Chapter Thirteen: A Battle on Two Fronts
At G.U.N. Headquarters, the G.U.N. High Commander had returned to the Control Room, reassuming his overseeing post of all of G.U.N.'s operations.
All systems were fine, and Tails was still linked to Shadow and the others at the base in Central City. The commander was confident his agents and the others would do their job well; they always had in the past.
Suddenly, an alarm went off.
"What's going on?" the commander demanded.
A G.U.N. officer at the computer looked pale.
"Sir... scanners show over 10,000 hostile contacts approaching at 2,400 miles an hour" he said nervously.
"What?!" the commander sputtered. "What are they?!"
"Getting a visual now, sir" the officer said.
A screen appeared shortly, showing all too-familiar ships...
Thousands of them.
The commander snarled; it was the Egg Fleet.
"Send all available G.U.N. airships to engage them!" the commander orders. "Ready terrestrial missile sites and anti-air turrets, and put the base of full alert! Get all troops to positions! Seal all doors and have evacuation vehicles on standby!"
"Yes sir!" the officer complied, and the base set to work.
A Black Arms officer of elite status stood on one of the flying fortresses that led the air-battling Metarex (who were about the size of other ships). The Black Arms soldier wielded a sword much like what the giants and standard troops used, only the blade shimmered black with extra energy.
His name was Dark Fist. He had led the Black Arms through their arduous times until Shade had found them, assumed command, and united them with Mephiles, who then united them with Eggman's forces and the remaining Metarex.
Black Fist turned to see one of the few Black Arms on the fortress who was manning the turrets approach.
"Commander, the enemy has engaged Dr. Eggman's fleet" he said. "Not a single ship remains to be sent out."
Black Fist nodded. "Very good. Now we only need to worry about anti-air turrets and their heavy ground artillery.
The Black Arms soldier nodded, saluted, and went back to his position.
'Once G.U.N.'s strongest base is crushed, and their leader killed' Black Fist thought with a wicked smile; 'Master Mephiles and Shade and their servants shall make quick work of what's left.'
Sonic growled, and charged right at his metallic copy, and yet another fight between them was on.
Shadow then went for the white Metarex with the larger sword and Rouge went for the more agile-looking green Metarex, leaving Knuckles and Amy to contend with the Black Arms and Shadow Androids.
"Why do I always get stuck fighting different opponents than what Sonic's fighting?" Amy muttered, smashing aside another Black alien. "Why can't we fight together more often?"
"Don't be picky!" Knuckles said, and punched away a Shadow Android.
Shadow growled; having a blade of his own would make dueling with this Metarex sword master a bit easier.
Rouge was faring a little better; years of agility training and practice made her one of, if not the best agent in G.U.N.
Shadow rolled under a powerful slash from the white Metarex warrior, and smashed it from behind. But the Metarex was much more powerful than the standard soldier, though not as strong as Red Pine either.
Shadow kicked the Metarex in the face, and fired a Chaos Spear...
But the Metarex deflected the energy back at Shadow, who was barely able to warp away in time.
"Damn it! Why can't they just die?!" Shadow growled.
Shadow sped up his attacks, and landed a Homing Attack on the Metarex's torso.
"If they died so quickly, where'd the fun be in it?!" Knuckles replied from across the room, smashing a Black Arms troop.
"WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR FUN!!" Shadow yelled, and punched the Metarex down. "We have only a few more hours before Mephiles has the power to collapse all existence!!"
Rouge, meanwhile, backflipped to dodge a wide slash, kicked the sword out of its hand, and landed a good kick to its chest, knocking it against the wall.
Rouge chuckled in triumph, and winked at the Metarex.
"Good night" she said, and tore through the Metarex with a mighty kick.
Shadow growled, thinking it unfair that she had gotten the kill first; he was the Ultimate Life Form, damn it. "Well, better take this up a notch" he said, and used Chaos Control to warp behind his foe, and hit it with a Chaos Spear, blowing the sword arm off.
"Cursed hedgehog!!" the Metarex snarled, and fired out an orb of energy.
Shadow rolled into a ball, bounced off the energy, and slammed full-on into the Metarex's head, and came out the other end.
The Metarex groaned, and collapsed to the ground.
Amy did a very fast hammer spin, knocking about seven Black Arms aside, but then a Shadow Android hit her from behind with a Homing Attack.
Knuckles, however, punched the Android's head right off...
Before being blown aside to land on his back by a missile from ANOTHER Shadow Android.
Amy easily smashed it while Sonic and Metal Sonic went at it.
The two collided constantly with Homing Attacks, reminding Sonic of the time he'd fought Shadow on Prison Island those years ago; the blue hedgehog could've sworn he still had bruises from that encounter.
Sonic leapt up high to try and punch Metal Sonic's head, but his Metal copy grabbed Sonic's torso, and slammed him against the wall.
Metal Sonic laughed, and slammed Sonic on the floor, then the wall again.
"This is such fun!" Metal Sonic laughed, and hurled Sonic across the room.
Sonic groaned and pushed himself back on his feet, and ran at Metal Sonic.
The metal copy protruded a blade from his hand, and intended to stab Sonic at the last second...
But was hit with Sonic's Homing Attack a second too soon.
Metal Sonic crashed against the wall, but Sonic didn't let up; he rolled into a ball, and hit Metal Sonic full-on.
The metal foe rose again, and drew out a gun turret, and fired at Sonic.
The blue hedgehog dodged the fire, and tried to move in for another Homing Attack...
But Metal Sonic hit him with his own Homing Attack.
Sonic collapsed, and Metal Sonic prepared to fire.
"Goodbye, old foe!" Metal Sonic said, a hint of respect for his old adversary showing despite his burning hatred.
But his moment of victory was interrupted by a hammer-mallet to the face.
"What the-?!" Metal Sonic exclaimed before being punched by Knuckles, kicked by Rouge, and rapidly slammed by Shadow.
Amy hit him with another hammer-blow, and Sonic hit Metal Sonic with a final Homing Attack.
Metal Sonic's head sparked with damage, and the red eyes dimmed, and he shut down.
"I have a feeling we'll STILL see him again" Sonic said, but then faced the others and smiled.
"Thanks for the help, guys!" he said with a smile and thumbs-up.
Shadow 'hmphed' and walked off, Rouge shrugged and followed, Knuckles nodded and Amy embraced Sonic.
"Anytime, sweetie!" she said, and Sonic groaned.
Shadow and the others were now in the adjoining room to the antechamber, and Shadow spotted an elevator.
"Tails, is that safe to get us to Mephiles?" he asked.
"Yeah, but only for three floors" Tails responded.
Shadow nodded, and they walked on.
"Why can't we just WARP to Mephiles?" Knuckles asked.
Shadow scoffed. "BECAUSE, red-headed imbecile, the energy from the Master Emerald and the other six Chaos Emeralds is blocking anything further than warping past the front gate."
Rouge giggled a little at the insult Knuckles received, enjoying seeing Knuckles get steamed up.
"Guys, c'mon" Sonic urged. "Let's just cooperate a LITTLE further!"
Shadow muttered darkly, but nodded and they went to the elevator.
"Oh, and guys?" Tails said over the link, sounding nervous.
"Yeah bud?" Sonic asked.
"G.U.N. Headquarters is being attacked" Tails said, fear entering his comment. "They're okay for now, but could use some help; most of the ships at this base have gone to fight."
Shadow's eyes widened. "Damn it!!" he snarled. "Can't this stupid elevator speed up?!"
Rouge put a hand on Shadow's shoulder. "We'll make it; don't worry" she said sincerely, looking right at him.
Shadow's frown and angry-eyes slowly melted away at her gaze...
Shadow looked into those beautiful, aqua eyes...
And Rouge gazed back at those strong, resolute crimson eyes...
"Ah-HEM!!" Amy said loudly.
Shadow and Rouge awoke from their eye-gaze, faces going as red as Knuckles.
"Save it for the party, you two" Sonic said with a snicker.
Shadow muttered something about 'hedgehog-cabob', and they exited the elevator.
They were in a large, dark room now. It reminded them of the interior of the Black Comet, the Black Arms' old fortress/Headquarters.
Shadow walked forward, and saw something oval-shaped and colored dark red...
Blood-red, in fact.
"What's that?" Amy asked, a little nervous at how strange it looked.
Shadow's eyes widened.
"It's an egg" he said in a half-whisper.