Ok, guys, get ready for some action again. And because I enjoyed my "The Shadow`s Rose Chapter 3" so much, it is kind of-sort of being blended in here. Just for extra clarification, The Shadow`s Rose has had this chase thing used first before this one (yes, I am inspired by my own stuff).

This is also the longest episode of this series yet. Because of it`s length, it took extra long to get done. However, I ended up ending this sooner than what I had originally planned to do. The bit that got chopped out will be in the next episode.
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Amy is almost at her wit`s end. She has lost all track of time and has no clue of how long she has been in this entrapment of the Babylonians and still has no idea where she is exactly. She is still sore all over her body from Wave`s attack and has been chained to the chair for an awful long time. She has been denied nutrition of any kind and been told that the person she just decided that she wants to date, is dead. Tears have been near constantly falling from her eyes from this tourment. To top it all off, the Babylonians have also been depriving her of sleep. Soon as she starts drifting off, one of them would enter the room and would wake her up, under no certain terms.

She`s beginning to feel that she is hallucinating from the lack of sleep and another crying session begins. It seems as though that her friends can`t find her and she is going to die here. Oh how she wishes that this had never happened.

Her head drops forward as she silently sobs to herself. She wants out. She wants freedom. But will it ever come?

Faintly, she can hear commotion coming from outside the room. The room is thick and the door is locked tight so the volume is low and the sounds are muffled. It sounds like a war out there. Amy lifts her head and looks to the door. She quiets herself but her tears keep flowing. Whoever it is, she hopes they will come into this room and either free her or end her misery.

The noises then stop. Now Amy can hear the scampering of footsteps fleeing while another set slowly approaches the door. These footsteps then stop. Amy blinks to remove the tears from her eyes that are blurring her vision. Her eyes are fixed on the door, waiting to see who is there.

Without warning, the door is blown down by some kind of explosive. It comes off the hinges and flies down onto the floor. A huge hole resides in the middle of the door. Now stepping into the room...

...Shadow! A not too happy looking Shadow.

He takes a quick look around the room and finds Amy in the back, chained to the wooden chair. He makes his way across the room to reach her.

Amy is overcome with emotion. Shadow is alive! He isn`t dead like Jet claimed? The overwhelming happiness she feels all at once that she is going to finally be rescued from this Dante`s Seventh Circle like place and that Shadow is alive. He`s alive, by God, he`s alive! Amy can`t control herself and she cries out as her tears rush out of her quicker than before. She can`t speak any words as Shadow works to free her from the chains that hold her hostage onto the uncomfortable chair.

Once the chains are removed, Shadow lifts Amy to her feet from the chair. Amy makes a small scream as she is lifted up. Her body aches all over from being left in restricted movement and she is still healing from Wave`s beating. Shadow would be in less of a hurry if circumstances were different but there is little time for them to dawdle. As much as he wants to comfort Amy right now, they have to move. He takes a hold of Amy`s hand and pulls her with him as he runs out of the room with her.

Amy`s body is weaker than what it was before. She is already tired by the time they exit the room and they have to run down a couple flights of stairs to get out of the building. She pushes herself to keep going though she has trouble keeping up with Shadow. He is doing his best to run slower than usual so that she can keep up. However, she is still crying in which by itself slows her down. Her body cries out for nutrition and rest. She ignores her body`s cries though. She is being rescued and this situation has left her mentally exhausted.

Soon as they exit the building, the wind chill stops them immediately. It is dark out and the winter air is coming through. Amy only has her dress and boots on for protection from the cold temperatures which doesn`t do much for her. She bought a winter coat to keep her warm for times like this but she doesn`t have her coat. Amy begins to shiver already and Shadow notices this. He releases her hand and Amy immediately wraps her arms around herself in a feeble attempt to warm herself. Shadow pulls off his jacket and throws it around Amy`s shoulders. It isn`t as long as her new winter coat but it will keep her warmer than what her own clothes will do. But his jacket is heavier than most other jackets, noticeably heavier. In her current weak state, Amy feels as though she is about to collapse from the weight of Shadow`s jacket on her. Before her knees buckle under her, Shadow quickly puts one arm around her back and the other under her knees. He lifts her up so that he will carry her bridal style. Then, Shadow is off like a shot, dashing away from the building that imprisoned Amy.

Soon after Shadow and Amy`s departure, a garage door on the building`s outside wall opens up. A slim, race car like vehicle pulls out of the garage and quickly picks up speed to catch up to Shadow`s own great speed. Inside are Jet, Wave and Storm. Jet is in the passenger seat with a few different kinds of guns ready. He begins to load them with ammo in preparation to use them. Wave is in the driver`s seat. She was chosen to be the driver since Jet will be occupied with using weaponry and Storm isn`t as good as she is with control of vehicles. She can have her eyes on the target and have the vehicle keep in pace. Storm is in the back seat. He is loading up a few more guns for Jet. If a gun runs out, it will be handed back to Storm for him to reload it while Jet uses another.

This car the Babylonians ride in is custom built. It seems to be modeled after what the high speed police use to go after criminals who soup up cars to outrun the regular police. (See Sonic X [Sam Speed`s car].) This is the best vehicle they know to chase down fast runners such as Sonic and Shadow. It is their only chance to keep up with the speedsters.

It doesn`t take long for Shadow to realize that Jet and the others are following after him in their car and they are catching up fast. He looks over his shoulder and can see the car racing up behind him. He looks down at Amy in his arms. His jacket is still wrapped around her to keep her warm to the best of it`s ability. Amy`s face is turned towards Shadow almost burying itself into his chest. Her hand is weakly grasping his shirt. He can tell that she is still crying from her high stress level. But Shadow has confidence he can get Amy back home safely.

Shadow re-adjusts how he is holding Amy so that he has a free hand. This said hand reaches down and grabs a hold of the chaos emerald that dangles from his belt buckle by it`s keychain-like chain. A quick snap and it detaches from the belt loop. Shadow hands the red chaos emerald to Amy. Without really thinking about what`s going on or what she`s doing, her hand accepts the gift of the chaos emerald from Shadow. He tells her that he`s giving it to her for her to keep it safe. Odd. Usually by his side is the safest place for the chaos emerald. He must be planning to do something.

Jet rolls down the window of the car as he sees the car drawing closer to Shadow from behind. He climbs out of the window with a MP5SFA2 in hand. One hand holds onto the top rim of the car window as he sets himself in a position so that his body holds itself up. He will need both hands to operate his choice weapon. One foot on the passenger seat and the other foot on the bottom rim of the window. His body leans to the side and uses the car to help maintain balance. Now with both hands gripping the MP5SFA2, he takes aim.

A shot flies past Shadow`s head. He turns his head back and sees a disappointed Jet taking aim at him again. Time for some maneuvering!

Shadow quickly darts to the right and avoids another bullet fired. When he jumps to the left to avoid a third bullet, he can hear Jet getting frustrated with not making any direct hits on Shadow. After the fourth one, Jet begins to scream at Shadow to hold still. Yeah, like that`s going to happen.

However, Jet continues to fire his MP5SFA2 repeatedly at Shadow. If only Shadow would hold still and let himself be shot then this whole thing could be taken care of easily. Jet`s frustration quickly rises with each miss. And knowing Jet, he probably has a large load in the car where he could keep going. Sooner or later, he is going to make a direct hit.

Shadow slows down his pace a little so that he is running beside the car but on Wave`s side. Jet won`t dare shoot at Wave and making a direct hit over the top of the roof of the car is even more difficult. But then there is still Storm in the back seat with all of the back up weaponry and ammo. Luckily, Storm is a little slow in the brain department so he won`t think of such an act for a bit. Once more, Shadow re-adjusts Amy in his arms so that he has one free hand to use. He flings his hand at the front tire with a "Chaos Spear!" and several energy spears fly from his fingertips. The spears jolt into the tire and causes it to pop. The car swerves a little from the newfound flat tire. Luckily for the Babylonians, Wave is a good enough driver to keep the car from spinning out or crashing. She straightens the car out and quickly turns the steering wheel into Shadow`s direction.

Beside Shadow, opposite to the car are several light poles. He could easily get smashed between the car and one of the poles. But his quickness takes over and he quickly slams on his brakes and allows the car to pass by him. The car misses hitting Shadow by a second. It instead hits one of the poles and bounces off of it. The pole buckles over from the impact and the light goes out.

Now Shadow is running up beside the car on Jet`s side of it. A very dangerous spot to be since now he is almost at point-blank range. This doesn`t go unnoticed by Jet. He smirks and redirects the barrel at Shadow and his new location. Shadow acts quickly and flings more chaos spears at the the other front tire. The sudden jerk of the car from loosing both front tires also jerks Jet around. His MP5SFA2 falls out of his hand and gets left behind on the road. Jet would have fallen out of the car if it wasn`t for Wave reaching over and grabbing the leg of his pants. This will come at a price. She isn`t paying attention to the road for a second. That coupled with the car swerving sends the car into a head-on collision with an 18-wheeler truck that is sitting on the side of the road. This stops the Babylonian`s speed car dead cold.

Shadow doesn`t stop or slow down. He continues on ahead. He will cut through Radical Highway to get Amy home. It is the quickest route from here.

Since the impact of the race car and 18-wheeler, Jet has fallen out of the car and is laying on the road face down. He achingly and slowly lifts himself off from the road. He has scrapes from making contact with the pavement. He looks around. Shadow and Amy are nowhere to be seen. He turns to the car to assess the damage. It looks pretty bad off. It definitely isn`t in driving condition. Wait, his friends were still inside the car!

Jet dashes over to the car and looks in through the open window on the passenger`s side. He sees Storm stirring in the back seat and rubbing his head with a groan. So Storm is all right, but what about Wave? Jet looks at the driver`s side where Wave was. Her hands are still gripping the steering wheel. Her body is leaning forward and her forehead is on the rim of the steering wheel with a bit of blood on the rim. Jet gasps and climbs inside the car through the window.

Once inside, Jet puts his hand on Wave`s shoulder and gives her a little shake,"Wave? Wave!"

She isn`t responding but she is still alive. Jet`s hand balls into a fist. Storm leans forward from the backseat with his hand still on his aching head,"Is everyone all right?"

Jet turns to Storm,"I want you to take Wave to a hospital. I`ll join up with you guys later."

The beginning of Radical Highway quickly comes to view of Shadow. He is racing towards it still carrying Amy in his arms. But he stops just before the highway begins. He looks down at her to see how she is doing after the Babylonians have stopped chasing after them. Amy still is weakly grasping Shadow`s shirt with one of her hands as the other holds the red chaos emerald tightly and she still has her face buried in his chest. Shadow can feel the dampness on his shirt from her tears that she is still shedding. Her trembling from being cold is more obvious now. While having Shadow`s heavy jacket around her is better than nothing, it does nothing for her exposed legs. He pulls her a little tighter against himself and quietly tells her that everything is going to be all right.

A spotlight suddenly appears over Shadow and Amy, illuminating them in the darkness where they stand. Shadow lifts his head upwards to the sky and sees several GUN jets over top of them. One of the soldiers speaks to Shadow with a megaphone,"Project Shadow, release the hostage and put your hands up! You will be detained!"

Hostage? All Shadow is doing is saving Amy from the Babylonians and taking her somewhere safe so she could recover and be warm. Well he isn`t going to just give up or hand her over to the military. Sure they may have good intentions of protecting citizens but Amy is in a delicate state right now that they just wouldn`t understand. They would do her more harm than good. Plus, they would detain her as well because of her association with Shadow.

After mentally giving GUN the finger, Shadow starts down the highway. He runs quickly and his hover shoes give him an extra boost to his speed, as they normally do whenever he is running. But he doesn`t go at his top speed. The GUN jets can keep up with him either way. He will need some way to loose them so he can get Amy home safely and without GUN knowing where she is.

The jets fly after Shadow. A few of them are equipped with spotlights in which the co-pilot operates to keep shining on Shadow. It`s night so his dark colours will make it a challenge to see him and all it will take is a split moment to loose sight of him. Once their second verbal warning to Shadow to surrender is ignored, GUN decides to start firing at him.

Some jets swoop down and drop small bombs on the highway right by Shadow. Shadow darts side to side to avoid the bombs. Upon impact they make a big enough explosion to blow away parts of the highway. Are they insane? They are willing to blow away the life of a citizen to get another person and destroy a major highway in the process? What are they thinking?

Shadow`s eyes dart all around him to keep an eye on where each jet is placed and where they are moving to. As he runs down a steep hill of the highway, a jet begins diving in at him. Shadow pushes off the highway and leaps over top of the jet as it nearly smashes into the road. Shadow lands back on the highway pavement and continues down his path. He can`t let them know where exactly he`s headed but he is also low on time for Amy. She needs to be taken away from all this and all the running around is making her even more cold.

Coming onto an open stretch of pavement on the highway, Shadow is fast approaching a lone car that is heading towards Station Square. The gunfire from the jets have ceased as they, too, have noticed a car coming near Shadow. Most likely some citizen that has had a late shift at work and they are going home. Aha, GUN won`t endanger the car. Shadow`s speed slows down once he reaches the car. He runs alongside the car on the driver`s side but next to where the backseat is of the vehicle.

This move is immediately picked up by the GUN pilots. One of the pilots radio to headquarters,"Project Shadow is using a civilian in a car for a shield."

The general of GUN gives another soldier the orders. One soldier that is still at headquarters uses their military technology to contact the driver of the car. He warns the person that they must flee Radical Highway because a dangerous person is using them for a shield against GUN. The driver hears the message and looks at their side view mirror. Their mouth drops open seeing Shadow running beside their car with a frightened girl in his arms. One could only imagine what the driver`s first impression of this scene is after receiving a message from the military!

Soon as one appears, the driver takes the first exit off Radical Highway. Shadow curses under his breath. They are fully exposed to GUN`s jets once again.

As the gunfire resumes from the jets, Shadow jumps to the side and lands on the suspension cables of the highway. He grinds down the cable first before he is grinding back up the other side, heading towards the top of one of the towers. As he is heading to the top, several of the jets bolt in front of him. Shadow bends his knees a little and then leaps up from the cable as his body rockets over the top of the tower. He lands down on top of a jet as it passes through his flight path. Shadow uses this temporary landing pad as footing needed to get to the parallel high bridge that is next to the one he was just on. This side is for vehicles to head to the same place they have just fled from. However, Shadow is still heading in the same direction towards Station Square.

Coming onto a section where the highway is going to start uphill, Shadow notices ahead a jet lowering down close to the pavement. It`s firing bullets at Shadow rapidly in a side to side motion, which makes it difficult for Shadow to avoid each one. He succeeds in avoiding getting shot, as well as preventing Amy from getting shot, and heads straight to the jet as though it is a powerful magnet drawing him to it. He isn`t going to let a little thing like a military jet intimidate him. Shadow leaps up over the nose of the jet. He flings chaos spears into the front window of the jet. The glass itself remains in place but it is heavily cracked from the impact. The pilot won`t be able to safely operate the jet through visual alone. Shadow lands on the jet just behind the window and runs down the length of the jet and jumps off to the side of the jet. He continues his forward motion on the highway, insisting to travel in this direction.

Amy isn`t oblivious to any of this; she is well aware of what`s going on and what Shadow is doing. She is used to high speeds as Sonic has carried her around before. His running was always like a rollar coaster and Shadow`s is the same. But there is a difference between the two. While Sonic`s running style is more stable, Shadow`s is uncertain. Sonic usually runs -from- the danger. Shadow heads straight for the danger if it`s in his path to his destination. Shadow`s wild and maniacal movements are terrifying! It`s Amy`s first time riding with Shadow running (or more in his case, skating) and it is nothing like what she has been through before. The ride on his motorcycle felt much more safe than this. Her weakened body does it`s best to hang onto Shadow for dear life. She hasn`t the strength at the moment to scream though it`s probably for the best that she doesn`t scream, anyway. If she does scream, that would make GUN more alert and they would probably turn more hostile.

There is another jet threatening to block their path though not in the same fashion as the last one. It is over the highway pavement but not so low to the ground. It is also off to the side some, not directly in Shadow`s path like the last jet was. Like the other jets, it is firing off rounds rapidly at Shadow. Once he is close enough, Shadow leaps up at the jet. He flings a swift kick to the tail end of the jet. The jet is sent spinning several times as Shadow lands back on the pavement. Shadow takes off like a shot down the highway. It takes a moment or two before the pilot regains control of the jet and gets it straightened out, though not without either he or his co-pilot feeling quite dizzy.

Dodging more bullets as he skates on, Shadow looks around. There must be something he can do to get away from GUN so he can return Amy home in peace. Something...Something...Aha! One place they will have difficulty following him...

Shadow re-adjusts how he is holding Amy. He is holding her with one arm, he will need at least one hand to execute his trick. This sort of pushes Amy up higher so that her head is level with Shadow`s head. Amy has both of her arms around Shadow`s neck to hang onto him for added security. Shadow pushes aside his body`s reaction to the position between his body and Amy`s, there is a more important situation to be sorted out at the moment.

Shadow quickly darts to the left and leaps over the side of the highway. His free hand grabs the edge of the highway`s concrete barrier. His body, along with Amy`s, swing around the barrier, rather than just falling to the water below. His body swings over to the underside of the highway. He quickly releases the barrier and grabs one of the cables that`s dangling under there.

The GUN pilots have lost sight of Project Shadow and the girl! Their lights search frantically around for them. Every second that passes could mean that they are several more yards away. A couple of the jets fly underneath the highway to see if they can spot Shadow but they cannot find him. One of the pilots contacts headquarters,"We lost visual of Project Shadow. I repeat, we lost visual."

The jets spread out and begin to search along Radical Highway. Their searchlights move all over the place, trying to find a black clothed person on black pavement in the dark. A fun task, no doubt (yeah right).

There is a section of platforms to the side of the actual highway. These are most likely for construction workers to get to the highway for any repairs that would need to be done. One section of these platforms has a mini "room" like area. It has two side walls, one wall in the back, a floor and a ceiling from a platform above. It`s pretty dark inside, it would be difficult to see whatever is inside.

Shadow is inside there with Amy. He is still holding Amy and has her back in bridal style. He watches the GUN jets go by, still searching for them. One of the jets fires a few rounds onto the highway, thinking they spotted Shadow. They cease fire once they realize that they were mistaken. Shadow gets a little flashback...

This flashback is of when he was on the Space Colony Arc. He was running down a hallway with a blonde hair, blue-eyed girl. Several GUN soldiers were following after them. They entered a room and steel doors locked behind them. There were two pods set up to launch down to Earth. Shadow was placed in one but the girl didn`t enter one. She went to the control panel. Realizing that she isn`t in a pod, Shadow placed his hands on the glass of the small tube and called out her name. The girl`s health did not look good at all, she could barely stand. She began to say something to Shadow. Shadow slammed his fists into the glass, frustrated that she is sending him off and not saving herself. GUN soldiers then broke into the room and began screaming at the girl. The girl pulled a lever that would launch Shadow`s pod out of the Arc and to Earth. One of the soldiers aimed his gun at the girl and pulled the trigger. The last thing Shadow saw of the blonde girl was her being shot by the soldier.

BANG

Shadow lifts his head back up from his flashback. At first, his expression is that of shock. Then it changes to anger. He remembers. He may not remember what the girl said to him, but he remembers what GUN did to her. Maria...Shadow looks down at Amy who is still quite frightened. Shadow begins to walk backwards from the entrance of this little hidden area. He lost one friend to GUN, he is not going to let this one be taken away from him by them. He begins to growl as though it would seal his vow and holds Amy a little tighter. He must get her home safely!

Somehow...

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