A week had passed and tensions in Emerald Hills had risen very high. Silver was the main target of the enemy so the poor hedgehog was accompanied at all times. All the siblings were even Violet just to be sure of it. They still hadn't heard from Shadow and Sonic, which was making them quite worried.
Knuckles had vanished two days ago leaving what was left of the chaotix to watch the master emerald with Rouge and Omega joining them. Knuckles entrusted them all to the serious job while he was away. No one had a clue where the guardian had vanished to, all but one little hedgehog who had managed to follow him. Dash was intrigued as he followed the echidna through the many caves, secret passageways and portals until he came across a cave deep in the mountains which was guarded by what looked like chameleons.
Dash was so intrigued that he totally forgot about stealth leading him to be captured. He remained silent as he was blindfolded and led to what he thought was the leaders place.
"I'm sorry to disturb you my prince but the guardian seemed to have been followed by a Hedgehog"
"Remove the cloth" wait a minute that sounded like…
"Espio!" Dash whispered seeing Espio and Knuckles frowning down at him.
"Leave us, I will deal with it"
"But my prince, he…"
"Leave us!"
With that the chameleons left leaving only Espio, Knuckles and Dash alone.
"Dash! What were you thinking?!" Knuckles scolded him as Dash could only scratch his head and tap his foot like his father would. The echidna couldn't help but smile at him. Espio on the other hand looked annoyed and stressed.
"Well, I wanted to know where you were going and…argh!" Dash yelped, holding his head tightly concerning the two.
"Dash! What is it?"
"Mother! It's mother! He's….Silvers in trouble, Shade needs us!" Dash pleaded looking up at Espio who was his uncle, the ninja only sighed.
"Dash, I will help but promise me something. Never show anyone how to get here and don't turn up unannounced, you could have been killed. Do not tell anyone about this place"
The blue and red youngster could only nod as he pressed into Knuckle's chest, the echidna rubbing his quills as the pain subsided.
"Espio, I thought you couldn't leave" Knuckles said, "I can for now but I must return every couple of days" Espio said with a smile as he gestured for a silver chameleon to come over.
"Silas, I may need your expertise"
Knuckles and Dash's eyes widened at the chameleon in front of them, Silas nodded at them.
"What do you need my nephew?" Silas asked, Espio only smiled. "I need a passage from here to Angel Island and you to cover me for today and tomorrow".
"It will be done but remember you must be back in six days time, your ceremony will take place and I do not want to be in charge in your honour" Silas explained while opening a portal, "Understood, uncle. Thank you, I will be back in a couple of days. No one will be taking my mother's throne from me" Espio said in a colder tone that made Knuckles double-take at the amount of coldness in his tone. Silas could only nod, "Be safe" as the three jumped through the portal disappearing from sight.
"You can make an appearance now. You do know your brother needs you now more than ever" Silas said to the navy chameleon who had appeared behind them, "You may think your a ghost to him but he knows you will make the right decision when the time comes" With that said Silas disappeared leaving Arlo alone to his thoughts.
Elsewhere…
Espio landed roughly on Angel Island holding his side in pain, the aches were getting worse. Silas told him to take it easy so he had to be careful. Knuckles was quick to help him to his feet, "Are you sure about this?" Espio asked, pointing to himself. Knuckles could only nod wrapping his arms around the chameleon who welcomed the hug. "Hey! Guys we have more important things to deal with!" Dash shouted beside them, earning their attention. Knuckles only chuckled gesturing for Dash to climb aboard, the little hedgehog did knowing the guardian would be making an awesome entrance again. Espio ignored their gesture and decided he would take another root as he freaked them out as he jumped off the side of the cliff.
Out in the distance was Dr Eggman attacking with both Infinite, Doom and Eclipse at his side. The four worked in sync to catch any flicky’s and mobians to help aid their conquest. The black Arms were tearing down homes in search of the white hedgehog known as Silver who was remaining in hiding.
Rouge battled beside Omega protecting Silver from the onslaught of robots and aliens heading their way. A flash in the sky alerted them all to the comet which appeared again signalling Eclipse had arrived with more aliens.
"Dammit! Anyone got a plan?!" Vector yelled covering Charmy and Vector Junior a.k.a. VJ. The two younger ones were protecting the fox twins and Vanilla who were hiding in a nearby house with other mobians. They were in the underground section.
"Keep fighting!" Amy yelled, swinging her hammer and double teaming with Blaze who used any energy she had.
"What about the chaos emeralds! Can we not use them?" Cream shouted over the fighting.
"We only have six, remember, the seventh Shadow has. Wherever that grumpy hedgehog is, he better hurry up!" Rouge exclaimed, kicking the robots away which only seemed to multiply. Dr Eggman chuckled above avoiding chaos spears from Shade who was getting weaker. Violet pulled her back, "Guys! This is useless, let me hand myself over!" Silver cried out only to be slapped by Tails who shook his head, "Silver we are dead either way!" Blaze shouted, slapping her boyfriend who frowned at her.
Amy gasped when her daughter made herself known. The pink hedgehog with blue stripes in her hair ran with all her might slamming her own weapon into the robots knocking them faraway.
"Rose! What the hell are you doing here?!" Amy cried out as her daughter stopped beside her, "You are meant to be with your uncle…"
A booming sound in front of them all made them gasp as two individuals dropped from the sky and a green wave slammed into the ground knocking many of them off their feet. All eyes turned to see Knuckles had landed with a smirk on his face as he made his way to the trapped freedom fighters.
"I heard you called for backup" Knuckles said, "How?" Rouge was interrupted by a young speedster appearing beside them all followed by explosions. "Miss me?" Dash yelped as he was lifted off his feet by a worried Shade who continued to scold him.
"Ha ha ha! You think you can stop me, I mean us! Soon Emerald Hills will be destroyed and you will all work for the Eggman Empire!" Dr Eggman shouted as Doom forced his fighters forward. Infinite watched with a smile as he floated in the air, his eyes trying to find the one who he had to kill to win. Eclipse smirked from his place beside his father, they were going to do it.
Dr Eggman unleashed hundreds of missiles on the unexpecting mobians who frowned, wondering how they would survive this.
"Find cover!" Knuckles commanded.
"What cover! It's all gone! And if you didn't realise, some of us can't survive that!" Amy yelled, pulling Rose behind her as Shade copied her actions with her siblings and Violet.
Knuckles frowned trying to call on his chaos powers which seemed to not be working.
Just as the missiles were said to hit a voice cried out, "CHAOS SHIELD!". Knuckles frowned as they were soon surrounded by a purple shield when all the missiles hit causing a crater like no other in the ground.
"How! You're just a chameleon!" Doom roared, spotting the one who stood outside the shield, Espio lifted his head with a wicked look as his skin darkened until it was a dark purple.
Espio only smiled as he vanished from sight confusing them all which led to Eclipse and Infinite floating down to investigate only for them to hit the ground hard as Espio appeared in front of them ready for the strict battle ahead.
Knuckle's eyes widened as they all watched Espio fight off two powerful enemies with only his hidden blades and the occasional punch. Eclipse was furious, how dare this mortal think he could challenge him. He would show him Eclipse thought as he created a pure ball of black energy intending on taking out the chameleon when a booming sound caught all attention.
A portal opened behind them all followed by a pure green wave slamming any enemies away from all the mobians including Espio who was holding a hand to his side in agony, he had been stabbed again. He ignored the look from Knuckles who caught his eye before turning his full attention to the portal where a hedgehog stepped out followed by another…
"SONIC!" The freedom fighters shouted in happiness, the cobalt speedster looked their way with a smile which was clearly fake as the other hedgehog made themselves known.
“MEPHILES!” Eclipse roared turning to the one who was once his partner only for him to turn on him, Mephiles could only nod turning to Sonic who smiled accepting the green chaos emerald off Mephiles and sprinting for the freedom fighters who watched as the hero took out the black arms and robots without any effort.
“Miss me?!” he shouted, “Show off” Rouge huffed with a smile as the shield dropped and they all helped the blue speedster in defeating their enemies. Dash noticed one thing, where was his mother? He took notice of the portal still being opened and without thinking he sped through it with a worried Silver following after him. Shade gasped when the portal shut, “NO!” she cried out alerting Sonic who glared at Mephiles who shook his head.
“Open it!”
“I can’t! Shadow opened it, not me!” Mephiles yelled back avoiding another robot, Sonic shook his head.
Earlier on with Shadow and Sonic…
Rocks and Sonic had left both Trails and Shadow on the ledge while they snuck down to where Mephiles hung limply.
“Why do we have to use stealth? I can just run and get him” Sonic whined, Rocks looked at him with a raised eyebrow, “You know why, I thought Shadow explained it to you” Rocks said. Sonic only nodded, “Yeah yeah, the jackals have archers blah blah blah!”
“You there! Announce yourself!”
Damn they had been caught, Sonic didn’t understand the meaning of announcing himself and Rocks could only face-palm as the hero stood up and introduced himself.
“Hi, I’m Sonic the Hedgehog and you have something of mine…oh!”
The jackals looked at him confused until someone aimed an arrow for him, the speedster was quick to sprint out of the way and attack the jackals who couldn’t help but attack back. “SONIC! You idiot!” Sonic looked up to see Mephiles glaring at him as Rocks remained in the shadows just as another hedgehog made himself known.
“ENOUGH!” Shadow’s shout caught them all off guard, all attention turned to the black and red hedgehog who was leaning on Trails with the fox helping him down. One of the jackals appeared in front of the two, “Shadow, it has been too long. We have been expecting you” Shadow only grunted as Sonic moved over to his side and helped hold him up.
“You are here due to Infinite aren’t you” the same jackal spoke, she wore more silver than anything.
“I am”
“So, you understand, what must be done?” she said, Sonic looked at Shadow with curiosity.
“I do, is he?”
“He’s still alive, you know him personally”
Shadow could only nod as a small being was placed in his arms.
“Shadow, what’s going on?” Sonic asked looking at the small jackal in the ultimate lifeform’s arms, “You're not! Shadow you promised, no more killing!” Sonic screamed at his partner, Shadow looked up with a frown. “It’s either Infinite or Silver, we don’t have a choice” Shadow argued back. “Shadow, you know, fine well that there is always a choice!” Sonic held his partner's head in his arms.
“But Silver…”
“Will be okay, now we are not going through with this, as much as Infinite is our enemy. We can’t hurt a baby who can be raised differently” Sonic said, taking the baby jackal out of his partner's arms and handing it over to the female who agreed with the blue hedgehog.
“Shadow! Catch!” Mephiles threw something at the black and red hedgehog who caught it with a grimace, “Shadow?” Sonic said with worry, looking down at the black crystal. Shadow frowned, “Do you trust me?” Shadow asked, “Yes”, “Good”.
Sonic then found himself falling through a portal with Mephiles, the two yelled as the green chaos emerald appeared in Mephiles hand and the two were left cursing as another portal opened and they stepped out of it only to come across a battlefield.
Stick around for more chapters on the way soon...
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