Shadow jumped and performed a homing attack towards Sally, who crossed her energy blades to block the attack. As he bounced into the air, he came down for another attack from the side. Sally swiftly dodged to the right, and then took a swing at the hedgehog, only for him to bounce away and come at her again.

"I won't let you get away this time!" Shadow proclaimed as he crashed into Sally's crossed blades, this time driving himself into them rather than bouncing back. Sally grunted as she tried to keep her footing, but the flames emitting from Shadow's bracelet made it hard for her to focus.

Mina jumped up behind Shadow and delivered a soaring kick, prompting the hedgehog to fall back and leave Mina hurtling towards Sally's blades. "Oh no!" she cried as she collided with the blades, knocking both herself and Sally to the ground. "Owww… S-Sorry, are you o-" Before Mina could finish her question, Shadow was behind her, hand raised and ready to come down.

"Look out!" Sally cried.

Mina jumped to her feet and dodged the attack. "Too close!" she said, glaring at Shadow. "Attacking from behind? How low can you get?! You're nothing like he said you were!"

Shadow didn't respond. He simply rushed towards the mongoose, a Chaos Spear in his hand. Mina ducked as the spear came her way and delivered a sweeping kick, which Shadow avoided by jumping into the air. Before he could land, Mina also jumped and grabbed his arm, taking him by surprise as she threw him to the ground.

"You're also slower than I thought you'd be!" Mina chided as she landed before him. However, in an instant, Shadow rolled into a spin dash and launched himself at the girl. Mina was winded as he struck her in the stomach, but she was able to grab his sides and push him back as he continued to spin.

Shadow unrolled and planted his feet firmly on the ground, and then grabbed Mina's shoulders. The two were now pushing against each other, trying to knock the other one down. "So you're fast enough to keep up with my moves."

"I'm not just fast, I'm way past cool!" Mina answered.

Shadow scoffed. "So you're his successor, is that it? Well I have bad news for you." Shadow's rocket-propelled shoes activated as he continued pushing Mina. She kept her footing, but could feel herself slowly moving backwards. "You're nowhere near his level, and you're certainly not at mine!"

"Unhand her, villain!"

Shadow gasped as he turned around, seeing a sharp, shining object coming down at him. He released Mina at once and clapped his hands together, catching the blade of Antoine's sabre mere moments before it reached his face. "You… must have a death wise!" Shadow pushed the blade back, sending Antoine falling onto his behind, and then turned to deliver a kick as Mina attempted to punch him.

As Shadow approached Antoine, the coyote let out a mild shriek and began scuttling backwards. "M-Mercy! Mercy!"

"I have no mercy for fools who continue to resist. Now die!" Shadow leapt forwards, but his attack was intercepted by Sally, who used one blade to shield Antoine, and swung the other around Shadow's defences.

Shadow fell back, but not in time to completely avoid injury. As blood dripped down his face, Shadow glared daggers at the two standing before him. "Missed," Sally remarked, before turning to Antoine. "Go tell Bunnie and Rotor to retreat. I'll keep him busy long enough for you to clear some ground."

"B-But Princess-"

"Don't argue, just go!"

"Nobody's going anywhere!" Shadow shouted, but before he could act, a figure appeared beside him.

"I wouldn't move if I were you," Nicole said, a gun pointed at Shadow's head. "Antoine, Mina, you two get going!"

"But-" Mina began.

"Get that Chaos Emerald back to our base! That's the top priority!" Sally told Antoine, before giving him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, we'll catch up."

Antoine hesitated for a moment, but then gave a nod. Sheathing his blade, he called out to Mina, "Let us be taking our leave!"

"As I said," Shadow began, "Nobody is leaving here alive!"

Nicole fired, but Shadow dodged. He moved in to disarm her, but she was able to swiftly dodge the attack. He struck again, but she dodged, and then fired another shot, which missed.

As the two continued their back-and-forth of one attacking and the other dodging, Antoine ran over to Mina and grabbed her wrist. "Trust in zem. Zey will be fine, but we must not allow ze Chaos Emerald to fall back into Robotneek's hands."

Mina reluctantly nodded, and Antoine began to lead her away, until she took off at top-speed, dragging the poor coyote along behind her. "Wait! Too fast! My lunch, it will not hold!"

Sally smiled as she watched the two leave. She then turned back to the 'fight' between Nicole and Shadow. She could see Nicole starting to panic, and she knew that it would not take long for him to catch on. "Every second we buy them is vital," Sally told herself quietly. "No matter what, we have to keep him here for as long as possible."

Nicole yelped as Shadow finally landed a hit, his fist passing through her holographic body. The confused hedgehog stood there for a moment, a look of bewilderment on his face as he stared at the sheepish lynx. "Uh-oh, guess the cat's out of the bag," she said, the gun in her hand dissolving into mere pixels as she gave a nervous laugh.

Shadow's hands clenched into fists, and he turned to Sally, flames in his eyes. "You… You wasted my time with this mere projection!"

"If you're so mad about it, come and do something about it!" Sally challenged. 'That's right, lose your cool, Shadow. I'll take advantage of any opening you offer.'

Shadow reached for his wrists and removed the bracelets around them. The handheld attached to Sally's hip pinged, and Nicole cried, "Watch out! Those rings inhibit his power! If he removes them-"

Shadow glanced at the handheld, and then at Nicole. "I see. So your true body is…" a Chaos Spear formed in his left hand, and was thrown in an instant.

Sally gasped, bringing her left energy blade across her body to protect the device. The Chaos Spear collided with the blade, creating an explosion that shattered it, and sent Sally onto her back. She saw Shadow readying another spear and scrambled to her feet, just in time to jump out of the way of his next attack.

"Now you'll witness the ultimate power!" Shadow threw spears one after the other, not giving Sally any time to catch her breath or perform any counter movements. One spear caused her to trip, and her handheld was sent flying away from her.

Sally panicked as she saw Nicole's body laying out in the open. "Oh no!" she cried, pushing herself to her feet.

"Too slow!" Shadow said, throwing a final Chaos Spear to destroy the handheld.

Sally watched with horror as the spear drew closer, but a blast from the air destroyed the projectile before it could reach. Looking up, she was confused but delighted to see Bunnie flying above them, her robotic arm pointed down at the ground. "That was close!"

"Bunnie! I thought I told you all to get out of here!" Sally shouted, though her smile betrayed how happy she was that her friend did not listen.

"The others are goin' on ahead," Bunnie reported as she pointed her arm at Shadow. "Ah'm here to cover you." Shadow threw a spear at her, and she blasted it out of the air with another shot. "Y'all are the one who killed Sonic the Hedgehog, ain'tcha?!"

Shadow grinned. "Well, I can't claim all of the glory for that."

Nicole pinged as Sally picked her up. "Girls, let's wrap this up! I'm detecting reinforcements coming in!"

Sally nodded, and looked up at Bunnie as the latter descended to the ground. "We have to leave!" As she turned to run, she found the badniks from earlier starting to get back up. "They're active again?!"

"Ah, good timing," Shadow said, walking closer to Sally and Bunnie as the badniks started to close in on them. "Even if you had run away, I could have easily caught you, but this just saves me the-" A badnik attacked Shadow, cutting him off and forcing him to jump backwards to avoid a spear through the chest. He stared in shock as the robots all turned to face him, and marched forwards. The shock turned to rage quickly. "What do you think you're doing? I'm Shadow! Shadow the Hedgehog!"

The badniks stopped for a moment, their eyes lighting up, but then continued. "Priority one target: Shadow the Hedgehog," the badnik at the front stated.

"Fools! You asked for this!" Shadow used a spindash to tear through the first robot, and then swiftly began knocking down the ones surrounding it.

Meanwhile, Sally and Bunnie watched in silence as the badniks ignored them and moved straight for Shadow. "What are you waiting for?!" a voice called out behind them. They turned, and found a red-furred fox in a black cloak, holding a laptop with a small satellite dish attached. "They won't hold him forever! Get moving, before it's too late!"

"F.F.?" Sally asked, but she only received a grin in response, before the mysterious stranger turned and ran towards the woods. "Wait!"

"Sally-girl, ah think we should be leavin' now," Bunnie said, noting that Shadow was already halfway through the rogue badniks.

"Right. Let's go then, before more enemies show up."

Bunnie grabbed Sally's sides and took off into the air, flying away from the location as fast as she could. She peered over her shoulder to find that Shadow was indeed too busy with the badniks to follow them.

"Looks like we somehow made it out of there," Nicole said with an audible sigh. "And with a Chaos Emerald, too!"

Sally smiled. "Yes. With that, we can provide more power to our base, and improve long-range communications."

"Ah'm jus' upset we couldn't deck that hedgehog back there!" Bunnie stated.

"Shadow will get his comeuppance one day, Bunnie," Sally assured her. "I promise you, he'll pay for what he did…"

Upon their return, the three were relieved to find that everybody had made it back without any incidents. Mina had given the Chaos Emerald to Chuck, who escorted it to the vault under heavy security.

"Let us be celebrating!" Antoine declared, raising his sabre into the air as he cheered.

"Hear hear!" Rotor chimed in.

Sally cleared her throat. "The mission was a success, but it was a close call. Shadow showing up unexpectedly like that could have been the end of us."

"It all worked out though, didn't it?" Bunnie asked, joining the boys as they cracked open some Chaos Sodas.

"That was only because Mina showed up. And that mysterious fox."

"So was that really F.F.?" Rotor asked, before chugging his bottle.

"It might have been, but there's no way to know for sure," Sally answered. "Anyway, my point is that in the future, we need a protocol for what to do in the event one of Eggman's elite soldiers shows up out of the blue like that."

"Um…"

Everybody stopped what they were doing and turned to Mina, who had followed them into the meeting room. "Oh, sorry about that!" Sally said. "We still haven't shown you around yet, have we?"

"Actually," Mina began, "There was something I wanted to tell you. Well, ask you, really. I guess you could call it a request?"

"What is it?"

"You see, before you guys found me, I was being held prisoner by one of the Egg Bosses. I managed to break out, but there are still many Mobians trapped there, including my boyfriend!" Mina clapped her hands together and bowed. "Please! You have to help me rescue them, before it's too late!"