Chapter 7: Oh no, not again

Ember flew above the city, looking above her unsuspecting prey. She flew around until finally stopping on the top of a building shaking them off from the soaking rain, she let her wings drop down and said," Damn it, that stupid bird cost me a meal, who was that any way I've never seen him before until now? Maybe it's time to pay the doctor a visit, if anyone will know he will!" Ember jumped off and flew towards Eggman's new base, ready for some answers.

Sonic looked at the clock, just waking up from his sleep; it read six: thirty. He rolled out of his bed landing with a THUD; he lifted himself up and walked into the kitchen to get some coffee to wake himself up. When he walked in he noticed a shadowy figure sitting at the couch, as he approached he noticed it was two, Sonic was gagging to himself when he saw Falco and Amy sleeping on the couch.

He walked back to the kitchen and poured a glass, he was about to drink when Knuckles walked up and took it saying," Thanks Sonic your too kind!" Sonic glares at him, but pours another glass, he sits down near Knuckles and says," Knuckles, what is the plan, we have to take this lady down, but we don't even know where to look for her!"

Knuckles sipped on the coffee, that now had a few ice cubes in it slowly melting, he said," Sonic don't worry about it, in a couple of hours we patrol the area and scout for this crazy chick, then we decide what to do." Sonic looked into his coffee, trying to find answers in its swirling colors, he sipped the coffee and replied," I don't know Knuckles, winging it doesn't really sound like a good plan to me." Knuckles shrugged, not wanting to ruin this perfect moment with work matters.

Tails walks into the room and stumbles over to the coffee, his eyes were black from not sleeping, Knuckles says," Long night I see, working on something?" Tails grabbed a box of Fruity Hoops and poured a bowl to eat, he sat down with the others.

With a loud yawn he says," Yah pretty much, I was working on some new items that you, Falco and Sonic asked for, I was able to finish them and get some sleep, Knuckles you asked for these titanium gloves similar to yours, Sonic asked for a communicator, that is small enough so no one can detect it. And Falco asked for an arm gauntlet that stored some weaponry and a grappling hook."

Tails presents the three items and gives Sonic the communicator, and gave Knuckles the gloves. He put the gauntlet away seeing that Falco wasn't awake yet, Tails started eating his food, when a knock on the door stops them. Sonic gets up and walks over to the door, he inputs the code and opens the door; Shadow is standing at the door pissed off.

Shadow barges in and says," Some bird flew by me and knocked me down, the bird was too fast and got away, and who is this bird!" Sonic looks at Falco and then back at Shadow, he was not at all happy. Sonic finally said," It was this girl bird named Ember I think." Shadow pointed at Falco and said," You bird, have you met this lady, or am I wasting my time here!"

Falco woke up from the shouting and muttered," What, what is it?" Shadow barges up to him and says," Who is this girl bird!" Falco looks at him, more awake now and says," The girl bird you refer to, is Ember A.K.A. Fire Wing, she is a black crow and I got my ass whooped trying to fight her, anything else?"

Shadow looks at him ashamed, he says," you what! You were beat by some bird, none the less a girl bird! How can you call yourself a man!" Shadow punches the wall and cracks it, Falco backs up and says," It's not my fault; she is one of the best fighter in the world!"

Shadow turns towards him, his angry look was gone, he now had a huge grin on his face, he replies," The toughest in the world, you don't say. Well if she is that good I'll go and fight her to see this for myself!" As quick as a flash Shadow was out the door on the lookout for Ember.

Sonic walked over to Falco and helped him up, trying to figure out what the hell was going on, he asked," What exactly is Shadow doing Falco, I'm not sure what happened?" Falco shrugs his shoulders and says," Not sure, he left to fight that girl, but I don't know what will happen." Knuckles sits at the table enjoying the show, and after finishing his coffee gets up and is ready to start working.

Eggman sat in his base figuring out what to do next since he hasn't attacked for awhile, he says," Ever since that bird defeated me I had to go into hiding and think of a new strategy, so I will build a stealthy robot to teach them all a lesson." As he draws the schematics for his new robot, a noise catches his interest, he turns around and a crow is standing there, he says," Who are you!"

The crow walks up to him and says," My name is Ember, now the reason I am here is for info. Who is the blue bird with laser guns?" Eggman smiles and says," I would love to tell you, but you see I have more important things to do, and frankly I don't care why you want to know."

The crow slashes it's wing and slams him to the ground, she says," Tell me what I want to know, or your intestines decorate your base!" Eggman realizes he made an error in his opponent so he tells her what he knows," The bird you speak of is Falco, he came from another dimension and is strong and witty it would be best not to underestimate him, as I did, now will you get off of me!"

Ember lifts her foot and gets off of him, she says," Thanks doctor, since you weren't kind to me, I won't be to you!" With a fast twirl, her wings light up in a beautiful tornado of flame flowing through the fortress; she takes off fire spreading through the entire zone, leaving Eggman in his burning base.

Shadow is on the move, he dashes down the street the rain water rushing in the air like a waterfall, and Shadow is paranoid on trying to fight the this so called strongest being. He turns around as a swift shadow flies by him leaving him In its tracks, he takes off as fast as he can trying to catch up, but unlike last time the wind was against the bird and he could stay on it.

Hs jumps in the air and leaps onto a building gaining height above the bird, he leaps off and lands on a similar building that was a food joint from the smell, he jumped again and kept leaping from building to building, Ember spots him and thinks to herself," Hmm, the black figure is fast and can catch up to me by leaping, maybe I should meet this person!"

She turns around and flies towards him, he jumps back onto the building and says," Guess I was caught wasn't I." Ember smiles and says," Yes you were, and if I may ask who are you fast hedgehog?" He looks at her and says with a grin," Your looking at the Ultimate Life Form. My name is Shadow and I would like to challenge you!" She nods her head and says," Yes that would be a grand idea, a spar off against two fast beings of different species, this will be good."

She spreads her wings and takes off into the air, Shadow runs to a nearby wall and kicks himself upwards to meet her, she dives at him while he spin kicks, both blows cause the others move to stop, Shadow jumps off of her and spun dashes down, she flings up in a spiral motion and they collide, Shadow falls to the ground and lands, he holds his arm and she smiles, then she falls down too, her wing was hurt by Shadows spin dash, and Shadow's arm was hurt by her spinning attack.

Shadow jumps up onto another building, she does the same, they charge once more and energy is released from the clash. They continue this cycle until finally they both fall over from exhaust, she says to Shadow," You are a tough opponent Shadow, I will give you that."

Shadow laughs and says," This was better than fighting Sonic, he wimps out most of the time and doesn't want to fight his friends or allies." She laughs at the thought of someone quitting because they don't want to hurt a friend, she replies," Well at least this bought some fun time, that other bird was pretty good as well." Ember rises up and spreads her wings to fly, Shadow gets up and says," Want to battle tomorrow!"

She turns around facing him and says," Sounds like fun, see yah Shadow!" She takes off into the air and flies away. It takes Shadow a while to focus and he says," What is wrong with me, I was all happy and stuff. What could this mean?" Confused about what happened Shadow took off and headed for the house where Sonic and the others were.

Ember flew through the city, her thoughts were jumbling around she couldn't focus, she said to herself," What am I doing, I told him I would fight him tomorrow and was being nice, revealing how battles felt to me, what is wrong with me!" She flies onwards trying not to think about it, but the more she tried she kept thinking it, did she like Shadow?

Sonic was sitting in his room reading a book, Tails was sleeping near his bowl of soggy cereal and Knuckles was enjoying some T.V. with Falco. Shadow opened the door and walked into the kitchen, he grabbed Tails by the tails and dragged him into the lab, he shouted at him to wake him up.

Tails was drowsy but finally asked," What is it Shadow I was sleeping?" The look Tails got from Shadow was the weirdest thing ever, it wasn't mad it was confused. Shadow looked at him and said," I need you to get me to a doctor." Tails looks at him confused and said," Why there is nothing wrong with you?"

Shadow closed his eyes and then said," Yes there is, I have a weird feeling in my stomach, but I don't know why or how it got there, I was fighting with someone and I was all happy afterwards and was talking about things I normally wouldn't talk about, and even asked to fight again tomorrow, what is wrong with me!"

Tails smiles at him and says," There is nothing wrong Shadow; it isn't something bad you feel, it is probably well, love." Love, that word wrung through his head like a train roaring by a cat, Shadow stumbled back and fainted. Tails caught him before causing a serious blow to the head and dragged him into the hall, Knuckles and Falco turned towards them and saw Tails dragging Shadow, they got up and helped lift him up.

Knuckles asked," Did he try to kill you and you had to shoot him with a stun gun." Falco said," No, he was trying to steal your potion off healing and you wacked him with a bottle!" Tails shook his head and said," No none of that, he fainted because he figured out he is in love!" Knuckles an Falco dropped him and they both looked at each other confused and Knuckles said," You do know this is Shadow don't' you?"

Tails nodded and said," Yah I do, and he told me the facts about what he was feeling and I told him what it was." Knuckles looked at him disbelieving and said," SHADOW… SHADOW does that name not mean anything to you, he is incapable of love, and even if he was, with who!" Tails shook his head and replied," I don't know, but we can ask him who he was fighting that should tell us." The two nodded their heads and agreed.

Shadow woke up hours later, he looked around and noticed he was on a bed, he sighed in relief thinking it was a dream, and he got out of bed and walked out the door. He was surprised when Tails, Knuckles and Falco approached him, Tails says," Shadow do you want to talk about your fight earlier, or do you need to sit down?"

Shadow had a sinking sensation that told him it wasn't a dream, he said," No I'm fine, now what do you want!" Knuckles walked up and said," So who were you fighting earlier that you like so much?" Shadow looked at him and then down he finally said," It's that other bird, Ember." Knuckles held back a few laughs and sat down he was honestly trying not to laugh, Falco said," So you have excepted that me and Amy are together and now want a bird of your own, I see."

Shadow glared at him and said," It's not like that, it is just we have more in common than ever believed." Tails says while holding recording equipment." Like what Shadow?" He replies holding his head," we are both really fast, we love fighting, we both like making fun of Sonic and people who don't fight no matter what and tons more that I can't name." Falco added," And the most likely, you feel the same way she does!"

Shadow looked at him angrily and says," What the hell is that suppose to mean!" Falco smirked and said," oh nothing, just that you both like each other." Shadow was about to hit him in his mouthing beak but restrained himself and said," We will just see about that, I will see her tomorrow in a fight and find out then!" Falco smiles and says," Can't wait to see what happens." Shadow takes off out the door leaving the three there to laugh or whatever they were going to do."

Read the next chapter to find out what happens.