Chapter 21

Sonic moved ahead of the others, next to Shadow, who carried Amy in his arms. Sally was on his back as they raced to wherever Shadow believed they were needed. All he mentioned was that he knew where Knuckles was.

There was no way he could have known where the Echidna ran off to, right?

Sonic glanced at his half-brother's face and saw how determined he looked. There was no mistaking how sure he seemed. Then again, that was how he normally was. They raced across the streets, over buildings, until they landed on an apartment building that towered over every other structure in the city.

Sonic looked around on the roof and commented, "As much as I love the view, that still does not explain what is going on here."

Sally climbed down from him as Shadow looked at the door on the roof. Shadow's hand touched the door handle as he listened to his brother's comments. Amy, who was already back on her feet, also watched Shadow, having a good idea what he meant when he said that he knew where Knuckles was.

The Echidna claimed that he sensed something that caught his attention. And since Enerjak was a walking source of energy, it only made sense that Knuckles would find him in a heartbeat.

Shadow muttered after opening the door, "Just be ready."

"Be ready for what?" Sonic waved his arms as he followed him down the stairs.

The girls were in the back, behind him, as they followed Shadow's footsteps. Amy looked around the place as they progressed down the stairs, and kept her track of her footing. There was barely any light, and someone like her could easily slip, fall, and break her neck.

Shadow did not move his red eyes from whatever lied ahead of him, and he said, "Use your inside voice."

The blue hedgehog rolled his green eyes and said, "Uh, huh...that still does not answer my question."

In an even lower voice, Shadow spoke, "Enerjak."

The little brother raised an eyebrow, "Inner fact? What kind of dumb statement is that? It doesn't even make sense." Shadow was speaking too low for him to hear it, so Sonic only got a little bit of what Shadow said.

His statement made Shadow freeze with a twitching eye, and the older brother looked annoyed.

Sonic, who stood in front of the girls asked, still not getting it, "What?"

Again Shadow said quietly, "I said 'Enerjak,' not 'inner fact'."

"Enerjak? Then why didn't you just say so?" Sonic then stopped a couple seconds and then said in a louder voice, "Enerjak! You mean that he's here...?"

Shadow covered his mouth after looking panicked, "Not so loud."

The Ultimate Life Form walked away as Sonic followed with his hands behind his back. Even though everything was quiet, there was an unshakable eeriness about the place. Not a soul aside them the four resided there, and they were still working their way down the long staircase.

Upon reaching the end, Shadow quickly moved against the wall beside the doorway and motioned the others to do the same.

Sonic, however, was not one for being discreet if he could avoid it. He zoomed in between his friends and entered the door with no restraint on his speed. Shadow did a face plant into his hand while the girls blinked at what just happened.

Sally said, "What is he doing?"

They peeked around the doorway, and she asked, "Isn't he worried about Enerjak?"

Shadow said, "Does it look like it?" He stepped out into the open, "Come on, we have to find him before Enerjak does. He doesn't have Knuckles' sword and, therefore, would have no chance of doing anything about that Echidna."

Sally still looked Sonic's way, and quietly said, "Right," while followed Shadow and Amy down the halls.

They looked left and right down the other turns that the hallway might have. Sonic could not have gone that far. Then again, Sonic did possess enough speed to move from one side of town to another within a minute when it should have been half an hour walking there. Sally looked a bit discouraged for a minute.

Sonic could have been anywhere.

Where Sonic was, he was still running, looking at every door and opening he passed. What he sought had to be close. He could feel it. Shadow said Enerjak was close, since he told him to be ready for him. And because Knuckles had a head start after he sense something, he also must have been close. But even so, Sonic was the one with all the speed.

Smirking to himself, he felt positive that he could still beat Knuckles to the enemy. Using more speed, he zipped down the hallway. He finally stopped when he heard some talking and stepped a bit closer to a closed door.

He pressed his ear against it to carefully listen. With his supernatural hearing, he picked up the conversation.

A male's deep voice said, "Now I trust that everything is set?"

Another male voice that sounded familiar answered, "Of course it is. The president will do my bidding, and nothing will stand in our way when the Humans and Mobians are forced to acknowledge you as their superior."

"Before we get too carried away," Sonic heard the sound of some tossed coins in a bag being thrown, "here is half of what I promised. You have greatly impressed me old friend."

"It was a pleasure doing this, Mephiles. I will not disappoint you."

"See that you don't. Make sure those two lackeys of mine cooperate and not mess this up."

Sonic then thought sounds like someone is doing something to the president. Sally the others told me before that he is like the king of this place. It's time to do a break in.

Sonic then knocked down the door and jumped inside, saying, "Ah hah, now to..." he froze, staring at what he saw.

Sure he made a dramatic entrance, but the commotion he heard came from the room next to that one. Two kids looked at him, while Sonic's ears twitched in annoyance. He sucked in some breath, closing his eyes as he carefully backed up and closed the door.

It made no sense why he heard the conversation in that room, but heard noise in the one next door, but he did not think much about it.

When he had let go of the door handle, he looked annoyed and said, "Alright that was dirty trick."

He ran over to the room where the ruckus came from and jumped into it. In there, he saw Knuckles jumping to avoid being hit by Enerjak's energy blasts, sometimes, using the magic sword to block the attacks.

Sonic then remembered what Knuckles said about the sword, "The only problem is if you do have enough power to control the sword, it will take something from you instead, little by little, until you have nothing left in you to so much as move."

Knuckles was using it again. He was sacrificing whatever energy he had to fight Enerjak. He could kill himself. Sonic was not about to let that happen. He immediately jumped into action and did a leap frog on the high powered villain.

It made Enerjak lose his focus for a moment, and Knuckles was about to strike his sword but had to stop. He sweat-dropped, watching all happen between Sonic and the enemy. There was so much commotion that it was too risky to get both at the same time.

Sonic noticed that Knuckles was making the sword glow and yelled after he was thrown down, "Don't even think about it, Knux!" Enerjak stepped on him because he was not paying attention, "Don't you remember what you said happens whenever you power that thing?"

"Heh," Knuckles muttered, examining Enerjak standing on his friend, "that's just the risk I'm willing to take. Holding back is the last I should be doing." Looking at the two, he said in louder voice, "After all that was taken from me," his grip on the sword's hilt tightened, "I can't afford," he swung the white glowing blade down, "being cautious again!"

The move had sent a wave towards the enemy Echidna, who smirked as he jumped out of the way.

Sonic's eyes grew wide as he yelled, "Yah!" lying in the blast's path.

To his and Enerjak's surprise, it moved to the side and followed Enerjak. It gave no time for reaction, and it had sent him flying. Sonic got over his surprise and jumped towards him. He kicked Enerjak and rammed his head into his stomach.

Knuckles did not stop there and followed them as they fell out the window.

He thought as he followed, carrying the sword over his shoulder, something is not right. Enerjak should harder to fight than this.

Where Shadow and the girls were, they had to stop running to look around for a bit.

Shadow thought he sensed something with a lot of chaos energy nearby, and Amy said, "Where could have Sonic gone off to in such a short amount of time?"

Behind them as she asked that, Sonic and Enerjak would have been seen through the window, falling down the building as Knuckles glided after them with his sword. Shadow and girls did not notice it at the time while they thought about where they should look.

Amy tugged his arm and said, "Maybe we should keep looking somewhere else. Sonic is so fast and might have already run into Enerjak by now."

"That is true," her boyfriend said, "But I could also sense both Knuckles and Enerjak nearby."

Sally pointed out the window and said, "Guys, down there. It looks like he did find him, and they are in some sort of fight."

Shadow bolted there, "What?"

Upon seeing the fighting down below, he pushed the window open and crouched on the sill.

It took no time for him to leap down and join the struggle. He threw a chaos spear on the way down, which Enerjak quickly flipped over, leaving Sonic in the way of the blast. The blue hedgehog moved and stood on one foot, staring at the cement that Shadow's spear fried.

As the smoke rose from it, he blinked at the blackened spot while Knuckles ran past and jumped in the air, yelling with his sword out and ready. Shadow landed right when Enerjak moved once again and had to teleport to avoid being sliced. Looking at Knuckles, who stood up after prying the blade that was sandwiched in a crack he made in the ground, Shadow was standing a lamppost.

Looking annoyed, he said to the Echidna, "Oh yeah, sure, you get to use the sword. Why may I ask did you say that you were going to give me the sword when you wouldn't let me touch it?"

"I did?" the Echidna blinked. He then stood up and looked at him, while the sword rested on his shoulder, "Oh yeah, about that. I said that was going to give but did not specify who got to use it. I never said 'oh yeah sure, go on ahead and use it.'"

It bothered Shadow what the Echidna had to say, but it still made no sense why Knuckles was using the sword so freely. He was the one who mentioned that it could drain energy natural and unnatural, weakening the sword's user until it can potentially kill him. It was as though the Echidna did not care about himself or hid something important.

That, however, had to be dealt with later. Enerjak was the current problem. The girls stared down at everything from where they stood in the apartment building, and Amy slammed her hands on the sill.

Pink hair dangled around her face as she said, "We have to do something, Sally. I don't want to sit here and watch our guys get hurt by that Echidna."

"Don't worry. We will think of something. They are not alone on this, Amy."

Amy blinked, looking at her redhead friend, about to say something right when a sound caught her attention. Shadow was hit while trying to attack Enerjak and fell to the ground, holding his side as he stood up, glaring at Enerjak as a piece of untidy black hair blocked his right eye.

His left hand began to glow as he said, "Don't think you're getting off so easy with that cheap attack. I'll show you what happens when you mess with the wrong werewolf."

Enerjak, however, gave Shadow no time to charge another attack and swiftly moved towards him like a shadow. He punched Shadow in the gut and punched him into the ground.

It made Sally hold her mouth in horror, watching Shadow trying to get out of the pit, but while she looked at the fight that Sonic and Knuckles had put up, trying to keep Enerjak away from their friend, tears streamed from Amy's cheeks.

Her fist tightened and shook as she watched her boyfriend, her life, her joy, her everything, be hit and thrown around by the villain. The shadow of her pink bangs covered her eyes that were filled with an unreadable expression as she tilted her head down and looked at her hands.

"This fight has to come to end," she softly whispered, gaining Sally's attention.

Sally watched as Amy's body glowed white, and soft, fluffy wings formed on her back. As the soft light diminished, faded white feathers fluttered and melted on the floor and in mid-air.

Amy's pink hair lengthened until they reached her hips, and a wind that emitted from her body tugged on it as leaves from outside fluttered around her. She looked fierce but gentle at the same time. The whole scene looked amazing, but one could easily see what she intended to do as she tightly held onto an ornamental mallet.

The hammer had white wings on the sides while silver and emerald vines wrapped around the handle and continued around it. Its surface had outlines and silhouettes of purple and black roses.

Her new wings made from her white magic extended in their full length, and before Sally had time to say anything, Amy was already down below. Sally ran to the window sill to watch her friend make a dive into the fight. The wings gave her ability to glide with ease like Knuckles, and she raised her mallet.

Enerjak was caught off guard from her sudden appearance since he was not expecting anything like that from any of the girls. Her mallet whacked him to the side right when Sonic was able to kick him.

Shadow then sent the villain a chaos spear, which fried his side. Knuckles saw a good opportunity and decided to open a portal to banish Enerjak again. As the strong pull from the opening his weapon created a wind, pulling Enerjak in, Knuckles narrowed his purple eyes.

Sure Enerjak was too busy, paying attention to his wound inflicted by Shadow, but Knuckles thought that someone like him would have needed another distraction. It was as if he was not even trying.

He was sucked into the pull and disappeared into the portal, which closed.

Sonic called out, "Not bad, Knux. Now that Ugly is out of the way, we could do some other stuff."

Amy was beside Shadow in the back, helping him up while Knuckles glanced at his sword and then stared at where Enerjak was. The whole thing was just confusing. Enerjak could not have been gone so easily.

He acted as if he wanted to be beaten.

The Echidna stiffened and looked up again, saying, "It's not over."

Shadow looked up while leaned against Amy, who was under his arm, trying to steady him, and he said, "What are you talking about? That was it. We just beat him."

Amy asked, "He was sucked into the Zone of Silence, wasn't he?" giving a shocked and disbelieving face.

Knuckles lowered his sword and glanced at the two with a serious and non-so-thrilled look, saying, "What we saw was him, but..." the sword's tip touched the uprooted cement, "I'm starting to have my doubts."

Sally asked, "Doubts? Why's that?"

"I've fought him before, but never has he been this easy. I barely had to fight for my life, on top of which, we were constantly getting into each other's crossfire. He would have used that against us a whole lot more and would have done more to make everything more difficult."

Sonic shrugged, "I dunno, maybe he is just losing his touch. It has been how long technically since he has fought you and Shadow? After so many years, he has got to be soft enough to take down in no time flat."

The Hedgehog nodded, believing his theory to be perfect. Sally, however, felt that Knuckles was on to something. Surely, if the dreaded Enerjak had enough power to worry Shadow into grabbing a magic sword, he was not someone to be messed with for no reason.

"Except that he would have been able to build his power between then and now to become much more powerful," Sonic stopped walking away, and turned to stare at her when she said that.

Shadow was still gritting his teeth while covered in filth and beside Amy, who became extremely worried. Sally's point increased the doubt that there was dread hidden in their victory. Enerjak could not have been defeated.

Sonic shook his head, saying, "But—but—but...I mean...we just...I...uh…" he smacked his forehead, pointing at where Enerjak was sucked, "he was right there. I know he was. I got whacked around by him and everything." He crossed his arms, looking to the side with a pout, "And right after he tricked me too."

Sally asked him, not understanding what he was getting at, "Tricked you, when was that?"

"Well, you see I heard someone talking that sounded like him in this room, so I broke into it, but there were just some kids there. The actual commotion was over in the next room. That Enerjak was trying to make me look stupid. I'll bet that he is some kind of ventriloquist."

Shadow smirked and said, "Well, considering how you like to jump at things without thought, it shouldn't be too hard to make you look stupid."

"At least when I come up with an idea, it works," Sonic pointed out to his brother.

Growling, Shadow said, "How many times do I have to tell you that is just dumb luck on your side?"

"Heh, you are just jealous."

"Hardly," he muttered, glaring at him.

Knuckles, however, looked confused and spoke up, "Wait a minute, are you trying to say that you heard Enerjak talking in one room, but he was not in it?"

Sonic said, "Uh, yeah, that is what I was saying..."

"We have to go back in there," Knuckles started walking back to the apartment.

Sonic raised an eyebrow, "Say what?"

Sally asked, "What could be back there?"

Knuckles looked back as he stood in the entrance, explaining, "If there were somethings I have noticed the entire time we fought, it was that Enerjak was surprisingly lousier at fighting than he was the last time we met, and his chaos energy was barely there. What Sonic said just made sense of everything."

Amy tilted her head and asked, "How so?"

"I may not have good people skills or know how anything works anymore," he looked inside the building, "but I still remember a thing or two about Enerjak," he added on the way inside, "and he is no ventriloquist."

The others looked at each other as they watched him walk through the doors. Shadow stood up straight, feeling his fast healing powers kick into action, and he grabbed Amy's hand. Still transformed with long pink hair, Amy looked down when she felt that. She stuck beside him as they followed.

Sonic and Sally did the same without realising it, feeling as though a storm was racing towards them at a high velocity.