ARAAT5: Resurrection

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A Rose And A Thorn 5: Resurrection

Co-Written by Harley Quinn hyenaholic and Froggy22651

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Harley: An action-packed chapter up ahead, kiddies. No sex, but ever such a lot of explosions. Some of my reviewers will turn out to be right about Midnight too.

Froggy: Harley now has the first 175 Archie Sonic Comics along with a whole crapload of spin-offs and specials. Congratulate him/her/it!

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Chapter Thirteen: Random Location

Knuckles never had been good at apologizing, partly because he didn’t have much practice, but mostly because of his pride. However, at the moment he was in too good of a mood to let it get in his way. Cautiously, quietly, he again entered the room where his mother was recovering. Just as before, Midnight was also there, loyally sitting beside her bed. As he walked in, his father gave him a silent glare.

Mirage was lying down, one hand over her forehead. She looked as if she had been crying, thought they both knew she couldn’t. But perhaps more accurately, she looked as if she was in pain. Pain that the drugs couldn't dull, "Welcome back, Knuckles," she said softly.

"Thanks,” the echidna replied, concerned about his mother. She didn't look so good... "Hey, I came here to say that... that..." He swallowed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have stormed out on you like that..."

"It is okay..." Mirage rubbed her forehead, "I have been a lousy mother... I should have gone with you, but I did not before... I was so busy changing things... I thought I could save Maria... Gods, I was such a fool..."

"No,” her son said with a shake of his head, "Don't say that... Yeah, you could have done things different, but I don't think you had a lot of choices..."

"I did not... but... aw, hell with it," Mirage moaned. Her headache couldn't possibly get any worse, "The Master Emerald is your destiny, Knuckles, and I hope you will believe me when I tell you that I did not send you there. The co-ordinates I picked were random." Just like with Sonic... she thought.

"Random? You mean I just happened to land near that emerald?" The idea was disturbing... was it really his destiny to guard over that rock?

"Completely random," Mirage promised him, "You see, Knuckles... in a world that does not matter anymore, in a universe that does not exist... I stole your Master Emerald. I fucked things up a lot, and thanks to me people died. So I wanted to fix it. And I chose the most stupid, selfish method possible - Time Travel. Went back to my own, hah, birth, met your father again, and around about the time we... ahem... started making love... I noticed... well... that he was an echidna. And then I had you. You were rather unexpected, but... I still wanted to keep you... and knew that I could not."

"So you sent me away, hoping things would be better on Earth." Knuckles looked at the floor quietly, putting himself in the same position. "I understand. You did the best you could, and I... thank you."

Mirage sighed, and her eyes stung from tears that could never flow, "GUN took you from me first. That hurt. So did my self-inflicted hysterectomy. But it hurt far worse sending you down to a random location and knowing that you would grow up to be so strong and protective and bloody stubborn just like your father all on your own... and I am so proud of you..." She began to sob, without tears.

Knuckles walked to the side of her bed and leaned down to hug the hedgecat. Twice in one day... it was unheard of.

Midnight's expression softened, "I would have done anything to make things different, son."

"I would have given up so much to be with you..." Mirage sobbed, hugging Knuckles back, "The Shard, immortality, Shadow, Midnight... you name it..." She knew this would probably annoy Midnight but it was the truth. She'd rather have both but it was no contest to choose between the two.

Annoy? Disturb was closer to the truth, but Midnight could understand. The bond between a mother and her child was one he couldn't compete with. Biological fact.

"You don't have to give anything up,” Knuckles replied, still hugging her, "I'm here now."

Mirage smiled. Her head was still really hurting, but being forgiven made it a little easier to bear, "And so am I," she replied, "I want you to know that whatever happens, you are still my son and I am still your mother," she told him.

"And I am still your father,” said Midnight, stepping forward and resting his good hand on Knuckles' shoulder, "I'm sorry for betraying you. I'm sorry that you had to be left on that island."

Knuckles nodded his head and sniffled, quietly replying, "It’s ok, dad. I forgive you."

Slowly, carefully, Midnight took a hold of Knuckles' shoulder and pulled him away from Mirage. "Your mother is very tired,” he said softly, "We should let her rest."

Knuckles nodded silently in agreement.

Mirage smiled anyway, "Come visit soon, Knuckles," she said quietly, "The doctors say that I will be out of this place on crutches in less than a week. Oh, and Tails... thankyou for helping Midnight... and Knuckles…"

Tails grinned, "No problem, Mirage."

Midnight smirked and showed his metal arm, "Good as new,” he said with a smirk, "You get better, Mirage. We'll see you later, I promise." And with that, the echidna turned and walked towards the door, his son and younger friend close behind.

Mirage nodded and laid her head back, one hand on her forehead. Her headache was really getting going now... practically splitting her head open.

"We need to get that shard back,” Knuckles said as they left the room.

Midnight glanced over at the red echidna, raising an eyebrow, "I figured you'd be more inclined to go after the Master Emerald first."

Knuckles nodded. "Usually, but I can tell that mother is in pain without that shard. We need it before we can get the emerald. Eggman won't blow up the world yet." Now this was something never seen before. Knuckles was actually putting off his duty for something else?

"Um... I hate to be the voice of reason," Tails spoke up, "But Knuckles, we really need you for help with the Master Emerald. Mirage's little shard isn't going to help much to control the planet."

Knuckles sighed. He hated to admit it, but Tails had a point. "I guess you're right,” he said, "But we can't put off the shard for too long. ...I don't even have any idea where the Master Emerald could be."

Tails looked at Midnight, "You know where Eggman is hiding out," he said, "The old man's as predictable as a see-saw. He'll have it there, right?"

"Yes,” the older echidna answered, "I can lead the way to Eggman's base. He'll surely have the emerald there. The defences of the place shouldn't be too hard for me to get through."

"That might be a bad idea," Tails said suddenly, "I don't think you should go too near Eggman yet, Midnight. Not until I've got all your parts sorted out."

"What?" The blue echidna looked downright offended. "I can't just sit on the sidelines and let you take all the risks. I made this mess; I should have a part in cleaning it up."

"No, Midnight," Tails told him, "We're still not sure to what extent Eggman has control over you. And we also have to clear up that mess with GUN. It's better if you just lie low, for now."

Midnight sighed loudly and clenched his fists in frustration. "As you wish,” he muttered, ashamed.

"Hey, maybe next time the world goes up in flames you can help," Tails told the dark echidna, "Lord knows it happens often enough. But for now you're better off staying out of it. Mirage is disappointed she can't come too what with her bad leg. You can look after her."

"Yes,” he admitted, "Mirage could have someone stay behind to watch her."

Knuckles patted his father on the back, "Don't worry, dad. We can handle the emerald; it’s my duty, anyway."

~~~

"Well, this is the place, according to Midnight,” said Sonic, looking at the warehouse, "He said there's an elevator inside that goes down to the base. Heh, pretty gutsy for Eggman to build it right under the city."

"He thought we'd never find it here," Tails said, "He usually makes his bases pretty damn obvious what with all the rusting robots and electrical crap. I guess he's learning to be more subtle. That's a problem... for us."

"The greater and more immediate problem,” Shadow pointed out, "Is that there is only one, mechanized, and surely monitored entrance. Quite the obstacle."

Tails shrugged, "Eggman might change his tactics, but he's not going to change himself. There will be a way in. There has to be. You know how much Eggman enjoys the final showdown.”

“Almost as much as the sound of his own voice,” agreed Sonic.

"Well, we could shortcut our way in with Chaos Control. But that would be terribly risky with three of us,” said Shadow.

"We could smash our way in,” was Knuckles’ predictable suggestion.

Sonic grinned and added his own idea, "We could go in and say hi. I bet he'd let us in."

"I know Sonic's idea sounds dumb," Tails said, "But it'd probably work just as well as any of the others. Besides, it's gonna be a deathtrap by now. Eggman's always prepared."

"Well what are we waiting for?!" was the blue hedgehog's enthusiastic reaction. Walking over to the large doors, Sonic knocked. "Hey, Eggman! Let us in there!"

An intercom buzzed into life by the door, "Ah, Sonic! And your friends! It's WONDERFUL to see you again. I must say though, that I'm surprised Knuckles isn't off getting back his mother's shard from GUN." Eggman's unbearable laugh resounded from the intercom.

"Well maybe I felt like kicking your ass first!" growled Knuckles defiantly, shaking his fist.

Eggman laughed again, "Come on in then! Oh, this is going to be so much fun... You rotten rodents, I'll get you yet!"

"I'm not a rodent," Tails pointed out sharply.

"Oh, shut up, foxboy," Eggman sneered. The warehouse doors opened, and Egg Pawns charged out.

As one, the heroes leapt at their foes. Sonic sliced them, Knuckles crushed them, and Shadow blasted them. Egg Pawns weren't very bright and hardly a threat if you knew how to beat them. Even in numbers they were a walkover with the Homing Attack. Even Tails, unarmed, could walk all over them. The next wave were the more troublesome type with spears and shields, but they were still a pushover for the Heroes of Earth.

A whirlwind of air tossed them about and bolts of chaos energy tore them apart. Shadow crossed his arms over his chest, "Humph! Is this all you've got?"

An Egg Knight was the final obstacle in the entrance to Eggman's base. Those things could get nasty if you didn't watch your back. But even so, it wasn't going to be a problem. The hulking machine simply could not defend itself from four, small, agile, and powerful targets all at once. As soon as one scored a hit, another drew its attention away, and so on and so forth. The heroes wore down the Egg Knight until it finally fell to the concrete floor, defeated.

"That wasn't so bad,” said a smiling Sonic, rubbing his hands together.

"Now the elevator down is wide open," Tails said.

"What if it's booby trapped?" Knuckles asked.

Tails shook his head, "It won't be. Eggman sets a lot of store by fair play and so on, when it doesn't get in the way of his personal goals. Besides, is there any other way in?"

"Not really,” admitted the echidna. He stepped over the broken bodies of fallen robots towards the access elevator. Upon reaching it, rather than opening it like any other civilized person would do, he simply smashed it open with a punch. "Going down?"

"Knuckles, you’d use a bulldozer to find a china cup,” Shadow grumbled as he stepped aboard the elevator.

His blue counterpart just shrugged and stepped in behind him. "The more damage to Eggman, the better!"

Tails followed them in. Despite his outward confidence about a lack of traps, he still felt uncomfortable about the elevator. It would be so easy for Eggman to make it crash. But that was it, wasn't it? It was too easy. Eggman wouldn't do it that way. As long as they didn't bank on it, Eggman wouldn't do it that way. It wasn't his style to let them die in a lift crash. He'd want to do it personally. The Egg Pawns were just a warm-up; he'd have let them walk right up to him as long as he got the chance to show off his latest creation.

Sonic thought he could always beat Eggman. Shadow thought he could beat anyone. Knuckles... didn't think. They all were certain they would survive the elevator ride, and so they did. Eggman laid no trap for them there.

"Acting like this is some sort of game, doctor? No wonder you always lose,” Shadow spat in disgust.

"You know something Shadow? I'm really, really glad you're on our side now," Tails commented as the elevator reached the lowest level.

Stepping out of the elevator, Shadow smirked and said, "So am I, although the quality of my enemy has decreased dramatically."

Sonic chuckled, "That goes without saying. This hedgehog is harder to beat than lard-butt."

Eggman laughed through the intercom, "I'd like you to see something very special I've been working on for some years now, Shadow. Even before Rouge let you out of that pod, in fact. As you all well know, my creations have turned against me before... Gamma, Metal Sonic, Omega, Shadow, Midnight... all failures. So... I made an improvement..." Eggman laughed again, "Oh, it's too good..." The small band realised that six identical replicas of Shadow were stepping out of the shadows. Hellfire, they had BEEN the shadows.

Their Shadow looked like he had seen a ghost, staring in slack-jawed shock, uttering, "Wh-what? But...?"

Knuckles growled and raised his fists, ready to battle this new threat, stepping closer to Tails.

Sonic looked more annoyed than surprised or afraid. "Huh, there's more than one of them? One is trouble enough..."

"Recovering Shadow's charred corpse was the easy part," Eggman sounded more smug than ever, "Deciding on the medium through which I would use his powers was harder. Robots have a tendency to be too clever or too stupid. Clones are easy to make but embody unfortunate free will. It wasn't until I found the files on Mirage - a genetically altered clone of Shadow with a specially programmed personality - that I was able to create an infinite number of soldiers lacking any desire to rebel whatsoever!"

"You... cloned me?" Shadow growled, "I'm going to make you hurt for that, Eggman! Don't think your little drones are going to stop me!"

Sonic smirked confidently at the Shadow clones, "Yeah! These copies can't beat the original! Bring it on!"

"Cloned you?" Eggman sneered, "You are a clone. The first one, the one with the unfortunate free will. The original died in the fall from the ARK. Oh, come on! You didn't really think it was possible to survive a fall from SPACE, did you? Space shuttles have a hard time at that!"

"I've done it seven or eight times now,” mentioned Sonic with a smug smirk, "Don't listen to him, Shadow. Eggman's a chronic liar. The only one dumb enough here to fall for it is Knuckles."

"Hey!"

They all ignored Knuckles’ insulted reaction, and focused on the battle-ready clones. Shadow drew a deep breath and nodded. Eggman's ‘revelation’ had shook him, but Sonic reminded him what really counted in that moment. "You're right. And even if I am a clone, I'm still Shadow the Hedgehog! Time to wreck these impostors!" With that, the black hedgehog leapt forward to attack his doubles.

Eggman sneered, "Shadow clones - ATTACK!" The half-dozen extra Shadows instantly leapt to attack the small group. The worst part was that very suddenly it was horribly complicated. The Shadow clones shared quite a lot of things with the lineage of Shadow, most obviously the undeniable killer instinct. It was worse than fighting robots. It was like fighting your best friend.

For Shadow himself, it was like fighting a mirror. Every move duplicated, every tactic predicted. Neither him nor his opponents could land a decisive blow on the other. Soon enough, his allies had lost track of who were clones and who was the original. Knuckles and Tails fought back-to-back, pooling their talents to try to overcome their enemies. Knuckles was strong, but his strength meant nothing if he couldn't touch his foe, like the agile clones dodging his powerful blows. Sonic was the only one who seemed to be doing well against the clones, being a veteran in fighting the Ultimate Lifeform.

Tails suddenly gave a scream as a Shadow clone grabbed him by the neck, and held him in front of him as a shield, "There will be no more fighting," the clone said calmly, "You will come with us to Doctor Robotnik now, or the boy will die." He started to squeeze. Good old ruthless Shadow... you could count on him to threaten innocent lives without the slightest twinge of guilt.

"Tails! Let him go!" snarled Knuckles, stepping towards the clone with his fists raised.

Sonic stood in his way, holding the echidna back. "Wait, Knuckles!" The Shadows just stared at each other, having themselves lost track of which one of them was their enemy.

"You will come with us," the replica - or possibly it was the original, who knew? - repeated. He was still squeezing. In a few moments, Tails' neck would snap if it was a clone, or it would not snap if it were their Shadow pulling a bluff. It was a horrible choice.

Then Sonic did something no one would have expected. He said, "Ok! We give up!"

Knuckles blinked and stared at the blue hedgehog in amazement, "We do?"

The Shadow holding Tails by the throat loosened his grip, allowing the fox to breathe, but still holding tightly onto him.

"Guys, don't give up! It's a fourteen point two eight percent chance that this Shadow is ours!" Tails gasped, "I'm not worth it- urk!"

Shadow squeezed again meaningfully, and then loosened his grip slightly, "And an eighty-five point seven two percent chance that I will snap his neck," he growled.

Sonic, however, was the one to notice that whichever was their Shadow wasn't making a move to resist, blending in with the clones. Sonic smirked inwardly, impressed by the other hedgehog's deception. "We're giving up, for now,” he said again, "You win this round, Eggman."

"Come with us," the Shadow replica ordered them. He turned his back, his grip on Tails' neck still horrible tight, and flanked by two Shadows, while the other three, rather bruised and battered, walked behind them.

And still there was a seventh among them, and they obviously knew it, glaring at each other suspiciously, trying to determine which was the enemy. They all looked and acted the same. Sonic just smiled and followed, a baffled Knuckles right behind him.

Because they were all Shadows, even the modified ones, they were all suspicious bastards. The one holding Tails was probably getting the worst deal. Tails could see upcoming problems with them, even if they did lack total free will. Shadow had said, "I'm still Shadow the Hedgehog". Doubtless the others thought that way too. They were all just itching for an excuse to rip each other apart; to be the best. Shadow's head would be an interesting place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there.

One of the Shadows reacted angrily to a suspicious look given to him, shoving the other. His reaction was, "You just couldn't hold it in, could you? You're the impostor!" "Nice trick, turning us against me, but we all know that you're the enemy!" And so on and so forth. The Shadows bickered and yelled and growled, getting more agitated by the second. And then the dam broke as one of them struck another, and a fight broke out. The Shadows began to tear each other apart.

The only one who didn't leap into the fight was the one holding Tails, "WILL YOU STOP THAT?!" he bellowed, and amazingly, the Shadows looked up, "We can deal with the impostor later," he snapped, "Doctor Robotnik will sniff him out," his gaze travelled across the Shadows, "Whoever he is." The Shadows stood up, still agitated, but three took hold of Knuckles, and three took hold of Sonic, and they continued. The whole tunnel led downwards.

The seven Shadows and the three heroes as they went down further and further into the base, feeling as if they were in some sort of bunker. Eggman certainly had gotten smarter with his architecture. The Shadows continued to view each other angrily, waiting for a sign to slip out that one was the enemy. Before that could happen though, they entered Eggman's inner sanctum, heroes in tow.

Eggman himself was sitting in a very egg-shaped chair. He was occasionally tapping at a keyboard, and there was a chalkboard behind him with designs for Egg Pawns, improvements on the E series, a robot that looked like a pinball machine, and interesting designs for new apple-coring devices. And there was a set of plans too, for something big. Tails was trying to get a look at them, but it was difficult. Eggman grinned, "Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails," he looked smug, "And Shadow, of course." The various Shadows looked at each other angrily, but made no move, "I see you're having trouble deciding," he said, "Well, that does make it interesting. And you think I can tell you apart." he suddenly grinned very evilly, "I can do that later. As it is... you've come for the Master Emerald, haven't you?"

"The Master Emerald is not yours!" Knuckles snapped at the doctor, "Give it back to me now!" In other words, yes.

"No, I don't think I'll do that," Eggman smirked, "I expect you're wondering what I need it for, aren't you? Well, Project Mirage has - or had - a Shard. She thought it linked her to the Master Emerald. Stupid female..."

"You mean it doesn't?" asked Sonic, surprised. He was sure that the shard gave her some power over the Master...

"It's more... complicated than that," Eggman chuckled, "The Master Emerald is not a store for energy. It is a magnet. It draws to it Master Emerald Energy from far and wide. The Shard does the same on a smaller scale. And she taps it constantly. The Master Emerald, untapped, drains off surplus energy by lifting Angel Island into the sky. To put it simply," he grinned, "I'm going to carve up the Master Emerald into hundreds of thousands of little shards and give them to my faithful servants," he looked meaningfully at the Shadow clones.

An army of Shadows would be a pain. An army of chaos-energy leeching Shadows would a nightmare. Even Sonic was afraid of the possibility.

"A nice plan,” a familiar voice spoke from the far end of the room, "Too bad it'll never happen," Everyone turned to look at the new arrival and saw the blue form of a cyborg echidna aiming his weapon at Eggman, "Let them go and give the emerald back now. You've got ten seconds."

"Ah, Midnight, I was wondering when you'd show up," Eggman rummaged in a drawer, "There's a punishment for traitors, you know. But you're not a traitor, are you?"

"Nine. Eight. Seven,” the echidna counted down coldly, prepared to end the doctor's life.

"What are you doing here?" asked a bewildered Knuckles, "You were supposed to stay with Mirage!"

“Good thing I didn’t,” Midnight said, “Six. Five. Four.”

"You're not a traitor... are you?" Eggman produced what looked like a remote control, pointed it at Midnight, and pressed a large red button. The air started to buzz, and Midnight froze up, "The foxboy was right. I can control you. I can also see through your robotic eye and hear through your robotic ear."

Midnight's organic eye widened and a tremor went through his body, "Wh-what’re you... doing to me?" he strained to ask, his aim lost. The heroes watched on in confusion.

"Your relationship with Project Mirage really is amazing," Eggman pressed a button on the keyboard and a few brief first-person images flashed up, namely of a scantily clad Mirage, both at Club Rouge and later in the Motel, "Makes me almost wish I was a sociologist instead of a scientist. Almost."

Midnight snarled something wordlessly, his metal hand shaking as he strained to fire, but the blaster would not respond. "My life!" he finally shouted, "Mine, not yours!"

"You are alive because of me," Eggman sneered, "Those are my robotic lungs you're using. That's my infra-red, heat and light sensitive camera allowing you to see. And it was my screwdriver that put you together. Plus of course you were made on ARK as part of research into resurrection, so I pretty much inherit your flesh from my grandfather too. So don't get mouthy."

"I don't fucking care; it’s my life!" the echidna shouted desperately. All his life, he had been the property of someone else. The scientists, GUN, and now Eggman. He just wanted to be free and left alone to live out the rest of his life with Mirage, but the doctor who had ‘saved’ his life was not going to have it, controlling him by remote and watching his life through his metal eye.

"I think by now we have established that what you want doesn't matter," Eggman replied, placing the remote down on the table and picking up a joypad, grinning sadistically, "Now, Project Midnight. Kill Knuckles." He pressed a few buttons and Midnight felt his robotic legs take him in the direction of his son.

"No!" the echidna shouted, but his body wouldn't respond to his commands. Turning and marching towards Knuckles, the blue echidna's expression went blank, as if his mind was simply not there anymore, turned off. Midnight raised his right arm, extending his blaster towards his son... and that was when Shadow decided to strike. The one holding onto Tails released him and hurled a Chaos Spear at Midnight, knocking him off his feet and throwing off his aim. Confused and startled, the Shadows turned on each other again. They didn't catch which one of them was the traitor, so they simply decided to settle this the Shadow way: the last one standing wins.

As soon as the Shadows turned on each other, Eggman started hammering on the joypad, forcing Midnight to fire rapidly in Sonic's direction.

"Whoa!" shouted Sonic, who dodged and weaved the blasts coming his way, "Hey, Midnight! It’s me! What did he do to you?" The echidna just answered by firing again. If that was how he wanted it, so be it. The blue hedgehog raced towards him and ran circles around the confused cyborg. Trying to hit the impossibly fast target, Midnight fired wildly, blasts shattering and melting the delicate equipment in the room.

Tails ran through the chaos of Shadows trying to kill each other - two were already dead - and jumped onto Eggman, trying to get the joypad off him, "Get OFF me, foxboy!" Eggman shouted, "Shadow Clones! I order you to help!" Three Shadows jumped to help him, two more continued to fight on the floor - but that wasn't before Tails had taken the joypad off Eggman, and crushed it under his foot.

Midnight blinked, regain control over his body. Snarling in rage, he aimed his cannon at Eggman... but found to his immense frustration that the battling Shadows and Tails kept him from having a clear shot. Four were on their feet and fighting between him and Eggman, and a fifth was writhing on the ground, bleeding his life out, "Get out of my way, damn you!"

Eggman was typing frantically on the keyboard, and Midnight felt him start to take control of his body once more. He found himself swivelling to point the blaster at Knuckles.

"Knuckles... run!" he called out before he again lost control of himself. Knuckles yelped and dived towards the floor, a beam of energy scorching a patch of fur as he just barely got out of the way. Scrambling to his feet, the echidna ran into the Shadow melee, counting on Midnight to hesitate firing at potential allies. He didn't, and another Shadow found his brains sizzling against the far wall. Three more left. Sonic caught the cyborg in a whirling blast of wind, hurling him away

Tails was trying to get through the wall of Shadows. He tried flying over, but one jumped up, grabbed his ankle and pulled him down, trying to dash his head against the floor. Tails however, was putting the position to good effect by grabbing Shadow's leg and sinking his teeth into the double's ankle.

The Shadow yelped in pain and tried to shake the young fox off of him, but became so focused on that that he didn't notice the other Shadow coming at him, rolled into a spinning ball. He was shredded as the other Shadow passed right through him. The two remaining Shadows eyed each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. They chose to attack at the same time. Sonic and Knuckles could only watch in amazement, unable to tell who was who.

Tails took the opportunity to run over to Robotnik's computer and kick the hard drive off the desk. It smashed on the floor and Tails spindashed it for good measure. Midnight was free.

Midnight put that freedom to good use by aiming his blaster at the Shadows. The two identical hedgehogs looked at him, pointed fingers at each other, glared, and both said, "Shoot him!"

A confused cyborg aimed from one to the other, trying to tell them apart. "Oh, come on!” said one of them, "The real Shadow can fight much better than this fake copy!”

Midnight shifted aim. "Oh, you're not really going to believe this faker, are you? He can't even use chaos powers, like I did to you!"

Midnight shifted aim again. "Midnight! What are you stalling for! You know it’s me!" The echidna growled in frustration.

The other hedgehog tried to persuade him again. "Yeah, well only the real one would remember how I kicked your ass when we met on the ARK. Twice."

And indeed, only the original should know that. And so, Midnight aimed his blaster at the other Shadow, who was staring at his double with a look of shock on his face. And then he shot him.

The other started to get to his feet, which was why the blast hit him in the side rather than the head. It sent him flying across the room and into a mess of robot parts, where he lay, unmoving.

The remaining Shadow glared at the dead clones. "That settles that,” he growled, and then turned to face Eggman, "Now, I do believe I said something about dealing you some pain..."

Eggman snarled in rage, "Take your damn Master Emerald and get out," he told Shadow, pressing a button on the keyboard. Despite the hard drive being destroyed, the wall slid aside, revealing the Master Emerald.

Knuckles leapt ahead of Shadow and ran to the emerald, looking it over and running his gloved hand over the green gem. "Yep, it’s the real thing,” he said with a confident nod and then lifted it up, glaring at Eggman, "Never take it again, because next time, I'll smash your face in."

"Next time, you won't get the chance, Guardian!" Eggman told him, "Now..." he pressed a button, and his chair suddenly reformed into an Egg-O-Matic. Three Egg Pawns trooped in and each one picked up two bodies of Shadow, "In five minutes this building will be a smoking pile of rubble. Get out." The Egg-O-Matic left via the roof, and the Egg Pawns ran off.

"You don't need to tell me twice. Let's get out of here, guys!" Sonic called out, running out of the room towards the elevator. Five minutes? All the time in the world. Shadow was swiftly behind him, followed by Tails, and Knuckles, the slowest of the group, was at the back.

Tails slowed down to run beside Knuckles, "I know you're not the thinking type Knux," he said softly, "But did anything about all that seem... too easy?"

"Easy? You call that easy?" exclaimed the red echidna, pointing to his burnt patch of fur, "I almost got cooked in there!"

"Yeah but... there were six enemy Shadows!" Tails hissed, "And we're still alive!"

"They were just cheap copies,” Knuckles replied with a shrug, "You know Eggman can't build anything that would match the original. He's tried that plenty of times with Sonic."

"Yeah, I know..." Tails said quietly. He was still looking ahead at Shadow and Sonic.

Sonic reached the elevator and opened it for the others. "Next stop, the city streets!" he said cheerfully, hitting the up button.

"Wait! Where's Midnight?!" Tails called out.

Just before the doors shut, Midnight slid in behind them, panting for breath. "You guys weren't going to leave without me, were you?"

Sonic grinned, "Of course not!"

Tails settled himself in the corner, "I'm still gonna have to check your parts out, Midnight," he told the echidna, "You don't want Eggman rebuilding that machine, do you?"

"Yes, please,” the echidna said with a sigh, still shaken by the brief period when he had been.... zombified was the best word he could find to describe it. "I never want that to happen again."

"Finally, you understand," Tails said softly as the lift ascended.

"Oh yes. I don't care if you have to turn me inside out to do it,” he spoke, shuddering, “I don’t want to be under that… monster’s control, ever again.”

The lift reached the top of the shaft, and Tails stepped out, "Knuckles, you've got to get the Master Emerald back to Angel Island, right?" he said.

"As soon as possible,” answered the echidna, holding onto his rock tightly, as if afraid somebody else was going to snatch it away from him.

"You, uh... want me to help you get it back up there?" Tails asked Knuckles.

Knuckles opened his mouth to protest, not needing any help to get the emerald back to his island, but reconsidered as he looked down at the younger fox. "Oh alright. I guess you can help,” he told him. The elevator chimed and the doors opened as they reached ground level. The two hedgehogs rushed out the door, the echidnas and fox close behind.

Tails leant over Shadow's shoulder, "What are you gonna do now, Shadow?" he asked the black hedgehog.

"I'm going to see Mirage,” the dark hedgehog grumbled, "It’s been a long day, and I've got to speak with her." The black hedgehog walked away from the group, looking irritated by the whole situation.

Sonic shrugged, "Can't blame him, seeing those awful Shadow clones," he said, watching Shadow leave.

~~~

Harley: SHADOW CLONES! Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

Froggy: So, what happens next chapter?

Harley: You know, I can’t remember. Now, Read and Review!