, it seems Ames had kept her usual good sense and put a stop to that before he could do something I think we would have all regretted.

But beyond Shade’s intimidating display, something they both recalled having witnessed was not just how exhausted Shade had looked after her attack…but how miserable. Even Tails could later admit, when he was no longer so angry, that she had looked like she hated what she had done and just wanted to be finished with it all, as if the only thing that mattered to her anymore was to be away from us and any further conflict, to just get away and rest.

With as broken up about what she had done as Shade had seemed to be and as conflicted as she had so clearly been even before then, it didn’t seem crazy to think that, maybe, she might have just decided she didn’t want to be doing this anymore…or to risk another encounter where she may have to do even worse.

Still, I, and my friends, like I said, I don’t think any of us were that hopeful. I gave a glance at a visitor on my couch, one of two visitors actually, and she just shook her head.

“Wish it were true, fox boy….But a girl like Shade, she won’t quit, not forever….Take it from me, even if she needs some…time…after that ‘talk’ you all described…she’ll eventually be at it again….She just wouldn’t be able to do anything else….No matter how much she might want to.”

Rouge sighed and even my (extremely impressive) couch didn’t seem to be enough to comfort her for the moment. I wasn’t entirely sure what had been going on with Rouge lately, but I could probably make a few guesses. I hadn’t seen her at all since that night (‘morning’) when we’d discussed Shade’s probable goals and my bat friend had suddenly left on account of ‘some things she needs to take care of’. She hadn’t even responded to my call when I informed her we were going to confront Shade in the midst of her most recent raid.

Though, Rouge had eventually shown up at my home afterwards looking a little guilty…and more depressed than I could ever recall seeing her. She apologized that she hadn’t been there to help and had since been putting in a lot of effort to help us find Shade once again.

Unfortunately, wherever Shade and Eggman were holed up, it was apparently very well hidden and was probably actually moving around. Rouge admitted that she had tracked Shade down before and that it seemed that Eggman and Shade were making use of an Egg Carrier as a mobile base. But, something must have changed because my bat friend couldn’t find it anymore (and not even Tails had any success once Rouge, reluctantly, confessed how she’d managed to track it the first time). Likely Eggman had caught on to that particular security flaw and corrected it.

Anyways, I suspected that the reason Rouge hadn’t shown up to our recent ill-fated encounter with Shade was because she…didn’t…want to have to actually fight her. It was…surprising…but somehow I could tell that Rouge actually cared about Shade, and in a way that seemed different than the rest of us, almost more personal, as if she somehow already had a connection with the unfortunate hedgehog that none of the rest of us shared. I mean I didn’t want to be fighting Shade, but somehow I sensed that actually doing so would hurt Rouge in a way that just wouldn’t be the same. Honestly, though this was just very much guesswork, I thought it seemed pretty likely that when Rouge looked at Shade…she saw someone who looked very much like herself, as ignorant as I was about why that might be.

Man, life could be pretty complicated at times, am I right?

Probably mainly to find a distraction, I looked to my couch’s other occupant, who had finally taken up my offer of ‘crashing’, having judged that the situation had become serious enough to warrant a more extended time away from his ‘post’ to deal with it. And, Knucks did in fact appear to be enjoying his stay on my couch (Really, who could resist its charms? It was absolutely the best one I had ever sat on: No competitors need apply.).

Knucks shifted in his place, giving off a small smile (clearly pleased at just how awesome it was), before it seemed he noticed my attention and his expression became his more usual serious one.

“Indeed, a true warrior such as the ‘Dark One’ would allow nothing to prevent her from completing her mission, even if a momentary retreat for rest and further strategizing was needed. I am sure she will not turn away from her goals until all her enemies lie crushed at her feet, an all but inevitable conclusion given her unparalleled strength and boundless determination of spirit.”

I tried not to put my hands over my face in exasperation. The certainty and even enthusiasm Knuckles now displayed over Shade’s strength and commitment to her goals were…very Knuckles…and I couldn’t help wondering a bit just which…side…of this conflict my tribal friend was on at times.

Fortunately, Rouge just seemed amused by the comment and even Tails seemed to take it in stride (considering that we would almost certainly qualify as those ‘enemies’ Knuckles had referred to, and apparently wasn’t giving very good odds).

I looked around at my friends again, including Amy, who had recently come in from the kitchen. She had also been ‘crashing’ (though we’d given her and Rouge each one of our guest rooms, rather than the couch - sadly, there was only the one - and it had seemed that the ladies preferred the rooms, despite the lesser accommodations they offered). Unsurprisingly, my pink friend had appointed herself the task of making sure we were all fed (and overfed) as we waited for Shade’s next strike.

I decided it was my turn to answer my fox friend, though I really wanted to be able to give him a different answer:

“....Unfortunately, I think they’re right, Tails….I just don’t think Shade is going to quit, not forever.”

Tails looked away from me for a moment and sighed, clearly disappointed, but not really surprised.

“...I guess you’re right, Sonic….I just wish that….”

However, whatever he was about to say next was cut off as his workstation gave off a beep. Looking suddenly very concerned, he studied one of his monitors intently, while typing in numerous commands. I think all of us tensed while he did this.

“Something finally came up, buddy?”

Tails ignored me for a moment, keying in some more instructions, then…

“Oh…Oh no….”

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That, that didn’t sound good, and if our friend didn’t have our attention before, he certainly had it now. When he didn’t say anything else, Amy finally decided to speak up.

“Tails, what did you find? Is Shade attacking another base?”

Tails just stared at whatever he’d seen, apparently in total disbelief. When he still didn’t answer, I was about to speak up myself, but it seemed he finally shook himself out of whatever trance he’d gone into and noticed us all again.

“...I can’t…I can’t believe it, but if this data is correct…she…she didn’t attack another base.”

Honestly, I think we were all more than a little confused, though perhaps less so than my little buddy, who seemed like he just couldn’t wrap his mind around whatever had gotten his attention.

“…It’s just…it’s so far outside of the parameters I set that the monitoring program didn’t flag it immediately.”

Again, I think we were all wondering just where he was going with this before it seemed he finally got himself together and, looking at us with seriousness…and even some fear, he explained:

“Look, if this is correct, Shade didn’t attack another base….Instead, she and probably Eggman, though acting at different locations, just snuck in and took what they needed…from both of the remaining bases.”

It took us all a moment to process that, then:

“Damn!!” Rouge apparently was not pleased by this outcome because that was the nicest word she used.

Amy just gasped and paled, clearly understanding just how…bad…this probably was.

Knuckles, honestly, he looked extremely approving for a moment before his solemn expression returned….Yeah, it takes all kinds.

For my part, I just kind of stood there…frozen….Was that it then? Were we all just about to be vaporized by a big, floating space cannon of doom? How could we even tell?

“How…how long ago?” I finally managed to ‘unfreeze’ myself enough to ask what seemed to be a very important question. I mean if it was yesterday or, worse, even a few days ago, as difficult as that would seem to be to believe….

Tails looked back at me, all of us, worried but not yet as hopeless as I had feared:

“Probably about an hour or two ago, at least for Eggman. I think Shade may have completed her raid a little earlier. It was only actually because of him that I think the program was even able to pick up that she had struck a base as well….She left almost no trace.”

I think we all breathed a bit of a sigh of relief at that….This was still very bad but if we had only missed them by a matter of hours rather than…days…it seemed like there might still be a chance….Also, I tried to ignore the sense of approval that it seemed Knuckles continued to radiate off as he heard about Shade’s nearly ‘flawless’ completion of her clandestine raid….That it was apparently likely only due to the Eggman that she hadn’t completely gotten away with it though came as no real surprise.

Honestly, though, I was still more than a little in shock here…and not just about the whole world might be ending soon sort of thing….It’s that Shade would, could even, do something like this; it really surprised me. It was clear to me how much she hated G.U.N. and probably barely tolerated Eggman (and the fact that she apparently was able to tolerate him as much as she did was impressive in itself! I mean, really, it’s Eggman!!). That she could set that aside as thoroughly as she clearly had to accomplish this?!

But it quickly, like other things I had realized about her, began to make too much sense to me. It had already become abundantly clear to me that Shade would do…whatever she felt she needed to do. If that meant putting aside her (extremely intense) hatred for G.U.N. or the obvious distaste she felt in working with Eggman (and, again, who wouldn’t?), then that’s what she would do. It seemed to me like this was probably another case where she’d suddenly realized she’d ‘forgotten’ and decided she wasn’t ‘allowed’ to have ‘fun’ anymore. I wondered if we would have even had a chance to know Shade existed if she had decided to take her mission fully ‘seriously’ from the start, with no time for ‘playing around’. It seemed like a very real possibility that my friends and I wouldn’t even be around right now to be able to ask that kind of question if she had….

Also, I hadn’t forgotten just how much it seemed she had hated fighting us, how obviously painful it was for her to go up against people for whom she clearly had no personal dislike or issues. Oddly, I think she even kind of liked (maybe even respected) us…and I couldn’t mistake just how much of an effect it seemed Amy had had on her. Actually, given how Rouge had been acting, I don’t think that whatever connection it seemed my bat friend felt with Shade could be entirely one-sided, or it wouldn’t have mattered so much to her (if Rouge thought that Shade couldn’t actually care less about her).

….This…what Shade had just done, it would also deal with that ‘problem’. Particularly if things had gone entirely as she had apparently planned (and maybe even now regardless), she wouldn’t have to fight us again…or even see us again….and, I don’t know, maybe be tempted to ‘forget’...or be ‘allowed’ to have friends and fun again.

Really, what she had done and why she had probably done it…it just made too much sense to me now.

However, I realized I had been thinking about this too much. We needed to….Actually, we needed to do what? It seemed clear enough that Shade’s next stop would be the ARK Station, which was, you know…in space. While I was pretty sure Eggman would have something that could get Shade and him there (and it seemed unlikely that she could do something as extreme as just teleporting there…I hoped)…that wasn’t exactly the easiest thing for normal people to do. Who even had a spaceship…and would let us borrow it?

Still, I felt I needed to say something.

“Okay, then….Well, it seems like there might still be time…to do something about this. I think while we might not be able to find the base Shade and Eggman have been hiding out in, we can be pretty sure about where they are going.”

That part, again, wasn’t the problem. Tails had already been tracking the location of the ARK Station since we knew it was involved in this whole situation….Though, I guess none of us had really given thought to what we would do if we actually had to get there….That seems like a bit of an oversight now…but, really, space!!

I couldn’t help looking disappointed and frustrated.

“...But, honestly, I’m not exactly sure how much good that is going to do us…unless any of us just happen to know someone who has a spaceship and is willing to let us borrow it?”

Really, the chances of that….Still, I couldn’t help looking at my friends with some degree of (desperate) hope.

Amy only sighed and shook her head, while Rouge paused for a moment then regretfully did the same, though it seemed we might have been closer than I’d thought.

“Sorry, Blue, I might be able to pull some strings…maybe…but not on the kind of timetable we are probably looking at here….I mean….I can still try…”

She ended with that offer but it was clear that she really didn’t expect anything to come of it (at least not soon enough to be of use). Well, that was disappointing…but honestly much more than I had been expecting. Then, just to show how desperate I was, I looked to my red friend….His island could fly after all, or, I don’t know, maybe he had some ancient echidna spaceship stashed away somewhere….It seemed possible (if extremely unlikely). Unfortunately, he just shook his head and then destroyed any of my remaining hopes, apparently having understood exactly what I had been thinking.

“Regrettably, friend Sonic, though the Master Emerald’s power is vast, I know of no way to use it to raise my island to such a height, and if my people possessed the knowledge or means to travel into space, this secret was never shared with me.”

Well, that’s a bummer….I didn’t want to say we should all just wait here quietly for Shade to (reluctantly) enact her revenge…but I didn’t really see anything else that we could do (not anything that seemed like it would matter, given the, probably little, amount of time we had left to act). Unfortunately, it seems like my friends had all come to the same conclusion, given just how…defeated…they looked, even to a degree Knuckles. And, Amy it seems was just about to say something when we were all distracted from our nearly despondent haze by an embarrassed cough.

“Uhm…so, yeah, guys…”

As one, we looked to my small fox buddy, who had largely been ignored after his, extremely depressing, announcements, and who was now looking really embarrassed and uncomfortable.

“....About that.”