Worlds Apart - a Shadow the Hedgehog x Reader story

Saving Lives

Y/N's POV

What was she thinking? She didn't know. A rocket surged towards them, which they dived to avoid. Shadow aimed a powerful kick at the machine's chest, but it was plated with such strong metal, he bounced off and landed hard on his back. Y/N slid over.

"You OK?"
"Yeah, I think."

She held out one hand to help him up, which he took. A sudden tingling, like a massive case of pins-and-needles, shot through her. Her face reddened and she looked away.

"What? What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I'm fine."
"You won't be when I'm finished with you!"
Y/N turned to her schoolmates, "All of you, go! Get inside, go on one of the fields, just get away from him! I don't want any of you to get hurt!"
A wild scramble followed, student climbing over each other in fear. Teachers held the doors open as the flood of teenagers plunged inside. All of a sudden, everything went deathly silent. It was just her, Shadow and Eggman. Her eyes searched for a way to disable the robot before taking out Eggman himself. There had to be some sort of maintenance panel somewhere. an explosion shattered her thoughts, and she absorbed them flames again, using them to fuel her anger. Shadow yelled, releasing a blast of red energy, another part of his power , strengthened by his fury. It was almost deflected, only creating a small crater in the machine's armour.

"Ha! You can't get through this stuff! It's the hardest metal in the world, developed by yours truly."
"Strongest metal in the world..." Y/N muttered to herself," Maybe... but not against fire."
"What are you thinking?"
It was at that moment she spotted the large panel on the robot's back.

"Cover me. I have a plan."
"It better be good."
She didn't answer. Using the cover of an explosion, she slipped around behind them machine.

"Here goes," she murmured, rubbing her hands together. She latched her fingers into a crevice between two plates of metal just above her head and began her climb. the main difficulty, as with any other form of climbing, was holding on. However, holding on to a giant moving hunk of metal is a lot harder than holding on to a climbing wall. Despite this, Y/N made to the raised panel on the metallic beast's back without falling.  She called up the fire within her, forming it into a white-hot blade, which she used to cut through the metal. A mess of wires lay just inside. Huh, she thought, no wonder none of his robots don't work. Their wires are such a mess that the energy gets sent to the wrong parts of  the machine. She took a handful of cables and severed them with her tiny knife. The effect was immediate. The hunk of metal crumpled under its own weight, trapping Eggman beneath it.

She chuckled, "You may know how to make a basic robot, but what you don't know is how to make it work properly."
Shadow offered her a hand down. She blushed again and accepted the help.

"You were amazing. I wouldn't have thought of cutting the wires, and even if I had I wouldn't be able to get it open with getting hurt."
This comment made her blush a deeper red, "Thanks."
"Is something wrong?"
"No, no, I'm fine," she brushed some of her hair behind her ear. She felt like she'd just been on a massive rollercoaster several times.

"Then why do you keep going red around me?"
"No reason. It's just something that happens."
He shrugged, "OK."

She smiled, feeling a sudden impulse to run her hand through his quills. She tried to resist but it was too much. Before she realised what she was doing, one hand was trailing across his head. his hand came up to meet hers on his shoulder. She wasn't sure whether he had meant to move or he had just reacted that way. A sudden movement made her break eye contact with him. Metal Sonic! He had launched a bolt of red energy straight for Shadow! Time slowed to a crawl. She pushed Shadow to one side and hurled her burning knife at Metal Sonic at the same time. As it buried itself in Metal Sonic's skeleton of wires beneath his plating, so did the energy into her chest. Shadow's yell sounded muffled, like someone had turned down the volume on her life. Exhaustion, not pain, washed over her like a tsunami. She knew what was going to happen. She was dying.