Chapter 14

Black & Blue Showdown

Shadow grunted, "Sonic, I will not hesitate to fight you!" Cassy snickered, "It seems like he's hesitating right now." Shadow growled, "Chaos Spear!" he flung a spear at Sonic, who quickly dodged it. "There we go!" Sonic said taunting Shadow, who seemed to be getting more and more angry. Shadow then lunged at Sonic, and then the kicks and punches really began to fly. All we could do now was stand back and watch them. "Go Sonic!" Cassy cheered. "No, Cassy, don't cheer them on." I said to her. "But I want Sonic to win! If Shadow wins, we are in big trouble." She replied, I saw her point, and although I would really rather have Shadow as an ally, I would rather have Sonic win too. "Shadow, you know we don't have to fight, right?" Sonic said as he dodged an attack. "You put this upon yourself!" he growled. "I know Shadow doesn't want to fight Sonic." Angela said as she watched the intense fight.

Before I could respond to Angela, I felt something pull the back of my shirt, "What the-" I was being picked up into the air! "Whoa!" I screamed as I flailed my arms around. "Dylan!" David screamed. In the midst of my freak out, I didn't realize that Court was right next to me doing the same thing. "What's going on!" I screamed frantically. David pointed above my head, "Rouge!" I reached back and tried to grab at her hand, "Careful honey, wouldn't want me to drop ya!" I looked down, we weren't that high off the ground yet. "Rouge let me go!" I screamed as I flailed and grabbed at her hand. "Sorry, but I have orders that I've gotta follow!" She replied, "Please Rouge! Hear us out, you know us, you know us, you know we would never do anything wrong! You were there last year, remember!" I begged. I felt us slow to a stop. "Alright, I will give you the benefit of the doubt, this time." She said as we lowered back down. Shadow immediately noticed, "Rouge, what are you doing!" he screamed at her. "Pipe down Shadow; I think they deserve a moment to explain themselves." Rouge said back, ending the fight. "Come on, Shadow, give 'em a chance." Sonic said to the black hedgehog.

"You have one minute to defend yourselves." Shadow said as he pointed at us, Rouge set us on the ground. Me and Courtney immediately started talking, everything rushed out of us at once. Sonic chuckled and held a hand up, "I got this, you guys." He said with a smile. Sonic then explained the entire story, about Eggman stealing the Master Emerald, to the last time he saw me and Court. Me and Courtney then explained the rest of the story. "You say you destroyed the clones yesterday? Then what is explanation behind the videos of you two in the city? If what you say is true, then the clones must still be out there." Shadow said. "So you believe us now, Shadow?" I asked the black hedgehog. Shadow shut his eyes and slowly nodded "Unless you give me a reason not to." I took a breath of relief. "Good, cause I didn't know what I was going to do if you didn't. I mean, I was really afraid you were going to…" Shadow ignored my comment and continued, "Sonic, what do you plan on doing about these clones?" he asked. "Or cut me off, whatever." I chimed in. Sonic shrugged, "I haven't figured that part out yet. I just got the whole story too, you know."

"Let's head up back to Tails' Workshop, we can figure out what's going on from there." Sonic said as he led the group back to the workshop. When we opened the door we heard a loud crash and a scream. "Tails!" Sonic said as he took off towards the garage. We all quickly followed. Sonic opened the garage door to Tails being attacked by Muffins, who was crawling around on Tails and biting him. "Ow! Ow! Get this Chao off me!" Tails pleaded. "Waah! Muffins!" I exclaimed as I ran over to the fox who was spinning around grabbing at the Chao. I grabbed Muffins body and pulled at him. He refused to let go. "Come on Muffins! Now's not the time!" I said as I gave him a strong yank. I fell backwards, and landed on my back. Muffins landed on my chest. "Chao Chao!" he said happily when he turned around and looked at me.

"You are such a hassle, and I've only had you for a day." I said to the Chao. I saw something move out of the corner of my eye, something behind a large toolbox. I turned my head and looked closely, Sakura poked her head out and gazed at me. Muffins cheered, making Sakura hide again. I stood up and dusted myself off, and then handed Muffins to Sonic, who nervously took and held the Chao. I reached my hand behind the toolbox and gently picked up Sakura. She squirmed a little bit, but jumped out of my hands when she saw Court. "It looks like she's already attached to you, Court-Court." I said with a smile. "I'm attached to her already too." She said as she smiled and squeezed the Chao. "Mine's attached to everything." I said as I looked over at Muffins, who was in Sonic's hands, twirling his arms around rapidly. "This Chao is definitely… Different." Sonic said with a small chuckle. "Think we should put them in the Chao Garden?" I asked.

"It's probably for the best." Court said. "Yeah, what if something happened and they got hurt?" David said. I nodded, "Alright then," I said as I took Muffins from Sonic's hands. "Let's go drop these guys off at the Chao Garden." I said to Courtney. She nodded and we walked out the door. "Hey, look your wish for Shadow came true." I said to her. She chuckled, "Yeah, it didn't happen the way I was expecting it to though." I nodded, "I know, but at least it's better now." I said as I smiled. She gave a big nod, "Having Shadow on our side makes us so much stronger, and the next time those clones come back…" She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Court - Court Smash!" I growled. She laughed, "But seriously, they are going to pay." We continued to the Chao Garden and said our temporary goodbyes to the Chao that were now bonded to us. We promised them we'd come visit them as much as possible.

When we got back to the workshop, Sonic, Shadow, Tails, and the rest of the human group were discussing a plan. "So, what's the news?" I asked as I walked in the door. "We are going to have to go out tonight and hunt them down. We can't have them doing what they did last night all over again." Sonic said. "But how are we going to know where they are? What if they aren't even around here anymore?" Cassy asked. I shook my head, "Well, they are going to be somewhere near, especially if they are trying to impersonate us, it wouldn't make sense. My bet is that they will come back to Station Square tonight." Shadow nodded and agreed, "Alright then, tonight we will hunt them down. Me and Rouge will head back to HQ and clear things up with them first, and we will meet you later tonight in Station Square." Shadow planned.

Shadow and Rouge then nodded and then headed off to the G.U.N. Headquarters. The rest of us remained at Tails' Workshop, we realized hunting them down would be a very difficult task. So, we decided to lure them towards us, using a Chaos Emerald that Eggman wanted so badly. But, Tails threw in the old "Fake Emerald" trick, which everyone greatly agreed on. "But here's the catch," Sonic began to say as he turned to our friends from Hillsboro, "You guys are going to have to stay here." He said sternly. "What!" Cassy immediately said, "Yeah, I don't want to stay here during all this!" Angela said. "Why do you want us to stay here?" David asked. Sonic shrugged, "It's all around safer for you guys here, I mean, if you want I can get Knuckles to hang out with you guys. Plus, what if the clones end up coming here and we're not here?" Sonic made sense out of the situation.

My friends understood, and they wanted Knuckles to come join they're party. Sonic gave a chuckle and a thumbs up, "Heh, I hope that hard-head is up for it!" He said as he sped off towards Angel Island. "Well, I guess there's no time to waste, I should start prepping your gear for your guys." Tails said to me and Court. We took our gear off and gave it to Tails, who began tinkering with it on his workbench. We then walked outside, the sun was still high in the sky, but it would start going down very soon. "David, you should ask Tails if he can teach you how to work that communication equipment in there, it might come in handy." I suggest to David. "That would be a good idea, I feel like I should already know it." He replied. "Plus, if we do need your help, we have a way of getting in touch with you." Court added in.

Tails came back to us about an hour later with our gear, prepped and ready to use. We put it on and gave it a little test run. "Spiffy! Thanks! But it never really went below the level of awesomeness." I said to Tails, "I didn't think it did, but I wanted to check and make sure that it was all good and still all together, just being careful." Tails said with a smile. "Aw, that you Tails," Court said with a smile, "I appreciate it." Tails then explained to David the technical equipment that he might need to know how to use, just incase we need them and Knuckles. David understood it, and figured out how to work it with ease.

Sonic returned without Knuckles, "He said he'd be here before sundown, he's gotta 'prep the Master Emerald' before he moves it." He said using air quotes, "Apparently it's coming with him." Sonic said. "Good, now all we have to do is wait, and then those clones are going down." I said as I watched the sun lower in the sky. I was ready to finish them.