Chapter 29 Freedom

Tails had just finished telling everyone his big plan to escape. The response was quite positive, except for Silver who wasn't really sure if he could pull it off.

"Come on Silver, if you can go super just like Sonic and Shadow could, then you can teleport too." Tails urged. Everyone else nodded in agreement. Blaze walked up to Silver and put her hand on his shoulder, "You can do this Silver, I know you can". Silver put his head down for a second before confidently looking back at Blaze.

"Okay, I'll do it"! Silver said. Blaze stepped back with the others to give Silver some room. Silver walked over to the table and picked up the container containing the chaos energy.

"Remember Silver, when you open the container, the chaos energy will go straight into you. Once you feel the energy, you'll only get one chance at this so take your time, but not too much or you might lose the energy." Tails instructed Silver. Silver breathed out and in with his mouth a few times before opening the container. True to what Tails had said, the chaos energy jumped into Silver's body. Silver went wide eyed.

"Whoa, that's... intense. I could swap that out for coffee in the morning." Silver said with a light chuckle. Blaze frowned.

"Focus Silver! You only get one shot at this!" Blaze said firmly. Before Silver could attempt it, there was a knock at the door. Everyone went quiet and stared at the door. Assuming it was the wind they returned their eyes to Silver until another knock was heard.

"Um... is everyone here? Rouge said, making everyone look around and count each other.

"Everyone's here, so I'll... answer it?" Amy said uncertainly. The only response was a shrug from Knuckles. Amy sighed and walked over to the door and turning the handle. She opened the door and saw something that made her freeze with her mouth open.

"Hi." Sonic said with a smile. Amy continued to stare at Sonic with her mouth open, completely zoned out. Rouge was starting to wonder what was taking Amy and walked over to her.

"Amy, you know there's no one..." Rouge began, but stopped when she saw Sonic. "Oh... my... god" Rouge said.

"Do you mind if I come in?" Sonic asked. Rouge slowly shook her head. Sonic walked in and waved to the rest of them.

"SONIC!" They shouted in surprise. Amy had finally came back to reality and grinned widely before jumping onto Sonic and hugging his chest tightly. Everyone else stared at Sonic in shock.

"Sonic, is that... really you? Tails asked, silencing the whispers from everyone else. Sonic grinned and rubbed his nose.

"The one and only! Now that this is out of the way, come with me." Sonic said as he attempted to move towards the door, but realised Amy was still clutching his chest.

"Do you mind letting me go Amy?" Sonic said calmly. Amy shook her head and squeezed him tighter.

"I'm never letting you go again! Amy squealed in happiness, squeezing Sonic even tighter.

"That's enough Amy, I don't think he can breathe." Knuckles said, but Amy ignored him. Sonic took Amy's arms and pulled them off him.

"Huh?" Amy said in surprise, opening her eyes to find Sonic walking outside. Sonic had never done that before, and when she did let him go, he'd usually be gasping for air. "I was holding him tighter then I usually do, and he just shrugged me off with ease. Has he been working out while we were down here... Amy wondered.

Sonic lead them outside. Knuckles smiled widely when he saw the portal just mere metres away. Everyone else saw it and immediately started cheering and giving each other high fives. Tails went up to Sonic.

"I can't believe this. This... this is incredible Sonic! You saved us!" Tails said wagging his 'tails' happily. Sonic smiled, but said nothing. Tails put his hand up. Sonic caught on and gave Tails a gentle high five. Tails continued to stare at Sonic, still unable to believe that Sonic was standing in front of him. He looked very strange and had a similar stripe pattern as Shadow now, but Tails and the others were too overcome with joy to question it right now.

Once they had calmed down a bit, Sonic ushered them towards the portal. One by one they hopped through it. Knuckles turned around in front of the portal and gave a middle finger before hopping backwards. Silver laughed while Blaze snickered to herself. They both jumped through, leaving just Sonic. He then jumped through to meet the others.

Sonic landed on his feet and saw everyone else still cheering and celebrating. Sonic felt something he hadn't felt yet. He couldn't describe it that well, but it gave him the urge to smile and cheer along with them. He was happy to just smile though, it felt like enough.

"Whoa! What happened to the wall?" Knuckles asked. Sonic paused, he had returned when he realised he left Scourge in a very unsightly manner and had moved him. He knew the wall would raise questions so needed to choose his words carefully.

"This is were I fought the Shadow Knight, and that wall was the end of him." Sonic said.

"Who was it? Behind the helmet I mean." Rouge asked.

"Scourge" Sonic replied. Everyone groaned. "Don't worry, I took care of him."

"How did you beat him Sonic? I mean your supposed to be evenly matched. What gave you the edge" Tails asked curiously. Tails knew if they had just went head to head, Sonic would be in a bad condition at best.

"He was an arrogant idiot. it was over before it even began, that's all you need to know. Anyway, it's time to get out of here." Sonic said seriously. He began walking towards the stairs, "wait just a second Sonic" Silver began. Sonic turned around and lifted an eyebrow.

"I haven't stopped wondering about something since you got back and I'm amazed no one else has said anything yet. What is up with those new stripes? Don't get me wrong, I like em, but they don't look like tattoos, they look just like Shadow's stripes, just a different colour. Also, you just came back from the dead, what the hell! What's up with that?" Silver asked desperately in need of an answer.

"I'm surprised you haven't asked as well. When you saw me get blasted, I didn't die. The beam he shot me with had chaos energy in it. In my desperate state I was able to harness the power and use chaos control to get out of there. About the stripes thing, I think it was some kind of side effect of the blast, but I don't know for sure." Sonic finished.

The answer seemed to make sense and went around well with almost everyone.

"Your not telling us everything, are you Sonic? Knuckles asked sceptically. When Sonic didn't respond, Knuckles continued, "I know I'm not the smartest guy around, but I know about this stuff and I don't believe you appeared with stripes after being shot."

Sonic glared at Knuckles,"you can believe me or not knuckles, It doesn't change my answer." Sonic said. Knuckles glared back at Sonic.

"Okay guys, that's enough. We've all had a hard time lately so lets just head to my house and relax a bit, okay everyone." Tails said. They nodded in agreement.

Back at Tails house, Amy was helping Tails with the cooking while the others sat down at the dining table. They had all decided to stay an hour or two relieve the stress they had on their shoulders lately. Even Rouge reluctantly agreed to stay for the meal. Rouge was chatting with Knuckles, mostly annoying him. Silver and Blaze began their conversation on the topic of Eggman, but drifted into lighter topics. This left Sonic to himself. He had overheard Silver and Blazes Eggman conversation and knew the answer.

Sonic fiddled with his fork a bit, having not used one before. After Rouge had had her fun annoying Knuckles, she turned her attention to Sonic.

"Your not very chatty. What's got ya quiet big blue?" she asked jokingly. Sonic glared at her for a few seconds before looking down. Rouge actually got the chills from Sonic's stare.

"Come on Sonic, don't be so moody. I already have Shadow for that, well, when I find him that is." Rouge said a bit sadly. Sonic eyes shot up.

"I know where Shadow is" Sonic said. Rouge ears perked. "Really!? Where is he then?" Rouge asked with a smile.

"He's with Eggman. I know because I felt his chaos control. He used it to get back to mobius with Eggman along side him." Sonic said. Silver and Blaze stopped their conversation and looked at Sonic.

"Eggman got back! With Shadow working for him." Silver said in surprise. Sonic nodded. The table went silent.

Tails and Amy came in with plates, "Foods ready!"