Dib07: Blah
Sonic: I want chilli dogs! You promised me chilli dogs! All I really care about is chilli dogs!
Amy Rose: Ah! How could you! You would choose food over me?
Sonic: Yeah! (gets slapped)
Disclaimer: We don't own the flurry blue hedgehog that runs incredibly fast XD
Dib07: Enjoy. No flames please. This fic is merely for enjoyment.
Thanks Winter S. Storm for reviewing! Yay, now I have 4 reviews! OMG!
Chapter 6: Dreams of an Absolution
'In my dream of an absolution
In the night-light, do you see what you dream
All your triumph and all you'll ever be
Look around you, then you may realize
Happiness lies trapped in misery
And who knows what of our futureWe can all try to change the past.' - Theme of Silver - Dreams of an Absolution - Lee Brotherton
There was bright sun and angry missiles that raptured the sky. Fire razed all. A gun was lifted. And a gun was fired.
In an instant it was all over.
A hedgehog lay dead, and his crimson blood trickled down into the snow. Pain came to a pair of golden eyes. It was over.
It was time. Sonic's army made the first move. As soon as they kicked into action, Robotnik's forces engaged. Their metal appendages, wheels and caterpillars suddenly infected the air with ugly, sheering noises. The troopers called the A11 series at the back of the front line lifted their metal skulls to the sky and unleashed a dozen angry steel arrows from their jaws. These arrows had a range that would make even Shadow proud. The arrows flew for half a mile before dropping down and decapitating the animals below. Some fell dead, before they had even hit the first wave.
Then, before Sonic knew it, the first contact came. Animals in front collided with the robots from Robotnik. There was an almighty clash as the two met. The contact seemed to thunder across the very earth like a shock wave. Spears lacerated flesh, explosions battered the ground, badniks went flying. Machine gun fire went off, shouts echoed. Arrows rained down from the sky, creatures screamed, blood stained the dry, desiccated floor. Sonic caught perturbing glimpses of Egg warriors behind friendly line. Their gold–plated sheathing looked bulky and stalwart.
Many animals fell. The robots had the upper hand; they possessed better weapons, technology and shields. They ganged up on groups wearing the Eggman insignia imprinted on their suits before slaughtering them and relishing the blood that spilled. It was horror to watch. And as their numbers fell, Eggman's forces pushed them backwards.
Sick of the bloodshed and watching unskilled warriors die; Sonic fought past his comrades to the front line without thinking through first. At once he aided the failing fighters, thrusting his spines at the wave of the opposition. Moments later as oceans worth of sand and snow was kicked up into the air, there was another devastating explosion, which rocked the earth.
Rubble and dirt shot about like lethal shrapnel. A small rock cut across Sonic's cheek. A rivulet of Eggman androids smashed into an echidna force, knocking them down instantly. Only one black echidna managed to stand, leaving dozens of his dead comrades on the ground. Sonic came to his aid and warded off further attack, but when they were done, the echidna managed a smile of gratitude before collapsing. This loss caused pain for the hedgehog. It made him think of his friends. How was Knuckles holding up? And Tails?
A large android with huge oversized metal shoulders and the neck and head like a dragon, bore its fiery breath down at a defenseless cat. Sonic watched the poor creature melt away right before his eyes.
Tears sprung in his eyes and with a fierce cry he hammered his spin attack on the metal beast. He sought its weakness. He bumped and hammered down on its every piece of material, trying to find some way to make it fall apart. The robot disdainfully tried to rear up and grab him, but it was too slow.
A small homemade bomb rolled under the dragon's feet while it was distracted and when it detonated, the beast fell apart like lego blocks. Sonic landed on his feet and saw Vector smiling sadly at him, his arm cradling more bombs. But the crocodile didn't stay. He moved on, as did Sonic.
The onslaught was merciless. The floor was soon caked with blood. Sonic's forces were driven back, and now the robots took full advantage of their retreat and started attacking their flanks. There was simply too many robots and the animals defending themselves hadn't the weapons to combat this threat.
They were doomed.
Tails was flying high in his plane. It unloaded missiles upon black masses of robots and he cleared up a lot of him in this way. Knuckles was defending a hill. Amy was fighting alongside Espio and Omega. Omega was the only robot on their side, but despite being one against many, the android was holding up well.
Still, Sonic feared it wasn't enough. Where was Shadow? Where was the hope? What was the point of it all?
Losing faith in the midst of battle was fatal. Sonic withered in mass confusion and despair. When he opened his eyes and saw the fight still taking place, he was surrounded by robots and they all had their weapons aimed at him.
It was over. He was finished. He knew there was no way out of this.
Just before they shot Sonic to the ground, a young, shrill voice hit the air like a typhoon.
"CHAOS CONTROL!"
Sonic knew that voice. He looked up, expecting to see Shadow in the fray of battle, but saw someone else. Silver the hedgehog.
As soon as the words were spoken, as if a spell had been uttered, all the robots around Sonic stopped, like they had been put on pause. It was an eerie sight. They were in battle positions, put on hold. One was in the middle of throwing a knife. Another was just about to open another magazine of ammunition.
Silver landed beside the stunned blue quilled hedgehog from the sky. "Sonic! Why do you look so shocked?" He asked plainly, "aren't you used to these sort of things by now?"
Confusion crept like fog through the cracks in Sonic's mind. "But… S-Silver… how did you get here?"
Silver rested a hand on Sonic's shoulder and together they warped to a high place away from danger. As soon as he had done so, the robots broke from their inanimate prison and burst into action again.
"I came from the future, Sonic, and it couldn't have been done without this." Silver showed him the green chaos emerald. Its glistening surface was reflected in Sonic's eyes.
"Where did you find that?"
"Heh. Found it in an old ruin. One of Eggie's old bases in the Bad Lands. It was down a steep crack, but I managed to wink it out."
Sonic's mouth hung open. Wasn't he talking about the emerald they had just lost? The one they dropped down the gap in the prison?
"Holy…" Sonic felt dizzy. So much so, he had to place a hand to his head to steady himself.
"Easy there!" Silver laughed, "but boy, going back into the past isn't easy! I swear if I have to do it one more time!"
"Silver…" He pushed all questions aside. The young silver hedgehog's well-being mattered first. "Why are you even here? You could get killed! This is a war in case you hadn't noticed!"
Silver shook his head so that he caused his long, elegant quills to shiver like feathers. "You don't understand, Sonic. I had to come back to the past."
"Why?" He rasped.
"Because Shadow dies."
Knuckles spat a perfectly intelligible obscenity and threw himself into combat. His fist neatly connected with a whole row of badniks and they toppled like sand. Two E-2000's came charging from the dust and thwarted the echidna into Amy. Growling and diligently aggregated, Knuckles nailed his blows at them in quick succession. A bullet hit one of his dreads and he flinched in pain. But he did not stop. As the blood trailed down his dread, he lurched forwards again, did a half turn and did an upper elbow cut to the E-2000's head. It was stunned, but countered so fast Knuckles had barely time to recover for the next blow himself.
Amy was right behind him, swinging her pika-pika hammer from left to right in a febrile pattern of rage. Above, Tails soared in the Meteor. His guns sought their targets and a pillar of heavy fire flushed out from the holes. Missiles scored the left side of the badnik flanks. Then, before he got too close to be in range of the adversaries' fire, he pulled the Meteor up and did a sharp angle in the air so that he turned a 180 and dived at them again, over and over. He used short blue lasers but mainly the missile cannons that could target multiple enemies at a time. Tails' face was an iron mask of studious concentration. If he made one wrong move, he could either endanger the life of himself, or endanger the lives of his allies down below.
The red echidna ploughed into his targets like a train. His muscles were burning. His eyes flashed dangerously.
In a short space of time, he cleared enough room to pause and rest. That's when he saw Sonic standing with Silver a good way from the fight, in the upper regions of a hill. They wouldn't last long there without being noticed. That was one guarantee. He squinted and straightened his shoulders. Yep, he was almost certain that was Silver. He was no illusion, if he was, Knuckles had been fighting for too long. But if it really was him, then how and why had he got here?
Oh well. Back to the matters at hand. He thought with an avid grunt.
This fight was insane. The very thought of actually winning in this fight was insane.
Knuckles clenched his jaws and hit again and again at lethal robots, but there was no end to the madness.
"He… dies?" Sonic tried to swallow his confusion. Silver wasn't making any sense. Then again, he never did.
"Yes, and if I don't get to him soon, I will cease to exist! I felt it… before I found the emerald. Pain… and I started to fade, then materialize again. But I found the emerald and I knew I had to go back in time to when Shadow gets killed!"
"Whoa, slow down!" Sonic grinned, "you cease to exist? Why? What makes you so…" Then he realized it. How could he have not seen it sooner? Silver… was… related to Shadow! He must be a great grandson, or a descendant from the Ultimate Life Form.
"You… you're related to Shadow?"
"Yes! I must be!"
"Wow! It explains the powers you have! You can warp! You have… the furry…"
Silver advanced on him. "Sonic, stay focused! Where is Shadow? I have to get to him!"
"But that's just the thing!" Sonic said bemusedly, "he's not even here! He's not helping us in this war!"
"Then where is he?" Silver was a quick one to anger, another trait he had got from Shadow's genes.
"I don't know! He must be up in the ARK or somewhere! I'm not his babysitter! Besides, Shadow can take care of himself!"
Silver coiled his fists in frustration. Now that Sonic had pieced it all together, he now saw how much Silver resembled the Ultimate Life Form. I can't wait to see how Shads will react when I tell him about this!
This thought made him chuckle. Silver whipped round to set a pair of angry gold eyes at him. "This isn't funny! I don't know what your idea of a joke is, but I'm going to find him."
With that, the young silver hedgehog jumped off the ledge and commenced battle with the frontline. Sonic regained his composure and briefly surveyed the thick area full of violence to see any black hedgehog. There was no sign of them. It was typical of Silver to be concerned about anyone that wasn't involved in this battle. What about Sally? What about himself? They were in the thick of things. Didn't Silver care about them?
Or maybe it's because he knows that I live…
Maybe…
He had to get back to Knuckles.
He found the echidna on the crest of a hill. When they met, they grimly traded smiles, but did not speak for a long time as they fought alongside each other.
It was clear that they weren't winning.
Both of them were already dilapidated. Knuckles had a vibrant bruise under one eye, and his knuckles were bleeding. Sonic had sustained a cut to the joining of his neck and shoulder. Notches and tears marked their fur and yet still they fought hard as if they were still fresh to take on the fight. Knuckles rammed into his opponents over and over. His spiked fists slashed through metal and oil leaked from every split.
A turbo machine warrior unleashed a twin set of lasers and fired at Knuckles. The echidna sprung instinctively, as quick as fear, over the lasers so that they passed harmlessly beneath him. The beams of light traveled for a good thirty kilometers before erupting into the rocks beyond.
"Fuck that was close."
Sonic took out the androids easily. Even then, seven more took over the place where the two robots fell.
Then…
Knuckles' voice sounded faraway. "S-Sonic… Look!"
Sonic did. And what he saw put the hope and joy back into his heart again. Shadow.
He was like a hero come to save the day. His dark silhouette was sharp in the afternoon light as he crested the hill. And he was not alone. Behind him came great legions of troops.
Reinforcements!
The new backup force came like a tide and smashed into the flank of Robotnik's heaving army. Shadow was lost in the crowd, but he was here, with them! Sonic's spirit was re-awakened.
Shadow had come with lizards and serpents from the far reaches of Mobius. How he got them Sonic was yet to know. But it didn't matter how. For the tides of battle had shifted.
They were now winning.
Silver cast his psycho-telekinesis and stopped a horde of badniks from swarming into him. A thick green light clasped their still bodies as they stood in suspended animation. Then with a quick flick of his wrist, Silver sent them into the air like twigs so that they flew and then plummeted to the earth where they fell upon their own soldiers.
That was when he briefly looked up for a moment and saw Shadow. As quick as a bullet, Silver levitated over the fighting (which was a really dumb thing to do), and alighted by the black furred hedgehog.
"Shadow!" At last Silver had reached him! But the sleek ebony warrior did not pause nor glance at him.
"What?"
"It's me, Silver! I… You gotta get out of here with me! Now!"
Shadow let out a string of psychotic laughter. "Why? Can't you see I'm a bit occupied?"
Silver grunted, "I don't care! If you don't come with me right this second to safety, then you will die Shadow!"
"Humph! I die everyday."
"No! Listen to me! I've come from the…"
"Yes, future… I know. Don't you have anything else better to do with your time?"
"Shadow!" He paused a few more lethal opponents who had more guns and weaponry. "Please!"
"Worry about your own damn present!"
"I am! That's why I'm here!"
"Fuck off before you become my enemy."
"Hey, screw you asshole!" Silver's quills flattened against his head at the crude insult. "Let me help you! Who says you have to fight? Come with me and we'll…"
"You're like a sales rep. Can't take no for an answer. And by the way, your strange quills remind me of squid tentacles." Shadow whirled into his enemies, and away from Silver. "CHAOS SPEAR!" His lances of dark energy jabbed into the opposition like spears and several badniks went down.
Silver's white face tightened. The fool! He isn't listening! What am I going to do?
Being as naive as he was, he stayed close to Shadow and helped him clear their perimeter of badniks.
Shadow relished the fight. The winter light caught his face. His nose was like the edge of a hatchet. A fierce grin bared his teeth. His eyes gleamed, as red as a demon's.
Shadow kept smiling, but his concentration was savage.
He moved with such speed that it was difficult to realize how graceful he was, difficult to follow the way his chaos spears swept and cut. He and his opponent wove shadows and hot sparks around each other. In the space between one heartbeat and the next, he blocked his enemy's blade, then dropped one fist and struck a backhand blow, which staggered the robot.
Smoothly, almost contemptuously, he brushed aside the onslaught that followed. In a way, Silver was not needed at all. The hedgehog admired Shadow's ductile speed with hated envy. He had his psychokinesis, but who needed that when you had speed and the power of dark energy at your disposal?
Silver's forehead creased in doubt. Then why was he suffering in the future? Shadow didn't need him. It was true that maybe a robot would silence the black hedgehog with a lucky shot… maybe…
This thought re-invoked Silver's motive. "Shadow!" He waved his hand in the air to catch a lethal bullet in midair before sending it back at its owner, "draw back! We're too far in!" Violence streaked his vision. "We gotta go back!"
His voice seemed to distract the Ultimate Life Form. His attention was diverted for a fraction of a second and that was all it took for a robot to smash him in the side. Shadow staggered to the ground. He caught himself on one knee, countered a brutal assault, regained his feet. He was still smiling, still smiling. Sweat ran down his face. The light showed a glare of desperation in his crimson eyes.
Silver bit his lip so hard he soon tasted the ugly tint of copper in his mouth. His golden orbs sighted a rock about the size of himself. Concentrating adeptly on his powers, he levitated the rock nimbly off the ground as if the rock had turned into light-weight feathers, and then he catapulted it into the belly of an E-2000 robot. The robot took a nasty hit and fell back into its comrades. But there were still so many. The robots kept coming as if a machine at the back of Eggman's HQ were building two robots for every one lost.
A dark puma robot leapt up at Silver from the right. The indirect assault threw Silver off-guard and the robot threw down claws that were impossible to dodge. Silver dodged them but levitating himself off the floor like a bird taking flight.
Angry and hot-blooded with adrenaline, Silver smacked it away with a rush of psycho shock. The puma was harder to hit, and the convulsive effort cost him his balance. But just before the puma recovered and sunk its metal teeth into Silver's throat, Shadow smacked it away with a hard kick. The black cat robot tumbled into a rock where its skull dully hit a rock. It never got up again.
Then, angry and flustered, Shadow turned and sunk eyes like daggers into Silver's orbs. "Go and sit with the children back at Knothole and play with your toys like you're supposed to! Leave the fighting to the adults!" He roared heatedly.
"But… you'll… die…" His conviction was less so, and his face was bright with tears.
"I was born into this world alone and I will die in this world alone!" He audaciously snapped, "don't you see? Don't you see!"
Silver cowered like an infant in his shadow. The black hedgehog grunted in the satisfaction that his words had hit home.
"Now go!" He turned away and re-engaged his battle. Silver was so numb and cold that he didn't feel the gravity when he stood up. Nor did he feel the tight cold winds striking hard into his soft fur.
"But… the future…" He choked on his words. There was no much panic in the air; it began to make him feel dizzy. He heard an animal scream in the distance and his heart tore at the noise. Why am I here?
TBC