Well here it is, chapter 18. enjoy.

Chapter 18

Eggman sat in his chair looking into the monitor. He was now even more furious at what he saw. Sonic and Zero making a mess of the entire Egg fleet. Eggman pounded his fist on the arm of his chair. "Blast it. The blue rat and that pitiful use of a robot are so annoying."

"Dr. Robotnik sir," Shadow said as he entered the room.

"Shadow!" the doctor shouted with anger. "What's going on down there with all the rumbling?'

"It's Megaman X," Shadow said panting. "He's a traitor and he's got Metal Sonic with him."

Eggman jumped out of his seat and pounded his hands on the keyboard. He couldn't believe all this was happening. "What?"

(Back outside)

Zero and Sonic jumped off the flying robot and landed on the deck of the ship. Everything seemed quiet. Quiet wasn't good, there were no alarms, no nothing. Zero looked around to see that there wasn't even a robot prepared for a fight. Then suddenly the ship began to quake and a explosion occur from the side of the ship. Sonic ran over to the side to check it out. He wasn't surprised at what he saw. Copy X and M.S. 5 were making their escape. Copy X stopped and looked over to Sonic and Zero. "S-so you've finally made it," he said. "W-well I'm afraid you're too late. T-that fool Eggman and as well for the rest of your world have reached its demise. I'll l-leave you with this departing present." He then signaled M.S. 5 to fly down to the ship next to Sonic and Zero.

WARINING!

"Prepare for you destruction," the robotic hedgehog said as it slowly began to hover off the ground.

Zero started off by leaping forward with his saber in hand. He made a slash at the robot but the attack was blocked and the robot grabbed hold of Zero and threw him away. Sonic quickly dashed over and caught Zero and place him back on the ground. He then dashed at his robot counterpart and slammed into its torso. M.S. 5 showed no sign of damage and slapped Sonic away. Sonic recovered in mid air and performed a homing attack knocking into the robot's face. M.S. 5 fell to the ground and quickly got back up. It extended its arms and his hands turned into dual swords. M.S. 5 crossed his arms, it was time to get serious. Sonic and Zero stood next to each other and took their tradition fighter poses. M.S. 5 shot forward with its arms extended Zero took the lead with Sonic right behind him. Zero swiped his sword and clashed with sonic's robot counterpart. The pushed as hard they could against each other. Zero growled with extreme. This fight was more difficult than the one's he with Harpiua and the Guardians all at once. Looks Eggman does know how to make a good fighting machine.

"You gotten stronger since we've last met," Zero said.

"Indeed I have," M.S. 5 replied. "Thanks to wonderful technology Neo Arcadia."

Zero's eyes widened and he pushed off M.S. 5.

"Don't you mean Eggman," Zero asked confused.

"Yeah I've noticed that too," Sonic asked. "With every battle we've fought the reploids only mentioned Copy X's name and didn't even think of mentioning Eggman."

"HE must've rewritten the programming of this guy."

"It is true," M.S. 5 replied returning to his fight pose. "After our last battle I was…changed."

"I'll say," Sonic said as he charged forward.

M.S. 5 swiped its blade and Sonic jumped over and landed on it. Zero followed up with swipe through the torso. M.S. 5 retaliated by swinging its other blade around and slashed Zero's back. Zero fell to the ground. Sonic's eyes widened as he was still standing M.S. 5's blade. He quickly jumped off and landed behind the robot and grabbed the robot's other arm. Sonic then began to spin around. He picked up more speed with every cycle, until he finally let go and sent the robot flying through a nearby ship causing a massive explosion.

"Zero," Sonic said running to Zero's side. "You okay?"

The red Reploid slowly arose to his feet. "Yeah," he replied. "Doesn't really hurt."

"Oh you need not worry about pain now," came a familiar evil robotic voice.

Sonic and Zero slowly turned around to see that it was M.S. 5. He was covered in scratches and one of its eyes light were put out. It lifted one of its blade arms and pointed it at the two.

"This will be over so fast you'd wish you'd feel pain."

"I don't think so!" came a second famiar voice.

Sonic was surprised at what he saw. "Shadow!"

It was Shadow the Hedgehog; he was headed there way in what looked like an armored vehicle. Shadow stuck his arm out of the window revealing that he was holding a machine gun. He pulled the trigger releasing a huge barrage of bullets. M.S. 5 jerked around with every hit from the bullets. Shadow then pulled his arm and the gun back in and hit the gas hard. He was headed right for the M.S. 5. Within seconds Shadow slammed the armored vehicle into the robot sending it flying off ship.

"Get in!" Shadow called opening the passenger door. "He's going to come back. Hurry up!"

Sonic entered the front door while Zero sat in the back. Shadow put out the machine gun to Sonic. "Woah wait a minute," Sonic said pushing the gun away. "Zero's saber is one thing but I have a strict no gun policy."

"Sonic you are useless," Shadow said rolling his. "Fine I'll do it. You I saw you with a gun earlier I need you to give me back up fire."

Zero nodded and pulled out his Buster Gun. Shadow turned back around looked to the steering wheel. Sonic pointed out the wind shield in horror. "Look."

The three all looked in horror to see that M.S. 5 slowly lifted itself into the air. Shadow turned the vehicle around and head for the far end of the ship's deck. Sonic, feeling nervous, put on his seatbelt not knowing what was going to happen. "Shadow what the.."

"Just trust me," he black hedgehog replied.

And without hesitation, Shadow drove the armored vehicle off the deck of the ship. Sonic held onto his seat while Zero remained calm looking through the wind shield. The truck fell through the air for few seconds and then came to a hard landing onto a second ship. Sonic gasped upon impact as Shadow continued to drive on. Zero put his head out his window and noticed they were being followed. "He's coming!" Zero yelled as he began firing at M.S. 5.

"I told you he'd be back," Shadow replied. He then made a hard left which turned the entire vehicle around and began driving backwards. Shadow pulled out his machine gun and he and Zero shot with everything they had at the M.S. 5.

"Fools," the robot taunted. "You think that those pathetic weapons have a chance of damaging me?"

Shadow pulled his arm back and stuck the middle through the wind shield. He then turned the vehicle back around and continued his usual driving. M.S. 5 lifted his hands into the air and formed a purple ball of energy. Sonic's eyes widened at what he saw through the hind wind shield. "Hit the gas Shad'. Make this thing go faster."

"No back seat driving Hedgehog," Shadow shouted. He then drove the truck off the the second ship.

"Zero why don't you contact Tails and tell him come get us already," Sonic yelled trying not to look out the window. "Hurry before we fall to our doom."

"Right," Zero then put his head to the side of his helmet. "Ciel do you read?"

"Yeah, I overheard," the young girl replied. "What's going on over there?"

Zero looked his window; ships were firing at him, a robotic hedgehog was chasing after him and on top of all he was falling through the air with someone he thought was his enemy as the driver. "Long story."

(Tails' Workshop)

Tails ran outside and over to his garage, not too far behind him were Amy, Ciel and Cream. Tails hopped into his favorite red airplane and put on his protective goggles. Ciel leaned over to the cockpit towards Tails. "Be careful out there," she said and then gave him a kiss on the cheek. Tails' face flashed bright red and quickly turned on the engine and flew off Angel Island.

"Ewww," Amy said walking next to Ciel who was looking out towards the plane. " Looks like someone's got a big crush on Tails."

Ciel remained quiet and continued looking out into the distance. Things were really starting to heat up.

(Meanwhile)

Shadow drove his vehicle off the edge of yet another aircraft and came to a hard on a second one. Zero poked his body out the window and began to firing shots at M.S. 5 who quickly dodged the attack.

"This is Tails do you read me?" came Tails' voice through Zero comlink.

"Yeah this is Zero over," Zero responded.

"I'm gonna need to know your location so keep this line open."

"Right! Oh and Tails."

"Yeah,"Tails responded calmly.

Just then Shadow drove off the edge another ship. "HURRY UP!" Zero shouted while in mid fall.

"There's no stopping him is there?" Sonic asked holding onto his seat.

"Well there is one way," Shadow replied. He then fired a round out the window.

"What why didn't you say so," Sonic yelled.

"I've been thinking. Why don't you two use a combined attack towards its mid section? The M.S. 5 has power core right in its torso that contains Chaos energy. And don you know what happens when pure Chaos energy is exposed to heat?"

"A really big explosion," Sonic softly replied. "But where are we gonna find a high powered heat source?"

"Not a problem," Zero intervened. He then looked into a small screen on his arm. "Heat Body Style!"

And with that Zero's body began to glow. After the glow cleared Zero had a new look; his entire body had turned bright orange. Sonic's eyes widened.

"That was unexpected but okay."

"Why do you insist on defying the power of Neo Arcadia?" M.S. 5 asked as it fired a blast at the group. "We're unstoppable."

"This is Tails. Are you guys in that armored vehicle?"

"This Zero, yeah that's us?"

"How do you guys plan on letting me picking you guys up when you're driving? And besides that you're being chased."

"Your attack," Shadow yelled. "When I reach the end of this ship I want you and Sonic to get out of here."

"But what about you?" Sonic asked.

"I'll be fine. Just get ready,"

Shadow pressed hard on the gas, increasing in speed. They were approaching and fast. Zero pulled out his Boomerang Shield prepared to attack. "Get ready," Shadow said calmly. "GO!"

Shadow drove off the edge of the ship while in mid air Sonic and Zero opened the doors and leaped outside. Sonic curled into a ball while Zero charged his shield. "Ready!" Sonic called.

"GO!" Zero yelled.

Sonic flung himself through the air and began to move around M.S. 5 in an orbit. After a few seconds Sonic kicked off the robot leaving Zero to finish things off. Once the weapon was fully charged Zero threw it as hard as he could. The Shield Boomerang had become the Fire Boomerang. The new and improved weapon sliced through the center of the robot's center resulting in a huge explosion.

Well that's it. I'll leave you with a cliff hanger. Until next time.