A/N Hey here's chapter seven. Now we'll see a bit more of some other stuff I need to show off. I realize my writing sucks I went back and read some of my own work and realized I miss words a lot, or miss spell words…. Or even miss spell a word then my program auto corrects it to the wrong word. I noticed that one a few times. Anyway I feel dumb a lot of the time cause I kinda finish a chapter and I'm like "Meh who needs proof reading" but I really shouldn't…. for some reason nobody really complained before now, thanks Archeon.
So I promise I'll proof read this one and fix a lot of crap if(I mean when) I come by it. My biggest problem is I type too fast, so fast that I will hit a key halfway so it won't come up. Anyway enough of my excuses. Let's get going.
As soon as Shadow was done speaking of ways to help the town folk Tails walked away, Obviously feeling like he was going to snap again. Nobody stopped him but Shadow quickly told one of the towns folk nearby to keep eyes on him at all times. What he had spoken of were no solid ideas. He decided to give everyone some time to think and cool off before moving forward.
When he came back he sighed "It's strange seeing him in such a way… now you are the nice one and he's the bad"
Fiona rolled her eyes "Ya… he says it my fault… I feel I had a hand in it, but he also allowed himself to turn this way…. Right?" she was asking incase she was actually wrong.
"That is not for me to say. I wasn't there and I never knew you on a personal level. I heard the story but you can never tell unless you are right there in the moment" the ebony hedgehog thought it over.
She nodded understanding his point but he continued "Seems you have both suffered from your betrayal since then. Hope you can both work past it soon… but anyway you should stay away from him for a bit. Silver, show her around and keep her company… or make her sit with you during your watch. Just don't embarrass yourself" he chuckled walking away to attend to other business.
Silver sighed slouching "Really, just had to say it?"
He was too far gone but Fiona asked hands on her hips "What was that supposed to mean?" her eyes suspicious.
Silver groaned scratching his head "I told him that I spoke to a girl before Eggman destroyed everything and long story short, I embarrassed myself badly"
Fiona giggled "Ok I won't ask then"
"Thanks" he said still slouching but he was appreciative.
"So we walking or hanging out on the roof?" the fox asked finding it refreshing to have someone new to speak with.
"Well I don't think the guy I got will appreciate being stuck up there for too long so we should head back" he started walking to the building.
Fiona followed but he said "Ummm… you don't mind if I fly us up do ya? Don't want you to get all worried I'm gonna throw you or something?" last time he tried the woman thought he was abducting her.
"Sure go ahead"
He nodded and his hands glowed green before being covered entirely by the light. He reached out slightly and Fiona also started to glow next to him. Both slowly floated up and landed at the edge of the roof.
Waiting was a wolf who looked over and got up to leave while Silver thanked him. The wolf jumped down and Silver took a seat on the edge looking out at the landscape and the wall that surrounded them.
Fiona sat down a few feet away from him and said "So, what's your story. If I might ask?"
Silver shrugged avoiding looking at her as he continued to stare out at the land. He may have taken Shadows teachings a bit too seriously. He once told him to never lose focus or get distracted and he took that a little too much and looked straight out constantly.
Despite all that he blinked slowly and shrugged "Nothing much to tell, I grew up in a nearby city. I knew I had my powers for years, never told anyone cause I thought they'd cast me out for being different. Life was already hard on me anyways" he frowned looking down for about half a second before looking back to the horizon.
Fiona eyed him "You thought the kids would bully you or not be your friend because you had powers. I don't think they would but even if they did you could toss a few bullies around and make a few friends that way"
"Well, maybe" he smiled though.
"What did you mean by hard life?" Fiona asked curious to learn about her new potential teammate.
He was hesitant to answer but sighed "If we're gonna be allies I assume we'll have to be trusting of eachother. Guess that's why you freely told me you weren't a good person in the past… or atleast I inferred that from what you, Tails and Shadow said" once again the teachings paying off.
"I guess so, can't be as bad as how I grew up though" she smiled encouragingly.
"Well… I didn't know my parents growing up, so, ya I grew up in an orphanage. The only stuff I had when I got there were these two bracelets and boots. So obviously there were kids who tried to make the best of it and those who resented others for it. I was the first… a lot of other kids were the latter. Then one day the world began to burn thanks to Eggman and I ran. I met up with a group of survivors that were eventually captured and sent here. Everyone got rebellious including me and Eggman nearly killed us all until Shadow showed up. That's my story" he said leaning back using his arms as support
Fiona wanted to get all smart-allicky but instead said "Well…. Sorry, you sound like you got out ok. I mean you seem normal for this world"
He snorted smiling "Ya, Shadow tells me that sometimes, he's says it's because I'm young and optimistic"
"No argument here" she friendly said joked.
"So you said your childhood was probably worse… may I ask what you meant by that?" he asked politely giving her the option.
There was a short pause of her thinking but she decided to say "Sorry kid but that's something that requires some trust to explain. But let me tell you it was still worse than yours" She wasn't bragging, she really wished she was though.
"That's alright, if it's that bad I'm sure talking about it is hard" his eyes hadn't moved much since they started talking.
Both were quiet again with awkward silence and Fiona asked "So when did Shadow start going all master on you?"
Silver smiled warmly at the memories "Well he saved the town and soon his leg was fixed up. We all decided he'd be best in charge. Although he knew he couldn't do it on his own. At the time I didn't believe him, I thought he was just so amazing, powerful and a good leader. But it was on the …. Sixth or so attack that things got crazy…"
Flashback…
Shadow growled seeing another wave of eggbots moving in on the town. Large numbers.
"Already one week and six attacks, we aren't even halfway through the week" he griped but sped off to go meet them.
Unknown to him a second group was waiting, they had dug under the town and were waiting to break out and attack once Shadow engaged. When he had committed to the fight they burst from the ground and started shooting all over.
Everyone was screaming for help and several people were killed in the first few seconds.
But one hedgehog wasn't backing down. All his life he hid his powers but now he had to use them. If he didn't all the people he had come to trust would die.
His hands glowed with a green aura and picked up a nearby table and threw it with all the force he could muster. It mashed into a crab like robot causing it to stumble.
Of course he knew wood wasn't going to stop a metal crab he just wanted it's attention from snapping a woman in half.
"Hey, I think it's time you scuttled on out of here!"
It's response was obvious as it scuttled towards him with it's snappers poised to grab him. In response he just lifted the robot and threw it up into the sky at an approaching bee drone.
"Your stinging days are over"
He ran to help someone else and continued his tactic of using a bot to destroy another bot. Unfortunately as he rounded a corner a real challenge was facing him.
The white hedgehog froze spotting a robot that was twice his size and had a rifle attachment on its arm. It had seen him round the corner and aimed. When it fired Silver flinched throwing his hands up in a futile attempt to save himself from the bullets.
But they never came.
Opening up his eyes he realized his hands were glowing again and in front of him was a semi transparent green wall that had stopped the bullets cold in the air. He smiled excitedly realizing he had made a wall, or shield of some kind.
"Never knew I could do that" he smiled but then had another idea. If he could make force fields and stuff like that maybe he could use it offensively too. Pushing his hand out opened palmed he saw the shield shoot forward and smash into the robot.
The wall continued sending it backwards until it smashed into a shack causing it to collapse.
"Uh oh" he gulped the energy around his hands dissipating which also cause his force field to stop. Luckily the structure finished off the damaged robot.
He continued through the town smashing anything in his way but slowly felt tired. He'd never used his powers so much so extensively. He looked around and heard no more screaming or shooting and sighed since the danger passed.
"Right when I was about to pass out" he slouched catching his breath but stood stiff feeling a small metal object touch the back of his head.
He gulped now sweating fearing for his life.
One last robot remained, badly damaged from before which Silver had thought he destroyed.
"For disobeying Lord Eggman you will now be terminated" it said in a blank robotic voice.
Silver panted with his hands in the air hoping for a miracle.
There was no time to think, to look back. He wished he had been able to meet his parents and ask them why they left him alone and had to abandon him.
His eyes opened as he heard metal fold over metal, scratch metal, and other breaking sounds.
It suddenly stopped and he turned hands still in the air and found the bot was now just a sphere shaped metal ball.
"Huh?" he asked looking around.
"You can put your hands down" he heard a gruff voice say.
Silver did just that feeling dumb, he was just a little flustered, but turned to the voice he knew he had heard before.
A few feet away from him was Shadow the hedgehog holding his chaos emerald still dimming from using it's power to crush the robot.
"Thank you Shadow, I'd be a dead if not for you" he smiled gratefully to the hero.
"And everyone else would be dead had it not been for you" he flashed a small smile.
Present…
"So that's how it all happened" Silver smiled.
Fiona huffed impressed by the young man, he had to have been twelve or thirteen back then, he was a very brave young man.
"So after that Shadow took me under his wing and I've been his student since then" Silver finally finished.
"Well good for you kid. Shadow rarely warms up to people so easily. Atleast from what I hear" Fiona smiled to him. His comment must have meant a lot cause he smiled more and actually averted his eyes from lookout duty sheepishly thanking her.
Both were quiet once again for a few minutes. Fiona tail flicking left and right before asking "Soooo… how do you pass the time up here?"
Elsewhere…
Shadow continued walking through the town inspecting to see if anything was wrong. He found nothing had gone wrong with anything like the defensive barriers. No leaks from water and no fires…. Since this morning.
He had something else on his mind, where Tails went. Last he saw him he wasn't very happy and felt he might do something irrational. Asking another member of the community where he had gone, since he had sent word to keep tabs on Tails, he was told the general direction the fox went.
As he walked down the street he heard yelling. He sighed recognizing both voices and jogged to the disturbance.
Rounding a corner he saw a bear and Tails yelling at eachother in front of a door.
"You can't keep me from going where I want!" Tails roared.
"Sorry fox, but you can go just about anywhere but here, get that through you head" the bear growled back.
Shadow groaned and approached "Max, back off, he's with me. Let us through"
"You sure?" he asked and Shadow just nodded getting impatient so the bear opened the door "Sorry sir" he had actually done nothing wrong. Tails just wasn't allowed in until this very moment.
"Don't worry about it Max special case is all" he patted his arm as he passed and Tails followed who gave the bear angry glares.
Once the door closed Tails asked "So why this place so restricted?"
The hedgehog stayed quiet but gestured for him to follow. The room was totally bland nothing but four walls. Shadow just kneeled down near the far corner and grabbed at some dents in the metal floor. Metal floor, the rest of the places didn't have that?
The dent turned out to be like finger slots and he pulled up revealing a secret door. Shadow led him down the ladder and said "This is why it's so restricted"
The fox turned and was surprised to see row upon row of plants all with lights over them, UV lights to be precise.
"So this is how you feed yourself without Eggmans help?" Tails said but then realized "Wait, that's impossible this can't feed a whole town"
Shadow merely smirked led him further into the underground cavern. Another wall was in there way with a much more visible door this time. He opened this and on the other side animal noises could be heard.
"You have animals!? How?" everything had been burned in the attacks.
Shadow smirked "Where do you think Eggman keeps getting food, we stole it all. It's one of the reasons why Eggman wants this place destroyed unlike other places. Other towns just steal food, they don't steal what makes the food" he smirked smartly as he closed the door. The only reason none of them did that was because getting food and getting the things that made the food were two different tasks. One required a lot more time and fighting.
He then added "If we ever get low then we go on a small raid and get what we need. Ither Silver or myself stays to keep everyone else safe"
Tails actually smiled, well more of a smirk and nodded "You really have kept these people safe"
Shadow got serious "Which is why I'm not leaving them for dead. I've spent too much effort and time keeping these people alive. They trust me and they give me a purpose to continue to live"
Tails watched him for a moment and finally said "Killing Eggman is a purpose"
"Then what?" Shadow asked having thought this through, if they succeeded these people would be dead and he'd yet again have no purpose.
Tails realized what he meant and asked "Why do you care about these people so much. The old Shadow hardly cared about any of us?"
Shadow grit his teeth then sighed depressed looking away and took a deep breath "Because those people you speak of could have been saved…."
Flashback, minutes before the freedom fighters fall…
Shadow waited among the crowd of Mobians all riled listening to Sonic. All of them clearly enraged from what Eggman did to their planet.
"He's gone too far this time, we're gonna do what we should have done a long time ago!" Sonic yelled only getting the crowd more agitated.
This was insane, Shadow could see the defenses from here, maybe, just maybe he and Sonic could make it but nobody else could. He stepped forward from the crowd.
"Sonic if you attack without a better plan, nobody will make it!" He yelled.
"We don't have time to make a plan millions of people are dead because of him. We need to take him down now before he gets any stronger!" Sonic had a point but no raw force was going to finish this fight.
Shadow yelled again "You have to listen to me, if you go that way head on then everyone of you will die. There is no other ending to this!"
"Be quiet Shadow, of all people I would have thought you'd want this" Sonic growled.
"I do want him dead but…"
"See now come on, let's finish this" he waved for everyone to follow.
Shadow tried to speak again but Knuckles walked past him brushing him aside. He knew what was about to happen.
Next he saw Amy pass by and he quickly grabbed her arm "You can't go"
"Yes I can Shadow, these are my friends. I'm not letting them go alone" Amy pulled her arm away and was about to keep walking when Shadow said "I can see everyone else going, they know how to fight but you…"
"Can't fight, are too young, not good enough?" she guessed a few possible endings to his sentence.
"No that's not what I meant I can't…"
"NO, I'm going and that's final!" she turned following everyone soon running.
Shadow growled, they were all stupid, blinded by anger. If they could only think for one moment! His fist clenched realizing he too had to go with them.
"I need to help them… if any are going to survive I need to go too" he growled to himself and reluctantly followed.
Present…
Shadow looked down to the floor and said shaking his head sadly "I had all the power to stop them all but I didn't… I hid it well but I was angry too…. I should have tried harder. They should be alive… or atleast lived longer but because I didn't try hard enough and let Sonic walk over me they are all dead…. I won't let these people suffer because you want to rush to the same fate" he was now deadly serious staring at his old friend.
Tails stared back at him with the same straight face and it stayed like that for several minutes until Shadow brushed past the fox "And if you can't wait you are free to leave whenever you want. But my place… my purpose at this moment is keeping these people safe. Whether you like it or not" He walked away leaving the fox alone by himself climbing back to the surface.
He hoped that would make Tails think.
Back on the roof…
"Why are you so fast!" Silver yelled frustrated trying again.
"Or maybe you are just slow" Fiona laughed.
"They were playing a game called slapsies, basically one person would put out their hands opened up and palm facing down. The other would do the same but their palms would face upwards . The goal was the person on the bottom would have to manage to slap the top persons top of their hands faster then they could pull them back. If the person faked going for an attempt and the top person pulled back then the bottom person would get one free slap as hard as they wanted. If the bottom successfully slapped the other player they'd switch.
He growled and faked but Fiona didn't move smirking.
"Why are you so good at this" Silver griped.
The female giggled at him "Cause I'm amazing" she gloated.
Silver rolled his eyes and said "Ya well I'm amazinger… and a sore loser" his hands glowed holding her own hands in place then slapped slowly and with a massive smirk on his face as hard as he could.
"HA" he pumped his fist in the air.
"You cheater" Fiona whined rubbing her hands.
"Never said I couldn't do that" he smirked crossing his arms feeling smart.
She groaned "I assumed you'd realize powers aren't allowed"
"I'm Sure Shadow has told you I'm not the brightest light, you made the mistake of assuming I'd assume that" he smirked smartly.
She just shook her head annoyed but heard a new voice.
"So I see you've distracted Silver within half an hour"
They turned seeing Shadow causing Silver to frown and apologize.
Shadow just signaled him to be quiet "Don't worry about it today. I don't think anything is happening today anyway" he smiled, he heard the friendly banter and laughing and allowed the two a moment to smile and just be normal.
"Thanks" Silver said realizing this and went back to looking out now standing.
Fiona stood as well and asked "So you find Tails?"
"Yes I did, he's still a little angry but he's simmering down" Shadow nodded.
"Good to hear. So got a plan yet?" Fiona asked him but he just shook his head.
Silver sighed "Well we need to figure something out, or we'll never be able to go on the offensive"
Shadow continued to go into deep thought "I wish we could just escape, but despite how pitiful that wall is compared to Silver and I's power, people would die. Even if we did escape Eggman would hunt us down using the power of the emerald to track us. But if I left he'd come for them anyway" It sounded like unless Shadow was willing to let all these people die he was stuck with them.
Silver took a deep breath "You told me you've used the power of the emerald to transport to different zones. Could you do that?"
Shadow shook his head "I was only able to do that if I used chaos control while touching metal Sonic since he had a dimension transport device inside him. I can't do it by myself"
Fiona hummed "If only we had Scourges warp ring. It would send them to Moebius it's better than here…. I hope"
"But we don't, and I doubt Scourge will give it to us" Shadow tapped his chin.
Silver said "What if you used the chaos emerald to shield everyone while, Fiona, and I go destroy the wall, Tails could stay to give you support. I could destroy a bit of the wall to let everyone out"
Shadow sighed sadly "Good idea but then what, we still need to keep everyone safe from other attacks, I'm sure Eggman wouldn't want these people making it to others. They know how to survive on their own"
Silver growled thinking again.
Fiona crossed her arms frustrated "I don't think there's a way to save these people forever and do our plan… I hate to say it though"
Silver looked away sadly slowly believing that maybe Tails was right. Maybe these people would have to be sacrificed so they could continue with their plan and help everyone else.
Shadow stayed quiet not wanting to give up but all three heard heavy boots land on the roof.
"I have a plan"
They looked to Tails who was smirking and said "You probably won't like it. But it will get us out of here and keep everyone safe, atleast better than they would be with any other plan"
Nobody noticed but Shadow smirked hearing him say that and walked forward "What is your plan?"
Tails smirked again and proceeded to explain.
Two days later…
"So can someone explain the plan again?" Silver asked tapping his earpiece.
"No" Tail's voice could be heard over the radio.
"Just do your job and we'll all do ours remember that" Shadow replied knowing that Silver was nervous. He always got forgetful and sometimes clumsy when he was nervous.
The white hedgehog nodded and gulped "Got it, so we all ready?"
Fiona said "All the townfolk are where they need to be, preparations have been made. I assume you three are all ready?"
"Just hope you are ready?" Tails said rudely but was ignored.
"Ok so we got our jobs and our areas, let's make this count" Fiona said grabbing her weapons and a few things Tails reluctantly gave her. She also had a pack of explosives that the town had made for attacks. How they got the supplies to do so was a bit of a mystery but it was stolen.
"Alright good luck" Silver said taking off to the sky towards his quadrant of the wall.
"Don't get killed" Tails said already running.
"You better hope this plan works Tails, I believe it all until the very end" Shadow growled blasting off to his area.
"Doubt my reasoning for helping but don't doubt my plan" Tails warned.
"Guys shut up we got a job to do" Fiona ended I there also running.
"Just keep to your quarter of the circle and meet your partner at the end" Shadow briefly re-iterated.
All four went to off in four directions deciding the quickest way to completely annihilate everything would be to split up.
Shadow was first too arrive and instantly started with Chaos blast destroying a section of the wall, and any robots on it and any defense nearby. Now he had some breathing room.
Tails ran forward activating his active camouflage and flew into the air pulling out his plasma weapon and switched the settings. He fired off large globs that stuck to the wall. Several bots stopped to look at them before they exploded vaporizing them all and chunks of the wall. Chuckling slightly he switched to a rapid fire settings and started gunning down anything that came into view.
Silver flew straight at his area and smirked as a forcefield formed around his body. He careened towards the wall green shield in the front and smashed straight through, he was a little dizzy from the hard hit but turned and using the rubble started chucking it at anything that attacked him.
Fiona would have the hardest time but since everyone engaged first there was a distraction for her. She approached the wall and started planting the explosives along it, counting her steps to get an even spread. Just as she was planting the last a bot saw her and fired barely missing.
The fox dropped the final bomb and ripped out her pistils and with gunslinger accuracy shot its optics. Immediately she back pedaled from the structure watching for any more retaliation.
Sadly there was so she shot back until she reached a rock and pressed a button on the controller she had. Half a second later multiple explosions went off in sequence taking the wall with it as it crumbled.
Fiona smirked and lunged back out of cover and advanced shooting like before on any stragglers or new comers. Seeing a group she took out one of Tails' special weapons and threw the small silver orb.
Landing near the group it seemingly did nothing until all three bots suddenly shut down.
"EMP grenade for the win!" she cheered glad he didn't give her a dud.
Shadow in his area was having no trouble as he blinked around taking out any bot that attack him. He appeared behind one and with a chaos empowered chop slicing horizontally cutting it in half then blinked to another. Whenever he could he'd blink to a chunk of wall and with a chaos empowered punch cause it to crumble into little pieces.
He really hated this wall and found great happiness in destroying it for good. After this Eggman would have no reason to build it again.
Silver also had a great time destroying the wall and when he had a small moment took a large piece of rubble and picked it up. He took a stance like he were about to pitch a baseball and took a deep breath. His hands moved around and the ruble he held floated around in mid air above him matching his movements above him.
With an over dramatic throw the rubble hurled towards the wall taking it down with a satisfying smash.
"STRIKE!" he laughed then waved his hand upwards creating another psi barrier stopping bullets that would have taken off his head.
Tails seemed to be having some fun practicing his shooting taking bots heads off with his scope continuing to fly above them. They were confused where he was but were slowly triangulating his position from his shots.
Finally a few got a little too close so Tails dropped down to the top of the wall and landed shoulder his weapon.
He uncloaked with fist clenched and the knuckles sparked with electricity.
He was quite swift using his tails to quickly burst him forward punching into the nearest bot electrifying it and frying it systems causing it to just fall over. The fist stopped sparking using up its charge and started recharging.
He ducked as a nearby bot tried to hit him in the back but he just spun in place upper cutting it shocking it's systems aswell. After that he realized he was surrounded. He smirked and suddenly tossed two silver orbs to both his sides and jumped off the wall hearing shooting behind him.
The shooting stopped as his EMP grenades shut them all down. Using his tails he flew before hitting the ground and grabbed his gun continuing to blow chunks of wall away with the explosive plasma shots.
Fiona climbed the ruble she had created and continued along the wall quickly stopping at a camera and smirked as she slowly dragged her finger across her throat at it as a warning to Eggman who was surely watching and also as a way to rile him up and force him to get drastic. As everyone knew Eggman had an ego and any threat to it even in the smallest way got him easily reckless. Once she finished she used her pistol to smash the lens making it useless.
The fox continued on taking down anything in her way and occasionally planting the few bombs she still had left setting them off as she went.
Soon all four had slowly whittled away their area except Fiona. That was expected, she didn't have the power or equipment to take it completely down but that's why Silver was her partner. They met and Silver waved to her and she waved back.
The white hedgehog proceeded to pick up rubble and destroy what was left of Fionas length of wall while she covered him.
On the exact opposite side of the nearly completely destroyed circle Tails and Shadow met up and nodded to one another. Finishing off the small resistance still left.
With that done Tails shouldered his weapon and flew to Shadow and grabbed his hand. Both flew away from the town the second stage of their plan commencing.
Silver and Fiona finished shortly after and Silver lifted the female and also flew away meeting Tails and Shadow.
"Ok, mission accomplished, all egg-crap is destroyed or inoperable" Silver said with a thumbs up.
"Now for the scary part" Shadow mumbled looking to the defenseless town.
"You all made sure to piss off Eggman right? Cause I did" Fiona said putting her pistols in their holsters.
"I think we humiliated his power exceptionally well, he'll have a ship coming by any minute now" Shadow said looking around.
Like he predicted an egg blimp appeared over the landscape and as it neared a mega phone turned on.
The two foxes and hedgehogs hid to stay out of view and listened in.
"I'm sorry, it seems Shadow has abandoned you at last. Now I have some unfinished business that should have been done months ago" Eggmans voice was heard. He wasn't actually in the blimp; he'd never risk that. It was remotely controlled or run by robots but they weren't waiting to stop it.
The hatches on the bottom of the airship opened and released several dozens bombs.
"You better have made the basement strong enough" Shadow said seriously cross armed.
"It will hold"
Unknown to Eggman or his robots the entire town had been put inside the secret cave under the town. In there Tails had reinforced the supports and made it much harder to destroy that area of ground. Basically they were tricking Eggman into thinking that he killed them all. But in reality they'd leave later and bring all the food and animals with them. That's why everything had to be destroyed. If any bit of Eggman's equipment was left functional they'd been seen leaving and be discovered and hunted down.
The bombs came plummeting down and ignited anything it touched. The fire consuming the town in a matter of seconds. Like Shadow predicted he used fire bombs over actual bombs since it was easier, required a little less precision and was also more deadly.
Silver looked mortified, this was his home, his friends home. The place where he had decided was important enough to protect and show who he truly was. Now it was burning to the ground… all the effort he and Shadow had put into keeping it safe was now gone. But if everything went well everyone would be ok. That was more important.
For about half an hour they watched as the town burned down, the buildings falling and crumbling agonizingly slowly. The airship slowly started floating away it's mission done.
Another half an hour the companions waited watching the last of the flames consume Shadow and Silvers home before finally sizzling away.
Silver used his powers to quickly fly Tails and Fiona back while Shadow dashed ahead.
Coming to a stop near the secret entrance everyone took a deep breath of suspense except Tails who was still confident in his abilities.
The two hedgehogs dug through the fresh ashes and eventually found the entrance still intact which raised their hopes.
Opening the door they coughed as the ash was kicked up and finally looked inside.
"Is anyone down there?" Shadow whispered.
Max the bear came into the light "We're a little shaken, but we're all ok"
Shadow smiled along with Silver. Fiona smiled warmly behind them and even Tails managed a short smile.
With everyone ok they proceeded to get everyone out plus the animals and food.
When people came out they had the same faces of dread Silver had watching the town burn. This had been their homes for nearly two years. It wasn't much but it was theirs. Now they'd have to leave and find new homes, they couldn't even all go together. To avoid suspicion they'd all have to split up into atleast twenty groups and travel to different new towns. But harder then that was keeping the live stock and food out of sight. That was something Tails just couldn't plan for.
Some people were heading East back the way Fiona and Tails had come, Fiona trying to be nice told those groups that if they happened to get to her town, drop her name and the town would help them in anyway they could. Everyone there owed her a favor.
So at this point the towns people were on their own. It was better than they had before Tails made that plan but they had a chance now. That was enough for Shadow and Silver.
With everyone moving off in different directions the four heroes stood in the ashes and stared at one another.
Silver awkwardly broke the long silence "So…." He scratched his quills "We hired?' he jokingly asked hoping to break the ice.
Fiona smiled and looked to Tails "I think they are worth taking along right?"
Tails nodded, not even reluctantly "We need all the help we can get, Shadow is already a proven fighter and from what I saw Silver can handle himself. Yes you're hired" he played along with Silver smiling to the two.
Shadow nodded "Then we better get moving. You mentioned an underground lab, I assume that's where we're going?"
Silver chuckled "Guess, we're the fearsome four now right?"
"Please don't call us that" Tails said turning and walking as everyone else followed.
Shadow and Silver took one last look at their former home before they went over a hill and Silver asked "We're gonna make Eggman pay right?"
Shadow nodded and said brutally "He's gonna pay for every single life he's taken. And I will finally have resolution on one mystery I haven't been able to answer for nearly two years"
Ahhh so that's chapter 7. I think that's just under 6k if you subtract the two authors notes.
Anyway I wanted to do some action but also show some growth of Tails.
Also did you like the plan cause I was trying to figure out a more full proof plan but couldn't. Maybe it was unexpected atleast.
Second this chapter has been proof read so seriously tell me if there's a problem or two cause I want to see if I'm bullshitting myself when I proof read. Lastly what is Shadow talking about with the mystery. Well I know for sure you'll have to guess.
Live long and prosper
Admiralkirk