The Robotic Endgame

XVIII. Sonic the Hedgehog

"I don't have time for this, Shadow," I said, grabbing Silver again and backing away. Last time I had seen him, he had been on our side, but... on top of where the stairs were, large cracks and holes threatened to make the ruins collapse. "Hold on, it was you making that cave in on itself?"

"Give me the shard, Sonic." Shadow said, walking toward us. "Or Silver will be the one who gets it."

"That's just cruel," I replied, backing away as he came closer. There were no robots around, but I couldn't be sure they weren't lurking around the corner. I couldn't fight them and risk Silver getting hurt, especially after what he had just said. I started looking around. Even though the city was large with plenty of places I could run in order to lose Shadow, I had Silver to slow me down. "You would really aim for someone who's already down? That's low."

"I don't have time for games, Sonic," Shadow answered. I flinched - his eyes were burning with the fire of anger and hatred. Eggman really did have him under his control, and that wasn't something I wanted to mess around with.

I grabbed Silver in my arms and sped off, not looking back to see how close Shadow was. I took turns as often as I could, not entirely sure which way I was going. It was still black with total darkness outside, only a few streetlamps up in order to help people along their way.

A few robots noticed me running, but they didn't follow. I wished they would; it would help me get Shadow off my trail.

I hoped Dr. Light was wrong, and that the shard hadn't been right in the center of the city. Taking a cautious look behind me, noticing that Shadow really was only a few yards away, I rounded a corner and ran up a building, hoping that would slow him down even a bit. I took just a few seconds to look around the city, looking for anything that looked familiar, but it was just large skyscrapers and towering apartment buildings. I started down the building when one of Shadow's spears whizzed past my head.

Not knowing where to go, I sprinted off in a random direction, turning sometimes but being careful to only really go one way. I pushed myself as fast as I could go, but I knew Shadow could use Chaos Control.

"Give it up, Sonic!" Shadow screamed. I looked back, seeing that he was farther away. I had a spark of hope. "You can't keep this up for long!"

He was right, even though I continued to run faster. A lot of time passed, and we were covering a lot of ground. There was a stitch in my side, and it was becoming hard to fill my lungs with air. My arms were really starting to get weak. If only the Chaos Energy surges filled me with power and didn't drain me... Still, I would run for as long as I could.

Shadow had apparently decided playtime really was officially over, because he was using Chaos Control to try and get a step ahead of me. Now I had the added fun of stepping to the side as Shadow appeared and looking behind often to make sure he wasn't too close.

I was looking behind me and lost my footing, falling to the ground and getting road rash along my arm. I took in a sharp breath, getting shakily to my feet. I was so sore, and that little tumble had only made me want to stay on the ground. Before I could start running, though, I suddenly saw Shadow in front of me, something sharp burning into my stomach. Shadow frowned, backing away, as if he was confused for some reason. I fell to a knee, looking down at the Chaos Spear that was embedded in me. I took Shadow's moment of disarray to my advantage and pulled the spear out with a shout, throwing it to the side without looking at it. I leaned over, putting my hand over my stomach. I took it away to see my glove covered in a sticky red.

After taking a few steps forward, I stopped, trying to fight off the dizziness that was coming. My stomach was on fire. I shook my head, sure that it would get better soon - I was suddenly super grateful for that unbalanced Chaos Energy.