Bad Kids

Chapter 39

Unsure of how they even managed to get across the front of Shadow's property, Knuckles, Espio, and Tails still managed to make a clear crossing across to the house. They broke in and looked all around the main floor. No one was there. They heard a cry upstairs. Gadget was flung across the hall by Infinite who floated slowly towards him. "Tails, Espio, go help him! I'll handle this!" Knuckles ordered.

"But Knuckles!" Tails insisted. "Just go!" he ordered. Espio reluctantly nodded and ran upstairs with Tails following him. Knuckles took a deep breath and found the door to the basement. He punched the door open again and headed downstairs. To his amazement, Shadow and Scourge were still glowing brightly with the power still admitting it to their town. "Oh. My. Chaos." he gasped. It was beyond his belief. Scourge and Shadow felt his presence and looked over. "Oh, shit..." Scourge muttered.

They were completely vulnerable. Knuckles decided to take his chances and jumped up.

He held out his fist to punch the circle of Chaos Emeralds. Shadow and Scourge barely turned to deal with the bright red echidna. Knuckles was right about to hit their focus. But before he could even push forward, a bright white flash appeared right before him, pushing him downwards. They fell and tumbled before they both could regain footing. "Sorry hun, but I can't let you do that." Rouge said calmly.

Shaking himself out, Knuckles couldn't believe what his eyes were seeing. "Rouge..?" he asked stunned. It had been years since he had last seen her. But now seeing her the way she was, he was awed. She was just as beautiful as the last time he saw her. Ugh, get a grip on yourself! He cursed mentally. He stood up and smacked his fists against each other. "Don't make me hurt you." he said at last. "I'd like to see you try." Rouge snapped, getting into a fighting position, flapping her wings lightly.

The two circled each other slowly waiting for the other to begin. Finally Rouge made her first move. She leaped towards him before sliding to the other side as Knuckles narrowly missed her with a punch. She flew upwards and swooped down on him multiple times. He fell back on his butt seeing her throw things at him. He covered his face. Shadow and Scourge were straining and fighting to keep their spell up. "How much longer?" Scourge asked exhausted. "Hang in there... I can feel it..." Shadow reassured his friend.

Outside once more, everyone fought. Pistol was bold enough to fight Amy and Vector single-handed without much struggle. Hypno was busy handling Sonic, Wave, and Sally with a few others at his side. Nick tried his best to use his abilities to send fleets of robots toward the heroes. Mephiles managed to find some of his strength and broke up the ground into rubble sending some of them back.

Cream, Charmy, and Blaze fought together to fend off others from Pistol's gang. Still, there were still too many of them to keep this up for much longer. "Where's your backup! Didn't you guys send out for them!?" Amy shouted angrily. "We did! Tangle and I communicated twice!" Sonic replied. "I'll try again."

Tangle noticed the alert on her watch. She activated it. "Sonic! Don't worry, we're closing in on the gap! I'm guessing you're outnumbered!" she told him. "Yeah- horribly outnumbered! I had no idea this side was heavily populated!" Sonic replied, avoiding every attack. "We're getting close. Mobian forces have enough power to take them down. As far as the Chaos Emerald problem though, I can't promise anything!"

"Copy that! WOAH!" Sonic jumped up avoiding a boomerang that was about to hit him. When he landed, he saw who threw it. "Sorry blue, but things change!" Jet shouted. "You! You traitor!" Sonic snapped. "Last time I checked, no one down here was on your sides!" he shouted. Sonic watched in dismay as Whisper and Lightning crashed through the window of the house and onto the ground. They fought together, trying to outdo one another with their strengths. Vector saw this and left Amy to help Whisper out who was losing. Her nose was bleeding after Lightning hit her on the nose harder than she imagined.

Espio and Tails were upstairs in the house lurking behind Infinite who had cornered Gadget in a room with no escape. Gadget's arm shook from the shock and he couldn't hold his weapon perfectly still. He had to use his other arm to help hold it steady. Infinite chuckled. "This sight looks familiar. Sad... I remember your father crying helplessly as you held that weapon. Sad really... I was always dreaming of a battle greater than this!"

Gadget gulped but held it together. "You might be intimidating. But I have never let you consume my life with fear! Neither has my father! And I won't let my son be consumed either!" he snapped. Infinite lifted an eyebrow. "Your son huh?" he said.

"Oh... I remember. Dark red wolf with green eyes. Adorable. And the dark purple chameleon with golden eyes... I remember him too... a light purple cat... red echidna... bright white hedgehog. I know them all. All your kids are here. I'm not stupid. You let our kids go. On purpose! You knew that by accidentally releasing them, they'd come back here. Then you'd send your kids as spies. I should've known. You Mobians are all the same!" he growled Gadget looked at him genuinely confused. "W-What?" he asked confused.

"Don't act dumb." Infinite said, igniting his power. Gadget put his hands up. He wouldn't beg for mercy. Espio and Tails jumped Infinite tackling him to the ground. Espio did his best to get a grip on him, using pairs of zip ties to keep him bonded. Infinite cursed them out as he felt his wrists being restrained. Tails looked over at Gadget and walked over to help him up. "You okay?" he asked. Gadget nodded as they heard a loud crash outside.

Mobian forces had arrived, taking down the Dark Side fleets that had come to the aid of Shadow and the others. Fiona growled in pain as someone tackled her. Pistol looked over at her and saw his mother being pinned harshly. "Pistol, RUN!" she shouted. Pistol didn't want to leave her on her own, but Hypno gave him a look of sympathy. "Dude... We have to run!" Hypno urged. Those who were still teens looked to him. Nick even looked to him for guidance.

Fiona struggled against the soldiers. "Pistol, get your ass out of here! I am your mother! And you better listen to me!" she snapped once more.

Pistol nodded slowly, tears in his eyes. "Run. Spread out!" he ordered them. Everyone nodded their heads and scattered across the back parts of town to escape. Nick managed to escape with a few others at his side. "I love you..." Fiona whispered. Meanwhile, Lightning and Jet had been beaten badly, more soldiers putting special cuffs on them. Tails and Espio dragged out Infinite and then they were able to hand him over to those who had more of the special cuffs. They rounded up anyone who looked as if they were involved.

Inside the house, Knuckles managed to defeat Rouge and was standing over her as she was knocked out cold from a hard blow. A bruise was forming on the side of her face which Knuckles was already feeling guilty for. Shadow saw this from the corner of his eye and his anger distracted him from doing his job correctly. The Chaos spell being performed broke. Scourge fell to the ground weakened, trying to stand up. Shadow raced towards the red echidna who had his back turned to the scene.

"Asshole!" Shadow shouted. By the time Knuckles turned around, Shadow had already tackled him to the ground, punching his face multiple times in a row. "Shadow stop!" Scourge pleaded as he stumbled to get up before falling again. Rouge barely stirred but it hurt to move her head. No matter what Knuckles tried to do, he couldn't break from Shadow's infuriating grip. Knuckles now had bright purple bruises on his face and his lip was split from another hard blow to his face.

Just as he was about to give up, Sonic and Tails raced down the stairs. "Oh god, Knucks! Get away from him!" Sonic shouted angrily and ripped Shadow away from him. Now the two were in a brawl.