The Unbearable Absence of Blue

by BefuddledPenguin

Sonic has been missing for over a year and Tails has begun to become concerned. Whilst this is a problem a more immediate concern is the sudden disappearance of the Chaos Emeralds. Even Knuckles cannot find them using the Master Emerald. Where has Sonic gone, is his disappearance linked to the Emeralds? My first ever fanfic, so reviews will be greatly appreciated.

27. Blast the Past

Yale awoke with a start, his blurry vision wandered around a sea of eyes. Some familiar, others less so.

"He'…he's okay! He's alright!" yelled a strangers voice, jubilant cheers and clapping soon followed.

His eyes closed for a moment as he took a ragged breath, coughing a little as he did so. His eyes, opened again, he had to blink a few times and shake his head a little. He stroked back the brown feathers from across his eyes as his vision began to focus. A pair of glistening red eyes caught his attention first. The soft, pale orange rabbit placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"H…Hi," Ruby stammered, "Um… are you okay, d…do you remember what h…happened?"

Someone else managed to push through the large crows that had formed around him.

"Give him some space!" Pel shouted at the crowd around him, "That's what people are meant to do at times like this right?"

He glanced over towards the younger rabbit, looking for reassurance.

"I…I think so," she mumbled.

"Come on buddy," Pel said, placing a hand on his other shoulder, "Let us help you up,"

Yale found himself being lifted onto his feet by his friends, both of whom panted slighted. Pel, in particular, seemed out of breath.

Yale steadily shifted his weight from his friends to his own talons, he placed a weak wing against the wall to hold himself.

"What…what's been happening?" Yale asked to no one specific.

"We did it buddy, we won!" Pel answered excitedly. "Ruby and I freed everyone and shut this factory down."

"Oh yeah…yeah I remember," Yale replied, with a small smile. "Was anyone else hurt?"

"Um, no I don't think so," Pel said, "Everyone's good right?"

He turned back to the hundred or so people who cheered in response.

"Okay, okay cool. So…so why hasn't everyone gone home?"

"I…I think they wanted to make sure you were okay," Ruby guessed.

"Oh…okay. Well yeah, I'm good guys, thanks," Yale said to the crowd, a little awkwardly.

The crowd just continued to look at him in quiet awe, before a lynx spoke up.

"We should be thanking you man, without you we'd all totally be robots right now," the lynx said.

"Like, your badass screech thing was totally awesome," a vixen stated, "it was like, so super loud it, like, blew up all the robots and stuff,"

The gushing continued, rippling amongst the former prisoners.

"Guys, seriously, I couldn't have done it without Pel and Ruby." Yale stated loudly, feeling a little embarrassed.

"You guys all helped too, like that bear dude," Pel said, pointing at a crowd member, "he ripped the hands off so many robots,"

"Heh, it was easy with them already broken," the bear replied.

"So what are we gonna do next?" A human kid asked.

A silence suddenly spread across the crowd.

"Next? I don't know…" Yale started.

A loud bang silenced him. Another bang threw him from the wall.

"Woah…RUN!"

The crowd did exactly as commanded just in time. Yale grabbed Ruby and flew to the factory's ceiling just in time to see the wall he was leaning against get stabbed and ripped away by a giant spike. Yale briefly shut his eyes as the morning sun tore into his retinas.

"YALE MOVE!" Ruby screamed.

Yale did so, corkscrewing as fast as he could holding Ruby in his wings as they landed on the hard metal grating of a walkway. He grabbed onto the guard rails and watched as a massive robot with two huge spiked wrecking balls lashed out with reckless abandon. Its spherical body hovered above the prisoners, threatening to burn them with its propulsion jet.

"PRISON BREAK IDENTIFIED! NEUTRALISING ALL PRISONERS!" it's digitized voice blared. A flap lifted, revealing laser sights which began targeting the scrambling prisoners.

"Damn it, guess we're not done!" Yale shouted as he perched atop the guard rail and launched himself at the robot, corkscrewed as rapidly as possible, smashing directly into the laser sight. He was surprised to find himself joined by a blackbird who mimicked his pecks.

"WATCH OUT!"

Yale felt himself get knocked off the robot, he looked back at the robot clumsily trying to remove the spike ball from its own steel plating. Yale realised that he and his fellow flyer had been saved from being crushed by milliseconds by the lynx-girl.

"Hey, thanks," He said, nodding to the girl.

"No problem," she said breathlessly, as she sprinted back towards the robot.

Yale quickly took the opportunity to watch as the prisoners worked together to fight the robot and protect each other from the onslaught.

"Huh," was his only response.

Pel was hesitant to use his signature move in this fight. The maelstrom of aggressive bodies fighting against the central sphere that had just smashed through several prison cells was simply too dense to risk spraying his steel-softening saliva. He heard a yell of 'watch out' and glanced around in a panic before realising, with some relief, that the yell wasn't directed at him. He saw a young lemur just barely dodge the killbot's haphazardly swung weapon, which was now firmly planted in the ground. He quickly grasped onto an idea implanted in his mind by nothing more than panic, leaping atop the killbot's chain-link limb. He began to topple back onto the spike, but a force from an unidentified source pushed him forward onto his knees.

"What are you playing at man?" Yale asked, worriedly.

Pel responded by spitting his acid on the chain below him. The smell of molten steel hit his senses just a moment before a whirring sound left him and Yale staring at an angrily glowing red light. Then Pel once again felt himself shoved, this time landing on the hard steel grating as he watched a laser blast straight through the spot he was in just a second before.

"B…Be caref…" Ruby stammered, before being interrupted by a swinging chain whipping towards her. She managed to leap above it just in time as Pel rolled himself out of harm's way. Yale was flying above them.

"This is stupid! Someone's going to get hurt!" He yelled in a panic.

"T…tell people what t…to do!" Ruby stammered back. "If you'd...distract it, I think I can b…break that bit with the laser."

"What! Are you…!?" Yale started, but Ruby had already hopped off, "that girl's nuts!"

"She's right though, if you get everyone to work together we'll do better." Pel opined, dragging himself off the floor. As he did so he spotted a young cat, barely out of kittenhood, about to be struck so he sprinted towards her, just barely shoving her out of the way in time as the sound of a steel ball scraping against the steel-grated floor became for too familiar for his liking.

"Thanks," the girl wheezed.

"It's okay, go!" Pel instructed. She tried to climb the rubble to escape the fight but a red light appearing on the rocks immediately dissuaded her as the laser scorched the concrete slabs.

A skull rattling screech suddenly forced Pel to his knees. He turned around to find the source.

"FLYERS, WITH ME!" Yale squawked, "GROUND FIGHTERS, JOIN WITH PEL! ATTACK FROM THIS SIDE! ALL OTHERS! CLIMB OUT!"

Pel did as instructed, surprised to see just how many others joined him, gathering behind him, many of them grabbing weapons and tools from the ground as they did so.

"GROUND TEAM! GRAB THE BROKEN CHAIN AND PULL!" Yale instructed.

Pel was the first to obey, leaping forward to grab the haphazardly whipping chain. He barely managed to get a single claw around it before pulling himself up and clinging on for dear life. Soon however he found himself joined by several other creatures. A lynx was the first to join him, gripping the chain a little above Pel, followed by a tiger, then a wolf. With all this weight the death-sphere began to lean slightly towards, slowing down just enough for the large bear to grab the very top of the chain and yank it towards the ground.

Just as Pel's paws touched the ground he spotted Yale, along with several other birds, pulling the chain, with spike ball still attached, towards the ground. The stress was clearly visible as they pulled.

"Keep going!" Yale strained, "Just a bit longer,"

Suddenly the chain went slack, before he could see why Yale yelled out.

"Let go! RUN!"

Pel sprinted towards the remains of a steel staircase and slid underneath. A few splashes of light against the wall was the only warning he got, just enough time to cower, covering his eyes and ears, he felt a violent vibration and heard a scream.

"RUBY!" Yale yelled as his eyes traced a screaming, ever-receding shape burn away, eventually disappearing behind the city skyline.

---

Shadow's meditative mind was gently interrupted by the sound of gently flapping wings. He opened his eyes to the sight of the sunrise and the feeling of a warm glow, visibly spreading across the rust-coloured sand. He turned to see Rouge flying towards him from the tank he had quickly started to think of as home. She appeared to be carrying a number of oddly shaped items hidden under a grey cloth.

"Good morning Rouge," Shadow greeted politely, "What do you have there?"

'Just a few things I borrowed from the island' Rouge replied.

"Borrowed?" Shadow asked, a small smirk crawling across his face, "or stole?"

"Payment for a job well done, admittedly it was unknowingly paid but I think it was well earned. I remember you liked this stuff." Rouge smiled back, revealing a full bottle and a couple of Glencairn glasses.

Shadow took the bottle he was handed and read the label.

"'Samidas Honey Whisky, approved by the Royal House of Lume, as favoured by the Queen herself,'" Shadow read aloud, "A little early in the day don't you think?"

"Meh, I've been reading all night so it's still late for me. I don't want to think how long a day you've had." Rouge commented as she took the bottle and began to use her fang to pry it open.

"Been a good nine months or so, babies have been conceived and born since I last slept," Shadow replied with a smile.

The cap came off with a satisfying pop. Rouge poured a glass for herself and Shadow, giving Shadow a far more generous portion of the liqueur. Shadow smirked as he was handed the glass.

"You remembered how I like it too. Tall." He joked as he took a sip, he closed his eyes and relished the gentle burn. "We haven't drank together in a long time."

"It's been a few years yeah, I'm guessing that's because of Sonic right?" Rouge asked before having a sip herself.

"Mmm? What do you mean?"

"Well, you remember right? We used to come home from a mission, hang out in the club, watch the dancers together, and then…you know…"

"Oh, right. Well…Sonic might have had something to do with it. I've never talked to him about our…free time." Shadow replied sheepishly.

"Ooh so even from your boyfriend I'm a naughty little secret," Rouge smirked.

"Well, I mean, he's never asked so…" Shadow trailed off.

"It's okay babe, I haven't told anyone either. But am I right, the day you started turning down the drinks is when you got with Sonic?"

Shadow glanced around.

"Don't worry honey, the kids are still in bed." Rouge joked.

"Yeah, enjoying your company was a habit I couldn't really maintain." Shadow answered honestly.

"No worries Shadow, I wish you'd told me though…honestly I thought you'd just got bored of me or you weren't into me anymore. I mean…I had no idea you were gay." Rouge stated candidly.

Shadow choked on his drink slightly, coughing.

"What? No…no I'm bi I think. I mean I am the Ultimate Life Form after all." He said with a smile, "I'm not going to let something as weak as gender stand in my way."

Rouge just stared at him for a moment.

"You…I assumed that…" Rouge looked down sadly.

"What? I still think you're beautiful. That hasn't changed." Shadow said, attempting to reassure her.

"But?" Rouge insisted.

Shadow sighed.

"But Sonic…opened up to me. He was honest with me. I talked to him about how I felt and he listened and he shared his true self with me."

"So you just prefer Sonic to me because he was honest with you?" Rouge enquired.

"Well, I mean…preferred is the wrong word. I got very close with Sonic, we know almost everything about each other. I still don't if Rouge is your real name." Shadow answered carefully.

"You don't regret it though right? What we got up to?"

Shadow looked at her and felt a smile crawl across his face.

"Hell no. We had fun, plus you were my first so…" Shadow started.

"No way! Seriously?" Rouge asked.

"What? Surprised, Well I guess given how good I was I suppose you might have thought…"

"Oh shut up Mr. Fifty Year Old Virgin." Rouge laughed, "You weren't that good."

"Oh come off it!" Shadow laughed back "The strippers downstairs were complaining about the noise!"

"One time! That happened one time!" Rouge shouted back, giggling and downing her drink. She attempted to take back the bottle but Shadow held it out of reach.

"We shouldn't Rouge, we have a long day ahead of us, and I think the kids would notice." Shadow said.

"Ugh fine I'll just have one more." Rouge acquiesced, Shadow nodded and poured her another small measure, "Since when did you get all sensible and boring?"

"It's the alcohol I'm sure," Shadow stated, gulping down his sizable portion, "Come on, we should hide this before Tails and the others wake up."

"I wonder if Tails can fly when he's drunk," Rouge said, "I can manage it but maybe his tails would get all twisted and he'd fall on his face."

"Part of me would love to see that. Honestly the kid's a nightmare, I like Amy and Knuckles, they're fine, but Tails is just…" Shadow trailed off.

Rouge smiled at him, before joining him in leaning against the rock, having a smaller sip now that she had decided to moderate herself.

"Tails is just a very intelligent person Shadow. People with very high IQs are either poor socialisers or charismatic psychopaths, there isn't much space in-between. Tails' friends are all Sonic's friends, he doesn't have his own. He gets away with a lot by being a cute kid." Rouge said.

"Of course you'd be on his side, he fancies the hell out of you." Shadow replied with an eye-roll.

"Of course he does, the kid's got taste," Rouge said with a smile, "He's pubescent too, worst time to be alive for a lot of people, emotions just run too high then. People behave irrationally then hate themselves for it after."

"Glad I skipped all that," Shadow said.

"Did you? You sure wanting to destroy the world wasn't just 50 years of not getting laid coming out?" Rouge joked.

"Well, maybe a little from column A…"

"So I guess me deflowering you might have saved the world." Rouge joked. "On that topic…while we're alone, I want to ask you about our strategy going forward."

"What strategy? Tails just seems to wander about, having us help wherever we can." Shadow commented.

"That's what I mean, should we continue? Do you remember what we were talking about in White Space, and back at Eggman's lab? This place is especially bad because of all the chaos here right?" Rouge asked rhetorically.

"I mean, sort of…"

"Our world was peaceful for a full year because the Chaos Emeralds weren't here. Chaos follows chaos, an absence of chaos leads to peace right?"

"What are you suggesting Rouge?" Shadow asked, sounding uneasy.

"Until recently, we didn't even know this dimension existed." Rouge said, "I certainly didn't until I bumped into that Blaze girl at Sonic's party. Do you know how many people live here Shadow?"

"Erm well no I..."

"About two hundred thousand. We have over three billion people on our planet Shadow. If we were to just leave, right now. Our planet could have peace for millions of years. We can just let all the Chaos dissipate from our world and that's it. Done. Maria's dream realised Shadow, in one move."

"All it would cost is the happiness, freedom and lives of thousands of people.' Shadow stated darkly.

"But think about it Shadow," Rouge implored, "We know of two dimensions, there could be a many more that we are harming in all sorts of ways we don't understand. So why not focus on our dimension? On the 3 billion people we're sworn to protect?"

"If we are capable of helping these people then we should. They are here in front of us Rouge…"

"But that was our error, interfering in someone else's problems…"

"Our Eggman is our dimension's problem" Shadow stated.

"Urghh! But we could prevent so much harm Shadow! You said yourself that Sonic's problem is Chaos related…"

"Sonic wouldn't agree to this," Shadow interrupted, "I'm sure Tails will be the same. We shouldn't trade lives like that."

Rouge just sighed heavily and began pacing around, counting off reasons on her fingers.

"I have done so much research into this Shadow. These people cannot be saved. The Queen was a dictator. Eggman will easily fill that role too. The cycle will continue forever, it's ingrained into their culture completely. This is not Yagyai Shadow. This is an eternity of oppression, they will never know any different. This chaos, right now, is probably the least oppressed they've ever been but all they want to do is rebuild. To return to their queen."

"If that's what they want, who are we to say they are wrong? It's not a reason to let them die." Shadow replied dismissively.

"Yeah…fine. You've spent too much time with these soft kids Shadow. Where's the old guy, the one who wanted to watch the world be destroyed?"

"He cheered up. You should too Rouge. I'm worried about you."

"Pfft, I'm fine Shadow. If you insist on following Tails then that's what we'll do. I'm outvoted, I get it."

Shadow looked sceptically at Rouge for a moment. He completely understood her logic, but it was unacceptably cold.

"I think this world is what happens when there is too little chaos Rouge. I think fascism is the antithesis of chaos. Freedom is inherently chaotic." Shadow thought aloud. "Our world would only be peaceful for so long before it slipped into a dictatorship of some kind."

"Maybe," Rouge said noncommittally, "Looks like Tails is up and about."

Rouge pointed towards something flying above the tank. Shadow quickly hid the bottle behind a rock, much to Rouge's amusement.

"He's not your mum Shadow, chill" Rouge said, as Tails spotted her, waved and flew over.

"Aww, isn't he sweet?" Rouge cooed to Shadow.

"Erm, good morning guys," Tails said, hovering just high enough to prevent his feet from touching the sand "Are you planning on continuing Amy's training today?"

"Mornin' cutie" Rouge replied, causing a blush to crawl across Tails' face, "I think one more day will suffice. She only needs a tiny bit of support from me and then she'll be able to get better exclusively by sparring with Knuckles. I'm rather fond of them as a couple. What do you think Tails?"

"Yeah, if they trust each other they'll be better at fighting together, I can use that to strategize…"

Rouge smiled back at him.

"Forget work for a moment Tails. What do you think about Amy and Knuckles been together?" Rouge persisted.

"Erm… it's nice? I don't know…they seem happier…and Amy won't be chasing Sonic all the time which will keep her more out of harm's way…"

Rouge rolled her eyes towards Shadow in a 'you see what I mean' manner.

"Rouge wants to know what you feel, not what you think." Shadow tried to explain.

"Well, what do you feel about it?" Tails asked Shadow defensively.

"Well I don't know Knuckles well." Shadow began, "But from what I've seen, he has a good heart but finds it difficult to make himself vulnerable. Amy spots vulnerability immediately and sees it as a strength, so I feel like the instant he opened himself up to her about his reading problem they were bound to get together."

"Yep, that was my hypothesis", Rouge boasted, "that's why I sent you to get the books."

"Wait seriously?" Tails asked.

"Of course, I could've stolen them myself once I was cured if I just wanted books." Rouge smirked.

"So I crawled through dirty tunnels just so that you could play cupid?" Shadow asked.

"Worth it though right?" Rouge smirked.

"Ugh…I mean…yes. But you could've just told me" Shadow replied, annoyed.

"Nah, you're a bad actor sugah, if I told you my plan you wouldn't have done the right thing with Knuckles. You'd have tried to learn a script or something."

"So…sorry what was the right answer? About Knuckles and Amy?" Tails interrupted.

"It would be something like, 'I'm happy for them' if you are. Or 'I'm not sure they'll last'." Shadow said.

"How could I know if they'll last though?" Tails asked, scratching his ears, baffled. "They seem happy at the moment, but I can never guess when either of them will get super angry about something."

"Don't worry about it Tails," Rouge said, looking closely at him.

"Erm…" Tails said, shyly, "What are you staring at me like that for?"

Rouge stroked back his hair slightly, "I think you'd look cuter with your fur slicked back a bit," Rouge responded before backing off and pacing, "Erm…anyway, plan for today is to train Amy up some more. I want her to be able to knock Knuckles off his feet in a straight fight at least once today. Even if she doesn't succeed, I think we should move on tomorrow, are you happy with that?"

"Oh, erm yeah sure. I want to find more settlements, see if we can connect them all up, I'm going to check on the others. Meet back at the tank in an hour?"

"You got it boss," Rouge smiled.

Tails awkwardly smiled back before heading back towards the Avalanche.

"Why'd you talk about his fur?" Shadow asked.

"I just wanted him to shower." Rouge answered with a smirk, before finishing her drink.

---

Sonic's eyes suddenly opened. He stretched a little, vaguely aware of a lavender scented perfume making its way towards him. He looked back at the beautiful princess lying next to him, briefly wondering how many other, normal, people would fantasise about this situation.

He hadn't had nightmares or anything, but he felt a little odd. Like he was slightly sleep deprived. Maybe Blaze had woke him up or…

A shudder awoke the princess from her slumber.

"Hmm, what…?"

Another shudder. Sonic caught Blaze's equally questioning eyes before a third, louder shudder jolted them from bafflement to action. Sonic leapt to his feet, grabbing his scabbard as he sprinted towards the mountain-top throne room.

Sonic heard screams before he saw anything. He ran past the ornate throne and leant his body out of the gap in the mountain to get a clearer look at the carnage beneath him. Hundreds of robots were spilling from a huge air carrier wearing Eggman's insignia. Before Sonic could leap towards it a flame cut across him.

"Evacuate the villagers!" Blaze shouted, "Don't come back until everyone's safe!"

Before he could object a blast of heat knocked him off balance as Blaze had leapt from the mountain, leaving a trail of embers in her wake.

"But…damnit!" Sonic snarled impotently, as sprinted around the side of the cavern and leapt towards the populated village. He had to rotate through the air to dodge the poorly aimed bullets being fired by the panicked civilians.

"GO! RUN! We got this!" Sonic yelled at no one in particular.

They ignored him, some ran straight past him, taking cover behind buildings or within craters from the previous attack.

"The Queensguard will protect us!" One of the rallying koalas yelled. "Look!"

Sonic followed the koala's hand gesture; he was pointing towards the large spire which was now glowing and buzzing with energy. Tendrils of pale blue energy rotated around the spire, translucent enough to make their origin clearly visible.

"It's still charging!" Sonic yelled incredulously, "Run dammit!"

The first wave of badniks encroached upon the village. Their caterpillar treads ensured that their approach moved at an unnaturally consistent pace. They would be on the villagers in mere moments.

Luckily Sonic had faced these robots before. Grounders, one of the earliest badnik models, could be destroyed by jumping on them from afar, they were close range attackers used more for construction than anything else.

Sonic's analysis was quickly proven wrong when the drill bits collectively began spinning, becoming redder and redder.

Sonic glanced around and, to his horror, noticed that none of the villagers had begun to retreat.

"What the hell is wrong with you people!" Sonic yelled in frustration, "These things could…"

Sonic was interrupted by the sound of an explosion, he instinctively turned towards the origin of the noise and managed to kick defensively just in time to prevent being stabbed by a drill bit.

"Arghh!" a koala behind him yelled as some shrapnel slashed across his shoulder, leaving a deep gash.

Sonic was furious when the injured koala began to take aim with his rusty rifle again. Before he could vent his frustrations, he felt his quills stand on end. He turned just in time to see an all-encompassing blue light head towards him. He leapt over it in panic before realising what it was.

Sonic's relief at Tails' machine doing its job lasted mere milliseconds before all the Grounders exploded, sending uncontrolled shrapnel and drill bits hurtling towards him.

He threw his arms up to protect himself with a column of wind which sent the shrapnel flying above him. It took just a single moment for Sonic to strategically expand the wind column to protect the others.

By then the damage had been done. He heard several wet splashes and yells of pain. The instant the last drill bit had gone hurtling overhead into the red sand behind him he turned behind him to see a lot of injured civilians some of whose injuries were fatal. Sonic saw one koala take his final breath before bleeding lifelessly into the sand.

"The…the Queen…" an injured koala murmured.

"IS A USELESS BITCH!" Sonic yelled furiously, blowing the citizens back several feet, before taking a few breaths to calm himself and gesturing towards a body, "You need to protect yourself, run. Or you'll end up the same way."

The citizens glared at him reproachfully before slinking away; many of them had to be supported by others as they limped out of sight.

Sonic had wondered how so many members of Marine's crew had been killed. He didn't have any doubt left in his mind.

He took a sad look at the four bodies in front of him and felt a great sense of failure. He assumed Blaze had felt the same way before she had been captured.

It was that thought alone that forced him to go and find his royal companion.

---

Amy was sat closely beside Knuckles, she watched as he mindlessly munched on the toast she'd made for them both. She lifted his unused right arm and placed herself underneath it, tentatively nuzzling into his chest. Knuckles shyly smiled, placing his large hand around her waist silently, continuing to eat his breakfast serenely. This peaceful scene was interrupted by the slam of a soggy cast striking atop the table.

"Erm, Amy could you help me replace this thing please?" Tails asked awkwardly, "I can't do it myself."

"You got it wet in the shower?" Knuckles asked, "Why didn't you cover it or something?"

"I was err… thinking of other stuff." Tails replied.

"I can try," Amy said as she slowly detached herself from her partner, "sit yourself over there."

Tails did as instructed, hovering over to the sofa and allowing Amy to hold his casted legs out in front of him.

"Can you get the table please babe?" Amy requested, before quickly correcting "Knuckles, I meant Knuckles."

Amy blushed a little as Knuckles brought the coffee table closer, they worked together to get Tails in position.

"I…I'm okay with you calling me babe…babe." Knuckles whispered with an embarrassed smile.

Amy hid her mortified smirk before giving him a genuine smile back. She was surprised to hear Tails comment.

"Erm…it's nice that you two are together." Tails said quickly before moving onto a more comfortable subject, "Rouge wants you to train together a bit more before we move on."

"Thank you," Amy said sincerely, "Yeah I'm glad Shadow encouraged me to train. Knuckles has been good with me. Even if he spent most of last night apologising."

"I just don't like hitting people much," Knuckles commented, "especially you."

"I expected a lot more yelling between you if I'm honest." Tails commented, before relenting when they stared at him "I just mean you both used to lose your temper a lot."

"Oh…well Knuckles doesn't run away like Sonic did." Amy responded, before tearing open the seam at the back of Tails' cast, "Ew…I'm glad you showered before taking it off, this thing is gross."

"Well yeah, it's been stuck on me for a few weeks now so…" Tails said.

The cast came away slowly, Amy delicately held Tails feet and lowered them onto the desk. She noticed him inhale slightly as she let go of his feet, but he expressed no other sign of pain or discomfort.

"Is it nearly better yet?" Knuckles asked curiously.

Tails lent back further and gently lifted one leg after another repeatedly, before resting them back on the table. He glanced at Amy, who gave a cautious nod. Tails very slowly bent his left knee to his chest, panting slightly as he did so, before returning it and doing the same to his other leg.

"It's a bit weak, but I think I might be able to stand," Tails said hopefully, again looking to Amy for reassurance.

"Okay, we can try, let Knuckles and I hold you though," Amy said nervously.

Tails nodded, holding his arms wide allowing Knuckles and Amy to assist him as he stood for the first time in weeks. His legs felt extraordinarily stiff, but as he was lifted he was overcome with relief as he was finally able to maintain his own weight again. Slowly Knuckles and Amy backed away and Tails stood up independently for the first time since the fight against Whisker. He had a few moments of contemplation before taking a single step forward.

"Careful!" Amy fussed, but continued to watch as Tails walked, albeit with his arms askew for balance, from the sofa to his command chair, he leaned against the backrest before rotating it and taking the seat, facing Amy and Knuckles.

"Are…are you all better then?" Knuckles asked hopefully.

"I don't think so, not quite. But not long to go." Tails said, trying to sound hopeful, "I won't be fully healed until I can run and jump again."

"It might take a bit of physical therapy too, it's better to be sensible," Amy said, sounding slightly disappointed.

"Could you put me in a new cast?" Tails asked, "I don't want to be tempted."

"I don't have one, but I could wrap your legs in medical tape," Amy suggested, "at this stage it's just as good. It'll stop you moving your legs at least."

"This is good, it'll be nice letting Shadow and Rouge know you're getting better." Knuckles commented.

"No, don't tell them yet." Tails said, causing Amy to give him a sceptical look, "I'd rather not have people fawn over me."

"But Shadow has been super worried about you," Knuckles said.

"He'll get over it once I'm fully recovered. Shouldn't take more than a week and some of that therapy Amy was talking about."

Amy had found some soft padding and medical tape and had begun wrapping up his legs again.

"It might take some time, regaining muscle memory and everything, that's why your balance isn't so…" Amy began, before glancing up and interrupting herself, "Have you always styled your hair like that?"

"Oh, some of my human students do it, I thought I'd try it," Tails lied quickly, seeing Amy finish her work he flew straight to the tank entrance, "We should hurry, the others are waiting."

As Tails left, he could have sworn he heard Knuckles speak.

"He's acting even weirder than usual".

---

Amy lifted herself onto the now familiar rocky plateau, feeling the cool breeze flow through her quills, trying her best to ignore the slight ache of overexertion throughout much of her bruised body. She watched Knuckles take his usual place opposite her, his purple eyes looking a little anxious, as he usually did in this circumstance. She knew he hated fighting her, but he understood the need for it. He shadow-boxed and stretched his shoulder. He tended to favour the upper body, so her immediate strategy was to attack his legs. Amy began to visualise Knuckles' first attack, he usually goes for a straight right that isn't too tricky too dodge, provided that…

"Okay you two, different plan," Rouge instructed, interrupting Amy's train of thought, "Amy you know too much about Knuckles' regular attacks, you need to learn to fight someone much stronger than you. Knuckles, use your full power."

"What? No…I'm not doing that," Knuckles immediately retorted, "She'll die."

Rouge rolled her eyes.

"Amy will fight robots that want to kill or capture her Knuckles, she needs to be able to deal with that."

"But I've never fought anyone but robots with full power, and that was a long time ago. You don't know how strong I am, I could probably kill Shadow."

Shadow raised an eyebrow at that.

"…if I got a lucky hit," Knuckles relented.

"Amy is stronger than she realises. She needs to learn to harness it. Are you willing to try Amy?" Rouge asked.

Amy sighed, knowing she was only being asked because Knuckles wouldn't agree to it unless she insisted.

"Rouge is right, if I want to get close to your level; I need to know what your level is. Please try Knuckles, I know you would never harm me on purpose."

"I…okay, okay…but please don't get hit…I need you to be okay." Knuckles said, before hesitantly getting into a fighting stance.

"Good boy" Rouge commended, "Also make sure you use chaos powers immediately."

"Wait what!?" Knuckles asked before Rouge hopped down. Amy nodded after Knuckles looked at her fretfully.

---

"God won't you metal bastards give me one day off!" Marine yelled as she flipped backwards, dodging a barrage of lasers from the invading badniks.

She released the grip on her bladerang mid-corkscrew, launching it directly towards the flying Eggman-shaped robots. Most of robots simply smashed into pieces, but others released animals, forcing Marine to stop and throw them towards safety. As Marine caught her weapon, she grabbed a stunned otter and pulled him behind a fiery building.

"Wha…? Where am I?" the startled otter asked.

"Somewhere that sucks right now!" Marine yelled, "Go! RUN!"

"I was in the army; I could help." The otter stated bravely, before several missiles blasted the house to pieces.

"Oh bloody 'ell!" Marine shouted as she shielded herself and the new nuisance from falling debris, "You can't fight against this shit!"

"But…"

"Bugger off!" Marine yelled crossly, "Me and Blaze have got this covered! We can't fight and protect you lot at the same time, just… just stay back and help the other poor sods get off the island."

Marine sprinted back into the melee, tossing her weapon towards a swarm of wasp-like robots, many of which were quickly destroyed. Realising that she would reach a crowd of robots before she was rearmed, Marine made a panicked decision, she launched herself feet first into the chest-plate of a large killbot and kicked with all the support she could muster. She ricocheted into a backflip and was surprised to hear a crash as the hammer-wielding brutebot toppled onto some smaller robots.

Marine gasped as several animal capsules exploded from the scrap pile of fallen enemies, however she didn't have time to watch them land as she leapt into the air to dodge a spike ball, before sprinting towards its source, catching the bladerang back in hand before delivering some clubbing blows to the terrified-looking orbinaut.

'Why did Eggman give you a face?' she wondered as she heard the satisfying pop and saw a mouse burst from the capsule, glance around, and immediately sprint behind her. Marine's eyes followed the freed captive, before her attention was caught by an oil-written mural stating 'SAFETY THIS WAY'.

She caught the otter's eye and gave a thankful nod before sprinting ahead, hopeful that Blaze had an actual plan.

---

Sonic headed back towards the fighting, smashing several killbots along the way, directing the freed animals to join the others to the southern edge of town. A crowd of animals carelessly began to charge past him so he span into a jutting rock and ricocheted like a pinball, landing with a clang atop a factory roof. He held his hands above his eyes like a visor, blocking the red morning sun so that he could spot a different fiery friend amongst the carnage.

---

Amy threw herself onto the ground in an attempt to dodge the sudden barrage of rocks launched towards her. She dared open her eyes just in time to avoid a particularly sharp rock heading right between her eyes.

"Why'd you shock me like that!?" Knuckles yelled, "I could have killed her!"

"Nah, the medi-bot is up and running" Rouge said with an ambivalent shrug, "If the worst happens she can be looked after."

"Yeah but…"

"To be fair I didn't know you could levitate rocks like that," Rouge said, "you didn't use that when you fought me."

"Well you said to attack and I just panicked, I'm not going full force against Amy!" Knuckled shouted defensively.

"The goal here is to help Amy utilise all her skills. She will only know what she's capable of if faced with overwhelming odds. In the past she has just accepted defeat in the knowledge that Sonic would save her. She needs to move past that." Rouge explained didactically.

"I know what you mean Rouge," Tails chimed in, "I wouldn't be as capable as I am if I hadn't faced Eggman one-on-one a few times. But wouldn't it be better if Amy knew what she was facing first? You said yourself that you don't know all Knuckles abilities yet."

Rouge sighed heavily.

"I suppose recon and battle-analysis is a valuable skill to assess," Rouge conceded, "Shadow, Knuckles, I want you to fight all-out."

"All-out, you're sure?" Shadow asked, taking Amy's place upon the platform.

"Yes, we'll limit it to 3 minutes; forget about knocking each other off the platform, just go at it so we can see Knuckles when he's trying. Full chaos fighting guys, don't hold back." Rouge instructed. "Amy, you pay close attention to how Knuckles fights, you'll be dealing with the same thing soon."

"I'm going airborne," Tails said, "I can dodge better up there, get ready to run Amy."

Amy just nodded, focusing on Knuckles intently. She watched him plant his feet firmly into the ground and hold his fists in front of him. His elbows were kept close to his chest and he was standing with his body facing a little away from Shadow to reduce the size of Shadow's target slightly. His purple eyes were focussed entirely on Shadow, who was now stood opposite him, staring sternly ahead. Shadow smirked at Knuckles.

"Let's see how well the Master Emerald chose its Guardian." He said as his hands began to glow and crackle with chaos energy.

Shadow closed his eyes for a moment as he gathered chaos and that's when Knuckles chose to strike. Rather than running towards Shadow he instead struck the ground with a fist, causing a sharp stalagmite to suddenly stab towards Shadow's left side. Whilst Shadow rolled beneath it Knuckles closed the gap with great speed, punching towards Shadow, who warped above him and attempted to somersault and strike the back of Knuckles head with his heel, missing by inches. This allowed Knuckles to land a single punch to centre of Shadow's back, launching him through the air. Shadow disappeared and instantaneously reappeared behind Knuckles, using the momentum from his own punch to launch a kick towards Knuckles, who blocked it with another stalagmite, which lasted only a fraction of a second as Shadow's kick reduced it to pebbles.

Shadow allowed himself a moment to look at Knuckles' unharmed state and nodded approvingly. He leapt back away from Knuckles and threw a heavy chaos spear towards him. Knuckles dodged it but was then overcome by dozens of smaller spears. He guarded his face with his fists but a rogue spear cut through the side of Knuckles' leg, bringing him to a knee. He instantly dug underground, disappearing from view.

Amy glanced around during a silent few seconds. The silence was only briefly disturbed by the small tap of Shadow landing back on the rocky plateau.

Then the world exploded.

A gaping fissure appeared beneath Shadow, from which hot steam emerged, causing Shadow to hiss in pain momentarily. He hovered above the crack, wiping his eyes and glancing up just in time to see Knuckles, who was holding a chunk of rock over 10 times his size, leap into the air and, with a loud grunt, throw it towards him with meteoric force. Shadow warped through the rock but in the brief moment it took to collect his bearings Knuckles span-dashed directly towards Shadow. But rather than impacting him as Shadow had expected Knuckles instead chose to uncurl, grab Shadow by the neck and dive straight towards the ground, smashing Shadow through the rock and into the dirt below.

Amy watched Tails hover over the hole for a better look before having to move back out of harm's way as both Shadow and Knuckles warped right next to him, fighting melee-style in mid-air. The flurry of attacks and dodges were difficult to make out before the vicious kick from Shadow ended the tussle, launching Knuckles tumbling towards the ground. Knuckles unrolled from his fall and began to glide moments before hitting the earth. He glided into the deep fissure he made barely a minute ago and suddenly ascended, punching straight through the earth and rocks. Using chaos he launched the hundreds of sharp rocks he had created directly into Shadow. As Shadow dodged and defended against this onslaught Knuckles struck the ground hard, causing huge boulders to smash up through the Earth and hover at both sides of him. His eyes glowed as he held his arms wide and clapped, launching both rocks into each other in an attempt to sandwich Shadow in the centre, who managed to warp with barely a moment to spare.

The resulting splinters of rocks began to hover around Knuckles as he repeatedly tried to smash Shadow to pieces with his levitated rocks. Over and over again the rocks smashed into each other, with Shadow just barely avoiding it each time, but edging ever closer to Knuckles each time he warped. Once Shadow landed on the plateau Knuckles sprinted towards him, now surrounded by rapidly rotating sharp stones that cut into Shadow every time he tried to get close enough to strike.

Shadow continued to sprint towards and then back off from Knuckles like a moth around a lightbulb before a moment's weariness caused Knuckles to clumsily attempt to throw what remained of his initial rocks, now the size of concrete traffic balls, directly towards Shadow. Shadow used this brief blind spot to warp behind Knuckles, plant a chaos bomb, and warp back before detonating it.

The resulting rocky rainfall caused Tails and Rouge to duck and weave, with Tails yelling a little. Amy continued to focus on Knuckles who had now been thrown on his face. He rolled back to his feet but Shadow was there waiting for him, striking with rapid melee blows that Knuckles couldn't overcome, he shielded himself against them with his fists but a few warped blows struck Knuckles hard. He fell to a knee before Rouge yelled.

"Okay that's enough!"

Shadow stopped immediately before struck by an uppercut and landing hard on his back. Knuckles glanced around nervously before realising that Shadow wasn't trying to attack him again.

"Oh sorry, did you say stop?" Knuckles asked Rouge as he poured sand out of his ear.

---

Blaze's mind began to wander as her mass destruction of predictable badniks had become monotonous.

'Perhaps Sonic will return soon, I know getting people to listen is hard but I'm sure he could…' Blaze thought before she felt a presence to her right.

"Oh hello Marine, is your mother safe?" Blaze asked politely.

"Err yeah she's fine I think, how long have you been doing that?" Marine asked.

"Hmm?" Blaze enquired before she saw that her friend was staring at the flames emanating from her hands, "oh yes it's been quite some time. I'm not sure what Eggman is thinking, all these robots seem to have been instructed to land right here."

"Err yeah… there were a lot of badniks back here too y'know," Marine said, sounding annoyed.

"Oh did Sonic manage to take care of them?" Blaze asked.

"I don't know! I was too busy taking care of the badniks that were attacking the villages!"

Blaze looked down for a bit.

"Nega…no sorry, Eggman must have been using this stream of attackers as a distraction. I should have seen through that. I'm sorry Marine, I am still rather tired so I'm…"

"I'm tired too Blaze pay attention! Bloody hell woman! If the Queen of Books can't concentrate what chance do the rest of us 'ave?"

"My mind is elsewhere, do you think Sonic will…?" Blaze began, before being cut off by a light appearing immediately above her.

She noticed and leapt away just before a vicious laser blasted the spot on which she just stood.

Blaze quickly checked Marine was okay before seeking the source, it quickly made itself known however as an ominous humming sound appeared behind her. She whispered instructions to Marine before facing her adversary directly.

"THAT WAS A CLOSE ONE FIRE CAT!" A familiar voice exclaimed. "IT'LL GET A LOT CLOSER IF YOU DON'T GIVE ME THE EMERALD!"

"I will give you nothing but fire and failure Eggman," Blaze replied smoothly, "This dimension will never belong to a being as unworthy as yourself."

"LISTEN YOU WRETCHED FLEABAG! Eggman yelled, hovering a little above Blaze, "THE EGGMAN EMPIRE WILL BE BORN WHEREVER I WISH! YOU PATHETIC VERMIN CANNOT STOP ME!"

"Vermin? It's been some time since you fought me hasn't it? My name is Princess Blaze Sakadia. I am the Guardian of Sol, blessed by Pythia, the Goddess of the Flames. Your crass third-rate engineering is beneath my interest. You have rudely stepped upon my kingdom, kidnapped my people and defiled Sol with your filthy mechanisms." Blaze stated formally; walking towards him. "I will grant you one opportunity. You will return what you stole, you will release my people, and you will end all ambitions of world domination."

"Or what?" Eggman asked, daring her to attack.

"You will be left kneeling in ashes, begging me for forgiveness, and you will not find me as generous as today."

"Ooh, scary kitty-cat got claws!" Eggman mocked, before accelerating his Eggbot directly towards Blaze's unflinching face, he stopped directly in front of her, face-to-face, "Where…is…the…Emerald?"

"Beyond your reach" Blaze answered simply.

Just as Eggman directed his vehicle to back off in order to attack he gave a brief look of confusion before his vehicle was left silent and fell hard to the ground, causing Eggman to topple onto the sand by Blaze's feet.

She held her palm in front of him, fire threatening swirling in Eggman's direction.

"I did say you'd be on your knees," Blaze stated smugly.

"That was easier than expected," Marine said, examining a chaos drive "honestly who designs a magic flying machine powered by one battery?"

"GRRR!" Eggman growled, before suddenly disappearing underground in a flash of light and reappearing above them, his backpack apparently doubling as an emergency jetpack.

"YOU IDIOTS DIDN'T BELIEVE I'D BE STOPPED THAT FAST DID YOU?!" Eggman yelled, pressing several buttons hidden under his clothing, "EGGBOTS! SWARM!"

Hundreds upon hundreds of buzz bombers suddenly appeared from beyond the low-hanging clouds. All heading directly towards Blaze and Marine. The ground rumbled as clusters of robots emerged from underground.

Marine gasped as one of the robots arose from a grave with the corpse of the recently buried Dorian draped across it, heading coldly towards Blaze as the corpse was allowed to carelessly fall into the sand and be ran over by a battalion of Grounders.

Blaze shrieked as vengeful blue flames melted a column of the combatants.

"YOU SICK BASTARD!" Marine screamed, throwing her weapon with all the force she could muster at the scumbag laughing beyond her reach.

She continued to feel nothing but anger as Eggman disappeared in a flash of red light. She looked back towards Blaze, who had taken to the sky, her shoes holding her aloft with columns of flame as she mercilessly launched flaming streams across the landscape, drowning robots in the molten steel of their own allies.

---

Sonic stood by the outskirts of the city, ensuring that the fleeing survivors were able to escape. This had originally proved difficult as many of the villagers were actively avoiding him and some had actively attempted to shoot him. He did all he could to ignore their jeers, or their cries of fear as he tried to help them. Sonic was unused to being hated by those he was trying to protect. The instant he had insulted their Queen, he had become a monster in their eyes.

"No, this way!" he heard a panicked female voice, "Away from the freak!"

He glanced over and saw a young koala woman holding a toddler in her arms, a nearby missile blast caused her to misbalance. Sonic managed to sprint in and catch the toddler moments before its head smacked against the jagged remains of a broken killbot.

"Here she's…" Sonic began.

The koala grabbed the child, and shoulder-barged Sonic, the shock causing him to trip and fall to the ground.

"DON'T TOUCH MY DAUGHTER!" She screamed at him, before spitting in his face and running away.

Sonic sat there for a moment; wiping the spit off him and slowly coming to terms with his situation. He quickly wiped his eyes before his tears could cloud his vision.

"Well, well, isn't this interesting?" Sonic heard a voice just above him. A voice that made him shiver, he felt like his heart stopped beating.

Eggman hovered above him, equipped with nothing but a jet pack. He allowed himself to land on the sand, mere metres away from Sonic.

"I've seen beings like you before." Eggman spoke. Not 'yelled'. Spoke. "You are powerful and that makes them fear you. You are different and thus have no place. The Eggman Empire values power. Values difference. Would value you."

Sonic just sat there, barely able to speak. His life-long adversary didn't recognise him. Worse, he was trying to recruit him. Like Knuckles, like Chaos, like Shadow before him.

"I have watched you. Your sword skills are extraordinary, and you are fast. I could turn you into the ultimate assassin. People fear you already, why not enjoy it? Why not use it? Why not revel in the knowledge that you have power over life and death? I could make you rich, I could make you powerful and I could make sure no one ever hurts you again." Eggman continued grandly.

Sonic had to admit he was good. Had he never met Eggman, had he been raised in a world that didn't accept him, he may have considered it.

'What would I have become then?' Sonic thought, as he continued to stare at the man who destroyed him so badly, he wasn't even recognisable to him anymore.

"What say you?" Eggman asked, "Join me, and help me rule this world!"

Eggman held out a hand to him, offering Sonic the chance to stand up and take it.

Sonic stood. And proceeded to unsheathe his sword. He slowly stroked the length of his blade, causing blue flames to spread as he stared deeply into Eggman's eyes.

"My name is Sulphur." Sonic growled, "Sulphur the Porcupine. And I am here to WATCH! YOU! BURN!"

---

Amy once again stood opposite Knuckles. He looked at her with a lot of hesitation in his eyes. Amy knew that this is the last thing that Knuckles wanted. But he was too loyal to refuse. It was something that Amy really appreciated about him.

"Are you ready lovebirds?" Rouge asked.

"I nearly killed Shadow a lot of times are…are you really sure…?" Knuckles asked.

"YES!" Amy and Rouge shouted simultaneously.

"It's okay Knuckles, I can do this!" Amy shouted over to him.

He looked doubtful but sighed and nodded all the same as he got into his usual battle-stance.

Amy concentrated as hard as she could, using the chaos-sense that Knuckles had taught her. Knuckles' emotions had never been so easy to read, deep fear and anxiety. He was terrified of hurting her.

"As before Knuckles; the goal as for you to use chaos immediately, Amy, given the amount of damage we know Knuckles can do we can't let this go on for too long. You have 3 minutes to land a hit. Understood?"

Amy nodded down at her instructor from the rebuilt plateau.

"You'll have to use every bit of power you have, every skill in your arsenal Amy. He's stronger and more experienced than you. But you probably know everything he can do, don't let the reverse be true. Knuckles, BEGIN!"

Rouge's yell once again shocked Knuckles into action, causing him to launch several boulders directly towards Amy. She had expected this however, immediately sprinting to the left to avoid the first rock she saw, rolling back right to narrowly dodge the second and leaping above the third. As she did this however, she completely lost sight of Knuckles.

'Where is he? Where is he!? She thought with increasing urgency. She tried to feel the ground rumble beneath her feet, but this proved futile, which she only realised as she looked up at a red shape heading straight for her.

She fell backwards before realising he wasn't aiming for her, he landed fist-first into the ground. There was a speck of time in which their eyes met, before Amy's view changed completely. Instead of looking into for purple-eyed partner, she instead saw nothing but a blur as she found herself launched through the air, g-force alone kept her clinging to the rock. She screamed at the sudden upheaval, closing her eyes as she felt the wind assault her eyes and her cheeks pull back from the inertia.

Moments after Amy sealed her eyes shut however all her emotions suddenly calmed. She had slipped into chaos reading without realising it. Her mind's eye surveyed everything, she saw herself in the air, clinging spread-eagled to the rotating rock, she saw Tails flying nearby, looking unsure if he should help. Shadow was clearly worried, the chaos around him was erratic, as if he was preparing to use a power, probably chaos control.

The most noticeable however was Knuckles, whose chaos appeared to seep away from him despairingly. She felt momentarily sad for him, knowing his guilt and panic was at the forefront of his mind now. From a third-person perspective she immediately came up with a plan.

Refocusing into the physical, Amy lifted her arms above her head, felt the weight land in her palms, and, using every bit of strength she had, she swung her hammer at the rotating rock, thus ceasing its rotation, causing Amy to separate from it and begin to fall. She then span clockwise as fast as she possible could, using a technique that Sonic had taught her, to create a tornado. Her descent was slowed just enough to allow her to gracefully land in front of Knuckles before throwing a hammer swing his way. He just barely dodged it, jumping backwards before drilling into the ground.

Amy closed her eyes again, reading Knuckles. He wasn't concentrating, feeling relief, joy and was trying to force himself to feel the aggression needed to use chaos again. She suddenly felt his chaos spike and jumped backwards, swinging her hammer as she did so. Her eyes were still closed as she felt an impact. She reopened her eyes, glanced around just in time to see an upside-down Knuckles slide slowly out of a Knuckles-shaped impact crater. She went to check on him, before seeing him give a thumbs up.

"I did it. I DID IT!" Amy squealed happily, jumping up and down, swinging her hammer around.

She continued to do this for some time, before noticing that nobody was congratulating her. Instead they were all staring overhead. Amy felt a chill as a shadow crawled over her, causing the already-cool air to become chilly.

Above her a huge egg carrier flew so low she could see individual robots hanging from the side, ready to be deployed. She slowly returned to a fighting stance, but the huge airship continued unimpeded.

"We should follow it" Tails decided suddenly, taking up his leadership position again, "From afar obviously, they might see the Avalanche as a threat."

"They haven't noticed us yet," Rouge commented, "Probably on autopilot. We should be safe as long as we don't draw attention to ourselves. So yeah…no big tornadoes for a while."

"It was really cool though." Knuckles commented as he put his arm around Amy, "Even with those numbers they've got no chance against us!"

"Calm yourself Knuckles," Shadow said with a smile, "We need to learn more about our prey before we strike."

As Amy watched the flying behemoth travel, she wondered how Shadow could possibly consider their team to be the predators in this exact moment.

---

Tails took his usual seat in the command chair. He started the liquid nitrogen coolants on full power to reduce heat in case of thermal imaging. He then activated the radar scramblers before setting off a mile or so behind the massive airship.

"What's the plan here Tails?" Amy asked, still breathing slightly more heavily due to her prior exertions.

"I'm just going to follow them until we find out where they're heading" Tails answered, not looking back at her, "We're heading North-East. From what I remember there was a big jungle this way, it was totally unpopulated."

"How long ago was that Tails?" Rouge asked.

"About five and a half years ago." Tails answered, "I remember it being similar to Mushroom Hill Zone back on Angel Island."

"Oh good!" Knuckles said enthusiastically, "I can save the place and nap under a big shroom, it'll be just like home!"

"That sounds fun! I've never visited Angel Island!" Amy enthused, "It's not like you can book a flight there."

"Don't get too excited," Shadow interrupted, "Places of outstanding natural beauty tend not to last long under Eggman. I remember Sonic saying that Eggman can absorb plant life, right?"

"Yeah, he did it from Lost Hex, that's what damaged the planet last year." Amy answered, "Knuckles and I nearly died trying to help smaller creatures evacuate. Drained us until we were too tired to move."

"Yeah sorry about that, if Sonic had let me deal with it instead of dragging Eggman with us we could've fixed it a lot faster." Tails said.

"He told me about that journey, said it was the worst day of his life", Shadow commented, "He kept making mistakes, you nearly got robotisized, he thought Amy and Knuckles were dead…"

"He never told me how he felt" Amy said, "He just napped afterwards and then went for a run, I didn't see him again for a week after that."

"Me neither, yet again Sonic keeps stuff from us and goes straight to Shadow…ugh." Tails complained, pushing some buttons, altering his screens to ensure the Avalanche remained on track, "Also I wasn't really 'nearly robotosized' I chose to let myself be altered to fool the Zeti, I'd still have a cool robot eye if Sonic hadn't hated it so much."

"Why would you want a robot eye?" Knuckles asked, "It'd make you look all freaky."

"It was more efficient, it had scanners and helped me aim with my cool laser gun arm." Tails said, "It would have meant faster hacking, software and hardware creation, I would have been so much more useful."

"Sonic doesn't just keep you around because you're useful Tails," Shadow stated.

"Sure, whatever you say" Tails said dismissively as he expanded his chaos scanners, "oh it looks like there are other airships heading to the same place."

"Is it the mushroom place?" Amy asked,

"Looks like it. It'll take some time before we get there though," Tails answered.

"So they're triangulating on one location?" Rouge asked rhetorically, "That means we can expect very heavy resistance. It might be wiser to use stealth, rather than violence."

"What's the goal though? We don't even know why they're going there." Knuckles asked.

Tails switched the Avalanche to autopilot and turned back to look at the group. Knuckles had raised a very good point. Aimlessly travelling, defeating enemies and collecting Chaos Emeralds, and this time Sol Emeralds, was Sonic's usual Modus Operandi. But it was all Tails knew. That's how nearly every adventure had worked thus far. The objective was always: destroy robots to free animals, collect Chaos Emeralds to reduce Eggman's power and increase Sonic's then defeat the big boss and go home.

That method couldn't really stand. Not this time. That method, or lack thereof, had caused everyone in the team severe harm. Even Shadow was knocked unconscious and had been badly injured in the Dragon fight. Without his chaos healing Shadow would have been as badly hurt as Knuckles.

"Rouge. I think you're right. This isn't a style of fighting I'm used to." Tails began, "Sonic doesn't give me much time to strategize. He just smashes everything in sight and then moves on. I think it might be wiser to let you lead the team on this one."

"You sure hun?" Rouge asked, "You can't learn without doing things yourself."

"But this isn't practice, I can learn through observation. I never understood why you put me in charge in the first place." Tails replied.

"Because I can't read chaos. Plus, it's not like anyone here other than Shadow could reasonably be expected to trust me sugah. You've way more experience working with these guys."

"I trust you Rouge." Amy said, "I mean, you didn't make it easy to like you at first, but you're nearly as smart as Tails and he's right. You're better at the sneaking and acting; like when we broke into the Dragon's Lair."

"We managed to sneak onto Southern Island too because of you Rouge." Tails added, "I never would've thought to use your methods, but they worked."

"You got my vote too, you helped Amy learn to protect herself. You're as much our friend as anyone else on this team" Knuckles said, "You and Shadow helped me and Amy realise that, you know, we work well together."

"Aww" Amy gushed at Knuckles, giving him a hug.

Rouge smirked slightly, Tails guessed she must be feeling embarrassed, Tails felt like that whenever he was the centre of attention too.

"Okay then, I guess we're Team Dark for this mission," Rouge decided.

Tails flew from his chair, landing on the sofa and resting his taped legs on the table.

"Finally, I've wanted a break since we warped here" Tails said happily as he put his arms behind his head.

"Tails actually has the right idea." Rouge began. "Rest up; restraint and stealth can be more tiring than fighting. Shadow love, can you wake us the instant you spot our location?"

Shadow nodded and immediately began staring intently at the screens in front of him.

---

Marine dodged as best she could, flying shards of shrapnel forcing her to utilise all her flexibility to keep herself injury-free. She stopped for one moment to catch her breath and screamed as a burning pain was felt in her arm. Marine sprinted for cover as fast as she was capable; pure luck being the only thing that protected her from further injuries, beyond a few cuts on her legs.

She sat behind the remains of one of the larger killbots as she caught her breath and looked at her injury. Blood was still spreading along the sleeve of her outfit, the brown fabric darkening as the red liquid continued to spread. Marine used her weapon to tear some of the boiler suit from around her waist and tied the ripped piece of material around her injury. Satisfied with her ad-hoc first aid, Marine glimpsed over her cover.

Blaze was airborne, angrily flying around the sky, throwing fireballs with reckless abandon. Marine had never seen Blaze so angry, the columns of flame emanating from her feet melted anything in their path. Marine spotted several Grounders heading towards the flames.

"If they are powered by animals…" Marine thought before she panicked; sprinting out towards the flames. She felt a warmth from her chest, wear she kept the shrunken Emeralds she had found earlier.

The heat emanating from Blaze was far beyond what she was used to. But as the young raccoon approached she felt herself able to get surprisingly close; pushing through the outward force caused by the continuous blasts pulsating from her fiery feline friend.

"BLAZE!" Marine yelled, "STOP! YOU COULD 'URT SOMEONE!"

Blaze continued, firing blast after blast from her palms, burning any robot she could see. Marine took a different tack.

"BLAZE WE NEED TO FIND SONIC!" Marine screamed at the top of her lungs.

Marine watched as Blaze blinked, as though she were coming back to her senses. The flames ceased, causing Blaze to fall towards the ground, only restarting the flames briefly to slow her descent. Blaze continued to breathe heavily, gasping for air as strongly as if she had been just moments from drowning before she resurfaced.

"I…I'm sorry 'Riney…lost my temper" Blaze wheezed.

"Yeah no kidding, We should…"

"Marine! Your arm!" Blaze interrupted, grabbing Marine's hand, "How did that happen?"

"Some of these killbots explode into shrapnel when you break them, I just got cut a bit; I'm alright." Marine explained quickly, "Look! They're droppin' into the volcano."

"What!" Blaze said, "They're closing in on the Emerald!"

"I reckon we should…" Marine began.

"You should stay here Marine."

"But…!" Marine began.

"'Riney it's in a volcano. You're not going in there. I need you to help escort any robotised people to safety." Blaze instructed.

Marine wasn't happy about it, but nodded. It was an important job. She waved as Blaze sprinted towards the volcano.

'I hate bein' left out' Marine complained internally as she glanced around for more robots. A blue pulse suddenly spread harmlessly through her midriff. She watched the light continue to spread throughout the island. It was causing some of the robots to shut down or lose functions. But it wasn't strong enough against the newer robots.

Struck by an idea, Marine ran as fast as she could towards Tails' tower. Its white exterior was now marred as a result of several explosions close to it; though it looked like none of the robots had thought to attack it directly. Either that or Tails built things to last. Marine expected the latter.

Upon arrival at the monolithic spire Marine looked around the exterior in search of a way to control it. She eventually found a small indentation which she hopefully pushed, revealing a very straightforward touchscreen.

"ooh user-friendly" she cooed as she looked at the options.

-Switch off EMP-

"EMP? Electric machine… 'ploder?"

-Recalibrate targeting-

"uh uh" Marine said, shaking her head.

-Full Power mode, EMERGENCY USE ONLY!-

"Experience teaches me to hit anything red and flashing" Marine decided, gently touching the panel. The blue screen was quickly replaced by an exclamation mark.

Electricity began to spiral the spire, striking like a lightning rod. Marine ran to cover but before she reached it a loud screech brought her to her knees and a green pulse spread across the island. Marine watched as robot after robot was cracked open with a satisfying 'POP' a combination of creatures and chaos drives fell into the rusty sand.

"Everyone you er…need to go that way!" Marine commanded, "You'll be safe over there! Join the others!"

"Are you coming? A panicked looking mouse asked.

"Nah mate, I need to 'elp out other guys. Head that way, some otter army bloke is evacuating people."

The mouse nodded and scurried away with all the other creatures.

Marine turned to look towards the volcano.

"Job done. No excuses to keep me behind now!"

---

"Tails is such a little irritant!" Shadow said, shaking his head, "How you tolerate that little weasel I don't know."

"Yeah I know man," Sonic replied, having a shot of scotch, "But I need someone to fly my plane and build translators and other junk. Believe me, the instant he outlives his worth I'll be done with that little dweeb."

"Well I'll do my best to help. This is usually more Rouge's area but…"

"She's too distracting, I'd be looking at her boobs the whole time" Sonic responded as Shadow took a swig of beer.

"No shit, why do you think I keep her around?" Shadow agreed.

Sonic laughed.

"Yeah, I wish I'd found a girl version of Tails. My life would be so much better." Sonic said.

"You could always be getting with Amy," Shadow suggested.

"Pbbth no." Sonic dismissed, "That girl is scary dude. She's pretty, sure, but she's all 'let's get married' and I'm not about that man. Not when I could be getting laid with hot babes across the globe."

"Yeah I hear that," Shadow replied with a smirk.

"Maybe it's time actually, we should wake up into our true forms." Sonic spoke in a voice different to his own.

"Wake!" They chanted together. They towered above Tails, their shadows leaving Tails unable to see, "Wake! Wake!"

"Hey Tails wake up," the real Shadow said, Tails opened his eyes and flinched a little, "Nightmare?"

Tails nodded back at Shadow, who placed a hand on his shoulder sympathetically.

"Sorry I had to wake you but we're close to a city. We'll need you to stop the Avalanche while we plan our next move," Shadow explained softly.

Tails nodded again, yawning mid-flight as he sat himself down at the console and disengaged the autodrive system.

"Hey Shadow, did you ever teach Sonic about computers when you met up?" Tails blurted out.

"Err…no. No we usually just raced each other in the desert, why do you ask?" Shadow replied.

Tails just shook his head and waited as Shadow woke up the others.

'Just a dumb dream, Sonic doesn't talk like that. Getting laid? Hot babes?' Tails shook his head in amusement at his silly nightmare. 'He doesn't even drink'.

A few minutes later the team had gathered around the computer. Tails had been analysing all the data that the Avalanche's scanners could detect.

"It appears to be a highly populated area," Tails explained, "I think Eggman has taken over this city in its entirety. Heat scanners indicate many active factories."

"Could you create a map of sorts with that data?" Rouge asked.

"Yep, already printing," Tails answered, grabbing the large indented metal sheet, heaving it onto the table, "there's nowhere to get paper so…"

"So you invented 3D printer for metal?" Rouge asked as she looked at the metal diorama Tails had presented, "Good work Sugah, this is as good as blueprints."

"Not quite," Tails admitted modestly, "We can only get about half the city. The scanner was able to pick up some underground areas though, could be a sewer system. Good for sneaking."

"Is there a lot of people there?" Amy asked as she looked around the map.

"Yes although they mostly appear to be in the factories. This is worth looking at though," Tails answered, pointing to a few of the smaller, round roofed buildings, "In here the heat sources are a consistent distance from each other."

Tails gave Rouge a significant look. She smiled in return.

"You are good" Rouge cooed.

"What do you mean?" Knuckles asked "They are the same distance from each other? So they're like…"

"Go on…" Rouge encouraged.

"Well maybe they're in little offices, or they're doing group dance rehearsals…"

Everyone other than Knuckles sighed.

"Well I suppose Eggman might order a big display in his honour," Amy said, "They're probably jails though."

"Oh er, yeah that makes more sense" Knuckles replied quickly.

"That was my theory too," Rouge said, "however if you discover those guys doing the cha-cha slide I promise you can get free entry at my club Knuckles."

"Neat," Knuckles replied with a smile, "So are you going to get Shadow to warp them out?"

"Not a bad idea. But no, no it would be wiser to have Shadow survey the situation. He can simultaneous gather information and create a distraction without risking capture or injury. I want you and Amy to work together to free the prisoners."

"Us?" Amy questioned, "Why?"

"Knuckles can dig underground and use the sewer system. Amy you're good at talking to people, you can get information from them as you save them. Ask questions as you support their escape." Rouge instructed, "Also I think you two as an action hero duo is a cute look."

"What about me?" Tails asked.

"Aww you're super-cute too darlin'" Rouge replied.

"N…No I meant what…" Tails stammered, blushing furiously.

"I want you to stay here with me. I'll be giving instructions over our earpieces. I'll need you to drive the Avalanche in case we need extra firepower." At Tails' downhearted look, Rouge continued, "Without your expertise we won't be able to save Shadow if things get too much for him."

Tails smiled at this and turned towards Shadow.

"Okay, don't worry Shadow, I can keep you safe." Tails stated gleefully.

"I'll call you if I need you," Shadow said, motioning to his ear, "Who knows; maybe something will need blasting."

"Oh there'll be explosions," Rouge stated, "Shadow I want you skating through the city centre, firing at any robot you see. You goal isn't to destroy them all, just to distract them, and give us a clearer picture of the city."

"Tails do you have a scanning device you could attach to me," Shadow requested, "it'll be easier than me just telling you what I see. Especially if what I see is mostly explosions."

"Already taken care of Sonic!" Tails said, holding a small device,

"Thanks" Shadow said, placing the device in his chest fur.

"Oh erm…Shadow I meant." Tails said, looking embarrassed and annoyed with himself.

"You're not the first to make that mistake," Shadow answered kindly, smiling at Amy.

"Oh it was one time!" Amy exclaimed jokily, "You do look similar."

"We're both absurdly handsome yes," Shadow joked, tossing his quills back.

Everyone laughed except Tails, who still looked a little embarrassed.

"Er… wait, you think Sonic is handsome?" Tails asked.

"It was just a silly joke Tails, don't overthink it," Rouge answered, "I used to think he was cute though to be fair."

"Not anymore?" Shadow asked.

"Nah, A bit of rough treatment is fun, but concussions don't really do it for me," Rouge joked.

"So where do Knuckles and I go in?" Amy asked, getting back on track.

"Dig a hole here," Rouge instructed, pointing to the near end of the map, "Keep going until you reach these tunnels and then walk through the sewer system until you reach this group of buildings. I want you to come through there and help everyone escape. That could be by bringing them back here unless they have better ideas. We will need their information to determine the best route of action."

"At the same time, I'll be sprinting through here," Shadow indicated a large central square and traced a route, "and zigzagging through the streets, making as much noise as possible, right?"

"That's the gist of it darlin', don't go in the factories if you don't have to though. I don't want any workers to be hurt."

Shadow nodded, "When should we attack?"

"Let's get to it immediately, there's a chance we could be spotted if we wait around, "Amy, Knuckles, get started, head towards the city from the East. Knuckles I want you to dig down as soon as you can sense the metal underground."

"Not a problem, let's go Ames," Knuckles said, pressing the button to drop the ramp.

"Good luck guys," Amy waved as she followed Knuckles down the ramp.

"Give them a fifteen minute head-start Shadow, then you can go have fun," Rouge instructed with a smile.

Shadow went into his room and returned with an assault rifle strapped over his shoulder. He then examined his handgun slowly. Tails glanced at it. It had elaborate swirls of blue along its grip. The silver gleamed brightly along the barrel, the red GUN symbol adorned the very tip.

"You guys should lower the volume on your headsets." Shadow said energetically, "this mission could get loud."

Amy had been walking side-by-side with Knuckles for some time. She was reliant on his ability to sense anything out-of-place as such she chose to focus her energy into trying to detect anything chaotic. She closed her eyes to the soft morning breeze and allowed her mind's camera lens to zoom in on the distant metal gates. Her chaos-reading skills were sufficiently good to recognise the presence of large numbers of robots but little else, she couldn't see any signs of organic life. It occurred to Amy just how little they knew about this place. Did Rouge often work with such little information?

"I can sense something," Knuckles stated, "Stand back a little; you should probably close your eyes too."

Amy followed Knuckles' instructions, she heard him step away a little. Then a hard thud followed by a light spraying of sand. She opened her eyes and watched Knuckles sense the vibrations.

"Tails was right, there are some hollow tubes circling around the city. Don't know where they lead but they definitely go under the walls" Knuckles explained.

"They probably just leaked sewage into the ocean," Amy mused, "Sort of thing that would disgust Sonic, he never really liked cities."

"I think they're cool, I always wish I could stick around and go to all the different restaurants," Knuckles mused, "But I'm usually only there when I'm busy."

"Ooh we should totally go on a city break together!" Amy said excitedly, "That'd be so much fun. We could stay in different hotels and eat and travel and stuff."

"Yeah… yeah I'd be up for that!" Knuckles said, "But I don't know what I'm doing really, all the money and reading and writing..."

"I'll help you! I'd love to show you all that fun stuff. You could show me around your island too." Amy said, "You probably know loads about that place."

"Oh yeah, you've never really been there have you?" Knuckles remembered, "You've seen the shrine though right? I was able to bring it to the Ancient Ruins a few years back. During the whole 'Robotnik enslaves Chaos' thing."

"I remember seeing the artificial one in the Ark," Amy replied, "Do you want to do your magic punch sense thing again? We should start digging before we're spotted."

Knuckles nodded, running ahead. He placed his head into the sand and struck the ground hard again. He remained still for a few moments before rising to his knees.

"I'm gonna start digging here; the metal tube is actually a couple of miles thataway" Knuckles pointed towards the city, "but we could use this as an escape route".

"Could you make it bigger than usual?" Amy asked "we might need to evacuate people."

Knuckles gave a big thumbs-up and got to work.

---

Blaze headed towards the lip of the mountain. The jets of fire from her feet provided just enough thrust to keep her from tripping upon the uneven terrain and instead allowed her to hover just above it. The journey was far from smooth however.

Blaze fired a beam of flame towards several buzz bombers that had swarmed around the caldera. Several of them burst open, leaving clinking chaos drives tumbling down the mountainside. Blaze's goal wasn't to destroy all the robots however. Ensuring Sonic was safe was at the forefront of her mind. He could defend himself sure, but what if he lost control? She wouldn't allow that to happen. Not after it had happened to her.

The disparate mountain rocks had now been replaced by a smoother surface, the result of a previous mini-eruption that Blaze had successfully maintained a couple of years earlier. She recalled that morning fondly.

The other villagers were used to the rumblings of the nearby volcano and were thus undisturbed from their sleep. The only person that had observed her work was Dorian. The young koala had gasped at Blaze's display.

Blaze turned to look at the source of the noise. She motioned for him to stay where he was. He nodded and obeyed; content to sit and watch in awe as the beautiful purple cat calmed the powerful phenomenon and allowed the roaring beast to rest. He slowly approached, watching the last few embers flickered away, the lava having turned into a smooth black surface.

"Wow!" Dorian gushed. "Is it safe to touch yet?"

"Not yet," the princess answered quietly, "it'll be safe in an hour or two."

"Why did the mountain get all angry?" Dorian asked.

"It wasn't angry," Blaze explained as she sat cross legged so she could talk to him face-to-face, "This red stuff, magma, is underneath us all the time; usually safe underground. But there are some places, like here, where there is a hole. Sometimes when there's too much of it, it spills out of these holes. They are called volcanoes."

"Oh, mommy has said that word before, I used to think it was a monster growling" Dorian replied with a smile.

The image of Dorian's smile fortunately disappeared just in time for Blaze to notice the buzz of a plasma ball; allowing her to dodge it just in time.

"Urgh focus you idiot!" Blaze scolded herself, throwing balls of fire at the various buzz bombers that had begun to target her.

The noise thankfully prevented her mind from wandering. Explosions and metallic screeches arhythmically distorted the already-unpleasant sounds of fibreglass wings beating rapidly. Blaze began to sprint as the crater came into view. She hurled flames at the ground, melting the rocks enough for her to skate along the lip of the mountain as though it were an ice-rink. Utilising her speed, Blaze performed a high butterfly jump, encasing herself in flames before dispersing them. She heard several satisfying pops of destroyed buzz bombers as she rotated to face down; allowing her to better aim her dive into the volcano.

---

"Hey Tails, am I coming through clearly?" Amy asked, holding a finger to her ear.

"Loud and clear" Tails replied through his headset, "Have you found the tunnels?"

"Yep, honestly I'm surprised that this signal works down here, we're pretty deep underground. Knuckles says we're under one of the prisons now but it's heavily guarded." Amy answered.

"Yeah we need a distraction or something" Knuckles said, do you reckon Shadow could draw the robots out?"

Tails turned and saw Rouge instructing Shadow, he nodded and warped away.

"Already on it, he's heading your way now." Tails answered

"Give it a few minutes and then bust right through." Rouge instructed, "No need to wait for Shadow's confirmation, I expect he'll be pretty distracted. He did take his guns after all. Shads is all set to have fun."

"Okay, over and out" Amy said.

"Out of where? We're still here?" asked Knuckles before crackling away.

Tails chuckled lightly at Knuckles' question before turning in his chair to speak to Rouge, who was currently applying make-up.

"Are you sure there isn't anything more that you'd like me to do?" Tails asked, "Maybe I could build some drones to help Shadow with the distraction…"

"Trust me sugah, Shads doesn't need help being a distraction." Rouge replied without looking up, "Amy and Knuckles will begin their infiltration soon, could you use your heat sensor to monitor their progress?"

"Yes, yes maybe I could!" Tails realised before spinning back on his chair to face his computer, "If I have the scanner that made the initial blueprints repeat on regular intervals we could probably…"

Tails voice trailed off when he felt a sudden, sharp pain on his neck. He went to feel the source with his hand but found it was too heavy to lift. He saw his hand blur in front of him, before feeling his body topple.

"What…?" He weakly whimpered before his consciousness was torn from him.

---

Amy got in position as Knuckles prepared to breach. She felt the familiar weight of her hammer strain her forearms slightly as she took an attacking stance.

"Rouge said the robots will be distracted, let's hope we don't spring up right in front of them," Amy said.

Knuckles closed his eyes as he felt the metal floor above him. He could sense pacing prisoners and an odd vibrating sound, but the metal clank of robot feet was nowhere to be found.

"I think we're good to go," Knuckles said. After giving one last thumbs up to Amy, he leapt through the thick metallic flooring. Amy winced at the noise, but was immediately brought back in focus by the sound of Knuckles yelling in pain.

Amy ran up to see several floating drones zapping Knuckles. She felt her fur stand on end just from being in the vicinity of their attack, she struck the one in front of her with an upward swing; smashing it into the low ceiling. Before the others could react she wall-ran to dodge the bolts of electricity and corkscrewed towards the nearest robot. Her hammer struck the hovering weapon with enough force to launch it directly into the other, causing them both to crumple against the opposite wall.

"Ugh, they got me before I could even clear my eyes," Knuckles complained as he shakily regained his posture.

"Are you okay?" Amy asked, concerned.

"I've had worse," Knuckles replied shaking his shoulders to ease his forcibly tensed muscles.

"Erm…who breaks into prison?" A snarky female voice behind him said.

"Oh, hello!" Amy said with a cheerful smile and a wave, "We're here to help break people out, how did you end up in here?"

"The cities guards imprisoned me years ago because I refused to help work on a project her majesty delegated to me," the robin explained, " I needed some time off to help look after my father, he was nearing his final days."

The robin looked down at her feet.

"He's probably passed now," she added sadly.

A few people hissed at her.

"Leave her in here! If the Queen's subjects had all been loyal Eggman would never have taken over!" One of the prisoners yelled.

"We're not leaving…!" Amy started.

Her incredulous yell was interrupted by the arrival of several formidable killbots. They sprinted forwards, each deafening stomp rattling the steel grating on the floor.

Amy watched as Knuckles sprinted straight ahead, before hearing more stomps coming up behind her. In spite of her situation, her mind immediately sprung to someone else.

'What happened to Shadow?'

---

Barely had his mind registered the stench of the factory before Shadow was thrown into a firefight. He noticed a shadow broadening beneath him and instinctively rolled away from it. The proceeding thud indicated just how close he had come to being splattered. Shadow warped above the bronze behemoth and fell into a flipping heel kick which drastically damaged its logic processors. The instant Shadow's foot became lodged in the metal the killbot's torso began to rotate wildly, its hammer smashing various other robots before, with an almighty smash, its hammer became lodged in a steel-plated building. Shadow span through the air, sawing off the mighty mechanism's arm before charging momentarily in mid-air before landing and immediately launching himself through the chest of his opponent.

The loud explosion behind him confirmed his success. He saw several more robots make a beeline for him. A cacophony of stomps, whirrs and energy blasts soon became Shadow's sole focus as he closed his eyes. Moments before the noise became deafening Shadow warped to a window-ledge about 20 feet above his previous location. He used this vantage point to drop a half-dozen chaos bombs into the clanking crowd below. He leapt from the ledge and fired half a dozen shots from his ornate handgun. He landed with a roll, keeping low to avoid the shrapnel. He slowly returned to a standing position and turned to see several killbots pitifully limping towards him, some were trundling along on broken tank treads, others were scraping along the ground having lost several wheels.

"Task 1 – make lots of noise. Think I can tick that box," Shadow stated, miming ticking a box with his gun. He took a bit of time reloading the weapon and picking off some of the weaker stragglers. While he slowly relished this, he noticed more and more robots emerge from various alleyways and street corners. Some emerged from buildings in disciplined automated formations.

"This should be sufficient. Task 2, draw the robots away." Shadow stated calmly, before throwing several Chaos spears into the growing mech army, "Come at me bitches!"

He super span through the middle of the crowd, dodging several lances, swords and hammers as he antagonised the crowd further, before running away just slowly enough to allow the robots to think that they could catch him.

'Fat chance!' he thought confidently.

---

Blaze closed her eyes, shielding them from the smoke streaming past her as she submitted herself to gravity. The familiar, natural smell of molten rocks had now gained the unwanted, industrial interference of steel and iron, marring the comforting familiarity of this often-visited place. This was Blaze's place for contemplation, the bubbling magma provided the backdrop for her private moments of meditation. Mindfulness. To have this place interfered with felt like a deep violation, as though someone was watching her sleep with lurid fascination.

This odd sense of revulsion had to be shoved aside as she landed with a thud. To her right she saw her warped friend, his silver quills visually clashing with the natural brown and red background almost as loudly as the literal clashing of his weapon. He was swinging a sword with heaving slashes clanging against the inner workings of various enemies surrounding him. His eyes were focused elsewhere, however. As she tried to find what they were focused on she heard a panicked voice call her name behind her. Another smaller friend was being overwhelmed by faceless metallic foes. Instinct propelled flames from Blaze's palms, a molten sphere seared its way through a column of the thoughtless droids as further noises brought her eyes back to her other friend.

A streak of silver repeatedly slung back and forth, landing on small rocks falling from the cave walls with careless abandon, smashing into a central floating reflective mass of spikes and steel. It appeared to be covering its central sphere with massive weaponised metal hands. Occasional streams of bullets would cut through the smoke revealing its form before becoming a shapeless shadow behind the haze.

"UGHHH!" a guttural scream brought Blaze out of her confused fervour, bringing one sight into horrifying focus.

Marine had a robot's clenched fist near her stomach. Her back had a sharp spear of steel emerging from it. Her terrified eyes met Blaze's.

Her trembling mouth moved, barely a whisper.

"B…Blaze…?"

The robot slowly retracted its weapon. Marine remained standing for a moment. Looking at deep red pouring into her hands.

Another look towards Blaze, her panicked blue eyes met Blaze's for one more moment before they glazed into grey, and her body fell out of view.

Blaze lost the ability to hear, to reason. She just stared at the spot where her friend had stood moments ago and collapsed to her knees.

"N…no" she trembled.

She barely noticed the blinding light to her right. She barely noticed anything anymore.

---

Sonic had heard a scream. Saw Blaze collapse. Sprinted to the cliff-edge just in time to see a body thud into the magma, float for a moment before being swallowed into the molten rock.

He didn't know what made him do it. There was no plan. No thoughts. He raised one arm into the air and four glistening rocks hovered into his view. He felt an overwhelming surge of foreign energy as hate began to overwhelm him.

All he knew was that this could not happen. He could not put into words what he had witnessed. It wasn't acceptable. This could not stand. This world could not remain.

He found himself in a place outside reality, as though he was looking through a window into his own perspective. He didn't understand or care what he did, overwhelming instinct took over. Like pulling an extraordinary heavy rope he forced reality to surge away.

---

Amy was holding her own against this vicious crowd of killbots. Indeed she was actively surprised by her own skill. She expertly dodged a swing from a steel bar and leapt towards her attacker. Her hammer materialised as she swung her arms, destroying the robot's head without looking at it. Before she landed however, she floated; unmoving, mere inches from the ground. She slowly felt herself get dragged backwards. Her thoughts were a confusing, slow mush of nonsense. She saw Knuckles in the briefest moment as their unthinking eyes met. She felt her muscles loosen as her hammer dematerialised from her grasp. She rotated back to the ground, felt her back forcefully bend back beneath the robot's improvised weapon then felt a leg thrusted back a step.

Suddenly there was a loud zap, a yell, then a flash of steel.

Then nothing.

---

Rouge flew directly towards the Egg Fleet above her. She wasn't certain where to start but experience taught her that Eggman's ego would insist that he be stationed in the largest vessel. As her wings flapped, she grew closer to the nearest vessel, a comparatively small red airship.

'Right so if I land on that maybe I can figu-'

Mid-thought her inner voice scrambled into nonsense. Her wings began to be pushed into reverse. The red vessel became smaller and smaller. The wind felt different. The clouds travelled back just as the wind did.

Suddenly everything came back into focus and Rouge felt a sudden dropping sensation, flailing in the air before flapping her wings again.

"What…what the h… hell was that?!" She gasped heavily.

---

Shadow continued to run, leading the huge group of robots on a high-speed chase around the deserted city. He used the skyscrapers to his advantage, alternating between running across the lower rooftops and wall running across the sides of the taller buildings. The sound of shattered glass followed in his stead as did several explosions as projectiles aimed towards him continued to miss their target.

He was about to leap to another rooftop when he felt himself freeze suddenly. His legs were forced backwards, a reversal of has usual skating pattern. The thrust from his shoes felt odd, as though they were propelling him towards his opponents in a grotesque assault on the laws of physics.

His neck was twisted back, making him watch as shards of shattered windows slowly returned to healed panes of glass. A missile was being pulled back into the cannon that fired it.

The moment suddenly stopped, and Shadow felt a horrid dropping sensation before a deafening explosion sent him flying across the streets. He smashed hard into the corner of a large building, heard a vicious cracking sound, and slipped into unconsciousness as he saw the pavement rush towards him.

---

Sonic ceased his efforts and saw 2 windows materialise in front of him. He realised he was floating in an apparent void but felt no emotions about his situation. The windows began to display images. One was a still image of Sonic's view a mere moment ago. Then a guttural scream forced him to look at the other. This one started to move. Sonic saw Marine from afar, deep red blood, almost black, pooled beneath his friend. She turned to look at something, he saw the horror in her eyes.

Sonic couldn't bear to watch it, yet he felt physically forced to. He couldn't turn away. He hated it. Wanted it gone. He raised a hand to shield his eyes and saw a beam of deep purple, with glistening energy, emerge from his palm towards the window's sickening display. Rage overtook him, he gathered as much energy as he could and focused it all towards that window. White lights began to emerge from it as Sonic kept attacking it. Eventually it shattered like shards of glass before evaporating into the eternal void. It was gone.

The other window edged closer. Sonic felt the heat of the place once more.

---

Blaze had been dragged back to her feet by an invisible energy, had felt tears being forced painfully back into her eyes. She had been forced to watch Marine's body re-enter her view. The look of terror on her face. Forced to look back towards Sonic and re-hear that guttural scream in reverse.

Before she could register what had happened, she felt her body slam into a wall. She looked into the eyes of a very alive, terrified looking Marine who was similarly pinned next to her. She watched Marine's eyes dart back and forth as she tried to gather her thoughts. She closed her eyes and struggled to climb out of view, a feat Blaze could not accomplish.

The force flattening her to the cave wall ended as suddenly as it had started, allowing Blaze to land as a crumpled heap on the ground. She stood up and ran towards Marine who was staring ahead at a terrifying sight.

Sonic had transformed. Two strips of white stood out on his otherwise dark red frame. Slow, black swirls of chaos energy appeared to be dripping from him. A gravelly, deep voice spoke.

"You killed my friend."

"You…" Eggman started, "…just re…reversed time…what the hell are you?"

"The final thing that you will see" Sonic answered, "The one who murdered Nega."

Eggman pressed several buttons in a panic, launching missiles directly at Sonic. They appeared to explode upon impact but, before Blaze could so much as jump in front of Marine, she watched the flames join Sonic's aura, the blackness now joined by flickers of blue flames.

One of the robot's hands swiped at Sonic, who caught it as he flew towards the attack, tearing a finger from the robot with all the ease of removing a post-it note. He then threw the finger directly into Eggman's pod. Blaze ran towards Eggman's prone form as he struck the ground with a sickening thud.

As she ran she heard Sonic, with lightning speed, take the spear from the destroyed robot that had stabbed Marine only moments before and place himself between herself and Eggman.

"NO SONIC DON'T!" Blaze cried out.

But she could only watch as Sonic sunk the spear into Eggman's chest. He stared angrily into the eyes of his fallen foe.

Eggman didn't cry out in pain. He didn't even wince. He just stared angrily back as he lay on the ground, his eyes lost focus…

BOING!

"HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" an automated voice laughed gleefully.

An Eggman head had sprung from its stomach. A fake.

"YOU WILL NEVER DEFEAT THE TRUE EGGMAN! HAHAHAAHAHHAHAHAHAAAA!"

---

Marine looked over emotionlessly at the scene in front of her. She couldn't take in much right now.

'I died, I died, but no, I'm not dead, stabbed, I…I…' her mind span in circles.

A sudden explosion distracted her just long enough to notice her friend Blaze scream. She appeared to be struggling against a wall. Marine looked around her as the stone walls shook and became splattered with magma. The hole above them widened, some huge chunks of rocks flaked away, falling into the magma below, others were propelled out of sight.

"NO, SONIC NO!" Blaze yelled as she was being painfully repulsed deeper and deeper into the wall. She began to scream in pain.

Sonic couldn't hear her, his rage appeared to have overwhelmed him.

Marine didn't have time to think about her immunity, or how she could stop him. She just leapt onto his back as he hovered in place, utterly ignorant of her presence. She looked to Sonic's bracelet; it was still there but it was shaking violently. If it broke… no she couldn't think about that, she needed to help it. She grabbed it, and felt an odd energy run through her. She couldn't question it, she just focused, her eyes clenched shut in concentration.

"Stop him, stop him, STOP HIM" she yelled, before feeling herself fall to the ground.

"MARINE!" she heard Blaze shout from above.

Marine felt herself become tearful. Blaze was safe. She watched as Blaze, still trapped high in the volcanic wall, was able to move her hand enough to summon some pillars of magma. They hissed as they cooled into smooth rock. Blaze melted the rock holding her in place and slid back down to the central plateau where she and Sonic sat.

"Marine, you're okay, you're okay!" Blaze openly cried as she held Marine to her chest.

"Ah…ah died though" Marine said, still emotionless, staring at the glowing Emeralds in her hands

Marine looked up at her concerned friend, then rubbed her remarkably healed belly with her forearms.

"It…it hurt…then I couldn't see, then ah fell, couldn't hear…burning." Marine shook as she mumbled to herself, clutching the Emeralds to her stomach. "Then…nothing. Like when you sleep without dreams. It was g…good. Then… then burning again…"

"We should get out of here," Blaze asserted as she wiped tears from her eyes, "we need to get somewhere quiet for a while."

Marine nodded, and watched Blaze lift the unconscious Sonic from the ground with some difficulty, she made straining noises as she attempted to lift him.

"Are you hurt Blaze?" Marine asked.

"I imagine there will be a lot of bruising. I'll have to grant myself some time to heal. I can't imagine I'll require too much however," Blaze said as she tried to raise the prone Sonic to his feet, "He's nearly as tall as myself now."

"Yeah 'e won't be 'appy wi' that. Poor sod hated his fur as it was" Marine said dispassionately, unable to look Blaze in the eyes. Instead she chose to prop herself under Sonic's other arm. Together they dragged Sonic back into Blaze's room. Marine was relieved when she heard the whump of his weight finally collapsing onto the bed.

Sonic's weight however was quickly replaced by another. She didn't fight it, allowing herself to fall to the ground as Blaze tightly held her. She lay on the foetal position on the carpeted floor. She felt Blaze's tears as she shook, sobbing into Marine's ear. Eventually she was pulled into a sitting position and felt herself being held against Blaze's chest again.

"I… I thought you were gone…I…I love you so much Mariney… I couldn't… I'm sorry I wasn't good enough…couldn't help you…I'm so so sorry" Blaze sobbed incoherently.

"It…" Marine started slowly, "it wasn't your …your fault. It was me I…I wanted to help."

Marine finally started crying herself, it took several minutes before they both began to calm down a little. Marine noticed that Blaze had kissed her forehead a few times, which was a new for her.

"I'm sorry I lost myself there…do you…are you going to be okay Marine?" Blaze finally asked.

"I dunno," Marine answered honestly, "I reckon it'll get better over time, at least I know that being dead isn't bad. But getting there sucks."

"I thought it might be like that," Blaze said, "How did you know what to do with Sonic?"

"Oh that's happened before. It weren't as intense that time though. When I nearly died fightin' the Robo-you Sonic lost his temper and sort of exploded like that. But the Emeralds protected me, they helped me put the bracelet back on."

"But this time you lacked the Emeralds, actually Sonic had them."

"Yeah he was purple last time too, not red. Emeralds must've powered him up. We ought to keep them away from 'im; if he got all of them…"

Marine wandered to the Queen's chair and looked out over the village. The factory had been destroyed, but most of the residents' homes had been crushed by falling rocks or were now smoking heaps of lava that were just beginning to form black crusts. Where there had been supportive columns of tied bamboo there were now cindery cylinders marring the landscape.

"Sonic didn't cause this, not all of it." Blaze reasoned, "Don't forget, he saved your life Marine."

"C'mon Blaze you're cleverer than that! If he gets all of them…"

"He won't," Blaze interrupted, "Not before we fix him and…"

"No we need to stop Eggman now, before it's too late. Blaze, this island is probably already doomed, look at the state of it."

"If we abandon Sonic to fight Eggman…" Blaze started.

"Bloody 'ell Blaze Sonic isn't everything!" Marine retorted, "A shit-ton of people need us to defeat Eggman and get this world back! Sonic is just one person! We can fix him after!"

"But…I don't…Marine he saved you", Blaze argued weakly.

"And nearly killed you", Marine replied.

"Nearly killed…?" A mournful, pained voice asked.

---

Above him he could only see grey clouds and greyer buildings. He turned to his right, his attention diverted to a grumble from the earth as treads rolled over the copper-coloured dirt. He attempted to move his arms and legs with little success; his efforts only rewarded with the sounds of chains clinking against one another.

Shadow took a breath and analysed his situation. Beyond the pains caused by his incarcerated body and the dragging of his skin against the ground he could also feel sharp pains indicating various nasty cuts across his thighs accompanied by a deeper throbbing pain which could only be caused by some internal bleeding or perhaps the dying embers of nerves that had been muted by deep burns. This was all secondary however to his chaotic sense. A cacophony of chaos seemed to have exploded into his consciousness. He closed his eyes to focus on it as best he could.

'That's… what the hell is that?' Shadow's mind wandered, imagining nuclear weapons and natural disasters. But no, he knew what this was.

All Shadow could understand in that moment was that Sonic was in trouble. Nothing else mattered to him in that moment. He closed his eyes and gathered chaos, using his mind's eye to imagine the landscape Shadow focused on what appeared to be a rocky mountain immediately beside the chaotic event he had sensed.

He felt the chains fall from him but his body was not yet at its best. He fell to a knee and leant his left hand against the wall of rock beside him, doing his best not to fall. Shadow looked at the land beneath him. Much of the copper-red ground was strewn with black. Some of it looked to be cooling lava, some appeared to be scorched pieces of metal rods. He found it hard to differentiate between what he was seeing as his vision was poor, likely because his body was currently focusing on rapid-healing.

A streak of white suddenly appeared beneath him. Shadow's instincts took over, following the blur as fast as he possibly could, his mind only just registering a scream behind him. He ignored it; it wasn't relevant right now. The blur was just too fast for Shadow, he instinctive warped towards it just before it fell out of view again and again.

Shadow didn't know how long he sprinted, but soon the white blur gave up running, disappearing behind some boulders just barely within Shadow's view. Shadow got to the boulders and felt all the strength leave him as he finally collapsed beyond them.

Shadow had pushed his body too far, he found himself panting on his knees as he looked up. A sheer white mess of fur clashed with some vicious black claws and fangs. His instinct should have been to run, but he saw a look of utter despair and confusion within a pair of deep red eyes. Shadow forced himself to his feet, dragged himself towards the beast in front of him and fell into its chest. He was glad to feel Sonic's arms slowly wrap around his back.

---

Hello everyone. It's been some time hasn't it? I originally planned to end this chapter with Marine's death but given how long it takes for me to write chapters these days I think that would be as cruel as Avengers: Infinity War. Since last time I've earned another teaching promotion hence the lack of free time to continue to write this. I absolutely will finish this story no matter how long it takes. However I also intend for this to be my longest chapter as it has started to become a bit ludicrous now. I hope every is enjoying the story so far, feel free to review and follow for further chapters. If it wasn't for the Covid lockdown I likely wouldn't have had time to finish this before Novemberish so let this be one tiny silver lining as this situation. Stay safe everybody.