3 - Chase

The vulpine never thought he'd have to see this person again. Not again.

Not after that horrible incident. He thought after Sonic had defeated him, they'd never have to see his muzzle for the rest of their lives. He was in a different world for Chaos' sake. He could have sworn he was arrested by someone as well. What happened to that? Did he some how break out or something? And how was he here? The only way he could have gotten to Mobius Prime was a...No. No! How the heck did he get his hands on a warp ring!? That was the only explanation for his appearance here. Otherwise his existence here was not only completely unethical, but impossible.

As Tails tried his very best to wrap his head around the fact that the green hedgehog was now in their world, said hedgehog managed to snap him out of it by saying one thing.

"Wanna see somethin' cool?" He leered.

No one responded back, only continuing to glare at their new-found enemy. But that was a-okay with him. He wanted silence for this.

"Well alright then." He shrugged. "But make sure you watch closely!" He reminded with an index finger held up. Then, he stared. His eyes not particularly looking at anyone, but all five people at once. His ice-shattering, tundra-like eyes glinted ominously. Then, they saw a red vortex pool inside of them. Like, red hypnotic swirls. When they disappeared in only a few seconds later, his cold eyes were back again. But this time, not blue, but green. The now blue hedgehog twirled himself around, grabbing hold of his own jacket and tossing it off like a bull-fighter flinging around a red veil.

He did a little dance, tapping and swerving his feet like a professional entertainer as he twirled his jacket in the air. He made a big finish, by posing. He suddenly made his body come to a halt, with one arm up to hold up his layer of clothing, and the other with his hand on his hip. He grinned once he saw their faces. "Tadah!" He winked. "Pretty sweet, huh?"

"...!" No one could say anything. What could anyone say? It would all be the same question repeated. How, and why was he able to do that? When Shadow saw this happen before his red eyes, he immediately got an idea of what occurred, but he definitely wasn't positive. All he knew was that he felt the same surge of energy he felt when he fought this impostor. When he first saw him flash to green. It felt like a surge of chaos energy, and he only saw a glimpse of this person when he used his own chaos abilities. Could it have some kind of...Malfunction, if someone else exposes chaos energy upon this person? "Tails," Shadow suddenly said.

The kitsune flinched and looked up at the dark mobian. "Y-Yeah?"

"According to Rouge, you told your friends that you first saw this impostor turn from blue to green on the screen of your device. Was that device powered by something that was similar to chaos?" He asked while keeping his eyes dead set on his opponent, who kept that big smile planted on his face. His eyes were narrowing though, like he was daring for Shadow to figure it all out right here and now. His face was even darkening.

Tails gulped, and nodded slowly. "Y-Yeah. I managed to forge a fake chaos emerald and that's what I used to power it."

"As I thought." Shadow concluded. "I saw this happen as well. Right before I used my chaos spear on him down town."

The fake Sonic took off the shades that sat on his head and twirled them in his ungloved hand. Weird. Why was he suddenly not wearing the Sonic attire, but only his fur color? At this point, Knuckles was getting more than furious with all of this madness. He wanted an explanation and he wanted one now.

"Quit standing there looking smug! Explain yourself, freak!"

"F-Freak...?" The fake Sonic lightly gasped in shock at such cruel words. Suddenly, his green fur quickly faded back onto his body and he slowly put back on his jacket. He put his hand to his heart and held his chest in great horror. "Why, why would you say that to me, Knux?" He innocently asked as his voice began to disturbingly mimic Sonic's perfectly. "I thought you were my buddy." He dramatized as his blue eyes began to water.

"Y-You..!" Knuckles bit back his tongue to keep himself from spewing curses.

The green hedgehog laughed in response and waved his hand back and forth. "Oh shit, that never gets old! Hahaha!" He put his shades back on the top of his head and put his fists on his hips. He cleared his throat, and once again began to speak. But this time, his voice changed to a more regal voice, like he was royalty. "You poor peasants seem to have fallen victim to a case of extreme shameless ignorance! Allow me to clarify my kingly, and faultless individuality!"

Amy found herself squinting very hard at this person.

The hedgehog raised one of his hands to his head, pointing his finger to his forehead, and then holding it out and pointing straight towards the pink hedgehog. She winced, but her body soon fell limp with her eyes growing wide and empty. "For I am, lowly commoners," All while keeping his finger pointed at Amy, who seemed to be under some kind of spell, he dropped the 'king personality' and used his other hand to put up his thumb to his chest. Declaring who he truly was. "Scourge the motha fuckin' Hedgehog!"

With less of a playful smile, he smirked evilly and closed the hand that was pointing at Amy into a fist. Once he did that, she gripped the sides of her head and screeched in pain. She fell to her knees and planted her face into the grass. She refused to get back up, shivering and whimpering from the agony. Her head was pounding, smacking against her skull like rocks.

"You son of a-!" Knuckles tried charging towards the hedgehog, but once he took one measly step, he found himself in the same spot again. He tried once more, but the green hedgehog wouldn't allow it. His eyes would glint every time he took a move, and put him back in his place. Literally. "The hell is this?!"

"Knuckles, you're running around in circles, just stop already!" Tails yelled.

"Running in circles..?!" Knuckles looked down at his own feet, realizing he wasn't even standing in the same position anymore. The hell just happened!?

Shadow briefly looked down at Tails, while still feeling his body become tense at the presence of this new enemy. "So this, is the Anti-Sonic?"

Tails hesitantly nodded yes, hating the answer. "Unfortunately for all of us, yes."

Scourge cleared his throat, trying to get everyone's attention again. "Lemme explain somethin' real quick, kay? If anyone else wants to try and come at me, I'll melt Pinky's brains over here." He cocked his brow at Amy, who was still on the ground trembling. The others reluctantly did nothing as instructed, but their guards fully up. "Of course, I'm not gonna say who it was who gave it to me, but I was given a very strong ability a few weeks ago. Not gonna lie, I've been kinda abusing it. Maybe just a little." He slowly lowered his fist down to the ground, and Amy's pain decreased as it did. "Basically, I have the power to use a certain chaos ability none of you can achieve. I can hypnotize or mind-fuck any of you with just one stare at my eyes."

"Bull!" Knuckles shouted. "You really expect me to believe something like that!? You really think we're that stupid?"

Scourge darted his eyes somewhere else with a light laugh. "Well, I mean if you want me to be frank-"

The echidna snarled in response.

"Anyways," The hedgehog rolled his eyes. "You know that whole brainwashing thing that crazy cultists do? Yeah it's like that, just a whole lot worse. Think of it as a trippy-ass hallucination."

Shadow couldn't believe what he was hearing. There was actually an ability that could do that? Why did he never discover this? He said it was something no one else could achieve. Perhaps this was a power only someone from his world could have? No, he said it was given to him by someone whom he wouldn't name. Who the hell could have that ability? He tried racking his brain, but nothing came to mind.

"Nah, see, I can make you think you just got hit by a train. I could make you imagine the train that hit you. I could make you see dead loved ones from the past. I can make you see anything I want you to see, and I can see all of your secrets. I see everything. Everything that breaks you, and spiral you down into true despair." He began to cackle creepily as he tossed his head back. "Hahaha!" His regal voice came back to him again. "For I have transcended the minds of mere mortals! Hohoho!"

The white bat worriedly looked down at the pink hedgehog, who seemed to have passed out.

"For instance," Scourge muttered in disgust at the girl. "I could make you think you're having a terrible migraine, when you're really not." He then glanced at Knuckles, who was an overcooked steamed vegetable at this point. That's how pissed he was. "Or, perhaps make you think you're running towards me, when you're actually just running in circles. Or," He smirked and looked at Tails. "Make you think you have injuries, and make you feel their pain. When in reality, I never touched you."

That's...That was why none of them but Shadow had wounds. He actually fought Shadow, but he made everyone else think they got hurt.

He released his fisted hand, making Amy no longer his victim. However, it was probably too late for her. She had to be unconscious at this point.

"S-So," Tails nervously whispered. "You made us all think you were Sonic, when actually-"

Scourge made a rather exasperated grunt at the obvious deduction. "I wasn't? Uh yeah, that's what I was getting at. Wasn't quite done with the explanation yet, kid." He sucked his teeth and continued with his elaboration. "It's as the kid says. It was all in your heads. But, this ability uses chaos wavelengths to your brains. If someone were to tamper with something similar to chaos energy, it disrupts it. So that's why my little charade couldn't play out for too long."

Rouge just sharply turned her head away. "Tch. Either that, or you just really suck at acting, sweetie."

"Ooohh." Scourge smirked at her. "Such sass~ I like it."

"Why was your little disguise flawed?" Shadow crossed his arms. "Yes, you did look like faker. But if one were to look closely, one could easily see the imperfections of your attire. The scars, your body types, the list goes on. Not to mention, I hear you didn't even talk until you were confronted, which raised even more suspsicion. Why go with a plan that'd easily fail with constant red flags? If anything, you should have known Tails of all people would have some type of contraption that deals with chaos properties, which would ultimately fail your disguise. Not to mention, he knows faker best. He would easily figure you out to be an impostor by judging your actions." The black hedgehog looked down at the ground and shook his head. "I don't get it. You were practically setting yourself up to fail." He looked back up at Scourge, his teeth lightly clenched. "Why?"

Scourge put his hands in his black pockets and sighed in what sounded like bliss. "Finally, someone with good questions. So I'll gladly answer them for you, Stripes." The blue eyed Moebian placed himself on the ground and sat down on the soft grass. "You see my angsty emo friend," He politely insulted, making Shadow grit his teeth. "I'll tell you a teensy little secret, kay?" He tilted his head sweetly. "My power is limited. So, I can't make someone see me as Blue perfectly for too long. I had to keep up that disguise for days with the little brat around, and let me tell you, it was hard. Because of how much power that has to be used for keeping that up, my disguise had imperfections. If I had tried to keep up perfect appearances for that long, I would have ended up straining myself. Which is why I didn't talk. My regular voice would give my identity away almost immediately, and I can't mimic it like Blue's that often. If I had tried to make Tails think it was Blue's voice, along with a perfect disguise, I would have killed myself." He chuckled and flagged this off. "And we can't have that, now can we? Besides, I never planned to completely trick you. If anything, I was fuckin' with you."

Knuckles mumbled insults under his breath before commenting. "So you planned all of this crap?"

Scourge clapped his hands gleefully. "Yup yup and yup!" He cheered. "I never planned to stay in disguise for long. In fact, all this was just to pay a visit."

"T-To pay a visit?" Tails' mouth became agape, surprised at such a statement.

"Pfft, yeah." The green hedgehog raised one of his hands to his nose to pick it with his nail. "This was just my way of letting you guys know what's gonna go down. This is all just huge foreshadowing." He looked at his nail and plucked whatever substance that was on it from his nostril boredly. "This is just a friendly welcome! From me to you. A welcome of what's to come!" He said excitedly, his nostrils now flaring. "Ah, but I must sadly say that this visit is just about over. I've given you the info I wanted to tell for so long. And now it's your job to figure out just how to beat me." The hedgehog turned around one hundred and eighty degrees with his hands on his hips once again. He marched away from the group, lightly tilting his head back and forth as he walked. Like he was singing a song in his own head. "Sayonara~!" He waved without looking back.

"Hey, wait a damn minute!" That same knucklehead shouted. Scourge mentally groaned in annoyance. He halted his movements, but still didn't look back. "Don't think you're gonna get away without telling us where Sonic is!" He growled, stomping right behind the green Moebian. In fact, he was at a very close distance. "I'll pound your face into the planet's core, don't screw with me."

The hedgehog felt a vein throb on his head.

But knuckles still continued to talk. "So you better keep talking, or else you'll wish you never-"

"Fucking Chaos almighty, would you shut your fuckin' mouth already!?" Scourge hollered as he whipped his head towards the echidna, who seemed a bit put off by his reaction. "All you ever do is talk, talk, talk, shut the fuck up already! What are you!? My fuckin' pimp or somethin'? Get a damn life, or wait a fucking minute for a response! Didn't anyone teach you basic social interaction skills? Damn!" His teeth that were dangerously sharpened tightly clenched, his green ears were angrily flattened and his eyes were almost instantly bloodshot and shrunken. How did he go from zero to a thousand so fast? He made a low hiss, warning the echidna to get away, now. Even his quills stood up a bit. "Now get outta my damn face, before I shove my hand down your throat and happily rip out your voice box."

Despite that wordy and intense threat, Knuckles refused to move. He wasn't intimidated, and he certainly wasn't scared. He was too stubborn to realize the deep shit he dug himself into. He just stood there, and held up his fists in position to fight. To this, the green hedgehog closed his eyes and stressfully sighed. He knew this one would give him a problem. He should have expected this. But then, he did something Scourge didn't predict. Knuckles slyly glanced at Tails, and gave him a nod before turning back to Scourge.

The fox's pupils widened, knowing what he had to do next. He then began to back away slowly from the group, before turning and sprinting inside of his house. Rouge and Shadow looked back in confusion, before looking at each other extremely perplexed. Then, they heard the sound of a hefty engine. Something larger than some normal vehicle. Shadow figured out exactly what they were going to try to do. "Rouge, get the Rose inside of his house. Don't bother calling GUN for back up, it'll be too late by the time they arrive." He began to move towards the two males. "Don't leave the perimeter of the house!" He said loudly enough for her to hear as that same engine noise grew louder.

Scourge smirked to this. He knew what they were trying to do.

Knuckles kept his mouth a flat line. "Last chance." For the first time all day, he kept his voice calm. Completely, deadly, serious. "Tell me where Sonic is right now."

Scourge put his hands behind his back and made a rather unimpressed expression at the red Mobian. He smugly looked down upon him and shrugged. "Dunno."

"You're a liar." He muttered.

He laughed in return. "Obviously."

"Tell me where he is!" He screamed.

"Well," Scourge began as he trailed off. He looked past Knuckles to see the black and red furred hedgehog speed walk their way. Oh boy, here we go. Guess it couldn't be helped. Then, his eyes automatically shot up at the sky once he heard propellers. The great Tornado 2. "You'll have to," Scourge started to back away, his eyes glancing from threat to threat. "..Catch me first." He finally said.

"What?" Knuckles blinked.

He shouldn't have did that.

Because once he did, Scourge had already shot off in a sonic boom away from the area.

Why did he have to make him stay hidden?

Well, he did say just in case he needed 'back up.' But, he was strong on his own, wasn't he? So what if Shadow was there? He could take him no problem. Then again, maybe he'd have a little problem. But he'd still be able to deal with him by himself. He didn't need someone so worthless. Yeah, that's what he was. Worthless. Complete trash. Garbage...And yet, he loved garbage like him.

He loved him over his own girlfriend. How scandalous.

He couldn't wait until they went back home and-

..He felt his chaos wavelength. He was coming nearby. And someone else as well. Was that Shadow? Wait...Who was Shadow again? Ah, probably another memory Scourge said he didn't need. Ah well. When the time was right, he'd step in.

After all, as his lover, that's what he was supposed to do.

Serve and protect, as loyal as a dog.

All for love.

A bright green streak of light shot off into the wilderness of the area. See, the town of Station Square was surrounded by forests with a few other landscapes nearby. Once the hedgehog set off to run, they saw how he was just about as fast as Sonic, perhaps faster. Shadow was right on his tail, but couldn't run past him. Tails was able to pick up more speed to catch up with the two hedgehogs, but he almost had to make his plane go full speed just to keep up. But he wouldn't let that stop him. After all, keeping up with Sonic was how they met, and how they became close. It was his calling. As for Knuckles, he was also someone else who could somewhat keep up with Sonic. So he was right behind Shadow on speed.

His black combat boots trampled through the flourishing terrain of the outskirts of Station Square. Geez, he knew this would happen. Talk about a welcoming party. Ohh but he couldn't wait to see the look on their muzzles when they saw their hero again. Ah he could imagine it now. The eerie feeling of dread written across all their faces, it would be delicious! The area became more engulfed with trees, forcing him to run side to side to dodge them. He went so fast, the streak he left was spiraling downwards into the forest like a top.

Then, he saw a flash of green light beside him, and saw his only formidable nemesis. The Ultimate Life form. He grinned at his arrival. Smart to just chaos control right next to him. As they ran next to each other, they could easily see the difference of their speeds. This Scourge was definitely faster, as much as he hated to admit to himself.

The black hedgehog scoffed at him and prepared an attack in his palm that was now glowing with red light. However, Scourge immediately threw his hand down to seize the experiment's hand, and forced the power that was reaching his fingertips to cancel itself out. The wavelength of this one's chaos energy was way too disruptive and ironically, chaotic. Shadow hissed at the pain of his power, snatching his hand away and twisting his body to make an upwards kick.

He landed a hit, which made Scourge get knocked down. But with so much momentum and speed, it did more than just that. It shot him yards away, forcing him to hit the ground a few times and roll, before catching himself and gripping his fingers into the ground to stop his body. He threw himself to sprint himself towards Shadow's direction once more, but the hedgehog quickly teleported himself onto the branch of a tree. Scourge commended him for his resources.

Then, the sound of cracking rocks-no, the ripping of tree bark resounded throughout the landscape. The green hedgehog turned, and saw before his eyes a large tree that was freshly rooted up from the ground being tossed towards him. As it was still in the air, he dipped his back low, almost all the way to the grass itself to dodge the tree that flew right over him. Suddenly, his body reacted before he did, and made his hands shoot up to grab someone else's. He found himself grabbing Knuckles' namesakes, holding him off from punching him. Huh. He got in front of him pretty fast.

Knuckles snatched his fists out of his grasp and threw punches left and right. Left hook, right hook, uppercut, sucker punch, you name it. But no matter what, Scourge just kept dodging like a pro, having absolutely no trouble. Not even sweating. The echidna growled at his refusal to fight back, until the other answered his wishes. The Anti-Sonic matched his fighting speed along with the other's just to toy with him. This went on for a short amount of time, until Scourge reached one of his hands out to grip the other by the neck. With a grunt, he swung and threw the red male thousands of feet away, making him hit a few objects along his flight until he landed.

Then, he went down to his knees and curled himself into a green ball. He'd go even faster like this. With a spin dash, he tore through everything. Trees, rocks, and even unlucky woodland animals that squealed in fear before scampering to get out the way. He could see a clearing up ahead, so that would be where he stopped. Once he made it, he uncurled himself and skidded his feet to a stop. He blew out a puff of air and looked up to the skies, only to see that same plane right above him.

The vulpine shot missiles. Not just regular missiles, but homing missiles. Smart kid.

Scourge backflipped up into the air right before a missile landed in front of him. He landed on it's nose and sat on top of it, posing like one of his French girls. He waved a hand at Tails, watching behind the window of the pilot's seat, that he was getting more than just peeved off. With a loud war cry, he made a dive for the hedgehog. The nose of the plane hurdling straight towards him. This made Scourge raise his brows in awe. Woah. That kid was really trying to kill him. He had to say, he was pretty impressed by his recklessness.

Scourge quickly hopped off the missile, waiting for Tails to collide with it. However, that wasn't the case. Right before it had exploded, Tails drove himself away from the rocket just in time. Getting only minor damage. Damn, the kid was good! With a swift turn, he flew himself directly into Scourge's direction one last time. The green Moebian, as he was landing, darted himself towards Tails plane. Almost similar to Sonic's homing attack. Tails watched him coming straight towards him, and clenched his eyes shut. He had stopped the plane, and he slowly opened his ocean-flooded orbs back up.

Scourge was standing right on top of his window, grinning at him again. But then, he threw his hand inside of the window of the pilot's seat and shot his hand through his controls. With a demented smile, he ripped out wires and gears from the machine, laughing manically as Tails cried out in fear. The plane was spiraling downwards to crash, and Scourge hopped out just in time.

He landed safely away from the wreckage, however, the kid wasn't so lucky.

While humming a little song, he walked away confidently while lightly swaying his hips to the song he sung in his own shattered mind. Wow, that kid was more fun than he thought he'd be. Much more fun than that stupid redhead.

...Then he felt a familiar presence behind him. He turned around and smiled brightly. "Hey Stripes." He greeted happily. Shadow looked more than angry, he was full on enraged at this point. Not just because of the situation, but the fact that he made Tails, a child, wreck himself in an accident like that. The hell with Sonic getting mad at him over it, no, that just morally wasn't right. And while he was the last person to run down a list of good morales, he knew in his heart that was just pure evil to do. "Oh oh! Check it out!" Scourge hopped up and down with glee, before settling down quickly and putting one hand over his face, with the other arm crossed over his chest. His eyes lowered mysteriously, and his quills blew in the wind. "I'm Shadow, Shadow the Hedgehog." He announced in a low voice, almost perfectly mimicking Shadow. It seemed that he didn't have to hypnotize anyone to fake Sonic or Shadow's voice. While it wasn't completely flawless, it was very close. Seems he had a little of both of their voices naturally, to be able to pull it off so well. He uncovered his face and stood proudly at his work. "Pretty good, huh? Huh?"

Shadow wasted no time after that to charge towards him with a full-on punch to the jaw.

"OOowwww!" Scourge whined as he stumbled back a few steps. "Chaos, learn to take a joke, buddy."

"You really think," Shadow growled severely in a greatly threatening tone. "This is a damn game?"

"Mnn. Sorta. Well, probably not. After all, a real good game would have a super cool final boss, right? Well, I guess I don't really measure up to that considering I'm not big and huge, like in those cool action games." He put a lightly tan finger up to his muzzle in wonder. "Hmm, but that's for later. After all, like I said, this is just huge foreshadowing." Scourge shook his head with a 'tsk, tsk'. "Ah well. Too bad for you, I'm all you're gonna get for now. So fuckin' hopeless, am I right?"

Alright, that was enough of this pointless dialogue. Shadow asked himself why he even tried to get some kind of retort from him.

So instead of talking, he continued to once again charge towards Scourge, and punch or kick the absolute day lights out of him. He wasn't holding anything back, so unfortunately for the evil Sonic, it was working. He was surprised by this, never really expecting the ultimate life form to actually land more than a few hits on him. In fact, his hits were actually hurting. Huh, go figure. A hover boot landed into his stomach, while a ringed gloved hand fisted it's knuckles into his cheek. And this continued over and over, just in different parts of the body. Then, a flash of green. Shadow was behind him, right above him this time.

He swung his leg down into his head, making Scourge slam into the ground. His glasses flew right off, hundreds of yards away. With a small chuckle, Scourge got right back up and fought back. As they shared punches and kicks, blocks and deflects, Scourge was having the time of his life. Shit. No wonder he was some kind of warped masochist, this shit was fun! And no wonder Blue kept asking about him over and over, who wouldn't want a rival like this?

His thoughts were interrupted by a chaos controlled punch to the back. Scourge was knocked over and shot directly into the soil once more. The green hedgehog groaned and got himself up once again, this time a little sore, and a little tired as well. Fighting scrubs wasn't easy after all. He stood up on slightly trembling feet, and he backed slowly away from the ebony creature of destruction. He spit blood from his mouth, and noticed Shadow was a little scraped up too, just not as bad as he was. Heh, he had the upper hand this time. He gave him a pat on the back for that. After all, this wasn't Blue. Shadow was superior when it came to strength. That's why his attacks actually hurt. But damn, what could he do now?

...Oh. He thought to himself with a smirk. He almost forgot he brought him here.

"Hey Stripes, I meant to ask. You wanna see Blue, right?" He asked in a grunt as Shadow steadily made his way closer to his prey. "You do realize he's actually here." He told with a cocky expression. This made Shadow narrow his eyes.

"Bullshit."

"Ah but it's true!" He exclaimed. "In fact, he's..." His voice became quieter with each syllable. He then, stared right above Shadow, as if something was there. With a growing shade looming over him, the black hedgehog cautiously looked above him. "..Right there."

What Shadow saw next, made his eyes nearly pop out of their sockets. Above him, with a fist ready to collide into his face, was indeed Sonic. But...This hedgehog couldn't have been Sonic. Sonic's fur was never this dark blue, never with this revolting aura. Never, with such negative chaos energy. With his eyes so darkly green and lifeless. In fact, one of his eyes were almost completely white. W-Why!? Why did he look like this!?

To Shadow's reaction, Scourge watched in slow motion while laughing his ass off, as Shadow's rival and Mobius' hero, collided his fist with Shadow's face.

"Tails, get up! Can you hear me?"

Knuckles' highly concerned voice echoed to his large ears, forcing him to wake up from darkness. His entire body was sore, he almost wished he wasn't coming to. He whimpered as he cracked open his eye lids to the world once more, slowly looking around. It smelled like smoke, like a car just crashed into a tree. He glanced down to see scratches and bruises all over his fur. His gloves were even torn up. His head was killing him. Chaos, what did he do?

He slightly turned behind him, and saw a small amount of smoke drifting into the sky. To this, he panicked and sharply turned completely around to face where the source was coming from. He looked in shock at the wreckage of his plane. Darn it, not again. He just fixed it, made modifications, modeled it to perfection-And now it was ruined all over again. He mentally ripped his own fur out of his head. This would take at least over a month to fix.

The entire collision of the crash scrunched up part of the plane, the tail was damaged, the window was literally in pieces...Ughh..

Tails sighed stressfully, drooping his head down in mental exhaustion. This whole day was just crappy.

"You alright?" Knuckles asked again.

Tails put his hand up to his head and lightly rubbed it, feeling a small amount of liquid form from it. He must have developed a gash on his head from the crash, and why he suddenly smelled metallic. He glanced up at Knuckles and saw his body seemed battered up as well, just not as bad as himself. He was relieved to see that he was alright, and doing relatively better than he was. He smiled a little through the pain. "Y-Yeah. Just really sore." He tried standing up, but had much difficulty. Knuckles gripped his hand and gently pulled him up to his feet. He put his hand on his shoulder with his other hand holding one of his arms. He helped him regain his balance, and guided him to move forward and walk. He was tempted to pick up the fox and just carry him.

Tails was grateful for the help, but he was far too worried about what previously happened to thank him. "Where's Anti-Sonic?" He asked quickly. Knuckles growled at the very mention of his name.

"Bastard went deeper into the woods to fight with Shadow. I heard a loud crash happen not too long ago. I hope he's giving him hell."

"Shadow's pretty tough, but Anti-Sonic's stronger. I'm surprised he had the upper hand the first time they fought." The orange fox made a skeptical expression, looking at the grass below him as if he was looking for the answer in the soil. "I don't get it. He's more than capable of beating Shadow or Sonic easily. I'm even more surprised that the fight's not over with."

The guardian blinked at Tails' statement. "H-Hey! Don't count him out yet. Sure he's not someone I'd recommend to help out, but he is on our side for the most part, and someone who can still stand up to that freak. Don't you have any faith?"

"Of course I do!" The preteen exclaimed. "I-It's just, I'm being realistic, not pessimistic. Anti-Sonic-err, Scourge, is much more powerful than you think. He's faster than Sonic and stronger than Shadow thanks to his mutation. Actually, he should be able to take them both on at the same time. The only thing I can think of is that..." Tails' blue eyes widened a little. "He must be in fatigue. Using that weird chaos power to manipulate our minds, it has to be taking a toll on him!"

"You sure about that?" Knuckles grunted as he punched away nearby trees and other plants that were in their way.

"I'm positive. It's the only explanation as to why he can't defeat Shadow. If I'm right, then Shadow really does have a chance to beat him!"

"Well let's hope that you're right, and see to it that green bastard's on the ground groveling by the time we get there."

END - 3

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