How can a machine blush?
" Screwed? Why?" Asked Shadow. I didn't respond through dread. " Sonic?" Asked Shadow, more forcefull this time. I didn't have time to think as the robots laser like up again, beginning to shake through stored energy. Without any explantion I grabbed hold of Shadows shoulders and yelled
"RUN!". Shadow didn't argue. I felt the pull of speed on my body as Shadow jets activated. Luckely , we could still escape and one of us could still run. There was just one problem though, the one who was running couldn't see, and a robot almost ten times our height stood infront of us, his laser looking almost overloading in it's haste to fire. " Left! LEFT!" I yelled at the top of my lungs into Shadows ears. He swerved, just as the laser beam jumped out of it's cannon, obliterating the ground we had been occupying moments ago. The smell of burning reached our noses and Shadow seemed just then to realise just how much danger we were in. I felt him putting more pressure on his jets, the pounding of his feat increaded. I put a stronger hold on his chest, hoping I would be able to hold on until we got out of here.
We had outrun the offending robot, but there were still a million more in this base alone.
" Right!" I screached, when I noticed Shadow was just about to smash into the end of the corridor. He skidded voilently and I almost feel off, just rescuing my grip my grabbing hold of Shadow's neck.
" Sonic, I can't breath!" He rasped. I clenched my teeth in desperation. I couldn't let go to adjust, that would send me spiralling to the other end of the corridor, leaving Shadow without a navigator. But if I didn't do anything, Shadow would suffocate, the pull of speed was making it impossible to grip lightly, but if we stopped, we'd be doomed.
I almost had a heart attack when Shadow began to slow, the lack of oxygen beginning to show. I risked loosening my grip a little and just managed to keep a hold of his neck, only becuase I he had slowed down to almost half the speed. Shadow took a huge breath and started to speed up again. My heart lightened a little, although it still beat rediculously fast and I managed to change to position of my hands and realease the strangle hold on Shadows neck.
But the decrease in speed had cost us and I found the hovering, plane like machines catching up, their foul spicky plates cutting through the air in perfection as they sailed towards us. " RIGHT!" I yelled again and Shadow jerked around, narrowly missing a robot that transported infront of us. Suddenly , one appeared by our sides and another just behind, materialising in a second. My eyes darted around as I saw our escape become blocked. I had no time to think, not time to react. The robots just kept appearing, some teleporting in, others catching up from the end of the corridor. My breaths came fast I saw Shadow approaching, at full pelt, a dead end.
I had no time to shout out as he collided full force with it, recataying off and sending me sliding down the floor, my head coming to rest at a robots foot. I looked up to see it's evil ,red eyes staring down at me. My head darted to veiw Shadow, who was getting up of the floor and blinding feeling along the wall. A sound of scrapping metal was heard as the robot above me raised it's machine gun. Shadow tentativly got to his feet, just as the gun got ready to fire.
" Get down!" I yelled in panic, and Shadow obidently dropped to the steel floor, as the pannel behind him was riddled with bullets. It dropped, reaveling a new room inside, flashing with many artificial colours. Its floor strewn with vein like wires, energy pulsation through to from the middle of a room, a tiny speck of light shining, like radiation brightness. Then I realised. I realised what it was and, for time in what felt like years, my mind shone like the now smoke covered sun.
I grabbed Shadows arms again and ordered him to run at full pelt. The other robots began firing and soon the whole room was lit up with sparks as the silver bullets reflected of the walls and cut through the cabels , sending a strange looking, thick liquid oozing over the floor. Thankfully , Shadow had the sence to run away from the gun noises and I found my self being run right into the source of the light and obviosly the power source for the city. No wonder their were so many robots around, their entire metropolis was being run from this point, and we were going to take it.
I reached out carefully with one arm, my other one gripping Shadows shoulder tightly, and snatched it. The reaction was incredable.
First of all, the pipes that led away from it went dim, no longer flashing with artificial brilliance. Next they began to spontaniosly explode, spewing liquid all over the robots that were just a few feet behind us. The machanicial giants plating hissed and split as soon as the mixture hit them , and they dropped to the ground, blocking the way for the others behind them. Finnaly, the base it's self seemed to shut down. The lights dimmed, flickered and finnaly gave way. The churning of the main engine and machanics slowly ground to an ungraceous halt. All of the robots shut down, their bodies slumping and the hovering ones simply crashing to the ground. I asked Shadow to stop when we had excited the room and ran far enough down another long corridor, realising there was no more danger in this ghost city. I thrust the object into Shadows hand and said
" All right Shadow, let's get out of here". He felt the object in his hand, a look of mild confusion and cluelessness plaged his face.
" A chaos emerald? Where did you get it from?" He said, sounding a little beweildered. I snickered and said
" I nicked it". Shadows rolled his eyes.
" Great, my only hope of survival is a theiving clone"he said, sounding somewhat dry. My smiled lessened and I said, getting inpatient
" All right! Let's go already". Shadows face turned to one of frustration and he said
" How the hell do you expect me to do that? I can't use chaos control anymore, I have to be able to SEE where im going".
His words echoed in my mind. He had see where he was going, the one thing he couldn't do anymore.
" Great" I said, realising my grip on Shadows chest and slumping on the floor. I would have sat, but I didn't even have legs anymore, so I feel ungraciosly flat on my face. I groaned as Shadow helped me up. He let me lean on him so I didn't fall over anymore. My fists clenched infrustration. We had shut the entire city down, disabled every robot in the vecinity and managed to gain posession of a chaos emerald, but now we were stuck becuase the doors were firmly shut, not a problems for the robots with their teleporters, but deadly to us, one blind hedgehog and a broken down robot clone. I halfheartedly explaned the situation to Shadow, who listened in silence. When I was done, his hand lifted from its position by his side. He moved it around cluelessly for a while before finding my chest. Once there he kept moving it down, down to the stumps of legs that I now had.
" You don't mind?" He asked. I shrugged and said
" Go ahead, it's just machinary". With my approval he continued, his fungers tracing the outlines of the pipes. They moved down further, for a second touching the wires that were now exposed.
" Shit!"he exclamed, immidiatly removing his hand from the wires. I tilted my head in curiosity and asked what had happened. Shadow smiled slightly and replied " Electric shock". I half laughed.
It was just then that I noticed what position we were both in. Shadow lay against the wall, my back leaning into his chest. Is hand lay near my hip, the place he had dropped it after my exposed wire had electrocuted him. Our heads almost side by side. I hadn't noticed it before, I was too preoccupied worrying how to get out of here. But now, I had and was alarmed to discover that I was infact, blushing.
How could a machine blush? I felt Shadow sigh against my back and my heartbeat began to quicken. " I just thought" he suddenly said, making me break out of my train of thought. " If I had a hard time these few years, imagine how you have felt. Thinking , thinking you were Sonic. Knowing you were Sonic, then having your reality swept away from you, even your identity. I can't imagine how hard its been". I gave a cold laugh and said
" Yeah, its been like hell. But I tell you something, getting your legs blown off isn't exactly a treat either". Shadows hand reached up and touched my exposed eye.
" It doesn't seem like your a machine Sonic, your just the same as always, except...". I frowned and said in a harsh, cold voice
" Except im made out of metal and have about as much right to call you faker as all the other androids out there". Shadow shock his head and said
" No. Your different, older, smarter, more mature". He stroaked my ear in an almost tender way. I shivered at his touch " You've grown up". I gave another icy laugh and said in a dull tone
" We all have". This time Shadow shook his head.
" Your wrong Sonic, you've grown up, but we've grown old" he said. I laughed to myself, Shadow was always wise, but now it seemed as if he had all the knowlegde in the world. I was about to reply when the lights flickered back on and a comperised voice rung down the corridors.
" The main power source has been shut down. Emergency proceders activated. Secondary power to the self descructe systems. Evacuate. Evacuate". I let off a couple of words I shouldn't have and Shadow jerked in alarm, thinking more robots had found us. I paniced even more as a count down began. Ten , nine. Shadow jumped to his feet and began running down the corridor, stopping soon after when he realised he had left me. Seven, six , five, four. I threw my head around, looking for any exit that might suddenly appear. Then it hit me. Without thinking I grabbed the emerald, thrust my hand around Shadows leg and shouted the words as powerfully as I could.
" CHAOS...CONTROL!"