Chapter 6

Back on the flagship of Dr. Eggman, Shadow was waiting for the Dr. to find his last target. The Dr. was on the surface, now a blackened and cratered plain of ashes. The assault had been quite successful, all resistance crushed, everything destroyed, and the human population roboticized, transformed into a robotic shell of their former selves. Such mindless slaves were the major labor force in the building of Eggman Land, the city to replace this Monsteropolis. Shadow was staring down at the desolation, brooding about his current mission. But then his communicator buzzed with an alarm tone, almost making him jump.

"SHADOW!" screamed a clearly frantic Eggman "WE"RE UNDER ATTACK! GET DOWN TO (BOOOOM!)…CONSTRUCTION SITE 2, NOW!" Shadow, holding the earbud at arm's length, acknowledged calmly, and rose to go. Rushing out the nearest airlock, Shadow plummeted 500 feet before landing in construction site…846.

Shadow groaned, rushing from one site to another, attempting to recall how these things were laid out. He couldn't, but he did remember what was being constructed at construction site 2 "main robot factory" he thought to himself. The massive partially constructed grey block that loomed over the horizon looked peaceful on the outside, so the attack must be inside. He was at the foot of the main gates in seconds, and it became painfully obvious that the attack was indeed on the inside. Shadow walked straight through the partially melted and unhinged doors to find utter chaos. Orange robots ran toward the center of the factory, guns blazing away at the attacker, only for the shining black and yellow robot to dodge and use its rapidly pulsing arm cannon to raze the ground, instantly destroying the columns of robots that opposed him.

After completing the last batch of robots, the figure started walking towards Shadow. "And you are?" he questioned in a polite tone, leveling his buster as he did.

Funny, neither of the other robots had spoken to him before. Balling his hand into a fist, Shadow replied in a ringing voice "I am Shadow the Hedgehog, the Ultimate life form, and you are my last target"

The robot laughed "Perhaps, I am Bass, the Strongest robot ever created. And I think you won't even be able to touch me." Activating his buster, he fired a barrage of plasma energy straight at Shadow's face.

"Humph, perhaps you're not as strong as you think" said a calm voice behind Bass. Bass was in the process of turning around, when he was blasted forward, flying toward a ruined robot assembly unit. The punch surprised him, but still he whirled around in midair and aimed again, but just then his back took another crushing blow, sending him straight up. Again trying to compensate, he worked through a system reset that took almost a whole nanosecond, but that nanosecond wasn't quite fast enough, as his stomach area took yet another direct hit, finally sending him crashing into the cracked concrete floor of the ruined facility. As he slowly raised his head, Bass simultaneously sent out a coded signal and decided to just keep fighting until he figured out just who or what had confronted him. He fired the jets on his feet and air dashed toward the other black figure, but he was already gone. Then suddenly to his right, a spinning black ball was rushing toward his face! Bass dashed again, but the ball made a 90 degree turn in midair. The impact very nearly smashed his faceplate, but luckily the turn had slowed down the attack. Both combatants recovered and stood facing each other, and more eggman robots formed a tight ring around them.

"Face it android, I am stronger, faster, and will bring you down" called Shadow n a calm voice "And I'm not even trying"

But suddenly a whooshing noise sounded outside the door, and a section of the ring of robots blasted apart in a bright green blur. Smiling smugly, Bass replied, "Neither was I"

The purple robot dog lunged at Shadow, who dodged, before leaping toward its master, leaping onto his back and going through a rapid transformation. "Now Shadow the hedgehog, witness the power of my TREBLE BOOST!" yelled Bass, leaping up into the air and hovering there while firing triple blasts , leveling the rest of the robots and firing down at Shadow, who seemed to teleport from place to place with his speed to escape the blasts. Then Bass stopped…Shadow stood in the center of their battlefield, chuckling to himself and working on something on his wrists. The two shining gold bracelets he wore fell to the floor, and Bass's sensors detected a massive surge of energy. Analyzing the gold bracelets, Bass determined that the materiel was meant to absorb massive amounts of energy. Shadow too, was hovering in midair, now laughing openly.

"I AM SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG, THE ULTIMATE LIFEFORM! NOBODY CAN DEFEAT ME, MUCH LESS YOU, NOW DIE ANDROID!" And, withdrawing his chaos emerald, he shouted again "CHAOS, CONTROL!"

Bass was then pummeled, first being hit from one direction, then another, his armor snapping like thin wood under the barrage. Treble, the loyal dog now at his back, took many blows too, his jets faltering after a particularly devastating punch. Shadow, relentless, fired a cluster of chaos spears, and then kicked a still dodging Bass until he crashed to the ground…

Landing face first, Bass and Treble disengaged, Treble whined, staggered, and fell over. Shadow, now wearing the smug smile and his power inhibitor rings, walked over to the crumpled forms of the two robots, towering over them. "As you can see, I am the ultimate life form, and infinitely more powerful than OOF!" he grunted as Treble leaped into him, driving him away from Bass and forcing him to drop his chaos emerald.

"TREBLE! NO!" Shouted Bass, only to watch his most loyal friend get ripped in half by the jaw. Wasting no more time, Bass grabbed the Chaos emerald at his feet and blasted away, calling on all his strength and his bassnium powered core. He did something he had never done before… he ran away.

Shadow was dashing after the black robot, it was imperative that he retrieve the chaos emerald. But in a flash, the robot was gone. Shadow stood and, holding his head high, he walked to a pile of debris that was guarded by several robots; he peered inside at the cowering man peeking back out at him, hard hat slightly askew.

"Mission failed Dr." said Shadow, turning away again, he ran back to the flagship landing point and the chaos radar onboard, intending to track this damn robot across this whole planet.