Team Dark (Pre-Super Genesis Wave)

""Team Dark"? I guess we're really sticking with that one?"

- Rouge, Sonic Universe #4.

Team Dark is a group that appears in the 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 Hope Kintobor who provides mechanical support on the sidelines. The team was formed under the order of Tower in order to see to the success of Shadow and Rouge's earlier mission of obtaining a Chaos Emerald from Feist in the Special Zone, which they accomplished.

Shadow Saga
The team was formed shortly after Shadow and Rouge the Bat were assigned on a mission to the Special Zone to collect a Chaos Emerald where they met the Zone's master, Feist, who said they could have an emerald if they completed his challenge, taking away Shadow's Chaos Control abilities to make it more difficult. Despite their best efforts, the duo failed and were teleported back to G.U.N. HQ, with Shadow blaming himself for their failure. After a violent training session with E-123 Omega and a talk with Hope Kintobor, Shadow, Rouge, and Omega returned to the Special Zone now under the name of "Team Dark", the reason for which would become evident after time according to Commander Tower. In truth, their name was given based on the shadowy history of its individual members and the unit's secretive, black operations tactics.

Upon arriving in the Zone, Team Dark was then given a new challenge by Feist; obtain the emerald in the center of a maze in order to win it. Though they arrived at the center, Feist conjured up more emeralds and the team failed to find the real one in time. They then resorted to "Plan B" and had Omega blast Feist in the face while Rouge and Shadow swiped the emerald. Feist became enraged by this, however Shadow used the emerald to teleport all three of them back to G.U.N. HQ with Chaos Control and deliver the emerald to Commander Tower, who was delighted at the team having recovered a second emerald for G.U.N..

Treasure Team Tango
At a later point 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

 * Note: Due to the Genesis Wave, Team Dark's history from this point were changed to be nearly identical to that of its game counterpart's.

Some time later, Team Dark were affected as Mobius 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.
 * Note: From this point, Team Dark's history continues from its new history in the altered timeline.

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

 * Team Dark was originally a team from Sonic Heroes, the game that introduced E-123 Omega, and brought Shadow the Hedgehog back into the series from his supposed death.
 * Rouge was never said to be the leader of Team Dark in the comics, but Ian Flynn confirmed that Rouge is the field leader of the team while they work under the command of Abraham Tower, GUN's chief commander.
 * Team Dark is one of the more popular groups amongst Sonic fans, and their popularity is likewise evident in the comics.