Author Notes: E-91 hails from episode 17 of Sonic X. I felt she was a suitable robot for the task I've assigned. :3 I also felt this robot needed some fleshing out and remains my favorite adversary I've seen in the SX universe. (At least, that Eggman created.)
"What do you mean she was 'speaking for the emeralds!' And who is she?" a very concerned Sara asked Shadow after he'd returned home with Blaze.
"Sorry...I really didn't want to get others involved…." Blaze the cat said honestly. "My name's Blaze." She limped her way over to the living room couch and started rubbing her ankle.
"Sorry I didn't say anything…." Shadow shifted uncomfortably on his feet before passing the baby to her mother. "She was saying things..."
"Saying things...great..." Sara groaned. She made her way back to the living room and had a seat across from Blaze on an E-Z chair. "How long has this been going on?"
"A few weeks... It was just a couple times." Shadow detected a particularly sour note in her voice. If she wasn't still nursing Maria, he was sure some Lindt chocolates would have smoothed things over. "I didn't want to worry you, that's all..."
Sara sighed a bit. She didn't know what to say to that. She lightly combed through her daughter's hair with her fingers and checked her over. She didn't seem harmed or strange at all. Her ruby eyes glittered with childish playfulness gleaming in them. "Mama!" Any hard feelings she might have held melted with that simple statement.
"How...did you get here anyway?" Sara finally asked Blaze.
"This..." She reached into her pocket and pulled out the gate device. "Eggman Nega created a 'gate generator.' It's supposed to take you between dimensions...I guess it also pulled me through time."
"Now that we know more of what's going on, we just need to figure out how to stop it," Shadow said conclusively.
"You've gotten involved more than enough...I can try to handle things myself," she said resolutely.
"Don't be stupid. It's everyone's problem and besides...your ankle's twisted..." A more interesting question came to his mind, "So...who's this Silver guy?"
"...A good friend of mine…." Blaze blushed a bit. Sara picked up on that right away. "He's a hedgehog...white fur...kind of fluffy mane around his chest and neck..." Sara grinned a bit at that. "He has psychokinetic powers..."
"That's it!" Shadow scratched behind his ear idly as the eyes in the room darted to him quickly. "Ahh..." He coughed and put a hand to his chest, that small action even causing him discomfort. "We're talking about moving worlds...I bet Nega is trying to amplify Silver's powers to move...well...worlds." His ear twitched lightly as he thought about who the Element of the past might be.
"Well...I guess you're staying with us a while, Blaze," Sara said and set Maria down on the floor.
"Ahh..." Blaze began to protest, "I really shouldn't impose..."
Sara laughed a bit, setting Shadow more at ease. "Don't worry about it...I'm glad you showed up now... We have a real chance of setting things right now that we have a more complete picture. Sonic and the others have fought our Eggman numerous times, have a little faith in them." She couldn't help flashing Shadow a slightly concerned look. Charles had said by August, travel between Mobius and Earth would be strained…. Shadow was doing a lot better now; it was the fractured ribs the bullet caused that gave him more problems than the flesh wound. The surgery he'd undergone was to fish out splinters of bone more than the bullet that passed through him. In a week or so his only problem would be regaining his stamina...he was still getting winded easily.
"Thank you...I'll do whatever I can to help," Blaze offered.
"Well, I guess that starts with showing my dad that device you have there... He's a scientist." Sara replied.
The cat nodded. "Anything to put a stop to this nightmare."
Sonic had returned home shortly after Shadow. There was a lot of discussion over the situation and what to do from here. Sonic's news that Metal 3 went off without finishing the fight was foreboding news indeed. Then there was the matter of the present Element... Going off the assumption Silver's psychokinetic powers were the reason for his imprisonment in the future, they tried to decide who would have any connection to him or display similar powers. The thought that any of them could be related to him distantly came up, Sonic making the comment that if he was a white hedgehog he wasn't nearly as ugly as Shadow, so they couldn't possibly be related. Not much was settled but that Blaze would stay with Shadow and Sara, while Sonic delivered the gate generator to Uncle Chuck. It wouldn't take him long to return, at least.
It was getting late and Shadow still hadn't come to bed. Sara left their apartment via the fire escape, finding him up on the rooftop, watching the light of day fade into the distance. She noticed something white next to him on the rail, the bandages that had been around his chest.
"...Shadow?"
"I'm fine," he replied without turning back to her.
"Why are you out here?" She walked over to him. It was the first time the bandages had been off any length of time. A few of the quills on his back still needed to grow back where the bullet had left his body. She sat next to him on the edge of the roof and glanced at his chest. The black fur was almost back to its normal length, and the white tuft was about half way to its full glory. It was matted down from the bandage, but she couldn't see the wound through the fur.
"Thinking...you know I think too much." A smile tugged the corners of his mouth briefly.
"You're waiting for a fight, aren't you?" she said in a somewhat disheartened tone.
"If I have to." He leaned against her slightly. "That Metal Sonic won't be giving up...and Eggman's probably collecting the emeralds here."
"Amy seems okay with Sonic fighting..." she commented.
"Heh... Hardly." He shrugged.
"But she seems supportive..."
Shadow closed his eyes and felt her warmth. It had been a while since they'd been truly intimate. "She wants to believe he can do anything, that he's invincible…that he'll return to her no matter what."
"Is that so bad?" Sara tenderly slipped her arms around him. He didn't cringe. Her hand drew up to his chest and ruffled the fur, feeling for the wound. She could feel a bump where the scar tissue was and see his expression shift lightly. An ear turned back humbly as she still felt sorry for the whole incident.
"Well...I don't know." He frowned a bit at her. "Are you trying to hurt me?"
She stopped playing with the wound and sighed. "It's my fault you got hurt...I know the time shift isn't your doing but...I don't want you to die..."
"Hey...I'm hard to take down." He finally returned her embrace with a slight smile. "I am the Ultimate."
"Right..." Sara smiled a bit and tilted her head up to him. "Ultimate...how ultimate?" She leaned in for a kiss, their lips meeting softly.
While the tender scene unfolded, they were not alone. A Mobian-sized female form had been watching since Shadow made his way to the roof. The robot observing them was clad in dark purple ninja-garb, and observed them through a single red horizontal slit on the front of her "face." If there was anything under the metal, it was hard to say. The helmet or face, for lack of a better term, had two upturned spikes, which made her somewhat resemble a cat. She also bore the number 91 on her forehead.
Exiting a zoomed state of vision, the robot slipped from the building she was on to the fire escape Sara had been on minutes before. Thermal vision quickly revealed Blaze's form resting on the sofa-bed. This wasn't in the notes Eggman had given her, and she double checked to make sure this was the residence. Yes, this was where the hedgehogs had come from.
The cat remained asleep while E-91 slipped into the apartment. She looked left and right at the cozy little abode. Her head turned to a door that was slightly ajar and crept over to it, staying low to the ground and moving silently. She looked in to find it was a bedroom; the sheets were down... There was still a slight heat signature where Sara had been, but she wasn't chasing for heat signatures.
It didn't take her long to find the baby's room. The colorful room defied all her logic centers that it should exist in Shadow's homestead. Yet it was there, as was the reported offspring. 'Biological signature match. Objective found.'
Shadow had managed to get Sara into a rather compromising pose on the rooftop, taking some pleasure in her half-hearted objections. "Shadow...! Not here...!" He nuzzled and kissed her tenderly, though he was hardly holding her against her will.
"Hmm? You want to go to bed, you can go..." he offered.
Sara lay back against the cold roofing and glanced off at the few stars that shed their light through the city's sky. "Hmmm..." She was beset with another round of kisses and caresses, which sent shivers through her body. "Aaahh... No fair!"
"...Never take your eyes off your enemy." He returned to eye level with her, a mischievous grin on his face. He leaned in and licked her behind the ear.
"Enemy...right." She sounded a little doubtful at that though she tilted her head in his favor. "Ahh...you're so impatient some times..."
"...That's why Maria was probably conceived in the shower." He delighted in the expression his mate wore and the redness of her cheeks. What could have been a rather frisky time on the rooftop ceased abruptly at the sound of Maria's crying. "...Damn it..." Shadow grumbled.
"Ahh..." Sara sighed a bit; why'd he have to get her worked up in such a place? "I wonder if Blaze will check on her…."
"Hey! Stop!" The sound of a rather large flame bursting out into the air sounded after Blaze's voice, and the thought this was a typical baby's crying session quickly slipped from the parents.
Shadow was first to the edge of the building, catching the dark, Mobian-sized speck leap from the building, the sound of a wailing baby trailing off with it. "Shit...! I'm gone!" Shadow didn't even look back at Sara, who had just managed to scramble to the edge.
"Noo!" Blaze had called after the ninja robot, but with only one good leg, she couldn't make it past the fire escape.
Sara was at her side a few moments later. "W-What happened?"
"It snuck in...! I didn't realize until the baby cried... She must be what...what Eggman wanted..." Blaze shook her head in frustration. First Silver, now a baby!
Sara could still see the retreating form as Shadow raced after E-91. As a mother, her mind was quickly made up. "Blaze? Down two floors, room 220, that's Sonic and Amy's place...tell them what's going on," she said as she started descending the building further.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Blaze called after her.
"Isn't it obvious!" She hopped down over the railing of the final story and quickly headed for Shadow's Extreme Gear. He'd let her use it a few times, though this would be her first time opening it up to its full potential. I'm coming, Maria...
Shadow went for a homing attack against the bot, only to be repelled by its foot. She wasn't nearly as fast at running as Shadow could be, which was in his and Sara's favor, but her reflexes were top notch.
"Give her back!" Shadow snarled.
E-91 did not comply, of course, and she drew out a chain weapon, which she started twirling as she ran with the infant curled under one arm. "Papaa! Papa!" Maria cried and tried to reach out for him, but the robot wouldn't let go. An idea hit her, an instinct, a reflex, and she stiffened and flared out her quills to their fullest. It didn't work. If she'd been kidnapped by any creature of flesh, he or she would've quickly dropped the pincushion. Instead she found herself crying all the harder as E-91 tightened her grip.
If anything, it made Shadow more determined and enraged. "Bitch!" He dove in for a tackle, twisting his body like a corkscrew. This attack would be easier to manage if she decided to use Maria as a shield or pull some kind of nasty surprise. The surprise was the weapon itself. The nunchuck-like end of it, which had once been a tubular shape, now morphed into a much larger, heavier steel ball. Shadow raised up his arms before him, but the steel ball impacted his chest and sent him flying into a nearby building.
"Shadow!" Sara's voice carried through the night air. The recovering hedgehog's ear trained in the direction, recognizing the hum of the Extreme Gear. She took only a long enough glance at him to make sure he was okay before pursuing the bitch that stole her baby. "Who the hell do you think you are, kidnapping a baby like that!" the wake behind her was more intense than when Shadow used it, as though Tails' beautiful piece of engineering were responding to the hedgehog's rage.
"E-91, Kunoichi," the robot replied, the first time it had responded, really. She deftly jumped over the Gear, which was moments before on a collision course. "Nothing personal, I am following orders." She spun the chain around dangerously as Sara circled around for another pass. She didn't really know why she responded. Maybe it was because she had been addressed directly. Shadow was recovering from the blow and would soon be on her; she had to think fast. There was nothing in her orders saying she couldn't hurt either of the hedgehogs... From the scene she had witnessed before raiding their apartment she also concluded they were "attached." Around the neck? No...immediate death will bring immediate wrath. Yes.. I see what to do.
"SARA!" Shadow raced toward Kunoichi, but he was too late to stop the swing of her chain, the release of the now spiked ball, which rammed into the side of his Extreme Gear. Expectedly, Sara went flying from its seat. Time had slowed without the use of Chaos Control, like some unavoidable train wreck. The umber hedgehog took a last glance at the robot as he sailed through the air, his ears catching every clinking noise the chains made, and emblazing the visage of the robot into his memory with a murderous intent behind it. The baby's cries had become as some faint echo. Time only resumed its normal flow when Sara was safely in his arms, the bike being thrown into the building a few feet away with a horrible crunching noise.
"NO!" Sara cried, both in fear for her own safety and that of her child.
Adrenaline flowed through the pair as Shadow caught a ledge of the neighboring building. Though he had begun the flight back to where Kunoichi was, a bright light, a flash bomb, lit up the area, and the robot was no more to be seen.
"Shit!" he growled. "...We'll get her back," he promised Sara, who was trembling in his arms. Pain began to set in as the excitement around them ebbed away. His eyes narrowed at the darkness, which finally overtook the horizon... Eggman would pay for this...