Chapter 4: Shadows of Nothing

"I haven't even begun to-WHOOF!" Suddenly Hawk was thrown back by a swift punch to the gut…followed quickly by a strong kick, sending him flying into the wall. Hawk kicked backward at it, flew forward at Eagle, pinning him by the shoulders, rolling forward a few times, then kicked upward into the air, driving his sparring partner upward, and then downward into the floor to make a bigger dent. Hawk instantly kicked Eagle away from punch range with a spin kick…just in time as Eagle tried to do the same thing, then slid along the steel floor, finally coming to rest a few metres from the crunched wall he had come from. Then Hawk stepped back as the armadillo form suddenly turned to ice. Hawk walked up slowly, his look of confusion becoming a scowl of taunt, then whammed the front of his shoe into his foe's face. Nothing happened…then the end of Hawk's leg dropped off. The small port at the end of his stump showed the signs of it being attached like a computer wire…as did the end of the other piece. Hawk bent over, grabbed the end of his leg and the shoe which carried things inside it, because there was no foot in it. Then Hawk looked up as he re-fitted the piece. The cyan eyes were glowing again. That strange foggy mist coming from his eyes had no halt…Hawk adjusted his sunglasses. Pulled out his gun. Lowered the barrel to the head of the ice statue…then suddenly it sprang to life, grabbing Hawk's wrist with infinite cold…the gun fell to the floor. Hawk lashed out with his other wrist at the transparent pale blue-white statue, come to life through Akise power. Then Hawk suddenly threw his other foot forward, whacking the ice again just before it shattered, and Eagle was back as before.

"You never did that before…"

"I cannot stay the same armadillo you knew forever…"

Eagle lashed out with a kick, coated in frosty air. Thunderhawk jumped back, then flew forward through the air with a fly-kick…Eagle went straight through the wall-hole he had created, fell back into an almost invisible hole…Hawk ran forward and crouched, looking down…a steel pipe of some sort, a curve just a bit further down turning it into a slide. Nothing else for it. Thunderhawk swept his legs over the hole, dropping them in, pushing himself over the back wall for extra safety. The slide turned abruptly forward at the end of the descent, then sloped down again as Hawk slid his fingers along the ceiling. Then suddenly the bottom dropped out and Hawk fell right into the wall, then backwards onto the steel floor of a corridor…straight into Darkness' rising fist as chimeras ran for cover every which way. Hawk hit the ground hard head-first, steadied himself as he pushed himself up, gripping his head and the dull thudding pain to stop the vibrations. Eagle was ruthless in his fight and spin-kicked Hawk in the same place again, knocking him back further…Hawk slid into the steel floor again…Darkness stood, waiting to lash out the fist that would rebound his new attack. But it did not come.

Foxy leapt back in surprise as a shaft of electricity shot into the air and materialized as a violet fox which dropped to the ground. Urthdigger seemed more surprised that there were no guards in the hallways. "Keep going, third left, then fourth right, and follow the green line." Hawk puffed. "It goes back to the tractor beam room." Suddenly there was the clang of feet hitting thin metal from the other end of the corridor. "RUN!!" Urthdigger and Foxy exchanged glances, and took off…Hawk ducked just in time as a foot swung over his head, then instantly got a fast fist in the face, knocking him backward and onto the floor. Darkness loomed up toward him, the cyan glow of his eyes, the rest invisible…but Hawk knew what he was doing…quickly, suddenly, as he felt the chill of cold hands near him he lashed out his cybernetic leg, which instantly was encased in ice, leaving the rest intact.

"How!?" He grunted, almost monotone…if only Hawk possessed the Eighth Emerald right now, to know his purity level…no time to think of that as he tried to get up, ailed by the leg encased in ice. Then he gathered his strength again, wondering why Eagle was just standing there, then lifted his iced leg, letting it down with a loud thunk. Lucky it was his natural resistance, though he never knew why. Then suddenly the ice was up in defence of more ice…Bluehawk twisted his other foot for a spin which Darkness seemed to duck, then Hawk tried again, lowering at the last second…THUNK! There was the sound of an armadillo sprawling to the floor. No way. He couldn't be knocked unconcious…Thunderhawk took the chance of the possum though. The sooner he could escape the better. Zapping the ice with pointed fingers. He ran forward, over the top of Darkness' invisibly limp form and taking care to step on his gut. He writhed slightly, but no more than that and his limbs slumped limply again…Hawk ran around a corner and headed for the exit…then was suddenly thrown forward by a blast of icy cold…frozen solid, still in his elemental form. Eagle walked forward, examining his handiwork. The chimeras would pay heftily for such an achievement…but what was this? That purple glow, still emnating from the ice? Was he still concious? Impossible, he was encased in ice, a WALL of ice…then suddenly a wave of purple energy fired out of the still purple figure as it faded to blue, lights went out, gadgets instantly shut off, sparking slightly. The wave kept going through walls, engulfing the entire ship…everything seemed to remain still for a few seconds. Then Eagle suddenly rose to the roof, gravity seemed to reverse and much more strongly, slamming him straight into the steel, Thunderhawk remaining in the ice…then suddenly it reversed again with fifty times its power, killing every chimera in the cruiser except for one, plus Eagle. Bloodhawk stood in his half-crushed command room, holding two chaos emeralds and wondering why the hell all of the power had just shut off…but then again, he had sensed it. That electrical wave. Pesnah…were his senses weakened due to elemental rivalry? That that was all that he could sense? He knew that a battle was going on thanks to security. But he didn't sense a thing.

Suddenly the ice shattered. Darkness had left the room, probably escaped the ship. Bluehawk ran in the direction of the tractor beam exit, which was probably half-destroyed.

"Kuso. Not another one." Minimaniac exclaimed.

"Another what?" KK asked worriedly, running to where Mini was watching the TV.

"Another chimera cruiser just flew over the north forest…then suddenly dropped. Bang-thump-smash. Just like that. And you know what that means."

KawaiiKitsune suddenly donned a facial expression of fear.

"Only thing that can cause a Chimera Cruiser to do that is the presence of Hawk and or Phantom. Every time they get into one of those things, they blow it up one way or another…but by the looks of it, it was two other people who escaped. No-one familiar…but Hawk's handiwork is in there somewhere…"

Half of the wall had been completely crushed and smashed apart, which was fortunate when Hawk realized the tractor beam was in direct contact with the ground…this way he could just slip out. Unnoticed. Untouched. Back to the city, and fast. Escape from Eagle…and his revenge-bent brother…

"Shoot. Not cool."

"What's not cool?" Foxy began as Urthdigger flicked buttons on his watch, and tried again.

"If only…I'd thought…" He puffed, running as fast as he could back toward the city. "To put in a little buzzer to indicate whether it's not getting the message or just not responding!!"

"D'you think he got out?" Foxy shuddered.

"Knowing Hawk, you can never be sure…" Urthdigger mumbled, leaping out of the way of a tree. "D'you think it's worth me sacrificing fatigue to run faster?"

*****

Phantom looked over the forest, hoping to see the smallest sign of Bluehawk or Sama's presence. It was a whole twelve hours since the Cruiser dropped, and Hawk and Sama weren't back at the city yet. Not good news. Phantom headed straight for the downed cruiser…maybe they were trapped inside…the huge teal mass of metal ellipses loomed out of the darkness, sitting embedded in the masses of rock left behind from the Akise Chamber. It had just passed the edge of the trees. But there was something odd about it…three huge holes in the roof, one burned, one simply torn outwards, and the other one with a giant anthill of ice over it…maybe that tear was Hawk's doing…too soon to tell. But three people, maybe more considering the crushed sides, had escaped somehow…

Urthdigger got up lazily and checked the time. Only about six hours since he got home, still dead-tired. Not worth working on inventio-wait. The watch, he had to make a few alterations to that…make it know when the message can't be received…but how? There was no way to 'rebound' a radio frequency…but then again, the watches detected exactly where each other were and sent messages directly…but that was no help, it was still via radio! If only there was another way…

Bluehawk crawled along his hotel rooftop, trying to make a discreet entrance. He ducked into the hatch and into the corridors, moving quietly down through the floors to his room. There were things to figure out. A Sama to save from the derelict chimera cruiser. And why the hell did Eagle side with the Chimeras? Even if his intentions were noble, he was going to cause nothing but chaos. He was smarter than that, so it was impossible. Unless there were unforseen factors at hand. There had to be. Maybe the chimeras wanted to conquer the planet because their own had exploded or become desolate. Or maybe…Hawk tried to push all thoughts away as he turned the doorknob. He had to stop speculating…focus on the mission assigned to him by the secret service…suddenly something hit him and sunk like an anchor trying to swim. The chimeras were the ones who wanted Sierra and Jason recovered, which they succeeded with. The secret service had sent him on a mission for the chimeras! No, they must have been biased against the mutants, thinking the chimeras were hedgehogs…but the secret service had data files on that sort of thing! Wouldn't they know? …he had to find their base ASAP, but where the hell was it? Then he suddenly saw that the TV was on…

Nothing. A full scan and nothing, no life forms, no electrical systems going. Sama and Bluehawk didn't show up as dead, either. Phantom cursed under his breath at the tiny screen at the front of his modified glider, then moved the steel sheet back over it and turned around. This whole mass of teal steel had nothing in it any more. Nothing even worth stealing…probably, anyway…all electrical gadgets permanently deactivated…no wonder the hovering devices conked out, an EMP wave was the only explanation. There was only one chimera who could do that, and he was dead. Hawk's lightning form, maybe? Phantom jumped onto his glider and flew back toward the city…knowing for certain that the burned hole was Sama…the ice hole…it couldn't be HT-4!?

Foxy sat up, alarmed, looking at the TV screen in front of her. News Flash. Scratch Sierra and Jason for now, the city itself was in major trouble…

"A rouge 'Underground Gang' has invaded the city hall and taken it over, they are well armed. No-one has been able to enter the building and come back out... alive. The Gagsters have so far uttered only one brief sentence to convey their intentions, 'Kill them all.' We haven't got any other information on the situation, but knowing the history of SoaH City, There are probably already Citizens getting ready to do something no one else ca..."

Suddenly a red light appeared from the direction of city hall on the screen and filled the whole thing, which almost instantly became static as Foxy's fear grew ever worse. Then she realized it had been live. Suddenly the newsroom was on the screen.

"We've apparently lost transmission from the barricade. We're trying to find out what happened now…"

The reader checked the paper handed out to him, and his eyes grew wide with shock.

"What is it?" asked his co-reader.

"This just in... Oh my God... The barricade has just been destroyed by a weapon of some kind...witnesses say a red beam jumped from inside the capitol and vaporized the barricade... oh dear God..."

"Yup Jake, saw the news, I'm going in tonight. Activate my clearance card and make sure the others don't interfere." Urthdigger glanced at his bag of holding, then instantly went off to pack everything he could possibly need into it…even the lock pick, seeing Phantom fly past just outside the window, surveying the red smoke.

'Kill them all.' Bluehawk thought to himself. Nothing before had ever expressed such hatred for life to his knowledge. 'Kill them all.' It had said. Too bad they hadn't recorded it, someone may possibly have recognized the voice. But 'Kill them all'? It was the time for action that night. During the day, he would be spotted and beamed upon the approach. For all he knew, they had night-vision, too. Suddenly there was a loud knock on the door and Phantom walked in abruptly. "What's with the red smoke near city ha-" Then he saw Bluehawk's face as he pressed his shades into the darkest position possible.

"You're going, aren't you?"

"And I'm going alone this time. Stealth is priority one."

Phantom didn't bother to argue. "Where's Sama?"

Bluehawk looked out the window, as if evasively. "I don't know."

People were panicked. No-one dared go near city hall, and all stayed in their homes throughout the day. Even the shops were locked up and the wind blew eerily throughout the streets. Not like any normal crisis, in which people would go on about their lives, and many would try to solve the problem. Even the police were a hopeless rabble, disorganized due to their home base being right next to City Hall. The rest of the day remained chaotic…then night fell, the blanket of darkness covering the whole city. In an instant, the downed cruiser was forgotten when it shouldn't have been, the second the report hit the news and the red smoke rose. Bluehawk made a silent dash toward the city hall, which had been sealed off by plastic striped walls and abandoned out of fear. Everything was silent except for the wind and the lit windows, shadows moving past them as if not expecting attack, or not caring. Hawk jumped up, gripped the top of the thin plastic wall which was hurriedly installed on the side-street to the hall. The police were completely thrown out by this, it seemed. Lucky the mayor was on vacation, and the other executives operated from other areas. Bluehawk hoisted himself up and over, dropping as silently as he had once been taught, then made the speedless dash to the nearest wall from which he couldn't be seen. He could have sworn one of the creatures inside saw him. Then suddenly he heard a voice in his head. Up the wall to the roof. He looked up at the wall…that was going to need both emerald and run-up…big risks, but what else could he do? Some kind of mind force…definitely not evil, it had something calming about it…was suggesting a strategy. Hawk crept around to the side of the building, avoiding alerting anything up there, and found the wall flat all the way up, making sure there were no windows, and ran away from it, ran straight into it and up, backflipping at the top where his legs had nothing to run on and landing on his butt. Damn, gotta work on that one. He thought to himself, and suddenly saw the figure in front of him. "NK!" He whispered.

"Keep it down. You of all people should know how sound travels at night."
"How'd you contact me like that?" Hawk whispered, edging along the roof.

"Telepathy…but there's something odd about the things down there."

Bluehawk looked down…his instincts, not just the evidence, were telling him the same thing. He sensed something…but didn't know what.

"There's a hatch just over there. Your gun is loaded, your emerald charged?"

"Of course. We'll split up when we get down there, it'll be harder to keep track of us seperately."

Bluehawk removed the panel cautiously, knowing he's taking a step into and against the absolute unknown. He pokes his head in, upside-down, and the coast is clear on the red carpet. "Shoot first, ask questions later." NK said from behind. "Go."

Hawk dropped down, admiring the paintings of the city council…hey, there was a picture of Nambuk up there! To think, that all this was happening at once. First the mutants, then suddenly an attack of…what was it? NK dropped down behind him, shifting the panel back into place as he fell. "I'll go that way." NK decided. "You go the way behind me."

It was pointless to argue, though Bluehawk had no idea what the hell NK's reasoning was. He went past him at a jog, and turned right around the corridor.

Suddenly it turned around a corner. A humanoid black figure, just like the ones which attacked Koringhn. Hawk stared from his end of the corridor, it stared back with its green-goggled eyes…not red this time. Then it ran straight at him. Hawk stood his ground. Then suddenly just as he thought it was about to unleash a blow it turned and backflipped at him with a katana drawn. Hawk rolled forward, brushing the wall as it slashed a portrait of Neon Chaos. He used a crane scratch at the shiny black figure's feet, and suddenly realized what he was sensing. An electronic being. It lashed out with a kick, Bluehawk lashed out a hand, and a small light shot out of it, hitting the shadow man in the leg…he twitched a few times, before falling forward to the ground. Hawk crouched for a few seconds, still in shock. He had expected something completely new, not a shadow of the past…but whatever kind of robot this thing had turned out to be, it had all-new AI. Hawk lifted himself up, brushed himself off, and ran to keep going. Suddenly there was a loud beep from his watch. NKLS' voice. "Found anything?"

Hawk clicked the 'reply' button and spoke. "It's a new model of Shadow-men! I think I just took one of them out!"

There was a wait before the reply as Hawk dashed down the stairs to the next floor.

"New model? What d'you mean?"

"It's some kind of android." Hawk suddenly stopped as he hit the balcony above the entrance lobby.

"Guys! What the hell are you two doing here-" Urthdigger's voice! NK cut over the top, apparantly not hearing…how could NK contact the watch, anyway? …and it was working again!

"I've found ano-" suddenly there was static. Hawk looked down into the lobby. There were loud rumbles coming from below, the noise of steel clashes…

"Hawk! What's going on!?"

He didn't reply, but swung himself over the balcony rail and hit the floor with the sound of loud footsteps on marble tiles. Then suddenly whipped around as he sensed movement behind him. Two green glowing eyes leered out of the darkened corridor…Hawk rolled aside just in time as a red laser fired straight out of the corridor, engulfing the door and tossing it outside. It didn't seem to be so sure it hadn't got him and walked forward slowly. Typical, it was an AI unit. Then out lashed Hawk's hand, sending out that tiny electrical pulse into its face…there was a clang as its facial plate dropped off, revealing the green lights and curcuitry. Hawk lashed out a foot, whacking it in the face, causing it to fall over…he felt energy going from the emerald into himself…so those EMP shots drained him of energy. Suddenly there was a loud shout from above…a red shape smashed through another balcony rail and fell to the floor…a katana straight through its stomach. NKLS. The shadow dropped to the ground, ready to take out its prey for the pure sake of the kill. Hawk outstretched his hand and nothing happened. Out of power. Then out came the Lazuli Blade as he used a different thought pattern. The shadow walked over to its last prey quickly, and ripped out its weapon as NK howled with pain. The katana glowed green…became like the Lazuli Blade…then Hawk realized the whispers. "Jade Katana." They said menacingly. Someone who knew him well designed these things. Hawk lashed out a sword and the black android answered with a parry and an upward slash which Hawk barely dodged, hitting it with his own blade and pushing himself into the air, flipping over the thing's head sword held out straight to slash again, but this was also blocked. Hawk landed on the floor mere feet away and pulled his hand free of the blade. This was a move it couldn't imitate. It ran straight for him, Jade Katana outstretched for a fatal stab. Suddenly the Lazuli Blade was spinning like a fan without a breeze, creating a circular shield of energy…then tiny bits of the Jade Katana were dropping off in a wave, the same wave which cut up the entire body a split second later. Tiny pieces littered the floor at Hawk's feet like rubble or cat-food. Urthdigger suddenly appeared from the doorway to the left from the entrance. "I'm okay." NK wheezed.

"You should be dead!" Urthdigger exclaimed, shocked. Bluehawk stood weakly.

"Let's find all of the people who work here." Bluehawk muttered. NK got up and walked, breaking into a run up the stairs which had recently been repaired after damage from a goop-zombie attack which all three of them remembered well. Through a door, another hallway and into a room which wasn't lit at all. Bluehawk ran straight into NK's back and stumbled, almost falling over, hearing eerie drips on carpet. "Let's GO, eN-"

Suddenly Urthdigger ran into Bluehawk's back, Bluehawk fell forward into NK's again and Urth and Hawk both fell backwards. Bluehawk suddenly felt deathly cold as he got up, feeling a warm sensation on his gloved hand. He suddenly knew what it was…not caring that NK had just left the room…Urthdigger stumbled again into something hanging from the roof just as the lights switched on. Bluehawk's eyes remained closed. He had no desire to see what was all around him…what was staining the walls. What was flowing through him, and every other living creature in the universe save a select few. Urthdigger gave a startled cry, realizing what he had stumbled into. A dead, hanged body. There were shards of furry all over the floor, blood still seeping into the carpet from them…another brutally twisted fox lay horribly in the corner, one arm wrapping right around his neck three times…Bluehawk had to hold his meals in with a struggle when he saw that one echidna had been strangled to death with his own pink, slimy intestines. He had seen blood before. He had basically breathed it. But this…this was of innocents. This was brutal…sick…so utterly twisted. How could even a machine be willing to cause so much pain, to kill people so creatively? Three bloodied figures lay impaled on long wooden spear-like pikes. Hawk turned away, out the door, up two flights of stairs and to the roof. The cold air bit mercilessly at the wet areas of his clothes, slowly drying and congealing the blood, blowing the smell wayward. Urthdigger walked up next to him, followed by NK on the other side.

"The Shadow Men." Bluehawk said slowly. "If they're back, that means whoever created them is back too. If we play our cards right, we can get to the bottom of them and stop an even stronger model being created. This is where it begins, be on guard for the slightest of strange happenings."

All three of them turned suddenly to the sound of distant sirens.

"Reload Centre, 6:30 tomorrow evening. Just like old times." Hawk stared unblinking into the orange sky of the rising sun, and the red desert sands of the east, and was suddenly off across the lawn, down a side alley, vanished into the shadows of the city.

He reached the apartment to a rather shocked Phantom looking at the TV from the couch. "You're in a lotta trouble this time, man."

Bluehawk stopped in his tracks as Phantom eyes the blood all over him concernedly.

"They think you did it."

"Wha-?"

"Look."

Bluehawk looked. Bluehawk saw…Bluehawk's jaw dropped. The amateur recording played again. It showed Bluehawk in mid-drop from the roof, Urthdigger and NKLS watching, and then Urthdigger and NK both jumped off too. There had been no-one around. Yet there it was, footage, evidently from the ground behind the building, of them escaping…no way, Hawk dropped way too close to where the footage was filmed from to not have seen the person doing it. "I'm getting this blood off, then I'm leaving." In mere minutes he was set in dark blue jacket and red trousers, heading for the door…then suddenly there was a knock. "Who is it?" Phantom asked tentatively.

"Solorfrog of the SoaH City Police!"

Shit.

"I-I'm naked! Hang on a sec!" Phantom called, stealing a worried glance at Hawk, who was no longer there…Hawk looked down at the ground, a few floors down, sick with memory of his climb down Cal Tower, and with virtually nothing to cling to except some gaps in the mortar. There was a thunk as the Hotel window closed, and Phantom's muffled voice came through as well as Solorfrog's. Then Hawk remembered his emerald and gripped it tightly, letting go of the wall and dropping to the ground. Virutally no-one on the street, so no-one seemed to recognize him. That was a definite plus…but now to go where no-one could possibly expect for some sleep? He couldn't rely on the emerald all night…then it hit him, right on the forehead.