". . ."

"(Y/n), wake up sleepy head ..."

"... we're in a bit of a pickle right now!"

Your hearing phased in and out as you slowly began to wake up, coming to your senses, as Tangle stood over you still. The momentary nearsightedness of your vision showed the obviously frantic lemur shaking you awake, while in the background a blurry mess of gray and white that was her tail swung around like a whip.

"Tangle?-" You shook your head like a cartoon as you came back around. Placing a hang on your forehead you saw Zavok standing behind Tangle, "What's going on? There's no way- did we lo-"

Zavok had been returned to his normal size, but was still such a brute that he kept fighting,"You dare!"

Cream's reformed chaos, Cheese and Chocola had returned and began to pester the beast, giving you and Tangle time to get out of the way. "Get out of the way" turned into you and Tangle throwing punch and whip at Zavok.

"Ha! Yeah we do!" Tangle's tail wrapped around the zette, spinning him around as she quickly unraveled herself.

"No rest for the weary I guess." You stood up and dashed to the side, the movement causing you to notice you were in rough shape after going super and colliding with the ground. There was some bruising and scratches, but you could stand and that was good enough for you.

You pumped your fists together and waited for Tangle to whip Zavok around so he would be blind-sided. And when that time came, you dashed forwards with a fist held out forwards. But you weren't the only one on the attack.

"Let's take him down!"

Vector had returned! Charmy too! They were back to normal. So was- Gante! Team Chaotix, along with the black dragon and Silver rushed the zette. Vector and Gante used their combined strength to overwhelm Zavok, who yelled out that, "I will not fall!"

While you head-butt right on the brute's forehead with your speed. It certainly knocked him for a loop. Silver then swooped in and used his powers to hold Zavok down, "Then you'll be crushed!"

With the white hedgehog came an energized Hammer in the form of one of Whisper's little wisp friends, that brought Zavok down to the dirt below.

Charmy took your pace, holding his stinger out right in front of Zavok's beaten eye. The beast groaned about revenge below as the group held him captive. The little bee smirked menacingly down at Zavok, proud to have 'beaten' this big bad villain.

You stood back, knowing that Team Chaotix, Gante, Silver, Tangle, and Whisper had it handled. This was it, you truly had won.

With a deep breathe, you looked across the horizon line of Angel Island, still afloat as Knuckles confirmed the emerald was safe from Eggman. You'd be surprised if the evil Dr. really would keep his word. He was known for double crossing at the opportune moment.

So, you kept your eye one him. And so. You noticed- that Eggman had mysteriously had his eggmobile returned to him and was beginning to fly away from Angel Island with clenched teeth.

"GEMERL!! NO!!" It was Cream, screaming below as she looked up to the sky. What she saw cursed fear into her heart. Her innocent eyes widened as she watched Gemerl deactivate.

From your vantage point, you saw Gemerl slowly rise up from the cliff you stood upon. His head hung low and lifeless. The light in his robot eyes flicked before disappearing completely. His chestplate was fully beaten in. The silver slipstream metal of another robot's arm breached through his chest.

Metal Sonic had just destroyed Gemerl in one sudden, foul played swoop.

Whisper attempted to shoot at the robot killer, firing a yellow wisp through her sniper, but it just reflected right off of Metal Sonic's impressive shield. The fake hedgehog dropped Gemerl, your battered friend free-falling to the ground. Thankfully, Tails was there to catch the heavy robot, at least to slow his fall while Cream tearfully waited below to check on her robotic friend.

Even for Eggman standards, that was uncalled for. 'He must have a plan rather than escaping if Eggman just destroyed Gemerl like that.'

You looked to where Metal Sonic was going, taking no time in dashing in the same direction to follow suit.

"(Y/n) go!"

"Shadow go!"

As you made the distant jump towards Eggman's ship, a streak of red matched your incredible pace. The individual raced to intercept Metal Sonic too, and he dared not keep his searing red eyes off of his target.

Shadow the Hedgehog has joined your side.

"HAHA! I knew you'd warm up to me!" You smiled, while also replacing your gaze back onto Metal Sonic.

"Don't think so (m/s)." Shadow attempted to race further ahead as you both noticed Metal Sonic turn around.

"To think I'd fight alongside you." You beamed, jumping ahead and attempting to grab at Metal Sonic as he breezed by you to fight Shadow. Your intense grip managed to find the leg of the evil robot, halting him just fast enough to prevent a nasty, metal elbow bash into Shadow if it wasn't for you, "Looks like I still can still beat you even in your healthy form."

The dark hedgehog grit his teeth and grabbed along of Metal Sonic's hand to hold him in place, as he twisted to roundhouse kick him backwards into a rock. "I don't need two Sonics. Why don't you fight this thing and prove to me you're good."

Shadow tossed Metal Sonic right into the rock, causing a massive crash as metal twisted into broken shapes. The robot hesitated as it realized it has become stuck.

"Fine!" You yelled, jumping over Shadow's head and holding out your foot to make contact with the robotic target. Sadly, the powerful foe managed to free his head, moving it to the side as it dodged your kick. Your ally came in with a secondary attack, spindashing for Metal's chest. However the super powerful engine burned, causing Shadow to roll out of the spindash as he noticed Metal Sonic quite literally melting the rock he was trapped in.

With the super powerful rocket, Metal burst through the tuff and into the open air, back towards Eggman's ship.

Picking up your feet again, you spun to face where you thought your target was, noticing now that, "He's getting away!"

"I noticed!" Shadow yelled, using his own rocket shoes to propel himself back at Metal Sonic, but not before grabbing your hands with each of his own.

"WWHOOAAAAAAHH- HAHAA!!" You yelled in excitement as you got used to the adrenaline feeling. The violent hot wind past your face as you rushed towards danger once again. This was starting to become fun!

"Get ready." Shadow called out, trying to keep his aim straight.

"Huh!?" You looked up at the hedgehog, "Wai- Have you even done this before!?"

"No, but I trust you to use it." Shadow started to bank upwards quickly, pushing the limits of his rocket shoes and faulting so much so that he started to do a loopy loop, flying upwards before spiraling back down, using that downwards momentum to throw you forwards!

You were forced into a spindash at such speeds, bringing in even more energy as you rapidly approached Metal Sonic in the air, "Watch out robot! I've gotcha and I'm approaching rapidly!"

Even though the robot was emotionless, his oval shaped red eyes glowed in confusion as he saw you appear in his full field of vision. As you met with Metal Sonic, you got out of the spindash and into a high-speed punch you were all well known for...

"Start running."

The power you put into your target sent them spiraling down right into the ground! Metal Sonic collapsed into the now snowy ground below, rolling through not so catchy snow and creating a long crater through the terrain.

Shadow was already on the attack below, spin dashing towards the downed enemy who began to try to grab at anything around him. Little rocks, snowballs, logs and sticks. Below the snow, Metal Sonic had found a rather large log.

Spinning his torso completely around, the robot became inspired by Shadow's move, using that kinetic energy to split the log in half and throw both pieces right at Shadow, bonking the hedgehog in the face and in his left knee.

The hedgehog yelled as his leg was thrown back, knocking him off course and into the snowbank to the side.

When you got to the ground, you were disappointed to see Shadow fail to catch the robot, who was now flying back towards Eggman's ship, "We need to get back after them!"

"C-can't-" Shadow coughed as he tried to lay still in the snow, the coolness of the ground helping to ease the pain.

Your (e/c) eyes looked up to Eggman's ship as Metal Sonic entered. The two of you had beaten him up, but he still got away... You shook your fist and your head as you were forced to look away from the fleeing Metal Sonic. Now your gaze found itself looking at an also beaten up Shadow. He looked in rough shape, most likely as he still recovered from being infected.

"No point either, and I used up all the power in that one move." Shadow stood up without a second thought, brushing himself off but stumbling back as he saw his injury. He held out his hand for you to stay back when you approached him.

"Seriously? You cannot be that stubborn." You gestured to him and turned to the side, rolling your eyes as Shadow tried to stand up by himself.

"Fine. Get me back up but leave me when we get close-" Shadow rolled his hand over, agreeing to your help. Finally.

"What? Embarrassed that you need help?" You stepped forwards and pulled the reluctant hedgehog up to his feet, sliding his arm around your shoulder for support, and began making your way back to central Angel Island.

Shadow growled under his breath, "Watch yourself (Y/n). I'll keep you as an enemy."

"Alright, whatever. The others would be more upset than you if I just left you here anyways." You joked back, even though it may have been a little true.

The two of you trudged back to 'civilization' in silence. At the first sign of movement in the distance, Shadow forced himself off of you and tried not to appear weakened as you emerged from the underbrush. Amy and Rouge ran up to greet their respective friends.

"He got away didn't he?-" Amy mumbled, subtly looking up and down at yourself to check for injuries, "but more importantly, I'm glad to see you're ok."

"Yes, and yeah- I'm fine... Shadow got logs tossed at him so he's pretty beat up." You pointed over your shoulder to the hedgehog behind you.

"(Y/n). I swear- EY!" Rouge grabbed Shadow and told him to knock it off as they went on their own way before any more conflict could start.

Amy gently laughed, placing a hand to her mouth, "We could use some of that Sonic humor right now."

"Where is he, Amy? I- didn't even see him go after Eggman or help pummel Zavok." You began to look around, expecting your fellow hero to be around.

Amy looked to the ground, causing you to become confused. Her emerald green eyes darkened as she spoke, "We don't know. He just disappeared."

Guys. I can't believe I'm saying this... but I think this may be one of the last chapters. I can only think of one more to top off this story and maybe an Epilogue. After that? Maybe bonus chapters with recommendations or one-offs with the context of this story.

Chapter Length @1990 Words