Team Dark


 * For other uses of the term, see Team Dark (disambiguation).

Team Dark (チームダーク) is a recurring group in the Sonic the Hedgehog series who first appeared in Sonic Heroes. The team was founded by Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat and E-123 Omega, 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.

Sonic Heroes
Team Dark made its official debut in Sonic Heroes. The treasure hunter and thief Rouge hears of a secret treasure in one of Dr. Eggman's bases. Upon entering, she is shocked to find Shadow suspended in a stasis pod. After freeing him, she unknowingly activates E-123 Omega, the last and greatest of the E-100 line of robots. Unfortunately, it isn't until he opens fire that he makes his presence known. Shadow leaps in to action, protecting Rouge from the spray of bullets and telling her "stay here". Before Shadow and Omega are able to make matters any worse, Rouge leaps into the crossfire and is able to stop the chaos. After sitting them both down for an exchange of information, she pieces together the whole story: Omega is mad at the Doctor for sealing him and Shadow has lost his memories. Rouge decides that they team up, seeing that their problems point to Eggman, and officially founding Team Dark. Aside from their run-ins with Eggman, Team Dark also fought against Team Chaotix (due to disgust at being mistaken for Eggman's henchmen, as well as their potentially being rivals for Rouge's hunt for Eggman's treasure) and Team Sonic (simply due to their being in the way of locating Eggman).

This team's gameplay level is of hard difficulty, requiring patience and skill to endure battles. Their extra missions involve them destroying 100 enemies. During boss fights, Team Dark faces the hardest enemies with the least amount of available power-ups. 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. This moves deals damage and stops time for 5 to 10 seconds.

Sonic Free Riders
Only two of Team Dark's main members, Shadow and Rouge, appeared in Sonic Free Riders, 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 Forces
In 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.

Team Sonic Racing
Team Dark is scheduled to appear in the upcoming Team Sonic Racing. They were invited by Dodon Pa to participate in his team racing Grand Prix tournament which he advertises to be "unlike any other." Shadow, Rouge and Omega decide to join his competition to keep an eye on him, suspicious of his true motives.

Archie Comics
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series and its spin-offs published by Archie Comics, Team Dark is a small, surgical strike force in the greater G.U.N. military. In the original continuity. It was formed to retrieve a Chaos Emerald from Feist in the Special Zone. The team was highly unorthodox in that it was comprised of traditional enemies of the humans and Overlanders - namely two Mobians and an advanced badnik. Team Dark handled missions that were beyond the scope of traditional G.U.N. soldiers or weapons. Its three members could do the work of twenty heavily-supported skilled soldiers or more. The name of the team was two-fold, in part referring to the shady pasts and dealings of each member, and in part referring to the nature of many of their missions. Most of their actions were to go to unknown to the world at large, and were often under this directive: "Da whatever it takes."

After the events of Sonic & Mega Man: Worlds Collide, Team Dark's past became virtually identical to its game counterpart, although the team itself remained a close affiliate of G.U.N.

IDW Publishing
In the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series published by IDW Publishing, Team Dark made their debut in Sonic the Hedgehog #5. In this media, the team's past is virtually identical to their game counterpart's.

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
In 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 the Hedgehog (2006)
In 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.

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.

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 18.
 * Team Dark is the only team that is not named in-game by one of its members.
 * This is the only Sonic Heroes team whose leader is a Fly Type.
 * 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.
 * The members of the team are usually seen working together when all three of them (or a similar combination) appear in the same game.
 * Since their debut, neither Rouge nor Omega have been featured in a game where Shadow does not appear.