Chapter 18

"What's this?" Cream pulled the shutter up on a garage. There was a cart with something on it, covered by a sheet.

"Didn't Rouge leave something in here a few days ago?" Big stayed outside and watched cautiously.

"Yeah, this must be it…" She pulled the sheet away. Glittering in the half-light, the shattered emerald's pieces lay splintered in the cart. "Wha… it can't be… she… she found it?"

"That girl and her jewels… what am I saying, all these girls…"

"We have to protect it!"

"My point exactly…" He whispered to himself. Cream walked over and slapped him on the back of the head.

A clunk of feet on metal. Sliver, Blaze and Diesel ducked behind barrels and readied their weapons. They watched three figures, obscured by the dim light and some debris, enter the room. They stopped in the centre of the room.

"It looks like someone was here," one said. Another's eyes darted across the room, as if had seen Silver. In reaction, Silver jumped out and held a knife to the neck of one. Blaze & Diesel followed suit, Blaze using her trusted flamethrower instead. All their victims could do was struggle.

Shadow heard a commotion in the tunnel they had just left. He jumped up on to the beams and found his way in no problem. Tails used his grappling gun, which he threw back to Sonic when he was finished. Rouge flew up.

"Wha… what the hell are you guys doing?" Sonic said in exasperation as he saw that Silver, Blaze and Diesel had captured Amy, Knuckles and Espio.

"Who are these then?" Silver was quite confused to say the least.

"They're ours! They're with us!" They let them go. Amy ran over to Sonic and threw her arms around him. They kissed, while the others stared. Silver broke the awkward silence, and noticed Shadow's arm.

"What happened?"

"Here we go again… how about I wait until everybody's listening to explain again?"

After a brief stop to regroup and eat, they set off for Robotropolis. They had exchanged stories so they were all up to date on what happened. Their priorities were to find Jet & Wave, confront Naugus and get out. It was about 3 in the afternoon.

Their path converged with another larger path. All the tunnels seemed to get bigger as they went on, as they got closer. They eventually came to a road, and a busy one at that. All trucks and tanks, military vehicles. There were soldiers in abundance. They hid behind some barrels and surveyed the tunnel. About two hundred metres or so away, the tunnel came to a large gate. When it opened, they could see the streets of the city. Nearly there!

Shadow grunted, clutching his arm.

"What's wrong?"

"Ugh… my… arm… it feels like… aagh… AARGH!" He fell forward through the barrels, knocking them over and causing a great commotion. It grabbed the attention of the entire compound. Sonic slammed his head on a barrel. As Shadow writhed on the ground in pain, some soldiers came over to inspect him. They didn't notice anyone else. Shadow lay still for a second. Then he leapt up off the ground, and appeared different. Sword in his left hand, his other arm had changed. Bright yellow marks extended across his arms and onto his torso, the red and white marks on his quills and chest had gone bright yellow, his quills had slicked back, his irises had gone a flaming yellow, and out of his right arm, a long spiked chain extended from where the original chain had broken. He kicked one in the face, sending him spinning through the air. He swung the chain around the neck of another, and pulled him across to knock another over. He slashed a fourth across the torso and again on the back of the neck, and he whipped the chain across the face of the fifth and final one. He stood there, seething, with a look on his face that said to the rest of the compound: 'Bring it on'.

A hail of bullets hurtled towards him almost immediately. He jumped up out of the way, and began swinging towards the gate along ceiling with the chain. With a look that said 'what the hell, why not', Sonic leapt over the barrel and charged forth. One by one, everyone else followed them into battle.

With Shadow on their side, there was no way they could lose. Within ten minutes, the entire compound had been reduced to mangled bodies and smoking craters. Shadow, breathing heavily, started to convulse violently, and fell to his knees. The yellow markings on him disappeared as his colouring returned to normal, his quills returned to normal, and the long spiked chain slid into his forearm and vanished from view. He fell to the ground, conscious, but shaken and exhausted. His arm still had the chain embedded in it, still glowing yellow.

"Whu… what happened? What just happened to me?" He asked, confused. Rouge came over and picked him up.

"Maybe Tails here, with his encyclopaedic knowledge of Chemistry, can explain…" Tails scowled at her while she said this. He turned to Shadow.

"The Formula took over certain parts of your body and changed them temporarily, in this case your quills and your arm mostly. It seems to so far have only had a beneficial effect, but this could change at any moment."

"What about the chain? That was kinda weird…"

"It must have used the chain stuck in your arm to build more chain…"

"Um… HOW?"

"What happened to your gun while you went, eh… crazy?" Shadow reached round to his gun. It was still in its holster, but it was quite hot. "It's possible that the Formula used the metal in the gun to make the extra chain length." Shadow pulled the gun out.

"But how?"

"Check if it still works." Shadow fired off a couple of shots into a barrel.

"Seems fine." He pointed it at an indeterminate point near the gate. He fired. A clank was heard as it hit a small can perched on a ledge. "Still as accurate as when I left it."

"Any ideas about how to get in?" Knuckles said what everybody was thinking.

"Nothing a good burn can't fix…" Blaze said confidently as she pointed her flamethrower at the gate doors. Squeezing the trigger, a massive flame ranging from red to white via yellow spewed from its barrel, and set to work on melting the gate. After a good minute and a half of constant burning, she ceased. She lifted up her goggles, staring in disbelief at the doors which were barely scorched. She spit on it. Instead of evaporating instantly, it hung there, dripping slightly. She took off her glove and felt the door. "It's not even warm!"

"Youse guys are barking up the wrong tree." A voice came from behind them. Weapons were hastily readied. "The name's Nack. Judging by what I've just seen, I'd be pretty useful to youse." A purple weasel appeared from the shadows, brandishing a wide grin. Not inconspicuously stashed in his belt were two rather large pistols.

"What makes you say that?" Sonic folded his arms, not convinced.

"You seem to be lacking lateral thinking power."

"Huh?"

"Think about it. You are in a hangar full of massive tanks, and you're wasting precious thermite trying to melt a diamond tempered door."

"Ah." Sonic began to feel awkward and somewhat embarrassed.

"So, jack one of the tanks and bust through the door?" Blaze queried.

"Way ahead of you." Diesel was already at work prising open the hatch on the tank nearest the gate.