Chapter Three – Collisions

Sonic never showed at the rendezvous point, but Frank decided to continue with the mission anyway. He'd decided to take this one himself, against G.U.N. protocol. His family has suffered dearly at the hands of the Syndicate and now it was personal. There were a dozen of them, including Shadow and Rouge, all, except the Ultimate Lifeform, in completely black camouflage gear. The mission was simple, go in, grab the information they needed and get out. They had been split into four groups, each tasked in finding different pieces of information. One group on gun shipments, another on finances, the third on suppliers and finally Shadow and Rouge on the ringleaders.

Shadow didn't care about Sonic. He and Rouge were more then capable of doing this themselves. As it turns out, the headquarters for the Syndicate was just a plain and simple skyscraper office building right in the heart of downtown Central City. Nothing untoward at all, except for having several record studios and a radio station. But that was not unusual. Central City was considered the music hub of Mobius, with hundreds of radio stations and studios right across in the city. It was hiding in plain sight and absolute genius. Even G.U.N. had completely missed them, if Sonic hadn't told them.

The four groups of the G.U.N. mission, all went their separate ways. With such a tall building, they decided to take from both the roof and the basement. Information on gun shipments and suppliers was more like to be found in deliveries, in the basement, and details on finances and the ringleaders, would more likely be found on the computer systems further up the building. Shadow and Rouge landed on top of the building. It was a cloudy, pitch dark night, perfect for a mission like this. Both had perfect night vision, so the lack of moonlight was not a problem for them. Their G.U.N. comrades had cut a hole in a window of the top floor, and soon they were in. The building was strangely quiet. Shadow growled. Too quiet, and as their G.U.N. comrades disappeared to complete their own mission, it was time for Shadow and Rouge to get moving.

It was up to each of the group in the G.U.N. mission to gather information on their assignment and get out. Nothing more. There was no going back for your comrades or looking for information on anything else. That was their job. If a group was down, it was usual to just leave them. It was brutal, but as Shadow figured, don't go down, as of course, he never did. As he pushed his G.U.N. comrades out of his mind, he had his own mission to deal with. Soon, they were on their own. Silently moving down the dark building, it wasn't long before they found a computer room. Rouge grabbed a computer and hacked into it. This was definitely the headquarters of the Syndicate, but all the information on the computer was just general office work, nothing of any significance. Then she checked the network, and again found nothing. But as Shadow waited for Rouge to finished, he began to get the feeling that they weren't alone, and as he stretched his hearing as far as it would go, he heard the cocking of several guns.

This building was anything but quiet. It was actually crawling with people. Heavily armed. As he looked back to the Bat, he noticed a small scarlet red laser point light aimed right in the centre of her back, between her wings. Shadow knew immediately what it was, as forcible grabs her and pulls her backwards, only for the bullet to miss her by millimetresand shatter the computer screen. It was a laser aiming light of a sub-machine gun. They ran out of there, immediately followed by gunfire, until finally, down several stories and around multiply corners later, all the quiet again.

Rouge was heaving. That was close. Too close. She genuinely owed Shadow her life. But they were still no further forwards as to finding who the ringleaders were. It meant only one thing. They were looking for a computer not on the network, completely independent of the others. The computer where all the real wheelings and dealings was done. Rouge could only think of one place it could be. The Vault. It was not unheard of to lock away a computer in a vault especially if it had very precious information on it. Shadow growled. He hated vaults. He could never get the dam things open.

But Rouge had found out that the vault was on the third floor, and they were still much higher then that. So down they went, as quickly and as quietly as they could. They dodged multiply gunmen and guards. Shadow could have taken them out, but decided against it. Because one, he wasn't alone, and two, it would have brought every single Syndicate troop to their location. Subtly was the best course of action here.

Finally they made it to the third floor. The huge circular door of the vault was dead ahead of them, down a long corridor. It was about five foot wide and a foot thick of solid hardened steel. It was heavily fortified, with a twist locking mechanisms, and two well-armed gunmen stood in front of it, alert to any and all dangers. Shadow's anger was getting the better of him. He was keen to get in and get out. They had been inside this building for far too long. He could feel his two fully loaded semi-automatic revolvers in his quills. As he was about to grab one of them, something immediately caught his eye as well as that of the vault guards.

Suddenly, the corridor between them immediately began to fill enormous lines of pale blue sparks. It completely lit up the entire corridor, and as the voltages of the Static Electricity built up to it's maximum, someone appeared right amongst it, completely out of nowhere. He was extremely huffed, and instantly spotted Shadow and Rouge.

"Hi. Sorry, I'm late." He heaved, but then he growled. "I have been looking for you guys everywhere." He grilled. "You didn't tell me where the rendezvous point was." He spat. Shadow rolled his eyes as Sonic stood there in his pure royal blue glory, but unfortunately the vault guards had also spotted him. But Shadow got there first, and grabbing one of his revolvers, and ran out right next to Sonic in the corridor, and firing two shots, Shadow perfectly took down both the gunmen, a bullet to between each of their eyes.

To Rouge's total astonishment, Sonic didn't move a muscle, or say a word. He just had extremely serious look on his face. The Blue Hedgehog was famous for not killing, and yet he'd just let Shadow do just that. There was simple reason for it. Shadow killed people. That was what he did, and Sonic had realised a long time ago, that to try and stop him or make a fuss was a complete waste of time. Unless he had a dam good reason for it. But this was a G.U.N. mission. People dying by Shadow's hand was an expectation. The Ultimate Lifeform had taught him this, and thus Sonic had learned to expect it, and therefore it didn't phase him when it happened.

Sonic had changed, that was for certain, and more specifically, what had Shadow done to him. He'd almost certainly highly trained Sonic to within a inch of his life. Gave him something to fight for again and to take his mind off past painful events. It really showed. He wasn't the hyperactive giggly kid she saw at G.U.N. headquarters a few days ago. He was a super professional soldier ready to do whatever was needed. She had heard that Sonic had always been like this. Tails had told her. Crazy one minute and professional the next, like someone had flipped a switch. Rouge didn't believe someone could change so quickly, and now she had just witnessed it for herself.

The three of them ran down to the vault. It was locked solid, no way in. Rouge squealed in utter frustration. But Sonic looked at the vault. He didn't know much about them, but he did know enough from raiding Eggman's bases over the years that some of them had a certain special feature. He looked at Rouge.

"Hey." He said, in a somewhat stern voice, not giggly at all. "Do you think that this vault has one of those safety mechanisms where you can open it from the inside, if you get locked in?" He asked. Rouge stared.

"Er, yes, I think so, but I don't see how that helps us?" She asked. Sonic smirked, his lip curling.

"Move." He asked, and suddenly he ran the opposite direction to halfway down the corridor, the pale blue sparks of Static Electricity following him as he went. Sonic swore, under his breath. Those things hurt. The last two days had been absolute hell. The Static Electricity was painful, as the voltages got higher, but with time, it was slowly easing, but it was next to impossible to control. He was really struggling. He'd quickly figured that the power was directly related to his emotions, so the calmer he was, the calmer it was. Easier said then done, for a Hedgehog famous for not being able to sit still.

His ability to generate Static Electricity whenever he used his Super-Speed, had suddenly exploded into existence in G.U.N. headquarters several days ago. Sonic was so super hyperactive at the time because it was desperately trying not to outright panic over it. Made it look like he'd been able to do this for a while when actually that wasn't the case. If Shadow was alone, then yeah, he would have told him the truth. Sonic trusted him. But in front of G.U.N., especially uninvited, no chance. He couldn't be seen loosing control. He was just too powerful. He would loose his freedom, possibly his life.

But as he looked as the vault, he was about to do something, he been practicing for months and had only successful mastered about a week ago. It was how he got in and out of G.U.N. headquarters.

Molecular Vibration.

The ability to vibrate the molecules of one's own body to such a high frequency that you can pass straight through a wall, or in this case, a solid steel door. Super-Speed Extreme! It was also incredibly dangerous. It Sonic screwed it up half way through, and stopped in the middle, he would die, instantly. He took a deep breathe, time for the run up. He stared at the door, and concentrated. He could hear voices in the distance behind him. It was now or never.

'This better be worth it!' Sonic thought. But he knew better then to ask. This was classified G.U.N. business and therefore none of his. This was a huge vault door. The thickest door or even wall he'd ever passed though. This was going to be painful and he began to move. Rouge gasped when he realised what Sonic was about to do, but the Blue Blur ignored her. As he moved, Sonic concentrated on his Super-Speed within him. He felt the Chaos Energy inside of him increase dramatically, and he began to vibrate. The famous Hedgehog really became a pale blue blur as he moved forwards towards the door. Gritting his teeth, and with all of the core strength he had, he pushed the vibration to its limit. He saw the door coming towards him, the pale blue sparks following him. He feared it. He shook himself.

'No.' He thought. 'You mustn't!' He warned.

Just about holding his nerve, he felt his hand touch the door and proceed to pass through it, followed by his arm and shoulder. Sonic was right, it was painful, but not as painful as he expected. In fact, the more of Sonic's body entered the door, the less painful it got. It was more shock then pain. Lifted by this, he concentrated on keeping the vibration high and in less then a minute, had completely passed through the door.

On the other side, he collapsed on the floor, completely exhausted. His body was solidifying, the vibration stopping. He was stunned. He done it! But there was no time to linger, as he immediately got to his feet, and working out the lock in the darkness, open the vault door from the inside. He was out of breath as he saw Rouge and Shadow walk past him into the vault.

Rouge was seriously impressed and Shadow too was stunned but there was no time for admiration, as they still had to get their information. Shadow was certain that opening the vault would have triggered an alarm somewhere and they didn't have much time. The vault itself was absolutely pitch dark, and Shadow knew that Sonic couldn't see a thing in there. So he told the Blue Blur to watch their backs by the door as they had headed inside. Sonic didn't argue, he didn't like it in there one bit anyway. Through the pitch darkness, Shadow and Rouge found, with their perfect night vision, exactly what they were looking for. The vault itself was very large and stacked with shelving, piled high with boxes. Right at the back, was a singular desktop computer, glowing in the blackness, humming slightly in the silence.

Rouge ran for it and immediately logged on. It wasn't password protected. Inside the vault, no one was expecting anyone to get to it. Rouge worked as fast as she could. She knew that she only had a matter of minutes to find what they were looking for, before all hell broke loose. But there was a lot of information here. Folder after folder of word documents and the names of the ringleaders could be on any of them. There was no time to look. Things started to get desperate as Shadow heard footsteps above their heads.

Shadow growled at her. Time to get moving. Rouge panicked. But she looked at the down at the tower of the desktop computer. She had an idea. It was risky as hell, but she also had backup. Two of the most powerful Hedgehogs on the planet. If anyone could get her out alive, they could. She closed down the computer and proceeded to sharply kick the tower. The outer shell buckled, as Rouge proceed to pull it off. She put her hand inside her black camouflaged unitard and pulled out a screwdriver. She undid a few screws from the computer, and pulled out the hard drive. The most important thing of all. She then proceeded to stuff both it and the screwdriver back inside her unitard.

But as she gave Shadow the nod to leave, they suddenly heard gunfire, back at the door of the vault.

Sonic!

They both immediately ran back there to find the Blue Blur completely fine, and all the gunmen down, moaning on the floor. Both Rouge and Shadow were amazed. Nobody had been killed and yet Sonic had completely rendered everyone useless. That was when, for the first time, they both noticed that Sonic was wearing something. Strapped to his back was a harness, which clipped to his cross shape central strapping at the front. He carried a pair of twin Sai knives, a traditional Okinawan melee weapon, traditionally used for stabbing. But Sonic threw them, as they always returned to his hands, like boomerangs, and a pair of Samurai swords. Sonic smirked. He always told Shadow he didn't do guns, because the sword was always his weapon of choice.

He was also wearing jet black shoes. Because his usual cherry red shoes with the white stripes stood out so much, they weren't really appropriate. So he'd taken an old pair, and had spray painted them black with shoe paint just for this kind of work. He'd also changed the fastenings, making the shoes more grippy. Sonic figured that was highly unlikely he was going do be doing any straight line speed running during these night missions.

But he was an expert swordsman, and along with the reflexes learned from his Super-speed, he was deadly. He'd always enjoyed the knife work. Largely self-taught, he'd learned when he was younger, long before he'd even met Tails. He'd been speeding around the planet, when he stumbled across a traveling circus, who insisted he'd join them. Unable to refuse, or get away, he agreed, where they taught him knife throwing. Sonic absolutely loved it. He found it so easy, and on top of his Super-speed, he could do some really spectacular tricks, his aim always perfect.

After several years, Sonic had earned his wings, and was allowed to leave, not long before he met Tails, moving into his house. Throughout the rest of his life, he continued to practice his knife skills, but keeping them a secret from everyone. The three of them looked at each other. Sonic was heaving.

"Did you get it?" He asked pointing at the vault. He had absolutely not idea what they went in for, but was now somewhat eager to get out of there. Shadow agreed, and just as the Ultimate Lifeform was about to do a Chaos Spear at the window to smash it in order to leave, Sonic heard screaming and further gunfire from the foyer downstairs. Normally Shadow would have just Chaos Controlled the three of them out of there, using several Chaos Emeralds, but for the past year, all seven Chaos Emeralds had just vanished. Gone. Not even Eggman had one, or had any idea of where they could be. Knuckles, the residence expert on all things Emeralds, said that he was certain that the Chaos Emeralds were still on-planet, but his radar only worked for Master Emerald shards. As to where the Chaos Emeralds were, his guess was as good as anyones. Shadow had searched himself but with no luck. He suspected he'd see the Chaos Emeralds again, but it could take decades.

Shadow had read about the history of the Chaos Emeralds, and knew that it wasn't unheard of for them to suddenly disappear for years on end. Because of this, he was forced to build a Portable Teleporter to get himself, from the planet, to and from the Ark. It worked, but its range wasn't very good, as he had to be in a direct line of sight of the space colony. Therefore, it could only be used outside, not from within a building and on himself only. It wasn't powerful enough to carry as passenger. He growled. It was at times like this he really missed the Chaos Emeralds. So when Sonic immediately vanished, in an explosion of pale blue sparks. Shadow swore, as he and Rouge were forced to go after him.

Downstairs, the situation was absolutely dire. The stairs down the foyer lead to a T-shaped corridor, where the main corridor quickly opened out into the vast open main entrance of the building. The lift was right next to the stairs. In the main entrance area, there were over fifty gunmen crouching down, pointing semi-automatic portable machines guns right back at the lift and stairs area. There were red laser beams everywhere. Shadow noticed that all of his G.U.N. comrades, the other three teams, including Frank, were crouching down, hiding, in absolute fear for their lives. If anyone moved, bullets were fired. Shadow heard footsteps behind him and Rouge. He swore. They were trapped. Shadow didn't fear for himself. As an immortal, he'd get out of this situation alive, but as he suspected, he probably be the only one. But then he looked around, as someone was very inconspicuous by his absence.

Shadow swore again. Where was Sonic? He was ahead of them, he should be here. Then they came, the now very familiar explosion of pale blue sparks, announcing his arrival. They completely lit up the entire corridor again, and as the voltage of the Static Electricity built up, he stood there out of nowhere. He was in the centre of the corridor, right in the line of fire. But no one did.

The gunmen had been completely shocked to see the world's more famous Hedgehog suddenly appear right in front of them, and Sonic's reputation as the Hero of Mobius had stunned them all into silence. Shadow, who now understood what was going on, took full advantage of this lull. Sonic had waited for them to arrive, as he knew his sudden entrance, on top of his massive fame, would stun the gunmen into silence. Very clever, as Shadow grabbed his fellow G.U.N. comrades, including Rouge and moved them across the corridor to a better place of safety, but they were still trapped.

Upon seeing the G.U.N. operatives flee, one of the gunmen fired a single bullet at Sonic. The Blue Blur didn't dodge it, he couldn't. There were still people behind him. Standing completely still, Rouge saw his hand move so fast, that he was nothing more then a blur, until he came to a complete stop, out in front of him. His hand was clasped close, as though he'd just caught something. Absolutely everyone saw. She gulped.

Sonic then opened his hand, and the bullet fell to the ground. It was an incredibly impressive demonstration of pure speed, and as Shadow knew, he expected nothing less from the expert. Rouge was stunned. Sonic could catch bullets! Shadow smirked. Yes, he could. He'd been able to do it for a couple of years now, but Sonic couldn't catch many, before it got too painful. Shadow knew very well that catching bullets ripped Sonic's hands to pieces, badly burning him. Once was just about tolerable, and Shadow doubted he'd do it again tonight.

Sonic's impressive move had called a stalemate. Shadow's smirk broadened. Nicely done. He could feel the gunmen's reluctance to fire at Sonic. But as the boss of the Syndicate ordered his men to fire anyway, regardless of what the Blue Blur did. Shadow knew he'd never catch them all. Suddenly Sonic's entire body was covered in the small scarlet red laser points. Rouge absolutely panicked. Sonic growled at her, as he reached over his shoulder.

"Rouge!" He spat, then he smirked. "I've got this." He added, then he looked at the Ultimate Lifeform, indicating with his head, the gunmen. "Shads?" He hissed. Shadow had no idea what Sonic was getting at, but he trusted him enough to follow him out there. He smirked.

Suddenly, the entire entrance foyer filled with deafening sound of gunfire straight at the Blue Blur. But he didn't go down. Quite the opposite. As the first gun fired, he became nothing more then a blur, and surrounded by the pale blue sparks of Static Electricity, he had grabbed both the Samurai swords off his back. He immediately began twisting them around out in front of him, his arms crossed, in a large circular figure of eight motion. This was done in such a way, so unbelievable fast, that it was defecting every bullet straight back at the gunman who fired it.

However, not being a killer, Sonic was incredibly careful not to fatally injure any of the them. The fact that he had the time to calculate this, on top of everything, truly showed the real true speeds he could work at. Faster then a bullet from a sub machine gun itself at six hundred and seventymetres per second, Sonic was outpacing them all. More then twice the speed of sound, and considering he was still growing, there was potential he could go even faster. His brain was working overtime at super-hyper-sonic speeds, just to make this work. He saw every single bullet come for him, before he defected it. From his point of view, he was going so fast, the world around him appeared to have slowed right down. Even rain stopped in mid-air when this happened. Very disorientating at first, but now he was well used to it, and now able to see everything, he took full advantage of it. Running forwards, he moved his swords so fast at breakneck speeds that he was literately slicing the bullets right out the air. They were nothing more then a blur.

The ruthlessly high-speed reflexes needed to pull this off were staggering, as absolutely nothing got past Sonic and as Shadow saw this, he immediately understood what he was getting at. Now he knew how Sonic had taken out those gunmen outside of the vault. He smirked as he grabbed both his revolvers, and ran out straight behind the Blue Blur, and proceeded to fire bullets right in-between the moving swords, taking out each of the gunmen, right between the eyes, rapidly changing gun ammo as he went. The enormous level of cooperation required to do this was incredible. Shadow was in his element. This time it was him having the rush of adrenaline going straight to his head. He absolutely loved these high octane gun fights as and when they happened, was thrilled that the Blue Blur was with him.

It was fast. Super-Speed fast, almost super-sonic speed fast. It pushed Shadow's own Super-Speed skills to the absolute peak. He was only barely keeping up. This was his limit. Shadow curled his lip. This was what the King of Speed did best, what he was built for, and from what Shadow saw, Sonic truly was the King. He knew the day would come when he'd never be able to match him like this again. He'd be just too fast. That would make him proud, yes, he was admitting that, especially after the hours of time and effort Shadow had put into training the Sonic over the years. He did care about him. But Sonic had earned that respect, mainly from years of being stuck together. But Shadow was still picky about who he did care about and was also still arrogant as hell.

It didn't matter which direction the bullets came from, Sonic stopped them all. Soon, the two Hedgehogs found their sync and very rapidly, the gunmen fell and were falling fast. Their boss was panicking, as he radioed someone. But before he could do anything else, all of his gunmen were down, and as the only still left standing, Sonic, completely out of nowhere, had both his Samurai swords crossed at his throat.

Completely overwhelmed, he dropped the radio. Sonic was out of breath, growling heavily, very angry. The Blue Blur, not being the killer, lowered his swords, turned around and walked back towards the lift and stairs, past the Hedgehog who was. Their eyes met. Shadow's eyes narrowed as he raised his gun and fire, landing the bullet, exactly on target, between the eyes of the boss. He fell to the floor, dead.

Finally, all was silent, but the blood and carnage all around them was apparent. But this still wasn't over. Footsteps were coming from above them, the Syndicate wasn't done with them yet. Suddenly a sound behind Sonic that caused him to turn. The ding of the lift, as it approached and the doors opening. It appeared to empty, but, no.

What happened next, happened so fast, that it completely caught the King of Speed off his guard. In the lift. A bomb. It immediately exploded right in his face, throwing him backwards, right off his feet. As he flew backwards, Sonic completely lost control of his Super-Speed. His body exploded with pale blue sparks of the Static Electricity, which then began to vibrate on his own as the Modular Vibration took over. But it didn't stop there as his body then literally exploded into a translucent state. A ghost-like appearance. White and see-through. All this happening in a matter of seconds as Sonic absolutely panicked as he saw Shadow was directly behind him, his back to him. He was heading straight towards him. He couldn't stop himself, he was going to hit him.

But the time Shadow realised what was happening, it was too late, as the Blue Blur hit him. But Sonic didn't hit him, he ended up accidentally passing straight through him. The Black Hedgehog screamed. He never had so much Chaos Energy pass right through him, at any one time before, and it was excruciatingly painful. He felt something change in his body as strange markings suddenly appeared on his hands. He saw the Blue Blur reappear in front of him, collapsing to the floor, solidifying in the process. Shadow had no idea what happened, but it happened incredibly fast, again in seconds and before he could do anything, the darkness closed in and he too fell to knees and to the floor.

Both of them were out cold.

The Hedgehogs were down.