Ch. 13 Bolts and Bolts

The unexpected guest, who also looks like Shadow, stands menacingly in the doorway, the pointed arm cannon pointed at the floor.

The figure begins, "I would like to-"

Suddenly Dextral bursts from the pile of tables and chairs, more degraded than ever before, and stained orange from a bowl of overturned soup. His synthetic fur falls off in patches, slapping to the ground, weighed down by soup.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU ALL!" Dextral screams, sparks flying off of him, his voice screeching as his speakers mingle with broth.

ZZZZZBAM! A red light briefly illuminates the room. Dextral blinks and looks down to see a massive smoking hole in his chest. Dextral's metallic skull whirrs in confusion, then fear, as his eyes finally go dark. The frame of Dextral drops to its knees, cracking the tiles, before falling sideways, the heavy skull smashing through the legs of an overturned chair. The Shadow figure at the front of the restaurant lowers the blaster, which emits a steady stream of smoke from the barrel.

"Woah!" Sonic exclaims in surprise, raising his arms defensively.

Amy clutches her hammer, while CYBER and Tails take a step back. Scuff is completely frozen.

Shadow rolls his eyes, "Cool your quills Sonic, it's me."

Shadow walks towards the now-decimated husk of Dextral and kneels down.

"How do we know you aren't one of them?" Sonic stays in his defensive stance.

"They are all nothing but narcissistic knockoffs," Shadow says, not bothering to look up from the machinery he is examining.

"Sounds like someone else I know," Sonic can't help but smile, but keeps his guard up.

CYBER makes a sound like clearing her throat, "I ran a scan, he is fully biological". CYBER then resumes standing quietly slightly behind Amy.

Sonic at least is convinced and relaxes some, "Why'd you come all the way out here?"

"I hate these things," Shadow pokes at the hole in Dextral's chest with the barrel of the hand blaster. "I make a point to destroy them whenever they pop up."

"Good work by the way," Shadow says sarcastically, "it was still functional when I got here". "I'm assuming that was your shoddy work, Sonic?"

Sonic is offended, only able to open his mouth to produce a weak scoff.

Shadow trails over to the inactive body of Sinister. "Well done," He says, looking up at Amy.

Amy smiles and gives a friendly wave, but CYBER chooses to remain silent. Without warning, Shadow raises his blaster and fires another glowing red round, but this time into Sinister.

Everyone jumps back in surprise.

"What was that for!?!" Tails exclaims, eyes wide and fur bristled.

"Just making sure," as Shadow looks back to respond to Tails, and in doing so, catches a glimpse of Scuff.

Scuff is awestruck, gobsmacked, petrified, excited, terrified, and frozen. Scuff's one good eye is wide, but every last mechanical component is dead still.

Sonic walks up to Shadow, "So, Shadow, I-"

Shadow doesn't even acknowledge Sonic as he marches toward Scuff. Shadow is in that intense type of walk where he is slightly leaned forward, but somehow leading with his shoulders each step. A little showy for Amy's taste. As Shadow approaches with a severe expression on his face, Scuff lowers himself slightly behind the table in dread. Shadow whips the gun up from his side and points it at the exposed head of Scuff.

"No!" CYBER yells out in dismay.

But right before Shadow pulls the trigger, Tails leaps up between the gun and Scuff, causing Shadow to stop.

"Wait! He's a good robot!" Tails puts up his hands, hovering level with the barrel of the gun.

"There are no good robots," Shadow growls, not moving the weapon at all.

"What about your friend Omega?" Tails asks nervously, his outstretched hands retracting subconsciously.

"That's stretching the definition of good," Shadow says, not taking his eyes off Scuff.

CYBER'S engine kicks on, which startles Shadow, he whips his head around, training the blaster on CYBER. But CYBER doesn't attack, she flies around, keeping her distance and not making any sudden movements. She slows and comes to a stop next to Tails.

"Don't hurt him," CYBER says, but it's more of a demand than a plea. "He is my friend."

CYBER glances back at Scuff for a moment. Scuff looks at her, concerned, confused, and silent, his cracked bad eye momentarily catching the glare of a fluorescent light.

Sonic grabs Shadow's shoulder "Please, before you do anything rash-"

Shadow fires.

The red bolt flies right over CYBER's shoulder, and Tails instinctively drops to the ground. When Scuff peeked over the table to make eye contact with CYBER, he had accidentally exposed his shoulder. The red bolt crackles through the air, colliding with Scuff's shoulder and blowing his arm off. The force of the blow sends Scuff back into the wall, crashing to the ground inert. CYBER's face contorts into shock and rage. After her eyes had followed the bolt, she whipped her head back forward to give Shadow a death stare. CYBER's chest engine begins to spin but doesn't power up fast enough for her liking, so she resorts to running at him. She twists her torso, pulling back her fist, the engine on her hand whirrs sharply as it creates a massive forward force, creating a breeze through the restaurant with the force of her punch. Just before the punch connects with Shadow's face, he teleports away in a dim flash of light. Still having the full momentum of the punch, CYBER stumbles forward. Before she can hit the ground, Amy's hand shoots out and grabs CYBER's shoulder, pulling her back up. CYBER attempts to go at Shadow again, but Amy holds her shoulder tightly.

"Wait," Amy says sternly.

CYBER doesn't struggle too much but pushes against Amy with low but constant pressure.

"What are you doing?" Demands Sonic, staring at Shadow.

"I need to know what you're going to do with him," Shadow says, crossing his arms.

"But why did you shoot him?" Amy asks, still working to hold CYBER back.

"He didn't need to be a part of this conversation," Shadow says dismissively, laying the long silver blaster on his back.

"You didn't need to SHOOT HIM!" CYBER yells angrily, finally settling down and not pushing against Amy anymore.

"Regardless, I need to know what you're going to do with him so that he doesn't cause trouble for me later," Shadow says, looking across the faces of everyone still standing.

Tails puts his chin in his hand, "Well, we need to repair him now-"

"Thanks for that, by the way," Tails says sarcastically

"-so we can just keep him in my workshop."

"And add precautions to make sure he doesn't escape?" Shadow asks in a way where he already knows the answer.

"Naturally," Tails says, putting his hands on his hips.

Tails turns to look at Scuff and grimaces at the damage, walking over quickly to see what repairs he can make with the simple tools he always keeps on him.

"What about Purple over here?" Shadow asks gruffly, tilting his head in CYBER's direction.

CYBER glares at him, balling up her metal fists.

Amy steps up, "She saved my life, that's gotta mean something!"

"Blind trust it is then," Shadow mutters, tilting his head down.

"Why doesn't she stay at your house Sonic?" Shadow looks at Sonic "I know you have a spare room, I've stayed in it before".

Tails speaks up "Yes, we do- wait… when did you stay in our spare room?"

"You both weren't there," Shadow says dismissively. "If she's gonna stay somewhere, it might as well be the place with a workshop."

CYBER looks over at Sonic hopefully.

"Well, we would, but our spare room is now occupied by a new robot that Tails built," Sonic explains.

"Wait, we're seriously gonna just gloss over the fact that Shadow stayed in our house while we weren't there?" Tails tries to interject, stepping forward.

CYBER walks towards Sonic, accidentally pushing Tails out of the circle "Please Sonic? I have nowhere else to go…" she pleads.

"She can stay with me,"

Everyone turns to look at Amy, who has raised her hand in the air.

"I've got plenty of room in my place," Amy walks up beside CYBER. "Plus, who would want to stay with a bunch of stinky boys?" Amy teases with an energy that helps dissipate the tension in the room.

Despite how much she would like to stay with Sonic, Amy's offer seems so genuine that CYBER can't help but smile "I would like that."

"Looks like this is all settled then," Shadow says, turning around. "Don't make this my problem."

Shadow walks past the smoking husks of Dextral and Sinister. When Shadow walks to the front door of the restaurant, he comes face to face with a crowd of people. Looking back and forth, he also notices a congregation of people around both of the front windows, including the shattered one. The crow goes silent, staring at Shadow.

"Mouth breathers…" Shadow mumbles.

Shadow balls up his fists, and he leans slightly forward, making an intimidating growling sound. The crowd freezes for a moment before all simultaneously pulling out their phones, snapping pictures, and asking a cacophony of questions. Shadow sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose momentarily before pushing into the crowd.

Sonic, Amy, and Tails all look at each other.

"What should we do with the two evil robots?" Sonic asks, nodding over at the two broken Shadow Androids.

"I can probably use their spare parts to repair Scuff," Tails says, looking back at Scuff, who is offline.

"Who?" asks Sonic, but as he turns back, he spots Scuff on the floor "Oh, him". Sonic scratches in between the quills on his head, "How are we gonna transport him?", looks over at the destroyed robots "And them?"

Tails looks down for a moment, and then up at the door to the restaurant, "we could ask one of them for help."

"Right, give me just a second," Sonic starts walking toward the crowd by the door.

Amy perks up, "OH! Well, Sonic, I suppose we'll continue our date some other time?" She calls after him.

Sonic glances over his shoulder "S-Sure Amy," he quickly turns away and goes up to the door, talking to some people in the front over the din of cheers and questions from the general crowd.

CYBER goes quiet for a moment, tilting her head down, narrowing her eyes at Amy and glancing at Sonic. Amy and CYBER quickly look behind themselves when they hear a straining noise. They see Tails, struggling to lift Scuff.

"Oh, let me help you with that!" Amy walks over, effortlessly slinging Scuff's inert metal frame onto her shoulder.

Tails picks up Scuff's blown-off arm, tucking it between Scuff's main body and Amy's neck.

"You said this guy was your friend?" Amy gestures her head towards Scuff.

"Yeah…" CYBER looks down at the floor.

CYBER suddenly feels something hit the back of her leg softly, she looks back and sees Tails pushing an empty food cart. Tails waves.

"Can you help me load up the others?" Tails points to the other decimated robots.

CYBER nods quietly, walking alongside Tails, partially to escape the topic she was discussing. Tails stops the cart next to Sinister, Tails grabs Sinister's legs, and CYBER puts her arms under Sinister's shoulders, and they lift him onto the cart. Tails starts pushing the cart again. Amy surveys the damage around the restaurant with a frown.

"Don't worry about your friend, with these spare parts, I'll be able to patch him up," Tails smiles in a comforting way. "And thank you for your help in the fight," Tails smiles, closing his eyes for a moment as he stops next to the pile of broken tables and chairs that the broken Dextral crowns.

"You're welcome…" CYBER looks over at him. "Thanks for not attacking me," She smiles weakly.

"It's ok, we have robots turn away from Eggman all the time," Tails says, twirling his twin tails to float up to the top of the pile.

CYBER activates the engines on her hands, feet, and the one on her chest to do a little hop onto the pile. The two take Dextral down the pile and lift him onto the cart on top of Sinister.

"Thanks," Tails looks at CYBER, giving her a once-over before turning back toward Amy. "Hey, Amy! You got that guy?"

"Yep, I got it!" Amy hoists Scuff up, and walks over, placing Scuff on top of the other two.

Sonic walks back from the door, swinging a set of keys on his finger, "The benefits of being famous, eh?"

CYBER glances at Sonic, not finding any words, she glances worriedly at Scuff.

"Got us a pickup truck," Sonic points a thumb over his shoulder, at a random person who waves excitedly.

"Um…" CYBER looks over at Sonic "Can you even drive?"

"Hey, hey," Sonic puts his hands on his hips. "I'm 17 as of a few weeks ago, plus I literally drive a racecar all the time".

"Alright…" CYBER takes a step back.

"Bye Amy, bye… CYBER, was it?" Sonic stops halfway in a wave.

CYBER nods, half turned away.

With a final wave, Sonic exits the restaurant, the crowd clearing him a path, with Tails close behind, pushing the cart of three robots with great effort.

"I'm still super hungry," Tails murmurs quietly, pushing the cart out into the crowd.

Amy looks down at her burnt dress with a sigh, brushing off some burnt shreds. But then she puts on a smile and turns to CYBER.

"Well, I'll have to clear out a spare room for you, so do you mind staying in the garage for a night?" Amy asks, trying to be friendly.

"Sure…" CYBER says quietly. "As long as you have an extension cord".

Sonic dusts off his hands, having finished helping Tails load up the robots. Sonic hops up into the driver's seat. He leans out the window to talk to the person who lent them the car.

"I'll get this back to you by tonight," Sonic says with a smile.

Sonic starts up the pickup truck, and as Tails buckles his seatbelt, Sonic pulls out of the parking lot.