The desert outside Death City was long and vast. It was a long trek to arrive at the city, and many people wouldn't even make it if not for the help of on-patrol Meisters.
But one figure was making her way through the desert at a breakneck pace, appearing as a black blur and kicking up sand in her haste.
This figure had sensed a familiar energy come from this city, and her employers wanted her to retrieve the source in case it was needed.
Shadow the Hedgehog had to go to Death City to retrieve a Chaos Emerald.
The hedgehog in question had an appearance that many members of her species would consider very, VERY attractive.
With a slim waist covered in black fur that almost shined and curved in all the right places her crimson streaks in her spiky spines added a sense of danger that drove many wild. Around her wrists were two gold rings that attached to arm bracers of stylish design. Her feet were covered in a short of jet shoes that she was using to skate across the dusty dunes at a high speed. Her blood red eyes narrowed in concentration as she focused on the location of the emerald.
It was around a few days ago that the emerald was detected in this part of the world. G.U.N had grown slightly fearful over the concept of Meisters and witches and wanted the emerald extracted as quickly as possible. This would have fallen to teem Dark as a whole but at the moment the famed team was split.
Rough the jewel loving thief was currently on assignment elsewhere and Omega was over going repairs after his last assignment. So they sent just her. Not that should be a problem.
Shadows eyes narrowed as she felt the energy from the emerald spike suddenly and made a sharp turn not even noticing the small cactus that was extended from the ground. Since she never lifts her legs to skate at high speeds her foot got caught on the small thorny plant and she was sent flying with a yell of surprise.
The black hedgehog grunted as she rolled across the ground like a tumbleweed, actually curling into a ball from the trip.
She rolled across the ground for several moments, crashing into rocks and various different cacti.
She grew progressively more irritated at the situation before finally coming to a stop in a large sand dune.
The black hedgehog groaned slightly, dizzy and pained.
She quickly noticed that her upper body was wedged in the side of the sand dune. Her legs were lying spread-eagle on the ground and she had cactus needles stuck in her butt.
She growled low at the embarrassing position and focused her chaos energy and in a flash teleported out of the dune and landed on her feet with a wince. She gazed around to make sure no one saw and started to pull the needles out of her behind painfully. She glared forward in annoyance. If Rough or worse that other hedgehog was here she would never live this down.
Once all the needles were removed she sighed in relief before gazing around to find out her location. She frowned when she noticed she was slightly off course and cursed silently only for her to tense as a massive wave of chaos energy blasted through her. Her ears stood tall and her eyes narrowed as she looked over the sandy terrain to finally she spotted it.
A small cave so small the average person would have missed it. But for those who had the ability to track chaos energy it was glowing light a candle in the darkness. Shadow made a mad dash to the cave satisfied that she was almost done this mission. She hated sand.
And then, she promptly tripped again.
Meanwhile, inside the cave...
Medusa studied the emerald she had collected with a smirk. "This power..." She mused. "I can't get over this power!"
This emerald was going to play a very important role in her next experiment. If she could harness this power, she would be unstoppable!
However, she was no fool. She wasn't going to gamble her life trying to absorb this energy into her own body. Who knew what might happen?
Lucky for her, she had her useless guinea pig of a son to try it out on...
Back outside, Shadow had ended up in another embarrassing predicament.
She was now logged into the sand as she had ended up tripping on the sand dune as sand had gotten into one of her thrusters for her skates. She had flown out of control till she landed into the side of the sand dune with her behind sticking out.
For the briefest moment her form glowed red but it was only brief as with another flash of light she teleported out of the dune and landed back on her feet. She dusted the sand off her person with a scowl and glared down at her shoes with slight disdain.
'The one thing she has against me. Bah!' she thought remembering a certain blue haired hedgehog who loved to tease her about her speed. She shook those thoughts from her mind and focused on the mission at hand.
She was near the cave and decided she could walk at this point. She went to take a step and promptly slipped on the sand and started to tumble down the side of the sand dune and landed in the sand with her behind once again in the air and that red glow shining longer.
Back inside Medusa had strapped her four-year-old son to a table and had the gemstone in hand. She smiled darkly at the scared look the child was giving her. "Be a good weapon and don't scream to loud." She demanded as she lifted the gem up and started to push some of her magic into it.
The gem shined bright she placed it on the boy's chest and soon he was covered in purple static as it traveled all through his body. The boy winced and closed his eyes in pain. It hurt! It hurt!
And it kept getting worse! The little boy whimpered...then let out a sob...And then, he screamed. "STOP! PLEASE! MOMMY, I CAN'T! I DON'T WANT IT! I DON'T LIKE IT, PLEASE NO MORE! MAKE IT STOOOOOP!" Came his frantic pleas. Medusa rolled her eyes.
"What did I tell you, Crona?" She asked coldly. "Your body's taking it fairly well, all things considered. Let's turn it up a little bit..."
Back outside, Shadow yanked herself out of the sand, fists clenched in anger. She stomped her way in the direction of the cave...only to step on a scorpion. She leapt out of the way to avoid getting jabbed, possessing quick reaction time...only to crash land headfirst in a sand dune again. Growling, she pressed her feet against the side of the dune, thrusting and wiggling her way out, before crashing on her backside in the sand. Temper lost, she let out all the compressed chaos energy inside her, causing a minor explosion. It was MUCH weaker than her usual explosions, but this one was still strong enough to cover most of the area...and also turn a good chunk of sand into glass.
Shadow landed on her feet, panting heavily in anger, before forcing herself to calm down. She crossed her arms, stuck her nose in the air and let out a huff, walking away...
Only to promptly trip on a rock and roll down a hill towards a patch of cacti.
Back in the cave, Crona was bawling his eyes out. It hurt so much! Ragnarok came out.
"STOP IIIIIIT!" The weapon demanded. "YOU'RE GONNA KILL US! OH MY FREAKING GOD THIS IS AGONY!" Medusa scowled.
"You'll be fine." She replied. "Tough it out. Do you feel any stronger?" She didn't get a response, just Crona's sobbing. She snorted. "Useless brat...
Back outside, the focus went to an oddly coloured cactus sticking out of the sand. A quick wiggle revealed that it was actually Shadow's butt, filled with so many cactus needles it actually made her look like a cactus herself.
Shadow growled low in and with yet another explosion of chaos blast sent all the needless flying. She panted from the vast use of chaos blast and took a heavy breath. She hated the desert. HATED IT!
The hedgehog huffed and stood to her feet and with a grunt decided to save herself from future embarrassment and teleported herself into the cave entrance. She entered and soon was running down the darken hallways.
She froze however when she felt a large blast of chaos energy go through her. However, the energy made her spines stick up and she felt a cold chill travel down her spine. Her eyes widened as she realized what she was feeling.
Negative Energy.
The emeralds worked much like batteries. They have positive and negative energies housed within them. Emotions are what drives the emerald, those who use the emeralds for good intentions can harness the positive side of the emeralds, but those who uses its powers for their own greed and dark designs draw power from its negative side.
The problem was that the negative side of the emeralds have been known to cause intense madness and giant monsters made of water. She had to stop this now! Acting fast she sprinted down the hallways at lighting speed praying she wasn't too late.
As she got closer, she heard it...
Screams.
Screams of pure AGONY.
A CHILD'S screams of pure agony.
Shadow the Hedgehog was hard to upset. She was hardened from experiences, and she could hear the sound of a grown man screaming like this without batting an eye, able to keep cool and focus on the rescue.
But...she had a soft spot for children...
Her eyes narrowed dangerously as she sped up and soon was in front of a large metal door. She frowned as she placed her hand on the door and closed her eyes she felt the negative energy flowing like a damn river and the agonizing screams of a child was heard as clear as day. Her eyes snapped open and her eyes glowered slightly as she focused her energy into her hands.
Medusa sighed in annoyance as she continued to push the strange energy into the screaming child. She wished she had earplugs nearby but she would just have to take out her loss of hearing on the brat later.
She gazed to the side to see Ragnarok slumped to the side and curled into a ball yet she could see the violet streaks flow through his connection to the boy and he was slowly getting bigger. She smirked slightly. "So it would seem this gem is an energy source then. Just a little more and the next test will be the bunny again."
"PLEASE NO! PLEASE MOMMY NO! I-I DON'T-" Crona cried out as he shook from the energy yet he could almost feel himself scarily looking forward to it…
Medusa smirked darkly at him till the door behind her went flying with a large BOOM. She spun around and swiped her arm sending vector arrows to the entrench to eliminate the intruder.
When the dust settled she saw her arrows impacted…nothing? Her eyes narrowed as she looked around till a gust of wind blew past her and she felt her hand grow lighter. Her eyes widened as she snapped her head back around and saw to her shock that the emerald she was holding was gone from her hand.
Crona went limp, staring at the ceiling and letting out sobs of pain as the energy stopped flowing throughout his body. Ragnarok collapsed, melting into a puddle and slipping back inside Crona, to regain his bearings.
Medusa snarled and whipped her head around. "Where are you?! SHOW YOURSELF!" She demanded. Her answer was a swift kick to the face from an unseen force. She staggered to the side, spitting out a few of her teeth. "You...You..." She felt a solid punch connect with her nose, crushing it and sending her flying into a wall.
"You...heartless, good for nothing WITCH..." A low feminine voice snarled. Medusa shot up, and once again saw nothing.
"WHERE ARE YOU?!" She got punched in the cheek, multiple times, from every direction, all without even seeing her attacker. Eventually, however, her attacker did remain still, and she saw her clearly for the first time...
"A hedgehog?" she asked bluntly. Her eyes twitching in annoyance.
Shadow glared down at her with narrowed eyes. "Stay down if you know what's good for you." She said as she held the emerald in her hand.
Medusa hissed up at her and swiped her arm out only for it to be caught by the hedgehog's strong grip. Medusa's eyes widened as she felt a knee connect with her head sending her flying out of the room.
Shadow huffed at the woman and gazed down at the gem in her hand and griped it tight. "Mission Complete."
The soft whimpers of a child reminded her of the other resident of the room and she turned around and finally took notice of the small pike haired boy strapped to a table with tears running down his face.
The poor thing was crying his eyes out. "Why...Why, mommy...?" He moaned, clenching his tiny fists tightly.
Shadow approached the child slowly, as if in a trance.
Her chest...It hurt...Seeing the boy in this state hurt her heart...
She hadn't felt this way since...since...
Mark...
Suddenly, memories began flooding back to her...
Flashback...
She stood gazing at the earth with a seven-year-old blond haired boy holding her hand. She had a content smile on her face as she gazed down at the awed look on the boy's face. She chuckled in amusement. He had seen this sight many times and yet he was amazed every time.
"It's so pretty." He commented.
Shadow smiled and hummed in agreement. The earth had always looked beautiful.
"One day you will go down won't you?" He asked her looking up at her.
Shadow frowned in thought as she remembered what her purpose was that the doctor had told her. "If you do. You will be a hero! Saving lives like mine!" he said with so much cheer it warmed her heart.
She smiled down at him and patted his head making him pout slightly. "Maybe I will."
End flashback...
Shadow winced as she was drawn back to reality as the child let out a loud sob that caused her to act.
She snatched him right up off the table and held him tightly against her chest.
Crona screamed, however, and began to thrash wildly in her arms. "PLEASE STOP! I DON'T WANT ANYMORE! IT HURTS! PLEASE!"
Shadow's eyes widened at how much the boy was panicking. But she didn't stress over it. She knew what to do...
"Hey...Hey..." She said in the most gentle tone she could, tightening her hold on him. "It's okay..." The best she could do for now was speak gently to him until he calmed himself down.
Eventually, he screamed himself hoarse. Now all he could do was let out rapid, heavy breathing. She took the opportunity by the horns.
She gently pressed his head against the soft tuft of fur on her chest, and rubbed his head. "Shhhhh...It's okay..."
Crona sniffled but snuggled into the soft embrace the fur provided and cried in her embrace. He didn't know what was going on. He had never been hugged before in his life yet…this felt nice. He was warm and the one holding him was whispering soft words into his ear.
Shadow frowned softly down at the child. She felt a great pain in her heart at his sobs and wanted nothing more for them to stop. She ran her fingers through his hair softly before whispering softly in his ear that everything is okay.
The child continued to sob and whimper into her chest but it lessens greatly as the child was soon growing tired from his crying and the great pain he had endured.
Shadow frowned at his still pained look and decided to try something. Closing her eyes, she focused on the chaos energy within and discovered to her shock that the poor child had absorbed a ton of chaos energy! No wonder he was in so much pain!
Acting quickly Shadow focused and began to pull all the negative energy from the child and into herself. She had handled negative energy before and knew how to handle it better than most.
Crona flinched when he felt something in his body. It was a pulling sensation...
However, the fear of more pain quickly subsided. In fact, pain was actually LEAVING the little boy's body!
Shadow took in as much as she could. She knew taking too much could prove to have less than favourable results. She had taken in too much chaos energy before and lost control, and it wasn't pretty...
But she made DAMN sure that she knew for a FACT that the pain in the child caused by the energy would be gone by the time she was done.
Eventually, she pulled her hand off of his tiny head and sighed softly in relief. "There...Do you feel better?" The boy nodded slowly.
"Th-Thank you...M-Miss Porcupine..."
She raised a single eyebrow at that and stared into the wide eyes of the pink haired boy and just sighed softly with a small grin. "Your welcome."
Crona felt a ton better and snuggled into her embrace more so and cooed softly at the warm fur. Shadow smiled down at him happy that he was content and no longer crying.
Suddenly a black blob shot out of the boys back startling the hedgehog. It shaped and molded into a tiny figure with little X's for eyes and large comically sizes boxing gloves for hands. Honestly to the ultimate lifeform the thing looked kind of cute.
"Whew! That was crazy! I was feeling myself drifting there for a moment! Stupid magic rock! Stupid snake b***!" it went on a tirade not realizing that someone was in the room and holding his host.
Shadow quirked her brow watching the small creature ramble on. Then it turned to the child.
"Hey, Crona, why'd she stop?" He asked. Crona mumbled something into Shadow's fur. "What was that? Couldn't catch that over...Wait, hold on a minute..." He slowly looked up at Shadow, who smirked slightly.
"Hello there, odd creature." She greeted.
"...Whoa..." The black blob began to study her closely, from every angle, in a very contemplative manner, much like a scientist would a particularly interesting specimen. The black hedgehog blinked.
"...What are you doing?"
"Trying to decide if I'm attracted to you or not."
Shadow gave the creature a deadpan look making it blink at her and tilt its head as if stuck in a memory. "That looks familiar" he muttered.
Shadow only huffed and decided to ignore the little blob and focus on the child in her arms. She smiled softly at the fact that he had fallen asleep in her embrace. A warmth flew through her heart that she had not felt in so long.
The little demon blinked coming out of his memory and looked over at the sleeping child. "Well I'll be…the kids asleep." He whispered shocked.
Shadow could only nod her head with a content smile. "Yes. Thankfully it will help him. He must have been exhausted."
"You have no idea lady." He muttered softly.
"Do tell." She ordered making the demon tense and striated out
"You uh...sure you wanna know?" He asked. "It's a long, messed up story..." Shadow smirked.
"What a coincidence." She said, moving towards a chair and sitting down, crossing a leg. "So is mine." Ragnarok frowned.
"All right, so uh...Where do I begin...?"
"The beginning would be a nice place to start." Shadow replied.
"Okay, so you know this kid is that snake b***'s son, right?"
"He is?" she asked shocked over that as she gazed down sadly at the child with anger flowing inside her.
"Yeah. Hard to believe she got laid let alone had a kid but hey, anything's possible." The thing shrugged making the hedgehog snort in amusement.
"Any way. So she had a kid. Turns out, she wanted one to experiment a new substance she was working on. She called it 'Black Blood.'"
"Black Blood?"
"Weaponized blood. Think of it. Weapons that you hold from within your own body. It's crazy enough to work, and sadly it did." He said softly.
"So you are…"
"I don't remember who I once was. All I do know is that I'm called Ragnarok and am the weapon for the kid. Too bad he is to young and pure hearted to use me. But that never stopped the lady. She used all methods of torture to get her way. Using us as test subjects and trying to break the poor boy into killing."
Shadow scowled at the thought of this sweet, innocent little boy being tortured in order to be used for an experiment he wanted no part of. "Yeah, pretty brutal, right?" Ragnarok nodded.
"...Go on." Shadow said.
"Okay, so she wanted to break him. Completely. Destroy his emotions. She's been trying to make him kill a bunny rabbit for the past three months."
Shadow looked over at a different part of the room to see a small bunny in a cage, innocently eating some lettuce. She frowned and looked down at the child in her arms. He was clutching tightly to her fur.
"Fluffy..." He mumbled subconsciously as he snuggled closer to her.
The demon chuckled softly at that. "Guess he likes fluffy animals." He joked only to get a dark glare from the hedgehog making him shiver in fear.
"Anyway! The kid held on strong and never touched the thing. No matter what happened he never hurt it. Then…she came in with that rock and…" the demon shivered. "It…scared us. It tried to change us. I could feel it. I could feel the madness spread through us and I felt it. Deep down. I felt his blood lust grow."
Shadow frowned down at the child as he was shivering. She ran her hand up and down his back and he started to relax again causing her to grin. "The chaos energy shouldn't hurt you anymore."
"Chaos?" Makes sense. That's what it felt like…chaotic…and…addicting…" he mumbled as he twitched slightly.
Shadow frowned. "You're not saying you WANT more, are you?"
"Oh GOD no!" Ragnarok replied. "That stuff's a nightmare!" Shadow nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, it's not meant to be given to anyone in such large doses..." She gently rubbed the back of Crona's head and rocked him back and forth. "ESPECIALLY not a child..." Crona cooed at the gentle display of affection and she smiled warmly at him.
"So, what happened to the b***, anyway? Ragnarok asked, looking around nervously.
"She's probably out in the desert somewhere." Shadow replied.
'BOOM'
The wall exploded as an enraged Medusa stood on a broom stick with thousands of vector arrows all lined up ready to strike. "YOU LITTLE B***!" she shouted at the hedgehog who had leaped from her chair and had landed on the other side of the room. "I WILL F****** KILL YOU!"
"You were saying?" Ragnarok deadpanned.
Shadow scowled at the woman with narrowed angry eyes. "I thought you learned your lesson already." She said holding the child closer to herself.
"As if!" She scoffed. "I was just surprised. I now understand how you work. Speed is your ace, well how well can you run when there is no road?" she demanded as more arrows sprouted from the earth and surrounded the hedgehog leaving only her space free.
Shadow glared around at the arrows in disdain.
Ragnarok gulped. "Well f***." He said blunt.
Medusa smirked down at the hedgehog. "Now be a good little mammal and let my experiment go. Oh and drop the brat as well." She demanded in a bored tone.
Shadow looked around at the arrows with a flat, bored expression on her face. "...Chaos Spear." She said simply before snapping her fingers.
What looked like thousands of spears of chaos energy burst from the hedgehog's hand and began to launch themselves at the arrows surrounding them.
Soon enough, the arrows were entirely out of the equation, all with a simple snap of the fingers.
The demon whistled low with an impressed look. "Damn."
Shadow smirked at the demon before glaring up at the glowing witch above her. "Give up now?" she asked in a mocking tone.
"Y-You!" Medusa hissed as she started to chuckled then laugh hysterically causing the hedgehog to raise an eyebrow at her.
"What's so funny?" she asked feeling the child tense in her arms.
"You think you are so powerful? You think just because you have power it makes you strong? Well guess what it doesn't work that way!" She yelled out. "I have what I need to kill you right here!" she pulled out a syringe with black liquid inside.
"You F******* mad woman?!" Ragnarok shouted at her. Shadow only narrowed her eyes at the snake mistress.
Medusa just laughed. "Madness was my goal and with you and the child it will come true but why not join in when I have nothing left to lose at this point!" she shouted.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Shadow deadpanned.
"Black Blood…" Shadow's eyes grow wide at that she stared at the syringe.
Medusa chuckled and placed the needle to her neck. "Exactly. And with it your death." She commented as she injected the black substance into her neck.
Shadow's eyes narrowed. "You think that's gonna be enough to stop me?" She said with a smirk. Medusa laughed as the blood was injected into her veins. "Well, you'd better think again..." She held the chaos emerald aloft. 'Glad I picked up the rest of them on the way.' She thought as the emeralds surrounded her.
"Whoa...What the hell's going on here...?" Ragnarok breathed, gawking at the emeralds.
Medusa let out a scream and charged...
Only to be promptly blown back by a powerful burst of energy.
Medusa shook the cobwebs from her head as she gazed up at the transformed hedgehog.
No long black and red. Her fur was now a silvery gold with her red marks seeming to glow bright. Her eyes were glowing with a great power and a smirk was firmly placed on her face as she held a now very calm child in her arms and a stunned demon.
"Wh-Wha-Wha?"
"This…is the ultimate power." She said with a smirk as she floated from the ground her power radiating over the area.
Crona however was calm and relaxed as he cooed softly and nuzzled more into the warmth, calmness and safety that seemed to radiate from the woman.
Medusa growled low at the hedgehog as she returned to her feet. "Ultimate power huh?" she asked. Then chuckled low. "I doubt it!" she shouted and screamed as Vector arrows exploded from her body coated black and shot at the transformed hedgehog
However, they never even got close to her. The arrows immediately dissipated into a black vapour as soon as they were within ten feet of the female hedgehog.
"WHAT?!" Medusa was about to explode. "THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!"
"Not for me it isn't." Shadow replied smugly. Then, before Medusa could notice what was happening...
She collapsed to her knees, coughing up blood and clutching at her chest.
She hadn't even noticed the seven kicks Shadow had delivered to her body.
Shadow smirked at the downed woman and slowly floated over to her. "Give up yet?" she asked in a mocking tone.
"Damn you…"
Shadow only shook her head. "Those who abuse children are trash. Those who abuse their own children are garbage." She commented coldly.
"Save it for someone who gives a damn!" she coughed out more blood as she felt her chest was in pain. She gasped in pain as she held her chest with wide pained eyes.
Shadow rose an eyebrow at the woman. "Seems like your body couldn't handle your own poison." She commented.
"You...You furry...little...hussy..." Medusa choked out, trying to crawl her way over to Shadow. The black hedgehog turned away from her, sticking her nose in the air with a huff.
"You don't know when to quit, do you?" She said, moving away.
"Come...Ba-ACK!" Medusa coughed up a wad of blood and let out a m*** of agony. Shadow continued moving away from her.
Crona was still fast asleep. Unaware of what was happening to his mother.
Ragnarok just stared wide eyed at the woman and then at the hedgehog stunned silent. What was this power? It felt…so warm and positive…it was inhuman.
Shadow let out a sigh as she gazed down at the child and felt a smile grow on her lips as she witnessed his sleeping face so content. Without looking back she murmured one "Chaos Control" and teleported out of the cave.
Medusa gasped and spat out more blood as her air supply was running out. She laid flat on her back and stared up at the sky as black blood leaked from her mouth she raised her arm up in the air and muttered. "C-Crona…" before her arm fell and her eyes dulled as she died in a pool of her poison.