Team Dark

**Team Dark** is a group that appears in the *Sonic the Hedgehog* series. It is a team that was founded by Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat and E-123 Omega, all of whom joined forces to track down their common target: Dr. Eggman. Eventually meeting up with Team Sonic, Team Rose and Team Chaotix, the trio assisted in the defeat of the rogue Metal Sonic. Consisting of highly powerful and fearsome individuals in their own right, Team Dark is a force to be reckoned with and has often appeared to contend with some of the world's greatest threats and champions.

## History

### Season 11

in *Sonic Heroes*, Rouge broke into one of Dr. Eggman's bases in search of Eggman's secret treasure. There, she found a stasis capsule and activated it. Unbeknownst to her,E-123 Omega was activated and slowly advanced toward Rouge and the capsule. Meanwhile, Rouge was shocked to find Shadow, who was presumed dead after the events on the Space Colony ARK, inside the pod. As Shadow awakened, Omega began attacking Shadow, believing him to be an Eggman robot. After saving Rouge from the spray of bullets, Shadow engaged Omega. Before things could escalate further though, Rouge stepped in to break up the fighting. Afterward, Rouge was able to piece together the whole story: Omega was mad at his creator for decommissioning and imprisoning him and now wanted to take revenge by destroying all Eggman's machinery, and Shadow had lost all his memories prior to his release from the stasis capsule. Seeing that their common target was Eggman, who had what they each wanted, Rouge had the trio form Team Dark so they could look for Eggman together.

Shortly after starting their search, Team Dark found Eggman and his Egg Hawk. Although they defeated the Egg Hawk, Eggman got away. Pursuing Eggman to Grand Metropolis with renewed resolve, Team Dark crushed the opposition in the city and escaped its Power Plant. Afterward, they met Team Chaotix, who they engage in battle over an assumption Rouge made about them. After the fight, Team Dark arrived in the casino area where they met Eggman again. Shadow asked Eggman about his past, but Eggman remarked that he had "no past to remember". Overcoming Eggman's horde of robots, Team Dark continued their pursuit of Eggman to Eggman's base at Bullet Station. After destroying Eggman's base, Team Dark faced the doctor and his Egg Albatross. Upon beating him however, Team Dark saw that the Eggman they had been chasing was a fake, much to Omega's fury. Furthermore, they found the remains of a Shadow Android, making them question whether Shadow was the genuine article or merely a replica. Continuing their hunt, Team Dark eventually came across Team Sonic and fought them to see which one of them got to go after Eggman. Afterward, Team Dark continued their hunt through a spooky castle and mansion before coming across Eggman again. After overcoming another one of Eggman's robot swarms, Team Dark ventured to Eggman's headquarters among the Egg Fleet where they defeated Eggman and his Egg Emperor. With Eggman seemingly destroyed, Omega considered his mission complete. Soon after, Rouge went looking for Eggman's treasure, only to find a warehouse full of Shadow Androids. As Omega prepared to destroy the warehouse, he reassured Rouge, who did not know if Shadow was real or not, that Eggman needed the original Shadow to make the Shadow Androids.

Not long after, Team Dark, Sonic, Chaotix and Rose united to see Neo Metal Sonic reveal himself. As it turned out, Neo Metal Sonic, who had been impersonating Eggman, had been the mastermind staging the teams' adventures so he could copy their data for a plan to conquer the world himself. As Neo Metal Sonic transformed into Metal Madness, the real Dr. Eggman saw the teams had collected all the Chaos Emeralds and got the idea of using the Emeralds against Metal Sonic. Team Dark then volunteered to stall Metal Madness with the others while Team Sonic prepared the Chaos Emeralds. Despite Team Dark's efforts, Metal Madness transformed into Metal Overlord, but a super transformed Team Sonic then arrived and defeated him. Afterward, Team Dark split up, with Rouge deciding to go after Knuckles' Master Emerald, and Shadow and Omega staying behind with an inert Metal Sonic.

### Season 22

When Omega was introduced, Forge wanted to leave team dark, and Omega official became a member of team dark.

### *Season 17*

In *Sonic Forces*, Team Dark were on a reconnaissance mission regarding Dr. Eggman's new base of operations. Omega, however, soon stormed the base, recklessly destroying Eggman's minions and ignoring Rouge's request to wait for back-up from Shadow. Soon after, Omega came across Infinite, who he deemed an interference in his mission. Rouge had picked up transmissions from Omega concerning his fight but soon lost all contact with him. Due to this, Shadow immediately rushed to the base to try and find Omega at his last recorded coordinates. Shadow was unable to find Omega, however, and only barely escaped his subsequent encounter with Infinite.

For the next seven months, Team Dark remained apart. Rouge in particular joined the Resistance in their war against the Eggman Empire, and an heavily damaged and inoperable Omega was eventually discovered by Tails, who tried to repair him until he got interrupted by a Chaos Phantom Copy. During the last days of the Resistance-Eggman Empire war, Shadow joined the Resistance as well after saving Sonic from a Phantom Copy of himself. Later, during the battle at the Eggman Empire Fortress, Team Dark was reunited when a fully functional Omega joined the Resistance's side in the fight. Team Dark proceeded to fight the Eggman Empire's army of Phantom Copies alongside the Resistance until the source of the Phantom Copies, the Phantom Ruby, was neutralized by Sonic, Classic Sonic and the Avatar. With the war over, Team Dark met up with the other members of the Resistance in Resistance HQ, where Knuckles announced the disbandment of the Resistance.

### *Team Sonic Racing: Comic Special*

In *Team Sonic Racing*, Team Dark joined Dodon Pa's Grand Prix alongside Dr. Eggman and his team. However, the team's true intentions for joining the Grand Prix were to investigate Dr. Eggman's intentions. In that Grand Prix awaited opponents like Team Sonic, Team Rose and Team Vector. For the races, Team Dark received the Dark Reaper, Lip Spyder and Cross Dozer to race in.

During a race between Team Dark and Team Sonic, the two teams worked on getting the upper hand on one another, with Omega and Rouge being busy dealing with Tails and Knuckles, while Shadow took the lead and went head-to-head with Sonic. During the race however, Dr. Eggman intruded on the teams' race in order to compete against them on his own as a "special guest" (which Dodon Pa permitted despite knowing it was a lie). After Eggman began gaining the lead, Rouge suggested that their teams put aside their feud in order to deal with Eggman, which Team Sonic accepted. Following Team Sonic's example, Team Dark executed the Slingshot on Shadow, thus allowing him to pass Eggman alongside Sonic. Rouge and Omega then joined forces with Tails, Knuckles, Team Vector and Team Rose. Together, they surrounded Eggman on the racetrack before delivering a massive beatdown on the doctor with their combined Wisp power-ups. However, Dodon Pa was too busy watching Eggman's beating to see which one between Sonic and Shadow crossed the finish line first. As such, the two hedgehogs decided to have a rematch.

Eventually, Shadow met Sonic, who wanted to know if he was working with Dr. Eggman. Shadow replied grimly that he was only in the Grand Prix to stop Eggman's plans. However, as the two hedgehogs' egos clashed, Shadow and Sonic would challenge each other to a race. Afterward, they agreed to watch out for both Dodon Pa, whose motivations for hosting the Grand Prix was a mystery, and Eggman. In the meantime, Rouge had learned that Dodon Pa and Eggman were seemingly working together. As such, she told Sonic and Shadow after their race of what she had learned and that Dodon Pa was not to be trusted, though the rivals were more concerned with beating each other. Upon hearing this, Omega suggested eliminating both Eggman and Dodon Pa. A couple of races later, Eggman sent hundreds of Eggpawns after the racers. However, Team Dark quickly defeated the robots with the aid of the other teams. Afterward, Omega looked forward to eliminating more Eggpawns, as Eggman would confirm that those were just the beginning. When Omochao later discovered that Dodon Pa was sending information on the teams' teamwork to an unknown receiver, Rouge speculated that the receiver was Eggman. She subsequently calmed an angry Knuckles down when he thought about bailing on the Grand Prix.

Later, it was revealed that Dodon Pa was not malevolent and actually the President of Donpa Motors. Rouge would then ask Dodon Pa of why he was holding the Grand Prix and why he invited everyone so secretly. Dodon Pa explained that he was using the Grand Prix to gather information for his corporation's top secret Ultimate Energy Engine, which Dodon Pa wanted to use for philanthropic purposes. Still, Rouge wondered why he wanted them to race for him, and not his employees. Dodon Pa explained in return that he wanted the best racers to produce the data he needed (hence Rouge and her friends). Along the way, Rouge also got Dodon Pa to tell about his hidden treasures, which she planned to steal in the future. Still, there was the matter of finishing the Ultimate Energy Engine, which Rouge knew meant racing some more. Their conflict with Dodon Pa now resolved, Shadow came to Sonic to remind him that they still had Eggman to worry about.

Soon after, the heroes learned from Big that Eggman had kidnapped Dodon Pa and brought him to the Final Fortress. Wanting to rescue Dodon Pa, Team Dark and co. went to the Final Fortress. There, Eggman had them compete in a number of races with Team Eggman and his army of Eggpawns in exchange for Dodon Pa, not knowing Eggman was using them to gather the Ultimate Team Energy needed to finish the Ultimate Energy Engine. Once the engine was complete, Eggman stole it from Dodon Pa and incorporated it into his Death Egg. Team Dark and their allies subsequently faced the Death Egg and beat it in a race. However, the Death Egg soon after went crazy and drove into the Final Fortress's core. As the Final Fortress crashed, Team Dark were forced to abandon their cars and evacuate the airship while Team Sonic saved Dodon Pa. Down on the ground, Team Dark were reunited with Team Sonic when they arrived with Dodon Pa. Just as the Grand Prix seemed over since the cars had been destroyed when the Final Fortress crashed, Dodon Pa decided to give everyone new cars, thus allowing Team Dark and their comrades to race once more.

### *Sonic Free Riders: Comic Special*

In *Sonic Free Riders*, Shadow and Rouge appeared to take part in the second World Grand Prix hosted by a disguised Dr. Eggman as Team Dark. However, both members cared little for the competition: Rouge was only interested in the Grand Prix's large cash prize and Shadow's only interest was testing his racing skills.

Disregarding formalities, Shadow and Rouge arrived fifteen minutes late to the opening ceremony. As Team Dark got ready to compete however, Omochao told them that they needed a third member for their team to be eligible for participation. Despite feeling that another member was unnecessary, Team Dark picked a random E-10000B from the street. Having a full team now, Team Dark got ready to face Team Babylon in the first round. Although their opponents mocked them, Team Dark held their own against them, prompting a lot of trash talk. After beating Team Babylon, Team Dark advanced to the next round, where Team Heroes awaited. During the races though, E-10000B began to overheat. Dismissing E-10000B's need for a rest, Rouge and Shadow kept competing, much to Team Heroes' disgust. Regardless, Team Dark beat Team Heroes. Just as Team Dark thought they could claim the prize, Omochao reminded them that they still had to face Team Rose in the finals. Between the races however, E-10000B started to overheat even more. Ignoring him, Rouge and Shadow pressed on. After the decisive race however, E-10000B broke down, which, according to the rules, cost Team Dark their victory. Fortunately, Team Dark were permitted a rematch with Team Rose as they were. As such, while 10000B was taken away to be repaired, Rouge and Shadow beat Team Rose. However, they were forced to wait for the awards ceremony before collecting their prize.

During the extra rounds, Team Dark had their own fair share of defeats too. At the end of the tournament, Team Dark and the other teams came to the awards ceremony to collect their prizes, but Eggman made them have a final race against his "ultimate Gear-Jockey robot." After the race, Eggman revealed he had used the Grand Prix to collect everyone's racing data with his E-10000 robots to create the ultimate Extreme Gear for him to use. Eggman subsequently challenged Team Dark and the others to a race. After the teams beat Eggman, Metal Sonic revealed himself as the one controlling E-10000B, and it was discovered that Metal Sonic had given Eggman fake data so he could use the real data to beat Sonic in Extreme Gear riding. After Sonic defeated Metal Sonic in a race though, it was revealed that Eggman never had a prize to give out. However, Rouge and Shadow were hardly surprised by this turn of events.

## Equipment

* Black Shot: Shadow's personal Extreme Gear from *Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity* onwards, designed by Accevive Corp. and later redesigned by Accelovice.
* Cross Dozer: E-123 Omega's personal race car from Donpa Motors.
* Darkness: Shadow's default Extreme Gear in *Sonic Riders*.
* Dark Reaper: Shadow's personal race car from Donpa Motors.
* E-Gear: E-10000B's personal Extreme Gear, designed by Dr. Eggman.
* Lip Spyder: Rouge the Bat's personal race car from Donpa Motors.
* Temptation: Rouge's personal Extreme Gear, originally designed by Robotnik Corp., later redesigned by Accevive Corp. and Accelovice.

## Trivia

* According to Ben David Team Dark no longer directly works under G.U.N but is still in association with them.
* Originally due to Forge being a part of team dark until Season 11, Tea Dark was meant to be dispended in Season 19 but kept the group together.
	+ An unused taunt from Neo Metal Sonic (disguised as Dr. Eggman) in *Sonic Heroes* has him claiming, "Without me, Team Dark is nothing but a bunch of buffoons!" This may imply that the team in *Sonic Adventure 2* is considered to be the original iteration of Team Dark.