This one-shot is for the Kelvinania "Summer's Up!" challenge. Thanks for choosing to read this story and I hope you enjoy it! :)
-BAA
Shadow stared at the goal ring in front of him. There it was. The goal blocked by the Black Arms symbol…it was just mocking him.
"Well, looks like the shield's blocking the way that's activated by a switch!" Sonic stated. "We gotta go back and find it, huh?"
Switch? What switch? They already spent forever searching for the goal, and now they have to go back and look for some switch?
Shadow was only too annoyed. He came this far just to go back? But he was doing so well! Did he really have to go back and start over?
Black Doom was messing with him with this shield…
He knew this wasn't the first time Shadow was frustrated going back and looking for the most inconspicuous of things.
The first time he didn't lose his patience.
(*)
Maria Robotnik could be seen scampering down the many corridors of the Space Colony ARK, breathing in and out heavily. The entire colony was in such disarray, with the scientists around her crying, screaming, and running around in circles as the alarms in every visible corner of the ARK blared as loud as possible. The young girl bolting through hallway after brightly-lit hallway was in pursuit of one particular hedgehog, who she knew would be the only being on board who could stop this madness.
It was but a matter of time until Maria's sprinting came to a halt, as she saw her dear friend staring at the siren above him with widened red eyes.
"Shadow!" she gasped his name in desperation once she saw the ultimate life-form. The black hedgehog's attention was immediately directed to the girl and away from the swirling scarlet light once he heard the girl's high-pitched pant.
"I need your help!" Maria ran up to her grandfather's creation; ironically enough, her grandfather's creations were the very reason she and many others aboard the ARK were in such a tizzy.
"Maria?!" Though he had a calm, steady demeanor, Shadow was just as stirred as everyone else aboard the space colony at the moment.
"Please, Shadow! I need your help!" she grasped Shadow's hand. "Grandfather's experiments...something's gone horribly wrong!"
These very experiments Maria spoke of were the out-of-control Artificial Chaos her grandfather created to protect his space colony. However, after these creatures' completions, the robotic organisms broke loose and dispersed, destroying anything and everything in sight...scientists, passengers, and laboratories included.
"What is it?" Shadow inquired.
"The research lab..." Maria stated, clenching Shadow's hand even tighter. "It's going to be destroyed. Something must be done! Please Shadow, you have to help grandfather and those aboard the ARK! Please!"
After this implore from his dear friend, Shadow immediately knew what his next action would be.
"I'll be there, Maria." Shadow promised her. "I swear, whatever it takes, I'll take care of the ARK and the professor!"
Little did he know that the phrase "whatever it takes" was to be used against him...
Maria gave a quick nod as she and Shadow scampered to the beginning of their mission.
"Shadow, this way," Maria temporarily led the way as Shadow swiftly skidded across the steel ground behind her. "The experimental monsters are in here! They're on a rampage!"
"Don't worry, Maria. I'll handle this..." Shadow passed Maria and glided a few feet more, until he came across a small, wooden crate. Punching through the wood, a compact machine gun appeared with a green aura surrounding it. Shadow picked up the weapon immediately, turning back to the girl.
"Now," Shadow stated, now armed. "Which way should we...?"
To his right, a spring that led to a new destination caught the hedgehog's eye. Shadow took Maria by the hand and accelerated towards the spring, which caused he and the girl with him to land on the other side of the gap after going through a whoosh of air; he and the girl also collected a few rings down this path.
As soon as the two landed, Maria gasped, pointing to her left. Once Shadow turned his head in the direction Maria was pointing, he immediately knew his target.
A blob of what appeared to be a liquid-like substance floated in front of the ultimate life-form and his companion. Its emerald eyes were piercing as its metallic helmet glistened against the light from the siren and lights surrounding the area. It gave no emotions. No sounds. All it did was stare at its predator, who was clicking in the twenty bullets worth of ammo in his machine gun.
Shadow glared at the creation as he pointed his gun at the Artificial Chaos. Letting in a breath, he quickly aimed at the creation, clasped his finger around the trigger, and...
TIKTIKTIKTIKTIKTIK!
Bullet after bullet left the gun's barrel at an alarming rate, as Maria stood back, covering her ears. Each bullet went straight to the Artificial Chaos' weak spot on its head, depleting its health dramatically. After about fifteen of the twenty bullets escaped the machine gun's barrel, the creation caved in, exploding in green goo.
Maria, now seeing the first of the Artificial Chaos was annihilated, took her hands off her ears and slowly walked over to Shadow.
"Thank you, Shadow..." she sighed with relief as she marked a tally in a notebook from the pocket of her skirt, keeping in mind that there was more than merely one monster… "But there are still more out in the colony, so please be careful!"
Shadow gave a slight nod as he and Maria walked over to a metal door, which opened automatically as the two approached it. The door led them to another closed-in room, where Shadow found a different crate carrying, to his luck, another compact machine gun inside. He punched through the crate and took out the ammo of the machine gun within; after only about five bullets left and killing just one monster, Shadow could use all the ammo he could muster.
"How many of those creatures are out there?" Shadow questioned as he noticed a small opening lit with red lights in front of him.
"According to a report of my grandfather's..." Maria quickly calculated inside her head, hesitantly replying, "Thirty-five?"
Shadow's eyes widened.
Oh, he definitely needed that ammo.
He crouched, rolling through the opening that led to the first corridor.
What appeared feet ahead of Shadow and Maria in this corridor was an elevator shaft with a deactivated switch next to it. To their left and right, doors upon doors were visible, leading to different corridors, pathways, along with who knew what else. Finally, what separated the expansive room was a GUN Lift, which was powered by a green, radioactive substance below its track.
"Shadow!" Maria gasped, pointing to her right. "Look!"
Shadow looked in Maria's direction to see a pair of GUN soldiers firing at another Artificial Chaos. The hedgehog skated towards the experiment, only to notice that the GUN soldiers were missing the monster with every shot they took; it was almost as if they were controlled by a very poorly programmed AI.
Once more, Shadow aimed his gun at the experiment, letting his twenty-five bullets deplete to five once more. The monster died as quickly as the first one. Shadow noticed this and smirked.
"Good going, Shadow!" Maria exclaimed, catching up with the hedgehog. She took out her notebook once more and slashed another mark next to the first.
Shadow also noticed, however, that his ammo once more depleted to a much lower amount. He then thought of the two GUN soldiers...who still kept shooting at the wall a yard or two away.
"Just how dumb are these agents?" Shadow thought to himself. "But wait...are those...machine guns they're using?"
Indeed, with a closer look, Shadow could tell that the GUN soldiers were, in fact, using machine guns. He could bring that five up to forty-five in no time at all…
So, Shadow did whatever any other hedgehog desperate for ammo would do and attacked both soldiers in one fell swoop by using a Homing Attack. The two fainted instantly, and apparently, this did not please the fellow human that accompanied Shadow.
"Shadow!" Maria cried. "STOP!"
Once Shadow landed back on the ground, he admittedly did feel a bit of guilt once he got this scold. These soldiers really didn't do anything…besides being so unaware and holding the ammunition he needed, of course. So, Shadow grabbed the two machine guns, emptied them of their ammo, and just let the unarmed, possibly unconscious men be. They'd wake up eventually, right?
"Two down, thirty-three more to go. Now," Shadow thought to himself. "Which way next?"
"I think I saw one of the experiments up there!" Maria pointed upward, and Shadow saw that the elevator's path led to a whole different platform, where the blue experiments were bound to be hiding.
"Well," Shadow gave the girl a smirk. "You know where we need to go."
Maria nodded with a grin. She and Shadow paced swiftly across the GUN Lift's platform and activated the switch of the elevator shaft. The two jumped on, and they soon reached their next platform.
They came across a few more of the Artificial Chaos on the platforms above, and the encounters with the creatures were the same as the last two: shoot, kill, reload, repeat, with Maria marking off each and every defeated target. Then go to another elevator, turn on a switch, go up, and handle the encounters with the experiments accordingly. Of course, Shadow had to knock out a few more soldiers in the process as Maria continuously scolded him about how these soldiers did nothing to her or the hedgehog, so "Why do anything to them?"
It was also during this abolishment of the monsters that Shadow discovered something else: these monsters had tentacles that reached out to home in on him whenever he was in a ten foot radius of one creature, making his mission all the more difficult.
Yet, even through the monotony of killing each Artificial Chaos one by one along with Maria's nagging of sorts and the increasing difficulty, Shadow felt a tinge of confidence. He killed seven at this point! Already a fifth done! He and Maria would be finished in no time at this rate, right?
...Right?
After checking once more through platform after platform, room after room, and hallway after possible dead end, Shadow and Maria came to the consensus that they could go back downstairs and ride the GUN Lift to their next targets around even more areas of the ARK.
"The GUN Lift doesn't have any shielding," Maria remarked to Shadow as he reclined in the Lift, pressing his fingers against the trigger. "So be careful when riding it."
Shadow simply nodded. No shielding? Ha! No way THAT would be a problem here, at the fast and steady process they've been making!
As the two rode aboard the quite expansive GUN Lift, Shadow was able to tick off one, two, three more Artificial Chaos off of the total.
A solid ten down. Twenty-five more to go.
"Piece of cake from here..." Shadow smugly grinned as the GUN Lift came to a halt.
The next corridor was similar compared to the first, with more experiments to kill, more weaponry to re-load, more soldiers to catch off-guard, and more scolds from a twelve-year-old. There wasn't much all that different from this corridor...not much at all. In fact, Shadow's confidence and killing streak didn't waver all that much. Oh sure, he was knocked over a few times by the Artificial Chaos' aquatic appendages and a few "Damn it!"-s were let out of the hedgehog's muzzle due to brief tinges of pain and frustration with the Artificial Chaos, but his rings were plenty and he had a gun at hand at all times, so being a victor against any water monster was simple.
The entire journey was just like these two corridors all the way around. Shadow killed the experimental monsters, while Maria, (strangely enough), brought up how the creatures' "eyes looked so sad", along with how "cute" the experiments looked when they "split apart". All these remarks got were raised eyebrows and dead silence from Shadow. She did, however, make herself useful by continually keeping count; Shadow was filled with so much thrill and was too focused on killing the Artificial Chaos than keeping count of them. (He actually stopped at ten.)
The two rode many GUN Lifts, shot several creatures, and felt as though they did something meaningful for the betterment of the ARK's population. And after a full circle around the ARK, Shadow and Maria found themselves back to where they started.
Shadow had sweat running down from his face, with his mouth formed into an accomplished smile and eyes glittering with delight. Green goo from monster debris could be seen in his tangled fur, but like he was bothered by that. He just saved the people of the ARK! Completed the mission given to him by his best friend! Protected the professor along with every citizen on the colony!
HE WAS THE CHOSEN ONE!
"Yes!" he exclaimed when he and Maria found themselves in the very first room they found themselves encounter the Artificial Chaos for the first time. "We did it, Maria! We destroyed all the experiments and saved the ARK!"
Maria was quite happy herself, especially for the hedgehog's accomplishment. Killing all those monsters must've been difficult for her little hero, handling all thirty-five of those Artificial Chaos all by himself and-wait a minute...
She took out her notebook and saw the tallies she made throughout this mission.
Her eyes widened with a sudden realization, as she bit her lip.
"Oh no..." she thought, looking up from the notebook. "We're not done here..."
"W-Well...um..." she chuckled awkwardly to Shadow. "About that..."
"I mean, did you SEE how I handled those last few monsters? Those 'Artificial Chaos' were nothing! All thirty-five of them, too easy!"
"Haha...funny how you'd bring up thirty-five, Shadow..."
Shadow halted the basking in his own glow.
"...What do you mean by that, Maria?" Shadow asked with hesitation.
"Well...I...uh..."
"Go ahead, Maria!" Shadow stared up at the girl with wide eyes. "Say it!"
The girl sighed, paused for about five seconds, and finally said,
"There are thirty-five out there...but from everything I counted," she bit her lip once more, looking downward at the floor. "You only got thirty-four of the monsters. You missed one."
It was at that remark where Shadow halted his cheering altogether. However, he didn't seem to be at all bothered by the fact that the mission was not yet finished.
"Oh," he hummed. "We missed one?"
Maria nodded.
"Alright then. In that case, we best be on our way." Shadow sprinted out of the room, jumped over to the next with the spring, and made his way to the first corridor.
Maria reluctantly followed, knowing that her hedgehog friend was taking this far too well...
Shadow peered around the first floor of the corridor and went through every room that each door led to. This floor seemed to be Artificial Chaos-free.
Going up to the next floor, no monsters could be found. Same with the floor above it.
The ride on the first GUN Lift, there was no luck.
Second corridor...nothing.
Shadow and Maria went through every room, every hallway, and inspected every passage they could find. All Shadow found was more ammunition, more rings, and the fact that his Homing Attack was apparently powerful enough to keep a GUN soldier out cold for more than an hour.
After no luck whatsoever in finding the last experimental monster, Shadow and Maria found themselves once more back where they started.
"Maria, are you for certain there are thirty-five of the Artificial Chaos out there?" Shadow slowly felt his confidence and tolerance dwindle once he asked this question. They looked high and low, left and right, but they found absolutely nothing new or different.
"Yes, Shadow," Maria groaned, covering her face with the side of her hand. "That report said there were thirty-five created, and thirty-five are in fact out there."
"W-Well, maybe you counted wrong!"
Maria shook her head and showed him the notebook. Only thirty-four tallies…
"We're missing one, Shadow…"
"So…"
"We have to go back and look again."
Shadow was annoyed. Go through the ARK? Again?
Well, he did say he'd do whatever it took, didn't he?
So, Shadow decided to swallow his frustrations and just go around once more…
Only for he and Maria to end up back where they started after yet another long-term yet extremely thorough inspection of the ARK.
"This is ridiculous!" Shadow was losing his patience. Three times. Three whole times of going around the ARK, and for what? Just to miss one Artificial Chaos and then keep going back each time just because of that one monster?!
"Well," Maria let out a breath, as she felt her perspiration make her frizzy hair stick against her neck. "You know what we need to-"
Shadow groaned with the same machine gun in his hand, which now had over two hundred bullets in it from collecting from every single GUN soldier on this ship, along with opening every crate in sight just to see if there so happened to be an Artificial Chaos small enough to fit in such a crate. He already walked through the door and went right back out once more.
Hopefully three times would be the charm…
Ha, not a chance.
Maybe a fourth time?
Nope.
Fifth?
Nuh-huh.
Sixth? Seventh? Eighth?
Nein. Non. Negatory.
Maria would dare not take count of the number of times she and the hedgehog went around the space colony; the tallies would fit five pages. Eyes weary, legs weak, and feet trembling, she and Shadow were exhausted.
Which corridor were they in? Like theyhad a clue. Have they been here before? Oh…probably.
They've only seen this room with two hallways leading down two completely different directions about…oh, maybe a million and two times.
"What should we do? Which way do we go?" Maria whined, rubbing her eyes.
"Like I know!" Shadow was close to slamming the gun down. "We've wasted hours and hours of our lives trying to find just one monster! ONE, DAMN IT! And now, we have no idea what corridor we're in, what time it is, and most importantly, where the hell that DAMN thirty-fifth Chaos…whatever it is would be!"
Shadow banged his head against the steel wall next to him.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE WE'RE LOST!" Shadow bellowed.
Oh, the two were indeed lost. They couldn't find the monster and they had no idea where they were. And direction wasn't the only thing Shadow was losing. He was losing his patience. His confidence. His mind.
Did he fail? He said he was willing to do anything, and that he would beat this mission. Well…having no idea where they were didn't make him feel anything all that positive.
Maria slowly stepped over to Shadow and quietly patted him on the back, running her fingers through his moist fur.
"Don't get discouraged, Shadow…" Maria said. "I'm a little annoyed and tired myself…but we have to keep trying…"
"But where could that monster possibly be?! I…" Shadow huffed, hitting his fist against the wall. "I got us lost. I couldn't find the monster. I'm…I'm sorry…"
The girl gave a weary grin to the hedgehog.
"Oh, Shadow," Maria ran her hand through Shadow's head as he slowly looked towards her. "It's not your fault. If anything, it's the Artificial Chaos' fault for being so hard to find. Besides, this is a big space colony, with so many things to be hidden just for the sole purpose of finding!"
Shadow turned his head away from the wall.
"In fact, it's so big…" Maria laughed a little to herself. "Even I still get lost sometimes!"
Shadow tried to stay silent and appear bothered, but a smile pulled through. Maria got her little hero back…
"So what do you say, Shadow?" she showed Shadow the thirty-four tallies in her notebook. "Want to make this thirty-five tallies?"
It took a moment, but Shadow stared at the notebook and replied,
"Whatever it takes."
So, the two ran off to the left pathway, and they felt they were close to truly completing their mission…
(*)
"Shadow…?" Sonic tried once more to gain the hedgehog's attention. "Ya there, buddy?"
Shadow glared at the Blue Blur with his teeth bared as he gripped the machine gun in his hand tightly. "Now look, I know we need to find this switch and all, and I'm not sure where it is neither," Sonic rubbed the back of his head and chuckled. "But don't let it get you down."
Shadow huffed, turning away.
"I know it's frustrating, losing your way, but I've run around the world so many times, and even I still get lost sometimes." Sonic shrugged. "It's a big world, you know, with really small things hidden just for the sake of finding…with some things being as small as a switch. And I know we'll find it…we just have to look hard."
Shadow looked up at the hedgehog and began to listen more.
"So whaddya say, buddy?" Sonic gave his trademark smile. "Ready to get looking?"
It took a moment, but Shadow gave a smug smile to the hedgehog and ran off back to where they started.
"Whatever it takes…"