Disclaimer: I do not own anything of Street Fighter or Sonic.
I have returned. And now Akuma faces Shadow the Hedgehog. One chapter away from the finale.
The wormhole closes after Akuma gets out of it. Akuma then starts falling at rapid speeds towards the ground. He has been transported to the skies. Akuma takes this opportunity to look from above anyone who might present a challenge in this new realm. After a quick look, he finds his target and dives like a missile towards the ground.
Dr. Eggman in his flying pod is moving at full speed as Sonic is chasing him. Meanwhile, Knuckles the Echidna and Shadow the Hedgehog ran behind the blue hedgehog to support him. After all, they had to catch up because Knuckles and Shadow were engaging the Deadly Six. After defeating them despite being outnumbered, they decided to help Sonic finish things with Eggman.
"You won't get away this time, Baldy Mc Nosehair!"
"Shut up! I'm not done yet! Once I get back to the base, I'll have a ton of reinforcements!"
"If making an alliance with the Deadly Six ended up in failure, it's not your junk robots that will help you!"
As Sonic closes in on Eggman, something raining from the sky crashes between the two, resulting in Eggman's Eggmobile getting damaged. A demonic form appears before Sonic.
"Wh-what?" Sonic is surprised.
"Strange creature, show me your true power!"
Eggman takes advantage of the distraction to get away.
"Eggman! Get back here!"
Akuma takes advantage of the opening to strike Sonic with his Satsui no Hado imbued punch. But suddenly, Knuckles pushes Sonic out of the way and takes the hit in his place. Akuma's hand makes a hole in Knuckles' chest resulting in enormous amounts of Satsui no Hado flowing in him. Sonic is horrified at this sight.
"Knuckles!"
"Worthless gesture. Interferences from outside are unworthy of a fight to the death!" Akuma says, annoyed.
"You'll pay for that!" Sonic replies, angered.
"Yes. Come to me!"
But before they can trade blows, Shadow gets between the two.
"Sonic! I'll handle him. You deal with the doctor!"
"But… What about Knuckles?"
"He is still breathing. He'll be fine; now go!"
Sonic nods and runs after Eggman faster than the eye can see. Akuma turns to Shadow.
(Hmm, this one's skills are not too different. He will do.)
Akuma didn't care who he was fighting as long as they presented a challenge. Sonic and Shadow's very little difference in power made the matter insignificant.
"What are you?" Shadow asks.
"I am Akuma, Master of the Fist! Tell me your name."
"I am Shadow the Hedgehog. The Ultimate Life Form! What do you want from us?"
"I have mastered my fists. I search for a fight to the death. Well then, Shadow… Show me your power!"
And thus, the fight begins. Akuma seems to have the upper hand in strength, but Shadow is above in terms of speed. But their teleportation abilities put them on par for the time being. They both start trading blows while teleporting all over the place. Shadow manages to land a few kicks while the Fist Master gets a few Goshoryuken punches in. Despite this violent exchange, they still have a lot left. But Akuma can't help noticing that gold colored ring-like objects drop each time he lands a blow on Shadow.
(What is this? Does it empower him?)
Shadow turns into a ball and heads for Akuma, but the warrior kicks it away. However, the black hedgehog tries a spin dash again and hits successfully. Akuma catches the ball and blasts it away with a Shakunetsu Hadoken. But Shadow shrugs off the flames and starts doing homing attacks that Akuma tries to block. But the repeated hits break the Fist Master's guard and strike him. Akuma falls to the ground before getting up violently and punish Shadow with a Tatsumaki Zankukyaku. Although damaged, Shadow still had tricks in his arsenal. He changes tactics and starts hitting Akuma by boosting into him, he hits him continuously until the demon warrior in on his knees. The Fist Master gets up and manages to grab Shadow by the head after sensing where he would strike next. He slams him barbarically on the floor and the Ultimate Life Form teleports behind him, only for Akuma to teleport behind him while muttering: "Predictable!"
It is then that the demon lets out a blast of Satsui no Hado capable of razing an entire forest. That blast swallows Shadow.
"Sekia Kuretsuha!"
As Shadow lays on the ground, still alive, he realizes that he has about 10 rings left. Akuma stands next to the hedgehog's lying body.
(Is this all the challenge he could offer me?)
At that moment, Shadow the Hedgehog opens his eyes and says: "Chaos Blast!"
The red blast swallows Akuma and flattens the field. In the middle of the crater caused by the two attacks, the Master of the Fist wipes the blood from his mouth. He then jumps up and fires a few Zanku Hadoken that Shadow manages to dodge. The black hedgehog replies with his signature move: "Chaos Spear!"
The chaos based attack heads right for his opponent but Akuma deflects it with his fists. Not wanting to drag this fight on any longer, Shadow takes off his inhibitor rings. Akuma then gets kicked before he even knows what hit him. He tries to fight back but is overwhelmed by the sudden boost in speed. He simply can't keep up anymore. After taking a dozen of kicks from every direction, he falls to the ground. Shadow then starts charging a bigger Chaos Spear. But he startles when he realizes that the ground is shaking and the sky darkening.
(I got a bad feeling about this. I better finish him off quickly!)
But it's too late; Shin Akuma gets up and jumps towards the black hedgehog. Shadow has no choice but to fire his Chaos Spear. However, Shin Akuma deflects it with a Goshoryuken and teleports above Shadow to fire a Messatsu Gou Hadou which knocks him back violently. Rings fly everywhere. Shadow realizes that he is in a dire situation when he notices that he only has one ring left. He gets out a last Ring Tank of 50 rings from his fur and 7 Chaos Emeralds.
(I was going to hand them to Sonic to finish things with the doctor, but I guess I need them more right now…)
Akuma stares and frowns at the sight of the unfamiliar jewels that start to fuse with Shadow.
"What is this… Mockery?!"
"It all starts with this! Jewels containing the ultimate power! I told you, I am the ultimate life form, Shadow the Hedgehog!"
"Nonsense! I am power made flesh! Feel how weak you truly are!"
A bright flash surrounds Shadow. He takes a shining silver gold color.
"Finally, a suitable challenge for a demon." Shin Akuma says, surprisingly satisfied.
"Hmph! A demon, eh? This might even be a fair fight!"
The air and the skies shook in resonance in the first clash of hits. The fight was strong, the fight was fast, and no side intended to yield. But as Shin Akuma distributes a Messatsu Gou Rasen to his opponent, he senses something is amiss. Shadow indeed is projected violently against the ground by the attack, but he comes back for more in a matter of seconds.
"Chaos Spear!"
"Tenma Gou Zanku!"
The two attacks blow an entire field away. Super Shadow decides to switch locations, so he teleports Shin Akuma by touching him all the way up to the Lost Hex's Windy Hill. Shin Akuma takes advantage of their closeness to kick Super Shadow to perform the Demon Armageddon. The gold hedgehog is pushed back by the first kick, allowing him to capitalize. He kicks him again brutally in the skies as the heaven kanji appears in Super Shadow's back.
"The other realm awaits."
But even with one of his strongest moves Shadow recovers in about 5 seconds.
"Ha! You can barely damage me." Super Shadow gloats.
There was no way for Shin Akuma to know that a super form was invulnerable to damage as long as it was sustained. But this makes it so Shin Akuma attacking is totally pointless. He can only defend or dodge; but that won't get him anywhere. But Shin Akuma nevertheless takes his signature stance, as if to say 'come on'.
Super Shadow charges and hits the Supreme Master of the Fist repeatedly at unfathomable speeds. Shin Akuma coughs up some blood but before he falls on Windy Hill's ground…
"Chaos Control!"
Shin Akuma is stopped in midair as the flow of time is stopped. The Ultimate Life Form then spawns hundreds of Chaos Spears and as he restores time, he lets them rain down.
"AAAARRRRRRRGGGHHHH!"
A bit dizzy with a bunch of burns on his body, Shin Akuma gets up with effort. But Super Shadow doesn't give him time to rest, he takes the white-haired warrior in the skies again and unleashes a Chaos Blast to which Shin Akuma tries to block but this only slightly reduces the damage. His body falls back on the ground. His state is terrible: His Gi top is completely blown off and his sandals have been disintegrated, he is now barefoot.
As Super Shadow dives to finish the Supreme Master of the Fist, the demon warrior's red/purple Ki starts turning blue. But he does not allow himself to lose control and get taken over; he starts focusing to his maximum and gets up to face his imminent end at Shadow's hands. He tries one last resort.
"Kongou Kokuretsu Zan!"
The spiral of energy created by the punch is powerful enough to stall Super Shadow long enough to get out of the way. As the black hedgehog turns his head above him to look at the descending Shin Akuma delivering a Misogi, he realizes that his 50 rings are spent and that he just returned to normal. As the Misogi connects on Shadow who is out of rings, the hit is so powerful that it descends them from the Lost Hex and returns them to ground level. However, instead of crashing Shadow on the ground with the Misogi, he dives and gets to the ground first. As the Ultimate Life Form is inches away from a lethal landing, Shin Akuma catches him… With the Raging Demon. As Shadow's soul is mercilessly shattered, Shin Akuma's kanji illuminates the heavens.
"A worthy opponent, you were. However, God and Devil live in the power of my fists!"
The vortex starts opening again as Shin Akuma depowers.
"It looks like this creature gave you all you could handle. You can barely stand." The voice says.
"Hmph! It's you. I actually had a challenge this time. But I need someone even stronger, so I can at last get the challenge I crave."
"Well, well. It looks like you really want to be pushed to your absolute limit."
"Talk is cheap! Can you find such a being or not?!"
"Actually, I can still bring you to a world where lives someone even stronger than what you just fought. Or anyone you have fought so far for that matter."
"… Bring me to him." Akuma says.
"Then come inside, ô warrior of the dark."
As Akuma jumps in, all his injuries heal and his clothing is restored. He feels like he is at the end of a long road, ever since he gave in to the Satsui no Hado and took the life of his master in an honorable death match, he was looking everywhere in his world for someone he could fight to the death with. He never found such a challenge and had to handicap himself to even give his opponents a fighting chance. But this mysterious voice appeared and changed all that, taking him to fights on a greater scale, some who actually made him go serious. And now, according to this voice, the fight to determine his legacy was next. With the great uncertainty of who is this new adversary and his abilities, Akuma heads for his next fight.
Meanwhile, a few yards from where the previous fight took place, Knuckles the Echidna wakes up slowly despite the hole in his chest. Some dark red aura was emanating from it. He gets on a sitting position and looks at himself with a newfound power as he gazes at the ground with blood red eyes.
(What was I thinking? I was so confused… But now… This is it. This 'Hado', it… It grants me power… Incredible power!)
He gets up while roaring a sound completely different-sounding from his former self.
(My name is Knuckles! And the ultimate power has awakened within me!)
And thus, he set out for blood. But this world's fate will remain a mystery, because Akuma is about to reach his destination.
Hope you liked. Next time will be the finale of the Akuma's quest saga.