"You just trashed my one way ticket out of here, you Freak!"

Bass, who was on top of the building yelled madly at Shadow who was on the street down below.

"So he's associated with you, eh?" Shadow looked up at him with his usual frown. "Good thing I took care of him. Now, hand over the emerald and tell me where are the kids' location. That is if you do not wish to face a similar fate as him." He motioned to Duo, who laid on his back motionless on the floor, a few feet behind him.

This did nothing but further enrage Bass.

"The devil I'm telling you anything!" Bass jumped down headfirst, shooting rapid shots at Shadow as he descended.

"Fool!" Shadow swiftly dodged the purple plasma shots, then decided to skate towards another portion of the city, which still had buildings that were waiting to be destroyed.

"COME BACK HERE YOU COWARD!" Bass Air Dashed after him the moment his feet hit the floor.

"Bingo! This is where the kids are located."

Sonic halted at the warehouse, holding the Chaos detector which blinked at a fast rate

"Now I need to observe the situation to determine a best way to free those kids. I think I'll take the roof."

After finding a side stair, he climbed to the roof then saw the door that led downstairs.

"Man, I was hoping this building would have a glass roof to see what's going on down there." He groaned

"Wish Espio was here, he'd know what to do. Oh well, I might be no stealth master but I think I can manage it."

He reached to the door but before he could touch the knob he heard a growl. Slowly he turned his head to find a robotic purple wolf that looked angrily at him.

"Hey! Nobody putted a 'Beware the Dog' sign." Sonic raised a non existent eyebrow. "If you bight me, I'm gonna have to sue your owner!"

The wolf growled even more.

"Sorry, I meant a 'Beware the Wolf' sign" Sonic smirked, turning his body to fully face him.

This did little to calm the wolf, as he jumped at him, but Sonic jumped out of the way to the side, landing on a safe distance.

"Leave now before I rip your quills to bits!" Treble growled in his wolf language, knowing that the intruder wouldn't understand but he did so to bring the out the right expression on his face, hoping that he'll be able to strike fear in the hedgehog's heart.

"Whoa! Chill out, buddy! I just sharpened my quills before Eggman started this whole mess and I won't let you ruin them, so drop the threat about ripping them out or we're gonna play Dentist!" Sonic warned.

The wolf suddenly stopped growling. His facial expression shifting from anger to surprise.

"I'm serious! Sharp tooth for every quill you pull out!"

The wolf was silent for a second then said:

"You can understand me?"

Sonic blinked "Huh? Well, yes, I can." he shrugged.

"How come?" he demanded

"Well, you see I happen to have a wolf instinct in me so you can say that I can speak 'Wolf' by default."

"Is that so." He narrowed his eyes "Then that means you can tell me why you're here."

"To save the two kids that were kidnapped by a fin-headed freak."

"Fin-headed!? That's my master you're insulting!" Treble growled. "And what do you mean by kidnapped kids? My master kidnapped no one!"

"I'm talking about a blond girl and a boy in a blue outfit. The G.U.N have declared that he kidnapped them and stole an emerald as well."

"My master kidnapped no one, and further more, for the last time: WE. DON'T. HAVE. YOUR. STUPID. EMERALD!"

Sonic was a bit confused "What… Then why are they saying that...?" He then thought for a second about it. "Could it be?" He decided to use his senses instead of the radar to determine if the wolf was telling the truth...

Treble watched as the hedgehog closed his eyes.

Sonic sensed nothing, so it can only mean one thing.

"The idiots have done it again!" He opened his eyes wide open and did a face palm. "When will they ever learn?" he shook his head. "How many catastrophes do they need to make before they figure out that they need to replace their brain cells!" the GUN were getting on his nerves.

"What are you talking about?"

"Tell me one thing." he looked at him and said calmly "What is the relationship between your master and the two kids?"

"The kids are twins, and my master is a rival to the boy."

"Rivals, eh? So no kidnapping what so ever… those G.U.N must be checked for their idiocy level!"

Sonic looked away punching the palm of his hand, then looked pack at Treble.

"Look, Pal, I need to speak to your master and see the kids. will you let me go in?"

"My master's not here, and I definitely won't let you get close to the kids!"

"Not here?"

"He went to where that meteor fell earlier."

"What?! Then I need to bring those kids there as well!" Sonic looked alarmed knowing that Shadow was there and feared what he might do if he saw Bass.

"No! You take me for a fool? My master gave orders to guard those two!"

"Hey! I'm trying to help you guys out. I can talk to those clowns and clear your names. They'll listen to me, but I need to bring the kids as evidence and witnesses! They won't let you off the hook, especially Shadow, who might be having a fight right now with fin-head, unless the kids testify."

"So what? My master can take down anything that gets in his way, so this Shadow you speak of won't be a threat."

"You don't understand. Shadow takes things too seriously whenever children are in danger. And by 'serious' I mean big bad powerful blasts that could destroy a whole country!"

"Are you saying that my master could be in grave danger?"

Sonic nodded silently.

The wolf observed the hedgehog, who observed him back. What if the hedgehog was lying about the whole thing? About him trying to help them? About this Shadow's lethal power? About his wolf instinct? Can he trust him?

While they were at it, a wind blew from Sonic's direction towards the wolf, touching his nostrils.

A few moments passed before Sonic decided to do something awkward.

"Please trust me, Boy" he waved at him to come at him, with both hands and slightly bent his knees as if he were calling out for his pet….

The wolf attacked!

Megaman was sitting against a wall patting Eddie who sat on his lap, while Roll was busy putting away the chess board which they didn't get a chance to play with when Eddie showed up. As she did that she heard her brother give out a sigh, making her look up at him. She noticed that he had a worried expression, looking down at his crossed arms.

"Relax, Rock. I'm sure Duo's alright." She guessed he might be worried about his big friend. "He's made out of tough material you know, and the impact of that fall wasn't as hard as last time, so expect him to come in here with a big smile!" Roll said cheerfully, trying to calm him down as she putted the last piece back in her boots.

"I'm not worried about Duo's safety."

"Huh?" Roll looked up again at him with a slight confusion. "Then what worries you?"

"It's Bass's safety I'm worried about. I fear Duo might be after him." he answered still looking at Eddie.

"What do you mean?"

"His main mission is to detect, find and destroy all evil energies from the whole universe." he finally looked up at her "And you know how vast the universe is, which means it'll take hundreds, even thousands of years for him to destroy all those energies. So basically I never expected to see him ever again unless the Evil energy somehow returned to Earth."

"And what does Bass have to do with it? Duo did manage to convert his energy to pure, didn't he?"

"Yes. However after the battle with King, I sensed Bass's energy slowly revert back to Evil."

"But how did it happen?"

"I don't know." Rock shook his head. "And now I fear Duo came back just for him, and I don't know if he'll revert Bass's energy back again or..."

He stopped and looked away, not wanting to think of what the other option Duo might take. Knowing her brother she understood what he didn't want to say, so she didn't press the subject further and just nodded in understanding.

"AAAAHHH! STOP IT!"

"What is that!" Rock was startled by the scream.

"STOP IT! YOU'RE KILLING ME!"

"It's coming from the roof!" Roll said

"Oh no!" Rock said, having a bad feeling that Treble might've caught someone and knowing how ferocious Bass's 'pet dog' is, he hoped it wasn't a victim.

Shadow did a High Spin Kick, striking Bass who managed to block and forcefully push back the hit making Shadow fly away. Taking the advantage that his adversary was in midair he swiftly shot consecutive plasma shots at him. But Shadow teleported away.

"WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Right behind you!"

Bass got spin kicked by Shadow sending flying at a building, crushing its wall.

"ARRGH!" He air-dashed out of there, striking Shadow with his plasma shots again, which the hedgehog dodged easily.

"HOLD STILL YOU DEVIL!"

Shadow waited for an opening and immediately spin-dashed at his opponent, hitting his opponent and forcefully pushing him to another building wall and pinning him to it. Shadow continued his spinning dash in an attempt to cut the robot in half like a sharp razor saw.

But something un-expectable happened…

Bass grabbed the spinning ball with both hands and tightened his grip, managing to stop it from spinning!

"NO!" Shadow was shocked. "How could he?!"

Before he could snap out of it, Bass threw him savagely at the floor and kicked him away making him slide and uncurl.

"You can't cut me in half that easily! I'm made out of an indestructible alloy!"

"You've got great potential!" Shadow pointed out as he stood up, still having a lot of strength in him. "Unfortunately, I'll diminish you before you'll know it."

"Diminish me?! HAH! You're the one who's gonna get diminished, Punk! For I am Bass! The most powerful robot in the world!"

"Hmph! Not even a powerful robot like you can stand a chance against Shadow, the Ultimate Life Form!"

"Ultimate Life form? HAH! After I'm donewith you, they'll call you 'The Ultimate Failure'!"

Bass ran at him again with a punch trying to strike his face, but Shadow responded by grabbing his fist.

"Huh?"

Bass found himself teleporting away involuntarily. Although he was used to teleportation this method of teleportation was different. In his regular teleportation his body would 'melt' and become so light weighted that he could feel himself jumping high into space. But now he only felt himself 'shrinking' away while being surrounded by a bright light. The moment he materialized again he found himself being tossed away over shadow's shoulder in to the air an landing on something that wasn't the concrete street.

"I believe we'll have plenty of space over the roof tops." Shadow smirked looking over his shoulder at him.

"Oh please let it be a wily bot, please!"

Were Megaman's thought as he and Roll ascended the stairs leading to the roof. The moment they flung the door open they saw Treble's front paws on top of a someone and his head was hidden but shaking vigorously from their point of view.

"He's bighting him!" Roll was scared.

"Treble stop it this instance!"

Determined to save whoever it was, Mega ran to them, even if he was already too late. But moment he got close enough he received a surprise…

"He… He's licking his face?"

Mega asked himself as he observed the supposed victim not screaming out of pain...

"STOP IT! MY FACE IS TICKLISH!"

… but rather laughing from being licked in the face by Treble 'The Wild Wolf'

Making sure that her audio sensors weren't malfunctioning, Roll came closer to take a better look, and she wore the same expression as her twin.

Feeling their presence, Sonic opened an eye to see who it was. The moment he recognized them from the photos he saw earlier, both eyes widened.

"Ok, Boy. Play Time's over" he gently pushed Treble who obliged. Sonic stood up to walk towards them.

"Hey, good to see that you two kids are ok!"