The accident

Sonic felt horrible as he leaned on his elbows in an attempt to get up, his body was burnt and every single muscle in his body ached. The ground was covered in dust and the black smoke still filled the red sky, the people of Soleanna were still screaming as he finally got onto his shaky feet.

He groaned in pain at his chest where a neatly cut gash was spread right across; his ears folded back as he hissed in pain. His head felt like it had had a mountain dropped on it as he swayed unsteadily from side to side, when he finally found a wall to lean against he took a chance to look around.

The whole city was practically in ruins and in the distance he could see the vile beast stalking the civilians, a growl emerged from his throat as he saw the beast grab innocent people and throw them into the surrounding waters.

He started limping forward in an attempt to even get closer to the beast, but he was so beaten up he didn't even make a couple of steps before collapsing again.

A foot and pressure could suddenly be felt on his back and he was just about to flip over and attack when he heard a familiar voice that made him relax.

"What the hell are you doing, Faker."

"Huh ah...well, ya know me shadow...never a dull moment, ah!...not even when I'm beaten to a pulp." Sonic attempted to grin at him but it came out more like a pained grimace.

The pressure on his back lessened slightly and sonic curiously turned his head so he could see shadow, the look on the other hedgehogs face was almost like pity but it was gone just as fast as it came.

Shadow removed his foot and reloaded his gun, he had been busy on a GUN mission before having an emergency call from the Soleanna mission station and by the look of things he could see why.

He glared at the blue hedgehog on the floor before giving a `humph` and walking away, leaving the injured one there.

"Hey, ah...Don't leave me here!" Sonics voice was feeble and tired.

Shadow stopped in his tracks, sonic was not sure what he was doing before shadow said without turning round.

"You are not going anywhere, you can't even stand up Faker." Was all shadow said before he continued to walk away.

Sonic snarled at him, but he let it go knowing that it was completely true. But that did not mean he was not going to try.

Shadow released the trigger and shot frantically at the beast, but no matter how much he shot it seemed to have no effect.

"I can see why the faker had trouble, even I'm having trouble." He muttered under his breath.

"Come in shadow...Come in."

Shadow tapped the device on his wrist whilst he dodged another attack from the beast; he rolled sideways and hid behind a lump of ruined house.

"What is it Rouge I'm busy right now." He snarled through the communicator.

"Ohhhh touchy...anyway have you found sonic yet." Rouges Cocky voice spoke over the line.

"Humph, that piece of low-life brings me no interest; it's this beast that grabs my attention at the moment." Shadow stated rudely before looking over the ruin and widening his eyes as he just managed to dodge the beast's claws, the piece of ruin was smashed to bits.

"Shadow! Your mission was to find him...he's...you know." Rouges voice seemed to quieten at the end as if it was top secret.

"I know what?" shadow blinked as he tried to hear what she was saying, panting as he continued to dodge and try to find a hiding place.

"H..i...nk...o..ory." Rouges voice was breaking up.

"What? I can't understand you!" Shadow growled as he tapped the device trying to make it work.

Suddenly shadow got hit in the stomach and went flying into a broken building; he went straight through the fragile wall and landed on the broken table of what was kitchen of the house.

He looked up to see the sky still red and dark in the night, the moon so hard to see through the smoke it was almost not visible at all.

Shadow groaned as he lifted himself up, brushing dust off of himself before looking out of a hole in the wall to find the beast. He saw the one thing he didn't want to.

Sonic was quite faraway but close enough for the beast to spot him, he cursed under his breath before quickly exiting the house.

All he could feel was pain, pain in his arms, pain in his legs and pain in his head. He was all pain and nothing else, not even common sense.

"You foolish and insolent Hedgehog!" Shadow shouted as he stomped towards him, pure fury and a small pinch of...something else in his eyes.

Sonic once again tried to place what it was but once again it disappeared, shadow roughly grabbed his arm and yanked him forward. Sonic gave a cry of pain as he felt his wounds open up again and start to ooze blood.

"Did you not hear what I told you? Or are you just an idiot?" Shadow screamed at him, sonic flinched at the rough treatment.

Shadow seemed to notice the pain the other was going through and loosened his grip on Sonics arm ever so slightly, but his glare held firm. All the Ruckus shadow was causing caught the attention of the beast.

"Do you not understand your own condition? For God sake look at yourself!" Shadow growled at him showing his fangs.

Sonic slowly looked up at him. Shadow's eyes widened at the sorrow and misery held in the others eyes. Shadow let go of his arm.

"Sonic?" shadow asked, his tone strangely gentle.

"Sha-AHHHHH" Sonic screamed as the beast grabbed him and started to squeeze tight. Suddenly GUN agents started appearing all over the place, behind houses, behind trees and behind what ever they could fit behind. Shadow had backup. Shadow smirked and reloaded his gun, taking a couple of steps back.

"Sh-Shadow!" Sonic croaked, the air was being squeezed from his lungs.

"Shadow stop!" A female voice screamed.

Shadow turned round to come face to face with none other than Rouge and it seemed she had come back from a mission too since there were blood stains on her clothes, he rolled his eyes at her. It was not the fact he hated rouge, far from it in fact since she was one of his first ever friends, it was her sassy nature that pissed him off.

"Shadow don't shoot, you could hit Sonic!" She gasped out as she tried to catch her breath.

Shadow snorted and lowered his gun feeling slightly agitated at the thought of being doubted with his own gun, it was his own private one after all. His red eyes shot daggers at Rouge as she came towards him and when she snatched the gun from him and tossed it to an agent behind her he was absolutely mortified.

"HEY! THA-"

"Don't even try shadow, I know it's your gun but you can have it when the deed is done!" She glared at him through narrowed eyes. For some reason this always stopped Shadow in his tracks and he fell silent. He crossed his arms and huffed in defiance, even though they both knew that Rouge had won.

"Good boy, now let's get to business." She smiled sweetly at the ebony hedgehog before giving the signal with a wave of her hand. Shadow looked away annoyed out of his mind.

GUN agents swept onto the battle field, yelling their battle cries as they unleashed their weapons. The weapons were just net shooting equipment; they flew at the beast from all angles and helped to tangle up the beasts legs, but its claws were too sharp and they easily swiped through the netting and neatly cutting all the way through.

Sonic was now unconscious in the beast's death grip and blood was dripping to floor from his chest that had been squeezed so tightly. Shadow once again had that look in his eyes at seeing his once rival in dire need, rouge broke him away from his thoughts. She was fiddling with some sort of machine that had suddenly appeared out of no where behind him.

"Shadow move out of the way!" She demanded. Shadow snarled at her bossiness but did as he was told and came to see what she was doing.

"May I ask why you are using these pathetic humans; it is obvious it is in vain!" Shadow said impatiently as he watched her work.

"For that exact reason Shadow, they are only a diversion whilst I sort this thing out. Now why don't you make yourself useful and help me out." She said exasperatedly as she waved her arms about, it was obvious it was irritating her.

He was going to say a rude remark but thought better of it since Rouge could find some really disturbing punishments given the time. He knelt down beside her and examined the machine. It was a very technical one and had many wires and buttons; he didn't know why Rouge would think he could do anything since this was more of Omega's job.

Suddenly she did something to a wire and the machine sprang into action, sparks shot out of the machine and it let out large bolts of lightning that zoomed towards the beast, unfortunately for the beast it was paying more attention to the retreating GUN agents.

The lightning bolts turned into an electrifying net that tied up the beast instantly, it screeched in pain for a few seconds before collapsing in a large heap, sonic fell from its grasp.

"Sonic!" Shadow shouted with out thinking and suddenly started running towards him.

"SHADOW NO! THE NET HASN'T CALMED DOWN YET!" Rouge shouted desperately.

Sonic was stirring back into reality to see shadow dodging lightning as he ran towards him, his vision was blurry from blood loss but he could still make shadow out. His whole body was numb and cold and all he could feel was the blood dripping from his wounded chest.

He felt a strong grip grab his wrist and pull him up, his eyelids were so heavy and he felt so crushed that he could hardly breathe as he felt Shadow put his arm around his waist to support him.

"For God sake Faker get a grip!" He shook Sonic slightly in an attempt to keep him awake.

The machine that was with Rouge was making really odd noises and Rouge quirked an eyebrow at it in confusion. It suddenly started beeping and alerts appeared all over the screen. It was going from green to red.

"Oh no it's overloading!" She screamed.

At the same time the beast was awakening and had immediately spotted the black hedgehog and his prey getting away. Its yellow eyes widened and it suddenly shot a clawed hand towards them.

Suddenly everything seemed to move in slow motion. The clawed hand reached out at them. The machine let out a bolt of lightning. Shadow had barely enough time to spot the attack from the beast before quickly moving Sonic to his other side. Suddenly Sonic screamed and shadows eyes widened in shock as the lightning hit sonic dead on. He had saved sonic from the beast but not from the unexpected lightening. In fact, he threw Sonic right into it!

Time slowed down even more for Shadow as he saw Sonic hit a wall and scream as the net electrified him. Shadow was frozen to the spot and his eyes were filled with shock. He could hear the distant scream of fright from Rouge and the many sounds of pounding feet as the GUN agents ran back onto the scene. Time was practically at a stand still for shadow as the GUN agents were running really slowly around him.

The last thing Sonic saw was Shadow standing there in shock just staring at him as the GUN agents ran past. That was all Sonic could remember before the world once again fell to darkness.