Out of the Desert and Into the Crossfire
The group were walking slowly, yesterday had made most the group hesitant. Unfortunately with the fact that there were still powerful people out there, unknown people whom had trained their whole lives just to become strong, none of the group knew for sure just how strong. There were the possibilities of other planets too, Black Doom had proven that. Shadow had only been 'alive' for round twenty years, the rest spent in a cryogenic freezing chamber. Naturally, he wasn't the strongest in the world however, he probably would be the strongest one day. The group walked in silence, no one in the mood to talk. Some of them simply disgruntled still with how Rage had gotten passed the voting, despite it already being three days ago. The others were unable to stop thinking about how strong the Curruptian king was. With the group starting to run low on supplies, they had started to cut down. Rage hadn't eaten during the three days, passing his food off to the younger ones. Shadow hadn't bothered putting himself in the rations plan because he felt no need for himself to eat anyway, even if Rose objected. The problem was Natani, the wolf was odd to Shadow. Although he had the full outward appearance of a male, he also let of the slight sent of female. Though it was hidden mostly, obscured by something, likely some form of Chaos power. Also the tone of voice was fairly gender neutral, the kind that if you spoke to down a phone you would be unsure as to whether you were talking with a man or a woman. Shadow therefore had to speculate. Was the Wolf a he or a she? Physically at least, emotionally it was obvious which he would rather be referred to. But when it came to it should Shadow inform everyone that physically he was likely she? Or should he respect the Wolf's wishes? For now he would stay quiet, and try to find out why, when it had happened and what had caused it. Whatever was going on half the group had refused to let him add Natani into the food rations, and as such he was stuck. Though the Wolf had told Shadow that he would be able to find his own food, Shadow wondered just how much there was to eat here, even most the reptiles were gone. Either way, it seemed that Slayde had started sharing his rations with Natani. Though despite that, Shadow would rather Slayde not have to starve, he had caught the Hedgehog giving all of his rations away yesterday the both of them claimed that he hadn't done that before yet both of them had shown signs of lying. When Shadow pulled Slayde aside to ask him about it Slayde had told him: 'They are my rations and when I want them for myself I shall eat them. Otherwise I shall do with them anything I want.' The two hadn't spoken since that, despite it being a pathetic thing to be annoyed with one another about. Shadow found himself involuntarily worrying about whether the Hedgehog was eating enough. Just like he was with Amy, it was annoying him that the both of his were having this effect on him. He didn't really know how he should proceed. And that too worried him.
"Aren't those clouds?" Slayde suddenly mentioned in a quiet voice taking everyone by surprise. Shadow looked into the distance, and sure enough. There was clouds, clouds that looked like they were filled with rain. Yet it wasn't Shadow that answered.
"With an ending in sight, don't you think it might be worth a run?" Rage asked the group as he stopped completely, helping Prosha and Noir onto the cart.
"Maybe." Shadow simply replied, looking round to see if Natani was nearby, but Slayde was already deep in conversation. Shadow sighed and slowed down. "I presume you can run?"
"Yeah, pretty fast. I kept up with the King for speed. Don't know if I fancy my chances against the new one though." Natani replied, glancing at Terra. Terra smirked at the Wolf.
"Then I guess it may well be worth a run. If everyone is up to it of course." Shadow commented, glancing across to the other members of the group. No one objected, if anything everyone looked somewhat lightened by the fact that the desert itself was ending. Slayde started the trend off, just like when they had first started on their journey. Swiftly everyone else was following right behind him. It didn't take them long before Shadow started picking up on a lot of noise coming in one direction, and it wasn't rain.
"Shadow..?" Slayde questioned, looking towards the ebony and crimson Hedgehog as they ran.
"Yes, I can hear it too. It sounds like some kind of battlefield." Shadow replied to the unfinished question.
"Do you think we should go and check it out?" Terra questioned the two of them. "It could be one of the mobile freedom fighter armies and we could do with resupplying." Shadow glanced over to her and silently nodded. After a few moments he spoke.
"Yes, I think it would be wise for us to go and investigate." Shadow confirmed. Slayde tilted slightly to the right and the rest of the group followed suit. Soon enough a full blown army came into sight of Shadow and soon enough the rest of the group could see it. There was almost awe at the sheer number of people who were outside of Aragot's walls, knowing that far more existed within. Pretty soon they began to slow down, they were underneath the rain now, and they did not want to cause too much surprise to the army. It soon became pretty obvious what they were attacking was none other than one of Robotnik's bases. The group approached the back of the army wearily, not wanting the freedom fighters to mistake them for Curruptians intent on attacking them.
"Who goes there!" Cried out someone near the back. He looked like some kind of guard who had been left at the back just for the previously stated reason.
"We're a group of travellers from Aragot, seeking supplies and shelter. We may be able to help you in some way in return." Slayde shouted out to the man from a distance. Slayde seemed to have taken on the role of spokesperson for the group without anyone even realising.
"I can see at least two of the corrupted beings with you. I shall not allow you to go any further." He cried out. Slayde turned to Shadow.
"Seems we should have hidden those two." Slayde commented quietly so only those standing near him could hear.
"And if they were discovered half way through then the repercussions would have been far worse." Shadow replied to him quietly. "If you could just allow us to rest for a bit and provide us with some small supplies we would happily leave without being a nuisance." Shadow stated simply to the guard.
"If you made yourselves a nuisance half of the free army would be down on you. Go from here and spread your corruption elsewhere." He stated to them loudly.
"Well we tried." Shadow stated calmly as he turned to walk away, much to the surprise of the others. "Some idiots just can't be reasoned with." Shadow told them to prevent any questions. Though Shadow then turned back to face the army. "I recognise that voice." He muttered so only those with the best ears could hear him. Suddenly a green Crocodile pushed his way through the back of the Army. He looked over to the group. Half recognising some of them.
"Shadow, Sonic, Amy! It's been a while!" Vector announced cheerfully for one in such a battle as he parted the last of the crowds to start walking to them.
"Vector!" Amy yelled in disbelief as she walked towards him. "It's been far too long!" The two of them shared a brief hug, causing a slight flicked of emotion to course through Shadow, though he ignored it. The Croc was in full military gear, with the insignia of a General. He had multiple scars on the visible parts of his flesh and yet still somehow had the same headphones as he used to, although they had a makeshift microphone sticking nearby his mouth.
"I see you've worked yourself up in the ranks my old friend." Sonic announced as he high fived the Croc. Vector looked at his hand and shook it immediately after.
"You've become a lot stronger since the last time I saw you Sonic." Vector commented, temptation to duel Sonic evident on his face. "Though now isn't the time for that, I'm in the middle of issuing commands in a battle."
"What's going on here then? Tails never told us of a battle taking place so near to our planned route." Shadow asked the Croc.
"Soon after you left all of the mobile armies received word from Tails and Duality that we were to begin full blown assaults upon the nearest base to us. We already travelled to one and took one out so now we're at this one and have been a while, I presume you were crossing the desert in that time, there are a few bases in this area. We have to take all three out one by one, we were in a completely different area to this before we took out that first one in this area. He seems to like making them in threes."
"Why are there so many bases?" Amy questioned. Vector gave her a puzzled look. "Well I mean, his larger robots strength in comparison to a normal Mobian is undeniable. Why does he need more than a couple in a given continent?" Amy asked, awaiting an answer.
"Well you may not know this, but when the Earth and Mobius fused into one. A lot that was once ocean disappeared. It's rumoured that Earth and Mobius looked virtually identical but, when the two fused, instead of the landmasses appearing on top of each other and causing serious damage, the parts of the Earth simple took up unoccupied areas in Mobius' oceans. Before you came out of that room only a third of a planet was landmass and two thirds was water right? Well now the planet is two thirds landmass, one third water. It's been strange, as almost the entire planet is now just two land masses, and a few small islands. America, Europe, Asia, Africa. They're all the same land mass now. And the rest makes up the remaining landmass. Unless of course you count Antarctica, but no one ever seems to." Vector concluded. Shadow was pleased with that answer, it explained why the desert that they had crossed was so big. "Eggman built bases as strategically as possible when the landmass came through, and even some before that as if he would know where the landmass would come through. It was a bit strange." Vector concluded, looking at them to see their reactions.
"You've come a long way since the computer room." Shadow mumbled, intending no one hear him. Slayde sniggered.
"Sorry I missed that, say that again?" Vector questioned, obviously missing the statement completely.
"Nothing important, I assure you." Slayde answered before Shadow did. Vector looked at the two suspiciously.
"I guess you guys are here to resupply?" Vector questioned, though he sounded as if he knew the answer already.
"Yes, we do need to resupply. We seem to find ourselves low and we do really need to get some more before we continue to the next area we need to go to." Shadow informed him.
"I'd happily help you with resupplying if we didn't need all we have for our assaults on the bases in this area. As such, if you can help us with this particular base I believe that I can give you the excess supplies that we would have needed to continue with the assault. I imagine that you and Sonic will be able to take the base down far faster than we could, and that's not including your allies who I assume have power close to you.
"Actually Terra here is slightly stronger than me." Shadow motioned Terra. "She's been training in the Village of Chaos since she was a small child." Shadow concluded, Terra awkwardly waved to Vector.
"That's pretty impressive." Vector replied, a genuinely awestruck look on his face. "So what do you think to my request?"
"I'll have to ask the others what they think about this, since I won't be the only one participating." Shadow told the Croc before turning around.
"Yeah, we're fine with it. We need a bit of practice taking these things down before we do it solo anyways." Slayde told him as he quickly glanced at the others to make sure they were in agreement, Terra nodded and Rage shrugged. "There you go."
"Well I guess that's your answer Vector." Shadow replied to the Croc. Vector nodded, he held his finger to the side of the headphones with the microphone and spoke into it. "I'd like some communication headsets brought to my location immediately." He announced to whoever was on the other end. He stood there paused for a few seconds before turning back to the group, presumably waiting for confirmation. "Ah, Steve. This is Shadow, Sonic and Amy."
"The Sonic? As in Dark Sonic, our commander?" The Human guard known as Steve asked with shock on his face. "I'm ever so sorry, I didn't realise who you were in your normal state." He told them as he saluted. In fact the rest of the people just a bit behind him had pause what they were doing to stop and salute. Sonic rubbed his head in embarrassment.
"There's no need to salute him if you have more important things to do." Shadow announced in irritation to those in the background. Now that Shadow had mentioned something Sonic and the others that didn't have such good sight realised they were actually medics and were looking after the wounded.
"Yes, please keep up with the good work, some people might need your urgent attention." Sonic told them quickly, thinking that maybe if there was a medic close enough Knuckles may well have been saved. Terra glanced at him as if she knew what he was thinking and put her right hand on his left shoulder.
"No need to dwell on that anymore Blur." She told him quietly so no one else would hear, of course those with great hearing did anyway. Sonic nodded mutely.
"Just me and Rose should be enough to take this base down. I want to see her progress." Shadow stated to the rest of the group. Rage shrugged, seeming unbothered. Sonic just took it as a cue to go and talk to Vector. In fact, the only person who seemed to have a problem with it was Terra.
"I was looking forward to being able to smash some robots up." She commented heavily.
"I'm sure that you can take the next one with Sonic if you wish, this is simply the way that I want it to be." Shadow commented. He looked towards where Slayde was just standing to ask him his opinion, but Slayde had vanished into the crowds. "Odd." Shadow commented.
"If the others want to fight we shouldn't stop them Shadow." Amy told him. "I know that you want to see how I'm doing, but you spar with me at night sometimes when the others are asleep, so you should know anyway."
"I can't be completely sure how much progress you're making anymore Rose. Your physical abilities at the very least have hit a stage where sparing with you is actually also helping me improve. So I need to be able to observe you from an outside perspective to be able to do that, and I feel that if the others are there I will not be able to get an accurate reading." Shadow told her, concluding the argument as Amy was blushing.
"Did you just indirectly compliment my fighting skills?" She asked. Shadow smirked at her.
"I guess I did." Shadow replied simply. "So is that okay with you Terra?" Shadow double checked, not wanting to offend her.
"Yes, that is fine then." Terra commented, turning to talk to Natani. Shadow noticed they were talking about the Curruptians, so he blocked it out.
"We'll get started right away then Rose." Shadow told Amy, Vector over heard.
"You should all go in at once, these bases aren't easy to take over you know." Vector commented, a loud explosion was heard in the background. He quickly held his hand to he ear. "Status report?" Shadow used his ears to pick up what was being said.
"There was just bomb set off underneath a large potion of the army, we don't know how many casualties there are. Robots are pouring out to try and finish off the rest." The person on the other end of the line told him. Vector turned to tell Shadow, but found that him and Amy had both vanished. He turned to see a pink and a black streak running through the crowds.
"I've sent some back up, they may not look like much, but they are some of my personal friends. Get some medics down to those troops immediately, as many as can be spared." Vector told him as the two sped towards the scene.
"Ready for this Rose?" Shadow asked her as they ran through the crowds. Amy nodded, concentrating too much on the running to think about anything else. They suddenly came out of the crowd to a load of cracked and damaged earth. There were soldiers laying on the ground everywhere many of them obviously injured, some of them unmoving. The ones who could still move properly seemed to be helping the ones who couldn't stand and seemed to be trying to take them further back.
"This is terrible." Amy commented as they sped up due to not having as many blockages, though the ground was uneven due to the explosion. "I hope that not too many people have died." She announced with a worried tone. Shadow secretly smiled, finding Amy's concern admirable. As the two approached the front lines robots came into view. Shadow suddenly sped up and jumped, homing attacking into the nearest one. Amy followed suit and within minutes the two of them were destroying the robots in a fast and orderly fashion. Only drones had been sent out against them and compared to the two fighters they were nothing. Within moments the two of them had managed to get inside the city, leaving no drones outside functioning.
"What now Shadow?" Amy asked, Shadow silently looked around for a bit.
"I suspect there will be a larger robot around somewhere. Maybe more than one." Shadow told her, charging up some energy. "Chaos Spear!" He shouted as he threw a fully charged chaos spear at a nearby building. It went right through the wall and caused a small explosion within. "As I suspected, there was a generator in that building. There should be 2 more in the city." Shadow told her, slowly turning. Amy hear something behind her and turned her head quickly, seeing the larger robot mere meters away from her, there was no time for her to move. "Rose!" Shadow cried as he tried to move towards her. Suddenly the robot went flying to the side, but not before Amy let off a small squeal.
"That was a close call." Slayde stated, rubbing his left shoulder that he clearly had rammed the robot with. "Are you okay Rose?" He asked her, she was clutching onto her right arm and blood was slowly trickling down her arm. "Oh damn, move your hand." He quickly looked at the wound. "It's not too bad, but it seems to have slightly caught the muscle. Can you move it?" Slayde asked her, Amy shook her head mutely, clearly in pain. "I wouldn't suggest trying to heal that without the purple Emerald nearby, and we haven't got that one yet." Slayde told her as he a strip of cloth of his t-shirt and bound it. Slayde looked up to see Shadow still frozen in the same position he had been in when the robot attacked. "Shadow. Snap out of it." Shadow shook his head and quickly came over.
"I'll take Rose to the medics." He told him quickly dashing over to the two of them, Slayde nodded as he handed Amy over to him.
"Don't take her using Chaos Control, it can make injuries worse." He quickly told him, Shadow gave him a glare that said 'I know that' causing a bit of the worry on Slayde's face to lift, but not enough for him to smirk. He turned to the robot that had hurt Amy. "Seems you've made a few people mad, by hurting Rose." Slayde said calmly. Chaos Energy blatantly leaking from his body from his silent rage.
"Emergency protocol 1A. Super powered Hedgehog." The robot announced. Slayde smirked.
"Not quite yet. I don't need it to deal with a weak robot like you." He commented as he walked forwards. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere four smaller robots zoomed towards the larger robots, fusing with it. Slayde paused and watched in bewilderment as the robots all attached to each other. As soon as they were done Slayde raised an eyebrow. "That it?" He asked tauntingly as the robot stuck one of its hands straight into the ground sparks coming from underneath. "Oh you need power? Here let me help you short circuit yourself." Slayde commented as he held his left hand up. "Chaos Surge!" He announced, firing it directly at the robot causing it to spasm in weird ways before he released it and it collapsed, letting out a heavy breath after from the sudden use of energy he turned. Then there was movement behind him, Slayde frowned as he turned but was greeted by a large metallic fist that he barely dodged. "Maybe I shouldn't have done that." He quickly commented as the second fist hit him and sent him flying, knocking down some of the buildings nearby that were made of concrete. Dust flew about for a few seconds before a creamy yellow being with purple eyes flew out. "That hurt." He stated, looking down to see a tear in his jeans. "And these are my favourite jeans!" He exclaimed, flying at the robot at insane speeds. The robot however managed to dodge. Slayde sighed. "Yeah, I really wish I didn't shoot you with electric now." He commented as the robot managed to land another hit on him. This time however Slayde didn't budge from where he was floating. He hit the robots fist to the side with his right hand and then swung for the robot's face with his left, managing to score a hit and leaving a dint on the frame of the robot. The force of the blow caused the robot to stumble several meters before managing to stop itself but, before it could gain its balance, Slayde let off a flurry of punches damaging its chest plate and head alike before unleashing a spinning kick into its side forcing it to fly into a nearby building, causing another explosion. "Ah, that must have been the last generator." Slayde commented, and true to his sentence the lights of the city powered off. Slayde could see some of the rubble moving. He sighed. "I normally resist using this side of Chaos." He commented as he started charging up an attack with his left hand. "Chaos..." The scar on his eye started lighting up and Slayde grunted, squinting with his left eye touching the scar with his right hand. "Grenade!" He finished loudly throwing the yellow Chaos attack at the robot that had just made it outside of the building, hitting it directly, causing the robot to vaporise along with the surrounding area in a yellow-white explosion not dissimilar to a Chaos Blast. He sighed, it was over. He turned to see that without the base fully functional, multiple smaller robots had lost their ability to move and had just collapsed on the ground. He smiled slightly before running out, intent on catching up with the two that had just left. Within moments he had caught up with them.
"I do not wish the be carried Shadow." Amy said through grit teeth. The two were walking at a pace most would consider as jogging, however to these three that was their normal walking pace.
"It would be faster if you let me run us both there." Shadow replied, in concern despite the fact that he wasn't showing it.
"I'll be fine." She told him in a tone that didn't allow for arguing. Slayde continued to walk just behind them until he was sure that they were finished.
"Hey you two." Slayde announced as he came to walk next to Amy, Shadow didn't show any reaction as he had already realised Slayde was there, and Amy smiled at him.
"Hey Slayde. Thanks for that back there." She told him sweetly. Slayde smiled back.
"It's no problem, what are friends for?" Slayde told her. "Now we have a bit more time I do have this." Slayde told her as he clicked his fingers, a medikit appearing in his hand. He pulled a fresh bandage out as the stopped and he removed the cloth he had put on before to see that the wound had already stopped bleeding, though he could tell the slightest knock would start if off again. "Your healing ability is quite impressive Rose." Slayde commented as he expertly bandaged her arm.
"Thanks." Amy replied, not sure whether that was a compliment or not. As soon as Slayde was done she moved her arm around slowly. "Thanks again." She told him as she giggle. Giving him a one armed hug.
"It's fine." Slayde replied, a little taken aback by the hug, he returned the hug with both arms. Before they both released. Amy smiled at him happily before jogging off. Slayde stood there for a few seconds, slightly awestruck. He then noticed Shadow looking right at him. Regardless of what Shadow might say Slayde knew jealousy when he saw it. Slayde smirked before running after Amy. Shadow followed immediately behind, and within a minute the three of them were back with the rest of the group, when they arrived at to where the rest of the group was they found Vector there waiting, holding three small communication headsets that fit inside the ear.
"You left before you took these, you could have communicated with one another if you'd have waited a little longer." He told them, then he noticed Amy's arm. "Oh Amy, what happened to your arm?" He asked. Amy glanced down to the bandage, as did Shadow behind her.
"I wasn't paying proper attention! Slayde had my back though, so I was okay." She replied cheerfully. Vector nodded before he turned to Shadow who was looking at Vector now.
"Thank you a lot for this. I'm surprised that just three of you managed to take it down so fast, even if we had been here for a while before you arrived and taken down a few of the large robots." Vector announced to all of them Shadow glanced to Amy's bandaged right arm again.
"Actually, Slayde did most of the work by himself... It was a little harder than I was initially expecting." Shadow stated as he looked back to Vector, the urge to look at Amy again evident on his face.
"Well I was wondering if you wanted to stay with the army for the night, and help us with our next attack. It will conclude the ones in this area and we will be able to finally go home for a while." Vector asked, Shadow was about to object, however Sonic quickly spoke up.
"We'd love to. I'd like to spend some more time with your men! How long will it take us to get there?" Sonic asked, clearly not thinking about the others of the group. Shadow shrugged, maybe the rest would be good for the group and it would give him a chance to train Amy a bit more.
"It'll take us six days to get to the next base we know it isn't your problem, but we would greatly appreciate the help. The soldiers are all I'm thinking of. We haven't been home for over half a year." Vector told them. Amy turned to Shadow.
"I think we should help. Who knows how long these guys could take trying to take down this last base." Amy put across her opinion to Shadow. Shadow nodded mutely.
"Fine then. The group could do with a rest anyway." He told Vector as he once again looked at Amy's bandage.
"Thank you." Vector said simply as he started to walk back into the crowd, holding his hand to his ear. "Everyone has cleared the area, activate it. Also, we need to get ready to mobilise. We're moving tomorrow at 1200 hours..." He started as he faded into the sound of the crowd of injured and medics, there was a sudden loud explosion coming from Robotnik's base, leaving the entire thing cloaked in smoke, the shock wave could be felt by the group. Slayde leaned on Shadow's shoulder.
"It wasn't your fault Shadow." He whispered into his ear before moving over to Amy. Shadow just stood there and stared at Amy as she was distracted by the smoke, wondering why the pink Hedgehog was starting to mean so much to him.
"How's your arm?" Slayde asked Amy. Amy turned and smiled at him.
"Well it would be far worse than my arm if you hadn't appeared when you did." Amy replied. Slayde just smiled back.
"I was in the right place at the right time, I'm glad that nothing bad happened to you, little bro over there seems to fancy you." Slayde stated merrily before turning to Shadow slowly. "I probably shouldn't have called him that." Slayde quickly said before glancing at Shadow who was glaring at him.
"I do not have feelings for Rose." Shadow replied in irritation. Slayde smirked, amused at the fact he ignored the name over that, his reaction virtually proved in Slayde's own mind that he was right.
"Of course not Shadow." Slayde answered before he turned and walked over to Rage, leaving Shadow and Amy alone. Amy gave Shadow a funny look.
"You sure?" She asked him calmly. Shadow folded his arms.
"Of course I'm sure Rose." He told her equally as calm. Amy smiled at him, yet it wasn't her usual smile as a hint of sadness seemed to linger in her eyes.
Monday evening (The next day)
"I'm impressed you've healed so fast Rose." Shadow commended Amy, the two of them had fallen behind from the army. The army was setting up camp for the night as the sun was about to set and they had been moving since midday.
"Well as you can see, my arm is fine. Can we please spar now? After being caught off guard like that I don't want it to happen again." Amy told him quite firmly, obviously not ready to take no for an answer.
"Well Rose, I-" Shadow started, but Amy interrupted.
"You best not be about to come up with some reason as to why we can't, because if you do I'm just going to attack you anyway." Amy fiercely told him. Shadow held his hands up.
"Fine I'll spar with you. But it's light sparring, okay?" Shadow told her, Amy nodded. He pulled himself into a defensive stance, but before he even realised it Amy had thrown a left hok at him. He quickly parried it and punched her in her wrist. Surprising Amy and making her jump back holding her wrist.
"You're actually fighting back." She commented.
"You wanted to get better so that you wouldn't get caught unawares. I think it's about time that I actually properly fought back rather than those little manoeuvres I did before." Shadow replied, dropping his guard. "I thought you'd be pleased." Shadow concluded, looking like he was concerned he made the wrong decision.
"Oh I am." Amy replied as she leaped at him with her full speed, putting her full strength behind her right hook. Shadow wasn't expecting an attack so suddenly, especially with her recently healed arm, and attempted to dodge but Amy's fist just barely grazed his jaw as he jumped back. Shadow stood a few metres away from her in surprise as Amy looked at her fist. "I actually managed to hit you." She commented in shock after a few seconds.
"Yes Rose, you did." Shadow replied with an equal amount of shock. He quickly shook it off. "You've come a long way from that weak Hedgehog who asked me to train her just three and a half months ago." Shadow told her, Amy looked surprised.
"It's been that long already?" She exclaimed, genuinely surprised. Shadow nodded.
"It's the sixteenth of April, you asked me to train you on the second of January." He confirmed, shocking her further with the fact that he remembered the dates.
"To be honest I never found out the date when we were staying in that city and, because it was daytime almost all the time, the time we spent into the forest had just blurred into one." Amy told him. Shadow nodded.
"I imagine for someone who is not used to it, it must have been very difficult to keep track of time." Shadow commented, Amy nodded. "Rose, I think we should head to the others." Shadow told her, continuing a little louder so she couldn't throw up any protests. "You managed to land a hit on me, and not many people have managed to do that. Even when I'm off guard. I think it'd be better if we continued this tomorrow night so that I can think of how I'm going to train you next." Shadow concluded as the two of them slowly walked back to the rest of them.
Wednesday Evening
"I'm sorry I was too busy to spar with you yesterday Rose." Shadow told her quietly. Amy shrugged.
"It's fine, I got Rage to spar with me instead while you, Sonic and Slayde were busy with Vector." Amy replied, Shadow raised an eyebrow.
"And how did you find that?" He asked her, she smiled happily.
"It was quite fun actually, he fought me perfectly at my level, though he didn't seem to be out of breath at the end of it like I was." Amy replied, Shadow nodded slowly. He wasn't entirely sure what the capabilities of Rage was, but he suspected that they were above Amy's level.
"Care to show me how you're doing with your inner Chaos?" Shadow asked suddenly Amy looked at him for a second, before she silently agreed, wondering what Shadow was up to and held her hands slightly apart from each other almost exactly like Shadow had shown her months ago. A light orange sphere appeared in her hands, almost completely taking up all the space in her hands. Amy let out a small breath before releasing it.
"Wow Rose, I should have gotten you to do that sooner. You're a level 10 Orange, and you're pretty close to becoming a yellow. Your progress is astounding, I don't think I've known anyone progress that fast, not even myself." Shadow commented, Amy smiled from the compliment. "Last time I got you to do that you were barely an orange in the forest." Shadow concluded in surprise.
"Thanks, I've been trying my hardest." Amy replied cheerfully. "You're a really good teacher."
"Thank you Rose, but I'm starting to wonder if there is more to you than meets the eye." Shadow revealed to her. She shrugged.
"We going to spar now then?" She asked excitedly, getting ready into a defensive stance.
"No actually." Shadow started, a look of disappointment lit up Amy's features. "I think you're ready, probably past ready, to start actually learning Chaos Techniques." Shadow finished. Amy's eyes popped open in excitement.
"Really?!" She asked in joy. "I've been waiting for this for ages!" Amy virtually sang. Shadow sat down on the ground, fortunately there was no rain here, in fact the cloud was very thin from the destruction of two bases in the area. Amy sat opposite him, waiting.
"Hmm, what to start with?" He asked himself again, as he had done the past two days just in case this happened, as he suspected it would. "Well I know that you watched how to do the Chaos Spear without me actually showing you anything." Shadow commented, looking at her. She blushed.
"You just use the move all the time, it was easy to pick up just from watching how you did it." Amy replied quickly, clearly embarrassed.
"It's fine Rose." Shadow told her, he suddenly threw her his Emerald. "I'll try teach you how to use Chaos Control so that you don't accidentally split yourself." Shadow told her as he stood.
"Split yourself?" Amy questioned, looked at him funnily. Shadow nodded.
"If you're not concentrating right, or you don't use the flow of Energy correctly you can cause yourself injuries by leaving parts of yourself behind. Normally it will just be bits of external flesh, but people have lost limbs to it before." Shadow informed her. She looked concerned. "Don't worry Rose, you're a natural. Sonic managed to use Chaos Control just fine for the first time with a fake Emerald and he did just fine." Amy smirked, recalling the incident.
"Okay, so you need to get a place in your minds eyes. Normally it would be a place you know that you try to practice in, but I don't think we know many places besides Aragot. We can't practice there for obvious reasons. So that hill just over there, try to focus on the base of it, think of it in your minds eye and, when you feel confident, use the move." Shadow told her slowly a softly, taking a step back so that Amy could concentrate properly. Amy stood there for a fair few seconds, silently thinking with the Emerald held up, before sighing and turning.
"I can't." She told him, he walked up to her and put either hand on either side of the Emerald.
"Think of a place nearby." He instructed. She closed her eyes and looked like she was concentrating. "You got it?" He questioned, she nodded mutely. The two of them disappeared in a flash of green, only to reappeared inside the middle of the camp, Slayde jumped back.
"The hell are you using Chaos Control for such short distances for Shadow?!" He exclaimed before he looked to Amy. "Oh, you're training Rose. Continue as you are then I guess..." He told the two of them as he walked outside the camp, heading towards the empty plains behind the army himself. Shadow squinted and could see Rage awaiting him in the distance.
"Okay, this time we're going to do it the other way round." Shadow told her, she was still looking around in bewilderment.
"I actually did this?" Amy asked. Shadow smirked.
"We both did Rose, you thought of the place and I activated the move. Now we're going to do it the other way around. I'll think of a place, and you activate the move. Okay? Clear your mind." Shadow instructed her, she did as he said and closed her eyes, her face fully relaxing. Shadow thought of an area directly next to Rage.
"Chaos Control." Amy muttered weakly. The two of them disappeared in another green flash and reappeared right next to Rage who didn't so much as blink an eyelid.
"Well done Amy." Rage told her. Shadow raised an eyebrow at him. "I saw you looking at me, I made an educated guess." Rage answered the unasked question.
"Ah, so that's why you was unsurprised." Shadow commented. Rage looked over to where Slayde was jogging from.
"Indeed." He replied quietly.
"I did it Shadow!" Amy exclaimed, Shadow smiled at her.
"Yes, you did." He replied. She hugged him, taking him by surprise, he slowly hugged her back with one arm, not entirely sure what to do. She released him just as Slayde arrived. "What you did was actually harder to do than normal Chaos Control because you took someone else with you. I suspected the addition of risking me would make your more likely to get it right. Seems my risk paid off. You should be able to do it just fine by yourself now. Try using it to teleport a ring around the army's camp." Shadow told her. She nodded, looking over into the distance before muttering the words and disappearing in a flash of green, reappearing in the distance before disappearing out of view behind the army. "So what are you two up to?" Shadow asked them.
"Sparring." Slayde told him casually. Shadow raised an eyebrow.
"Really?" Shadow questioned. Slayde sighed in exasperation.
"No, I just thought I'd lie to you." Slayde said sarcastically. Rage sniggered, Shadow just looked at Slayde disapprovingly.
"I wanted to ask you a question Rage, now that we're on better terms." Shadow told him, Rage looked at him with marginal surprise but nodded.
"Go ahead." He told Shadow.
"Why did you have red eyes when we first met?" Shadow questioned. "And how did you change them?" He asked, Rage looked taken aback, clearly expecting another question. He glanced to Slayde.
"Well you see the gene for red eyes is less dominant then the gene for green eyes. So I have dominant green eye gene and a recessive red eye gene. The Doctor had, seemingly, placed a device on me that brought out my recessive gene because that was what he preferred. It's nothing too sinister I assure you." Rage informed him. Shadow nodded, satisfied with the information that Rage had provided him.
"That makes sense. It makes me wonder though. Red is a rare eye colour, even among Mobians. Who could your parents have been to make an Emerald green and Ruby red combination?" Shadow mentioned, a realisation dawned on his face. Rage glanced to Slayde. "Ah." Shadow simply said. "Have fun with your sparring." He told them as he slowly walked off, Slayde looked at Rage and Rage shrugged.
"See, he's much cooler than you think. He just doesn't normally show it." Slayde told him after Shadow had travelled a fair distance, though he was fairly certain that Shadow would have heard him. A few seconds later Amy was standing next to them.
"Where's Shadow?" She questioned, slightly out of breath despite using the Emerald. Slayde pointed towards the camp.
"Can you not see him, he's about 100 metres that way." Slayde told her. Amy squinted, not able to see very well in the almost dark. "I'd suggest getting to the camp, we only have about ten minutes of light left." Slayde told her. "Try just thinking of walking about that far, in that direction rather than looking for a specific place, it's much more practical in a fight." Slayde helped, Amy looked at him with surprise. "I can teach too!" He defended himself. Amy giggled.
"Okay, thanks." She told him before she breathed out. Clearly thinking. "Chaos Control!" She announced with far more confidence. Slayde and Rage saw the flash of green in the distance almost right next to Shadow.
"She's getting better fast." Rage commented. Slayde turned and smiled at him, nodding.
"Yes she is, she clearly had a lot of hidden potential." Slayde agreed before smirking at him, and cracking his fingers. "You ready then?" He questioned. Rage moved into a defensive position.
"Of course." He replied before Slayde leaped at him.
Saturday
"We'll arrive early tomorrow." Vector commented from within the central command tent. It was already dark and the group had all congregated inside the main tent. "This was a base that was previously taken down that Eggman managed to successfully take back. But just because of that don't expect it to be weak. It likely had most of the robots that were missing in the previous two at it. Which is why those two fell so fast.
"No I know that this is going to be difficult for you, with so many still injured. But after this we can all return home." Vector told the whole army over some kind of intercom. He stood and slowly walked over to the group. "You guys are going to help us finish this faster than we thought would be possible. Our army may have many Mobians stronger and faster than average, but none compare to you lot." Vector told them. "Go get some rest, I'll see you before you go." He advised before he turned to some people that looked like they were planning the war effort.
The group exited the tent one by one. Only Terra was left.
"Do you have any agents in there already, trying to infiltrate the place?" She questioned. Vector raised an eyebrow.
"No we don't. The advanced units will be deployed in the early hours of the morning." Vector told her.
"Could you delay them until after we arrive?" She asked him. He folded his arms.
"And why would we do that?" He questioned her, looking at her carefully with some suspicion. This was the first time he had actually spoken to the brown Echidna.
"I have a plan, and anyone in the city will be at risk of getting hurt." She told him quietly. He unfolded his arms.
"And what is this... Plan?" Vector asked quickly, not wanting to agree to anything without the full details. Terra sighed.
"I can't really say. Just if your advanced unit guys are below Orange level of Chaos, don't send them in." Terra told him.
"Orange, what?" Vector asked. "Wait, I think I recall someone telling me about this. If I recall properly two of them are. But why would that make a difference?" He asked.
"May I speak to them?" She asked him. Vector gave her a funny look.
"No, you may not." Vector told her. A female grey Wolf stepped behind Vector.
"It's okay Vector." She told him, the Croc turned to look at her as another, male, Grey wolf stepped next to the other one.
"We'll talk with her, she doesn't seem evil and, she stays around Sonic a lot. So she can't be too bad." He told Vector. The Croc shrugged, walking over to the other side of the tent.
"What do you need with us?" The female asked. Terra surveyed the both of them quietly for a second.
"I presume that you're suppressing some of your power?" She questioned them. The both of them looked at her funnily.
"What makes you say that?" The male Wolf asked. The female shifted uncomfortably.
"Hmm." Terra mumbled before quickly placing a hand on the both of their shoulders, all three of them disappearing in a flash of yellow. To reappear a fair distance away as the camp wasn't even in sight.
"Where are we?" The male wolf shouted in an outcry.
"Far enough for you both to show me how strong you really are. I presume that your entire team underplays your powers just in case an enemy gets hold of the information." Terra told them both. The both of them looked at her in surprise.
"How can you tell?" They questioned at the same time. She smiled.
"Because I too am doing it." She informed them. The looked at her with a bit of shock. The female spoke first.
"But you've got to be a level 2-3 yellow right now. Just how strong are you unsuppressed?" The Wolf questioned.
"A low level 10 or high level 9 depending on how tired I am." Terra replied. "All of the Hedgehogs in our group are yellow except for the pink one, who I do believe is pretty close to becoming one anyway." Terra informed them, the pair were visibly surprised.
"Our entire group is orange, I'm the only yellow." The female replied. "I suspect my husband here would be at the same strength as that pink Hedgehog if your gauge of her power is accurate. The rest are mid-level orange."
"I presume all of your group is familiar with Chaos Shield?" Terra questioned her, she nodded. Terra threw a small stone to the female Wolf and she caught it.
"What's this?" She asked, holding up the seemly normal brown stone, no larger than a pebble.
"If that starts to get red hot then do a group Chaos Shield and don't break it off until it starts cooling down. It's in sync with my Chaos energies. It'll be the only warning you get." Terra told them.
"Warning from what?" The male asked.
"Death." Replied Terra simply before she grabbed the both of their shoulders again and they were back in the same spot in the tent they were in just minutes ago. "See you some other time, maybe." Terra told the both of them and left as Natani re-entered the tent. Walking up to the two that Terra had just finished with.
Sunday – Day of the Attack
"Is that it?" Terra asked the rest of the group, the sun had just come up high enough to light up the place through the clouds. Shadow surveyed the base they were heading to. Admittedly it was small compared to the other bases they had seen so far. But it was still the size of a small town. "This is going to take like, five minutes." She commented in annoyance, clearly still annoyed that Shadow didn't want her to help with the taking down of the previous base.
"It may be smaller, but Vector said that there would be more robots at this one than the last, so it should not be a problem in regards of not having much to do." Shadow replied to her. She still didn't look overly impressed.
"At least my plan on starting this attack with be much more effective with a smaller area." Terra commented. Shadow looked at her suspiciously.
"What plan?" He questioned, she just smiled at him and tapped the side of her nose.
"You'll see." Terra replied. Shadow didn't look overly impressed that she was holding the information from him.
"This best not something you know I'll disagree with." Shadow told her. She laughed.
"And what would you actually do to stop me if it was something you'd hate?" Terra questioned him with a smirk. This of course stumped Shadow. When the last time Shadow had been challenged like that he didn't know, it had of course been a long time since he wasn't the most powerful person in any given group.
"I'd back him up." Slayde chipped in, much to Terra's surprise. "Though it wouldn't help us much since Sonic would back you up and before we knew it we would have an all out war between the four of us." Terra just turned away from the two, smiling.
"I don't need your help." Shadow told Slayde. Slayde looked disappointed and disheartened.
"Come on Shadow, I was just trying to help you out. No need to be like that." He told him before he dropped back to walk with Rage again, leaving Shadow at the front with Terra again. Shadow sighed, the all of them walked in complete silence for ten minutes before the army came to a stop. They started erecting medical tents at the back while the front line started to move forward. Terra looked over to Sonic and smirked to him. The both of them vanished in flashes of yellow.
"The hell are those two up to?" Shadow asked the air as he squinted to see if they reappeared in his sight. Sure enough he could see two black Hedgehogs hovering over the city of metal. The two of them were holding each others hands and spinning in circles slowly. Shadow frowned.
"What are they doing?" Slayde asked as he walked to stand next to the Shadow, looking at the same spot.
"I think they're about to use Chaos Blast." Rage commented from behind the both of them, walking between the two. "Can you not see the slight glow on their hands?" He asked them. Amy stepped out next to Shadow.
"All I can see is dots. How the heck can you three see that far away in such detail?" Amy asked.
"It's a gift." Slayde commented lightly, making it sound like a joke. Shadow tutted as he turned to her.
"You too will be able to do it one day if you train enough Rose." Shadow told her, looking back to the other two floating above the town of metal.
With Terra
"You ready?" Terra asked Sonic. The two of them had been gathering their power together ready to unleash a massive Chaos blast, devastating the town. "Bare in mind this is just a test. If it doesn't destroy the larger robots there's no point in doing it again." Sonic nodded.
"Yeah, I'm ready." He replied. Terra closed her eyes for a moment, as if concentrating on something far away.
"Glad I gave them that stone." Terra told him as the pair four power levels surge below them. The both of them looked into each others eyes and shouted in unison.
"Chaos Blast!" They shouted in unison. The wall of yellow Chaos expanding from the two of them, shrouding the entire city in light. Within seconds it had dispersed. The two of them breathless from the attack. Most the city had been reduced to nothingness, only a few buildings that must have been constructed with Chaosanium remained.
"Well there we go, looks like we did it." Sonic commented breathlessly. Terra laughed.
"You know, I'm not even sure if I'd want to try doing that on a larger target now I think about it." Terra told him. Sonic laughed too and the two hugged in mid air. Then they were surrounded by 9 robots, all of them looking like the Egg Emperor style. "Uh oh." Terra stated simply as the to got back to back, still breathless.
"This might be a bit more of a challenge with us being so tired." Sonic commented. Three of the robots spontaneously exploded. The smoke quickly clear to reveal a creamy yellow Slayde and Shadow from two of the explosions, with a normal looking Amy holding onto Shadow's hand as she got used to the floating, and a floating Rage at the other.
"Glad I know how to use my Chaos to fly, or I'd have been stuck unable to help." Rage commented. "Want me to take yours Sonic, you look tired." Rage teased.
"I think I'm fine thanks." Sonic told him as he zoomed towards one of the robots. Everyone had one robot each, and as such within seconds they were all destroyed. Minus one. All the fighters looked as Amy dodged and swerved away from all the robots attacks. Rage, Sonic and Terra looked like they wanted to go ahead and destroy the robot but they held back. Slayde was just smirking at her and Shadow looked a little irritated.
"Rose, stop practising and just finish it off. I don't care if you only learnt how to do that yesterday." Shadow told her sternly. Amy quickly turned to Shadow and stuck her tongue out before dodging the things next attack and flying behind it.
"Chaos Spear!" Amy shouted, hitting it in the back of the neck with a yellow bolt of energy. Slayde mouthed 'what?' and the others stared at her in shock. "There, I did- What are you all staring at?"
"Rose, you were an orange 4 days ago." Slayde told her. She looked at him funny.
"Oh, yeah. That attack was yellow wasn't it? Neat." Amy commented as if it wasn't in any form of a big deal. Most the group sweat dropped.
"In that case you can teleport back by yourself." Shadow commented as he grabbed Terra and Sonic's shoulders before disappearing in a flash of green.
"But I can't do that!" Amy exclaimed as Rage also vanished. Slayde looked at her.
"Can you feel Shadow's power from here?" He asked her. She nodded mutely. "Visualise Shadow, you standing right next to him as you focus on that power and use the move. It's a good way to get to someone specific." He told her. Waiting for her to teleport before he went in case she couldn't do it. Amy exhaled slowly, visualising Shadow.
"Chaos Control." She said quietly, disappearing in a flash of yellow. Slayde smiled happily before he too vanished in a flash of yellow.
"Thanks for everything guys. I must say, that was impressive." Vector told them as they collected the last of the supplies that they were being given and were placing them inside the cart. "When we get back, I'll be sure to tell everyone of this impressive display."
"It was no problem Vector, we were glad to help out." Sonic told him, rubbing his nose in his trademark way.
"I assure you, it was no problem. The base was tiny anyway." Terra told him. The Croc smiled.
"I'll take my leave, you're all ready to go and there's still plenty of daylight to burn. I hope I see you all one day soon." He told them before walking into the crowd, holding his hand to his ear again as he left.
"Time to leave then I guess." Shadow told them all, looking over to the hill in the distance they were heading towards. Most of them started walking slowly, slightly disheartened from leaving the company of so many people. However Natani didn't move. Shadow and Slayde noticed at almost the exact same time.
"Are you not coming Natani?" Slayde questioned before Shadow managed to. The wolf looked uncomfortable.
"I'm going to stay with the army, and join the advanced unit." Natani told them. They looked at the Wolf in surprise. "The small group will be ideal for me. There's only four of them."
"Are you sure? It could get difficult." Shadow told Natani. The Wolf nodded.
"This is the right path for me to take." Natani told them. The Wolf start to walk of into the crowd. Then the wolf paused, throwing something to Slayde before continuing. "I'll see you again, I'm sure."
"Yeah, okay, see you about Natani." Slayde replied to the Wolf, placing the item in his rucksack as the crowd consumed Natani. The group stood there, paused for a while.
"Well that was unexpected." Amy announced to the group as they started walking.
"Yes Rose it was." Shadow replied. The group walked in silence until they had made it over to a hill, that would make the army disappear from their sights. When they made it to the top of the hill Sonic turned around to look at the army laid out in front of him.
"Gonna miss those guys." He announced before turning and walking down the hill behind the others, putting an arm over Terra's shoulder.