Chapter 5

"I failed Zay," Mustapha sighed as Shadow stood by him outside of the snowy landscape of Fjord. "You never failed to impress me just yet. Keep up the work." Shadow replied as he stood idle and emotionless, as the grass trapped under the snow tickled his feet while he remained like a stone, his arms folded. "But you're here now, and it's like the world needs a savior to keep things in line to defeat Radkon and get you back home, Shadow!" He turned slightly to where Mustapha stayed in the corner of his left eye and said, "I feel ya." A weird moment of silence formed between the two when Mustapha's radar alerted spotting Radkon somewhere near the area they're at. "My sensor's picking up Radkon, let's hurry!"

Mustapha interrupted when the beeping on his sensor went off. Shadow went his own way and decided to go through the parched hills of Fjord. "Energy readings are indicating multiple enemies in the area. Radkon may be around, so watch your step." Mustapha warned Shadow, as he nodded his head and zoomed off with his air shoes. He made his way downtown with thousands of tiny snow particles being kicked up, as he went between a mountain's peak completely made of ice.

It was no challenge for him to speed through without sliding all around, because Shadow was known as the Ultimate Life Form; he could handle anything. Suddenly, Shadow was met with small forces from Pirates but striked through like a bowling ball making impact to the pins. Once he was out of the peak, he was surprised to see the whole town crumbling in flames. "This is terrible. Radkon's taken control of every city, but we'll find a way out of it soon!" Mustapha communicated over to Shadow.

The city was about empty now and was heavily guarded by Ice Warriors. "Up ahead is enemy territory. Be careful, Shadow." He added. Shadow just kept speeding through the area that he was just entering, and once the Ice Warriors took notice of his entrance, they entered high alert. "This is Ice Warriors! Turn around immediately or face lethal force," the voice called from the distance of what appeared to sound like Icey's. Shadow took a sharp left into the forest near the territory as large spotlights began shining down around to look for him. Luckily for Shadow, he was difficult to see at night time.

The Ice Warriors were wearing helmets with flashlights, but even with their weaponry, fighting Shadow would end up in immediate defeat. A dozen of soldiers walked right outside the gates of Fjord, when Shadow started boosting with his air shoes, spitting flame-triggering sparks behind his trail. The enemies started shooting icicle arrows at Shadow but missed their shots and hit the spruce trees whose branches were burrowed in snow instead. The hedgehog attacked them all, spin dashing through them as he used a soldier as an assist over the gates.

He landed as the pink sunrise began to peak over the walls of the fallen city. Mustapha called Shadow's communicator to inform him, "Radkon should be up ahead, let's hurry!" Taking the advice, the hedgehog entered a void dimension to where Mustapha was hiding, behind a rock so he could hear what Radkon was saying to Blackheart. "And so, the final prototype of the Phantom Ruby is complete," he said, crushing a pink and red velvet gem similar to the one dropped in the Luminous Forest. "It was a disposable prototype, one that records the DNA of who triggers it upon contact." Radkon pointed as he flew idle in his aerial assault ship, as Mustapha turned his head to Shadow after peeking over the rock.

"Say, didn't you run into Zay somewhere in Sub Zero?" He asked, thinking to himself. Blackheart only nodded back and said, "Yes, but he was too weak to be finished. Weaklings like him are of no consequence. And it's none of your concern," Blackheart added. This caused Radkon to enter a state of frustrating emotion as he pointed that letting our hero live was a great matter of concern. Mustapha overheard as Shadow kept listening. It caused his head to spin over the fact of Phantom Ruby prototypes...and Zay still being alive after all this time. "Maybe it's a concern to you.

DCP has beaten you and Ice Warriors along with Pirates, yet I still beat him the first time we met after six months. Even one of the Morningstar members couldn't get it together at our so-called 'reunion' not long ago." Blackheart calmly stated back. He didn't care what it would take, as long as the Resistance was finished. And the "prototype" that he was just talking about was defective and is believed by Blackheart to only be activated by somebody with a similar strength of will like him. But that wouldn't matter now that Sub Zero's rainforest entered lockdown. "Wait. Zay...is alive?"

Mustapha turned to Shadow when he warned him to duck down. He did the same when Blackheart turned to them at the last second. Radkon questioned what it was he noticed. "Nothing. We move forward with your plan?" The duo who were hiding behind the rock continued to stalk the villains as Shadow asked himself, "What are we watching?" Radkon went on talking about what he wanted to do. "Of course! When it's complete, DCP will fall and be erased from existence. The world will be nothing but ashes, right where the glorious Redemption Empire shall rise onward!"

Radkon slightly cackled. "And the Resistance will fall to the Phantom Ruby's yield," Blackheart said before flying away. Shadow stood up and was about to climb over the rock when Mustapha stopped him. "What are you doing?" Mustapha asked. Ignoring his question, Radkon spotted Shadow. "What?! You!" He exclaimed. Shadow curled into a ball while airborne and hit Radkon's ship. "I don't have time for this," he complained as he flew away. Shadow told Mustapha, "I'll hold him off for a while, catch up with me!" before dashing off to fight Radkon.

He cackled while his ship was in the air as he dropped a spike ball that swung left to right on a heavy chain. "Such power exceeds even MY expectations! My own genius scares me sometimes," Radkon claimed as Mustapha called on Shadow's communicator, "That means you miscalculated. That's a failure in my book!" Radkon chuckled a little despite Shadow hitting his aerial ship, breaking some parts of it. The wrecking ball swung almost all the way to the ground, kicking up snow. "It's the ultimate of genius to surpass expectations, not like I'd expect you to understand." Radkon said as Shadow bashed the aerial ship when a giant battle mech flew up behind him.

It was a giant mecha to replicate a dragon with spiky body parts painted red and a long, gigantic drill on one arm with a six-barrel cannon on the other. It had large wing units with exhaust pipes on the back. This machine was unlike anything DCP had seen. A large spiky mechanical tail hung behind the mech as it started launching up rocks. Shadow was lucky enough to launch the rocks back at one of the Redemption Dragoon's arms, delaying their attack.

"You've got a lot of nerve for a twin pin-cushion from another faction. Still, this mech has only lost 10% of its combat strength," Radkon said. "You're lying." Mustapha replied while Radkon was shooting the six-barrel cannon and told him that he wouldn't have to wait long to find out. The barrel and rock attacks weren't the only thing Radkon had up his sleeves, though. The long drill apparently could be regenerated in milliseconds after being launched as the right arm whirred up and launched across the land but missed.

Radkon's mecha was strong, but Shadow was stronger and grabbed one of the airborne drills with his Chaos Control and swung it over to the Redemption Dragoon as the motors and engines blew up and burst into flames as the mecha twitched side to side and sinked from the sky, bracing for impact. "I guess it wouldn't be much of a challenge to crush you here anyway, but I'll round up the resistance in no time. Just you wait!" He said as his white aerial ship thrusted away.

Shadow quickly boosted to a spring and warped himself into a void to the right ring thruster which allowed it to levitate without using landing skids as a support. He grasped onto the thruster and with all his might and power, performed a Chaos Blast to send Radkon crashing down. "Yeah, we did it!" Mustapha called out as the assault ship's nose ducked straight down and slid across the acropolyptic landscape. The cockpit released open as Radkon peeked out and interrupted the celebrating duo.

"Just look at you, fighting like you think you've got a chance to take the bread home. Almost makes me feel bad that we won't do this adorable dance again, as in three short days, my doomsday plan will just be enough to destroy DCP and the bothersome of you!" He teased as Mustapha and Shadow turned their heads over to him, their expressions of joy changing to confusion and anger. "Wait, three days? And what 'plan?'" Mustapha questioned Radkon as he rebooted his assault ship, the engine having power but still notably quiet. "It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you. Because as the saying goes, the anticipation of the end is worse than the end itself. Well, maybe not in this case," Radkon said as he cackled and flew away. Yet, Radkon did not know what to expect in the following days to come.

Back at the resistance where business continued, the Rookie was beginning to find his spot and his moment to truly shine as a hero. But as the Resistance began their journey taking back the world, Ice Warriors would still demand what they want…

"Radkon's army has broken through into Summit. We need to get the civilians to safety!" Aggie said in shock from multiple SOS calls that came in at Resistance HQ. "Who can we send?" Rah asked in question. "Gingersnap and Zay need time to seek medical aid for their wounds and the others are engaging enemy forces that were spotted in Zipline." The two scratched their heads for a second when Zay got up from laying down on the medical bench he spent the past hours on to heal his leg, asking, "Why not send the Rookie? He might know what to do!"

Aggie disagreed with his statement and said that there was nobody else to spare but the Rookie is best saved for last. That's when one of the Resistance soldiers, not a leader, alerted the headquarters' communicator. "This is the 8th unit! We're pinned down under heavy enemy rate and can't hold on any longer!" Zay gave Aggie and Rah the look as if they should've listened to him the first time. "Told ya," he teased as Aggie rolled her eyes in reply. "Looks like I've got no other choice. Okay, Rookie, this is a difficult mission. Go to Zipline and save those civilians!"

Rah ordered him as he nodded and walked out the electronic door in the top right corner of the headquarters where DCP was hiding out. Lots of the DCP members were ordered to train the soldiers. Fluffy, fourth in command, was told to make sure that they follow the tactics they are given. Frozy was in charge of training them daily. Now it may seem like they can't get a break from their hard work or even get a raise or promotion. Don't worry, they do.

Rookie was on his way downtown as he dashed down the road of Zipline, an urban center that was lost to war. The concrete household buildings were crumbling and the decent size neighborhood had been invaded by Ice Warriors. In the distance were multiple soldiers fighting giant life-sized robots which stomped around and was a Death Iceball Robot; same metal and colors and possibly deadlier than the Redemption Dragoon as it had extending arms with spiked hands and a cycloptic eye with a bright red laser.

They were duplicated but never had the aura from the Phantom Ruby. This was what Radkon created in his free time. They threw gigantic pieces of debris like meteors that crashed and swung their arms to wreck more havoc. But the rookie kept running on. "What the heck? A whole army of Death Iceball Robots?!" Rah asked the communicator. Viv entered the chat and so did everyone to stay in touch with each other during the mission. "That's way too many that we can handle alone!" She cried. Rookie grappled over the buildings and over the enemies, fighting them off and saving the civilians.

The skyline was orange as the smoke from the flames of disaster rose. Zipline had been drawn to ruins from the chaos and war that marched on across the city, as the civil defense sirens rang out, warning the citizens to immediately evacuate. The Death Iceball Robots could be seen causing heavy damage to the houses and buildings. But the resistance soldiers continued fighting on against the Ice Warriors who stood upon them as their artillery shot through the screaming air of war. What made matters worse was there were random fireballs coming out of the sky, setting the once peaceful suburban area ablaze.

The soldiers continued calling the communicator, saying the overwhelming amount of enemies was now something they could no longer handle. But yet, Rah assumed that this could be something the Rookie could handle. While the rest of the units were preoccupied across the globe, the Rookie was battling the Ice Warrior units who were invading. As he made progress through the city, Aggie and Vivala began congratulating the Rookie for his hard effort to save whoever else was left stranded in the city of Summit. What could be heard now from the rubble was the Death Iceball Robots collapsing down, as Ice Warriors finally called an order to retreat from the warzone, leaving Summit officially captured by DCP.

"The enemy's retreating! No remaining citizens have been left behind. And hey, good job," Viv called to the Rookie through his communicator as he grappled away and the Resistance artillery specialists cheered in victory. "That was impressive, but we still have a lot to do." Skylark walked back in alongside everyone else to headquarters. "Great job, Rookie!" Zay complimented the Rookie, patting him on the back. "Knew you oughta to do if you believed in yourself!" He added as TheMightyA interrupted. "Nice moves out there. But if you hog all the glory, how am I going to look good?"