UlTrRa SiK pRoDuCtIoNs pReSeNtZ:

LoVe'S bUrN

By: UlTrAa ShAdDow

Disclaimer: I don't own any of Sega's characters….but I'd be a very happy guy if I did!

-Yeah, and as we all know, our perfect, role-model ,clean-mouthed Scythe is a wee bit ornery (More than usual) in this chapter…

"You can close your eyes to things you don't want to see, but you can't close your heart to things you don't want to feel."

Third POV….

Dawn was just beginning to rise upon the Sahara and already it had become a Warfield; dull, black smoke rose in wafts from twisted, robotic remains, fire was littered within the pale sands carelessly, and explosions blossomed within the sky.

Even the sky of the Sahara dessert was a blood rush; legions of flying androids fired round after round of bullets and missiles at a single red aircraft. The tornado was the only prime target for the opposing aircrafts.

And to make things worse, it seemed like every ten hovercrafts the Tornado destroyed, fifty more would pop-up in their place.

With the enemies appearing out of nowhere, the Tornado was forced into defensive measures a whole lot more than needed. Amy whipped her head around to face Tails, "Tails! We're seriously outnumbered! These guys just keep coming!"

Tails gazed at the different gauges and status bars in the airplane; almost half of the tank had been drained, the Tornado had already sustained thirty-nine percent damage. And with a glance at the front of the plane, it looked as if the engine was smoking.

He bared his teeth at such a thought; their situation wasn't bleak, it was fatal. The young fox was stiffly rattled from his thoughts when he felt the side of the Tornado being ladled with bullets.

Amy looked at the side of the plane with green eyes five shades paler, and the pink twinkling ball of light appeared beside him, "Tails? Our mission is not going successfully! The Tornado has compiled too much damage!"

And although Amy spoke softly, Tails managed to catch her words, and her crushed tone, "…Maybe we aren't cut out for this…"

At the sound of Amy's broken words, a sudden burning flare pulsed through the young fox's veins.Tails narrowed his eyes; as the pilot of the Tornado, it was his job to get his party safely to Eggman's Sahara Base. He had no doubt that Sonic and Shadow's teams would make it through the hazardous warpath. But do they reciprocate his feelings about his team?

He knew the truth! He could even see the skepticism in their eyes when he first mentioned Amy and himself being a team. Although the cynicism was apparent on the faces of some of the bolder characters like Sonic and Scythe, it was well-masked on the faces of others, like a wearily smiling Rouge, or an up-turned eyebrow from Knuckles.

Tails turned to look at Amy who looked morbidly defeated, possibly because she was envisioning her gruesome death, and Tikal, the floating light beside him was prattling off, feeding him with helpful tidbits of encouragement.

It was as if he was hearing everything at once, the roaring explosions, the metallic pangs of bullets lining the sides of the Tornado, Tikal's helpful, but anxious words, and Amy's screaming.

The young fox closed his eyes, and it seemed almost as if time had stopped itself; there was nothing but dead silence. Tails was able to emerge himself within his own thoughts, and those of the outside world were locked away.

Finally, when the silence seemed to be building, Tails heard a single thought within his head. It was his voice, 'I can do this. I'm going to lead Amy and Tikal to the base. I'm going to prove everyone wrong.'

Once Tails opened his eyes, a surge of new strength flowed through him. He tightened his scarf slightly, then set a determined, blue-eyed gaze before him, "Hang on Amy, Tikal, I'm gonna pull us through."

With that declaration, Tails began to maneuver and handle the Tornado like a pro, sharp turns and rolls were executed within a moment's notice, and anything flying before him was sniped out of the sky with deadly prejudice.

Now, Tikal found herself struggling to follow the young fox's trends. Amy looked back to see the glowing pink ball on their tail, then she turned forward to see the grand, obsidian-hued base.

A flash of hope appeared upon Amy's face, "Look, there's the base! We're only a few miles from it!"

Tails smiled; so he had done it. He had led his team to the base successfully. Just as Tails had turned around to speak with a cheerful Amy, Tikal shot up beside Tails, blinking furiously, "Tails! Tails!"

Smiling, Tails turned to look at her, "What is it?"

"You must move! For a miss--"

The sky abruptly turned bright. Both Tails and Amy turned around just in time to see an approaching missile hit them dead on.

Truth be told, infiltrating the aqueducts had been a royal pain. Droids popped up, fists flew, and they were destroyed…then they reappeared again.

And the worst part was that most of the androids were laughably easy to defeat, but only because of sheer number, one every now and then got lucky and scored a hit against Sonic or Scythe. And the sad thing was that these lucky little cheap shots were slowly starting to take their tolls.

Sonic finished spin-dashing through the halves of one android only to be met with a crowd of twenty more glowing, lifeless eyes. After ducking and dodging multiple blows and attacks, one venom-green laser grazed his leg. With a painful flop, Sonic hit the ground with a splash. Immediately he found himself on the wrong side of a twenty-on-one jumping.

He was able to catch glimpses of the dark and silver hedgehog going medieval on a group of robots, but he himself wasn't even able to call out for help. Every time Sonic tried to open his mouth and usher out words, a robotic fist or boot would silence him.

As his blue comrade was getting jumped, Scythe unleashed a barrage of attacks upon his opposers; honestly, they had no idea what they were up against. No one was safe from the cyborg hedgehog's fury, and the only person exempt from such a beating was the only other organic creature in the room.

With his left mechanically enhanced arm, Scythe swung a powerful fist that literally crunched in one of the android's face. He picked up the crumbly-faced android and swung it into the crowd behind him. At the sight of the toppling androids, Scythe laughed, "Dominoes! I win. Top that, Blue!"

With a vicious smile present, Scythe turned to scoff at the blue hedgehog. His smile disappeared when he saw a crowd of Eggman's droids punching and kicking a single blue form vigorously. To say that Sonic was getting jumped was an understatement. The blue hero was having his teeth pulled out and served to him on a platter.

The very sight of this sent Scythe into a spiral of rage, "…Why, sonovabitch!"

The azure hedgehog felt himself beginning to loose conscious. The beating was getting so bad that he was becoming numb. By now he had lost all strength to defend himself from the onslaught.

…And all this was started by a skimpy little blow to the knee.

Left and right, the robotic drones were thrown in a flurry of rage. The multiple fists that attacked Sonic any and everywhere were beginning to disappear. Clinks and klanks sounded as broken metal pieces landed beside Sonic.

Slowly, Sonic wasable to rise to his feet to see Scythe demolish the last of his attackers. The black and silver hedgehog held out a trembling hand. Within his curled fingers were jolts of silver streaks of energy. Scythe grinned terribly as he glared at the last robot, "…And you get the house special…Raging Lance!"

Scythe uncurled his trembling fingers and released the energy at the last android. The attack hit the android and it exploded instantly, flaring into a pillow of red and orange fire.

Finally, once Scythe saw that the last threat was gone, he turned to look at Sonic, who was slowly helping himself to his feet, "…You okay Blue-boy?

"Yeah, and thanks," Sonic said approaching Scythe, he had resided into crossing his arms over his chest, "…We better get outta here before the reinforcements come."

An odd expression crossed Scythe's face, one that looked unusually un-hostile, "How do you think the others are doing?"

"I dunno," Sonic shrugged, suddenly becoming serious, "We lost radio contact with them awhile ago. I hope they're okay."

Sonic wiped his lip and frowned at the sight of blood, "Damn! These guys really did a number on me!"

Scythe smirked roguishly, "Wait until you see your face, but we better haul ass outta here quick. More robo-hobos are coming."

Sonic groaned, "…Good, let's get outta here…I hate, hate, hate water! And besides… water makes my fur all wet and destroys my coat's natural sheen!"

"…Ah shut up, pretty boy!"

The journey in one of Eggman's many flagships, despite the air conditioning, had been hellacious. Rouge knew the day was already going to be a bad when she saw the doctor within the confines of Tails' living room holding Cream to gunpoint.

Not to mention the fact that the yellow hedgehog had testified that the insane doctor had shot her point-blank with a very painful, electrical gun. Rouge thought, with much disdain, that the sick doctor had probably intentionally put a wicked amount of electricity in the gun so that it'd have a potent kick.

But the only good thing out of this was that Rouge had vomited in her cell in just about everyplace possible, and when the doctor came, claiming that she was faking, she had got him pretty good too. So now Eggman sat around with an old, but rinsed puke stain on his shirt.

Now, Rouge sat in a small cell adjacent from Daisy, who curled one of her short pigtails absently around her index finger. And Cream lay asleep on a portion of Daisy's stomach.

Rouge sluggishly turned opaque blue eyes to Eggman who entered the room. He stopped before their cell, making sure to distance himself far enough to prevent Rouge from spraying all over him, if she decided to try such a stunt again, "Good news girls, we are only moments from my base. I expect to land in no later than five minutes."

The huntress glared at him silently as did Daisy, who subconsciously rubbed the scorch mark upon her leather outfit, "So tell me Rouge, where is your boyfriend? By now they must know that I have the Master Emerald. Are they at my base, perhaps?"

The treasure huntress stared at him with half-lidded eyes, mainly because of how ill she was feeling, "You're so stupid."

Eggman's smile disappeared, "What?"

"Why does it even matter if you have the Master Emerald," Rouge smiled, "You can't use it anyway."

Eggman's dark frown was replaced by an intrigued façade, "And why is that?"

Rouge smiled, "Now why would I tell you that, Doc? We're not friends anymore."

It was the doctor's turn to smile, "We never were. So tell me, why can I not use the power of the Emerald? Why is it completely ebony?"

"…And now, not even Knuckles is on your side, hoo-hum," Rouge replied, deterring from his question, "Perhaps you shouldn't backstab people. You have a nasty habit of that, Doc."

"And yet again, I ask, why doesn't the Master Emerald work?" Eggman asked, brandishing a gun Daisy instantly recognized, "I will not ask again, I'll just start shooting, and I believe your yellow friend likes the taste of this gun."

Daisy's eyes widened in fear as Rouge sighed, "Because Tikal cut off the power source. And now, only she and Knuckles can reactivate its power."

A bewildered look flashed across Daisy's face that alleged Rouge had spoken too much. But of course Eggman caught the look upon her face before it disappeared, "…I see…well then, I guess I won't have to shoot you…but…"

Eggman turned away from Rouge and blasted the yellow hedgehog with a crackling ball of white-hot energy. Daisy shrieked as she was slammed into the wall brutally. Cream awoke urgently, having picked up the violent noise.

The shot had hit her on her left shoulder, leaving another scorch mark on her suit. Daisy cried out in pain as she cradled her shoulder, allowing tears to flow down her face. Rouge fell to her side comforting the teary girl.

Cream blinked, looking at both of the girls wide-eyed. Rouge looked at Eggman and snarled, "You jerk!"

"That was for being so flippant with me," the Doctor smiled as he ignored Daisy's shrill screams, "Next time, when I ask you a question, you answer me properly!"

With that, Eggman turned and exited the room. Daisy sniffled as Rouge rubbed her head thoughtfully. The white bat stared at the golden hedgehog below her; Eggman was going to get a very rude awakening when he arrived at his base.

"…Rouge…" Daisy gasped, tears trailing down her face, "I…I think you told him too much…"

"Just rest," Rouge replied softly, "He knows just enough so he can treat you guys with some sort of civility."

"Civility?" Daisy replied in a cold, metallic tone, "I just got electrocuted…"

Rouge sighed, "He'll get his soon enough…I won't let him hurt you again, I'm sorry…"

The hissing of the automatic door could be heard as Eggman reentered the room. He was smiling viciously, "…Ladies, we're home. And apparently we have guests. I think we should greet them, it would only be polite."

Sure enough, just as Knuckles and Shadow had been tearing through foe, after foe, after foe, they caught sight of a large conflagration in the sky. They dodged a rather large missile sent at them by one of the land tanks and the missile, the very same missile they had avoided, launched the explosion of the red airplane in the sky.

Knuckles watched the explosion with a gaped mouth and Shadow stood froze, as if someone had pressed the paused button on him. The plane was shredded into tiny red particles. They rained into the desert softly, "Tails…Amy… Tikal…"

A moment of silence followed between the two as they let the reality of the scene sink in. They had saw what they saw. Knuckles dropped his gaze, and talked barely louder than a whisper, "…They're gone…we couldn't help them…"

Shadow shook his head, speaking softly to himself, "They should have never been out here..."

Knuckles turned to glare at Shadow insidiously, "What are you talking about? We could have easily stopped that missile! Don't blame them, you icy bastard!"

Shadow snarled at him dangerously, "I dare you to call me that again, edchina."

"Gladly," Knuckles growled, "You don't feel anything, you stone-cold, bastard!"

Shadow narrowed his eyes, "As much as I'd love to take a side mission right now and kick your ass, I'm in the middle of something bigger."

Now it was Knuckles' turn to snarl venomously, "Right, and we'll just forget all about those three!"

Shadow turned to look at Knuckles with smoldering eyes, "You should really watch what you say, it may not be good for your health!"

"That's it, Eggman can wait!" Knuckles barked, pointing a finger at Shadow, "We'll settle this right here! Right now!"

Knuckles drew an offensive position, looking as if he was ready to box, but Shadow hadn't moved from his previous position. He just stared at the red echidna with chilling, red eyes.

"No," Shadow deadpanned, "In their memory, I will carry out their mission and finish off Eggman."

"What in the hell does Rouge see in you," Knuckles replied in a deep growl, "Even the day I returned to Tails' workshop, I still couldn't even steal a kiss from her…Have you brainwashed her or something? Probably used some of those stupid chaos powers on her."

"What…" A fiery, black aura sparked around Shadow. He was baring his fangs at Knuckles, "In. The. HELL. Did. You. Just. Say?"

Just as Shadow started an aggressive stroll towards the red warrior, the echidna was hit with a thought as he picked up a faint chakra, 'Knuckles help us! Please hear me! I can't hold the others any longer!'

" Tikal?" Knuckles asked out loud. He began to have head-splitting pain as he dropped to his knees and grabbed his throbbing head. He suddenly saw a grainy image of Tikal floating, with her eyes closed, holding up some sort of yellow barrier around a fainted fox and hedgehog.

"So now you don't want to fight?" Shadow scoffed.

"They're alive," Knuckles said, grimacing, trying to ignore the great pain swirling in his head.

"What was that echidna, you need to speak up!"

"THEY'RE ALIVE DAMMIT!" Knuckles shouted, pointing skyward.

Once the pain vanished, Knuckles joined Shadow and looked skyward. Sure enough, just as Knuckles' vision had promised, the sight of a glowing yellow barrier was present.Tikal appeared to be in a meditative state with her eyes closed and her palms elevated, but she was really controlling the amber barrier.

Just as they glanced up at the floating echidna monarch, the barrier faded, and Tikal, as well as Tails and Amy began to fall from the sky limply. Startled, both Knuckles and Shadow went underneath the plummeting figures. Knuckles went and caught Tikal as Shadow, was fast enough to catch Tails and then zip over and catch Amy.

Knuckles gently laid Tikal on the sand as Shadow gazed toward the base. The front, ascending steps were within sight. Shadow grimaced; they were so close. They had to make it in there!

"Echidna!" Shadow called.

Knuckles narrowed his eyes, "What?"

"Pick her up and let's go!"

Knuckles heaved Tikal over his shoulders as Shadow picked up Tails. Before the dark hedgehog could pick up Amy, Knuckles picked her up bridal style and sneered at him, "I'll do it, you're too weak."

But Knuckles didn't run off without receiving a nasty glare from Shadow, "Whatever. Just don't hold me up!"

Shadow took off toward the base with Knuckles in tow. More drones filled out from the front doors as rows of androids filled out of the base. Shadow snarled, seeing the once empty, front steps littered with enemies, "Ridiculous!"

Knuckles stopped behind Shadow, "…What were we thinking? Trying to actually get into the front door?"

Just as Shadow and Knuckles ridded themselves of the extra weight, and geared themselves for battle, a ripple of blue light struck, "Sonic Wind, baby!"

"Raging Lance!"

Blue and gray light ripped through a pile of guard drones. As the attacks continued flying and blowing up enemies, the huge stack of androids was slowly being cut down. Shadow and Knuckles nodded to each other and manually began to shred the enemies with their fists, and with the combination of power between the four soldiers, the offending drones were good and dead.

Shadow and Knuckles gazed at the top of the steps to see both Sonic and Scythe casually posed at the top. Sonic, although a little bruised still managed to sport a toothy grin with his arms akimbo. And Scythe, who was slightly war-worn, had his back to them, but looked over his shoulder at them.

"So you made it, huh?" Sonic asked his arrogant smiling softening.

"Yeah," Shadow nodded his head, "And so did they."

Both he and Knuckles went to pick up the others until they heard a slight moan. Tails groggily opened his eyes, "Oh man, my head is spinning…"

Sonic smiled, "Tails! It's good to see you're okay!"

Tails smiled, "I'm fine Sonic, didn't I tell you we'd make it?"

Sonic grinned, "You sure did!"

"Ooh," Amy moaned, she slowly sat up and gazed up the stairs groggily until she recognized a lone figure, "…SONIC!"

" Ames," Sonic started unsurely, "…You're…okay!"

"Sonic! I knew you'd make it!" Amy ran up the stairs with open arms…until she fell flat on her face, "…Ouch…"

Sympathetically, Sonic went down the stairs to help her help, "…Easy there…"

Knuckles took a knee beside Tikal and shook her lightly until he met bright aquamarine eyes, "Knuckles…"

The red echidna smiled at her softly, she blinked, "…Am…Am I dreaming?"

Knuckles laughed, "No, you're not…but do you really dream about me?"

Tikal's face exploded into a shade of rose, and she quickly rose to her feet, "W-we should really get going!"

And with that Tikal more than flew up the stairs to stand behind Amy and Sonic. Tails flew up the stairs to be beside his best friend. Just as Shadow was on his way up the stairs, he felt someone tap his shoulder. As he turned to look behind him, he caught a glimpse of crimson walking past him on the steps. With an arch smirk, Shadow turned to look at Knuckles, "Cute."

"So are we straight?" Knuckles asked looking back at Shadow.

"…" Shadow appeared as if he was thinking and Knuckles frowned, "Oh give me a break!"

Shadow smirked, "Sure…as long as you don't have a melt-down again."

"I didn't have a melt-down; you were the one who froze, like this."

Knuckles stepped climbing up the stairs and paused mid-step with a dumb look on his face. Sonic, Amy, and Tails laughed. Shadow harrumphed as he pushed past the frozen echidna, Scythe snickered as he looked at the other black hedgehog, "…He just made you look dumb."

Shadow raised both eyebrows, "Oh? Well you don't need anyone to make you look foolish; your face does it for you."

Huffily, Shadow entered the base, being flanked by the others. Sonic looked at Scythe with a slick expression, in response, Scythe glared, "…What?"

"He totally got you!"

"…Bite the ass…"

"…It's cold in here," Cream murmured, as she wrapped her arms around her knees.

Both Daisy and Cream had been placed inside of a steel cage. It was only large even to hold a single tiger, so both girls were sitting.

"Don't worry," Daisy said happily, whispering to Cream, "The others will be here soon…Scythe and the others will save the day!"

"Mister Scythe?" Cream exclaimed happily, "And Mister Sonic, Shadow, Tails, Knuckles, and Miss Amy and Tikal?"

Daisy smiled, "Yeah, you got everyone…but yes, so they shall!"

She pumped a victorious fist in the air only to hit the top of the cage, "Owwie!"

Daisy frowned as she glared at the top of the cage, "…This is inhuman…Why if I ever got my hands on that Eggman character, I'd--"

She began swinging and throwing sloppy punches at the air until Cream interrupted her.

"Miss Daisy?" Cream asked.

"Eh?" Daisy looked down at the smaller rabbit beside her, "What is it?"

"Where's Miss Rouge? Why hasn't she been with us?"

"Well, that's something I—"

Daisy paused mid-sentence as she heard an automatic door slide open. Eggman entered the room, holding an all too familiar gun in both hands. The infamous scientist was followed by Rouge, whose face was void of any emotion.

Eggman halted as he turned to Rouge, "I suppose you know what this is?"

He motioned to a device waiting behind him. Rouge gazed at it blankly, "This, as you know already bat girl, is the Phantasm. As I said already, we want to give our guests the biggest homecoming gift. Step inside."

"And if I refuse?" Rouge knew what it'd come to, but she just wanted to show Eggman that she wasn't going out quietly.

Eggman smiled, "Well…I'll just reacquaint the yellow hedgehog with this gun again. She has such a lovely scream after all."

Daisy whimpered and backed away from the edge of the cage. For a moment, when Rouge watched her, a flicker of emotion passed over her glazed features. Silently, Rouge stepped into the Phantasm, the same machine that Shadow had been in months ago.

When he had become that soulless, cold monster with a gaze that was both searing and icy at the same time. The same crack he had created in the fiberglass window was still present.

Rouge closed her eyes, '…So, I'm gonna be turned into a monster…And there's absolutely nothing I can do about it…If I refuse, Eggman will torture them mercilessly…At least I did my last deed as a hero and not a thief…'

When Rouge opened her eyes, she gazed upon Eggman who was clicking multiple buttons. The only noise Rouge could hear was the winding of the machine. The thick fiberglass around the core of the machine made it impossible to hear anywhere outside of the capsule. Within seconds, thick, purple clouds rose.

Rouge inhaled sharply; so this was it. The end. Unhappily, Rouge looked up at Daisy and Cream. The little rabbit was sad, with her eyes teary, she probably didn't understand what the machine was going to do to the huntress, but she knew enough to know that the machine was bad.

And Daisy was screaming wordlessly, extending her hand at Rouge. Her caramel-colored eyes were squinted and streaming with tears for the second time today.

The purple smog rose in the machine and Rouge felt herself becoming dizzy and weak. She collapsed to the floor breathing heavily as her crystal blue irises were being slowly drained of color. Images of her life flashed before her eyes in milliseconds, as if someone had been fast-forwarding her life before her eyes.

The faces of people she once knew soon became further and further distant from her as they became strangers, even the silently screaming yellow hedgehog and the little rabbit became unknown faces. The last face she saw, which belonged to a black hedgehog with an amazing smile, was buried deep within the frames of her memory.

"…Shadow…" the now gray-eyed Rouge whispered.

The purple smog encircled her as she fell in unconsciousness, with a perfectly blank mind.

To be continued!

Chapter Twenty fiveTheme: "I don't want to cry"- Mariah Carey