Chapter Ten – Ambush

An enormous almighty crash, just outside the burrow door, awoke Shadow from his slumber. It was pitch dark outside, the middle of the night. There were lights and sirens of a huge machine, ravaging the countryside, desperately trying to dig them out. Shadow growled, his temper flaring, he immediately recognised the machine. The sound alone was enough. The Egg Dragoon. Eggman was back and he'd had found them.

The Ultimate Lifeform then proceeded to kick himself hard, swearing very loudly, for the second time in as many days. A tracker on the truck. He knew Eggman. He should have seen that coming. His gritted his teeth. That dam Telekinesis. The power was incredible, but using was so mentally draining and distracting that he was forgetting the most basic of gorilla warfare tactics. Now everyone was awake and now very frightened. Thankfully the burrow had an escape route out the back, and as the Egg Dragoon got dangerously close, exploding the truck, they all ran for it. Rouge had to take the lead. In the pitch darkness, she was the only one there, other then Shadow himself who had perfect night-vision. Knuckles carried Sonic, as he was still fazing with his Intangibility, and couldn't walk. Tails quickly dived for the computer in the burrow, and just like Rouge, pulled the hard drive. But he only just got out as one of the arms of the Egg Dragoon, rammed into the front of the burrow, reducing the lounge to rumble.

Shadow was the last to leave and knew that they had a some time on their hands. It was going to take Eggman a while to dig out the burrow before realising they were not there. He growled. He could take out the Egg Dragoon, but he needed to be alone. He didn't have a Chaos Emerald but that wasn't a problem, he was strong enough without it, plus he's studied Sonic's battles against the machine. But it looked as though it had been heavily upgraded. However, there was one almighty risk he'd have to take, as he knew exactly why Eggman was chasing them.

Shadow increased his speed, and ran along side Knuckles. He heaved.

"Give him to me." He spat, indicating Sonic, holding out his arms. The Echidna seriously objected. He growled.

"No." He hissed, very defensively. "What are you planning?" He scowled. Shadow's eyes narrowed in frustration.

"I know why Eggman is chasing us. He only wants me and Sonic, not the rest of you. He was paid by Lionel several million dollars to take us out." He leered. Knuckles stared. The same was also true of the Mobian Authorities to some extent. Shadow was the whistle blower, it was him too they wanted. He growled. "If I take the Blue Blur and split, I should take Eggman with me, giving you a chance of escape." He hurried. Shadow could hear Egg Dragoon back at the burrow. They only had a matter of minutes before it was chasing them again. Knuckles looked terrified, and cuddled Sonic in close. He too was frightened, sucking his thumb but still struggling with the Intangibility, the fazing now extremely painful again. The Echidna truly feared he'd never him alive again. The prophecy of his death from Silver still raw in his mind. But as, in the dark, he felt Sonic grabbing his arm, agreeing with Shadow, Knuckles knew he had no choice, and handed the Blue Blur over.

This was the only chance for himself, Silver, Blaze, Amy, Rouge and Tails had of getting out of there alive. Especially in the dark. It was incredibly dangerous. He had to take it, even if it meant sacrificing Sonic. He heaved. Better to loose one, then all of them. He hated war, but at times, needs must. But if Sonic died then Shadow could destroy the world. He was now leaving the entire fate of the planet in the hands of the person who potentially annihilates it. Knuckles wasn't happy, but he didn't have a choice and as they nodded to each other. They split, going their separate ways. Shadow making absolutely certain that Eggman saw the direction he was heading, catching him in one of his search lights.

He put his foot down on the accelerator, but didn't got as fast as he hoped. His rocket shoes sliding smoothly from side to side. This wasn't the first time he'd carried Sonic but now, he was no longer to super lightweight he once was. He was heavier, though still significantly lighter then himself. Sonic's constant fazing made him rather slippy to carry. But Shadow gritted his teeth and pushed hard, to maximum speed and was delighted to hear the Egg Dragoon was behind him. The others were obviously ignored. That meant they were safe.

Shadow smirked. Time to take on Eggman on his terms. He couldn't use his Portable Teleporter to go to the Ark, it couldn't carry a passenger. It was the middle of the night. Complete blackness everywhere. Another clear and moon-less night. He understood why Eggman had attacked them now. The catch them completely off-guard before they left in the morning. He growled. It worked. But the night was Shadow's camouflage. He was incredibly difficult to see the dark, except from the small amount of light from his rocket shoes, but Shadow could limit that. He had to admit, it had been a while since he'd gone all out against the Human, and was quickly formulating a plan and strategy to get the job done. Thankfully, as Shadow raced through the countryside, he began recognising parts of it, as he moved into an area he knew.

'Perfect.' He thought. He'd noticed that the Human was heavily dependent on his search lights to find and follow Shadow. The Ultimate Lifeform didn't need them. His perfect night-vision meant he could see. He found a clearing, and stopped. He only had a matter of minutes to hide Sonic and set up his plan of attack. His smirk broadened. Time for his own ambush.

First, he moved a fair distance away from the clearing, and behind a large tree, he lay Sonic on the floor. It was freezing, and the Hedgehog shivered, but Shadow had to leave him there, it was relatively out of the way, and safe. For the first time ever, the Blue Blur was truly frightened. Fighting at night was not Sonic's preference, and this particular night, he was blind. All he could do was hunker down, stay quiet, and keep the Intangibility to a minimum as much as possible. Eggman had a Chaos Detector, he could use it to sense the Chaos Energy in someone, so it was paramount to kept his powers as calm as possible otherwise he'd stand out like a beacon. Sonic sighed, still in a great deal of pain, from the constant fazing, desperately keeping his mouth shut and not cry out. He sucked his thumb to help do this. His trust and now his life, was now in Shadow's hands. This was the ultimate test of the Brotherhood. Could he pull this off?

Shadow, despite the loyalty, forcibly pushed Sonic out of his mind. He had a job to do and moved back to the clearing, and then proceeded to climb a almighty tree to get some height. Not as an observation platform but more a launch station. He'd been thinking heavily about how Sonic had attacked the Egg Dragoon in the past. High, fast, and quickly. Super-Speed ramming and Super-Spin attacks all the way. It was incredibly effective, except Shadow had two problems. One, he was significantly heavily then Sonic, so couldn't throw himself high enough to get the height advantage against gravity and two, he wasn't as fast. He was Super-Speed fast, and heavily respected for it, but he just wasn't Blue Blur fast, who was in a completely different league.

But despite these weaknesses, Shadow had two advantages. One, it was dark, the perfect camouflage, and two, the clearing was surrounded on all sides by trees, which he could climb to get the height he so desperately needed for his plan to work. He was well aware, that the trees would be torn down during the fight, but if Shadow played his cards right, then he should get the job done before that happened.

He only had a few seconds breather at the top of the tree, before the Egg Dragoon arrived, which immediately stopped in the clearing. Eggman's Chaos Detector clearly showed Shadow in the clearing, but his searchlights completely failed to find him in the trees. The Human growled, in frustration, into the darkness.

"I know your here, Ultimate Lifeform." He hissed. "I will end you and the Speedster, when I find him. Where your pet anyway?" He leered. Shadow smirked and raised an eyebrow. Eggman couldn't see Sonic on his Chaos Detector. It meant that the Blue Blur was somehow managing to keep his Chaos Energy levels low enough to avoid detection despite the fazing. Shadow was seriously impressed, but now worried. How much longer could he keep it up for? The levels of concentration must be both epic and unbearable. Eggman continued.

"I know I can't fight you when your together, but now I have your alone..." He sniggered. Shadow didn't answer. Suddenly Eggman emptied several rounds of machine gun bullets at the base of the tree of which Shadow was in. The tree took them. But it was one of the largest trees in the clearing, and the Ultimate Lifeform, didn't move a muscle, still saying nothing.

Eggman then put this searchlights back on Shadow's tree, looking at it from top to bottom. Amongst the leaves, the Black Hedgehog was invisible. The Human's frustration increased, looking back at the Chaos Detector. Shadow's position hadn't moved. Now he was confused. Had the Ultimate Lifeform vanished from him? He didn't have the Chaos Emerald on him. Eggman remembered seeing it fall from the speeding truck back in Westopolis, but failed to find it in the city. The Mobian Authorities probably had it by now. After several minutes of nothing happening, Eggman's frustration hit the roof, as he began to think that his Chaos Detector wasn't working, banging it with his hand, when it hit him and hard. Literally.

Something extremely fast and very hard hit the front of the Egg Dragoon, with such force, that it was sent toppling backwards. The Black Hedgehog was indeed there, and had been patiently waiting for the Human to before very distracted before attacking. Classic Shadow, tactics wise, and Eggman fell for them. He should have seen it coming. But what Eggman definitely wasn't expecting, was the Sonic-style method of attacking, which completely threw him off his guard, and in the darkness, it was absolutely brutal.

Shadow had used his immense power to launch himself from the top of the tree, to high above the Egg Dragoon. Once he was at the required height, he curled up into a ball, and Super-Span dived straight at the Egg Dragoon. That alone was enough to dent the boss machine, but with Shadow's extra weight, which he took full advantage off, the Egg Dragoon took a serious beating, despite it's upgrades. After his attack, Shadow Super-Sped up the nearest tree, launched himself off the top, and repeated the whole process.

Again, and again, Shadow rammed the Egg Dragoon. Eggman was completely thrown. He was used to this kind of attack, but from Sonic and in board daylight. In the darkness, and against Shadow, he just couldn't see the Hedgehog. His searchlights found nothing. The Egg Dragoon was taking a battering, alarms were going off all over the place, and if Eggman didn't retaliate soon, he'd loose this fight, and possible his life.

Shadow quickly remembered why this form of attack was not his favourite, despite it's effectiveness. It was incredibly tiring, and he was finding himself getting more and more angry with each attack. He had to, just to maintain the stamina. Suddenly, out of sheer desperation, Eggman screamed.

"If I can't take you, I'll break you." He spat and let loose an absolute barrage of bullets from each and every the machine gun on the Egg Dragoon, as it circled the entire clearing. He seen Sonic suddenly appear on the Chaos Detector, unable to maintain his cover any longer. The fact that he didn't move told a delighted Eggman that the Blue Blur was down, but not dead. Time to rectify that fact. If he couldn't have Mobius, then no one could.

Trees were immediately shredded as hundreds of bullets were fired in seconds and Shadow swearing, was forced to duck for cover. He gritted his teeth to stop himself from screaming. It was utter carnage was absolutely horrendous. His life was not in danger from the those bullets but he didn't want them to trigger a Regeneration in him either, which right now would take him out for the next two days and would be excruciatingly painful.

Shadow growled, now outright loosing his temper. Enough! He dug deep inside of himself to find as much Chaos Energy he could muster and with his eyes glowing scarlet, he climbed a nearby tree and launching him, he gave Eggman everything he had, short of an actually Chaos Blast. (Which he needed a Chaos Emerald for.) The resulting Spin attacked landed right in on the Egg Dragoon's cockpit, sending the almighty boss robot flying backwards, high in the air, several hundred metres. It landed hard, the machine tumbling over itself, before screeching to a stop, the almighty robotic beast no more. The cockpit had completely buckled in on itself with the impact, and now Eggman was forced to kick himself free and as he did, he collapsed to the floor. The broken bones telling him he'd lost this fight, but against Shadow, he feared for his life so he wasn't going to hang around. He immediately called for backup, within minutes, several Badniks came and took him away.

Shadow was stood in the centre of the clearing, breathing heavily, just as dawn broke. The sun rays lit up the true carnage of the night's battle and the location of Eggman's fallen robot. Shadow's anger still very raw. He saw the Human in the distance. He was fleeing. He smirked. Not on his watch. He could end it now. Kill him. As his killer instinct began to get the better of him, at the thought, but as he was just about the chase down the Human, a suddenly scream, immediately snapped him out of it. It brought Shadow back to Mobius with an almighty crash. The pure adrenaline of the fight, alongside his temper and utter hatred of Eggman, had caused the Ultimate Lifeform to completely forget he wasn't alone.

Sonic!

Shadow swore as he immediately ran to where the place he'd left the Blue Blur, and was thankful that Sonic was still was exactly where he left him. On the floor by the tree, and he was still fazing. So, no changes. Good. But Shadow could see him shivering, but not with the cold, but with pain, and he knelt down beside him. He rolled Sonic over, only to find, to Shadow's absolute horror, that he was badly bleeding. Due to incredibly unfortunate timing, a stray bullet from Eggman's entregue had hit Sonic just at the point where he was solid from his fazing, and it had got him square in the chest.

The Blue Blur was down.