Chapter three and I hope everyone is enjoying the story :D Time for a good fight with the Eggman! *Eggman theme tune plays* who will win?
Arriving in downtown Metropolis, the two hedgehogs were expecting something huge, from what the Commander had said, it was a real menace. They arrived, however, to Eggman in his usual Eggmobile, with a small cannon mounted atop. Shadow scoffed at the tiny thing, what was so terrifying about this. Sonic shared the sentiment, but noticed the looks of intense fear on the faces of the townspeople. Eggman was laughing at all the destruction that he had left in his wake, laughing until it turned into coughing. Sonic smirked and chuckled silently, Eggman was getting old and didn't realise it.
The two saw what he had left of part of the town; the buildings were levelled down and smoking from the impact of what they could only assume was some kind of high energy beam. The pavement had cracks and holes in it and there were various amount of ash scattered around the area. Everywhere in his wake was abandoned and the people were using cars, rocks and anything else that they could hide behind so they could get away from the maniac of a scientist. Sonic couldn't believe that such a small object could cause so much destruction. On the other hand Sonic was tiny compared to the robots that he usually faced and he usually left them as nothing more than a pile of rubble and metal parts.
Confident as ever and not at all deterred by the destruction, Sonic stepped closer towards the doctor, ready to fight whatever it was he would throw at him. Shadow joined his march, a few steps behind so that he could save the blue pest if they were caught off guard.
"So Egghead, what kinda party you got goin' on here," Sonic called, behind him, Shadow shook his head at his reflection.
"Why don't you stand right there and I'll show you," he replied, pressing a button on his control panel that made the mounted cannon rotate around until it was facing his enemy. Sonic turned his head slightly so that he could wink at Shadow, letting him know his plan. Shadow understood and stood his ground, while Sonic refaced the cannon. He watched it start to glow red at the nozzle as it charged up and then fired a large red beam towards them. Sonic was standing there, tapping his foot while it charged and didn't move when the beam was fired either. It hit the aimed spot and a smoke cloud was thrown up towards the sky. Eggman cheered as the smoke cleared to fine nothing there,
"Looks like I finally finished the job," he said, guffawing as he rejoiced, "Now are you going to stand in my way?"
Shadow said nothing, folded his arms and stayed where he was. Eggman frowned, but soon smiled again. He was all too happy to take care of another bothersome hedgehog.
A whistle took the attention backwards to the debris, where a certain blue hedgehog was waiting for them. There he stood, his usual cocky self, with not a scratch.
Eggman cursed under his breath, but refrained from getting angry, that wouldn't help. Instead he turned his attention to the rest of the town that he had yet to level. He hovered forwards and started firing missiles from his vehicle, scattering them everywhere. Sonic glanced at Shadow, who was already making his way towards Eggman's little ship, claiming him for himself. Without a second thought, Sonic dashed all around the area grabbing the missiles before they could hit anything or anyone. He gathered up all six missiles that he had thrown at the city and took them up the side of a tall building before throwing them with all the strength he had in order to make them explode above the city rather than on it.
Shadow was currently dodging the machine gun bullets that the doctor had installed on his craft, though he was not even breaking a sweat. The machine guns fired rapidly, but nothing seems to be hitting nor slowing down the dark hedgehog. Eggman growled in frustration, he had had enough of this. Letting the machine distract Shadow for now, Eggman looked around to try and form a plan of action. He saw Sonic was evacuating the citizens and a large smirk found its way onto his lips. Dispatching a mobile robot to further distract the black hedgehog, Eggman made his way over to an abandoned shop, placing his machine behind a few of the stalls outside. There he waited for the cannon to charge again, while watching the nuisance round up some children. Glancing down at the controls he saw that the cannon was almost fully charged, but that would do. Sneaking away from his cover, he aimed the cannon with deadly accuracy at his target and within a few seconds fired the beam.
Sonic was too distracted to realise what was coming, his back was turned and he was trying to comfort the children currently in his care. Shadow however, did see what was happening. He quickly dodged the latest fire spewing from the mobile machine and delivered a swift kick to put its guns out of commission, rendering it practically useless. Using his skates to propel himself forward, the dark hedgehog sped towards the scene, yelling the word 'Move' to Sonic in an effort to get him to safety. Sonic heard what was said, but was more concerned with the children around him. Acting on instinct, he pushed the three children away to the side and from himself, into the arms of adults nearby. He did not have time to get himself out of the way, and there were people behind running to safety, if he jumped or dodged then they would get hit.
Shadow was still running towards the scene and, in less than a second, sent a burst of wind towards the site, using his body to create the force. The wind struck the remaining pedestrians, blowing them away from the blue hedgehog. Shadow continued to move forwards, precious seconds passing at such a slow pace compared to the dark hedgehog. Before the eye could blink, Shadow tackled the younger hedgehog to the ground, a few feet away from the intended site of destruction. The doctor growled as he watched the feat, planned and executed in mere nano-seconds.
Sonic hit his head on the ground when Shadow tackled him, so feeling a bit dazed he lifted his head slightly to see that he was lying on his stomach, facing some of the still standing buildings. He felt something heavy on top of him, but whatever it was, it held him down. Something gently pushed his head down again, recognising the voice of the dark hedgehog as it spoke.
"Take it easy Sonic," was whispered,
The azure hedgehog used his other senses to aid him; he could hear the crackling of the fire not too far away, and the frightened pants and whimpers from some of the passersby. He felt something warm on his forehead, near his ears. Using one of his hands that were spread out in front of him, he gingerly touched the spot and winced as pain shot up through his head. Bringing his hand back he saw the crimson on his glove.
Shadow got off the younger hedgehog, keeping a hand on his back as he did so, before removing it again to face the doctor fully. The look currently set on his face was all that was needed for the doctor to feel fear. He started charging at him, intent on making him pay for all that he had done.
Slowly, Sonic picked himself up, watching intently as his reflection handled the Egghead. He looked around, helping some of the pedestrians that either he had pushed away or Shadow had. He glanced back at Shadow, and seeing that he was really handling himself well, he took the opportunity to check that everyone was alright. Some had a few scrapes and bruises, but no-one was really injured that much. He wasn't either, only a small cut on his forehead where he hit his head on the cement. Giving the civilians a nod of encouragement, Sonic returned his attention to Eggman and Shadow. Giving the machine Eggman was in a swift kick to knock it off balance; he rejoined Shadow's side to fight once again. Eggman was standing on his last leg, most of his mobile machines were destroyed and his weapons were running out of ammunition. He kept firing, taking out several small shops as he did so. Shadow used the chaos energy within him, firing a powerful Chaos spear, uttering the same words to activate it. It landed with great accuracy at the dead centre of the Eggmobile.
Feeling his machine start to deteriorate around him, Eggman took the opportunity to start to flee.
"Oh no you don't!" Shadow snarled, giving chase, with Sonic trailing not too far behind.
The two gave chase until they ended up in a dense forest. Missiles were being fired randomly and the two were using their abilities to dodge. Shadow was more to the point and used his power, often using his fists and feet, to break through the tough bark and keep mere inches away from the doctor. Sonic often had more flair than the older hedgehog , using his more honed agility and speed to bob and weave his way through the trees, sometimes using the trees themselves to jump from.
Finding a clearing to make things easier on his machine, Eggman brought his machine to a halt and pressed the charge button on his control panel. While he waited he started to use the machines defence system to keep the hedgehogs away from himself.
Sonic was trying to use his homing attack on the shield that was currently around the rotund scientist, but they had little effect. Shadow was making more progress with his Chaos Spear, but still the progress was slow.
Eggman was gloating manically as he watched the two scramble to get any kind of decent hit. He knew that the power source he had was stronger than any of their attacks. He stole a look at the control panel readings and saw that the cannon was fully charged, all that was needed now was to figure out a way to lure his target into a position where he could not escape. Using his final weapon, aside from the cannon, Eggman unleashed a pair of mechanical hands. Bawling them into fists, he swung at the two, paying extra attention to his target. He saw a group of trees that could act as a death trap if someone was caught in there. He used the mechanical hands to carefully manoeuvre his way around the clearing, the two were dodging and trying to attack at the same time. Though their hits did not seem to do much damage, the other party was not doing much better either. Sonic watched as the mechanical hands were not even trying to hit them, or so it seemed. Instead of landing on top of them, they seemed to land at the side of them. Eggman used his skill carefully, making his moves precise and making the most of his IQ of 300.
It wasn't until he saw his target dodge to the right to avoid the crashing impact of one of the hands, that he found himself cheering internally. He watched as the hedgehog squirmed and wriggled, trying to escape the grasp of the trees, but he was hopelessly tangled. Peering down momentarily to read the statistics of his craft, he realised that putting all the power behind this shot would make it stall and lose the rest of its power. But it was worth it. Letting an evil grin appear on his face, he glared at his target, as the dark hedgehog further tried to escape.
He fired the shot, allowing the cannon to drain the last of the power from his ship, and waited to hear the screams. Even he wasn't sure what the cannon would do to a person, as he'd only tried it out on buildings and other inanimate objects, but with so much power behind it he knew that he would get his revenge.
A scream was heard, along with a bright light that made him have to look away. When he turned to see what was going on he was shocked to see that Shadow was still there. The black hedgehog looked as dazed as he felt. Maybe it was the bright light. After recovering, he watched as Shadow managed to get loose his arms and pulled himself out of the tree entanglement.
Shadow looked blankly at Eggman, and then started to search around the clearing. He didn't pay much heed when he saw the doctor attempt the slip away unnoticed, he knew that without any power and machinery there was no real threat.
Many of the trees around were destroyed completely or had their trunks hit so they had fallen down. Shadow also noticed the absence, or at least shortage of, the wind that usually blew much stronger than what is was now. The grass was singed in places where some of the missiles had hit. However, there was no singed grass where the cannon was supposed to hit, nor were the trees harmed in any way.
Shadow made his way over to the spot. Using his hand to feel the air, Shadow determined that there was an abundance of Chaos Energy near here. Everything made sense now;
Hope sensing the chaos energy when they were dispatched.
The cannon destroying the buildings, almost disintegrating some of them.
Eggman was powering his machine with not one chaos emerald, but multiple, there was no telling how many he had in his ship.
For the second time that day, Shadow found that he was surrounded by silence. Where was the cocky blue hedgehog that he was fighting with? Wait a minute, the scream. It certainly wasn't his own. Looking everywhere around the clearing, there was no sign of the blue hedgehog.
'If there was a mass amount of chaos energy coming from the spot in front of me then the beam must have been pure chaos energy' Shadow thought, 'and if it wasn't me that cried out, and it wasn't Eggman, then' he groaned outwardly when he realised what that meant. That stupid hedgehog had taken the hit for him when he was tangled up.
*Gasp* What has happened to Sonic? What will Shadow do? When will the author stop asking herself questions?
Mystery! :D
