A/N: So, here it is-the big battle. If you've been following this story and actually persevered enough to read up to this point, I applaud you. I'll warn you now: this is a long chapter. Thank you and enjoy!
Tails, Amy, and Cream looked out of an upstairs window at the chaos below. There was some Chaos mixed in with the overall chaos as Shadow exploded with the mystic energy and sent the soldiers in black flying backwards. Tails frantically searched for Sonic, who was speeding around and became a blue blur in the midst of the flood of black. Amy looked around for him, too, her eyes filling with tears and her mouth open with a terrified expression.
Cream and Cheese averted their eyes whenever a blow landed on someone. Both of them seemed too innocent to be watching. Tails turned to the whimpering rabbit and her pet chao and whispered,
"Cream, you should go downstairs with Mrs. Charis. Why don't you head to the basement?"
Cream, with her eyes closed, whispered shakily,
"No! I . . . I don't want to leave you guys alone!"
Tails and Amy uneasily looked at each other. Amy swung her mallet over her shoulders and put on a fierce expression.
"Cream, you ought to stay here. I'm going out to help Sonic!"
Tails and Cream both protested, but only just as Amy bolted down the stairs and suddenly appeared on the battlefield in a pink flash.
Tails' eyes darted around wildly as he watched the big battle unfolding. He suddenly caught a glance of a red figure lying on the ground. It was undoubtedly Knuckles, wounded and unconscious. Tails young eyes became wet with tears as he saw his friend hurt. Cream followed the fox's gaze, also seeing Knuckles on the ground.
A look of determination and indignation flashed in Tails' eyes.
"I'm going out there, too, Cream."
Cream shook her head and took Tails' hands in her own.
"No! I don't want anyone else getting hurt!"
"Cream, don't worry about me! I'm going to be fine."
The little rabbit broke down and started to cry. Cheese let out a short and sad,
"Chao chaooo . . ."
The fox hugged Cream, and then ran off down the stairs and past Mrs. Charis, who began to hysterically yell after him, but it was too late. The fox had made up his mind and was going to fight with his big brother.
Meanwhile, Rouge and Amy stayed near Knuckles and made sure that no one would come by him in his state of weakness. Rouge's Screw Kicks and Spin Jumps proved to be very effective against the soldiers who had the intentions of taking away Knuckles. Amy, as expected, resorted to using her most powerful weapon—her hammer.
"C'mon, fellas, you can do better than this!" the bat said as she looked triumphantly over a small group of men who were lying on the ground, groaning in pain. Rouge stuck out her hip and crossed her arms. "You know you don't stand a chance against us."
The men seemed too tired to get up. Still completely alert, the bat fought off more men that were coming at other angles, taunting them with her charming and witty voice.
"Well, look who it is!" she cried as a little orange figure flew towards her. "It's awfully dangerous out here, buddy, you better watch it."
"Tails! You've come to join us!" Amy squealed gleefully, contrasting the "hii-yaahh!" that she had previously screamed as the Piko-Piko Hammer whirled around.
"I've dealt with worse," Tails said as he slashed his tails around and knocked a man off-balance.
"Well, good for you, kiddo," the bat said as she crouched to avoid a charging soldier, "rebelling every once in while isn't so hard, is it?"
Tails barely heard what she said. He was too focused on Knuckles, who was beginning to stand up shakily on his bad leg.
"Knuckles, you're okay!" he squealed. Knuckles let out a chuckle.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," he said gruffly, "now, can I join you guys in kicking butt?"
On the other side of the house, Sonic, Shadow, Omega, and Gabriel brawled with the troops. Shadow let off bursts of Chaos Energy frequently with shouts of effort, crying out,
"Chaos Spear! Chaos Control!"
His voice boomed as loudly as Omega's Machine Gunner move. Omega's vengeful nature took over completely, bringing him to shake off the men that attempted to jump on top of him to try and contain him.
"You humans are pathetic," he said, "and I am the Ultimate E-Series robot."
The robot spurted fire from his arms, mainly to frighten the soldiers in front of him, and then, coming nearer to Shadow, nodded at him. Together, the duo let off a Chaos Inferno to blast the men backwards.
Shadow smiled and punched the robot in the side as a sort of affectionate gesture. Omega did the same, but knocked the hedgehog flat on the concrete driveway. Laughing, the black and red hedgehog continued to use his Chaos Energy to attack the charging men, while Omega kept using his own fire attacks and machine gunner moves to keep the soldiers back.
Sonic and Gabriel were behind Shadow and Omega, closer to the backyard. Sonic double spin-jumped into a soldier that aimed a gun at him. The man yelled in surprise as the hedgehog knocked his gun right from his hands. Gabriel had no longer been using his little bebe gun, but now used his own bare hands. Considering the boy's size and strength, not to mention his anger for what they had done to his little sister, Gabriel was proving himself useful when it came to keeping the men back. Sonic, after performing a homing attack, glanced over at the boy. He was holding up pretty well, and even shouted at the men.
"This is for Agatha!" he would scream as a man grabbed his arm. He would bring the man down to the ground, wrestling him until the gun was clean out of his hands and then throwing it out of sight.
Sonic turned away from Gabriel as he ran around a man came running towards him, thus confusing him. As he fought, Sonic searched for the dictator, who had suddenly disappeared as soon as his men had begun the war. Edric, unknown to anyone, was behind the house, smiling evilly as he could hear the sounds of fighting. He removed his small pistol from his inside pocket and emerged from behind the house while Sonic's back was turned. Sonic moved quickly, thus making him a more difficult target to hit. Edric cursed multiple times as Sonic jumped out of the pistol's range, and then back again.
The only one to notice the dictator with his gun was Shadow. Shadow watched as Sonic suddenly fell after a man knocked him off-balance. The blue hedgehog rubbed his head, dazed. Edric crept closer to him, cocking his gun. Shadow, seeing what had to be done, bellowed,
"No!"
He ran in front of the evil man just as the bullet exited the device. As if in slow motion, the black hedgehog turned his head and closed his eyes, accepting the bullet and allowing Sonic to move quickly out of the way. Shadow fell hard with a scream as the bullet pierced the back of his head through the spikes. Gritting his teeth, the hedgehog remained on the ground and dropped the Chaos Emerald he had been using.
Gabriel noticed before Sonic that Shadow was down.
"Sonic, look!"
The blue hedgehog whirled around to see that Shadow was on the ground, inhaling and exhaling slowly. Sonic widened his eyes.
"Shads!"
"Don't call me that, you little blue bastard!" Shadow cried in response, "take the damn Emerald and use your own Chaos Control! Finish this now!"
Sonic ran to his friend and stared at the Chaos Emerald and then back at Shadow. He gazed out at the crowd of black and the spots of color that bravely fought them.
"I'm not going to."
Shadow, still panting, curled his fists and clenched his teeth angrily.
"I swear, faker, if you don't do this-"
"Shads, I'm not going super. It's not necessary at this point; I'm going to fight with the others. It would be too selfish for me to go super when no one else has that advantage."
Unclear and in a total rage, Shadow roared and stood up slowly as Sonic ran off with Gabriel and continued fighting normally. As he looked back to grab his Emerald, he realized it was no longer there.
A laugh came from the side of the house. Edric held the Emerald and caressed it, trying to feel the power it contained.
"At last, I've got one!" he exclaimed triumphantly. Shadow growled and walked towards the man with a look of murder in his eyes.
"Don't even try," he snarled, "you won't be able to control it."
Edric sneered at Shadow and pointed his gun at him.
"I'll shoot you again," he threatened, "let me do what I was called to do."
"I said don't do it!" Shadow cried desperately as the man lifted the Emerald into the air. When the words "Chaos Control" escaped the lips of the power-hungry man, the sky almost instantly became overcast in purple. The fighting stopped briefly as everyone gazed at the purple lightning clouds that swirled from the sky.
Gabriel stopped wrestling a man to glance at the sky, when the man knocked him over and aimed a machine gun at him. From inside the house, Mrs. Charis had run up from the basement after hearing loud booms of what sounded like thunder. Before running up the stairs, Mrs. Charis gently placed the twins in her husband's arms. Looking out of a window, the first thing the mother spotted was the sight of her son about to be shot. She ran outside, screaming,
"Gabriel!"
Startled by the cry, both the man and Gabriel looked at the garage as Mrs. Charis charged out and tackled the man.
"Mom?!"
The woman got up and hugged her son, weeping and staring at the sky.
"Oh, my son! Oh, Gabriel, what's happening?"
All of the Mobians had stopped their fighting to see the purple Chaos tornado being formed behind the house. All of them froze in their tracks and stared in horror.
Sonic glared at the man and watched as he laughed insanely.
"Not on my watch," he muttered. "Guys, let's show this guy what we Mobians can do!"
Everyone, except for Shadow, charged at the man with their own power, trying to remove the Chaos Emerald from his hands. Edric grinned and watched as his limbs started to glow with a green tint. He lifted into the air.
"This power is wonderful!" he cried, "Soon you'll all be bowing to me!"
Sonic watched as the man absorbed the purple tornado through his body.
"He's going to burst from all that energy!" Knuckles shouted.
"Stop if you want to live!" Rouge yelled.
"Throw the Emerald here and you won't get hurt!" Amy screamed. Sonic suddenly had a thought among the noise.
"I thought that Emerald was fake?!"
The Mobians stopped their screaming to absorb what the hedgehog had just said. Everyone glanced at Sonic, and then started to scream again, this time more urgently; pleading with the man.
"Put it down!"
"Call it off!"
"Stop! Stop!"
Edric laughed. He laughed madly, until a sudden pulse of Chaos Energy shook the ground. Shadow, Knuckles, Sonic, and Edric violently screamed as if they had all been simultaneously shot by a cannon. The tornado disappeared almost instantly, and then the Emerald blasted another pulse.
"Shadow, call it off!" Sonic cried out, knowing his own grasp of the Energy wasn't as great as Shadow's.
The black hedgehog groaned, and through bared teeth, mumbled,
"Chaos . . . Control!"
The Emerald dropped to the ground and sent out another pulse. Edric, being the only one who wasn't used to the Energy, collapsed and clutched his head.
"What's happening?!" he yelled. Sonic ran to the man and stared down at him.
"Since you don't know how to control Chaos Energy, you've just released so much that it's overwhelming your body! You're bringing on your own self-destruction!"
"No, no! Make it stop, make it stop!"
"It's too late! We can't stop the energy from taking over you!"
Edric screamed again in defeat, and the Mobians huddled together as he was overwhelmed by a white light. The light surrounded his body and blinded the Mobians; most of them shielded their eyes. Edric, still screaming in pain, became bright green, and disappeared in a flash of purple light. A final Chaos Pulse sent the Mobians reeling backwards. Sonic called his friends in a huddle, and they all clung to one another as the final pulse ended.
The pulse faded, and the Emerald rested on the ground. The sky turned blue again, spotted with puffy clouds.
Everyone stared at each other in disbelief. They all glanced at the one next to them, and then across from them. Sonic smiled, and then laughed.
"Guys, we have not only defeated a threat to us and the planet Earth, but we've found a way home. There's no way that Emerald could have been fake."
Everyone stared at the ground, all in a potential state of shock. The blue hedgehog spoke up again.
"We're not just a team, you guys. We're a family. And without any of you contributing to this battle, I don't know what we'd do. I put my faith in all of you, and we won."
"We won," repeated Knuckles, "we won!"
The Mobians cheered and hugged and, in Rouge and Knuckles' case, kissed. Both of them immediately pulled away from each other after realizing what had just happened.
It was quite a victory for our heroes.
A/N: Don't worry, it's not over juuust yet . . .