This is a fanfiction, and as such, most of the characters in the story are not mine. Most characters are © Sega, and are not used with permission.
Chapter 2: The Quick and the Dead
Sonic returned to Knothole, though much later than he had anticipated thanks to the delay in facing down his recent challenger.
Tails was the first to meet him. "Hey Sonic, where've you been? Aunt Sally's been really angry at you."
"Sorry little buddy, but some unexpected business came up."
"What kind of business?"
"Some joker had the nerve to challenge me to a race."
"Bet you smoked him good. Huh Sonic?"
"Yeah, just another hot shot spouting his mouth off." Naturally, Sonic wouldn't dare suggest publicly that there was someone who could give him a run for his money, let alone able to actually beat him. "So where's Sal?"
"At her place, she's in a meeting with Geoffrey and they're waiting for you."
"Old sour smell, eh? Well, I'd hate to keep him waiting."
Elsewhere in the forest, Shadow had been going over the race in his mind, it was very close, his fingers only millimetres away from the ring when Sonic locked his fingers around it.
{0.02 seconds, if I could've just shaved that off, I'd have had him.}
Shadow was sitting down on a tree stump, holding a ring he had found nearby. He remembered that while holding the ring, Sonic seemed to run even faster, as he was running away. {The coward.}
Holding the ring in his hand, he started running, then engaged his phase run; for several seconds he continued his mysterious transportation from place to place, tree to tree. He then stopped and looked back.
{That was no faster than before. What in the blazes did he do with this?}
Shadow wouldn't get much time to consider it when he heard some commotion in the distance. Putting the ring away with a few others he had picked up, he sped off, triggering his phase run.
"So what's up?"
Inside the hut, Sally and Geoffrey where going over a map laid on the table.
Geoffrey was his usually polite self to the hedgehog. "About time you showed up."
"Nice to see you, too. Hey, Sally."
Geoffrey grunted under his voice.
"Sonic, we've been getting reports on Robotnik's robots a couple of miles west of here."
"So what's the scam this time?"
"It seems that they're trying to dam up a river. It feeds a lot of streams, and if blocked off will leave many people without water."
"Then I had better get going."
Sally raised her voice. "Hold it hot shot. You're not going off by yourself on this one. If there's a dam in place, we'll have to destroy it. Do you want to try that yourself?"
Sonic remembered the last incident involving him trying to demolish something of Robotnik's. "O.K. We'll let Rotor handle the heavy duty stuff."
"That's the spirit. We've already made plans, so let's go."
At the destined location, Shadow arrived and hid amongst the trees. Below him, the river was crawling with robots. Some of the robots were large with thick armour, carrying weapons; they seemed to oversee a band of smaller robot beavers working hastily on a dam.
"Well this is interesting. I suppose this is how this 'Robotnik' character got his name."
Shadow's attention shifted when he heard something coming up from behind him. Looking back through the trees, he saw a small band heading towards the dam, trying to be as quiet as possible. Not wanting to be noticed, he laid low until he could make them out.
As the approaching group reached the river, only a few trees away from Shadow, he could tell they weren't robots, but more importantly; he could identify one of them.
"Several SWATbots, and what looks like a crew of roboticized beavers." Sally turned back to the others. "I suppose if you wanted to build a dam, beavers are the way to go."
Geoffrey whispered, not wanting to give their position to the enemy. "How many are there?"
"I can see five SWATbots, and three beavers, no wait, four. They're bobbing up and down in the water, I can't count them."
"Beavers usually work in groups of five or six, so we'll assume that many. Alright, here's the plan."
Sonic didn't want to hear the plan. "I rush 'em, and you guys clean up what's left."
"That's not the plan you moron." Geoffrey looked back at Sonic, but he had already run off. "I'm going to kill that jerk."
At the dam, the five SWATbots were standing on the riverbank, watching over the beavers, making sure that they weren't disrupted, and to occasionally order them to work faster.
"Work faster, Dr. Robotnik wants this dam finished before sun down."
Sonic had snuck up behind the SWATbots. "Yeah, You know how angry he gets when things get delayed."
"Affirmative. Now work!"
The SWATbot then realized that the voice did not belong to any of his crew. It turned around in time to see Sonic push it into the drink.
"Emergency procedure: Initialize anti-Sonic attack subroutines."
The other four drew out some rifles and started to shoot at their blue target, but each shot missed as Sonic danced about.
"I bet this ain't like shooting fish in a barrel."
After dodging a few more shots, Sonic charged the robots again and pushed another into the flowing water, shorting it out like the first.
The remaining three SWATbots kept firing until one by one, Sonic pushed each of them in too.
With the soldier robots gone, Sally, Geoffrey, Rotor and the rest came out to stop the robot beavers from completing the dam. They didn't want to destroy the beavers because they really were just innocent beavers that Dr. Robotnik had roboticized, so instead they took out some electric prods and trying to scare them away. It wasn't pleasant, but it was the best they could do.
After a few shocks, they swam away.
Sally watched them until they disappeared. "One of these days we're going to defeat Robotnik, and we're going to save all the creatures he's roboticized. I wonder if they'll hate us for this."
"You can't worry yourself too much about it princess, it's the best we can do… for now."
"Thanks Geoffrey, but I still don't feel any better." Sally turned back to the others. "Rotor, get the explosives!"
"So, is this the important business that you had?"
Sonic looked behind him; near the tree line was his challenger from earlier. "Yeah, and I'm busy, so buzz off."
"Hmph. It actually looks like you've finished up."
"Don't you ever take 'no' for an answer."
"I don't believe so."
"If you want a rematch, fine, but come back later, like next year or something. I only met you today and already I've had my fill of you."
"Well, I'll just have to make you reconsider."
"Make me?"
"Well, this is a dangerous line of work you and your 'friends' are in, it would be a shame if there was an accident, or if this 'Robotnik' guy were to get lucky once in a while."
"How dare you?! You leave them alone!"
"Or you'll what?" Shadow chuckled. "I'll let you think about that for a bit, but I'll be back blue boy. And then we'll settle this once and for all."
Ducking behind the tree, Shadow disappeared into the darkness, leaving Sonic to contemplate just what the dark furred one was capable of.
Sally walked up to Sonic, followed by Geoffrey. "Who was that?"
"Some jerk I ran into earlier, named Shadow."
The dam had been destroyed, but Sally and the others were still unpleased, as there was still nothing they could do about the roboticized beavers. Rotor had been working on a 'deroboticizer', but it was far from complete. Until it was finished, they had no choice but to let them go. They couldn't take the beavers with them while they were under the control of Robotnik, and they wouldn't destroy what were otherwise innocent bystanders.
Sonic on the other hand was more out of it than the others, and Sally had noticed.
"Sonic, are you alright?"
"What? Oh, yeah Sal, everything's fine."
"No it's not fine. Something's eating you, I can tell. It was that black hedgehog, wasn't it?"
"Yeah. You'll have to go back to Knothole without me, I've got to find that jerk before he gets us all into a heap of trouble." Sonic took off, leaving Sally and the others behind.
Several miles away, Shadow found a nice tall tree and fell asleep in its branches.
Back on the ground, Sonic continued his search for his black double.
"Shadow! Where the Hell are you?!"
Sonic received no response and continued his journey. "Damn! You show up when you're not wanted, and when someone's looking for you, you're nowhere to be found."
Through the dark woods, Sonic's search was going nowhere, and it was getting even darker. If Shadow liked to hide in the shadows, then it would be impossible to locate him now. A growling in Sonic's stomach told him it was time to give up.
"I might as well go home; not going to find a decent lunch out here."
Sonic aimed for home, but after only a few steps, he heard someone ahead of him. Taking it slow, which was most unusual for him, Sonic snuck up on whomever was ahead. Looking through a bush, Sonic saw a troop of Robotnik's SWATbots.
"What are they doing here?" Sonic skulked in the darkness, trying to determine what Robotnik's robots were doing in this area.
One of the robots spoke out in a very robotic voice. "Communication delivered. Mission accomplished successfully."
Sonic could see that the robot was simply standing at attention, obviously receiving a transmission from Dr. Robotnik.
{What communication?} Sonic tried to figure out with whom a bunch of robots would be communicating with. {They couldn't mean Shadow; then again, it would be just like that bastard to do so. Perhaps if I grabbed one of their heads, Sally could extract the info from their circuits. Even if we can't, a few destroyed robots are a plus any day.}
The robot had completed receiving Robotnik's message. "Orders received, returning to Robotropolis."
"What, you dropped by and didn't even bother to say 'hello'? I'm hurt."
The robots turned to the voice.
"Emergency procedure: Initialize anti-Sonic attack subroutines."
"Subroutine this!"
Sonic charged the robots and managed to reach them before they could start firing. With one spin jump, he rendered one of them to scrap.
"Sonic?! What's he doing here?" Dr. Robotnik pressed a button on his console.
"Computer, open a comlink to all nearby units and order no verbal response."
"Confirmed. Link open."
"All units proceed to co-ordinates 56.32 by 91.20 and get Sonic the Hedgehog!"
Sonic had dispatched all but one of the robots, and was just about to scrap the last one as Robotnik finished giving the order. Sonic dashed into it and smashed it into a nearby tree.
"So much for them." Sonic didn't have time to congratulate himself; he heard more robots coming in the distance. "More of them? Well, I'll just have to show them some good old Knothole hospitality."
Sonic raced towards the next set of robots, rushing through the brush, he got in between the next three robots before they even saw him. Sonic immediately jumped onto the steel helmet of the one in back, and the other two turned and fired, blasting their comrade into spare parts. The blue hedgehog then propelled himself into the one on the right, then the left, knocking them both over.
Sonic stopped and quickly checked for more robots. Off in the distance from where he fought the first batch, he saw more coming at him. They had already seen him and had opened fire.
"Whoops, things are getting a little hot around here. In that case, it's time to fly."
With his speed he avoided the oncoming fire, and made a hasty retreat. He ran, keeping one eye on the path before him and one on the robots behind him; constantly shifting to put a few trees between him and the fire trying to perforate his tail. A quick look forward showed two more robots jumping out in front of him with guns blazing.
Shadow jolted from his slumber, almost falling out of the tree he had selected to retire in. He could feel it in the air, as if something had radically changed, that the world he was in wasn't the world he went to sleep in.
