Chaos, I'm on a roll! Third chapter in a row, coming through!

Chapter 22

Alarms rang out across Central City as police officers seemed to pour out from every nook and cranny. None of them were actively engaging the enemy robots to take them down though. Rather, they were concentrating to keeping the enemy corralled in a small area while another portion made quick work of evacuating the citizens.

"Officer Edward, we need more reinforcements at the Main Street!" a police woman shouted across the walkie talkie, one eye on the evacuating citizens, making sure the children in particular weren't left behind, while the other eye warily took in the failing barricade just a few meters away from her position. "Robots are starting to get through our barricade!"

"Where's Eggman?" another officer asked, wide eyes scanning the skies, almost shaking in his boots. The police woman almost snorted out loud. Clearly a rookie. "As a matter, where the heck are those GUN soldiers?!"

"No worries!"

A blue blur suddenly dropped down from the sky. In a matter of seconds, it took down all the robots that were starting to overcome the barricade before coming to a stop in front of the police woman. The citizens took a moment to recognize the voice and the blur before they cheered.

Sonic smirked reassuringly at them, the perfect picture of confidence and strength. He turned to the police woman, the smirk softening into a smile. "I'll take care of Eggman, Officer Azul."

Azul sighed in relief at the sight of the blue hedgehog. "Sonic. Glad to see you back." She then turned to the walkie talkie. "Everyone, the Blue Blur has arrived. Get to clearing out the battlefield. Make sure no civilians are in the area. Focus on the rescue aspect. And if GUN gets here, direct them to the battle site. Medics, get ready."

There was a confirmation across the communication while Sonic took off down the streets. It was easy to find Eggman; just follow the trail of emerging robots. Metal scraps and wires laid in his wake as he spin-dashed through his opponents. "Eggy~ Where are you~?" he sang while kicking off the head of one of the robots. "Come on, come on out wherever you are~"

And as if a part of a script, a maniacal laugh echoed from ahead. "Ohohohohoho! Looks like you've finally arrived at the party, Sonic!" Eggman leered from his Egg Mobile, two fingers stroking his carefully-groomed mustache. "Where have you been this month? Slacking off somewhere?"

"Actually, I was enjoying a rather wonderful vacation. You should have seen it, Eggman! Clear blue skies, white beaches, a lush tropical jungle, it was amazing! Not a single robot in sight, or a certain egg-shaped maniac if you know what I mean," Sonic replied with a fake longing sigh even as he nonchalantly destroyed another robot before it could start shooting its missiles (the poor buildings were already damaged enough and Sonic didn't want to risk the people being hurt by falling chunks of buildings). "You seemed to have gained some pounds by the way."

"Urgh!" Eggman growled, completely aggravated by the blue rat before him. Sonic had a habit of pushing every single one of his buttons. The fact that he did it with that smirk on his face and the ease of his motions, as if Eggman was barely a challenge, just served to push his anger a few levels higher. "You're going down Sonic! I swear it! Behold! The Eggsterminator!" He cackled with glee as he revealed his one of his greatest masterpieces.

The robot was a large towering giant, made entirely out of a silver-colored metal. The head was flat and wedge-shaped, with a red orb in the middle of its chest. Sonic merely yawned, not entirely impressed. Sure, the size was somewhat larger than Eggman's go-to robots, but the design was basically a robot mecha. It wasn't one of the crazier bots that were based off an animal or a particular object. "So, what's up with the size? Is it based off your ego, or your body size?"

Silence reigned. Then…

"…I'VE HAD IT! EGGSTERMINATOR! CRUSH THAT LITTLE INSECT!"

Eggman couldn't help a smirk as he watched the battle eagerly from up on high in his Egg Mobile. The Eggsterminator, despite Sonic's commentary that was totally not true, was a deadly machine. For hidden inside its energy core, powering it, were the five Chaos Emeralds he stole right out from under everyone's noses!

Of course, it wouldn't be fun if the battle ended too quickly by using all five Chaos Emeralds at once, so he was doing a little experiment of sorts. Inwardly, he cackled at how Sonic would react if he knew just how much of an experimental rat he was in this situation. The blue hedgehog may think he was stringing Eggman along, but it was the mad genius himself that was making the hedgehog dance to his tune!

Either way, the Eggsterminator was currently running on the power of one Chaos Emerald. It was not fast enough to catch up to Sonic; it just gave the robot some enhanced durability. Eggman hit a button and had the robot draw power from another Chaos Emerald. With glee, he watched as the Eggsterminator was now able to detect Sonic's movements despite the blue hedgehog's speed. He pressed another button. Three Emeralds…

And Sonic went flying as the Eggsterminator landed a blow, catching him right in the gut.

"Ohohohoho!" he laughed, baring his teeth with how wide his grin was. "Three Chaos Emeralds. Not bad for a hedgehog, but not good enough!"

The Eggsterminator followed Sonic, readying another punch. Another explosion of dust and debris flew up from the impact. From then on, it was a high-speed battle. Despite the large size and small room space to maneuver, the Eggsterminator was doing quite well, easily catching up to the blue menace and landing blows. All the while, the spin-dashes were proving less effective, bouncing off the armor most of the time.

"Let's turn up the heat, shall we?" Eggman cackled to himself as he increased the power by another Chaos Emeralds. The Eggsterminator was faintly glowing red as it pushed and pushed Sonic into a shrinking corner.

'This ain't going so well for me…' Sonic thought to himself, his confident smile faltering as he placed all of his focus on simply being just a tad faster, just dodging blows and being agile enough that the Eggsterminator couldn't hit him. He was making use of the small narrow space (in comparison to the Eggsterminator at least) to dodge and attack.

Of course, the robot cared not an iota for collateral damage, but the buildings would still slow it down and provide cover (unless the robot decided to develop some sort of x-ray or heat-seeking vision, and that would be bad).

Sonic bounced off another building and curled up, ready for another spin-dash. His breath got punched out of his lungs in a silent gasp when the robot's hand shot up, colliding with his form and just about driving him down into the concrete below.

He did his best to remain in his curled form, knowing that if he ever uncurled, he would be exposing his softer underbelly and his lungs would get crushed. He strengthened his spines, hoping that would give him more protection from the force that was doing its best to crush him.

'Now how am I going to get out of this?' he thought, his mind running through some ideas before landing on one. He was still curled up. He could still spin-dash. He just needed to have more force and power than the robot…

A daunting task.

But heck if he wasn't going to try it!

However, it seemed that his plan wasn't needed.

"Chaos Spear!"

All parties were surprised when a bolt of golden energy impacted against the robot's arm, creating a sizable dent and the force pushing the Eggsterminator off balance for a precious handful of seconds. Sonic took that chance and sped out from underneath the hand. He retreated slightly, heading in the direction of the voice.

And there, landing onto the broken tarmac, was Shadow, his hand lowering from its position when shooting that Chaos Spear.

"Hedgehog," Shadow grunted, eyes scanning his blue counterpart's form. He took in the faint bruises peeking through the somewhat patchy-looking fur, the dust and dirt covering his form and the tired grin on his face. "The fox went to grab something. Told you to hold on for thirty minutes."

"Thirty eh?" Sonic asked, feeling a fire light up in his heart at the perceived challenged. It was going to be tough. Truthfully, he could barely keep up with the Eggsterminator. Just what the heck did Eggman power this robot up with? A steroid version of a power core? Still, as he stood next to Shadow, as the Eggsterminator loomed over them ahead as if an unsurmountable obstacle, he felt ready to throw down! No way was he giving up just because a robot was too hard to put down. With that, the two hedgehogs turned to face the Eggsterminator. Sonic grinned, the expression both amused and a declaration of war. "No problem!"

"Enough talk," Shadow huffed, his skates lighting up in fire. "Let's take this thing down."

"You betcha!"

In an unseen signal, the two hedgehogs shot forward, making a zig-zagged path towards the Eggsterminator. They made use of the buildings as cover and slowly closed in, making feints to further confuse the robot. Shadow, now that he knew just how fast Sonic could go, pushed more power into his skates. He could feel the barrier of air pushing against him. He knew that he could break it. But this wasn't quite the time, not when he hadn't yet found out how to control himself at that kind of speed.

So instead, when he managed to get close to his target, he used that force to curl up and land another blow, aiming right for the dent he made earlier with his Chaos Spear.

Sonic seemed to have the same idea as well, coming around from another corner to land his own attack. Two spin-dashes to the spot made the dent even bigger, but it was not enough to break it completely. The Eggsterminator also started moving. It would not allow the hedgehogs to get lucky enough to land the same blow again.

Too bad Shadow wasn't trying to do that. While Sonic bounced back, dodging the swing from the other arm, Shadow held on.

Claw-like nails found purchase on the steel surface. With inhumane strength, Shadow held on with one hand while the other moved back, glowing with Chaos Energy. It shot forward and dug deeply into the dent, the Chaos enhancement helping to cut through the metal with ease. Sparks fizzled out from the cut wires, bouncing off the dark pelt harmlessly.

The Eggsterminator tried to use its other arm to pry Shadow off, but Sonic was suddenly there, a blue flurry of spines that stopped the arm from easily getting to Shadow. And by the time the Eggsterminator batted Sonic away, it was too late as Shadow finished ripping the arm clean through. Shadow smirked toothily in victory as he jumped away, backing up to where Sonic was pushing himself up from where he landed.

"Awesome!" the blue hedgehog cheered when he noticed the damage Shadow had done to the robot. "One less limb to deal with!"

With renewed determination, Sonic seemed to draw upon another reserve of energy as he shot off towards the robot. Shadow followed close behind. The Eggsterminator also started moving, mostly in short bursts as the two opposing parties tried to be just a little faster than the other.

It was a hit and run for Sonic and Shadow; both did their best to distract the robot and whenever they saw an opportunity, they sought to attack, this time aiming for the legs. They kept low to the ground, barely leaping up so as to remain out of range of the robot's remaining arm.

The Eggsterminator did try its best to use its legs to kick the incoming hedgehogs, but it was horribly overbalanced. The loss of an arm also factored to that, the weight now unevenly distributed. Shadow's hand glowed and he swiped his hand across the right leg while Sonic kept the other leg occupied, keeping it corralled away from Shadow in a blue tornado.

Shadow then came in close, his hand forming his second Chaos Spear. With a roar, he forced it into the slashes. Like a bomb, it detonated, blowing apart the leg from the inside. While it was still attached to the body, it was unresponsive, the inner workings completely fried up from the Chaos Spear as they were not as durable as the armor.

Eggman's brow twitched at the sight of his robot being overwhelmed. "That's it! No more mister Nice Guy!" He pressed another button. Another Emerald was now actively charging the robot. The silver metal's red glow strengthened and the Eggsterminator started making a comeback. With its leg now out of commission, it was using its rocket boosters to get around. As such, the remaining arm and leg were free to attack. In quick succession, it landed a blow on the two hedgehogs.

"Ugh!" Shadow coughed out as he slammed painfully into the ground while Sonic went flying into a skyscraper, glass shattering in his wake.

The black hedgehog forced himself onto his feet. He looked up at the skyscraper where Sonic was thrown into, but saw no signs of the blue hedgehog. With a growl, the black hedgehog decided to take a chance and skated up the skyscraper. Unlike Sonic, he didn't have any traction with the surface of the building in which to help cling onto it. Instead, he had to pour more power into his skates to have enough force to keep him up. Thank Chaos for the professor's Chaos Inhibitors.

He was getting higher, until he was higher than the Eggsterminator. The robot also noticed him just then and Shadow reacted, leaping higher with his hand glowing. However, the familiar Chaos Spear didn't form. Rather, multiple projectiles of Chaos gathered around him. "Chaos Arrows!" With a wave of his hand, the arrow-shaped energy projectiles rained down on the robot, distracting it enough that Shadow could reach the broken opening where Sonic was.

Inside, he noticed that Sonic was slowly getting up. His front and arms got the brunt of the attack, small shards of glass clinging to his fur and digging into his skin to draw blood, while his back was thankfully protected by his quills. The blue hedgehog had a faint wince on his face as he shook out his quills, getting rid of the glass shards tangled in the blue spines. "This is nuts!" he groaned, moving over to peer down at the Eggsterminator that had just recovered from the Chaos Arrow barrage and was now coming after them. "What the heck did Eggman fuel this thing with? His robots aren't usually this tough to handle. Heck, it's taking…Chaos Energy…to beat it…"

"…I take it that's unusual?" Shadow asked as the two hedgehogs decided for a retreat, too hurried to feel any reluctance in the action.

"Not in this case," Sonic said with a grimace. "He's using the Chaos Emeralds to power that thing up. No wonder it's so strong. Can you sense where they might be?"

"Its head," Shadow replied immediately, having already sensed the power that was now as bright as a beacon across his senses. At first, he didn't take notice of it more than a small light. But now that he thought back, he remembered how the light grew. It wasn't in a uniform manner, but…it coincided with how the robot always seemed to get stronger even if they had been dominating the fight previously.

Sonic's grimace deepened as Shadow explained his thoughts. "Great. By this point, Eggman's probably using all five of them at once now. That thing is going to be tough to beat, especially since we don't have Power Rings or a Chaos Emerald of our own."

"I still have three more Chaos Spears left in me." Shadow stared at the head, where he could sense the Chaos Emeralds. "If I can get close enough to the head…"

"That's it!" Sonic's grimace shifted to a grin at the idea. "Its head! That'll be a hard spot for the robot to get to us. The only problem would be getting close enough without being batted away."

"Speed?"

Sonic frowned thoughtfully. He knew that he could go faster than this. Break the sound barrier and he might be able to move fast enough. He would have to place it right though, make sure the resulting burst of air hit the robot instead of the buildings. But it was Shadow who would be able to attack the head and break it open…

"Shads, how fast can you go?"

Shadow stared at Sonic, fire blazing in his red eyes and his chin tilted up in challenge. "As fast as you, hedgehog."

"Good," Sonic laughed, reaching over to grab Shadow's hand. "Then you better kick those skates into gear! And ready your Chaos Spears." That was all the warning the black hedgehog got before Sonic suddenly veered right, now running towards one of the less damaged skyscrapers. That move also placed the robot right behind them...

And in the path of the resulting sonic boom as Sonic broke the sound barrier.

The force at this close range was enormous and loud. It was only thanks to Shadow's enhanced body and that the black hedgehog could also achieve these speeds that his eardrums didn't burst. Still, it didn't stop the awe in his chest as in what seemed like a fraction of a second, the two hedgehogs were already at the apex of the jump off.

"Now!"

"Chaos Spear!"

The blinding gold spear of energy struck down like a lightning bolt, hitting its mark. The head dented. The two hedgehogs went for that opening and landed on the head. Here, the robot would have a hard time reaching with its arm.

Shadow growled as he gathered Chaos Energy in his hand. Once more, he tore into the metal while Sonic watched out for his back, hitting against the arm that kept swinging at them. Once Shadow felt that he had dug deep enough, he used the remaining Chaos Energy left for one Chaos Spear instead of two, turning the golden light into a deep red hue that was so bright at the core that it was white.

"Chaos…Lance!"

The attack hit home, but it also prematurely exploded. The force also sent the two hedgehogs off the head. Shadow groaned as he felt immensely drained, his body blocking him from accessing the remaining Chaos Energy left in order to use it to keep himself up and running.

Next to him, Sonic shakily got to his feet, slightly stunned by the sudden blast of Chaos Energy. "Did that do it?" he asked in a rushed daze, staring blearily at the Eggsterminator.

The dust slowly settled, and revealed that while Shadow did break open the head, he had not quite managed to disrupt the Chaos Emeralds. The black hedgehog growled in frustration at the failed attack. "Not quite."

"At least we have a chance now," Sonic pointed out, helping Shadow up onto his feet. "Now, we just need to get those Chaos Emeralds out of there, and the robot will shut down." The blue hedgehog frowned when he couldn't feel the slight buzz he always did whenever he made contact with Shadow. "You're almost out of juice…"

"If you're referring to my Chaos Energy, then yes. I won't be able to use any more Chaos attacks like that," Shadow huffed, taking a moment to gather his strength before standing on his own. "But I can still fight."

"Alright," Sonic agreed, knowing that Shadow would be too headstrong to think of taking a break. But the black hedgehog looked like he could use the rest, and Sonic rather a grumpy Shadow than one that got knocked out from the lack of Chaos Energy inside him. "Let's do a tag-team attack then," he suggested. "I'll go first. When I get tired out, we switch."

Before Shadow could say something in response (he knew what that hedgehog was really doing, and he wasn't weak, for Chaos' sake!), Sonic was already running off, charging into the battlefield. The black hedgehog growled in frustration. Even when he was with his pack, he never liked standing on the sidelines while they did the work. At least, he ought to be doing something productive as well.

He tried to gather his Chaos Energy, frown deepening into a scowl when he realized that the energy his body allowed him to use was just enough to power his skates and nothing more than small enhancements here and there. But to heck if he was allowing that to stop him from fighting. He still had his strength and speed.

He took a look at the battle. It was going poorly on Sonic's end. The Eggsterminator, now fully on high alert and doing its best to stop Sonic from reaching its head again, was hyper-focused, its limbs coming up to strike at the blue hedgehog from whichever angle he chose to attack from. And Sonic was doing his best to just keep moving without getting hit, barred from reaching any closer due to the robot's remaining limbs. Without Shadow to help him, the robot could solely focus on Sonic.

'This tag team idea isn't going to work like this,' Sonic thought, regret somewhat clouding his mind as he dodged yet another uppercut from the robot. 'But Shadow needs the rest, and I need to buy some more time. How long has it been anyways?' He briefly abandoned his train of thought to focus on dodging a kick before taking the chance to climb up onto the robot. The Eggsterminator did its best to shake the stubborn hedgehog off, but Sonic was speeding up, forcing himself right up to the head.

However, the robot managed to outsmart Sonic. It raised its arm up, already waiting to grab the blue hedgehog just as he reached the head. He cried out in pain and surprise when metal fingers closed around his torso, holding him in a vice grip.

A blur of black and red shot up towards them, taking advantage of the arm that was now occupied. Shadow's visage was twisted in fury and rage as he slammed into the arm with all of his strength. The metal dented horribly under his anger and Sonic used the slight loosening of the fingers to wriggle madly and slip out of the robot's hold. Bracing himself against the robot's hand, he then leapt for the Chaos Emeralds.

"Oh no you don't!"

Eggman decided to intervene as he pressed a button and the Egg Mobile shot out missiles that sought out their target. Sonic managed to dodge a few, but one came unnerving close to his hand as he was reaching out and Shadow grabbed him by his scruff, pulling him away just in the nick of time. Another attack was foiled and they fell back onto the ground. The missiles also dove down, drawn to the hedgehogs.

But before they could reach their targets, another set of missiles shot out. The two sets collided and destroyed each other, throwing up a dust cloud.

Sonic and Shadow retreated further while Eggman spluttered. All eyes moved to where the missiles came from and landed on an approaching dot of blue and yellow. A faint noise of propellers spinning furiously grew louder, revealing itself to be the Tornado 2.

"Sonic! Shadow! Catch this quick!"

The plane swooped as low as it could to the ground and its two-tailed pilot threw two objects towards the hedgehogs. Sonic's grin was wide and relieved as he caught the Power Ring while Shadow caught the second object. Immediately, the black hedgehog felt a rush of energy flowing into him, red eyes wide in awe as they beheld the beautiful gemstone.

Vividly green and bright with energy, the sixth Chaos Emerald shone.

And I'll have to stop here.

Review Responses (as always, thank you for the reviews! Always love to hear your opinions!)

GuardianDragon98: Sonic X is the most experience I have with the Sonic fandom, and in that anime, the humans did go through that mistrust concerning Sonic and his friends, so that probably spilled into the fanfic. I can't take 100% credit for that. And the reaction you are expecting...well, this is coming from me who had already wrote most of the next chapter, so all I can say is please do not get your hopes up. The reaction WILL happen, just not in the near future...and you'll see what I mean once I get around to updating.

SharpDragonKlaw: The reaction you're waiting for is more of Shadow deciding to push the questions away for the moment in the heat of the fight, and focus more on defeating the enemy. Plus, he's pretty used to tech by now (he had to when he spent close proximity to Tails for a bit more than a month).

Battle scenes. The bane of my existence. I prefer my scenes to be short and sweet, but Tails just had to take thirty minutes to get from Central City to Westopolis.

The Eggsterminator is from Sonic X, Countdown to Chaos. It made such a brief appearance that I had to make up most of the knowledge. Plus, there are only five Chaos Emeralds in comparison to the six that the canon Eggsterminator had, so I decided to play around with it. Still, battle scenes...do not like. What about you guys? What do you think of battle scenes?

Hope to see you in the next chapter.