The Price of Love

The rushing chill of the wind……

The boiling fury in my blood……

The nervous fear striking my heart……

The unknown horror creeping into my thoughts……

Is this the feeling?

Is this the warmth?

Is this love?

Is this the love of a……of a……

Family……

Matt was almost on the verge of tears, his face brighter and happier then he had ever felt in years. The rush of the racing police car felt like nothing to him. There was no word that could explain this joy, no emotion that could define this power, the love of a family is burning brightly within Matt's heart and not even god himself could take that away from him.

Matt smiled "This is why, this is why it didn't work out before, and this is what was missing. The love, the friendship, the care, the unspoken paradise that is: a family. Honey, kids, Sonic, my friends, my family, I'm coming for you, I'm coming to take you home, I'M COMING FOR MY FAMILY".

Sonic screamed as a violent spark of electricity compelled his body to use his super sonic speed, red and green wires sparkled wildly with raw energy. Rose gasped in awe as her scanners lit up like birthday candles with numbers, lights, and sounds.

Rose gasped "Incredible, you're body has an unnatural metabolic rate. You're molecules are moving so fast, they could practically burn through solid matter. What a fantastic creature".

Sonic frowned "Bite me".

The woman ignored his childish banter and moved onto Tails, the young fox huffed and snarled as she examined his twin tails. Tails grunted in pain as Rose clamped a rusty pair of tweezers upon the white fur of his twin tails.

"Do all foxes from your world have twin tails, or are you some kind of anomaly like you're hedgehog friend here?" Rose asked.

SLAP!

Tails slapped Rose's face with his tails, thought restrained; the young fox boy was able to move them enough to slap the young woman across her bitter face. Rose's dark hair was nearly torn out by her frustrated and straggling hands.

Rose growled "I'm getting sick and tired of putting up with this crap; you WILL accept your fate even if I have to rip off every ounce of fur on your bodies to do it".

Bunnie laughed "Now that ain't too polite there missy, now if you was half the person old sugar Matt is, well then things might be different for ya'll".

Enraged at the comparison to such a feeble, filthy, lower life form as Rose saw him, the Asian woman stormed by Bunnie and grabbed Bunnie by her soft, golden yellow fur.

"What the hell makes that dirt bag so damn special to you freaks?" Rose hissed.

Bunnie smirked "Sugar Matt may not be squeaky clean, but his heart is warmer then an apple pie in July. He loves us for who we are, not what we are. And sure as shoot, not for some darn tooting science fair project".

Rose growled and slapped Bunnie across the face, her hand struck fresh, red blood on Bunnie's white furry cheeks. But the cyborg rabbit simply turned her face back towards Rose and grinned, smirking a proud and defiant little smile, even with that spot of blood. The bitter professor returned to her research tools and frantically tossed them across the floor like garbage. Trevor sighed as his head slumped down, grasping his hands over it.

"This has to stop; it HAS to, but how?" Trevor asked himself.

Suddenly a car flashed across the security monitors, Trevor blinked as he saw a cop car race into view of the lab's security cameras. Trevor had been charged with watching the security tapes so he could not interfere with Rose's experiments. The cop car crashed through a pair of iron gates, wild sparks exploded around the car as Matt continued to drive it forward, faster and faster. A red light appeared on the panel, it was the security alarm.

CLICK!

Trevor smirked as he flipped the switch off, deactivating the security system and silencing all emergency alarms. Rose wouldn't realize what has happened until it's too late.

Trevor chuckled "Karma professor, karma".

Rose blinked "What are you babbling about now Trevor?".

CRASH!

A police car exploded from the sidewall, tons of rubble and stone suddenly melted into a heaping pile of fractured rock. Rose screamed and leapt away from the wall as 2 guards were violently hurled across the room from the force of the car. Matt exited the car with a pistol in his right hand, he winced as the blood continued to stain his wounded left arm.

Matt smirked "Hey guys, miss me?"

"MATT" Sonic and the others shouted, their faces were brimming with absolute joy.

Trevor smirked to his former professor and bolted towards the massive hole in the wall, Matt gasped and stood aside as the man ran past him. A loud echo from the hallway could be heard.

"I QUIT" Trevor screamed.

Rose angrily snarled and shouted at her security team, demanding they open fire on Matt immediately. But Matt simply coughed and reminded her of the pistol he firmly carried in his good hand. The gun was aimed directly at Professor Rose, Matt's face was stern and cold, and rage could be seen boiling within those tired gray eyes.

Matt frowned "Drop your weapons right now, or I drop the doc".

As much as the young professor hated the situation, she had no choice but to abide by Matt's rules. Rose signaled the guards to drop their weapons to the ground.

Matt added "Now kick them away and get the hell out of here. The only one who stays is Rose, anyone else who sticks around will get a bullet right between the eyes. Now move".

The guards nodded and slowly made their way out of the building, each guard had his black gloved hands raised high in the air. Rose remained still as stone as her brown eyes reflected in the shimmering glow of the gun's barrel, aimed so hatefully at her head. Sweat dribbled off the poorly shaven chin of Matt's sunken face, half smiling features flexed aching muscles. The young man has been through hell and back, but he hasn't given up just yet.

Matt already knew the guards were amassing a colossal army of police officers, detectives, and task force operatives. A legion of men clad in black, armed to the teeth with weapons powerful enough to kill him within an instant. But no amount of death or lethal force could scare the love of a family out of this man. Matt was here for those who were there for him, for creatures who came from the unknown, for creatures who……loved Matt.

Rose gulped "So what now?".

Matt smirked "This".

BANG!

The professor screamed as the bullet bounced in front of her feet, Rose leapt out of her heels and crashed into a table. The woman fell behind the table and groaned as her dark haired head crashed against the cold, hard, floor. Matt quickly ran to his friends and dropped the gun, picking up a steel pipe off the floor, no doubt a piece of the wall that the cop car had plowed through when Matt had made his entrance. Tails smiled brightly at Matt.

"Matt, oh my gosh, I thought they took you away for good" Tails said.

Bunnie smiled "I never doubted you for a minute sugar".

Matt sighed "You don't know how good it is to see your faces again".

Sally warmly smiled "Same to you Matt, same to you".

The young man groaned as he jammed the metal pipe into Sally's wrist shackles, Matt growled as he fiercely dug the pipe deeper and deeper. Matt was trying to separate the lock mechanism from the bolts attaching it to the table. Dark hairs flexed under sweat soaked stress as Matt tried to snap open the shackles.

Sonic smirked "Perfect timing Matt, and nice trick with the car there buddy. How'd you get free anyway?".

Matt laughed "Let's just say, don't ever try to dull down those spines of yours, there a life savor".

Sally blinked "Say Matt, wasn't there something you wanted to ask me before?".

"Huh? What do you mean?" Matt said, staring blankly at Sally.

The princess hummed a bit "You know, you said you wanted to ask me a favor before that woman came in and arrested us".

Matt smiled "Oh yeah……that well you see the thing is Sally, I uh I……I was wondering if you guys wouldn't mind".

Sonic groaned "Uh I hate to be a buzz kill here guys but could we finish this AFTER we get free?".

Matt laughed and slapped himself in the face, he nodded and returned to working on Sally's shackles. A loud clanking snap was heard as he managed to loosen up one of Sally's hand cuffs.

"Don't worry guys, I'll have you out in a jiffy, I'm just glad this whole mess is over and done with" Matt said.

BANG!

Rose scowled "So am I".

The thunderous sound of death shredded the serenity of the reunion between Matt and his friends in one, single, heart wrenching snap of a trigger. The steel pipe dropped from Matt's hands as his eyes widened and lips gasped for air. A large red stain formed on Matt's chest as it bled through his dark shirt and brown coat. Rose stood behind the desk with a smoking pistol in her hands, an empty bullet shell dropped to the floor beside her bare feet.

The professor had a hidden gun inside her desk, she must have taken it out while Matt was trying to rescue Tails and the others. Sonic and Sally were speechless, their eyes were swelling up with tears without even blinking a single wink. Matt touched his bleeding chest and managed a weak laugh. The human looked up weakly at Sonic as his legs started to tremble.

"I'm……sorry" Matt wheezed.

The young man dropped down as blood spilled from his cold lips, the warmth of his bodily fluids seeping into his clothes provided little warmth for the dying soul.

Sally screamed as heart burst with sadness "NO".

"Matt……Matt……MAAAAAAAATT" Sonic screamed.

To be continued……