Scream For Me

-20-

"Are you sure?" Detonator asked as he walked through the hall with (Y/n). She was in her gear, ready to infiltrate the facility holding the Chaos Emerald...

With Shadow.

Alone.

As in solo. It was a partnership mission, and after their recent interactions, Detonator was less than enthusiastic.

Also, (Y/n) had noticed he was avoiding Teleporter and would not, in fact, be running a second Chaos Emerald mission with her. She would be running it with someone else while Detonator supervised Shadow and (Y/n)'s mission.

"I told you, it'll be fine," she replied, turning the corner into the briefing room where Teleporter, her mission partner, Shadow, and the mission captains were already waiting. The (a/t) took her place next to her partner and Detonator sat alone, not even glancing at Teleporter.

"Do you know what happened?" (Y/n) asked Shadow, nodding at the panther. Shadow didn't reply, focusing on the captains.

"Your mission is to break in and retrieve," one of the captains, a bird of some sort, said. "No casualties if possible. If your supervisor gives the abort signal, you are to obey or be taken off the mission by force. Understood?" Everyone nodded, even if Shadow hesitated. His hand curled into a fist.

"Your supervisors have the rest of the information," the other captain, a hedgehog, said. (Y/n) smiled to herself.

They all stood up and followed after their teams. The (a/t) didn't miss Teleporter's glance at Detonator, but the panther wouldn't look her way.

"They had an argument," Shadow murmured in her ear. "I don't know the details." (Y/n) didn't press the matter.

"Alright, mates. Let's get this Emerald," the panther said, handing them each a file. They opened them and looked at the contents.

"Easy enough," (Y/n) said, closing the file. Detonator took it back and Shadow set his on the desk.

"Where will Silver be going?" he asked.

"With Teleporter," Detonator said shortly. "Focus on your mission, okay? They'll be fine. Two of the finest agents this day has seen."

(Y/n) debated on asking him about Teleporter but opted not to as he began giving them weapons and tools they'd need for the mission.

"Self defense," the panther said, withholding the gun meant to be Shadow's. The dark hedgehog narrowed his eyes. "Self defense only. We really don't need casualties. And if you can, don't shoot any hedgehogs."

"I understand," Shadow grumbled, taking the gun and holstering it. Detonator nodded.

"The location isn't far from here," he said. "But because you're dressed in full gear, one of our flight vehicles will take you and drop you on the roof." And with that, the panther agent led them out to the landing pads where the flight devices were kept.

"Best of luck," he said, lifting his hand as Shadow and (Y/n) clambered inside. "Remember: if we call abort, do it. Shadow, I'm mostly talking to you, mate."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it," he said, helping his partner into her seat. "You too." Detonator didn't reply, simply watching until they'd lifted off and headed to their destination.

Once there, they jumped out of their transportation, quickly thanking their pilot, and turning to the horizon. "Okay," (Y/n) said. "How do we go about doing this?"

"Carefully," Shadow said, stepping over to the skylight of the facility.

The skylight led into a private office. From the office it was three doors to the left before the room that would lead into the chamber holding the Emerald. That door was a safe, a different kind of safe, had old-fashioned venting in the room to prevent the same thing that had happened earlier from happening again, and had a room inside the room that was holding the Emerald. The people who were in possession of the Emeralds were not letting them out of their sight again. Every corner of both rooms inside the room had security cameras watching every inch.

"Forget about when I said 'easy enough'," (Y/n) said as she peered around the office. "This is flat out going to suck."

Shadow simply shook his head and cut the glass out of the skylight, carefully setting it aside and latching the grappling hook around the edge of the window before sliding down. Once both feet were planted on the floor, he waved the all clear and (Y/n) followed his lead.

Shadow wrapped the grappling hook back up and put it away, peering into the hallway. He grabbed (Y/n)'s arm and dragged her behind the wall as heavy footsteps sounded. A security guard.

Once the guard had passed, Shadow nodded to the (a/t) and they slipped into the hallway, hurrying to the third door, which, at first glance, didn't like anything out of the ordinary.

Shadow, however, knew the schematics and cut the glass off the tiny window meant to mislead anyone trying to break in. He then reached inside the compartment and disabled the safe mechanism.

Once that was finished, the dark hedgehog twisted the handle and pushed the door inwards. It creaked quietly and Shadow ushered (Y/n) inside while he replaced the glass and followed her in, closing the door.

Once inside the first room, Shadow nodded at the security cameras. (Y/n) took out the small gun made specifically for the job, pointed it at the cameras, and temporarily shorted them out. Shadow then ran over to the second door.

It required an optical scan and a pin. They had one of the two, but Detonator's job back at headquarters was to hack into the system and place Shadow's identity in the place of one of the other guards. And when the dark hedgehog tried it with the all clear of the panther, it worked.

(Y/n) could hardly believe things were going this smoothly. Really, the hard part was over, now. The only thing they needed to do was get the Emerald.

Upon opening the door, Shadow and his partner did not enter the room. On top of the security cameras watching every inch, it was a pressure sensitive floor. They may have opened the door, but to get to the Emerald, you had to have a number of other security measures to get past and they simply didn't have enough time before the cameras came back online and tech support came to check out the problem.

So (Y/n) sent a small scream that cracked the glass and Shadow pulled out the grappling hook once more. By now, they had about two minutes to get the Emerald and get out or Detonator would call abort and the mission would be a failure.

Shadow carefully pointed the hook at the Emerald, then fired it. It wrapped around the Emerald loosely and Shadow pulled, the hook barely skimming the floor before zipping back into the launcher.

"Let's go," he hissed and they darted out of the safe, closing both doors to buy themselves some time.

(Y/n) grabbed the Emerald once they reached the office they'd come in so that Shadow could hook the line over the edge of the building and haul them both up. He then put the glass back on, sealing it in place and jumping back into their transportation, who quickly took off.

"Yes!" (Y/n) said, throwing her hands up. "We got it!"

"If any of the security cameras came back on, they'll know who took it and they will come looking for it," Shadow said darkly. "I'm positive it can't be this easy."

"Nope. Six more to track down and fulfill all your doubts." Shadow glanced at her, glaring. "You can't just accept one victory? Besides. We have our own security measures back at headquarters, and these missions are going to be run one after the other. Basically, as soon as we find the Emerald, we go get it."

"We've already failed twice at securing the Emeralds," Shadow growled.

"I'll bust any eardrums that dare come close." She nudged him. "Relax. We got out, and that's what matters. Now let's get back and give Detonator the good news."