Chapter 7 The Skins of Their Teeth
Two Shadows were now on him-the one with lasers had made his way over. Sonic knew that someone had been beaten. They couldn't keep this fight up. He'd be able to handle one of them, maybe a second. Both of them at once was going to be hard, though, and if anyone else got beat, he couldn't take them. So he decided on a plan of action-try to ward off the two Shadows in hopes that he could wear them down and take at least one of them out. If anyone else got taken out, he'd order a retreat.
Retreat. There's a word he never wanted to utter, ever. He didn't have to use it once during his previous adventures, but this surprise attack might be too much for him and the rest of the guys. Dammit-where was Blade when you actually needed him?
The two Shadows looked at each other for about a tenth of a second, then took off after Sonic. With both flanks covered, Sonic tried darting between them.
Nothing doing. The laser Shadow had held up at the last second and blasted Sonic away. The second Shadow slashed him as he was shot away, and Sonic was sent flying across the courtyard, his skin burning. In searing pain, he scrambled up and began running back to his two foes to try and run off the pain.
"Persistent," murmured the laser Shadow.
"Stubborn, really," replied the clawed one. "Stay back again. Form LS-5." He rushed ahead to meet Sonic.
Sonic bent back and left to dodge the charging Claw, but he quickly had to jump to avoid the lasers from Laser. He was met mid-air by Claw, who slashed him back to the ground. Sonic barely rolled away from another laser.
He tried his best to duck around Claw's attacks and get a punch in, but occasionally he had to make another quick move to avoid a laser. Sonic was beginning to see the strategy—Claw kept Sonic moving, but Laser fired off from afar to keep him from attacking back. The solution seemed simple enough-take out Laser and then deal with Claw. Simple in practice, that is.
A moment later, it was even more complicated. The Shadow with the staff whacked him from behind as Sonic jumped to avoid another slash. He was sent right towards Laser, who blasted him back in the other direction like a rag doll. Claw cut him down to the ground in mid air.
Sonic twitched a bit before getting back up, much slower this time. Three on one? What the hell had happened? Where was Amy going? Tails? Sandrine?
Where was that guy in the plane?
That answer came when a rifle pumped rounds of lasers into the throng of Shadows. They all leapt backwards, but Staff got hit in the foot, and when he landed he lost his footing and fell. An obviously embarrassed Staff got back up quickly and charged Sonic, looking to restore his lost pride. Sonic responded with a jumping kick to the head that sent Staff back to the grass. He got back up again, but this time held up.
Sonic took the opportunity to look for his help. Amy was gone. Tails was lying unconscious on the ground about twenty feet away. Sandra appeared to be struggling to hold off the Shadow with two swords. And the laser Shadow was charging the man from the plane. That left him with Claw and Staff.
The Ford Focus pulled up in the road again, and Amy hopped out with her hammer. She ran back into the fray, and Staff looked ready to go after her again, but Claw grabbed his arm.
"No," he said. "Not worth it. Finish him, then we'll take her."
Staff nodded and drew his staff to spear Sonic. But a massive eruption of smoke and fire drew his attention away. Sonic was experienced in fighting, though, and he knew not to look away. He hammered Staff with a series of punches, one which knocked his staff away, then finished him with a roundhouse kick. Staff was out like a burst light bulb.
Sonic then turned to find a mech about half the size of the one he took on back on Earth. It was blue and equipped with many long range missiles and a short range laser. In a crater near the mech was a bloody laser Shadow. He was more than unconscious—that hedgehog was dead.
"Guess that thing's on our side," said Sonic sarcastically.
Now it was the Shadows' turn to asses the situation. Staff was out, Laser was gone for good, and the enemy's numbers were increasing.
"I miss anything?" cried Knuckles. The echidna swooped down and knocked the clawed Shadow across the head. Claw rolled back up and saw the numbers. Knuckles ran off to help Sandrine with Swords, but Claw was still dangerously outnumbered at this point. The blue hedgehog, the pink one…and that mech was just too wild.
As if on cue, another package of missiles exploded out of the LRM cannons. This was too much.
"Retreat!" screamed claw Shadow. And he, Sword, and Staff were immediately teleported away in three separate columns of green.
Shadow walked towards his comrades.
"What happened down there? You were in good shape?"
"Well...erm...sir…" stammered Sword, but Shadow held up a hand.
"I'm not interrogating you. I just want to know. We need to plan for these "heroes." They're going to be a pain in the ass if we can't find a way to stop them."
"They have a mech," Claw quickly replied. "Lots of long range power."
"And a new ally-an old member of the Affinity, it appears," added Sword.
"What happened to him?" Shadow asked, pointing to Staff.
"Sonic," the two said in unison.
"And the mech killed Laser?"
"Yeah," said Claw.
"You mentioned its long range capabilities," Shadow continued. "Did you see any of its short range attacks?"
"No," Sword said.
"We'll have to test them out sooner or later. You said something about the Affinity?"
"Yeah," confirmed Claw. "He showed up in that jet we saw earlier. He's no one to fool around with either."
"I'll deal with him later. The Cannon is at 75 now. It will be fully charged in a day or two, but I can't keep using the Chaos Emeralds to bail you out of these situations or it will take longer. Meanwhile, I have another friend for you. It should help replace Laser." Another Shadow clone quietly walked into the room of the Space Colony that the hedgehogs were meeting.
"This is Beam. He has very similar capabilities to Laser, but he can do much more. He can make his lasers home in on targets, make them long, solid beams, and is much better at hand to hand combat. He should help you out greatly."
"Glad to be of service," chuckled Beam.
"You four will all need to go back to the Practice Room to make up some new maneuvers to incorporate Beam. It shouldn't be all that difficult since he can do pretty much anything Laser could, God rest his soul. But before you go, I want you to go look behind that fuel tank and tell me what you find."
Hearing Shadow call out his hiding place, Blade ran out from behind it, ready to cut them all to shreds. But he stopped when he saw Beam holding his hand out, charging a yellow laser ball. His stopping gave the other four Shadows time to surround him.
Time to use something he had just learned. He leaned over, acting as if to put his sword down, then pierced the metal floor of the Space Colony with it. Four columns of fire sprouted from the floor, engulfing all the Shadows except for Staff, still groggy. Blade sprinted out of the Cannon room and down the hallway, hoping he had remembered correctly how to get back to the docking bay.
"Hey, a rooming buddy!" laughed RaGiff when he saw Knuckles holding Tails' unconscious and wounded body. "Good stuff out there Cassie-that mech wasn't so bad, was it?"
"I didn't have any freaking clue what I was doing!" she breathed to him, more out of adrenaline exhaustion than physical exhaustion.
"But you did fine! You beat 'em, didn't you?"
"By the skins of our teeth," Sandrine said. "Sorry I couldn't be of more help Sonic."
"You did alright," Sonic assured her. "I've never seen you fight before, so I didn't know what to expect."
"Neither did I. Don't know if you've met me-I'm Knuckles. Knuckles the Echidna," he introduced himself, shaking her almost equally sized hand. "You're Tails' special friend, aren't you?" She simply nodded. "You did fine, but I bet I could show you some stuff—you know, one fellow echidna to another."
"I haven't introduced myself either," said the mysterious man. "My name is Antony Sharper, ex member of the Affinity terrorist group. Don't freak out," he told them when he saw everyone jump away. "I've given up that part of my life. If there was any good in terrorism, we wouldn't have all been wiped out back on Earth."
"So you came up here to take out Shadow since he killed off your whole gang?" Sonic asked.
"Sort of. I was the only one to escape the base when it happened. I saw what was going on and as the doc opened the machine, I just left. Tell you the truth, I was scared as hell. Good reason, too. I just escaped a minute before the place went up in smoke. I hid until Shadow had left the scene and tried to find any survivors, but it was wishful thinking. I had seen what that thing could do, and I wasn't about to let it destroy anyone else."
"So what happened on Earth?" questioned Cassie. She wanted to hear this.
"I'm sorry, I don't have your name ma'am. If you don't mind?"
"Cassandra O'Connell," she answered sadly as she recited her last name.
"O'Connell?" Antony was surprised. "Are you…are you Leo O'Connell's wife, by any chance?" "Um…yes…Why, did you know him?"
"Know him? I was a member of his battalion on Mobius"
"SHARP!" cried RaGiff!
"Griffin?"
"Yeah man! I didn't think it was the same you!"
"Oh my God, what the hell happened to you?"
"Long story, man. But why'd you get involved with the Affinity?"
Antony's expression fell. "No work after the wars. Needed the money, and this was the quickest way to get it. I realize now that it's probably the biggest mistake I've ever made."
"Why didn't you just go catch some baddies like Bladeage, man?"
"Actually, I did right after the 'accident.' I hooked up with Leo, who had just flown down to Earth to look after the situation, and we both took off for the Space Colony ARK."
"What?" cried Cassie.
Knuckles was amazed. So that wasn't Blade who attacked him…He was hoping it wasn't. But who was it? Maybe it was that sworded Shadow-but then why didn't he kill him? Or maybe, like Lianne and Tikal were suggesting, he was just going insane.
"Yeah, that's where we figured Shadow was," continued Antony. But when the Earth got destroyed, he told me to fly here to warn the Mobian government, so-"
"But Leo!" Cassie cut in. "WHAT HAPPENED TO LEO?" she shouted, shaking Antony back and forth.
"Ca-a-al-lm-down, miss!" he said, his voice being altered as she rocked him. "Leo was still on the Space Colony last time I checked."
"He's not dead?"
"Not if he's still as good as I think he is, he's not."
"Oh thank God…" And Cassie passed out onto the edge of RaGiff's hospital bed from emotional fatigue.
"OWWWW!" cried RaGiff. "Leg, LEG!"
