I bet you guys been waiting on the next chapter for Sonic Sega All Stars: Subspace Unleashed before E3. Then I hope your bodies are ready since this chapter will begin tragically and end epic-ally with the help of Shadow's new allies (including the mysterious one that appeared at the end of the last chapter). Like Eggman would say, get a load of this!

Shadow is speechless after the boy's last words due to how serious he is about actually killing Rowen. There was something strange about this gun wielding boy that seemed mysterious, yet dangerous just like Shadow's beaten opponent. He had medium-length, feathered bleach-blonde hair and grey-blue eyes. As for his attire: three layers, a red jacket on top, and black hoodie in the middle, and white sleeveless zip-up shirt underneath. He also wore somewhat baggy black cargo pants and black boots. He looked back at Shadow with these ice cold eyes, intimidating him before he even dared to make a move. Since he didn't feel like waiting and had to help out his new friends, the serious hedgehog tried to negotiate in the most peaceful way possible.

"I don't know who you are, but I need to get a few questions out of him before you end his life. Just tell me who you are and what is your relationship with him," he said solemnly.

The 17 year old gunner smirked and playfully raised his submachine guns into the air, just to make himself look cool in front of Shadow. He had the feeling of any fighter than can be serious and funny whenever he feels like it, even in the direst situations.

"My name is Zephyr and I am a survivor of the Crank Seminary Experiment. An experiment that involved inserting the genes of Rebecca into my body a few years ago. That experiment was started by one man, who Rowen was associated with in the first place. He did everything just for the sake of reviving someone special, but it all backfired and led to his downfall," he explained.

Rowen was already severely damaged from Shadow's last attack and the force against a tree, losing blood within minutes and it is no way out of it. He coughed as if he were running out of air and each one involved blood loss from the mouth. He glanced back at Shadow and his ex-nemesis Zephyr with blurry vision and eyes of sorrow.

"It is too late for you to kill me … since …. I am already on the verge of dying. Not even Zerith can save me … now since I'm too far … away from sanctuary's grasp," he said faintly.

Both heroes focused their attentions to the dying Cardinal after hearing his words in surprise. Zephyr could help but to solemnly shake his head while facing down to express disbelief. He mostly pitied him since he had to join the wrong crowd for the most foolish reasons.

"You weren't satisfied with your life since the last time we had met and decided to join these subspace punks for what reason? They promised you a way to save Frieda? If anything, you should have never joined them and none of this would have happened to you," he said in a semiserious manner.

Shadow was about to talk back at him for making such a rude comment, but he knew that talking to Rowen was a higher priority since death's cold embrace was upon him. He walked past Zephyr with a cold look that even caused him to glare back at him as he passed. Rowen slowly rose despite his injuries to get a closer look at him for communication. He looked into his eyes with the same blurry vision and dropping body temperature during his "final moment". He still felt guilty for what he had done since Zephyr was right about him making a foolish decision to believe the Legion of Space instead of himself. Shadow felt remorse for his actions despite his default expression since he did overdue himself a little during the fight.

"Ah … ah ... ah … all I ever wanted was to revive her, …. they even said that it was possible …. fo … for them to do so. Bu …but I was a damn fool for even … giving into their offer and I am already … dying without … the immortality to save me," said faintly.

He raised his bloodied body higher and held his hand on Shadow's shoulder, looking in his foe's eyes with something he had never seen before: sadness. He was slowly crying, with warm tears warming his cold face as they trickled down in streams. Shadow really wish he could forget what he's seeing since he wanted to keep the past behind him, which already involved the loss of Maria. His heart rate started to rise to the tension of this traumatizing situation; a man dying at his hands that actually felt the same pain as he did in his past. To make the situation less saddening and try forgetting that one moment, he decided to ask him one last question before Rowen's death.

"Before you go …. I have one final request. Can you tell me that reviving the one you loved this way was really worth it?" said to sympathize the dying man.

This touched the Cardinal so much that sucked it up and decided express his foe some gratitude for being so honorable. Zephyr still looked at his dying foe with a more serious look as Shadow treated him with remorse. This reminded him of when Leanne defended Rowen in the past despite his atrocious acts and that fact that he tried to kill him for that reason. He is proud of the black hedgehog for even asking him such a question and wanted to hear his final response.

"Now that I think about it …. it wasn't really worth it at all … since I am about to join her … in the miraculous kingdom of Heaven. I would like you to thank you … for giving me the permission to see her again. I have one last thing to say before I eventually see her, hedgehog," he said as his eyes started to fail.

Shadow drew his face near with his face growing concerned to hear the words that his dying foe needed to say.

"Never forget your loved ones ….. if they are no longer with you. Always treasure the memories that you have with them ….. even the painful ones …. no … matter … what," he said softly.

His eyes slowly closed and his body had ceased to function since he is "no longer of this world". His fell down to the barren, red earth and painted it with the last of his flowing blood. Shadow watched the entire situation with a look that eerily resembled the one he made when Maria died. This was truly a heart wrenching experience for him as he bows his head down in sorrow and clenched his right hand above his heart. Zephyr walked beside him to lay a hand on his shoulder for comfort purposes. He was too caught up in sorrow to even look at the blonde boy despite his appeal to sympathy.

"I'm proud of what you've did back there, Shadow. You've did the right thing for asking him such a question and taking his final words into consideration. But now, we have bigger things to take care of if we want to stop their plans," he said.

After thinking about what his new ally had said, the black hedgehog looked back at him with a slightly hopeful expression. His emotions were now becoming apparent that he shouldn't express them too much around someone he didn't know and regret not being able to do so around his close friends. Suddenly, a familiar gunshot is made and it came from the northeast where the ChuChu captains had gone. He remembered that they are even smaller than him and completely defenseless against something as deadly as a gun. Zephyr even got serious since he knows that where ever there were guns, there were enemies for him to fight like old times. Shadow changed back into his old self in an instant and knew that they needed help fast or else they could wind up like Rowen.

"Zephyr!" he said.

"Yes?" he responded.

"I would ask you how you knew my name, but I have something for you to do. There are a group of mice wearing color coded outfits in that direction and I want to you to help their captured friends. Based on that gunshot, they are in need of some serious help. Do you understand?" he said urgently.

The blonde boy glanced at his submachine gun with a serious look and clenched them tightly with passion. Then, he looked back at Shadow and nodded to agree with his request in the most silent way possible.

"I'll see what I can do since dealing with gunmen is my specialty. But, what are you going to do with Rowen?" he said.

Shadow turned to the Cardinal's corpse and looked at the blood-soaked earth, which gave him a reasonable idea.

"Don't worry about him; I'll take care of it since he gave me some reasonable words. Just hurry up and help the space mice out!" he said.

With that, Zephyr nodded for the second time and stormed off into the direction of the gunshot. Zor grew worried since he didn't want to disappoint his new allies, despite not caring about what already happened to Rowen. He turned to the rest of his group who was already blown away by Rowen's slightly expected death.

"You guys stick around here; I'll go see what's up with those miserable mice. After all, I rather see everyone suffer around me instead of just one guy. Whether you guys want to join in or not, I don't care," he remarked.

Lan Di stood from his seat out of surprise and questioned the Zeti's authority before he left.

"Shouldn't those blood thirsty cats and that gun slinging buffoon be fine on their own? It's as you know that they will fail," he yelled.

Zor already hated arguing with anyone and thought that he should leave without giving an answer to a "stupid human". Silver Armlet put his hand on his shoulder to inform him with some special advice.

"Stop, Zor. Just to leave you less trouble, leave it to Dural since she is bulletproof enough for this situation. We wouldn't want you to get caught in the crossfire after all," said the sinister Silver Armlet.

The metallic fighting machine cracked her muscles to show that she have heard him loud and clear. Zor grimaced like he would usually do and looked away from the tent's exit.

"Hmmph, whatever! Let that silver dame of emptiness save the day. It doesn't matter anyway since we are all doomed," he pouted.

Dural ran in the same direction that Zephyr went to prove her fellow members what the ultimate fighting machine is really capable of. Despite the massive campfire being in her way, she easily dispatched it with a familiar attack that one of Akira's allies would know. A heavy kick that stretched out and shattered the flaming wood into pieces like it were a glass window. This was because she is an android that could mimic any Virtua Fighter's martial arts just by scanning them and it was one her main ways of self defense. The determined machine kept running to pursuit her next human target for her fellow members.

"Hold still so that I can exterminate you, ya damn space suit-wearing rodents!" yelled a black-haired man.

It was Captain Onimusha, who appears to be having trouble shooting at a group of familiar space mice while being careful to not shoot that KapuKapu that were helping. The ChuChu captains had found their captive friends, but have to keep the KapuKapu's and their trigger happy ally busy until help arrived. This wasn't an easy task if they only had twenty four blue ChuChus by their side and they can't get in their rocket (which is now guarded by Onishima). They were good when it came to running at different patterns since they usually did this to dodge hungry KapuKapus and re-enter their corresponding rockets in the past. That way, running and dodging were the best options for them in a situation like this.

"Chuchuchu chuchu chu chu chu!" the tired out Chuih said to his fellow ChuChus.

This was a sign that they are getting tired of running, hoping for a miracle to occur and help complete their dangerous objective. They managed to get cornered by a few KapuKapus, which also contributed to their tiring dodging session. One of the orange cat creatures hissed in delight as he stared back at the frightening mice with his ominous yellow eyes. His jagged fangs opens wide to prepare for a massive chomp on his tiny prey. ChuBach's glasses were cracked from stress, ChuBei grew hungry from the lack of food, ChuPea started tearing due to fear, and Chuih's eyes widened to express that this might be the end of his crew. The terrifying space cat charged with his pack to attack them all at once with eyes that could scare anything that isn't a ChuChu.

"Chuuuuuuchuuuuuuuuuu!" the ChuChu captains screamed before their possible visit to the belly of the beast.

They cowered with their eyes closed as the KapuKapu neared their tiny, vulnerable bodies until something happened. A few gunshots blared and a few thuds occurred a few seconds later. Chuih was still hoping he'd be dead, yet he felt something poke his ear a few times. The ChuChus that they had saved earlier were snapping him and the other captains out of it since something miraculous had happened. ChuPea opened her eyes first and gasped when she noticed the wounded KapuKapus lying on their faces. She observed the lifeless orange mounds while the male captains were more focused on what happened to Onishima.

He was off the rocket and comically dodged heavy gunfire that is occurring at his feet. It appeared that Zephyr arrived at the nick of time to help the ChuChus out while smirking due to the sheer hilarity of fighting his cowardly foe. Chuih also noticed that the other KapuKapus had retreated since the sight of their fallen comrades alone led to them to believe that retreating was the best option in this outcome. He hopped onto the nearest KapuKapu corpse and did the most victorious pose that any ChuChu had ever done.

"Chu chu chu, chuchu chu chuuuuuu!" he bragged in all his victorious glory.

The other ChuChu captains frowned since their fellow member was so full himself to even take the credit for the KapuKapus' defeat. But the ChuChu underlings that followed him still cheered anyway since they were no longer considered KapuKapu food. Meanwhile, Zephyr keep shooting at the frightened Onishima's feet for utter entertainment while the later is growing tired of being tortured like this.

"Kid, please stop shooting! I promise that I'll give those rats their damn rocket back! I swear, please spare my wonderful life!" he whined.

He could deal with fighting a bunch of rudies armed with spray paint, but dealing with another teenage that wielded guns better than him was even more humiliating. The blonde gunner laughed since this was equally as funny as the times that he would usually fight with his friends back at home.

"You're giving up already? I was expecting more from a middle aged gunner like you and you're quitting that easily? I bet whoever you work for will be pretty embarrassed to know that someone that doesn't deserve a gun like you even worked for them in the first place," he remarked in taunting manner.

Before Onishima could give up yet, he started to give a devious smile before his teenage foe and even laughed manically. The ChuChus, who were thinking of a way to break the cages, noticed something peculiar standing right behing their new ally. It a was a metallic feminine being with her fist clenched for a heavy blow and Onishima knew that she was standing behind him a few seconds ago.

"Chuchuchu chu chu chu chuchu!" ChuPea squeaked when noticing Dural's preparations for her deadly ambush.

The ChuChus squeaked along with her to get Zephyr's attention in the middle of this tense situation. He finally noticed and turned to see the sinister fighting machine reenacting one of Akira's infamous techniques to attack him. Luckily, he was athletic enough to flip above her and prepared to retaliate in midair.

"Let's see how to you enjoy having bullets in your brain, cold hearted wench!" he remarked.

He unleashed a storm of bullets onto her body, which unsurprisingly ricocheted in different directions instead of harming her. Several of the bullets flew in Onishima's direction, causing him to frantically retreat into the ChuChu's rocket for safety. Various others flew right towards the cage's that contained the ChuChus, causing their captains to panic for their safety.

"Chuchuchu!" ChuBach squeaked loudly.

As the bullets drew near, each cage-full of ChuChus had ducked to avoid being decimated by the deadly metal ammunition. They rattled against the bars severely, but only a few minor dents were left on the cage bars. Zephyr looked back at the cages to observe this situation deeply.

If normal bullets can only cause dents on the cage, then fire bullets ought to really break those cages open. But the real question is, if they can reflect of that mechanical woman easily instead of melting into her body. Like Vashyron would say, there's only one thing left to do.

While thinking this, he smirked as he dropped right next to his unstoppable female foe. She turned to him to prepare another a few Swan Strikes, which her gun slinging foe had dodged easily to reach the air again. Zephyr quickly reloaded some special fire bullets into each SMG while airborne to prepare his crazy plan.

"Stand there like the invincible fighter you are if you want to taste these extra spicy bullets that I will fire!" he boasts.

Both guns began to fire each of these special red bullets at Dural in a rapid manner. She stood again just to overestimate her foe, enduring each hit as the bullets reflected. This time, she appears to be heated up as said by her head and shoulders glow a bright red and she started to shiver. This is due to the fact that being exposed to a specific amount of heat is enough to weaken her.

The reflected fire bullets attacked the cages as the ChuChu's backed up from the bars to avoid being burned. One ChuChu looked at the bars as they begun to melt due to the excessive heat and informed the others to get ready to run. The other cages' bars were also melting from the rattling of the fire bullets, which gave the ChuChu captains a sign that it's time to assemble. Zephyr landed right next to them to watch as his successful plan had gone into fruition. He looked at the happy space mice as they squeaked in glee to express their gratitude.

"There you go little guys. Now you can retrieve your friends and we can get out of here. But we do have one more problem to deal with," he said before they all glanced behind themselves.

Dural is cooling down while kneeling in pain from the bullets' heat, holding her head down in pain. She may not be able to express emotions, but she already know what it feels like to be in pain based on her past encounters. She eventually gets up and does a triumphant "yelling pose" with both fist clenched to express killing intent.

"Guys, get ready for a fight since she's definitely ready for one. Gather your little buddies so that can help, alright?" Zephyr remarked.

Chuih told his fellow captains to prepare for Mouse Mania for old times sake. They eventually nodded and prepared to follow on a special whistle with their blue captain. A shrill sound is made from their whistles, which gave their blonde friend the sign to keep Dural busy beforehand. He charged dead at the metallic creation and clashed his submachine gun against her left arm. The now free ChuChus charged towards the source of the Mouse Mania whistle to assemble for their next maneuver. The blue ChuChus stood behind Chuih, the red ChuChus stood behind ChuPea, the green ChuChus stood behind ChuBach, and the yellow ChuChus stood behind ChuBei: forming the perfect ChuChu army.

There were a total of one hundred now and every twenty-five were of a different color for variety and ordering purposes. The captains watched Zephyr as he fought the raging Dural in a heated battle to think of the first set of commands. They all glared at her with a look of determination to find any weak points to attack for this plan to work fully. ChuPea winked to her corresponding squad after realizing that her head would be the perfect place to attack. The red ChuChus squeaked and got into an about-face position as their feminine captain waited for the right time to make another signal.

"Chuchuuuuuuuu, chuchuuuuuuu!" she shouts as her red army charged straight at the fighting giant.

They formed a man-made slingshot out each other and launched each ChuChu at certain areas on her head. Each on dealt a flaming headbutt on her head, causing it to get hotter within each attack. She started to cringe in pain due to the heat, which gave Zephyr a sign to leave it to his new rodent comrades.

"Good job guys! I don't know what plan you had came up with, it sure as hell is working," he said with a smile on his face.

Next, ChuBei commanded his yellow army to attack the same area with some shocking force. As previously mentioned, these guys have yellow has electricity as their specialty and allowed the red ChuChus to launch them all into the air. They all divebombed towards the red area of Dural's head and initiated electrical dive kicks from their tremendous height. Now Dural's head is exposing her central processing unit while quivering from the surgical volts that emitted from the yellow ChuChus. ChuBach adjusted his broken glasses to inform the green team to report for the next maneuver. They allowed themselves to be launched by the other ChuChus to latch onto Dural's entire body after it stopped being affected by the electricity. One by one, each green ChuChu inflicted a poisonous bite to the CPU on her exposed cranium to disable her primary attack functions.

Lastly, Chuih squeaked loudly to have the last of his men finished the job. The previous seventy-five ChuChu lined up in rows of twenty-five to launch the remaining ones at the damaged area on Dural's body. She slowly tried to get up in an attempt to save herself and not give in to the damage in her cranium. The flying blue ChuChu's formed a massive line shaped to apply enough pressure from their foot tall bodies into a massive hit to kill off their mechanical foe.

"Chuchu chuchuchu chuchu chu chu!" they all yelled before dealing the finishing blow to her head.

Dural's body had flung itself towards the left due to the force of the attack as they bounced back due to the force of the attack. They looked at Dural's cold, metal hand stop twitching during the aftermath and they smiled to express their happiness. The other ChuChus and the captains slowly smiled after seeing that climatic attack. But, Zephyr held out his submachine gun since it made sense to finish her off the right way.

"And now to end this fight the right way. Go to hell, mechanical monster!" he shouts before firing the last round of fire bullets.

The blue ChuChus fell to the ground to avoid the bullets as they attacked Dural's exposed 'brain" to finish her off. Her head combusts violently afterwards, leaving her metallic body left before it finally had hit the ground. The blonde gunner flipped his SMG's and did a flashy victory pose to top off the satisfying climax. The body still stayed there lifeless to proof that the battle was officially over and that another member of the Legion of Subspace dies at the hands of a hero. All one hundred and four ChuChus surrounded their human ally and jumped him to express to show love admiration for him. They crawled all over his body to inspect him, while tickling the seventeen year old gunner in the process. Zephyr could help but laugh with a huge smile on his face due to this and the fact that they are very attached to him. The captains stood before his face and bowed down to express their gratitude for helping them save their ChuChu race and defeating the android Dural. He smiled back at them after that laughing session from the tickling space mice.

"Your welcome, little guys. Also thank you for helping me defeat that metallic freak show. I couldn't have done it without you," he said.

He eventually looked to the left when he heard Onishima's scream. He was being chased out the rocket and electrocuted by a few yellow ChuChus to make sure that he doesn't cause any more trouble.

"You may have saved the rest of your friends, but this jazz isn't over yet. You won't get away with this, ya little punks!" he said before escaping their wrath and escaping towards the camp.

Zephyr and the ChuChus laughed out at the situation altogether. Several ChuChus carried Dural's metallic corpse away to the ChuChu Rocket for research purposes since it might be useful for future uses. The rest of the ChuChus, along with the captains, boarded the rocket as Zephyr watched them. Soon as he turned around, Shadow was standing behind him with his arms crossed and his usual serious expression. There were an ambient silence between the two as the looked at each other.

"How did it go back there?" the blonder gunner asked.

"I buried him in a proper place and decided to take some mementos from him," Shadow replied.

He showed his human ally the silver and golden handguns that Rowen used to own. Zephyr gazed at them for a moment and smiled at the black hedgehog to show that he appreciates what he had done for his former nemesis.

So Zephyr joins Shadow's group after before and after listening to Rowen's dying words (yet he knows his name before meeting him somehow). Zor gets backed out of the fight since the Legion of Subspace entrusted Dural to stop the ChuChu's rescue place. Unfortunately, they managed to defeat her with the help of Zephyr and save the rest of the ChuChu captives. Onishima got chased away from the rocket which is now in the ChuChus' possession again and Shadow informed Zephyr of Rowen's burial. Perhaps we may find out what they'll do next and how the LOS members at the Leader's Tent will react to the news of their captives being free and Dural's "death". I'll see you guys later, most likly sometime after the entire E3 event. While you're at it, make sure to favorite, follow, or review this series. ;)