Running with the Rebels

Rescuing a New Recruit

A/N: Hello, readers! Sorry for the wait, but I hope you enjoy this next chap. And I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Btw, just watched the cutscenes of Sonic Frontiers, and has anyone else noticed how sad it actually is? I won't give any spoilers, but it hit close to home for me.

ANYWAYS, happy reading! Don't forget to leave a vote and a comment to let me know what you think!
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Sonic and Shadow rocketed towards the scream before anyone else could blink, the two hedgehogs disappearing in streaks of blue and black.

      "Shadow! You got a point?" Sonic yelled through their wind stream.

    The dark agent tilted his head slightly before pouring more power into his strides.

      "Two o'clock! Hard right!"

  As a single unit, the two hedgehogs turned sharply and navigated around the labyrinth of metal buildings. The frantic child's cries acted as a homing beacon for the two, but with the city made completely of metal, it was hard to find a direct location with sound constantly bouncing off the walls with a frustrating echo.

"There!" Sonic yelled and pointed to his left, and the two brothers raced to the scene.

All Sonic saw for the next few seconds were Swatbots as he and Shadow tore through them like paper with their spindashes. His ears rang with the sound of metal bending with a deafening whine every time he slice through them. He always hated these old designs; now he remembered why.

     "Chaos spear!" Shadow commanded, and a bolt of golden light decapitated the last Swatbot, rendering it useless. The onyx hedgehog curled his hands into fists, ruby eyes searching the now deserted public space for more combatants.

    "I think that's the last of 'em," Sonic said carefully, "We're good."

    "If the doctor didn't know we were here, he does now," Shadow growled but forced himself to calm down.

    The fight's over, he thought and took a deep breath, The fight's over. Focus.

"Do you see the kid anywhere?"

   Sonic frowned at the older hedgehog but then he started scanning the impromptu battlefield for the one that first alerted them to the scene. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a flash of red fur ducking behind a stack of crates, and the azure prince gently made his way over.

     "Hey, it's okay," he said softly to the small form hiding in the shadows, "Those dumb bots won't hurt you anymore. They're all gone now."

      "Promise?"

    Sonic gave him his most winning smile, throwing in a wink and a thumbs up for good measure. "Promise. Why don't you come on outta there and let me and my bro make sure you're okay?"

    Sonic backed away and waited for several beats of silence, wondering whether the kid would actually come out of his hiding place, when he heard the telltale shuffle of sneakers on the concrete ground.

     He was a wolf pup, his red fur matted and covered in soot in some places. His amber eyes were red from crying, though there was also a certain cloudiness to them Sonic couldn't quite understand. Standing up, the kid was maybe a few inches short than Tails.

    But instead of the customary white gloves most mobians had, his were green and black, matching his scuffed up ankle boots and the frayed belt hanging loosely off his too-thin frame.