Author's Notes:
-I'd like to give my thanks to lalalei for the follow, favorite, and review, as well as WriteAndRead for the review. Thanks again, guys!
-Sorry this chapter is a couple hours later than I said it would be. I am a master procrastinator, so just like with everything else, I largely put writing+editing this chapter off until well too close to the deadline I'd set. I hope it's okay regardless.
-I've got nothing else to say. I hope you enjoy Chapter Four!
Chapter Four: Divided We Fall
Silver didn't have to wait long to figure out what the cause of concern was.
Once he'd gotten a few blocks away from the apartment, a massive crowd of monsters made itself clear, attacking anything in their way. Several were pulling off a near-perfect replica of the homing attack Sonic was known for, trying to break into nearby buildings. Others merely destroyed whatever they could. However, soon after Silver and Sonic emerged into what was presumably their field of view, they all stopped what they were doing, stared at the new arrivals for a second, and then charged.
Silver didn't have time to say anything to Sonic, but even without a coordinated plan they could still do quite a bit of damage. Silver ensnared the ten or so in the front in his glow, causing some of the other attackers to crash into them as they stopped. Of the others that either leapt or otherwise dodged their makeshift barricade, Sonic knocked about half of them sideways with a rapid-fire chain of his own homing attacks, while Silver jerked his arms backward to slam the monsters he'd caught into those that remained.
They didn't even get a second to breathe after that, the monsters just kept coming. While Silver didn't exactly have time to stop and examine the battlefield, the odds were definitely worse than the last time around if the sheer volume of attacks was anything to go by. Him not having recovered fully from the last go-around wasn't helping either- it wouldn't take too long for fatigue to set in.
Sonic, however, didn't even appear to be tiring, much less exhausted. Silver had no idea exactly how indomitable Sonic's spirit had been back where he'd come from, but it had to be pretty high if fighting whatever the hell these things were while vastly outnumbered didn't even put a damper on it.
"Maybe it's me." Silver allowed his mind to stray for just a split second, but that split second nearly killed him. A new wave of attackers rushed him from the back, and he didn't notice until they were almost on top of him. He swung his arms behind him to block the closest ones, then leapt straight up, jumping the charge of the rest. As he landed, he saw Sonic ram into the ones that had missed him, sending them careening every which way as he did.
"You'd think these things would try different tactics the second time around," Sonic yelled over the noise.
"Don't jinx it," Silver yelled back, stopping a charge from his left side as he did.
For a brief while, this fight was appearing to follow the same pattern as the last one, albeit much more slowly. Because their numbers were so much more unequal this time around, it took a while to hit the same monster twice, but after what felt like an eternity and a half, they managed to knock one down and have it stay down.
It couldn't have come any sooner. Silver was so soggy with sweat his fur was almost dripping, and it took all the effort he could muster just to keep going. Barring the apocalypse happening a second time, as soon as this was done, he planned to go home and pass out for at least twice as long as usual (although really, that just meant six hours of sleep as opposed to three). Sonic hadn't lost any enthusiasm, but Silver could see his strategy (if he'd had one to begin with) becoming less and less coherent, more and more of his maneuvers seeming completely random.
"Come on," Silver thought. "Keep it together. Not much longer now…"
If only that were true.
Several more sirens proceeded to go off, their hideous screeches causing both sides of the conflict to freeze in their tracks. Silver twisted his head to try and figure out what was causing it, but to no avail- whatever had set off the alarms was too far away for him to see.
A chorus of pained grunts indicated Sonic had wasted less time than everyone and everything else getting back on the offensive. This snapped Silver back into battle mode as well, sending his closest attackers sprawling once more. A few of them managed to pop right back up, but the rest seemed to be down for good this time.
"I thought these things spaced out their attacks," Sonic said, dodging a charge as he did.
"Well, they didn't this time," Silver responded. "And-" he vaulted to the side to dodge another challenge here- "I don't know about you, but I can't keep this up much longer."
"Then don't," Sonic said, working to fend off the enemies that remained. "I'm still fine, I can take on more of these things. You think you can finish off these guys?"
Silver swung his hands forward, ensnaring a trio of the remaining monsters before instantly knocking them down, the strain of the effort searing his arms. "I think so."
"So, here's the deal," Sonic said, bowling over a cluster of five combatants as he did. "I'm going to run in that general direction and figure out what caused those alarms. I'll be back in a few. Again, you sure you can deal with this?"
"Positive," Silver said, hopping sideways to dodge a two-sided charge, sending his assailants crashing into each other instead.
"Then I'll be going," Sonic replied. "Meet you back here in five."
With that, Sonic darted off in the direction of the still-shrieking sirens. One of Silver's opponents made a halfhearted attempt to chase him, but if anything Silver knew about Sonic was correct, he had next to no chance of being caught. And that was definitely something to cheer about.
Not that he had the energy or time left to cheer. Even with them having whittled the number of attackers in the area down to single digits, that didn't make taking them out any less arduous. They weren't getting any less determined to take him out, either.
The attacks kept coming in quick succession, Silver letting his instincts take over in an attempt to give his mind something vaguely resembling a break. But it appeared to be unnecessary, for a few attacks later, the creatures still capable of moving on their own began to retreat, taking as many of their fallen counterparts with them as possible.
Silver let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding in. "I probably should go look for Sonic, it looks like we're done here."
Maybe Silver was just incredibly unlucky that day. Perhaps whatever higher power he believed in had turned their back on him. It could, against all odds, be nothing more than sheer coincidence. But no matter what the cause was, its effect was the same: for the second time that afternoon, Silver's words were proven untrue mere seconds after he spoke them.
If possible, the sirens somehow got louder than they were before, with the ones near Silver nor Sonic having shut off. Even Silver would have clamped his hands over his ears, but he knew that if he did that, he could easily be blindsided by something he'd never see.
What came next, however, was quite visible.
First, there was just one. Then a few more. Several dozen after that.
In what felt like a heartbeat, the street in front of Silver had been swallowed up by hundreds of monsters, all of them packed together like sardines, even as they parted to absorb the few stragglers from earlier. Even fully powered, there was no way Silver could have caught them all at once, and with him being as drained as he was, another large-scale battle was the last thing he needed.
However, they didn't look ready to attack yet. As soon as the leftovers from the group that Silver had been fighting were indistinguishable from the rest, they came to a dead stop, plunging the street into absolute silence save for Silver's increasingly-panicked breathing.
"Sonic," Silver thought in desperation, "if you'd like to come back, now's the time…"
But there was no sign of Sonic. Having gotten just about every bad break possible so far, Silver was starting to support the "higher deity hates me" theory he'd been brewing up.
The silence continued for far longer than Silver had ever expected it to. The creatures even turned away from him, instead seeming to collectively focus on something in their midst. While it clearly was their size or smaller, since Silver couldn't see it from here, if these things held it in such high regard it couldn't be good for him.
Without warning, there was a beat of intense silence, one so strong that it sucked in the faint light of the setting sun and took Silver's breath away.
Then came the light, a blood-red beam so piercing Silver blocked his eyes with one hand in an attempt to keep from going blind. That light was accompanied by a vicious roaring noise, one that seemed capable of snapping Silver's sanity between its fingers like a twig if it so desired, and with the noise came a massive wave of energy that blew Silver's fur backward and nearly knocked him off his feet.
Then, as soon as it had started, it stopped, the only remnant of it remaining coming in the form of a faint glow coming from what appeared to be the center of the enemy cluster.
The glow's source started moving, the monsters parting once more to make room for it as it made its way toward Silver. Before he was anywhere close to ready, the last ones standing between him and whatever had caused that inexplicable event had stepped aside.
Transfixed, Silver stared at the hole left behind, eyes seeing but not comprehending.
And before Silver could say a single word or even make a somewhat coherent noise, Shadow the Hedgehog stepped into the light, calmly regarding Silver with a thousand-yard glare.
"No," Silver thought. "No way. I'm hallucinating. Or delusional. I don't know which. That can't… he'd never…"
But it seemed too… perfect to be one of the clones he'd come to despise. Most of them had at least some noticeable defect in their anatomy to distinguish themselves from what they were supposed to resemble. This hedgehog had none. His color scheme matched perfectly. His shoes were identical to the ones Shadow always wore. Even the eyes, despite being red-rimmed and angrier than Silver would have ever expected even Shadow to look, were the same shade of red he'd always remembered.
It had to be him. There was simply no other explanation.
"I am Shadow the Hedgehog," Shadow said, still not taking his eyes off Silver. "I don't know who you are, but you are no match for me. Prepare to be exterminated."
Silver remained calm on the outside, but his stomach was sloshing about and his brain was screaming at him with everything it had. "This is bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad…"
Fighting wasn't an option. If even half the things he remembered about Shadow were true, he stood no chance against him in a fair fight, and that was before he'd neared exhaustion and Shadow having a small army of capable fighters on his side. The only hope was to escape, prolong his fate long enough for Sonic to return. Even though they stood little chance even as a partnership, it was still that, a chance. Not a certainty of failure like it was now.
Silver's eyes darted from one unrealistic scenario to the next, desperately trying to figure out some kind of escape route. Anything requiring him to remain on street level was out; he'd just get surrounded that way. On top of that, he'd burned so much energy just to get to this point that anything involving prolonged flight wasn't an option either. There seemed to simply be nowhere to go.
Then, led by Shadow, the wave of enemies rushed him all at once. In a blind panic, he leapt as high as he could go, every muscle he had painfully stiffening with the effort, then willed himself to stay off the ground with everything he had, using his momentum to keep floating forward, trying to reach a broken streetlight not fifty feet away so he could climb it and have a brief moment to figure out his next move.
But, for the first time this entire fight, luck appeared to be on his side.
He expected a relentless barrage of attacks the instant the creatures had charged, but instead, he only felt one, which slammed into him from below and sent him careening upward. Sure, every nerve in his body felt like it was on fire, but up was the only direction he knew would be safe, at least for now. His levitation wore off as he neared the top of a tall building, and as a result of both that and his momentum, while he hadn't gone high enough to clear the roof, he was able to grab the ledge with both hands, and though a combination of strength, momentum, and sheer determination, he pulled himself onto the roof before collapsing on his side, panting heavily.
Shouts were echoing down below, although with one ear against the ground Silver couldn't quite make out what was being said. Even after unsteadily getting himself to a standing position, his senses had dimmed far enough from sheer exertion that everything he heard sounded like it was tinged with white noise.
He was far enough up to invoke a feeling of vertigo, but considering what he'd just gone through, the likely-dizzying height he currently stood at was the least of his concerns. All he wanted to know was what was happening below him.
When he looked down, that appeared to be nothing. The monsters that had been ferociously attacking him just seconds ago were now standing in an awkward cluster, looking very unsure of what to do next. For Silver, as soon as he saw that, he released a deep, content sigh. He was safe up here, at least for now.
"You done staring yet?"
Well, scratch that. Silver whirled around, revealing Shadow standing on the opposite end of the roof, face contorted in anger, eyes glowing a demonic shade of red, fists surrounded by the same vivid glow that Silver had seen earlier.
Then, something came back to him. "Crap… forgot he could teleport…"
Shadow appeared to pay no mind to Silver's thoughts, instead choosing to make sure Silver was looking him in the eye through a cold, cutting stare. Then, as spheres of ruby energy began crackling around both his fists, Shadow said a single, chilling sentence.
"This ends now."