Book 1: Doomsday

by Slayde Demise and Alexia Rose

First part of the origins trilogy: The start, when a special prison of Robotnik's accidentally seals Shadow, Sonic and Amy in a time warp for 5 years, what will they return to after such a long absence? Swearing, violence, death and dabbles of romance. SonicxOC and ShadAmy hints. Finished! Can't believe it's done!

9. 08 Every City Has Something Illegal

Every City Has Something Illegal

It took a long time for everyone who was hurt to recover after the incident at the gate. Slayde was the first up, suffering from not much more than exhaustion he was out in mere days. Rage was second to come out, being quite badly hurt it took him a few weeks to recover. Oddly however, Sonic still had not come out even though it had been two months. Having dark energy swirling round in his body for so long seemed to have had a devastating effect on the internal parts of his body, and although while the dark energy was there to spontaneously heal him, now it was not present his body had become weaker than it ever had.

"Slayde, get over here." Shadow bellowed over the crowd. Shadow had been searching for Slayde for almost a week now, as no one seemed to know where he disappeared to, not even that girl that he spent his nights with before he went on this 'wild fortnight' she called it. He was due back in another four days, but Shadow didn't want to wait. After six days of searching he managed to find him leaving a nearby restaurant. Slayde managed to push his way through the crowd to Shadow, whom was standing in an ally way that wasn't really travelled through.

"Yo, Shadow. Long time no see!" Slayde said to Shadow. Shadow stared at him with deep irritation. Slayde just grinned back at him. "What brings you over to this part of town then?" Slayde gestured to the area round him. Shadow did a brief look round, there was something unsettling about this area in the suburban parts. For a newish city it looked surprisingly... Run down and rough? Shadow didn't know whether it was simply because his mind was playing tricks on him or whether there was actually some dodgy shit going down in this area.

"I wanted to talk to you. Got a favour to ask." Shadow said begrudgingly. Slayde smiled at him and looked at him in a cheeky way.

"Well I do still have to pay you back for saving my ass against Sonic. What do you need?" Slayde asked politely. Shadow looked at him and frowned. It was obvious he didn't like asking for favours from others and even more obvious he had a slight dislike for Slayde ever since he accidentally ranted his inner thoughts to him. Shadow paused for a moment, as if thinking, before he spoke.

"I would like you to have a match with Rose." Shadow said simply. Slayde smirked. Shadow crossed his arms and frowned again. "What?"

"Just the one match? You don't want me to become a helping training partner?" Slayde asked. Shadow looked at Slayde confused and irritated. It was the very thing the Amy had said as well, but Shadow was unsure as to what Slayde's actual abilities were. Though they were obviously beneath his own but seemed to keep up quite well with Sonic's and with enough training could possibly surpass Sonic's simply because of Sonic's carefree attitude to any form of training. Slayde voice cut across his thoughts. "Besides, being round you could help me as well. I'd like to learn how to fight in this body again after that embarrassing loss."

"I'll see whether you can stay after the match with Rose." Shadow said in a calm smooth voice, taking back on his usual mannerism. Slayde beamed at him. Shadow rolled his eyes in response. "That means you probably won't be staying." Slayde ears drooped and flattened against his head.

"When we going then?" Slayde asked dejectedly. Disappointment ringing in his voice.

"As soon as possible, we have to get past the city outskirts." Shadow said calmly, looking over for an easy route out.

"What the hell is she doing out there?!" Slayde asked in a surprised voice. Shadow folded his arms and frowned at him.

"My methods are of no concern of yours hedgehog." Shadow said harshly. Instead of the fear his voice normally instilled Shadow merely got a smirk back.

"How scary." Slayde expressed out his smirk making Shadow frown even more. Slayde laughed for a second. "I know the way out, follow me." Slayde said before shooting off. Shadow looked in his wake confused for a second before smirking himself. As if he was going to be beaten to the outskirts by a mortal life form.

Shadow and Slayde were neck and neck as they rushed towards the outskirts. Shadow on the left and Slayde on the right. They both turned their next left putting Slayde marginally in front by less than a meter (which isn't much when travelling near the speed of sound) Shadow, in a last ditch move, knew it wasn't going to work because they had been told it wouldn't. Logical thinking didn't stop instinct taking over however as Shadow shouted his trademark words. "Chaos control!" Suddenly colour evaporated from the area as everything slowed down with its colour inverting. Shadow was gob smacked to say the least as he quickly jogged to the outskirts, unsure how long it would last just as he got there, it cut out by itself. This confirmed the theory that it wouldn't last all that long. Slayde came shooting towards him and immediately began to slow down coming to a complete stop just in front of Shadow, looking confused to say the least.

"How did you get in front of me?" Slayde asked, utterly confused. Shadow didn't wholly know, Slayde had passed on Eric's message that Chaos control was useless within the walls of the city. Shadow decided he needed to investigate fully.

"Well you're just, so, slow you see." Shadow said in a 'isn't that the most obvious thing in the world' voice as they jogged towards the massive clump of trees. Slayde frowned at him.

"Meh, I used to be faster than you." Both Shadow and Slayde froze in their tracks and Shadow looked at Slayde.

"What's that meant to mean?" Shadow asked in a rather harsh tone. Slayde shook his head in confusion.

"I have no idea what made me say that." Slayde answered in a very confused voice, it was as if it wasn't even him speaking. They both started jogging again, but this time Shadow kept giving the occasional glance. "Truth be told I've been rapidly forgetting things since before I got my Hedgehog body back, I can barely remember my life as a human. All I've got left is the memories after leaving that room." Slayde said miserably. They continued to the forest and stopped right outside it. Shadow looked like he was about to go in when he turned to Slayde.

"You said 'Hedgehog body back' right?" Shadow asked. Slayde nodded and Shadow gave him an odd look before proceeding into the forest. Slayde followed right behind so he didn't get lost, not that getting lost was a problem, he just wouldn't be able to find Amy when alone. Several minutes of roaming through the undergrowth and they finally stumbled across a small clearing with a small brick hut in the centre. "This is the only safe area within the forest. I asked Rose to return here approximately hourly to check for my arrival." Shadow announced before sitting on the grass. With his legs crossed in a meditating position. Slayde sat next to him and watched him for what must have been fifteen minutes before movement was heard in the opposite direction. A pink hedgehog with quills much longer than usual that came up to her waist, in comparison to her shoulders as Slayde was used to, that looked surprisingly well kept, considering she was in a forest, came through a gap carrying a large fish that was about twice her size through the gap with her. Her clothes were torn and frayed, so much so that her entire belly was on view, in fact all that was really covering her top half was a piece of cloth cleverly wrapped round to cover her breasts completely, Slayde noticed that it glistened slightly with water, and her bottom half was covered in some rather mismatched trousers as the leg of it on one side came to just below her knee and on the other barely went down her thigh. Her appearance didn't seem to bother her in the slightest. Amy gasped as soon as she saw she had company and dropped the fish next to her.

"Shadow! You've been gone for like days!" She shouted as she jogged over. "I see you managed to find him then." Amy said cheerfully as she finally reached them. Seeing her closer her body seemed leaner than before, but the extra muscle did nothing to upset her attractiveness, a trait in most Mobian Hedgehogs (amongst other specie) especially females, and made her, if anything, more attractive. She sat her down with her legs crossed in the exact same fashion as Shadow. Before turning to look at Slayde to talk to him. "How are you? I haven't seen you for ages!" Amy asked Slayde merrily.

"There's no need to be so nice to him Rose. He was a real pain to find." Shadow uttered as he analysed Amy, likely looking for evidence of progress. Amy pouted at him.

"I can ask my friends questions if I want." She said in a sweet innocent voice. Shadow frowned at her and let off his trademark 'Hmpf' before closing his eyes again. "So yeah, what you been doing? Last time I saw you was just in passing!" Shadow's eyes opened again at the change in question and looked at Slayde intently.

"Yes Slayde, what have you been doing? I normally find people in a heartbeat unless they know how to avoid me." Shadow questioned Slayde, causing Slayde to almost retreat from the tone of his voice.

"Erm... Well I've been... round?" Slayde mumbled while twiddling his thumbs. A heavy glare from Shadow and an expectant look from Amy told him that his answer wasn't sufficient. Slayde frowned. "I've been exploring the darker parts of the city, you know, the dodgy parts. Trying to find somewhere that excels in swordsmanship and armed combat. You two gave me the idea actually, with your hand to hand combat training." Shadow and Amy looked at each other and Amy sweat dropped while Shadow rolled his eyes at them both. "After a couple days I found this small area that seemed really dodgy, like a lot of hidden things were going on. It took me a while, but I managed to find a small underground club where a lot of people play for money... At the stake of their lives." Shadow chuckled slightly and Slayde looked at him in surprise and shock because he hadn't heard it before.

"Every city has something illegal. Even at the end of the world." Expressed Shadow, amused. Slayde smirked at this too, where as Amy was frowning.

"Gambling with their lives? That seems incredibly reckless." Amy announced in disapproval. Slayde looked a little panicked.

"No no, it's not like that. I mean that when they do it they risk their lives because of the type of weapon used. Even in a fist fight you're risking your life because one blow to the correct pressure point could kill you, even if it is unlikely." Slayde replied in a quick save. Amy looked at him in a realisation.

"Ah, I get it now. Anyway, I was about to cook some fish." Amy pointed to the fish that she had dropped near the edge of the clearing before continuing. "Want to join me you two?" Amy asked sweetly before dashing next to the fish in a split second and picking it up like it was a feather and bringing it over.

"That sounds lovely Amy, thanks." Slayde replied. Shadow, who was still semi glaring at Slayde, replied differently.

"No thanks Rose. I'll pass." Shadow replied, once again taking his fiery lances off Slayde. Amy just stood there with one hand on her hip and the fish was on her shoulder in the other.

"I am not taking no for an answer off you Mr ultimate life form. You enjoy eating and this is healthy as you prefer." Amy practically ordered. Slayde sniggered as Shadow crossed his arms in a huff closing his eyes again as he let out another 'Hmpf'. She dumped the fish next to them and quickly went into the small brick hut, carrying some dry wood. Slayde looked at her questioningly and got an answer almost right away. "It's due to rain sometime today, so I stored some dry wood in the hut in case I need it." Slayde realised that it hadn't rained for a while, so she was probably right and instinctively looked up to see clouds. "You know Shadow, I've been wondering something." Amy announced as she bundled the wood together. Shadow opened his eyes again and looked at her.

"What you been wondering Rose?" Shadow asked as she continued to put the wood perfectly in place. Amy finished what she was doing before she turned round and gave her reply.

"I was wondering why you don't have to eat. How does it work?" Amy asked. Shadow frowned before speaking.

"Well Rose, I don't actually kn-" Shadow started before he was interrupted.

"It's because his body takes excess Chaos energy, and because of how his cells work, allows the cells to run off that instead of glucose." Slayde spurted out like he was reading it right from a sheet. He then looked as confused as Shadow and Amy were looking at him. "I don't know how I know that. Maybe I used to be a GUN agent or something." This further baffled Amy as she had not been round of the earlier conversation. Shadow, however, shook his head.

"Only the scientists knew the more intricate details of my functional systems. GUN couldn't possibly have known that." Shadow replied looking bemused and if anything, slightly worried. Did Slayde know him before this? That would mean his hedgehog body would have to be at least in its early 30's which it didn't seem to be. But Mobians didn't grow old as obviously as humans did.

"Maybe I knew one of the scientists that worked on you? I'm sure some of them must have escaped the GUN assault." Shadow frowned further but nodded to this suggestion. Amy finally decided to rejoin the conversation.

"What's going on? What don't I know about?" Amy asked, bursting into both their distracted minds at once. Slayde looked at Shadow and Shadow looked at Slayde. Slayde smirked and shrugged causing Shadow to sigh.

"This isn't the first time Slayde here has been a hedgehog." Shadow breathed. Amy looked at Slayde completely gone out for a second before shrugging and returning to lighting the fire, a mumble later and a crackling fire was in place of the wood. "Amy you were meant to be lighting the fires with the flint I left behind. Who taught you that?" Amy just grinned at him before turning back to the fire and putting the fish on a massive spit roast that included two conveniently placed trees (that looked like they have been dug out recently), a long pole of wood that couldn't possibly have been made that smooth by nature (that incidentally had burn marks on it from possible previous spit roasts) and a long vine that seemed to be to allow Amy to turn it from a distance. All in all, a rather ridiculous contraption. "Amy, I'm waiting for your answer." Amy looked at him with innocent eyes before speaking in an incredibly cute voice while tapping her fingers together in an innocent way and pouting.

"Well I sort of experimented a little after I saw you light the fire without anything and found out that I could create a small amount of fire through my Chaos powers please don't be mad or anything I didn't do it to be naughty I was just curious and-"

"Okay okay, I get it. You're forgiven." Shadow uttered with irritation at the none stop no breathing talking. Amy swooped in and hugged him.

"Thank you Shadow." She sweetly whispered before planting one on his cheek and going back to cooking the fish. Shadow blushed and Slayde sniggered at him.

"Forget you saw that Hedgehog." Shadow recovered before Slayde had time to comment. Slayde's ears drooped cheekily as his grin stayed in place.

Many minutes later the fish was ready, Amy took it off of the spit roast, took out the pole and laid it down on a particularly grassy area before Amy started attempting to slice it up with a Bowie knife. Slayde rolled his eyes and stood up. "Amy, let me cut it." Amy looked taken aback at the offer before holding the Bowie knife out to him. Slayde shook his head to the Bowie knife.

"How do you plan on cutting it then?" Amy asked, Slayde walked up to the fish before clicking the fingers on his left hand a long glittering object appeared in his hand as he moved forward to supersonic speed that few could muster, stopping on the other side as the object disappeared in a flurry of sparkly particles, like glitter. The fish fell to pieces perfectly carved round the bone. "Um. Thanks Slayde." Amy responded to the spontaneous falling apart of the fish.

"You're welcome!" Slayde said as he walked round the fish with a sizeable chunk in his hands, he started munching on it happily. Amy threw a piece over to Shadow and grabbed her own piece before coming and sitting in a circle with the other two.

"I've only ever seen myself do that. I don't even know how it works myself." Amy announced generically. Shadow looked at her sort of gone out where as Slayde looked at her and nodded.

"Yeah, you do it with your Piko Piko hammer right?" Slayde asked and then paused to take a bite out his meat while Amy nodded. "It's called Chaos Closet. It allows you to store stuff in it to be summoned whenever you need it." He quickly took another bite. "This is good fish!" Slayde added as he chewed it.

"Thank you, I caught it myself." Amy replied and took a bite out of her slice. "I never activated anything though, can you explain that?" She asked before getting up to fetch another slice for them all.

"Well other people can place things inside your closet for you, even help add their own 'closet space' so you can store more stuff. The closet exists on a different plane of existence, which is why the 'loaning' of space can happen." Slayde informed before munching down on the new piece that Amy handed him, the fire that Amy had made was starting to get lower but was still providing a fair bit of warmth for them. "As far as I know every universe has the same one." Slayde commented before looking up from what he was eating to see Shadow's face full of interest. "What?"

"How do you know this stuff when I don't?" Shadow asked with meagre respect. Slayde just shrugged before walking off to grab more fish.

"Shadow?" Amy called, Shadow turned to look at her with his deep penetrating red globes. "Even you don't know it all do you?" She pointed out as she smirked. Shadow frowned and turned from her again.

"No one knows everything Rose, but I assure you, I shall know a lot about everything I can before I die." Shadow stated back. Amy's ears drooped and Shadow caught the movement out of the corner of his eyes. "I know you were only teasing Rose, I'm sorry. It's just... Unsettling having someone who seems to know more than me in certain aspects of Chaos." Slayde's voice floated over a second later.

"There's no fish left guys." As he walked up to them both, Shadow and Amy looked at each other, with a look that shouted 'that went far faster than usual', before turning to the approaching Slayde. "And Shadow." Shadow blinked at him in recognition. "I'm better at swordsmanship than you." Shadow just shrugged at that one, obviously without a care for that.

"So Slayde, have you come to train with me or just spar a couple times?" Amy asked, Shadow shot her a heavy glare which she just smiled sweetly at before continuing. "You can stay round if you want. Shadow isn't as bad a person as everyone thinks he just finds it hard to trust because of... Things that happened." Shadow reinforced his glare and Amy just smiled at him even sweeter. "Anyway, we owe you for giving us that start up money." Shadow's face bared a bit of recognition before showing defeat as he went back to folding his arms in irritation.

"Well I want to stick round for a while. This seems like quite a cool place to be to feel free." Slayde responded happily, suddenly the area went dark, as if something had blotted out the sun. Slayde looked up to see the sky covered in black cloud "Ah shit. Rain." He grunted in irritation. Amy and Shadow didn't seem perturbed at all however and Shadow gave a nod, as he stood, to Amy as Slayde looked at them both confused.

"Prepare yourself Slayde!" Amy shouted as she shot forward in an attack, throwing a fist at him. Slayde, whom was taken completely by surprise, had instincts take over and pushed her hand down with his right and hit her in the chin with the wrist of the same hand. Amy stumbled backwards and tripped over her own feet falling on to her arse. A tiny bit of blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth before she ninja jumped back onto her feet.

"Sorry! I acted on instinct! Didn't mean to hit you like that. Good thing I slowed it down at the last second!" Slayde explained in a hurry, Amy just smirked before spitting the blood on the ground and wiping her mouth.

"Nice hit Slayde." Amy exclaimed as she readied her stance once more. Both thinking things about the other. 'He slowed it down? That was as hard as Shadow normally hits me when I'm sparring with him. Just how close is he to Shadow?' Amy thought as she got into a fighting stance.

"Glad you're not angry." Slayde commented as he stood there staring at her. 'She's like a completely other person in battle, and what's she made of? Lead? My wrist stings!' Amy charged again, fist aloft ready to strike, as she moved in to hit Slayde shifted to the side allowing Amy's side to be open to him, Slayde placed his foot behind hers in the movement and used his right arm to trip her over backwards. Amy once again found herself on the ground, this time in a puddle, with an irritated look on her face. She quickly spun round and managed to take out one of Slayde legs, Slayde started to fall over backwards but used his arms to pull himself into a back flip and landed squarely on his feet. "You getting back up or is playing in the mud a hobby of yours?" Slayde teased as Amy rolled out the puddle and got up with a look like daggers on her face. She growled at Slayde making him smirk at her, Shadow however felt his stomach do a flip (earning it a glare from its owner) before immediately returning his attention back to the fight. "That supposed to be a purr?" Amy once again leapt forward to Slayde, this time in complete rage at the taunting, Slayde swiftly dodged to the side and took Amy out with a classic 'coat hanger' move simply because Amy was too enraged to notice such a simple move. She sighed in irritation before seeing Slayde hand stuck out above her. She took the hand and was immediately hoisted up. "You're good, but you let your anger get the better of you. Has Shadow not taught you to ignore taunts?"

"Well yes, he has. His taunts don't bother me anymore, I wasn't really expecting you to start." Amy commented as she crossed her arms in a very Shadow like fashion. Slayde laughed at this, causing Amy to frown, furthering her image of looking like Shadow, which of course in turn made Slayde laugh even more. "What?" She demanded bluntly. Slayde stopped laughing and just smirked at her.

"Nothing to worry about Rose." Slayde reassured. Amy's arms fell open in shock as her frown melted.

"Only Shadow calls me that." Amy pointed out in shock. Slayde just shrugged.

"What's the point in a nickname if only one person uses it?" Slayde asked. Amy, realised she could think of nothing to counter this, shrugged back. "Do you even know why he calls you that?" Slayde asked out of the blue. Amy shrugged. "Fair enough." He mumbled.

"Hey Slayde." Shadow shouted over the sound of the rain. Slayde stuck his thumb up to say he had heard. "Could you please refrain from irritating my disciple? That's my job." Shadow commented as he smirked. Slayde smirked too.

"So he does have a sense of humour." Slayde commented to Amy. Amy giggled at what Slayde said while Shadow smirked. "Starting to find me less irritating already Shadow?" Slayde asked. Shadow just shrugged for a reply and then Amy yawned. Shadow was the first to notice.

"Rose? Do you want to go to bed whilst it's dark? I know it's more natural for most Mobians." Shadow commented. Amy nodded at him and headed for the small hut, Shadow followed her to the doorway and turned round to see that Slayde hadn't moved, Shadow beckoned him. "Are you staying with us or not?" He added before going inside. Slayde smiled softly to himself before jogging into the door that Shadow left open and closed it behind him.

---

Rage stepped out the shower with soaked fur. A brief look round told him that he was the only one within the locker area. He grabbed a towel off a nearby hanger before drying himself. Rage had become more muscular, as if he had been putting himself through intensive training in order to try and become the strongest he could. He let off a long sigh before picking up some nearby thing that looked like a full body suit but had various pieces of metal in critical places, like the feet, hands, chest, pelvis and shoulders. He put it on before grabbing his black t-shirt and black jeans and putting them on. He stretched and then flipped what looked like a switch on the neck of his suit. Immediately Rage looked strained. He walked out of the shower room, much slower than usual, and headed for outside.

A familiar sight of tall metal walls that seemed to go on forever met him before he looked up. The clouds had once again almost completely consumed the area round the city, but the sun could still be seen shining on the top of the city barrier and the rain had not yet started. He stood next to a small building that was perhaps a hundred meters across by a hundred and twenty wide. It only had a single floor and could be lowered into the ground in case of an attack. It remained the only building outside of the city and was located on the south side. Fifty meters round it was covered in a sheet of metal half a meter thick that retracted under it when it was lowered. Next to it by only a few tens of meters was a tall tower with a square base about thirty meters wide, it was two hundred meters high and also retracted under the ground during invasion. The area was known as the toughest training area for the soldiers and Rage had managed to use his connections with Eric and Tails to get a place inside the coveted place that only allowed a few hundred trainees in its ranks.

He left his staring to go back inside and check out every ones progress. He re-entered through the doors that only opened to those who were wearing the suits he was and looked down the long corridor that went all the way to the other side of the building. Immediately to his left was the shower room to he had been in only a few moments ago. To his right he knew the bunks were located in a massive room where both male and female were held. No romance went on however, as one: Everyone here was more interested in fighting, two: No one wanted to be thrown out of this place and three: The room was far too crowded for anything of that kind to go on anyway… Although those reasons didn't stop everyone and that was how Rage's place was opened in the first place.

The building had many different rooms for various training. The most notable being the following rooms: The endurance room, a room where you had to run for hours until you could no longer run, this room used the percentage function of the suit. The skill room, a room where you could fight with warriors of all shapes and sizes to improve how to fight, this room used the level off, minimalist or percentage function of the suit. The Chaos room, a room where you had to constantly use Chaos techniques and nothing else or you'd be disqualified, this room also used the percentage function of the suit. The float room, a room which involved acrobatics and moving agilely in the air, this room also used the percentage function. And the weight room, this room was unique in the fact that it pushed you to your utmost limits and tactics against robots that had been salvaged and reprogrammed, this room used the minimalist function of the suit.

Rage remembered when he first arrived to the training building. He knew nothing of what to expect because few who had been had been allowed in the city. Most of the ones that had left the building permanently either died in battle or were outcast into the polluted wilderness. He remembered the strange vows he had to take before entering, which included telling no one about this strange suit that he had to wear in order to participate, and the odd tests on his Chaos energies, which also was about the suit.

The suit, advanced in technology beyond what Rage had seen, worked on a type of system that messed with gravity by draining the Chaos energy out of the person wearing it. As such, it trained the physical and Chaos sides of the body at once. And all the controls could be changed by a mere thought and a flicker of Chaos energy.

The way it messed with gravity was that it had a small control to it that could adjust the suits properties to do different things. As an example, the 'percentage' function of the suit allowed the user to set the gravitational pull that their body felt from the earth to be increased (Or even decreased) so that heavy training could be undertaken by doing very little. It's minimum setting was 10% (100% being normal) and its highest was dependant on how much Chaos energy you had, the current highest in use being 30000%, Rage was on 20000% when he first came and didn't like being beaten by someone so had trained harder than anyone and managed to get it up to 22000% in just a couple weeks. The second setting, dubbed the 'level off' function used the gravity functions to bring down the strongest of the fights down to a level that would be about half of the weaker ones strength, then made the suit of the weaker one match the same level. This was exceptionally useful for techniques because it forced everyone onto an equal playing field. Rage hadn't won a match in this room yet, as he had always relied on his brute strength and speed to win. The final function, dubbed the 'minimalist' function was a system that reduced your skills so dramatically you were essentially a normal Mobian. It was only used in one room indefinitely and the aim of this was to work in a small ops team to try and deactivate the robots without destroying them. This room was the largest and most important room in the area as a maximum of five people could enter at once. The suits could all be controlled automatically from a broadcast machine that the heads of the organisation kept in control. The rooms were all set up to force your suit into the correct rules once partners had been decided or as soon as you entered, depending on the room. The only room that used a percentage under 100% was the 'float' room. Which was designed to help soldiers get used to being able to move under less gravity if they so desired within the battle field, a skill which could become invaluable in attacking enemies that were far taller than average or for attacking aerial enemies, the downside being that if it was anything other than 100% or normal it used Chaos energy to maintain.

Rage continued to walk down the corridor as people walked in the opposite direction, most likely to the shower room or the bunks. He nodded to a few he recognised as they walked past to have a similar gesture returned. After walking right to the end of the corridor he went into the weight room. It was far less crowded than it usually was, but Rage looked up at the clock on instinct and was greeted by the time was expected to see 03:00HT It seemed the majority of the people who were training here had their body clocks synchronised with true time area of this piece of land. Some were stubborn however, like himself, and didn't like fitting in. He spotted the queue waiting to go in the room once the previous team had finished and was pleased to see that there were only four people in the queue, meaning that he could go in right away. What annoyed him however...

"Hey Rage!" A girly female child shouted. Rage's eyes rested on the one person who he had really gotten to be irritated with. A small four year old girl, with clear light blue eyes, mostly black fur but with purple and red alternating stripes down her quills. Despite her age she already had several piercings in her ears and wore a black shirt with a custom purple logo on it, a red and black skirt coming just above her knees and purply/pink and black leather boots, her biological age had definitely been accelerated as she looked like she was in her early teens.

"What do you want Prosha?" Rage sputtered bluntly. Prosha looked at him in a very irritated way.

"That's not how you greet someone! Say something nicer for once!" She demanded of the Hedgehog who just looked at her and sweat dropped while she waved her arms in an animé like style.

"Nice to see you again Prosha." Rage breathed in order to shut her up. Prosha smiled and her eyes lit up. Rage sighed in annoyance. 'I don't know whether to love or hate this girl' he thought as she pulled him into the queue.

"Are you going in the weight room then? I presume that's why you're here!" She demanded of him. Rage tried to smile at her, which ended up as a grimace, and nodded. "Great! We'll be going in together then! You should go into the skill room with me again! I enjoy kicking your butt!" Prosha beamed at him once again and Rage looked at her with as much irritation as he could fathom.

"I'll beat you soon, mark my words." Rage announced in a loud voice, everyone in the room looked at him like he was crazy. Prosha just smiled at him sweetly.

"I doubt that. My mother made these suits before passing away, so I was the guinea pig and haven't took it off for longer than a shower since!" Prosha put on her puppy dog eyes to Rage which forced him to turn away because he couldn't reject them. "Pweeeeeeeease twain with mwe!" Prosha pleaded in her cutest voice.

"Fine! I'll train with you. Now stop bothering me." Rage growled at her. Prosha started to tear up so Rage scooped her into his arms and had to struggle due to the weight she was from the effect of the suit. "Don't cry, you know that bothers me." Prosha just smiled as she put her little arms round him.

"Arigato onii-chan" Prosha mumbled into Rage's fur. Rage blushed marginally before responding.

"For the last time I am not your brother." Rage muttered quietly in a happy embarrassment. The group that were in the room came out just at that moment, the first one whistled. A yellow hedgehog by the name of Dash walked out, he was about sixteen and wore nothing but his training suit and a pair of fully white shoes. He greatly reminded Rage of Sonic with his cocky attitude, but was a bit meaner about it.

"Look, wimpo and shortie are trying to start a love affair!" Dash laughed to his mates behind him. Rage was over in a flash pinning him against a wall.

"Care to say that again, I didn't quite hear you." Rage roared at Dash, Dash smirked at him as Rage felt two hands on each of his shoulders before he was thrown backwards into the wall behind, forcing him to let go of Dash. Rage got up and growled at the two that had thrown him back. One was a blue Echidna with purple eyes who had also taken up to wearing just his suit with white Shoes and a green hedgehog that looked oddly like Sonic but with aquamarine blue eyes whom always wore red sunglasses, a leather jacket as well as green and black shoes. The Echidna cracked his knuckles threateningly while smirking. The other two that had come out of the room with them had cleared off as fast as they could while the three who had been waiting had rushed inside, out the waiting area of the room. Everyone was scared of Dash's gang.

"Hiiyahhhhhhh!" Screamed Prosha as she jump kicked the Echidna in the nose causing him to stumbled. His hand whipped to his nose as he held it with angry eyes. Quickly looking at it he noticed it was bleeding.

"You bitch! You'll pay for that!" He growled as he moved towards her to punch her while the other two were laughing at him. Rage shot in front of Prosha and shielded her with his body as the Echidna rained down with punches. "What you want to take it for her? I'll give you double for being a peado." He yelled as he pummelled the hell out of Rage's back. Suddenly the beating stopped as a grey wolf had grabbed his arm. The Echidna swung his other fist at the wolf but this time the green hedgehog grabbed his arm. The blue Echidna shook them both off before talking. "Awhh, Scourge I was having fun."

"You don't want to be thrown out, do you? Come on. We're leaving." Scourge announced as he followed Dash out the room, the Echidna turned round and looked at them after his gang was out of earshot and no one could see.

"Just you wait wimpo. Wait 'til no one can hear you screaming." He announced as the doors to the room closed.

"Onii-chan, onii-chan!" Prosha shouted as she shook the barely conscious form of the hedgehog. Rage groaned and pushed her hand off before making his way up slowly.

"I'm fine brat. Get inside the room." He mumbled as the grey wolf helped him to his feet allowing Rage to start walking to the room. The wolf had already gone ahead.

"Onii-chan?" Prosha questioned. Rage looked at her with soft eyes that betrayed caring. "Arigato onii-chan." She exclaimed. Rage's face hinted a smile at her before he quickly turned his head and headed into the room with Prosha right in toe looking at him expectantly.

The second the two got inside the doors they shut to seal them in as five life forms were inside and the effect of the suits were almost instant, Prosha stopped bounding round and started walking properly and Rage, due to his injuries, fell to his knee before recovering his stature. The room was full of various obstacles of both natural and metal man made ones. The area was as complete for cover as anywhere would be simply to try and encourage you to learn how to make your way through something without alerting the main system.

A small area opened hear the door to reveal 5 miniature headsets ready for use, each with their own military letter and a second after the five had all secured the headsets to their ears, a beeping sound was heard followed by a female voice saying "Level one" within the earpieces to indicate that the room had activated. Robots were suddenly heard not too far off nearby moving round. The five Mobians moved behind various cover as fast as their weighed down bodies would carry them.

"Alpha, do you have a view of the target." Rage whispered into the microphone as he peaked round the corner to try see something, the room was dark due to the settings of the room and, Rage saw nothing in front of him except from the grey male Wolf in front of him.

"That's a negative Charlie, does anyone have a visual?" A smooth male voice came over from the microphone. "Does anyone have a visual on any targets?" He questioned.

"There's one of the ones that shoots right behind you Alpha, on the other side of the rock that you looked round, and I can see another one about 5 meters behind that." Announced Prosha quiet loudly, Rage wondered how she could have seen that and turned to see her sitting in a tree.

"Okay Beta, moving in, be my eyes." Alpha murmured as he crept forwards. He hid inside a bush as the robot started walking.

"It's coming right at you, if you time this right you can get him without the other one noticing." Prosha announced. Rage peaked round the corner again and saw the aforementioned robot and the Wolf's tail poking out the back of the bush, he rolled his eyes before creeping the long way round to the robot further back. "Okay, now!" Prosha uttered and the Wolf leapt out to the unsuspecting robots back. A second later he had shorted it out with a weak bolt of Chaos energy to a weak point of the circuitry. A clatter was heard followed immediately by another clatter. The team looked up to see Rage standing behind a toppled robot. "Rage you need to stop going ahead! This is a team mission!" Prosha scolded. Rage stuck his finger up at her. "Rage you're so mean!" Rage smirked and stuck his tongue out before diving behind cover because another robot had come to see what the noise was. The robot walked blindly forwards until it's foot tapped the edge of it fallen comrade and it started to look down slowly, Rage jumped out of hiding and delivered the stunning blow before wiping sweat off his brow.

"That was close." Rage stated. The wolf sighed on the microphone.

"That was reckless Rage! We almost lost the mission because of that! Don't do it again!" Prosha demanded over the microphone. Rage sighed and smirked to himself before moving forwards through the room.

"Delta, Echo. You not saying anything?" The wolf commented over the microphone.

"Well we haven't been told what to do-" Delta started in a deep voice.

"So what you're saying is you can't think for yourself?" Rage interrupted before he finished. The two none participating members, one a male cat and one a female cat, of the part blush heavily. The two of them, in some sort of effort to prove themselves, started blundering forward, the fatal mistake, their blundering caused them to knock into a fair few things and a few seconds later buzzing was heard in the air. Followed by a scream and a running Prosha from the source. Rage looked up to see a swarm of bees attacking the two Cats in a flurry, Rage chuckled before he was glomped over onto the floor as squealing Prosha ran to him for protection. He put his hand on her head and stroked her hair like quills to comfort her before sitting her aside and walking over to the two Cats covered in bee stings. Suddenly an alarm went off inside the room meaning that they'd been spotted. The robot standing next to them deactivating itself due to protocol. "You blundering idiots. My advice? Next time you should wait for orders." Rage thundered as he released weak waves of Chaos energy towards the bees which immediately caused them to calm down and return to their hive.

The five of them exited the room, two in embarrassment and three in irritation. As soon as the lot of them had exited the room the two Cats scurried off down the hall leaving Rage and Prosha walking with the unknown wolf that had helped out Rage. Each of them flexed various parts of their bodies now that they weren't under much strain and Rage yawned. "What's your name Wolfie~kun." The wolf scowled at Prosha and looked up to see Rage glaring at him for his reaction towards Prosha. His face softened but the look in his eyes remained.

"My name is Alpha, yes I know ironic; I always pick up that microphone on purpose." Alpha replied with a hint of irritation in his voice.

"Alphie~kun! Want to go to the skill room with me~? Fighting Rage is getting boring because he always loses." A small vein popped up in the Wolfs temple.

"If I beat you then do you promise to stop calling me self made nicknames and ~kun?" Alpha stated with deep irritation obvious in his voice.

"Prosha promises! If Prosha wins however, you must become Rage's and my friend!" Prosha shouted happily before skipping down the corridor towards one of the skill rooms. Alpha nudged Rage slightly and Rage looked at him with loathing eyes.

"What?" Rage stated bluntly. The wolf seemed taken aback from the tone back asked his question anyway.

"You were going easy on her and letting her win those matches right?" The wolf muttered with a hint of worry in his voice. The hedgehog grinned.

"I fought my hardest and haven't beaten her once. Watch out for her flying kicks, and her butterfly kick is particularly good." Rage announced with a smirk. The Wolf let a hint of worry betray him. "Bet you're wishing that you didn't bet on the game now eh? I did the exact same thing when I first arrived. Surprised you haven't ran into her before..." Rage pondered and looked at him curiously.

"Well two reasons, one being that I've only been here a few weeks and the second being that this is the first night I've been awake this late, I was set to sleep the same times as the masses." Alpha commented before Prosha suddenly reappeared.

"Are you guys coming or are you just going to stand there nattering like old women all night?" Prosha questioned before running back to the room happily. Rage smirked at Alpha whom shrugged before they started speed walking towards where Prosha was running.

"Here we are." Rage commented pointing inside the room to where Prosha was standing inside a small dome that looked like it was made of some sort of blue plastic. It was about 10 by 10 meters and the material caused you to bounce off it without damage. Alpha entered the area and faced her.

"Percentage or level off?" Prosha asked as her hands hovered over the functional command pad. Alpha knew full well that the level off function was better for weaker one when the two had large gaps in power. The percentage function was mostly there for battles between friends when they didn't want to over exert themselves.

"Percentage." Alpha muttered, if he was going to beat this girl then he had to try and make sure that he had the upper hand.

"Okay! We'll set it at what? 15000%?" Prosha announced as she fiddled with some controls at the far end of the board.

'15000?! What's this girl made of?! Muscle?! At least that'll weaken her aerial attacks...' Alpha nodded before hearing a slapping sound by the side of the fighting area, he turned to see that Rage had face palmed himself. Apparently he had made a bad decision. He felt the weight on him suddenly pick up before it reached its peak. He struggled to move under this more than he was expecting as his normal training was only fourteen thousand.

"Okay, normal rules. First to be knocked down three times loses, no time limit. Ready? Steady. Go!" Prosha shouted just as the Wolf managed to compose himself, an agile small bolt of a hedgehog managed to get a butterfly kick straight into the side of his head making him fall into the wall and consequently to the floor. Alpha quickly got himself back up.

"Okay, I wasn't expecting that. You'll need to try much harder than that to hit me again." Alpha retorted before composing his guard. This little hedgehog had more bonuses over him then he realised now that he thought about it; lower centre of gravity, less frame to carry and also to be hit on.

"Here I come!" Shouted Prosha as she dashed in again, throwing a spinning hook kick at Alpha's chest due to the size difference. The wolf blocked it which still caused him to have to shift his stance before throwing a weakened punch at Prosha, Prosha simply spun to avoid his hit and hit him in the head with a flying roundhouse. The force was too much for the wolf who was forced to use the wall force balance, leaving him open for a low spinning sweep kick from Prosha which knocked him over once again. He got up slower this time, growling at her. Prosha beamed at him before doing a back flip to let him return to a stance. She looked at him with mischievous eyes that spoke of deeper knowledge than a four year old normally had, not that Alpha would realise she was that young. Alpha could tell that she had practiced hand to hand combat techniques for most her life, if not all of it. Also her strength and stamina were impossible for her age, only years of exposure to the suit could have caused such an odd girl. Alpha was awoken abruptly from his day dream as he was kneed in the chest. The blow winded him and made him fall to his knee, luckily for him the chest or back had to hit the ground to count as a down. He shot up with an uppercut and managed to finally get contact on Prosha which made her fall immediately. The girl obviously still wasn't very good at taking hits despite her strength due to her young age. A flicker of hope appeared in his eyes at that moment. If he just got in two maybe three more hits he would win. Prosha did a backwards roll and flipped backwards from her shoulders landing in a perfect stance. Immediately she leaped and Alpha was hit by another flying roundhouse. The wolf staggered but, by placing his hand on the floor before he fell, managed to avoid losing. He quickly tried his previous technique, but this time Prosha back flipped to avoid it, catching Alpha's face with her feet as she did, he staggered into the wall behind him and fell flat on his face before growling.

"How did I lose so easily?" Alpha asked. Prosha appeared above him, hand held out even though it wouldn't do much good because of their obvious difference in size.

"Because you learn to fight for no real reason and I learn to fight to protect all those I care about. Because I could not save father, or mother." Prosha expressed with sorrow. The young grey male looked shocked at her words before he realised they were true, why was he learning to fight? For his clan. But was that enough?

Alpha stood up and exited the sparing area with Prosha, meeting up once again with Rage. "You got your ass handed to you." He stated to the wolf. Alpha growled at him before turning to Prosha.

"A youngling of your talents would be welcomed into my clan with open arms." Alpha told her sincerely as they walked out the door into the corridor.

"And what clan would that be? The weak wolves union?" Rage retorted, Alpha growled at him dangerously and extended his claws. "Oooo, am I supposed to be scared? Because I'm quivering in my boots!" Rage mocked, the wolf went to deliver a flying tackle to Rage as Prosha screamed.

"Guys stop this at once! You're always so competitive." Prosha shouted at them both. Both of them looked at her in confusion for a second then sweat dropped before looking at each other and shrugging. Suddenly an alarm went off, all three of them looked over head. The alarm was only meant to go off if Robotnik was invading... The three of them ran off towards the exit of the building where everyone in the other rooms were also heading out to.

---

Where was he? It was like he was floating, but he wasn't. He couldn't tell up from down and left from right, it was just never ending darkness, yet it wasn't darkness. It felt unexplainable and seemed impossible unless you had experienced it yourself. His vision suddenly blurred with images and ears buzzed with murmurings, before it once again faded away. More falling, or floating for a more precise word. Suddenly the images became clear, but it was all too jumbled up for him to tell what was going on. It was as if he was standing in every place in the world and yet not at the same time. He had to try and block some of them out. No sooner than he had thought this the noise started to quieten, the images became less muddled. Suddenly just one was left it was the perfect picture of a barracks kip room most the beds were tidy except for one which one of two people in the room was tidying, it took him a while to realise that the two people were talking.

"Have you heard?" The red Fox asked as she tidied her bed, she was standing in military gear with the insignia of a private.

"Heard about what?" A purple Racoon asked as he cleaned the floor, he was in a janitors outfit and had a mop in hand.

"The new head of the offensive army!" She uttered in a whisper as if she knew that she was being overheard.

"Ah him, yeah I've heard about him." He left it short as continued to mop a stain that looked suspiciously like blood.

"I've heard that he uses dark Chaos. What is someone like that doing at the head of our army? He could be in cooperation with the tyrant of evil himself!" Exclaimed the Fox, forgetting to keep her hushed tone.

"You should be more careful of accusing people of things. Don't forget why you're a private for the third time." The Racoon warned as he stopped his mopping. The invisible floating figure over head smiled until the Racoon continued in a whisper. "But I have to say, this time I agree with you. He seems like a shady character. I don't care if our saviour Tails knows him personally, something isn't quite right."

Suddenly a noise was heard as someone else entered the barracks, both Mobians quickly returned to their jobs as the image faded and distorted, turning into a different scene within a steely environment. He could only guess that it was part of the military building as he had only been to the top floor in Tails' office so far. He was floating along with a pair, both in uniform both with a captain insignia. These two were also talking.

"I'm not looking forward to the hedgehog waking up. I've heard rumours..." A tall black male Dog whispered. The grey Wolf next to him frowned.

"We're not supposed to discuss rumours within the chain of command. You know that." The grey Wolf stated. The male Dog took his turn to frown.

"I know, but I've seen the proof with my own eyes. He was black before and now he is blue. He's obviously using some kind of dark Chaos. Now, I know that Tail's himself has vouched for him, but what if it was a clever ploy laid out by Robotnik?" The Dog started the Wolf interrupted.

"But still-" The Wolf started. But the Dog started ranting yet again.

"No wait, listen. You have a son right? Alpha? He's just joined that outer ring right? Do you really want someone like that leading your son if he transfers?" The Dog uttered excitedly. The Wolf just sighed.

"If he transfers and by the time my son would be in the main division of the army this new commander may have died or left." The wolf answered cleverly. The Dog looked at him with an irritated look and opened his mouth. "And I'm not answering any more questions, we're late as it is."

They entered a room as everything muddled up again, this time he found himself on a bed, he tried to move but found that all the limbs he had were like fiery lead. He tried to gasp from the sudden feeling but found that he had an air mask on, he laid there, for what seemed like forever before his hearing slowly came back, and the white fogginess faded from his eyes. He still couldn't move any limbs, but the burning had long since receded. He could make out voices standing just nearby him.

"It's an incredible specimen. This parasite, whatever the cause, seems to attack not just organic things, but feeds off metals and plastics too. It's more like a substantial living organism. If it wasn't for this special type of glass that was mixed with Chaosanium it'd be eating the city piece by piece." A female voice gasped in the distance.

"I'm amazed that he survived for so long with it inside him. I wonder how long it truly was there for though. From what we can guess it was in there for a few months." A male voice growled in a hushed voice from not too far away.

"A few months?! But that would mean that it was in there before he even went inside that room!" The familiar voice of Tails waved across making Sonic force his eyes open to see the back of Tails and a male doctor nearby plus a female doctor standing at the door.

"I know, if he wouldn't have been frozen in time like that… Five years ago we didn't have the technology and know how to treat such things… He may have... He would have died." The male doctor mumbled thoughtatively Tails looked visually disturbed by this piece of information. Sonic let out a groan and all three of them suddenly hushed. The female doctor scooted off down the hallway before the door closed and took her out of sight.

"Sonic! Can you hear me?" Tails asked excitedly. Sonic nodded meekly as his body wasn't fully working. Things spun round in his head like they were spinning like a merry go round. Tails shouted in glee and the doctor came and pushed Sonic back to the bed and started prodding him in certain places.

"Does that hurt at all?" The doctor asked. Sonic shook his head meekly and flexed his hands.

"I can't move very well." Sonic stated, blinking a few times while looking at Tails.

"That would probably be the effects of both the drugs and the damage done to your body by the parasite you had living inside you. It was a formidable creature that we've only been able to deal with for a year at the most." The doctor announced as he stood up. "Now I have other patients to see to, so if you don't mind I shall be taking my leave. Make sure he stays in bed." And with that he closed the door on the two.

"What happened?" Sonic asked in a dazed gone out voice. Tails looked at him sympathetically.

"Well Sonic, when your dark energies stopped. Your body went into a deep shock that was surprising for the amount of damage you had took. Whilst we was moving you to the hospital everyone was quick to assume that the dark powers you were controlling did this to you. That rumour spread like wildfire for the first week of which you were out until the doctors realised you were getting worse rather than better. Upon a quick scan they found a small parasitic insect in you, better known as 'the black bug' and immediately started taking measures to remove it. They told me if they hadn't found it for another 5 days it would have caused irreparable damage. The odd thing is. They told me that normally people die after having this bug in them about 28 days. But it's been 3 months since you came out of that room and who knows when you got it? It must have been before you went in that room! The parasite is extinct now!"

"So I would have died if it wasn't for Robotnik?" Sonic asked looking into Tails' eyes.

"Ironically. Yes you would." Tails replied solemnly. Sonic looked gob smacked, before he could recover, Tails started talking again. "I really need to go, city to run and everything. Duality has been running the army whilst you've been out of action. I hope that you're up and ready soon. I'll come by tomorrow." Tails announced as he walked out the room.

"Tails wait! I need to tell you something..." Sonic started, but Tails was already out of the room. Sonic sighed and pulled himself up slowly as the door closed, he could see a nurses hand just before it finished closing he gave himself half an hour-ish before they came to check on him. He didn't like hospitals, they were too unnatural and didn't have enough space for his liking. He took in a deep breath and pushed himself to his feet. Sonic walked towards the window at a crawls pace and looked outside before peering down, his eyes almost popped out his head as he noticed he was a couple miles up. Damn it. I was going to jump out, but seems they thought of that. If I jumped in my current condition I'd be unconscious long enough for someone to bring me in from outside. Sonic thought before something bulky caught the corner of his eye and caused him to turn his head. His face lit up as he saw a swinging stage without a window cleaner on it just a window across. His hands fumbled for a lock as he continued to keep his eyes on the swinging stage his hand caught one and lifted it up. The window was open! His eyes quickly scanned for his stuff. He saw none of his clothes but his shoes and gloves were on the bedside cabinet. I used to run round in just those, this should be fine. He quickly put them on and hopped onto the window ledge. He realised the swinging stage had a balcony next to it and that it was right on the corner, he quickly jumped. Gravity took hold and he started falling before he meant to. He missed it completely and started to fall. Sonic swung out an arm and just managed to grab the bottom with his left hand. He immediately slipped slightly because he was right handed. Hurriedly he pulled his right arm up to stabilise himself. Climbing up the railing with just his arms like it was a ladder and pulled himself over onto the platform but keeping hold of the top ring causing him to do a flip onto his back. He laid there for a second breathing heavily, adrenaline pumping through his body from his near fall. Sonic stood up with his vision being slightly blurry and hit the down button. Nothing happened. "Shit!" Sonic looked up and saw a balcony far above him and a strange metal thing that looked like the wires were attached to it, it looked like it wasn't one of the whole of the building. He looked down and confirmed his theory because there was another lot of the strange metal things. He carefully jumped down onto them and scanned for the wires holding up the swinging stage. He saw them and noticed that the stage was all the way at the bottom and rolled his eyes and sighed. He hung off the bars and started abseiling down the metallic rope.

As soon as he reached the second swinging stage he realised that he wasn't near the ground. Luckily for him the final one he would need to take was only just beneath him. He back flipped, having got his feel for aerobatics back, and grabbed the railing on the fall down, quickly pulling himself over and hitting the down switch. The thing moved surprisingly fast and Sonic had made it to the first floor in no time. He quickly jumped onto the balcony and then off it into a side street next to the hospital. Suddenly he realised there was shouting by the entrance "So you didn't see him pass here?" A female voice shouted.

"No ma'am. Ain't been no blue hedgehog through here in the past ten minutes. Last one I remember would be 'alf an hour ago." A male voice replied. Sonic grew a cold sweat realising they were talking about him.

"Well if he comes past here we need him back up. He's been out for a long time and we don't know whether he's stable in mind yet." The women voice muttered, Sonic didn't know how he picked up the sound until he turned round to see a female Echidna, adorned in a black tank top and black jeans, holding a strange box with a speaker and microphone on it.

"Interesting." The brown Echidna observed while staring at Sonic. Sonic's eyes popped open All that just to have my cover blown by a chick?! He thought before quickly moving round her and covering her mouth.

"Don't say anything abou..." Sonic suddenly found himself on his back, the Echidna had just grabbed his arm and flipped him like a burger. He received a heavy stare.

"I wasn't going to. Try thinking before you act." She retorted as she wiped herself off. "So you're Sonic huh?" She asked once she was done. Sonic scrambled to his feet.

"Uh. Yeah. If you don't mind me asking... Who the hell are you?" Sonic questioned. The Echidna laughed at him.

"I'm your ticket out of here." She announced. "I love hospitals about as much as what you seem to." Sonic looked at her gob smacked, he opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it. Then he gave her a confused look as he closed it once more. The Echidna just ignored his apparent confusion. "This alleyway leads to a manhole that we can get to the sewer through. It'll make an easy escape route." With that announced she made her way over to the sewer system and pulled off the manhole like it was made of feathers before back flipping down. "Are you coming or what?" Her voice emanated from the small hole. Sonic shrugged and jumped down.

The fall was longer than he expected and when he landed his legs buckled and slipped out from underneath him. A quick arm under his armpit prevented him from falling however. "Um. Thanks." Sonic mumbled bashfully as he regained his footing. The Echidna just nodded in acknowledgement before setting off down one of the many paths that the sewers held.

"Try not to get lost. You could be here for days." She announced as she walked. Sonic quickly scurried to get behind her and walked at her pace. Several minutes they were walking until she spoke up again. "I supposed you haven't eaten much for the past few days?" The Echidna questioned as they walked. As if on cue Sonic's stomach grumbled. She giggled slightly before pulling something out of a pack that appeared out of nowhere. "Here." She urged. "Eat this." Sonic looked at the large chunk of baguette in her hand and took it gingerly before taking a bite.

"Hey, this is pretty good!" Sonic announced as he started taking chunks out of it like a ravenous rabbit, it was gone within seconds. "Do you have anymore?" The Echidna smirked at him before pulling an even larger baguette out of her bag and threw it to him. "Thanks!" Sonic half shouted as he caught it and started tearing that one apart too. By the time Sonic looked back up the bag had disappeared again. As she had just fed him he decided to keep his curiosity at bay, but the only person he knew who could pull things out of thin air was Amy.

What seemed like hours passed by where they were just walking along in the pathways in the sewers. Suddenly the Echidna stopped. "Okay, this ladder here will lead us into a small secret underground area in the roughest area in town. Let me do all the talking if you don't want to get messed up." She commanded as she started climbing. Sonic looked slightly scared at the sort of place that they were going into and gulped before following her up the ladder. The Echidna was already out of the hole above by the time he started climbing so he started climbing faster. As soon as he got his head inside he was greeted by a bright light blinding him.

"This the one?" A burly voice asked Sonic couldn't see where the voice came from but the response was almost immediate which made him thankful.

"Yeah, he's the one." The voice of the female Echidna announced the light was took out his eyes before Sonic was suddenly pulled out of the small hole by the scruff of his neck. Sonic's eyes quickly adjusted to see a very tall human holding him up and examining him. After what seemed like ages Sonic was finally put down and the human turned to his saviour.

"He passes. You best not bring someone in unannounced again or you'll be docked pay." The human growled before leaving through a door that lead further into the building. The Echidna woman turned to Sonic and looked at him sternly as if properly looking at him for the first time. She then turned and made her way to the door.

"So then Sonic, my name is Terra. Know anything about the damno exemplar?" Terra questioned as she closed the door and the lights went out.

---

"Slayde?" A whisper pierced the gentle pitter patter of the calming rain like an arrow. Slayde's eyes shot open and he turned himself round to see Shadow just centimetres away from him causing him to shoot back. Shadow smirked at him.

"What?" Slayde harshly whispered back, heart pounding from the sudden scare. "And what the hell were you doing behind me that close anyway?" He continued his heated whisper, Amy stirred not too far away, causing Slayde to whip his hand silently to his mouth, and then groaned slightly in her sleep before making clicking noises with her mouth and turning over before she begun snoring.

"I was going to ask if you were awake, but you turned round instead of answering. I'm close because this place is barely big enough for two Hedgehogs let alone three." Shadow calmly whispered back.

"Also known as: The great Shadow the Hedgehog is afraid of being too close to a female when she's asleep." Shadow scowled at him and Slayde smirked.

"I feel no such thing Hedgehog. I am unafraid to be in the presence of a woman." Shadow stated bluntly in a whisper, folding his arms. Slayde smirked at this.

"Ah, so it's just Rose then." Slayde countered quietly. Shadow growled causing Amy to shift in her sleep again. Slayde sniggered at Shadow

"I suggest you shut up." Shadow muttered with flickers of rage in his eyes. Slayde smirked at him and stood up to stretch.

"I suggest you don't make me jump when I first get up." Slayde said before walking to the door and peering through a small crack outside. "The rains almost stopped." Slayde murmured in a statement before beckoning Shadow outside Slayde yawned before opening the door swiftly and closing it gently behind him. Shadow stood up and followed suit to ensure that he would not disturb Amy. "Why did you want see if I was awake." Slayde asked in his usual voice with the hint of a growl as he walked over to a specific area on the edge of the clearing. A few seconds later and he was back carrying a couple of apples. Slayde tossed one at Shadow who caught it without even so much as blinking.

"I needed to talk." Shadow stated. Slayde frowned and opened his mouth to speak, but Shadow answered his unasked question. "Away from Rose." Slayde looked taken aback by that statement but didn't question it as Shadow suspected he would.

"What did you want to talk about Shadow?" Slayde asked while staring off towards the hut, thinking about what Shadow didn't want Amy to hear.

"What are you hiding?" Shadow questioned bluntly while his eyes scoured Slayde for any hint of a lie on his tongue or deceit in his eyes. Slayde blinked at him a couple of times before taking a bite of his apple. He crunched on it noisily as Shadow continued to glare at him analytically. He swallowed piece of apple and shrugged.

"Nothing." Slayde announced as he continued to look at Shadow blankly before taking another bite of his apple. Shadow looked highly irritated with his answer.

"Stop shitting with me." Shadow growled but with a calm look on his face. Slayde just shrugged at him. "Fine then. Fight with me. I'll read your heart." Shadow closed his eyes and his fur started to move as if he was in high wind, a second later a yellow-white glow was coming from him he opened his eyes and stared right at Slayde before dashing for him. "Chaos control." Shadow shouted as he soared towards Slayde, grabbing him by the shoulders just as it activated and they both disappeared in a green flash. Amy, who had just came outside to see what the commotion was about saw them both vanish and stared at the spot with her mouth hanging open before running out of the forest and towards the city as fast as she could muster.

Slayde tumbled into a load of soft loam from the currently pouring rain, coating his fur with filth. He stood back up slowly and briefly took in his surroundings. The usual metal wall that went on forever, however they curved away from him rather than towards him, one careful look confirmed what he suspected. "How did you manage to get us outside?" Slayde indicated the walls as he asked, Shadow smirked at him.

"Maybe I'll tell you if you beat me?" Shadow announced as he watched Slayde. Truth be told he had no idea that what he wanted to do would work. To be precise it didn't because he wanted to go about ten times further away than they did. They were only three kilometres from their original position. One from the wall.

"Fine, I'll show you the power of pride." Slayde stated as his eyes turned purple and his coat started to turn a silvery yellow, the dirt flew off him like it was water. Shadow looked taken aback and confused by that statement.

"What do you mean by that?" Shadow questioned. Slayde looked at him as if he wasn't being serious for a few seconds before laughing.

"You're serious aren't you? Then I shall tell you if you beat me." Slayde announced, smiling with deep smugness set on his face. Shadow brow furrowed before he dived and swung a right hook at Slayde at incredible speeds. Slayde caught the fist with his left and there was a loud noise upon the impact which was comparable to a clap of thunder. The rain changed direction and pelted Slayde for a few seconds, before stopping completely, from the speed of which Shadow moved, but he did not blink and looked shadow right in the eyes. Shadow growled slightly and threw his left fist at Slayde, Slayde blocked it with his right hand but the hit still got through and caused Slayde to go flying backwards a few meters and land on his back. He was back on his feet in seconds again though and smirking.

"What's so funny?" Shadow asked in irritation, folding his arms. Slayde laughed at that and folded his as well, but in a loose aloof manner.

"I forgot that you throw a mean left straight. Two of the minority right here." Slayde announced. Shadow didn't look at all impressed.

"So you're also left handed?" Shadow asked in disgust. Slayde nodded and waved with his left hand. "I should have realised earlier, the way you wielded that sword..." There was silence from a second before Shadow shouted. "Chaos Ray!" Slayde eyes widened as Shadow's hand came swinging round and the palm pointed at him. He quickly clicked his fingers before he was drowned in the bright light of Shadow's continuous beam of Chaos energy, after a few seconds Shadow released the beam and stood there for a moment waiting for the smoke to clear, his breathing had increased by a small amount due to the sudden use of a large amount of Chaos energy. The wind suddenly blew to reveal Slayde, sword in hand, blade glowing from being used as a shield. "Now that's an impressive blade you have there." Shadow commented, Slayde smirked at him.

"Why thank you. It's made from an alloy that includes the same metal that wall is made of and small crystals grown from a Chaos Emerald." Slayde announced as he ran his finger along the pattern on the top of the blade of his sword. Slayde closed his eyes, took in a deep breath and exhaled. His eyes snapped open and he dived at Shadow with his sword, Shadow ducked to avoid the swing and went to punch Slayde in the chest just to be stopped by a small black blade with similar markings to the first. It vanished in a dissipation of sparkles and the larger blade came swinging at him faster than he could avoid. Shadow caught it between his two hands and tried to pull it away. The attempt was a success and the blade went flying out into the distance. Shadow's guard was weak due to the removing of Slayde's weapon and Slayde managed to throw a punch right into his gut causing Shadow to fly back and do a back flip to land on his feet, holding his stomach from being slightly winded. Slayde chuckled and clicked his fingers causing his sword to reappear in his hands. Shadow looked at the sword gob smacked.

"How?..." Shadow trailed off. Slayde's eyes glinted.

"Did you forget what I said about Chaos Closet already?" Slayde commented smugly. It was obviously a rhetorical question. "Well take this as your practical lesson!" Slayde shouted as he dived for the irritated hedgehog. Shadow dodged the incoming blow by flying up into the air. Slayde followed, travelling through the wet rain and freezing clouds until they were both above the clouds, the sun started to evaporate the rain that was clinging to their respective fur almost instantly.

"It's quite warm up here." Shadow commented conversationally. Slayde smirked at him, eyes glowing from the sun light coming directly into them.

"Yes it is, positively toasty." Slayde looked up to see the very pale blue sky. "We must be very high up, close to space." Shadow looked at him analytically with wide eyes.

"Did you say... Space?" Shadow questioned in an unearthly voice. Slayde looked at him and nodded slowly. "Then we could be near ARK?" Shadow trailed the statement off to sound like a question as he looked up to try and see if he could locate the orbiting space colony. Slayde however was looking at Shadow with fully wide eyes, blank and wild.

"ARK?" Slayde mumbled before clutching his head in pain. His breathing became erratic and his pupils starts to spasm with contracting and relaxing. "ARK..." Slayde breathed as his eyes rolled backwards and his super form released itself, Slayde started plummeting towards Mobius and Shadow suddenly snapped out of his thoughts before chasing after his falling body. Slayde had picked up quite a bit of speed by the time that Shadow started moving, but it didn't take too long to catch up, however, the closer he got the faster Slayde got, and the harder it was to catch up. Shadow saw the ground fast approaching and put on an extra spurt of speed, he managed to grab Slayde's hand and started to slow them down as rapidly as he'd dare risk. He knew that Amy would be on his case if he didn't save him, and he wasn't really the kind of person to just let someone die anyway. Shadow quickly used Chaos control to teleport his way inside and found himself much closer to the wall than he intended to be. He quickly adjusted Slayde into a fireman's lift and ran back through the forest to the location of the hut. Upon entry he found it completely empty.

"Oh, where has she gone now?" Shadow growled exasperatedly. He put Slayde down onto the floor and ran out of the building and headed towards the city. It seemed like the most likely place she would go.

---

Amy hit the button on the elevator, thoroughly bewildered as to why there was such a lack of security. The elevator shot upwards and she tapped her foot impatiently. Suddenly a robotic voice was heard.

"Please insert valid identification into the slot under the floor panel. If you do not oblige within the next five seconds this unit will cease functionality." Amy glared at the speaker before folding her arms.

"Ah shit." Amy muttered. So much for no security. The elevator suddenly powered down and stayed still. Amy sighed and unfolded her arms. "I suppose it's about time I tested myself." Amy announced to herself as she cracked her knuckles. She jammed her hands in between the two doors and begun pulling it open, it took more effort than Amy expected it to, but compared to how strong she was before it was relatively easy.

She found herself in a room that seemed to expand for the entire length and width of the floor, not to mention the fact that it seemed to consume about five floors and was absolutely covered in thin woodland. "What's a place like this doing in here?" Amy commented before she looked over to the other side of the building to see an elevator, she started walking right away towards the elevator, but it flickered. Stopping Amy in her tracks. "What the fuck?" She cried as the elevator door vanished into thin air right in front of her eyes. Suddenly slots in the walls opened up and multiple white flying robots came streaking out towards her. Amy immediately readied herself into defensive position and as the two closest came flying at her from either side. She jumped up in a back flip to avoid the two robots and they slammed into each other, causing them to explode. Amy activated her homing attack and attacked the nearest few robots by slamming them into hitting others. She landed on the floor and did a quick scan in case any more robots were heading towards her to see that the remaining ones were all watching her movements. One of the robots looked different from the others as it was black and went towards one of the other robots, when they got close to each other they suddenly deformed and reformed as a more humanoid robot that came shooting at her with a left hook. Amy grabbed the arm and spun the robot round and threw him across the room into a bunch of other robots who exploded on impact with the big one. The big robot however stood up and although he was sparking from everywhere on his body did a good job. The robot held its arms out and all of the broken parts of the destroyed robots nearby to it shot to it and started to form on it, repairing it and making it look more powerful.

"Attack." The transformed robot commanded while pointing at Amy. All of the robots suddenly swarmed at her. Amy jumped to her left and delivered a side kick to one robot making it crash into the one next to it before using the momentum of the kick to grab another robot and threw it into a group of others. Before side flipping, landing on her arm, throwing herself up with that arm and grabbing two robots, smashing them into each other and throwing the remains at another incoming group. Amy then did a front flip to do a drop kick on a nearby robot that smashed into the ground before landing right on top of it. She once again scanned the area and saw that there were only about ten robots left, including the mysterious black robot. "Sequence Alpha 3 Beta. Attack." The robot commanded. The robots swarmed at her, but seemed to keep their distance rather than coming right at her. Amy charged at one of them but it just floated above the reach of the attack, that is before she jumped into the air and threw it into the ceiling. She landed to see all of the robots trying to avoid her again.

"That's odd. Either they're scared or..." Amy looked round to the black robot to see it reforming with multiple pieces of different robots scattered all over the floor. "Or they're trying to distract me! Shit!" Amy shouted as she quickly dashed over to stop the robot mid form. Suddenly all the remaining robots swarmed in her way. She immediately punched one of them and sent it flying into the far wall. Before round house kicking the robot next to it. She tried to get to the still forming robot but got rammed in the side by one of the weak ones that pushed her away from it. She growled at the robot and held on of her hands by her side. "This might not be as powerful as Shadow's, but god it will sting. Chaos spear!" A bolt of dark orange energy shot at the robot that was forming, but another smaller robot shot in the way and exploded on contact with the bolt. Amy growled again, but this time in frustration. "Chaos... Spear!" Amy bellowed, shooting several bolts scattered towards the reforming robot. The six remaining robots shot after them to try and stop them, but it was in vain as each of them blocked one and sacrificed themselves. The final unopposed bold headed towards the transforming robot whom suddenly held up its hand and snuffed it out as if it was nothing more than a candle in a gale. The robot ceased its transformation and stood up. The robot had gone from looking barely human at all to looking an almost perfect replica of Amy, minus the fact that it was black and she was pink; and that the robot had glowing red LED eyes.

"Impressive for an imperfect humanoid." The robot Amy commented casually in a voice not unsimilar to her own while looking at her robotic newly formed streamline body. "Better than any that have come before." The robotic Amy announced as her head snapped up to look Amy right into her eyes. "Shall we dance?" The robot questioned. Amy took up confidence in her skills and dashed forwards at the doppelgänger swinging her fist right into the robots chest. The robot remained unmoved. "Is that really the best you could do?" The doppelgänger punched Amy in the stomach and caused her to go flying backwards before falling onto her back some ten meters away from where she was hit.

"What was with that hit?" Amy asked no one in particular before pushing herself back up and looking right at her doppelgänger. "Chaos spear!" Amy shouted once again, but put the power of seven Chaos bolts into one. The bolt shot right at the robot who had the right mind to dodge it, it shot right past the intended target and smashed into the wall in the distance, which once again flickered to reveal the elevator door. "What's going on here?" She asked the robot. The robot looked at her in confusion.

"It would seem you are also the first person who has come here that does not know where they are. Oh my. Many firsts today. I must thank you for coming though. You are the most impressive Mobian that has entered my walls. I shall not forget your form. Nor your power." The robot announced before Amy once again stood up and got into her fighting form. "Ready?" Amy nodded before the robot soared at her faster than the speed she was used to fight against she swiftly dodged the punch and snuck round the robot to kick her in the back the robot staggered slightly but quickly spun round and delivered a devastating blow of a kick the her chest making her once again sail across the room. Amy got up faster this time however, her hair like quills were gently shifting from side to side as if in a light breeze.

"You shall tell me. Whether you want to or not." Amy growled as she jumped for the robot faster than before. Delivering a strong blow directly into the palm of the robot Amy's hand. The robot skidded backwards a mater or two before coming to a stop.

"That's more like what I copied." The robot sneered before throwing its own punch at Amy's head. Amy parried it, grabbed the arm and threw the robot on its back. Amy sent her foot crashing down right at the robots face to find that the robot had rolled over. The doppelgänger, quick to notice that Amy was merely on one leg quickly delivered a sweep kick taking out Amy's other leg and forcing her to the ground. Amy quickly threw a distraction punch at the robot so that she could get herself back up quickly, but the robot saw through it and slapped it away as they both leaped up. "You pass." The robot announced as she tilted her head.

"What the hell are you on about?" Amy asked before the woodland suddenly started to disappear. She looked round alarmed as the elevator doors suddenly reappeared and a small building on the edge of the wall that Amy was sure wasn't there before became visible. Amy could hear voices coming from the shack and two Mobians came out. One seemed very angry and the other seemed very thunder shocked.

"How did she get up here? And why is she in by herself? And what the fuck is she wearing?!" A grey Wolf shouted at the timid looking red Fox. Amy noticed that the new metallic version of herself had not disappeared with the rest of the room and they both turned to the two approaching Mobians.

"Yes, but look at these-" The Fox started, before he was once again interrupted by the grey Wolf.

"And why hasn't 'C H four M three one three oh N' changed back to its original form yet? Look there's a crack over there on that wall, that'll have to be repaired." Suddenly he stopped in his tracks. "Wait that's pretty good." He announced. The robot Amy faked a yawn which caused the real Amy to giggle.

"Would you just listen to me already!" The red Fox shouted at him. He looked at the fox taken aback.

"All you had to do was ask." The grey Wolf commented, causing the Fox to sigh in exasperation and the two Amy's to snigger.

"I did ask. You really need to pay attention to people." The Fox lectured. The Wolf stood there and nodded which the Fox knew was an indication to go on. "She just cleared out a platoon level, solo. A platoon level."

"What? Why didn't you reduce the difficulty setting to squad?" The grey Wolf commented. "It's a great risk putting someone against a mission like that alone. Especially when they are unarmed and female." A little vein appeared on Amy's forehead at that, and the robot Amy didn't look at all happy either.

"What was that you said about females?" Amy demanded as she cracked her knuckles threateningly. The Wolf looked over at her, then the robot, then back to her again and gulped, hard.

"This conversation doesn't concern you?" He squeaked in a small voice. Amy clicked her fingers and her piko piko hammer appeared.

"Wrong answer." Amy announced as she brought it crashing down at his feet, leaving a hole in the floor. "Care to re-evaluate your answer?" Amy asked in a maliciously sweet voice not unlike Shadow's.

"I implied that females are weak." The Wolf replied in a quiet squeaky voice. Amy released her hammer and folded her arms with a smirk upon her muzzle.

"I need to get me one of them." The robotic Amy commented at Amy's now vanished hammer. The Fox was gawping at Amy like she was from another planet.

"Do you think I could go now?" Amy asked. The Fox suddenly came to his senses.

"Sorry, it's just no one's ever shut him up before. Not even his own wife." The Fox revealed, taking a side glance to the Wolf looking down at his feet. "I wanted to ask you if you're a part of the army, and if not are you here to sign up? We could really do with someone like you..."

"As flattering as that is, I'm sorry but I can't. I have to get back to my sensei. First however, I really need to find Tails and talk to him. Where is he?" Amy enquired. The Fox looked disappointed and sad at the same time.

"He's on the top floor but it'll be difficult to get in because he's guarded by some of the best machinery we got. Make sure you state your purpose to the secretary, you may be waiting a couple of hours though. Tails has been very busy as of late." The Fox informed. "If you ever change your mind ask for a General Hunt." Amy smiled at him and started to leave, just to hear metallic footsteps behind her. The Wolf found his voice again.

"Get here and change back right now." The Wolf shouted at the robot. Amy turned as the robot turned to him and stuck her middle finger up.

"Make me bitch." She announced before she carried on walking. "You know full well that there are only a handful of people in this army stronger than Amy, and all of them are busy. So what you going to do about it?"

"I could deactivate you." The wolf announced as he pulled a remote out of his pocket.

"You wouldn't." The robot Amy gasped.

"I would." The Wolf announced as he held his finger above the button. Suddenly a mid shade orange bolt collided with the controller and blew it up. The Wolf shook his hand because it had been burnt from the small blast.

"You won't." Amy announced. She turned to her doppelgänger "Live how you want. Not how others force you to be. It took me a long time to realise that. So I shall give you that opportunity." The robotic Amy smiled at Amy and then turned back to the Wolf to stick her middle finger up once more before following Amy into the lift and the doors shut behind them. "So what are you going to do?"

"I have no idea. I didn't plan this far ahead. If I had a heart it'd be pounding... Wait I do feel a pounding in my chest..." The robot felt her chest. "I'll never get used to this whole changing thing."

"Well do you have a name?" Amy asked merrily. The robot shook her head. "Oh God! Not even a name! Erm... Well you look like me. So presuming you stay like that I can share my last name Rose?"

"That would be amazing. Just like having a sister. Would help me feel more Mobian." The robot Rose replied.

"Okay, first name. We could call you Black, because Black Rose sounds cool. Oh the good old days when I day dreamed of being called that." Amy started to blush. "Oops, that was meant to be a secret. Erm. How about Ebony? It's a name that isn't all that unusual. And 'Ebony Rose' still sounds quite cool!"

"Sounds good sister." Ebony Rose responded with a smile. "What is it that you want to talk to the creator about?" Ebony Rose asked Amy.

"Erm, something to do with Chaos Control. If you want to feel and seem more Mobian you should try loosening up the way you speak. Like try using slang, use apostrophe words like can't and shouldn't. Also don't refer to people as Creator. Just call him Tails, even if he did make you I'm sure he won't mind." Amy instructed Ebony Rose.

Suddenly the elevator doors opened to reveal A door a bit further on with what looked like an eye scanner. There was a small desk to the far left but no receptionist there. Amy walked up to the desk and rang the bell on it. A few seconds later an oversized Lioness came out and sat down on the chair that creaked. "Name?" She asked.

"Amy Rose." Amy announced the receptionist did some things on her computer before turning back to Amy and talking.

"You don't have an appointment." She stated rather bluntly.

"I don't need one. Send my name through, you'll see." The woman did a few things on the keyboard before standing up, indicating some chairs and heading back into the room she was in when Amy first arrived.

"I bet she's stuffing her face in there." Ebony Rose commented to Amy. Amy giggled and looked towards the door. The Lioness came back through a few seconds later with a tint of red on her cheeks and sat down in her chair. Apparently she had heard what Ebony said.

"Amy? Is that really you?" Tails voice came across from a small speaker next to the door. Amy quickly rushed next to the speaker with Ebony immediately behind her.

"Yes Tails it's me. I really need to talk to you about something important. Can you let me in please?" Amy requested through what looked like a small microphone beneath the speaker that was in the wall. Suddenly the door opened and Tails popped out his head.

"Amy! It's so good to see you!" Tails announced as he walked up and hugged her. "And who's your friend?" Tails asked in a sociable way.

"This is Ebony Rose. You may recognise her." Amy replied as they pulled out of the hug.

"No... It can't be!" Tails announced as he looked at Ebony properly. "You've grown up! I'm proud." Tails announced to her. Ebony looked so happy that she could cry, if she could cry. "Where are my manners! Come in, come in!" Tails indicated the inside of his workshop. There were devices of all kinds scattered across the place that looked like they were meant for various important things. "Speaking of you... Erm. Ebony, I know that you can mimic things on an atomic level, but you cannot create things very easily without being shown it first. In my research for synthetic limbs etc I accidentally stumbled across this." Tails held up a sheet of what looked like perfectly ordinary black fur. "It's made of the same metal alloy that you are comprised of Ebony. Instead of looking shiny and robotic like you can duplicate this and make yourself look like you have fur!" Tails finished as Ebony just stared at the material as if unsure whether she could trust it or not. Amy reached out her hand and stroked it.

"Wow. That feels just like real fur. Tails that's dead impressive." Amy commented as Ebony reached out and touched it. The fur dematerialised and reappeared on Ebony completely covering her in the right places. He inner ears and muzzle were still shiny however, and so were the metallic replicated clothes. "Ebony, can you dull the metal you have? If you do that on the parts without fur it'll look more natural. There may not be many hedgehogs with black muzzle fur instead of peach but there are some, so it would not be too out there. I don't know what to suggest about your ears though, you could do the same I guess. Or make shorter fur for your muzzle. Oh, and lose the metal clothes. I have some spares." Amy clicked her fingers and the spare clothes that she had put in her Chaos closet right after going in the hut appeared. Amy handed her the dark purple jeans and a royal blue t-shirt. Ebony concentrated and all her metallic clothes suddenly disappeared leaving her completely stark naked in front of Tails who's eyes popped open and his nose started to bleed before he quickly turned round with his eyes closed to allow Ebony to change. "She's done Tails."

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking. Mobians normally have a complex with modesty don't they?" Ebony announced awkwardly. She had taken the advice of Amy and dulled the metal inside her ears and grown a small amount of what looked like black muzzle fur on her muzzle. If it wasn't for her LED eyes she's look like a normal Mobian. Tails suddenly rushed of and opened a nearby cupboard.

"Oh where did I put them?" Tails asked himself as the two just stood and watched him.

"Put what Tails?" Amy asked while looking and Ebony. The two giggled with each other.

"You'll see when I- Aha! Found it." Tails stood up with something that looked oddly like Mobian eyes. "They're more prototypes than anything, I haven't been able to get them to interact with organic materiel the way I want them too yet." He pointed at his own damaged eye. "But they should work on someone who is robotic. Configure them into your system." Tails suggested as he stood there placing them in Ebony's hands.

"Look away, this won't look at all normal." The two obeyed and heard some off metallic noises. "Okay you can look again now." They looked round and saw Ebony who looked like a perfectly normal Mobian with purple eyes and black muzzle fur.

"So what was it that you wanted to talk to me about Amy?" Tails asked, Amy looked at him blankly before blinking a couple times.

"Oh yeah, I forgot with all this. I needed to ask you about Chaos Control. Shadow used it, but we were told that it couldn't be used in this city. What's going on?" Amy questioned, obvious worry on her face.

"Ah, well you see. It's not that it isn't possible to use Chaos control inside this area. It's just that we've placed effects into measure that makes it so it takes ten times as much power. Chaos control, as you know, is a power that requires so much energy that most need an Emerald to activate and use it. For a normal person to use it is hard, but when the power of what is needed is upped by tenfold with makes it so very very few people can use it indeed. Shadow can probably still use it because of his extreme amount of energy. But if he wants to go ten miles he'd had to visualise going one hundred, which I'm sure is difficult even for him." Tails explained. Amy nodded in understanding. "Which is why everyone says that it's impossible."

"So does that apply to just Chaos control? Or all Chaos powers?" Amy quizzed. She wanted to fully understand this places barrier so that she could do a better job at training.

"Well to be precise it does it to all Chaos powers, including the form changing ones. So those that can almost reach them in here. Could probably reach them outside the wall." Tails comment bashfully.

"That could be why he did. He took Slayde outside with him. Slayde was close to super form when fighting Sonic and Shadow noticed that. So if Shadow worked this out for himself. Oh god! That means Slayde's probably fighting him right now!" Amy shouted. Tails dashed over to a door at the side and went through it, returning about a minute later. You're right, there's been two massive powers resonating about a kilometre away from the wall, it was causing disruption to the barrier. They flew upwards and only one came back down, the larger of the two. Before disappearing completely..." Tails informed before trailing off and looking at Amy worried.

"Damn that Hedgehog! He always takes things too far without meaning to!" Amy stood up sharply and made for the door before Tails spoke up.

"If you find Shadow, pass him on the message that there are multiple threats heading towards the Eagles base." Tails requested. Amy nodded and smiled at him before starting for the door again. "Bye bye Amy, hope I see you soon."

"Laters Tails." Amy replied before exiting the door. Ebony hopped up and made of the door after her.

"I hope I get to see you again sometime!" Ebony announced before dashing out the door after her. Ebony found that the elevator was already there for them and that Amy was already inside pressing the button. She quickly jumped inside and hummed to herself merrily while Amy pushed the button.

Due to the fact that this particular lift couldn't be accessed when someone activated it, as it was the only one that could up to the top floor to see Tails, the two made it down in no time. The receptionist smiled at them both as they walked out, getting Ebony excited.

"Calm down. Now how fast can you move?" Amy asked Ebony thoughtfully. Ebony stood there and thought about it before coming back with a predictable answer.

"About as fast as you I guess." Ebony replied, clearly confused towards the situation. Amy nodded before crouching.

"Do what I do." She commanded before jumping up to a fair was up the building and performing a triangle jump across the buildings as skilfully as she could. Ebony followed and they were well on their way... Until something crashed into Amy causing her to tumble into the masses beneath and knock a few people over. She looked round for what she bumped into and saw a small impression of people not unlike hers not too far away. "Oi you, watch where you're going you... Shadow?" People had moved out the way to show a very pissed off looking black and red Hedgehog. Shadow looked up and saw Amy, his angry vanished immediately.

"Amy!" Shadow shouted in a pleased voice that he'd been able to find her. Then he remembered why he had to find her and his anger came swimming back. "Why did you leave the hut! When I got back I was worried that you'd been eaten in your sleep!" Shadow scolded. Amy laid down her ears in a hurt expression.

"But but but." Amy started, though Shadow interrupted.

"No buts, that's what goats do. Who's this you have here anyway?" Shadow ended his rant abruptly and became calm instantly, as always. Ebony had just jumped down and joined the two.

"Hi I'm Ebony Rose." Ebony held her hand out in curtsey.

"Charmed." Announced Shadow abruptly while looking at the hand as if it were a bomb. Ebony looked sad and dropped her hand slowly; Amy rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry Ebony, he's like that with everyone." Amy comforted while Shadow stood there with his arms folded.

"He's not like it with you." Ebony pointed out. Shadow's cheeks went so slightly red that neither of the two noticed so he quickly turned his back to the both of them.

"Well that's because I've known him for a long time, even if I don't know him well yet." Amy replied, looking over to Shadow and feeling mystified as to why he had turned his back on them both. Suddenly she remembered something. "Shadow. What have you done with Slayde?" Amy growled a little harsher than intended. Shadow looked at her surprised.

"How did you know I'd done anything with him?" Shadow asked, surprised by both Amy's knowledge and tone.

"I saw you Chaos Controlling the two of you off. And I heard from Tails that there was a battle with two massive Chaos forces and that the weaker one didn't come back down. What did you do?" Amy asked sternly, looking right into Shadow's eyes as she knew he couldn't lie very easily if she did.

"I did nothing! He just passed out halfway in between our battle, was pretty annoyingly actually. We were on even terms because of that damnable sword he has. Best one on one I've had since prison island..." Shadow trailed off as he went into what looked like a wander down memory lane.

"So where is he Shadow?" Amy asked. Shadow blinked a couple times and shook his head.

"I took him back to the hut." Shadow stated. "But I need to go talk to Tails to confirm if some of my theories are true."

"If it's about Chaos, I've been told pretty much everything about it, I'll explain it to you on the way back to Slayde. If it's not satisfactory then go." Amy commented as she started walking with Shadow right next to her, already explaining away.

Several minutes later Amy had explained and they were inside the forest heading towards the hut. "So does that clear it up for you Shadow? I've told you everything he's told me." Amy told him as she moved a large branch out of the way. It flicked back and hit Ebony in the face and knocked her over. No one noticed however because she was at the back.

"Yeah, that was what I had guessed from the extra strain I've had using everything Chaos all this time. Plus the distance I travelled with Chaos Control." Shadow replied as they entered the clearing. Amy looked back and stopped walking. "What's up?" Shadow asked as he turned. "Where's that... Girl that was with you?"

"Shit, she got lost in the forest. I don't know whether I should go looking for her or go and make sure Slayde is okay." Amy worried. Suddenly shuffling was heard and Ebony came though into the clearing looking a little scratched up.

"I can see why you've been in here training now." She announced as she brushed herself off. "I came up against one of those bear looking things." Shadow looked impressed where as Amy looked concerned. "I'm fine, I'm fine." She announced looking at Amy. Amy quickly turned and jogged towards the hut and opened the door. Slayde was on the floor mumbling in some strange language. Amy kneeled and put her hand on his pulse.

"His pulse is fine. What language is that?"Amy asked as she positioned herself to heal him.

"I don't know... Wait a second. That last word he said was Black Arms for kill. How does he know that?" Shadow asked bewildered.

"This is getting to weird. Chaos heal." Amy shouted. Slayde frowned and suddenly sat bolt upright.

"Whutsgoinon?" Slayde mumbled at he looked round wildly while breathing heavily. He laid back down again. "It was just a dream. Thank god." Slayde looked different, his fur had grown slightly and was more rugged and his gloves had disappeared from his hands. His eyes looked like they held more pain than they ever had before. Most notable he had somehow acquired a three long scars striped over his left eye that looked oddly like a claw mark.

"What was a dream?" Shadow asked rather bluntly. Slayde looked at him right in the eyes and gulped while gasping.

"It doesn't matter. Don't worry about it." Slayde muttered rather nervously Shadow glared at him before picking him up and pinning him against the wall.

"Shadow!" Amy shouted. But Shadow didn't seem to hear her.

"I said. What was a dream." Shadow snarled. Slayde looked petrified at Shadow's wrath.

"I.. I was one of those. Black aliens. And. And. Shadow. I killed you. He made me. I couldn't control myself." Slayde whispered in fear. Shadow put him down and he huddled himself in the corner.

"What do you think happened Shadow?" Amy asked. Shadow just stared at Slayde with new admiration and, if possible for Shadow, fear.

"There is no doubt in my mind if he fought me back then as he is now he would defeat me. Even if it would be a long battle." Shadow commented. "But still... Passing from one universe to another is something that is ridiculously hard to do. You can do it with a minimum of four Emeralds, but if you get the process for it even microscopically wrong you can end up with catastrophic consequences, including not being able to get back. It's too tricky and risky."

"So how did he cross over?" Asked Amy.

"I don't... know..." Shadow replied as they both stared at Slayde. He seemed to be calming down again. "And besides that a mere projection must have gone over. Because he's still here. And always was. Chaos is so fucking confusing!" Causing Amy to giggle before smirking at him.

"Of course, that's why it's called Chaos." Amy commented. Shadow smirked at her comment before grabbing her arm.

"Time for some more training. I saw some things outside that should be quite interesting to fight with." Amy quickly grabbed Ebony's arm before it happened. "Chaos Control." Shadow shouted and the three disappeared in a flash of green. Slayde looked up to where the three just disappeared from and disappeared in a flash of green immediately after.

---

"What's going on?" Rage shouted above the ruckus. Prosha turned to him and tried to answer as best she could.

"Well sometimes we get attacked by these mutants of the fog which we call 'The Corrupted' whom attack all. Even the fat mean guy gets attacked by them!" Prosha announced to him in response. "Although it could just be a large reconnaissance team from him come to try and steal information." Prosha muttered on reflection. "Either way, it ain't good."

"Could we please have silence!" A deep voice bellowed across the environment. Everyone fell instantly quiet and not a peep was heard. "There you go milady." The Armadillo passed over the microphone to an elegant looking cream female Fox. Clad in a pearl dress that showed off her figure and showed more cleavage than Rage would have thought allowed.

"Thank you Ryan. Now then. We are under threat. Multiple Corrupted are heading this way, and it's your job to stop them before they hit the city walls. The metal may be indestructible, but the mechanisms holding the gates are not and although Eggman doesn't know that, these guys do. They all seem to have some kind of innate, unexplainable connection with one another. One guy learns your weakness, they'll all know it. So watch it!" The Fox woman announced to all of the suit users. "Maybe after you have proven yourself in this we shall let you all fight the hordes that Eggman sends rather than keeping you inside to train. They are coming from the east. Get moving."

Everyone started moving as a massive crowd towards the suggested area that the corrupted were coming from Rage, Prosha and Alpha were all standing at the back of the group and got left behind because they weren't moving "I think we should probably get moving." Alpha commented as he started walking. Suddenly a bright flash of green blinded that three. Rage looked in front and saw Slayde standing right in front of him, but he was facing the other way.

"I could have sworn I sensed him here." Slayde commented as he continued to stand there. "Ah!" He announced as he turned round. "I must have been slightly off from your Chaos signature because of that damn barrier."

"Slayde? Are you okay? Because for a black and blue Hedgehog you look pretty damn pale." Rage asked in a concerned voice.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It just includes a bad dream and an outer universe experience that lasted two years due to temporal differences in the time flow. So not much." Slayde commented casually. Rage sweat dropped.

"Yeah, not much at all..." Rage commented back. "I swear you're not telling me everything." Rage pointed out as he looked at the scar he had somehow acquired in just a few days of not seeing him. Slayde looked a bit shifty for a second.

"I'd rather not talk about it." Slayde announced with fire in his eyes.

"Okay bud. What you looking for me for anyway?" Rage asked. Suddenly Prosha tugged on his arm.

"Onii-chan! We need to go!" Prosha instructed him as she started pulling him.

"Think we could walk and talk?" Rage asked before he noticed Slayde trying not to laugh. "What?"

"Nothing..." Slayde responded. Rage frowned at him.

"So why are you here?" Rage asked casually as they started walking towards the area the crowd had shuffled off to. Slayde was walking next to him and Prosha was riding Alpha's Shoulders, much to his disgust.

"I just wanted to come and meet up with a friendly face since I almost ended up dead and those guys decided to bugger off." Slayde responded. Rage looked surprised.

"What about that chick you hang with?" He asked in a shocked voice.

"Ah. Well she's what I'd call 'normal'. So she wouldn't understand this and besides. She's not expecting to see me for a couple more days." Slayde answered. "So how's training at this place? I might see if I can get an invite." Rage grimaced.

"It's okay... You can't leave though, and also you can't fight in any of the Eggman battles because apparently, and I quote, we're 'being saved for when we are most needed'. Load of bull if you ask me." Rage told Slayde. "You could probably get a tour if you really wanted. It's hard though, I only got in because of Tails."

"Ah I see. I may come in just to see how you're doing. Fight some of your stronger opponents." Slayde commented casually.

"To be honest over half of them are weak, weak and more weak! But there are a few that I think even Shadow would enjoy dancing with." Rage commented. "This little pipsqueak is a technique master."

"Onii-chan!" Prosha shouted at him. He chuckled. "Slayde-san? How did you appear in front of us like that?" Alpha growled.

"How come she calls him san when she first saw him but calls me kun?" Alpha growled in irritation.

"Ah, you see. Anyone who has joined after her and not succeeded in besting her in battle she calls Kun and those that aren't in the group she refers to as San. Anyone who does manage to beat her she calls Senpai and on rare occasions, like the person who is currently at the top of this group, she refers to them as Sama." Rage explained while Prosha nodded in agreement to his words.

"So yeah, Slayde-san, how?" Prosha asked again. Rage chuckled and Slayde cleared his throat.

"That was Chaos Control. I used it to get out the walls." Slayde stated.

"I thought Chaos Control was restricted?" Rage cut across. Slayde shook his head.

"No it's just severely weakened. You can still used it, just not as easily. From what I can asses it takes up about ten times the normal amount of power of every Chaos ability there is. Even super forms, which is why I used to struggle to maintain one in there but not out here." Slayde stated, a look of dawning read on Rages face.

"Now that you mention it I felt a lot more restricted until I came to train out here. I guess that's why they train us out here. So our Chaos powers aren't restricted after all, the suits drain enough! In theory it'd be impossible to teleport back inside unless you were very powerful or very close to the wall." Rage stated in thought. Slayde nodded in agreement.

"Yeah that's what I was thinking too." Slayde commented.

"You two are so funny!" Prosha suddenly exclaimed. Both Rage and Slayde looked back at her.

"How so?" Slayde asked as they continued walking towards where the group had disappeared too.

"Well Slayde-san. You and Onee-chan are so similar. From the way you discuss things to the way you look. You only look different from your eyes and your scar Slayde-san." Prosha replied. The two stopped and looked at each other.

"Well what do you know. Why the hell didn't we notice that?" Slayde stated.

"I don't know, but I can't believe we haven't." Rage answered the rhetorical question before looking at Slayde with extreme suspicion.

"No Rage, I am not the same as you." Slayde replied to Rages unasked question to which Rage continued to looking at Slayde suspiciously, but not with as obvious intent. The group started being able to hear fighting coming from not too far away and Prosha jumped down before the small group started jogging towards the sound of the commotion.

---

Slayde POV

Almost a half of the special ops team had already been wiped out and only about a third of the invading force had been. Things were not looking good at all. A giant wolf looking creature with fur matted with black seemed to be taking on multiple enemies and there were ten of them. Some of the corrupted were just sitting it out at the back and each of them looked like Mobians. They all had complete black for eyes however and looked positively insane from the facial expressions. One of them, a red Hedgehog in his early thirties with black stains covering him, looked to be the leader as he was sporting three Chaos Emeralds in his hands and seemed to somehow be feeding their energy to what was under his command, quite possibly the wolves. Three other Curruptians all held one Emerald each. Suddenly the ones at the back all looked at the one without a suit on, at me and nudged their leader who also looked at me. A distinct chill reached down my spine as he looked straight into my eyes, and I looked in his. He was far more intelligent than the others. I could see that just from the look he gave me. He seemed bored, while the others were in ecstasy from the killing and the blood. He smiled at me before turning back to his comrades and looking like he barked some orders. I had to turn away from him and talk to Rage.

"Rage. I'm going to try and take down the leader and hope that they lose their chain of command. I know you are strong and someone to be relied upon, so please, could you try and distract the other Mobians from interfering. If he uses all those Emeralds in one go this could be one hell of a ride." I requested quickly before turning back to that leader, who currently had all six Emeralds in his hands. They started floating round him slowly. "Rage, he's going to use six of the Emeralds to go super. It'll damage his body the longer he's in it, so even if he's stronger as long as I can hold out for long enough he'll grow weak and frail." There was a flash of energy and a black Hedgehog flew above the ranks of everything with his bored loathsome eyes boring deep into my soul. I reached deep into my inner Chaos and pull it out, enabling myself to turn into my pride super form. I floated up to him and looked right into his deep black eyes that couldn't even be changed by a Chaos form. A quick glance down confirmed that Rage was doing as I asked and distracted the rest of the Mobians. He was doing amazing considering that it was five on one and had already took out what looked like the weakest. The distraction was what he was waiting for as a punch collided with my jaw and caused me to fly back in the air a couple meters before I steadied myself. "Call that a punch?" I asked as I felt my eyes flicker. This form always did make me full of myself, the problem with messing with the base form and changing myself to allow for more power.

"No. That was a little test to see how weak you are." The Curruptian replied. I smirked at him and he smirked back with his eyes still narrow full of darkness.

"Good. I thought this was going to be boring for a moment." I stated. I needed to try and intimidate him in some way. But how? My mind wandered back to what happened in those two years that I was in a crossover world. "I've killed many innocents you know. What makes you think I won't just do the same to you?" The Curruptian smiled at me. Unaffected and not bothered by my piece of devolved information.

"That meant to scare me little boy?" he commented. I growled. Anger surged through me as the statement echoed in my head. I felt my eyes flicker to red. I had to calm myself down.

"Little boy? I was probably born before your father." I sneered back. My age was questionable, yes. But I was at least fifty, knocking on sixty and that's not including my five years in that room. The Curruptian smiled at me maliciously before launching an attack at speeds that were near impossible to attain without the Emeralds. His knee flew into my gut before his hands wrapped round the back of my head and he knee came for my face. I rapidly move my left hand to block it and with my right charge up an attack. "Let me show you a little trick I learned off someone called Black Doom. Chaos." I felt the static feeling build in my left hand as he swiftly retreated to dodge my attack. The fool didn't realise how fast it travelled. "Surge!" A continuous bolt of electricity left my hand travelling as fast as the speed of light, hitting square in the chest and causing his body to spasm from the voltage. The drain on me was high so I quickly stopped my technique to see him still hovering there, but breathing rather heavily.

"That... Was rather... Impressive..." He stated in between breaths. "Let me... Show you... An old favourite..." He smirked as he start to glow red. "Chaos." He started. My eyes shot open he couldn't possibly be planning on using a Chaos blast?!

"You'll kill your allies as well as mine!" I warned. He just smirked.

"It's a risk that I have calculated and decided to accept." He replied with a smirk. I rushed at him charging up my own Chaos.

"Chaos control!" I shouted, teleporting both of us out of there, miles above the others.

"Blast."

So much red, so much pain. Make it stop make it stop! It's... Fading? Ahhh, bliss. Darkness.

---

Normal POV

A bright red flash lit up the sky followed by the noise of a massive explosion most Mobians, Curruptians and animals alike quickly glanced up to the light show. Prosha was watching it from the ground and to her it look to be almost a kilometre wide. And ten kilometres up. And something seemed to be falling from where it had happened.

"Onee-chan! I think Slayde-san is hurt!" She shouted at Rage as she butterfly kicked one of the two Curruptians that Rage hadn't finished off yet. Rage used the distraction of her to quickly finish off the one that she had attacked leaving just one left. The strongest of the bunch. Rage was already pretty damn tired from fighting the rest of them.

"Where abouts is he?" Rage asked as he got in a punch to hit gut on the last Curruptian and the Curruptian got a hit right into Rages jaw.

"Falling Onee-chan. Leave this tired one to me and go and catch him!" Prosha stated as she round housed the Curruptian. Rage nodded and ran out quickly into an open space. He saw a dark mass falling towards the ground rapidly. He ran underneath it and braced himself before he then jumped with all his might a couple kilometres into the air. He didn't quite make it but as he started falling he could see the mass rapidly gaining on him. Rage managed to catch the falling Hedgehog in his arms which instantly causing him to speed up. Rage started using his Chaos powers to slow himself down until he was suddenly clipped by a flying black hedgehog which causing him to spin out. He had managed to slow down Slayde, but dropped him and was now too far from him. The black Hedgehog came and hit him from above, causing him to slow down. Making him further away from Slayde.

"Chaos control." Rage shouted. Everything round him inverted and went to an almost complete standstill. Slayde was falling so fast it still looked like he was moving at a fair pace even in this dimension. Rage used Chaos to steady himself and pulled Slayde into the dimension with him. "Thank god that worked. Didn't think it would." Rage announced to himself as he slowly took them down. He sat next to Slayde for what seemed like hours while he maintained the Chaos Control so barely a thing had moved. The strain of keeping two people inside it for so long was showing on him. But he was determined, and determination was always useful. Slayde moved and quickly rolled from his back to his front and pushed himself up onto his feet.

"Damn it! He got my gloves. Urgh. How long have I been out?" Slayde asked while holding his head.

"Realistically a few hours. Technically about 3 seconds." Rage stated with as much humour as a man with next to no energy could. With that Slayde finally snapped open his eyes and looked at his surroundings.

"I see. Thanks for that Rage." Slayde mumbled. Rage suddenly collapsed. "Rage! You best not have been using your life energy." Slayde shouted as he caught him. Rage grinned.

"Maybe a little... Now go beat that bastard." Rage murmured as he fell limp in Slayde's arms and the colours turned to normal. Slayde put down Rage gently and took in a deep breath before his eyes snapped up in pure fury at the fast approaching Curruptian. He closed his eyes and went into his super from without a second thought, slowly floating up he only opened the eye with his scar. The radiant purple of it glared at the Curruptian like it had a mind of its own.

"You recovered quickly I see." The Curruptian exclaimed in a mocking tone. "But your friend doesn't seem too good. Too bad."

"You know what? Wrath makes a funny super form. It's the weakest... And yet..." Slayde opened his other eye to reveal a deep blood red colour. "It can be as powerful as pride when it needs to be."

"Is a wacked out eye job meant to scare me?" The Curruptian asked. Slayde smirked at him.

"Yes." Slayde rushed at the Curruptian and punched him in the stomach and face at the same time. Slayde immediately followed through with a back flip kick causing the Curruptian to soar into the air before having to force himself to stop.

"So you're faster? I just wasn't expecting it is all. Don't expect me to go easy on you." The Curruptian stated as he pulled himself into a battle pose. Slayde grinned at him again before holding his right hand back to gather energy. "You're not getting me with that this time! I noticed its weakness it takes too long to gather energy!" He screamed at Slayde as he flew toward him.

"Chaos Inferno." Slayde muttered calmly. The Curruptian was moving too fast at Slayde to move out of the way, and his eyes said it all.

"Oh shit." A tower of flames coated his body streaming straight from Slayde hands. Slayde stopped his technique and watched the singed and very irritated Curruptian look at him. "You're going to pay for that." He growled.

"Well you didn't give me enough opportunity to get enough energy to make it hot enough to kill you outright. I suppose that'll make it more entertaining though." Slayde commented cockily in a calm 'I'm not bothered' voice while he examined his hands, picking some dirt out of one of his claws. This of course enraged the Curruptian to an extreme amount. Who then charge at him full speed. Slayde waited until the last moment then Chaos Controlled behind him and kicked him in the back of the head. Before Chaos Controlling in front of him and kicking him upwards. "That should buy enough time..." He glanced down to see that the group were still being slaughtered over half their group was left but all that really remained were about ten of the suited Mobians, including Prosha and Alpha. "Chaos..." Slayde closed his eyes and started rapidly gathering his energy together, a bright white Chaos 'skin' covered him as screaming was heard as the dark super Curruptian came shooting down in anger. The Curruptian appeared in front of him in utter rage. "I was going to use this earlier. But it makes me vulnerable when I'm gathering the energy for it." The Curruptian rushed at him with these words, but Slayde teleported out of the way. "But now that I'm hosting two different types of super form I seem to be able to use two techniques at a time. However hosting both these at once is starting to wear down on my body. So it's time to end this." The Curruptian shot multiple bolts of Chaos Spears at Slayde, but Slayde just disappeared and reappeared right behind him. "Boo." Slayde muttered. The Curruptian shoot away at top speed, knowing he wasn't going to escape this one so easily. "...Explosion." What looked like a white Chaos blast shot from Slayde, the Curruptians all got hit by it and immediately fell, but all of the Mobians were unaffected. The fleeing Curruptian with the Emeralds got hit from a distance causing his dark super form to be dispelled and the Emeralds scattered. One of them flew straight towards Slayde, obviously about to veer past him, and he managed to catch it before slipping it into his quills then his Chaos form was released through sheer exhaustion and he fell some fifty meters just to be caught by a grey wolf who sported multiple scars.

"Gather the wounded. We need to get them all into the bacta tanks." Suddenly three hedgehogs came running from the darkness round them due to the fact the battle had carried them into the night.

"I sensed two high powers levels over here. One of them was unusually high as it went over mine for a split second when that technique was unleashed. Then there was a bright flash of a technique I have only ever heard of and never seen before." A male smooth as molten chocolate voice came across. "That fact that you're still here means that it was someone on your side who unleashed the move. Tell me, whom? I wish to learn it." The wolf continued to over look the troops and blanked the newcomer.

"Remember that the suits have a function that makes them lighter that can be activated in emergencies with your own Chaos energy. This guy really needs to get in a bacta tank. Can't someone take him?" The wolf commanded to everyone, several people came forwards.

"Are you ignoring me." The voice came across again in a very angry tone.

"Shadow calm down. They obviously have a lot of casualties." A female voice floated across. "Hey isn't that Rage." The pink female pointed towards the incredibly competitive and worn out black and blue Hedgehog who was standing in the line.

"I guess from your similarity that you two are brothers. Make sure he gets tank B1-*. He's earned it." The wolf handed Slayde to Rage. "So then..." The wolf turned at looked at the group, two black hedgehogs and one pink one, two females and one male. "What can I do for you... Shadow right?"

"Which one of your men used the Chaos Explosion?" Shadow asked bluntly. The wolf shrugged.

"Ah, ya see. I just can't help you there. I don't know." The wolf lied blatantly. Shadow growled at him. "Don't go starting anything now. My men still outnumber you guys three to one and I doubt that those two actually want to fight for your pig headedness anyway." Shadow glanced back to see them in the distance discussing something that sounded strangely like clothes. He turned back round with a very irritated look on his face.

"Do you know where Rage is? We need to speak with him!" The pink one asked turned from her conversation to ask. The wolf looked to her.

"If you want to speak to any of our members you must go through official channels... However, due to the circumstances I believe I could allow you to see him... Tomorrow. 15 hundred hours." The wolf stated before turning and following his men. "I would suggest finding something to do in the meantime. Go get something to eat maybe, you all look like you could do with a proper meal." The wolf started to walk off as Amy's stomach grumbled. "My point proven" He shouted back. Amy and Ebony sweat dropped and giggled with each other.

"Would you two stop that infuriating giggling. It's getting on my nerves." Shadow growled at the both. Amy looked at Ebony and smirked before Shadow grabbed both their arms and teleported back inside the walls.

---

"The what now? And why are the lights off?" Sonic asked. Terra rolled her eyes, though Sonic couldn't see it.

"The Damno Exemplar. It's Echidnian in origin, before we all started talking this universal language. It means 'Original Damned' and you're one of them." Terra informed in a matter of factly voice.

"Um... Okay... That didn't answer my question about the lights though..." Sonic pointed out. Terra sighed in exasperation.

"Forget about the lights for a second. Do you know why you are one?" Terra asked in irritation.

"Um... No?... Now about the lights, I don't like being alone... In a room with a pretty women... In the dark..." Sonic stated bashfully.

"Oh is that all this is abou... Aww did you call me pretty? Thanks!" Terra responded before catching herself. "Erm. Grab my hand." Terra stated.

"Your what?!" Sonic asked bashfully.

"Oh you're a grown fucking man. Stop being such a pansy." Terra stated. Sonic reached towards where Terra was last and grabbed. "That is not my hand." She growled before grabbing Sonic's hand and teleporting them into some kind of tunnel. The lighting was extremely dim, but due to the time spent in the pitch black room Sonic could see quite well.

"Erm Terra, your bra is showing." Sonic pointed out as he blushed. Terra glared at him as she adjusted her top with the hand that she didn't have a hold on Sonic's with.

"Yes, I wonder why." Terra growled in sarcastic reply before walking down the tunnels. "Now don't let go because these tunnels network for miles and even we haven't explored them fully yet. Plus some are under control of the military, but I'll get onto that later, possibly."Terra explained.

After what seemed like hours of walking left and right, but always going down they hit a straight and the tunnel suddenly started getting taller and brighter, the roof stayed the same height while the floor steeply went down.. A couple minutes later Sonic was having to squint because the light was getting too much. Terra was still pulling him along by the hand and if he was honest with himself he was enjoying the warmth of her hand and being lead instead of leading for once in his life. Suddenly Terra stopped. Sonic peered ahead of her and saw that there was a sheer cliff on the other side of her frame and the room that all of the light seemed to be coming from was just in front of them. Terra suddenly jumped down without warning and pulled Sonic with her who started screaming at the top of his lungs. And after a minute he received a slap and that knocked him out of it. The ground was fast approaching and he braced himself from the landing, as did Terra. The both landed perfectly next to each other. Sonic looked round and gasped. The cave, if that's what you could call it, expanded for what seemed like forever. Looking up the ceiling to see what looked like the sky, it was blue with random spots of fiercely glowing bright lights, like multiple suns. The place was covered in lush grass, there were trees spotted here and there, and most amazing was that there were animals grazing all over the place.

"What... Is this place?" Sonic asked Terra. Terra smiled.

"The Mobius away from Mobius. We don't know who made this incredible place, nor do we know why. All we know is that there is something that creates artificial light so powerful it acts like a sun down here, which even allowed for a form of rain. That being masses of collected water vapour hitting the roof. We have fallen so far down that we are well without the sphere of influence. Of the shield. This place is literally hundreds of kilometres down. If you look carefully, above us is about the only way in and out, because it's the only piece of cave that comes down far enough to jump down from and up to. Or use Chaos control to if you can. There are no entrances on the ground level to prevent animal escape. The amount of animals here is incredible! We was expecting to find a civilisation down here, but so far no luck. We haven't yet explored the whole thing though because we simply cannot find the end." Terra explained. Sonic was just staring round, unsure what to make of the place.

"Are there no birds?" Sonic asked taking his eyes to the skies, seeing no movement to speak of. Terra too looked up and frowned to herself.

"I too have noticed a lack of birds round the three entrances we have found. As I said though, the other entrances are impractical because even if you can survive the jump they are far too high up to get back through, even with Chaos control because the other two are situated within the barrier itself." Terra speculated before continuing with the aforementioned subject. "I believe they avoid these areas because it's where some of their ancestors have gone missing and never returned. After all, we have found multiple bird skeletons and single bones laying within the caves."

"Why did you bring me here Terra?" Sonic asked calmly, looking right into her eyes. It was quite possibly the most relevant question he had asked since he had met her.

"I mainly brought you down here to train you." Terra stated plainly, but there was no hiding the ever so slight blush that she had on her cheeks.

"Okay. So what's this Domino exampler thing?" Sonic asked in a serious voice. Terra almost laughed at him and took a calming breath.

"Damno Exemplar is the name given to someone who can reach a super form or higher without use of the stones of power, the Chaos Emeralds." Terra explained. Sonic nodded.

"I see, but what does that have to do with anything?" Sonic asked. Terra rolled her eyes at him.

"Well I saw that you have minimal control over your form. Because you've strayed to the dark path and didn't expect it." Terra stated. Sonic shifted uncomfortably.

"Don't remind me." He mumbled. Terra smiled at him with sympathy.

"But that's exactly the thing! Darkness is not evil. It's how darkness is used that makes it good or evil. It's power that corrupts, but only those who let it." Terra stated. "Here, watch." Terra closed her eyes and her fur turned jet black. Her eyes snapped open to reveal red irises. "I'm not letting the darkness consume me. I'm consuming it with my own will." Terra stated Sonic looked at her in awe. He closed his eyes and allowed his fur to turn jet black, but when he opened his eyes they were still voids of white nothingness. "Come here." She whispered gently. Sonic's eyes snapped to look at her.

"I don't want to come here." He growled before soaring into the air, clipping Terra on the way. Terra rubbed her arm before shooting after him, grabbing him by his foot and throwing him down to the ground.

"You're not getting away that easily." She giggled as her eyes turned to blue. 'Anger is usually the easiest type of any super form to master, but if anger brought him into this confusion in the first place it could just make him worse. Sloth is the next easiest, but I don't see that one happening, nor gluttony, nor greed, nor envy. Which means it'd have to be one of the two hardest. Pride, or the one I learnt it in. I just need to make sure I don't lose control like I almost did then.'

"What did you do that for." Sonic growled as he got up. He looked up at Terra just to find something hit him in the face. He ripped it off his head and looked at it. It was a black tank top. He glanced to see Terra hovering in her black bra and her black jeans. Sonic's eyes flickered deep blue for a split second before returning to their normal blank state. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sonic shouted at her, but not completely in anger. Terra giggled at him and waved in that cheeky way with just her fingers before flying off Sonic immediately and stupidly took up the game of cat and mouse and flew after her as she went up and up and up before he was once again hit in the face with some fabric. 'Oh god I'm dreading this.' He pulled it off his face to see that it was her jeans. 'What's she up too?! Stripping off at a time like this!' The semi naked Terra appeared in front of him, with nothing on but a black thong and bra, and smiled. Sonic felt his pupils expand and contract in a spasm as his eyes set themselves on a sea blue colour. Terra giggled.

"Ah there we go. You should be able to control your actions easier now... Now I know what type you are, time to accelerate things." Terra stated as she flew at him and grappled him, Sonic didn't know what to do with himself because of the half naked female who was pressing her body against his which made it easier for her to plummet the two to the ground. She slammed his back into the ground with the kind of force that would hurt him if he wasn't in his dark super form and kept his arms pinned down with hers she kissed his neck slowly and gently.

"What are you doing?" Sonic asked, mostly in confusion. Terra made a shushing noise.

"I always had a slight crush on you back then when I was younger and wasn't allowed to leave the village. All I had was second and third hand accounts. But then you came out. You showed that you were like me. Not just a weak show off like the elders said but a strong Chaos user, a dark Chaos user like me. And with that I just could not help but fall for you..." Terra stated while she looked into his eyes and with that she kissed him.

(AN: If you wish to read the lemon that was took out this story please go over to 'Colour of Lust'.)

"That was amazing." Sonic stated in between breaths as he laid there.

"Yes it was. Best first time ever." Terra stated back. Looking over come with exhaustion.

"It was my first time too." Sonic chuckled. "I guess this means we're together now?" Sonic asked, not sounding so keen on the idea of commitment.

"Only if you want to be. I don't want you to feel tied down by me." Terra replied, Sonic smiled and nuzzled into her neck.

"If you're willing to accept that I'm not the most reliable guy to be in a relationship with. I mean, I can promise I shall never cheat, but I might not always be there, and I could always disappear at a moment's notice. Then, well. That's the only way I think it could work." Sonic mumbled into her fur and the kissed her neck a couple times before they both drifted off in each others arms out of sheer exhaustion.