I wanted to put Shadow in this arc somehow, I when I was thinking of how I wanted to take this story, I found a place. This won't be the pnly time you will see him in this, unlike Lopper. I have more plans for the Ultimate Life Form. But for now, get your game faces on after a little more history, and Fights On!
Again: I own nothing of the SEGA and Sonic characters.
When Dark Worlds Collide
By: Mauser
Elias, Amadeus, and Geoffrey St. John brought the two echidnas in a meeting hall that was lavished with a long walnut table that had been naturally finished. This was Elias's first wish when he took over the duties as king from his father. He wanted to have more communications with his high command and listen to other Freedom Fighters who would stand in front of them, plus any other Mobians who had a tale to tell or had concerns for their own people. Meetings such as these were far too few though, and Elias hated the conclusion as to why...they were losing.
But now before them were two Guardians. One of which was Elias's lost friend and who had demons to cast out of his soul. And the other, Locke, probably wanting both his boys back, –one physically, the other mentally– and the Chaotix so they could retake the Island, Elias mused.
"Locke, I know you want Knuckles and his friends back," began Elias as he sat at the middle of the table beside Amadeus and St. John, "but we really need them here. Our fight has become desperate and we need all the help we can get. Plus, Knuckles possesses power that has been very beneficial to our cause to save Mobius from total oppression."
Locke nodded at the gathered Freedom Fighters, his hands clasped behind his back. "I know Elias, but, my people are suffering and dying because I don't have my son and his friends to fight our enemies."
"Your people aren't the only ones who are dying!" retorted Geoffrey. "The world is reaped with death all because of Eggman and his cronies. But he is one man and if we can take him out and stop his war machine, the rest will be like dominos, just like before."
"But if the enemy gets a hold of the Master Emerald, unmeasurable power could be unleashed against us all and we will have no way to stop it!" pointed out Locke with a searing voice.
"Who do you have protecting it now since you are away?" came Amadeus. He too was informed of the civil war between the two sides of the Dark Legion. They went from helping to being occupied with their ideology of machinery and hatred towards each other.
"I have Lien-Da looking over things while I am gone. I hope she isn't getting sidetracked though with her battles. She is leading the Flame Legion against the Frost."
"And Doctor Finitevus?" inquired St. John with a gruff look, knowing that the grey echidna had broken loose from the Egg Grapes.
Locke paused before he replied, "I don't know his motives yet. I think he is trying to help, but his previous actions have said otherwise."
"You don't say, mate?" fired back St. John, the question coming out more as a statement.
"Motives are like paint father," stated Aleutian in a flat voice, "you don't know the true color until the paint dries."
"Speaking of which, what are yours?" asked St. John, squarely fixating his eyes at Aleutian. "After all, you were working with Ebony Hare."
"You were doing WHAT!?" Locke seethed out at his son. "That rabbit and Blackjack almost killed Julie-Su some years back...and you were WORKING for him!"
"Actually, they tried to kill her again a week and a half ago," came back Aleutian, his voice still flat. "I was using Ebony Hare as a tool to get to someone else. Ebony has his hands deep in the lemon juice trade." The room nodded at that statement. "Well, he too has people to report, pay money and restitution to so he can stay in business without being burned. Those people in turn have motives entirely different than the drug trade. They would like to see you all dead." The statment sent a cold shudder throughout the room. "So, they shell some of that money out to Robotnick to fund his war machine so their dreams can come true." Aleutian took a steady deep breath before letting out his next sentence. "You all don't know how much of a fight you are in for."
"How big is this movement?" asked Amadeus who was now inquisitive about what Aleutian had explained.
"I don't know now. Two years ago, I could've given you a definite answer. But now, with me being out of that line of fighting for a while, I don't know," Aleutian sighed. "But I do know that it is bigger than it was before."
"I take it you haven't been on the up and up with this?" asked St. John.
"I've been a recluse for too long. Just last week I found out that my home is being occupied."
"And that is something that needs to be changed," Locke added in a gruff voice.
Geoffrey shifted his gaze back to Aleutian after nodding to Locke, "I take it, mate, that Blackjack isn't the first living being you have killed before?"
Locke snapped his head over to his son, "You killed Blackjack!?"
"And a few others father," Aleutian added to his father's protest. "Commander, you and I are somewhat alike. We are highly trained and we put duty above all others except family. Our difference however, lies in our mind set and training. Have you killed before?" St. John just nodded. "Hmm, my brother is under the impression that you haven't."
"And the lad can keep on thinking that way. It is something that I don't like to speak of."
Aleutian nodded at Geoffrey's words, "Neither do I. No one likes to talk about the people they've killed; only that they have killed. It sets us apart from the rest of the innocent world. But you mostly go and arrest people who have betrayed their kind with deadly force as a last option. As for me and my Emee," Aleutian started with a sigh, "that option was very flexible. Sometimes we would capture people and send them your way via a third party, or we handed them to someone who didn't follow a strict code of honor and ethics to do interrogations. Other times, we would just flat out depart their souls from the world. I didn't do the assassinations, but I did help."
The way Aleutian said his last thought made Locke do a double take on his son.
"Don't mind me asking, but why not?" came General Prower.
"My Emee insisted that I should never tarnish the honor that my family has over something like that. So, she did that line of the cold work instead of me, while I backed her up."
"How did you take that, Aleutian? I mean, lying your head next to her after she did something like that?" asked Locke in a soft melo voice.
Aleutian sighed before he replied. "It took me awhile, honestly, but every time I looked at her lying peacefully asleep beside me, I didn't care what she had done. She didn't like it, I didn't like it, but it was something that we both understood that sometimes it had to be done. But she respected me and for who I was. When we got home, we talked about it and let out our feelings about it, but we never lost sight of our big objective and our love for each other."
"And what was your objective?" asked Elias, who was very intrigued.
"To help your family end the war so my brother and my kind could never be affected by it. It was something I vowed to do a long time ago," Aleutian said with his voice starting to quiver.
"So what did you do?" asked Locke.
"We freed Mobians that were captured and were going to be sold as slaves to Robotnick to be robotized. We also did recon' missions to get intel' for other resistance fighters, and sometimes, we broke Robotnick's and his cronies toys in the process."
"So, you were a guerilla force you might say?" came Amadeus.
"Not really, and mercenary doesn't come to mind either. We never did it for money. And we never did it full-time either. Just whenever situations would arise that we figured we could help out with, we'd go and do them."
"How many people have you killed?" asked Geoffrey.
The question sent shivers down Aleutian's spin, but the look that he gave St. John said different. "I never have put notches on my gun, Commander. You of all people should know that. That's what separates us from the cold-blooded killers. We don't count the people we've killed. We just do it as a means to an end." "But there are three I would love to clean their red and purple blood from the grooves of my pistol." Aleutian added to himself, think his little comment would be safe in his mind, locked away in his brain-waves.
But Locke heard it all. "What three?" he asked in the air, but his gaze said it all as he looked at his son who never saw it; he just kept his attentive gaze at the trio that sat before them.
Amadeus leaned forward in his seat and clasped his hands in front of him. "I am curious as to your scars. Are those from your operations?"
"No sir," Aleutian breathed out, "The ones on my face were from a battle where I lost most of my friends. The one on my chest was done by a Swat Bot over a year and half ago, along with my severed lock. They tortured me to give up the location of the Master Emerald and the location of Knothole."
"Dear Aurora!" Elias gasped in utter shock. "You didn't tell them, did you?"
Aleutian looked hard at the ground, "I did. They put me under a truth serum as a last resort, and they asked, and I told. But they never had the chance to radio Eggman."
"I take it that you terminated them, son?" asked General Prower.
The Guardian looked at his new gloves, their twin knuckled spikes piercing the air as he rolled his hands into a fist. "Wish I had these at the time. Their metal skin is no cake walk to break through. Slashed up my hand pretty well, I might add."
Elias spoke next, "This battle you spoke of... what all happened during the fight?"
Aleutian cocked his head to the side, for once, turning his gaze away from them. The pain that he feared was on the verge of coming back to haunt him. "I don't want to talk about it." he said, hearing the echoes of screams from that rainy and blood wrenching day. "I can't believe that I actually had the courage to even tell you all that it even happened."
Locke reached over and squeezed his son's shoulder, knowing why Aleutian didn't want to divulge his nightmare from the past. "But can you at least tell them something?" he asked in an even voice.
Aleutian looked over at his father then stared past him to the left wall of the chamber. On it were several maps of Mobius: one was the actual world itself and others that were blown up portions of it. Aleutian walked over to one that showed Knothole City and the surrounding lands. With his new gloves, he punched the map with a lone protruding knuckle. "You'll find your answers there," he stated in a gruff quivering voice. Where he marked on the map with his enraged punch was not more than three hundred miles southwest from Knothole.
Two thuds suddenly came from the large wooden doors. St John smirked a crooked grin as he looked at his watch. "About bloody time. Someone else we need to talk too. Come in!" he shouted towards the door.
The hard metal thud of the steel door handle sounded as the person on the other end turned them. When the right door creaked open, Aleutian's gaze suddenly beamed on the black hedgehog, his white furred chest burning Aleutian's resolve deeper in his soul. With one look from the hedgehog's ruby red eyes, Aleutian found himself stepping towards him. All forethoughts of why the black hedgehog with red trim that ran down his quills was overshadowed when Aleutian only brought one thing to his mind...enemy.
"Hello traitor!" he growled.
Shadow stopped dead when Aleutian's words fell upon his pointed ears. "What did you just call me Knuckles?" he said in the same growl.
Shadow's question never registered in Aleutian's head. Instead, he rolled his right fist out and nailed Shadow across the jaw, sending the hedgehog to the tiled floor. Elias, Amadeus, and St. John shot up from their chairs as Locke ran over to Aleutian to hold him back from going for round two.
"Knuckles you idiot, I'm on your side!" Shadow shouted as he tried to gather himself off the floor.
"Unfortunately for you, I am not my brother you rotten liar."
"He's not lying Aleutian," shouted St. John, his words stopping Aleutian before he kicked Shadow back down to the ground with his new shoes.
Locke stepped up to the back of Aleutian and pulled him away from Shadow. "What is your problem, son? You don't just go and start wailing on someone without a good reason."
"I was hunting him, father. He was the one I was looking for with Downtown Ebony Hare's connections. This dirt bag is a key player to Eggman."
"Not anymore, Aleutian," said St. John. "He is helping us now. He knows some things about Eggman's operations that we can use. So lay off him, mate."
Shadow helped himself up from the ground, throwing his red eyes towards Aleutian. His hard gaze was returned in the same manner by the hard breathing Guardian. Aleutian shifted his shoulder that released Locke's grip from it, putting himself in a defensive stance right off. Shadow and the rest saw this.
The hedgehog soon followed suit. "Want to go around the world?" he said in a stern, fighting voice. Aleutian squinted his face as he lowered himself with his knees, baring his scars like they were teeth. The look made Shadow step back a minuscule pace.
"What the hell have you been through?" he thought. "From the looks, Hell itself."
"Stop this at once!" ordered Elias.
Amadeus soon chimed in. "Both of you, stand down now." The one eyed fox then turned to the elder echidna. "With you permission Locke, I would like to question your son and Shadow about this matter."
"Don't take too long. I need Aleutian as he is," replied Locke, his eyes narrowing at his hard breathing son.
Amadeus took the underlying message with a nod. "Commander, this is your line of work. Take these two to your office and get as much history from them as you can."
St. John drew his body to a stiff attention. "Yes Sir! Both of you blokes, out the door!" he ordered as he pointed to the double doors. Shadow made a slight gruff as he locked stepped out of the room. Aleutian just stood his ground as he watched the black hedgehog leave.
"Go son!" Locke said, reenforcing St. John's order. "You need to tell what you know about Shadow and about the people who are plotting against them. It will help your brother."
With a lasting look, Aleutian nodded his tempered face at the trio and turned to leave, his tail hanging low to the ground as he walked out with St. John in tow.
Elias walked up beside Locke, his blue cloak trailing along the tile floor.
"I'm sorry about this, Your Majesty," said Locke in an even voice. "I should have seen this coming somehow."
"We all didn't know, Guardian, " sighed Elias. "Your son is not himself. I, for one, see this. This definitely isn't the Aleutian I remember."
"I know: a war, a loss, and sixteen years changes a person, Sire."
"Yes, I agree, but from what Sonic and the rest have told me about him during their patrol...Aleutian was finding his old self. From how they described his attitude after the first day, it reminded me of the Aleutian that I remember from my childhood back on Angel Island."
Locke gave out a small smile with Elias's words. "I thank you for telling me that, Your Majesty. It gives me great hope for help my son." He stiffened his smile and gaze at Elias when he turned half way around at the ground squirrel. "Now, about your old home..."
The afternoon sun made Aleutian's and Shadow's tempers even hotter, never minding the mid-summer's blistering heat that scorched the open field that they grudgingly walked across. With every step that Aleutian took while seeing the black hedgehog over his left shoulder, he couldn't help but still feel discontent towards who he thought was still a traitor. After all, it were traitors who helped cut the deep scars on his face, killed his friends, and most painfully important, killed his Emi-La and his unborn child.
"So how fast are you going to switch sides again?" Aleutian growled under his breath, only letting Shadow and himself hear.
"Shut-up!" snapped Shadow. "You have no idea what I've been through."
"Oh yes I do. You've been picking up Eggman's laundry..."
Geoffrey snapped around, his beret almost coming off his head as he did so. "Hey, will the two of you knock it off! We'll get both sides of this in due time. Just shut-up and keep walking."
Aleutian's angered face still burned into St. John, even after the skunk had turned his back around and marched onward. With a hard nudge with his left elbow, Aleutian jabbed Shadow in the arm, smack dab in the middle of the hedgehog's biceps. The tender spot that he nailed, sent a shooting pain through Shadow's nerves that only enraged him further.
"That's for selling your own kind out," Aleutian snuffed.
Shadow returned the gesture with a hard shove, driving his shoulder into the echidna's with a force that almost sent Aleutian to the soft, grassy ground. Recovering his momentum in an instant, Aleutian quickly moved towards Shadow, fixing his burning blue eyes on his next target of the hedgehog's anatomy. Shadow cocked his right arm back, preparing to send Aleutian a message of why he shouldn't tangle with the Ultimate Life Form. But his telegraphed move only made Aleutian smile inwards, knowing full well that Shadow was giving him a tool to use...his right arm.
Shadow sent his fist flying towards Aleutian's scarred face. With a quick dash forward and to the right of Shadow, Aleutian grabbed the hedgehog's assaulting fist halfway through its projected path. Using the forward motion of Shadows strike, Aleutian brought him over just enough to help expose Shadow's left thigh. Bracing his right hand over the hedgehog's shoulder, he dug his right knee into Shadows thigh, crushing the nerve that ran from his leg, up and over a spot between hist first rib and armpit, and up to his neck.
With a loud groan of air being expelled from Shadow's lungs, his right leg collapsed under him briefly before he shook the pain off. As the shooting pain became numb, his red eyes became slits as his resolve and anger came to full bare. Using his chaos control, he triggered the thrusters in his shoes that propelled him forward, driving his head right into Aleutian's chest. "Fights on, chum!"
Geoffrey turned around just in time to see Aleutian knee-spike Shadow in his thigh. He was about to raise his voice in protest again, until the black hedgehog thrusted Aleutian forward, driving the Guardian into the ground with only a few meters of flight. They almost careened into the side of a hut if the friction against Aleutian's backpack, his body, and the ground hadn't stopped them. The thrust drove a small trench into the ground that led to where they stopped.
Aleutian was now staring hard into the eyes of a now enraged hedgehog who was breathing hard and had his full body weight on top of the echidna's chest. "You yield chum?" asked Shadow through his teeth.
The Guardian flashed a crooked smile before he clasped his hands together over his chest. Spreading them apart with his forearms making impact against Shadow's, he knocked the hedgehog's arms out to the side that caused him to drop down on top of Aleutian. But before he went head long into the Guardian's birthright, Aleutian fired his right fist straight up at Shadow's chest, testing his new knuckled gloves at the hedgehog's sternum. The hard strike sent the black hedgehog flying into the air briefly before he stumbled over the ground with his fast moving feet, attempting to stay topside as he back paddled under his momentum.
Aleutian shot up from the ground, thrusting his right knee under him that propelled him upwards, keeping his hands out in front of him in a very ridged defensive stance on the balls of his feet. Feeling the resistence that his pack was giving him, he quickly brushed it off of his shoulders and kicked it away from him, keeping his fixed gaze at the white chest of Shadow all the while. Just then, a feeling rushed over him: one that he hadn't felt in ages. His inner warrior was comeing back out. It showed as he let the feeling loose across his face with a defiant gaze.
It was only a matter of time before Shadow closed the ten foot gap that separated them, hurling his quilled body at Aleutian at a feverish rate. With a quick hop to the side, Aleutian flexed his right arm outwards and clothes lined Shadow, but the move almost dislocated Aleutian's arm as the hedgehog's force carried on through his impended direction. The strain of the overextend joints of his shoulder was painted on Aleutian's face as he was spun around from the momentum. Before he could get around to caress his shoulder, Shadow got the upper hand in recovery and jolted at Aleutian, plowing head long into his chest again and hurling him towards the tree line.
The echidna watched as Shadow drew further away as he floated in the air. He tried desperately to gain enough air and thermals to glide back to the ground without causing to much pain in the landing. But his efforts ended when his back collided against a wide oak tree. The harsh pain that shot through his spinal column expelled every once of air from his lungs. Fighting the searing pain and the urge to breathe, Aleutian brought his head up to see Shadow striding across the grassy void that separated the two, his red eyes mixed with attentiveness and an easy victory. With his lungs finally coming to grips with breathing again, Aleutian stood up, his face showing that he was far from being beaten.
"Both of you, stop this now!" barked St. John from the sidelines.
In perfect unison, Shadow and Aleutian voiced their replies at the skunk who was all but a figment of their imaginations.
"SHUT-UP!"
Amy heard the groans and growls of a fight nearby, but finding it seemed to be a misadventure all its own. Following the gruff pitches through the maze of huts that laid entombed under a small thicket of trees, she found herself in the small opening right behind St. John. She was about to say something to the commander when a speeding black and red blur went in front of her, tossing the wind up enough to make her skirt flutter in the induced breeze. As quick as he came, Shadow was shot back across the ground, tumbling tail over elbows. Aleutian had landed a perfect punch across his chest.
"Oh, you're gonna pay for that!" Shadow fired off as he got up from the ground, quickly brushing away the small clumps of grass that were stuck to his quills.
Aleutian squeezed his fists tighter as he crab-walked forward, extending the protruding spikes out further from his new gloves. "I still owe for my debts," he said with a crooked grin, baring his scars.
As the two went at it again with Aleutian desperately remembering his fancy footwork and grapples, Amy quickly approached Geoffrey, her hammer slung over her right shoulder. "Are you gonna stop this?"
"Be my guest!" replied Geoffrey in a rough voice. "Unless you know someone else who can break this up."
Amy growled with her eyes, "I think I have an idea."
"...So, can he help us?" asked Sally Acorn, her gaze crossed along with her arms at a certain Fire-Ant. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and a good majority of the Freedom Fighters and the Chaotix looked on at Archimedes as well, waiting for his answer. She had called them all in for a debriefing from their last mission on the Plunger; plus, give out new information that they had missed during the week. It was all going somewhat smoothly until Archimedes popped in and wanted to talk to Knuckles. Needless to say, Sally wasn't thrilled but, surprisingly neither was Knuckles. As Archy chronicled that morning's events about Aleutian, all Sally could snort out was, "Oh...him," before the four armed ant continued. He did tell Knuckles's of what his brother was capable of, but seeing that Aleutian's actions didn't quite fit the words that Archy was putting forth, Sally shrugged off the comments until Archy said something else.
"He helped you all during the final conflict with Robotnick-Prime. If it wasn't for him, possibly more of your people would have either been killed or robotosized before Sonic could have dealt the final blow. He also knows a lot about the underground movement...on both sides at that."
"Yea, Sal. The Drake mentioned this to us after I got him stirred up a little enough for him to even talk," winked Sonic. "I just couldn't let Rad Red here get lied too about his brother from someone that knows more about him than us."
Knuckles turned his attention to Sonic and grinned. "You sly blue hog. And to think I was about to deck you for that."
Sonic leaned back in his chair and gave out his trade mark grin. "Your welcome too, Knux!"
Sally propped herself against the table behind her and asked the same question once more. "But can he help us in the end? His attitude, his disregard for chain of command, and his way with the gun; I have mixed feelings about him."
"And rightfully so, Princess." replied Archimedes. "The truth is, " he began with a somber tone, "I was there when the old Aleutian was replaced by this dark monster. But what you all have to understand is that he is lost, not dead. "
"So why did he change?" Sally asked with a gruff voice. She realized in an instant that her tone didn't fit the reason. Somber and cold stares were shot to her from around the room.
"A girl named Emi-La was killed in a pitched battle that was more or less a trap to wipe out most of the resistence fighters. I don't know the major particulars, but; she was his equal, much as Julie-Su is to Knuckles, but stronger. And she died in his arms." Archy took in a deep breath before he expelled his next thought. "And my eyes still burn with the pain of that sight." He shifted his dwarf stance towards Knuckles. "Lad, if I had gone back on my word to Mathias, either you or your father would have gone to him in an instant, but the old dingo didn't want your family to possibly scar him somehow, even more than how he was at the time. From the bitter distrust that Aleutian had for Locke, Mathias saw something that probably would have never happened to begin with. If anything Knuckles, I am to blame for Aleutian's suffering."
"There is something else that we haven't brought to this discussion," said Julie-Su, who sat beside Knuckles the whole time. "I think we all saw something in him after Dr. Quack removed some Swat Bot armor from his back."
"How so?" inquired Sally with her arms still crossed.
"He smiled," pointed out Tails from the back row of tables.
"And he apologized for going off on me about not doing my job," added Rogue from the far left of the front table.
"That makes two of us," pointed out Julie-Su, fixating her main points back on the table. "Plus, he took command when a situation would arise. He would order us, but the way he did it at times, made us obey those orders in a flash and without a second thought. Some of his decisions could have been made better, but I think he has been out of the game and out of practice for awhile. From the time I was with the Dark Legion and now with helping you all and my equal, I have seen great leaders, and I am confident in myself to judge people who are. I think Knuckles' brother possesses those traits somehow."
Sally observed nods being floated around the room. "How certain are you of this?"
"Let's say this: if he was back to his old self like we partly saw on our last mission...I would follow him into battle, hands down!"
Sally was taken aback by the pink echidna's observations, and see the confirming nods being tossed around the poorly lighted room, she realized that she wasn't seeing something that the rest were.
"Okay, change of subject: did Rotor actually down a bot?" she asked with a smile.
The overweight walrus stood up with a slight twinkle in his eye, "I sure did, Sally!"
"Okay Rotor, I need witnesses to confirm your kill..."
Sally was cut off when a sudden blast of light illuminated the darkened room. Amy rushed through the door while dragging her large hammer across the floor. "You guys!" she announced out of breath, "there's an echidna getting his tale handed to him by Shadow!"
Sonic sprang forward from his seat, rolling his eyes. "This wouldn't be our scarred echidna we were just chatting about?"
"Oh boy!" snorted Knuckles as he shot up from his chair. "Archy, get my father. Amy, where are they?"
"By the second huddle of huts near the castle. That is if they are still standing!"
"Archy, tell my dad to meet me there. We need to break this up." With a quick nod and a flash, the fire-ant vanished into thin air.
"Dark versus Dark, who's gonna win?" asked Sonic almost with a chuckle.
"Do we really want to find that out?" came Sally, more so as a statement than a question.
"Hey, it's just a thought, Sal!"
"...In a way, I am ill-prepared for this," Locke solemnly admitted as he stood before Amadeus and Elias, who were also standing. "Honestly, I need to be back on the Island so the emerald isn't stolen, but, his mother sent me here to help him...and I owe it to her."
"If you need Knuckles for this..." came Elias but only to be cut off by a wave of a gentle hand from Locke.
"No, Your Majesty. It will be me and Aleutian. What I really need are rations for at least three maybe four days."
"That can be arranged," Amadeus nodded. "Anything else?"
"Just wish you all would adhered to my request to..."
Locke stopped his undying plea when a sudden poof of purple smoke erupted over his left shoulder. The smoke was replaced by the air and Archimedes, who wore a dire look upon his face. "Locke, Aleutian is fighting Shadow."
"What!?" fired off Locke.
"It's happening now!"
Locke grumbled as he turned to the two bewildered Mobians. "I need to see this!" he proclaimed.
"How bout' stopping it all together," countered General Prower. "This in fighting needs to stop if we ever want to see victory."
Locke nodded his head ever so slightly. "I understand, but I need to gauge my son in his actions."
"By a fight?" Elias shrilled with his protest.
"No, not by a fight, but how he takes defeat in front of his new friends and his family." The looks he got from Elias and the one eyed fox, asked him if he was from a different world. "Aleutian will not win this. His strength is withered from depression, and from what my old friend here has told me: Aleutian lacks the powers to win over Shadow." Locke nodded his head through the short pause, "Why, I am certain that he will not win."
Shadow wasn't even breaking a sweat under his black silk fur. The last thrust he gave Aleutian, --that the echidna was still getting up from-- Shadow felt his digits align between the spaces of Aleutian's ribs. And as of yet, the Guardian hadn't dealt a single blow that Shadow couldn't shake off before he launched himself back toward his opponent. None of his real abilities had yet come into play, saved for his shoes and speed. The light skirmish, if even Shadow would call it that, didn't have a need for them. He was winning against a punching bag that needed a little bit more sand to even strain his muscles.
Breathing hard and feeling the physical strain of the fight, Aleutian slowly rose from the ground only to see a black blur speed past him, knocking him down with a light jab once again. The fall hurt more than the shove as Aleutian grunted from the impact. Muscles that he hadn't used for a long while announced their protests in pain as he lumbered back to his shaky feet. He hovered back over the balls of his feet again as he got himself back into his defensive position. But as he lowered his body weight back towards the ground, flexing his knees over his toes that were pointed away from each other, Aleutian's right foot began to shudder from the strain of his ligaments and muscles that were all but exhausted. But he didn't care.
Throwing his attention all around him, he looked for the black hedgehog, only to come up short with the huts, the trees, and one mighty peeved off skunk. St. John was soon joined by a mob that slowly trickled around the newly declared battlefield.
With a blunt impact on his back, Aleutian was yet again thrown to the ground. Before he made contact head long onto the grassy surface, Aleutian rolled over on his right shoulder, dissipating most of the energy to the ground rather than his torso. Completing the roll, he stood up and pivoted around in a small circle, trying his best to anticipate Shadow's next move. With his sight again coming up short of the menacing hedgehog, he was starting to get an idea of what Shadow was doing. Unfortunately for him, that idea came too late. Another hard thrust sent Aleutian back to the ground, this time grinding dirt into his eyes.
Knuckles arrived in time to see his brother get knocked down again, only to see him stagger to his feet, trying desperately to clear his eyes. With his brother now blind and vulnerable, Shadow made his move. Jetting his shoes that sent him across the ground in a hard sprint, the hedgehog connected his right fist onto the left side of Aleutian's face, sending the echidna whirling in the air for a brief moment before he settled back to the ground with a hard thud. Watching Aleutian making a dire attempt to get back up, looking almost like a sloppy push-up from the ground, Knuckles took a determined step forward. He only got two paces when a hand came across his right shoulder.
"Stop," said Locke, "let him continue if he wishes."
Knuckles looked over his shoulder to see his dad. His grey beard and eye brows, along with his tribal robe, embalmed his resentment even more with his father. "He's defeated, father..."
"...Only by strength, son. Not his will," retorted Locke in a somber tone.
"You want him to loose completely!?" bolted Knuckles, his hands molding into fists. He only got a nod from his father. Archimedes stood on his father's left shoulder, staying quiet through the whole ordeal.
Aleutian's body ached head to toe. His vision started to go double, especially from the last hit. He swallowed hard but only to find a salty taste in his mouth. Spitting at the ground, he saw his purple blood replace the emerald grass below him. With a flick of his tongue, the stinging feeling inside his left lower lip resonating in his brain as he tasted more of his life's elixir in his mouth. Instead of bringing forth the thought of defeat to Aleutian, the taste of his blood only fed his warrior soul that was hungry for the fight.
With his warrior senses now afoot, he heard the sounds of Shadow's shoes coming from the right. The sound was all there, a faint mix between a rocket engine and a jet engine. The early whistling sound triggered Aleutian's next move. He stepped forward and pivoted backwards to the left, extending his left elbow out at the same time. Shadow connected with it, throwing him in a backwards somersault that lasted for three twirls in the air, landing face up to the speckled white and blue sky.
The hedgehog quickly shot up, but only to turn around just in time to see Aleutian thrust the tips of his fingers right at his chest. As the echidna's digits made contact, he dug them further into the white chest of Shadow, bending his knuckles at the fingers as he drove onwards. A fraction of a second later, he morph his finger's into a fist that bore his new weapons on his knuckles. The spikes shot a searing pain as they scraped Shadow's breast plate. Before he could back off from it, Aleutian followed through with the strike that sent Shadow floating in the air briefly before gravity took its course. With a hard thud and a sharp grunt that followed, Shadow felt his body reeling from the single blow that Aleutian had delivered. As the sharp aches began to soothe in his head, Shadow quickly concluded that the echidna he was fighting now wasn't the same one from fifteen seconds ago.
Even through the aches and the pains, Aleutian found the motivation and strength to rush towards Shadow, giving the hedgehog no chance to get back on his feet. Shadow sat up in time to see Aleutian fall on top of him, bracing his fall with his knee that drove into the hedgehog's ribs. With the pain being driving further into sense from Aleutian's, and with his head being thrusted past his shoulders towards the ground from Aleutian's hand, the Ultimate Life Form changed his attitude of going easy, to one who was staring down at defeat and didn't like it.
"Do you yield?" seethed out Aleutian through his bloodied teeth.
Shadow turned his gaze to the stunned onlookers, only seeing a much older echidna behind Knuckles nodding his head at him. He couldn't fathom as to what he was gesturing about, but what he did know was that this echidna, this Guardian, was about to get the nastiest surprise of his life. Moving his left hand, which Aleutian neglected to hold down, Shadow channeled his powers of chaos control and wielded a green bolt at point-blank range into Aleutian's chest.
Aleutian felt as if his body was being shocked by a bolt of lightening. He had taken plasma hits before in the chest cavity, but the hit he just took made laser fire feel like a cake walk compared to what Shadow just dealt. He sailed upwards in the air, tracing a distance of over two meters before he sank to the ground, his face painted in a state of shock and pain. Aleutian bounced twice and rolled once with every slam and tumble producing a grunt and a moan.
As he settled on his left side from his painful trek back across the field, his eyes fell onto Shadow, who slowly got up with a crooked smile that glowed in the afternoon sun. With a grumble and a stare of fierce resolve, Aleutian brought himself off the ground again, his body protesting every move from his joints and muscles as he tried to stand. It was then that Knuckles had had enough. Ignoring his father's hand over his shoulder, Knuckles brushed it off as he trudged forward to his brother. Aleutian was about to make a very slow charge towards Shadow when Knuckles put an end to that idea. Placing his right hand on Aleutian's chest, which was brewing a small hint of green smoke from it, he stood in front of his brother and stared hard into his eyes.
"Someone hold back Shadow!" ordered Princess Sally.
"It's not me who started this," said Shadow, crossing his arms and staring a cold stare at the two brothers, narrowing his eyes at one in particular. "Battling weak ones isn't what I call sport."
"I'M NOT WEAK!" shouted Aleutian over his labored breaths.
Knuckles thrusted half his body weight towards Aleutian, stopping him from running him over. "Cut it out, Aleutian! Shadow won't think twice about killing you."
"I don't care," Aleutian fired back, wiping his mouth on his coat sleeve, cleaning the blood away.
Knuckles sank his gaze even further into his brother's. "What are you trying to do, kill yourself?"
"Yea!" Aleutian replied back with murder in his eyes. "I already tried it once today, and I'm up for round..."
Knuckles cut his brother short with a very hard slap across his scarred face. The blow almost sent Aleutian over onto his side, but Knuckles held him up. "Don't you EVER say that to me again!" he shouted at his brother, looking up at him from the half inch difference in height as he grasped at the flaps of Aleutian's jacket. "I've come this far to know about you and who you are, but yet, you want to rob me of knowing the true you," Knuckles screamed out, almost in tears. "You promised me that you weren't going to leave me again, but here you are now, ready to kill yourself over something that doesn't seem worth dying for. Don't do this to me, Aleutian. Don't do this to us."
With his resolve and rage disappearing over his brother's words, Aleutian's battle hardened feelings were diminished to anguish in two heart beats. The staring contest, if there ever was one, was concluded as Aleutian looked away from his brother in defeat. It showed all over his face. At that moment, he didn't feel like he was an older brother. Instead, he belittled himself with his own feelings of selfishness; to be rid of his pain and to be back with his beloved. If death was how he was going to solve it, he was willing to take that step in anyway possible...until now. His brother had yet saved him again: this time in the flesh instead of in his thought. And with that now burning in his mind, it overpowered all of his aching muscles and joints to breathed out something to Knuckles that he should have said the first time they met.
"I'm sorry," he let out in a stern and quivering voice, his shoulders hunching forward in a show of total defeat. "I'm sorry I put you in second place over my defiance to Locke and my love for Emee." With a intake of air that signified that he was about to ball, he turned away to hide his shame.
Knuckles grabbed him by his shoulder and turned him around. "Brother," he began with a confident stare, "if I was in your shoes, I would have done the same thing. If your love for her is as powerful as I see it today in her absence...I would have done the same thing and lived with it. The running stops Aleutian. There is no shame in what you have done. It is what you do now that will have repercussions that I may never forgive." And with a hard moments stare, Knuckles hugged Aleutian with an iron grip, holding him as if he was afraid that he would lose him again.
"What's his problem?" asked Shadow as he paced the field towards Sonic.
Instead of fixing his attention towards Shadow, Sonic looked the other way...dead on at Sally. "He lost someone, and in the end, the guy lost himself."
"What, is his past haunting him?" asked Shadow with a surprising sincere tone in his voice.
"More like hurting him."
So what did you all think of the fight. Nothing spectacular? Well, I didn't want Shadow to kill him, just drive a point home how Aleutian is weakened with depression. Kinda added that notion when Shadow filt the spaces in Aleutian's rib cage. Next chapter will bring light to what Aleutian had been doing after the fall of Robotnick Prime.