Chapter 4, The fall of Zero.

Mystic jungle.

Jackal squad had been working for Eggman for a few weeks, during this time they had stolen and sold any of Eggman's machines they could get their hands on for a decent price on the black market.

Combined with the payments they received from the Doctor they had been making a lot more money than usual, although they all agreed that it was nice not to have to worry about where their next meal was coming from, they also still felt uneasy about working for a man who once blew up half of the moon.

Five members of the squad was currently standing guard not far from Eggman's base, Zero and Viper was performing a routine search of the area, leaving the others with sometime to talk amongst themselves.

"I'm still not too sure about this, are we sure we should be working for Eggman" asked Data, "Maybe we should talk to Zero, I'm sure if he know how we felt he would abandon this job in an instant" said Locks.

"Don't worry about it, Zero always has a plan" said Leo, although he did agree that Zero had seemed a little out of character when he had taken this job, however he had recently returned to his old self and Leo could tell that Zero was just as sick of working for Eggman as the rest of them was.

Zero was currently sitting on a tree stump in a quiet area of the jungle, thinking about his recent decisions, "What was I thinking, why did I even want to work with Eggman in the first place" he thought.

Zero's mind shifted to the Phantom ruby, "That's right, I wanted to get my hands on that ruby of his, but why did I want it so badly, it can't be worth going through all this just to get it".

"Maybe this whole thing was a mistake, after tonight I'll tell the others that we're leaving Eggman's servicers" he thought finalising his decision.

Not too far away Shadow the hedgehog, agent of G,U,N, was heading towards the Doctor's base, G,U,N had just discovered that Eggman had a secret base hidden in the jungle and had sent him to destroy it.

Shadow made his way through the jungle at high speed not even being slowed down by all of the plants and trees in his way, Shadow stopped in order to contact G,U,N and find out which way he should be going.

"This is Shadow, which way to the Doctor's base" he said into his communicator, "Our reports show that the target should be North-east of you current location" said an agent from the other side of his communicator.

Shadow noticed something out of the corner of his eye hiding in the bushes, Shadow fired a Chaos spear at the bush burning it to the ground and revealing Viper who had been spying on him.

Seeing that her cover was blown Viper attempted to flee while contacting the rest of her squad, "Jackal squad, we have an intruder he's" Viper's warning was cut short as a Chaos spear hit her in the back killing her before she even hit the ground.

Shadow didn't even bother to give Viper's corpse a second glance before he continued on his way to the base, ready to tear through any other security that the Doctor may have.

Zero's face had turned white, he had just received Viper's final message on his communicator, Zero immediately started to run back to the rest of his squad as quickly as possible.

"No, no, no, not now, why couldn't I have decided to leave this job one day sooner" he thought as he increased his speed, praying that he reached his friends in time.

Shadow jumped out of some trees and landed in front of the rest of Jackal squad, Leo and Maximus pulled out their blades, Data and Dexter pulled out their pistols and Locks readied her sniper rifle.

Shadow smirked knowing that this wouldn't take him very long, Shadow fired two Chaos spears, one from each hand, the first Chaos spear hit Data in the chest right where his heart was killing him instantly.

Leo tried to dodge the second Chaos spear but he was a little too slow and got hit in the shoulder and fell to the ground, the rest of the team was horrified at what they saw and attacked Shadow with everything they had.

Dexter and Locks opened fire while Maximus charged forward with his sword raised, Shadow wasn't impressed in the slightest, he simple teleported behind Dexter and delivered a powerful kick that broke the poor Jackal's back.

Locks hoped to get a lucky shot in while Shadow's back was turned, unfortunately for her Shadow throw a Chaos spear that hit her directly in the head and she fell limply over her sniper rifle.

Maximus now in a rage charged at Shadow again, Shadow easily blocked Maximus's attacks and once he saw an opening grabbed a hold of the jackals neck and with hardly any effort broke it in an instant.

Leo was laying on the floor injured but still alive, he pulled out his pistol as quietly as possible hoping to catch Shadow off guard, however before he could even take aim Shadow pulled out his own pistol and shot Leo in the head.

With all of Jackal squad defeated Shadow left the scene, and headed straight to Eggman's base, Zero arrived at the scene only seconds after Shadow had left.

Tears formed in Zero's eyes as he looked at what remained of his team, Zero fell to his knees and began to cry "No please, this can't be real, this is just a dream, please don't let this be real" he sobbed.

Zero's communicator activated and out came Eggman's voice, "What are you jackals doing, Shadow is heading straight towards my base, one of you had better hold him off while I evacuate of I'll turn you all into fur coats" he said angrily.

Zero stood back up as he felt his anger reach an uncontrollable level, he pulled out his sword and ran as fast as he could to catch up with Shadow determined to avenge his fallen friends.

Shadow had arrived at the door to Eggman's base, he was just about to enter the base when he heard something behind him, Shadow turned around and saw Zero running towards him at full speed with his sword at the ready.

Zero began taking wild swings at Shadow, he was too far into a feral rage to care about style or precision, all he cared about was killing Shadow, Shadow dodged every single attack hardly showing any interest in the fight at all.

Zero lunged at Shadow attempting to stab him, however the only thing he managed to do was get his sword stuck in the steel door of the base, now that Zero's sword was out of the way Shadow hit Zero with a powerful uppercut that sent him flying thirty feet into the air.

As soon as Zero reached his highest point Shadow teleported next to him and delivered a downwards kick that sent Zero flying to the ground at high speed, Zero hit the ground hard, he was sure that some of his bones was broken.

Zero tried to stand back up but before he could even get to his knees Shadow appears next to him and delivered a kick that hit Zero directly in his right eye and sent him flying into a nearby stone wall.

Having defeated Zero Shadow headed inside the base ready to destroy everything inside, unknown to him Zero was still alive although unconscious and very badly injured.