Chapter 13 - The Final Battle (Part 2)

                                    

                                          
Rouge walked up to the machine where Wave was. The swallow looked weak, slumped down as she looked up at the bat. The Master Emeralds power was still beaming up into the sky with intensity.
"Doctor," Rouge greeted sternly. 
Wave gave a sigh. "Starline's glove, the energy...the Master Emerald can't fight. You can't protect against yourself-"
"It's not your fault," Rouge assured. "You didn't know what you were doing."
"Well, actually I think I did. I built in a safety to cut the power source."
Rouge's eyes widened a little at that information. "Starline's glove?"
Wave nodded. "Close. It's the stone within it," she said, glancing at the nearby glove. "It might be able to close the portal."
***
Knuckles leapt from badnik to badnik, crushing each one in his fists. Espio threw the last of his kunai into a badnik that approached Tails. The fox thanked him before turning his attention back to the robots. On the rooftops, the Werehog tore through the skies, leaving metal in his wake.
***
Back on the deck of the main ship, a lone pilot sat in his cockpit, listening as the Commanders voice broke through the speakers.
"Director Vector is no longer in command. Override order, 7 Alpha 11."
The pilot nodded. "7 Alpha 11, confirmed. Prepare to takeoff," he repeated, starting the engine.
Inside the bridge, a young agent noticed the pilot about to leave. The bee flew to Vector urgently. "Sir, we have a bird in motion! Anyone on the deck, we have a rogue bird! We need to shut it down! Repeat! Take off is not authorized!"
As soon as he heard the news, Vector ran out to the deck, hitting the tail end of the jet before it took off. He let out a growl of frustration, patching into Shadows comms.
"Shadow, you hearing me? We have a missile headed straight for the city."
The croc heard a grunt of annoyance on the other end. "How long?"
"Three minutes, at best. Stay low and wipe out the missile."
Out on the streets, Shadow used his boots to boost himself across the city. Meanwhile the pilot arrived over the city, flipping a switch and pressing a button that sent a nuke towards the city. 
"Package is sent. Destination is in 2 minutes, 30 seconds...mark."
***
Amy and Knuckles were fighting side by side. Amy threw her hammer as it smashed through a line of robots. She caught it in time to see Knuckles getting hit with a blast. She deflected the next one, using her hammer to flip over a car onto the robots and buy them time. 
"You ready for another bout?" She asked with a smile.
The echidna smirked, readying his fists. "What? You gettin' sleepy?"
***
Wave, back in scientist mode, clacked away at her laptop. She nodded to Rouge who grabbed the glove, attempting to rip out the topaz.
"I can close it!" She called through her communicator, the stone loosening in its place. "Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down!"
"Do it!" Tails exclaimed, but Shadows voice broke through.
"No, wait!"
"Shadow, these things are still coming! We need to shut it down now-"
"I got a nuke coming in, it's gonna blow in less than a minute," the hedgehog responded, catching up to the missile. It was hard to get a grip on it and the speed to match was dificult, but the Ultimate Life Form was able to manage. He glanced up at the portal, looking for a way to get up there. "And I know just where to put it." With a mighty effort, he wrenched the rocket off its course and steered it towards Prower Tower, intending to fly straight towards the portal.
"Shadow, you know that's a one-way trip?" Amy warned, but he only shut his comms off.
***
Back in the bridge, every single agent held their breath as they too watched the event play out. On the streets, the Heroes watched the streak in the sky heading towards the portal.
***
Shadow, with full concentration, climbed higher and higher over the city, gaining speed. But it wasn't enough. He barely managed to keep up as he dashed up the tower. With an irritated sigh, he quickly let go and unfastened the rings around his wrists. He was going to need all the power her could get, and he felt the energy surge through him once the rings were off.
He advanced further, passing by Rouge who held the portal open long enough for him to fly up and through. In an instant, he was in space.
As the missile continued to speed into space, communications died, and Shadow started to feel the effects of space. He let go, watching as it soared off into the blackness as he idly fell back down to the portals opening.
As he fell, he watched in horror at the massive badnik fleet itself, a large, circular building acting as its mothership of some sorts. As the missile reached the fleet, the pitch-black sky was filled with a burst of light, creating almost a spectacular display of robotic carnage. Tired, Shadow closed his eyes as he fell.
Back on the streets of Mobius, all the badniks short-circuited and fell to the ground, lifeless. Although this was a victory, the rest of the Heroes watched the portal, unsure if their friend would make it through. 
Stoll holding the topaz in her hand, Rouge waited anxiously. "Come on, Shadow..."
Knuckles saw the explosion moving towards them, turning to Blaze and giving her a nod. Blaze acknowledged it, communicating to Rouge.
"Close it."
Without hesitating, Rouge pulled the topaz out as the beam keeping the portal open turned off. As it began to close, they could spot Shadow falling towards them. By pure luck, he made it back through the portal right before the explosion could, the gap between Mobius and space closing. 
Rouge smiled in relief, and so did the others down below. But it only lasted a moment as they soon realized that the hedgehog was unconcious. 
"Son of a gun..." Knuckles muttered in slight panic. Shadow kept falling and falling. "He's not slowing down!" 
"I'm on it!" Tails exclaimed, taking off to grab the ebony Mobian. Just as he was about to make it, the Werehog appeared and snatched Shadow out of the air, both crashing into a building before sliding down to the pavement.
The beast threw Shadow off of him and onto the ground as Tails, and Knuckles ran over to check on him. Tails checked his vitals, but it was difficult concerning his biology. They stood around, unsure.
Tails was about to pull out his tech to find a solution before the Werehog roared furiously, starting Shadow awake.
"What the-what just happened?" He questioned with a groan, looking up. He didn't want to move as he stared at them. "Please tell me nobody kissed me."
Everyone paused for a beat before Tails smiled with a chuckle. "We won."
Shadow let out a sigh of relief. "Alright. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow...let's just...take a day." Usually, Shadow would be too tired for these jokes. But to be fair, he just had a near death experience, he didn't really care. "Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I wanna try it."
"We're not finished yet," Kuckles chuckled, glancing up at the tower.
"And then shawarma after," Tails joked to Shadow with a small wink.
***
Starline crawled onto the stairs with a groan, hoisting himself up like a rag doll. He was beaten and scratched as he tried to catch his breath, but soon felt the presence of people behind him. He turned around to see the Heroes looking at him, beyond pissed as Espio held him at gunpoint, the Werehog giving a huff.
The platypus looked up at them with a weak smile. "If it's all the same to you. I'll have that drink now."