Thank you marymery67 for the lovely fanart!
"Where's Phantom?"
That was the one question that jolted into Silver's head when he gazed across the broken area once more. Despite the number of people exiting and entering the destroyed zone, not one of them wore a Syndicate Blue hood. As the words left his lips, the child found himself scanning the environment. Any shade or tint of blue was urgently processed.
There was a cat with royal blue fur, hauling medical equipment to a scuffed up robin in a dusty blue apron. There was a lizard with blue eyes unearthing piles of debris in a search for survivors. There was even a pair of blue macaws setting up a place where doctors with blue gloves could begin assessing injuries. But a blue hood? Silver could not spot any such garment.
"He slipped away through that wall." Shadow growled, pointing towards one of the unscathed buildings. "That direction leads to the Citadel - no doubt he left to alert the entire base."
Silver felt more beads of sweat drip down his face.
"Doctor." Shadow barked, pointing his finger towards an elderly turtle. "We need to get these patients out of here, the Syndicate will be closing on this location."
"How do you know?" The doctor asked, dipping his hands into foaming water and rubbing his forearms.
"I got into a scuffle with Captain Phantom." Shadow explained. "He grabbed my Prodigy and triggered an outburst - that is why the block is in ruins."
"How urgent is it that we leave?" One of the nurses asked, tying a cloth over her muzzle and clutching a bag of tools.
"As soon as possible. However, I understand that there still might be survivors in the rubble." Shadow answered, looking towards a collapsed building.
Silver shrunk down, ears folding back as guilt began to weigh heavily on his mind once more. Despite knowing that everything was unintentional, it was still difficult not to feel extremely guilty about the state of the city block. As people moaned and groaned from internal injuries, the hoglet felt the fur on the back of his arm tremble. So much damage…
"I will try my best to draw their attention away from here, but be prepared to put up a fight for the survivors." Shadow stated, backing up with slight hops before twisting on his heel and bolting down the street.
Silver let out a squeak as wind smacked him in the face. Shadow's bursts of speed always felt like whiplash to the young child. But somehow, Silver felt he was getting used to it. His muscles were getting stronger and his body getting bigger, allowing him to put up with much more roughness than when he first met the austere adult.
"I'm going to get that Emerald." Shadow spoke, skipping on his feet and slipping through the maze-like streets . "Once they figure out I'm onto them, that'll draw their attention for sure."
"But the citadel was the other way!" Silver cried, gripping the armored shoulders tightly. "Didn't you hear what they said in the tavern?"
"Red herring." Shadow bluntly stated. "Phantom is smart, I'll give him that. The safe with the guards is a trap."
"A trap?"
"Phantom wouldn't talk about secret information like that in public." Shadow explained. "What he was doing was baiting any potential thieves and eavesdroppers into thinking the Emerald was stored in a high-security area."
Silver tightened his body as the ranger slipped through an alleyway. As he emerged on the other side, the ebony adult vaulted off of a wall - flinging himself high into the air with flashy acrobatics and a sparkle of energy.
"Anyone who dared to steal…" Shadow continued, landing on a rooftop with a visible cloud of dust. "Would be caught and either killed or enslaved."
With a trail of orange flowing behind him, the ranger leapt off the rooftop and grabbed the adjacent wall. Without even a second to grab his footing, Shadow kicked his speed up - running across the side of the wall like a spider on a tree trunk. Silver found himself folding his ears back as wind blasted down his canals. The whooshing and roaring of air and dust was an especially unpleasant sound to a young hoglet. Silver found himself wondering how speedsters handled the constant noise of wind against their eardrums without losing their hearing.
With another jump, Shadow twisted himself in midair - backflipping and kicking to gain height with the grace of a trained dancer. One, two, three airborne tricks and Silver felt stable ground rock his body as momentum jostled him about. With a tight grip, the hoglet felt his face go pale. It seemed that Shadow wasn't going to be stealthy this time around…
"What are you doing?" Silver wheezed out. "We're gonna get seen…"
"That's the point." Shadow bluntly responded. "We already have three reds on my tail."
With a turn of his head, Silver saw a flash of red fabric as a speedy lieutenant slipped through the crowd.
"Shadow!" Silver screeched.
"They won't hurt you, Silver." Shadow confidently answered. "They'd have to catch me first."
As if excited, the ranger kicked up his speed once more - wind blasting around the two in a howling scream. Silver pressed his chest against the adult's back, feeling a whine building up in his throat as he turned to look behind once more. There were four red hoods now. Each one bounced across the rooftops like grasshoppers as they kept pace with the ranger.
"Let's take them downtown, shall we?" Shadow asked rhetorically, taking an extremely harsh turn and leaping off of a fencepost.
"But they'll catch us!" Silver wailed.
"Silver, I've raced Sonic the Hedgehog himself." Shadow responded. "They're no match for me."
Slipstream building in front of the two, Shadow kicked up his speed again - blasting across a marketplace in a black and brown blur. The red hoods followed, only for the tents and tarps to fling loose in the displaced air. A striped awning slapped into one, knocking him down and sending him rolling to a stop. Startled, the others began to duck and dodge - sliding under the flying fabrics and clearing the sudden obstacle course with a bit of trouble.
"Shadow they're still coming!" Silver whimpered.
"To be expected." Shadow answered.
Like a bullet, the ranger cracked across the landscape. Height was gained as the buildings around grew steadily taller, creeping from one-story constructions to massive beasts of steel and broken glass. Silver found himself captivated once more by the massive skyscrapers. It was amazing how huge and impressive they were up close, with beams of steel and windows of broken glass stretching high into the sky itself. Despite the paint having long worn away, the rusted metal and rocky base were still enough to strike respect for the builders and society that came before.
Awe flamed in his golden eyes as the adult bolted up the side of one - spiraling his way to the top in corkscrewing turns. The landscape sprawled out in front of the hoglet like toys on a mat as the two raced higher and higher. Silver felt lightheaded from elevation alone as the horizon stretched further and further. The world looked so much bigger from the top of the buildings, with individual people disappearing into the streets like ants into blades of grass. Everything was so tiny and small compared to the behemoth structures and Silver could only feel microscopic in the grand wide and beautiful world. Especially on top of such intensely massive things at such dizzying heights.
"The client should be at the gates by now." Shadow spoke - scaling one of the broken spires atop the large construction and gazing down to the city. "Where did they point on the map, Silver?"
"..."
"Silver?"
The hoglet only vomited. Again.
"Silver-" Shadow gasped, hurriedly snatching the child off his back and holding him over the city below - acting before the child could make a mess of the leather garments. "I thought your stomach was empty."
"They're coming…" The hoglet wobbled out, feeling quite shaken by the high speed and high altitude. "They're running up the building…"
"Fine, I'll check the west gate then." Shadow grumbled to himself, re-attaching the woozy child. "That's where they do most of their business."
Kicking off of the pole-like structure, the ranger bolted down the side of the skyscraper once more. As the hedgehogs began their rapid descent, the three hoods below passed into full view. With their own super speed, they raced up the side of the building in a vertical climb - arms stretched out behind them for both balance and aerodynamics. With a scoff, Shadow picked up his pace - blasting straight through the approaching red hoods like a needle through fabric.
Arms outstretched, the gloved hands snatched two of the chasers as he passed. An echoing thump followed by a grunted cough escaped the two as Shadow gripped their throats, reversing their upwards direction in an unsuspected intercept. With momentum rapidly changed and boots lifted off the old glass windows, the two found themselves drug down the building at unnerving speeds; bodies almost vertical as the hedgehog towed them along. Just when Silver had processed what the ranger had done, Shadow released his hands.
The hoglet could only stare in silence as the ground crept closer, details growing crisper as the duo raced closer. The two red hoods started yelling, arms and legs flailing in their freefall as Shadow maintained his pace with their descent. Silver gripped tighter as they began to shout - swinging angry claws and uncoordinated kicks as the buildings below grew closer and closer. Turning his head, Shadow maintained eye contact with the hood on his right - watching the wolf with glowing eyes as the lieutenant began to scream at him. Silver gripped tighter as the street below grew unbearably close. Aware of the approaching ground, Shadow tilted his head; eyes sparkling with amusement as the red hood made a horrified realization. With a flick of his ear and not a moment to spare, the ranger bounced off the skyscraper in a spinning leap - dispelling his momentum before he gained footing on the ground below.
"YOU MOTHER F-"
Crunch.
Silver squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to think about the awful noise as Shadow dashed far away from the base of the building. Like a bolt of lightning, he zipped through the streets - approaching the Savanna Wall with determined strides.
"Stop right there!" The final hood shouted, drawing his sword and attempting to speed up.
Shadow only picked up his pace. With a pulse of energy, the hedgehog twisted on his heels; gloved hands grinding on the dirt road as he turned ninety degrees and slipped into a nearby alleyway. Shaken from the turn, Silver felt his stomach twist again. The maze of backstreets and were unkind to the hoglet as Shadow hopped and bounced about - twisting and turning the harsh angles in an attempt to wear down his pursuer. The cat managed to keep up, huffing and panting from exertion as the hedgehog zipped about.
"Shadow…" Silver whined looking behind at the enraged eyes.
"I have him where I want him." Shadow answered.
As if reacting to the child's concerns, Shadow planted his feet and slid to a stop. As the lieutenant blasted past, Shadow shot out his leather gloved paws and snagged the speedster's tail. Immediately, the ranger took a step forwards with the motion of the cat and twirled. Spinning on his toes, he slammed the red hood into a nearby wall and whirled his boot into the cat's throat with a powerful roundhouse kick. Choking, the lieutenant swung his sword on instincts - only for Shadow to parry it away with his own blade.
"Where's the Emerald." The hedgehog hissed, eyes shining a demonic red in the midnight darkness.
"I don't answer to killers." The cat spat, attempting to grab Shadow's ankle only for the hedgehog to swipe at the gloved hands with his knife.
Leaning into the cat's throat, Shadow pushed harder.
"You think your hands are clean?" The ranger growled. "I know what you did to earn that hood, filth, now answer my question."
"No…way..." The cat wheezed.
"I know you know where it is." Shadow growled. "You were at the table with Phantom. Now-"
"Shadow…" Silver sniffled, gripping the hardened shoulders. "Are you going to kill him?"
"If I have to." Shadow responded, pointing his knife between the red hood's eyes. "If you don't want to watch, you can walk down the alleyway."
"But Shadow.."
"Silver." Shadow growled. "I don't cut corners. This world depends on my ability to get those Emeralds, now if you don't want to watch-"
"Listen to the kid now-"
"Quiet!"
The cat let out a choke as Shadow pressed his boot harder into the cat's throat.
"Are you sure this is the right thing to do?" Silver asked, trembling as he slid off the ranger's back. "Killing someone…?"
"If he cooperates, he'll leave with his life." Shadow hissed.
"Please co-oper ate…" Silver sniffled, looking the lieutenant straight in the eyes. "I don't want you to be killed…"
For a moment, the two stared at each other - gold eyes meeting blue in a second of connection. As his eyes began to water, little droplets of tears began to gather at the corner of Silver's dilated eyes - accentuating his youth and innocence. The cat let out a strangled cough as the hoglet began to sadly shuffle away.
"F-ffffine." The red hood conceded, hanging his head as Shadow loosened the pressure on his neck.
"The Emerald was taken to East Gate… but you didn't hear it from me."