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| - Before long, Sonic came upon Silver and Blaze in the ruins of Tails' workshop, looking over something. He touched down in the mess of destroyed technology and saw them rifling through the blueprints. Coming up behind Silver, he muttered, "Be careful with those." Silver jumped, flinging a psychokinetic ring that sent Sonic flying into the wall. Blaze spun in response, holding the aqua Sol Emerald, and saw Sonic shouting, "Ow! God! Watch it!" The psychokinetic stared at him. "And you tell me not to sneak up on you!" he shouted angrily. "Hey, I can't throw projectile attacks," Sonic replied. "Seriously, though, be careful. You never know when one of those will be handy." Blaze stepped up. "I know. I've been looking over them. He's got submarines, motorcycles, helicopters, waterbikes..." Sonic jumped to his feet and asked, "What was that last one? Waterbike?" Blaze handed him a blueprint. "Yeah. Designed for solo travel over water, although a sturdy enough build will enable two riders. Why?" Sonic turned to the ruins. "If this place wasn't so destroyed, we could build a few of those. I'm betting that they'd be useful." "Perhaps we could help with that?" a voice called from outside the workshop. Sonic turned to see Shadow and Infera walking towards the workshop. Shadow looked towards Sonic as though observing him for a short time, but soon changed his direction to the destroyed workshop. "A little Magic here, a tad of Freeze on those flames, and you've got a repaired workshop." "Maybe that Freeze isn't neccessary," Blaze stated. Shadow turned to her. "What do you..." he started, then seemed to realize something. "Cross Magic. How do you know Magic is able to be a Cross art? And even then, how can you be sure that you can cross Chaos and Sol?" "I don't know that it's a cross art," she stated, "but it's a pretty safe bet. As is crossing Sol and Chaos. And even then, it'll help anyways." Shadow smiled, coating his hand in black energy. "Chaos..." Blaze coated hers in white magmic energy. "Sol... Sonic and Silver turned to each other, then sped out of the workshop and a while away. Shadow and Blaze simultaneously snapped their fingers, shouting, "MAGIC!" There was a black-and-white flash, and Shadow and Blaze spun back to back as the world seemed to bend. Shadow motioned a hand towards the ruined walls of the workshop, and it seemed to grow back into shape. While Shadow was repairing the walls, Blaze took care of the interior as computers repaired themselves, pieces of pieces put themselved together, and many a high-tech tool came to original form. When all was done, Sonic was immediate to dash inside. "Hey, Shadow," he asked, "you want a new motorbike?" Shadow laughed. "Do I need to answer that?" Sonic likewise laughed. "Alright. Snap off those rings and set up a field, because this is going to take a while and I don't want Zyx coming in on it. The next few hours consisted of the working on many things. First off was Shadow's motorbike. Of course, Tails' idea of a motorbike included many extras, like a miniature jet engine for increased speed, so there was a lot of work to do. Not only that, Shadow decided to include weapon holsters: handgun, machine gun, sword, rocket-propelled grenade, and rifle. Sonic had no problem with it; he even offered three designs of sword holster for Shadow. When the motorbike was completed, Shadow dashed off, telling them not to wait for him. Infera actually cursed under her breath, and Sonic asked what was wrong. "He left the red Chaos Emerald in the Ignited Mountain shrine," was her reply. "That's where he nearly killed himself last time." "Dang," Sonic replied. "Don't worry, though. He's immortal." He turned back to the tools. "Well, we'd better get to work on those waterbikes." Shadow dashed off into a desert, where many an ancient, majestic pillar was collapsed. He stepped up to where there was once a powerful shrine, but it was gone. He cursed, then noticed its base was still intact. His rage transitioned into a smile as he closed his eyes. Though his inhibitor rings were still at the workshop, he coated his hand in black Chaos energy. "Chaos... Magic!" He snapped his fingers with a flash of black. Rather than time and space distorting, the stone slid back, revealing a hidden chamber. Shadow dropped down inside to see a liquidic humanoid creature looking around in it. "Chaos?" Shadow called. The humanoid turned and nodded. Shadow asked, "What are you doing here?" Seeking refuge from the reaper, was the answer in Shadow's mind. When he rose, I was released from the Master Emerald, like had happened with Dark Fire. But he proved to be too much for me. I found your storage chamber and decided to remain here. Shadow nodded. "Alright. I just came for my gear. Watch out for Zyx." As with you, Shadow, Chaos replied. You are one abundant with weapons and equipment, however. How can you hope to take it all? "Not all of it," Shadow explained. "Just my best." He stepped over to a steel door and delivered a punch to it, shattering it. Chaos stared at him. Your inhibitor rings hold back a lot of power, he stated. Shadow shrugged it off and stepped into the room. After a short while, he came out. In his left hand was a flat steel case; on his back was a leather pack. So that is where you hide all your best weapons, Chaos said, thinking aloud. "Yeah. Do me a favour and cover this place up when I get out, would you?" Without waiting for an answer, he stepped outside, then broke into a run. After he had gained enough speed, his hovershoes activated, and he started to skate towards Ignited Mountain at immense speed. Leaping into the volcano without thinking to wait for the eruption, he angled himself towards the shrine, then flipped several times before landing perfectly. Grabbing the red Chaos Emerald, he coated in blue energy as the lava started to rise. "Damn it!" he shouted. Leaping onto the shrine, evading the lava and, miraculously, keeping a firm hold on his gear, he shouted, "Chaos... CONTROL!" A flash of blue betrayed his bad luck, and he vanished as the volcano erupted. Back at the workshop, everyone was arguing about how they should build the waterbikes when there was a flash of blue and Shadow appeared outside, face in a curse and sweating. He was holding a flat steel case and wearing a leather backpack. The others all came out of the workshop. Infera, coming out first, asked, "What happened?" "Got this," he panted, holding up the red Chaos Emerald, "and, forgot, to wait, for the, eruption. I, suppose, it doesn't, help that, I left my, inhibitor, rings here." "What's in the case?" Sonic asked. Silver and Blaze, behind him, were likewise curious. Shadow shook his head, denying access to the case as though it was some sort of top-secret facility. "What about the sack?" Again, Shadow's head swung like a pendulum. "Sorry," he stated. "Not your, buisiness. How's the, water, bikes, coming?" "Not coming," Silver replied. "We can't agree on how we want to make them. Sonic wants them built for speed - as per usual. Infera wants a defensive build, and me and Blaze want to be able to maneuver. "Well, what's wrong with making one of each?" a voice called from above. Sonic, recognizing it first, raised his head to see Amy descending. She touched down and folded her wings behind her back. "I mean, isn't it best to have one built for each type? That way, you can use the one that's best built for the situation." Shadow nodded. "Not a, bad, idea," he panted. Regaining his composure, he stated, "Let's get to the work." The next few hours involved piecing together the waterbikes. Sonic, as expected, built his designed for speed, with a sleek, lightweight, aerodynamic body. Amy assisted him, installing a tank of nitros into the work for bursts of speed and a quick-brake. When they were done, they grabbed a couple cans of spray paint and coated it in streams of blue and pink. As an added thought, they added two stabilizers shaped like Dracon wings that could extend or retract at any time. Blaze reported seeing their own wings wrapping around each other when they were done. Infera and Shadow teamed up for the defensive build waterbike. With Shadow bending the pieces to shape with his bare hands and Infera melting them together with black flame, they forged a thick steel vehicle with a bulletproofed glass windshield and a thin layer of titanium. Grabbing their own cans of spray paint, they coated it in black flames and domelike streaks of red. Silver and Blaze stuck with the maneuverability bike. Silver being able to wield about eight tools at once with his psychokinesis and Blaze forging the metal with her own flames, their waterbike was thin and somewhat short, able to jerk a full one hundred and eighty degrees in a single second should the situation demand it. Snatching the last cans of paint, Blaze lined the sides with crimson flames, while Silver streaked the front with white and silver. When they were done, the six of them carefully took the three waterbikes to the shoreline. After a bit of testing, Sonic, true to form, offered a race. Shadow stared at him hard after the offer and asked, "Seriously, what are you thinking?" Seeing Shadow looking somewhat exhausted, Sonic replied, "First off, I'm thinking that you should put these back on." He pulled out Shadow's inhibitor rings and, two hundred miles away from the shore, tossed them with perfect flourish to their owner. The Chaos hedgehog snatched them out of the air and equipped them, and Sonic continued, "Second off, I'm thinking we've got to know how to handle these things in a chase scene." Revving his engine, he peered around and looked out to sea. "OK, just follow me. After I find a suitable distance, we'll see what we can do." Silver laughed and called, "Or you could just eat foamy water!" he shouted, jerking his bike around. Blaze, standing behind him, lit the water around them on fire as Silver sped off. Shadow shook his head, and Infera laid a hand on his shoulder. "Let's get some speed on this thing!" she called, and Shadow revved his own engine, speeding through the flames at a high speed. Sonic followed them, and soon gained a lead on Shadow and Infera, but Silver had too much of an advantage for them to fill the distance between them. Amy elbowed him and directed to a nearby cave. Sonic saw what she was thinking. "Take the wheel!" he called, speeding over the water with his own two feet and dashing into the cave. She grabbed the handlebars and maneuvered near the cave as he shot out of the water under her. "Crazy whirlpool followed by an intense water current. Get some breath!" he finished, and he kicked on of the buttons for the stabilizer wings. The one on the left shot out, sendining them to the right and straight into the cave; yet they kept their current direction. There was indeed a whirlpool, and spinning, the two of them took deep breaths as they shot under the water. The water current sent them flying out of the cave through a hole in the underwater section of its back wall, and they found themselves shooting under Silver. But that's when the fun ended. Silver jerked to the right, and Sonic and Amy both had to extend their feet to stop the bike from flying into a rock. With their breath fading, they rose to find themselved in a rock field. Silver was going to win. Amy turned to Sonic and asked, "Now what do we do?" Sonic closed his eyes and spread his wings. He muttered something that was undistinguishable and jerked to the side, shouting, "Let's shatter sound! Speed Break!" There was a sonic boom as the two of them suddenly shot through the water at roughly Mach 5, a spray emerging from both sides. Jerking left and right by expanding the opposite wings, they found themselves speeding past Silver and Blaze in no time. Their crazy burst of speed came to an end no less than a mile ahead of the previous leaders. When they reached the shore, Sonic kicked the quick-break and jerked the handlebars, leaving him and Amy at a perfect stop paralell with the beach. Silver and Blaze came to the beach next, with Shadow and Infera at the same distance as when the Chaos hedgehog kicked into the race. "Not bad, guys," Sonic congratulated, hopping off the waterbike. "Blaze, Silver, you two chose a good design. I'd never have thought I'd have to go through something that tight." Blaze approached him in shock. "So? You managed to get through anyways! Those stabilizer wings jerked you left and right like your own two feet! How did you do that?" Amy smiled and looked in Sonic's direction. "He's an improvisor. He can do anything." "Yeah, I noticed," Silver called. "At least we thought enough to survive that bullet spray," Shadow's voice called from the shore. "Seriously, Sonic? We were a mile behind you at the least when you kicked that nitros, and the water was towards us like machine gun fire! A single drop of that got over our windshield and snatched one of my quills off!" Sonic turned towards Shadow to see he wasn't kidding. He was missing a quill. That, alongside the fact that three of Silver's quills had been sliced, gave their party a bit of a hardcore aura. "Well, that just increases the freakiness of our team," Sonic stated. Infera shook her head. "Whatever." Turning buisinesslike, she added, "If you ask me, I think we should kick those waterbikes into full mode and find an island or something. Zyx is still around here, somewhere." "Hold on," Amy stated. "Do you guys hear that?" Blaze froze in place. "It's like... dark wind. Shadow's head shot up. "Dark... wind? Only one thing could make that sound." Infera turned to him. "What are you thinking?" Shadow flashed in place next to the steel case he had set down in front of the workshop. Snapping it open, he replied, "I'm thinking that you guys get to see what's in the case."
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