Flip Card 2:

Name Shadow

Species Hedgehog (Ultimate life form)

Age 54 (Ageless immortal)

Job description: The end result of Research project Shadow, a wandering hedgehog trying to find his way in the world.

He was walking directly into a trap, that much was obvious. But with Tails' life on the line, Sonic just didn't care. The second he charged into the warehouse on the dock well before the Friday night he was meet by at least a dozen of Fang's Sharpshooters, they were all armed to the teeth with nearly every kind of hand held weapon imaginable but fat lot of good it did them. Sonic was simply too fast for bullets so swipes with a knife to hit him. Catching them completely by surprise, soon nearly everyone of them was lying down on the floor, knocked unconscious or rendered incapable of getting back up. Sonic however was quick to notice that Tails' kidnapper wasn't amongst them. He stood up, the angry, determined glare on his face defiantly refusing to leave.

"Ok, I'm here!" He shouted at the empty interior of the warehouse. He couldn't see anyone else as he walked in through the large open doors that faced the river, but that didn't mean he weren't there. In fact, he knew beyond any doubt that he was hiding somewhere in the darkness. "Now give me my friend back." Silence replied as the blue hedgehog waited. He was anxious, as it was taking every ounce of the small amount of self discipline he had not to frantically search his entire building at super speed.

His ear twitched and he snapped his head toward the side, staring directly at the dark figure half clad in shadows kneeling on top of one of the large cargo crates stacked against the wall. It was that him, that Weasel, the same one that kidnapped Tails. He was watching the blue hedgehog from underneath his leather hat with a smug grin.

"Don't think coming early is going to help you, I've been expecting you for over an hour now."

"You didn't expect me to wait until Friday did you?" Sonic asked, turned toward him with narrowing eyes. Fang the Sniper didn't seem to be armed, apart from a knife at his side.

"You want your freak?" He asked rhetorically, gesturing over toward the dark back of the warehouse and instantly a single light came on from the ceiling, illuminating a single area, sitting or rather slouching in the middle of it, his hands, tails and legs bound by lengths of rope was Tails. He was completely alone, and appeared to be unconscious.

"If you've hurt him…" He began with disgust by the weasel interrupted him, standing up to his full height.

"He's fine…well, living, but that's the important thing."

"You son of a…"

"I'd watch your mouth if I were you." Fang snapped, a sudden sadistic streak to his eyes. "That is if you want your little mutant to remain breathing." Sonic pressed his lips together tightly and clenched his fists. The sounds of the breaking waves along the river behind him did little to soothe his anger. He looked back to Tails, he was breathing but goodness knows what these demented kidnapper had done. This was, no proven beyond all doubt that this was a trap. Knowing his luck deadly ninja's or some elaborate piece of machinery to keep in place was hidden inside every crate. Either way, this stank of Eggman.

Sonic turned to face his friend completely, he probably wasn't going to reach his friend without something lunging at him but regardless he kept walking, trying to keep as much as possible within eye sight. "Don't worry mate, there aren't any traps." Fang added quickly, sliding down from the top of the crate and standing directly in front of the exit. Sonic gave him one last contempt glance over his shoulder before steadily walking toward Tails.

He wasn't stupid enough to actually step into the shaft of light encircling the fox and trigger some kind of trap, only matures did something like that and Sonic had been in this kind of situation many times before.

"Hey Tails, you ok?" He asked, reaching forward. The second the words passed his lips there a loud clicking sound and without warning the strength from Sonic's limbs seemed to completely disappear. His legs gave away and he collapsed to his knees, barley able to support his weight even then. He gritted his teeth and tried to get up, but found he it impossible. Someone dealt Sonic a blow directly to his shoulders and he was forced down onto the floor. Before Sonic could do anything else, he felt the barrel of a gun press against his head and a boot against his back. "I thought you said, there weren't any traps?" Sonic managed to stutter, looking back toward the Weasel who stood over him.

"Had me fingers crossed mate." Fang replied sadistically, tipping his hat upward. "You see, installed underneath the floor is a special device I stole from the government about a month ago. It's called a gravity enhancer, it increases the gravitational force in a localized area. They were using it to speed up construction of buildings and the like, I find it's useful for holding rodents that won't slow down in place." Sonic tried to get up again but the combine force of the machine underneath him and another swift kick from Fang set him collapsing to the floor again. "If it's any conciliation, I'll have no need for your little freak after this so he'll be joining you in the beyond soon enough." The weasel's fingers began to squeeze around the trigger. There was a whooshing sound, like something streamlined passing through the air at high speed and suddenly Sonic realized whatever was holding him down had disappeared. With lightning fast moves he kicked the gun aside and was on his feet. Fang looked startled, then he looked down toward the ground where Sonic had been a moment ago. Lancing into the ground was a metal shuriken, it's blade sinking deep into the ground, so deep it had penetrated the device he'd hidden there.

"There's only one guy who can throw things that accurately." He turned to stare directly behind him, toward the entrance to the warehouse and the figure standing there over his defeated gang.

"Hello…Nack." Espio said, his Katana blade tightly in grip in one hand and in the other several shuriken tucked between each finger. The weasel and the Chameleon locked glares and for a single moment there was absolute silence. "Long time no see."

"Welcome aboard." Vector said with a toothy grin, shaking Mighty's hand. The teenage armadillo had the smuggest look one could possibly muster, having just completed the three entry tests with flying colours. Chaotix was a vigilante organisation with hardly a good reputation with the press, but many most ordinary people knew the rumours of their operations were greatly blown out of proportion.

"I knew you could do it." Espio said with a grin, giving his friend a friendly push. Mighty just laughed, pushing himself back up.

"Was there really any doubt?" He asked, pushing Espio back and the two of them began to laugh together as Nack and Vector looked down. They were all standing at the banks of a river just beyond the city limits. Mighty's final test had been to swim the ragging current carrying a cement block in his arms. He'd beaten Vector's record by two minutes. The red sky and setting orange sun cast long shadows over the long grass plains beyond the walls of Metropolis. No one really ventured this far east. A few miles in this direction lay the border between unoccupied territory and land currently belonging to the Eggman Empire.

"Kids, is that who we're hiring now?" Nack asked, giving the crocodile a sceptical glance. Vector chuckled deep in his throat.

"Your being short sighted Nack, he's a kid now sure, but give him a couple of years more experience and a little more training and he'll be a valuable asset." He replied, folding his arms behind his head. Nack pushed his lips together with an annoyed look on his face.

"If he can get us more funds, I might consider your words." Vector shook his head disappointingly.

"Is that all you care about Nack, money?" Nack was silent, he kept his eyes directly in front of him, locked onto the flowing river. A fish jumped out of the flowing liquid then dived back in again, the surface hardly disturbed.

"Yes." He muttered under his breath.

"I doubt my family would approve of this." Mighty said as he as Espio watched the road in front of them from their stake out point. Their intelligence hinted that a group of Metropalis' most wanted criminals would be meeting at the derelict garage on the other side of the road. If that information was correct, they wanted to be here to catch them when they showed up.

"What do you mean?" Espio asked back as rain began to rattle against the top of the roofs above the small trash strewn alleyway.

"My dad's always had high expectations, he wanted me to become a Doctor or the lawyer." He shuddered on the last one. Espio stared at him with wide eyes.

"You, a doctor? You faint at the sight of a needle!"

"Yeah well, it was when I had the measles inoculation that I realized I was never going to please by dad."

Another punch from Mighty finished the masked criminal off as Vector and Charmee freed the hostages from the lobby. The swat police watched in amazement as civilians began running out of the hotel front doors and toward the safety of the police lines as Vector dragged one of the bad guys out and tossed him towards the SWAT commander who stared at them with his mouth wide open in astonishment.

"This ones on the house, take the credit if you want." The crocodile put in before joining his comrades inside as the commander stared after him.

"On the house?!" Nack stated his left eye twitching. "On the house? Vector, this could have meant big rewards from hotel owners, not to mention award ceremonies from the mayor. Why on Mobius did you just turn all that down?" Vector simply laughed and slapped him on the back, nearly knocking the weasel over. Nack glared back at him, the faint tinge of rage in his eyes.

"Nack!" Mighty growled through gritted teeth. He raised his fists, clenching them so tight his gloves began to tear. "You'll pay for this!" He searched, throwing himself toward Chaotix's betrayer. He didn't care about all the guns pointed at him, in that moment all that he wanted was a single opportunity to land a good punch. He never got it. Nack shot around, his gun already in his hands. Espio watched in horror, time seemed to slow to a crawl and although he began to move to push him out of the way he was too late. The bullet tore through the air, heralded by a loud bang. Mighty actually seemed to hover there in mid air for a moment, sustained by that single act of betrayal. Then he fell and hit the ground with a thud that remained in the chameleons mind, imprinted forever. And that look, that pure evil look on Nack's face left no argument. He was enjoying every minute of this.

"MIIGGGGGGGHHHHTTTTTTTTTTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!"

Fang was left silent for a moment, before a wide evil smile played over his lips. He slid his gun back into the concealed holder he'd withdrawn it from and stood facing his old team mate. Espio only tightened the grip of his sword.

"Come to kill me Espio? I thought Chaotix's number one rule was never to kill their enemies?" He asked sadistically. Espio bared his teeth and ran forward, his blade arched to the side ready to strike. Fang simply sidestepped, ducked under the swing and knocked Espio's feet out from under him. As the Chameleon hit the floor, Fang shot back up, twisted in mid air as he drew his knife. Espio pushed himself backwards to avoid the stab and at the same time wrapped the end of his long tail around Fang's neck, pulling the Weasel along with him. Grabbed a hold of a metal pivot in the warehouse floor, he threw Fang into the air. Now that his opponent was in a venerable position, Espio cast two shuriken through the air. Fang recovered in time, twisting his body around and entire 360 degrees to avoid being skewed.

The weasel landed on his feet with a loud thug on top of one of the crates.m

"Mighty was only 17." Espio began, his eyes burning with rage. "How could you, you traitorous monster?"

"Little punk shouldn't have gotten in my way!" The Weasel replied, his large tooth sliding out over his lips. Espio, loosing all self control darted forward with his katana again. The blow was so fast Fang was left crouching there for a single moment before he even realized something had happened. His hat parted into two pieces and fell down either side of his head, a good deal of his purple head fur going with it.

Now enraged, the weasel cut around as Espio tried to come at him from behind a dealt the chameleon a sharp kick to the chest, sending him flying into a wall. Espio cried out in pain as he hit, sliding down to the floor, he lost his grip of the sword. "You should have let it go Espio. I'd twice as skilled as you, just as good at tactics as Vector and more than enough to beat you." He took out his gun and pointed it directly at the stunned chameleon, not even hesitating to pull the trigger. The bang went off, but instead of what was supposed to happen, Espio simply disappeared in a blue haze.

Fang didn't eve have time to exclaim, as Sonic came directly up from under him with a flying punch. One of Fang's back teeth went flying from his mouth as the weasel himself was sent crashed through one of the crates, disappearing behind a cascade of wooden fragments.

"I don't need your help!" Espio snapped, pushing himself up, staring angrily at the blue hedgehog, who moments ago had pushed him aside, avoiding the bullet by inches. "Stay out of this, it doesn't concern you." Sonic stared at him with a half angry, yet confused a stare.

"Excuse me. My best friend gets kidnapped and suddenly it's none of my business." Espio's eye glanced over toward the unconscious Tails for a moment before snapping back.

"Take your friend and go. I have unfinished business." Several large pieces of wood went flying as Fang shot to his feet, his fur coated with splinters. Sonic was suddenly reminded of the foxes presence and his priorities became straight, Espio was partly right, the fight between the chameleon and the Weasel was none of his business. He was here for Tails and nothing else.

"Well if you're sure…" Espio reached for his katana and held the blade horizontally to his horn.

"I've never been more sure." Sonic stared at him, almost sensing the cold steadfast resolution in the chameleon before turning and after a moment of blue nothingness was by Tails' side. Now he was close up, he could see bruises under the foxes fur, nearly eclipsed by it's bright colour.

"And just where do you think you're going?" Fang snarled, turning, raising his gun to fire a shot toward them. Espio's shuriken hit his hand at a slant, not doing any serious damage by the force was enough to wedge the weapon away from the weasel's grasp. "Why must you always be in the way?" He snapped as the chameleon, before drawing his knife again and charging forward. Espio descended into a fighting stance. He was out of shuriken now, but he didn't need them at this point.

"This is for you Mighty."

The two blades, one long, one short clashed twice. Fang pushed himself out of his steadfast confrontation and tried to swing his feet around, attempting to knock Espio's out from under him. Espio anticipated the move and jumped, twisting his body through the air delivering a powerful kick to the Weasel's face. Recovering from it, Fang rebounded from the floor and slapped his own rigid tail again the chameleons side. Stunned for a moment, Fang took the opportunity to delivering a punch directly into Espio's gut. Espio cried out, spittle throwing itself from his gapping mouth.

Feeling that his enemy had been beaten, Fang let his guard down for a spilt second and that was all Espio needed to recover and deal a swift kick across Fang's belly. Several of the weasel's ribs cracked from the blow. Grunting in pain and frustration, Fang doubled back before charging again with his knife. Espio had fatigued himself by attacking before was wasn't able to move fast enough to avoid the slash. A long, thin, oozing red line lanced across his cheek.

"You know something Espio?" Fang asked, as the two of them broke to catch their breath. "I should have killed you all that night instead of settling for the rookie. At least that way I wouldn't have to keep tabs on you and the I might be able to earn some serious cash without interferance." The shot that took the life of his childhood friend still ringing in his ears, Espio charged forward, creaming in rage. This was what Fang had been counting on, in the spilt second before Espio could bring his katana blade across for a fatal slash, the weasel leapt backwards, his rigid tail pressing against the ground. This acting as a spring board and Fang somersaulted out of harms way, backflipping through the air, coming down behind Espio. The chameleon didn't even have time to look back as two fists wrapped together smashed itself into the back of his head. The blow was sharp and quick and it almost took a few seconds for it to effect him, but when it did, whatever strength was in Espio's legs gave way and he collapsed to his knees. Fang spun around and finished it, kicking the chameleon to the ground. "Told you. I was after all, the most experienced fighter in Chaotix." He kicked the katana from Espio's hand and sent it skidding across the floor. "Experienced enough to know that all that, we don't kill our enemies crap Vector was telling us doesn't work in the real world." Espio twisted his face and stared up with hate in his eyes.

"I agree." he snarled and jabbed a fist upward, a shrunken between his fingers. Fang cried out as the metal sank into the flesh on his stomach, pain spreading through his body, rendering him paralysed for a moment. Espio pulled himself up and smashed a kick directly across his front knocking the weasel across the floor.

"For just this night, I'm going to throw my morals out the window and I will kill you."

Eggman smashed a fist into the control panel, fuming. The metal plating craning under the pressure.

"Stupid weasel!" He snarled, glaring with rage burning in his eye sat the screen directly in front of him. "He had Sonic just where I've always wanted him and he let him get away!" Decoe and Becoe stood behind him, ignoring another of their creators violent mood swings. Every monitor inside the broadcasting chamber was showing the chaos done there and Eggman could see plainly things were not going his way. "Must I do everything myself?!!!" He added, swinging his chair around and pushing himself to his feet. He snatched at the control panel in front of him and brought up a microphone, wired into the Final Egg's robotic troops control system, allowing the would be dictator verbal control of all the robots being stationed here all at once. "Attention alpha and Delta squadrons, full priority assault, co-ordinates 5,7,8,9,3. GO GO GO GO!" Alarms began blared all over Final Egg and all most at once, complying to his orders, a set set of airlock doors that opening out toward the planet below opened up. As soon as the large iron doors had completely swung open, two drop ships each carrying a total of a dozen Dreadnaughts, the largest robot warriors in Eggman's arsenal. on board launched out at top speed, the fire from their thrusters melting the doors open. The ships were only there for a moment, before they became blaring orange objects as they began to enter the Earth's atmosphere.

As Sonic soured with Tails over his shoulder, he nearly collided with the side of the ThornDyke's car. The blue hedgehog didn't even bother to ask what Amy and Chris were doing here as they stared out from the back seat. He simply handed the unconscious fox to them and they took his limp form without question.

"Is he alright?" Tanaka asked, looking back from the drivers seat. Sonic bared his teeth and glared back toward the warehouse. His impulsive, often dominant side telling him to charge back in there and take retribution. Had circumstances been a little different, he would have obeyed that impulse and run back to kick the stuffing out of that weasel. Vector pulled himself out of another of the backseats with Charmee quickly following.

"Where's Espio?" He asked, or rather demanded. Sonic was about to answer when a sudden roaring filled the air and a sudden shadow cast it's dark influence over them. Looking up, they caught a glimpse of the two drop ships entering the atmosphere before their attentions were otherwise preoccupied as landing all around them with deafening thuds were Dreadnaught after Dreadnaught, their crosshairs already locked onto their small group. Dreadnaughts were gigantic robots with a humanoid appearance but will bulky limbs and triangular heads that pivoted around on a single points, a pair of glass eyes hidden within a visor staring out from either side of the fish like mouth. Each one standing a good ten foot tall. Tanaka put his foot down and the small open toped car swerved violently to the side, skidding through the legs of a metallic titan and toward the main road away from the docks. Several of the robots turned and started after it.

"Sorry to leave you guys by yourself…" Sonic managed to say before the ripple of travelling at high speed blurred his speech. Sonic being the primary target, the others activated their jet propulsion systems and soured after him.

"Shouldn't we help him?" Charmee asked, staring at the large amount of giant robots in pursuit of the escaping vehicle.

"Those guys can take care of themselves." Vector replied, slowly turning to give the warehouse a glare. "We've got to get to Espio before he does something he'll regret for the rest of his life."

Sam Speed was already on duty when Sonic soured past at high speed, overtaking his high speed police car with ease. Sam was about to charge after him and charge him with high speed running within a populated area, when smashing past him in pursuit of the blue hedgehog were over twenty of the Eggman Empire finest troops, flying in a V-formation down main street, people running in terror as soon as they saw them. Chaos erupting as cars swerved to a stand still, some crashing into one another

"What the hell?!" Sam began, starting after the whole spectacle in amazement, before regaining his senses and turning on his radio. "This is Speed King calling central, priority 1 emergency on main street. Counting over twenty Eggman Empire robots in pursuit of high speed hedgehog, requesting G.U.N back-up. Over." The reply was almost immediate.

"G.U.N chopper backup already on it's way, pull back and let the military do their job, Speed King. Over." Sam stared at the radio build into his car like it had just told him to go jump off a bridge.

"And miss a chance to put Sonic in my debt, forget it." Before the other end of the line could reply, Sam changed the frequency. "This is Speed King to all members of S-Team, drop whatever you're doing and get over to main street. Alpha priority, I repeat Alpha priority!"

(In Chris' voice)

Chaotix Vs Fang, Sonic Vs the Eggman Empire, don't miss the conclusion. Metal Sonic just got his wakeup call. See it next time on Sonic X, A long overdue duel. don't miss it!