Shadow and the others finally reached a dead end within the darkened tunnel. Moving up front, he asked both of his companions to softly bang against the walls, looking for a hollowness that might become their entrance. "I hope we don't fall in on some more of those G.U.N beetles", sighed Amy as she pounded away with her Piko Piko Hammer. She soon found the vulnerable area that they were looking for. "I think I've found it", she said triumphantly. The dark hedgehog moved in front of her and borrowed her hammer, sending swift and powerful drives into the soon-to-be entrance. With one last powerful drive, he forced the tin wall out of its place and let it fall down below.
Jumping down first to make sure it was safe, Shadow quickly checked his new surroundings before signaling to both Amy and Sara to join him. As soon as all three were together, they slowly began to take notice of their grim surroundings. Blood splattered everywhere. Amy let out a small scream, and Sara almost went into shock upon seeing such an atrocity. All the while, Shadow was shaking his head in dismay. "This is the way these humans treat each other…" , he said solemnly.
He noticed more blood further away, which looked like a puddle that seemed to be getting larger by the second. He slowly glided over to take a closer look, and when he reached his intended destination, he was appalled by what he saw. A dead man's corpse, with two large puncture wounds through his chest and neck. For the first time since Maria's death, he was scared shitless. Turning around, he tried to divert the other's attention from what he had seen, but it was too late. Both girls were already looking at the horrific sight, sharing the same ghastly expression of horror on their faces.
"And I see that this is what happens when they don't agree with one another.." he finished. He glided over to comfort Amy, who was having a hard time keeping it together after seeing that. Sara, on the other hand, moved in closer to the slain figure, and eventually knelt down beside it. "What are you doing?", screamed Shadow. Sara ignored him and simply continued to look at the body. After a few minutes she finally got back on her feet. "I'm going to give this person a honorable burial.", she sighed. "Can't you see? This was foul play...no one simply dies like this." She proceeded to close her eyes and fold her hands as if she were about to pray, concentrating all her being into the deceased. The body slowly began to lift itself off the ground, eventually floating before her. She slowly opened her eyes and watched as the body began to take the form of a white sphere of light. "The light has been restored…now you may return to the source." All three animals watched on as the sphere slowly ascended through the ceiling and out of sight.
"What did you do?", asked Amy, a bit more frantic than before. "I think you just killed him even more!" Sara shook her head and frowned. "No", she replied. "I simply gave him an honorable burial. I guess in your culture you believe in burying the dead in the ground. In my culture, we revert the body and soul back into its original form…a sphere of light. Depending on how well you've lived your life, the sphere will either rise into the sky or ascend down below. But in both our cultures regardless, all souls will eventually find their rightful place." Shadow jumped into the conversation. "Now that that's been taken care of, can we continue?", he asked impatiently.
Both girls nodded in reply. They once again resumed their careful study of their surroundings, which appeared to be a laboratory of some sort. Quickly, but quietly, they began to search every inch of the laboratory until Amy found some computer files. Booting up the computer nearby, she found a host of entries regarding the growth and development of Project Aozora No Knife. "I think she's definitely in here", she concluded after seeing the first few entries. "Let's keep looking." Soon afterwards, they eventually came across a glass capsule that appeared to have something inside of it. Both Sara and Shadow could sense an immense amount of energy that it was emitting. "This has to be it", said Sara as a matter-of-factly. Shadow positioned himself in front of the capsule and prepared to execute a Spin Attack into the glass casing when Amy suddenly cried out, "Shadow, don't!"
He and Sara turned around just in time to see their companion in the clutches of a blood-drenched squirrel. The pink hedgehog was putting up a struggle for air, since her captor had placed her in a one-handed chokehold. "Either back away from that thing", it started, "or watch your cute little friend suffer the same fate as my professor colleague." Amy frantically shook her head, pleading, "Don't listen to her! Just don't listen to her!" She began kicking back at her captor while the other two animals slowly moved away from the capsule, both taking their respected fighting stances.
"Okay, we're within a reasonable distance from the capsule", said Shadow. "Now let her go!" The demented squirrel straightened up a bit and flashed a twisted smile in his direction. "Fools..", she said in a low tone. She raised poor Amy high above her head and was prepared to finish her off with a puncture wound through the throat. Her claws were deeply entrenched within the sakura-colored hedgehog's fur and would have further made their mark when what felt like a bolt of lightning struck her from behind. She lost her grip on her victim as she fell to the ground, dumbfounded. Amy scrambled over to Shadow with her Piko Piko Hammer, clutching the one or two puncture wounds that her attacker had managed to make in her neck.
She noticed the shocked expression on Shadow's face and looked in the direction of what had saved her. A cerulean hedgehog stood on top of the unconscious figure victoriously. Alongside him stood a two-tailed fox, a snowy bat, and a crimson echidna, all in fighting stances. Sonic and Shadow were now standing face to face.
"I see we meet again blue hedgehog", smiled Shadow. He extended a hand out to Sonic for saving Amy. He slapped it away. "I should have known that someone like you would be up to his old tricks again…", he began slowly. "Can't destroy the world yourself so you need another military project to help you get the job done." Shadow gave him a pissed off, "What the hell are you talking about?" look. Amy jumped in between the two of them. "Cut it out Sonic!", she screamed. "Shadow's here to save that thing from destruction. That thing that you just knocked out was trying to…SONIC!!!!!!!" She didn't finish when she noticed that it was getting up once more, nearly sending the blue wonder crashing down on the floor. Sonic leapt back and landed on his feet in a poised fighting stance. "I see this thing wants to go for Round Two." He chuckled.
It began to get back up and rushed straight past Shadow and Amy until it was directly in front of the capsule. "I end this once and for all!", she screamed loudly while forming a surge of flowing energy in her hands. She began to lift it above her head, and was fully prepared to send it crashing down upon the unsuspecting creature inside when Sara delivered a hard blow to its back with her Kendo staff. The dark demon turned around to face her assailant. "I see that the last priestess finally decides to show her face…", it started off. "Might as well kill two birds with one stone…" It took notice of the staff that Sara proudly held in her hands. "If you're a being of honor, you wouldn't fight an opponent who's unarmed…"
Sara rolled her eyes as she complied with her opponent's request. "As you wish", she mumbled. "But I don't need any weapon to kick your sorry ass…" The squirrel immediately lunged forward at her, taking advantage of the few seconds that she was off guard. Sara managed to catch on in time and executed a backwards spiral flip out of range. But it still followed closely behind. For the next few seconds, both threw a barrage of kicks and punches at each other before disengaging, resting briefly, and continuing their battle.
Meanwhile, Sonic had lost interest in fighting what Sara was now up against and started going at it with Shadow. Actually, it really wasn't much of a battle; Shadow stood in place undaunted while he watched his rival throw and land direct kicks and punches that felt like air. Sweat drops appeared on everyone's forehead as they watched the blue crusader make a complete ass out of himself. After a minute or so of Sonic's "fight", he had had enough and landed a punch and a roundhouse kick that rendered him unconscious. The victorious hedgehog turned to the rest of the group. "Just leave him there for the time being", he started off. "It looks like he needs some time to think…and from what you saw before, I take it that you're convinced that I'm not the bad one here." All nodded in reply as he continued, "Amy, you and fox boy try to get that capsule opened. Rouge, you'll help them carry whatever is in that capsule. And echidna…you and I will go and help out Sara over there. Disengage!"
It seemed that Sara was gaining the upper hand in her match against the demon. Soon, however, her strategy was getting messy. And it were the mistakes that she made in which the demon counted on taking advantage of. It managed to land a powerful suicide kick into the hedgehog's abdomen, sending her riling back into some of the scattered laboratory equipment. Having lost her bearings, all the tan hedgehog could do now was dodge…there was absolutely no point in throwing a punch or kick if she couldn't predict/know where it would land. She was just about to be hit from behind when both Shadow and Knuckles jumped into help. The crimson guardian handed her the discarded Kendo staff. "Don't ever take a baddie by their word.", he said knowingly. She joined the both of them welding her coveted staff. "Point well taken…"
On the other side of the wrecked lab, Tails was working hard to crack the encryption code for the capsule. Both females watched on warily until Rouge finally said, "It's going to take you forever to crack the code. Let a secret agent show you how it's done." She pushed the fox aside and entered a 3-digit code, which succeeded in opening the capsule door a bit. Very carefully, she positioned herself in such a way that she could see the tip of the opening and gave it a powerful kick, letting the capsule lid fly straight off. "See?", she said happily. "My way was much easier!" All three gathered around the capsule to take their first look at the being that lay within. A lovely female cat with bright lime green hair. "We better be careful how we lift and take her out", warned Amy. "I don't think I want to wake her up just yet." The others nodded as they gingerly began to take her out of the chamber. As soon as they had positioned her in a way that wouldn't cause her to wake up, Rouge signaled to Knuckles, "We've got her! Let's get out of here!"
"In a minute!", he yelled back at her. He, Shadow and Sara had their hands full dealing with the possessed squirrel. She was still going after Sara, but that mistake gave both animals enough time to sneak up behind her and surprise attack. Shadow performed his signature roundhouse kick into the back of her head, which spun her around in time to meet one of Knuckles gigantic fists. The force from both hits was finally enough to overwhelm the squrrel's fragile body, and they watched as the bruised figure finally collapsed to the ground, this time not getting up.
Knuckles ran over to the group to help them carry out the girl while Sara and Shadow ran in the direction that he had knocked out Sonic. Both placed one of the blue speedster's shoulders over one of theirs and proceeded in carrying him out behind the others. That is, until some G.U.N. beetles appeared out of no where and surrounded him.
They were all cornered in, and Shadow was having a hard time trying to use Chaos Control considering the amount of energy he had used up fighting that demon a few moments back. It seemed like their mission had been in vain when a bright white light blinded all of them….when they all came to, they found themselves within the walls of Sara's grand cottage.
Amy ran over to Shadow and hugged him tight. "I thought we were goners for a moment", she said cheerfully. "If it weren't for your Chaos Control we might have…" She stopped when she noticed the confused look on his face. "It wasn't me..", he said softly. "And it couldn't have been Sonic since he's knocked out cold…but..how?…who?.." He noticed Sara smiling in a corner. "I didn't know that Chaos Control is what you call it.", she said sheepishly. "But I've been doing it for as long as I can remember."