Anonymous Review Replies!
TheDragonzRider: Well, for a given value of 'soon', anyway. :P Hope you like and thanks for the review! :D
Guest: I'm trying my best, happy to hear it's working. :3 Oneliners FTW, of course. And now...more fighting! :P
Larka: Hahah, working quotes into fanfic is like my personal sport! :p And no worries, there's still a few chapters to come, it's not like it's ending right now ;) Another lemon...maybe. Let's see. Right now would be sort of a bad time, probably. XD As for other adventures with these two, I can recommend the stories on my other profile, which aren't M-rated, but also contain some sonadow and some action-adventure. ;)
Reign Black: Thanks, I try! :) Hope you like the new chapter, too!
x: Hahah, yeah, I did have to raise the rating. XD But glad it doesn't detract too much from the fact that it's mostly supposed to be a fun adventure romp. :3 And glad you like the description, it's something I like to take care with :D
Yay: Errrm...60...ish? I can't say for sure, exactly, it just keeps getting longer! ^^°
Impatient Fan: Thanks! :3 And um, well...one and a half months later isn't too bad, I think...?
Annalise003: Will do! Here you go, thanks for the review! :D
Chapter 55: Battle Royale
War horns.
Sonic thought it was awesome Sally's dad's army had brought actual war horns with them.
"CHARGE! For the Kingdom of Acorn!"
The assembled soldiers of Black Doom thought it wasn't quite as awesome when, to the sounds of those very same war horns, the knights of King Max were now galloping straight toward them, swords drawn. And their own leader was too busy to give orders because apparently whenever he tried to, he got a hedgehog in the face.
And then there was that small detail of a horde of red-furred, complete maniacs that had also just arrived and thrown themselves into the fray. The echidnas fought, and they fought in a way that said they had heard about strategy, and armour, and caution in battle and they had found it funny.
"Troops!" Black Doom hollered, "Rally! General Drago, attack the-!"
"CHAOS SPEAR!"
"-you insolent vermin, I will-!" Black Doom tore through Shadow's attack with one outstretched claw, scattering the Chaos like harmless sparklers with one rage-filled swipe, before he tried to continue his order, "General Drago! Charge to the left and-!"
"CHAOS SPEAR!"
"I will erase you from the face of the Earth and feed my spawn on your bloodied entrails, Shadow!" the dark king roared, again blocking the Ultimate Lifeform's attack with ease, but seeming to pop some sort of black blood vessel sometime soon now, "GENERAL DRAGO, YOU WILL TAKE THE RED TROOPS AND-!"
It was at this point that first a sonic boom cut clear across whatever Black Doom had been trying to say to the confused dingo, and straight after that, a red sneaker connected straight with the king's forcefield in a flying kick, making a sound not unlike a cymbal that had just been struck. Sonic bounced off the shield to land in a safe distance, before tilting his head at Black Doom with a wide, innocent grin.
"What's wrong, your Disgrace? Have a bad connection?"
And then something like a Chaos Blast happened, and even later, Shadow still blamed Sonic for making Black Doom angry enough to actually figure that one out.
"Aaaaah!"
"Sonic!"
It felt like being hit by an invisible sledgehammer. The collared hedgehog had been taken off guard by the shockwave blossoming out from the dark king and it had sent him flying, blue and peach limbs flailing uselessly in the air.
"Run to catch your worthless pet, Shadow, it won't save either of you! This day will be your last day alive!"
Shadow barely registered the sneering words of the alien king, his skates already moving on their own, propelling him forward at impossible speeds to reach his target. The Ultimate Lifeform had been able to react in time, the wave of the dark Chaos Blast parting around him, but Sonic had been hit full force. Shadow soared forwards, energy rippling around him, through him when he let it, giving him the extra force he needed to -
Shadow leapt.
When he caught Sonic, for a moment he wondered whether he'd ever be able to let go again.
"Umph!"
The breath was knocked out of the blue hedgehog's lungs as they impacted on the ground again, not in the middle of Black Doom's soldiers where his flight path had been aimed at first, but in a safe, empty spot Shadow had managed to drop them into. Reflexes brought the blue speedster's feet underneath him immediately as they landed, even if Shadow's arms would have held him up anyway. Convincing the black hedgehog to give up his death grip was a bit harder.
"Heh, nice save there, Shads – although you can really let go now, 'm fine."
The black hedgehog's eyes caught his for one, two heartbeats, Shadow looking down at him wordlessly for a moment and to Sonic it almost seemed as if the other had to force himself to move again, remind himself where and when they were, before he shifted his hands, allowing Sonic to stand up on his own.
"That was...close."
"Yeah." Sonic grimaced, then shrugged. "But we've been in worse spots before. Nothing we can't handle if we work together, right?"
Shadow's lips twitched. "I would hope so." He turned his head to where Black Doom had finally begun to yell his orders at his generals and was now starting to focus on the Acorn army, and black eye ridges drew together again.
"Right. We can't let him regain his focus or else King Max and the echidna tribe are going to suffer devastating losses. We need to distract him again and find a way to break his shield."
"Gotcha." Sonic nodded. "Okay, tell you what, you go there and play target practice with him again, I'm gonna get you some Chaos-magical back-up so we can maybe hack that soap bubble of his. Knux' li'l sis looked like she was itching for a round with the Big Bad, right?"
"She's an echidna. I have a suspicion that is their default state," Shadow replied dryly, before nodding. "Alright. You also need to take care of Scourge again, I have a feeling that Chaos Blast only slowed him down but didn't take him out. After all," he said and let his lips briefly spread into a wry smile, "I remember my Chaos Spears only knocking you out for a few minutes."
"Heh, yeah," Sonic gave him a lop-sided grin and a grimace. "I remember them hitting me in places the sun don't shine." He poked his tongue out, before becoming serious again. "Okay. I'll find Lara-Su and take care of the Snotsicle. Ready to rumble again?"
Shadow gave a curt nod, and then they were both already off again, the black hedgehog shooting straight for Black Doom on his commander's hill while his blue counterpart had disappeared toward the other side of the battle field, where it definitely was coloured more crimson – and Sonic hoped that was just the anteaters' fur colours, anyway.
"Knuckles! Hey Knux! You guys made it!"
The addressed echidna stopped in his fighting (that was, he stopped in his fighting by simply taking his opponent's blade away like an afterthought, and then breaking it across his knee. The attacking, now very wide-eyed porcupine only stared for a second before then turning tail and running, presumably to avoid Knuckles breaking him over his knee next). The son of the Guardian turned around and raised an eye ridge.
"You are still alive. That is impressive."
"What can I say? I..." he paused. "...well, let's just say that Bruce Willis named a couple of his flicks after me, if you know what I mean," Sonic replied with an easy shrug and a grin, stepping closer. "Listen, me and Shads already got pretty close to Black Doom but we're gonna need some chaotic help to break his shield. Your sister free to lend a hand?"
Knuckles frowned. "She can come with you, if that is what you mean. But..." he trailed off, seemingly struggling with the next few words. "I know it would be an honourable death for her to fall in a duel against the enemy king, but..." the son of the Guardian paused again, now staring at the floor as if ashamed for what he didn't even dare to ask. He looked up when Sonic put a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, no worries, bud, I getcha. I sorta have a kid sibling myself," the blue hedgehog added with a lopsided smile. "Me 'n Shadow will do everything we can to ensure Lara-Su won't earn that much honour in this war, okay?" he asked with a small wink.
"I...thank you," Knuckles said and it sounded sincere, violet eyes looking up again to make contact with Sonic's gaze briefly. "I will send her to prince Shadow's aid."
"Awesome. Thanks, Knux," Sonic replied, giving a thumbs-up. "I'll take care of that oversized lima bean, then, if you're okay here."
"We will be." Knuckles nodded. "We just...need to restore some sort of order into this fight," he said, giving a somewhat doubtful glance toward where Black Doom and Shadow were still battling, wayward projectiles of both of them terrifying every single unfortunate soldier that happened to be fighting too close to them, explosions of colliding Chaos Energy providing the soundtrack of reality being distorted.
Sonic grimaced a bit. "Yeah, tell that to Dumbledore and Sauron over there. Anyway," he said, "See you later, then. There's a hedgehog I need to trim!"
xxx
Scourge was not a happy general right now. He had just figured out that he was lying on his back somewhere in the middle of a battle field that was too damn loud for the headache he was also currently having, and the world – despite repeated threats – would not stop freaking spinning. The green hedgehog's skull felt like someone had broken a tavern stool on it – and then the tavern itself afterwards. What had happened? How had someone gotten the drop on hi-?
"Oh right," the general muttered. Memories of the chase, of that blue wretch's underhanded tactic that had led to him being incapacitated by his own king were coming back. Scourge's face twisted into an angry snarl. "That blasted hedgehog."
"Oh hey. Talking about me?"
Blue eyes widened slightly. This was mostly because a large portion of the sky above him had just been replaced by hedgehog. Scourge realized that Prince Shadow's slave was bent over him and giving the fallen general a wide grin that the green noble would have liked to disembowel him for.
"Trouble with step daddy?" Sonic asked sweetly.
Scourge twisted on his side, rolling to his feet in an instant, failing to score a hit on the collared hedgehog who seemed to have expected the movement and danced out of the way lithely. Scourge glared at him over his blade.
"I will end you."
"Suuuuure you will," Sonic replied, his tone suggesting that he would pet Scourge's head next if the green hedgehog continued to be so adorable. Then he snapped his fingers.
"Which reminds me. I actually wanted to do something before you woke up. One sec!" the hero of Mobius called, and before Scourge could even say anything else, he was left standing in the dust for the second time that day.
xxx
General Antoine D'Coolette had never been in a war all his life, and now he was facing not one, but two armies. He briefly wondered whether he should consider a career change.
Then his grip on his blade tightened. He had been wondering about the motives of his king, had occasionally doubted whether Black Doom's leadership was just and fair - especially when he had been commanded to kill that helpless blue-furred slave the day before yesterday...
But a knight's loyalty to his liege was absolute and he would rather die than break his vows. Antoine turned toward the first enemy soldier that was now charging toward him and raised his sword in the form of the school of the Raging Heart. The sounds of battle were drawing closer...
...wait. Since when did the sounds of battle sound like rapidly approaching running feet?
Antoine turned around, eyes briefly widening as the only thing he could see was a sort of disturbance in the air before wind was already whooshing past him, curiously accompanied by something that sounded like -
"Heythere'twansorryneedtoborrowthatawesomethanksbye!,"
- and then it was already gone.
It took a moment for Antoine D'Coolette to register that his very necessary sword was very suddenly now very gone. The coyote blinked.
"Vot?"
xxx
Shadow gritted his teeth as black Chaos energy was once again surging all around him, singeing his quills and nipping at his fur like piranhas in a wild water river. With the renewed energy, the Ultimate Lifeform was able to hold his own again, if he kept at a bit of a distance, but he could see that this fight was still not to his advantage. Black Doom had the high ground, had the Emerald, had the-
Has the chaos-damned *army*, Shadow realized with a gasp as he all but almost ran into a soldier that had suddenly charged into his way, blocking his evasion tactic.
"Sire! We have him cornered!" The raccoon barked, slicing at Shadow with a sword, and the black hedgehog abruptly had to acknowledge the utter truth of those words as he tried to step back to evade the other's blade, and felt a second one stab into his back as he tried. Within a second, he really was surrounded, more than half a dozen swords from all directions pointed at his neck, his head, his chest. Cautiously, he raised his hands.
"Sire!" The raccoon commander yelled again, trying to attract Black Doom's attention, who had lost Shadow briefly in their fight and now was looking around, but fortunately still into the wrong direction. The grey-furred soldier briefly turned narrowed eyes at Shadow.
"Any last words, by the way?"
The black hedgehog nodded. "Yes. Two."
"Really. And what-?"
And just as Black Doom was finally turning towards them, the only thing he could see was his wayward son, surrounded by soldiers, and smiling like a knife.
"Chaos Blast."
xxx
Sonic arrived back at Scourge's with a screech. The green hedgehog was already glaring not daggers, but atomic warheads at him, but fortunately still seemed to have been too addled to pursue him previously, as Sonic had hoped. The blue hedgehog gave a little wave.
"Hey there! Miss me?"
"So you got yourself a toothpick. You realize that's not gonna change the outcome of this duel, right?" Scourge drawled, giving Sonic's blade a deprecating glance.
The hero of Mobius shrugged. "Sure. I'd kick your butt with or without it. But I figured a sword fight would be more fun." He gave Antoine's blade a light twirl through the air. It wasn't what he was used to, it was a bit too thin for his taste, but the muscle memory came back easy. He could feel his body already falling into those same dance steps he had learned in yet another world, fighting another king. Sonic smirked.
"You watch it, green. I'll be the last one standing."
Scourge's reply was a charge.
Sonic side-stepped neatly, his blade deflecting Scourge's like an afterthought. When the green general whirled around, blue eyes narrowed and teeth bared in a snarl, Sonic had already straightened up again. The blue hedgehog raised a finger.
"Actually, wait. Think I forgot something. Be right back."
xxx
"Cheap tricks, Shadow! Your pitiful conjuring magic can't compare to the power of the stone!"
The Ultimate Lifeform grit his teeth. He was already up and tearing over the plain again, the unfortunate soldiers who had tried to trap him mere seconds ago flung away chaos knew where, dead or hurt, Shadow didn't know or care. His own situation looked dire enough.
Because Black Doom was right.
Shadow knew that even with the Chaos reserves he had drained from Sonic he couldn't hold a candle to the blazing, miniature sun that was the sheer, raw power focused within a Chaos Emerald. Running and fleeing, that's all I can do, Shadow thought with an internal growl, his resentment of this entire situation growing. It was what Sonic would do, and something the blue speedster also enjoyed immensely – he would dodge, and weave, and refrain from attacking on purpose, just because he thought it was fun to rile his enemy up and tire him out at the same time. To Sonic it had never seemed cowardly, just a natural application of his innate talent of speed and boundless energy.
To Shadow it was almost physically painful to have to turn tail and run.
But he needed to hold out until there were more warriors facing Black Doom's troops. From what he could see in brief, hasty glimpses stolen in between the fractions of a second when the dark king had allowed him a breather, their fight was not going that well yet. Even without a proper leader to tell them what to do, Black Doom's army was vast, always threatening to simply smother the army of Acorn and the tribe of echidnas with sheer numbers. No, they needed more support before he could leave this futile fight and regroup with Sonic...
But I can't keep this up...his muscles' weariness and strain were nagging at the back of his mind again, a constant reminder especially after he had indulged in that Chaos Blast before.
And I can't let Black Doom enter the fight with the other armies, either, Shadow thought grimly. He would burn them alive.
No, Shadow knew, the alien king needed to be kept busy. But if only he could think of a single distraction other than himself...and if only he wasn't so damn weak, not so pathetically exhausted, not so -
"You've never even been in a war, Shadow!" Black Doom roared, interrupting his train of thought, "Never even seen one from the inside! You will lose!"
Red eyes instantly narrowed. The Ultimate Lifeform threw up his hands.
No. I will not.
"I was created a weapon of mass destruction," Shadow said, even as the missile hit, but it didn't blast him off his feet. Yellow soles of hoverskates dug into the ravaged earth as the entire form of the black hedgehog braced against the impact, looking like he was trying to contain a comet. The energy was actually sinking into his skin now, into his palms and chest and outstretched arms; Shadow could feel it penetrating his skin, hot and foreign and burning with maliciousness, but he would bear it. "I have defended my home world four times over," he informed Black Doom who was watching with what looked almost like surprise. Shadow was concentrating now, on taming the aggressive energy within himself, forcing it to stop slicing him open from the inside, mixing it with his own and readying it to obey him instead. It hurt like knives churning in his chest, making him want to curl up and scream, but if Shadow was anything, it was not the inexperienced, naïve and sheltered prince Black Doom thought he was.
"My entire family died in gunfire," he said, letting his voice rise to a crescendo, just as the last lightning had sunk into his fur, completing the excruciating process of what had been seconds yet felt like years. But this wasn't the first time he had been forced to deal with Chaos energy invading him forcefully, experiments on him by GUN having assured his familiarity with murder long before he even came of age. And now he could feel it burning beneath his palms, waiting to be released in a single burst of unparalleled destruction just like back then.
Shadow took a breath, faced the king and remembered the burning.
"Black Doom," he simply said, voice steady as he raised his hand. "Don't tell me I know nothing of war."
xxx
It was a long way away from the battlefield where Silver watched a rather large explosion at the horizon from the top of the castle's turrets, and distinctly wondered whether instead worrying about Manic and his Master's tempter, he should maybe be concerned about leaving the country entirely.
xxx
"Er...a little 'elp? Please?"
It had not been a good day for Antoine D'Coulette, and judging by what he was seeing now, it was about to get worse rapidly. Because after suddenly losing his sword in a way he still couldn't quite reconstruct, now there was an echidna warrior advancing who, in the midst of the complete chaos of battle around him, seemed to have decided it was Antoine specifically who should die horribly. Only yesterday his sire, Black Doom, had told the troops about how it was their destiny to win this war, about how anyone opposing them was sub-sapient, vermin to be crushed, not even able to put up a decent fight – victory would be theirs before they knew it.
The echidna half a foot taller and a felt two feet wider while carrying a long, jagged blade at his belt did not look very crushable to Antoine.
Also, contrary to what Black Doom had said, the coyote general had heard stories about their tribe – their strength was legendary, their bravery unequaled, and their mercy...nonexistent.
Antoine started to take a step back.
The echidna started grinning.
And when he was only ten feet away, Antoine started panicking.
"Oh – oh no! Parlais! I plead parley!"
"Sorry," the echidna replied and there was an unholy light in his eyes as he drew his blade, "I don't speak Surrender."
Antoine would have liked to start running at this point but his knees sadly didn't feel like they would carry him very far.
"N-no! Je vous implore! I do not vish to die ye-!"
"Oh fer Chaossake's..."
And that was as far as Antoine came, because it was at this point that the strange wind that had taken his sword rushed past him again, only now it hit him in the back of the head so hard that the general's world instantly became a peaceful black. It was with a quietly uttered 'Mon dieu' that the coyote folded himself neatly on the ground. In front of him now stood a blue hedgehog holding a sword and the predatory expression of the echidna warrior was first replaced with one of shock and then one of complete and utter irritation.
"...the hell?! You? What are you doing here?!"
"Oh. Hey there...Rutan, right?" Sonic grinned at the echidna that had treated him so rudely yesterday at the camp fire, before stepping easily in front of Antoine's unconscious body, resting his sword on his shoulder and giving the warrior a smug shrug. "Basically what I told you, kiddo. Winning this war." He twirled the sword in his hand. "And look, it's kinda my fault poor Ant here doesn't have a blade any more, so, do me a favour and don't kill him, alright? Fighting an opponent without a weapon is really unfair." Sonic paused briefly, before adding, "...and besides, he's French. That's like, on par with kicking puppies."
He was talking quickly, because he had a feeling he had about three more seconds before Mt. Scourge on the other side of the battlefield erupted. Rutan was staring at him like a medieval knight might have, if you had just told this that this was a LARP playing field and if he could please exchange his sword for a stick with foam on it.
"So, uh, anyway. I knocked him out cold for the rest of the day, because frankly, that's probably best for the guy anyway, and if you could, like, put him behind a rock or something, that'd be great. Ta!"
And then Sonic was already gone, leaving behind yet another frustrated individual on the battlefield, and the hero of Mobius was only faintly wondering whether this day could potentially yet end with simply everyone trying to kill him.
xxx
Wind was buffeting around Shadow, tearing through his fur almost as fierce as Black Doom's Chaos energy that was trying to singe his skin beneath. His blast hadn't hurt the alien king, but it had made him more wary about attacking Shadow directly, and that little break was all Shadow had needed to tide him over a little bit longer. Above him, the clouds were swirling, as if nature itself had been stirred into consciousness and was now raging against the mockery their Chaos magic made of creation as it distorted reality and time like a funhouse mirror. Shadow was weaving through the alien king's onslaught of black lightning with an elegance that seemed utterly in contrast to his earlier attempts to dodge Antoine's blade through which Sonic had danced so easily; but this was simply because despite their similarities, Shadow had a different skill set, a different style of battle – and he knew that if applied correctly, it was no less graceful or less deadly.
But still, the last time he had fought this form of Black Doom, when had come to their penultimate battle aboard the Black Comet, it had been with Sonic at his side...
And even while he was trying to hide his pain, his exhaustion, and even, deep down, the sheer, gut-wrenching fear that maybe, this time he wouldn't be able to pull through, to win, that maybe this time he wouldn't be able to protect Sonic, he could hear Black Doom laughing again.
"You are tiring, Shadow! That pitiful body of yours was never meant to handle the power of Chaos!" The black hedgehog barely managed to throw himself out of the way of another carelessly thrown missile accompanying the words, the aim so shoddy, Shadow could feel his stomach sinking as he wondered whether Black Doom was perhaps even playing with him at this stage, knowing that he had basically won anyway. He couldn't repeat that little show from earlier, fearing that he'd simply pass out from the pain involved if he tried it again. Because he was too weak...because...
"You are alone, Shadow!"
Shadow gritted his teeth. He was. And it had always sufficed.
The black hedgehog had to bite back a scream as another blast of dark lightning seared his shoulder, Black Doom's laugh ringing in his ear almost worse than the physical burning.
"I told you, wars are won with armies!" Black Doom bellowed. "But you never were a leader, were you, Shadow?! You never had what it took to be a king! A sick, lonely freak you were, with only a wretched slave for company – and that is why your rebellion will fail!" The voice of the alien king thundered across the howls of the storm and the crackling of his dark lightning, "People would not follow you even if you had the last torch in a world of darkness!"
Shadow was glad that there was now so much dust and dirt in the air that he was sure Black Doom couldn't have possibly seen his expression. He threw a Chaos Spear that he knew wouldn't find its target, but he didn't care.
It shouldn't have hurt so much.
Logically, he knew that Black Doom was talking about the other Shadow, the prince from this dimension that he had never seen nor cared to meet – but that didn't mean his words weren't just as true. Shadow knew he was a freak, had always been a distrusted outcast, never as comfortable with people and as effortlessly skilled in forming bonds and friendships like Sonic. But because he had always been able to trust in his own strength, his own power, it had never been a reason to despair.
Only now it seemed that this failing would also lead to his death.
Sonic wouldn't be able to help him this time, Shadow knew the second he could feel himself reacting a split-second to late. The blue hedgehog was on the other side of the battlefield, fighting his twisted mirror image who seemed to be uncomfortably close in power to himself. He couldn't come again to Shadow's aid now, even if it was the same situation as the last time – a lance of black death, hurtling towards him, and he hadn't been able to leap in time, his energy too low and his muscles screaming in pain too loudly to save himself.
His last thought before the lance would hit was a last, desperate plea to anyone who was listening that Sonic was faring far better in his fights than he.
xxx
Silver, in his many years of being a slave trainer, had learned that often pets were sometimes 'in tune' with their Masters' feelings, even if their owner was far away. Now he was contemplating what Manic rocking in a corner could possibly mean..
xxx
"LOOK WILL YOU TAKE THIS BATTLE FUCKING SERIOUSLY FOR AT LEAST A SECOND YOU BLUE-FURRED SON OF A THREE-LEGGED COW AND A-!"
"Hey now, there's no need for name calling."
Scourge whirled around. The collared hedgehog's disappearance a minute ago had taken him by surprise and that was all the wretch had needed to vanish in the chaos of the fighting around them, leaving Scourge unable to follow.
Which was also why he had been screaming his lungs out for the past several moments.
The green hedgehog had to admit that this slave was the single most infuriating opponent he had ever faced, almost appearing to mock Scourge by looking like a reversed copy of himself that yet refused to bend to his will. In a train of thought more fuelled by frustration and paranoia than any rational impulse, Scourge had already wondered whether the other was even a mortal being at all, and not perhaps a trickster spirit that the Prince had somehow managed to capture – the way the blue whirlwind would wheel and leap, grin and smile and joke and bow, face Scourge without even a smidgen of the fear he usually inspired in his opponents, it really did seem as if he had never been a feral, caught and broken to be a slave but was instead an untamed and madcap creature from another world entirely.
And now he was back, still holding the stolen sword and meeting Scourge's gaze with an impunity as if he were a knight himself.
The green hedgehog's grip on his own sword tightened.
"Where've you been?"
"Oh, you know," Sonic shrugged. "Just tying up a few loose ends." He shifted his feet slightly, green eyes again flashing at Scourge in an open challenge like no one had dared issue to him for so long.
"Now, you all talk or...?"
When Scourge charged this time, Sonic met him head-on.
To be continued...
Well, there you go! Merry late Christmas and...a Happy New Year? :P
