Sonic Heroes 3

The sequel is here! Please review! I got this idea from… I can't say where. Just so you know, I won't do a Sonic Adventure 3, because they're so plot-driven and I wouldn't like my fic to be a let-down. OK… let's begin!

Eggman's base was falling apart. The airplane's collision with the wall had brought down a large amount of the support. Walls were crumbling right and left, and robots beeped in panic. The entrances and exits were caved in. Nothing in Eggman's base would survive.

Except for Raven.

Raven was like no other clone of the hedgehog Shadow. While the others referred to each other by their identification numbers, he insisted on being referred to as Raven. He could run the fastest, jump the highest, and hit the hardest. But he was not obedient, and as a result was dangerous. Eggman had decided to terminate him, and the termination had been scheduled for later that same day. But now Eggman was dead, and the factory was crumbling. Raven opened one eye grimly, smiling as he remembered the philosophy regarding the survival of the fittest.

None of the other clones moved. They all hovered in their hibernation tubes, sleeping. Raven activated his rocket shoes and flipped himself over. His shoes burnt the glass walls of his tube, melting the glass and granting him an escape route. He jumped clear of a puddle of melted glass and ran down the corridor.

Two Brawler Bots saw the running clone. Both robots immediately assumed that it was Shadow, still looking for a way to escape. Both faced him and began a barrage of energy cannon fire.

Raven crouched, energy missiles passing over him, and pushed off into the air. He flipped over, his feet pointing at one Brawler Bot, and kicked it over. It soared away, but Raven wasn't done. Running as fast as he could, he caught up to the flying robot and swung it into its companion, defeating both.

The ceiling began to close in on itself. The glass tubes shattered, but the other clones did not awake. Once again Raven thought of survival of the fittest as he began a mad sprint.

He performed the Homing Attack off of a tube just as it shattered, and in doing so avoided a falling slab of rubble. As more rubble slowly fell in front of him, Raven didn't try to run under it. Instead, he ran up the gradually falling slabs of rubble like a flight of stairs. From the topmost slab he jumped through the hole in the ceiling, landing on ground level.

Robots beeped at him and fired. Raven spun and twirled as he made progress toward a locked door. The clone hefted a fallen bar of metal and hurled it at the lock. The lock snapped. Raven charged directly at a robot and grabbed it by the arm. He swung it around, both of them in midair, and released. The robot sailed into the door, knocking it off its hinges.

A cloud of flame billowed from one of Eggman's machines. More of the inventions exploded, consumed by fire. Flaming shells careened through the air, shattering on walls and providing graves for robots. Raven ducked as a helicopter propeller tumbled over his head and blocked the doorway. With a flying kick, Raven broke it and landed on the other side of the doorway. He ran as far as he could, as fast as he could, while his world exploded behind him.

Amy Rose sat with her feet up on her coffee table. She absently scratched the back of her Chao as she flipped through the newspaper. Cream, who shared the apartment with her, looked interestedly over her shoulder as Cream and Chocola played with Amy's Chao.

Suddenly, both Amy and Cream gasped. There, printed in bold, black letters, was the headline:

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG DEAD

For years, Sonic the Hedgehog has been saving us from the world-threatening schemes of Dr. Ivo Robotnik, alias Eggman. Now, both will rise no more.

Searching for revenge for the murder of Knuckles the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat (printed in Monday's paper), Sonic the Hedgehog was accompanied by Omega the robot, Shadow the Hedgehog, and Tails the Kitsune as he sought justice. Eggman, who was concocting a scheme involving the Master Emerald, was caught off guard at his base and a large fight ensued. The base was destroyed, although researchers are still looking into the condition of the underground levels, including illegal cloning facilities. But Sonic the Hedgehog, as well as Tails his friend, are now dead. Both apparently saved the lives of Shadow and Omega by sacrificing their own.

In further news, the train strike in Moscow continued…

Amy dropped the newspaper with nerveless fingers. Cream's ears drooped and she buried her face in a pillow, sobbing. Amy, tears welling up in her own eyes, hugged her friend. The Chao stopped playing and sat glumly, whimpering in their squeaky voices.

"Why… how could Eggman do such a thing?" sniffled Amy.

"They sacrificed themselves for Shadow and Omega," wept Cream, the words barely audible. "It was the only way they could have died."

"No," said Amy. The tears dried as she stood up. "Eggman never was able to defeat Sonic, not with robots, the Chaos Emeralds, or anything! There has to be something more to it! There's only one person even equal to Sonic in combat… Shadow."

"Shadow?" squeaked Cream, poking her glistening face out of the pillow. "You're not suggesting that-"

"Cream, think about it! Shadow was made by Eggman. He must have killed Sonic! I knew that hedgehog would never really be good, that…"

"But that doesn't explains Tails' death!" cried Cream. "Shadow wouldn't kill Tails!"

"If Tails tried to help Sonic he would," said Amy grimly. "I'm going to find Shadow and kill him."

Cream looked resolute. "I'm not going to kill a living being on a hunch. You do that if you must, Amy, but I wouldn't."

"Of course you wouldn't," snarled Amy angrily. Cream retreated in fear. "You're just a wimpy rabbit girl. You only survived on our adventure because Big and I were there to save you. Poor little bunny baby," cooed Amy. Cream sobbed harder. "I'll avenge Sonic, and Tails too. Although you don't deserve it, you rabbit whore," she sneered. Cream, all her courage lost, sobbed pitifully. Amy felt no pity. "Farewell… slut!" She walked out of the apartment.

"Why is she like this?" whimpered Cream to Cheese and Chocola. "Why'd she leave me now that I have nobody else? Rouge is dead, and so is T-T-Tails…" She sniffled. "How could Eggman do this to us? He killed Knuckles, he killed Rouge, he killed Sonic and Tails, and now what he's done is going to kill… Amy."

Amy got into her sports car and backed out of the driveway. What had caused her to talk to Cream like that? All Cream had done was doubt her theory, which was admittedly shaky. But Amy had to cling to it. It was the only theory she had. But killing Shadow… that would make her no better than Eggman, or the black hedgehog himself. She had to speak to him, to see what he would say.

She pulled into a hunting supply shop and walked in. The only female there, she felt many male eyes on her. She lowered her sunglasses and glared around the room to ensure that nothing would happen.

She approached a salesman, who was standing behind a glass counter of rifles.

"How much would all of these cost?" she asked, giving him her sweetest smile.

The clerk laughed. "All of them? You're not serious. These cost five or six hundred dollars apiece."

Amy gulped. She had a lot to learn. "Fine, I'll take… these ones." She indicated ten or eleven different weapons and various types of ammunition.

The clerk smirked. He couldn't wait to see the expression on this pink hedgehog's face when he told her the cost. He strode to a cash register and entered the amount of money. "That will be… 13,956.77." He looked up at her. To his surprise, she reached for a credit card. He swiped it through the reader and found her balance to be…

"300,000 dollars!" he repeated.

Amy didn't respond. When her mother and father had died, they'd left her a lot. She didn't live richly, instead saving it for when the time came. Nevertheless, her expensive college tuition, car and other costs of life had cost her 200,000 dollars earlier on.

The clerk sighed. The boss was going to be surprised, to say the least. He loaded a shopping bag up with rifles and ammo and handed it to her.

"Ma'am, if it's not too rude to ask, why exactly do you need this many rifles?" he asked.

She looked at him, and he felt a chill run up his spine. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I shouldn't have asked." He retreated into the storage room, shaking slightly.

Amy smiled. She was going to need these to hit someone who could move like Shadow.

Next chapter coming right up! Please review!