Shadow had passed out while the four friends quietly and sneakily headed towards the escape pods. The blue hedgehog carried him while Maria walked behind him and Little Shadow walked behind her to protect her from any unsuspecting attacks.
The Ark was eerily quiet. Not a sound could be heard except for the soft tapping of shoes against the metal floors they walked on. Maria was shaking. Watching her friend travel to the brink of death protecting her terrified her beyond the imagination. She knew the hedgehog would protect her by any means, but she didn't know he would go as far as taking all of the bullets to prevent them from hitting her.
On one hand, it made her so happy to have a friend who was willing to protect her at all costs, but on the other, she would rather take a bullet herself than watch her friend be hurt. Whether Shadow would be okay was a question she was too afraid to ask, so she kept quiet. Little Shadow hasn't spoken a word since the incident, this terrified her, fearing the worst.
Said black hedgehog was having a mental war with himself. Why didn't he rush to save her? His feet felt like they were glued to the ground and his body wouldn't listen to his wishes. He could have helped Shadow protect her, but he didn't. He was created to keep her safe, but he wasn't able to. He froze. He is the ultimate lifeform! He's supposed to be good under pressure. He had failed her, in a way. That wouldn't happen again, he was sure of it. He would make sure it wouldn't happen again.
Sonic suddenly stopped in his tracks, his ears swiveled left and right, trying to determine where the rushing sound of footsteps was coming from. He quickly rushed to push Maria and little Shadow against the wall. He hurriedly gave Shadow to Maria who carried the limp hedgehog in her arms, kneeling down to hold onto him better. Little Shadow stood tall, guarding her and his inter dimensional self to the best of his ability.
The cobalt hedgehog got into a fighting stance, his trained eyes easily catching sight of the armed guards coming their way. What the hedgehog didn't hear was the overly armed soldiers coming from behind, their main focus was to grab the weakest member of the small group and use them as a hostage to get Project Shadow, but since they relayed to their commander that there were two Project Shadows, he ordered they bring in both experiments. It also just so happens that the current weakest member of the group was the unconscious and wounded hedgehog in the human girls arms.
Maria yelled when the guards grabbed onto her arms and yanked the unconscious hedgehog from her. Little Shadow turned around and was ready to attack anyone who dared to touch his friend but stopped in his tracks when he realized they got ahold of Shadow and were pointing a very large gun at his head. The commander never said he needed them alive.
The guard let go of Maria and she hurried to Little Shadow, knowing he would protect her. Maria's Yelp also caught the attention of Sonic, who gave death stares at the soldier who dare harmed his friends and boyfriend.
"Surrender Project Shadow or face the consequences," the soldier proved his point by pressing the barrel of the gun harder onto Shadow's head.
Sonic could only watch in terror and anger. His body felt like it was on fire, fueling his raged filed body but he knew he couldn't let it out. Shadow was in danger, Maria was scared, and Little Shadow was trying to protect her while everything seemed like it was falling apart at the seems.
The cobalt hedgehog wracked his brain for something, anything, to defuse this situation. He knew the GUN soldiers weren't kidding when they said they would face consequences if they didn't hand over Little Shadow, but this was too much.
How were they supposed to handle this situation? How were they supposed to get out of this alive?
Sonic growled, his ears flattened against his head,"let him go."
The soldier holding the weapon to the slowly awakening hedgehog said nothing, only pressing the muzzle of the gun harder onto Shadow's skull.
The injured black hedgehog gave a soft growl, everyone now realizing he was waking up from being unconscious. Knowing Shadow would immediately try to fight the soldier even in his extremely weakened state, Sonic spoke up,"Shads, stay calm. We got a problem but it'll be solved, okay?"
A bloodshot ruby eye slowly opened, he tried to look around, but was prohibited when the gun was smacked on the top of his head. A ringing surrounded the inside of Shadow's head, the black hedgehog looked over at his boyfriend one last time before going completely limp, the blow to his head knocking him out once again.
"Don't touch him!" Sonic's fists clenched tighter, his blood boiling in anger at what he and his friends witnessed. Maria stood behind Little Shadow in horror, her own black hedgehog getting angrier at the GUN soldiers.
"Give us Project Shadow and you two shall live, protest in any way and you will be shot on sight."
Little Shadow glanced between Sonic and Maria, his two closest friends were in danger and it was because of him. Taking a deep breath, the small hedgehog turned to the soldiers,"I'll go with you. But you leave them alone."
"Shadow!" Maria tried to grab onto her long time companion, but a soldier came from behind and held her back, when Little Shadow turned to tell them to back off, he was detained by two other guards.
Sonic silently yet angerily watched the scene unfold. He saw the tears stream down Maria's flustered cheeks as Little Shadow panicked at the sight of them holding onto his best friend. He turned to the left and saw one of the soldiers roughly throw his unconscious boyfriend into a metal cage that was way too small for his size. The pure Chaos Energy that flowed through his veins seemed to burn his blood, his body shivered violently before his fur turned a shade of blue akin to black. His once alive and vibrant green eyes now vanished and his quils turned upward, similarly to his boyfriends. The lights flickered and the air became heavy, as if the all the Chaos energy that the Ark held was being pulled towards Sonic's body. Although the Chaos energy in their current dimension was the complete opposite of their own, Sonic's rage put his body into overdrive, physically changing the chaos energy to his body's needs.
The soldiers along with little Shadow and Maria all turned toward him, the ladder of the three knowing this form of Sonic was not a particularly good one but one much needed. The guards holding onto them let go and grabbed their guns, immediately pointing at Sonic's body, ready for the commander to give the order to fire.
While the focus was purely on Sonic, he used his powers to pull the manipulated Chaos Energy that was forced to change into something he was able to use, he redirected it to Shadow, his wounds and deep cuts healing within minutes. The black hedgehog bolted awake, hitting his head on the top of the cage.
"What the fuck," He growled, gaining the attention of all the soldiers who stared in awe of the now awake and healed hedgehog.
Growling once again, he grabbed the bars of the cage with his hands and pulled them out of their sockets, providing him a way to exit the poor excuse for a cage. As soon as he stepped foot out of containment, the gun was aimed at his head once again by the same soldier.
"Move and I'll kill you," the male soldier threatened, assuming his voice was strong enough alone to keep the hedgehog in place.
Shadow chuckled, thinking quick on his feet, he turned and side kicked the gun away but grabbed the hand that held the weapon and flipped the guard over his own body and slammed the male onto the cold hard floor,"threaten me again, and I will not hesitate to exterminate you."
Sonic's form stayed quiet, his anger getting the better part of him. The hedgehog clenched his teeth hard, the feeling to beat all of the soldiers becoming almost overwhelming. But he knew they were following orders from someone higher up. Taking a deep, calming breath, he slowly let his dark form fade once again.
He looked over to Shadow who was glaring at the soldiers as he walked over to Little Shadow and Maria to help them stand and to make sure the duo was physically okay.
Sonic turned to the soldiers in the direction that they were originally traveling,"so are you guys gonna let us go through? Or are we going to have to make you?"
After this was questioned, the soldiers pointed their guns at Sonic and both Shadow's, one soldier grabbed Maria's arm and yanked her away from the two ebony hedgehogs she was with so she wouldn't get hit by the stray bullets.
The three hedgehogs were pushed into the middle, their backs pressed against one another in a fighting stance, all glaring at the soldiers who wouldn't back down.
"Hurt, but don't kill, got it?" Sonic spoke, not taking his eyes off of the soldiers in front of him.
Both Shadow's nodded in agreement, no one needed to die, they just needed to escape the space prison they were held on currently.
Within a blink of an eye, all three hedgehogs were punching and kicking the soldiers and one by one, they all went down. Their bodies lay unconscious, but what caught their attention was a young soldier holding a gun to Maria's head, his hand shook, knowing it wouldn't end well. Either he would kill an innocent girl or he would get killed by three homicidal hedgehogs.
"Drop the gun," Shadow growled, his ears pinned back and chaos energy bounced off his finger tips, a chaos spear quietly and quickly forming. When the soldier didn't move, he was bolted by a chaos spear that blasted him against the nearby wall. Maria ran to her Shadow and hugged him tightly while also thanking his older counterpart.
Taking a deep breath, Sonic nodded his head in the direction of the escape pods,"cmon guys, let's get out of here."
