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 5: Disaster in Green

It would not take long for Shadow's call to be seen. Soon, a red comet left the island and descended to the clearing below. Tails and Rouge had hidden behind some trees.

"So, have you come to give yourself up?"

"No, I came here to tell you and that eyesore of yours to buzz off!"

"You seem to have even more nerve than before. I figured our last meeting would have taught you some manners."

"The only manners you'll get from me is a brief silence at your funeral."

"You can't defeat me. You lack the skill and power. What makes you think you can best me now?"

"Because I can't afford to lose. En guarde!"

* * *

Amy finally made it to the mountains and was trying to pick her way through the woods when she saw the flashes of green and red light in front of her.

"What's going on over there? A battle? Shadow! Hang on, I'm coming!"

* * *

The battle was growing more and more heated with each passing minute. Shadow knew he couldn't go toe-to-toe with the echidna, he was simply too skilled a fighter to duke it out; but he couldn't stray too far or Knuckles would pick him off with his Thunder Arrow. Without a few good attacks of his own, he played it defensively for the most part; keeping some distance between Knuckles and his knuckles, while moving in to throw off the lightning attack. Shadow could only hope that Knuckles would make some error that he could exploit, but such opportunities were few and far between.

Knuckles was starting to get impatient, the speedy hedgehog was dancing around and barely giving him a chance to get a good fix on him. For the most part, Knuckles held his ground, knowing full well that he could never catch the hedgehog on foot, despite his Master Control being mightier than the Chaos Control. Occasionally, when Shadow would get close enough, he'd try to lunge at him, but to no avail. His main attack was to rely on the Thunder Arrow, but Shadow was able to stay just ahead of it. He hoped that the constant running and dodging might tire the black one out, but Shadow was built for speed and showed no sign of faltering.

The stalemate between the two powers continued for four minutes, but each passed like an eternity, with both combatants looking for an opening while trying not to leave one for their opponent. Tails and Rouge stayed behind their trees, watching the show from a safe vantage point. Neither noticed Amy coming up the path.

"Alright you red furred freak! Leave Shadow alone!"

Everyone turned to see Amy wielding her Pico Pico Hammer over her head, ready to plunge into battle against the red demon attacking her new hero.

"Amy?!"

Knuckles didn't pay as much attention to Amy as Shadow did, and used the distraction to his advantage. Firing his Thunder Arrow at his dark opposition, Shadow saw it too late to avoid it, and could only block as it hit dead center.

"Shadow!" Amy turned her attention to Knuckles and charged him. "Die freak!"

Knuckles easily avoided the rage-induced assault as the hammer came down on empty ground, missing the intended target by a long shot. The ground at Amy's feet trembled under the huge force of the blow. Knuckles was impressed by how much power the girl hedgehog could muster with her weapon, but her skill with it was seriously lacking.

"Go home little girl, before you really get hurt."

"And let you hurt my true love, never!"

Rouge was seething at the teeth. "'True love', the nerve!"

"Then you asked for it."

Knuckles charged Amy, who picked up her hammer and prepared to continue her attack, but Knuckles was too quick and launched his Thunder Arrow. Amy was blasted back and tumbled on the ground for several metres.

"Stupid hedgehogs. What makes them so brazen anyway?"

Knuckles turned his attention back to Shadow, whose fist was now within inches of his face.

The impact caused Knuckles to stumble back by a few steps as Shadow's other fist impacted his stomach. The echidna lurched forward, but recovered before Shadow's third punch connected, and he intercepted it. With Shadow's hand caught, the red warrior executed a perfect judo flip to send him to the ground.

Knuckles brought his fist to the ground at Shadow's face, but a quick roll gave his opponent nothing but dirt. The black hedgehog returned to his feet and charged Knuckles with his phase run. One phase put him right behind the echidna, and Shadow got him with a quick jab, though to Knuckles, it was more like a slap. Knuckles tried to counter, but Shadow had phased again, and was again to his side, giving him another quick hit. Shadow continued the quick series of strikes on his opponent, phasing in and out, not giving Knuckles a chance to return the favour. Although Knuckles couldn't hit Shadow, Shadows rapid-fire strikes weren't doing much damage.

Knuckles was getting furious, having his last hit from Shadow, he jumped up into the air and came down with his fist aimed to the ground. Upon impact, the earth below seized up in a giant crash, knocking Shadow back to the ground.

* * *

Back behind the trees, Rouge and Tails were getting restless. Amy was down and out and Shadow had been beaten back, it was time for action. Rouge flew straight at the echidna while Tails grabbed some rocks and went airborne. Knuckles saw Rouge coming in and quickly dodged her flying kick. The bat turned around for another go, but found Knuckles running straight for her; one punch to her stomach brought her to ground, and a slam to the back of her head sent her face into the soil.

Tails tried throwing the rocks at Knuckles, but he avoided them easily, then answered back with his Thunder Arrow, hitting Tails with pinpoint accuracy.

Shadow had noticed how badly things were turning out. "Get out of here! Rouge, Tails! I'll get Amy!"

Tails collected himself and started to drift away. Shadow made a quick pass at Knuckles to give Rouge a chance to do the same. After Rouge had made off, he doubled back and picked up Amy and her hammer.

Knuckles made after him.

* * *

Shadow activated the Chaos Control, hoping to get as much speed as possible, but with Amy's added weight, top speed was not something he could do. Knuckles fired up his Master Control, and the hunt was on.

Shadow was not making good time, and little by little, Knuckles was catching up. As they sped through the forest, Amy regained consciousness.

"Shadow?" She looked around to see the world before her enveloped in a strange green energy. Trees were reduced to reverberating bars of black; the sky was like a neon green mist floating overhead. "Where are we?"

"Inside the Chaos Control. See that yellow flare behind us, that's Knuckles."

Amy glanced back to see the yellow comet chasing them. "He's gaining on us."

"I can't run as fast, you're too heavy."

Amy did not like the implication of her weight. "I am NOT too heavy."

Shadow didn't want to fight with Amy on the point; he was too busy just trying to maintain the speed he was going.

"Why are we running?" Amy picked her hammer back up. "Let's go back there and beat the snot out of him!"

"Are you kidding?! We almost got the snot beat out of us!" Shadow looked forward, then a strange idea hit him. "Maybe you've got a point. Get that hammer of yours ready, we might be able to do some damage after all."

Amy had a big smile on her face as she contemplated what they would do to the red terror. Up ahead, Shadow saw a narrow tree trunk, just large enough to hook his hand around it.

"Grab my hand."

"Why?"

"Do you know what 'crack the whip' means?"

Shadow took Amy with one hand, grabbed the tree with the other, and swung Amy around like a pendulum. Once a half-turn was complete, Shadow pushed forward with all the might he had and sent all the power of the Chaos Control into Amy, rocketing her forward in a green blitz. Shadow fell out of the Chaos Control and stumbled to the ground while Amy was shot towards the oncoming red light.

Knuckles looked up and saw the manoeuvre, but he had no time to react; by the time he realized what had transpired, Amy was flying at him at high speed, screaming her lungs out, her Pico Pico Hammer pointed straight forward.

POW!!!

A bright flash of yellow lit up the forest, and from the shock came a burning red comet, fired back from where it came. It flew between and through the trees for more than a mile before coming to rest, leaving a swath of destruction pointing to the resting place.

* * *

Shadow, Rouge and Tails had come together at the impact point, looking for Amy. Stuck onto the side of a tree was the pink hedgehog in question. Her head slowly leaned back, and in a cartoonish peel take, she fell off the trunk and onto the ground.

Shadow ran up to her to see if she was O.K. "Tails, take her home."

Rouge asked, "And what are you going to do?"

Shadow picked up Amy's hammer. "I'm going to finish off that freak."

* * *

Shadow followed the path and soon found Knuckles, a bloodied mass slumped over what was once a tree. Shadow approached him, preparing to deal one massive blow with the hammer when a female called out to him.

"Stop!"

Shadow looked up to see another echidna standing over knuckles, this one had peach colored fur and wore a simple dress with a series of complex shapes decorating the edges.

"Who are you?!"

The female answered in a sombre, almost ethereal voice. "My name is Tikal, and you must stop."

"Why should I?!"

"Because you have done enough damage for one day."

"I don't think I've done nearly enough to that jerk."

"Knuckles was only doing what he thought was right."

"He was still trying to kill me."

"Go home, for you will destroy us all."

Shadow hesitated when he heard the statement. "What do you…"

He never got an answer. A bright orange flash later, and both echidnas were gone.

Shadow gazed at the ground, the only trace left of either of them, were a few spots of spilled blood.

* * *

Back in Knothole, Amy was resting in the hospital, with Shadow holding a vigil over her. Slowly, her eyes flickered an opened.

"How are you doing?"

"Shadow! You were watching over me."

"Yeah, yeah!"

"My hero."

A hint of disgust crossed Shadow's face. "Would you stop that, I'm nobody's hero."

"But you went into battle and defeated that red loser."

"That's not what makes a hero. Now listen to me. Why did you come here?"

"I came here to find you."

"No, you came here looking for Sonic, because of what you heard about him, not me."

"But he's gone."

"That's not the point. You came here as a fan of Sonic, then once you found out he was dead, you decided to become a fan of me. And where does that leave Sonic?"

Amy looked at him, wondering where Shadow was going with this.

"You came here for Sonic, shouldn't you be here for him, not me."

"But how do I do that? He's dead."

"He may be physically gone, but his memory still remains. If you don't want to betray him, then keep his memory alive."

"But I never met him."

"Then talk to someone who did."

Shadow got up and walked out, as he did, someone else entered the room.

"Amy?"

"Yes?"

"Hi, my name is Sally."

* * *

Shadow waited outside the door for a few minutes to listen in on the two women.

Geoffrey was standing next to him. "They both sound a little better."

"Yeah."

"But you don't look so hot."

"Tikal left me a very odd message, and I'm trying to figure it out."

"What was it?"

"Something that would only have meaning to me. Tell me something, I didn't want to ask Sally this, but just what was Sonic doing out there on the night he got killed?"

"Honestly, he was out looking for you."

"That's what I thought."

* * *

Shadow left the hospital and starting thinking to himself.

{Sonic died because I drew him out. If Knuckles had appeared while we were battling Robotnik, then it could have been a disaster. What if I'm nothing more than a black furred version of him?}

END OF ACT III