When morning came around true to his word Shadow came back to discuss what their course of action would be, deciding that Rouge and Tails would fly to GUN HQ while Sonic and Shadow ran with Hydra to ensure they arrived first.
"That's fine by me but this place sounds far i don't think we can outrun a plane" the wolf spoke up
"That's why Sonic will carry you along" Shadow responded with his arms crossed
"Don't worry Hydra were crazy fast just leave it to us you'll see" Sonic said while giving a wink and a thumbs up to the wolf earning himself a smile in return
Stepping outside of Tails home Sonic began to stretch while Rouge and Tails got ready inside the Tornado before taking off leaving the hedgehogs and the wolf behind.
"Well we better hurry up before we're left in the dust" Sonic said as he ran towards Hydra seemingly disappearing to the wolf's eyes before lifting him up bridal style and running at an intense speed while Shadow followed closely behind. Soon enough or really just a few minutes they had arrived at the HQ and Sonic put down an extremely disoriented Hydra and let out a laugh in response to the stumbling wolf.
"Lot colder here than i remember don't you think shadow"
After receiving a nod from shadow and allowing the wolf to regain his balance the three entered the building with Sonic and Hydra waiting in the lobby, Sonic standing tapping his foot impatiently and Hydra sitting in a chair while Shadow spoke to the receptionist. A minute or so later Shadow came back and told the others they would be able to talk to the commander.
"Don't you work here why did you need to do all that" Sonic asked
"It's because I'm bringing you two after all to everyone here you're just civilians" Shadow responded while leading the others to the elevator. His hand paused just an inch away from the button as a scream could be heard from outside resulting in both hedgehogs rushing to the scene leaving hydra who tried to follow along with them.
Arriving at the scene just two blocks away in an alley it looked as though the air had been torn creating a rift that froze the area around it. To the left of the rift in the alleyway a human lady was on the floor confronted by what looked like an ice sculpture made to appear as a tiger except it was clearly breathing and had pure white eyes. The ice tiger had began to move towards the downed lady but was interrupted by a blue spiked ball launching into it chipping away some of the ice on its side and knocking it away from the lady and out the alley into the street; while the lady was carried away to safety by sonic Shadow readied a chaos spear and hydra made it to the area. Rather than run or lunge back into the fight the tiger turned to shadow locking eyes with the ready spear with its teeth bared then turned to hydra and hid its teeth and lowered its head as if bowing down as sonic returned the lady no longer in hand.
"Guys why is it bowing" sonic asked pointing at the creature with a confused look as a howl could be heard back down the alley towards the rifts location. The tiger looked towards where the howl came from before running to Hydra, Shadow tried to toss his spear at it but it evaded by jumping right as the spear was about to make contact with its body. Meeting face to face with the wolf the tiger turned to face the hedgehogs and growled at them with its teeth bared.
"I think it wants to protect him, Shadz" Sonic said, coming towards the tiger which let out a warning roar.
"Uh hey there mr ice tiger could you please not attack them they are my friends" The wolf asked awkwardly not expecting results. However the creature looked at everyone once more before hiding its fangs but not dropping its guard as it returned to the alley and bared its fangs again leading to everyone's confusion.
Shadow, also not dropping his guard, kept staring at the tiger expecting an attack before looking down the alley as multiple sets of feet could be heard running down, yet they were just as strange as the tiger. There were three wolves also made out of ice but the ice was black and their eyes were a bright gold. The one in the middle must have been the leader if they had any, considering it was larger than the others and had streaks of white ice on it, something the others definitely did not.
When the tiger lunged out to attack the wolf on the right shadow assumed they were threats and sent out a new spear piercing the left wolf's head and its body shattering it into shards of ice, as sonic started to attack the leader with shadow joining him and hydra watching from the back. Meanwhile the tiger and the other lesser wolf were going at it although with the limited space both were not able to dodge very well. Soon enough the battle was having clear effects on the creatures as more and more ice was chipped and despite their form, their breathing became heavy. The two stood there eyeing each other waiting to see who would attack first when the leader was knocked back distracting the other wolf allowing the tiger to lunge for its neck and crunch down, shattering the ice wolf instantly.
At GUN HQ the Commander was behind his desk facing the window with an unbroken concentration. He wore an almost all gray outfit if not for the red and blue stripes that appeared on multiple parts of his body such as the torso and arms, while the shoulders had golden shoulder pads, and on his left shoulder a blue symbol with a yellow G was displayed. The man had gray hair and heterochromia, his left eye being blue and the right eye being brown.
When the door had shut the Commander turned to face whoever had entered seeing it was Rouge and Tails. "Rouge, have you received a report on what is going on?" the Commander asked calmly but there was only confusion on Rouge's face.
"No i just got back from my assignment with the help of Tails" Rouge answered while gesturing to Tails
"I see you'll have to give me your report later. Central city is under attack" the Commander said sternly, walking to the other side of his desk.
"Under attack by who could it be eggman?" Tails inquired
"No i doubt it there have been sightings of creatures made of black ice attacking people in these three areas" The commander stated opening a blue map hologram of the area which turned red in areas under attack.
"Where's Shadow? I'm sure he should have been here" Rouge asked
"He had arrived earlier; he wanted to speak but never arrived. I imagine he left to investigate. So I need you to go and help deal with this threat" He had received a head nod from Rouge who began to rush out the door with Tails while the Commander turned off the hologram and faced the window again.
Back in the alley shadow and sonic were still facing off against the biggest wolf who chose to run from the two to attack Hydra head on biting with all its force whilst Hydra could do nothing but raise his arms in a defensive manner and close his eyes waiting for the pain, but when seconds had passed it felt like something should have hit by now but there was no pain. He slowly opened his eyes, the ice wolf's bright gold eyes only a few inches away pierced into Hydra's wide eyes that could only stare at the creature's mouth which held the tiger before the creature clenched its teeth, shattering it.
There was no time to be shocked or to question what was going on. The wolf was on the move again side stepping Hydra and was about to pounce when a drilled cyclone of wind came down from the sky crushing the ice wolf's head and shattering it like all the others before it.
"Heard you could use a hand" a familiar voice called out stepping out of the dust her own attack created revealing Rouge.
"Heh nice timing" sonic said while walking up to hydra and making sure he's ok "but where's Tails at?" the blue hero asked
"Dealing with the same thing somewhere else you know there are three sightings of these things attacking right" Rouge asked though it was really more of a statement and to her amusement sonic was looking back and forth between the others with a concerned face.
"Then we gotta move, let's go" Sonic moved into position getting ready to run before Shadow grabbed him by the arm and turned him around.
"Have you forgotten about the rift? We have to deal with that to stop these things" Shadow stated clearly with a plan in mind as he signaled everyone to follow him back towards the rift "Rouge since you're here you have the emeralds right? I can try to use that to shut the rift"
At the rift nothing had really changed with the rift itself but the area was slowly being covered in ice and waves of chilling cold air kept seeping out. While the others discussed what to do with the rift as well as the others in the area, Hydra couldn't get his eyes off the rift. Slowly but surely he began to move forwards towards the rift reaching his hand out to it as shadow turned back with both emeralds in hand just in time to see Hydras hand enter the rift.
"HYDRA DON'T" Shadow yelled out reaching out to grab him but his hand had already entered the rift and almost immediately his hand was encased with black ice which began to spread across the rift as though it were somehow being frozen until the entire thing was encased and like the beaten ice creatures from before it fell apart to the floor as just another pile of black ice.
"Hydra is your hand ok" Sonic asked, rushing to the side shadow wasn't looking at the frozen hand just like everyone else. Hydra with no sense of panic in his movements just moved his other hand to tap the ice shattering it and adding to the pile but leaving his hand perfectly fine "woah thats cool" Sonic said with a sudden change in attitude "can you control the ice or something? i mean that tiger did bow to you" He asked amazed
"I-I don't know I just felt like it would be fine if I touched the rift I didn't mean to close it" Hydra answered just as amazed staring at his hands
"Well it seems like these rifts and all this living ice is connected to you" Rouge added
"Yeah I guess" Hydra replied unsure of what to make of the situation
"We can figure it out later Hydra, do you think you would be able to repeat what you did and close the other rifts" Shadow asked, questioning in his mind how the chaos emeralds would compare in efficiency.
"The least i can do is try" Hydra responded with a confident nod and smile
After a brief second of Rouge relaying information to shadow he pulled out one of the emeralds and chanted out "chaos control" before a flash of light appeared illuminating the area and when the light vanished so had the four that once stood there.
"Oh c'mon another alley" an annoyed sonic asked at the sight of another cramped space earning himself a laugh from the wolf and bat dropping their guard despite the rift in front of them
Ignoring sonic, Shadow ushered Hydra to do the same and deal with the rift which Hydra nodded to and started to step towards it putting in his hand. Once again his hand had been covered in ice instantly as if the task was natural to him, in his head hydra asked the ice to close the rift and when nothing happened he felt like a fool, in embarrassment and anger he ordered the ice to close the rift and just like that the ice had began to spread through the rift just like the first one. It was a surprisingly easy job until a claw made of black ice grabbed Hydras arms causing him to panic and let out a yelp when a yellow beam shot the claw. Thinking it was a spear from shadow Hydra turned to thank him only to see Shadow looking up, following his eyes Hydra saw Tails who was flying with one of his gadgets in hand.
"You can fly!" a shocked Hydra yelled out
"Yeah thanks to my two tails" the fox responded as he landed "anyway that's not important right now if you're here you dealt with one of these right?" tails asked pointing at the portal gaining a nod from everyone "were there also those creatures made of black ice" he asked receiving a nod from everyone except hydra who shook his head no.
"There was a blue one it was a tiger it saved me" this time Tails was the one nodding
"Sadly I can't come up with anything other than how similar some of these events are to when we fought that weird robot, The one that opened the rift" Tails said scratching his head now watching the fully covered rift fall apart "woah amazing" Tails whispered to himself.
"Do you think there are more robots causing this?" Shadow asked his arms now crossed, thinking through the scenarios just as much as Tails was.
"No i don't think so that bot needed two chaos emeralds and a few days to charge just to get Hydra so i doubt it" Tails responded putting his hands up as he shrugged and shook his head "after all that's the only reason GUN knew about it right? It had already been there awhile" Tails added on further strengthening his point.
"Let's finish this quickly and get back to GUN" shadow said raising the emerald once more and shouting out chaos control once again landing them in the fields of a park where the skies were dark with smoke coming off of vehicles and a heavy fog came from the rift at the parks center and gunshots were heard from all directions. Quick as the wind before anything could be said Sonic dashed off to assist the GUN soldiers and a second later Shadow and Rouge ran in a different direction with the same goal leaving the wolf and the fox to deal with the rift.
Rushing as fast as they could towards the rift, Tails grabbed Hydra and took to the skies to try and avoid the stray fire that had almost caught them multiple times until Tails was able to safely land Hydra and allow him to shut the rift while Tails acted as his bodyguard.
Further towards the outside of the park sonic had reach a double lane where five GUN soldiers were trying their best to fend off the incoming wolves made of black ice and even a black ice tiger but their guns weren't strong enough to do more than chip away at the creatures who were closing in until a blue whirlwind began to form around the soldiers clearing a patch of the fog and deterring the creatures from advancing.
After advising the soldiers that they either get stronger guns or run, Sonic ran at the closest wolf homing attacking it using it as a way to get into the air and then used a ground stomp on the nearest enemy the tremor weakening the ice on all the creatures near him making the guns more useful in the fight before revving up a spin dash and launching himself into the tiger chipping away at most of its form leaving it panting yet its golden glare never wavered. "Y'know I met an ice tiger recently we had a misunderstanding but he was a lot nicer than you" the tiger held its stance showing no response to Sonics comment "he didn't talk either but he at least responded to people" Sonic began again entering another spin dash and shattering it leaving to the next area as quick as he came.
Back inside the park the once peaceful fields were now overrun by different creatures all made of black ice. Packs of wolves ran rampant chasing civilians and soldiers alike while bears larger than then GUN's vehicles flipped trucks and tanks alike breaking their formations while tigers ran around picking off soldiers that strayed too far from the others. As another soldier was grabbed by a tiger and screamed for help he was released as the tiger suddenly opened its mouth as it crumbled to the floor shattered into a million pieces.
"R-Rouge thank you!" the soldier cried out
"Stay with your squad if you don't want to end up dead" Rouge responded loudly over the gun fire as she took off eyeing the battlefield and picking her next target, a group of three; two civilians and one soldier surrounded by a pack wolves, five smaller ones and a single large one. She rose higher into the air directly above the large wolf before twisting her body and descending, twisting the wind with her as she fell and pierced the wolf's center like a drill shattering it before it could even react. Responding to the new individual and sudden loss of their leaders the wolves broke their circling formation before seemingly deciding better and dispersing, running away in different directions towards other packs joining their formations instead. "Get out of here, that way now" Rouge called out to the group pointing towards a path empty of both ice and soldiers.
Not too far from where Rouge was Shadow was busy fighting a group of bears noticing that despite the abundance of wolves and substantially less but fair amount of tigers these three were the only bears in the area; his thoughts were interrupted as a large claw slammed down into him, snapping away before impact shadow appeared above the attacker "Chaos spear". On que with his command a spear of chaos energy spawned above shadow was launched into the bear putting a sizeable hole into its form but nothing enough to bring it down, as gravity began to take hold Shadow curled up into a ball spin dashing through the bear practically breaking it in half as cracks formed from where he hit and spread crumbling the bear into pieces.
After landing the second bear tried to strike swinging from the right only to be countered by shadows leg as he kicked back against the strike, turning around in time to see the final bear lunge at him its mouth opened showing off fangs that would never hit as shadow caught its mouth one hand on each jaw and with a grunt forced it open beyond its capabilities breaking off the bottom jaw and snapping away as the second bear crashed into the final one.
Readying a chaos lance aimed at the jawless bear he tossed it striking it right where its jaw used to be crumbling its pieces just like the other. Snapping once again behind the last bear shadow was caught by surprise as the bear turned and struck him in the side with its claw "It can learn" shadow stated aloud to no one but himself slightly shocked that they could do more than just attack what they see in front of them "hmph" he grunted aloud as he snapped again this time in front of the bears face. The bear expecting him to snap behind him was met with a kick to the back of its head followed by a homing attack shattering the moving sculptures head
Landing once again Shadow stared at the shattered ice for just a moment as he held his wrist before running off to take on more of the living ice.
"So you just touch the rift and it will close?" Tails curiously asked as he descended with the wolf right in front of the rift snow rushing past them on a blizzards current raging from the rift
"I just have to sorta command it while i touch it" Hydra responded loudly over the sound of the whipping winds not really sure if he was even right, but also wondering how tails could be so calm
"As if it was alive? How interesting could you maybe have some kind of control over chaos? Or maybe since you're freezing the rift do you have control over ice?!" Tails asked his barrage of questions getting more excited as he went
"Maybe we can figure out the exact details of it later?" Hydra asked in response as he put both hands on the portal. Unlike the others that were just about three to five feet this one was at least three times the size and the raging blizzard was only stronger the closer they were, his scarf evident of the fact as it whipped back and forth wildly with the wind. "Alright rift i command you to close" he said aloud his hands frozen over in black ice just as they had before when he tried to close the rifts but this time no ice was spreading from his hands. Trying again the wolf focused on his hands and envisioned the ice spreading around the rift just as it had done before and then more sternly in his head commanded the rift to close. This time the ice had begun to spread but only a few feet before abruptly stopping and then slowly chipping away.
"W-what why isnt it working?" He asked aloud
"What's wrong hydra?" the fox asked concerned as he walked backwards towards the wolf as he focused on the wolves now surrounding them.
"I don't know, it just feels like something is in my way" he replied, panic filling his voice, his eyes snapping off the portal after hearing a blaster shot go off. Turning around he saw tails behind him shooting at some wolves and doing good damage against them as some tiny little robots ran around some other wolves chipping away at them before exploding.
Tails looked back locking eyes with hydra seeing his face focus on the battlefield "don't worry about the wolves i've got your back just try and fight back against that obstacle. I know you can do it" Tails stated reassuring the wolf as he cheered him on
Determined to get the job done the wolf turned back to the rift full of confidence he yelled out "alright rift i don't care what you want you are going to close this instant". On command the ice began to spread once again slowing at the same spot however not willing to give up so easily this time Hydra didn't stop his focus instead shutting his eyes and focusing harder on the ice spreading, willing it to get past the obstacle. The world around him seemingly went silent around him even the whipping winds couldnt be heard much less felt. "Wait, I can't feel the wind?" Hydra asked aloud to himself in confusion, opening his eyes to see the rift fully frosted over in black ice. Removing his hands forcefully and backing away to get a better look the rift cracked all over stemming from where his hands were and crumbling away
"You did it!" Tails called out excitedly drawing the wolf's attention who now realized he was standing in a pile of shattered ice and there were no wolves to be seen, just a slightly ash covered Tails and even that was gone as he brushed his hand against his face.
"I don't hear any signs of battle. Are we done?" Hydra asked the fox who was now on his golden tablet
"It would seem like it, let's head to the soldiers just to make sure" the two began to run towards the nearest soldier as the thick fog that enveloped the park thinned out as it spread throughout the city. Besides some flipped vehicles that the two couldn't have helped with even if they wanted to, everything was supposedly just fine. The civilians were safely led out the park as GUN soldiers searched the park and nearby areas for any stray living ice.
Deciding it was high time they found the others. The two started searching for the others only to be interrupted by a blue streak that cut right in front of them taking the fog with it before coming back just as fast as it disappeared. This time instead of rushing why past the streaks true form became more visible as Sonic appeared skidding to a stop in front of the fox and wolf
"Hey guys we were just looking for you cmon" Sonic said chipper as always disappearing right as he finished reappearing in front of the two grabbing their hands and running off with the others behind him Tails doing just fine using his namesake to stabilize himself and Hydra flailing urging for the ride to stop. After just a second the ride was over, that however wouldn't stop a once again disoriented Hydra from toppling over. "Heh sorry Hydra" Sonic said rushing over to help him back up receiving a thank you from the dizzy wolf
"So what's the plan now guys?" Tails asked clearly unaffected from the speed
"The situation has gotten too serious we need to talk with the commander" Shadow said calmly and sternly looking to Sonic as if expecting a reaction from him
"He's right this isn't just about some lost kid anymore lives are at risk" Rouge added
"I figured as much but were still gonna get Hydra home right? This is just a detour right?" Sonic asked understanding shadows reasons but still concerned for his friends safety
"Only once we figure out how he's tied to these events we can find his home, between the rifts, creatures, and robot we can't just send him home" shadow responded
"The robot?" Hydra asked earning all eyes on him
"Right you were unconscious" Tails stated hitting a the bottom of his fist against his palm "while we were fighting a robot it shot out a whole lot of energy opening one of those rifts and you fell out of it" Tails explained catching the wolf up to speed
"Then how did you close it? Is it still open?" the wolf asked concerned that another area was being overrun by these creatures
"No the rift closed right after you came out, but then… a damaged metal sonic came out… and went after you" Tails said slowing down as he went on connecting dots in his head "and he was kept in a repair station that was covered in ice" Tails continued unsure how to use these connected dots to find an answer.
"What about the only blue ice tiger that protected Hydra?" Sonic asked
"A tiger made from blue ice, not black?" Tails asked, receiving a nod from everyone "and it protected Hydra?" once again receiving nods. Thinking for a moment with no solutions still Tails spoke up, "Shadows right Sonic we need to figure this out, I don't know how or why but everything is clearly related to him and for his safety as well as everyone else's we need to find out why" earning nods from everyone except Hydra and Sonic Tails turned to the two
"If it can help me remember and get back home I'm ready for anything. Also I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me. So I have to figure this out too, right?" The wolf stated and asked aloud
"If that's how you feel then I support this plan" Sonic added giving a smile and thumbs up
"Then we have to start with getting as much information as we can out of GUN let's get their report and see if they have any files that could be related to you" Rouge said crafting a simple plan to get them going "can you do the honor Shadow" Rouge asked turning to Shadow with a smile who grunted and unfolded his crossed arms as he walked forward.
"Chaos control" he exclaimed as the fields around them warped as they turned into hardwood floors with four walls all around with multiple filing cabinets, some chairs near a table and a hardwood desk with the commander behind it now sitting at his desk rather than staring out the window.