Prologue

"Ultimate power!" an enormous monster shrieked, it's tentacles flailing at its sides. Replacing its feet, the monster had hundreds of tendrils attached to its abdomen, drilling into the ground. Everyone that saw it either ran away, or stood frozen on shock as a huge tendril flew down on top of them. The seven Chaos Emeralds sparkled in the twilight while they circled around the monster's head, as it sucked the power out of them.

An ebony hedgehog accompanied by two others ran out from an alley to see the leviathan's tendrils just a hundred yards away. Shadow cursed and looked quickly from Sonic to Amy. "You guys ready?" he said, mainly to Sonic. He didn't want Amy to get hurt, nor did he want her to get in the way when he and Sonic fought with his brother, Krypto. Both of them were created on the ARK, a space colony ran by Doctor Gerald Robotnik. Another hedgehog was made on the ARK named Zedrick, but neither Shadow, nor Krypto knew where he was.

Sonic nodded in response to Shadow, and looked at Amy. "Ames, can you sit this one out? Me and Shadow need to do this on our own," he said cautiously, incase she might've wanted to help, and was offended.

Instead of getting mad, however, she let out a sigh, and muttered, "You had better live through this, Sonic." Sonic laughed as though the idea of getting killed was insane. Shadow couldn't help but envy Sonic for the way Amy looked up to him as a hero. He never noticed it before, but he actually liked Amy. The same way he used to like Maria.

He quickly shook the thoughts out of his head and turned his gaze towards Krypto. "Come on Sonic. We have to get close enough to those emeralds to go super."

"You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Frontover building."

"Of course," Sonic smiled as he ran straight to Krypto's hundreds of tendrils. The Frontover building was the tallest building in Station Square, as well as the only way of getting to the Chaos Emeralds. Shadow had one last look at Amy ensuring that she was ok, and then ran after Sonic.

Sonic was already standing in front of the Frontover building waiting for Shadow. "What took ya so long?" he teased, as Shadow came to a stop in front of him. Shadow grunted a reply, and walked through the doors. He was glad to see that almost everyone in the building had evacuated, save for a few people who were hiding under the many desks on the first floor.

Sonic stood in front of an elevator, and was about to push the button, when Shadow calmly said, "The stairs will be safer," and started to run up the many flights of stairs, quickly followed by Sonic. "Sonic, keep an eye out for any tentacles," he said and at the same moment jumped high in the air as a tentacle two meters in diameter smashed through the wall, smashing through to the other side of the building. Sonic quickly slid under the tentacle at the last minute.

"Thanks for the warning," he gasped when he had caught up with Shadow again. Shadow chuckled a little, and twirled through the air again as several more tentacles smashed through the wall in complex patterns. Finally the last tentacle flew horizontally through the building, and Shadow swore as the building started to fall backwards, so he and Sonic had to hang on to the handrail to keep their balance. They still had to climb six more levels to get to the top, and it was impossible at the rate they were falling. Shadow eyed an elevator one flight of stairs up, and he immediately set off towards it. He kicked the door in and jumped through the door followed by Sonic. The building was at a completely horizontal angle, and they were standing on the wall. Suddenly the building seemed to catch itself in midair. Shadow knew Krypto had grabbed the building and was glad he still had a chance to get to his head.

Shadow grinned and looked at Sonic. "Take a few steps back, Sonic," he said, and carefully took two steps backwards. Sonic gradually took a step back, and was thrown in the air by a tentacle thrusting through the floor below him.

"You 'coulda told me that would happen!" he yelled, but Shadow's were fixed on the ground as second tentacle thrust through, a foot in front of him. He put his index finger in the air to tell Sonic to stand still. Suddenly the twin tentacles ripped through the building cutting it in half, leaving Shadow and Sonic separated. Krypto peered in at the two hedgehogs, and threw the two halves of the building to the ground. In that one second Shadow knew he couldn't make it. He had failed.

Suddenly everything stopped. Sonic was frozen in spot and they weren't falling anymore. Shadow thought he must've subconsciously used chaos control. This left him a small chance that he could reach Krypto's head. He ran to the opening in the building and jumped out. While he was in the air, time started up again; the two sections of building crashed to the ground; Krypto eyed Shadow menacingly. Right then Shadow felt the power of the chaos emeralds flow into him. He was just about to go super, when he got the wind knocked out of him by a giant tentacle. Shadow fell for what seemed hours. Suddenly he heard that call.

"Shadow!"

"M-Maria?"

"Shadow!" This time it was Amy's voice that hit his hears. He suddenly regained consciences and at the last second flipped in the air and landed on all fours. The seven chaos emeralds fell around him. He stood up, looked at Amy, and nodded to her. In a second Shadow was face to face with Krypto.

He yelled, "Chaos spear!" and ended Krypto's life with a fatal hit to the eye.