Imbalance

Chapter 7: The Rage before the Storm

-...-

"So, this is Angel Island? It looks pretty peaceful."

Team Dark had finally arrived at their destination, their aircraft landing near the island's edge. Shadow took in the sights of the jungle's entrance, its vegetation untouched by mankind. Shadow didn't often stop to smell the roses, so to speak, but he had to admit the serenity of the island did have its own appeal. Still, this was no time for lollygagging.

"Let's split up." the Ultimate Lifeform stated bluntly. "That way, we can cover more ground quickly. If one of us finds Sonic or his friends, we should alert each other immediately." Rouge and Omega nodded, and the three prepared to take off into separate directions of the island. Suddenly, Shadow stopped and fell to his knees.

"Ugh, AGAIN?!", the black hedgehog yelled through gritted teeth. He had just woken up moments ago, and yet another headache pierced into his head anyways. Despite this, Shadow refused to slip into unconsciousness again as he slowly got up. Even as his vision began to fade, Shadow got to his feet and endured the burning he felt in his head. And then... the pain stopped as Shadow's vision was tinted green. Looking around, an emerald-colored barrier had surrounded him, seemingly curing his headache.

"SHADOW, WHAT IS YOUR STATUS?" Omega asked, as he and Rouge stepped up next to the black hedgehog. Shadow looked at the energy barrier around him in awe, and reached out to touch it. Before his fingers reached the edge of the barrier, however, it disappeared from sight. Shadow knew it hadn't gone away, though, as he could feel its energy still around him.

All of a sudden, the leaves in front of the group began to rustle, and out from the undergrowth of the jungle emerged Knuckles.

"What are you three doing on my island?" the echidna asked, and Shadow narrowed his eyes.

"Where's Sonic? I know he's somewhere here." Shadow's question made Knuckles raise an eyebrow.

"Sonic? Why do you want to know? Do you know about-" Knuckles stopped before finishing his sentence.

"Know about what? Is there a secret you wanna keep from us, Knuckie?" Rouge asked with a wink. In response, the echidna growled and crossed his arms.

"It's nothing that any of you have any business knowing about."

"WARNING: FAILURE TO COMPLY MAY RESULT IN SERIOUS BODILY HARM." Omega remarked as he lifted a fist as a threat.

"Failure to comply? You three are the ones invading MY island! Now get out of here, before I have to toss you off the island myself!" Shadow sighed and walked up close to Knuckles, to the point where the two were standing face to face.

"I just want to know where the hedgehog is. If you won't tell me, I'm searching the island myself."

"Like hell you are!" Knuckles threw a hook to Shadow's left, but the ultimate lifeform had disappeared by the time the punch would have landed. Reappearing high in the air, a golden glow appeared in Shadow's hands, and he gritted his teeth as he threw it forwards.

"Chaos Spear!"

Knuckles only had enough time to look up when the Chaos Spear hit his body, stunning him for a brief moment as electricity flowed through his body. Shadow took this time to snap back down to the ground and kick Knuckles directly in the forehead, sending the Echidna backwards into the jungle. Shadow dashed forwards after him, but Knuckles had already gotten up and jumped towards Shadow, with a punch ready. Shadow teleported upwards to avoid it, but when Knuckles' fist hit the ground, a torrent of fireballs emerged from it, scorching Shadow and sending him flying into the air.

"I've got no time for this!" Shadow growled, and he began charging up a Spin Dash, and hurled himself towards Knuckles. The guardian put his hands up to intercept it, but Shadow had teleported behind him and struck him in the back. Before Knuckles could even recover, Shadow had teleported in front of him, using the momentum gained from ricocheting off of Knuckles' back to slam into him again. This had kept going for a bit, with Shadow repeatedly knocking the echidna around, but eventually Knuckles was able to grab onto Shadow's leg as he was jumping backwards.

"Gotcha!" Knuckles yelled, but Shadow just smirked, and the holes of his rocket heel began glowing. Knuckles grin instantly turned upside down as Shadow sent a burst of flame-like Chaos energy into his face, and the echidna staggered backwards and put his hands to his head.

"Gah, you cheap-" Knuckles immediately slammed his fist into Shadow's back, sending the black hedgehog to the side. As Knuckles cleared the smoke out of his face, Shadow rolled across the grass and used his spin to quickly reorient himself onto one knee.

The two stared each other down, both breathing heavily and waiting for each other to make a move, when a red light suddenly sparked between them, and Tikal appeared with her hands outstretched.

"Wait, wait, wait! Please, stop fighting!" Tikal pleaded, and Shadow got to his feet in surprise.

"My, my, who is this? I didn't know you had any relatives, Knuckles." Rouge said, but Knuckles ignored her and looked at Tikal.

"Tikal, what are you saying? You don't even know these guys!" Knuckles protested. Tikal sighed and gave Knuckles an apologetic look.

"I know, but I'm sure we can solve this in a non-violent manner. Okay, Knuckles?"

"Ugh, fine. But if they start acting up again-"

"I agree with Tikal here," Rouge cut in, "I love watching you two beat each other up, but to me, it seems we've both got problems that we may be able to help each other with. Now, how about we all just calm down and talk?" Tikal frowned at Rouge, and stepped in front of her.

"Hold on! I don't think you should be off the hook either, Ms. Rouge. You should have tried to stop them, at least!" Tikal exclaimed, and Rouge just laughed and scratched her cheek.

"Well, I don't exactly claim to be a paragon, honey." Tikal wasn't amused, as she frowned at the bat woman and shook her head.

"Hmph. I wasn't here to fight in the first place, I just want to know where that blue hedgehog is." Shadow stated, walking up to the two with an unamused look on his face.

"Well, I can tell you! As long as we all stop the violence, alright?" Tikal smiled and moved further into the jungle. "Follow me, we can talk as we move forwards." Knuckles followed her, making sure to frown in the direction of Team Dark.

Shadow, Rouge and Omega all exchanged glances, but the bat woman shrugged and walked forwards. Shadow sighed, but he and Omega jogged into the undergrowth.

-...-

Sonic was jogging next to Charmy at a brisk pace, neither of them really going full speed, as Sonic wanted to make sure he didn't get another sudden burst. That is, until Charmy tapped on his shoulder.

"Hey, Sonic! Let's race!" the bee boy said, and Sonic's smile fell a bit.

"I dunno, Charmy. I don't think-"

"Oh, I get it! You know I'm way faster than you!" Charmy egged on with a smirk. This caught Sonic by genuine surprise.

"What?"

"Yep! You know, I'm a lot faster than you might think! And I've gotten even faster than the last time we met!" Charmy proclaimed. Sonic grinned and gave a thumbs up.

"Oh yeah? Alright then, Charmy. Bring it on! But I'll let you know, I don't hold back when it comes to races!" Charmy gave a determined nod, and with that the two took off.

Sonic immediately took the lead, leaving Charmy in his dust. Looking to his left and right, Sonic couldn't catch a view of the bee boy. Was the kid really serious when he said he could win? All of a sudden, Sonic felt a strong wind beginning to pick up behind him. Sonic looked backwards and saw that Charmy had begun spinning around, creating a mini-tornado! The insect boy ejected himself from the vortex and knocked right into Sonic, sending the blue hedgehog off his feet and into the path of the whirlwind.

"Haha! See you later, Sonic!" Charmy yelled back, as Sonic tried to reorient himself in the tornado.

"So, this is how we're playing this?" Sonic said to himself. Smirking, he curled himself into a ball and began riding the path of the vortex, sending himself upwards. As he reached the top, Sonic jumped, escaping its grasp and giving him a bird's eye view of the green fields that were his racetrack.

"Hey, Charmy! Look out!" Sonic yelled to the bee boy down below before charging after him with a homing attack. Charmy looked up and freaked out for a second, but that second was all it was. He abruptly dodged out of the way and hit the curled-up hedgehog with an electrical kick, Thunder-Shooting him away into a nearby plateau. Crashing into the rock and landing onto a ledge, Sonic shook his head and got onto one knee. Charmy was gaining distance, but there was no way Sonic was gonna let himself lose. The blue hedgehog jumped into the air and onto the top of the plateau, using it to kick himself off and jump from rock formation to rock formation. Sonic ran through a corkscrew-shaped rock and jumped from it like a ramp, soaring through the air.

"Woo-hoo!" Sonic yelled as he felt the wind flow through his quills, but as he looked down he saw Charmy staring up at him, matching his speed.

"Hey, Sonic! Bye, Sonic!" Charmy exclaimed, and then he took off like a rocket. Bewildered, Sonic looked around and saw a destroyed monitor on the ground where Charmy was before.

"He must've gotten some Speed Shoes, huh?" Sonic thought, landing on the ground. A smirk grew on his face as he charged up his Super Peel Out.

"Let's see how it compares to the real deal!" the blue hedgehog yelled, taking off and quickly beginning to close the gap between him and Charmy. Charmy looked back and gasped at seeing Sonic right behind him, but the blue hero in question just grinned.

"Sonic, you're..." Charmy began, and Sonic's grin only grew.

"Gonna win? You bet! See you, Charmy!" Sonic yelled as he prepared to take off, but Charmy still looked oddly surprised.

"No, you're... you're glowing!" With that, Sonic's expression morphed from one of confidence to one of surprise as he looked down. Sure enough, he was surrounded by that all-too-familiar blue aura, and with that energy comes-

"Oh crap."

Sonic immediately burst forwards, grabbing onto the junior detective in front of him by the arm and taking off at an uncontrollable speed.

"Woooaaaahh! This is crazy-fast! Weeeee!" Charmy shouted, far more excited by the blitzing speed they were traveling at than the reason why.

"Yo, Charmy! I'm gonna use Chaos Control to get us to the city! Hold on!" Sonic yelled back to the bug boy. Thankfully, they were in a mostly open field between two sets of rock formations, so he didn't really have to worry about running into anything. Charmy nodded and Sonic pulled him forwards, giving Charmy a chance to grab onto his shoulders. Sonic focused all of the energy in the aura to his center, and jumped into the air.

"Chaos Control!" Sonic yelled, and the two disappeared.

-...-

"So, you believe that Sonic was the cause of these headaches?"

Tikal, Knuckles and Team Dark traveled through the jungle of Angel Island, and Shadow had just finished explaining his side of the story, how he had suddenly been attacked by headaches that told him of Sonic and Angel Island.

"Correct. And if Sonic is here, I'd like to ask him a few questions." Shadow responded. Eventually, the group had reached the Master Emerald altar located in a clearing, one of the many on the island.

"Well, Sonic left a while ago." Knuckles scoffed, "so if you want to find him, look somewhere else." Knuckles looked over to Rouge, shooting her a glare that obviously told her to stay as far away from his Emerald as possible.

"Actually," Tikal smiled, "If they want to find him, I could help them out after we've finished talking." She held out one of her hands and conjured up a glowing red orb. Rouge stepped forwards to stare at the shining sphere.

"Oh my, this is quite an interesting ability you have." the bat-girl said, causing Tikal to chuckle in response. Shadow was also interested in the ancient echidna's ability, but for a completely different reason.

"Tikal, could you be the one who created the energy barrier that protected me from the signal?" Shadow asked.

"YOU WHAT?!" Knuckles yelled.

"Please calm down, Knuckles." Tikal responded. "I conjured the barrier around Shadow because I sensed he was in immense pain, which happened to be caused by his headaches. I believe it was before you two had your... encounter."

"Tch, whatever. Let's just tell him why he's getting those stupid headaches and get them off my island." Rouge's ears perked up in curiosity at the statement.

"Oh? Do you think you know what's going on, Knuckie?" she teased. The echidna didn't respond, instead just looking towards his ancestor. Tikal nodded in understanding, as she had pieced the puzzle together as well.

"Knuckles and I have come to the conclusion that the reason Shadow has been getting those headaches IS because of Sonic. You see, the reason why Sonic visited Angel Island earlier was because he had a problem of his own. An odd imbalance in his chaos, as a matter of fact."

"Imbalance?" Shadow repeated.

"Yeah, it was insane. He was flying all over the place." Knuckles grinned, "It's no wonder why you were so affected by it. Someone having stronger powers than you must have shattered that fragile ego of yours, huh, Shadow?" The black hedgehog growled, but his expression soon veiled into a smirk.

"Hmph, at least I've got chaos powers to call my own and I don't have to mooch off of my 'Master'. Without that Emerald's connection, you're as weak as the rest of your dead race."

"Oh yeah? Let's see how big you talk when I use the Master Emerald to shut off those Chaos Emeralds you love so much! Let's see you transform then!"

"At least I can transform on my own! You needed Super Sonic to grant you power, and even then you couldn't fully transform!"

"Keep talking like that, Mr. Headache, and you'll end up with that little condition of yours getting worse!" Knuckles was about to charge forwards, but he stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Tikal gave him a displeased look, and he sighed and stepped back. After a few seconds of silence, Shadow spoke up.

"...So, if Sonic's chaos imbalance is what's causing this issue, how do we fix it?" Surprisingly, it was Omega who spoke up.

"ORANGE ECHIDNA, YOU STATED YOU HAD A METHOD OF LOCATING SONIC." Tikal nodded, and summoned up the red orb again.

"Yes, I do. Using this orb, I can home in on him and see his current location." Tikal focused on putting some of her energy into the sphere, and over time an image started to form. "Right now, he's... oh dear."

Tikal's exclamation prompted the others to look into the orb, and the sight within wasn't very pretty.

"Hey, that's in Station Square!" Knuckles noted. "What's going on over there?"

"THE HEDGEHOG APPEARS TO BE VERY, "NETTLED", AS ONE WOULD SAY". Omega was right, as Sonic was angrily talking to a man on the street inside the projection. His fur also appeared as a very dark blue, almost black.

"Nettled?" Rouge asked.

"I AM ATTEMPTING TO EXPAND MY VERNACULAR."

As Omega and Rouge began discussing the robot's use of language, Shadow kept watching the image.

"Tikal," Shadow started, not taking his eyes off of the other hedgehog, "how long does that barrier you gave me last?"

"Well, I created it to last a few hours, but enough strain on it from your end could cause it to dissipate."

"Hmph." Shadow nodded, and then teleported away. Tikal blinked for a moment, but turned her head when she heard Knuckles yell.

"HEY! GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF MY EMERALD!"

Everyone looked to the direction of the altar, where Shadow was standing atop the miracle gem at its center. Knuckles revved up his charge towards the black hedgehog, but Rouge held him back by the shoulders.

"Shadow, what are you doing?" Tikal asked, although she was afraid she knew the answer.

"Simple. I'm going to use Chaos Control to warp over to where Sonic is, stop that little tantrum of his, and bring him back here."

"Not using my Emerald, you aren't!" Knuckles yelled, but Shadow had already vanished. The four he left behind stood still, until the silence was broken by Knuckles.

"Hypocrite."

-...-