30 - Faith - 30

South Island - Green Hills, Green Hill Zone

Afternoon, 2:50 PM

Creations like these didn't take him long to invent. This device in particular, one that could sense extremely large amounts of chaos energy, was one of those creations. Of course, Tails had plenty of machines that could easily sense faint traces of chaotic power, but he deemed those obsolete since they couldn't withstand the sheer power of a super form. They'd always blow up or glitch and completely stop working, so he created one that was strong enough to endure detecting powers they went beyond that of a simple blast of energy. As of now, he was using the device to find and locate Sonic—Or at least, whatever was wearing Sonic's face at the moment. If that demon he saw three years ago was really here, then his big brother was lost for now. Of course, he wasn't going to confront the monster, he didn't have a death wish. No, he had another plan. What Tails experienced that day would linger in his mind with complete accuracy for the rest of his life, and he prepared himself in the event that he'd ever see this abomination again.

That was yet another new creation he made recently, and it was amazing. Using Eggman's machine that destabilized Super Sonic's form during the Dark Gaia incident, Tails made a device that would immediately destabilize and drain this new form's powers. It was an ingenious creation, one that trumped Eggman's easily since it would do more than take away the ability, but temporarily neutralize the victim afterwards as well by intercepting the brain. That way, if something went wrong, whatever was controlling Sonic wouldn't attack him after the attempt. You can't control a puppet if you can't attach a string to the head. All he had to do was track the hedgehog down and use it on him. While the group was arguing over just what exactly Sonic was, Tails snuck away and flew back down to Station Square. He went to his workshop, got in his plane and took the Tornado X2 to the skies. As it soared through the air, he made sure he didn't fly too high and low enough to where he could clearly see the ground. Right now, he was flying through Green Hill Zone, where his device located a powerful source of chaos energy. Tails knew that if he looked for that entity, he'd no doubt eventually run into Infinite. Tails did a little research on the ruby, hacking into GUN's files and discovering that they had already determined what the gem was from Eggman's findings from Christmas Island. The fox was unaware of Sonic's birthplace, and was even more unaware of such a gem.

It was true that the gem could warp reality, as he witnessed Infinite spawn an army of robots just before their eyes up on Angel Island. He didn't mean to leave the team on their own, but he was positive they could handle it despite the robots' increase in power. This was personal, he had to stop Sonic himself so he could prove to everyone that his big brother wasn't a monster. He was scared, Chaos was he scared, but he didn't want to lose his family. Ever since that day, he's given Sonic nothing but a hard time. Some of it was teenage nonsense of course, but most of it was fear and anger. Fear because of what he saw, but anger because of the fact that he couldn't understand Sonic. He didn't realize until then how much of a mystery his older brother was, and he hated that it appeared that he was hiding big secrets from him after all this time. He never talked to him, never explained himself, never defended himself and just always acted like everything was fine. Part of Tails felt betrayed, and he even felt some untrustworthiness. It was wrong of him to think this way when he didn't know the whole story, but that's why he had to do this. He didn't need to just prove it to everyone else that Sonic wasn't evil, he had to prove it to himself too. He needed to know if he still had the hero he idolized so much.

As he soared in the air, a series of explosions rung in his ears beside him. He soon noticed that he stumbled upon the wave of jackals Infinite had mentioned he sent out to raid Green Hill Zone, and destroy anything that involved Sonic. The group that was below him was rather large, which meant that this was probably the remaining members of the mercenary group. The jackals were using Eggman modeled vehicles, such as heavily armored jeeps or even downgraded Egg Mobiles. Once Eggman got locked up, it seems like they took everything Baldy McNosehair had. Almost like a crude divorce settlement. They were bombing the terrain behind them, destroying the beautiful serene nature of the biome. Scowling, Tails began pressing buttons on his dashboard without even looking. The bastards were destroying not just Sonic's home, but his home too. He wouldn't stand for this, and he couldn't let these losers eventually reach Station Square anyway, as it was only several miles from here. Three holes appeared from the right wing of the Tornado, and began firing a barrage of missiles into the jackals. He destroyed their formation, and caused some of them to speed up and get away. It didn't matter if some escaped, he'd catch up to them and destroy them too. As for now, he'd deal with the ones in front of him.

He switched the plane's model, allowing it to transform into the Tornado X2 Cyclone Walker. With mechanized legs, the aircraft became a towering walking machine, and stomped down on the ground below. Vehicles toppled over from the impact, and Egg Mobiles crashed against the legs with jackals falling out of them. Like gnats, a few crappy Egg Mobiles flew in his direction. Jackal grunts jumped from their mobiles and attacked the vulpine. He switched the machine to autopilot, allowing it to attack on the ground while he would defend himself from anyone who dared to reach up to his pilot's seat. He kicked one of them in the face, knocking them down several feet, before ducking a small dagger being swung at his muzzle. He sucker punched the attacker in the face, knocking them over as well. They obviously didn't do their research—Tails wasn't only trained by the Hero of Mobius, he was trained by the second strongest physical rival Sonic ever went up against: Knuckles. Tails knew he still had a lot to learn, but he wasn't a helpless eight-year old anymore. As they continued to attempt to climb up the legs of the Cyclone Walker, the machine automatically knew to shake them off by kicking it's feet strongly, winging them off into the distance with harsh landings. An upgraded version of the Volkan Cannon was activated, and began blasting several shots at his targets all at once.

For a moment, every single jackal around him that didn't get away before the fight started, was unconscious. He blew off his fists with a victorious scoff. That is, until magenta flashed in their eyes and forced them to get back up on their feet. It was strange, Tails could tell they were still not at all conscious, yet their bodies were moving against their will anyway. That wasn't good—If they would keep attacking until their bodies gave out and died, Tails would end up slaughtering a bunch of people. None of his weapons were lethal, but enough damage could kill anyone who was exhausted. He couldn't keep attacking them like this. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't because it was wrong and it went against what he was raised to believe. He looked at his dashboard to look for some kind of command that he programmed to neutralize them all for the time being, but since he was distracted, a harsh blow was struck into the left leg of the Cyclone, causing it to tip over a little. "...!" The fox saw that they were getting back in their vehicles and attempting to ram themselves into him. The metal this thing was made out of was far too strong to dent, but enough force would indeed knock over both it and Tails. Being up on this machine gave him the edge of aerial view, with them having to come to him just to attack which made themselves vulnerable. If he got knocked down to the ground, his advantage would be taken away. Since they could constantly get knocked out while fighting, the fight would endure for hours and eventually wear Tails out.

Eventually, slowly but surely, they'd kill him.

He had to think of something-

"I. Call. Dibs!"

A robotic voice suddenly announced as a slew of large bullets were shot off against the jackals. They were rubber, not intended to kill but severely incapacitate. Anyone that was hit with one was immediately knocked down painfully. The force of large rubber bullets was still strong enough to kill a normal civilian in a single graze, so hitting a mind controlled jackal dead on would cause their body too much exertion to get back up from such a devastating hit. Mind controlled or not, they physically wouldn't be able to get up because their bodies would be too battered. A doll was useless if it had no stuffing. The velocity of the bullets caused them to shoot right through the metal of the vehicles and Egg Mobiles, rendering them useless. The last and the very best of the E-100 series robots jumped down, his black and red shiny metal glimmering in the scarlet red sun. With strong metallic clawed fists, the stock-bodied rogue Eggman robot cocked back his arms and made windmilling maneuvers at incredible speed. Bullets and missiles were released from the underside of his limbs, and he spun himself around in a circle to further increase the radius of his attacks. Like a spinning top, he zipped through any and all jackal grunts who even attempted to try and get up.

However, in the event that they still wouldn't back down, this droid had a back up for that. He then stilled himself instantly and repositioned his arms before raising his hands. "Activating riot foam..." His hands were retracted, and were replaced with metal holes. Light beige foam spewed from within the holes, splattered and growing the second it made contact with the open air. It covered the jackals full-bodied, and the liquid did as he claimed and began to expand into a thick foam. Soon it became so thick, that it hardened as solid as rocks. Jackals attempted to punch or hit it off, but they couldn't get through. Since they were under the ruby's control, they wouldn't stop attempting to escape, but it was futile. They would never get out of this temporary prison, as some of the foam was either too heavy to get up with it on their bodies, or it stuck into the ground and made it so that it was binding some of the jackals to the dirt. It was practically a glue trap for insects. And the rest were too injured to stand up, their bodies were giving out. Still, they were all alive. No deaths occurred, but they were all beaten and would no longer be an issue. With that handled, the droid wonder known as E-123 Omega, turned to Tails with a confident gleam in his red LED eyes.

With a big smile growing on Tails' face, he couldn't help but greet the robot. "Omega, it's you!"

The robot's hands returned to their proper function and he pointed at the fox. "Make no mistake: I am not your ally. However," He made a few idle beeps before making his hand into a fist. "Assigned by GUN, I am to protect and aid any and all citizens from these canine-meatbags. It is my job to protect you, even if you fare better than a normal meatbag."

The fox chuckled a little, he forgot that Omega was a very neutral machine. To be honest, he didn't hang around anyone else outside of Shadow and Rouge, so he truly didn't have a reason to care about their friends other than those two. "Okay, fair enough," He said, but he still very much liked the robot. He was a marvelous machine that grew some level of sentience during their adventures, and evidently had some semblance of a heart since he greatly cared about the rest of Team Dark. "But I'm still really grateful you showed up. Thank you!"

"Your gratitude is highly unnecessary. Now," He began to jog ahead with excitement, happy to destroy more Eggman creations. Taking down criminals was also a bonus. "Let us destroy the rest of them!"

The Cyclone began to run after the droid to catch up, Tails feeling a bit more brave now that he had an ally on his side, albeit a stubborn one. "Hey Omega," He said to the droid below. "You see Shadow on your way here?"

"Negative," The robot replied. "I have not seen Shadow the Hedgehog nor Rouge the Bat in three months due to an imperative mission that stationed me in Shamar. Waste of time and not worth the travel miles." The machine made an annoyed beeping noise, a small amount of steam puffing from his upper body in frustration. "Missed several weeks of Housewives of Empire City with Rouge, this is unacceptable."

Tails chuckled under his breath, the fact that this machine enjoyed such a vapid TV show like that was beyond his understanding. "Heh, right...So," His voice became a little timid. "You know what's going on? Who we're up against?"

"Affirmative," The droid responded. "Shadow has failed his mission in securing an arrest for Infinite the Jackal. Due to this failure, Infinite has gained possession over what's known as the Phantom Ruby, a powerful icosahedron-cut gemstone with unpredictable capabilities. He kidnapped Shadow, tortured him and even caused Sonic the Hedgehog to become unstable. He is now causing mass destruction with the Egg Armada, and will soon attempt to destroy the rest of Empire City." Despite the computerized automated voice, Tails could tell he was very angry about what happened to the biohog. Rightfully so. "I am aware that Shadow's kidnapping lasted for two weeks, and he has committed several unforgivable crimes that warrant nothing short of a slow and painful death sentence. I am of the belief that this is a massive misunderstanding, as Shadow never fails and there is no calculated reason to doubt him. Ever."

Curiously, Tails suddenly asked him something rather personal. Sure this was a machine, but Omega's limited sentience had very interesting insight. "So you know about Sonic not being...all there right now." However, he noticed Omega didn't mention anything about an evil super form. Perhaps Shadow didn't tell GUN that detail, only that Sonic wasn't in his right mind at the moment. Fair. "With that in mind, do you think Sonic has the potential to be evil, Omega?"

"Why are you asking useless questions?"

"N-No really, hear me out—" The fox insisted. "You've seen everything Shadow went through, right? And you never doubted him, despite being made to stop him if he ever went rogue?"

"Negative." Omega immediately answered. "Doubting Shadow in any regard is futile. My function to neutralize him should he betray Team Dark, will never be utilized as long as I remain online, simply because Shadow will never turn to treachery. I know this, because he never has and never will."

Tails furrowed his brows. "But what about when-"

"Mistakes do not count as attempts."

He completely shot him down, he knew he was going to bring up the Metal Sonic and Black Doom incidents and rejected both subjects. He admired the robot's extreme loyalty. "Well, I know you don't know us or Sonic all that much, but you know he's a good guy. What if...What if he had a dark secret, a secret that made him powerful and evil enough to do nothing but kill and ruin the world," He hesitated in asking his next question. "Do you think he'd ever use that power on purpose?"

For a moment, the droid was silent. "..." After some idle beeps, he answered. "...Negative. Sonic the Hedgehog is incapable of committing acts of evil, even with ample opportunity to do so. Why are you asking me this?"

Tails frowned as he thought about Omega's initial answer. "We just found out that Sonic...Might not be what we thought he was, and he's gone insane. He's trying to find and kill Infinite, but if we get in the way, he might intentionally hurt us too. Shadow told us to hide from him, that he's too dangerous to be around."

"And how is this any different than when Black Doom manipulated Shadow, or when Shadow lost his memories?" The robot easily answered, countering his question with Shadow's past mistakes Tails was going to bring up just a moment ago. "When Black Doom told him to kill all humans, Mobians and other living organisms who got in his way, simply because it was in his blood? When he was deceived and manipulated into thinking he was nothing more than a fake android with false memories who lived a complete lie?" Omega's monotone voice almost sounded offended, angry that Tails couldn't see past his own fear. "When Professor Gerald himself twisted his memories of Maria Robotnik in order to make him believe she wanted nothing more than for him to commit genocide?"

This caused the fox to stiffen with his mouth slightly agape.

He was right.

"...I...Well-"

A strong, annoyed hiss breezed out of the vents of Omega's metallic face. "This orange creature sees not the forest for its trees..." The robot casually insulted him with a sarcastic air. "You asked if Sonic the Hedgehog would ever go rogue purposefully. I am telling you no, and not even now. If he has indeed gone rogue at this moment in time, it is only because he was forced to, just like Shadow was. Using my analysis of meeting the Mobian during past occasions, I cannot confirm with certainty that he would willingly betray his comrades for sincere bloodlust or greed. And considering what you've personally witnessed with the events of Shadow the Hedgehog, someone you are not as familiar with yet still showed sympathy to, you should know the foundation of your own questions: They have no proper basis. Your fear blinds you to the truth. You are wrong."

Damn.

Even the robot believed in Sonic more than he did.

"I already understand Sonic the Hedgehog is behaving hostile for now, but it is not of his own volition. According to Abraham Tower, Shadow reported that this was another one of Infinite the Jackal's plots." Omega added, his demeanor a little less exasperated. Tails found that interesting, that meant that Shadow lied and blamed it all on Infinite. Again, fair. "If necessary, I will forcefully neutralize him, but it should not be personally held against him. It's a very simple equation, Miles Prower the Fox."

This caused Tails to grimace heavily, feeling a great guilt weigh in on his heart. A robot void of organs or organic emotions, was damning him for losing his faith in his big brother. Worst of all, he knew Omega was right. He didn't want to doubt Sonic, he really didn't. This was why he's been so angry with him lately, because he didn't know what to believe. But, this was a crazy wake up call. If Omega of all people, someone who found Sonic just as annoying as Shadow did, was defending the hero, then maybe Tails was indeed wrong. Maybe...he needed to rethink all this. "...Maybe you're right-" Bolting past with magenta trailing behind him, the masked jackal mercenary zoomed right by the two. Blinking in shock, Tails stood up in his pilot seat and tilted his head. "What the...?" Was that Infinite? And was he running from something? "Omega, did you see that?"

"Target acquired: Infinite the Jackal. Engaging in combat!" That's when a harsh tremble of the ground shook beneath them. "Analysis...There are no earthquakes occurring in Green Hill Zone."

"Yeah," Tails whispered to himself as the shaking got even rougher. It happened in a pattern, one short-lived tremor after another but in very quick succession. "What is that?" Turning his head around in three-hundred and sixty degrees, Omega scanned the distance behind them as they ran across the striped plains. While the Cyclone was on autopilot, Tails turned to look too. His baby blue eyes squinted as he attempted to see just what in the world was causing so much shaking.

When he blinked, he saw it coming right for them.

A golden, scarlet red glowing hedgehog was running directly towards them, the glint of his swirling eyes being the first thing he saw. As he ran between Omega and the Cyclone, the force of his sprint caused them to lose balance for a second. The Cyclone barely managed to keep moving, and Omega quickly recovered but turned his attention directly at the supersonic moving force in front of them. As if competing for the Olympics all over again, the thousand-yard staring hedgehog ran as if he was completing the largest track field of his life. Tails realized that this was why the ground kept shaking, because every time one of his sneakers hit the grass, it left a small crater underneath. A long path of small craters were left in Green Hill's soil behind him. Not only that, but the look in the entity's eyes was completely empty. There was no expression, no emotion, completely blank of any concern or desire whatsoever. While he was running, Tails could faintly hear him whisper. "Why the hell can't I fly? I know I'm only using a fraction of power so this body doesn't give out, but this is ludicrous. This is so much slower than I can normally go. It's like watching paint dry and now I'm getting bored all over again. Now I'm letting that dog get away and the contract-" And he just kept rambling on and on, some sentences he was even repeating like...Well, a robot.

Using his jet boosters, Omega lifted himself off the ground and ascended himself up to Tails' level. "...Is this Sonic the Hedgehog?" He asked, almost unsure.

Gulping, realizing he was right beside the very thing he feared, Tails nodded. "Y-Yeah. Or at least, that's his body. Something's possessing him and it's evil."

"Should we engage in combat?"

"No. God no, Omega. That thing is way stronger than you think. The fact that we're able to keep up with him is a miracle in itself. I only wanted to find him so I can-"

Omega however, would hear none of that. "Engaging in combat."

"Omega, no!" Tails cried.

"If this rogue Sonic is going to get in my way, then I will bring him back to his senses and he shall be neutralized!" The machine flew to get ahead of the hedgehog, and with a small boost, managed to do so and kept his velocity. He turned around to Sonic as he flew backwards, transforming his hands into minigun barrels. "Firing!" Steel bullets were shot directly at the glowing hedgehog. However, they literally just bounced off of him like useless duds and dropped to the ground with huge dents in them. It didn't even phase him or get his attention, and he continued to run without so much as blinking. Seeing as how this was useless, Omega switched to another model of weapon. "Firing: Beam Cannon!" A large blast of purple colored energy was directed right in his face, an energy beam capable of destroying a highly fortified building. It burned away anything in its vicinity, and even Tails had to direct the Cyclone to back off a little so it wouldn't get damaged. A clawed glove reached out from the beam's light and tore directly through the robot's chest. It then gripped a hold of his back, denting the metal with it's fingers. The entity lifted the nearly three-thousand pound droid up in the air like a rag doll with one arm, before effortlessly swinging him away in the distance as if he was nothing. Omega crashed to the ground and toppled to a stop after a few seconds, his body smoking significantly with a few parts laying on the ground around him. He tore out his electrical metal innards and left him for dead.

Completely frightened, Tails' heart sunk. "O-Omega...!" He looked down at the hedgehog, and realized that his attention was finally struck. He was staring directly at him with those strange swirling eyes and it freaked him out. Desperately, he reached around the pilot's seat, before revealing a small remote with a single button. This was it, he could stop his big brother. He pressed his thumb against it before tossing it down below. It blinked red several times, before exploding into a vast array of orange-yellow energy beams. The beams encircled around the entity's limbs, and they zapped against him. It was the same invention that Eggman used against Super Sonic, so this had to work. This was it, this device should be able to render the super form useless after a mere second.

...

...

...

...It wasn't working.

The entity was still running and staring at him. Why wasn't it working!?

Unless—Tails' eyes widened.

This form was way beyond the power of Super Sonic.

Which means his device didn't have the capacity to stop him.

Scarlet red corrupted the beams and caused them to fade away into embers. The entity blinked, his concentration broken. He sped up significantly, gaining more distance away from the Walker. He suddenly made a U-turn directly in front of the Cyclone, before crouching down and spindashing, slicing through one of the legs. The Cyclone lost balance. Sparks of weld spatter shot from the now severed metal limb, and like a freshly chopped mighty oak tree, it began to fall down with a heavy thud. The moment it started to tip downwards, the fox moved to jump. "A-Ah...!" Tails fell out of the pilot's seat and landed harshly onto the ground back-first. He rolled to a stop with bruises growing all over his body from such a fall at a higher height, and attempted to move his muscles. "N...Ngh..." He squeezed his eyes shut at the pain. He felt his nerves react, and he forced his palm to feel its way to some of the grass. He gripped the blades and tried to push himself up onto his knees.

A loud tremor shook underneath him as a shadow grew over his body.

His eyes opened.

"..."

He was terrified.

He was shaking like a leaf. He was near him, he knew he was. What would he do? What could he do? Perhaps he could at least see his death from head on, as there wasn't any point in denying that he would no longer live in the next second. Swallowing hard with raisins for eyes, Tails slowly lifted his head up to see the demonic presence before him. He was so...manically appalling, yet so wonderfully marvelous to look at. The golden-scarlet hedgehog was crouching down beside him, watching him with intrigued scarlet red swirling eyes. Making shaky breaths, Tails was careful not to make any other noise. Don't move, don't make any sounds and don't do anything that might cause it to attack. If this thing wanted to act like a wild animal, he'd have to treat it as such. Sweat dripping from his chin, the vulpine kept his direct eye contact with him, terrified of what would happen if he broke it. The hedgehog was breathing slowly, but heavily, and his expression was still mostly blank if not a little amused. He suddenly reached his hand towards him, causing Tails to close his eyes shut and prepare for the worst. He suddenly felt the pain from falling from his Cyclone instantly go away, and a hand softly placed itself on his head.

It gently ruffled his fur affectionately.

"...?"

Only Sonic did that.

He reopened his gaze with the entity, watching it make a creepy smile towards him. However, if he wasn't mistaken, Tails could just barely see some genuine care in the entity's hypnotic disks all of a sudden. The smile faltered, and the entity began to speak. "..." With a struggling raspy voice, it said, "Tails..." It said his name. "You should...really...go home..." He said, his tone a little shaky, as if he shouldn't have been saying this. "...Stay...away...Don't want...to hurt you..." He then reached behind one of the fox's ears, before pulling out a blue spine. It looked like one of Sonic's, except the blue fur on it was dying. Blue energy faded from it, and the fox realized that was chaos energy.

"...!? Did you—Did you throw something at me?"

"Pfft, no."

The spine shriveled into loose threads of fur that blew away into the wind. "Can't...find you again...Might...Hurt you..." The hedgehog turned his attention away from him and stared back at the distance. "Find Shadow...Hide...Be good...So proud of you." It sounded like his voice was dying, it could just barely get out one last thing. "Love you...Always. Goodbye." As if waking up from a dream, the entity's expression dropped any and all emotion it was beginning to develop. A distracted, disturbing chuckle emanated from within his throat, a far creepier voice replacing the one that was just speaking to him. "I'll find you." He hissed with a sneer as he stood back up on his feet. "I'll devour you, doggy." In a scarlet red streak, he sonicboomed from view, shaking the earth as he made his way across the zone. Wind blew against Tails' face as he watched the demon disappear from his eyes, completely dumbfounded by what he just witnessed.

He hadn't realized how much time had passed since he left him, he was too stuck in thought.

That was Sonic for a moment there.

He broke control just a mere second, just to warn Tails and say his farewell, as if he was going to die again. How was he supposed to deal with that? Feeling empty, lost and alone, the fox continued to sit there. Omega had been destroyed, his Cyclone was destroyed...He had a chance to use the device and it didn't even work. He thought he could do something, anything to stop the demon, but in the end he was useless as always.

"..."

Why was he even here? He should have hid away like Shadow said.

"Tails?" A deep masculine voice called. He felt hands grasp his shoulder and helped him get back up on his feet. "Are you okay?" He recognized that voice from anywhere. The fox slowly glanced at the taller person in front of him. It was Shadow, of course. "Are you hurt?"

The vulpine shook his head silently. He then lifted his arm and pointed. "...He went that way." He said quietly. He already knew what Shadow came here for.

Shadow's amber red eyes glanced at where he was pointing, before looking back down at the fox. "I saw Omega's body a few miles away, and some of the bodies of several jackal grunts before that. Thankfully, Omega's been upgraded to the teeth with self-recovery protocols, so he's repairing himself at the moment." He lightly shook the fox for answers. "Look at me, you're spacing out. What happened?"

Omega was okay? Thank goodness. With a sigh, Tails closed his eyes. "That thing appeared. That demon." He said with a terse near-whisper. "I had a device that could neutralize super forms, but that demon is a much stronger version of Super Sonic, so it failed." This caused Shadow's eyes to widen. It was that powerful? So Super Shadow wouldn't have worked anyway, and that's really dire. That plan was a no-go, but he had a backup plan that he was currently commencing anyway. And if that didn't work, well...He'd have to cross that bridge later. "It destroyed my cyclone, and it almost destroyed Omega. He was going after Infinite, but..." He frowned with furrowed brows. "For a moment, I think Sonic was trying to break through. He...healed me. He told me to find you and hide. He said he didn't want to hurt me. Then he...Told me 'goodbye.'" He scowled. "Then that thing took over and he started saying awful weird stuff again."

With a sympathetic grimace, Shadow nodded. He could only imagine how Tails was feeling about all this, and he knew for sure he must have been absolutely disturbed. "Understood. Hey," He let the fox go. "Sonic isn't lost, he's in there somewhere. I know I can get him back, I have a plan. Sonic and I aren't telling you to hide because we're underestimating you, we're telling you to hide because no one knows what that entity can do. Not even him. It's too capricious, and if it was going to kill Eggman, it can certainly kill you too. Judging from the damage of your Cyclone, I should be looking at a corpse right now. But more importantly," He added with a soft tone. "I know you're doubting him, and I admit, I did a little as well. However, knowing that he's in there trying to break control should tell you that it isn't Sonic we should be worried about. It's whatever's controlling his body that's of great concern. Do you understand what I'm telling you?" He asked sincerely. "Keep your faith in Sonic, and find somewhere safe. If something were to happen to you, he would never forgive himself."

Nodding, the fox understood his point completely. "I know." He rubbed his arm, there was no use staying here. "I'll head back to Angel Island."

Shadow nodded back. "Do that, I'm sure the others could use some help right now. I already informed Omega to meet you there." He then turned his attention to the distance and charged his air shoes. "Good luck, and be careful. I promise you, I'll get that moron back and I'll kick his ass for worrying all of you like this." He boosted away, leaving the fox to himself. He then thought about that spine that was hidden behind his ear the whole time. Sonic must have been using it to keep track of him the entire time when they were separated. He was making sure he was okay throughout this entire ordeal, for weeks. At the same time, he was convinced that if it wasn't for Sonic fighting for control, that demon would have most certainly colored the grass with his blood. Why? Why was it able to make Sonic do that at all? Any of this? Did Sonic have genuine malice in his heart? After all, Shadow once did too, manipulated or not. Why couldn't Sonic? A mistake could still cost someone's life, regardless of intentions. How many more mistakes would Sonic make before he actually hurt one of his friends? Tails opened his irises and looked up at the sky. He touched the faded gunshot wound on his arm, feeling the old scar under his fur.

With a whimper, tears developed in the corner of his eyes.

"I'm sorry. I don't know if I can trust you anymore, Sonic."

3:30 PM

Skating through the fields of Green Hill Zone gave Shadow plenty of time to think of his second plan. If he wanted to get to that demonic form, he'd have to get to Infinite. And if he wanted to get to Infinite, he needed to make the jackal come to him so he could kill two birds with one stone. He had a sneaky, but ingenious idea. He saw some unconscious jackals miles away from Tails and Omega when he arrived here, but after doing a headcount, he knew that wasn't all of them. Infinite still had a few dozen more at his disposal, and they most likely got away. So, all he had to do was let them capture him. See, when Shadow was kidnapped, he spent plenty of time with the asshole and observed him with great detail during his capture. Infinite liked to talk a lot of shit, and often said things he didn't mean since he was a sniveling little coward. Whenever he said Shadow should have died alongside Sonic too due to being an 'enabler,' he could always tell he was lying through his teeth. Infinite still didn't want to kill him, he just wanted to lash out on him and keep a punching bag with a sex-hole around.

If he had successfully killed Shadow earlier from starvation and abuse, he would have severely regretted it and more than likely would have used the ruby to attempt to revive him. He was beyond positive about that. Therefore, if his lackeys spotted him during this incident, he was sure he didn't give them orders to kill. No, he gave them orders to capture him alive and bring him directly to Infinite. And that's precisely what he'd let them do. When he came across the group of Eggman imprinted jeeps and Egg Mobiles, he smirked. They'd never see this coming. When he skated to get ahead of them, he could hear some of them point and shout to get closer and capture him.

Perfect.

"Hey, that's the boss's hostage! Get him!"

Just as he predicted. Those were shitty versions of the Egg Mobiles, but they could still shoot projectiles, albeit laughable ones. A missile was shot in his direction, and the GUN agent decided to use a little bit of his acting skills. He of course easily dodged the explosion's impact, but didn't move away from the smoke it emitted. He suddenly cried out in pain and tumbled down to the floor. For a little bit of extra measure, he spawned a Chaos Spear in his hand to make a gash on his knee to make it seem as if they ruined his leg, before letting it disappear into the ether. Some of the burnt debris covering the grass was brushing up on it, making it look like it was the blast that made the injury. Even more perfect. As he heard footsteps near him, he pretended to groan in pain and grasp his leg. The jackals of all shapes, sizes and genders stared down at the biohog with curiosity before glancing at each other. "We took out his leg, we could take him to boss." With a small pregnant pause, they all nodded and reached down to grab Shadow's limbs. They lifted him up over their heads and carried him to one of the jeeps. They stuffed him in the back and two jackals, a muscular female and a thin male, got in the driver's and passenger seat.

After he was placed on the seat alone, the biohog chuckled under his breath. Idiots. The vehicle rumbled as it revved up it's engine and began to move forward. The female jackal glared up at the rearview mirror and held up a large dagger. "Don't try anything stupid. Wouldn't wanna deliver you to boss with your guts spilling out of your mouth." Oh yeah, keeping thinking that. Dumb ass. She then reached down below the driver's dashboard and pulled up a transmitter to her lips. "Boss, we've got Shadow. He must have been weakened or something, cause we took out his leg easily. I'm guessing that blue rat made a little visit in that demon form and put the hurt on him before we got to him." She hesitated before saying, "Want me to kill him?" Suddenly, magenta electrocuted both the transmitter and her hand. "N-Ngh...!" She dropped it, but she could hear the masked mercenary's shrill voice from here.

"You stupid bint! Don't you dare lay a hand on him! He's mine."

With a sigh, she ignored that sexist and outdated insult to make a reluctant reply. "Yes...sir."

In a magenta flash, the man of the hour appeared inside of the vehicle's backseat, scaring the other grunts half to death. The male jackal almost lost control of the car. The mercenary crossed his arms and made an unimpressed noise, looking down at Shadow. "Caught in the crossfire from your own cursed lover, how foolish."

With a roll of his eyes, Shadow easily countered with, "You're the one who keeps running away from faker. What's the matter? Too scared to square up?" A swipe of claws were sliced into his tan muzzle. "...And like always, you love showing your dominance over a disagreement that you're clearly losing, by using violence instead of making a legitimate comeback. Classic Infinite." The biohog commented as blood stung from his left cheek.

"That pesky mouth of yours," The jackal leader growled as he gripped the sides of Shadow's face with his fingers. "Will be the death of you, as it almost already was. You lay here in one of my vehicles, surrounded by my men and I, and you still go against me? You're far too intelligent for this kind of behavior, Shadow." He then placed his hands on his wrists, a pair of magenta cuffs appearing around them.

Shadow looked at the cuffs with amusement. This was like...what, the third time he did this to him? It was getting old. "Oh, these are nice. Better than the last ones." He raised a brow at the jackal leader. "I'm starting to see that you've got a weird obsession for this kind of thing."

Ignoring his words, Infinite leaned back in his seat and placed his hands on his lap. "Head to Station Square, we're done with Green Hill Zone." He instructed, and his jackals nodded in confirmation without a word.

With a sneer, Shadow decided to egg him on just a little bit more. "Ehh, you know, if that's what you're into, by all means—Hey, more power to you. I personally can't be bothered. Although," His sneer deepened as he brazenly looked up at Infinite in the eye of his mask. "If Sonic tied me up, that'd be a much different story." He could hear the dark growls in the mercenary's throat. Oh the fun he was having right now in pissing him off. "Spreading my legs open, having his way with me night after night...Hell, I'm getting hard just thinking about him-"

A claw was pointed right over his neck. Infinite pushed it against his fur, his nail close to slicing open skin. "Do you want to die again?"

Stupid wretches, Shadow thought as he silenced himself with a smirk. It was only a matter of time until his plan would go to its next phase, and they would all pay. All he had to do was wait until their paths all aligned-

The ground shook. "The hell was that?" Infinite asked aloud. Shadow's smirk only grew larger.

Ahh, and let plan B further commence.

30 - END - 30