Team Dark

The three main members of Team Dark.

* Rouge the Bat (founder, spy infiltrator, intelligence, air support, demolition expert and general jill-of-all trades)
* E-123 Omega (heavy weapons)
* Andrea Tower (technical support, investigator, tracker and pilot)
* Hope Kintobor (technical support)
* Dr. Eggman (temporary)
* E-10000B (temporary)
* Metal Sonic (temporary)

### Resident location and/or bases

* Mount Freedom
	+ G.U.N. Headquarters

## Associations and equipment

### Equipment and/or weaponry

* Dark Rider
* Extreme Gears
* E-123 Omega and his arsenal
* Rouge and Andrea's equipment

### Allies

 * United Federation
	+ G.U.N.
		- Spider Troupe
* Kingdom of Acorn
* Freedom Fighters
	+ Freedom Fighters
		- Team Rose
	+ Chaotix
	+ Restoration
* Team Sonic
* Team Vector
* Relic the Pika
* Fixit the Robot
* Avatar
* Dodon Pa

### Enemies

 * Eggman Empire
	+ Dr. Eggman
	+ Badnik Horde
		- Metal Series
			* Mecha Sally
			* Metal Sonic
	+ Egg Army
		- Eurish Egg Army
			* Egg Paladins
* Black Arms
	+ Black Doom
	+ Black Death
	+ Death's Eye
	+ Eclipse the Darkling
	+ Dark Arms
* Mephiles the Dark
* Hooligans
* Babylon Rogues
* Feist
* Walter Naugus
* Infinite
* Zavok
* Chaotix (formerly)
* Team Sonic (formerly)
* Team Rose (formerly)

 I find Shadow inspirational, and you two are the only meat-bags I tolerate...trust.
 — E-123 Omega, *Sonic Universe* #61

**Team Dark** is a recurring group in the *Sonic the Hedgehog* series and *Sonic the Hedgehog* comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics. It is a tactical black operations team under the direct command of the chief commander of G.U.N, Abraham Tower. The team consists of G.U.N.'s most powerful, capable and resourceful agents; namely Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, E-123 Omega and in occations Andrea Tower, all of who 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 content with some of the world's greatest threats and champions.

## History

### *Sonic Heroes*

Team Dark first formed under rather unusual circumstances: Rouge infiltrated one of Dr. Eggman's bases in search of treasure, only to discover an unconscious Shadow. As the hedgehog had previously been thought deceased, Rouge was astonished, and proceeded to awaken him. However, the chamber in which he had been kept in stasis was also where Eggman had stored E-123 Omega after abandoning the E-100 Series. Omega and Shadow briefly clashed until Rouge got them to stop, and the three quickly formed a team in hopes of punishing Eggman, obtaining his treasure, and unlocking the truth about Shadow. While fighting their way through a gauntlet set up by Neo Metal Sonic, disguised as Eggman, and joining Team Sonic, Team Chaotix, and Team Rose in battling Metal Overlord, the group discovered further mysteries about Shadow's return.

Team Dark's Team Blast is Chaos Inferno. Shadow uses Chaos Control, Omega uses a Beam Cannon and Rouge flies with one hand on Omega's head.

### *Shadow the Hedgehog*

The Ultimate Lifeform questions about who and what he really was would come to a head during the invasion of Black Doom and the Black Arms. During these events, the members of Team Dark worked alongside G.U.N. in thwarting the invasion, though Shadow did have some dealings with the invaders.

### *Sonic Free Riders*

Only two of Team Dark's main members, Shadow and Rouge, participating in Dr. Eggman's second World Grand Prix, apparently just to get the cash prize and treasure. After discovering that a third member is a requirement in order to participate, Rouge conveniently finds a robot called E-10000B, who acts as the power member of the group. On several occasions, E-10000B pleads to Shadow and Rouge for some rest, but the two decline the offer. Eventually, just when Team Dark is able to win against Team Rose, E-10000B is finally busted and is escorted away for repairs while Shadow and Rouge take on Team Rose themselves.

At the end of the story, it is revealed that E-10000B is, in fact, Metal Sonic in disguise, who joined the team in order to copy other character's abilities to make himself strong enough to challenge Sonic in a race.

### *Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)*

Team Dark features primarily in Shadow's story. In it, Rouge and Shadow are in pursuit of the Scepter of Darkness and later Mephiles the Dark. Omega does not appear in Shadow's Story until Crisis City, where he is found offline. Rouge, after returning to the present and venturing through Tropical Jungle, finds Omega and commands him to deliver a Chaos Emerald to Shadow in the distant future. In Flame Core, after Shadow fights Iblis, he faces off against Mephiles the Dark. When it seems that Mephiles has the upper hand, Omega then comes to Shadow's aid. As Mephiles escapes to the present, Shadow and Omega follow him. Before the battle, Mephiles had shown Shadow that in the future, he will be blamed for the destruction of the world, and Omega then learned that he would be the one to capture him. Shadow later appears at Radical Train and saves Sonic from being killed by Silver. Shadow proceeds to fight Silver as Sonic goes off to chase Dr. Eggman. After Shadow defeats Silver, the two hedgehogs initiate Chaos Control and Shadow shows Silver who the true Iblis Trigger is. In the Aquatic Base, Shadow chases off Mephiles while Silver chases Iblis after the Solaris Project failed. Shadow then used the Scepter of Darkness, given to him by the Duke of Soleanna, to seal Mephiles. Later in Wave Ocean, Omega confesses about him being the one imprisoning Shadow in the future. In the end of Shadow's Story, Team Dark meets up and defeat Mephiles, but he later forms thousands of copies. Shadow removes his inhibitor rings, and proceeds to destroy the copies with Rouge and Omega by his side.

### Treasure Team Tango

Sometime later, Team Dark went after a strange energy signature, investigating and searching an area of the Great Forest. Rouge tagged along with Team Rose and was able to locate and capture the object, a Sol Emerald. After being cornered by a furious interloper she called in the big guns in the form of Shadow and Omega.

Facing each other, Team Dark and Team Rose stood their respective grounds. Feeling quite on top of things regarding their opponents Rouge advised they surrender. Ignoring her, Blaze addressed Shadow regarding a previous encounter, catching both Rouge and Omega off-guard. After assuring his allegiance Rouge ordered Omega to "*Do your thing!*" which he happily obliged by unleashing a barrage of missiles and gunfire, only to be trumped by Blaze and surrounded by fire. A fight broke out between both teams and when the blue Sol Emerald was lost, Rouge snatched Blaze's grey emerald and told Shadow to warp them away by using his Chaos Control. The emerald instead erupted in flames and overwhelmed them, allowing Team Rose to make their escape. Once they recovered and caught up to Team Rose, they managed to take them out quickly, not realizing they no longer had the blue emerald and inadvertently allowing Team Hooligan to make their escape. When Cream explained that Nack, Bean and Bark had the gem, they decided to go after them, but Blaze had recovered and staunchly pointed out her world needed the Sol Emeralds and would not let them stop her.

After agreeing to an uneasy truce, both groups then set off together after Nack's team with Blaze's ability to sense the Sol Emerald guiding them while using Shadow's G.U.N.-issued bike as transport. They eventually were able to catch up Team Hooligan, only to find that the Babylon Rogues had joined the fight as well, making it a four-sided confrontation. Amy proposed they still could work together with Team Dark and win, but Rouge informed her teammates that they would take advantage of the situation and steal the emerald while the girls fought the other teams, which did not sit well on Shadow's conscience. They then charged forward into the melee as did the other three teams, with Rouge leading the way and telling her teammates they weren't leaving without the emerald.

At first the battle was nothing but a hectic riot, and the emerald kept jumping back and forth between everyone. However at Amy's insistence, Team Dark decided to cooperate again, and they went about herding the Rogues, while the girls managed to corral Team Hooligan together with them. Blaze then set off one of Bean's bombs and the resultant explosion was able to take both teams out of the fight in one move. At the battle's end, Rouge made advances for the Sol Emerald again, but an intervention from both Shadow and Omega got her to stop on her own, much to Team Rose's relief. After a cordial departure with the Freedom Fighters, the G.U.N. agents headed back to base with Shadow stating Rouge would make up some cover story for the commander, being the cunning spy that she was.

### Scrambled

Later on Dr. Eggman attacked Central City, and the president requested both Rouge and Shadow for his protection. Commander Tower tried to reason with the president to use just take one of them, but the president was insistent on the matter and the team received split assignments. Both agents Shadow and Rouge were given bodyguard duty, while Omega went solo and led the G.U.N. forces in defending the city, narrowly surviving a difficult battle with the Legionized Egg Paladins.

### Worlds Collide

Some time later, Team Dark were affected as Sonic's World was enveloped by a Genesis Wave. Shortly thereafter, they lost one of their number as Shadow was captured by Eggman and his new partner, Dr. Wily, who turned Shadow into Shadow Man, one of their Roboticized Masters. Determined to save their comrade, Rouge and Omega followed Shadow's captors to the Skull Egg Zone, where they split up as Rouge left to investigate and Omega remained behind to guard the portal they had used to enter the strange dimension. Rouge eventually infiltrated the Wily Egg, the doctors' flying fortress, and managed to sabotage it with some advice from Dr. Light, though she was eventually captured. Meanwhile, Shadow was rescued by Sonic the Hedgehog and Mega Man, who returned him to normal.

After parting ways with them he ran into Omega, and the pair soon joined a force of Sonic and Mega Man's other friends and allies at the Wily Egg's location. They thus joined in a battle against the Robot Master Army led by their roboticized comrade Rouge Woman. However, their teammate was quickly restored to normal and rejoined their side, and the trio continued to battle against the evil army of robots. Despite their abilities, the heroes were eventually surrounded, but help arrived in the form of the Light Robot Masters. Thus bolstered, the heroes continued to fight until the Super Genesis Wave washed over them. Super Sonic subsequently attempted to reverse the effects of both waves, only for Eggman to interfere with drastic results.

### Shattered World Crisis

#### Act One

After the Shattered World Crisis began, Team Dark was assigned a mission alongside Spider Troupe involving the arrival of the New Black Comet in the orbit of Sonic's World. The two teams were dispatched to plant a nuclear explosive in the comet and destroy it. However, they suffered difficulties as the new hive-mind Black Death and Eclipse the Darkling managed to brainwash Shadow into attacking his comrades. Fortunately, the other members of Team Dark were able to bring Shadow to his senses after a brief battle, before moving to save Spider Troupe from Eclipse. Shadow then dispatched Black Death and the two units accomplished their mission, but Eclipse escaped with eggs containing the dangerous Dark Arms.

Tracking Eclipse's ship to Angel Island, Team Dark-joined by Dr. Julian Snively via a G.U.N. robot with a video screen attached-approached Knuckles the Echidna for help in dealing with the threat. Rouge and Omega joined Knuckles in finding Eclipse's vessel, while Shadow himself was attacked on Shrine Island as Eclipse attempted to seize the Master Emerald. Shadow managed to drive him off, and quickly determined that the Master Emerald should be moved to a G.U.N. facility, which led him and Knuckles to battle. Taking advantage of their absence, Eclipse and his Dark Arms attacked the other members of Team Dark, and managed to seize the Master Emerald. However, Knuckles and Shadow managed to intercept them before they left the island, and Knuckles shattered the Master Emerald to keep it from both Team Dark and their enemies. Team Dark subsequently left Angel Island after G.U.N. reinforcements arrived to salvage Eclipse's vessel.

#### Worlds Unite

The members of Team Dark were caught up in the merging of Sonic's World and Mega Man's World caused by Sigma's Unity Engines. While aboard the G.U.N. airship *Letter of Gabriel* with Commander and Captain Tower, they found their craft being fused together with a government building from the other world, a fusion that resulted in both structures being destroyed and the apparent demise of everyone inside. Fortunately, the actions of Xander Payne later erased this event and the subsequent conflict with Sigma from history. As such, Team Dark was returned to their proper place in reality unharmed and very much alive.

### *Sonic Forces*

Team Dark was on a reconnaissance mission regarding Dr. Eggman's new base of operations. Omega had stormed the base, recklessly destroying Eggman's minions and ignoring Rouge's request to wait for back-up from Shadow. Soon, 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.

Team Dark would not be fully reunited until the end of the story, however, Rouge and Shadow would work with the Resistance throughout their adventure to stop Doctor Eggman's plan to end the world in three days, and Omega, who sustained heavy damage from his encounter with Infinite, makes his reappearance for the final fight against Eggman's forces. Rouge later jokes about this sudden reappearance, but is glad that Team Dark has been reunited.

## Unofficial Appearances

Whilst Team Dark did not appear until *Sonic Heroes* there have been times where the three characters (or some similar combination) have worked together.

### *Sonic Adventure 2*

Shadow, Rouge, and Dr. Eggman form an alliance after meeting upon the Space Colony ARK. Together, the three work to gather the Chaos Emeralds, destroy Prison Island, activate the Eclipse Cannon and ultimately conquer the world.

### *Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood*

In *Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood* all three members of Team Dark appear throughout the story as recruitable members of Sonic's party. Shadow, compared to other members, can be fought once depending on the player's choices and once more as a requirement before he joins the party. E-123 Omega is one of the two optional party members in the story and only be recruited in Metropolis before Angel Island crashes into it. If all three members of Team Dark are in the player's party, they can perform a special POW move called Metal Storm.

All three members have individual POW moves that pierce armor, Shadow having Chaos Spear, Rouge having Jewel Storm, and Omega having Beam Cannon. This is the only team where all members have all three different attack frequencies (in order from highest to lowest): Shadow attacks three times, Rouge attacks twice and Omega attacks only once.

## Methods

Due to being a merciless surgical strike team, Team Dark is willing-and often ordered-to use any method they see necessary to complete their missions, no matter how violent. In terms of a United Federation team, they are unusual in many ways, particularly the fact that their field membership is composed of traditional enemies of the Federation: namely, a pair of Mobians and one of Dr. Eggman's robots. However, they are also a team that G.U.N. trusts to accomplish tasks that are beyond its usual members, to the point that Team Dark is trusted with missions that would usually be assigned to groups of twenty or more.

## Trivia

* The team is supposedly named after the Dark story mode in *Sonic Adventure 2*, which was the first playable appearances of both Shadow and Rouge.
* This is the only team in the game with a member that debuts in *Sonic Heroes* as well as the only team with an inorganic member.
* This is the only team from *Sonic Heroes* whose power character is not the oldest. Knuckles is 16, Big is 18 and Vector is 20, all the eldest in their teams. However, Shadow is over 50 years old (chronologically) making him older than Omega, who not only would have been created sometime much later by Dr. Eggman, but is the last in the line of E-100 series robots. Even withholding Shadow's case, Omega still ranks in as the group's youngest as Rouge is 17.
* Team Dark is the only team that is not named in-game by one of its members.
* This is the only *Sonic Heroes* team in which the Power Type is not specifically "male", as robots do not technically have genders unless said otherwise.

## References

1. ↑ *Sonic Universe* #21, "Treasure Team Tango Part One: "The Salida""
2. ↑ *Sonic Universe* #22, "Treasure Team Tango Step Two: The Cruzada"
3. ↑ *Sonic Universe* #23, "Treasure Team Tango Step Three: The Llevada"
4. ↑ *Sonic Universe* #24, "Treasure Team Tango Step Four: The Parada"
5. ↑ *Sonic Universe* #38, "Scrambled Part 2: Family"
6. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog* #247, "At All Costs Part One: Fate Interrupted"
7. ↑ *Mega Man* #24, "When Worlds Collide Part One: Kindred Sprits"
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 *Mega Man* #26, "When Worlds Collide Part Seven: Evening The Odds"
9. ↑ *Sonic Universe* #53, "When Worlds Collide Part Eight: Liberation"
10. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog* #250, "When Worlds Collide Part Nine: All-Out War!"
11. ↑ *Mega Man* #27, "When Worlds Collide Part Ten: No Holds Barred"
12. ↑ *Sonic Universe* #54, "When Worlds Collide Part Eleven: Worst of the Worst"
13. ↑ *Sonic the Hedgehog* #251, "When Worlds Collide Finale: Best of the Best"
14. ↑ *Sonic Universe* #59, "Shadow Fall Part One: Into the Unknown"
15. ↑ *Sonic Universe* #60, "Shadow Fall Part Two: A Shadow in the Dark"
16. ↑ *Sonic Universe* #61, "Shadow Fall Part Three: A Matter of Trust"
17. ↑ *Sonic Universe* #62, "Shadow Fall Part Four: A Matter of Survival"
18. ↑ *Sonic Universe* #67, "Total Eclipse Part One: Uninvited Guests"
19. ↑ *Sonic Universe* #68, "Total Eclipse Part Two: Tipping Point"
20. ↑ *Sonic Universe* #69, "Total Eclipse Part Three: Shadow Boxing"
21. ↑ *Sonic Universe* #70, "Total Eclipse Final: Last Resort"
22. ↑ *Mega Man* #50, "Worlds Unite Part Four: Death and Destruction"
23. ↑ *Mega Man* #52, "Worlds Unite Part Twelve: Last Rights"
24. ↑ *Sonic Forces: Looming Shadow*, "Looming Shadow"
25. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `CSE`
26. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `SU4`