#and so ive had metal virus on the brain even more than before lol

[saline-coelacanth]

Overwhelmed (Metal Virus Shadow Rewrite)

Link to ao3

The metal virus was taking its toll on everyone. All of the survivors were scared of getting infected and anyone who did get infected wasn't given much time to cope with what was going to happen to them. Even Sonic was putting a lot of strain on himself, constantly needing to run in order to keep his infection in check. He wasn’t sure why his speed was able to fight off the infection, but he honestly didn’t need an answer right now. What mattered is that it worked. He just wished that others would be able to run off the infection like he could.

When Shadow got infected, Sonic wasn’t super worried as he knew Shadow was possibly the only other person who would be able to fight it off, and after some yelling from Shadow, that’s just what he did. Sonic had come back to fight off the zombots, and Shadow begrudgingly ran off to let Sonic handle the fight. But the thing is, after Silver and Tails showed up to help evacuate Sonic and what remained of Omega, he didn’t see Shadow again.

“I’ve lost contact with him,” Rouge informed when they arrived at the restoration base. “He better be ok.”

“This is Shadow we’re talking about,” Sonic assured. “He’ll be fine.”

Rouge stayed silent. She wouldn’t say it out loud, but Sonic knew she was worried. Shadow was now missing and Omega was left as just a head, so she had every reason to be worried.

“I’ll go out and look for him,” Sonic offered.

“After you rest,” Amy interrupted.

Sonic let out a sigh. “Fine…” He hated to admit it, but he was exhausted. He would take a few minutes to relax, but then he would be heading out again. Not that he was going to tell anyone about how short his break was gonna be. His friends were worried about him, but Sonic was also worried about Shadow. 

After Sonic’s short rest, he went out on the search for Shadow. He didn’t have much to go off of, so he was pretty much just running around blindly. He continued running around but eventually, he had to take a break. He was in the middle of the woods, and luckily it seemed like there were no zombots in the area. Sonic would have plenty of time to catch his breath.

He sat down on a nearby rock and closed his eyes. He sat there in silence for a while until the quietness was finally broken.

“Sitting still for once?”

Sonic sat up and turned around as he heard Shadow’s voice. The black hedgehog walked up, his arms crossed.

“Shadow, there you are!” Sonic replied, standing up. “Where did you go off to?”

Shadow narrowed his eyes. “You wanted me to run off this infection,” he explained, “so that’s what I did.”

“I mean yeah, but you didn’t have to go all silent on us,” Sonic retorted. “Rouge was trying to contact you! We need your help.”

Shadow turned away. “It’s probably best for me to be out on my own,” he said. “That way we don’t risk anyone else getting infected.”

“Makes sense,” Sonic agreed, “but you could have at least let Rouge know you were ok.”

Shadow stayed silent. Sonic noticed that Shadow’s arms were still crossed. More than that, it looked like he was trying to hide something.

“At least you managed to get the infection down, right?” Sonic asked.

Shadow nodded silently. Suddenly, he began to walk away. “I’ll make sure to contact Rouge,” he said. “If you guys need my help, let me know.”

Sonic wanted to stop Shadow from leaving, but he already knew he wouldn’t be able to change Shadow’s mind. “Alright,” he replied simply before making his way back to the restoration base.

______________________________________________

Some days had passed since Sonic’s encounter with Shadow. Things continued to get worse for the restoration and Amy was being flooded with stress. Sonic came in to check up on her as it was obvious she wasn’t doing too well.

“Anything you need help with?” Sonic asked.

Amy sighed. “Too many things. I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

Sonic crossed his arms. He hated seeing his friends like this and he knew he couldn’t do much to lighten the mood.

“People are starting to lose hope,” Amy started to ramble. “More and more zombots are showing up every day, and we’re starting to run out of supplies.”

“Supplies?” Sonic repeated. “There’s something I could probably help with.”

“What do you mean?”

“Tails was telling me about some of the old storage units back in the city,” Sonic replied. “There should still be supplies left back there and if I manage to get in there, I can bring it back here.”

“But Sonic, the city will be swarming with zombots! You can’t go in by yourself!” Amy argued.

“We need supplies and I’m the only one who can safely get them,” Sonic argued. “I’m already infected so even if I get attacked, I can still make it out ok.”

Amy thought about the plan more. She didn’t like the idea at all, but things were getting desperate. And Sonic had come out of worse situations and ended up being fine in the past. She let out a heavy sigh. “Ok, go for it,” she agreed. “But be careful. And if things get too dangerous, leave the supplies and get out of there, ok? You’re more important than that stuff.”

“You got it,” Sonic replied.

Sonic wasted no time getting to the city. He wanted to get this over with quickly because he knew the longer he took, the more worried it would make Amy. As Sonic neared the city, it seemed like it was a lot less swarmed compared to last time he was here. There were still a large amount of zombots, but it was more manageable. Sonic did his best to dodge any of the zombots in his way, not wanting to worsen his infection if he didn’t need to. He was nearing the warehouse and turned the corner but saw a massive swarm of zombots standing in the way. He skidded to a halt, not wanting to run straight into the swarm.

“Crap!” Sonic said, which seemed to get the attention of the zombots. 

He prepared for a fight, but before the zombots approached him, they were hit with a blast of energy. Sonic blinked before looking over to see Shadow jumping down from one of the nearby buildings.

“Shadow! Boy am I glad to see you,” Sonic commented.

“Talk later,” Shadow ordered. “Right now we need to get inside the warehouse.”

Sonic nodded and the two of them sprinted past the opening Shadow had made. Shadow entered the main door with Sonic close behind. Once they were both inside, they quickly closed the doors to keep the zombots out. Sonic let out a sigh of relief, glad that they were able to make it. Shadow immediately started walking further in, so Sonic followed.

“So, what brings you here?” Sonic asked.

“Amy called me, said you needed help,” Shadow explained. “We’re here to get supplies, right?”

“Yep,” Sonic answered. “Though, I probably could have handled it myself.” Sonic smirked, but his smile quickly faded as he noticed Shadow’s arm. It was almost completely covered in the Metal Virus and was creeping onto his shoulder. “We’d better get this done quickly so you can deal with that.”

Shadow was quiet, not saying anything in response.

“I didn’t think it would be that bad, you know, assuming you ran here and didn’t just teleport,” Sonic continued.

“It isn’t that bad,” Shadow retorted. Almost immediately after saying this, the virus spread a little more onto Shadow’s shoulder.

Sonic gave Shadow a concerned look before covering up his worry with a smile.

“Always so stubborn with you,” he joked.

“Hmph.”

The two of them remained quiet as they continued looking around for the supplies they came for. The entire warehouse was pretty barren, so there wasn’t a whole lot of stuff to grab. Sonic eventually turned the corner and saw a spare room. It was dark so he couldn’t quite make out what was in it, but it looked like a few boxes.

“Hey Shadow! Over here!” Sonic called.

Shadow looked over towards Sonic, but froze up as the two of them heard a loud crashing sound.

“What was that?” Sonic asked.

“The zombots must be breaking through the door,” Shadow replied. “We need to hurry.”

Another, louder crash sounded and a large beam of light entered the warehouse as the zombots managed to break through. Sonic and Shadow immediately ran towards the room that Sonic had spotted before the zombots could overwhelm them. They closed the door behind them and looked around. Luckily, the boxes were filled with the supplies that they had come here for.

“Jackpot!” Sonic cheered.

“But how are we going to get it out of here?” Shadow asked.

Sonic looked around. There was quite a bit of space in this room, but there were no windows or other doors. The only way out was through the way they came, and there was a swarm of zombots out there.

“I… I don’t know,” Sonic admitted. “Maybe we can call for backup and they can-”

“We don’t have enough time for that,” Shadow cut him off. A banging sound started to come from the door as the zombots tried to break it down. Shadow grabbed a nearby crate and pushed it in front of the door.

“Maybe… Can you use chaos control to teleport us out of here?” Sonic asked.

“I don’t think I have enough energy for that…” Shadow admitted. “Maybe if it was just me, but…”

“Then you take the supplies and teleport out,” Sonic said.

“What!?”

“I can make it out of here just fine,” Sonic assured. “I’ll dash past the zombots and meet you back with the rest of the restoration.”

“I’m not going to leave you behind like this! It’s too risky!” Shadow yelled. “Besides, you won’t be able to fight off an entire swarm like this by yourself.”

“C’mon, I like to think I’m perfectly capable of handling that many zombots,” Sonic replied. 

Shadow seemed to flinch in pain as the Metal Virus began to spread further.

“And you need to get out of here to run off the infection,” Sonic reminded, his voice more serious this time.

Shadow looked at Sonic. The blue hedgehog’s infection was visible, but it was nowhere near as bad as Shadow’s. Shadow closed his eyes.

“I’ll stay back and fight the zombots to give you an opening to escape,” Shadow decided.

“No way am I letting you do that!” Sonic argued. “If you’re gonna fight the zombots, then I’m staying with you until we both make it out!”

“You’ll need all the energy you can get to carry the supplies out of here,” Shadow replied. “And I won’t be very useful for much longer.”

“What are you talking about?” Sonic asked.

Shadow went quiet for a moment. “I… I can’t keep running off the infection. It’s been spreading too quickly.”

“What?”

Shadow stared down at his hand which was completely metallic. “I figured that being the ultimate lifeform would make me immune, or at least more resistant to this virus,” he explained. “But it seems like the virus just mutated faster to keep up…”

“Yeah, but, you’re still gonna be fine,” Sonic assured. “Running still helps, right?”

“All we’re doing is delaying the inevitable,” Shadow responded. He looked away. “I knew this would be coming sooner or later.”

The virus was beginning to spread over Shadow’s body much quicker now. Sonic didn’t want to believe it, but he knew Shadow was right. He was running out of time, and there wasn’t a safe way for them both to make it out.

“Shadow…” Sonic said, not knowing what else to say.

“Just make sure this mission wasn’t for nothing,” Shadow said. “When those doors open, I’ll send out a chaos blast. That should give you time to get out. And don’t you dare look back. You’ll get distracted and you can’t be slowing down at all.”

“Alright…” Sonic responded quietly. 

A crash sounded as one of the zombots broke their arm through the door. Sonic grabbed the box of supplies and prepared to make a dash for it when Shadow was ready.

“Sonic,” Shadow said.

Sonic looked over at Shadow one last time. He was almost completely taken over by the virus at this point. “Keep everyone else safe.”

Sonic nodded. “I will.”

The zombots finally managed to break through the door. Shadow channeled his chaos energy and shot off a giant chaos blast, sending the zombots flying and creating an opening just like he planned. Sonic instantly ran out as fast as he could. He could hear Shadow behind him, continued to fight the zombots, and as much as he wanted to look back at him one last time, he refrained. He continued running until he finally made it out of the city. He felt himself begin to get tired, but he kept going. He slowed down ever so slightly to contact the restoration.

“Sonic? Is that you?” Amy asked.

“We got the supplies,” Sonic said, cutting straight to the point. “I’m on my way back.”

“What about Shadow?” Amy asked. “I sent him out to help you.”

“Yeah… Yeah, he helped me,” Sonic went quiet.

“Sonic, where’s Shadow,” Amy repeated.

Sonic shook his head. “Shadow… saved my butt back there.” Sonic let out a quiet chuckle. “Guess I’m gonna have to owe him one now.”

“Sonic, what happened to Shadow?” Amy asked, beginning to worry even more.

“I’ll tell you the details when I get back,” Sonic said. “But… Shadow made sure this mission was a success.”