Forest near Eggman's base - Epilogue of the Unknown

[Val]

A few short miles outside of the now blazing firestorm of metal and explosions that had once been Eggman’s base, a rush of Chaos energy crackled through the air. The trees bent and rustled as the dense pulsing waves rippled out, building to a crescendo that erupted in a brilliant white flash. From the light appeared three hedgehog figures, one proudly holding aloft the yellow gemstone in his hand.



Shadow dropped to one knee. Something felt…wrong. Like his warp had put far more strain on him than it should have. His body ached. Was it that Sol emerald? He’d felt some kind of repulsion from it, like it was an opposite polarised magnet. He’d known trying to use Chaos Control with it was a bad idea but he hadn’t had the time to consider what could happen bringing it along through a normal warp. He needed to get out of that base so he took the one way he had left…

Looking about he saw Silver Sonic. Assuming the robotic hedgehog had done as he was told and still had the Sol emerald on him their mission was a success, even without the data he’d initially been sent in to collect.

That is assuming…Sonic. Looking over to his right the ebony hybrid saw his blue rival. Would Sonic allow them to simply walk away or would he choose to make this difficult?

[Lans]

Silver Sonic stood frozen for a moment as his systems reoriented themselves after the sudden relocation. A second later his systems reported normal. Glancing at his hand, he confirmed that the Sol Emerald was still in his possession, meaning the primary mission was a success. With that confirmed, he moved on to secondary objectives and turned his attention to Shadow, leaving off addressing Sonic for the time being.

"Agent Shadow, what is your condition?"

[Tony]

The instant Sonic was out of the warp, he tumbled head-first toward the ground and smacked into it with a resounding THWUMP, his legs and feet hanging in the air momentarily before they simply fell unceremoniously back into the dirt. The hedgehog coughed and groaned, but he didn't bother pushing himself up just yet. The general feeling of nausea and discomfort permeated his entire being, and it felt as if his awareness of the world around him was still caught in a mild spin. His thoughts stirred messily within his mind as he slowly began to snap out of it - eventually, the blue one came to the conclusion that the malaise was likely due to the Sol Emerald accompanying them on their short little warp-flight.

That certainly didn't bode well for future emergencies.

Hoisting himself back up to his feet, Sonic stood tall, though he couldn't prevent one last stumble before he finally caught his balance. Placing both hands on his back, the hedgehog streeeetched backward until he could feel his bones crick and pop. Afterward, he resumed a more relaxed stance, shaking his head and then laying his eyes upon his current companions.

"So..." He waved his hand toward the both of them, before crossing his arms. "... I guess I wasn't the only one that felt ... that. Right?"

He didn't feel like fighting. As much as he would like to take that Emerald back to Blaze as soon as his feet could carry them, being in G.U.N.'s hands would guarantee a safe return just as quickly, with the addition of some heavy artillery to back it up. At least... that was fine for one Emerald. Internally, he wasn't quite so sure about multiple stones ending up in their possession, but... that was a bridge he'd very quickly traverse if it came down to that.

For now, it was a time to get everybody onto the same page. So long as he didn't push the issue to hard, it was possible Shadow would stick around long enough for them to do exactly that.

[Val]

Clearly Sonic wasn’t going to just let them keep the Sol emerald, Shadow knew better than to think the blue blur would ever give up on that one. That, however, was not his concern. Shadow straightened himself up, wincing as a spike of pain shot up his back to remind him of crashing into the computer console. Forcing the burning down with a grunt he turned to regard his rival.
“Seems the emeralds don’t play well together. I’ll be sure to mention that when I take it back.” He spoke in a challenging tone. He wanted to be certain Sonic wouldn’t try anything. Yes they were both battered from the fight and with Silver Sonic, they had him outnumbered but he didn’t believe Sonic was above sucker punching the ebony hybrid the moment his back was turned if he had the chance.

[Lans]

Silver felt a sensation of what might be called frustration at Shadow's lack of an answer, but quickly put it aside. His current actions seemed to indicate he was well enough for the time being. Instead he glanced down at the emerald still clutched in his hand. "Indeed, the energy frequencies of the two types of 'emeralds' seem to be incompatible with each other."

He looked back up at Shadow. "I will signal for transport."

[Tony]

The hedgehog put up his hands in mild defensiveness as a response towards Shadow's hot reply. "Heyyy, cool yer rocket shoes, dude. You can take that emerald to GUN, or whatever, I am... not in the mood to throw down. Not now." He jabbed a thumb in the general direction of the base they had just hailed from. "... Nnnot after that." The hedgehog rubbed his forehead. He could swear that there was still a headache in there somewhere after his last round with that hefty Eggman robot...

"That bein' said..." His gaze went back to Shadow. "You guys.. can research or whatever, but, you know as well as I do - that thing can't stay here. We gotta get it back to Blaze, pronto. The only reason I'm not swipin' that right now is because I ain't got the time. I gotta find Tails and figure out whether or not more of these things are gonna start poppin' up. If that happens, then, it's gonna be all-hands-on-deck to get them outta here before things start gettin' too real, and I'd rather save some of my energy in case that's what we end up dealing with."

It bothered him a lot that the one pulling the strings at the base was Nega, of all people. What on earth was he up to...? Eggman was bad enough on his own. Dealing with Nega was a whole different ball game altogether, and that never led to anything but trouble. He began to do some of his usual stretches, preparing to take off at a moment's notice. "If ya got anythin' else you wanna add to this discussion, y'got about five seconds before a dust cloud takes my place."