Shadow Rider Ch 11

I crouched now flanked by Andy, his katana was shining in the now moonlit sky. Mephiles strode out of the smoke he looked angry but from what I could see he was more focused on Amy and Knuckles than anything.

"So Mephiles, you honestly think you can beat me?" I asked

He lunged forward. I ducked to his left but he must've been counting on that; his knee jammed into my visor, the glass spider-webbed with cracks as I caught air off of the hit, Mephiles appeared ahead of me and prepared a hammer fist. I curled recovered and caught his fist then followed up with a side kick. Mephiles tumbled end-over-end. I teleported ahead of him, but he used the momentum to his advantage and ax kicked me straight down into the dirt; the weird thing is…I don't remember hitting the ground. My vision tunneled suddenly, the fight was taking a bigger toll on me than I thought. I blacked out for a second and the next thing I remember was being propped up against a storage unit; Amy was at my side and Knuckles was fighting off Mephiles.

"Shadow are you all right?" Amy asked

I shook my head clear of disorientation, "What happened?"

"Mephiles almost killed you, Knuckles said if we hadn't have been here he would have,"

I watched the fight for a second before jumping to my feet and rushing back into it. Amy tried to stop me but it wasn't any good I was already engaged. Mephiles caught Knuckles spiked fist with one hand.

"Impressive!" he commented before hooking Knuckles in the side of the head. The echidna flew straight into the guard tower he would've been in normally. I fired three Chaos Spears and followed with three rounds from my pistol. Mephiles took the three bullets in the chest and by the time he'd recovered from those the spears found their mark. There was a flash and Mephiles was falling out of the air smoking. I formed a Chaos Lance and went in for a kill. I teleported underneath Mephiles and thrust the spear straight up. Blood sprayed my helmet and Mephiles gagged.

"Like I said, you can't beat me," I told him then with a burst of energy I shot a Chaos Spear out of the lance through Mephiles' gut. More blood sprayed the ground as the spear blew a watermelon sized hole in him. I pulled the lance free and let him fall to the ground.

"So much for that," I said then leapt down to find Knuckles

He was okay, aside from a bloody lip and a bruise on his cheek the size of my fist.

"No…impossible," Andy said, "You…there's no way you could've beaten him so easily. I don't believe it,"

"Yeah well believe it pal," Knuckles said.

"I guess this just goes to show…if you want something done right,"

Andy lunged, "DO IT YOURSELF!"

Knuckles and I dove aside, but Andy charged me. I brought my lance up to block, sparks exploded off of Andy's katana, the force was enormous. I never did like fighting with swords and Andy easily disarmed me. I ducked under a swing. There was no way I'd be able to form another lance in time so I made a desperation move. I lunged at him with my left hand curled into a fist at full speed. Andy's nose broke, blood exploded all over my hand and he flew back. He flipped over and slid to a stop then I realized where he was. Andy grabbed Amy.

"Shadow help!" Amy shouted

"No tricks, or she dies!" Andy said

I growled, "She's not part of this fight, leave her out of this!"

In truth I knew Andy knew he couldn't win against me so he was resorting to dirty tricks…like hostages. Knuckles and I just waited there.

"Surrender, or we get to see just how much blood is in the average Mobian girl!" Andy shouted.

We were skunked, there wasn't anything we could do about our hostage situation, if I had a Russian ballistic knife I may have had a desperate long shot but I didn't. I knew I couldn't use Chaos Control or else when time froze he'd already be in the process of killing Amy.

"Amy…it's going to be okay," I said, "We'll get you out of this,"

"C'mon Shadow, fucking do something!" Amy pleaded.

I was stuck there wasn't anything I could do. I heard something in my head.

The Cavalry's coming.

I prayed they were fast enough. Andy suddenly tensed, his black outfit glowed sea foam green.

"NOW!" Silver shouted from the air

Amy elbowed Andy in the gut, which was probably the last thing he expected since he dropped his katana, and broke free thank Chaos. The next thing I knew there was a shift in the wind.

"Readyyy….GO!" Sonic's voice shouted

Andy disappeared from view in a blue tornado that quickly turned into a column of fire. Sonic was flanking me on my left a moment later.

"I guess you found Blaze and Sally?" I said

"Yeah, it wasn't easy either, I guess you've had your hands full here," Sonic replied.

Blaze landed next to Sonic a hand extended. She flicked her wrist and the flames shot thirty feet higher than they already were, "That's for sneaking up on me, pervert!"

That made me wonder exactly how Blaze had been captured. Sally was sitting by, she was angry but since she didn't have abilities like we did, the girl couldn't really do much. Silver landed on my right a minute later, "Death by flaming tornado…"-he shuddered, "a bad memory just appeared in my mind."

I could only guess what he was talking about

Blaze dropped her hand, the fire dyed down a bit but not much.

"That should do it," Blaze stated, "Anybody want a S'more?"

Well…we had a roaring fire but I don't think we should stick around, the fire department would be here soon and they always had police escorting them.

"We need to get out of here, I bet you the cops will be here any second now," I said.

So we bailed out of there, Knuckles however laid down like he was unconscious. I have to admit with a bruise like that he could've easily been mistake for it.

"Can you cover for us Knux?" Sonic asked

"Don't worry, as far as I know, you were never here," he said.

The bunch of us headed back to the vehicles. Blaze Sally and Amy piled into Sonic's Challenger while Silver and I hopped on our bikes and took off back towards Gulf Breeze. I wasn't wearing my helmet, I couldn't see through the cracked visor very well so the helmet was hanging on my handle bar, I'd fix it when I got the chance. We rode until I pulled into a local sports park.

"Well guys…" I said when we'd cut our engines, "we did it,"

"Yeah, we saved the country," Sonic said, "and no one will know about it,"

"That's what I was about to address, we can not mention this to anyone, they wont know what it was like," I sighed, "you…uh…you just be damn sure you don't forget those who paid for Andy's greed and didn't see the results,"

Sonic and Sally knew exactly who I was referring to, I think we all knew.

"You mean Agent Ross?" said another voice

I turned to see General Tange, he was flanked by uniformed police, they had guns drawn.

"General," I spat, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"The disappearance of Agent Ross, where is he?"

"In Hell; did you think that pathetic excuse for a soldier could take me on?"

Tange motioned the police to lower their weapons, "Shadow look, we've gathered enough evidence to have Andy court marshaled and tried for treason plotting the take over of the GUNI and authorizing the assassination of the Ghost's commander, you've done us a favor,"

I folded my arms across my chest, turned my back to him, and grunted. I was making it clear that I wasn't having any of it.

"Look, Charlie Company's commander took over the Ghosts and we're short a good company officer, would you accept reinstatement?"

That caught my attention, I'd been fired on the grounds of insubordination and here was the man whom fired me offering me my job back. I turned to him, smirked, and extended a hand, "It would be an honor sir,"

Tange shook my hand, "Welcome back, Captain Shadow,"

"It's good to be back, sir,"

In truth it did feel good to be back. I'd been running from these guys for so long I was sure they'd catch me. Now having them actually thank me for taking out on of their biggest problems really felt good.

"I'll be expecting a full report on this incident on my desk by next Wednesday, we'll also want to debrief the rest of your company on this incident." Tange said, "In the mean time, I'll have First Sergeant Macklin help you sort out your IRS problems."

I was fighting back tears of joy, my life just flipped over on in a matter of minutes.

"And I will see you at Warner Robins on Thursday bright and early," Tange finished

I saluted, "Will that be all sir?"

Tange did me the pleasure of returning of the gesture in spite me being out of uniform. He then got back in his car with the MPs getting in the back and driving off.

"What the heck was that all about?" Sonic asked.

"Let's just say I won't have to run anymore," I wiped my eyes, "C'mon let's find a place to stay, I don't want to ride all night again,"

"Where do you suggest we stay Shadow?" Amy asked

"I know a guy who lives around here…I just hope he's home," I noticed everybody piling back into Sonic's car. My eye ridge arched slightly.

"What? Are you guys really that lazy?" I asked

Sonic poked his head out of his car, "Is he really not that far from here?"

"No, he lives,"-I hooked a thumb over my shoulder towards the neighborhood behind the park, "right back there, about a five minute walk from here,"

"For us it'd be like five seconds," Sonic said hopping out, he set his key in his jean pocket.

"Amy, can you run?" Silver asked

She gave him the strangest look and ran circles around him for a few seconds, there was a neon pink streak around Silver for a few seconds then she stopped, now standing next to me, "Does that answer your question?"

Silver shrugged and jumped up levitating, "Lead the way, Shadow,"

I ran towards the neighborhood with the others on my six, I crossed a bridge and stopped in front of one of the houses.

"So how is this guy exactly Shads?" Sonic asked

"He's one of my friends from the road, I met him in New Orleans…I just hope he's home,"

With that I knocked on the door. We waited there for a few minutes before I knocked again. The knob opened and the guy I'd met at the gas station was there rubbing his left eye.

"Rider?" he said then moaned in annoyance, "What the hell are you doing here at this ungodly hour?"

"My friends and I need a place to crash for the night, c'mon Pluto just for tonight,"

Pluto looked at the rest of those in my company. He studied Silver and Amy from the door, "Alright, but this isn't a hotel, you guys go by my rules comprende'?"

"You have my word," I said back

Pluto frowned, "Alright come in; you guys can take the spare rooms,"-he scoffed, "now I see why I don't convert those rooms into game rooms or something,"

We headed inside. I went into the room next to the stairs and opened the door. I saw the others aside from Amy head upstairs. I removed my Air Shoes and sat on the bed.

"You okay Shadow?" Amy asked me

"I feel better now that my finances are being settled, I've got my job back too, what else could I want?"

Amy scooted closer to me, "Maybe…someone who really cares about you,"

I met her gaze, I wasn't sure what she was talking about until her lips met mine. At that moment I didn't want to be anywhere else but here. She broke the kiss after what I counter was ten or so seconds.

"I thought you didn't trust me, Amy," I said looking into he sage eyes

"I talked to Kelly through someone else's Facebook, she admitted to getting you fired," She told me with a genuine smile on her face.

I went from the bed to the floor and laid back staring up at the ceiling with my hands folded behind my head.

"Are you sure you're comfortable down there?" Amy asked me

I shut my eyes, "Yeah,"

I felt a cloth suddenly hit my face, I moved the pillow off of my face and looked up at Amy; she was looking sheepishly at me for a second before she rolled over.

"Thanks," I said then set that under my head and went to sleep, genuinely happy again not that I'd admit it to anyone but Amy.