Ethics and Ethos

 

“Do you two really have to fight?!”

 

Amy was almost pleading, just shy of begging at this point.

 

Tensions were already running high in the group of friends. All that had happened in the last few hours had turned one of their usual upbeat Adventures to save the world into something more akin of a soap opera. Between Eggman stealing all seven Chaos Emeralds the night before and the current plight of the denizens of Station Square whom were in the direct line of fire of the rapidly approaching Egg Fleet, Team Heroes already had as much on their plate as they could handle.

 

Watching their two best go toe to toe in the precious moments they had to spare really wasn’t something the Pink Hedgehog considered productive.

 

Shadow scoffed at Amy’s final appeal to cooler heads. Responding in kind with the brand of saber rattling that he was known for.

 

“A fight implies that this will be some sort of evenly matched conflict. This is more like me putting my boot down on an insolent ant”.

 

His piercing red eyes remained focused on the familiar figure walking alongside him. Not even straying for a moment to break the direct line of sight he held with the Emerald irises of his opponent, Sonic the Hedgehog.

 

“Heh, don’t sweat it Ames. All I gotta do is Spindash this ‘Faker’ here once or twice and we’ll be back to being cool in no time”. Sonic boasted while stretching his arms out, cracking his interlaced knuckles in the process.

 

Sonic’s trademark smile did little to mask the overwhelming amount of shade he was throwing in the direction of the Ultimate Life Form, something Shadow certainly did not appreciate. His ire now raised past the tension from before, the black hedgehog spat and growled his reply.

 

“We were NEVER cool!” adding an extra emphasis of disgust to his words.

 

Shadow shoved a finger into Sonic’s chest, to which the Blue Blur playfully batted aside.

 

“Lukewarm then?”

 

Sonic coyly shot back, his grin growing ever larger as his attempts to get under Shadow’s skin were clearly hitting their mark. His snark seemed to be having the desired effect.

 

“If you’re not gonna take this seriously!” Shadow stopped and snarled

 

“Of course, I’m taking this seriously” Sonic continued his walk until he reached his designated spot a few paces away and spun on his heels to face Shadow again.

 

“If I wasn’t, we wouldn’t be out here in the middle of nowhere getting ready to throw hands”.

 

Shadow calmed himself. He was already sick of Sonic’s wordplay and their match hadn’t even begun. Of course, this was to be expected. Sonic’s cocky persona and never-ending torrent of quips was a part of how he did battle. Sonic was essentially throwing punches before the fight had even started. Working to throw him off his own game plan; working to ensure he lost his cool.

 

After a moments composure, Shadow took a look over his shoulder to their current location. The group had come out to the badlands. A desolate void of rock and canyon due west of Station Square. It was a place where their spar would bring no extra collateral damage. Glancing over to his other side, he sought to find Amy, Tails and Knuckles waiting in the wings.

 

Tails was the first to step up. Speaking from behind the display of his personal Miles Electronic Device. “The Egg Fleet will be in range of the first population center in a little under an hour. If you two are going to do this, you’d better make it quick”.

 

Sonic shot his sidekick a sarcastic snort.

 

Knuckles was the next to speak. He approached the young kit and rustled his hair. “I’m with the genius on this one. Less talking, more punching. We got a world to save”.

 

Shadow stood up straight, his voice booming across the barren landscape. “If this Blue Buffoon would stop wasting our time fighting the small scuffles out here, we could bring the fight directly to Eggman. Save the world before he uses the Chaos Emeralds to do something insane and put it in even more danger!”

 

Sonic put his hand on his hips and sent a glare in Shadow’s direction. “Much as I like tracking down and scrambling Eggman, you know full well what will happen if we leave the Egg Fleet to fly over a city with no resistance”.

 

“So you’d risk the safety of the planet to save a few cities?!” Shadow took a step toward Sonic – his tone full of accusation and fury.

 

“I’ll save everyone I can, AND stop whatever he’s planning to do with the emeralds!” Sonic hunkered down into a fighting pose.

 

Shadow scoffed at Sonic’s disposition. It always seemed to come down to this with him. Sooner or later over the course on an adventure, Sonic almost always found a way to detour from the task at hand. Be it to help a little girl, or solve the trivial plight of some random civilian, Sonic would often prioritize these goals ahead of completing the bigger task of saving the planet. While Shadow, ever keen on flexing his might as the Ultimate, never backed down from the most direct and efficient path to saving the world – Sonic’s path would have him running in circles for days before reaching Eggman’s doorstep and the real fight.

 

While it was something that had worked for him in the past, Sonic did manage to save the day more often than not, Shadow knew that it was an unsustainable venture. Eventually, it would come to work against him. He could have left Sonic and his team behind. Gone after the Doctor himself; however, this time, Shadow had made a decision of his own. That he was going to show Sonic the error of his ways by force. Make him see that wasting his time on the periphery of the conflict only made things worse… and if he had to beat that sense into his blue brethren, then so be it.

 

“This is your last chance Sonic”. Shadow mirrored his fighting stance. 

 

The Blue Blur dug in his heels. This was an odd situation. Shadow almost always went off to handle business on his own rather than bicker over semantics, but today seemed different. The intensity that radiated from his red eyes was all that he needed to see to tell him that Shadow was serious about proving him wrong. Shadow was trying to impose his will now, and that was something his own ideology and his ego simply could not allow.

 

The two Hedgehogs stood their ground for a moment. A dry wind could be heard between them. Their intense gazes never wavered. Their convictions set in stone.

 

As soon as the moment of silence began, it was broken by a deafening boom. A Sonic Boom to be exact. Both Sonic and Shadow exploded from their stances and clashed at the meeting point. It was a roar as loud as thunder, enough to send rocks and debris hurtling out in all directions. Amy, Tails and Knuckles shielded their faces and covered their ears from the fire and fury of the intense collision.

 

Before he could even open his eyes, Tails had already registered several more booms and a multitude of collusions between the supersonic speedsters. The first came to his left. He guessed it was at least a mile away. Then a split second later, he heard another set of booms behind him, each immediately followed by the dull cracking of two fists colliding at speeds well beyond Mach 1. The sound was accompanied by the familiar earth shaking that comes with the collision of such a set of forces.

 

“They shouldn’t be at each other’s throats like this! – We are all on the same team!” Amy screamed to no one in particular. She was quite distressed with all that was going on. Everything had happened so fast. One minute they were a unified team on a mission, and the next Sonic and Shadow were bristling quills over the specifics.

 

Placing his hand on her shoulder Tails offered his friend a sympathetic smile. “You know how they are Amy”.

 

“Stubborn!” Amy puffed out her cheeks and crossed her arms, doing her best not to focus on the twelve odd collisions that occurred in the time it took her to utter a response.

 

Tails chuckled, “I was gonna say firm, but stubborn works too.”

 

Knuckles took the opportunity to chime in. “Sonic isn’t going to budge on this. Sometimes the best way to show someone how dedicated you are to what you believe in is to fight for it”. The Echidna pounded his fists together to get his point across.

 

Amy took in what Knuckles was saying and thought about all the group had been through in the past. It was true, Sonic put everything into what he believed was right. It was what they all admired most about him. She also knew Shadow well enough to feel confident that he too would be able to see that in Sonic – given time.

 

“I still don’t like it”. She cupped her hands around her eyes scanning the badlands to see if she could catch a glimpse of the raging conflict.

 

A chance dash of blue, or a black blur on the horizon was all Amy could seem to come up with. The never-ending thud and thunder echoing across the mesa was proof that both combatants had yet to yield – to say nothing of the mounting numbers of craters that were beginning to consume the landscape. However, Amy’s eyes simply couldn’t seem to keep up with the pace of the battle. Not surprising considering she was merely attempting to track the fastest thing alive.

 

Amy gave a small sigh and looked over to Tails. Surprisingly, he seemed to be intently focused in the distance, eyes frantically darting to and fro with a purpose.

 

“Can you see them Tails?” Amy asked.

 

“A little bit, yeah.” Tails replied, not breaking his focus.

 

Amy had to admit, she was impressed. She considered herself pretty quick. Maybe not Sonic quick, but still something of a speed class. But Tails’ reflexes must have been honed even farther than her own. “I guess all those years of running with Sonic pays off”.

 

“Little more to it than that” Knuckles slyly interjected. His eyes too were focused on the distance, tracking the two Hedgehogs. “Every fight has a flow to it. Just gotta get a grasp on where the two will go next”.

 

Knuckles extended his arm to the side and pointed due east. Sure enough, a moment later and about three miles in the distance, a blue contrail blazed past the trio and met head on with a red haze that was approaching in the opposite direction – triggering the largest earthquake yet.

 

“That one had to leave a mark” Knuckles shielded his ears waiting for them to stop ringing.

 

“How long do you think they are going to go at it like this?” Amy looked over to Tails for his best guess.

 

“Well it’s not like this is a fight to the death... I think…”

 

Pushing through the dust cloud of his last collision Sonic poured on the speed and rushed clear into the next stretch of terrain. So far, the two were fighting on even ground. Neither had landed a solid hit, and had settled for trading blocked jabs and dodging sweeping kicks. Fairly par for the course with a battle with his black doppelganger, but Sonic knew a fight like this wasn’t to his advantage. Shadow’s body was built like a tank. It was durable. He could weather this abuse much more easily than he could. If he was going to win, he was going to have to break through Shadow’s defense.

 

Sonic’s line of thought was interrupted by a flash of blue distorted air, as Shadow, utilizing his vaunted Chaos Control ability had warped directly in front of him, in prime position to deliver a sweeping kick to the side of his head. Using reflexes honed by years of running, Sonic slid to his back just under the kick and into what at the time seemed to be relative safety.

 

No sooner than had he recovered from his slide and returned to running, that familiar flash of blue returned and Shadow was once again in position to deliver a knockout haymaker. Sonic quick-stepped to his side, summersaulting off his hand, dodging the sure to be devastating hit and continued to push the pace.

 

“Cheap tricks will get you no-where fast Shads!” Sonic screamed over a shoulder with a grin plastered across his face. Why don’t you stick to skating inst—WHOA!”

 

As Sonic boosted through the open field, Shadow was there to greet him once again with his teleport and an attack that threatened to decapitate. Zig-zagging left and right and quick stepping to avoid at the last second, Sonic managed to stay one step ahead of Shadow’s numerous and repeated targeted assaults.

 

“THIS…. IS…. GETTING…. REALLY…. OLD!” Sonic shouted dodging each attack by the narrowest of margins. At this point, it was becoming clear that Shadow had no plans of letting up. This wasn’t going to stop until one of them ran out of gas. Until one of them made a mistake.

 

He smiled to himself, looking ahead as Shadow teleported right in front of him for another attack. This made Shadow predictable. He could use that to his advantage.

 

Shadow snapped back into existence, not three feet ahead of the Blue Hedgehog currently barreling down on him. Shadow readied a kick and spun on an axis to send his heel horizontally into Sonic’s midsection.

 

While doing so, he studied Sonic’s movements, keen on gleaming which way he would dodge so that he could ready another teleport and deliver the next round of targeted violence. So, it came to his surprise, when the heel of his boot made solid contact.

 

Shadow was dumfounded for a moment, and cast his gaze back to Sonic. Shifting focus back to where he was instead of where he would be next. The Cerulean Speedster was now rocking his signature smirk, as he held Shadows boot firmly in place underneath his elbow, tucked in between his arms and ribs.

 

“Gotcha!” Sonic said, before pouring all his momentum into a spin. Running in an ever-tighter circle, Sonic built up speed until he created a mighty vortex, a tornado around himself, all the while carrying Shadow along for the ride.

 

Sonic, now at the spiraling epicenter of the distortion, was spinning on his heels much like a shotput thrower at an Olympic event. The sheer and sudden shift in G-Forces was enough to keep Shadow from fighting back and freeing himself from the grip Sonic had on his heels.

 

“What do you thing you are d--" Before Shadow could finish, Sonic released his grip and launched the Black Bolt horizontally along the ground at Mach speeds. Shadow was no stranger to going fast, but after being spun around and thrown in such a manner, it took him a moment to regain his composure and figure out up from down. Not wanting to collide with the earth at such a velocity, Shadow reoriented himself mid-flight and prepared to dig in his heels to regain traction and control of his trajectory.

 

That split second was all Sonic needed. With Shadow’s attention diverted to correcting himself, Sonic had charged and released a spindash in hot pursuit. The moment Shadow focused his attention on the ground to make a safe landing, Sonic hit his mark.

 

Shadow grunted as the spinning ball of spikes collided with his midsection, pushing him further along his unintended flight path. Shadow looked down at the sphere of swirling blue seemingly embedded in his chest and raised his fist to spike it down to the earth like a volleyball, however no sooner as he did, Sonic veered off to the left. Shadow, now flipping uncontrollably due to the sudden change in forces, was almost immediately hit again from his side. Sonic spun through the air at blazing speeds, struck and continued out into the distance. Bouncing off a nearby rock or a stray piece of the environment, Sonic pinballed about, gaining momentum and making each strike stronger than the last.

 

Once again, each blow left Shadow careening uncontrollably through the air. Much to his dismay, Sonic continued with his assault. Each pass leaving Shadow unbalanced and vulnerable to the next. Shadow brought his arms and legs in to block the brunt of the damage. This was what Sonic was looking for. He took that kick from Shadow earlier to put him in this exposed state. No doubt looking to trade one hit for the multitude he could deliver in return.

 

Well, two could play that game. This time, it was Shadow who was smirking.

 

“Hey wow! It’s the Spinball attack!” Tails eagerly leapt up in seeing one of Sonic’s classic fighting techniques. Haven’t seen that one in a while. “He must be looking to end this right here”.

 

“Could be, yeah” Knuckles mused as he watched the interwoven blue contrails do their work in the distance. “But I think he might have underestimated Shadow a bit”.

 

“How so?” Tails inquisitive nature perked up.

 

“Well, that was a good set up to put Shadow in a bad position” Knuckles said with a stern tone, “but, he did kind of just give Shadow the blueprint on how to get past his Spinball trick”

 

Amy looked on in concern. This was taking longer than she wanted it too.

 

“Whats-a-matter black and red? Your looking a little black and blue now!” Sonic was in a good mood at the moment. His power hits were landing and Shadow wasn’t able to break free from his plan of attack.

 

“My combo-chain is through the roof! Ref’s about to call in the mercy rule!” Sonic bounced off a nearby rock formation and bee-lined toward the sprawling Shadow, ready to deliver another blow.

 

Once he was within range, Shadow opened up his guard, exposing his chest once again to the blue ball spinning in his direction. Taking the brunt of the hit to his core Shadow used the opportunity to clamp down on the Spindash, effectively preventing him from bouncing away. 

 

“You’re too predictable faker. Went back to the well one too many times”. Shadow smugly stated at he began to put pressure on the ball in his hands, his fingertips squealing for traction as they attempted to stop the rotational force he was wielding.

 

Shadow landed, feet winning the battle for traction and he now stood holding a spinning Sonic in his hands.

 

“Aww Jeez” Sonic muttered as he had a feeling what was coming next.

 

“And this Sonic, is where you lose”. Shadow was now arrogant in his response. His hands, still keeping Sonic firmly in place, started to cackle with an ominous yellow, Chaotic energy.

 

“Chaos SPEAR!”

 

Amy, Tails and Knuckles watched in the distance as Shadow detonated the energy attack in his palms, kicking up a massive dust cloud in the process.

 

Knuckles shielded his eyes doing his best to see through the shifting sands. “No coming back from a point blank hit like that”.

 

“Sonic’s not going down that easy, he’ll find a way!” Tails not willing to give up on his idol threw out his full support to the hope that Sonic would find a way to keep going.

 

Shadow, now standing with empty palms, seemed unamused. He knew that attack didn’t have the force to vaporize his opponent. He wasn’t trying to kill him after all. But he had a strong hunch about what had just transpired.  He cast his gaze forward a few feet and sure enough, a flash of blue and a bewildered Sonic re-appeared sitting on his back side.

 

“Whew, that was a little closer shave than I wanted this morning”. Sonic chuckled to himself. Patting his sides and his spines to ensure all his vitals were still in one piece.

 

Shadow crossed his arms, his arrogant smile back in force. “Cheap tricks will get you no-where fast Sonic”.

 

“Yeah, yeah” Sonic dusted himself off and rose back to his feet. “I don’t like stealing your schtick but its not like you don’t steal mine 24/7”.

 

Shadow raised an eyebrow.

 

“Superspeed?! Hedgehog?! Hero to the masses?! Ring any bells” Sonic taunted.

 

“I’m older than you” Shadow said, in a flat tone.

 

Sonic thought about his retaliation for a moment. “Technicality”.

 

Shadow groaned.

 

Stepping to his side, there was a more pressing matter he wanted to address. “Just now, you tapped into the energy of my Chaos Spear to power your Chaos Control – didn’t you”.

 

The blue blur held up his hands in surrender “Guilty as charged. Although I gotta admit, as far as batteries go, you are the Ultimate”.

 

Ignoring the mockery of his title, Shadow returned to a running stance. That was the second time in this fight Sonic’s off-the-cuff ingenuity had gotten the better of him.  “I’m willing to bet that still took more out of you than you are willing to admit. Let’s see how well you keep up now”. Shadow rocketed off, daring Sonic to follow.

 

As the booms continued to reign in the distance, Amy was pacing back in forth in place, all the while chewing on the nail of her thumb through her gloves.

 

Tails once again chipped in to try and ease his friends concern. “They’ll be fine Amy. You don’t have to worry so much”.

Amy whirled around and put her hands on her hips. “I know that Tails… its just”, she trailed off as she looked into the distance. “Shadow is going to do the right thing here. I just know it”.

 

“You think the only guy I know more stubborn than Sonic is gonna cave?” Knuckles said in almost a mock laughter.

 

Amy paid no mind to his tone. “Sonic has that effect on people. I’ve seen Shadow push past his own mentality before. He’ll do it again. I believe in him”.

 

Tails shrugged. He had no idea what Amy was talking about, so he quickly turned his attention back out to the badlands.

 

Sonic gritted his teeth and pushed past the pain in his side. Normally, he could happily spindash his way through an entire day and not be any worse for the wear. But this was different. Hitting Shadow was like running into a brick wall. A brick wall that was encased in concrete, wrapped in the worlds thickest vault, dipped in gold and covered in a giant bullet proof vest just for stylish good measure. And tanking that kick in the ribs a bit earlier certainly wasn’t helping either.  

 

The cobalt speedster rounded the next hill and spotted a familiar contrail doing the same in the distance. Sonic squinted his eyes and narrowed in on his target. If hitting him hard wasn’t working, then he would just have to hit him even harder. He had to beat Shadow. Failure wasn’t an option.

 

Shadow glided around a bend and into a nearby ravine. He had seen Sonic approaching, but the terrain made it difficult to locate his angle of attack. Shadow took the moment of brief respite to examine himself as he glided along. He seemed no worse for the wear since their battle had begun. His thick skin and near invulnerable body showed no bruises or scars. Being the Ultimate Life Form certainly had its benefits. 

 

He then shifted his thoughts to his opponent. While Sonic would never admit it, the constant blows were wearing him down. Where his rebounds and attack patterns were flashy, flamboyant and unnecessary when the battle began, they were now more streamlined. More focused. Clearly an attempt to save energy or mask an injury.

 

Thankfully his witty banter had taken a blow as well. Whereas before, Sonic’s nagging and quips were more prevalent than even the constant raging of the Sonic Booms, now they were only available on every other collision at best. Either Sonic had exhausted all his best material, or he was starting to stress over the battle.

 

The Black Hedgehog smirked to himself. Sonic NEVER shuts up. It had to be the latter.

 

As his momentum carried him out the ravine, Shadow boosted his way up and out into the next clearing. The moment his eye line was clear of the sunken grounds of the valley, it was met with a crimson glare of an iconic piece of footwear.

 

Sonic had timed Shadow’s exit perfectly, approaching from the blind spot and landed a staggering kick across his foe’s face. The blow was enough to break Shadow’s stride, as he planted his fist into the ground to regain stability as he slid, digging up rocks and gravel and came to a full stop.

 

“I thought you might appreciate the taste of real speed” Sonic came to a halt a good distance away from Shadow. He then bent over to inspect his sneakers and used his palm to buff and polish a particular section. “Looks like you left a little drool behind. I guess that means you liked it”.

 

Sonic looked up to see if his taunt had left an impression. Shadow merely raised up to full height and used his oft hand to readjust his jaw.

 

“C’mon! What’s it takes to get an ‘Ow’ out of you?”. Sonic seemed somewhat disappointed that Shadow didn’t make a response to his jest, however his true concern was that he also showed no sign on injury following that clean hit.

 

“More than you can give apparently”. Shadow crossed his arms. “Are you done? You can submit any time now”.

 

Sonic growled and hunkered down. “I’m not leaving these people to fend off an Egg Fleet Shadow”.

 

Eyes rolled back in defiance, Shadow spread out his arms and signaled Sonic to bring it, welcoming more conflict. “Then all you have to do is beat me to prove it”.

 

Rushing in, Sonic unleashed a flurry of punches. Shadow deftly dodged or blocked each volley, waiting patiently for an opening. It came in the form of a wild haymaker, as Sonic used the momentum of a previous punch to chain in a power shot. Shadow ducked the wide jab, and delivered a firm gut punch which sent the blue hedgehog sliding backwards. Shadow, being an experienced fighter, capitalized on his successful counter, by leaping into the staggering Hedgehog and delivering an axe kick which had the desired effect or bouncing Sonic’s skull face down off the gravel before he was able to catch himself and recover a safe distance away.

 

Sonic adjusted his nose, and spit out a few small pieces of rock. Shadow stood back up and crossed his arms again. “Are all your teeth still in there? Be a real shame if you couldn’t grin anymore”. 

 

“Laugh it up Faker. I’ve got some good licks in on you too”. Sonic deftly swiped his thumb across his teeth to make sure they were all accounted for.

 

“Perhaps, but you are starting to wear down. If that crater that looks like your face is any indication, this fight is going to be going my way any second now”. Shadow half closed his eyes. He knew Sonic. His best chance at victory would be to dash away. Come in wide and pick and choose his engagements. He wasn’t a straight forward brawler. That wasn’t his style. Which is why what Sonic did next caught him completely off guard.

 

Sonic went right back to the same tactic that had him eating dirt mere moments before. Using his speed to close the gap, Sonic was right back in his face, launching furious jabs and sweeping kicks.

 

His off-balance footing made for a bad defensive posture. Shadow found himself giving up major ground to the advancing blue Hedgehog. Like a domino giving way to its toppling brethren, the poor positioning left Shadow behind the curve on each incoming attack. Sonic was scoring numerous direct hits. For every body blow he was able to guard against, Sonic was ready to strike an exposed cheek. When he ducked to get under a wide sweep, he seemed to always be met with a knee to the chin.

 

Sonic pressed his advantage until Shadow was finally able to break free of the vicious cycle and put some space between him and his aggressor. As Soon as Shadow leapt back, Sonic continued his assault.

 

Shadow had regained his composure, and at the very least was fighting on level ground again. While he was doing well to block or dodge what Sonic was throwing at him, he found no opening to exploit. None of this made any sense. Sonic must have known that a close quarters encounter would yield him little success. He wasn’t built for that. Without a running start, he could never hope to build up the kind of devastating hits that would leave a mark.

 

It was at that moment that Shadow had a bit of an epiphany. Sonic was the one throwing all the punches here. Sonic was the one pushing the flow of the battle. Sonic was the one moving forward. It was Sonic who was dictating what was happening.

 

…did Sonic… want this more?

 

Shadow snapped back to reality. Sonic had stepped into his wheelhouse. His specialty. If he were to let loose. To really, let loose, he would either turn Sonic into a blue smear on a canyon wall, or he would burn himself out completely, netting Sonic the default victory.

 

Could this be the fools plan? Shadow thought to himself as he continued to dodge a never-ending barrage of punches and kicks. Could he want to win so badly that he was willing to risk it all by going toe-to-toe with ME?!.

 

Shadow almost got lost in the moment. Sonic wasn’t going to quit. Not that he had never known Sonic to give up, but this was different. When the fight began, Shadow felt that he could impose his will on Sonic. That he could make him see the light, whether he wanted to or not. That the greater good trumped his narrow-minded hero mentality. But he could see it now. He could see that Sonic’s inner-fire was only going to burn brighter. That as long as he was still alive, he was going to keep fighting to follow his own path.

 

Shadow remembered a time when he himself had strayed. When he had lacked that same conviction. When the world around him had too much control over what he saw, what he did and how he perceived things.

 

When he saw that fire. That spark in Sonic’s eyes. He immediately respected it.

 

“TEEEEEEERIA”

 

His concentration was shattered by Sonic’s battle cry. In an instant, Shadow brought both his arms up to block a full force side-kick. The blow was lessened, but it was still enough to launch the ebony Hedgehog a considerable distance.

 

Tumbling recklessly backwards through the air, Shadow invoked the natural trait his species was famous for and curled into a ball to orient himself. After a quick bounce, Shadow uncurled and drove his shoes into the ground in order to cancel out his momentum. Coming to a halt not too far from where the fight had started. 

 

Sonic reappeared in an instant before Shadow. He stopped about a dozen feet away, still crouched in a ready stance. He was breathing heavily, but he remained intently focused.

 

Shadow stood up. His body still showing no sign of wear or fatigue. Every strand of fur on him was as pristine and undisturbed as when the fight began, save for his eyes, now they were… different.

 

Amy, now getting her first good sight of the two of them since the fight began, could see the change immediately. His eyes spoke a thousand words. He had already seen what he had needed to see.

 

He wasn’t interested in fighting anymore.

 

Piko Piko Hammer in hand, Amy pushed past Knuckles and made a few long strides onto the battlefield. “Haven’t you seen enough?! Didn’t he prove his point?!”.

 

Shadow looked over to the advancing Pink Hedgehog, carefully considering her words. However, before he could respond, Sonic cut in.

 

“Stand back Amy! All I need is one more good punch and Shadow here will be begging to fetch my Chili-Dogs for the next month!”

 

And just like that, the look in Shadow’s eyes vanished. Now they had been replaced with dignity and pride. Even if he would agree to go with Sonic’s path, he wasn’t about to lie down and fall in line to that ego. His own just wouldn’t allow it.

 

Amy saw the sudden change of heart and face-palmed. “Why are boys so STUBBORN!”.

 

“You think all its gonna take is one hit to bring me down? After all the blows I’ve tanked today you really think it’s going to be that simple?” Shadow spat at Sonic’s remark. He spread his arms out wide and made himself a target.

 

“If you think you can hit that hard then go ahead! GIVE IT YOUR BEST SH—”

Shadow didn’t even get to finish his statement. Before he could blink, before he could react Sonic detonated from his stance. He closed the gap between them in an instant, but rather than delivering the blow, he continued past him. Shadow’s mind, blessed with the ability to process things as fast as he could run, took a moment to wonder if Sonic had just suckered him into taking a free hit. But even then, before he could complete that thought, before he could feel the wind rush past him from the Hedgehog in full sprint… he could see Sonic coming at him on the horizon.

 

He just lapped the plan—

 

Sonic drove his fist home in a straight jab, buried deep into Shadow gut. Time almost stood still at the moment of impact. There was no sound. No Sonic Booms. No rustling grass, no scattering of debris. Just Sonic, fist extended, and Shadow staring ahead with his arms outstretched. It lasted for what seemed like an eternity. Physics just seemed to be broken as the laws of nature took time to calculate what had just occurred.

 

But soon enough, Mother Nature figured it out.

 

The air cracked with the momentous force of the sound barrier being completely shattered from Sonic’s take-off. The earth split, leaving a gouge across the landscape highlighting the path the Blue Hedgehog took around the planet. The punch itself, delivered a delayed shockwave which was enough to knock back Amy, Tails and Knuckles whom where themselves a considerable distance away.

 

The three bystanders scrambled for cover from what seems like a maelstrom level catastrophe that had descended upon them. Their screams muffled by the symphony of chaos that was being triggered by such a buildup of kinetic energy. Diving headfirst into a crater formed by a clash earlier in the scuffle. The three rode out the localized disaster.

 

Poking his head out of his makeshift emergency bunker. Tails was the first to climb his way back to the surface after the storm had died out. “That one registered on the Richter scale!” Tails shouted, pointing to a readout on his handheld. “They are going to kill each other!”.

 

Knuckles was the next to emerge. Once out, he reached back to help Amy out of the deep ravine. “Now that’s what I call a running start. Who knew Sonic could throw a punch with that kind of knockback”.

 

Brushing some stray dirt off her dress, Amy stepped forward to survey the damage. Any rocks that had survived the fight prior to that last hit were now reduced to rubble. There was a distinct blast signature emanating to the point of contact, where Sonic and Shadow still stood, in the same positions from when they collided.

 

Fist still buried in Shadows chest, Sonic was the first to move. It was heavy panting, followed by a collapse to his knees. He supported his fall with his hands. Taking a moment to catch his breath before looking up to Shadow, who still had yet to move.

 

His eyes still fixed on the horizon. Shadow maintained his open stance. Not flinching. Not even breathing. Sonic waited on his hands and knees. He waited for something. Anything.

 

And then he heard it.

 

 

“…. Guuuhhh”

 

Shadows statuesque form crumbled as he fell to his knees with both hands wrapped tightly around his stomach.

 

Now that they were at the same level, Sonic leaned forward lightly headbutting his foe and keeping his forehead firmly in Shadow’s grill so that they could be face to face.

 

“So... It DOES…  have a Damage… model” Sonic taunted between labored breaths. Despite being exhausted, He still had an impossibly large grin adorning his face.

 

His eyes narrowed, Shadow did his best to parry the Headbutt with one of his own, but he found little success. “You’ll… pay for that… Once… I get back… on my feet”

 

The two hogs traded verbal jabs and weak headbutts for a few moments. Before Shadow made a move to struggle back to his feet. Sonic too attempted to rise, but it was the black blur who beat him to the punch, as he clumsily raised up staggered backwards a bit and geared up for his next move.

 

Sonic, who was still down on one knee wasn’t sure what Shadow would be able to muster, but did manage to raise an arm to block the worst of it.

 

By doing so, Sonic’s vision was completely obscured. So, when his ears registered the distinct sound of a Piko Piko Hammer connecting with its intended target, he was more than a little taken back.

 

Sonic lowered his arm just in time to see Shadow’s launch trajectory take him straight up and out of sight.

 

“GHUAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Shadow’s death knell faded away to nothing as he reached low orbit.

 

“Amy!” Sonic clamored to his feet, stumbling further away as he did so. “What did you do! I have to finish this!”.

 

Amy looked coyly over at her blue beau. “Shadow was finished fighting a while ago”. She took a few steps toward Sonic, still brandishing the Hammer. “His pride was the only thing keeping him going. When he comes back, he’ll fight with us to stop the Egg Fleet before pushing on to smashing Eggman”.

 

“How do you know th—” Sonic caught his answer by the deadpan look in Amy’s eyes.

 

“Okay, next question. Why did you just clobber him into oblivion?!” Sonic nervously asked, taking full note that Amy had yet to put down her hammer, and the space between them was shrinking by the second.

 

“Because I know you two, and you wouldn’t have stopped fighting until one of you was left in no condition to help. Even if you both understood that you couldn’t allow yourself to lose, your just so stubborn that you couldn’t let the other one win”. Amy swayed her hammer back and forth. Still advancing on Sonic, whom was now back-peddling.

 

“Oh, cool. Thanks for that Amy. You’re the best… Uh, last question, what are you gonna do with that hammer now?” Sonic stammered out that last part. He was pretty sure he knew what her response would be. At this point he was stalling for recovery time.

 

“I think we both know the answer to that one.” Amy smiled.

 

“Awesome” Sonic groaned

 

*giggle* Amy raised her hammer.

 

 

As fast as the smile had come, it was replaced by a snarl and her all too common war shriek

 

“Wha-Haaaaaa-Ya!”

 

Sonic summersaulted to the side, narrowly dodging a crushing blow from Amy’s mallet. His legs were cramped, but his stalling gave him just enough time to recover some of his speedy reflexes.

 

Amy dislodged her hammer from the earth and readied it for another swing. “C’mon Sonic, the sooner I knock you out, the sooner you and Shadow can recover and get back to fighting the real enemy”. She sweetly coo’d her siren song over to the panicked hero.

 

“Nothing is worth taking a direct hit from that thi– WHOA!” Sonic knee slid to avoid a horizontal swing by the skin of his nose. The maneuver put some space between the two, which gave Sonic an opportunity to evoke a figure-eight Super-Peel-Out.

 

“Feet don’t fail me now!” Sonic shouted as he revved up his sneakers and his soles squealed for traction.

 

“Don’t you dare run away Sonic!” Amy shrieked raising her hammer overhead and rushing in for the kill.

 

“Sorry Ames but I gotta juice.” Sonic smirked as he felt the familiar feeling of a launch-point building up beneath his feet. “I am UP, OVER and GO—”

 

BOOM.

 

Amy stopped her advance and gazed at the scene before her. There had been a boom, but it wasn’t the Sonic Boom she was accustomed to hearing following one of Sonic’s especially speedy getaways.

 

Instead, this was an impact kind of boom. She slowly walked up the freshly created crater that just opened up before her and as the dust settled she saw the end result. At its center laid Sonic the Hedgehog, completely unconscious. Knocked out cold by the celestial body that had entered orbit and landed on his head. A look to his side revealed that this was no comet, nor a meteor or even a wayward satellite – but instead a smoldering Black Hedgehog.

 

“Ow”. Shadow mumbled, before slipping into unconsciousness himself.

 

Amy stared at her handiwork and slung her hammer over her shoulder and walked away.  As she exited stage left, Tails and Knuckles approached both doing their best to dispel the dust clouds that the last exchange had kicked up.

 

“So, who won?” Knuckles asked between coughs as he reached Amy.

 

She continued walking not breaking her stride or averting her gaze from where she was headed.

 

“I did”.

 

Tails laughed. “That’s Amy for you. C’mon, lets fish out Sonic and Shadow and get ‘em patched up”.

 

Tails and Knuckles climbed down into the crater while Amy continued on. Twirling her hammer as she walked, she couldn’t help to dwell a particular line of thought in her head.

 

If Sonic could prove his conviction to Shadow by fighting… maybe she could prove herself to Sonic if she swung her hammer at him more often…

 

Back at the crater. Sonic’s corpse flinched.