Bad Kids

Chapter 65

Cream raced inside the prison's building and raced up to the top level where Shadow was being kept in the cell. Since everyone had gone to help out with the attack, there were no guards to stop her from going all the way to his cell. Hearing the cell open up, Shadow perked up to see who was coming in. Shocked, he cocked his head to the side. "Cream? What are you doing here?" he asked, seeing her so frantically coming up to him. Quickly, Cream disassembled his cuffs and restraints, allowing him to stand up properly. Shadow stumbled a little bit after being in there for so long but eventually stood up properly. "I need your help! It's really bad Shadow! I know you don't like the rest of my friends, but we're losing over here!" she told him.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Once they left his cell, he heard a loud crash from the outside. Together they looked out a nearby window seeing the robot break into the main center of their town. "No..." Cream cried silently.

From the center, Mephiles lost his energy and began falling from the air, unable to stabilize himself in time. Knuckles stood up and grabbed Manic to get out of the way in time. Jet rode his hoverboard towards Mephiles and managed to catch him in time. They rode to the side, unsure of what to do. "Where's Silver?!" Blaze shouted to them. Mephiles recovered enough to run over to see the young hedgehog and take him out of the protective shadows. He shook his head seeing that Silver was nowhere near ready to fight again. Everyone began panicking. Silver was the only other one who could try to place a defense shield.

Shadow saw some of the events unfold and backed away from the window. "What... What in the world? What is this?!" he cried. "We think they're robots sent over from your home. By who, we don't know if it was Eggman... or someone else," she began. Shadow's ears folded. "Crushing them with all our normal powers doesn't work. Tails discovered that they're reinforced with Chaos Emerald energy that we can't remove. Sonic would be able to if he could run as fast as he could. There's no way we would've gotten it to work fast enough as we used to. That's when we learned you could drain all their powers because they have the Emerald's powers. You have their connection! Please Shadow... won't you help us? We're running out of options!"

Hesitant, he looked back out the window again. He saw people running out of the chaos from the many robots. They were weaker and incapable of doing the same things as the others. His friends had also gotten themselves in the fight and he could see that. But even they were losing. And whatever possessed his town to be this brutal amazed yet terrified him. "I... I don't know if I can..." he said at last. 

"I've used much of my energy just trying to build up my own town. Not to mention I've tried to fight all of your friends before coming here. I thought I was strong. But what if I'm really not even able to do what you need me to do?" he asked her. Cream gave him a smile and grabbed his hand. "Just come with me." she told him, leading him out into the open. Shadow only had a moment to realize how far she had gotten to the outside before he snapped back to the reality of the situation.

The robot that was rolling into the center kept destroying everything without anyone there to stop them. The smaller fleets went everywhere in the town taking over anything they could find. Shadow gritted his teeth watching the innocent getting attacked for seemingly no reason. He rose above the ground, using his shoes to hover. "I'll deal with this." Shadow told her. He teleported away from the spot where they had stopped. He reappeared where the robot was about to break through another barrier. "CHAOS BLAST!" he shouted. The force of his power blew up several interior programs inside the machine. But it didn't break it down all the way. "CHAOS SPEAR!" he yelled, sending streaks of power across the roads and right into the weak areas of his opponent. It began to fall backward onto the buildings it had already crushed.

From down below him, Sonic and Tails stared up at the sky in disbelief. In a single effort, Eggman's most giant machine had already fallen apart. Shadow teleported again and chased after the smaller fleets.

Making sure no one saw him, he snapped off his rings and put them in his quills so he wouldn't lose them. Using his full power, Shadow destroyed everything in his path, setting off his Chaos Blast in every direction. All of them were obliterated on contact when his Chaos energy hit them. They fell over with clanks and their pieces scattered. Once finished, Shadow hovered back down to the ground as the Chaos Emerald energy reunited with Shadow's being and he had to take a deep breath. Despite getting lots of rest, it still took a toll on his body from doing it so fast.

Shadow eventually caught his breath and heard the trampling footsteps behind him. Quickly he snapped on his rings before any of them could notice. It was a close call. Sonic, Tails, Cream, Knuckles, and Manic were the first ones to approach him. The rest of the town simmered down from the sudden attack, coming out of their hiding spots. Feeling a sense of relief overwhelm him, Shadow let a tear fall down his cheek. He turned around, his legs slightly trembling, and faced Cream who stepped out in front of him.

"Shadow?"

The black and red hedgehog smiled, another tear falling down his cheek. "I knew I still had it."

His legs gave out. He fell forward. Cream stepped out frantically, reaching out to catch him. She held him carefully not sure what to do. He leaned against her shoulder, his feet scraping against the pavement. "Shadow, it's okay. Please, you can rest. You're clearly tired." Cream begged. "No... I can't. They'll punish you unless I stay strong enough to defend you from it." Shadow retorted. Cream put a hand on his back. After a minute, Shadow relaxed and fell to his knees, feeling the strength leave him. "I'll be okay. I promise."