Penumbra - First Bout

"Woo-ha!" Sonic exclaimed, all hyped up as he flew over a strange-looking rocket on his Extreme Gear-brand hoverboard. The rocket crashed into a gift shop on Emerald Coast, (it had been closed permanently for some time now). Maybe he was having too much fun with this, they were under attack after all, by someone fast enough to keep pace with and sometimes even outrun Extreme Gear no less. He cleared his throat and put on a serious face. "Tails, any idea who this guy is?" Sonic asked, looking to Tails.

"No clue! I can't see him!" Tails cried, sweat beading up on his face. He looked to Sonic, who just looked back cluelessly. Tails' eyes widened. "Look out!"

Sonic looked ahead of him, and saw two petrified young ladies in swimwear not far away. The gap would be closed quickly at this rate if he didn't act fast. He instantly swerved right, and out of their way, but his hoverboard was caught by one of the rockets. BOOM!

His ears rang as he rocketed forward. He landed in the sand facefirst. He rolled over weakly, and through the thick veil of his eyelids closing, he saw the vague shape of a red-eyed anthropomorphic spider figure. This must have been their hunter. "You like what you see?" The figure asked, posing with one of her eight arms on her hip. She had a flirtatious tone. Sonic noticed the Robotnik Empire symbol on her clothes. "You know you're staring, right?" She grinned as she stepped closer to him. "I'd love to play some more… but you've already seen too much." She pointed one of her arms at his throat, the sharp rubbery covering poking through his fur, against his skin. Her arm… looked just like the rockets being fired earlier.

"Don't… don't hurt... Tails," Sonic rasped, sure he wouldn't survive this. Those things could topple buildings when they hit, and he was just one hedgehog lying at point-blank of one. "Please…"

"Don't worry, you won't be alive to see---" the woman started. But before she could fire or even finish her sentence, something yellow slammed right into her face, scrunching it in slightly. The impact was so hard that in that moment, it almost felt like it was in slow-mo as Sonic passed out. He could see the afterimage of Tails standing atop his Extreme Gear, practically mangling the spider between his hoverboard and the ground.

Tails stopped, figuring she had endured enough. He swerved around towards Sonic as the spider was flung forward and sprawled out on the sand. "Sonic, are you---?" Tails asked. No response. He checked his pulse, and to his great relief, he was alive. Just... really banged up.

While Tails tried pick Sonic up to fly him to their last Extreme Gear, the spider was wrapping some of her own silk around her wounds as if with a bandage. It not only stopped the bleeding, but healed her almost instantly. As she tore off a sufficient piece with her teeth, she looked at Tails and smiled through the drowsiness. Making thick enough healing silk to also act as bandages took a lot of energy. But it was better than just dying there. She had an assignment to kill these two, and she would make sure she did so.

"Don't think you're getting away!" The spider hissed through her fangs. She shot out one of her arms towards Tails. Tails looked over his shoulder at the sound of her voice, and nimbly dodged out of the way with Sonic in his arms. The rocket arm blew up where they were just seconds prior, but the spider just spun another one out of spider silk.

Tails took off into the sky by spinning his two tails like helicopter rotors. "What?!" The spider shrieked. "He can do that? No fair!" She pulled out one of her arms, and balanced atop it as it rocketed off towards the fox.

"Looks like we lost her, Sonic," Tails sighed. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the spider using one of her arms as a hoverboard of sorts. She squinted, as she locked on target and shot out another batch of arms and legs. She jumped from limb to limb, and was about to reach out to Tails when---!

She realized she had no more arms left to reach with.

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhh!" She screamed as she fell to the ground. Tails heard a loud impact when she hit the sand. He took a second, floating in place. He then exhaled heavily, and continued off into the yellow sky.