Shadow knew something was up when Solaria started to make sudden stops and look around. But when he asked her why she was stopping, she simply said it was nothing, and continued on.
"Solaria, really, tell me the truth: What Is Going On?" Shadow asked putting emphasis on the question. Solaria hung her head and sighed, turning around to face the black and red hedgehog.
"Shadow I told you its nothing. I just have this funny feeling that something isn't right. Like we are being watched by someone or somepony" She replied, eyes still darting around, watching for anything that posed as a threat. At first Shadow thought his freind was being paranoid, probably from her "possession" by the princess.
"I gotta remember to give her a thank you for that, chaos spear style" he noted, but when he focused, he also felt something wrong. Out of the entire group only he and Solaria had enough chaos energy in their bodies to really be noticeable by other beings with the ability of chaos control. Now though he felt another pool of chaos energy, and it was moving, fast. Almost as fast as he could run, or for that matter Sonic could. But besides that, Shadow also realized, that it was moving towards the group.
"We need to move, NOW!" he shouted, racing away from the detected chaos energy, Solaria, Amy, Tails, And Pinkie Pie following him closely.
***
They had been running for several minutes by now, stopping only to take 5 second breaks and to let Solaria set up energy leech traps. Though none of the traps seemed to slow the being down, they kept running. But Pinkie Pie, Amy, and Tails were starting to fall behind.
"We cant keep running forever!" Shadow said, looking to Solaria with concern.
"Gee, when did that cross your mind professor, let's see who this guy is." She replied, stopping and spinning around to face their pursuer. They didnt have to wait long, a few seconds later the figure materialized in front of them.
And straight away, Solaria decided to have a fight, leaping up into the air and spinning like a top, chaos spears raining down on the figure.
"hmph, seen it" the figure said, moving away from the impact zone as fast as the blue blur.
"If you keep doing that ill become angry, you do NOT want to be my target when Im angry" The figure continued.
"I've dealt with worse, blur boy" Solaria countered, dropping down and preforming a spin kick, launching dust into the newcomer's eyes.
"ACK, okay, NOW I'M ANGRY!" the figure bellowed, an aura of red encasing his form, his eyes going pure white.
"that's right, speed boy, keep your power burning at white hot." Solaria said under her breath. The newcomer shot forward at Solaria, his body crackling with raw power. All Solaria did in response: was just stand in one spot.
Then it happened, with just meters separating the two hedgehogs, Solaria burst forward. The collision didnt seem to really affect the two, but suddenly Solaria's eyes went a solid blue-white, and her body started to change. Until standing before the shocked eyes of Solaria's friends and new foe, was a multi-color hyper form.
"H-H-Hyper Solaria?" Shadow gasped in astonishment.
"But how, we don't even have a chaos emerald, let alone all 7 super emeralds!" Tails said, his eyes wide.
"Hyper is nothing to me, your still going down, miss flashy!" the figure said.
"we'll see about that, oh, and you might want to get an anger management class, it could help you a lot!" The girl teased.
"GRAHHHHH!" was all the unknown hedgehog said, before leaping at the hyper hedgehog.
***
After what felt like hours, the battle was over, the two hedgehogs having reached a stalemate.
"Impressive, very impressive" The newcomer said between breaths.
"Not so bad yourself" Solaria replied.
"okay its time for some answers" Shadow interrupted.
"Who are you, and why are you here?" the black and red hedgehog asked.
"ugh, do you want the short version or the long version?" Unknown asked.
"short" Solaria said.
***
"I still don't trust you" Solaria said, glaring at Unknown like he was some foul piece of garbage. Even after they had all gone through the story of how he had become what he was, Solaria still couldn't shake a certain feeling that this guy was gonna give them trouble.
"I've gotten that look from many, though none of them were as good a fighter as you are" Unknown noted, rubbing his behind where Solaria had struck it quite hard with a "borrowed" hammer from Amy.
"Or hit as hard" he continued, wincing from the pain. This only made Solaria chuckle, and smirk.
"Okay, maybe I was being a bit rash there, I'm sorry" she said still giggling at unknown.
"yes, pain is very funny for you isn't it Solaria?" Unknown asked.
"Again, sorry" she responded
"um, guys I don't mean to break up this wonderful conversation, but I have a few questions: where are we, and what are those!?" tails half-shouted, half-asked, pointing to a group of black creatures who appeared to be riding on crosses between a motor bike and a unicycle.
"For one of the first times in my life i do-"
"Shadow speeders, whatever you do, dont let them touch you or try to touch them!" Solaria said, getting a running start before leaping into the air, the body of what looked like a vehicle quickly formed around her. When she landed, she was in a 3-wheeled hybrid of a bike and a car.
"Nice wheels Solaria!" Tails commented.
"I got this from when i actually had to face these things more often. Now go, ill provide some covering fire!" She said, the cockpit windshield lowering into place.
"Alright Balance Blade, as an old friend of mine might say, Lets Do This!" she said, the front of her vehicle opening up. the left and right portions of the "hood" of her car opening to reveal that they were in-fact blades, and the middle sliding forward, brandishing a chainsaw.
"Oh yeah, this brings back memories" she said quietly, revving the powerful engine, and firing a bot of energy from the saw-blade.
***
As soon as they made Tails, Amy, and Pinkie Pie promise that they would stay put, Unknown and Shadow raced away to help Solaria.
"I don't know what we are getting ourselves into here, but here we go!" said Unknown, as the two of them raced towards Solaria.
"Please Solaria, save some of them for us" Shadow added.