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Sonic stood there, shaking in rage. Shadow looked at him.
"He's taken Tails and Omega," said Shadow, his voice almost shaking. "We have to follow him!" He almost ran after the shuttle, but Sonic grabbed onto his arm. He had been running so fast that the sudden stop swept his feet out from under him. Sonic looked down at him.
"We're going to have to do this logically," he said. "Where's Eggman's airship going to be?"
"I don't know, the… the Aerodock," said Shadow. "Of course!" Sonic pulled up his friend and they dashed down the street, knocking over cars and even people in their race to vengeance.
Eggman watched Tails and Omega's bodies locked into a large capsule. They slowly woke up.
"I've got you in my clutches, Tails and Omega," hissed Eggman's voice through the speakers. Omega and Tails felt themselves and realized their weapons had been taken away.
"You'll never stop us, Doctor!" cried Tails, but Eggman continued as if Tails had never spoken. "It's a one-way speaker, he can't hear us," he said to Omega.
"You'll be perfect hostages!" cackled the doctor. "You'll be dead by the time your hedgehog friends get here, and they'll be dead as soon as they step in my fortress! Then no one will be able to stop me from using my Chaos Machine!"
"Chaos Machine?" asked Omega to Tails.
"It is a simulation of Chaos," said Eggman, "but it does not function without the Master Emerald. Then… along with my army of new robots, the Brawler Bots, the world will have no hope!" The transmission ended as the ship rose into the air.
Sonic and Shadow dashed into the Aerodock. Security personnel launched themselves into the hedgehogs' way. None were armed. The hedgehogs picked up the security guards and threw them to the side. They saw the largest ship in the dock lifting.
"EGGMAAAAAAAAN!" screamed Sonic in wrath.
Shadow dashed to a smaller, lighter aircraft they had passed. He dealt with the guards brutally and efficiently and jumped into the pilot's seat. Sonic jumped in after him. The aircraft lifted into the air and shot after Eggman's craft.
"Eggman's on autopilot," said Sonic at the controls. "His destination… the Sienna Islands."
Shadow sat in the lounge of the ship, head in his hands. He remembered Knuckles and Rouge. Rouge… he remembered when they first met, with Omega by their side… but Omega wasn't here anymore. Her seductive smile and rebellious nature had entranced the black hedgehog. Omega was too robotic to befriend, and she was his support when he was searching for the mysteries of his past. He would give anything to bring her back.
When I had allowed Eggman one wish, I should have tricked him into wishing Rouge eternal life, thought Shadow. But with eternal life… I would grow old, and she would stay young, young forever… no. That would be a curse.
Team Dark would come back together. He promised, at that moment.
Tails and Omega were marched out of their capsule and locked into prison orbs, large, hollow balls with a skeletal metal frame that locked a prisoner inside the ball. They were rolled into a large bay dominated by a massive propeller, like that of a helicopter, with two circular holes on each end to accommodate their prisoner orb. The orbs were mounted into the propeller, which slowly began to spin. Omega clicked and beeped in distress, while Tails screamed.
The propeller came to a stop. Tails threw up, the vomit shooting out of his orb and splattering on the concrete below.
"Is that any way to treat your host?" asked a sinister voice. Eggman looked up at them, inches from the goo Tails had ejected.
"EGGMAN!" screamed Tails. "YOU KILLED KNUCKLES!" He spat at the doctor. "AND ROUGE! I'LL KILL YOU!" His high voice rang through the bay, sounding pitifully immature.
"Promises, promises!" said the doctor. "Not in this life, you won't. For you see, Tails, I believe that we live our lives over and over and over again, with no memory of what we did before when we start a new life. Now the horror will happen again, over and over again, and the people will die again and again. And I will have the thrill of the first time again and again, because it is new to me each time. It's the apocalypse repeated."
"You're insane!" shouted Tails. "It won't work!"
"Remember what I said about promises!" said the doctor. "Your friends aren't going to fly in here to save the day!"
The east wall collapsed. It exploded into infinitesimal shards of concrete, glass, and insulating material. From the cloud of debris, bits and pieces of Eggman's Brawler Bots exploded outward. An aircraft emerged, piloted by Shadow while Sonic fired a machine gun from the nose, a large propeller shielding him. The aircraft's gun sent vast chunks of asphalt and concrete shooting from the ground. Another shot destroyed the propeller Tails and Omega were strapped into, but it did not free them from their prison orbs.
Three Brawler Bots tried to leap up to Sonic's level. They were destroyed by the propeller that chopped the air in front of Sonic. Shadow continued firing the guns, weakening the joints connecting the ceiling and walls and creating menacing cracks.
Eggman prepared to shock Tails and Omega with an electric charge mounted into the prison orbs. But Sonic had already freed them. He handed Tails and Omega heavy firearms. Sonic picked up the two empty prison orbs and threw them at Eggman. He dodged them and ordered a squad of Brawler Bots after them, running in pursuit himself. Shadow, however, had other ideas. With a final shot, he caved in the ceiling partway, trapping the progress of the Brawler Bots but leaving Eggman free to chase. He hopped out of the aircraft and stood in Eggman's way.
"It's between you and me, Eggman," he said. They stared each other down.
Tails fired a huge riot gun into a wave of Brawler Bots. They were concussed by a massive shockwave. Sonic, Tails and Omega continued to run.
"What are we looking for, Sonic?" asked Tails.
"The Master Emerald," said Sonic. "If we can get that, it'll be as good as we can do without killing him. And that can happen later!"
They climbed a staircase that was nearly fifty feet high (or rather were carried by Tails, who flew them up) to reach a room which had a massive glass floor. The Master Emerald rested on a massive dais on the opposite wall. But a horde of Brawler Bots, at least two hundred, emerged and crowded the trio, making their weapons useless. Sonic threw his into an oncoming crowd and began to battle. But there wasn't any hope.
"Omega! Take Tails and the Emerald!" screamed Sonic, on his hands and knees.
Omega grabbed the Master Emerald. Tails struggled to pick them up. It was so heavy… black spots appeared before his eyes, growing larger… was he going blind?
Tails flew them onto a ledge. The Master Emerald nearly teetered over the brink, but Omega pulled it back in.
Sonic lifted one arm, surged by Brawler Bots. Then he punched the glass floor.
An increasing spiderweb of cracks scurried across the glass floor, fingers of death reaching for victims. The cracks reached the walls…
The floor shattered beneath them. Sonic reached out to Tails as he fell, mouth closed and eyes open, not in horror, but in doing what he must do. It was fifty feet down, and Sonic closed his eyes resolutely.
The Brawler Bots were crushed upon hitting the floor beneath. Sonic was lost in the collision.
"NO!" screamed Tails. Omega pulled him back.
"I will guard the Master Emerald," said the robot. "For Knuckles. You help Shadow."
With a resolute nod, tears brimming in his eyes, Tails flew down, wondering if he should stop flying and die for what he knew was right, like Sonic had done. But he wasn't brave enough.
Shadow and Eggman burst into motion at the same time. Shadow grabbed a long pipe, ripped from the wall by the explosion, and vaulted into the air, feet extended. Eggman seized the pole, hoping to bring Shadow down, but the hedgehog had let go. On opposite sides of the field from where they had started, they turned around to face each other.
Eggman launched the pole at Shadow. One end rammed into the ground, cracking it, and the other end sliced downward at Shadow. The hedgehog avoided it, using his Homing Attack to rebound off of a wall and at Eggman.
The doctor backhanded him at the floor. Shadow used his legs to knock Eggman over, jumping back up at the same time. He was about to deal a death blow when Eggman rolled out of the way and stood, giving Shadow an uppercut so powerful that Shadow lifted two feet off of the ground and collapsed on the concrete, moaning. But above him he saw Tails… descending slowly…
"Goodbye, my creation…" snarled Eggman. He leaped into the air, preparing to throw his full weight onto Shadow in a body slam.
Tails intercepted the doctor, slamming him into a wall. Eggman cuffed the fox onto his back and then rushed Tails. Tails shot his feet up, and Eggman fell upon them in surprise. Tails performed a backward somersault, and Eggman was launched away. As the doctor got to his feet, he kicked Shadow hard in the side to make sure Tails wouldn't get any help from there. Eggman picked up a chunk of debris and hurled it at Tails. The fox was distracted, and Eggman took the opportunity to kick Tails into the wall.
The fox grabbed Eggman with horrible force. Eggman screamed in pain at the strength with which Tails held him. Tails pulled Eggman high into the air… higher… they were twenty feet above the ground. Far below, Shadow groaned.
Tails threw Eggman on the nose of the aircraft. The propeller had stopped spinning, and Eggman lay prone, groaning. Tails jumped into the aircraft and began driving it. Eggman's eyes widened as they veered toward a wall. "NOOOOOOO-"
"Tails, stop!" screamed Shadow.
The wall fell on top of them as the aircraft exploded. Tails felt his body, consumed by fire and falling stone, and then… nothing.
Shadow stared in disbelief at the wreckage. He stepped toward it, hoping to find Tails. He'd lost everyone except Omega… it was too much. He fell to the ground and cried, cried for everyone and everything. He cried.
He and Omega went to Angel Island to return the Master Emerald. As they placed it back, Shadow heard something.
"Listen!"
A crunch. Shadow felt a flurry of emotions, similar to what he knew Knuckles and Rouge must have felt before their deaths. He motioned to be quiet to Omega and crept through a growth of ferns. A copper-furred bat sat by a fallen tree, crying silently. When she saw Shadow, she sprang upright, shielding herself.
"We're not going to hurt you," said Shadow, Omega appearing behind her.
"That is one of Eggman's robots," said the bat, waving a small iron bar in front of her. "Are you working for him?"
"He's not around to work for," said Shadow. "Our friends sacrificed themselves to kill him."
The bat's eyes lit up. "What did he do to anger you so?"
"He killed our friends on this very island," said the hedgehog, moving closer now that there was no threat of danger.
"He killed my sister Rouge," said the bat, putting down her arm. "I vowed vengeance on him."
"Rouge never denied our beliefs that she was an only child," said Omega.
"Who can say why?" said the bat. "I wish we could do that; to talk to those we loved but aren't here anymore."
"Well, there's enough of Eggman's robots running around to take out your vengeance on," said Shadow in a friendly way. "What's your name?"
"My name is Baton, for what I use as a weapon," said the bat, holding up the iron bar. "What are you called?"
"I am Omega, and my counterpart is Shadow," said the robot.
"Come on, Baton," said Shadow. "We're a team now."
Baton's eyes lit up again. "A team? We never had much of a family."
"A team," said Shadow, gently squeezing her hand.
And the new Team Dark left Angel Island, carrying a friendship with them.
Aww… a nice happy ending… REVIEW!