To answer the guest's question regarding Niloc and fan characters, Niloc's storyline will be resolved in due time, but there are other storylines that need to be continued first. I know everything about Niloc obviously, and it will be well worth the wait, I promise :). As for fan characters, there definitely are. If you've read Part One of Sonic: Rising Revolution, then you'll know that there are already some fan characters I've created that are out there, and a good number of them, notably two, have big parts to play. I hope you keep enjoying the series!

*The Commander cautiously approached Ivo Robotnik, who had his hands behind his back, looking better than the last time he saw him. He still wore the same red lab suit, and his black hair was a mess. In front of him, was the large meteorite suspended in the air, crackling with energy. In one corner however, there looked like there was a piece missing. The remaining piece was the one that Amy had, and the Commander knew that that was the last thing that Ivo needed in order to merge the dimensions. The thing was however, the Commander had no intention of that happening. Merging Earth and Mobius together would cause disastrous results, and somehow, he had to stop that from happening.

"You summoned me?" The Commander asked. Ivo nodded without turning to look at him.

"You haven't forgotten about Shadow, our little Android friend who eluded us?" He asked.

"No, I haven't. We've advertised him as a bounty so that a mercenary could find him and bring him to us," the Commander replied. Ivo nodded again.

"Yes, but that has not happened yet, has it? Which is why I have come up with a new plan to get him," he explained. He turned his gaze from the meteorite and walked over to a large screen on the wall, pressing a button next to it. The screen lit up, revealing a stiff, motionless Shadow, but he was in another room in the ship.

"Another copy of Shadow? But why?" The Commander demanded, being all ears now, realizing that this, too, could cause problems.

"Trust me, it will work, Doctor Jerome has done an excellent job programming these so that they will do our bidding without question," Ivo explained. The Commander's eyes widened in shock.

"They?" He asked. Ivo sighed impatiently and moved his hand across the screen, zooming the image out so that the Commander was looking at what seemed to be an entire army of Shadow clones. The Commander looked on in frozen shock. Ivo giggled, a high-pitched, uneven giggle.

"Isn't it marvelous? You will be responsible for supplying them with vehicles which have scanners that will pinpoint Shadow's location," he ordered. The Commander couldn't stop staring at the army of clones. Would if they went rogue, just like the first Android? This was getting out of control. The way the Commander saw it, Ivo was going to make them fail the task of wiping out the Heroes. Nevertheless, he saluted the mad genius.

"It will be done, Robotnik," he assured. Ivo silently smiled in return. As the Commander turned to leave, Ivo stopped him.

"Wait, I'd like to show you something," he said, motioning to a small table, where a walnut cream cake sat. Ivo walked over to it, and used a long knife to cut two slices.

"Now, watch," he said, and, using his human flesh arm, he went for one of the slices. Like a bullet, it shot away from him. Without looking at the Commander, Ivo then went for the second slice, using his metal arm, and without any problems, he was able to grasp the cake and take a bite out of it. The Commander shook his head.

"You'll have to show me that again," he said. Ivo looked up at him sharply.

"What?"

"I have walnut cream cake all over my face."**

*Shadow leaned forward in the seat of his motorcycle, which was labeled the Dark Rider, as he shot his way through the streets of Vortex. The sun's rays burned down over him, sweat streamed down his back and flew off in large droplets. For a week, at least he thought it had been that long, he had been searching for the remaining Chaos Emeralds, without success, but somehow, he felt that he was in the right place. Nobody had stopped him or gone after him. He had had a few close calls with G.U.N. soldiers patrolling several different villages, but nothing happened that had hindered him from continuing his journey.

Strapped to his back, was a large rifle that he had stolen from an armory in Mazuri, and, of course, the motorcycle he stole as well. The road was almost empty, save for a few cars that crossed by him, but didn't stop when they saw him. It didn't seem to matter which village he was in, Shadow would find his own face on posters tacked to the walls of bars and other random buildings. He looked in his rearview mirror, and almost collapsed in shock at what he saw. In the mirror, he could see another motorcycle trailing him, and the rider was him. Well, it wasn't really him of course, but someone that looked exactly like him, barely any differences at all, but this one had a vicious grin on his face, seeking a fight. Well, if it was a fight that his copy of him wanted, then a fight he was going to get.

Just then, he saw several more clones of him join the first copy, all with motorcycles, all with the determination to mow him down. Finding a turn in the street, Shadow swerved to the left, his pursuers followed suit, and when he looked in the mirror again, he saw that they had large laser rifles like him. He swerved his motorcycle over to the next lane, aimed his own laser rifle at one of the pursuing clones, and fired off a round. The large, blue bolt crashed into the front of the clone's motorcycle, and the entire thing exploded, sending the clone into the air. Shadow watched the remains of the motorcycle fly and blow towards the other motorcycles, which swerved left and right to avoid the flying debris. Looking forward again, Shadow saw that he was on a bridge now. There was a river below him.

Smiling to himself at the next move he had planned, Shadow immediately braked his motorcycle, watching the clones fly past him. Aiming his rifle again, he fired multiple shots at them, watching them fall of their motorcycles, their motorcycles careened out of control and crashed into others. Shadow nodded to himself in satisfaction and turned around to get away, but he felt a bullet smash into his back wheel, and immediately the motorcycle began to tremble, and swerve violently left and right. Flipping off of the motorcycle, he landed in front, aimed his rifle at it which was speeding straight towards him, and with his back to it he fired. The motorcycle exploded, debris flew in all directions behind him. Without a moment's hesitation, he began running. His feet took him across the street.

Having an idea, Shadow ran for the side of the bridge and then jumped. Several bullets whizzed around him when he did. He saw the river below him, and, suddenly he felt a sudden, overwhelming fear of the water. There was something about it that scared him. He felt himself falling, and he quickly tried to use his feet to get away through the air, but he continued falling until his feet landed on the water, and he desperately started using his feet again, and found himself running on water. Lasers from behind him continued to fly and strike the water behind him as he ran. He began to feel so confident now, as he allowed his feet to do the work. Water kicked up into the air behind his heels. Looking behind him, he was surprised to see his clones running on water after him, their laser rifles blazing as they pursued him.

Shadow growled, and, removing the two Chaos Emeralds he had found, he got an idea.

"Play time is over!" He shouted, then, as if on instinct, the Emeralds exploded into powerful lights, surrounding Shadow. He had stopped running, but he felt weightless on the water, never sinking. It was as if he could see not just in front of him, but behind him as well. The clones were so close now, and they didn't stop, as if two glowing Chaos Emeralds wasn't enough for them to stop pursuing him.

"Behold, the ultimate power!" Shadow yelled. The words left him without him even thinking them, again, as if it was on instinct. He felt his feet leave the water, and float just inches over it, and he felt an eruption of force explode from him. The next thing he knew was seeing his clones collapsing around him, or flying into the air and then falling into the river. Water erupted into the air everywhere as they fell in. Grinning, Shadow put the Chaos Emeralds back into the vest he had taken, and he continued running across the river, and then stopped when he saw a giant wave of water rising from the river and towering over him. In front of him, the water seemed to have a yellow glow emanating from it in front of the wave. He realized that when he stepped into that part of the water, he didn't sink. He felt weightless just like when he had used the power of the first two Emeralds on the clones of Shadow.

Cautiously approaching the roaring wave, he knew that this wave was not like any average one. Was it a gateway? Some kind of entrance to another world, perhaps? Reaching out with his finger, he touched the water. The water where he touched it exploded outward, creating a big hole. Yellow dust wafted out of the wave and materialized in Shadow's hand, creating a yellow Chaos Emerald. Shadow couldn't believe his luck! Was this because he was worthy? Was using the previous Chaos Emeralds to destroy his enemies the spark that showed that he was the one to take the Chaos Emeralds? He didn't know for sure, but the only thing that mattered was that he had the Emerald. Three down, four more to go. He was going to prove to the mysterious ghost that he was worthy to work for him, and, more importantly, he would get his memories back. He would learn who he is, where he came from, and what his purpose was.

The wave of water in front of him crashed down back into the river, the yellow glow vanished, and the river became normal. Shadow realized he must continue running to keep himself on top of the water. In one hand, he greedily held the yellow Chaos Emerald. Behind him, he did not see the explosion of purple mist erupt from where the wave had formed.

He briefly stopped when he saw something thrashing in the water calling for help. Curious, he approached it.**

F: I never really planned on this story to even exist until I had finished the last one. Originally, Shadow wasn't even going to show up in Volume III, but I felt it was really important to keep his story somewhat consistent so that the readers wouldn't kind of forget about him. For this series, consistency with key events was very important.