Chapter 6

Shadow was on top of a tall flat roofed building looking at the crowded streets below him. Sonic was standing not far off on the roof in front of Rouge, who was sitting down on a big power box while rubbing her neck.

"You alright?" he asked her.

Rouge had her eyes closed and groaned as she rubbed her sore neck.

"Uh huh" she groaned.

"What made you do that" asked Sonic looking at her.

Rouge stopped rubbing her neck and looked up at him.

"Warn you" Rouge looked away from him.

"It..sort of just…came out" her eyes fell back onto Sonic's face.

""You don't think I killed Metal Sonic do you?"

"Don't know" said Rouge. She looked down then back at the blue hedgehog.

"Dr Eggman says you did".

Sonic slowly frowned at her.

"Tell me something Rouge".

Sonic turned to his right and saw Shadow walking over to them.

"Now that you've been up close and personal with Eggman" He stopped and stood next to Sonic. "How do you feel about him?"

Rouge looked at Shadow with a blank expression on her face.

"He's the President" she answered.

"But how do you feel when you're around him?" Shadow crossed his arms.

The white bat looked to the side and thought for a moment.

"He…makes my skin crawl" She looked back at Shadow.

Sonic looked at Shadow then back at Rouge.

"Sometimes you have to trust your instincts"

"But how do you know when?" she asked.

Sonic thought for an answer.

"Now" said Shadow looking to Sonic's left.

Sonic turned his head to where Shadow was looking and saw Knuckles, Shade, Espio, and Mighty land on the far side of the roof.

"See she's a traitor!" yelled Mighty pointing to Rouge.

Knuckles glanced at Mighty then looked at Rouge.

"Is this true?" asked the guardian.

Rouge had stood up and was standing in front of the two wanted hedgehogs.

"It's complicated" she said.

Mighty looked at Knuckles "No it isn't".

Knuckles raised an eyebrow in surprise at Mighty.

The armadillo quickly broke a big piece of materiel off the roof and chucked it at Rouge, Sonic and Shadow. Rouge grabbed Sonic and flew into the air. Shadow did a quick side step just as the rubble was close to hitting him. He then used chaos spear and hit Mighty making him stumble back. Knuckles and his other comrades were a bit surprised but quickly got into a fighting stance. Espio and Shade ran off in different directions to attack there foes. Rouge let go of Sonic and then dove down and charged at Knuckles. The echidna stood his ground hoping his friend would not really attack him. He was very surprised though when Rouge did an upper cut to his jaw and he fell on his back. Before Rouge could move though Shade jumped in the air and tackled her to the ground.

Shade and Rouge landed on their feet and were hand locked trying to push one another back. Rouge went to side kick her but Espio suddenly appeared and punched her in the back. With some of her strength gone Shade found an opening and punched her in the face. As Espio held the bat in place Shade kept punching Rouge trying to knock her out. Sonic suddenly ran past them and knocked Shade and Espio off their feet. Rouge fell on her knees, the attacks taking a toll on her. Sonic ran past Knuckles who ran after him in pursuit. Sonic turned around and Knuckles took a swing at him with his right fist and missed. Sonic took this chance and punched Knuckles. Knuckles flinched but then quickly punched Sonic back. Sonic put his hands together and swung them upward hitting the echidna with a strong blow. Shadow slowly walked over and stood a bit away from Mighty who was still unsteady from the attack. Shadow launched another chaos spear at him but Mighty was ready this time and punched through the energy bolts. Mighty then spin dashed towards Shadow and slammed into the hedgehog. Shadow grabbed Mighty and slammed him onto the ground causing the armadillo to go through the roof.

Knuckles and Sonic were still fighting each other. The red echidna tried to punch the speedy hedgehog in the face, but Sonic tilted his head to the side and then punched Knuckles so hard he sent him crashing into the side of the stair exit wall. Shadow was on one knee and was trying to recover from the injuries he obtained. He suddenly heard rumbling from under the roof. Mighty smashed out through the roof and threw a big piece of rubble at him. Shadow leaped to the side. As he landed he rolled behind a large ventilation vent.

"Tell me something!" called out Shadow from behind his shelter.

"What do you want freak?" answered Mighty taking two steps forward.

Shadow knelt half way out of his proactive zone and looked at Mighty who was just standing a few feet away.

"Did Metal Sonic say anything before he died, was he surprised to see you."

"I don't know what you're talking about" said Mighty.

"What did Eggman promise you, money?"

"What do I need with money, I'm a powerful Mobion".

Knuckles was hiding behind some rubble and was listing to them talking.

"You're not going to tell me you killed him for your country are you?" asked the dark hedgehog.

Mighty gritted his teeth and glared at Shadow.

"Some of us still believe in putting our country first".

"Sorry" said Shadow "But I don't see any patriotism here".

Knuckles listened really closely to what Shadow said next.

"All I see is a psycho who's latched onto an excuse to kill people, and who's so stupid that he doesn't realize he's being used by Eggman!"

Mighty suddenly yelled in anger and slammed his fist into some rubble breaking it into more tiny pieces. Five metal claws suddenly popped out of his knuckles and through his gloves. He then charged at Shadow. The ebony hedgehog threw some pieces of metal beside him. But when they got near Mighty he simply cut through them as if they were paper. Shadow ducked behind his blockage of rubble. The armadillo started widely cutting through the rubble to get to his prey. Sonic and Rouge were watching not far behind. Rouge frowned at Mighty. She then took off into the air and charged at him.

"Rouge don't!" yelled Sonic.

Mighty jumped in the air to strike at Shadow but Rouge suddenly did a hard kick to his stomach. There was a loud gong sound that everyone could hear. Mighty fell to the ground on his back. Rouge landed beside him and suddenly gasped at what she saw.

"Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles look at this"

The three of them ran over to her and when they saw Mighty they were shocked. He had a dent in his stomach.

"I…I don't understand" said Rouge confused.

"I do" said Shadow.

Knuckles looked at him "And how is that?"

"This is a robot copy to look like our friend"

Knuckles and the others gasped. Shadow continued.

"Didn't any of you realize that the real Mighty was acting strange?"

"He did seem angry and aggressive the last month or so" said Espio as he and Shade walked up and stood beside Sonic.

"So where is the real Mighty the Armadillo?" asked Shade.

"We can ask Eggman when we stop him" said Sonic.

Suddenly the robot eyes glowed red.

"Self-destruct sequence activate"

"We can't let it blow up the blast could bring this entire building down!" yelled Shadow.

Knuckles turned to Shade.

"Do you still carry those mini shield orbs?"

Shade nodded and pulled two of them off her belt.

"Yes but they can only stay activated if their being held by someone"

Knuckles took the orbs from her and turned back to the now smoking robot.

"I'll hold them and try to protect myself at the same time while trying to contain the blast"

As Knuckles headed to the robot Sonic put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him.

"Knuckles I can't let you…"

"I was watching" said the Echidna as he turned to Sonic then looked at Shadow.

"And listening it's the least I can do"

Knuckles walked up to the robot and then turned on the orbs. A shield of purple energy surrounded Knuckles while another surrounded the robot. The robot then began to shake and then it exploded. Sonic and everyone else had to cover their eyes or look away from the bright light it caused. As the light slowly faded away Sonic saw a crater where Knuckles and the robot use to be standing. Sonic ran over and looked down in the crater. The robot was in pieces and Knuckles was laying there passed out with series wounds on him. Shade and Espio jumped down and quickly walked down to Knuckles and slowly picked him up. Sonic looked away and his face showed anger but determination. He then looked at Rouge who was staring back at him with the same expression.

(Back at the base)

There was a loud siren that was going off outside the base and where missiles were rising slowly at a launch site. Inside the base was Eggman, Snively and a bunch of military personnel watching a large screen which showed the missiles outside. Eggman started to count down the launch.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1…lift off!"

The was a rumble and smoke started to come out of the bottom of the missiles then fire spewed out and they started to lift into the air. Eggman and Snively watched the missiles shoot up in the air. Eggman smiled with confidence.

"And there on their way"

All the other people in the room started clapping for him, which only boosted his confidence. A girl on a high tech computer was rapidly typing in codes while a general was giving her instructions, He then turned to Eggman.

"Wormhole generator engaged" he said.

Up in space the missiles were already breaking through the earth's atmosphere. As they flew farther out a blue and black portal appeared in front of them. The deadly missiles went through the portal and came out on the other side where the meteor was right in front of them. Eggman and all the others watched the monitor that showed the meteor and the missiles getting closer to it. The missiles zoomed towards the giant space rock and detonated causing a massive expulsion to the target. Everyone in the room started to clap and cheer for joy. Eggman smiled and shook Snively's hand.

"Don't worry I'm not going to say I told you so."

"Good thing" muttered Snively who was looking at the screen.

Eggman raised an eyebrow in confusion and looked at the screen as well and to his horror the meteor was still intact.

"General! What in the world happened?"

The general was listening through a headset getting Intel on what had gone wrong with the doctor's plan. He moved it away from his ear.

"You…um we didn't take in account for all that radiation" he explained looking at his boss. "The warheads detonated before they hit."

"So the meteor is…" said Eggman.

"Still on course" finished the general.

(Hey there readers! Swiftsonic77 here just thought I'd say hello and deeply apologies for not posting new chapters on Sonic and Shadow Public Enemies. I'm trying to find more time to work on them and again I apologies.)