This episode, and the next one or two, were the first scenes I thought of that had me begin this series. Welcome to the sections that started it all. I`m sorry this episode took so long to get up. This is a very important section to me and I wanted to be sure that it gets done right. It has turned out longer than what I originally thought it was going to be.

You may already be aware of this but...While I was working on this episode, an idea for a prequel to this story was forming. The prequel will, of course, be the events that happen before this series begins. It mostly surrounds Shadow and Maria.
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Like any other normal school morning, Sonic drops Tails off at the elementary school and is the first one to arrive at the high school. Surprisingly, Ray is the second person to arrive. He seems to be just as bouncy and cheerful as ever. He happily converses with Sonic to pass time as they wait for the others to arrive. Ray wants to catch up on everything that has happened in the group during his absence. Sonic only tells general details and he remains vague when it comes to telling about Shadow. What he does tell Ray about Shadow, it has Ray getting a chill up his spine and being worried about when the guy will show up next.

One by one, everyone in the group except for the children arrive at the high school and join the table for their routine morning gathering. Everyone is relieved when Amy arrives and they see that she is looking much better today. Amy is happy to be back with her friends and having things go back to normal. She can`t help but feel nervous when she notices the Babylonians arriving in the cafeteria.

Jet in particular seems the most angry. Wave seems annoyed to say the least while the other three just seem to look like their average "we`re big and bad" attitude selves. As usual, Jet is walking the front of the group with Wave by his side. The others follow behind.

Wave was released from the hospital for her head injury. She uses all the make up she can to hide the damage she received to her forehead. From a distance, you can`t see that there is anything wrong. But if you get up close to her, you can still make out where she was hurt. She feels that the make up would do a better job than a bandaid. She gives Amy a very agitated look as she walks off with Jet and the other Babylonians to their usual spot in the cafeteria.

Amy notices this look and sinks back further into the group of her friends. It is much safer being surrounded by them. When she does this, everyone else in the Sonic gang take notice to the presence of the Babylonians. Now what is going to happen with them?

Throughout the classes, Sonic and the others are taking notice of the looks that they are getting from the Babylonians. Neither group is saying a word to the other. They don`t have to. Their facial expressions are saying it all for them. Particularly the ones who are getting the most dirty looks from the Babylonians are Amy and Shadow, though Shadow receives more than Amy. Sonic receives some as well, since the Babylonians believe that somehow Sonic is behind the whole matter.

Although it`s not just the Babylonians that Shadow is getting dirty looks from. Sonic is throwing those looks his way as well. How dare Shadow show up at school after everything he has done to Amy and so many other people! He`s lucky that they are in their classes right now or else Sonic would chase him away. Shadow is a danger to everyone, it`s as simple as that.

When classes are over for the day, Sonic goes to his locker to exchange books. He sifts through the mess in his locker to find the materials he is looking for. He doesn`t need very many today; the teachers have been merciful about homework. Once all of his materials are set, Sonic slings on his backpack and puts his hand on the locker door to close it. But before he closes it, he overlooks all the pictures on the inside of the door, as his ritual usually is. His eyes stop when he sees the picture of Amy. A small smile comes on his face. This was a picture Rouge took at one of the group`s gatherings. The top of Tails` head can be seen in the bottom of the picture next to Amy. She`s smiling at the camera, happy to pose for it.

Sonic finally closes his locker and walks down the hallway towards where Amy`s locker is. For a moment, Sonic has actually forgotten about Shadow. His thoughts are fully focused on Amy for some odd reason and he is in a good mood. But all of that shatters when he stops after making a turn in the hallway. His backpack slides off his back on it`s own and slumps on the floor. He sees Shadow on the other side of the hallway slowly walking towards Amy. In Sonic`s state of shock, he doesn`t notice his other friends coming up from behind him to join up with him so they could all leave the school together.

Amy is busy sorting out her things in her locker and having her thoughts elsewhere. She doesn`t notice either Sonic or Shadow, or anyone else for that matter.

Shadow is plagued with his own thoughts as he makes his way to Amy. Other than her occasional usage of her piko-piko hammer, Shadow would swear that Amy is Maria`s reincarnation. If this is so, he has to have her. There are very few things that Shadow is sure of and this is one of those things. He holds no regret for that small message he wrote on the card that he attached to the pink hedgehog plush. Nothing is going to have them separated. His eyes shift up from the floor up to Amy ahead of him. She is partially bending over, still fiddling with her belongings at her locker. He stops behind her and watches her for a moment in silence. She still hasn`t noticed him there.

Amy gets her books stacked up nice and straight. Having a messy locker just drives her crazy. She is running through her head what ways she could go to get a picture of Shadow taken so she could add his photo to her wall of her friends photos. He is the only one who isn`t there and she feels bad about that. But he never accepted his picture being taken before, how could she do it? Ah, surely she`ll figure out a way. Maybe wait until he`s distracted with something and take the photo then? Yeah, that might be her only chance. Otherwise, his quickness is just like Sonic`s; he`ll take off before the flash of the camera will go off.

Finally, Amy has everything sorted out. She stands up and slings her backpack on. She closes her locker door and turns around. Amy stops dead in her tracks upon seeing Shadow right there. His arm is extended outward so that his hand rests flat on a locker next to Amy`s. Shadow other hand is on his hip. He is retaining his calm and cool expression on his face despite how close it is to Amy`s face.

Amy does her best to not seem nervous. This posture of his is very unusual for Shadow but Amy smiles anyway,"Oh, hi, Shadow. I was just thinking about you."

Shadow`s face tilts downward a little,"Were you?"

He can`t hear anything that is being said, no thanks to the bustling of all the school students yammering while they are preparing to leave to go home. But Sonic does not like Shadow`s posture with Amy one bit. His hands ball into fists as his anger swells up at an alarming rate. He gave Shadow the warning and he did not heed it. Sonic begins to march over to Shadow and Amy, intending to put an end to this whole thing.

Knuckles warns the rest of the group that big trouble is on it`s way. Espio is in-tune with the thickening atmosphere that is building up and verbally agrees with Knuckles. With that, everyone starts heading to the area of Amy`s locker but keeping a bit of distance between themselves and Sonic. None of them want to get involved but they all somehow know that Sonic is about to make a big mistake.

Noticing the Sonic gang on the move, all the regular students in the area, one by one, begin to turn their attention towards the group. At first they`re a little excited since the Sonic gang is the group of some of the most popular people in the school. But then their expressions change to concern and confusion. What is with that irate look on Sonic`s face?

Since she didn`t have a chance to ask sooner with all the classes going on and distractions from her other friends, Amy asks Shadow something that she has been meaning to ask him all day,"How are you doing? I hope you`re getting better from your injuries."

Her hand reaches up to check on his wounds that are hidden beneath his clothes. The blood in Shadow`s body begins to rush throughout him at a rapid pace. His every desire pushes forward stronger than what it did moments earlier, coming on stronger than what they were when he gave Amy a ride to the mall on his bike. He must keep control of himself! Shadow quickly raises his hand from his hip and grabs Amy`s hand to prevent her from executing whatever idea she got in her head to do to him. His voice naturally deepens a little as a reaction to what he`s feeling right now and quietly says,"I am fine."

Amy looks up at Shadow to his dark red eyes,"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely..."

His hand releases hers and he leans his head in closer to hers. Their foreheads touch and their noses don`t quite touch. Shadow`s height over Amy`s makes it a little difficult to get their noses to touch. But that is all right, touching noses is not all that important. Shadow has something else on his mind. As if Amy`s own body wasn`t having it`s own problems with racing blood through the veins, it seems to run even faster when Shadow`s hand touches the underside of her chin and gently tilts her face up a little more towards him. Her cheeks flush. Shadow`s deep voice speaks again,"I...actually have something I want to tell you, Amy..."

Without warning, Sonic tears Shadow away from Amy by the back of his shirt and throws him into another set of lockers with a loud bang. The combination dial on the lockers make contact on Shadow`s back where he had been shot. His incredible healing ability may have closed up the wound but it`s still tender there. Shadow drops down on the floor on his rear and turns his body to the side to take a quick moment to recover from the impact. If the combination dial hadn`t struck him in that spot, he could get right back on his feet.

This has caught everyone`s attention. All the students begin to crowd around the area as they sense a fight erupting. They are all getting riled up and excited. A fight hasn`t been seen in the school this year yet and everyone feels that because of who the two contenders are, the fight is going to be a good one.

Most of Sonic`s words don`t reach Shadow`s ears but what he does catch are,"I`m not going to let you drag Amy into your selfish world! You don`t deserve her! She doesn`t need punishment like you!"

Amy is quite upset by Sonic interrupting Shadow and attacking him,"Sonic, what is wrong with you?!"

Sonic grabs a hold of Amy`s wrist,"I`m getting you away from that homicidal psycho before he hurts you!"

He begins to pull Amy with him, dragging her to where their friends are standing in the crowd. Amy drags her feet and tries to pull her wrist free from Sonic`s tight grip,"Let me go, Sonic!"

Knuckles, who is in the front row of the crowd, points forward,"Sonic-!"

Sonic turns his head around. Soon as he does, Shadow rams his body into Sonic`s from the side into the row of lockers. The locker rack jiggles a little from the impact. Sonic releases Amy after the impact but also after she is dragged a little from Shadow`s attack on Sonic. Luckily, it doesn`t affect her very much. She uses her free hand to help keep herself from being thrown into the lockers and thus, she is not hurt.

Shadow quickly steps back from Sonic and throws a punch at him. Sonic`s fast reflexes kick in and he ducks under Shadow`s punch. Shadow`s fist flies into the locker in full force. With a loud, metallic bang, a large dent is left on the locker.

Amy is about to protest to the two guys about fighting but before she can, Rouge bravely comes in and grabs Amy. Rouge quickly drags Amy inside the crowd. She will be safely out of the battlefield. By this point, the crowd around Shadow and Sonic are in total excitement over the fight. They all begin to shout and cheer, encouraging the fight to go on.

From the floor, Sonic swings his leg up and kicks Shadow in the stomach. Shadow is jerked backwards from the kick. Sonic jumps back up into a standing position and delivers a knee to Shadow`s face. Shadow`s head is jerked upward and back from the impact. Sonic puts his high speed to work and whirls behind Shadow and wraps his arm around Shadow`s neck from behind tightly.

Shadow`s neck muscles tighten up to retaliate against Sonic`s hold. But this only makes Sonic tighten his arm around Shadow`s neck. So Shadow does the first thing that comes to his mind to rescue himself from this strangling position. He turns his head to the side quickly and bites Sonic on the neck. In a blur, Sonic yelps, releases Shadow and sort of pushes him forward while he jumps back with his hand over where the bite is. Sonic removes his hand and notices blood covering his hand. He looks over at Shadow. Shadow looks darkly at Sonic. He lets his tongue slide out of his mouth and lick the blood that`s on his lips. He takes a moment to give an evil smirk to Sonic to nonverbally communicate to him that his blood tasted good. That`s really creepy...Enjoying the blood of his opponent? Were those fangs he has in his mouth? Sonic begins to wonder what he has gotten himself into. Whatever it is, he`s in it now and needs to finish it.

As the fight continues, both males find themselves thinking a lot of the same things. Both want Amy and neither one wants the other to take her away from him. Neither one wants to back down from the fight as that would mean giving up on Amy, the opponent would be the winner and would have Amy.

Both use mainly physical attacks on their opponent. Shadow could use his powers to end this but he feels it is unnecessary to use such energy. Besides, he is confident he can defeat Sonic without his powers. Not to mention the fact that he would probably cause more chaos in the school with such dangerous weapons and that would upset Amy. She asked him to leave such things out of the school and he is going to do his best to follow up with that request.

Amy tries to call to both of the warring teens to stop the fight. But because of their reason for the fight, it is a futile attempt to make them stop. Even if they do stop fighting, they will just pick up on it again later.

It`s a pretty violent battle. Currently, Shadow has Sonic on the floor. His hands are placed on the front of the rack of lockers as he looms over Sonic. Sonic is trapped between the lockers and Shadow. He kicks Sonic in the ribs a couple of times before Sonic knocks Shadow back with another kick to the stomach. His neck is still bleeding from the bite and his shirt has become bloody as a result of it. With Shadow knocked back, Sonic scrambles to his feet as he`s decided that being down on the ground is not a good position to be in during this fight.

Being pumped up from the fight, Sonic foolishly verbalizes to Shadow once more that he is going to be the victor and Amy should be with him. Shadow rams himself into Sonic, slamming him into the lockers again. He whips Sonic around so that his back is to him. Then Shadow grabs Sonic by the base of his hair at the back of the head and begins to throw Sonic`s face into the lockers repeatedly.

Everyone watching the fight becomes concerned for Sonic`s well-being. Amy clasps her hands over her mouth as she is speechless from what is happening. Over and over Sonic`s face is slammed into the lockers. BANG! BANG! BANG! Multiple dents are forming into the locker door from the power Shadow is putting into this move. Sonic is powerless to fight back and can hardly make a sound. Any small sound he does make is lost in the sound of the lockers making contact with his face. Blood begins to appear on Sonic`s face. It splashes against the lockers with each impact and that splashes a little on his shirt. Sonic has his hands on the locker to give himself extra support so he could try to fight back or at least lessen the force. But it only takes a couple of times of being slammed into the locker before Sonic`s strength gives out from Shadow`s adrenaline-enhanced strength overpowering him. BANG! BANG! BANG! The blood on his forehead begins to drip down over his eyes. Sonic becomes worried. This guy is going to kill him!

Suddenly, several GUN soldiers storm into the school. Many of them herd the students away from the area and hold them back. The rest invade the battlefield of Shadow and Sonic. One of the GUN soldiers grabs Shadow by the back of his shirt and yanks him away from Sonic. Sonic drops down to his hands and knees on the floor. He takes multiple breaths to recover from the ordeal. He is relieved that GUN has stepped in and put a stop to the fight. However, Shadow has plenty of fight left in him.

Being that his body is still pumping adrenaline crazily, Shadow turns on the GUN soldiers. The GUN soldiers did expect that Shadow would attack them during this invasion so they have come prepared. The soldiers that are herding the students away from the area are making sure that everyone is staying clear of the scene. The reason they give is that "Project Shadow" is extremely dangerous and the students must keep their distance to remain safe.

When physical attacks fail him, Shadow unleashes his power onto the GUN soldiers while they try to restrain him. Chaos spears fly about the hallway and strike walls, lockers and support pillars. Luckily no one is hit. Each of the chaos spears miss their target because Shadow is being jerked around by the GUN soldiers and his is refusing to let them do what they want with him. The students begin to scream and panic. They have never seen anything like this before. GUN soldiers are doing their best to keep everyone calm and in control but the number of students is greater than the number of soldiers.

Finally, one of the chaos spears finds it`s target and hits one of the soldiers. The spear explodes on impact and blasts away half of the soldier. Now the students really begin to panic and stampede in many different directions. The soldiers cannot keep them under control any longer. Many of the soldiers are shoved aside as the student run past them. Even Sonic is being pushed around by the panicking teens.

Amy is trying to get to Shadow and verbally protests the soldiers coming after him. But her voice is lost among the screaming students and she is being held back by Rouge. Amy tries to wriggle away from Rouge but Rouge manages to hang on to Amy and keep her away from the GUN soldiers.

Deciding to no longer deal with the students, the rest of the GUN soldiers move over to Shadow and assist their comrades with him. The amount of students in the area is finally beginning to thin out. Amy comes into Shadow`s view in which he stops throwing chaos spears all over the place instantly. That one moment he stops is just what the GUN soldiers need. They immediately throw him down on the floor and cuffs are instantly locked on his wrists. Amy`s worry heightens at this but Rouge`s grip remains strong on her.

The GUN soldiers begin to drag away the restrained "Project Shadow" towards the school entrance to take him back to their headquarters. By this point, very few students remain in the area; it is mostly Sonic and his friends that are left in the hallway with the soldiers. Amy manages to get an arm free from Rouge and she futilely reaches for Shadow and calls out to him. Shadow looks over his shoulder at Amy but he gets quickly jerked forward as the soldiers roughly walk him out of school.

It is only when Shadow and the soldiers are out of sight that Rouge finally releases Amy. Amy immediately drops to her knees on the floor and bursts into tears. Her hands cover over her face as she cries, feeling very heart broken right now.

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