Chapter 5

Val fell back and hit the ground hard, Gabe towered over him, smirking. Val looked around the rooftop; Stacey and Ravana were fighting hand to hand, Kei-ron and Smoke were each running around trying to shoot each other, Smoke using a machine gun, Kei-ron was using his arm, which had the ability to morph into almost any weapon due to thousands of nanobots built into him and had turned into a rail gun. And Devina was using her armblades to fight Jade, who was using a long gold staff.

"It's over Val," said Gabe, "You lose…time to die."

Val then quickly sat up and punched Gabe hard in the stomach, sending him soaring towards the edge of the tower, Val then warped behind Gabe and kicked him skyward, "I'm not ready to die again just yet." he said as he charged two purple fireballs in his hands and threw them at Gabe.

The fireballs exploded on impact and launched Gabe high into the sky.

Val looked over and saw Devina struggling to hold off Jade. The green echidna smirked evilly and swung the end of the staff at Devina, suddenly Val jumped in between them and grabbed the staff, holding it effortlessly, Jade's eyes widened as Val glared at her and snarled. He punched Jade in the face, making her stumble, before spinning round and hitting her hard with her own staff. As Jade fell, Devina plunged both of her armblades into her shoulders, pinning Jade to the ground. Jade screamed in pain as Val turned and ran towards Stacey and Ravana.

"Get ready, bitch. I'm gonna cut you open." said Ravana as he took a knife out of his pocket

"Oh wow, real scary." replied Stacey, sarcastically, "Why don't you look behind you."

"Oh yeah, like I'm gonna fall for that old trick." Ravana then froze as he felt a finger tapping his shoulder, "Aw man." He turned and saw Val throwing a punch. Ravana flew through the air towards Stacey, who jumped into the air and roundhouse kicked him, sending Ravana tumbling over the edge of the tower.

As Ravana's cries faded, Val noticed the sound of gunfire had stopped, he turned and saw Smoke lying on the ground, gasping as he lay in a pool of blood with Kei-ron standing over him.

The four all gathered near the centre of the tower, "We did it." said Val, "We changed the future and saved Mobius."

Just then Val's ear twitched, he quickly pushed everyone out of the way as a large beam of energy crashed into the tower, sending dust and smoke everywhere. Devina stood up and looked around, squinting against the debris. She saw Val hanging onto a large hole that went all the way down to the bottom of the tower, "Val!" she opened her wings and flew over and helped pull Val up, "What just happened?"

Then an evil laughter filled the air as Gabe floated down from above, but he was different; he had long black hair flowing upward, his fur was bright red and had demonic wings and a tail, "Congratulations Val, you've successfully destroyed my plans once again., but this is where it ends. I WILL kill you…right here, right now."

Val glared at his brother as he took off his coat, threw it to the ground and stepped forward, "You just don't get it, do you? You can't kill me!" Val then exploded in a blast of red energy, Devina, Stacey and Kei-ron shielded their eyes and Gabe simply looked on, his eyes burning red with hatred.

When the light finally faded everyone gasped at the sight before them; Val had taken on a similar transformation to Gabe, his fur was now blood red, his hair was long, black and pointing upward, as were his quills. His eyes were now a cold grey colour and his tail had grown longer.

"What the Hell happened??" asked Stacey

"Perfect Val…" answered Devina, "Val's ultimate power is unleashed once again."

Val then warped up to Gabe and punched him hard in the face, sending him flying back, Gabe then charged up a bolt of lightning and threw it at Val, who batted it away with his hand like it was nothing.

"Do you understand now, brother?" said Val, "I'm stronger then you are…but it's not because of Venom. It's because I train hard and have better control. It's not about how much power you have, it's about how well you control it."

"Shut up!!" yelled Gabe, "You're not stronger then me! I'll prove it right now by destroying you!"

Val smirked and put his hands together in a hand sign, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" in flashes of energy two copies of Val appeared either side of him, Gabe's eyes widened, "Think you can destroy all of us, Gabe?"

"Damn you, Val! That's not fair.!"

"Who says fights have to be fair?" The three Vals disappeared, leaving Gabe alone. He looked around, trying to sense Val when suddenly one of the clones flew at Gabe at top speed and kicked him in the chest, causing blood to spurt from his mouth as he was launched towards the second clone, who uppercut him, sending him skyward. The real Val was waiting for Gabe, charging a large energy ball as he came up to eye level with Val, who then fired the blast. Gabe was sent flying through the air. He managed to stop himself and hovered in mid air, looking down at the bruises all over his body, he then looked up and saw Val floating a few metres away. Gabe then sensed the two clones coming at him again, 'This time, I'm ready for them' he thought "Explosive Wave attack!" a giant sphere of electricity emanated from Gabe and caught the clones, making them both explode in small blasts of energy. Val flew away, out of range of the attack and watched it die down. Val and Gabe then flew at each other and started fist fighting, each one moving at light speed and matching each other blow to blow. Devina, Stacey and Kei-ron all watched, struggling to keep up with what was going on, by now the streets were filling up with hundreds of Mobians, all watching the spectacle. Val and Gabe soared around the sky over Mobotropolis, fighting. Eventually Val hit Gabe in the face, making him reel back. The two then hovered at equal height with around 30 metres distance, Gabe wiped the blood from his mouth and yelled, "Fine! If I can't beat you, I'll take out all the people I can! I'll destroy all of Mobotropolis myself!" Val's eyes widened as Gabe said this and started charging an enormous light blue energy ball above his head.

"Gabe, don't be an idiot. This is the same trick Necron pulled, and it failed, remember?" said Val

"Yes 'brother' I do, and this time, you have no one to help you…not even those little bitches you hang around with."

Val gritted his teeth and snarled slightly, "That's it Gabe! You're going down!" he held his hands out to the sides and started charging a golden energy ball in each.

A news helicopter had seen what was happening and was now posting a live broadcast on a large TV screen that hung from the side of a skyscraper in the centre of Mobotropolis, a sandy brown female mongoose sat in the copter as a turquoise male fox filmed her with a camera, "Ladies and gentlemen, two mysterious red Mobians have appeared in the sky above Mobotropolis and are currently in the middle of a fierce battle. One of them seems bent on our destruction, while the other is fighting for all of us. Whoever this mystery man is, all our hopes are with him. Good luck."

Val focused harder and harder, pouring all his energy into this final attack, as Gabe did the same.

Not far away, on top of a tall skyscraper, a black hedgehog with red streaks in his quills was watching Val and Gabe, his long brown coat blowing in the wind, "You can do it Val."

"Gabe looked down at Val with an insane look, "Die Val!" he fired a gargantuan blue beam of energy at Val, who clashed his hands together and fired a gold beam of equal size, the two blasts collided and started an intense power struggle, both hedgehogs trying desperately to gain the upper hand.

Back on the top of the ruined tower, Devina watched, praying for Val to win, "There must be something I can do." she said, she then remembered Val threw his coat down, "Wait…maybe.." she ran over and rummaged through the pockets, her heart leapt as she felt something hard in one of them, "Yes!!" she exclaimed as she pulled a large grey gem out, "A Chaos Emerald…now I can help Val."

"Devina, what're you talking about?" asked Stacey, but Devina didn't answer, she focused on the emerald's power and began to glow. There was a flash of black energy and suddenly Devina transformed' her skin was much more tanned, her fur was pure black and she pulsed with dark energy.

Val and Gabe were too immersed in their power battle to notice Devina fly up and float behind Gabe. Val then sensed a change in the energy around him and recognised it as Devina's Super form, he then realised what she was planning and readied himself.

Devina started charging an energy blast aimed for Gabe's back. By the time Gabe realised Devina was there, she had already finished charging, he quickly turned and tried to block her blast with one hand while holding his own blast with his other hand. Val the gave his gold energy beam one last push, it grew larger and burst through Gabe's beam and hit him full force, Devina warped out of the way as Gabe was sent streaking past her by Val's beam.

The energy pouring into Gabe's body became too much, he screamed as he flew through the sky, "Damn you Valor the Hedgehog!!" suddenly he exploded, sending a shockwave throughout the sky.

The city erupted with cheers as Gabe died, Val and Devina both looked down at the masses below, screaming and clapping. They then flew over and landed on the tower and changed back to normal.

Devina threw her arms around Val and kissed him, "You did it Val."

"I couldn't have done it without you." Val replied

Just then there was a flash of blue light and Cronos appeared, "Congratulations, to all of you. You've once again saved all of Mobius. We are all in your dept."

"Thanks Cronos." said Val, "Uh…how bout getting us down from here?"

"Of course." Cronos clicked his fingers and Val, Devina, Stacey and Kei-ron were warped down to the streets where an army of people were waiting for them.. Hundreds of Mobians swarmed around them, cheering. But Val looked past the crowds, and up onto a rooftop, there stood the black and red hedgehog. Val smiled and nodded to him, the hedgehog smirked and nodded back before holding up a green gem and disappearing.

The sandy mongoose ran up to the group, "I'm Nina with Channel 12 news, can you tell us your names?"

"This is Stacey, Kei-ron and Devina." said Val

"And you are?"

"Me?…I'm Val the Hedgehog. Remember it…cause I'm here to stay."