Here's the next chapter! 3 of my exams r outta of the way now then I have next week off hurrah! ahem yeh so anyways enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 20 (wow! never thought i'd get this far!)

Ray looked up as he heard Shadow landing just in front of him.

"Are you alright?" Shadow called.

Ray nodded and rubbed his side.

"Just a little wheezy. But I'm fine." He replied.

He stood up a little shakily.

"I don't know if you're fit for this, ray…" Shadow said warily. "I hear a nasty sound when that thing hit you-"
"Dad I'm fine! Please just let me help!" Ray interrupted.

Shadow paused. He admired Ray's will to help but was concerned for his health.
He shook his head.

"We don't have time for this now. You can help but just be careful alright?" Shadow said.

Ray nodded.

Shadow took the dark emerald from Ray's hand and examined it.

"Alright. Now let's split up. We have to find more of these stones OK?"
"You mean the chaos emeralds right?"
"Yes. Now go. Sonic and Knuckles are stalling the Doctor but they won't be able to do it forever."

Ray and Shadow split up to different ends of the forest.

…

"You ignorant pests! You really think the two of you can defeat me?" Eggman yelled.

The Egg-Destroyer 3000 continued firing bullets at Sonic, who dodged them all thanks to his rediscovered speed. Knuckles shielded his face from the various bullets pinging around him.

But then the gun ran out of ammo.

"Argh!" Eggman yelled in frustration. "Damn you hedgehog! You may have gotten your running ability back but you're still no match for the power of the chaos emeralds!"

The Egg-3000 lifted up its fist and multi coloured sparks began to fly from it.

Knuckles ran out and stood just behind Sonic.

With immense speed the Egg-3000 swung its arm toward Sonic, just like it had done to Ray.

Without thinking, Knuckles leapt at Sonic and shoved him out of the arms path. He yelled aloud as he took the blow. Sonic didn't quite know what was happening and gasped as he was suddenly pushed to the ground. Knuckles was flung through the trees and hit his back against a cliff wall. The impact forced him unconscious and his body flopped to the ground. He laid there, blood trickling from his mouth.

Sonic's jaw dropped and stared in shock.

"Knuckles!" He yelled.

…

Ray was steadily searching through the trees for any more emeralds. He could still hear the commotion from the fight, just a few metres away but was forced to ignore it and stay hidden.

He kept hold managed to find two more emeralds, hidden beneath the grass.

"Awesome!" he thought.

Just then, he heard Knuckles' scream and quickly looked up to see him being flung toward the cliff wall. He too stared, frozen in shock for a few minutes.

Pain began to return to his side and he suddenly got the urge to cough. He dropped the emeralds and put his hands to his mouth to try and silence his coughing fit. Once he'd stopped he could taste blood there. He looked at his hands and, sure enough his gloves were blood stained.

Ray blinked and another coughing fit began to come around. He felt his knees and hands hit the earth and he coughed and spluttered almost uncontrollably. His eyes began to water from the strain. He spat blood from his mouth.

"What's wrong with me?" he cried in his head.

…

Shadow was wondering through the trees. He kept his eyes locked on the ground. He'd managed to find four more of the emeralds. They were mainly together as the emeralds would have fallen from the robot all at once.

Cradling the four gems in his arm, Shadow crept among the plant life. He also looked up just in time to see Knuckles being hit by the Egg-Destroyer 3000 and winced as he heard the sound of impact with the wall.

"Don't worry Knuckles…we'll be alright soon." He thought.

Then he could hear something from further away. He frowned as he tried to figure out what it was.

…

The Egg-Destroyer 3000 turned around. Eggman put his hand to his ear and sneered. He could hear Ray coughing.

"Aaaaaah so that's where your other friends are at huh?" he said.

Sonic blinked and quickly jumped up.

"Your fight's with me Eggman!" he shouted.
"This fight's over!" Eggman yelled.

The Egg-Destroyer 3000 suddenly grabbed Sonic and had a tight hold of him in its hand. Sonic yelped and struggled, gritting his teeth as he was lifted high up in the air. The Egg-Destroyer 3000 squeezed hard and Sonic screamed in pain. He could feel his ribs crushing inside him.

…

Shadow began to walk toward where the noise was coming from. As he got closer, he could determine that it was coughing.

"Aaaaaah so that's where your other friends are at huh?" Eggman's voice boomed.

Shadow gasped.

"Ray!" he whispered.

The coughing faded and eventually stopped. Shadow ran as quick as he could toward where he was walking. He hopped over a dead tree and found him.

Ray was lying unconscious on the ground, his face lying in a small pool of blood. Two chaos emeralds lay beside him.

Shadow gasped and put his emeralds by the two that Ray had found. He knelt by his son's head and began to rub his back. He figured out that the crushing punch from the Egg-Destroyer 3000 must have cause an internal bleed in his chest.

"Ray!" he called frantically. "Wake up Ray!"

Ray was still alive but Shadow knew that if he didn't wake up he could choke on his own blood.

Then Shadow heard Sonic's scream and looked up to see him having the air squeezed out of his body.

He saw Sonic's body flop and knew he'd blacked out, due to lack of oxygen. Then the huge robot turned to Shadow's direction.

"Now…where are you Shadow!" Eggman laughed insanely.

Now it seemed, to Shadow, that there was no hope left.