46 - Vertex - 46

1:35 PM

This made the crocodile wince, he really shouldn't have been running his mouth like this.

"Ah boy," He shrugged. "Y'know, I only divulged that info to see where your head was at, makin' sure you were truly trustworthy and all..." Huh, he wasn't as airheaded as he seemed, just like the OG Vex. "I really shouldn't tell you anything else but, for some reason, you lookin' like our vice leader is makin' me a little more comfortable than I probably should. However you use this info will be very telling. Keep that in mind." He gave Sonic a casual, but firm warning. Don't abuse this information. "Just promise you won't tell Zonic I told you any of this, he'll have my badge." He saw Sonic nod in agreement before continuing. "Alright, General Zhadow worked as Zobotnik's right hand for decades. And I mean several decades, I'd say at least thirty years. Makes ya wonder how old the guys is..." This made Sonic frown. Did they not know how old Zhadow was? Maybe Sonic should keep his mouth shut for now, it wasn't his business to tell. "He's worked with Zobotnik for a long time, and before Zonic, me or Zespio ever enlisted. They were pretty tight. Everybody always thought Zobotnik was a little, y'know," He gave Sonic a disapproving glance. "Corrupt, but nobody could ever prove otherwise. Honestly, Zhadow seemed kinda underhanded too. He had a lot of reports of severe police brutality on criminals and prisoners. Nobody ever respected him the way they do now, they only feared him. But then little Zonic came in outta no where screechin' 'I wanna be a No Zone soldier, too!'" Zector chuckled. "Ahh, he was so young and naive. Nobody ever thought he'd make it, 'specially not Zhadow. I think he made the guy have a heart, and next thing we all know, they're dating."

Sonic looked to the side as he thought about all this.

Something wasn't adding up here...

From what it sounded like, Zhadow had more of a checkered past than Shadow did, which was saying a lot. Sonic honestly never knew how old Eggman was, but he assumed by the time he was arrested by Zonic, he was at least somewhere in his late sixties. Considering that people in this reality were older than Mobians, he'd hazard a guess that this Zobotnik was at least a few years if not an entire decade older than his own world's Robotnik. This means that the man was old, super old. If Zhadow lived long enough to work by this guy's side for thirty years, this meant he worked for the last warden before then as well. He wasn't sure who was the warden before Zobotnik was, but he could kind of guess it was a just another Robotnik. Maybe another version of Gerald. Technically, Zhadow was himself a Robotnik-Err, Zobotnik, who took over the moment the last one made a break for it. Looking at it this way, it almost seemed like Zhadow served as some kind of militant heirloom for anyone who ruled No Zone before taking over himself. Sonic was only making a bunch of theories in his head, but his intuition was almost always right. He really wanted to question the general now about his history with the old warden, because maybe the general wasn't such a blameless victim after all.

He hoped it wasn't all black and white though, 'cause he really kinda liked Zhadow. He was cool, fun, lighthearted and not at all the drab annoyance that was Zonic. If Sonic loved Shadow as strongly as he did, he knew Zonic must have felt at least somewhat similar about his own reality's Shadow. But if he was so pissy because of whatever Zhadow did, the love of his life, then...He mentally sighed, he needed to relay this to Shadow to see what he thought. After all, regardless of Zonic's opinions about them, they were still very similar. Maybe Shadow's attitude about Eggman and Gerald was somehow similar to how Zhadow felt about his world's Robotnik.

"Ahh, there it is!" Zector suddenly said as he jogged towards a bright light at the end of the corridor. As he made more steps, he was suddenly electrified and thrown backwards onto the ground. "Gah...!" He slowly stood up and looked at his electrified hands in shock. If he wasn't wearing this armor, that could have fried his entire body. "What the hell...? That's not supposed to do that." The two looked upon a glowing orb of light blue power, probably as large as a circular window. The light was trapped behind glass that was rounded to the energy's form. Several thick and large wires were surrounding it, including a few metal pipes. Light blue grids faded in and out from vision, along with a few sparks of electricity running through them. So this was one of the city's power cores and it's power grid. Sonic's eyes became neon, he could sense that there was indeed chaos energy here. He wasn't very good at sensing other energies, but training with Shadow helped tenfold. Now it was much easier for him to sense it, but he should have been able to feel it way before they got this close. Perhaps it was because of all the cyber energy surrounding it? Either way, this was what they were here for. Sonic took a single step forward, and tossed his arm forwards. A blue spine stuck against the glass, but didn't penetrate it. This made Zector flinch in fear. "H-Hey! Don't throw things at it! The power core is extremely unstable without that glass. If you break it-"

"Yeah, yeah." Sonic cut him off. He then narrowed his eyes and frowned. Why did this feel...off? Not just because of the cyber energy, but because of how easy it was to find the chaos energy corrupting it. If Infinite visited this reality, then this Zobotnik should have been warned that he and Shadow were coming to No Zone to help stop this. Wouldn't there be defenses for it? "I got it. That's why I didn't throw my spine too hard." He walked towards the glass and plucked his spine from it. He stared at it carefully, feeling its power surge into his own body. He winced a little in pain, that cyber energy was not agreeing with him. However, it didn't completely clash with the chaos inside of him either. Odd, didn't Zhadow say they were like polar opposites? Maybe because his body was fortified with chaos energy, it was too strong to be heavily effected by the cyber energy. After draining the energy out of the spine, Sonic dropped it on the floor and let it die. "Okay, now I get what's goin' on..."

Zector blinked in a confused manner. "Uhh...what?"

The hero bent forward and squinted his eyes very harshly. He knew something was wrong here, and he could feel it coming. "I thought it was weird that there was nothing stopping us from comin' down here. But now that I feel the energy, I know what it is." He stood up straight and glanced at Zector. "You're pretty strong, right?"

The crocodile didn't like where this was going. "Well, I'd like to think so, yeah. I mean," He made a cocky smirk. "I didn't become Admiral for nothin', y'know."

"Right, right," Sonic nodded. "'Cause you might wanna put your helmet back on."

Put his helmet back on? "Why would I-" The light blue power core suddenly became candy red, illuminating the entire power sewer system. It vibrated destructively against the glass, causing a massive surge in energy within the wires and pipes. Even the grid around it became candy red, it was all becoming corrupted. "That's Zobotnik's hacked energy!" Zector exclaimed with a scowl. "We need to-" Before his eyes, he witnessed the glass withholding the power core crack. A few more cracks appeared, and the dim lights turned red and flashed several times like a siren. The entire glass surrounding the core busted from within, pieces of the thick material falling to the ground. Sonic could feel it, that thing was about to make a huge blast. He rushed towards Zector and tackled the crocodile down. As he did, a vaporizing line of candy red power beamed throughout the entire corridor. Sonic could feel it singe the very tip of his back spines, and it hurt pretty badly. He thought it was weird that such a tiny area would hurt, until he looked down and saw his arm. It was very much singed and burned. 'Guess he didn't push Zector down quick enough to avoid the blast himself.

Grunting in pain, Sonic tried to get up and move his arm. It hurt like a son of a bitch to even inch it in any direction, but it wasn't anything he wasn't used to. Sucks it was his dominant arm, though. He saw a few electrical sparks of that candy red cyber energy seethe through his skin, and that hurt pretty badly too. "O-Okay," He hissed. "Not gonna lie, that hurt." His ear twitched at the sound of electrical surging. "Get down!" More zaps from the corrupted core blasted outwards, but this time it was multiple blasts all at once. The blasts were so strong that it was damaging the toughened concrete walls, shooting through them like melted butter. If they stayed down here, they were gonna get zapped in the face before long. He turned to Zector quickly. "Yo, we gotta get outta here!" As the croc stood back up on his feet, he noticed how fast Sonic was willing to protect him. He dove his body over his like a shield, despite Zector being larger than him and armored. Even if Zector got hit, it wouldn't have burned through his uniform so he wouldn't have gotten injured too badly. Sonic even got hurt in the process, but didn't hesitate for a moment to save him. The hedgehog suddenly ran towards him while snatching his hands in his hold to pull him along. "Come on already!"

This snapped Zector out of it and his helmet was suddenly digitized on his head. He then sprinted forward with a trail of light blue following behind him. Sonic smirked at this, it was nice to be able to run with someone who could at least keep up. As they ran to escape the corridor of the power sewer, they ducked their heads down at the last second to avoid another blast. Sunlight began breaching through the ground, causing them to look up. That power was so strong that it was destroying the very street itself from above. Alright, this wasn't going to be an easy fix. Zector placed two fingers on the side of his helmet. "Gonna have to call for backup-"

"Nope," Sonic skidded to a stop and faced the direction of where they just ran from. Now that they were at a slightly safer distance, he had an idea. A dumb idea, but an idea nonetheless. "I got this."

"Are you crazy!?" Zector yelled as he neared the ladder. "You'll get your face combusted if you let that thing hit you!"

Sonic only shook his head. "Trust me, I got this." He readied his left arm, the one that wasn't damaged. "Lemme show ya how we do things in Mobius." He held out his left palm, and watched closely for when that beam of light would come. He could still faintly see its color from afar, it was only a matter of time before it shot at them again. Maybe a few seconds, but he couldn't be late. If he was, it would cut his head clean off like a laser. He focused only on the upcoming blast, allowing everything else from his mind to fade away. He couldn't hear Zector's shouting, he couldn't hear the electrical beams. All he could hear was himself, and that rogue power core. Now all he had to do was imagine Shadow lying next to him, on the beach, enjoying the sun and each other's company. True tranquility. It almost made him smile. Focus, and breathe. Focus, and breathe.

One...Two...

"Sonic prime...!"

...Three.

With his own royal blue energy protecting his palm, Sonic blocked the candy red's beam from shooting through. It didn't break through his glove, not yet. The hero closed his eyes and took a deep breath. This was going to hurt even more, but he had to do it. It was the only way he knew how. Slowly, the red cyber power broke through and began to protrude into Sonic's glove. He groaned in pain, this kind of power didn't feel good at all, but he couldn't waver. His hand never left its position, and continued to absorb every particle of the beam. Zector watched as a living electrical current began to spread all throughout Sonic's anatomy, it was going to corrupt his entire body. "N-No! If you absorb that much cyber energy, especially hacked, you'll die!" He yelled, and tried to run to him, but he couldn't. What could he do? He couldn't stop him midway, the damage was done. And if he touched him, he could be corrupted himself. He could do nothing but watch as the prime hedgehog assimilated the blast. But then, he did something rather clever. Sonic used his injured right hand to poke out two fingers. He pressed them against his left wrist, allowing some of the corrupted cyber energy to flow into the other hand. Like a pair of lightning rods, he used his chaos energy to help manipulate the cyber energy into the other limb.

The power traveled to his burned right arm. Shadow was gonna be super pissed at him for this, but-"Chaos-" He then pointed his two fingers upwards. "-Redirection...!"

A huge boom of red power zapped from his digits and through the concrete ceiling. It shot into the air and soon the sky so far and so quickly, that it traveled all the way into the higher atmosphere of the planet. It cut through clouds, oxygen and other gases, before hitting outer space itself. Zector eyes widened behind his helmet, and he couldn't believe his eyes. He drained all of the energy and assimilated it using chaos energy to help hold it in his figure, and move it from one place to the next. He then redirected the corrupted power within himself, using his own body as a lightning rod to point it somewhere else: Off the entire planet. "No...way..." The crocodile whispered to no one but himself. Panting heavily, Sonic limped his way back down the corridor, shocking Zector even more. "W-Wait! What are you doing now?"

"Ain't it obvious?" Sonic scoffed while holding his right arm. "The moment chaos energy merged with cyber energy, it got corrupted and became its own messed up thing. I basically shot all of the corrupted energy into outer space. That stuff's gonna dissolve eventually, meaning it won't be of use to anyone and the city'll be without power. So," When he finally reached the destroyed core, he placed his hands up against where it used to be. Royal blue light glowed in the darkness, and resonated in the empty spot. "I'll just give what I took back. Except," He winced, this was really hurting now. "I recycled some of it. I took away the chaos energy, blasted out the corrupted energy, and now I'm gonna return the cyber energy." He took another deep breath and exhaled slowly. Royal blue and light blue mixed together, before the lighter hue separated and drifted from out of the hedgehog's hands. It gradually swirled and formed into a circle, growing thicker and bigger until a large orb of light blue light replaced the destroyed core. In just moments, Sonic created a brand new power core from the recycled cyber energy he absorbed from his body. Completely out of breath, Sonic took a few steps backwards before falling onto his knees. Sweat rolled down his head, his fur ruffled and uneven. That was seriously exhausting, but it didn't kill him. Good enough, in his mind.

Zector watched as Sonic slowly looked to the side, and gave him a thumbs up with a cheeky grin.

"See? Good as new!"

"You can't be real."

"Buddy," Sonic coughed out with a weak chuckle. "I'm as real as it gets."

1:35 PM

"You said this is where the core usually is?" Shadow asked the purple chameleon, who was frantically looking around for a power core. When they arrived at the south outskirts' power sewer system, they headed down the long concrete corridor until they reached the very end. A power core was supposed to be there, but it wasn't. It was completely dark in here with barely any light, and Zespio claimed the core itself should have completely illuminated this end of the hall. Shadow could see that there was supposed to be a round glass casing holding the power core against the wall, but there wasn't anything taking up the space. How could Zobotnik steal energy from a location that didn't have energy in the first place? The biohog grew bored of watching the chameleon look under wires and pipes for the core that obviously wasn't here. He spent like fifteen minutes looking around for nothing. Shadow rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Perhaps you took us to the wrong location-" His amber red eyes suddenly widened. "Sonic...?" He clutched his hand at his chest and felt around for something. He then pulled a blue spine from out of his chest fur, and stared at it carefully. He saw candy red power surge through it, and it shocked Shadow's hand. He dropped it, and watched the spine die. "Shit..." He held his hand up to his left ear where he pierced the stud-transceiver. He pressed it to activate its frequency. "Sonic? Sonic, do you read me?"

"N-Ngh...Heya babe...How you doin'~" He sounded both winded, sheepish and very injured. In the background, he could hear chattering of others, including beeps. Was that a heart monitor? Shadow's heard that sound more times than he was comfortable with thanks to caring for Maria, he recognized it anywhere. Damn it, it's been less than an hour. He got himself into trouble that fast?

Shadow raised a brow. "You idiot, what did you do? The spine you put in my chest just had this weird reaction with red energy and died."

"Welp, 'member how you showed me how to redirect chaos energy a week ago back home?"

"Yes...?" Shadow didn't like where this was going.

"Aight so, we found the power core on the northern outskirts right? It's got chaos energy like Zhadow said, but it corrupted the power core's cyber energy. So, I kinda...absorbed the corrupted cyber energy, separated it in my body and redirected the corrupted stuff into outer space. Then I directed the purified cyber energy back into the power core to restore it and took some of the chaos energy that was in it for myself. It hurt super bad though, and I might have gotten a pretty bad boo-boo on my entire right arm. Aaaand I might have gotten corrupted in my stomach and chest." Some silence followed after that, and Sonic could tell he may have pissed his boyfriend off severely. "...So like, you've been totes quiet for like, a whole five seconds. Umm, Zector was kind enough to drive me back to No Zone HQ to the infirmary. The nurses said I made contact with too much cyber energy and it's kinda hurtin' me. They said my fast metabolism is helping me recover from the effects. I'll probably be out by the time you get back, though. And hey!" He tried to laugh it off. "I fixed a power core before you, faker! Haha, I win!"

Shadow's eyes shrank.

On the days before they traveled to No Zone, Shadow spent that time avidly teaching Sonic how to be more in tune with chaos energy, which involved various skills such as redirecting it into something else or yourself. But when he and Sonic practiced, the blue hedgehog wasn't very good at it and kept accidentally hurting himself. He got the basics, but didn't know how to do it correctly without harming himself with an outside power inside of his body. Using Chaos Redirection required that energy to be pumped into the blood stream and into the heart, using the organ like a living electrical amp. That's why it was so risky to use, if inexperienced. "...You God damn, stupid, moronic dunce!" Shadow hollered with a large vein growing on his face. "I told you not to pull something like that, you aren't ready! The last time you practiced, you passed out in my lap with your nose cascading blood!" He was enraged that Sonic did what when he specifically told him not to many times before coming here. "It's one thing if you attempted that on regular chaos energy, but we're in a world full of cyber energy. Why the hell would you do something so stupid? You could have killed yourself!"

Some silence from the other end. "...You mad at me?" Oh God, he sounded so cute and pathetically stupid all at once.

Blushing a little, Shadow remained angry if not a teensy bit charmed. "Yes, I'm fucking mad at you!" He yelled so loudly that an amber red aura exploded from his body, causing Zespio to flinch. "You-! You..." He attempted to calm himself down. He couldn't just scream at him the whole time, he still loved this moron after all. He sighed stressfully, he was giving him ulcers. "...I literally just lost you, and you pull something like this? You played with your own energy like a malfunctioning jumper cable. How do you expect me to react?" His voice wasn't as loud, but it was still very angry. He already knew Sonic was an audacious adrenaline-junkie prick, but he just saw his corpse a couple weeks ago. Was he trying to give him PTSD with new trauma? "I told you to never attempt a high-leveled skill like that without me around for a reason, Sonic. You could have died all over again, this time by your own doing because you're too foolish to listen to me! How would I look returning home and breaking the news to your friends, huh? How would I tell them, 'hey, your hero killed himself and he's dead for real this time when I promised I'd protect him with my very life.' Chaos, you-" He massaged his forehead with his fingers. "-I just wish you'd stop doing shit like this!"

"..."

...

...Shit.

Okay, he didn't mean to say all that, but he also didn't realize how much he wanted to say. He didn't see until now how much Sonic dying really affected him, and it still was screwing with his head to this day. It only happened a short time ago, but he thought he'd be able to get over it since he came back to life. But no, it didn't make it any better. He was terrified of even the slightest chance of something like that ever happening to Sonic again, and the fact that he so carelessly ran right into danger like a blue dumb ass pissed him off to no end.

"I'm sorry, Shadow."

"...!" He sounded so genuinely hurt that he scared Shadow. The biohog's face was completely red now, and he felt super guilty for yelling all of a sudden. "N...No, you don't have to...apologize but God damn you, stop being so reckless for once in your life. That's," He was sure he probably hurt his feelings. "That's all I wanted to say. I...Didn't mean to yell, but you and I need to have a serious talk about this when I get back to HQ."

"I understand."

Oh no, why did he give in so easily? Shit, did he hurt him that badly with his words? Damn it all, he didn't mean for this to happen. "If...If I hurt you-"

"That's where it was this whole time!" Zespio suddenly exclaimed. "Shadow prime, I found the power core. That surge of chaos energy you made helped me locate it. It's in here."

Shadow almost didn't care, because the thing most important to him seemed hurt and he was responsible for it. "We found the power core, I'll...See you at HQ. Over and out." He ended the frequency with a terse sigh, more angry at himself at this point. Why did he have to react with anger first? Why didn't he hear him out? He didn't mean to be so protective over him, but Sonic couldn't even see that. All he heard was pissed off screaming in his ear. He probably didn't even realize that Shadow was just being overprotective, because his emotions overtook him. Even worse, why didn't he say he loved him before ending the frequency? God, he was so stupid. No, worry about that stuff later. Focus on the mission at hand, and then he could try to fix this when this was done. He turned his head in the direction of Zespio's voice, and saw that he was on the right side of the room, entering an iron door with a warning decal taped to its surface. Zespio was beckoning him to follow, as he found what they were looking for. The biohog followed the chameleon with a lingering feeling of rue.

When he entered, he saw that this was clearly another section to hold more pipes and wiring. Shadow could see Zespio standing in the middle of the new corridor, staring at an orb of light blue energy hovering in the air. That's odd, why was it just out in the open like this? Zespio had a difficult expression on his face, he too was confused by this. As Shadow stepped closer, the chameleon looked around them cautiously. "This has to be some kind of trap, why is it here? It should be behind the glass. And there wasn't any damage to the container...Usually the core is too unstable to be outside of containment. It electrifies anything that gets too close and causes severe damage to its surroundings."

Shadow walked ahead of him to get closer to the core. He eyed the vessel of power and frowned. "...This doesn't have any chaos energy."

"What? But-"

The orb suddenly disappeared from view, before reappearing right behind Shadow.

"...!? Why is it doing that?" Zespio squinted his eyes. "What, is it malfunctioning or something?"

"Can it even do that?" Shadow asked curiously.

The chameleon paced around the orb carefully, noticing it was twitching and seemed very much out of sorts. "It is made of cyber energy. Cyber energy is almost entirely digital so technically, yes it can. I've heard of incidents before. The phenomenon is extremely rare, but I've heard entire power grids in other cities completely disappear, only to glitch and teleport way up in the sky. Vanishing buildings, glitched airplanes...It's been known to happen. That's the risk we take living in such an advanced world, because almost everything that has to do with power is written in code." The orb teleported back to where it previously was. "Perhaps something caused it to glitch?"

Shadow would guess it would be chaos energy, but again, he sensed nothing of the sort. Since this thing was comprised of cyber, it'd be unwise to touch it. Using Sonic's idiotic situation as an example, he'd get seriously injured if he did so. Instead of that, he had another way of putting this thing back where it belonged. The biohog raised his hand, amber red aura spreading throughout his palm before a small beam of chaos power zapped against the core. It created an amber red sphere around it, and Shadow moved his fingers to create a pulling motion. The core began to float in his direction, albeit a little shaken up due to being in contact with it's polar opposite power. Shadow could feel this imbalance, but it didn't ruin or damage his connection with it. He had to be careful, as any wrong move could cause his own power to destabilize. Slowly, he began walking backwards towards the exit of the room, and Zespio watched in fascination at this. It was as if Shadow was levitating the core with him. He kept his breathing calm, his eyes focused on only the core.

"Do not get any closer," Shadow instructed quietly. "Any minor mistake, and I might corrupt myself or blow up the core. Or both. Don't interfere." He warned the chameleon. With expert precision, he traveled all the way to the main corridor of the power sewer. He levitated the core nearby it's containment area, and closed his eyes. "Chaos Control."

He teleport the core back within it's glass imprisonment, his line of chaos energy cut itself off and faded away into embers. Once the core was back within it's containment unit, it sparked and slowly reformed it's own sphere. It was no longer shaky or twitching, the glitches had stopped. Shadow made a relieved sigh, that could have went bad. Zespio stepped out of the secondary corridor entrance and realized Shadow was no longer handling the core. He saw that it was right back where it belonged, and smiled a little. "Amazing, how did you get it back inside without damaging the casing?"

"I teleported it inside. It appears that Zhadow's theory about chaos energy for this core was incorrect. I don't know what made it exit it's containment to begin with, but there was no chaos energy in sight. Hm," He thought about it for a moment. "Perhaps Zobotnik stealing energy from it was why it glitched in the first place? I am very...challenged when it comes to high end technology, but I do know very simple basics. For instance, when something foreign attempts to enter and steal data from a device, it treats it like a virus and the device itself begins to act up to stop the Trojan from damaging anything else. I'm sure being outside of it's case caused it to glitch even further, so that may have been what happened here. Since it's back where it belongs, it might be attempting to repair itself so that it won't glitch again." He glanced at Zespio. "Are there any other power cores within Parallel City?"

The camouflaging No Zone officer shook his head. "No, two cores power the entire city. Usually a normal city needs a small one, but we have the largest metropolis in the world, so it required two bigger ones." He made a small laugh and nodded. "Heh, not bad. You took care of that rather quickly and efficiently. General Zhadow will be quite pleased." He then gazed at the biohog with a peculiar stare. "It's funny, First Lieutenant General Zonic spoke so negatively of you primes, but I can't for the life of me see the issue with either of you. Sonic prime does seem rather rude, but I can't blame him for reacting the way he did to our vice leader." He frowned a little. "Zonic can be a little...rough around the edges with outsiders, and for good reason. Most outsiders are criminals in our line of work. However," His faint smile returned. "General Zhadow mentioned that he would get cranky with you two around, so we expected this. He seems to take a liking to you two, and if he likes you, you must be good people."

Zhadow already took a liking to them before they showed up? "He liked us before we got here? Why?" Sure, they knew they were being watched by him and Zonic this entire time, but that still didn't explain how he liked them personally before even meeting.

Zespio shrugged. "I haven't a clue, he was always neutral with other Sonic or Shadow templates around in No Zone." He walked towards Shadow and gestured to follow him down the corridor to the exit of the power sewer. "You both aren't the first Sonic or Shadow templates we've met, as they've been seen in Zonic's office many times in the past. However, you two are the first Sonic and Shadow templates to be treated so well by our general. The others were mere visitors, but you two are being treated like guests of honor. He gave us specific instructions to do whatever it is you command, so long as it isn't too ridiculous, and to treat you with as much respect as we treat our leaders. General Zhadow never does that, so you two must be special." He could see the ladder coming up just ahead, it wouldn't be long now. "So far, I agree. During my futile search for the core, I got word from Admiral Zector that Sonic prime had already accomplished his deed in restoring the other power core. All at the cost of damaging own body at that. He said he dived his body over Zector, despite being smaller than him to take a hit." His smile deepened. "That kind of selfless justice is what all No Zone officers strive for, and that's something we haven't seen from other Sonic and Shadow templates in a very long time."

Shadow was aptly flattered by the chameleon's words, he didn't expect the officer to say something like that to him. "...Hmph," He accepted his praises. "Thank you, I suppose. Now if only that idiot would listen to what I say and stop being so damn reckless..."

Zespio chuckled a little. "Zector often acts the same way, I can relate."

Shadow cringed. "Oh God, I should have went with him instead. Two idiots working together is like a rat king of children playing with a live bomb."

"In all fairness," Zespio commented. "Zector is a little more responsible than your world's Vector prime."

"That isn't much better." Shadow retorted, a sweat drop appearing on his head. While the Mobian crocodile was a secret genius in detective work, he was still by far one of the most annoying and idiotic allies he ever met. One that rivaled Sonic. He had his fair share of incidents with the rambunctious Chaotix leader, so he knew that saying that was basically scraping at the very bottom of the barrel.

As they stepped closer to the tall metal ladder, they both could feel something move behind them.

They instantly turned around with their bodies rigid with combat readiness. Zespio's helmet digitized back on his head, while Shadow tightened his fists. Just a few dozen feet from them, was...

...A Zone Cop...?

Shadow blinked, his guard only slightly lowering. Zespio meanwhile tilted his head, but he didn't remove his helmet. He slowly stepped towards the fellow officer, and greeted them promptly. "Err, hello? I am Chief Master Sergeant Zespio. Only I have authorization to be in this location at the moment." Something felt weird. "Address yourself, now." He commanded calmly. However, he was met with silence. "...It is a direct violation of No Zone protocol to ignore your superiors. I will ask that you address yourself once more, otherwise I have no choice but to have you penalized for your insolence and grievous disrespect." While he awaited an answer, he placed two fingers to his helmet. Light blue text appeared in his visor, analyzing the unknown person before him. This person had average Mobian stature, including a tail that was covered by the armored uniformed. He couldn't tell who this might be, as all No Zone Corps superiors had extensive memory of any and all officers, even rookies. Strange, the computer in his helmet had no data for this person. All he could see was, "Error." He had never seen such a glitch before-"...!" Zespio's eyes widened behind the helmet. "Shadow prime, you must escape immediately!" He suddenly yelled.

Shadow was caught off guard by this. "Excuse me?"

"This person is dangerous! They-"

A bang rang out in the power sewer.

"..." Zespio looked down to see blood dripping from his side. Something had broke through the armor of his uniform, and planted a large bullet right in the side of his abdomen. The fake Zone Cop was holding an advanced looking handgun, and it was smoking with a silver shell dropping onto the ground. The ultimate life form's eyes dilated at this, that wasn't a normal Zone Cop.

Oh shit.

Zespio instantly pulled his baton from his belt and aimed. It transformed quickly into the same shotgun model Zonic used back on Angel Island. He pulled the trigger without hesitation, as he didn't want anymore harm to come to him or potentially Shadow. The spread shot headed directly for the traitorous officer, and when it made contact-

"W-What the...!?"

-The bullets ricocheted into random directions of the corridor, causing Shadow duck his head. A candy red forcefield appeared over the figure of the Zone Cop traitor. It was the same color as the shield that protected the battleship earlier today.

This didn't make any sense, how the hell did that officer whip out their piece so quickly without him noticing? And why did they have a forcefield on their uniform? Gritting his teeth anxiously and painfully behind his helmet, Zespio turned and hollered for Shadow to run. "Shadow prime, get out of here!"

The biohog refused to run away like a coward. "I'm not leaving until this interloper is dealt with!"

"Your protection is my top priority, I cannot let you be harmed-" Another bang. "Ngh...!" Zespio dropped to down to one knee, he was shot at again. This time, he was only grazed but it still hit his fresh gunshot wound. "J-Just...Go...!" He brought his hand up to his side, attempting to push through the pain. "This is unorthodox for sure, but I...must deal with this individual on my own. You must return to HQ...and warn the other officers. Get to safety immediately!"

Shadow scowled at his stubbornness. Another gunshot was heard and a bullet traveled directly towards the back of Zespio's helmet, but this time it did not hit its intended target. In an amber red flash, Shadow appeared in front of the wounded officer and held up his hand. With a punching motion inside of a split second, he had caught the bullet in between his fingers. The gunpowder slightly burned his glove, but it didn't singe through the fabric. He then crushed the projectile and charged it with his own chaos energy, before flinging it right back at their mysterious enemy. It darted right back and slammed into the imposter's shielded body, causing it to penetrate through the shield and shatter it almost instantly. "Master Sergeant Zespio," He addressed respectfully. "Return to HQ and receive immediate medical attention. I will handle this faker myself."

Zespio shook his head. "But you can't-!" Shadow's hand suddenly placed itself on his helmet. "What are you...?"

"Chaos Control."

"Wait-!"

The injured chameleon was teleported out of the power sewer, and above ground near his bike. Hopefully he'd take that as a polite sign to stay out of his way. Shadow moved his neck around and cracked his knuckles in his palm. "I'll warn you one time only," Shadow said loudly to the imposter. "Bullets do not work on me, they're just too slow. If you really want to hurt me..." He trailed off ominously as he walked closer towards the fake Zone Cop.

The imposter placed the weapon back on their hip and began to step closer towards the biohog as well.

"...Then you better raise your fists."

46 - END - 46