When I first wrote this, I wrote it in a Semi-Dark direction. However, when I started writing it again, I was aiming for a Semi-Dark/Pure Semi-Dark Direction. Now I'm having second guesses, and these will help me, and Shadow, decide where this ends up. I might end up having Shads join Black Doom as in the Pure Dark ending, or maybe he'll be the Pure Hero, or something in between. Either way, HERE WE GO!
My gaze was directed at the Chaos Emeralds in my hands. I had lost doom's eye, but from here on out the problem would be to find the other emeralds. As much as it pained me to say it, I'd need to get that alien back.
"Three Chaos emeralds. Rumor is, that 7 of them together makes a miracle." My hands clenched them a bit tighter and a smoke-filled breeze filled the air around me briefly. "These emeralds hold my memories. Without them, I'll have to rely on that alien to relay to me my past, since no one else will tell me."
The thought isn't very attractive. He might as well just make me his personal guard. He would have no problem with that because he'd only give me hints of information.
"I need these Chaos Emeralds. I need them to find my past, and see just what truly happened to me."
Looking into the most recently acquired emerald, a different vision began overtaking my mind.
-Flashback-Shadow' POV-
"Well Shadow, you seem to be performing at prime health." The man said. He was wearing a white lab coat, and was very round in shape, his arms, legs, and head looking like they had been glued on. "I think you're ready for your next test."
"Another Test Dr?"
The man did look somewhat similar to the Doctor Eggman I had encountered several months earlier, but it couldn't be the same. This man's voice was lighter and he looked much older.
"Yes. Come with me to the observatory and I'll show you your next test."
As he walked out of the examination table and down the hall, I looked down both corridors. I couldn't see anyone coming from behind or ahead, so it wasn't as likely the doctor would get distracted by petty talk.
"Oh Shadow!" a female voice greeted me, wrapping her arms around me from the back and pulling me into an embrace. "How did it go brother?"
"Maria." Gerald Robotnik turned around to face Maria. "He is NOT your brother."
"He's like a brother to me." She remarked, removing her arms and standing next to me. I turned my head toward her. She was 14 years old, and yet towered over me as I only came to the bottom of her chest. "Shadow! I figured out how to turn in these skates finally!" She kicked her feet together and the prototype skates she wore, very similar to my own, sprung to life, raising her a quarter of an inch of the ground and pushing her forward.
Just about the time that she would of vanished around a bend in the corridor, she leaned her body to the right, and her direction changed with it. Not having lost any speed, she whizzed back up to us, and with another kick of her heels together, the shoes powered down and she slid briefly across the halls of ARK.
"I just can't get it done right when I'm trying to go any faster. Would you mind showing me Shadow?"
"Maria, I think your pro-"
"Shadow." Robotnik's voice cut me off. "We need to get the test done with."
I sighed in dissapointment, looking at the blonde haired girl. "Maybe later Maria."
"Okay then. Bye Shadow!" She bent down and hugged me again, and then sped off.
"Why did you give her those shoes anyway doctor?" I asked, facing his backside as he walked on.
"Entertainment. It would also of been a waste to destroy the prototypes. Besides, she also said she wanted to go as fast as you." He chuckled. We both knew that the prototype shoes weren't THAT fast.
-End Flashback-
My fist loosened around the gem a bit. Maria…Gerald. They seemed like…good friends? She had been so innocent sounding though. Like she had no cares.
With that I bared my fangs. They killed her. It was one thing that they killed a girl. It was another thing when they killed an innocent young girl, one that might not of fully understood the world's horrors. Opening my eyes again, I noticed a bright white light surrounding me. Before I could say anything, the surroundings changed.
Now I was standing on a small glowing stand. Above me seemed to be a teleportation contraption, and I couldn't think of anything else that could of got me here so fast. My eyes scanned the room once more, and it appeared to be a lab that I was in.
"Where am I…?" My question bounced off the walls, nothing here to answer but the buzzing and clicking of the machines around me. Turning around and looking through the glass ceiling, I noticed what appeared to be… "Isn't that Doctor Eggman?"
My experiences with him were not that pleasant. He created a robot that tried to copy my abilities, and those of my rivals. He himself seemed to be completely and totally an utter fool with a bunch of machines. As of now he was hovering in one of those machines just outside of the glass ceiling of the building I had teleported to. One thing I did remember was that, regretfully, he also knew of my past. "Maybe He could tell me about those black creatures."
Leaping off of the portal, I ran down and skated toward the a doorway that would probably be a way out. This might be my best chance to figure out who I am.
I had expected a nearly endless maze of assorted hallways to get out, but I was pleasantly disappointed. Rather, I was greeted with the outdoors soon. Finding some random rails, looking as if they would have been used for construction, I leapt onto them, grinding on them for a bit. Upwards, downwards. Up ahead the rails seemed to have melted into a loop form, and balancing while speeding up, my body easily glided over them.
-Flashback POV-
Leaping off of the rail, I firmly planted my foot onto the wing of the F-15 Jet. The wing crushed under my force, and I leapt off of it, back onto the curved rails as the man-made weapon crashed into the highway below me. A pair of missiles whizzed by me, one on each side. Grabbing the back of one of them, I spun around and threw it at the opposing Apache chopper that had launched it. The missile crashed through the front window, and exploded as I leapt off the rail and back onto the crazy highway. "Really, who makes roads like this?"
-End Flashback
Blinking my eyes, I leapt off the rail and onto a small platform. That was unexpected. Kicking my shoes together, I launched ahead. Farther up Eggman's egg-carrier could be seen from the bottom, but he was some ways away. It would take some time to catch up to him.
However, it wasn't that difficult to keep even at least. Almost as if I had been expected, there were all sorts of strange launch pads, that when stepped on, shot me farther along, complimenting my speed. Another set of rails could be seen ahead of me, and leaping onto the right one, I leaned with it as it arched and banked leftwards.
And without warning, dropped on me. The green acid-covered ground quickly rushing up to catch me, I kicked my shoes together and hopes to create enough of an air pocket between that and the ground to stay alive. No luck. With the speed of a bullet I fell into the green liquid substance with a plop. My eyes closed shut, hoping to be able to ignore the substance that would try to destroy me. Readying a Chaos Blast, and the Chaos emeralds within my quills shining with the energy, I opened my eyes. So much for Acid, it wasn't burning me, but I had worse buoyancy here then in water
Bubbles arched out of my mouth rather then words, but my command and desire still went off, and the Chaos Blast incinerated the green liquid. The force of it also launched me out of the burning substance found me flying back through the air and I grabbed a nearby pillar. The heat of my Chaos Flames licked at my fur, yet I had to ignore it. Using my fingertips to find small wedges in the wall, I heaved myself upwards as fast as I could.
However, after coming back to the top of the pillar, I was greeted with three options. A rail to my left, a rail to my right, and a path ahead of me. With no other real choice, I decided to go forward, running on through down the path.
"Shadow! It's great to see you here!"
"Doctor!" I cried out in shock. There was no way! I would of seen him landing!
"These Black Creatures are trashing my Eggman land theme park I'm building! If you can just re-lite my torches, the defense system should chase them off.
"Forget it." I said to the TV screen. Obviously, THIS was his method of communication. "Why did you bring me here?"
In response, the TV screen went fuzzy, then repeated the same short message. In a fit of rage, I shot a Chaos Spear at it, impaling the screen and blowing the machine up. "Danm it. I've got to find the Doctor somehow."
Kicking my rocket-hover shoes again, I pushed onwards. As I blew forward, crashing through a door as I did, two hulking, thin, black aliens stood in my way.
"I come from Black Doom." I said, hoping to shrug them off. They didn't listen. Rather, they just rushed at me like rabid animals. Bad idea. With a hard kick my feet went right through the skull of one of them, and a half-cocked roundhouse punch severed the other's head from it's neck. Either I was a lot more powerful then I thought, or these aliens were weak.
"Shadow! Good to see you again!"
The voice was very familiar. I had met her back in my 'adventure' Last Spring, but it seemed familiar in more ways then one.
"Cream went into this weird-looking Castle, and hasn't come back since!"
I was about to say something in response, but I still had the Doctor to find. However, in my mind, I asked one thing. What in the hell would a young girl be doing in a castle all alone!
"Would you help me find her! I have a feeling the Evil Dr. Eggman has her!"
Okay. That was somewhere to begin. Looking up to the sky, it appeared that the Doctor was out of sight.
"Fine." I remarked, speeding away. "Keep up."
"No worries Shadow!" I looked over my shoulder, but couldn't find her there. "What the-"
"Over here." Looking to my left side she was keeping up with me, or going so slightly slower it was indiscernible. "As you can see, I've grown up a lot!"
"Intruder alert. Must destroy." Several of the Doctor's robots were up ahead, and holding massive shoulder bazookas on their shoulders.
"God Danm it." Jumping into the sky I landed onto the head of one of them, smashing it beyond identification. Continuing that, I did that to several others. But, I did it with care. The weapons they were holding looked prime. I never had thought of trying to use these Eggbot Bazookas before, so however to get it to work would be an issue I'd have to learn on the fly.
With that, cold metal pressed into the back of my neck. Whirling around, I yanked the bazooka out of the Eggbot's hand, and as I did Amy's familiar hammer crashed through it's body.
"Told you I had matured!" I ignored her. Her bragging wasn't going to help me find the Doctor. Walking over to a set of doors, I kicked them off of their hinges. Holding the massive weapon on my shoulder, twice as long as I was tall, I was fully equipped for whatever they were going to bring now, Aliens or Robots.
As I did, sections of the walls slid downward, revealing more launch pads to be released from this location. "Clever." Jumping onto one of them, the location I had been on rushed under my feet as I flew through the air briefly. Rather then a 'theme park', It seemed more like a type of collection of castles, linked by rails and pathways. I had been running on the top levels of these castles obviously, ignoring the insides of it.
"Shadow!" Swiveling my head to point to the young Rose, she pointed to the ground. "I hate ghosts!" The objects that it would seem like we would land on did appear to be like giant ghosts. However, without a doubt, it was just an illusion, projected by the lights
"Relax. It's an illusion." I remarked back, and with the illusion rushing back up toward us, we fell through it. Readying my body for a landing, I saw something beneath us, or rather, someone. And it wasn't the Doctor.
With a loud 'SLAM!' I planted my feet into the ground, my left fist accompanying it, the bazooka still on my right shoulder. The young rabbit that I had seen on my descent staggered backwards a bit, obviously terrified in fear.
"The Doctor isn't here." I called to Amy as she landed behind me. Her landing was much louder, as she slammed her hammer into the ground, transmitting most of her speed into the ground through the hammer while she landed with a slight 'Oof'.
"I thought…he."
"His robots took Cheese!"
"Cheese?" I asked, then remembered the pesky, annoying little thing she often carried with her.
"Which way did they go?"
"That way!" She pointed down a path to our right.
I grunted in annoyance, and skated off in that direction. However, it wasn't very long before I was encountering…a door.
"To easy." Pushing the trigger on the bazooka, the thing vibrated violently, and as I had been unprepared for the launch, I fell forward. While the rocket released went backwards over my right shoulder, and spinning upwards, it crashed into one of the towers. The sound of mortar and bricks shattering could be heard behind me.
"Mr. Shadow?"
"Yes, I know I pointed it the wrong danm way."
"No, it's…"
Looking up after pushing myself back up and turning the bazooka the correct way, I noticed that in front of us were Eggbots. It wasn't an army's worth, but it was still a good amount.
"We're surrounded!" Amy cried, and she backed into me. With a slightly annoyed shrug I sent the pink anthromorphic hedgehog the message to get off of me, and she did. "Hold this." I remarked, placing the weapon in her hands. She struggled with it's weight, and right before going off to Attack Mode she fell over.
Curling into a spindash mode, I slammed right into one of the egg-bots, and after tearing through it, I went through another, and another. The stupid pinball thing that Faker would do was nothing compared to going right through these.
But before long I crashed into something that wasn't mechanic. More alien flesh. Uncurling and landing on the ground, right where the path went to a door, I looked at what exactly I had gone through. All of the Eggbots that had been in front of us, and several aliens that now turned to face me, holding weapons.
With no further instigation, I jumped into the air, then spin dashed again, slamming my body into the first one, then jumping off of it's shattered skull-thing into the next one, working my way back to where the girls were.
"AHHH!"
My red eyes opened in shock from the female's cry in pain, and as it did an alien spear penetrated right into my left eye. With a groan and shout of pain I fell to the ground, on my back and holding my now empty eye-socket, blood spilling from the wound. The Black Arms warrior leaned over me, holding the spear that was tipped with a strange green liquid. It studied me in confusion, and while it did that I planted a firm two-foot kick into it's lower body. It split from the power, and I rolled over, using my still good eye to look at the two females.
"SHADOW!"
The two girls had got themselves caught by the Eggbots that had been behind them. Figures, although the pink one must of put up some kind of fight as several had pancake-shaped imprints into their bodies. However, I would need extra time to take these out. Running forward, and spinning around, I planted a kick onto the one that was holding rabbit. My skate-covered foot crashed right through it's head, and as my body continued it's circular motion I shot out several Chaos Spears, impaling the one that was holding Amy and several other ones. Time seemed to go in slow motion, very slow.
When I did land, the robots were just starting to fall over. Chaos Control. I must have activated it without calling upon it verbally. Taking this time to regain my bazooka, which oddly, none of the enemies bothered messing with, I blasted down the path the way we had been heading. The projectile whizzed out of the tube, and Chaos Control wore off. As the two girls landed on the ground the door ahead shattered from the impact, going out in burning pieces of wood.
"Cheese!"
"Chao Chao!"
"Let's go." Amy called out, and kicking my skates on I headed into the door. Maybe the doctor would be in here, I hadn't seen him in the skies at all this entire time.
"Amy! Go to the sides!" I called, and I jumped onto the side of the corridor. It seemed to go forward in the same direction, but also angle downwards. Floor hadn't been put in, but rather down below was more of that acidic liquid. Despite the fact that my eye socket was already numb to any pain, the gapping hole it left in my head would be perfect for the acid to fry my brain, rather it was organic or robotic. Grinding against the railing, I looked to the other side to see Amy doing the same, one handing holding her dress down so she could keep some modesty, her other held behind her and holding the young rabbit, who wasn't doing as well.
"I'm coming for you-"
"Mrs. Amy, Mr. Shadow! Something's after us!"
Looking over my shoulder, the one that wasn't loaded down with the bazooka, I saw, somewhat, what she was talking about. It looked like a giant scorpion, but it had many, many more legs that sprawled farther out to the sides, allowing it to crawl along the walls. The creature was as wide as the corridor we were grinding down. Jumping on the rail to where I was now skating backwards, I aimed the bazooka with my lone eye and shot.
The creature roared terribly loud from the impact. But it was still racing after us, the large pincers clicking as it gained on us.
"AHH! THE RAILS!" The pink mobian called out.
"AMY!" The other one called.
"SHADOW!" The other hedgehog called again, and I felt the rails drop off form beneath my feet. This meant that we were going to hurl downwards into the acid. A sure death for all of us.
"Rghh. Death to all that opposes me!" I repeated to myself, prepping to land in the water and detonate another Chaos Blast. If I was going to go out like this, I was going to take out as much of this place as I could.
But rather then the acid I hit, I landed, on my back, onto a section of floor. As I did, my body rolled over and I somersaulted backwards, having not been ready for such a landing, at one point crushing the bazooka with my body.
The giant mutated Scorpion then leapt out of the top of the corridor it had been chasing us through, and landed on all of it's legs in front of us. Just a few feet from me. Chaos Energy still ricocheting through my body, ready for the Chaos Blast.
"Girls, stay down." I stated, and with that I jumped upwards, even with it's face. My eye stared into it's innumerable eyes "Chaos BLAST!" The creature was about to try and 'pinch' me, but the blast knocked it backwards, and the shockwave sent it stumbling off the ramp and into the acid. The shockwave also shattered the walls surrounding us, and as it did the entire place began falling down above our heads.
Landing, I pulled out one of the Chaos Emeralds. My shoes ready again, I landed and skated to the girls.
"Amy I'm scared!" The young one said, her body sheltered by the other female. I reached down, grabbed Amy by the nap of the neck, and with only one command I rocketed off, saving their lives much like I had…supposedly…saved Rouge before.
"CHAOS CONTROL!"
This time, rather then warping time, it warped space, and we were soon on the other side of the corridor, two other large doors in front of us, while the sound of collapsing walls and floors sounded behind us. I was no fool though, it was all going to keep falling down like a domino effect toward us.
The girls were to shocked to do anything but stare at me, so I kicked the door down. They swung open and we ran out of the corridor, while the rest of it collapsed behind us. As a group we turned around to see it collapsing behind us, all of it sinking into the acid below.
"Shadow…that was…" Amy began, but was not allowed to finish.
"Destructive, and detrimental to my purposes!" I turned around, and was not greeted with a TV, but the Doctor himself. He was sitting inside a large looking monkey thing. It was painted blue and yellow, not complimentary colors in the greenish-red hue of the sky. One of it's hands terminated in a spiky ball, the other, in a hand made of sword like fingers. The machine itself had to be 10 times my size. "What did you think you were doing?"
"Doctor, I need those Chaos Emeralds!"
"Shadow, forget it! Those Emeralds are mine, all of them! Hand yours over to me now, before I crush you with my Egg Breaker!"
I growled, and put one step back, readying my fighting stance. I might be halfway blinded, but I can still fight. "Girls, stay back, this will get rough."
I know, it's been to long. I've just been very busty, and not gotten to this. The next chapter will be shorter, yes, but still, I'm trying to figure out just where I want to go with this story. Heck, every bit of this thing is spontaneous, only helped along by you tube walkthroughs. Next chapter though, Shadow Vs. Egg Breaker, first Big Boss fight of the day! REVIEW!