Love Me

Chapter 40: Lift Me Up

As the three foxes close in on the sight of the explosion they see people scrambling to get away from whatever is going on. And sure enough when they land on the cracked concrete below, Tails' worst fears are realised.

Standing in a crater, both of them battered and bruised, are Sonic and Shadow... Sonic looks like he's doing worse, in no small part thanks to Shadow's more polished fighting style. Seeing Sonic injured the way he was made Tails livid, the fox squeezes his fists, seeing him in that condition flipped the switch... The side of himself he was hoping to not have to bring back again, the vengeful guardian.

"Nine" Tails says with no emotion in his voice.

When Nine hears how empty Tails' voice is he turns to him and gulps.

"Take Mangey and hide... Now" Tails says.

"Okay" He responds.

Nine takes Mangey's hand and the two run into a record store across the street, peering through yhe windows as they watch Tails slide his bag from off his shoulder and open it. Inside is a case, in said case are the seven chaos emeralds.

"What are those..." Nine says as he watches from the store window.

The emerald slowly lift from out of their spots in the case and they surround him spinning around him swiftly, there's a flash of light bright enough to catch Sonic and Shadow's attention and when it does get their attention Shadow looks his way to see a glowing golden furred Tails with piercing red eyes, the aura he radiates stings like the sun.

When Sonic sees Tails standing there a week smirk crawls across his face, "Congrats dude, you kicked the hornets nest"

Shadow growls as he glares Tails down.

"Looks like the first ass whooping I gave you didn't get the point across" Tails says pointing at Shadow.

"I won't let you get away with this any longer! I'll drag your ass into the dirt if it's the last thing I do!" Shadow shouts.

"...I guess this fight will be your last then" Tails says, grinning like a psychopath.

He lauches himself at Shadow and pushes him back a significant distance, taking the opertunity to also see if Sonic was okay.

"Are you okay?" Tails asks, putting his hand on his face.

"I'm good, don't sweat it" Sonic responds.

Tails laughs and kisses him on the mouth briefly, "You got enough energy to fight with me?"

"You know I won't back down from a good fight!" Sonic responds.

Sonic and Tails stand together ready to take on Shadow. Seeing Sonic standing with Tails made Shadow even more irrate, he was going to see to it that this sick hold Tails had on Sonic would end, his resolve to destroy him grows stronger.

They stare eachother down. A clever fox and a protective hero versus the revenge driven unstoppable force, who would come out on top, would Tails and Sonic be able to defeat Shadow.

"Remember that combo we used back when Eggman created that huge robot that was cutting down trees?" Sonic asks.

"Mhm" Tails responds.

"Let's open up with that"

"This is why I love you"

Sonic chuckles and turns back to Shadow, suddenly he takes off running towards Shadow who's bracing for Sonic. But instead of going straight towards Shadow Sonic bounces off a brick wall, off a car and slams into Shadow's back, Tails jumps forwards and throws his fist at him, it collides with Shadow's jaw and he's thrown into a spin.