Now deep in the forest, the two hedgehogs continued to battle it out. Shadow sent a quick, rocket-powered kick towards Sonic's face, which was met with 15 rapid-fire punches to the gut, and then a solid punt to Shadow's face for good measure. Shadow concentrated on standing his ground as he slid back from the impact, as Sonic launched a homing attack in his direction that was just barely dodged. However, Sonic was quick to focus the homing attack into a bounce off of a nearby tree that hit Shadow in the back and knocked him off of his feet. The Ultimate Lifeform could only roll into a ball and flow with the impact, before doing a quick spindash towards Sonic that landed hard.
Shadow unfurled his body and grabbed Sonic's ankle as he fell from the spindash, spinning him, and launching his body as far through the forest as he could, felling a tree with the impact. Shadow took only a moment to catch his breath. Sonic and Shadow had battled in the past, with the two often being more evenly matched than either was willing to admit, but Shadow was at an admitted disadvantage this time. For the first time, he was having to HOLD BACK against Sonic. something he was unfamiliar with even on his weakest opponents. Even when he sparred with Omega, the two had an understanding to go full force against each other(much to Rouge's frustration).
Shadow balled his hand into a fist as he finally caught his second wind. Like it or not, Sonic was an innocent in this. It might be harder, but he would not do any permanent damage to the blue hedgehog.
He made no promises about not making him feel it in the morning, though.
Back in the basement, Daniel paced back and forth on the floor as Justin put the finishing touches on giving Daniel full access to the nanites. "Alright, I think we're ready to go! Just need a message for their neutralization!"
"How specific does it have to be?" Daniel asked. "I...Don't know. Could be one word, could be a full speech. Just has to come from the heart, like when you would calm me down." Justin replied, simply. Daniel took a moment to ponder these words...But only a moment, as the angry mob finally managed to burst into the basement and seize the two. The duo were quickly bombarded by the crowd, the townsfolk restraining Justin, and attempting to destroy Daniel. The laptop was quickly smashed by an angry woman with a club, screaming about the "evils of technology" as she did so. "NO!" Justin yelled at the sight. Daniel could only watch, helpless, as the townspeople dragged the two out of the basement, and into the open yard above.
