A/N- So I've been told it's Neo-Walkers and not Neo-Watchers. And then I looked it up and it is, in fact, Neo-Walkers. So now I gotta go back and change that because of big whoops on my part. Sorry about that, guys.


Recursion Error

Episode 34- The melancholic pair


So apparently there was a giant robot stomping its way towards Knothole City.

As far as Sorun was concerned that was par for the course at this point.

The entire city had been alerted to it early in the morning on account of the seismic readings picked up by equipment in the HQ's lab. Tails doing a quick fly-by confirmed that the source of the readings was the aforementioned robot. A hundred-meter tall Badnik that was slowly making its way towards Knothole. At a very liberal pace, according to the fox.

So they had that to deal with now. It was an hour after the fact, and everybody was huddled up in the Freedom HQ's lab to talk strategy. Everybody had crowded around the computer monitors which was displaying a recording of the robot slowly approaching the city, with Sally at the head of the pack to give a rundown of the situation. There was one exception, however, and that was in Sorun. Sorun, who was sitting on the floor near the back of the lab and tracing shapes in the air in front of him using the tip of the Yamato.

"Hmm..." There was a bit of blue power glowing at the tip of the sword, and when he traced the sword downwards a thin, blue line of power was left floating in the air behind it. Sorun's brows were furrowed in concentration, but when the line dissipated he let out a frustrated sigh. "Yeah, that's not it either," he thought. "How the... what the hell, this should work. Why isn't this working?"

Thus far his experimentation with Yamato had born little fruit. He mainly just wanted to figure out how to perform Judgement Cuts - and maybe, should he ever figure that out, something beyond even that -, but even more than that he wanted to figure out how to use the sword to make portals. Because he imagined instantaneous transport to literally anywhere on the planet had to have some use for the Freedom Fighters, and at the very least it would make getting around for him a hell of a lot easier.

But he'd made little progress in figuring it out. Cutting through things and long-distance cuts, yes. Portals? He... he felt like he was a little closer than he was when he first got the sword, but there was something missing. Like he was failing to grasp some crucial piece. He didn't know, but so far all he was able to do was make a bunch of pretty blue lines that float in the air.

Not even close to a portal. But progress was progress.

Sighing, he set the sword down on the ground next to him and craned his head over to the front of the lab, towards the computer monitors everybody was staring at. On display was the giant, hundred-meter tall Badnik slowly stomping its way towards Knothole. Bipedal and humanoid in shape, covered in blue and red metal plating. And to top it off was the head, which was little more than a giant ball shaped in the visage of Eggman's head. It even had a giant piece of jagged metal welded to its face to resemble his mustache.

"Pfft. Thing's a Gundam knockoff," Sorun thought. "Surprisingly Eggman trying to flatten Knothole with a giant robot isn't one of his more 'out there' schemes. Which says a lot about him and his insanity. And me for not even flinching at this point."

He took one last glance at the image of the robot, and then turned his eyes downwards so he could continue to fiddle with his katana. Sally's words just barely managed to reach his ears, his focus mainly on his blade.

"- And as you can see, this thing is on a direct path towards Knothole," Sally said, pointing towards one of the computer monitors displaying the gargantuan Badnik. "As far as we can tell purely from observation, there doesn't appear to be any external weapons of any sort attached to it. For all intents and purposes, it appears that Dr. Robotnik intends for this Badnik to literally stomp out Knothole." She made a low, displeased sigh and crossed her arms. "And judging from its size, it wouldn't have that difficult of a time."

A red arm in the crowd was raised. "So how long until it reaches Knothole?" Knuckles asked.

"At the rate this thing is going at?" Sally glanced at the robot. "Rotor and I worked out the math earlier. It's around one-hundred miles away from Knothole, so about one week."

The reaction in the crowd was fairly mixed. Most people began glancing back and forth at each other and Sally, confused looks in their eyes. There were even a few nervous chuckles spread around, almost as if some took what the princess said as a joke, but when the grim look on her face refused to budge those nervous chuckles quickly died down into questioning murmurs.

The murmuring ceased when a blue form stepped up in front of the crowd. "A whole week?" Sonic asked in disbelief, a lopsided grin on his face that directly contrasted with the concern in his eyes. "You're serious?"

"Yeah, it's going pretty slow, Sonic." This voice came from Rotor, who was sitting in a chair next to Sally and tapping away at a keyboard. He pushed himself away and spun around in his chair, affixing Sonic with a serious glare. "My best guess is that the power requirements for that thing are so huge that it needs to go that slow to conserve power. Or it's just Eggman taunting us. Either way, we got some time before that thing gets to Knothole, but if it does reach Knothole, then there's not much we're gonna be able to do. We might have to consider evacuation procedures if it comes to that."

"It's not gonna come to that," Sally denied with a shake of her head. "We're stopping that thing before it ever steps foot in Knothole."

"But how?" Sonic asked. "Are we just gonna walk up to the thing and shut it down from the inside?"

"That was the plan." Sally turned her head to Rotor and nodded at him. The walrus gave a nod in return, and then turned back to his keyboard and began typing away again. "Unfortunately, we hit a snag."

The screens displaying the colossal Badnik's image flickered, drawing everybody's attention. The view changed to the same image of the walking robot, in a slightly different location at a different time of day. What was immediately noticeable was the small biplane floating around the top of the robot, a yellow fox manning the pilot's seat. The plane had twisted in the air so that it was pointed right at the robot's face, and then from the front of the plane two yellow beams of light fired out and shot towards the robot.

The beams never hit the Badnik. Right before they impacted against its face, the two lasers collided with a patch of shimmery air just above the robot's chassis. That one disturbance caused the air all around the giant robot to shimmer, revealing a gigantic, transparent, dome-like force surrounding the walking titan of metal. The Tornado had swerved around and tried firing at the robot again and again to no avail, the transparent dome surrounding the Badnik protecting it from each attack.

With that, the footage paused, and all eyes were drawn back to Sally. "Tails attempted to probe the Badnik's defenses with the Tornado's weapons, but this proved to be futile. As best as we can figure, there's a... shield of some sorts surrounding the Badnik and protecting it from any outside attack. Tails reported that he tried to fly directly into it, but whatever that bubble surrounding the Badnik is wouldn't even let that in. He's fine," she explained, assuaging the concerned looks that had grown on the faces of some, "but the Tornado lost a wing as a result and Tails is working to fix that. In the meantime, until we find a way past that shield there isn't much we can do."

"C'est impossible!" This cry came from Antoine, standing in the middle of the gathering and who threw his arms up in outrage. "How are we suppose-ed to attack ze Badnik if we cannot touch ze Badnik!?"

"Dunno, Ant," Sonic answered with a shrug. "I mean if we had a way of teleporting past that shield or something that'd be one thing, but..." He suddenly trailed off, his eyes lighting up as an idea seemed to come to his mind. The others around him seemed to have come to the same realization, and in unison all of the gathered Mobians began to slowly spin around until their eyes rested on the sole human sitting on the other end of the lab.

Sorun, who had turned the Yamato the other way and was squinting at the tip of the sword, suddenly felt an entire room's worth of eyes on him. He blinked, and then turned his head to the side to find everybody staring at him. "Huh? What?" he asked, slowly putting the sword back down. "I didn't- I'm sorry, I didn't catch any of that. What's going on?"


The situation: simple. A giant Badnik was threatening all of Knothole and it needed to be deal with. The problem was that it had a shield that prevented anything from getting too close to it.

The solution: even simpler. There were two people within the Freedom Fighters that had teleportation capabilities: Sorun and Shadow. So they would slip past through the shield using their powers and deal with it.

What "deal with it" entailed Sorun didn't have a clue, because that was about the best everybody could think up before they shoved both him and Shadow in the Freedom Fighter Special to fly them out to the Badnik. They had to destroy the thing, that much was obvious to Sorun, but he didn't know how they were supposed to go about doing that. The thing was massive; the literal size of a building, probably even bigger.

To say Sorun was nervous was an understatement. He was sitting against the wall in the FF Special's cargo bay, nervously tapping at his knees as he thought about what was coming up. But when he looked towards Shadow, who was sitting at the opposite end of the cargo hold with one leg pulled up and an arm draped over his knee, he looked the very picture of calm. So calm that Sorun would think he was sleeping if it weren't for the fact his eyes were open, but even then he was unsure.

Funnily enough, Sorun had never once gone on a single mission with Shadow. In fact, he was the only person period he had yet to go on a mission with, and apparently, that wasn't outside the norm. He'd been told that the dark hedgehog preferred working alone. Always claimed that other people working with him would slow him down. Usually Sorun would roll his eyes at the claim and call him arrogant, but considering all the powers he'd seen the Mobian display, Sorun was inclined to believe him.

Which is why it came as such a surprise to Sorun that Shadow had agreed to come along with Sorun on this mission. No, even more than that, he'd asked. Said that the more numbers they had on the mission the better chance of success, and Sorun could see the logic in that considering there could only be a max of two people going in on this, and he was one of them. Though he still would have expected Shadow to shoulder the mission all on his own instead of just doing it alongside Sorun. He definitely had the ability to do so.

Well, at the end of the day, it was more help for Sorun, and it meant he didn't have to take on a giant robot by himself. So he'd simply shrugged and went along with it.

"Shadow the Hedgehog... I can never figure this guy out." Sorun exhaled slowly through his nose as he continued to stare at the unflinching Mobian. "He's like the exact opposite of what I'd expect a Mobian to be. Not... Infinite-level bad, but just... I don't know, kind of like me I guess. All distant from everybody and broody and never cracks a smile. He's got a lot of powers, too. Like, way more than anybody else. Because of that Chaos Control thing he can do? Something like that, I don't... he never went into detail with it."

The hedgehog was quite simply an enigma to him. He'd act so distant from everybody, and yet once in a while he'd do something that would act completely contradictory to his usual nature. Like that one time...


"Hey, you mind helping me out with something?"

Of course he'd found Shadow training in Crate Land. If it wasn't sleeping, eating, helping Sorun train his powers, or on a mission somewhere, he was here training. The guy was razor-focused in honing his abilities, Sorun would give him that much. Even more than he was in trying to figure the Yamato out.

Usually he wouldn't have come all the way out here to disturb Shadow with such a mundane task, but this was a special case. Special in that he didn't want any of the others knowing he was going out of his way to do this, but didn't care if Shadow knew. Whether the hedgehog would actually agree to come help him was a different matter entirely, and honestly Sorun was doubting it, but he figured it was worth a try.

Shadow, who had been tossing his Chaos Spears at crates, lowered the hand that had been holding one of the crackling lances and willed it to disappear as he turned around towards the human. He looked slightly annoyed at having been interrupted, but still nodded towards Sorun in greeting. "What is it?" he asked.

"Right, so do you know Rosie?" When Shadow sent him a blank look, Sorun elaborated. "She's this old Mobian lady that lives in Knothole, looks after these three kids that got orphaned I guess from the whole... you know. I was walkin' around Knothole earlier and met them and it turns out one of the kids lost a doll or something like that, so..." Sorun exhaled and looked towards the side. "I... kind of got roped into looking for the thing. And I don't really want to spend all day on this, so, uh... mind lending a hand?"

A displeased exhale left Shadow's nose, followed by him crossing his arms. "You're hunting down lost toys now?"

"I mean... they're orphans, dude. It was kind of hard to say no. Plus it probably woulda hurt the Freedom Fighters' image if I said no, and I'm affiliated with them, so, you know..." He sighed and rubbed a hand across his forehead. "Listen, can you please help me with this? I don't want the others knowing I'm doing this."

"And why not?"

"'Cause it looks laaaame, man," Sorun ground out in an irritated tone. "Look, if it's the two of us it'll take, like, an hour. Max. Probably not even that much."

Shadow just scoffed. "And you don't think I have anything better to do than hunt down some lost child's things?"

"Oh, oh yeah, 'cause you standing around throwing Chaos Spears at stationary crates is such a productive use of your time," Sorun snarked with a roll of his eyes. "Look, man, I'm asking as a favor. Alright?"

He'd known going in that the odds of Shadow actually agreeing to such a thing was a long shot. What he figured would happen was that Shadow would snap at him for interrupting him, tell him off, and then he'd go back to mindlessly throwing his Chaos Spears back at boxes as Sorun went hunting around Knothole like an idiot looking for a doll. The only thing that'd drawn him to Shadow was the vague hope that he'd say yes to helping. Sorun hadn't actually expected it.

So when Shadow had closed his eyes in thought, let out a deep sigh, and then nodded, Sorun didn't know what to think. "Alright, let's go. Where was it last seen?"

"Uh..." Sorun had begun rapidly blinking in Shadow's direction, and his mouth had dropped slightly open from how surprised he was at hearing the hedgehog. "W-wait, for real?"

His reaction only seemed to make Shadow more annoyed. "Pick your jaw up off the ground already. I don't have all day and I'd like to get back to this as soon as possible." He walked forwards, shoving Sorun aside with his shoulder as he walked past him. "We'll go the site of the last sighting and work outwards from there. If we're efficient enough we'll find it within the hour."

"Yeeeah..." Sorun cleared his throat, and then began following directly behind Shadow. "I, uh, I think she mentioned something about the middle of town..."


Eventually they had found the doll. It'd been in a tree the kids had been climbing and playing around in, and as far as Sorun and Shadow could guess the child who'd lost the doll had just accidentally left it there. Shadow had been the one to spot it. How he did it Sorun hadn't a clue, he must have had amazing eyesight to pick the doll out amidst all those branches and leaves for how far they'd been standing away from the tree. All he knew was that if Shadow hadn't been there to spot it Sorun himself would have likely spent hours looking around for the thing.

Of course, after retrieving the doll they went back to Rosie and the three children she looked after to return the doll. There'd been a lot of gratitude and, much to the chagrin of both Sorun and Shadow, the children had hugged their legs. There'd actually been a moment where both he and Shadow had been glancing towards each other with the most uncomfortable looks on their faces imaginable, and in that moment they'd both teleported away from as far from the children as possible. Once they'd escaped they'd silently looked at each other once again, and without so much as passing a word between one another they agreed to never speak of that again and then went on with the rest of their day.

It was a bit comforting knowing there was at least one person out there who reacted appropriately to that kind of attention like he did. Somebody a bit more normal compared to all the other Mobians around them. He liked Shadow in that sense. It felt like he was around a regular person.

"Hey." Shadow's smooth voice suddenly calling out to him drew Sorun from his thoughts, causing him to look up towards the hedgehog sitting on the other side of the cargo hold. "We're going to be dropping onto the Badnik from above. Are you okay to make a jump that big?" he asked.

"Yeah, Tricking cancels out momentum and inertia," Sorun confirmed with a nod. "I tested it. I mean theoretically speaking I could probably survive any kind of fall as long as I Trick somewhere before hitting ground, so... yeah, I should be good." He coughed once and turned his head to the side. "Also I, uh... have wings."

"Right. Of course." Shadow gave him a brisk nod, and then turned his head towards the cargo bay door upon hearing a quiet, grinding sound. The door began to fold open, prompting him to stand up to his feet. "We must be approaching our destination," he said. "Get ready."

Sorun copied Shadow's movements, pulling himself up and making his way towards the opening of the cargo bay. He stopped right next to Shadow, who was peering downwards with a scowl on his face. Sorun decided to look down with him.

The first thing his had to do was hold his hair back from whipping around everywhere from the intense wind blasting him in the face. Then there was the vertigo that hit him when he saw just how far up off the ground they were, though those feelings soon subsided when he saw what was just below them. The giant blue and red Badnik.

Even from all the way up here Sorun could see the giant footprints left behind by the robot making large indentations in the forest behind it. And it was going slowly. So slowly, in fact, that it felt like it took whole minutes just for it to raise and lower a single foot. When it did impact the ground with a foot, though, Sorun could have sworn he heard it. Despite the fact they were over a hundred meters off the ground and the engines of the FF Special were drowning out almost all sound, he still heard those giant footsteps. Almost felt them, even.

"This thing's gonna flatten Knothole if it makes it that far," Sorun thought to himself, slight dread filling his being when he looked down at the metal monstrosity below him. "This thing's already flattening a bunch of trees wherever it's stepping. We gotta stop it right now." He turned his head towards Shadow. "Hey, so what's the-!?"

Shadow had already jumped off of the lip of the cargo bay's opening and was falling right towards the giant Badnik. Sorun blew out a disbelieving gasp at the sight, roughly shook his head, and jumped right after him.

Falling from a deadly height like this didn't scare Sorun nearly as much as it should have. Maybe it was because he knew in the back of his mind he could just fly away should worst come to worst. Or teleport, even. He had so many ways of mitigating a deadly fall at this point that heights were practically meaningless to him. So as his body tore through the air, wind ripping past his face and clothes, he couldn't muster much more than an impassive expression as his eyes followed Shadow's body down towards the Badnik.

The robot itself was still giving Sorun some concern, as he still hadn't a clue on how they were supposed to take this thing out. But he trusted Shadow had some kind of plan for it. Or an idea at the very least.

Very faintly Sorun could make out the near-invisible force field spread out in a dome around the Badnik's body. Shadow, being much lower and closer to the Badnik, suddenly had bolts of greenish-yellow Chaos energy arcing around his body. Right before his form impacted with the faint shield, Shadow's body completely disappeared, and in the same instant Sorun saw a flash of green on the Badnik's left shoulder, followed by him just barely being able to make out the small dot that was Shadow's body.

Following his lead, Sorun simply Tricked away from where he was, appearing right next to Shadow on the shoulder. He'd stumbled just the slightest amount, the constant moving of the robot and the sudden reposition making Sorun just a tad off-balance, but soon enough he'd managed to catch his footing and find solid purchase on the metal surface he stood on. He sighed out, and then looked to the side towards Shadow. The hedgehog was looking closely at him, but soon enough gave Sorun an approving nod, making the teen sigh out again.

"Alright, so we made it!" Sorun called out, having to slightly raise his voice over the loud, mechanical clunking sounds of the robot and the high wind due to the altitude. "What are we actually doing to stop this thing!?"

"This Badnik will have a power source like any other machine of Robotnik's!" Shadow called back. "If we can get to the core of its power and destroy it, that should stop this thing for good!"

"Oh! Alright, that makes sense!" Sorun nodded towards Shadow, and then in a flash of blue the Yamato appeared in his left hand. "So I guess we're taking this thing out from the inside!?"

"That would be ideal, yes!"

"Works for me!" He didn't see any better alternative, and he wanted to get away from all this open air, even if it was into the innards of a giant robot. So he reached forwards and gripped the handle of Yamato with his right hand, pulling the sword from its sheath as he looked towards the machine's neck. Four straight cuts and a kick from Sorun later, and a square entrance had been cut into the side of the Badnik's neck. Sorun and Shadow glanced at each other, nodded, and then proceeded to walk their way through the hole.

Sorun hadn't known what to expect to find on the inside of a giant robot's neck. A lot of cramped space from tons of moving parts, he supposed, and to be fair there was a lot of that. The interior of the dimly-lit neck was host to all sorts of pistons and gears all around, working and moving in tandem with the motion of the Badnik while also filling the air with the sound of a soft, grinding noise.

Surprisingly, though, the neck wasn't completely stuffed with these metal contraptions. In fact, it was fairly spacious. They'd managed to crawl their way past all of the machinery easily enough, and after making their way past a pair of moving gears dropped down a few feet onto, of all things, a catwalk. A metal catwalk sitting right in the center of the robot's neck.

Sorun touched down on the catwalk with a soft grunt, with Shadow landing silently right behind him. Taking a glance around, it seemed that the neck was more of a hollow tube lined with pistons and gears than a crammed piece of machinery. Looking above all he saw was clusters of metal and wire, and when he looked over the side of the catwalk, down below, all he saw was a gigantic tube leading to darkness. Sorun made an uneasy hum and stepped away from the edge of the catwalk.

"This... isn't how I expected this place to look," Sorun mumbled as he turned towards Shadow. "And is it me or does it feel way bigger in here than it looked on the outside?"

"Perhaps. Eggman's always had a peculiar way of constructing his contraptions," Shadow replied in an even tone. "Regardless of what the inside of this thing looks like, our objective remains the same."

"Right." Nodding uneasily, Sorun looked upwards. "So would that be in the head, or...?"

Shadow shook his head. "No, I imagine the only thing up there would be this Badnik's main processor. Our goal is likely elsewhere. The Doctor has a habit of placing the power sources of his machines in obvious places. In this case it's likely somewhere towards the center of its body."

"Wouldn't destroying the main processor do the same thing, though?" Sorun asked, turning his head back down to Shadow. "That'd basically be destroying its brain. Badnik dies either way, right?" Not to mention he didn't really know if he wanted to traverse deeper into this thing.

To his dismay, Shadow shook his head. "There's no telling how this Badnik will react if we do that," he explained. "Do you really want to know how much would be destroyed if a Badnik of this size were to go ballistic due to you cutting its brain out?"

Grimacing, Sorun shook his head. That did sound risky now that Shadow mentioned it. In all likelihood the thing would just fall down dead, but every once in a while Sorun had cut off an Egg Pawn's head and it would do something funny. Like run around grasping randomly at random things. Or explode. He didn't want to find out how much devastation a Badnik this big could create by self-destructing.

He shuddered. They were likely far enough away that Knothole and the Freedom HQ would be fine, but that was still possibly miles of forest that would be scorched if this thing just happened to blow up. And that wasn't even concerning both him and Shadow, who were inside of the thing. No, Shadow was right. They had to make sure this thing would die without a chance of blowing up. And that meant going directly for the power core.

Which, unfortunately, meant they had to go deeper.

"Well... you make a compelling argument." Sorun took a deep breath, and then peered over the edge of the catwalk again. "Guess the, uh, the power core would be... somewhere in the chest region or something."

"I'd wager that's a fair assessment." Shadow peered down into the darkness along with Sorun, making no visible reaction at the sight. He then glanced towards Sorun, frowning a bit when he saw the hesitant look on his face. He loudly snapped his fingers to draw the human's attention, Sorun letting out a startled gasp before turning his eyes to Shadow. "Stay focused, Sorun," he said, his voice calm but commanding.

Sorun gave a jerky nod. "I'm calm. Super calm." He let out a low groan as his Bringer Claws appeared folded over his shoulders. "Gah, man, I hope this works out..."

He jumped down before he could have any second thoughts, with Shadow dropping down right behind him. Dropping down the long, metal tunnel that was this thing's neck was less eventful and more nerve-wracking for Sorun, but every so often as he dropped he would look back upwards towards Shadow's face. He was managing to maintain his focused scowl throughout this entire thing. Sorun didn't even want to know what kind of face he'd been making thus far. Probably an incredibly nervous one. He might have been slightly embarrassed if it weren't for the fact he couldn't find it in himself to care so much at the moment.

They'd eventually passed the threshold that separated the neck from the top of the torso of the Badnik. Surprisingly, Sorun first noted that there was more light in here than the neck. Not much- it was still a dreary, dark gray, but at the very least there was enough light that there was useable visibility.

The second thing he'd noted, even as he and Shadow continued falling down, was that the inside of wherever they'd dropped down into was unusually spacious. It was like they'd dropped down into a wide, open metallic chasm lined with moving pistons and gears, and right below them were several building-like platforms sticking up from the darkness that was deeper below into the giant Badnik's body. Platforms that were, oddly enough, all interconnected by what seemed to be metal railings.

"... Who designs something like this?" Sorun silently wondered to himself as his Bringer Claws beat down, slowing him down enough that he softly landed on one of the square roofs of the structures. Shadow dropped down right next to him, looking no worse for wear. "Seriously, what... what kind of weirdo psycho-maniac builds stuff like this inside a giant robot? The same kinda guy that builds a giant robot, I guess..."

Sorun had only taken a single tentative step forwards when something happened. Near the center of the roof-like structure he and Shadow stood on, something rose up. A small, tube-like pod had slid right up from the ground, and like a door the front of the tube opened up, prompting whatever was inside of it to step out.

It was a Badnik, that much was obvious. Sorun had almost mistaken it for an Egg Pawn, but there were some small differences he'd immediately noticed. This one was colored a bright gold color instead of the usual red, and in addition to the long lance it held in its right hand, it held a large, circular shield in its left hand that shined the same sheen of gold as its chassis.

"It appears we'll be encountering resistance on the way to our objective," Shadow noted, eyes narrowing in the direction of the Badnik. "This one's a rare type. Be on guard."

"Huh, the gold one's rare, who woulda guessed..." A small hum left Sorun as a Summoned Sword appeared right next to him. "Let's see how good that shield is."

The Summoned Sword shot forwards towards the golden Egg Pawn. Its blue eye-sensors seemed to flash, and right before the sword hit it raised its shield up in defense. Sorun heard a displeased sound leave his own throat when he saw the sword harmlessly shatter off the surface of the shield, not even leaving a scratch on it.

"... Alright, it's pretty good." He made a hapless shrug, Bringer Claws disappearing from his back as Yamato manifested in his hands. "Guess this one needs a personal touch," he continued, pulling the katana out from its sheath.

Without another word, Sorun Tricked right in front of the Badnik. Whether his sudden appearance did anything to startle the robot or not was unclear to the teen, as he'd wasted no time in slashing forwards with the katana the instant he appeared in front of it. As expected, the blade cleaved the shield completely in half, with both halves falling away from the Badnik's hand. In the same motion he spun Yamato around in a reverse grip, slashing back in the opposite direction and through the Badnik's body. Electrical sparks began flying out of the quickly-made seam in its body, and in the next instant both halves fell down to the floor.

From behind, he heard the silent hissing sound of another one of the tubes rising up from the ground. He turned his head around just in time to see another golden Egg Pawn charging forwards out of the tube and towards him, but right before it had gotten too close Sorun had Tricked behind it. His katana burst right through the robot's midsection, and then glided upwards all the way through its head where Sorun pulled the sword free.

All around him, from the right side to the left side of his peripheral vision to ahead of him, Sorun saw more and more of the tubes popping up from all the platforms located around the spacious rooms. Dozens of Egg Pawns were exiting out from the pods, mostly the red ones with a golden one mixed in here and there. Near the back of the room, past all of the platforms now filled with Egg Pawns, a small section of the wall began to open. Two sections like doors began to open up from that wall in the back, a small amount of white light flooding in through the opening to reveal a small, enclosed space occupied by ten Egg Pawns which shuffled out as soon as the doors opened.

"Well that looks important." A dark form blurred past Sorun, causing a few locks of his hair to brush past his face. Sorun himself remained motionless, his eyes trailing towards the blur to see Shadow skating forwards on his rocket shoes. He'd jumped forwards, and Sorun couldn't resist the scoff he made when he saw the hedgehog plant the bottom of his feet on one of the rails connecting to another platform and began to grind across it towards the waiting robots. "What a showoff," he thought, turning his eyes towards a different platform full of robots.

He Tricked onto the next platform, right in front of one of the red Egg Pawns. It seemed startled by his sudden appearance from the way it jumped slightly, but before it had time to recover Sorun had stabbed the tip of his katana through its face. He cut through the side of its head to free the sword, looking ahead as two Egg Pawns began charging towards him. Eight Summoned Swords appeared at his sides, the swords rapidly and consecutively firing off to skewer the charging robots. The swords found their marks, four swords impaling themselves into each robot and causing them to fall down lifelessly.

There was a flash of metal in the corner of Sorun's right eye, and right before the lance stabbing towards him made contact his right Bringer Claw manifested and clamped down on the lance, stopping it mid-thrust. Sorun whirled towards the golden Egg Pawn, one slash of his sword disconnecting the arm holding the lance, and a quick, second slash separating its body into two halves. With that one dead, he looked ahead to the remaining six Badniks remaining on the platform, and then took a deep breath.

On his exhale, he'd Tricked directly behind one of the robots and quickly cut it down with his sword. In the same breath, he'd once again Tricked in front of another robot and cut it in half in the same move. In just over four seconds he'd Tricked to and cut down all six of the robots, the human having to take another heaving breath to catch himself once finished. He sighed out in slight exhaustion, and then looked to the side at one of the distant platforms.

He saw that all of the robots that had been on the platform Shadow had been grinding towards all laid in a destroyed heap, with the hedgehog himself grinding on a rail towards the next platform. Sorun made the decision to go towards the same platform, the teen performing a Trick and appearing in the air right above the platform, held aloft by his Bringer Claws.

Looking downwards, Sorun spotted a normal Egg Pawn and a golden one looking up at him. He intensely frowned, and then willed his right Bringer Claw to reach out and grab the red Egg Pawn. It lifted the Badnik all the way up to Sorun's level, before promptly rearing backwards and throwing the Badnik's whole body towards the golden one. They collided, both bodies bouncing and skidding across the platform's ground before they both finally slid over the edge and fell down into the depths of the giant machine they fought in. A third Egg Pawn had stood its ground and watched the display, but was then thrown down to the ground when Sorun landed right on top of it with his sword stabbing right into its chest.

With a grunt of exertion, Sorun looked down at the robot he was crouching on top of and then pushed the sword downwards, plunging it even deeper into its body. When he saw its lights completely dim out, he sighed and prepared to pull the katana out from its body. He heard footsteps quickly approaching behind him, though, and with a flat face Sorun looked up and, without even looking behind him, willed his left Bringer Claw to clench its fist and backhand the Badnik that was approaching his back. The hit connected with the Egg Pawn's face, causing it to fly backwards off the edge of the platform.

There had been ten more Egg Pawns right in front of him, and as Sorun pulled Yamato out from the dead one below him he was more than ready to dispatch them. Before he could even make a move, though, a black and red spinning blur zoomed into view. The spinning ball of destruction cleanly and effortlessly cut through each robot in an instant, and in the time it took Sorun to blink all of them were completely destroyed. The teen was still staring at the small field of destruction in complete surprise, and by the time he looked towards Shadow the dark Mobian had already jumped onto another rail, fiery sparks flying away under his shoes as he slid towards the last platform.

Breathing out an exasperated breath, Sorun Tricked to the end of the platform he stood on to look down at the final one. There were not many there; just a small clustering of six Egg Pawns. One flash of blue later and twenty spectral swords appeared hanging over four of them, the swords then dropping down and impaling those four robots. As their lights died and they lifelessly fell to the ground, Sorun Tricked in front of the fifth one and cut in in half with the Yamato, and then glanced towards the final sixth one and willed three Summoned Swords to fire right towards it. Right before the three swords hit, Shadow had skated right past the path of the swords, just barely moving past them as they flew past his back and pierced through the robot they were aimed at.

Jumping off the edge of the platform, Shadow glared down at the final ten Egg Pawns standing in front of the opening in the wall. Greenish energy began crackling around his right hand as a spear made of pure energy formed in his grasp and, glowering down at the robots in complete contempt, Shadow threw the Chaos Spear down at the group. The spear flew down and pierced right through the torso of one of the Egg Pawns, who stood completely still as arcs of Chaos energy flew all around it and the spear impaling its body. In the next second there was a great explosion from the spear, the force of it being sufficient to outright destroy six of the Badniks that had been standing close to it and blowing the other three off to the depths below.

In the quickly-clearing smoke, there was a flash of green and another flash of blue and black as Shadow and Sorun teleported right next to each other. They both took a quick glance around to either side of the metal outcropping they'd teleported onto, and when they saw there were no further threats, both visibly relaxed. Sorun dispelled the Yamato and his Bringer Claws while Shadow's shoulders had grown just slightly less tense. They both began to slowly walk towards the opening in the wall, with Sorun in particular taking quick glances at Shadow's face.

"Man. The dude isn't even fazed by all of this." Shadow's expression was the very definition of collected. Completely calm and stone-faced despite the fact they'd just run through a miniature gauntlet of robots while inside of a giant robot. Even his walk was full of confidence and purpose, whereas Sorun was exhausted enough that he was having trouble staying on his feet. "I swear, he's just... he's too good."

They'd entered the small space the ten Badniks had exited from which, at a first glance, appeared to be a lift of some sort. Sorun walked towards the end of it, letting out a low sigh as he sat down against the back end of the lift, while Shadow walked towards a console that was attached to the back of said lift. He ran a single hand across its surface, humming as he examined its controls.

"So what do you think?" Sorun asked, lightly panting from the earlier exertion.

"They appear to be the controls to this lift," Shadow surmised, turning to adress Sorun and then looking back at the controls. "Constructing a massive Badnik such as this must have been quite the undertaking. I imagine this is a maintenance lift of sorts leftover from when they were building it." His hands made contact with the controls, and he began to fiddle with the buttons on the console. "I'm going to have it take us lower into the Badnik. My hope is that it will take us directly to the power core, or at least closer to it. We'll work further in from there."

"Sounds good, man." Sorun lifted a single hand up in agreement, letting it flop back down to his side as he saw the opening they walked through close. The lift suddenly shuddered, and before they knew it the lift began to slowly descend downwards.

Shadow nodded in satisfaction, and then stepped away from the console. Sorun watched as he looked around, settled on Sorun, and was then mildly surprised when the hedgehog walked over to him and slid down into a sitting position right besides him. The human said nothing in response to this, though he did keep his eyes affixed to Shadow before finally sighing and looking forwards.

"Are you doing okay?" It had only been a few seconds after Sorun looked away before he heard Shadow's voice address him. He looked back to the Mobian and caught both of his crimson eyes staring at him. "You're breathing a bit heavily," he noted.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sorun assured him, waving a hand off to the side. "Just a bit tired, that's all."

Shadow continued looking at him, and then let out a light scoff and looked forwards along with Sorun. "You've been slacking in your exercises."

"Eh, yeah, maybe a little. I'm still good to go, though."

"Hmph."

That was the end of that, as neither Sorun nor Shadow said anything past that. They just continued to sit in silence, watching the walls move past them as the lift they rode on slowly carried them downwards. Sorun had shuffled in place at the uncomfortable silence, clicking his tongue as he looked left, right, and then back center.

"Slow ride," Sorun said.

"Yes, it is," Shadow replied.

More silence ensued, and with it came an almost awkward feeling that began to slowly settle in Sorun the longer this went on. He wanted to say something just so that they wouldn't be stuck in utter silence, and from the rate this elevator was going it felt like it was going to be minutes of this, but for the life of him he couldn't think up a single thing to say. A few more moments passed and Sorun was about to call it quits and say whatever was on his mind just so they didn't have to spend the trip in perpetual silence.

By some miracle, Shadow decided to start the conversation first.

"You did good back there," Shadow said, eyes flicking back towards Sorun. "You've been making acceptable progress towards becoming a better fighter."

"Wow. That almost sounds like praise coming from you," Sorun said, turning his head towards Shadow.

"It was praise," Shadow ground out in an irritated voice, turning his head fully to meet Sorun. "You've come so far compared to how you were when you first arrived that I hardly recognize you. And I approve of this version of you much more than the previous one."

Sorun blew a lock of hair out of his face. "Oh yeah, I remember. You pretty much hated me when I first got here."

"Well, that human was useless. The one sitting next to me isn't."

"You're not wrong there," Sorun mumbled out in agreement. "I can't really take all the credit. Most of the work is coming from the powers. Kind of like you, really," he said. "You and your Chaos... everything. I swear, you really lucked out in the power department compared to everybody else."

Shadow blinked. "It was less luck and more by design," he said.

"Huh?" Sorun tilted his head and shot the hedgehog a questioning glare. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means..." Shadow hesitated in speaking further. He looked down briefly, and then looked back up to Sorun's eyes. The teen couldn't really tell what the expression that had grown on his face was. Some form of resignation, maybe, but Sorun couldn't even say for sure it was that. He was so used to just seeing Shadow scowl all the time he didn't even know what many other emotions looked like on his face, so he couldn't place this one. "It means that... I've thought about what you said. About trust. You've confided a number of things with me, and I've yet to reciprocate any of that trust." He sighed out, and then looked forwards at the slowly sliding walls. "Evidently we have time," he continued, "so I will tell you the origin of my powers. As a... way of repaying the trust you've put in me."

It was Sorun's turn to blink, this time in mild shock at Shadow's claim. He felt something mix in with all that surprise he was feeling, an air of appreciation, and from that he realized he'd never actually heard Shadow ever share anything personal. Not just to him, but to anybody, actually. Not even Rouge despite the fact that they were partners on the same team.

Now that he really thought about it, Sorun probably actually was the one that spent the most time with him out of anybody else, during those small training sessions they had from time to time. Which was really strange to him considering he was the least social guy in all of Knothole right next to Sorun, but then again, maybe Shadow beat him in that regard. He had to if Sorun was the one he interacted with the most. That alone said a lot. So him going out and saying this to Sorun made him feel... honored, he supposed. Honored and strangely happy. And also a bit weirded out that Shadow was taking something like this so seriously.

"Er, uh... okay..." Sorun let out a little chuckle and scratched at the side of his head as he kept his eyes locked on Shadow. "You're, um, you're really making this out to be some big thing."

"It is a big thing," Shadow droned out.

"What, your super-secret origin?" Sorun said with a light scoff at the end of his sentence. "Does anybody else know?"

"Rouge and my colleagues at G.U.N., of course. And the Faker and his friends," Shadow informed him, and there was a slight edge to his voice in that latter sentence. "They know more because of circumstance than anything else, and I count it as a small miracle they never told you. They have some standards, at least. But that's in the past. With you, I'd rather you hear it from me."

The small chuckling from Sorun continued. "Geez, you're making this sound really serious." He rolled his eyes towards the ceiling. "What, is this the part where you tell me your mom was an alien or something and you're actually half Mobian and half alien?"

It was absurd thought. So absurd that it made Sorun's small chuckling progress into light laughter. What was even more absurd was the fact that Shadow was giving Sorun a deathly serious look with his mouth set in a thin line, and the longer Shadow maintained that look the quieter and more broken Sorun's laughter became.

"Ah-hah, hah, yeah, 'cause... 'cause that'd be just the craziest..." The laughter died out completely when Sorun realized just how serious Shadow was right now, and slowly he began to bring his palm up to his face when he began to realize why Shadow looked so serious. "Oh my- dude, I was joking..." Sorun gasped out in an exasperated breath.

"You're only half right."

"Oh thank goodness, 'cause I was about to say-"

"I am half alien, but technically speaking I didn't have a mother. I was artificially created."

"Hoooo and there it is." In a single breath Sorun's entire form seemed to deflate, followed by him vigorously rubbing at his face as he deeply sighed out. "Again with the aliens. Why does it always come back to aliens in this world?" His hand fell away from his face, and with a defeated look gracing his features Sorun nodded towards Shadow. "Alright. Let's hear it."

Shadow gave a slight nod. "It all began on Space Colony ARK-"

"Wait, hold on, I gotta get comfortable for this one." Sorun's interruption caused an annoyed twitch in Shadow's eyes, who couldn't hold the impatient hum he'd made as he watched Sorun settle into a more relaxed position against the lift's railing. After a few moments, the human finally settled himself and then gave Shadow two thumbs-ups. "Okay, take it from the top."

Eyes slightly narrowed in the teen's direction, Shadow nodded and then began to speak. "Perhaps I should go back a bit further. It was fifty years ago- interrupt me again and we spend the rest of the trip in silence," Shadow threatened upon seeing Sorun open his mouth again. Then teen paused, slowly closed his mouth, and nodded towards Shadow to prompt him to continue. "... Fifty years ago the Overlanders established an orbital space station in the effort of scientific research," Shadow began. "The head scientist of this station, a Dr. Gerald, had endeavored to create an artificial lifeform for use in his research. It was around the same time he'd made a deal with an alien lifeform who had made contact with him." Shadow cut himself off when he saw Sorun raise his hand in question. "Yes?"

"So, like, an alien just... randomly called Gerald out of the blue? Some random science guy on random space station orbiting a random planet?" Sorun asked. "That... that seems kind of out there." Incredibly unlikely more accurately, but he'd allow Shadow to try and explain just how something like that managed to happen.

"From what I know the Black Arms have been planning an invasion of Mobius," Shadow explained, causing Sorun to freeze. He didn't like Shadow's use of present-tense in that sentence. "They're a species who sustains themselves by going from planet to planet to consume all life. They've had their sights on Mobius for some time now, but according to Sonic, he witnessed the Black Arms having a war with the Xorda. So they've been holed up for some time in invading."

"... The Xorda," Sorun repeated in a low voice. "The same aliens that originally gene bombed this Earth and turned it into Mobius?"

"The very same," Shadow confirmed with a nod.

"How come they're fighting?"

"Because the Xorda still want to exterminate all life on this planet, and the Black Arms want to eat everything on this planet," Shadow curtly replied, causing Sorun's pale face to pale even further. "They're essentially fighting because the Black Arms violated a military blockade erected by the Xorda in the effort of invading Mobius. This is all on Sonic's word, who saw the current war between them during his visit to space. One of them, anyways."

Sorun's eyes scrunched in confusion. "There was more than one?"

"Apparently," Shadow said.

"Oh, okay." Breathing heavily through his nose, Sorun looked down at his knees. "So... is that something we have to worry about?" he asked, voice a bit quiet as he flicked his eyes back to Shadow. "An alien invasion from these Black Arms guys?"

This was not a prospect he liked. Dealing with Eggman was enough of a problem. He only had enough life to deal with Eggman and his nephew. He couldn't throw another villain into the mix, let alone the whole alien invasion that Shadow was implying. The Neo-Walkers had told him that the limited future they read only concerned Eggman, though, but even so he took everything they said with a grain of salt. He couldn't help but be worried.

To much his relief, Shadow shook his head. "The Faker said that the war was on a stalemate due to an even level of power between the two forces. They're essentially fighting themselves into a deadlock, and I don't see either giving in to the other. The most likely scenario is that they'll fight each other until their numbers dwindle to a point that they are no longer an issue." He looked deeper into Sorun's eyes, and even with his mouth set in a small frown he still managed to look at least a little reassuring. "They're not an issue, Sorun. Neither the Xorda nor the Black Arms. Eggman is our only concern."

"Alright. Alright, if you say so." He'd trust Shadow on that since he seemed to know a fair bit about this. And Shadow wasn't one to ignore threats for the sake of convenience and ease of mind, far from it. So if he said they weren't an issue, Sorun felt he could breath easy knowing that was the truth. "So the Black Arms contacted Gerald," he said, "for... what exactly?"

"Even all the way back then they were planning to invade Mobius. Their entire species resides inside of a comet, and it was on a course for Mobius," Shadow explained. "Black Arms are natural users of Chaos energy, more so than Mobians by a large margin, so when the leader of their species, Black Doom-" Shadow's eyes narrowed in Sorun's direction when he heard a barely-contained snicker from the human, "- contacted Dr. Gerald, he'd used his powers to transport a sample of his DNA to the doctor. The deal made between them was that Dr. Gerald was allowed to use his DNA in his experiments to create an artificial lifeform, and in exchange, in fifty years when the comet home to the Black Arms finally reached Mobius, the creature born from his experiments would act as the vanguard for the Black Arms' invasion of the planet." Shadow's face scrunched in displeasure. "Gerald, for his own reasons, accepted the deal due to the opportunity being too great to pass up. It was for the sake of his research, but just because he accepted the DNA did not mean he would allow an alien force to have its way with the planet. He made preparations against the Black Arms for when they invaded. One such preparation was an orbital cannon of his design installed onto the ARK, though it's irrelevant now as the invasion will never reach the planet."

Nodding along to the story, Sorun's eyes began to widen in Shadow's direction when the implications began to become clear to him. "Then you're...?" he began, which only caused Shadow to nod.

"Yes. I'm the artificial lifeform created by Dr. Gerald. Shadow, the Ultimate Lifeform."

He'd stopped talking after fully introducing himself to Sorun. His crimson eyes bored deeply into the human, expectantly awaiting whatever response he would give upon finally learning the truth about him. His features locked and mind prepared for whatever reaction, no matter how horrible, would be thrown his way now that his true biological nature had fully been revealed.

He was put at a loss when the human suddenly started laughing and pointing at Shadow.

"Wow, dude, you're old!"

That was it. That was Sorun's reaction: a single, gleefully-said sentence and laughter. Not fear. Not horror or revulsion. Laughter. Shadow had been so caught off guard by it that he didn't know how to react, and could only stare at the human in utter bafflement and confusion as he continued laughing at him. But as the laughter continued, the dark hedgehog found it grating to his nerves, and when he found it to be too much he barked out, "I'm not fifty years old! I was cryogenically frozen for the better part of my whole life!"

"Same difference, it totally counts!" Sorun laughed out, having to hold a hand to his stomach. "Oh, man, no wonder you never want to talk about your age!"

"Hmph...!" With an indignant face Shadow crossed his arms roughly and turned away from Sorun. "I'll have you know one of the abilities afforded to me by my Black Arms DNA is immortality," he informed the human. "Whether I was frozen or not doesn't matter one way or the other as to how I look. I'm eternally youthful."

That had quieted Sorun down instantly. So instantly, in fact, that Shadow seemed slightly startled by the sudden quiet, causing him to quickly turn back towards Sorun. He was surprised once again when he saw the human looking at him with large, almost pitying eyes, followed by Sorun softly humming at Shadow.

"Immortality, huh?" Sorun mumbled out in a sobering tone. "That sucks, man."

"... You don't think immortality is a good thing?" Shadow asked, surprise lacing his voice as he uncrossed his arms. "Why not?"

"Pfft. Who wants to live forever?" Maybe it was ironic coming from a dying man, but it's a sentiment Sorun had all the same. He'd seen enough character in games, shows, and movies to know it wasn't something worth having. And personally he just didn't like the concept. "Living on forever as everything you know dies around you until you're the last thing left standing? What's the point of living a life like that? Life's meant to be lived and passed on, not constantly existing for no other reason than to exist. That's not life. That's stagnation. And if that's what the Black Arms are all about, an immortal race of aliens who only live to take life from those living for the sake of a stagnant existence, then, well... can't say I approve of them living." He cast a sympathetic look towards the hedgehog. "My condolences."

"That's certainly one way to look at it," Shadow replied, voice quiet and contemplative at the human's words. "Nobody has ever expressed such an outlook to me before." He paused, and then looked down at his gloved hand. "Discounting my time on ice, I've had less time experiencing everything this planet has to offer me than anybody else in the Freedom Fighters. Immortality's toll... hasn't reared its head towards me quite yet. What my outlook when that time comes will depend on what kind of person I become, but until then... I've learned to live with it."

"I guess that's the best anybody could do under your situation," Sorun admitted with a shrug. "I can't think of a better way of lookin' at it, but then again I'm not immortal."

"Indeed you're not," Shadow agreed, dipping his head down slightly. "You... truly hate the Black Arms based on their mere description, don't you?"

"I'm supposed to like a race of aliens that want to come here and kill the world I'm working myself to death to save?"

"Fair point. It's a sentiment I share," Shadow said. "Just because I'm part of their race doesn't mean I agree with them. I won't have this planet destroyed just on their say, regardless of what I am, regardless of that deal made between my creator and Black Doom." He said the word "deal" with such contempt it almost came out as a snarl. "Though... admittedly I'm glad they'll never arrive here to begin with. It's one less headache."

"On that, we can both agree." Sorun slung one leg over the other, and then interlaced his fingers behind his head while still keeping his eyes on the half-Mobian sitting besides him. "But you're okay, Shadow. Y'know, for a weird half-hedgehog half-alien dude."

Shadow snorted, but whether it was in amusement or otherwise Sorun couldn't tell. "You're taking this remarkably well."

"Dude, after everything else I've seen here? Knowing you're a weird Mobian-alien hybrid isn't even the weirdest thing yet. This whole story of yours doesn't even breach the ceiling of weird my inner psyche created to cope with living in this world. I don't even know if I have a ceiling in there anymore."

The dark hedgehog rolled his eyes. "Understandable," he said. "Well, for the record, you're not too bad for a fragile human yourself."

"You got me there, Mr. Immortal." At that, they both paused and glanced at each others' eyes. What followed next was a small, humorless chuckle that left both of their mouth as the looked away from each other and back forwards to the crawling walls in front of them. The shared, dry laughter left as soon as it arrived, after which Sorun decided to continue speaking. "Kinda explains why you're the most antisocial Mobian I've met yet," he said. "They teach you any people skills up there on that space station?"

There was a loud scoff from Shadow. "Like you're one to talk. You have more difficulty with the others than I do."

"Yeah, well, can you blame me?" Sorun sputtered and threw his hands in front of his body. "You've seen they way they act. Sonic and Tails and all the rest of 'em. All... overly friendly and supportive and all that. Honestly, it's exhausting."

"I know," Shadow agreed. "Every single one of them can be so obnoxious. Time and time again they'll persist in bugging me over the most inane things under the notion that we should all be 'friends'." He scoffed and rolled his head to the side. "Comrades in arms working together towards a greater good is one thing, but it seems like I always have to fight just to get some space to myself."

"I understand exactly what you mean." Sorun leaned to the side, lightly slapped Shadow on the shoulder to gain his attention, and then pointed at himself. "You and me? We're normal. Probably the only two normal guys in all of Knothole that don't act all, you know, affectionate around everybody and their mother. It's just weird."

"You've no idea how right you are." Shadow nodded towards him, and Sorun could have sworn he almost looked appreciative over the human's words. "They pester me on and on about socializing more, even Rouge. They just never seem to realize I like myself the way I am now."

"Man, you think I don't deal with it, too? I gotta live with Sonic. Sonic. You know how often he gets on my case about this kind of thing?"

Shadow actually mildly shuddered at that. "I can only imagine."

"No, man, you can't." Both of them sighed, and leaned back against the lift railing while looking back ahead. "I don't know. Maybe it's just Mobians," Sorun continued. "They're not all that way, but it's like, it's, it's like a general thing with them."

"Perhaps. I couldn't tell you for a fact. Most of the Overlanders I worked with over at G.U.N. tended to ignore me in favor of their own business," Shadow said. "Whether it was out of professional courtesy or they just didn't want to interact with me was something I never cared to learn."

Sorun slowly nodded in understanding. "Was it bad working over there, or...?"

"No. It was adequate. The commander treated me with respect and placed trust in my abilities. Nobody ever acted untoward at me. A comment here or there behind my back from some of the younger recruits, but nothing major. I was satisfied in my position there. I think Rouge was in it more for the thrill and paycheck than anything else, but she's an acceptable partner regardless."

"And how'd you end up working for them to begin with?"

"I simply asked," Shadow stated with a shrug. "I can't speak for Rouge, but they knew of me and my abilities. G.U.N. had... ties to Space Colony ARK and its research. Like you, I... wanted to help the world, and the Freedom Fighters seemed tied up with their own affairs with Eggman. I judged G.U.N. to be a better place to lend my skills." He looked down a slight amount and sighed. "When Eggman obtained the seven Chaos Emeralds he overthrew G.U.N. and occupied their base of operations. The rest of the Overlander settlements fell shortly afterwards. There's been talks of reclaiming it."

"Oh...?" Sorun hummed in interest. "Really now?"

"Eggman's numbers have been slowly but surely dwindling due to our efforts. The princess has been planning things with others from some time now. I know she still has contacts with that human settlement, Station Square. Recently Rouge has managed to get her own line of contact in occupied G.U.N. territory. They've all been coordinating something while we've been going around damaging Eggman." Shadow shifted his head so that he was looking upwards. "It's still a bit of a ways off, but eventually we'll take it back. And with a proper military up and running once more we could push Eggman all the way back to his own city."

"I see." Well, that was good. It was progress. Not the bordering-insignificant, minute progress he and the rest of the Freedom Fighters had been making in opposing Eggman all this time. Defend a settlement here, foil a scheme there, sometimes blow up a factory to hurt his numbers. Something like what Shadow was describing sounded like taking not even a step, but a legitimate leap forwards in finally kicking Eggman off his high tower and taking the planet back.

It made Sorun feel a bit better. Knowing they were actually working towards a means of attaining their ultimate goal of freeing the planet instead of just flying by the seat of their pants like it seemed like they'd been doing so far. And Sally usually knew what she was doing when it came to these kinds of things, she had to. And Shadow sounded sure of himself. To Sorun it seemed like an actual plan was being made in the background. He was fine with that as long as he could help out using what little time he had left, and ended it with his sword going through Eggman's brain.

Though it was strange, hearing how well Shadow and Rogue had worked with Overlanders. He would have thought there would have been some awkwardness there, even maybe some leftover scorn from the war on the Overlanders' end, but it sounded like that was left behind there for... something, Sorun wasn't sure. Professional courtesy like Shadow had said, perhaps. Whatever the case, it seemed like they adjusted well to working over there. He was glad for them.

Even after all this time, though, Sorun couldn't say for certain if the same applied to him. And seeing as Shadow was apparently in a talking mood, he decided to share his troubles.

"I don't think I fit in at Knothole," Sorun admitted to the hedgehog. "They're just... I don't know, everybody over there is great and everything, but I don't... I'm just not like them, you know?"

"... I only ever grew up around Overlanders. On Space Colony ARK," Shadow said after a long moment of silence. "I see where you're coming from. Despite being half Mobian myself, a majority of my life had been spent away from them. Perhaps that's why I fit in so well with those at G.U.N. I find myself more easily able to associate with Overlanders than Mobians. Mobians, the ones in Knothole at least, can just be too... suffocating, I suppose you could say. Good people. But suffocating in how good they are."

"Yeah," Sorun said with an agreeing nod, "but for me it's even worse. I'm not from this world, so it's like... it's like there's nowhere I can fit in to, you know?"

"Mm." Another beat of silent passed between them. "You should come with me to G.U.N."

Sorun scoffed out a small, quiet laugh at that, having assumed from the absurdity of the suggestion that Shadow had been kidding when he said that. When he looked at the half-Mobian from the corner of his eye, though, he saw that Shadow had turned back to Sorun and was staring intently at him. The quiet laughter died in Sorun's throat, and turned to look at Shadow with disbelieving eyes. "Wait, you're serious?"

"Your talents are wasted with the Freedom Fighters," Shadow grunted, a slight grimace on his face. "I want you to come join G.U.N. with me after Eggman is dealt with."

"Talents?" A disbelieving scoff that matched the shock in his eyes left Sorun as the teen gestured at himself. "What talents? I got powers and a limited skillset accrued in fighting a guerilla war against a mad scientist, sure, but I'm not- I'm not a soldier."

"You could learn. You're young enough, not even an adult by Overlander standards, and you've already shown you learn fast. And the powers you already have put you leagues above any other agent G.U.N. has besides Rouge and myself," Shadow told him. "You'd do more than well there. You could join Rouge and I and be a part of Team Dark."

"U-uh..." Sorun stammered, not quite sure how he was supposed to respond. "Why, why are- why are you asking me this?"

"Because I think you would do better there than with the Freedom Fighters in Knothole," Shadow said. "You made it clear to me that you realize not every single problem in the world can be handled cleanly. It's something people like Faker and the princess, what everybody in Knothole, refuses to see. G.U.N. doesn't have the same limits they do. They help protect the world no matter how grim the task. One of the reasons I chose to work there in the first place was because they didn't shy away from such work. Because they know that sometimes a threat like Eggman needs to be permanently eliminated. Like you do."

"... I did say that," Sorun hesitantly admitted. "And, well, you're not wrong, but... I don't know, Shadow, that doesn't really sound like something I-"

"You'd be among Overlanders," Shadow continued. "You could finally have a home with others like you if life in Knothole with those Mobians really makes you so uncomfortable."

Sorun shook his head. "It's not just that, man. And Overlanders aren't humans. They're close, but... they're just not."

"Then settle in Station Square," Shadow suggested. "A whole city full of humans. One of the Overlander settlements. You don't have to settle in a place like Knothole."

"It's not just that, Shadow," Sorun denied with a shake of his head. "The Overlanders, the humans in Station Square, sure, they look human and may act human, but they're not my people, you know? They don't share the same history and culture that the humans of my world share with me. They're not... Earthlings like me, I guess you can say. It'd be no better living with them than the Mobians, and at least with the Mobians I already know what I'm dealing with." A heavy sigh left him. "It doesn't matter where I choose to live after the war's over anyways."

Shadow blinked, and then tilted his head. "Why would it not matter where you live after Eggman is dead?" he asked, genuine curiosity lacing his voice.

"It just doesn't, alright?" Sorun mumbled out, choosing then to get up to his feet and step forwards away from Shadow. "Look, I appreciate being offered a spot in your mega-cool ultra-secret government black-ops team, but I don't think that it'd be for me. My only concern is Robotnik right now."

He heard a resigned sigh from Shadow behind him. "I can see you're hesitant on the idea. Perhaps in the future you will reconsider." There was a small shuffling sound as Shadow rose up to his feet along with Sorun. "In any event, it seems that we have arrived."

True to Shadow's word, it appeated that the lift they had been riding on the entire time finally took them somewhere. The wall they'd been staring ahead at finally ended as an opening began to creep up from the bottom. The lower the lift went, the more it was revealed that the pair were being lowered into a large room. Very large, as the big, circular room looked at least to be around twenty meters in diameter.

As the lift finally stopped and the two stepped out of it and into the room, Sorun's own eyes couldn't move away from what was all the way on the other end of the room. A large, metal sphere bigger than a bus bolted right into the wall with multiple, metal tubes and cables attached to it and sections of the wall behind it. There were multiple clear panes along the surface of the sphere, too, and a sickly, yellow light was bleeding out of those panes and into the dimly-lit, gray room.

"Well, that's a power core if I ever saw one," Sorun said, he and Shadow walking side-by-side towards the large sphere. "Whaddya know. Lift took us right to it."

"I wouldn't relax just yet." Shadow suddenly stuck his arm out in front of Sorun, halting both of them in their tracks. "Up ahead. Two contacts."

Just as Shadow said, there was movement to either side of the power core, behind two giant bundles of metal cables. Two figures stepped out from behind those cables, stepping forwards and slowly moving towards the center of the room. Shadow's entire form began to tense up at the sight of the two, whereas Sorun's eyes just squinted in confusion.

They were both Badniks. One painted red and one painted blue. What was strange about them was that they were both quadruped with long legs and lower torsos, almost akin to a horse. On top though was a different story. Where the lower torso looked like a mechanical horse, the upper torso was a more humanoid shape, left arm attached to a giant, rectangular shield while the right clutched a long spear, the sharpened head of which nearly scraped against the ground. And of course, much to Sorun's disgust, was the round head each one had built in the visage of Eggman's own face, grinning down at them.

"So what would these things be?" Sorun mumbled to Shadow, Yamato manifesting in his left hand. "Centaurs? Egg Knights?"

"Doesn't matter, don't care," Shadow mumbled back, Chaos Spear appearing in his right hand. "You take left, I'll take right."

"Sure." They split off and began walking in opposite directions, the two Badniks across from them doing the same. Sorun stared down at his own opponent, the red Badnik, a small scoff leaving his lips as he used his thumb to lift Yamato from its scabbard. "Alright, time to die."

As if responding to his provocation, the red Badnik reared back on its hind legs as Sorun fully unsheathed Yamato. From the other side of the room, Shadow had already teleported to his own opponent and began battling the blue-painted Badnik with his Chaos Spear. By contrast, Sorun calmly stood in place as the red one planted all four of its mechanical feet on the ground, and then began to charge forwards with its spear pointed right at the unmoving human.

Right before the spear thrusted into Sorun's body, the human Tricked away, making it so that the spear stabbed into empty air. In the same instance Sorun appeared in the air right in front of the Badnik's upper torso, and then he swung the katana in a wide, horizontal swing. The Badnik responded by raising its shield to defend itself, but that had only ended with the shield being cut in half and destroyed completely.

The Badnik took a quick step backwards and stabbed upwards towards Sorun. The human Tricked away again, this time appearing behind the Badnik, though when he swung Yamato once more the Badnik had extended all four legs and jumped slightly to the side. Sorun frowned, and then Tricked a third time to right in front of its feet. He tried swinging his sword at the Badnik's horse-like legs, but like before, the red-painted robot had jumped back away from him.

"Quick-footed bastard, ain'tcha?" Sorun thought, looking up at the Badnik. "I got just the thing for you."

With a single thought, eight Summoned Swords began rotating around Sorun. He Tricked up in front of the Badnik's upper torso again, the Spiral Swords spinning around Sorun catching the Badnik in the chest before it could move- a giant gash was sawed onto its chest as a result. The red robot attempted to stab upwards with the spear, but it was caught by Sorun's left Bringer Claw, and promptly cut in half and rendered useless by his katana. The Spiral Swords stopped spinning and compressed closer to Sorun's body, and then fired out, two of the sword nailing the Badnik right in the chest wound and causing it to stumble.

In the same moment the Badnik stumbled, Sorun took the opportunity to Trick down to its legs, and then cut left with Yamato. The katana glided right through the robot's leg, the severed appendage falling to the ground and causing the robot to slump to the side. Sorun Tricked back a few meters away from it, sheathing the katana while staring forwards at the Badnik.

Due to its missing leg, the robot was left stuck in place with its three legs trying and failing to get it to move. The large gash was still present on its chest and sparking, and the two Summoned Swords jammed into its torso was causing its body to further stutter and spark. Sorun took a deep breath, and then slowly gripped Yamato's handle with his right hand.

"This is the end..." Blue energy began crackling along the length of the katana's scabbard, and in the next instant Sorun unsheathed and slashed the katana outward in the same movement. Following that slash, a long, blue, diagonal line appeared across the Badnik's entire body. Sorun spun the katana around afterwards, holding it in a reverse grip and slowly sliding it back into its sheath. The moment the sword's guard connected with the bottom of the scabbard, the blue glow faded and the Badnik fell away in two halves.

Exhaling slowly, Sorun quickly wiped away the bead of blood that began to drip down his nose and turned to his right towards the other end of the room. It seemed that Shadow, fighting the blue counterpart to the red Badnik the teen had just destroyed, was having some amount of difficulty in destroying it. He managed to dodge the blue Badnik's spear just fine, though every time he threw a Chaos Spear the Badnik would doge out of the way, or when Shadow would Spin Dash into it the robot would raise its shield, causing Shadow to bounce harmlessly off of it.

After a successful knockback, Shadow had slid backwards while keeping one hand on the ground for stability. He eventually lost all momentum and came to a complete stop, at which point he slowly removed his hand from the floor and looked back up at the Badnik. His face was marred in a deep, angered scowl with all of his contempt aimed at the blue Badnik standing before him.

And then he did something so peculiar that it had Sorun reeling in bewilderment.

Shadow had tightly clenched his hand right in front of him, and then threw it to his side as his hand opened up. After that there was a flash of yellow-green energy, and six Chaos Spears were summoned around Shadow. Six Chaos Spears that were spinning around his body in a circle, all pointed outwards.

"What?" Sorun found himself blinking rapidly at the sight, his eyes transfixed on the six spears of Chaos energy that were rotating around Shadow's form. "T-that's my...!"

The next instant found Shadow teleporting right in front of the blue Badnik's body. It had tried to defend itself with its rectangular shield, but under the onslaught of the six Chaos Spears rotating around Shadow, it couldn't hold its defense. It was less that the spears cut through the shield and more that the raw Chaos energy making up the spears melted right through the shield. Once through, Shadow had Spin Dashed right onto the Badnik's upper torso, the Chaos Spears having all but obliterated its chassis, servos, and all the wiring and circuitry beneath from the power emanating off the spears while Shadow's Spin Dash did nothing but exacerbate the damage done to it.

In the end, the blue Badnik had collapsed in a smoldering, half-melted mess. Shadow flipped backwards and landed feet-first on the ground, the six Chaos Spears spinning around him freezing in place. He reached out and took one of the spears in his hand, while the other six slowly disappeared from sight. He looked down at the wrecked Badnik and, making a "tch" sound at the sight, threw the Chaos Spear right into its melted body.

The Chaos Spear had exploded upon impact. The smoke and dust kicked up from the explosion blew away seconds later, and from what Sorun saw absolutely nothing of the Badnik remained but a black scorch mark burned into the ground. Shadow made a satisfied huff at the sight, and then teleported right next to Sorun in a green flash.

Sorun couldn't even form words, his mouth agape as he stared at Shadow in complete and utter disbelief. Shadow, in response, eyed Sorun's face that at the moment looked closer's to a fish's face than a human's, and to Sorun's further bafflement he had the gall to actually smirk at Sorun. "Try not to look so surprised," Shadow said. He had smugness practically dripping from his voice, and the air of superiority floating around him was so intense that Sorun was almost stifled by it. "I'm the Ultimate Lifeform. A technique like that was a simple one to take for my own."

"... You copycat." In the end, all Sorun could do was sigh out and shake his head as a small grin formed on his lips. "You ganked my Spiral Swords."

Shadow shrugged. "What can I say? It's a very good technique." The smirk on his face fell away into his normal scowl as he turned towards the giant sphere attached to the back wall. "Now, then. Onto more pressing matters."

The hedgehog began walking towards the sphere. Sorun remained in place for a few moments to stare at his back, and then he sighed out again and began following him. "Can't believe he stole my Spiral Swords. Spiral Spears? Eh, I dunno. Good for him, I guess."

He supposed it was flattering, in some way. That Shadow would think his Spiral Swords were so great that he decided to use them himself with his Chaos Spears. It might have been more flattering if Sorun himself hadn't originally stolen the move from a video game character, but he'd take solace in the fact that Shadow had still gotten it directly from him. Made him feel some small sense of pride in himself, which was a welcome change from how he normally felt.

They both stopped in front of the power core, Sorun eyeing it in curiosity while Shadow looked towards a small computer console connected to the sphere via a bundle of wires. The hedgehog immediately set to work typing away at the console while Sorun began to slowly unsheathe the Yamato from its sheath.

"So should I just, like... should I just cut it?" Sorun asked as he pulled the sword completely free from its scabbard.

"I would think so, but I'm just trying to figure out what exactly it's... oh." Shadow's fingers froze above the console's small keyboard as he read the screen, after which his eyes turned up towards the sphere. "That power core is a nuclear fusion reactor."

"... This thing's nuclear?" Sorun took an unconscious step backwards and lowered his katana. "You sure I should cut it...?"

"It... should be fine," Shadow said, though the fact he'd had to pause and didn't sound a hundred percent sure of himself did nothing to assure Sorun cutting the nuclear metal ball in front of him was safe. "I'm no expert, but I do know the process these types of devices undergo to produce nuclear power is incredibly complex, and the same goes for producing an explosion. I doubt you'll cause a meltdown by cutting the core in half. As long as you do it quickly." He made a low hum in the direction of the power core. "A nuclear Badnik... Well, it wouldn't be the first time Eggman employed nuclear weapons in one of his ploys. It makes me wonder if he truly intended for this Badnik to stomp out Knothole or if he was planning on detonating this when it got close enough."

"Guess we'll never know now." Sorun rose his katana back up, though there was a noticeable tremble in the sword from his hands slightly shaking in fear. He looked towards Shadow for a last-minute assurance, but while he saw the hedgehog nod towards him, his saw that his eye ridges were furrowed in uncertainty. That made Sorun's hands shake even harder. "You're absolutely sure this thing isn't going to blow up if I do this?" he asked.

It took him a moment of thought, but Shadow eventually nodded at Sorun. "A nuclear bomb must undergo a very specific activation process in order to detonate. It's a failsafe to ensure they don't unintentionally go off. Destroying even a single component of this thing should render it inoperable, let alone cutting it completely in half. We should be fine."

"This isn't a bomb, though," Sorun pointed out. "It's a power core."

"It runs on the same mechanisms, Sorun."

"Alright, alright!" Taking a deep, shaky breath, Sorun rose Yamato up above his head. "If we get vaporized in a mushroom cloud it's your fault." He exhaled, tightened his two-handed grip around the Yamato's handle, and as blue energy roiled down the length of the blade he attempted to cut downwards in a straight overhead slice.

"Attempted" being the keyword, as his blade only made it an inch before he froze up again and looked back at Shadow.

"Like on a scale of one to ten how sure-"

"Sorun!"

Startled from Shadow's raised voice, Sorun had successfully sliced the katana downwards in a knee-jerk reaction. He hadn't even realized he'd done it until he saw the blue line vertically bisecting the entire power core, and it was only after the fact did he wince and begin to step back. The blue line faded, leaving a clean seam running right through the power core. Each half listed off to the side, the two pieces still held up by the power cords and bolts connecting it to the wall, though the yellow light bleeding out from the clear panels on the core's surface slowly dimmed until they went completely dark.

Gritting his teeth, Sorun turned back towards Shadow. The hedgehog seemed calm, though he was starting intently at the segmented power core with what seemed to be a locked jaw, and if he looked closely Sorun could see that he was gripping the computer console hard enough that his fingers were denting the metal.

There was a sudden jerk that rocked the entire room, making both Sorun and Shadow dart their eyes around wildly. Sorun himself had begun to hold Yamato in a death grip, and part of him considered trying to madly slash Yamato in the air in the vain hope that it would randomly make a portal to get him and Shadow back to Knothole. But just as he began to prepare for the worst, there was a strange sound. The faint humming sound of running energy and working machinery that had been faintly heard in the background began to slowly whir down, before then going completely silent. At the same time the lights that were just barely lighting the room slowly dimmed more and more, and then cut out completely quite suddenly, leaving both Sorun and Shadow in complete darkness.

A full ten seconds of utter silence passed in the darkness. The sound of a long, drawn-out breath was heard afterwards, that breath coming from Sorun who'd been holding his breath in anticipation. There was a small flash of blue light as Sorun's Bringer Claws then manifested, the soft blue light being just sufficient enough to illuminate the human's form. Moments later there was a flash of green energy nearby, Shadow's form being lit up by a Chaos Spear being held in his hands. They both slowly looked towards each other, blinked, and then sighed out in tandem.

"Great call, Shadow. Great call," Sorun murmured, sounding weary enough to pass out right there.

"I told you it would be fine," Shadow said, though he sounded slightly weary himself.

Running a hand over his face, a light sheen of nervous sweat over it, Sorun let out a single laugh. "So it's over? We're done?"

"Everything appears to be shut down, and there doesn't appear to be a backup generator or anything of the sort." Shadow took a quick glance around the room, and then gave Sorun a short nod. "We'll need to go outside and ascertain the condition of the Badnik to be completely sure."

"Okay." Sorun looked away from Shadow into the darkness, and then looked back to Shadow. "So, uh... I don't imagine the lift will be working now that there's no power."

"I... imagine not, no."

"..."

"..."

"... You wanna just, like... grab onto me and I'll fly us out the way we came in?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... I mean it'll take me way longer to cut us a new way out if-"

"Just..." Shadow held up a hand to silence Sorun, breathed out a quiet grunt, and then nodded his head. "Fine, but be quick about it."

"Yeah, trust me, you don't gotta worry about me takin' my time here..."


It was quite possibly the most awkward flight Sorun had ever taken in his life, and he honestly didn't think he'd ever experience anything similar again, but in just a few short minutes he'd managed to fly himself and Shadow back up the lift shaft, through the large room filled with platforms and dead Badniks, up the giant Badnik's neck, and all the way up to the square hole Sorun had originally cut in the side of the titan's neck .

Sorun's body emerged from the square hole, Bringer Claws disappearing and allowing him to drop down onto the metal giant's shoulder. Shadow, who had been clinging to Sorun by grabbing onto his shoulders, quickly removed himself from the human and rapidly stepped over to the edge of the shoulder. Sorun himself set to quickly dust his shoulders off, shake his head, and then began mumbling under his breath as he followed Shadow.

The pair soon found themselves sitting down at the shoulder's edge, a good distance between them as they stared out onto the forest's horizon at the setting sun. Sorun found himself taking a long, quiet breath at the serene sight, at the orange-colored sky and the vibrant trees stretching as far as the eye could see. The calming sight along with the relief at seeing that the giant robot they were sitting on was completely frozen was enough to put him completely at ease, and even help him to forget the awkward flight back up the robot.

"It seems that we successfully managed to stop the Badnik. It's halted its movements." Shadow voiced Sorun's own thoughts about the now-dead Badnik, followed by the half-Mobian reaching down to tap his gloved knuckles against the robot's shoulder. "Mission accomplished. Good work."

"Yeah. Same to you." Letting out a tired groan, Sorun leaned back onto his elbows to relax his body. "So I guess this giant robot is just here forever now, huh?"

"I sincerely doubt anybody is willing to expend the resources to dismantle an inert Badnik the size of a skyscraper standing in the middle of nowhere, so yes, it seems that this thing is here to stay."

"Neat." He clicked his tongue as a thought came to him, and he turned his head to the left to look at Shadow. "Hey, you wanna do something when we get back to the HQ?"

There wasn't a response at first. What happened was that Shadow swiveled his head around so that his eyes could meet Sorun's, and what followed next was him blinking his eyes in confusion. "Excuse me?"

"You know, just go and do something," Sorun clarified, shrugging his shoulders as best he could with his elbows supporting his body. "Big mission success requires a big mission break, right?"

"Yes, we have sleep for that."

"Pfft." Sorun shook his head in slight amusement. "Look, I like sleep as much as the next guy, Sonic can attest to that, but I meant actually doing something." He looked back towards the orange sky and began to idly kick his feet against the robot. "You don't have to or anything, I just thought, y'know, it's still a bit early and I'm not feeling completely exhausted here, so... just, just an open offer. If you wanna hang out or whatever since we're done with the mission now and the day is saved and all that."

"Haah..." Shadow tilted his head upwards and breathed out slowly towards the sky, as if contemplating Sorun's request. He closed his mouth, and a few silent moments passed before he looked back down at Sorun. Somehow, the human wasn't completely surprised to find an agreeing look in Shadow's face. "What did you have in mind?"


"Game Over!"

Shadow stared towards the screen, eyes widened in shock and hands clenched so tightly around the controller he grasped that the plastic began to creak. On the other side of the couch was Sorun's much more relaxed form, his body sagging against the couch and his own controller loosely gripped in his hands as he lethargically stared at the screen.

"..." Blinking in disappointment, Sorun slowly turned his head to the right at a frozen Shadow whose eyes were still glued to the HQ's TV's screen. "You freakin' suck at this," Sorun muttered, and then proceeded to throw the controller at Shadow. It bounced off the striped hedgehog's shoulder, causing him to growl out and toss his own controller against the ground.

"I should have never wasted my time with this garbage," he angrily grumbled as he stood up from the couch. "I'm going to sleep."

"Ultimate Lifeform's got nothing on the Ultimate Gamer," Sorun lazily called behind him. Shadow responded by slamming the door to his room in the HQ shut, causing Sorun to quietly scoff to himself. He waited a moment, and then reached over to grab his discarded controller, only to then exit out of the screen the game was on and navigate to the single player menu of the game that was currently on.

He spent the rest of his night whittling away at the video game until he'd grown bored enough to shut the TV off and head home.


A/N- I know there's a small fanmade Sonic fighting game out there, and in the game one of Shadow's moves is literally a straight rip of Vergil's Spiral Swords but with Chaos Spears, so that's where I got that idea from.