20 - Look-A-Like - 20
Afternoon, 4:40 PM
A devastating headbutt crashed directly into the marauder's helmet, knocking them back several feet and damaging the front visor. With tiny cracks forming all over the headpiece, the stranger grunted angrily as they stood back up to dust themselves off with their hands. "Curious," They scoffed. "With most chaos users, they instantly fall unconscious the moment I override their abilities. Yet here you are, still standing." They twirled the baton in their hand. "It seems I have underestimated you." They concluded humbly.
Sonic, with blood dripping down his forehead, stood up and wiped the blood off with the back of his arm. "I could say the same to you, private." He retorted mockingly. "It's rare somebody draws blood, 'guess you're not just some rookie with an inferiority complex after all."
A disturbing silence drifted the atmosphere, and no one moved a single muscle.
The hero was no fool, he knew this would be much more challenging than anything he's fought against in default form before. This person had great combative skill, so that military garb wasn't just for show. This person fought as if they battled in countless wars and matches of armed and hand-to-hand combat. Sonic could hear Tails from afar that they didn't share his speed nor reaction time, yet they moved as if they did. Not only that, but they could destabilize and drain chaos energy. And they weren't bluffing about the typical effects either, because Sonic nearly got knocked out when they touched his arm. Though he was wide awake, his body felt tired because all of his chaos energy was stolen and thrown into the ether. Because his body was quick to recover with great stamina, he could restore that chaos energy in a small period of time. However, he needed time to do so. If he kept fighting like this, he'd get slower, sloppier and receive more damage than desired. The last thing Sonic wanted to do was use the emeralds against a lone person who wasn't even on a giant robot or demigod level, as he knew that'd be overkill. If he was going to do this the old fashioned way, he'd have to utilize everything in his arsenal. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he'd need help.
But, that's what friends—or lovers—were for, right?
With a shit-eating grin, Sonic suddenly yelled: "Yo Shads! Tag in!"
A green flash appeared before their eyes, and the clash of amber red energy suddenly struck against the stranger's baton, a violent fist stuck into it's material.
"...With pleasure." The ultimate life form replied.
Caught off guard by the suddenly teleportation, the stranger could not prepare themselves from the sudden boost in upper body strength, and was knocked back a little. "Tag teaming against one foe?" They scowled as they steadied their body for a wave of hard hitting attacks. "How gutless." Shadow boosted himself with the help of his air shoes to strike a momentum driven right hook, and continued the attack with more fist-based strikes at higher speeds. His arms whirred of black and red as he assaulted the intruder. They however managed to learn his pattern in mere seconds, using their baton to block and push back every punch that was thrown. Due to Shadow's aggressive tactics, they were being slowly pushed backwards as they defended themselves, eventually nearing themselves into a now weathered down tree. A bright red glint shined in Shadow's eyes as he used both fists to strike downwards. The stranger threw themselves to the ground while using their baton to block their face, just barely holding off Shadow's balled up hands. They then kicked through the deadlock and nailed Shadow in the muzzle, but he didn't even react. He ate through the hit and drove down a powerful hook. The marauder barrel rolled away across the grass and immediately stood back up to ready themselves for anything else he had to throw at them.
Shadow pummeled towards them like a rocket, throwing in round house kicks along with bone shattering upper cuts. His knuckles just barely grazed against their helmet, causing a line of damage to draw across the black material. "What's gutless," Shadow responded in haste. "Is you not showing your miserable face. Anyone who doesn't have the decency to show their face to their enemy, is a sign-" He finally landed a jab against their chest, pushing them backwards as their boots created drag marks into the ground. Shadow rushed up with a follow up leading left. "-Of disrespectful cowardice!" His wrist was nearly grabbed at, but Shadow snatched his arm away quickly, as he knew this person could derail his chaos energy with a single touch. "Oh no you don't," Shadow used his air shoes to jet himself away a few yards before charging some power into his hand. "I'm not letting you do to me what you did to faker. If you want my energy so bad," He held up his arm. "Have a taste! Chaos Spear!" A array of amber red colored spear heads circled above the stranger before slamming down to their position.
They sprinted to avoid the spears, flipping and jumping from left to right to evade the chaotic projectiles. The final spear flew right behind them, dead on their trail, until they turned around and used their palm to simply smack the arrowhead away. It dissolved into chaotic embers, disappearing instantly. They could not only disrupt chaos energy from a living being, they could also destroy a chaotic attack with a single blow. Shadow planned on using Chaos Control to momentarily stop time to make a sneak attack, but it would more than likely fail since this opponent could override that move almost instantaneously. In a green flash, Shadow teleported behind them in the air, before performing an axe kick directly downwards. The stranger swung their baton to hold off the kick. They were holding Shadow's foot against their stick, struggling against it to shove it away. "Taking a page from Miles prime, allow me to analyze you." They said confidently. "You're an upper-body fighter, but you make lower-body sneak attacks. The exact opposite of Sonic prime, but just as weak." Red energy spiked through their baton, and soon, Shadow's entire body. "You are nothing like my superior. By the way," They added eerily. "I don't need to use my hands to destroy your precious chaos energy—Chaos Override."
"...!" An explosion of disrupted amber red chaos energy threw Shadow backwards and onto the ground. His body trembled as the shockwaves of his own energy attacking him continued to create severe damage. He rolled to a stop against the very tree he nearly had the marauder cornered at, panting angrily as he attempted to stand. Okay, clearly this wouldn't work unless they'd go all out. If their chaos energy wasn't ripped from out of their bodies, they could have kept it pushing physically. But as of right now, neither he nor Sonic had the energy to move forward. They needed time to rest, at least five minutes.
"Pathetically predictable," The marauder insulted carelessly. "Do you all see now?" They asked aloud, more specifically towards the rest of the Mobians. "Please mind your manners and do not engage in combat with me. I will be taking Shadow and Sonic prime with me now, as what they're needed for is far more important than this childish slap-fight you call a battle." They placed the baton on the ground and leaned their palms against it. "To think the spirits would depend on the absolute weakest duo of the Divine Pyramid...Laughable." They then dug in their pocket, searching for an object. "I'll just bring you to my general, and hopefully you two will prove to be more useful after he-"
"Hey loser!" Tails suddenly shouted while pointing his finger directly at the militant stranger.
"...?" They turned to his direction.
He stepped in front of the group of friends to get a better shot. With a small smirk, the fox readied his aim while winking, before power charged through the metallic pieces on his glove. "Smile." A laser beam composed of faux chaos energy immediately shot from his pointed index finger, and beamed towards the stranger at alarming speeds.
The masked marauder could do nothing, as they didn't anticipate such an action. It made a direct hit into their helmet, striking through and cracking a large hole into the helmet. "Gah...!" They cried out with panic, dropping their baton and covering their face immediately. Scrambling to make sure it was still on their head, they took a few steps backwards. More and more pieces fell to the grass, more and more holes were appearing as the cracks grew all over the headpiece. It eventually fell off and tumbled to the ground completely, before dissolving in a strange way. It was almost as if it was digitized or glitched out of existence. They pat their hands to their face with concern, before realizing their helmet was gone.
With extreme shock, Shadow, Sonic and all of their friends' eyes shrank with disbelief.
"No frickin' way..." Sonic whispered as his eyes adjusted to the unsheathed face of their enemy.
With an enraged grunt, they flipped their blue quills over their shoulders as they stood up straight. "God...damn it, General Zhadow...!" He swore loudly, his voice no longer obscured by a filter. Dark green irises, a peach colored muzzle and royal blue furred spines on his back, there now stood a Sonic-look alike. Underneath that heavy black helmet, was a Mobian-like being who looked exactly like their hero. The only difference was that his voice was far more serious, abrasive and authoritarian, and his eyes were not as bright as Sonic's. This wasn't Metal Sonic or another case of mistaken identity with Shadow, this was a near-exact copy. Sonic was right when he said it was a male hedgehog, but none of them expected this. Grumbling and cursing to himself, he pressed a hand over his now revealed head as he hissed with great exasperation. "That bastard specifically told me that those helmets were indestructible! Efficient prototype my ass...Now I'll need even more amnesiac serums to wipe all of their memories...I'll have to report to the espionage team and...Ugh!" He pointed an angry glare at Tails, who flinched in response. "You..." He growled. "Miles prime, to think you'd have something like that up your sleeve. I was wrong to underestimate your genius, and I sincerely apologize for doing so. With that said, you'll be the first to have your memory of this incident wiped. But no matter," He held up his hand in the air, causing the baton to swing in his direction and land in his palm once more. He swung it down, causing wind to blow at them all. "Your hero and his reformed villain for a boyfriend is still coming with me," His eyes held wrath within them, frustrated with his face being revealed. "Whether you like it or not."
Tails couldn't believe his eyes, nor could anyone else.
He began to walk towards Shadow threateningly, his baton slung over his shoulder like a heavy bastard sword. "I suppose I should start with the physically strongest contender here: You, Project Shadow. Without your chaos abilities, Knuckles prime would easily be a close second." He announced with miffed eyes. "Chaos users...Don't make me laugh." He spat. "Chaos users are nothing but weaklings who stand behind an emerald just to feign strength in battle. Eventually, you do nothing but rely on a single technicolor rock to do the work for you. Lazy, frankly. Meanwhile," He pressed a thumb against his own chest, his various medals glinting in the sunlight. "I had to work for my power, and underwent strenuous training to get where I am today. I cannot wield nor hold any degree of chaos energy, as my body physically can't handle its properties. However," He finally stopped in front of the ultimate life form, who was growling at him. "I never needed your flimsy little abilities to fight, and I kick ass on my own just fine. That's the difference between you and I, and why you will never defeat me as you are now." He declared as his grip on his baton tightened. "So quit struggling, and just come along quietly already. Conscious or not, you have a role to fill," He held up the baton over his head, ready to strike down. "And I am not leaving until I have your absolute cooperation!"
"Shut up!"
Slowly, the Sonic look-alike paused and raised a brow while turning to the source of the sudden outburst. "You again?"
The yellow-orange fox chuckled bitterly as he carefully flexed his fingers and swished his namesakes. "...I am so sick and tired of you stupid Sonic-wannabes, faking your way into our home," The metallic parts of his gloves sparked with pale yellow power as he gnashed his teeth. "You're a creep, a loser who hides behind a mask, and a liar at that. Sonic's not evil, pure and simple. My brother will never be a pawn in whatever game you're playing, and you're even dumber than you look if you think we're just gonna stand by and let you take them. Seriously," Tails laughed. "Are you high, or something?"
Amy tossed her gargantuan hammer up in the air and caught it in her palm, over and over with scanning emerald green eyes. "Anyone who lays a finger on my friends will feel every thorn I've got."
Knuckles cracked his namesakes and glanced over at the white bat. "Looks like we gotta do a full-fledged assault on this guy, batgirl. You ready?"
With a beckoning hand wave towards the Sonic look-alike, Rouge winked and smirked. "Oh I've been dying to get back at you for that cute little jumpscare you gave me back at my apartment, Fake Blue."
"For the love of God..." The Sonic clone sighed stressfully. He simply walked away from Shadow and traveled over to stand directly in front of the colorful bunch, who were all ready to throw down. "Let it never be said that I ever enjoyed extraction missions..." He shrugged. "Let's just get this over with, already."
The red echidna suddenly charged forward. "Don't mind if I do!" A brutal punch was whacked directly at the blue militant hedgehog, who blocked it last second with his baton. However, he was struggling to hold off this punch much more than with Sonic or Shadow. "Ha!" The echidna laughed. "You can read Shadow and Sonic like a book, but not me!" Another earthquake of a punch was thrown his way, but instead of blocking it, he stuck his baton into the ground, looped his legs around Knuckles' arm while holding onto the other end of the stick, and twisted his thighs and legs around it to swing the echidna down onto the ground for a strong takedown. As they tumbled down, Knuckles grunted and wrapped his strong arms around the look-alike. While carrying the blue hedgehog clone in his arms, he lifted them both up, before diving down directly into the dirt below. He charged forward deep within the earth, using his head alone to dig through, forcing the enemy to take half of the brunt of every inch of gravel they crushed through together. Above the surface, cracks formed underneath grass, until the blue faker was thrown directly out of a sudden gaping crater. Knuckles jumped out with an uppercut, before gliding quickly to the adversary and kicking him down to the ground once more.
The militant hedgehog reacted fast and used their baton to strike the ground first, before landing crouched down on the other end with both feet. He balanced perfectly on the stick, before spitting out dirt and dusting off the mounds of dirt that was now covered all over his uniform. He shook his head to get out any dirt that lingered in his quills and scowled. A female war cry was heard from behind, causing him to lift his head at the attack that was currently above him. Amy swung down her hammer, to which the strange hedgehog easily dodged by flipping himself off of the baton. Her hammer landed directly on top, shoving the stick farther into the earth. However, she didn't let him leave her gaze. She then threw down six gilded tarot cards with pink aura emanating from them. Before he could move away, a couple cards were sharp enough to slice right through his left arm, drawing and splattering blood on the grass blades below. The second tear in his uniform revealed a peach colored arm, concluding that he truly was a Sonic clone underneath his clothes. This only angered the pink hedgehog even more. She stomped down to land before slamming her hammer down into the ground. A boulder of rock lifted from the dirt from her man-made tremor, and she used it as a giant projectile to smack her hammer directly into it. It shot directly towards the faker, who used his entire body to throw himself backwards to dodge it.
He landed onto the ground and made another dodge roll before immediately getting back up. As soon as the uniformed hedgehog thought he had a second to breathe, his ears perked up to noise from behind. He quickly turned around only to quickly turn his face away from a high heeled kick headed in his direction. Using her wings to help propel her forward and increase force in her kicks, Rouge also used them to help her stay in the air, making her a harder target to both dodge and counterattack. It was almost as if she danced on air, flying with grace as she tapped her shoes away directly at the enemy. She was quick too, her taps working like jabs of fists. The fact that her barrage of her kicks were so copious and fast despite her not being on Sonic's level of speed was baffling, and so the lookalike didn't quite know how to read her. Just as he thought he might have figured out her pattern, she suddenly landed on the ground and lowered her body to do a sneaky sideswipe underneath his boots. While he had a feeling she'd do that, he couldn't react in time and lost his balance. She used this chance to charge forward with a punch, to which he suddenly smacked away from the back of his arm. Seeing as how he wasn't quite down and didn't want to risk taking any damage, she smartly used her wings to fly backwards to gain distance.
Even more annoyed, the blue clone hedgehog darted his eyes to the right to see a sparkling vulpine throw a hook directly at him. The faker ducked this attack, but Tails' namesakes wouldn't let him recover. Almost with a mind of their own, they reached out and wrapped around his waist. With a chest crushing grip, they pulled and tossed the uniformed marauder several feet away. He landed harshly on the ground, but he flipped and landed on the dirt with his fingers gripping into the ground to help steady his momentum. Tails snatched the scouter off of his face before pointing his finger straight at him, a beam lasering precisely at this exact location. The first time, he didn't see it coming, as it was literally moving at the speed of light. But this time, the stranger hedgehog had learned his lesson. His eyes flashed with slight uncertainty, before a moment of clarity sharpened his pupils. He read the moment of impact perfectly and side stepped away, the beam just barely missing his muzzle by mere centimeters. Then, a startling beeping caused him to look down at his feet, only to see several tiny bombs with a two tailed insignia marked on the back of them, sprinkled all around him. With a smirk, Tails snapped his fingers. A large explosion went off, shooting fiery smoke all over and hiding the view of their shared target.
Coughing and hacking, the mystery blue hedgehog waved his arm back and forth to blow the smoke away from his face. His clothes and fur was roughed up, and he looked a little tired if not completely stressed. His eyes looked concerned, worried that he'd be submitting the fight. He groaned in pain as he stood up, cracking his neck and straightening his posture. Then, he took in a deep breath before simply slapping the dust off of his top. And in an instant, he looked completely normal. His clothes weren't as dirty, his fur no longer bruised, and his expression not even the slightest bit intimidated. "I admit, He suddenly said. "I haven't had anyone cut my skin in many years. Then again, you're the friends of Sonic and Shadow prime—The smarter, more talented ones. However, as I mentioned before," He grunted as he flexed his arms, more popping of bones sounding. That's when they all realized, this guy had visible strength underneath that uniform, just like the original blue blur. His quills raised attentively. "None of you, will ever be able to defeat me as you are now." With a click of his boots against the ground, he immediately held up his palm to allow the baton to magnetically swing back to his side. Catching it effortlessly, he bent down with the baton in both of his hands. The baton ticked, and suddenly adjusted to extend it's length. With wind blowing through his quills, a dangerous glintsparked through his eyes. "Forgive me for asserting my authority over you."
The red guardian, in the air, was rocketing down with two spiked fists directly towards him. Knuckles would attack first once more, and perform yet another successful terrain attack.
But this time, the blue uniformed faker was ready.
As time slowed down, and just as Knuckles got closer to hitting him dead on with his namesakes, the militant hedgehog swung his baton directly into the underside of the echidna. Despite his heavy weight, he still managed to not only strike Knuckles directly in his stomach, but swing his entire body down to the ground. Instantly recovering back on his feet, the guardian became a boxing champion of any upstart's nightmares. He threw punch after punch, jab after jab, uppercut after uppercut, hook after hook, cross after cross. The mysterious hedgehog slapped each strike of fist away with the baton, before spiraling the stick in a windmill motion that blocked every single move the red echidna could muster. As the hedgehog did this with one hand, he made quick but short jabs into various areas of Knuckles' anatomy. His shoulders, his arms, his biceps and even his elbows. "I can see it now," He said as he watched the echidna back away, attempting to continue to try and punch back. He was losing his momentum. "Because your strength is so high, you know you're intimidating, and you use that against your enemies. You try and catch your opponent off guard with your sheer physical prowess, and even use the terrain around you to get the upper hand. Although," Even as Knuckles tried to bob and weave the hidden strikes behind the windmilling baton, he could no longer keep up in speed. He was slowly but surely losing. "Your stamina is lacking, you can't keep it up for long. After a few minutes of endurance from a formidable enemy, you're ready to collapse. After all," He suddenly kicked upwards, completely shattering Knuckles' stance. "You're not used to having someone stronger than you, are you?" He then stabbed his baton into his chest, knocking the wind out of the guardian, before swinging a roundhouse kick directly into his face.
The force of the kick was so harsh, that it knocked the echidna several meters away, landing harshly with a bone cracking thud. "D-Damn it...!" He groaned as blood dripped from his mouth and nose.
With an angered shout, Rouge sprinted forward with a knee attack, just missing the hedgehog's stomach. He easily dodged and saw right through her. She moved to swing her leg, and he did the same. As their legs clashed, he adjusted his hold on his long nightstick. "And you," He addressed curiously as they went blow for blow, kick to kick. She was putting every ounce of strength she had into her strikes, but the hedgehog wasn't even flinching and had no issue with sharing impact with her strong legs. "You've mastered taekwondo, albeit a very weak variant of the martial art." He ridiculed as he used her own landed knee as a stepping stool to jump up into the air. He swung his entire body into a spiral, a spinning kick landing directly against her head. She was knocked back with a yelp, but she wasn't down just yet. She immediately pushed herself to counterattack. "Bat Mobians have some of the most powerful sense of sound, and can detect up to the slightest motion of noise for several miles. Thanks to that, you excelled as a spy because you know just how loud the body can be when in motion. You've trained yourself to stifle the noise of your own attacks, making you a great fighter despite your lack in strength." But before she could even react, he was right behind her. Her large ears couldn't even hear him coming. "But you never thought there'd be someone out there who was even more silent than you." A foot planted itself directly on the back of her neck, nailing her spinal cord, causing her to gasp and fall onto the ground. Her arms and legs twitched, her body was struggling to recovery from being struck harshly in such a vital pressure point.
Satisfied with his work, the militant hedgehog turned around to see a pink hedgehog with inflamed emerald eyes swinging her hammer in his vicinity. "You bastard...!" She yelled with acid spewing venom. Her eyes were carefully keeping track of the marauder's movements, noticing that he was dodging left and right. "You keep hurting my friends—I'll make you pay!" She swung with great speed and a never ending decreasing pace. Each swing was undoubtedly deadly, because it caused great winds with every miss, flinging even thick branches off of nearby trees into the abyss of the distance. "Why can't you take a damn hint-" She stepped forward with one last strong thrust of her hammer. "-And go away!?" When it landed, it missed and connected with the ground, causing several mounds of structured dirt to cave in below to the depths of the earth. She slowly lifted her head, her bangs were darkening her expression, but anyone could tell that she was beyond scorned.
With boredom, the mysterious stranger twirled his baton in his hand before pointing it to the ground. "Ah yes, Miss Rose and her famous Piko Piko hammer..." He noted with slight amusement. "You like playing with hammers. Well, allow me to show you-" He suddenly lifted the baton up high above his head, and Amy watched with astonishment as the structure of the nightstick began to change once more. "-What a real warhammer looks like." In mere seconds, she watched the tool transform from a simple long-lengthed nightstick, to a large warhammer that rivaled the size of her own. It was completely jet black, compounded with hard metal, and it even had a sharp clawed end on the back. Shining with great, frightening weight, her eyes lost some of her vigor and was now replaced with a small amount of fear. Just like that, it swung down towards her, and she barely tossed herself backwards to avoid impact. She steadied her legs and stopped herself, before watching the hedgehog walk closer. He was already beginning to lift it up once more. Gritting her teeth, she charged forward and swung again. They both matched each other's movements, their hammers stuck in a strong deadlock. "You yourself are quite physically powerful, yet you don't rely on hand-to-hand combat. Instead, you push all of your power into a simple toy and waste so much energy at once into swinging in quick successions. Foolish, but I suppose you never matured in that regard, huh?" He then simply dropped the hammer from his hand, letting it fall to the ground. The loss of the deadlock's weight caused Amy to lose her balance. The militant hedgehog then pulled his arm back before swinging a right hook directly into her right shoulder, one that painfully tore through muscle. She cried out in pain and immediately fell onto her back, hissing and rolling to the side as she instantly grabbed her hand to her now heavily bruised limb.
A beam was shot at him from behind, but he easily dipped to the side to dodge it without even looking. Not even his quills were grazed. He almost forgot about the fox. He slowly turned around and kicked his foot in the ground. The small tremor caused by his steel-toed boots caused the dropped black warhammer to prop entirely upright, and into his palm. He tapped a finger onto the side, allowing the hammer to transform back into the bō-themed police baton.
"Oh but of course," The blue look-alike mused. "The true star of all of Sonic prime's friends, Miles prime." He placed a hand on his hip as he surveyed the fox's movements. He wasn't stepping any closer, and they were already a nice distance away from each other. "You are the one he values the most, his number one sidekick. I will admit, I do not feel comfortable with striking down a minor. In fact, it disgusts me. My job is to save troubled teens, not hurt them. But oh, excuse me," He scoffed arrogantly. "I suppose it's too late for altruism." He could tell the fox was just itching to get his hands on him, his fists shaking at his sides and his baby blue eyes rattling with rage. "You've barely any physical prowess, and while you are the best at keeping up with Sonic prime more than anyone, you still lack speed. However," The hedgehog's eyes sharpened, squinting carefully at the vulpine. "You never needed physical strength to defeat your enemies, as you've even taken down the mighty Ultimate Life Form himself, once. You are crafty, tricky and an unbelievably intelligent foe—just like a fox. Anyone who looks down upon you, is a fool waiting to be defeated."
"Is that even supposed to be a compliment, weirdo?" The fox spat back.
The hedgehog shook his head. "Ah, don't mistake my praises for derision. I speak with sincerity." He placed his hands behind his back, his baton no longer in a defensive position. "Despite your obvious weaknesses, you are remarkable. And it's because of your overwhelming weaknesses that makes you so much more daunting. Nobody can properly read you, not even me...At first." And with that, he charged forward towards the fox, swinging that baton directly at his smaller frame. The vulpine dodged out of the way, and placed both of his palms together to charge up more faux chaos energy. A stronger, much bigger beam of the power blasted right at him. Instantly, his white and blue leather glove cut right through that power like a knife, and embers of the beam flew into the air to disappear. After all, fake chaos energy was far weaker than genuine chaos energy. The militant hedgehog plucked the lingering embers off of his fingers before tilting his head curiously at the fox. "You didn't actually think that would do anything to me, did you? Fake chaos energy is like blowing air."
"Y'know," Tails smirked as he gestured for the cocky interloper to look down. "I figured as much." Before he could look down though, he was suddenly yanked to the ground by the fox's namesakes. They were wrapped around his ankles the entire time. He attempted to sit up, but was caught once again by the fox's appendages. They soon wrapped around his neck like a boa constrictor, gripping tightly around his throat with strength that he didn't expect out of the sidekick. Grunting with slight pain, the hedgehog tried to stand up anyway, but was punched in the face. Tails directly stepped his shoes onto the stranger's abdomen, not caring if he was crushing his organs with his weight. He looked down upon the blue fake hedgehog with repulsion, scowling harshly as he squeezed his tails against his neck tighter. The marauder made choked gasps, grabbing at his namesakes to attempt to pull them off. "Sonic always taught me not to kill someone, if I ever had the chance. But I'd never do that anyway, so I'll just wait until you lose consciousness. Don't worry, closing your eyes makes the process a lot quicker." He eerily advised. However, beneath him, the hedgehog was moving anyway. His knees craned and his back arched off of the ground. Before Tails could do anything, he was already on his feet and shoving the fox away from his body. Tails landed on his feet, but his namesakes kept their grip. "Oh no you don't!" Tails yelled as he pointed his finger to shoot another beam. That is, until his hand was suddenly seized. A tall shadow loomed over him, causing the younger Mobian to sweat anxiously. He slowly looked up to see the hedgehog gripping his hand painfully, before ripping the metallic frame off of his entire palm. It tore through his glove, and even ripped through small bits of his skin, shedding blood. Tails winced in pain, and was simply kicked square in the chest. Heaving out all of the air in his lungs, the force of the kick threw him to the side onto his back.
Exhaling in great displeasure, the Sonic look-alike held the baton over his shoulder once more to look afar at Sonic and Shadow, who were now up on their feet and fiercely alerted to his presence. "Finally-"
And to his dismay, it still wasn't over.
In streaks of white, red, pink and orange-yellow, the four friends were now circling around him. With smaller, panicked eyes, the look-alike darted his eyes around frantically. "How did all of you recover that fast...? The cyberspace simulations never predicted this...!" He murmured to no one. Knuckles was moving closer with balled fists. Rouge was preparing to lift and charge a kick. Amy already had her hammer lifted up high, and Tails had yet another group of small bombs in his hands. Their eyes all glowed with a haunting, perilous sense of tremendous danger. "Damn it," He hissed with a scowl. "Alright, I've had enough of this shit!" He swung down his baton and gripped his hand on the handle, before twisting it into three clicks. Abruptly, the baton began to transform yet again. New parts of black metal protruded from certain points of the stick, while it's length slightly shortened. And finally in less than a second, it was finished. When the group got a good look at what he was now wielding, they all began to back away in fear.
A loud gunshot rang out from all of their ears, and with great air pressure, the militant hedgehog was suddenly in the sky still aiming the tool directly down at them all.
Shadow's eyes widened significantly. "You're kidding." He whispered as his eyes fully comprehended what they were seeing. That baton was no longer a nightstick or even a warhammer, it was now in the form of a pump-action firearm. "That's not some police baton, that's a multi-purpose weapon and now it's a God damn gun!"
"Marksman series, model three: Shotgun." The blue hedgehog faker held the weapon in his hands like a professional gunman, reloading the now baton-gun and pushing his finger on the trigger for another shot. It boosted him in the air yet again, higher this time. "Follow me if you wish, but I won't go easy on you!" He pulled the trigger and shot again, using the momentum of the gunshot's pressure to jump far away several times and disappear within the tall trees of the jungle. Though the group shielded their faces when he shot the first time, all they felt was harsh wind and pressure being blown against them.
"Damn..." Sonic mumbled. He wouldn't say it out loud, but it reminded him of when Shadow first picked up a gun during the Black Arms incident—Literally everyone yelled: "He's got a gun!" And just scattered like roaches. Just like that situation back then, it was bad when an already daunting foe could take down a majority of the team. But it was even worse when they got their hands on a devastating weapon. That was definitely a game changer, and not in a fun way.
The biohog stepped forward as he watched the mysterious faker escape. "He's firing high-pressurized blanks...?" The marauder kept mentioning he had no interest in actually fighting anyone, only that he would if he had to. Perhaps he didn't want to mortally wound anyone, either. He looked back beside him as the true blue blur walked next to him. "Sonic, this person is beyond abnormal." He noted hastily. "Only Eggman's been able to create weapons like that. First it transformed into a warhammer, and now a gun. Who knows what else it can turn into."
Tails gave chase first, using his namesakes to propel him forward faster. "Don't let that freak get away!" He called out for the others, and they all ran along with him to hunt the faker down deep within Angel Zone's forest.
Shadow didn't want them to go after him, as he could cause more damage and hurt them much more severely. "If they go after him and fight again, he'll start breaking bones. I can tell he's holding back."
"I know," Sonic quickly replied. "I've been watching him, and he's good. Too good. He predicts everything we're doing, even though we've never met or fought the guy. But," He frowned. "He had more trouble fighting our friends than he did when fighting us. Like Knuckles said, he read us like a book from the word 'go', so nothing we did was a surprise. He expected every little thing we threw at him, even our chaos abilities. He was prepared to fight us, but not them."
"Yes, but all it took was taking a little damage and he learned their patterns quickly, fighting them all off easily soon after. So-" Shadow trailed off.
"-We gotta catch him off guard," Sonic finished for him. "Do something he'll never see coming. Only question is," He sucked his teeth. "What would that even be?"
Shadow could feel a plan forming in his head. "I don't know if you've noticed, but he's much more short-tempered than you are. He loses his patience very quickly, and gets annoyed by the slightest inconvenience."
Sonic smirked. "Yeah, he's probably been used to everything in his life going flawlessly. He figured whatever he was gonna pull here would be a cakewalk, but he underestimated us." He gave Shadow a look, his smirk widening. "People look more obvious when they lose their cool."
The biohog smirked, as he could feel that they were thinking the exact same thing. "And that's precisely the opening we'll need."
"And now I've got a plan."
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