I really need to get a regular schedule for this story. :P To those who are hopefully still following this, I will try to get another chapter up in a couple of weeks. I have plans for a Christmas-related story during December and many other stories, but I will try to update this one as frequently as possible as well because things here will get good pretty soon.

Nevertheless, a rather heated conversation ensued between Rouge and the Commander. Not a word was directed to Shadow, much to his annoyance. A few more clever remarks were exchanged, and, before a fierce row could start, the Commander finally called in a soldier to 'kindly escort Shadow out the room.'

So basically, he had gotten kicked out.

Immediately, after the Commander's doors closed behind him, he yanked his arm mutinously away from the G.U.N. soldier, and the hedgehog stalked away.

He was at times excluded from knowledge, which he despised. But never had he been kept from listening in on an entire conversation with his teammate.

It was as if they were trying to make it excruciatingly obvious they were keeping things from him.

Shadow tromped through the hallways, noting that the exterior of the place pretty much stayed the same. A sense of dreariness yet professionalism reigned the work atmosphere. Still, as he traveled down the halls, contraptions he had not yet seen before in his life caught his eyes. What was he expecting? Technology was developing quickly before; perhaps they jumped the gap again and discovered something truly useful. And if it had to be anyone, it had to be G.U.N. that founded technological inventions. Especially potentially dangerous ones. That was all part of working in a militaristic government group.

He stopped unexpectedly, then swore. "Stop assuming." These words, spoken to himself, were the brutal reminders to make him realize that he was simply accepting. He had done it before, and that certainly didn't go well. He couldn't assume anything they were telling him was true, not even that it might be years ahead of when he had last seen this place.

Shadow had to be sure. And the only things that he was completely sure of were himself and his senses. He couldn't trust anyone else lest he fell into their traps of lies.

He didn't know where his feet were taking him while he wandered down the corridors and passed by agents who paid no more than a second glance to him. He felt he should turn back until something in one of the larger, whiter, more spotless rooms made him stop.

"Omega?"

The robot seemed to be swarmed by scientists, who chattered in hush, low voices. Yet still their conversations filled the otherwise silent room quite noticeably. They were the only ones there along with several advanced machine that lined the walls and touched the ceilings. What appeared to be experimental weapons hung in glass cases by the computers and excess technology.

At the hedgehog's voice, Omega's red eyes glowed, and his small head tilted up as if to detect where it came from.

"Shadow?"

Apparently, the scientist viewed this question as some oddity and they looked amongst themselves, questioning, before they parted like the Red Sea when Shadow walked towards the hulking arsenal.

Upon closer inspection, wires snaked around Omega's open compartments, and his central circuits laid bare. "Experimenting on something?" Shadow noted casually.

This question was directed at Omega, so none of the scientists made a peep, too busy in resuming their work to really notice. "Weapons, Shadow creature."

Now Omega was adding the 'creature' part to the hedgehog's name because he knew for sure who it was.

"Oh, really? I thought it would've been baking," Shadow responded quite sarcastically.

"Negative, these fleshy creatures have been working on these." With that, Omega lifted up his large cannon-like arms. The claw-like hands shifted inside to leave two gaping holes, and a strange whirring noise came from them, gradually increasing in volume, as a light began to flicker within the holes.

Shadow's eyes widened.

He was smart and barely quick enough to leap out of the way before two huge lasers burst from the robot's arms, which emitted loud, high-pitched squeals. Deafening crumbling and garbled shouts and screams erupted in his ears for a brief moment. Then all sound ceased and Shadow climbed to his feet.

"Laser cannons. New addition. Glorious, is it not?"

A sense of panic flashed through Shadow and he looked behind him where Omega shot. The whole wall that was holding up hi-tech computers, which held massive amounts of data, was completely eradicated, a giant hole gaping in its place. Massive amounts of money from G.U.N. would have to go through in order to replace that advanced of investigational technology.

Well. At least no one was annihilated.

"It's nice," Shadow chose his words, enough to make the robot start.

"Nice? That is all your inferior mind thinks?" Omega asked, sensing that this was a challenge and taking a mechanical step forward . The wires held on to E-123's crimson and black armor plates for dear life. The scientists' voices increased in volume, pleading almost and placing their hands on his armor to push the robot back.

"I mean," the black hedgehog continued casually, "It's great. If that's all you have after some odd years since we've last talked."

Omega's red eyes flared more brilliantly, seeming to display an almost uncanny sense of exuberance. "Negative. I have acquired many more weapons since. You will certainly not be disappointed. In fact, your fleshy mind will burst."

"In your sleep mode, maybe."

While some could only utter a few words to the Ultimate Lifeform in the past (and cower in fear, or so Shadow liked to think) and would view this as strange, Shadow didn't know how to greet Omega with anything but a sparring match. It certainly catered to E-123's destructive tendencies and the hedgehog's urge for a better opponent.

The scientists could not hold their experiment any longer, and so all of them fled the room immediately to get out of dodge. They were smart enough to cower in fear in the other room, not where they could be put in danger and get obliterated by a laser cannon.

Omega then tore off the wires like they were nothing, and, probably from an internal command, the open compartments that revealed important internal circuits shut instantly. Shadow stood at the ready, fists raised while his mouth quirked slightly upwards.

"Prepare to see your fleshy brain cells all over the walls from your utter awe soon."

Shadow glared back. "You won't impress me, much less land a hit on me, Omega."

And from that point on, no words were to be exchanged, only bullets and blows.

The robot switched his laser cannons to machine guns, the clicks echoing in the now deathly silent room, and shifted them towards the hedgehog. Shadow sprinted clockwise as the internal triggers were pulled, penny-sized holes in the ground trailing after him.

Omega couldn't spin his torso fast enough, and Shadow was able to land a swift kick to the legs. The robot collapsed, throwing his hands up in defense against the Chaos Spears thrown mercilessly at him. Shadow grimaced. Omega's outer armor must've gotten a major overhaul in Chaos defense; compared to his battles in the past, his Spears dealt minimal damage to his opponent's hull.

He had to find a weak point.

Before he could locate the area to stab, two machine guns blocked his vision. So now Omega had resorted to his programming. Shadow barely leapt back to escape the first round that punched itself into the linoleum ceiling. He spun around, once, twice, and flung himself behind a row of computer equipment, effectively wrecking half of the machines. Wincing, he scanned his side in a brief manner and noted the blood welling from the his new wound. His ego had been shot as well as his side. So much for remaining unscathed.

"Hiding, Shadow creature?"

Robots didn't have much inflections in their voice chips to help differentiate between their emotions, but Shadow swore Omega was mocking him. The sound of heavy, decided steps came nearer and nearer to his hiding spot, almost as if the robot knew where he was but just wanted to prolong it.

Yep, he was definitely mocking him.

Once Omega's clawed foot came into Shadow's peripheral vision, the hedgehog spun on him and struck with a calculated Chaos Spear. Triumph surged through him as the blow was well-aimed, digging between the upper half and the lower half, where the gears turned and helped Omega to maneuver his entire torso. His weakness.

Sparks flew in the hedgehog's face, but that didn't hinder him from driving it further into the central circuits. Chaos energy was literally crackling at his fingertips as Shadow summoned another Spear and ripped it through the hinges of his opponent's legs before the robot had the chance to let loose his newly-added laser cannons. Luckily, Shadow saw it coming and rolled out of the way. He didn't dare stay any farther from Omega; he didn't want this to turn into another chase.

Out of natural battle instincts or perhaps out of watching several western movies, the fighting stopped and they merely circled each other, sizing each other up with their eyes. Mostly, they were evenly matched; only strategy would give one of them the upper hand against the other.

No animosity lay between them, no true hostility, only respect.

The sparks flew from Omega and the blood dripped from Shadow, both opponents without tools to use except what was in their original design.

Literally, no G.U.N. agent in the building could stand up to Shadow without their guns and ammunition and a tank to hide behind. Sharpshooter training and beating up sandbags disguised as the enemy was nice and all, but Shadow desired something physically perilous to fight against, something that could match him tic for tac. Maybe that was why he liked to race with Sonic years ago. Because there was actually competition.

The black hedgehog already could feel his internal systems at work with his wound, which was slowly being mended back together. However, the robot tottered from the injuries he sustained, noticeably off-balanced in his movements.

Yet still Omega sprang back and sent a barrage of bullets straight at Shadow, classic machine-gun style. The hedgehog zigzagged across the room, barely evading every well-shot projectile.

During this, Shadow felt himself regaining energy, both physical and Chaos. He kept his eyes trained on the robot, but it seemed E-123 was in full-blown 'destroy everything' mode. Shots were still fired accurately, but they were fired rapidly without much attention to anything but Shadow himself.

As he jumped rather slower circles compared to the previous speed of the fight around Omega, he began to conjure another shining green arrow. He needn't his inhibitor rings snapped to take down this arsenal; he had already done so many times in the past.

With lightning speed, he hurled the weapon of Chaos at his opponent's legs, succeeding once more in this tactic. Heart pulsing wildly within him, Shadow pounced with Chaos Spears in both hands and aimed straight at the robot's weak point. Omega thrust a hulking arm over his torso, effectively thwarting the attempt, much to Shadow's chagrin. It still was somewhat expected.

However, what he didn't expect was to have the robot's other arm drilled into stomach, its weapon fully reloaded.

The sound was deafening and the force so brutal that the black hedgehog was blown backwards like a kite in the whipping wind. His spine met the wall, and his feet met the floor, barely saving him from a mortifying face plant. He tried to stand up straight, but the best he could do was a hunchback stance, his hand steadfastly glued to his stomach, which was already tainted as red as his markings. Now his systems had to start the regeneration process all over again.

He didn't dare take his hand off his stomach for concern his insides would spill out; externally, his lower half probably looked like Swiss cheese from the several bullets that punched through him.

Then the realization hit him.

Omega hadn't used the new laser cannons.

He had gone easy on him.

Another click was heard, and little pings were heard from tiny metal shells hitting the floor. Shadow's still-ringing ears managed to pick up the robot's methodical footsteps. Omega was going slow again, as if he knew this was going to be the result.

"As the saying goes, 'you cannot teach an old dog new tricks'," the flat voice of the robot stated.

Shadow glared as if this bugged him when in reality it only stimulated the thrill of the fight in him. If given enough time, his wounds would regenerate quickly. This was only a challenge to his mastery. To get Omega to use his extreme, Shadow would have to use his.

"I'll give that saying a whole new meaning with you," he said threateningly. His hands grasped at the golden rings at his wrists, fingers prepped to snap them at any instant.

"What are you two doing?!"

His focus was thrown off directly at the voice, his eyes searching the newly made exits for it. Once identifying the source, Shadow stood up from his posture, calmly and defiantly folding his arms, careful to cover as much of his wound as possible. Omega, who had seconds before looked like a ruthless assassin, hid his arms behind his back like a kid caught in the act of putting his hand in the cookie jar.

Rouge stalked into the room, surveying the both of them. "You could've blown this place up what with the amount of firepower Omega has now! Just 'cause you want to prove how big and strong you are does not mean you can start a fight in private G.U.N. facilities! Even you know that, Omega."

"Nice to meet you, too, Rouge," Shadow said.

"Is not she scolding us?" asked Omega.

"And you just couldn't stay in one spot, could you, Shadow?" the bat said, already on another tangent, "I had to wander all over this place to find you and that alone took well over twenty minutes!"

"Why were you trying to find the Shadow creature?" Omega asked in an attempt to not be ignored by her.

Rouge looked at the robot, then at Shadow, and sighed, stringing a hand through her wavy short head fur. "The Commander wants to see us," she said grudgingly, almost as if that were the worst possible thing that could happen.

With an air of confidence, Shadow folded his arms. "You would've had to find Omega after you found me. I just saved you time," he said evenly, "You should be thankful."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," the bat growled, waving a hand, "You better get rid of that smug smirk before I wipe it right off your face."

"And how will you do that?" Shadow asked smugly, "The Ultimate Lifeform can keep whatever facial expression he may please."

Rouge rolled her eyes and simply trudged on ahead.

Shadow followed and a whirr and a click signified Omega's intrusion into the conversation. Perhaps the robot had gotten better about arguments or especially difficult bats.

"You sound frustrated."

Perhaps not.

So Shadow was back in the Commander's office and left to stand at attention, awkwardly half-letting his organs spill out of his deep gash in the process. Crackles and fizzles penetrated from Omega's circuits every moment of silence each time the Commander took a breath to begin another sentence. At least he had done as much damage to Omega as the robot did to him. Rouge stood beside the black hedgehog, looking pretty ticked off and very unapproachable at that point in time.

The Commander folded his arms and examined each agent, his oddly colored eyes impassive. "What took you all so long, Agent Shadow?"

Rouge looked like she wanted to respond to that question, her ear twitching with irritation.

Shadow kept his eyes on the G.U.N. leader. "While you were discussing something I wasn't supposed to know with Rouge, I found Omega, who seemed bent on destroying the weapons lab and putting bullets into my stomach after I commented on his new artillery. Then Rouge found us, and we were brought here."

He heard a click of what appeared to be anger from Omega, but he chose to ignore it.

At this story, the boss sighed and leaned back against his chair. "Years later after Agent's Shadow's disappearance and this is what comes about..." he murmured. Then his voice grew sharp and imposing, "Agents, after much thought, Team Dark is now reunited and working under G.U.N.'s orders once more."

"What?! You can't possibly be serious," Rouge exclaimed, "Omega and I have been doing great as partners for years; there's no need to mess with that by throwing in him again. We don't even know how he magically came back to life, for Mobius' sake!"

"Agent Rouge, we have already discussed this. The decision is final and my mind will not be changed on the matter. The team will have a meeting tomorrow so you all will be on the same page by the time I assign you a real mission. You are dismissed, Agent Rouge."

"But—!"

"You are dismissed."

And that was the last note. The bat huffed and left, her shoulder roughly hitting Shadow's on the way out.

After her exit, the Commander shifted his gaze to Shadow. "And you, Agent Shadow—just get patched up." There seemed to be a little disgust at the end of that order, Shadow noted. Nevertheless, the hedgehog nodded in agreement. "Then head to the main office and they will direct you to the dorm you will be staying in. You will most likely remain there until you are situated. You're dismissed."

The hedgehog couldn't complain about that order. He would be able to get some rest and time alone in his dorm; maybe then he could reflect upon the recent events and decide on his next action. And, Ultimate Lifeform or not, being drugged and held hostage in a dank underground base, escaping with one's last bit of energy, and an hour later battling a robot with a munitions store in its arms would leave anyone exhausted. Overall, he was looking forward to being alone.

Shadow turned to leave.

"And E-123 Omega, go to the repair wing and allow them to patch you up. After that, go straight back to the weapons lab and clean up all the wreckage. If you break something expensive like that, you'll have to pick up its pieces."

"One specification before I am dismissed, G.U.N. leader. Shadow initiated the fight and damaged me. He helped annihilate the weapons lab as well. Take it from my honorable battle scars. I am not inferior enough to damage myself, G.U.N. leader."

Shadow stopped, hardly believing what he heard.

The Commander's voice sounded ticked. "Agent Shadow..."

Omega just threw him under the bus.

Now Shadow remembered how much he loved his teammate.

Let me know what you thought about this chapter, especially about Omega's entrance. I'm willing to listen to any constructive criticism on this, nit-picky or not. Thanks!

-JD