A/N: Sorry to bother you guys again! Next update may or may not come on Thursday, but we'll see how that goes. :P But anyway!
Also, this chapter isn't quite like the others . . . and that's all I'm saying about it. Thank you! Carry on!
The motorcycle rode along smoother than before, now that it had a full tank. At least, that's what it felt like to Shadow. He revved the engine a few times, partially showing off his vehicle, partially in a hurry to get the mission over with now that Team Sonic had joined them.
Very little, if any, conversation was exchanged between anyone on the way to Mystic Cave. The only thing that resembled conversation was Omega rattling off when they were going to reach the destination point, as a GPS would, followed by a grunt of approval from either Shadow or Rouge.
Forty-five minutes dragged by, leaving everyone slightly irritable and grumpy. Shadow, releasing his emotions on his bike, drove ahead of Sonic, Omega, and Tails to see if he could get to the destination more quickly. He came up to a curve in the road and began to make the turn. Just as he swerved through the sharp curve, he looked over his shoulder for a split second to see if anyone was behind him, or if he'd lost the lot of them. Rouge's eyes suddenly widened and she let out a shriek.
"Shadow!"
Just as Shadow whirled around to face the front again, a mass of yellow and silver appeared in front of the bike. Shadow attempted to swing the handlebars and veer to the right side of the empty road, but the metal figure leaped to the right before Shadow could avoid it. Sparks flew as the metal from both the motorcycle and the figure in front of it scraped together. The hedgehog felt Rouge's hands slide past his as she attempted to fly him away from the crash, unfortunately unsuccessfully. Shadow squeezed his eyes shut and felt himself being propelled back and he heard his bike being crunched against the face of the obstacle. He hit the road hard, landing on his back with a thud.
Rouge landed on her feet and hurried to Shadow's side.
"Shadow, what the hell-"
She stopped dead when she noticed red spots on the concrete road. "Oh, no . . . No, no, no . . ."
"Stop it, I'm fine . . ." Shadow wheezed, clutching the back of his neck, "nothing's broken." He lifted himself to his knees and coughed. The coughs sent a shooting pain up his chest and his neck as he twisted his head around to make sure he still could move his neck. It was still bleeding, but it had already begun to heal.
"Nothing except the bike. It's totaled," Rouge sighed, glancing at the totaled motorcycle. "What the hell did we hit?"
Omega's voice suddenly rang out from behind them.
"Enemy approaching."
"Oh, that's just great," muttered Shadow as he staggered towards the wreckage, "Brilliant. It must have been one of Eggman's."
The sound of a landing plane came closer to Team Dark as they watched the curve from which they had come. Tails and Knuckles were clambering out, and Sonic joined them not a second later.
"Shadow, what did you do?" the echidna demanded, confronting Shadow, "Are you trying to draw attention to yourself today?"
"That was not my intention."
"Then what was? What kind of a driver are you?"
"I was looking behind me, all right?" Shadow snapped, keeping his voice low, "I wasn't paying attention to what was ahead."
Rouge intervened and gripped Knuckles' shoulder tightly.
"Hon, it was an accident. At least he admitted to it; that's something we don't normally see."
"I'm feeling especially humble today," Shadow snarled between bared teeth.
"Well, be more careful," the echidna growled, "If something else happens, I swear . . ."
Sonic didn't have time to say anything as he threw himself in front of Knuckles in a spin dash. He was only just able to send a missile up in flames before it got to his friends.
"Bad time for a welcome party, Egghead," he called into the air, where a small vehicle carrying Doctor Eggman whirred overhead.
"I'm afraid the party ends here, Sonic and friends," Eggman returned, throwing his arms into the air, "this time I don't see how I can possibly fail!"
"Keep telling yourself that," Sonic retorted.
"With pleasure." Eggman snapped his fingers, and a squadron of huge yellow and silver robots paraded towards the wreckage, both from behind and in front of the two Teams.
Sonic whistled.
"Gosh, you certainly outdid yourself this time, didn't ya, old boy?"
"I'm rather pleased myself," the doctor said, caught in his moment of pride, "meet my new, unstoppable army!"
The robots sprung into action, as did everyone else. Sonic spin dashed through multiple metal figures, severing through the armor that protected the sensitive insides. Rouge and Knuckles fought side by side, fatally denting the metal faces of each one and throwing them aside for the next.
Shadow blasted the robots with Chaos blasts and spears, his deep voice among the cacophony of metal being broken. He swung his legs out, feeling the hard exterior of one robot sending a shock wave from his foot to his waist. As he knocked it out, his ears picked up the high-pitched sound of Tails struggling as he was being dragged backwards by two of Eggman's metal henchmen. Shadow brought his arms over his head and whirled them forward in a half-circle to rescue the fox.
"Chaos Spear!" he cried.
The spears sliced through the shoulders of the robots, causing their arms to clatter to the ground and allowing the fox to escape.
"Thanks, Shadow!" Tails exclaimed with a broad smile crossing his face.
"Don't mention it," muttered the hedgehog as he threw out his fist to attack the metal creature that sneaked up behind him.
"System error," Omega's voice crackled suddenly in the midst of battle. Shadow and Rouge instantly reacted, being the only ones to sense when the robot was in true danger. They shoved through the crowd of metal beasts to find their teammate in the center of the group, surrounded by smaller robots.
"Hey!"
The small robots detached themselves from Omega's interior wire board, making hissing sounds at the two concerned friends. With a few swift kicks and Chaos Spears, the little robots were flying into an opening in the side of the road, spewing sparks everywhere. Rouge clutched her metal companion's shoulders and looked into his red eyes with her own wild ones.
"Omega, what happened? What did they do to you?"
"Fire—a-arms-dis-ss-abled . . ." Omega sputtered. "Data overwritten—system recovery under way."
Omega's eyes went dark as he powered down to recover the data that he'd lost. Rouge searched the eyes for a spark of light, calling his name.
"Omega!"
"Chaos blast!" Shadow blew back the surrounding machines in one shot. His fire was returned with three heat-seeking missiles that he dodged with one long leap. The missiles struck the shoulder of the road, sending a shower of crumbling concrete into his face and eyes. "Rouge, watch him!" Shadow yelled as two of the armored soldiers lunged for him.
Rouge dove for the ground to avoid what appeared to be a laser blast from another robot. She rolled and jumped to her feet again just as another robot pulled its arm back, preparing to thrust its claws into Omega's front. The bat flew in front of Omega and dug her heels into the opponent's frontal grill. She felt the heat from the grill escape as the robot went reeling backwards. Confident, the bat examined the group of robots sprawled all around her and the powered-down body of Omega. She drew in a shaky breath and wiped a drop of sweat from her forehead.
"Should think twice before you pick a fight with a lady," the bat scolded the lifeless robots.
"Rouge!"
The deep and powerful voice screamed just before the bat heard a thud behind her. There stood a bigger, more built robot, whose claw hovered over a head of red dreadlocks. Horror violently tugged at Rouge's stomach as the red echidna's body hit the hard ground.
"No!"
The robot plucked Knuckles from the ground as he dropped, unconscious from the blow. With an angry cry of effort, Rouge hurled herself at the robot. She threw herself at the metal armor, blindly kicking and screaming as she desperately attempted to free Knuckles. The robot extended the other claw at the distressed bat and snatched her from midair.
"Let go of me, you-"
Her furious protests were drowned out as the monstrous creature sent a current of electricity surging through its arms and into Rouge's body. The pain hit her suddenly, overwhelming her nervous system. Try as she might, Rouge couldn't help but let a yell escape her mouth.
Shadow's ears twitched as he heard the sound of true anguish through the rest of the noise. Rouge didn't normally call for help; it was abnormal for her to scream.
"Rouge?" Shadow pushed Sonic aside as he frantically searched for his partners. He could barely feel his jet skates gliding over the broken road. "Rouge, where are you?!"
His question was answered when he noticed two limp bodies in the clutches of one of Eggman's robots. Curling his upper lip, Shadow gather Chaos Energy in his fist, preparing to attack.
"Chaos—ugh!"
A hard blow caught the dark hedgehog from behind, clipping him on the back of his neck where he'd landed during the accident. A numbing pain shot down his spine like a reverse chill. He wobbled around; his vision became blurred with tears of agony. He tried to fight them back, but the clouded vision bested the hedgehog. Something grabbed his Chaos Emerald from his hand and took it away.
"Thank you, dear Shadow," drawled a proud Doctor Eggman as he twirled the green Emerald between his fingers, "I knew I could count on you for assistance in my master plan."
Shadow wordlessly attempted to get back up on his feet. He tried to ignore the sickening pain in his back and reached for the Emerald, barely missing it as Eggman lifted his boot and kicked the hedgehog back. Humiliated by his helplessness, Shadow tumbled to the ground and let fury blaze in his eyes. He glanced at his teammates, who were both suspended in the air by robots. In the midst of his pain, Shadow felt himself forcibly being lifted from the ground by under his arms. He could scarcely see the tall doctor approaching a weary blue hedgehog that stood breathless in the middle of many destroyed robots.
"So, Eggman, looks like your new plan really has failed this time," Sonic said.
"Don't you get your hopes up, Sonic; I've got all of your friends." The doctor motioned to the robots that held Rouge, Tails, Knuckles, Omega, and Shadow. Sonic gritted his teeth, but quickly changed his expression to a weak smile.
"You got me there, pal," he mumbled, refusing to let the feeling of defeat take over him.
Eggman chuckled. It was like any other chuckle, until it grew. The chuckle intensified into a laugh, and the laugh into a maniacal cackle. Sonic's smile faded as Eggman's screech of laughter broke the deathly silence.
Without warning, Sonic felt himself being slammed to the ground by his neck. Eggman continued to laugh and jumped on Sonic's legs to prevent him from running. The hedgehog cried out in pain as he felt his legs being crushed under the doctor's boots.
"You have nowhere to run, Sonic," Eggman chortled, "And I have you now. Give it up; I've won this time."
"I can still-"
Sonic didn't finish his sentence. Eggman suddenly brandished a knife and shakily held it up against Sonic's quickly moving chest near his heart. The blue blur said nothing for a second, but his lips clumsily formed words. "It's come to this . . . has it, then, Egghead?"
Shadow's vision became clearer. He realized what was happening and widened his eyes. Doctor Robotnik had officially lost his mind. He was so bent on revenge that he decided to take matters into his own hands . . . literally.
Eggman took Sonic's arms in his hands and pressed them into the concrete. He smiled a twisted smile, and then, with two fingers per hand, began to force the wrists back, curling them so that they might break. Sonic bit his lip and did his best to swallow down a scream.
"Eggman, you bastard!" Shadow bellowed as Sonic eventually let out a yell of pain, "Let him go!"
The dark hedgehog stumbled towards the doctor and threw his fists at him, blindly striking at his face. Eggman immediately fell back and freed Sonic, who trembled as he scrambled to his feet. He inhaled sharply when he heard a loud crack coming from both legs.
Eggman swung his arm out, knocking Shadow back. He grinned with pure satisfaction as Sonic's legs gave way and he hit the ground.
"My work here is nearly finished," the doctor said, "take them away."
Two robots took hold of Sonic's arms and began to fly him up, along with an unconscious Tails and Knuckles. Shadow fought against two other intact robots that caught him by surprise.
"You'll never get away with this, you son of a-"
"Ah-ah-ah," Eggman scolded, "language, Mr. Shadow." With a snap of his fingers, something else started striking the back of Shadow's head and didn't stop. As he was occupied, Eggman quietly whispered a question to one of his robotic soldiers.
"Team Dark objective: locate Doctor Eggman in Mystic Cave. Thwart plans." the robot replied.
"So you're after me, then? Well, how about we take a little visit to Mystic Cave, shall we?"
Shadow's vision went back to blurry, and then red. He felt warm blood staining his back from the blows.
"N-no . . ." he whispered, unable to think.
The hedgehog's last memory was Eggman's laughter before he completely blacked out.