SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG: MEPHILES
Disclaimer: I do not own the Sonic characters, just the OC's
Chapter Four: Meeting with Iblis
Shadow and Rouge were waiting in a ridge close to a river of hot lava close to an active volcano. Shadow was still depressed that he failed to help Kumori and Rouge was trying everything she could to snap him out of it. Just then, Sonic and his friends decided to show up. "You know, for the fastest thing alive, you are so slow, Sonic." Rouge said. "Hey!" Sonic exclaimed. "Never mind that. Look what we found." Rouge said as she held up the chaos emerald to plain view. "You found one of the chaos emeralds!" Tails exclaimed. "Of course. I may not look like one, but I'm a real treasure hunter. Unlike a certain echidna we all know." Rouge taunted. "What was that?!" Knuckles said angrily as he held his namesake dangerously close to Rouge's face. "That's enough!" Shadow said sternly, finally breaking out of his depression state. Knuckles looked at to Rouge for a moment before turning away.
"Have you guys found anything?" Shadow asked. "Yeah, I received a signal indicating that there's a chaos emerald somewhere inside that volcano." Tails told the group. "You're kidding! You mean we have to go all the way through there?" Rouge complained. "If you don't like it, you can stay here." Knuckles taunted. "You have got to be kidding! There is no way I am leaving an idiot like you in there, alone." Rouge retorted, which made Knuckles even more angry (If that's possible). "It would probably be better if we split up and covered more ground." Shadow instructed. "Don't be late." Sonic said. "Same to you." Shadow said to him. Just as they planned, Sonic went with Tails and Knuckles one way, while Shadow went with Rouge down another.
Shadow and Rouge were currently walking down the path they've chosen until Shadow suddenly stopped. "What's the matter, Shadow?" Rouge asked. "Just look at it, the volcano." Shadow said. Rouge looked at the active volcano and asks "Yeah, what about it?" "The volcano's energy is completely out of control. I don't know what it is, but I defiantly know it's not the chaos emerald that's causing it." Shadow said. "That's impossible. What else could cause a natural disaster like this?" Rouge questioned. "I don't know, but it's powerful." Shadow said. Just then, several gigantic fireballs spat out of the lava into two separate directions. "That's strange. It looks like those fire balls are headed straight...for...us!" Rouge yelled as the fire balls were indeed headed towards them.
Acting fast, Shadow grabbed Rouge by her arm to pull her away from the direction of the fire ball that was about to hit her. "Ok, I believe you." Rouge said to him. The two look up and saw more fireballs headed their way. "Move!" Shadow shouted. Seeing that the fireballs were moving to fast for her, Shadow quickly grabbed Rouge and carried her in his arms while trying to run away. "Whoa, slow down, partner. Not on the first date." Rouge said in a flirtatious manner. "Shut up." Shadow said sternly. Shadow looked back at the fire balls that were chasing them for a moment without noticing the large loop in front. "Shadow!" Rouge yelled to get his attention. Shadow looked forward to see the loop and only smirked. "You better not be doing what I think you're doing!" Rouge exclaimed. "Hold on." Shadow told her as he sped up. Using his added speed to his advantage, Shadow went straight up and then down without falling out of the loop before using a speed boast that was conveniently there to reach another part of the ridge.
When Shadow landed, he quickly dumped Rouge on the ground. "Whoa, what a ride." Rouge said dizzily. Shadow scanned his surroundings for any sign of a way to reach the volcano. The only thing looked like it could help was an extra large speed boast pointed in the direction of the volcano. "That's strange. It's almost as if someone is leading us to the volcano." Shadow thought suspiciously. "Hey, what's wrong, Shadow?" Rouge asked as she noticed Shadow's expression. "Nothing. Come on." Shadow said to her as he started walking towards the speed boost. Just as they were walking, numerous lava tigers and fire birds jumped out of the many lava pits surrounding them. "Ugh, don't we see enough of these guys?" Rouge complained. "Apparently not." Shadow said as he moved into his fighting stance.
Rouge took to the skies with the fire birds following close behind. "This will be just as easy as last time." Rouge said confidently as she looked back at the fire birds chasing her. But while she was looking back, Rouge didn't notice a single fire bird swoop down in front of her and bash her over the head with its wing. The sudden attack caused Rouge to spiral downwards to the ground at an alarmingly fast pace. At the last second, Rouge opened her wings to catch a brief gust of wind and glided for a moment before fling back into the air. "My, attacking a lady. Shame on you." Rouge said as the fire birds made another attempt to attack. Rouge quickly reached into her pouch and threw red metal balls at the fire birds, who easily caught them in their beaks. "Bye-bye." Rouge said with a smirk as she pulled out a small electronic button. Rouge pressed the button, which caused all the red balls to beep at a fast pace. "Uh oh." The fire birds said before they blew up.
Back with Shadow, he was currently avoiding the many lava tigers that were lunging at him in every direction. "I have had enough of this." Shadow said. Shadow dodged another lava tiger and quickly grabbed it by its tail to throw it back at another that was about to hit him. Over a hundred yellow arrows formed around Shadow as he yells "CHAOS SPEAR!" The yellow arrow fly off in multiply direction, destroy every one of the lava tigers like last time. "You would think they'd learn from their past mistakes." Shadow said. As Rouge swooped down to land next to Shadow, a large golem of lava and rocks jumped out one of the lava pits to land in front of the two. "Well that's new." Rouge commented.
The lava golem formed a spiked ball of rock in its hand and threw it at the duo. Shadow used his speed to dodge, while Rouge quickly flew up in the sky. "SCREW KICK!" Rouge shouted as she used her signature technique on the monsters chest, but found it to be ineffective. "That's not good." Rouge said. The lava golem created another spiked ball and used it as a mace to bash Rouge to the wall. "Rouge!" Shadow exclaimed. Shadow stared at the golem with angry eyes as it began to advance towards Rouge. "CHAOS SPEAR!" Shadow yelled as he used his famous attack on the lava golem, but the monster just shrugged it off. The lava golem grabbed Rouge around her waist and slowly started to crush her. "Aah!" Rouge yelled in pain. "Rouge! That does it!" Shadow yelled as he removed his power rings. "I lost one friend already and I am not about to lose another!" Shadow exclaimed. Shadow gather a huge amount of chaos energy in both hands and brought them together to form one giant yellow arrow. "CHAOS LANCE!" Shadow yelled as he threw the arrow at the lava golem. The powerful attack pierced straight through its rock armor to destroy it, which gave Rouge a chance to escape.
Rouge picked up the power rings and handed them to Shadow, who collapsed to his knees from the immense energy drain. "Wow, Shadow! I had no idea you could do that outside you super form." Rouge said, obviously impressed at how powerful Shadow had become after only being awaked six months ago. "Me...neither." Shadow panted as he grabbed the rings and placed them back on his wrists. "We should get moving. We don't want Sonic and the others to beat us there." Rouge told him. "Right." Shadow said as he got back to his feet. Shadow picked up Rouge and ran at top speed towards the speed boost, which sent him flying straight towards the volcanoes mouth.
Sonic and Shadow's group were flying towards the mouth of the volcano, but unfortunately they crashed into each other and were caught in an awkward pile-up. "Hey watch it!" Sonic yelled. "Watch the tail!" Tails exclaimed. "Someone get their foot out of my face!" Shadow shouted. "Who's touching my chest?!" Rouge said angrily. "Sorry." Knuckles apologized. Rouge slapped Knuckles across the face for that. After taking a few awkward moments, the group finally broke apart and looked around to find themselves standing in front of a large lava pit. The strange thing was that the pit was dark and the only thing lighting it was the lava and three glowing orbs. Rouge then noticed something else glowing in the pit. It was the light blue chaos emerald. Rouge flew up into the air to grab it. "Looks like I found another chaos emerald." Rouge said. "Don't touch it!" Shadow warned her, but it was too late. When Rouge touched the emerald, a gigantic lava worm popped out of the lava, which knocked Rouge back to the group. "What's that?" Sonic questioned. "No good. I can tell you that." Shadow told him before he jumped on to one of the rock platforms with Sonic joining. "Ready, pal?" Sonic asked. "Always." Shadow replied.
The lava worm reeled its head back for a moment before throwing it forward and shooting several fire balls at the two. Think fast, Sonic and Shadow jumped to two nearby rock platforms to avoid the attack. "Can't say I was expecting that." Sonic said. Shadow looked forward at the lava worm and saw that it had disappeared. "Where did it go?" Shadow questioned. He received an answer when the lava worm popped out from under the platform, sending Shadow flying. "Shadow!" Sonic called out. The lava worm then turned to Sonic. Sonic jumped into the air and used his homing attack on the creature, only to be bounced back to the rock platform. "That's bad." Sonic said as the lava worm's mouth came closer to him.
Meanwhile, Shadow then fell on one of the glowing orbs and broke it, releasing the light that was trapped within it. the lava worm stopped its attack on Sonic and looked back at the light, completely mesmerized by it. The lava worm left Sonic and jumped to attack the platform where Shadow and the light were at. Acting fast, Shadow quickly jumped to another platform with another light orb as the lava worm devoured the platform and the light. Sonic jumps on the same platform as Shadow and asks "What just happened?" "The light. It must be attracted to the light. That gives me an idea." Shadow said. "Well then, let's hear it." Sonic said. As Shadow was explaining his plan, the lava worm came back up and looked around for Sonic and Shadow. "Ready?" Shadow asked. "Always." Sonic replied. Shadow then broke the orb with his fist, which released the light within it. the lava worm saw the light and jumped in the air and opened its mouth to devour it. "Now! CHAOS SPEAR!" "SONIC WIND!" Sonic and Shadow yelled out their signature attacks and sent them into the creatures mouth. Both attacks together caused the creature to cry out in pain and fall back into the lava in defeat. When the lava worm fell, the chaos emerald popped out of the lava and landed into Sonic's hands. "All right!" Sonic shouted victoriously.
A few minutes later, Sonic, Shadow, and the others returned to the spot where they started with Sonic and Shadow holding the chaos emeralds. Sonic and Shadow cross their hands and shouts "CHAOS CONTROL!" The combined chaos control created a white vortex behind the group, which most likely led them back to their own time period. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles jumped into the vortex, shortly followed by Rouge. Shadow was about to jump in with them until he felt a familiar chill going down his spine. "I see you have defeated Iblis. Very impressive." An all-too familiar voice said from behind. Shadow looked back to find Mephiles appear in a puff of black smoke. "But he was nothing more then a mindless puppet. If you want a real challenge, then follow me." Mephiles said as he started to run towards the volcano. Shadow was about to decline, but then thought he might hold the answers of what happen to this world and Kumori. Shadow had decided and chased after Mephiles as his only way home disappeared.
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