Ch.8

                                    

                                          
    Sonic kicked of the ground like a rocket towards Shadow, hardly giving him enough time to dodge.
                          
    Shadow landed on a patch of overgrown grass before skating behind Sonic and tripping him with his leg. While Sonic stumbled back, Shadow jumped up and curled into a ball before aiming straight at Sonic.
                          
    Sonic recovered from being tripped fast enough to jump out of the way. Sonic jumped over Shadow's head, one leg extended, before throwing the sole of his shoe straight into Shadow's face. Sonic tossed himself backwards, both his feet landing on one of the high stone pillars, and leaped with extraordinary speed. He landed right behind Shadow, and as Shadow spun to greet him, Sonic punched him in the stomach.
                          
    Shadow would not let Sonic win, so he closed his eyes carefully, before shouting two words, "chaos spear!"
                          
    A flurry of harpoons created of pure chaos energy was met by Sonic's suddenly worried glare. It was then that Shadow could see Sonic was about to do something risky. Anyone would know that look on his face after spending just one battle with him, it was so recognizable that it could be considered his trademark, even more than that cheesy grin he put on for his fans. His glare sharpened, his posture straightened, his muscles quivered in anticipation, and his smile tugged into a perfect horizontal line, as if he were actually considering consequences, though discarding them all the same.
                          
    He smiled, obviously making up his mind.
                          
    Shadow felt a weird energy emerge in the wind. It was focused, yet wild still. It was familiar, Sonic's, Shadow realized. His chaos energy, however, was sharpened, like a fresh blade, yet with the precision of a sniper. 
                          
    The chaos spears flickered, then dispersed into the air surrounding the two.
                          
    When had Sonic learned to weaponize his chaos energy? Probably during that two years he reported it being higher than usual, Shadow realized.
                          
    "How did you do that?" Shadow dared to ask.
                          
    "To put it simply, when I used that fake chaos emerald, I realized that it was possible to use negative chaos energy. I simply cancelled out your positive energy with some negative energy." Sonic explained. It made sense. Negative chaos energy, while being that opposite of positive, still would hold the same chaos signature if used by the same person. The negative emotions required to use it would also be present in Sonic. 
                          
    "The Inverse Chaos Theory. I should have known." Shadow stopped for a moment. "Tell me, why didn't you ever do that before?" Shadow was actually curious. 
                          
    "Well," Sonic interrupted his words with a chuckle. "It takes a bit out of me. Also, I'll admit that this whole negative energy thing kinda scares me." 
                          
    "Because it requires actual negative emotions to use?" Shadow inquired. That was highly plausible.
                          
    Sonic stared blankly at Shadow, then finally answered. "Yeah, that's the reason. I keep it to a minimum to stop myself from getting to angry. After all, how do you think everyone would feel if their hero suddenly became angry at the world?"
                          
  "Understandable." Shadow simply replied. He didn't know everything about negative chaos energy, as he himself was created without the ability to use it, but he knew that overusing could fundamentally change a person.
                          
    "Anyway, why don't we put this behind us, and get back to training?" Sonic asked, a cocky tone present in his voice.
                          
    These words ignited the competition between the two. Neither were really trying to hurt the other, respect for the other present in their eyes. Before they knew it, hours had passed, and it was time to go to Tails.