Chapter 5: Vendetta

Day break, Shadow and Blaze were hiding in the jungle by the bank of a river, while then Eggman mustered his forces for a massive sweep, he determined to hunt down the two Mobian hedgehog and cat once and for all. Shadow took some hits on his arm while they were escaping in the night, there were three huge bullet holes on his arm, his arm was bleeding, his black furs were soon mixed with red blood in him. Blaze slowly, gently hovers her finger on his wounds, with a small torch on her finger, she kept his wounds warm enough to stitch the bullet holes back together. "Shadow, you're not expendables." Blaze comforts Shadow's pain of being betray by his own superiors, she reach up to his mouth and gave a passionate kiss, it was Shadow's first true love kiss, he hoped that she would be his lover for a life long. "We'll have to find a way out of this jungle." Blaze picked up her AK47 and stand up to lead the way for Shadow, but when she stand up, bullets and shots were fired upon her, the sudden and fatal strike has taken its toll on the last of Mobius's pyrokinesis civilization. Blaze fell down to the ground, shaking, twitching. Shadow enraged by the Egg Legion's murdering of Blaze, and so he quickly took her gun and open fire on the legionnaires who killed his love.

Shadow trying to salvage Blaze's life, but there was nothing he could do for her, all he get from her was her last word, "You're...not...expendables..." then she passed away, another one of Shadow's lover, his life was already a tormented one, but got ripped to even worse condition. The clouds were darken, it begins to rain the monsoon rain of the jungle, Shadow buried Blaze in a small grave, where she died, marked by a stone written "Here lies princess Blaze", Shadow tied his red bandanna on his head, he wore Blaze's necklace to honor her deeds, her bonds to him, he sheathed his knife and pick up his compound bow. He sworn on Blaze's death, that he will free the prisoners, and forced Eggman to pay for what he did. Eggman's elite badniks were sweeping the area around the river bank where one their patrol was wipe out earlier, unbeknownst to them, the hunters has become the hunted. They were stalk, follow, and even being wiped out silently one after another by Shadow. The black hedgehog fired his arrows at the badniks, one after another, then disappear. He hide in dark places, sometimes cover himself with mud to hide from Eggman's forces thermal vision. And when a lone patrol come by, he slit their throats.

What's left of the patrol soon found Shadow, they chase him down to a nearby village, still inhabited by Mobians, there Shadow found a chicken and a gas can. He soon have an idea to deal maximum damage to the massive patrol. Eggman's forces soon arrive at the village and began to sweep the area, they found a trace of blood on the ground, they follow it into the high grasses, where it was so dense that they can barely see anything in front of them. They legionnaires soon found the where the blood trace lead to, a dead chicken next to a gas can. From the other side of the field, Shadow light up his lighter and threw it into the the field, set the whole field of high grasses a blaze with the legionnaires still inside. He installed explosive tips on his arrows, then fire them into the remaining legionnaires in the village. The high explosive arrows soon wipe out the legionnaires and the badniks in the village, a convoy consisted of two trucks and a jeep soon came to a bridge next to the village, but with only an arrow, Shadow wiped out the reinforcement for the patrol.

The Legionnaire officer soon confronts Shadow at a waterfall near the village, his bullets couldn't hit the black hedgehog due to poor aims, Shadow armed his arrow, he aimed at the Legionnaire officer and fire his shot at the officer, it exploded on impact, splattering the officer into pieces. But then from above his head, Metal Sonic piloted a Huey helicopter carrying a massive napalm surprise. The blue robotic hedgehog drop the canister on where Shadow was standing but the black hedgehog dodge it by jumping into the deep water below, the canister exploded, spilling the flame everywhere. Knowing that his target is still alive, Metal Sonic hovers his helicopter above the water surface so his gunner can fire blind shots into the water below. After a burst of machine fire, the wait for a dead body to surface was over when Shadow burst out of the water and drag the gunner down. Metal Sonic wasn't going to let Shadow walk away easily, a battle between the organic and mechanical hedgehog began, Metal Sonic ramp Shadow into the back seat then grab Shadow's neck and hit him on the sealing. Metal Sonic then pin Shadow on the floor of the chopper, slowly pushing the hedgehog to his doom. But Shadow fights back in the last minute, he punches the robot's eyes, his fist tears through the interiors of the robot's head. Metal Sonic's carcass was thrown off the helicopter, leaving the co pilot to his fate, Shadow kicked the co pilot out of the helicopter and commandeer control of the Huey, he diverts the helicopter back to the prison camp to rescue the prisoners.