Chapter 54: Only Hedgehogs to War

Still up on the hill and against the backdrop of the iron sky, black, deadly disks of distorted Chaos energy as well as searing Spears of lightning crackled through the air, creating a terrestrial thunderstorm that nothing should have survived. Shadow so far had managed to dodge any and all of Black Doom's projectiles, the frustrated dark King obviously not used to fighting against an opponent who was not only wearing rocket skates, but had also spent his entire childhood and youth being trained as a weapon of mass destruction.

Around them, soldiers were alternately trying to give them a wide berth or sometimes trying to get a shot in at Shadow, but kept knocking into each other as they attempted to avoid the fallout of the battle. Shadow occasionally swerved into them, skates leaving scorched armour and burnt fur when the Ultimate Lifeform used lesser mortals as stepping stones in his mad dance with Black Doom. Shadow had made one experimental homing attack at the evil overlord directly earlier, but it was as Lara-Lee had said – there was some sort of force shield around the alien emperor and simple physical attacks simply bounced off. But Shadow didn't mind. He could bide his time until the echidnas or the other kings and queens arrived. Dodging Black Doom's attacks wasn't too hard, either. And after all...

It wasn't his army around them that their ballistic projectile attacks were currently decimating.

xxx

"Stand still!" Scourge roared as Sonic once again had dodged the slice of his blade effortlessly, dancing around his opponent as if this was a ballet stage rather than a battlefield, "This isn't a duel, you haven't even got a fucking sword! How do you even expect to win?!"

"I just don't have a sword because haven't yet seen one I liked!" Sonic called back, whirling around and expertly kicking a rock at Scourge in one fluid movement that very nearly took the green hedgehog's head off. The general deflected it at the last moment with the flat of his blade, cursing at the impact. Then he saw that his until now immaculate sword now had a rather ugly shard scratched into it.

"My blade!" The green hedgehog cried out. "You honourless wretch!"

"D'awww, did someone break your new toy?" Sonic grinned – and then promptly kicked another rock, and this time took Scourge's crown right off with it.

It was at this point that the hero of Mobius wondered whether the general could perhaps also do a Chaos Blast, if only because he looked like he was about to explode in sheer rage.

"YOU! It's no wonder you're good for nothing but being screwed, you can't even fight properly!" Scourge snarled, now advancing again, black crown forgotten in the dirt, "But I am a knight of this kingdom, and I'm going to impale you today - one way or another!" He shot forward, Sonic tensing up and evading his blade once again, but barely, and this time Scourge didn't let up, but kept driving him back. The green hedgehog was still snarling, but his movements were unaffected by his rage, still clear, precise, fast and deadly. Sonic could already see this would not end well for him, despite his earlier bravado, and when Scourge's blade actually found its mark for the first time and lopped off the tip of a quill, this was obvious for the green hedgehog, too.

"This blade is sharp, you joker. I used it on slaves before you," Scourge said with a smile. "And with it I'm going to destroy you – you and your Master! " he added with emphasis, adding another swipe with his blade that Sonic jumped neatly over, flick-flacking backwards and facing Scourge again, even calmly crossing his arms to show how unimpressed he was with the other's skill with the sword.

"News for you, bean bag, I have no master. My only master is the wind that runs free!" The hero of Mobius' face spread into a cocky grin, remembering a different occasion for those words. And perhaps it really was time to once again -

"Oh yeah?" Scourge asked with a touch of sarcasm. "That collar on you speaks otherwise. Trying to tell me you added it out of fashion?"

Sonic shrugged. "Well, I suppose you could say whim is my other master...and you're right, now I really do want a sword!"

And, saying that, the fastest thing alive had taken off toward the battlefield with only a sonic boom left behind.

Scourge blinked.

"HEY!"

xxx

All the guards in Black Doom's army, who had secretly laughed at their Prince being so useless with a blade only two days ago, were now nearly choking on their smirks when they saw just how deadly he was without.

"I gave you life and yet you defy me!" Black Doom roared, "So be it! You shall pay for your ingratitude with relentless pain!" The last word was accompanied by a crooked lance of unholy energy, black lightning leaping from the King's outstretched claws like a nightmare.

Dark energy was charging up the air akin a lightning storm, wind and dust around them whirling wildly, stirred up both by his skates and circling around Black Doom as well as the projectiles of the dark King splitting the air in two. Shadow leapt and twisted above the heads of soldiers, dodging two energy lances thrown at him, one of them searing over his shoulder and the other past his flank only by mere inches, but the Ultimate Lifeform wasn't even fazed. Near misses never counted.

"I defeated you once already!" Shadow shouted back at Black Doom, skates blazing into life as he impacted on the ground between the craters, coming to a halt directly in front of his 'father'. The black hedgehog's lips stretched into a smirk that was a dark promise. "A second time should be no problem at all."

"Defeat me?! Who do you think you are to challenge me, you malformed abortion?!" Black Doom's voice thundered across the field. "You are nothing but an alchemical mistake! I should never have raised you." Three red eyes looked at Shadow, burning like holes into a furnace. "Now you shall die like the rest of your sibling freaks that I slaughtered in their cradles!" Midnight energy was dancing and twisting across his talons as if to accompany his words, ready to leap and kill.

And amid the oncoming storm, Shadow stayed exactly where he was, his face still as calm as ever when he spoke.

"Wrong. I am the Ultimate Lifeform," the black hedgehog stated, and he said it in a tone that would have fit a death sentence. He extended both of his hands with emerald flames blazing. "And you know nothing of the true power of Chaos!"

"I hold the Emerald. There is no way for you to win this battle," the alien overlord threatened as he spread his own arms atop the hill, his dark robe appearing like the torn wings of an infernal angel as the wind had picked up and let them billow against the steel sky.

"I will burn you, Shadow," Black Doom hissed, "until nothing remains!"

The Emerald glowed brightly as its power was used, and a dark sickle of chaotic energy was hurled straight at the midnight hedgehog. Shadow still hadn't moved, standing perfectly still until -

"CHAOS SPEAR!"

Black Doom's eyes widened as the black hedgehog threw his hand forward and a lance of golden lightning tore through the air, colliding with his own dark energy to explode in an inferno of chaotic black and yellow fire, the resulting shock wave blasting through his ranks and setting fire to the tent of the generals, burning debris of a catapult that had stood too close raining down on his troops.

"What-?! You have never even held an Emerald, it is impossible for you to even know how to control-!" Black Doom started, staring at Shadow with utter incomprehension, but the black hedgehog only smirked as he was already calling on his next attack, green flames of Chaos and red flames of the battlefield illuminating his face with an unholy radiance.

"You said you wanted to burn me?" Shadow asked, red eyes glowing with unconcealed glee now. "You utter fool. I dance in fire."

And the Ultimate Lifeform attacked.

xxx

"Here's the stone you wanted, fox boy," Rouge said as she held out a large, transparent gem the size of the addressed vulpine's head. "It's pure diamond. Probably worth as much as all your gadgets put into this lab together if not more."

"Wow...thanks, Rouge," Tails breathed as he took the crystal from the bat's hands, handling it with an almost reverence as the jewel seemed to glow with the lights of the laboratory refracting off it endlessly.

"Do we want to know just how you managed to get your hands on it?" Knuckles asked, the echidna sounding just a tad less impressed than the two-tail.

Rouge smirked at him. "Probably not."

Knuckles snorted, but at least made no further comment. The bat had returned when night had fallen, bringing with her the last ingredient for Tails' last and desperate plan to save Mobius. To construct an artificial Chaos Emerald to restore the balance that had been broken when the seventh had gone inexplicably missing a week ago...

"Will this work with the diamond?" Rouge asked, standing behind Tails as the young fox was now working on bringing the diamond into position in a machine that the jewel thief couldn't even begin to understand. Tails bit his lip.

"I hope so. Otherwise I really don't know what to do."

"And if it works, will it...I don't know, 'cure' those two over there?" Knuckles asked, also having joined them at the console and jerking a thumb back toward the two hedgehogs still contained in the Chaos-shielding forcefield in the lab Tails had confined them to. At the question, the two-tail seemed to bite his lip even harder.

"I...don't know. We don't even know why an imbalance in Chaos should have let them lose their minds and memories in the first place, so I have no idea how or why repairing that damage should help them be themselves again," Tails said quietly, looking at the floor and pausing in his working for a moment.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Knuckles replied grimly, violet eyes briefly flashing over to their two captives, who were watching the current proceedings silently, but obviously having trouble to comprehend anything they saw. The echida put a hand on the young fox' shoulder. "But that doesn't matter for now. If your plan manages to save this world, Tails, that's also the first step to help Sonic later."

"I know," Tails replied, eyes still glued to his shoes as he swallowed, but then he looked up again, fingers sinking onto the keyboard once more. "Don't worry, Knuckles, Rouge. I won't give up. I will do my best to save this world and Sonic." Tails could almost feel the two older Mobians exchanging glances behind his back as he said this, but he ignored it, instead carefully calibrating the machine that was supposed to turn this diamond into a Chaos Emerald. Six hours to go to stop the end of the world. The one he had always relied on to do that usually now was apparently trapped in his own mind and unable to do anything. Tails kept typing, only sneaking a single glance at his older brother over his shoulder once and wondering what could havepossibly ever happened to him that Sonic hadn't been able to handle.

xxx

"Hold still and let me skewer you!"

Just one dimension away, someone else was just finding out that trying to 'handle' the fastest thing alive wasn't that easy, either.

"What's the matter, can't keep the pace? Some fake high-speed hedgehog you are!" Sonic had called the insult over his shoulder with a light-hearted grin, but in truth, he was also seriously beginning to run out of breath. Scourge was fast.

Chaos, why is everyone that's my equal in speed always trying to *kill* me at first sight?!

"Stop running away and face me! If anything, you're the faker around here!" the green hedgehog scathed behind him and it took all Sonic had not to reply with 'You're comparing yourself to me?! Hah! You're not even good enough to be my fake!', mostly because that would have required breath he didn't have, but also because he would have been a little freaked out if Scourge had then actually shot back something about Sonic being made to eat those words. As freaky as this world was, that just might have been possible.

Yeah. I think I was pretty lucky Shads didn't bring a freaking *sword* that time in the jungle.

"Stand and fight! Dammit!" Scourge behind him was starting to sound seriously aggravated by now, which Sonic correctly (and a bit smugly) guessed was because the green hedgehog was just finding out that trying to catch up to Sonic when he didn't want you to was something that could take a long time.

But Sonic was also finding out that trying to lose Scourge also wasn't exactly a cakewalk.

The two hedgehogs were currently tearing across the battlefield, too fast for any normal soldiers to react to them, but the swathe their high-speed chase cut through their ranks was clear enough to see. The wind in Sonic's and Scourge's wake alone was enough to knock anyone off their feet when they cut it close, and Sonic also leapt and bounced off battle towers when they came in handy, knocking them over on purpose on his flight, while the green general simply didn't care what got in his way in his pursuit, be it landscape, animals, or unfortunate soldiers.

Dammit! Why can't I shake him?!

Sonic had landed on his feet after the latest homing attack, but could already see Scourge hurling toward him in a deadly ball of spines, having perfectly copied the manoeuvre. Sonic cursed between gritted teeth as he threw himself forward in a spin-dash, shooting straight ahead and through the legs of the feral horses of the cavalry that reared upwards and broke into a panic, starting to stampede in all possible directions (and into the rest of the army). The hero of Mobius came to a stop as soon as he was out the other side, hoping that a herd of panicking giant animals had possibly finally hindered Scourge just for long enough so he could get a breather in and manage to get a sword of his own -

"You thought that would stop me?! Weak, blue!"

Oh, for fuck's sake.

Sonic had to fight not to let the strain show on his face as he could already see the green hedgehog advancing, jumping, leap-frogging and somersaulting across the bucking and fleeing bodies of the horses, the slim form of the general balancing on equine necks, heads and backs with the same grace as Sonic knew he himself would have. Scourge's eyes were alight with the joy of a hunter.

"Why don't you stop running and pucker up for me right here on the battlefield?!" the green hedgehog called, already nearly having caught up again. "Soon enough it won't make a difference!"

"Don't know why you need my ass when you're neck deep in Black Doom's already!" Sonic shouted back as he took off again, satisfied to hear the snarl this elicited, but his thoughts were now racing as to how on Mobius he was supposed to take back the initiative in this battle. He and Scourge were on approximately equal footing, but the blade the other held gave him a serious advantage in reach. If Sonic wanted to win this fight he needed a sword of his own – and I would have no trouble *getting* one, if the guy would just leave me alone for five freakin seconds! Sonic thought, and at the same time wondered whether Scourge perhaps knew that and that this was the reason he wouldn't give Sonic a single second to even catch his breath.

"Say what? If you're dumb enough to think I'd actually share with that two-horned freak, I can only assume his black hedgehog spawn has already banged your brains out completely!" Scourge sneered, using the head of a lizard rider as a jumping ledge and letting the reptile crash to the ground in the stampede. "This country's gonna be mine." He grinned at Sonic, drawing his sword in one fluid motion as soon as he landed and shooting straight for the hero of Mobius. "Hail to the king, baby!"

"I hope Scar throws you off a cliff!"

Scourge paused. "...what?!"

And Sonic had already taken off running again.

Okay. I can't outrun him by simply pouring on the speed, Sonic thought, the nonsensical Lion King quip thankfully having bought him a second or two, but it wasn't enough. And I can't fight him properly if I can't get him off my tail for a minute. He needed to outwit him somehow. Usually he was able to use the environment for that in situations like this, but the problem was, all of this was Scourge's home turf, not his. The green hedgehog knew every single inch of this battlefield so much better than Sonic, and it showed in their unequal fight.

Shoot. If only this was Green Hill Zone...!

But it wasn't even his own dimension. Sonic zig-zagged through a few dead trees still standing, dodged a catapult and leapt over another gaggle of panicking soldiers...and then nearly stopped dead. Up ahead, Shadow and Black Doom had started their own battle and it said something that, when faced with a battalion of stampeding horses in one direction and the fight of their king and his son in the other, most of the army was choosing to try their luck by running toward the crazed animals.

Sonic had been there when Perfect Chaos had ravaged a city. He had been there when Metal Sonic had grown fifty feet tall and turned into Metal Overlord, when the Eclipse Cannon had destroyed half of the moon and when the entire Earth had shattered as Gaia broke free.

The hero of Mobius therefore had his very own, meticulously maintained 'Holy Shit!'-list, and the scene in front of him was now rapidly making it into the top five.

He dared to sneak a glance back and could see that even Scourge's eyes had grown wide, cobalt blue gaze utterly astonished as the green hedgehog had probably never seen something like this in his life.

Shadow and Black Doom were battling in what by now looked like their own private Tesla plasma sphere, bright yellow and dark black energy lances exploding against each other and bursting apart in chaotic fire. The two combatants were hurling, bending and deflecting the deadly lightning like two gods of thunder in a duel at Ragnarök, black fur standing on end and Chaos energy dancing across twisted horns like St. Elmo's fire, bathing both the dark king as well as his wayward son in an eldritch aura.

And Sonic grinned from ear to ear. Up ahead was a warzone. A warzone that was comprised entirely of Chaos energy gone utterly ballistic.

So...

"Okay, you green faker," Sonic muttered under his breath. "Let's see how much you know about dodging Chaos Spears, shall we?!"

And amid the howling wind underneath the grey sky, the roaring of chaotic energy and the screams of the soldiers, the two sonic booms were almost soundless as first Sonic, and then a split-second later Scourge both accelerated headfirst into that thunderstorm on earth.

xxx

It was a dance on the edge of destruction. It was a fire-bathed ride straight through chaotic hell. Shadow snarled as he threw another Chaos Spear, which hit Black Doom's shield, but broke apart like a wave crashing against a rock, just like all the other ones had. And Shadow could already feel his body slowly starting to tire, the Chaos Energy roaring through his veins exhausting his system which had to channel it all, control it and bend it to his will...

But Black Doom had the Emerald and was still going strong. And whenever he threw a projectile, Shadow had to dodge it, which meant that he wasn't able to rest even for a second.

I just need a single break. Just a moment to catch my breath. Please...

Surrounding them were Black Doom's soldiers, a writhing, churning and most of all panicked mass full of blades and sharp edges, that didn't know whether to come to their king's aid or get out of the way before a wayward missile killed them. The whole battlefield was a mess, because the two highest-ranking leaders, Black Doom himself and the new heir to the throne were both too busy to give orders, both fighting their own devastating battles against one traitorous prince and his slave, and the ferocity of both fights was terrifying.

Which was exactly as Shadow had planned it.

Even if he couldn't get the Emerald at the moment - by him and Sonic separating, by simultaneously keeping Black Doom and Scourge busy, by therefore disabling the two most powerful fighters on the dark king's side, it did leave the alien overlord's army at a huge disadvantage and virtually vulnerable to any attack.

There just wasn't any attack coming.

Did something happen to any of them? Was our charge too early? A hundred questions were shooting through the black hedgehog's head, but he could barely afford to think about anything but dodging the next blow, summoning the next Chaos attack, surviving only the next second.

"You call yourself the Ultimate Lifeform?! You are starting to wear out, Shadow, like the flawed vermin you are!" Black Doom's voice thundered across the plain, joining into the cacophony of the explosions, hissing and crackling of Chaos energy tearing the air apart in a thousand places every single moment.

"I will not-!" Shadow began, calling forth yet another Chaos Spear, but then it happened. It was just a flicker. Just a single, tiny irregularity in the flow of Chaos through his body. Something that could always happen when he was placing too much strain on his system, but so far never had when it counted.

One of his skates briefly sputtered and died.

Shadow fell just as Black Doom had finished charging up his latest attack and hurled it straight at him.

NO!

The Ultimate Lifeform could see it coming almost like in slow-motion. His brain, used to slowing down things moving at incredible speeds, was showing him the black, boomerang-like disc soaring through the air toward him, but his body felt like lead, and Shadow already knew he wouldn't be able to get up in time, already knew he wouldn't be able to twist away.

Maria, Sonic -! I'm...I'm sorry...

Shadow didn't know whether Sonic would be able to win this war on his own. Didn't know whether the blue speedster would be able to ever go home again without a second user of Chaos Control, all because he had been so stupid, so weak, to die here on this nameless battlefield, because of one tiny, idiotic slip-up.

What will Sonic say when he finds me dead? It was another thought that shot through Shadow's head in the miliseconds it took for the black energy attack to blaze toward him, and one that was accompanied with suddenly more pain than he even expected Black Doom's missile to cause.

Sonic...for once, that eternal light in emerald eyes vanishing when he saw where Shadow's body lay, breath faltering, the hero's mouth opening to say something like...

"WOOOOOH! Catch me if you can, faker!"

Wait, what?

A part of Shadow thought that voice right there had just sounded a bit too realistic.

"Outta the way, Shads! Hedgehog express coming through!"

And then, just before the missile could hit Shadow still on the ground, Sonic was suddenly sailing past him, straight through the path of the projectile, which was still aiming for Shadow -

...and then instead hit Scourge, the green hedgehog apparently having been straight behind the blue hedgehog, but not quite familiar with the flight path and speed of Chaos energy attacks. Shadow wondered whether he had imagined the sound it made as Black Doom's shot impacted on the side of Scourge's head, which wasn't unlike a cartoon character getting hit with a frying pan.

"What-?! My general!"

"Yo, Shads! Everything all right here?"

Sonic had returned to his side with a screech, grinning at his partner just as the black hedgehog was picking himself back up from the floor.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY HEIR?!" Black Doom roared at them, not quite that concerned with the unconscious body of Scourge yet, the green hedgehog lying a few feet from where he had been hit, eyes closed and tongue lolling out of the edge of his mouth. The hero of Mobius guessed he would be fine, sooner or later, but at least he finally was giving Sonic the break he'd wanted. Now the blue hedgehog whirled around to give a mock salute and wink at Black Doom.

"We're taking you down is what we're doing, hammerhead! One poser at a time!"

"You insolent cur! I will-!" the alien overlord began, but Sonic wasn't even listening.

"Whaddaya say, Shads, give him a taste of the atomic twister?"

"His forcefield protects him from physical attacks. It won't hurt him," Shadow replied, trying to keep his voice even, as if he hadn't just been saved from certain death just a moment ago. Sonic grinned at him brightly.

"I don't care, I just wanna be a pain in his royal butt."

And Shadow couldn't help but smirk. "...alright then."

Sonic reached out and Shadow grabbed his arm, the two supersonic dimension travellers speeding up to produce their own, joined tornado within a second, becoming a whirlwind of spines, hissing skates and blurred sneakers, just like they had all those months ago fighting against the brotherhood, and only two days ago fighting for their lives atop the gallows. Shadow at the same time could feel Chaos energy from Sonic's body flowing into his, the blue hedgehog's foray into his chaotic battle with Black Doom again having supercharged the hedgehog's naturally Chaos-affine system.

"Now!" Shadow screamed as soon as he could feel himself fully recovered again, and before Black Doom had even been able to understand what had just happened in the last three seconds, the two hedgehogs were already colliding with his shield with the force of a battering ram swung by overeager shoppers on boxing day, knocking the shocked dark king clearly backwards, forcefield or no.

"Argh!"

"I'm sorry, what was that you said?" Sonic asked, grinning at Black Doom. "Couldn't quite hear you there over the sound of our awesomeness." The two dimensional travellers had dropped down again, now facing the reeling dictator just recovering from the first slight hit he had taken in this battle. Three red eyes managed to focus again, and they all zoomed in on one blue hedgehog. Recognition seemed to flare up now, and apparently also managed to light up the bonfires of murderous hatred and 'How Many Times Do I Have To Kill You Before You Stay Dead?!' in one go.

"You! The wretch my son brought into the palace!"

"Oy!" The hero of Mobius crossed his arms. "That's Sonic the Hedgehog to you, pal!"

"Slaves have no need for names!" Black Doom roared back, swiping with one claw at them while apparently already working on summoning another energy attack. "You are still wearing the collar of my kingdom and soon you will be under its yoke again! Where slaves belong!" Again, a dark lance of twisted Chaos energy was hurled at the pair, but the two hedgehogs dodged it easily, both having gotten their breath back after this much needed pause.

"Sorry to disappoint you," Sonic called back. "But didn't you get the memo? Soon there won't be any slaves any more!" he shouted, at the same time circling back to Shadow and leaping onto a boulder next to his partner, now pointing straight at the evil overlord, whimsy and comedic attitude now once again replaced with single-minded determination and green eyes blazing even brighter than a Chaos Spear.

Shadow was already facing down his 'father', all strain of the battle gone from his posture as he swiped a hand at their enemy. "Don't you get it? You never had a chance while we're around," Shadow said, returning the stare of the evil overlord without blinking. "Because you have nothing and no one to fight for."

"Damn right!" Sonic added, more than smugly now that he was standing at his partner's side again. "Prepare to lose this war, Black Doom! Because me and Shadow will end your realm once and for all!"

Red eyes with slit pupils stared back at them, apparently less than impressed. Despite the heroic save of the last few minutes, from an outsider's perspective, their situation still looked nothing short of desperate – the boulder they stood on a single island amid the mass of their enemy's troops, Black Doom gazing down at them from his little hill, the soldiers surrounding them so far only kept in check by the Chaos energy burning threateningly in Shadow's outstretched hand and the Ultimate Lifeform's warning crimson glare. Therefore, hearing Black Doom openly laugh at Sonic's declaration was no surprise.

"End me! The boisterous words of a maggot!" the alien dictator exclaimed, his mouth hole sneering at the smaller, slightly roughed-up hedgehog daring to oppose him under this steel-grey sky. "Tell me, slave, you and whose army?"

And perhaps it was because the apocalyptic horserider War loves drama, or because timing is important, or maybe because Sonic was a hero, but it was at this point exactly that both the first battalions of Queen Aleena's realm and the entirety of the echidna tribe attacked.

Sonic grinned at Black Doom.

"Take your pick."

To be continued...