Chapter 4: Skirmish of Steel and Flesh


Knuckles growled, standing his ground. Something wasn't clicking in his gut about Shadow's behavior, and it made the echidna worry... wait, no. It wasn't Shadow that was worrying him, it was the look on Rouge's face. She looked incredibly frightened, as though she would bolt any second. Try as hard as he could, Knuckles couldn't ever recall the bat looking so scared.

"Alright, Eggman! What do you want?" Sonic yelled, jolting Knuckles from his thoughts.

The human didn't answer, instead flashing an evil grin and snapping his fingers. Shadow leapt backwards, landing neatly at Eggman's side. As the black hedgehog did so, Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles, and Tails Doll lunged forward. Sonic raised his arms in an attempt to shield himself from Metal Sonic's attack, but yelped in surprise when he felt cold metal claws close around both of his arms. His limbs were jerked roughly above his head, bringing Sonic face to face with his metallic doppelgänger for the briefest of moments. Using the hedgehog's own weight as momentum, Metal Sonic swung him around once and threw him into the middle of the street. Sonic grunted in pain as he landed face-first on the asphalt, effectively knocking all the air out of his lungs. As he tried to get back up to his feet, Metal Sonic turned around and leapt for Sonic once more.

"Sonic!" Blaze screamed. She sprinted to Sonic's side, small spurts of flame trailing off from her shoes as she ran.


Knuckles snarled, quickly getting into a position to stop the looming threat of Metal Knuckles. He quickly brought his arm back and launched a punch. At the rate the robot was approaching, the echidna's fist should have made contact instantly with the metal cranium... but Metal Knuckles vanished right before the punch landed.

"Huh?" Knuckles grunted, looking around in surprise. Robots don't just vanish.

The echidna's attention was grabbed by a loud scream. He spun around to find Metal Knuckles, who had Cream's arms firmly in the grasp of his metal claws. She was struggling to break free from the vice grip, but was failing badly.

"Let her go!" Tails yelled at Metal Knuckles. The young fox was preoccupied with fighting off Tails Doll, who had evidently received updates during his long absence. Said plush was trying to lunge at his throat, the red jewel attached to its forehead glowing dully. It must have had a decent amount of power beneath its fuzzy exterior, for Tails was having a difficult time keeping it at bay.

"Rrrgh. Coward!" Knuckles growled, taking a step forward. Before he could take another step, Metal Knuckles released one of Cream's arms, moving the now free claw to her neck. She yelped in a mixture of pain and fear as the razor-sharp tip began to dig into her neck.

"Come no closer, or the girl is dead," Knuckles' robotic counterpart said, in its monotone voice.

"Don't... do it... Knuckles!" Tails yelled, struggling to keep the Tails Doll away from his neck. The plush was not getting any closer to its target, but it was starting to push Tails backwards, his grey soles' traction barely keeping him from sliding back any further on the sidewalk.

"Well, what do you want me to do?" Knuckles yelled, feeling his patience growing thin.

Tails grunted as he spun his two tails around, managing to build enough force to resist the Tails Doll. He wrapped one hand around the plush's neck and the other around the gem. This seemed to stun the doll, as it suddenly fell limp. Acting quickly, Tails threw it off to the side.

"I don't know! Just... don't let that stupid robot kill her! ACK!" he yelped, ducking as a rock the size of a cupcake whizzed where his head had been. The Tails Doll was floating back towards him already, the red gem gleaming brighter than before. A couple of pebbles from the yard next door gained a red glow, and shot through the air, straight at Tails, who was barely able to dodge them. "I'd help you, but as you can see, I have my hands full right now!"

Knuckles turned back to face Metal Knuckles, his mind working furiously as to how he could save Cream and kick the robot's ass at the same time. The robot had vanished yet again, though. Cream was left trembling, hands and knees on the spot on the lawn where she had been held. Knuckles blinked in confusion-- how did Metal Knuckles keep vanishing? The echidna's eyes widened as he detected a presence only inches away from the back of his neck. He wound up a punch, whirled around and... had to stop himself from punching Storm. Clawing at the ground beneath the albatross's foot was Metal Knuckles. Storm seemed indifferent to the robot, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Oh, did I scare the red mutt?" Storm asked tauntingly.

Knuckles gritted his teeth and rolled his eyes. "No, but I would like to know why you were so close to me!"

Storm put his hands up in self-defense. "Hey, I was just trying to see if that Cream kid was alive!" He looked at the struggling robot beneath him for a moment. "And since you were so busy yakking with that fox, you didn't even notice this guy sneaking up on you. You owe me one, mutt!"

"Whatever," Knuckles muttered, then ran over to Cream. He held out a hand, and helped her to her feet. "You okay?"


As the others fought, Rouge stood on the porch, frozen with fear under Shadow's unwavering glare. She couldn't forget the horrible reason as to why Shadow was after her-- at least, the only one she could possibly come up with.

---

The white bat walked through the empty Club Rouge, the heels of her boots clicking against the tiled dance floor. She made her way to a dark, ash-colored door, which was locked up from the general public. Rouge took a key out, unlocked the door, and walked up the stairwell. She slid the key back into her pocket, and sighed deeply, trying to figure out a way to break the bad news to Shadow.

Rouge opened the door to her house, which was on the second story of Club Rouge, took off her white boots, and set them by the door before walking into the kitchen. Sitting silently on a wooden stool, gazing at the world through a tinted window, was Shadow. For the past couple of months, he and Rouge had been dating. There had been a couple of hitches in their relationship every now and then, but that was perfectly normal, Rouge had reasoned with herself. After all, nobody said life was a rose garden.

"Shadow? Can I talk to you for a minute?" Rouge asked, playing nervously with her hands.

Shadow didn't look at her, but his eyes opened. He hadn't been looking out the window after all, instead he had just been in deep thought. "Sure. Knock yourself out."

"Shadow... I've been thinking about this," Rouge started, walking over to him and putting a gloved hand on his black shoulder. "And, well... I find that things just haven't been working out for us."

The ebony hedgehog looked over at her, a flicker of confusion in his crimson eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I'm sorry, Shadow, but... I'm breaking up with you. I hope we can still be friends," Rouge said.

Upon hearing this, Shadow averted his gaze from her, instead turning it to the floor and closing his eyes. Rouge couldn't tell if he was upset or not-- his expression was too glacial for her to tell. Silence was the only thing passed between the two for a few minutes. Eventually, Shadow looked back up at her, opening his eyes again.

"Why." Shadow's voice was flat; he didn't state it as a question.

"Hm? Oh. Well, Shadow... I-I know that you're working for Eggman," Rouge stuttered, not sure how he'd take it. "And I'm a government agent. The other day, my boss came very close to finding out that I was dating someone working for the enemy... and, well..."

"I see. This is all about you, right?" Shadow snapped, obviously upset.

"I didn't say that," Rouge retorted quickly.

"Don't worry, Rouge, you can just say it to my face. I understand completely. You were doing another research project on me. Now that you've finished, you have no more use for me. You're throwing me away, just like before!" Shadow growled, getting off the chair and stepping forward.

Rouge gulped. What he had said was partially true. She was getting paid extra to start another research project on Shadow. If she didn't follow through with this, then she would lose several things that the government allowed her to keep... her house, her job, and all of her jewels.

The black hedgehog clenched his fists, now barely inches away from her. The red color of his eyes seemed to fit how angry he appeared. For a split second, it seemed like he would attack her. But all he did was lean forward and hiss in her ear.

"You'll regret this," he whispered. In a bright flash of what seemed to be Chaos Control, he disappeared.

---

Rouge let out a yelp of surprise, stumbling backwards and eventually falling against the porch. Shadow had Chaos Controlled right in front of her, disrupting her thoughts. He walked forward towards her, anger on his face. It appeared that he, too, had remembered the events of that day.

"I'm sorry, Shadow!" Rouge said, too paralyzed with fear to get to her feet.

"'Sorry' isn't going to cut it. Chaos Spear!" Shadow yelled, firing a controlled blast of lightning energy point-blank at Rouge.

The bat was able to roll out of the way fast enough so that the energy spear didn't skewer her, but she didn't dodge fast enough to avoid it completely. Rouge let out a scream of pain as the membrane of her right wing was pierced by the Chaos Spear. She brought herself to her feet and looked around wildly, frantically searching for a way out, but was unable to see any. Rouge gulped-- hurting Shadow was the last thing she wanted to do right now, even though he had just tried to kill her. Spotting an opening for a fleeting moment, the bat leaped into the air, intending to fly. In her desperation, she had forgotten that her wing had been speared just seconds before. Rouge let out another yelp of pain as she fell to the ground, landing on her stomach. Shadow let out a chilling, evil laugh.

"It appears your time is up," he said, a sneer on his face.

Shadow raised his hand towards Rouge. Bolts of yellow energy were summoned to his fingertips, as he began charging up another Chaos Spear. Rouge looked away and shut her eyes tightly, bracing herself for the final blow. She could hear him begin the vocal command.

"Chaos Sp-- ARGH!"

Confused, Rouge opened her eyes, just in time to see Shadow landing on his back, as the result of a powerful blast. His head hit the cement walkway hard, effectively knocking him unconscious. She wondered for a heartbeat how that had happened, but this question was immediately answered when she turned around to find Jet behind her, holding both of his Bashyo fans. The hawk glared at Shadow for a moment, and upon confirming mentally that the hedgehog was out for the count, nodded. Then Jet tossed one of the fans to his other hand with the second fan before offering his now free hand to Rouge.

"You okay?" he asked. Rouge took his hand, and he pulled her to her feet.

"Just a bit shaken... thanks," she replied. She looked over at the unconscious hedgehog. "Is Shadow going to be alright?"

Jet chuckled lightly. "Yeah, he'll be fine. I only knocked him back with a gust. It's not like I used that weird spear attack he was about to kill you with. Why are you so worried about him, anyway?"

Rouge shook her head. "It's nothing you'd understand. Okay then... I guess we should be helping the others out!" She smirked and clenched her fists. A slight twinge of pain shot through her wing as she flapped them slightly, but she ignored it.


Sonic growled in anger as he got back up to his feet. He panted, having lost a considerable amount of energy from this fight. Even after all he had done, it seemed that the only thing he had managed to lay on Metal Sonic was his own blood. Sonic himself, on the other hand, had a large cut down his back which was bleeding lightly in spite of its length. A shorter, but more heavily-bleeding gash had been formed just now across the side of his face, thanks to the robot's claws. In addition to these nicks, along with some minor cuts and bruises in various spots on his body, Sonic was pretty sure that his left wrist had been sprained.

"Have you given up yet? Attacking is useless," Metal Sonic gloated in his mechanical voice. His metal feet clunked on the asphalt as he advanced towards the fallen hedgehog. Blaze jumped in front of Sonic, arms spread out wide, making herself a living shield.

"Don't you dare hurt Sonic!" she yelled at the robot.

"Blaze, Metal Sonic can kill you! Don't worry about me!" Sonic hissed at her.

The lavender cat shook her head. She positioned herself appropriately, winding up a spin as fire began to form around her clenched fists. Blaze let loose with her spin, the fire from her fists winding around her like a vortex until she could not be seen within the flames. She used her Fire Boost ability, propelling herself forward in a rush. She brought a fist forward, ready to attack...

Blaze gasped as she was suddenly halted by metal claws closing around her fist, preventing her from boosting forward any further. Having been caught off-guard, her fiery aura dissipated. Metal Sonic didn't appear to have been harmed by the flames at all. The robot didn't even take a second to look at her as he swung her in a half-circle, releasing her so she flew towards Eggman. The cat let out a grunt of pain as she skidded for a brief distance across the asphalt.

"You'll pay for that!" Sonic yelled angrily at his metallic doppelgänger. He curled into a ball and wound up his signature Spindash move. He released and rocketed towards the robot in front of him, a slight grin on his face. Even despite the fact that his back stung from the cut being stretched in his curled form, his mind felt comfortable in this ever-familiar position. It had never led him wrong before...

... until now. Metal Sonic swung out his leg quickly in the path of the Blue Blur. The hedgehog's grin faded quickly as he realized there was absolutely no way he could move out of the way in time-- one of the few times he cursed his gift of speed. The robot's maneuver worked, and Sonic was sent flying a very short distance into the air. He uncurled in midair, yelping with pain as his back felt the stinging after-effects of metal slammed into an open cut. He landed face-first most unceremoniously at his robotic counterpart's feet, momentarily stunned from the pain. Metal Sonic took advantage of the opportunity and pressed a button on his metallic wrist.

Before Sonic knew what was happening, he was encased in a translucent box made out of what appeared to be glass. If glass it was, then he would have no problem breaking out of it, even if it did earn him a few extra cuts. Sonic wound up a second Spindash, launching himself at the side. Instead of splintering, the side repelled him. He was bounced back against the opposite side of the cube, and dropped once again onto his face. In one last attempt to escape, Sonic pushed himself to his knees and slammed his fists against the transparent sides-- to no avail. He was trapped.


Wave threw herself backwards onto the bed that she had woken up on, staring up at the orange ceiling. She could hear Amy's loud sobs... and the hedgehog was down in the bathroom. She tried to will away the fluttering feeling in her stomach.

'No...' she thought, 'Amy's wrong. Jet and Storm can't die... grr! If they do, then I will personally kill Eggman myself!'

Wave was about to close her eyes when she was picked up around the waist. She looked up to see that her transport, if he could be called that, was a black hedgehog with red stripes on his quills. As though reading her thoughts, he looked down at her, his red eyes devoid of any emotion. Memories flooded back to Wave, and she gasped as she recalled them. That same pair of eyes... it was him. She remembered now-- the darkness of the figure wasn't her memory being bad, it was because that was his quill color! This was her captor.

Before she could comprehend things further, Wave was thrown rather roughly into a cell. The wooden bottom of the cell-- more like a cage, in retrospect-- was old, and somewhat rotted. The black hedgehog began to walk away, retaining his constant silence. Wave got up, ran to the cell bars, and gripped them tightly as she rattled the cage. Even despite their rusted appearance, the iron bars held firm.

"Hey, you jerk! Get back here and let me out!" Wave yelled. Seeing as how the hedgehog ignored her command, the swallow gave a slight growl of irritation. She looked down again at the wooden floor of the cage, wishing she had been able to grab her wrench before she'd been carried out.

"Ah, you must be Wave. It's quite a pleasure to meet you!" said a voice that was all too familiar.

Wave's head shot up to face Eggman... or who she believed was Eggman. His outfit still retained the red-black-yellow scheme, but the colors were all different-- his jacket and boots were black and yellow, while his pants were red. His sunglasses were wider, but the most noticeable change about him was his mustache-- it was no longer orange, but instead silvery. Both of his gloved hands were behind his back.

"Hah! I see you've aged, Eggman!" Wave laughed, smirking at her own comment.

The scientist flashed her a faux innocent smile. "I'm terribly sorry, but I believe you have mistaken me for someone else. To avoid confusion, you may just call me Eggman Nega."

Wave cocked an eyebrow. "You're joking, right?"

"Nope. Sorry." Without warning, 'Eggman Nega' grabbed Wave's right arm through the bars and pulled her right up against them, so her arm was sticking out. He withdrew his other hand from behind his back. To Wave's slight horror, it held a hypodermic needle, filled with a green liquid that had a slightly metallic sheen. Before she could struggle out of his grasp, Eggman Nega plunged the needle in and injected the liquid into her arm. The swallow's eyes glazed over briefly as a cold, hollow feeling filled her right arm. The appendage would have fallen limply back to Wave's side had Eggman Nega not been holding it whilst the needle was still in.

After a few seconds, the human removed the syringe and patted her on the back through the bars. He withdrew a brass key from his coat pocket and unlocked the cell door. Before Wave could make a run for it, Eggman Nega grabbed her by her recently injected arm and led her out of the room. Unable to fight with her weak arm, Wave could do nothing but follow. The two walked down a hall devoid of any decoration, eventually coming to a wooden door on the left side of the corridor. Eggman Nega unlocked the door with the same brass key used to open Wave's cage-- it must have been a skeleton key. Still holding onto the swallow's arm, he entered the room, which contained a massive assortment of weapons. On the other side of the room was a steel door with a card key slot next to it.

"Choose one," Eggman Nega said, waving his hand around at the shelves of weapons.

"What?" Wave asked in surprise. She had never seen so many different weapons all gathered in one place. She reasoned mentally that it must be a storage room.

"I said choose one," the scientist repeated, finally letting go of her. He glanced at Wave and thought to himself for a moment. "How about some throwing knives? You look fit enough to handle them. Or perhaps you would prefer a gun?"

The human nodded to himself, not bothering to wait for Wave's answer, and gathered about twenty small throwing knives, slipping them into a leather pouch. He also grabbed a silver pistol, briefly checking to make sure it was loaded. Then he handed the two items to Wave.

"What am I supposed to do with these? Shoot you or something?" Wave growled, regarding the weapons with disgust.

"Gosh, I hope not," Eggman Nega chuckled. Before the swallow could give him the weapons back, he grabbed her by her same limp arm yet again and dragged her to the steel door. He swiped a red card key through the reader, and the LED turned green, indicating the door was now unlocked. The human opened the door, pushed her out of the storeroom, and quickly shut the door. The slam echoed around the metal walls and ceiling, even being bounced off to some extent by the concrete floor.

Wave cast a brief glance over her surroundings. She was in a hangar of some sort, and judging from the closed separations in the enormous metal 'floor door' in the center of the floor, it was a landing for large vehicles. Beneath the metal floor-door, which unsurprisingly had the Eggman logo imprinted on it, was probably a release chamber into waters, as the numerous puddles around it suggested. A couple of spare robotic parts were strewn carelessly around the hangar, and on smaller floor-doors off to the right, there were about five small underwater mechs, probably escape pods. A pair of glass double doors was at the far end of the hangar, beyond which Wave could barely see the beginnings of a tunnel.

"At last, an exit!" the swallow said to herself, smirking. She broke into a run, but about halfway into the hangar, Wave stopped dead in her tracks, almost slipping on the wet metal. She yelled, her hand flying to her right arm, dropping the two weapons she held. It had felt cold and hollow before, but that feeling was now gone, replaced with a sharp pain. It was as though all the muscles in her arm had tensed up and wouldn't relax, to the point where it was physically painful. The same type of pain traveled quickly, spreading across her chest to her other arm, shooting up her neck to her head, and going down all the way to her feet. Wave was driven to her knees, holding her head in pain, not even noticing that her pant legs were getting wet from the puddle she had fallen into.

"Wha-- wha?" Wave was breathing too hard to speak correctly as her panic increased. Six strips of metal, originating from some spot on her back, began to wrap themselves around her. Terror overtook her as the pain in her body increased immensely. What barely organized thoughts she had screamed that the metal strips would crack her ribs. This seemed to be confirmed, as the swallow felt her chest tightening. Just as the pain grew to its worst, and she felt as though her sanity would snap... it all stopped. The pain quickly subsided, and her hysteria slowly quieted down as well.

Wave leaned over, peering at her reflection in a puddle. She gasped at the bird she found staring back at her from the water. Her feathers were no longer their normal fuchsia color, instead having darkened until they were pure black. Her irises had lightened from their cobalt color to a bone-chilling light blue. At some point, her bandana and glasses had been swapped for a pair of goggles. They would have looked exactly like Jet's goggles if not for their bright red color.

The swallow got to her feet to get a look at the rest of her body. Her regular outfit was gone, replaced by a silver metal suit which started at her feet, and ended just before her neck. Her arms were left bare, revealing that even the pink flame tattoos on her wrist had not been spared from the darkening of her feathers. Looking down at her chest, she discovered the six strips of red metal that, in her earlier panic, she had believed would crush her ribs. Their purpose seemed to be either decoration or anchoring something down. But nothing was held down on her front-- all there was on her chest was the red emblem of Eggman. Unless something was anchored on her back... when Eggman Nega had patted her back. He must have put something there. That and the injection...

Pushing back her fear, Wave began to reach around towards her back, trying to find out if anything was on there. She stopped, as her entire thought process blanked out for the briefest of moments, as though her brain were restarting. She blinked, and a smirk formed on her beak. All her fear left her, and she turned around, reclaiming her weapons from the floor. She slung the pouch of throwing knives over her shoulder.

"Let's see Sonic and his friends try to defeat the Eggman Empire now!" Wave let loose with a small, malice-filled cackle, as she picked up her pistol, cocking the trigger so as to be ready at a moment's notice.