Chapter 4: False Shadows

Ellie D'Coolette never fancied herself as a suitable candidate for a leadership role… Yet that's exactly the position she found herself in, almost by pure circumstance, and served that role far more often than she would've cared too… Whenever her uncle left the bunker to go do… Whatever the hell it was he did when he disappeared for weeks at a time, he always left her in charge. Maybe that was because she was the only person in the colony he really trusted. She did have the proper training, taught by her uncle how to use a sword, perform minor mechanical maintenance, and just in general how to keep a watchful eye on things and ensure the bunker continued to run smoothly. No one ever really challenged her authority, despite some of the bunker's citizens being more than twice her age. Sure, she got some weird looks on occasion, from some of the folks that didn't appreciate being told what to do by a fifteen-year-old, but no one really gave her any trouble. Maybe it was because of her pedigree as the daughter of two of the original core Freedom Fighters. Maybe it was because she was one of the few Mobians on base with the proper training to qualify to be in charge. Most of the few surviving Mobians were not what you would classify as fighters, the majority being farmers, mechanics, and other artisans who were amongst the few surviving refugees from when New Mobotropolis collapsed. Most Mobians capable of combat had already given their lives fighting a losing war.

There was also the extremely good possibility that they didn't dare give her any trouble because nobody was stupid enough to risk pissing off her prickly uncle. His word was law in the bunker and most of its denizens either obeyed out of outright fear of him, or because they valued being under his protection and didn't want to do anything to draw his ire. It really was a shame. The Freedom Fighters had always been a team bonded together by comradery and mutual respect… The remnants of that movement now reduced to huddling together for protection more out of necessity than any type of loyalty to one another…

The adjustment had been a hard one for Ellie to make. The Freedom Fighters weren't merely her caretakers, they were her family. Her father had been killed before Ellie had even spoken her first word. Her mother had been in her life long enough that Ellie still had a few hazy but precious memories of her that unfortunately came through more like grainy video footage rather than clear polaroid's of this angelic mother figure she remembered and everyone who knew her tried to convince Ellie that she was. She couldn't even remember what her face looked like, though her uncle had once told her that if she wanted to see her mother's face, all she had to do was look in the mirror. The young rabbit's fur was a slightly darker shade, a nice medium between both of her parent's natural hues. While her drawl wasn't near as thick as her mother's, her uncle had told her on several occasions that she sounded a little bit more like her everyday… Something about the inflection in her voice, whatever that meant. One of the few clear memories she still had left of her mother was of her braiding her blonde hair as a child, Bunnie always had wanted to be a hairdresser, until it eventually reached down to her cotton tail. A style she'd kept to this very day even though she'd probably outgrown it years ago… Cutting it off… Kind of felt akin to severing the last tie she had left to her mother. It was a similar situation with her choice of attire, overalls covering a blue blouse, similar to what she wore as a kid… Partly out of necessity due to lack of options, and in part because she was desperately trying to cling to some semblance of that childhood she never really got to have, despite her extended families best efforts to make sure she had as much of one as they could possibly provide for her.

Without a doubt, nobody took that task more seriously than her Uncle Miles. He immediately stepped up and did everything he could to fill the void left by her parents, acting as a father figure, an older brother, and a friend despite being old enough to actually be her dad. The rest of the Freedom Fighters did their parts too, treating Ellie more like a friend or teammate when appropriate rather than some annoying kid who was just in the way… She'd learn later in life that this too was in no small part due to her uncle's doing. Her parents, along with the original guard of Freedom Fighters, did much the same with him when he was her age. It was that upbringing that helped make Miles the person and soldier he'd grow up to be, so it only seemed proper to him to afford Ellie the same treatment, and everyone else just seemed to follow his lead.

Cream had taught her how to cook, preform basic first aid, and perhaps most importantly… How to braid her hair on her own. Whisper trained her up to be a fairly accurate shot from a distance. Belle picked up the slack and continued to teach her how to perform basic maintenance around the base when her uncle's busy schedule revolving around leading the Resistance began to absorb more and more of his time. Espio had tried to teach her stealth tactics, though admittedly, she never quite got the hang of it… Can't win 'em all she guessed. Jewel taught her how to be better organized and to think on her feet, and of course there was Tangle who taught her… Something the lemur referred to as Robot-Fu, which was basically diving into a swarm of badniks half-cocked and ripping them apart by whatever means were available to you. In other words, just winging it, no planning or strategy required. That was Tangle in a nutshell, organized chaos in its purest form. If the lemur had taught the teenage rabbit anything, she guessed that would be that it was okay to cut loose once-in-a-while…. As regimented as her life could feel at times, it was nice to have somebody like the lemur around to remind her of that… As guilty as it made her feel to think that way, she'd be lying if she claimed she didn't miss Tangle most of all.

Of course, nothing good could last forever, especially when you lived in the harsh reality that was current day Mobius. Over time, one-by-one, her extended family had been taken from her just like her parents had been, until only her and Miles remained… And even that relationship just wasn't the same as it used to be, and that reality devastated the teen. The two-tailed fox didn't exactly treat her differently… He was still kind to her, and she was the one person on base who seemed to be able to make the vulpine smile, as rare of an occurrence as that was nowadays. The warmness that once radiated from Miles when she was in his presence was just… Gone… She'd barely seen him in recent months, and when she did, he just came off as so tired and distant. Ellie couldn't even remember the last time her uncle had given her a hug, something he'd never failed to do when she was younger, whenever the girl might need it. Displays of affection had never been a problem for him…

At least that was the case until the war really started to go south and the casualties began to pile up. Miles seemed to get progressively worse with each loss of life, until he eventually began dissociating with basically anyone in the bunker that wasn't Ellie herself or anyone responsible for some aspect of the basic operations involved with running the underground base. Short and to the point conversations were all she really had with him these days, and any attempts to reach him on a more personal level were usually met with his back and twin tails walking away. There was a time when Ellie couldn't help but wonder if she'd done something wrong, but she was mature enough to know better now. He didn't pull away from a hug because he was put off or repulsed by her touch… It was more like he was afraid she might explode if he gave in to the temptation. Her uncle's guilt grew stronger which each friend who'd fallen under his command, along with many others that had lost their lives even when he wasn't the one giving the orders. Even Nicole found it hard to articulate just how much blame Miles heaped upon himself for the collapse of the Freedom Fighters… Even if the squad had already been classified an endangered species before he even took command. Miles had somehow convinced himself it was his friend's familiarity with him that somehow caused their deaths, and now he was pushing the one person he had left away as if he thought that was somehow protecting her… She didn't need protection though. She just wanted the uncle who raised her back. Didn't he understand that he was all she had left too?

Normally, Ellie wouldn't defy a direct order from her uncle… But Miles had left her in charge, and it had been weeks since they'd heard anything from him, so Ellie was forced to use her own judgment to make a crucial decision. Their food supply was running dangerously low after an unexpected malfunction with almost all of the bunkers below ground greenhouses that Miles had designed and built himself. The crops were either dying or no longer growing at all… The only crop still somehow withstanding the carnage were the beets, those little fuckers could thrive in just about any adverse condition, but they weren't being produced in anywhere near enough volume to feed the entire population of the bunker for more than a few weeks. With Miles not available to fix whatever was wrong with the greenhouses or to give orders to go to the surface to scavenge… Ellie had to make the difficult decision to break the first rule of the bunker, which was to never leave said bunker without Miles' permission.

Facing looming starvation, Ellie rounded up a team of people she trusted… In other words, any able-bodied Mobian that was brave enough to make the trip and respected her authority enough to not be defiant just for the sake of it. There was a small, delightful sect amongst the survivors that seemed to think it was funny to refer to her as the nepo-bunny… Anyway, it took all of five seconds to realize why Miles had forbidden anyone to leave the bunker without being in his company. There was nothing but dirt and dust surrounding them as far as the eye could see… A sandless desert in the middle of nowhere that they lived beneath. There was no turning back though, so they headed towards the mountains to start their search, where they'd at least have some form of cover if any badniks were patrolling the area. They traveled for hours with little luck before stumbling across something that was almost miraculous. In the middle of that dusty wasteland, sat an oasis… In actuality, they had discovered a small valley nestled in the lowlands of the mountains. There were actual trees! Some of the first many of the beleaguered Mobians had seen in years nestled within a field, made possible by a small creek that cut through the valley, created by runoff from higher up in the mountains. To the eyes of Mobians who'd seen nothing but metal, dirt, and rock for so long, this modest patch of greenery was truly a magnificent sight to behold. More importantly though, there were berry bushes and even nuts on some of the trees! She quickly ordered her party to get to work on harvesting as much of this bounty as they could carry…

Then the guilt set in. As she watched her fellow Mobians strip the area clean of almost everything tangible it could offer, for a second or two, she felt no better than Robotnik… Taking what nature had to offer and leaving nothing behind… At least they weren't completely destroying the valley like that tyrant would have… And they desperately needed the food and clean water but… So little of Mobius had been left untainted by Robotnik's rancid touch. Here they'd found one of the few areas on the planet fortunate enough to never have heard the madman's name, and here they were mauling its carcass like starving lions.

As Ellie continued to lose herself in her morose thoughts, she had no inkling of what was creeping up on her from behind. As careful as her party tried to be, Robotnik's eyes were everywhere, so a large party of non-roboticized Mobians trekking through the mountains did not go unnoticed. A particular agent of the Egg had been dispatched to greet them upon noticing the group out in the open and he just couldn't wait to introduce himself to them. He was eager to prove his worth to his creator after all.

"Well, well, well…" A deep voice huskily chuckled from behind Ellie, causing the girl to jump. "Looks like a little rabbit has wandered too far away from her burrow."

"Shadow…" Ellie said in alarm as she took a step back. The rest of her party either heard her say that name aloud, or one way or another, realized they'd been discovered. Trying not to panic, they all began to slowly bunch up together for protection, leaving Ellie on the other side of the creek alone. Not wanting to look like a scared little bunny in front of the people she was charged to lead, Ellie hardened herself and stood in defiance of the hedgehog as he crept closer, stubbornly refusing to move, which would've been a sign to him that she was intimidated.

"You've already heard of me?" the ebony hedgehog smirked in amusement. "That's good… Then you realize how much trouble you're in…"

"Darn right I know how much trouble the likes of you are! And of course, I'd recognize you… This ain't the first time that dirty ole doctor sicked one of his clones on us… Gettin' kinda unoriginal in his old age ain't he?"

Shadow frowned in annoyance at the young rabbit's accusation. "I'm no clone girl… I'm the ul…"

"Ultimate Lifeform, yah I know. I've heard all that hot air before! Look, I met the real Shadow when I was little… Wasn't the nicest fella in the world, but he was still good people for the most part. He looked a lot older and ragged than you though… A lot better lookin' too."

"Enough!" Shadow growled as he advanced on the teen. Ellie flinched but otherwise held her ground despite being nose to nose with the recycled ebony hedgehog. "I have no interest in you and your little party or foragers. I only care about one thing… So, if you value your life, tell me where Prower is."

"Sorry, can't help ya… Nor would I if I could! Haven't heard hide nor hair from him in weeks… He's probably dead for all I can tell…"

"Lies… The master wouldn't have trusted me with hunting down the most dangerous fugitive in the Empire if he were dead… My patience is wearing thin girl…" Shadow grabbed Ellie by the strap of her overalls and tried to intimate her by lifting her up off the ground. It only partially worked. "I know you're under 'his' protection… So, tell me where Prower is, otherwise I'll gut you along with the rest of the vermin in this valley…"

Acting on mostly instinct, and little common sense, Ellie swiftly pulled a small dagger out from one of the front pockets of her overalls and jabbed it into the ebony hedgehog's shoulder. Forced to drop the young rabbit as he howled in pain, Ellie jumped backward and immediately had a blaster pointed directly at Shadow's stunned face. She fired, but the clone was incredibly quick and he jerked his head out of the way before roughly striking Ellie with an open palm with enough force that he nearly knocked her into the creek. Dry or not, she was still on the ground with the extremely dangerous Shadow clone looming over her, still holding his injured shoulder. "You're going to die for that… Slowly…"

Poor Ellie's resolve finally started to waver as she realized she'd bitten off much more than she could chew. Shadow took a menacing stomp forward, when oddly enough, he found himself suddenly covered in shadow. Another player now entered the field, landing between the hedgehog and his target. A bulky figure in a mask and Stetson hat, standing a head taller than the ultimate copycat, glared down at him. The pure menace in the masked man's voice as he spoke sent a chill up the normally unshakable hedgehog's spine. "I'm afraid you're mistaking… You're the one that's going to die for laying your hands on 'her'… VERY slowly…"

"Uncle Miles!" Ellie cried happily, both relieved that he'd come to their rescue and to see that he was indeed okay after not being able to contact him for so long.

"Get on the other side of the creek with the other's Ellie… This imposter wanted to find me… Now he gets to regret what he asked for."

Ellie didn't need to be told twice, and well… Quick as a bunny, she was on the other side of the creek standing in front of the suddenly now optimistic band of Mobians. Shadow looked up at the looming visage of the masked Mobian, still a bit more unnerved than he'd like to let on. "You're… Prower?" This wasn't the wily egg-headed fox that he'd been led to believe he was targeting. This being was radiating chaos energy, and from his presence alone, Shadow could tell that this was not an opponent he could take lightly.

"I'm a living nightmare that you just woke up… Don't worry yourself about it though. You won't be alive long enough to contemplate the shit your knee-deep in."

"Oh, is that right?" Shadow smirked, sensing a potential opportunity in the form of Prowers apparent overconfidence. "Well, you should know better than to underestimate a superior lifeform!"

Shadow did manage to surprise Miles by sending an arching wave of chaos energy in his direction… This wasn't something any previous version of Shadow could pull off, though each new edition did seem to possess a new trick or two. Miles used his own latent chaos energy to shield himself from the blast, but underestimated how powerful the attack would be. As a result, the wave pushed him back slightly, managing to nick his mask before Miles successfully pushed the yellow energy attack away… Causing the aging brittle facial covering to crack in half… Both halves fell from his face, Miles watching in wide-eyed shock as both pieces of the mask seemed to float to the ground in slow motion.

Ellie slapped her hands over her mouth in disbelief as she watched Wisper's mask get snapped in half… She knew what these totems Miles had collected over the years meant to him. Losing one was like losing that person all over again. The rabbit knew this version of Shadow was doomed the second her uncle arrived in the valley. Now the only question left was how many bones Miles was going to break before he put the imposter out of his misery.

The smirk fell from Shadow's face as soon as he realized that it wasn't a look of shock nor fear on Prowers face, caused by his display of power. It was a look of pure unbridled rage and murder aimed squarely in his direction. Even the fox's electronic eye seemed to glare a dagger at him, glowing an ominous blood red… "You're going to regret that…"

Before Shadow could retort, Miles had curled himself into a ball and rocketed towards the clone. Shadow didn't even have time to react before he was struck in the chest and sent sailing backward towards the thicket of trees. The force of his momentum sent him crashing through the trunks of several trees and uprooted another as his body made contact and finally came to a stop, nearly knocking the ultimate faker out cold. Now with one useless arm and a possible concussion, he picked himself up upon wobbly feet with a newfound understanding of what true pain felt like. He looked towards the creek, and through his hazy vision, saw Prower adjust his hat before aiming the blaster attached to his arm in the clone's direction. "Here's the part where you run…"

And run the Shadow clone did as he weaved and danced out of the way of a barrage of blaster fire, which had Shadow wondering if the fox was missing him intentionally. In desperate need of a respite, the ultimate copy-paste found the ultimate hiding spot, behind a tree where he sat down and clutched at his aching head.

"You know what the problem is with you clones?" Miles monologued, sounding much closer than Shadow had expected him to be. "Robotnik has no creative vision outside of his machines and even those designs are getting more-and-more bland as the years go by... The Sonic clones never worked out either because Robotnik never could figure out how to duplicate his speed, making them much easier to deal with despite whatever nasty new trick the Egg spliced into him. Then there's you… Every version of you, basically identical to the original Shadow when he first appeared, yet with a fraction of the power, and Robotnik somehow believed that would be enough. And worst of all, it became clear that Robotnik never believed the skills of the Freedom Fighters would ever improve at all… That we'd never learn how to eventually handle these younger inexperienced versions of you… But we always would, yet you clones always remain mostly the same."

Shadow was caught completely off guard by a hard jab to his face. Discarding his duster to show the cornered hedgehog his full profile, Miles loomed over the prone Shadow and turned his back to him. Surprised by this action, Shadow made the mistake of springing upward as if he was going to take advantage, only for the taller fox to rev up his Tails and smack the clone across the face with them repeatedly, the force eventually sending Shadow back to the ground. Coughing up dirt, Shadow struggled to push himself up, no longer able to deny the tole the punishment his body was being put through was taking on him. "This… Shouldn't be possible… The master told me that I was supposed to be the personification of perfection and power… So how the hell is it that you've managed to throttle me so easily!"

"Because Robotnik is a lying tub of goo… What part of my explanation didn't you understand, or did you not bother to listen at all? You're a clone Shadow… Not even a proper duplicate, but a copy with a fraction of the power Shadow had when he was first awakened. Robotnik knows this too so he's just using you as cannon fodder. I'd almost pity you if your very existence wasn't a slap in the face to someone I respected."

The clone of Shadow managed a defiant chuckle despite his grim situation. "You really think you have everything figured out don't you fox? Don't count me out just yet… I have a surprise I'm sure even you couldn't anticipate…"

"I certainly hope so… Because I haven't been impressed with you one bit so far."

Shadow chuckled darkly as he gingerly rose to his feet, eyes half lidded. "I sense you brought something along with you in your backpack… Two somethings if I'm not mistaking…"

Miles frowned. He could only be talking about the Chaos Emeralds but if he could sense them with or without the dampeners… Miles eyes went wide at the implications. Surely Robotnik hadn't figured out how to perfect…

The clone answered the fox's question by unlatching his inhibitor rings and allowing them to fall to the ground. Miles grew concerned as he felt the emeralds inside his pack begin to shake. Miles wasn't about to grant this clone the opportunity to try and accomplish what he feared the copy was about to do and lunged forward. "If I can't kill you, I'll do the next best thing and take you to the master myself! Chaos Con…" He was interrupted as Miles grabbed him by the wrists. The familiar looking rings on the vulpine's own wrists began to glow, before detaching themselves from Miles' wrists and locking onto Shadows. Whatever type of power Shadow was trying to invoke appeared to dissipate instantly. Miles grinned in satisfaction at the shocked look on the ebony hedgehog's face. "What… What did you do to me?!"

The next sound Shadow made was a grunt as the blade of a saber pierced through his chest, partially embedding itself in the tree the clone had been standing in front of. The fox's grin shifted into a frown of indifference as he watched the life drain out of the hedgehog's eyes. A memory quickly flashed through his mind, one of the man whose face this imposter had stolen, and the day he received the very rings that helped hasten his undoing.

"Thank you, Shadow," Tails said with a perplexed grin as he stared at the items the hedgehog had just shoved into his hands without so much as uttering a hello. "But what are…"

"Inhibitor rings. Similar to the ones I use but customized specifically for you. The one on the left was made slightly larger to compensate for your prosthetic arm. I'm no engineering expert though so you might have to tinker with that one, so it doesn't break in the process of that transformation thing you do with that arm."

"That should be an easy enough adjustment…" The look of the fox's face was still clearly eager for answers. "Not that I don't appreciate the gesture, but why would I need these? I know I can use Chaos Energy at lot more proficiently now, but nowhere near at the level where I'd need to inhibit it."

Shadow calmly shook his head. "They're not to keep you under control… They're meant to be used against me…"

Tails was no less confused than he had been a few seconds before. He couldn't help but laugh at the idea. "Against you? Why, do you plan on going rogue on us?"

Shadow answered the question with one of his own. "How many Sonic clones has Ivo sent after us now?"

"Four… He hasn't been able to replicate Sonic's speed, so they haven't been much of threat yet…" he trailed off as he took a quick glance at this cybernetic arm. "At this point, I think Robotnik's just throwing them at us as a form of psychological warfare…" Tails' eyes went wide as he realized what Shadow had been trying to hint at. "Wait a minute… You don't think he'd…"

"It's only a matter of time… Ivo is stubborn, but he's also prone to frustration when things aren't going his way," Shadow explained, continuing to refuse to refer to the tyrant by his surname. It felt like spitting on Maria's memory, having to share a lineage with that madman. "I'm surprised he hasn't tried to send a clone of me to infiltrate New Mobotropolis as it is… I'm still alive, so he could possibly catch the Resistance with their guard down. Not to mention that as long as Ivo has access to a Chaos Emerald, I'd technically be easier to clone if he has the technology, and less difficult to program to work for him. I'm not sure if a clone of me would have similar weaknesses and drawbacks to the clones of my old rival, but if Ivo ever figured out how to create a copy of me that was as attune to Chaos Energy as I am…"

"That could prove disastrous for everyone…" Tails stared at the rings in his hands, now fully understanding their purpose, though not quite sure why Shadow would be giving them to him. "Shouldn't you be giving these to Amy then? She's the one in charge so…"

"Amy is a competent commander, but I'm well aware of who does the heavy lifting around here when it comes to fieldwork. If anyone is likely to encounter someone posing as me while also understanding how to use those rings, it would be you," Shadow grimaced. Clearly whatever had just crossed his mind was uncouth to him. "If you want, consider it compensation for what happened to the princess…"

Tails flinched as Sally's face flashed before his eyes. He'd long forgiven Shadow for the role he played that day… For being partially responsible for why now Sally, much like Sonic, had merely a grave marker at the cemetery and no body to lay to rest beneath it. Clearly, Shadow was surprisingly still holding on to some guilt from that day. The guy hadn't really done anything wrong. "Thanks… I'll make sure these are put to good use."

"See that you do… I should be on my way… Got things to do, and robots to smash and all that…"

"Shouldn't you at least wait and say hello to Amy first?" Tails smirked. "She'll be upset when she finds out you dropped by and blew her off again."

"And listen to another long-winded speech designed to recruit me into the Resistance? I'd rather avoid that if I can."

"Why don't you consider joining?" Tails decided to just throw it out there. He never really understood Shadow's reluctance to stand with them. At least Knuckles always had a good reason to maintain some level of independence, and Shadow collaborated with the Freedom Fighters often enough as it was anyway. He could tell just by looking at the guy how tired and stretched thin he really was. Robotnik had been coming after him hard, and it was really starting to show with the scars Shadow had accumulated over the years. "There's no reason you need to keep waging this one-man war when you have allies here in New Mobotropolis."

"You're well aware that I don't work well with others… I had my fill of taking orders when I worked for GUN, so now it's time for me to walk my own path… Besides, if Ivo is focused on me, it's hard for him to keep targeting the Resistance at the same time now, isn't it? I'd have a talk with that commander of yours and make sure your team doesn't waste the opportunity my distraction of the doctor is providing you."

Back in the present, Miles' contempt for this imposter only grew. "This is the best Robotnik could do with you? Pathetic… Shadow would be disgusted."

As the clone's body finally fell limp, Miles retracted his blade from the corpse before watching it drop to the ground, then tried to flick off the blood from his saber, lamenting that he didn't have anything on his person to wipe it off with. He was accustomed to dealing with machines, not living breathing beings that bled. His next task was to remove the inhibitor rings from the cadaver's wrists. He had no idea whether the rings could ever be used again, but even if they couldn't… Miles had other reasons for wanting to hang onto them.

A quick blaster shot to the forehead later, just to make sure the clone didn't make a surprise return from the dead, Miles made his way over to where the wayward bunker residents were fretfully awaiting his arrival. Ellie was staring at the ground nervously, holding both halves of Whisper's old mask, a piece in each hand. Everyone else had huddled together behind the small creek as if they thought the body of water would protect them from the fox, while at the same time creating the illusion that they were sacrificing the teenage bunny to the wrath of their leader. There were no thank yous or celebratory cheers to imply that their lives had just been saved… Instead, they looked more like frightened children lined up for a whoopin', some of those faces appearing even more terrified than when the Shadow clone had first made his appearance.

There was a point not even all that long ago when reactions like this from the few surviving members of the Mobian race would bother him, but he'd just become so numb to people's opinions of him over time… They were little more than nameless faces to him that blended together with the crowd, a disassociation purely intentional on Miles' part. His goal wasn't to be beloved or to win any popularity contests. He was trying to ensure the Mobian race didn't go extinct. That was his choice, one he'd made based on his own personal beliefs and morals, not in search of gratitude or appreciation from those under his protection.

Seeing Ellie visibly trembling in fear as he approached her though… That sight did hit him in the chest a little bit. Miles stopped in front of the teenaged rabbit, glaring down at her with a blank judgmental stare, not uttering a single word. Ellie looked up at her uncle long enough to present him with the split halves of Whisper's mask, before once again finding the grass extremely interesting.

"Thank you," he said calmly as he took the mask from her and placed it inside his backpack where hopefully no further harm would come to it. He then returned his gaze to his young charge. "Ellie… Are you hurt?"

"No sir… My chest might be a little bruised from where that creep hit me, but I'm good otherwise…"

"Good. What about the rest of you? Any injuries?" A chorus of mutters and whispers all amounting to different variations of 'no one was hurt' and all was well. With that formality out of the way, Miles removed his hat so he could run his flesh and bone hand through his head fur, his agitation really starting to show. "Glad to hear it… Now buckle up, because here's the part where I start yelling… WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU ALL THINKING?! Do none of you realize how dangerous it is to come up to the surface?! You're all lucky that the tracer on Ellie's communicator was working so I was able to tell how far you idiots had wandered away from the bunker! It's a good damn thing I showed up when I did too, otherwise that Shadow clone could've killed every last one of you! Worst of all, Robotnik is going to get word that there was a sighting of Mobians in this area, which means we're going to have to be extra careful if we ever are forced to venture outside the bunker now, that is if our home hasn't been completely compromised already!"

"We had no choice Uncle Miles!" Ellie spoke up reluctantly. "We were runnin' out of food, and low on water… We hadda do somethin' or we we'd all be starvin' to death by the end of the season… We tried to contact you to get permission, but we couldn't get either the communicators or the radio to work right…"

Mile's expression softened as confusion took over. "How are we out of food already? It was almost harvest time when I left, so you should still have months of rations in storage by now."

Ellie shook her head, finally working up the courage to look her uncle in the eye. "Most of the greenhouses stopped workin' a couple of months ago… Either all the crops withered and died, or just nothing will grow at all… The only crop that survived were the beets, but they won't be near enough to feed us all for long…"

Miles regarded the rabbit before shifting his gaze to her team of foragers. They were all holding and assorted variety of baskets filled with nuts and berries, and a few were even lugging around jugs full of water. Miles had noticed this before obviously but hadn't really gotten a chance to decipher a reason for it. "Fine… Everyone, finish gathering as much as you can grab! We'll discuss this further once we get back to the bunker…"

Not a soul argued as most were just grateful for the temporary reprieve from the vulpine's fury. Now Miles had never and hopefully would never be forced to hurt anybody under his care, but he did take full advantage of the fact that the residents of the bunker all feared he might. Leading through fear would never have been his first choice, or his twelfth choice for that matter, but Miles was an extremely busy man with naught a minute to spare on nonsense. The Mobians misplaced fear of him kept people in line, which rendered dissonance and infighting within the bunker nearly nonexistent… Two things the woefully small colony of survivors most definitely did not need. Miles' looming presence also meant the small foraging party where all finished with their assigned tasks and ready to move out in around fifteen minutes.

"Make sure you're all carrying as much as you can, but not so much that the haul might slow you down. It's essential we move as quickly as possible to avoid detection." Miles waited a few seconds for any adjustments, but nobody appeared to feel like they'd bitten off more than they could chew. "I take it everyone's set then? Good… Now follow me!"

"Um… Uncle Miles…" A confused Ellie murmured when she noticed the direction he was taking them in. "The bunker is to the southwest of here…"

"I know, but we're taking the long way home unfortunately… If that Shadow clone knew how to find you guys out here, that means Robotnik knows you're here and we have to assume he may still have eyes on us… We need to do everything in our power to ensure we're not leading Robotnik right back to base…"

It was sound logic, but what Miles didn't realize was that it was already too late. Scurrying along the valley floor near their feet was an insect-like creature. Closer inspection revealed that this tiny creature was metallic in nature and equipped with a camera, broadcasting live video footage back to Robotropolis. From his hovering throne back in his control room, what remained of Ivo Robotnik cackled fiendishly as he watched his plan mature into fruition.

"Take all the detours you like Prower… I've already won, you just don't know it yet. Ah, this was so worth sacrificing my puppet for! It is a shame he didn't get to test out his chaos manipulation abilities to see if I've made any progress on that front, but it matters little. I won't need to waste further resources on clones once I have the keys to your house."

Ivo… Had seen better days, physically at least. Nearly seventy percent of his body had undergone roboticization, including half of his face. You would think the doctor would appreciate being mostly machine now due to his love of their 'efficiency', but Ivo was ironically left quite bitter over the loss of so much of his humanity. While he possessed mechanical legs, for all his engineering genius, Robotnik could never get them to respond properly. Perhaps it was the burden of the massive weight they had to carry, or the extensive nerve damage suffered after… That event, or perhaps it was his own stubborn determination to keep his human brain fully intact… The one portion of his body he'd never allow to be mechanized. Regardless of his reasoning, after his one close encounter with that cretinous fox, he was now more-or-less permanently bound to an advanced version of his flying egg design. He'd always preferred to utilize the mobile aircraft to get around anyhow, but to be reduced to a slave of his own creation through no choice of his own left a sour taste in his mouth… Or at least it would if he still had a sense of taste.

"You've proved to be a most… Vexing adversary Prower. The hedgehog certainly taught you well, particularly in the art of making a pest of yourself, but all things must come to an end eventually."

"The last breath of Mobian resistance will at last be extinguished… And my domination of this world complete."

End Chapter 4

-Ugh, I hate it when characters self-monologue… This little end-chapter rant from Robotnik was necessary for the plot however, so I made an exception. The only reason Snively was included in Chapter 2 was so Robotnik could have someone to yell at, rather than screaming at his computer monitors like a lunatic. One of the 'original' reasons for Nicole existing was to play a similar role for Tails, so he could have another character to talk too and bounce off of for those long swaths of time he spends alone, rather than relying on thought bubbles or Tails talking into the wind whenever I needed to relay what he's thinking or how he's feeling at a given moment.

Sorry for the short chapter, but after looking over the next several chapters, I couldn't find anything I could move around to extend this one without making the transitions from chapter to chapter feel awkward. As much as I want to keep the average chapter length somewhere between 15-25 pages, this just felt like the natural spot to end this one.

In case I didn't make it clear enough when I introduced her, Ellie's relationship with Miles is a direct parallel to the relationship between Sally & Tails. In fact, Ellie's relationship with the new breed Freedom Fighters is also a direct parallel to the relationship between the original Freedom Fighters and Tails from the Sat AM continuity. I bring this up, mainly because parallels like this one are going to be a running theme throughout this story. Quite a few of Tails' future relationships are going to mirror the relationships he had with pasts characters, and even the relationships between the people who've influenced him the most.