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Too many of them. From his right, his left, and any other direction he can’t properly note, comes an army of these Grim Bots.Nine must’ve caught on to their plan, because every route for him to escape has been blocked. He can’t get to anyone.Backing away a bit, he tries to mentally count how many are running his way before something hard hits him from behind, and he stumbles forward where a metal knuckled fist hits him in the chest; a hammer from his right, slamming into his right shoulder blade and throwing him in a different direction out of the little box they made around him.The opening gap, even while struggling to get air in, was enough of a switch around for him to duck under the next swing. A foot thrown back when noticing another Grim Knuckles coming in from behind. That robot flies back, but there must’ve been another, because his extended leg is grabbed, and he’s yanked back; thrown over a shoulder onto his back. A hammer comes flying into view and he kicks the hand holding him before rolling out of the way.He jumps to grab the hammer’s handle and disarms the Grim Amy. Robots surround him, so he uses the hammer’s weight to his advantage; spinning on his heel where several of the machines are hit and rocketed away. When he doesn’t hit anymore, he slows down and lets the head of the hammer lay in the dusted dirt.There’s still a few more robots in front of him, but they’re just standing, waiting. Even the Rouge one, which was a little strange since she could easily fly in and disarm him if necessary. He slowly starts backing away, hammer dragging in the dirt.He barely gets to catch his breath; it was a trap. Unexpectedly, another one zips in from his right before he could let go of the hammer, and a metal elbow slams into his gut. The last of the air, exiting his lungs in a forceful and painful move. The other Grim robots leave their fighting stances, standing unaffected. A blur twists nearby, sliding to his side and grabbing at his arm before he can even react. In a quick motion he’s yanked back in such a harsh grip; his shoulder makes a strange, popped crack and he screams.The grip on his arm fades quickly as his arm feels like it’s nothing but pins and needles. Then cold claws press into his chest and force him down over a ledge he didn’t know was there and he’s falling.Forcing an eye open as he curls and holds his shoulder, he sees large walls of rock and soil towering over him and growing; the face of a Grim Sonic watching from the ledge above, getting further away. In a painfully loud crash he can feel, he’s no longer falling.Air doesn’t come, as a breathy wheeze puffs out upon landing. His sleeping body slowly starts waking up to all the aches covering him. Blurred; smudged vision watches above as the fissure gap starts to narrow until it closes neatly above, and he’s left in darkness.After too long, he manages a gasp. His deprived lungs finally feeling full and satisfied, while everywhere else suddenly sparks with pain at the action. He groans.He can’t move. When he tried, he felt weighted and heavy, and a strained squeak breaks free without any intention of it. A sharp pain filling his shoulder and reaching into his neck. That didn’t feel good in the slightest...There’s fighting down here, he now notices. He can hear it; the echoes bouncing off the shadowed walls. The piercing shrieks of metal scraping metal, and heavy, panted grunts of someone trying to hold their own. The voice is low, harsh, but familiar.If he could turn his head and had night vision, he’d be able to spot who’s making those sounds, probably. But he can’t. Eyes still stuck to the never-ending darkness above, or he’d closed his eyes without knowing.He felt sluggish; way too tired to keep putting up with this. But he had to, his friends needed him. He can’t just lay here when many of them are fighting for their lives right now.With that in mind, determination hits and all desire to sleep, to lay here in the dark, is gone. He shifts his legs and moves his mobile hand under him to sit up. The movement was a pain receiver.His shoulder was screaming as it hung strangely; a soft grinding making him cringe. There was a faint heat starting to blossom there. It needed to be fixed before it got worse.When sitting more upright, though, he notices something else he probably should’ve caught onto a while ago. His gloves and shoes are glowing a pastel purple and lighting his surroundings enough for him to see exactly what he landed on. Shattered and broken beneath him are many, many robotic remains of Grim Sonics. Scrapped arms; disembodied heads; snapped legs.These remains were not only unnerving, but still plenty dangerous it seems. The moment he moves and starts getting up, he can feel where jagged metal was carefully puncturing his skin. As he pulled away, the metal was no longer impaled wherever it had managed to dig in his skin; likely still connected with the remains he sits in now.Something sharp shifted near his ankle and he hissed when moving his leg; a throbbing ache burning up his leg from where it probably hit and scratched down as he landed.Getting to his feet was far harder when not on steady ground, and he was not keen on the idea of falling back into the mass of metal and risking a few more injuries. With his good arm, he pushes off the sturdiest stack of metal he can find and grunts, placing his sore ankle under him first, and reaching his good leg over the hill of metal to find something flatter and unmoving to stand on. The moment he’s over the heap and standing, he knows he’s on solid ground.The glow of his shoes was somewhat helpful. It reflected off his blue rather nicely, but it only helped him see himself and the many injuries he’d sustained, red smeared over royal blue. It didn’t seem to help much for the darkness of his surroundings, though. Apparently, the ground is just this dark; scuffing a lit-up shoe on the deep brown-ish black of the soil.But the moment his eyes lift up and away from the darkened soil to the even darker tunnel, he sees flickers of light zipping around in the distance. Small trails of fire sliding just above the ground and swinging up to hit a glowing head of a Grim Sonic. The light of the robot’s body flickers with damage before another hit from the object of fire leaves it on the ground and dimming till there’s nothing.That was… interesting.He can’t really make out anything now, because the moment the Grim Sonic was down and out, the small flames went down and withered to nothing. The tunnel was dark again, only filled with the occasional distant huffs of someone who’d likely been fighting a long time.Based on a few clues; like the flames that’d drifted over the ground, the familiar battle-cries when fighting, and the lack of only one other character for however long it’s been now. He thinks he knows who it is and yes, he’s relieved the hedgehog’s alive, but something tells him the guy’s not going to be so happy about the fact Sonic’s back and now trapped down here too.“ Sonic? ” The coherent call of the voice was enough to confirm his theory of who it was.The little fires were lit again, swaying from side to side, coming his way.He half stepped back, heel hitting a chunk of metal behind him as his good arm covered his adjusting eyes from the flare of bright orange that scattered over the area from the sharp drifted stop.“That explains why the chasm opened again. What are you doing here.” The other demands more than asks. His tone is low and not hiding any of the frustration and anger well.The faint glow of his own gloves and shoes reflected off the other hedgehog’s attire, highlights, and ruby eyes decently. Makes it easier to talk to someone he can somewhat see now.“Wasn’t-” He roughed out, he stopped with a huff when his throat felt a little sore. “The shatter-verse is falling apart.. The Grim, included…”Shadow’s eyes widen a little at that bit of information.“The others came to help, but-”“They what? ” Shadow bit. “What makes you think we can trust any of them? For all we know, they’re an army of Nine’s waiting to turn on you-”“They’re not like that, Shadow-”“Just like Nine wasn’t?”Sonic looked away.Shadow groaned, hand running down his face. “We need to get to the prism before anyone else tries.”Sonic didn’t bother looking away from the ground, slumping a little further at the accusing tone. But it went silent again for a beat.“..What happened?”At that, Sonic did glance up and Shadow was looking over him, mainly his shoulder, the one he was currently gripping at like it had a gushing wound.“Oh. ..one of Nine’s ‘Sonics’ kind of.. Pulled a little too hard in the wrong direction… I don’t think it’s broken, but… nagh –I can’t move it-” He grunts at the end when pain spikes at trying to lift the limp appendage.“Dislocated.” Shadow states, already walking over and grabbing the arm. “Don’t move.”Sonic stood still, free hand grabbing at the roughness of the nearby wall and biting down to avoid making any noise when the grinding movement was sending spots over his–already faulty–vision. A breath in and holding.Shadow lifted his arm out and with a pull, there was a loud crack, and he yanked his arm back to him.He was leaning against the stone wall with a grit out sound that was a little too wet to be normal. All the feeling in his arm came rushing back in an instant, the pins and needles kind of dancing in places before slowly dissipating.“Thanks..” He strained through a slow heave.“Hmph.”In another choked breath, he closes his eyes, head turned more into the rocky wall he's leaning against. He focuses more on leveling his breathing better before he bothers speaking again.Then he huffed. “...We need to get out of here..” His voice was sounding a little more gravely now.“No kidding.” Shadow voiced flatly.Sonic tried to give a scowl, but it was half-baked as his features pulled with every little twinge and throb in his body. Carefully pushing off the rocky wall beside him, he keeps his ‘bad arm’ plastered to him, wrapped around his stomach to keep it from moving too much. He looks up to where the chasm’s opening was last seen, but it’s just darkness.“If I can just..” Standing a few paces away from the wall, he holds out his good arm. A wave of light rolling down his glove and exiting his fingertips lets a hexagon-like panel appear in a small flourish of light. He swings his hand around it to grab the side before swinging it up like it’s a frisbee. It embeds itself in a dark soil above, some small crumbs of dirt dropping where the panel landed.The soil seemed soft enough to break through, though, even if it wasn’t, they’d find a way to break through it anyway.Sonic turns to Shadow who looks down from the panel to him with a confused, but curious expression. Sonic ignores it for now.“Ready to get digging?”Shadow’s expression goes stern with a nod.Blue zips one way; red, the other. Both pushing off the opposing walls and soaring for the opposite wall, before doing the same on that one. From wall to wall, they get high enough where the panel is seen edged in the soil with a faint light. They curl into balls of quills before colliding into the ceiling of dirt and burrowing through with ease.Sonic would be lying if he said this didn’t hurt, but it was their only option. That, or wait for Nine to open it again to drag them out, but that wasn’t any better.When they finally broke through and flew in open air again to land on visible, solid ground; Sonic hissed sharply. The rough soil and rock of this ground did not feel good being rubbed into open wounds. He’s definitely going to need to take care of them later.When he’s on his feet again, Shadow drifts up beside him. They can both see the onslaught of a fight still raging below the crystal tower. Explosions and battle-cries that waved out even this far.“You ready to end this?” Sonic asked with a tired weight.He looks to the other hedgehog beside him. Now able to clearly see him and the splotches of dirt lightly coating his slightly disheveled quills and roughed up fur, which Sonic doesn’t doubt he looks the same.Shadow looked him over too, but with something unsatisfied. “Are you? ”“Pssh-” Sonic waves off. He’s aware the gesture was lazily sloppy, but he doesn’t care. He keeps his wits about him, though, offering his usual snarky grin. “Does that really matter?”“..No.” Shadow looks back to the battle.Sonic does the same. “Right, so let’s get moving.”And red and blue streaks wisp over the battlefield in synchronized fashion.