I present to you another chapter, enjoy!
The four rebels raced through the forest as fast as they could. Once they believed they were far enough from the city, they stopped to catch their breath.
Or rather, Infinite and the blue hedgehog stopped to catch their breath. The Blue hedgehog leaned against a tree before something pinned to the wood caught his eye. He looked. Pinned to the tree were three WANTED posters. Upon looking at one of said posters, he ripped it from its place and stared at it.
"Oh no, this is bad, this is awful!" He exclaimed as Infinite looked up. "They just can't get my quills right!" he said as he held the poster by his face.
"Who cares?" Infinite coldly asked.
"Hmm, easy for you to say! They drew you three amazingly!" The blue hedgehog said, pointing to the other two posters. One depicted Scratch and Grounder, the other showed Infinite, unmasked. Whoever drew him even colored his heterochromia eyes!
The group then heard loud metal clanking in the distance. Turning, a large posse of military robots stood on top of the cliff. Infinite, Scratch, Grounder, ran through the dense forest, closely followed by the blue hedgehog who shoved his poster into his bag.
The four ran for some time before approaching a cliff, one too high to climb. The blue hedgehog observed the rock structure for a second before turning to his partners.
"Alright, give me a boost, then I'll pull you up," he said. Scratch and Grounder, both eager to get out of the place, stepped forward, but Infinite held his hand up, silently commanding them to stop.
"Hold on, I want you to give me your bag first," he ordered.
"What? After everything we have been through, you don't trust me?" Infinite stared at him with his usual threatening glare. "Ouch." The blue hedgehog fumbled with the strap of the bag, before hesitantly handing it over to the jackal.
Scratch and Grounder stood together and lifted their boss up. The blue hedgehog then used the pyramid formed by the robots and jackal's bodies to get to the top of the cliff. Once he got to the top, Infinite cleared his throat.
"Now help us up handsome," he said, extending his arm to the blue hedgehog.
"Oh, I'm sorry…" the hedgehog taunted, his back still facing Infinite. "My hands are full." He held up the bag containing the 'extra prize', before dashing off. Infinite felt around for the bag, and when he realized what just happed... he lost it.
"HEDGEHOG!" he screamed.
The hedgehog made his way through the woods, glancing in every direction, to make sure nobody was following him. Soon enough, his cat-like ears twitched at the loud clanking in the distance.
He ran away from the source of the sound, while G.U.N soldiers and robots chased him.
"Bring the hedgehog and the bag at any costs!" The Commander ordered his men.
As this chase continued, the blue hedgehog ran, going faster with each passing second, until his speed became too much for the military soldiers.
"Sir, he's too fast for us, I doubt we can keep up with him!" One soldier said.
"You can't, but I'm certain that the machines can!" The Commander said, pointing in the direction the hedgehog was running in.
The hedgehog continued running as fast as he could, slowing down just a little once he believed the military wasn't following him anymore. He stopped for a second to catch his breath... before a trio of sharp arrows flew past his face, followed by a series of gunshots.
'Sweet Mobius, they're sending in the robots!'
He continued his run, quickly dodging any bullets or arrows that flew his way. Eventually, the hedgehog began running towards a tree with a short trunk that diverged into various thick branches. He seized this opportunity and leaped between two of the thick branches. When the army of military robots arrived, they could not bypass the tree, and halted.
One robot, however, refused to allow a hunk of wood to stop him. He got through the space between the tree with little to no effort.
"E-123 Omega! Don't let him get away!" The commander shouted through the communicator.
Omega charged in the direction the hedgehog was running. He tore away any branches or shrubbery in his path with his long, slender claws, keeping his sights locked on his target. The hedgehog, seeing that just running could not shake this bot off, knew he had to try something else.
Omega slowed his pace down, realizing he had lost sight of his target. His glowing red eyes scanned his surroundings. What he didn't realize is that all he had to do to find what he wanted was simply look up.
The blue hedgehog was currently standing on a branch directly above the robot, looking down at it. He let out a soft sigh of relief...before the branch cracked. The hedgehog frantically tried to shift his position in such a way that the brach would not fall, but it was too late. The brach snapped…
And the hedgehog landed right on the robot's head. He shook his head and met what he could only describe as the robot's angry glare.
"You are pretty dumb for a robot," the hedgehog commented. He then noticed that the robot had his gaze locked, not on him, but on the item in his hand. The robot reached its hand up, attempting to grab the bag with its sharp claws, running forward, while the hedgehog continuously pulled the bag away.
"No, no, no, it's mine! Hands off!"
They fought over the bag for some time before the hedgehog lost his grip on the bag and sent it flying to the end of a long branch that was positioned on the side of a cliff.
Immediately, the robot and hedgehog raced each other to the bag. The hedgehog attempted to slow Omega down by hitting his legs, Omega shoved the hedgehog aside like a rag doll, then the hedgehog made it to the front, onto the branch, but he lost his balance, falling in such a way that he was gripping onto the branch upside down. He and Omega scurried along the length of the branch, Omega trying to stomp on the hedgehog's hands, but failing. The bag began to slip from the branch it was dangling from, which prompted the blue hedgehog to go faster. Just as the bag was about to fall, he reached his hand out and caught the bag by the strap.
The hedgehog waved the bag in the robot's face, laughing with a smirk.
That smirk faded however when he heard an unpleasant sound.
The sound of the branch cracking due to their weight.
Before either party member could do anything, the branch snapped, and both clung onto it for dear life.
Looking ahead, the hedgehog and the robot noticed a piece of rock jetted out from the wall of the cliff. Their branch collided with that rock with full force, snapping in half, each half flying in a different direction…
E-123 Omega's system booted up again, and he scanned his surroundings. He stood up and replayed the moment his systems shut down. Let's see, he was falling, after he was trying to catch…
The hedgehog.
Where was that blue nuisance anyway?
Well, wherever he was hiding, he was bound to be caught by E-123 Omega.
The robot began scanning the area, trying to find any trace of his target. His screen vision showed him a heat signature on the grass, that went past a large moss-covered rock, and into the woods. So he decided to follow it.
Once the robot stomped past the rock he was hiding behind, the blue hedgehog stood up and cautiously tiptoed in the opposite direction. He held his arm back to use the large behind him as support and gave a small yelp as his hand went through the dangling ivy.
Realizing that this rock was in fact, the opening of some sort of cave, the hedgehog entered it.
Omega thought he heard something. He turned back and stood in front of the enormous moss-covered rock, and stared.
Nothing suspicious over here.
Omega kept on walking.
The blue hedgehog let out a sigh of relief. He had escaped the robot's clutches yet again! He continued his way through the cave and paused when he noticed another opening. Curiously, he exited the tunnel and stared at what he found.
Outside the end of the tunnel was a clearing. In the center of this clearing stood a tall building. 'A research facility' he thought, an abandoned one at that. The place appeared as if it hadn't been used in at least a decade, as moss and ivy were creeping up its outer walls.
Deciding that the place would make for a good hiding spot, for now, the blue hedgehog approached the abandoned facility and using some of the arrows that nearly maimed him, scaled the building. It took some effort, but he managed to climb up to a window on the building.
The blue hedgehog pulled himself through the window. Once he was fully inside, he slammed the window shut, and took a deep breath.
"Finally…" he said to himself, "I'm alone."
Suddenly, the hedgehog's ears picked up soft sounds. His ears twitched, trying to locate the source of the sound, but nothing. Silence filled the room, and the hedgehog couldn't help but feel like he was being watched, but… by who? He looked around the room, trying to locate another presence…
"Um, hello? Is anyone there?"
Then he saw it.
It was hard to see, but he could tell there was something lurking in the dark corner of the room. A silhouette, one that resembled another hedgehog.
A light shone from that corner for a split second and the silhouette had vanished!
Before the blue hedgehog could say anything, he felt something hit the back of his head. Something hard and metal hit him in the back of his head, before his world went black.
Yup, I just did that! Out of all the characters to fill the role of Maximus in the story, I chose E-123 Omega!
Oh, and he can't talk in this story.
Well, I hope you enjoyed that part, next time, Shadow begins to realize that people from the outside world are not all he thought they were.
See ya next time!
-Izavella