"We have everything we're gonna need?" Sonic stretched as Tails prepped the tornado.
"I think so…" The fox trailed off, clearly not entirely focused on Sonic's question.
"I certainly hope so. This has been painful enough already." Super grumbled in Sonic's head.
"Being a bit dramatic there aren't ya dude?" Sonic thought back. They'd managed to figure out on the second day of their training that they could both speak mentally. That would be better for planning, and excellent for annoying each other.
"No." Super grumbled. "I can't wait for this to be over."
"I don't know. As someone who can read your feelings pretty well I think you're not being entirely truthful here." Sonic smirked.
"...whatever." Super huffed and went quiet. Maybe Sonic could get through to him. They had been making a pretty decent team the past couple days. It was getting smoother and smoother to transition between the two of them. Which admittedly did scare Sonic a bit. If Super really did go back to being their enemy after this, just how more dangerous would he be? Though Sonic also knew more about Super as well, so maybe there was some sort of balance there. That was all in the future though. Right now he would focus on dealing with Eggman.
"Ok, we're all good to go." Tails nodded at the tornado before looking at Sonic. "Are you two ready?"
Sonic nodded after he felt general agreement from Super. "As ready as we can be after only a few days I suppose." Sonic crossed his arms and smiled. "Which is pretty ready. We'll take care of Eggman in no time."
Tails returned the smile. "Yeah." His smile faulted though as his ears drooped. "I just hope everyone will understand once we get back…"
Sonic waved off the concern. "Don't worry. I'll deal with it. This was my plan after all." He walked over and ruffled the top of the fox's head. "I'll take the heat for this, alright?" He finished, pointing at his own chest with a thumb.
"Alright Sonic…" Tails chuckled. "I'll leave it to you."
"Let's get a move on then, so I don't have to try and figure all this out before we deal with the doctor yeah?" He hopped up on the wing and smiled down at Tails.
The fox nodded as he moved to scramble into the pilot's seat. "Right!" Sonic took a deep breath as the plane's engine started. Hopefully this wouldn't take too long. Neither of them were entirely sure if they could use the other two emeralds to find Eggman, but if they couldn't Super had said he could probably track them. Back up plans were good to have; especially when they were already taking on a lot of risk.
"Hold it right there!" Sonic jumped at the sound of Shadow's voice. He glanced over to see the hedgehog approaching them, an angry look on his face. Following behind him were Rouge, Omega, Knuckles, and even Amy. This wasn't good. Even if Tails could get the tornado off the ground that second they wouldn't be able to outrun them. Sonic waved for Tails to shut down the engine, which the fox did after shooting a concerned look his way. "What do you two think you're doing?" Shadow stepped forward, ears pinned against his head. He certainly seemed upset and Sonic could feel Super stir at the sight of the clear challenge. "Did you seriously think we wouldn't notice you trying to leave?"
"That was the hope…" Sonic trailed off as he jumped down. "None of you needed to get involved."
"Really? Just what did you think you could do? Just the two of you? If Eggman manages to bring out Super again what will happen?" Shadow stepped closer again. Sonic's own ears pinned down as more of Super's emotions mixed with his own. This wasn't great. The fragile balance he and Super had achieved wasn't tested against something as volatile as Super's relationship with Shadow. Now wasn't a great time to test just how well Super could hold himself back, or how well Sonic could hold him back. He needed to get out of this situation and fast. "What would have happened if you hurt Tails?"
Sonic stopped. Even the thought of him accidentally hurting the fox didn't seem realistic. He felt Super rise to the challenge as well. His own indignation at that mixing with Sonic's. As much as Super denied it he cared about the fox too. Just in his own weird way. "I know you might find it hard to believe, but we wouldn't hurt him. Don't you dare try to imply otherwise." Sonic pinned him with a glare. Sonic could feel Super putting some of his own anger behind it.
"We?" Shadow's frown deepened. "Don't tell me…" He bared his teeth as he stepped back. "You're letting Super manipulate you." It wasn't a question. It was a statement.
Something about that made his blood boil. Shadow wasn't even going to let him explain the situation was he? It was pretty clear from Shadow's body language that this wasn't ending without a fight. While he didn't really wanna fight the still injured hedgehog he wasn't really being given a choice. Fine. If he couldn't tell them, he'd show them. "Super?" He thought.
"Let's do it. I promise not to hurt him too bad. Even if he deserves it." Came the immediate answer.
"Any chance you just wanna let us go? I don't want to fight you Shadow." Sonic tried. Wouldn't feel right if he didn't give the other one last out.
"I'm done letting you make stupid, reckless decisions Sonic. You either stop this, or I'll stop you myself." Shadow growled out.
Sonic sighed as his eyes shifted over to the others. At the moment they didn't seem like they were going to get involved. That could change once Super hit the field though. "Alright Shadow. I guess we're doing this then." He glanced at Tails and shot the fox a reassuring thumbs up. Guess it was time for a test drive. "Let me lead. I'll start and you take over part way through cool?" Sonic thought.
"Fine. Tell me when. Oh and if it takes too long? I'll decide when myself." Super replied, excitement clear in his tone.
"Then you're gonna have to stop me." Sonic said as he ran at Shadow. Shadow skid out of the way as Sonic turned around and curled up. After a moment of holding it, he shot towards Shadow who used a quick chaos control to get out of the way. Skidding to a stop Sonic moved towards Shadow again, this time trying to land a hit with a series of homing attacks. Shadow either warped out of the way or countered them with his own. Though Sonic could tell Shadow wasn't on top of his game. After separating, Sonic started to charge up a spin dash. Waiting for an opening he shot forward once Shadow started charging up a chaos spear. Sonic managed to knock Shadow's feet out from under him as he collided with them. As he pulled out of the spin dash he watched as Shadow quickly got back up to his feet.
Now wasn't the time to let up. If he kept the pressure on he could win this. Pushing himself back to a standing position he started to build up speed. If he wanted to win this he'd need to actually hit Shadow and as much as he wanted to make this into more of a race like he normally would he needed the others to see. To see that he and Super could actually work together.
He launched himself towards Shadow again, the other teleporting behind him and colliding with Sonic's back feet first. Sonic grunted in pain as he curled up to get Shadow off. After putting some distance between them he uncurled and winced. That one had hurt. "C'mon Shadow. We don't need to do this." He tried, one more time. Super made his displeasure at that known but Sonic ignored that for the moment. He started to rev up to make another attack at Shadow, since he was pretty sure that the other hedgehog wasn't going to give up yet.
"Unless you plan on stopping this we do." Shadow crouched, likely in preparation for another attack.
"Can't say I didn't try…" Sonic sighed.
As Shadow launched a chaos spear at him he shot off again. He caught a brief flash of surprise before he made contact with Shadow. Sonic winced in sympathy at the slightly pained noise Shadow made. He was telling the truth when he said he didn't want to fight Shadow. The other hedgehog was still hurt and Sonic didn't really like the idea of making those injuries worse. Shadow huffed before grabbing onto Sonic. Sonic blinked in surprise; he hadn't been expecting that. That thought barely registered before Shadow was tossing him against the ground. The collision knocked the wind out of him and before he could really catch his breath Shadow pinned him down. "Give up Sonic. This is a bad idea and you know it." Shadow's ears were flat against his head again.
Sonic struggled to get out of Shadow's grip. He was serious. Sonic could barely get any air into his lungs. Maybe he'd underestimated just how angry Shadow was. It was clear he wasn't messing around; he was genuinely trying to get Sonic to pass out. "Sonic!" Sonic heard Tails yell out in alarm. He managed to catch sight of Knuckles holding the fox back as he tried to jump to Sonic's aid.
Sonic let his eyes slip shut. "Ok Super… you're up. No maiming him."
"Fine." Super grumbled. "I'll only rough him up a little."
Sonic placed a hand around one of Shadow's arms as he opened his eyes. Slowly he felt himself fade into the background, but he stayed aware. Their training had paid off. He saw panic flash across Shadow's face as Sonic's fur and quills turned gold and Super took control.
Super forced Shadow off of them with a grunt. "You're insane Sonic!" Shadow yelled. "You just let him take over? Just like that?"
"Yeah?" Super smirked as he crossed his arms. "He sure did." He spread his arms wide. "And now you get to deal with me. Luckily for you though, I don't get the pleasure of killing you. This time."
"Super…" Sonic warned. "We're trying to get them to trust you. This whole thing? Not helping."
Super rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I know. Don't worry." He cracked his knuckles as he turned his attention back to Shadow. "For now… let's finish this hm?"
Shadow growled as he raced forward. Super held his arms wide to catch the incoming hedgehog, a wild grin on his face. Sonic could almost feel the impact as Shadow collided with Super's chest. The two went tumbling to the ground. Once Super managed to untangle himself from the hedgehog he quickly chaos controlled out of the way of the incoming chaos spear. "Geez. Someone's touchy." Super thought as he reappeared a few feet from Shadow.
"He's just trying to protect everyone. As much as I wish he'd just let me explain I can get where he's coming from." Sonic sighed. Now that he could sort through his own feelings better he really did understand why Shadow was so upset. That wasn't really a reason to not let him explain himself though.
"Well he's been doing a pretty poor job of it." Super shot back, eyeing the others, who were all shooting him a variety of looks. Tails shot them an encouraging look, which Sonic was pretty sure Super appreciated.
"Cut him some slack. You're not exactly easy to fight." Sonic would have glared at Super if he could. He was sure the other could feel the intent at least.
"Sure whatever." Super grumbled. During their brief conversation the two had failed to notice Shadow rushing at them. As Super turned to look back at Shadow he was met with a fist to the face. He stumbled back, more from surprise than pain. Sonic winced. That was going to hurt once he was back in control. "That was a cheap shot." Super growled as he grabbed onto Shadow's arm. The other hedgehog's ears perked up in surprise as Super tossed him. He collided with the ground hard. While it might be possible for Shadow to beat Sonic right now, he was still feeling the effects of their last fight with Eggman, he couldn't beat Super. Tails had made sure that Super was in top shape. Having him charge back up with the emeralds whenever he needed to. Even though Shadow could heal quickly he wasn't completely healed yet.
Super took a step forward as Shadow pushed himself to his feet. It was clear that the fight had aggravated his injuries. Sonic did feel kind of bad, but he couldn't just stand there and let Shadow beat him up. Heck even if Sonic did, Super probably would have taken control and shut that down anyway. "Just stand down. You don't stand a chance right now." Super stopped several feet from Shadow and frowned. "I might wanna hurt you more, but I have a promise to uphold for a bit."
Without any prompting Super gave control back to Sonic. Once his fur and quills faded back to blue and he felt in control again he rubbed at his now aching face. "Ahhh you have one heck of a punch Shadow." Slowly he walked over and held out a hand to help Shadow up. "You willing to listen now? I don't want to hurt you dude."
Shadow looked him in the eyes before hesitantly taking the offered hand. "Start talking."
"I've been working with Super. We both have a common goal right now: to stop Eggman." Sonic started, crossing his arms after Shadow let go. "We've been practicing the past few days. If Super had wanted to take off with my body he easily could have on day one. He didn't though. We're gonna stop Eggman before he can do anything awful, then go from there."
Shadow crossed his arms. "And you thought this would be a good idea? He could still betray you."
" Clearly he needs to be tossed around a little bit more." Super growled. "I can set him right, just let me at him."
Sonic waved off Super's… offer. Shadow shot him an odd look, but said nothing. "Look, Shadow. I don't know how else to get you to believe me." He shrugged.
Before Shadow could protest again Amy stepped forward. "Then let us come with you. At least some of us. Just in case." She offered, looking between the two of them.
"We were doing this to avoid really involving you guys…" Sonic glanced at everyone. "But if it would make you feel better about this I won't stop you."
"I'm going." Shadow said, before anyone else could offer.
Sonic rolled his eyes. "I figured."
Knuckles looked conflicted. "You know, if you wanna go red me and Omega could watch that gorgeous emerald of yours for you. I promise it'll be there when you get back." Rouge winked as he walked up next to Knuckles.
The echidna fixed her with a glare. "You're one of the last people I would trust to watch the master emerald for me."
Rouge placed a hand on her chest in mock hurt. "Me? Why, what have I ever done to make me seem untrustworthy?"
Amy walked over and put herself in between the two. She turned to look at Knuckles. "I can stay too and make sure she doesn't try anything, alright?"
Knuckles grumbled before finally agreeing. Sonic placed a hand on his chin as he looked at Shadow and Knuckles. "Guess our group has increased by two for this." He commented as Tails came over.
"Guess so. We might be able to fit everyone into the tornado, but I'm not sure…" Tails tilted his head in thought.
"We'll figure it out." Sonic waved off the comment. He walked over to the two. "So you two ready to head out? We wanted to make sure we left early in the morning, but as you can see we've been delayed a bit."
Knuckles huffed. "Yeah? Wonder who's fault that is." He crossed his arms. "I'm ready to head out though."
"Let's just get a move on." Shadow sighed as he walked past Sonic and towards the tornado. Well, at least things had more or less worked out. Now to go stop Eggman.
