Bloody Domination 2: Straitjacket

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Bloody Domination 2: Straitjacket

Co-Written by Harley Quinn hyenaholic and Froggy22651

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Harley: Well, no more M/M in THIS chapter, but that doesn't mean it's not coming up!

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Chapter Fourteen: Can You Too?

The red guardian trudged on through the snow. The storm had slowed him down, forced him to take shelter, but he was still hot on the trail of that science-experiment bastard. The falling snow had eliminated all tracks, but there were a limited number of locations they could have gone to weather the storm. Knuckles was swiftly approaching one such place, a small resort village that had several unoccupied huts the pair could have hidden within. He took his time looking through the frosted windows...

Shadow smiled down at Sonic, who was asleep again. He kissed the blue hedgehog gently on the lips with a smile, then got out of the bed, pulling on the shoes and gloves he had borrowed from Sonic, unaware of any watcher.

As Shadow stood up and left the room, a pair of violet eyes watched him from outside, narrowing in anger. Finally, Knuckles had found his enemy. Sonic was probably being held somewhere nearby. Wasting no time, the echidna ran around the building to the front door, loudly bashing it inward.

Shadow straightened up with a jolt at the sound. Fight or flight? Fight or flight? The question raced through his mind in a panic, freezing him to the spot, And I don't even have a Chaos Emerald! he thought, No, I don't need those to kill GUN soldiers by the dozen! He ran into the living room, ready to face any adversary.

But the adversary was not one he was prepared for. No GUN soldiers or mechs were waiting for the dark hedgehog, no swarms of enemies. Just the solitary figure of Knuckles the Echidna stood there, dusted with snow, a look of pure fury on his face.

"Oh, it's you," Shadow said nastily, "Shouldn't you be alone on some secluded island protecting the Master Emerald or something?" He clearly hadn't forgotten how Knuckles had shot him.

"Oh, I have more important things to do!" the echidna growled, clinching his fists, "Like finishing what I started with you!"

"And you think I'll just let you," Shadow growled, his eye twitching, "I've got a better idea; why don't I finish what I started with you?"

"Yeah, I bet you'd like to, you sick freak!" the guardian spat in disgust, "Just like you did to the rest of them! And Sonic!" Letting out a warcry, the echidna launched himself at his hedgehog opponent, launching a stone-crushing punch at his face.

"What? I never did anything to - woah!" Shadow dived out of the way, "Well, I didn't!"

"Liar!" the echidna growled, continuing his assault. He wasn't interested in hearing Shadow's lies, only the sounds of his bones breaking. A punch missed and put a hole through the wall. Another was dodged and shattered a light fixture.

"Fine, if that's what you want!" Shadow yelled at him, started to fight back, "I thought you hated Sonic now!" he snarled, punching Knuckles in the jaw.

The blow sent Knuckles staggering back, but apparently he could take just as well as he could give, "No!" he shouted in response, diving towards the hedgehog in an effort to tackle him.

"Besides, he was the one making all the moves!" Shadow added, catching Knuckles and throwing him over his back.

Knuckles landed in a crouch on his feet. Without looking, he stood and swung his fist at the back of Shadow's head in a backhanded punch, screaming, "You lying bastard!"

Shadow caught his wrist and squeezed it hard, "I'm sorry, okay?! You worthless excuse for a brain-dead piece of cow shit, I'm sorry!"

Knuckles' other hand snapped out to grab Shadow's wrist in return, "Sorry isn't enough,” he growled, grappling with the hedgehog, "He trusted you! He was stupid enough to give you a second chance, and you betrayed him!"

"I didn't hurt him!" Shadow shouted back, "Sure it was a real effort not to bust up that fat, smug, blue face, but I didn't!"

"Of course you didn't! That's why you screwed him in the middle of the jungle!" Knuckles shouted in rage. Pulling himself away from the dark hedgehog, he threw another punch, a low blow aimed at the stomach.

"What?" The punch knocked Shadow back into the wall, "You've been following me since then?" he asked, trying to get out of the dent in the wall.

"Yeah, and I'm going to crush you for what you've done!" Knuckles answered, throwing himself at the hedgehog, taking advantage of his struggles.

"I haven't DONE anything!" Shadow dodged Knuckles, "Sonic fucked me, you dumb red bastard!" With that, he tackled Knuckles' legs.

The echidna was too stunned to do anything about it. The wind was knocked out of his lungs as he hit the floor, and he struggled to draw it again, trying to push Shadow off of him, "No! That's... impossible!” he uttered, his mind trying to wrap itself around the idea. Shadow had to be lying!

"It's not impossible!" Shadow shouted at him, "He started it! He made all the moves! It's all his fault! Go beat damn out of him if you like, but leave me alone!"

Knuckles bellowed and hurled the black hedgehog off of him, "Why should I listen to you!? You're insane!" he shouted.

"Because it's true." Sonic was standing there, looking at the two combatants with a mix of horror, disgust, and disappointment on his face.

"You see?" Shadow asked Knuckles, "It is true. Even if I am insane."

Knuckles just stared at Sonic with his mouth open, his mind at a standstill. He had thought for all of this time that Sonic had been the victim in all of this, "...Why?" he asked desperately, trying to understand how Sonic could do that with Shadow. How he could choose Shadow over him.

Sonic glared and shook his head, "You haven't learned anything, Knuckles!" he shouted, seething in anger and frustration. Looking at both of the other males, Sonic sighed in disgust and made his way towards the door, "I'm leaving."

"Hey!" Shadow called out, "You can't just leave! It's twenty below freezing out there!"

"I don't care!" Sonic growled, racing out through the broken door and into the snow, taking off as fast as his feet could carry him.

"Now see what you've done!" both males snarled at each other.

"Well, you can kill me if you like, but that'll be one less person to search for Sonic," Shadow told Knuckles shortly.

Knuckles clinched his fist tightly, shaken by a mixture of emotions he didn't understand or care to try, "Damn you!" he said, pointing a gloved hand at Shadow, "This is all your fault!"

"Oh really? How is it all my fault?" Shadow asked him, "Did I force him to run out into the freezing cold?"

"You... you started all of it!" Knuckles shouted, struggling for an answer, "You did when you came back and tried to kill him!"

"Yeah, well that is over, Knuckles!" Shadow yelled back at him, "I'm not saying it again! I'm going out to find him!"

"Well... well... then I'm coming with you!" Knuckles retorted, all his rage and self-righteous hate smothered, leaving only confusion and frustration, "...I don't trust you alone with him!"

"I don't expect you to," Shadow returned, "But we'll cover more ground if we split up."

Throwing his arms down in frustration, Knuckles growled a curse and then ran out the door.

Within seconds they had split up. Shadow wondered if Knuckles really would tell him if he found Sonic. Then you'd better find him first, hadn't you? he thought.

Sonic's tracks were still fresh in the snow, but with more snow falling fast, it wouldn't be long before those tracks were gone, and beating Sonic by running simply wasn't an option. Shadow drove this point home by speeding off, spraying more snow onto the tracks left behind. Cursing his typically bad luck, Knuckles fell back on his tracking skills, not trying to beat Sonic with speed but by predicting where he would end up.

Shadow, on the other hand, didn't have any tracking skills. He slowed down after a couple of hundred yards, and started walking, but something was distracting his concentration, and it wasn't the biting snow. Maybe there was a Chaos Emerald around here somewhere, he reasoned.

Knuckles hoped that Sonic was smart enough to reach the second nearest settlement, because that was where the echidna was headed. The fluffy white falling from the sky was swiftly rendering any tracking useless, leaving it entirely to guesswork.

Shadow was already feeling cold. The thing that was distracting him kept making him want to head further out, away from the settlement, while he knew he also had to find Sonic.

Knuckles could also feel the energy of the Chaos Emerald, but it proved to be no distraction to him. Anger and single-mindedness kept him firmly on the task of finding the blue hedgehog before the cold took him away.

Then, a speck in the snow caught his violet eyes. In the midst of all the white and grey and brown, the guardian noticed a distinctive shade of blue. Forcing the cold and tearing pain out of his mind, Knuckles trudged quickly through the snow towards the fallen hedgehog. Sonic, already weakened by his earlier journey in the cold, had fallen face-down. Knuckles dropped to his knees and turned him over, "Sonic! Sonic, can you hear me?" he shouted above the wind. Sonic, having passed out in the cold, offered no response. He had to be warmed up, quick!

Meanwhile, still out there, Shadow was digging in the snow for the power he could sense. He found what he was looking for - a huge red jewel - the Red Chaos Emerald. He tucked it into his quills carefully.

Knuckles scooped the blue hedgehog up into his arms, rubbing him rapidly as the echidna located his own fading tracks, and took off running back the way he came.

Shadow sighed. He supposed he should keep looking for Sonic. But then he realised that if Knuckles found Sonic, he was hardly likely to tell him. Besides, he was the better tracker. The black and red hedgehog headed back to the log cabin.

The echidna followed his tracks back to the cabin. He was sure that Shadow would return there eventually, but that wasn't his concern. The important thing was to get Sonic warm again before hypothermia proved to be the end of the hero. His hands tied up in the act of carrying the hedgehog, he simply kicked the door open again, and stepped into the warmer interior of the cabin.

Surprisingly, Shadow was right behind him, "You do know how to treat hypothermia, right?" he asked Knuckles.

"Yes. Do you?" Knuckles growled, stepping past the black and red hedgehog. He carried Sonic towards the bedroom, ripping covers off the bed to wrap around himself and Sonic, sharing his body heat with the frosted hedgehog.

"Of course I do, that's why he didn't die the first time I brought him in here," Shadow replied, "I didn't have to save his life, you know."

Knuckles uttered a quiet "Humph,” ignoring Shadow's argument. He stayed focused on the task of keeping Sonic warm. If he could get his body temperature up again, he should be alright, "Are you going to just stand there or help me?!" the guardian snapped.

"Sure, how should I help?" Shadow asked nastily, trying not to be too insulting to the echidna.

"Get down here and do what I am!" Knuckles replied with equal venom and impatience. He and Shadow had plenty to be bitter at each other for, but their fight could wait until Sonic was alright. He hugged the blue hedgehog tightly, pressing as much of his body as he could against him and rubbed with his hands.

Shadow nodded. It wasn't all that different to what he'd done before. He wrapped his arms around Sonic and rubbed his body gently, so as to not damage the tissue further.

Together, the air around them quickly grew warm with their body heat, seeping it into the unconscious Sonic. Knuckles was glad that that Sonic was firmly between them, because otherwise his reaction would have been quite embarrassing. He couldn't help it, being this close to Sonic. He had always been attracted to him; it was his dirty secret, and it made him ashamed to think of him in such a way now, of all times. Closing his eyes and hiding his face behind Sonic's head, he rubbed warmth back into the hedgehog's body.

Shadow looked at Knuckles, trying to cover his face, "Something wrong?" he asked, a little more smugly than necessary.

"No,” the echidna growled bitterly, the reaction stoked by his own embarrassment, "Everything's fine, asides from you dragging him here to be frozen!"

"Hey, I kept telling him that he didn't need to come along," Shadow snapped, "He was the one who kept insisting, while I tried to tell him I could do it all fine on my own!"

"That's Sonic for you! He'll endanger himself for his friends every time! ...Even if they don't deserve it!" was Knuckles' scathing reply.

"Well thanks a lot," Shadow growled, "I guess I've changed nothing by not killing everybody I see this time around. Might as well go back to the old ways, huh?"

Knuckles was quiet for a moment, face hidden behind Sonic, thinking Shadow's words through now that they were temporarily on the same side. It was true that Shadow didn't need to show any kindness towards Sonic, but he did anyway, "...Thanks for not hurting him,” the echidna mumbled, finding the words difficult to say. He immediately added, "But I haven't forgotten what you did to me!"

"Neither have I," Shadow replied, "If it makes you feel any better." He sat back, away from the somewhat warmer Sonic, "I'm going to make something to eat."

"You do that,” Knuckles muttered, still clinging to Sonic and warming him up. It looked like the blue hedgehog was going to be alright, but a little extra wouldn't hurt.

Shadow left the room and went into the kitchen, and started to try and make something to eat. Obviously he was right. Knuckles was never going to forgive him. Why should he anyway? And why should Shadow care? Knuckles shot him.

After a while, Knuckles slid away from Sonic, figuring that he would be alright from now. Walking towards the living room, the echidna fumed silently, angry at Shadow and confused at Sonic's actions. What was it that Sonic saw in Shadow that every other thinking, sane being in the world didn't? Sonic was often irrational and impulsive, but Knuckles had never known him to be wrong.

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Harley: There’s not actually many chapters to go now! Yeah! Read and Review!