Shadow was led into another city by the Ghost Rider, but he was beginning to run out of options. No matter where he hid or where he turned, the Ghost Rider could still find Shadow and could still keep close to him.

"This guy's fast." Shadow mumbled as he lowered his body to the side along the turn of the intersection ahead.

As he leaned with a hand out to hold balance, his hover skates allowed him to drift smoothly on the road. Right before he would intersect with the oncoming traffic from the left, he shifted upright again and boosted to the left and onto the sidewalk at the right. Ghost Rider didn't have the space to drift now with traffic in the way. He caught sight of the last streetlight pole and tugged the chain's grip on his torso. Once it unraveled, he whipped it around and tossed most of its length at the nearing pole. When the chain coiled tightly around the pole, Ghost Rider accelerated forward while holding his grip and the tension between him and the pole allowed him to swing off the street into the air, sharply slinging left towards the grass median strip on the road. Shadow was nowhere in sight, so he skidded to a stop to look around for him, his bike's tires burning the grass beneath him.

"Where the f-," Ghost Rider paused when he abruptly noticed something hurtling towards him. "Shit."

Shadow came out from hiding inside a nearby shop and he quickly launched a Homing Attack at the Ghost Rider's side, the latter tipping over into the burnt grass.

"Fucking rat." grunted Ghost Rider.

He put his hand into a nearby flame at his side. As soon as he got to one knee, he flung a just-formed fireball at Shadow. Shadow flipped and twisted in the air to evade it, and by the time he landed, he was repositioned to face the glass building that was behind him. He turned his head back to shoot a taunting grin at the Rider, and in a blink he sprinted forward at a speed that allowed him to run directly up the side of the building. This was Shadow's final escape plan. While having to play the offense more than he intended, he knew that this plan to lose the Rider with a rooftop-route would do just the trick, or else he would have to stop running to permanently put an end to this chase.

As he was nearing the halfway point of the building, he heard an engine rev. He peeked back to see if Ghost Rider was retreating, but instead was met with a polar opposite response: the Ghost Rider was on his motorcycle again, but was now riding up and along the building after Shadow.

"What the hell is that thing?!" he exclaimed.

"Two can play it that game!" the Rider cackled.

"Alright then."

Shadow's pride took this as an insult and he ditched his plan, intolerant of his opposer. He slowed down slightly to let Ghost Rider believe he was losing momentum. The bellow of the engine grew louder as it drew closer, Shadow using it to his advantage. Then, timing it correctly as he felt a brush of heat from the fuming vehicle, he swerved himself around downwards, now face-to-face with the demon. He delivered a swift but sharp uppercut to the chin bone and sent the Rider off his seat and across the street. They were both falling from seventy stories high; Shadow ready to land, Ghost Rider soaring and flailing- then colliding spine-first with the opposite building's rooftop edge. When Shadow finally met the ground, he landed on his feet like a cat. Ghost Rider appeared to use the rest of his effort to pry himself off the depression he left on the roof, to then let himself crash with an impact that cracked the sidewalk.

"Looks like the game's over." huffed Shadow. He tried to recall which direction the Chaos Emerald flew off to. He spun around to fix onto a direction- "East," and so he went off in that direction.

By the time Shadow was far gone, the still skeleton's flames reignited throughout its body again.

Ghost Rider weakly rose from the indented ground, rolling out his shoulders, "That asshole must've been holding back when he first punched me."

As he let his body's flame dwindle for his skin to regenerate, he halted midway through as he sensed something. The Spirit of Vengeance overcame Johnny Blaze as it forced the pained host's skin to melt away once more. The Rider growled and held his head to withstand the pain, then a vision framed in an inferno came to his mind: it was Nathan Blackwood flying in the sky.

"This boy's looking for trouble, he just doesn't learn." chuckled Ghost Rider. Suddenly, his vision darkened as the fires turned into black shadows and they enclosed on the scene to end the vision. "Oof. Nope, he's already in trouble."

He whistled for his motorbike from across the street and it picked itself up to ride back to its owner. The latter hopped on and began his hunt for the demon half-blood.

Back On The Mobians' Earth...

"Soooo, they just vanished...Along with the Chaos Emeralds?"

"What else do you want me to say, Knuckles?! I'm just as confused as you are!"

Tails met up with Knuckles again and had to explain everything he saw.

"This doesn't sound right..." Knuckles shook his head.

"It's gotta be the Chaos Emeralds, Knuckles; this is proof!" Tails stressed.

"No it isn't, stop blaming the Chaos Emeralds! If it were them, I would've felt a disturbance from the Master Emerald!"

"Wait, the Master Emerald didn't go anywhere?"

Knuckles grabbed Tails' arm to rotate him and pointed at the sky, "I dunno, you tell me."

Angel Island was still afloat, proving that the Master Emerald hadn't gone away.

"This doesn't make any sense," Tails scratched his head, "None of this does. I feel like there's a big piece to this puzzle that we're missing..."

"Well, I'll leave you to your 'science' to figure that one out."

Tails sighed, "Knuckles, this situation may defy every law of science we already know and understand, but I'm pretty sure I can come to some scientific explanation, so don't go discouraging scien-" he stopped to realize Knuckles was walking off and ignoring him, "Where are you going?"

"Those hunters have a ship. I'm gonna check it out to see what I can find."

"...Huh." Tails nodded in approval, "That's actually a pretty good idea! Wait up!"

Knuckles stopped to face Tails with a smirk, "What happened to finding that 'scientific explanation?'"

"I don't appreciate your condescendence."

"Now you know how I feel whenever you start explaining things!"

"Touché. Come on, we'll take my plane."

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