Chapter Five - Burn Out
This life's not for living
It's for fighting and for war
No matter what the truth is
Hold on to what is yours
The trees parted to a scene of fire and smoke, the once peaceful village a blaze of orange and golds as flames licked up to claw at the sky. SWATBots stood in a line, opening fire on the houses and their inhabitants, the metal bodywork catching the reflected light from the fire.
"You go that way," Sonic said, pointing to the far side of the village, "I'll be over here, and be careful."
"Don't worry, Sonniku, I will," A small grin appearing on Shadows face. Shadow once again dropped into a runner's pose, getting underneath the heavy pall of black smoke pouring from the flaming buildings so he could catch his breath.
At the far end of the village Shadow saw a pair of chipmunks race from one of the burning houses, a pair of SWATBots directly on their tail opening fire on the helpless Mobians indiscriminately; Shadow narrow his eyes, diving from his hidden position and dashing in front of the SWATBots, effectively cutting off their pursuit of the Chipmunks, the SWATBots took aim at the black hedgehog who had just so inconveniently got in their way, but Shadow made an agile jump up into the branches of a nearby tree. He nodded approval as he noted the two Chipmunks high-tailing it into the cover of the Great Forest. The confused patrol of SWATBots were now circling around, trying to find him. Apparently these robots were deadly and efficient, but not very bright. That was helpful.
"Hey, over here," Called Shadow, jumping down from his perch in the tree, hoping to attract their attention. He got more than that as three more appeared from other huts surrounding him
"Sonic the Hedgehog: Priority Target One," the robots recited in unison, gun-arms raising slowly to point at him.
"The name's Shadow," He hissed, "Not that it will matter," he announced as he sped in and out between their legs. The robots fired, but their tracking systems simply couldn't follow Shadow's formidable speed, and all they managed to shoot was each other. Finally, only one remained, and it quickly found itself flung into a collapsing hut, as Shadow took advantage of it's confused and de-stabilised state to hit it full in the chest with a spin-dash.
Looking across the village, Sonic seemed to be having just as much fun, dealing with his own set of SWATBots as they were leading a small line of imprisoned and shackled Mobians from the huts into a large hover transport - presumably to be Robotisiced.
"Yo, SWAT-butts, over here!" yelled Sonic, "catch me if you can!" and with that he sped off into the village, the SWATBots mindlessly chasing after him, but Sonic had apparently spent the few seconds of distraction Shadow's actions had bought him well. Sonic tugged on a rope, setting loose a pile of rocks that came tumbling towards them. The SWATBots were falling like kids on ice, having trouble keeping their balance as the rockfall smashed into them. Sonic took the advantage, bouncing from robot to robot, sawing through the chest of each one.
The sound of small explosions followed Sonic as he reached the Mobians held captive, quickly snapping the chains that help them. Shadow arrived, holding a Mobian under each arm.
"Any trouble?" Asked Sonic with a raised eyebrow as Shadow set down the rescued villagers who stared at him in a mixture of awe and confusion.
"None at all," boasted Shadow, "These 'SWATBots' seem a little slow on the uptake.
"Tell me about it," Sonic snickered, then his ears flicked as a new sound rumbled through the air.
A swarm of SWATBots on small floating platforms emerged from the treetops, guns all aiming on the people below. The remaining villagers screamed and scattered. Sonic looked up and made a sound almost like a growl, startling Shadow who had never heard such an outright aggressive noise from the laid-back blue hedgehog.
//Different dimension, different rules.// Shadow reminded himself as he looked up into the impassive face plates of the 'bots above them.
"Sonic the Hedgehog: Priority Target One," The SWATBots droned, guns pointed at Sonic, then they seemed to briefly hesitate, and turned their attention to Shadow and again said, "Sonic the Hedgehog: Priority Target One."
"They seem to like you a lot," muttered Shadow, unsure whether to be amused or annoyed at the simple-minded robot's mistake.
The SWATBots turned back to Sonic and repeated again, "Sonic the Hedgehog: Priority Target One,"
"Looks like they're confused by us," replied Sonic, a sly grin creeping across his face, "follow my lead," He instructed quietly,
"Always," whispered Shadow.
With an explosion of sound and motion, the two hedgehogs sped towards the front lines, switching places repeatedly so the SWATBots had a hard time tracking them.
"Halt, by Order of Robotnik," Yelled the robots in their grating metallic voices, their gun-arms flailing wildly as they attempted to get off a clear shot.
"Halt this!" cried Sonic as, with almost eerie precision, he and Shadow leapt in to the air and dropkicked a pair of SWATBots into the others causing them to explode violently. The response was hail of laser-fire from the other SWATBots as they tried and failed to catch the swift-moving hedgehogs in a crossfire, but the random blasting did manage t catch a tree, severing straight through the base of it, causing it to fall towards the two hedgehogs. With his vision hampered by the clouds of smoke and dust, Sonic was unable to change direction in time, and he sped straight into the trunk of the tree, knocking him to the ground, Shadow screeched to a halt just in time to see Sonic pick himself up and find himself face to face with a SWATBot laser arm. Shadow didn't even think.
"Chaos Spear!" Shadow cried, hurling bolts of energy at the SWATBot, striking it's laser arm and causing that appendage to explode, followed by its head. Sonic stared at him for a moment,
"Thanks I owe you one," Said Sonic, relieved, but there were questions in his eyes that Shadow knew he would have to answer sooner or later.
"We're not finished yet," Shadow said quickly, pointing at the remaining SWATBots closing in on them both, "Quick, give me your hand!"
Sonic showed no hesitation as he held out his hand, which shadow grabbed and held and began to charge a spin dash, spinning around the centre point of their clasped hands, Sonic had rapidly realised what Shadow's plan was, and even grinned as the whirling circle got faster and faster. When they finally reached top speed, they sprang and the resulting onyx and sapphire ball flew towards the approaching robots and cut through them like a hot knife through butter.
They both landed on the scorched grass, panting from their efforts, but completely exhilarated as they stared at each other, both streaked in dirt and a little scorched and neither appearing to care, not even the infamously vain and fastidious Sonic.
"Wow," Sonic breathed, catching Shadow's stare with his own,
"Impressed yet?" Shadow asked almost teasingly. At that, the blue hedgehog seemed to shake off his awe,
"Ok, you got some moves, but you still can't match me!"
"We'll see about that," Shadow grinned, accepting the offered challenge. Sonic's only reply was a brilliant, unguarded grin of the sort he hadn't seen this Sonic present since he arrived...but one that was familiar to Shadow from the Sonic of his own dimension. The sight of it here was almost enough to make Shadow gasp.
"C'mon, Stripes, time to go help the others."
Shadow merely nodded and again matched pace with Sonic. It was time to get going and help out the others with dousing the flames.
Chapter Six - Persistence of Memory (Coming Soon)