A/N[UPDATED]: Whew! This chapter is turning out so long that I decided to split it into two parts so I don't keep you waiting any more. I hope you like the long awaited Sora VS Shadow fight, and then some. The usual Copyrights. Please review! I want to see how you think I'm doing! Thanks a lot, and Enjoy!
Chapter 7
Forming Fight(s): Part 1
Shadow warped behind Sora in midair and swung the Keyblade at his back. Sora spun on the magic of his wisdom form and quickly blocked it, and then pulled back and lunged at Shadow, who did a back flip in the air to dodge, and landed. He immediately started high speed skating to catch up to Sora. Once he caught up he slashed at Sora, who speedily spun and deflected it. He responded with a vertical slice, which Shadow blocked at an angle so Sora's Keyblade would slide down the shaft. They continued this quick back and forth a few more times.
Sora spun and skated backwards while Shadow came up to his front. He jumped and diagonally slashed at Sora, who spiraled out of the way and used his spinning momentum to add to his next slice. When the Keyblade would have made impact, it flew through air instead. Sora looked around, then turned back around and skated forward. He scanned everywhere for Shadow, but didn't see a thing.
Suddenly, a yellow light whizzed past his head from the right. He looked in the direction to see hundreds of yellow energy spears flying towards him. Sora quickly held his Keyblade sideways toward the onslaught of light and shouted, "Defense!" Just as the Chaos Spears were seven feet away from him, a dome of what seemed like glass appeared around him. The spears faded into the dome until the last one was gone.
Soar aimed his Keyblade at the dark figure in the distance, "Reflect!" A giant beam of yellow light fired from his Keyblade. It struck the ground where Shadow was running and exploded on impact. Sora stopped running and watched the smoke clear. When it did, there was nothing but rocks. Sora sighed and murmured, "Not this again." He raised his Keyblade in the air in defense as Shadow appeared above him.
Their Keyblades collided in midair, and Shadow pushed off of Sora's with his own and back flipped several feet in front of Sora. Sora immediately began skating again, and Shadow started shortly after. When he reached full speed, which didn't take long, he was on Sora's right. Sora skated at an angle away from Shadow and pointed his Keyblade at him. Blue magic surged through his Keyblade and fired out of the end like a machine gun.
Shadow switched his Keyblade to his left hand and used it to deflect every strike. He then used the same technique utilizing his Chaos Spears. Sora deflected those too. The two then separated even further and pointed their Keyblades at each other. Sora fired his Wisdom Shots while Shadow fired his Chaos Spears to no end. The yellow and blue energy bullets crashed in the middle of them creating a fascinating light show.
Sora and Shadow stopped skating forward and started circling, while still attacking, creating a giant energy inferno in the center of the circle. Sora stopped using his Wisdom Shots and instead used his defense spell to create his protective magic dome. He then charged into the glowing yellow and blue mess, allowing his dome to absorb the shots. He skated right through the blast zone, and slammed his Keyblade into an unexpecting Shadow, shattering his defense spell. Shadow raised his Keyblade in defense and the impact pushed him back a few feet.
The two stood in one place while putting all their strength into their pushes. Shadow used Chaos Control to warp behind Sora, causing Sora to slash into nothing and fall off balance. Shadow used this opportunity to club Sora with the back of his Keyblade from behind with all his might, sending Sora away a few feet.
When Sora recovered, Shadow was charging again. The moment Shadow jumped at him, Sora pointed his Keyblade, "Reflect!" he shouted, and the accumulated energy from the Chaos Spears blasted at Shadow. When the beam faded from Sora's Keyblade, Shadow lay motionless on the ground in front of him.
Having finally finished the fight, Sora sighed and landed on the ground, but once again remained in his form, just in case. Out of breath, Sora tiredly walked to Shadow, who was weakly struggling to get up. He stabbed his Keyblade into the ground and used it as a crutch to stand up. Sora pointed his own Keyblade at Shadow.
"Heal," He said, much to Shadow's surprise. Green light glowed over Shadow as every injury he had sustained disappeared.
"What?" Shadow questioned as he pulled his Keyblade from the ground and stood up straight.
"Well," Sora started, "If you think I'll be so helpless against Eggman, then why don't you come with me? Teaming up would make things much easier on both of us."
"Hmph," Shadow turned his head and looked to the side, "I guess you aren't so stupid."
Sora smiled and held out his hand, "So, do we have a deal?" Shadow took it and nodded, and when their hands parted, Sora looked up and around. "Okay then, where do we start?"
"Sora," Shadow said with a soft force. Sora looked down to find Shadow's eyes fixated on a point far away. Looming in the distance stood a giant black tornado emerging from the black clouds above. Black rain seemed to fall from the sky around the tornado into the mountain range below. "Maybe we should start there."
"Really? I had never thought so," Sora chuckled and took a few steps in the direction of the vortex. Shadow started walking beside him. The two made eye contact and kept walking. "Let's go," Sora whispered, and the two immediately started high speed skating to whatever was waiting inside the mountain.
When the two got closer, they realized that the black rain was, in fact, hundreds of shadow Heartless. What they didn't see, however, was the presence of gray robots also falling with the Heartless. The robots were in the shape cubes with tube-like arms extending from opposite sides. There was a circular panel on the top of the cube, which rose up and revealed what looked like eyes. The entire underside of the cube glowed a light green .
It only took Sora and Shadow a minute to arrive at the top of one of the smaller mountains, and they observed what was happening below. The shadow Heartless seemed to simply loiter in the vicinity of the tornado, while the robots, hovering above the ground, started drilling into the ground as soon as they landed with drills that protruded from where their hands should be. A voice boomed from the sky, "There's a Chaos Emerald in this area. I command you all to find it!"
Sora whispered to Shadow, "Eggman's ship must be above the clouds. How can we get there?"
The gears churned in Shadow's mind while he formulated a plan. He summoned his Keyblade and held it up, motioning for Sora to do the same. He nodded and did so, and Shadow aimed his Keyblade out to the clearing. "Chaos Spear!" He quietly exclaimed, and he fired hundreds of energy spears out of his Keyblade. They curved downward and stabbed through the shadows. Sora smiled and did the same with his Wisdom shots. The duo blasted away the heartless and the robots from their distance, until the "rain" subsided.
"Well, this is a surprise. Sora and Shadow? What an unlikely pair!" Eggman's voice erupted from the sky once again. "Well this is good. Three Chaos Emeralds all in one place! I must thank you for destroying my drill-bots. Now I have an excuse to use my new drill-bot Heartless!
"Wait," Sora called out, "You've made your own heartless?"
"He has. Riku and I had to fight it."
"That Artificial Chaos Heartless was just an experiment. This is the real deal!" At that, the black tornado doubled in size, and suddenly there was a loud boom. The tornado faded away to reveal, once again, the Egg Dragoon, with new wings, extra parts, and a black and red paint job. Surrounding it were two dozen robots that looked much like the earlier ones, excluding the addition of the black and red heartless emblem on their fronts.
Shadow aimed his Keyblade at the crowd again, and fired numerous Chaos Spears again. The Dragoon raised its much larger gold wings and shielded itself from the blasts. The light spears simply shattered on impact with the wings, without making the slightest scratch. The Drill-bot heartless easily swerved away with incredible speed. By the end of the Chaos Spear assault, it was as if nothing ever happened. Shadow gritted his teeth and grunted.
Eggman's booming laughter came from the sky, "It won't be as easy as it was last time to take down these guys! You still have thirty minutes to give up your Chaos Emeralds, so in the meantime, please entertain yourselves with my robots. I know I will be. Now, I believe it is time to receive those Chaos Emeralds, by force or otherwise!"
The Drill-bot Heartless started speeding towards Sora and Shadow, with their drills spinning. Some immediately dug underground, some kept going, while a few others stopped moving and fired their drills like missiles. Sora and Shadow waited for the drills to come closer, and when they were the right distance, the two cut them in half with only a few slashes. The shooting Drill-bots quickly reloaded and fired again. Sora reactivated the magic in his feet and skated away from the missiles, when the Drill-bots that remained on the ground were finally upon them.
There were six Drill-bots on top of the mountain, and one of them propelled itself into the air and attempted to cross drill into Sora. He held his Keyblade up and, at the last second, spun to the side and sliced off the drills of the robot. Sora glanced sideways and noticed Shadow had done the same thing to another one. Sora looked back to see the de-drilled robot rapidly spinning, flailing its metal tube arms right into Sora's side. The blow forced him to skate sideways a little bit, but he quickly recovered and rose his Keyblade.
Another Drill-bot Heartless decided to join the fray by jumping over the dismembered one and attempting to drill into Sora like the previous one had done. He employed the same strategy as before, but the robot used it's speed to cross its drills and defend itself. Sora pushed down on the robot while it pushed up. Just when Sora felt like he was going to win this power struggle, he felt a sharp pain in his back, and he fell to the ground and saw the first Drill-bot slowing down its spin. A third Drill-bot arrived at Sora's right, and the three robotic Heartless approached Sora from opposite directions.
He stood up and pointed his Keyblade in the air, "Defense!" he yelled. His shielding dome appeared once more, and the three robots started slamming their arms into it. Knowing fully well that the shield wouldn't hold them forever, Sora quickly thought of a new plan. Cracks rose on the shield where the Drill-bot Heartless had been attacking, and the two with drills started drilling through the cracks. The drill-less Heartless jumped incredibly high in the air, and slammed down on the shield, shattering it to bits. When it landed, the three sped to Sora, once again from their different directions.
Light erupted from Sora's hand, and it zoomed down his Keyblade to the head. Sora held it in the air, and waited for the robot trio to get as close as possible. He thrust his Keyblade down and shouted, "Explosion!" The light at the end split into three large balls of energy, the size of the robots. The energy orbs spun around Sora once, destroying the Drill-bot heartless where they stood. When the rubble cleared three pink hearts rose a few feet in the air and faded away.
Sora looked around and saw that Shadow was already fighting the four missile Drill-bots, and was about to join in when an ominous voice came from behind him. "You've done much better than I expected, Sora. How about we make a little deal regarding that Chaos Emerald of yours."
When the six Drill-bots on the mountaintop had arrived, Shadow knew he had to deal with them quickly else the missiles would surely do them in. The first Drill-bot to come at him tried drilling straight at him. He quickly sidestepped and slashed vertically, through the arms of the robot. He then spun at a high speed and sliced diagonally through what was left of the cube. A heart squeezed through the gash in the robot and dissolved in the air. He quickly turned his attention to the next one coming at him. It jumped several yards in the air and quickly came down with one drill. Shadow warped away at the last second, right above the second Heartless, and stabbed through its head. He didn't watch the heart release itself.
The third Drill-bot used its high speed to start circling Shadow. He once again used Chaos control to warp into the air and aimed his Keyblade at the area of the circle. "Chaos Spear," he shouted, and fired his Chaos bullets into the circle. To his surprise, the translucent gray circle remained and he landed in the center of the circle. Out of nowhere, the robot jumped to Shadow from behind and slammed into his back. Before he hit the ground, however, Shadow stabbed his Keyblade into the ground and pole vaulted back to his feet. He then realized he would have to use his speed to match the robot's.
When the robot started circling again, Shadow ran in a small circle to pick up speed, and then skated and circled alongside the robot. The two started skating/hovering straight and the robot stabbed at Shadow with both drills. Shadow parried them away. He sped up to get ahead of the robot, suddenly stopped, and swung his Keyblade at the Heartless like a baseball bat. The impact crumbled the Drill-bot, and the freed heart actually traveled in the direction the robot would have before fading into nothing.
Shadow then sped to the missile robots, who seemed to be out of ammo and were turning back to the Egg Dragoon, and started slashing at them. Without their drills and caught by surprise, the first two of four were easily taken down. The other two then ferociously attacked Shadow from his front at the same time. He blocked the intense blows, and tried countering, but they were deflected by the metal tubes. He realized this couldn't go on forever, so he used Chaos Control, but just as he was about to warp, his Keyblade transformed back into a dull Chaos Emerald.
Utilizing quick thinking, he sped to the other side of the robots, and punched the first one he came to right through the back. It short circuited and exploded, but no heart came out. The second one came at him again, but Shadow used the same technique, and soon after the last Drill-bot was a steaming heap of metal. He looked up at the Dragoon, knowing how his Keyblade transformed but wondering why it hadn't happened earlier, and why the giant robot was simply standing around. He looked at Sora and realized why. He immediately ran to him and the other person joining him.
Sora had turned around when the voice spoke, to see very a fat man dressed in a red coat and black leather pants. There were obnoxiously large yellow buttons on the coat, and he had a giant, fuzzy brown mustache. He was sitting in the chair of what looked like the the bottom half of an egg, that was black on the bottom and gray on the side. "By the looks of it," Sora started, "I would guess you're Eggman."
"Doctor Robotnik, if you will," Eggman said, "So as I said, I want that Chaos Emerald!"
"Free Kairi and I'll think about it!" Sora shouted and gripped his Keyblade tighter.
"Give me the Emerald and I might give you the girl," He smoothly responded. He had an evil smile on his face. He pushed a button on his control panel, and suddenly all the Chaos power Sora had in him faded away. His Wisdom form dissipated, and the Chaos Emerald rematerialized in his hand. Eggman leaned forward and held out his arm. "It's the best chance you'll have at getting her back, so I suggest you do it, boy."
Sora thought about it for a second, and heard crumbling metal as Shadow destroyed the last of the Drill-bots. "Fine," he muttered and slowly raised the Yellow Chaos Emerald toward Eggman's hand.
"Sora! Stop! It's just a trick!" Shadow yelled from his right, but it was too late. Eggman snatched the Emerald from Sora's hand, and started laughing.
"You got your Emerald, Eggman! Now free Kairi like you said you would!" Sora shouted, but the doctor continued laughing.
"You fool! I didn't say I would, I said I might free her. And I've decided I won't! Now I have this glorious Chaos Emerald to add to my collection! I just need three more to complete my Egg Dragoon!" He said this while driving his floating egg to the torso of the Dragon. He inserted Sora's Chaos Emerald into a hole next to the green, purple, and white Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald in the center of the circle.
With added power, the Dragoon stood a little straighter, and stomped its legs. "You see," Eggman began, "With the upgrades I added to the Dragoon, it needed more power than what was available. So I knew I needed one more Chaos Emerald to get all of its functions to work at once, and thanks to your foolishness, Sora, my robot now has full capabilities. However, it is nowhere near full power. We just need those last-." Eggman was cut off by the sound of shifting earth below them.
Suddenly, a Drill-bot Heartless plowed through the dirt and rocks with one drill, the other pointed downward. Its bottom panel glowed bright green as the robotic Heartless flew up to Eggman's vehicle. "Well, what a coincidence, I was just talking about you! Hand me the Emerald, my new friend." Eggman held out his hand in a polite gesture, just to tease Sora and Shadow, and the robot held out the arm that didn't have a drill. For a second nothing happened except for the sound of whirring in the Heartless, and then the light blue Chaos Emerald appeared and fell out of the tube.
Eggman cackled again and flew down to the next open space on the Egg Dragoon's chest and placed the Emerald inside. The five Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald glowed bright for half a second, and then returned to normal. Shadow glared at Eggman and clutched his still dull Chaos Emerald. Eggman looked at the lackluster red rock in Shadow's hand before speaking, "Don't worry, Shadow. I have a special surprise for you and Sonic to get those Emeralds from you two."
"Yeah?" Shadow sarcastically responded, "Like what?"
"Well, if I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise anymore, would it?" His floating egg started rising, "If you'll excuse me, now, I have an invasion to plan in twenty minutes. Come, my magnificent Egg Dragoon!" Eggman drove his Egg Transport up into the black clouds, and the Dragoon pushed his wings down with force, generating lift and slowly rising into the air.
Sora clenched his fists as tight as he could and watched in anger as the dragon ascended into the air and began to plow through the clouds. His breathing grew heavy while his mind became clouded with anger, hatred, resentment, and pain.
Shadow took a few steps back, slightly confused, and stared as Sora's Keyblade disappeared from his hand. When the light from the shimmering weapon faded away, his hands started turning black. Gradual darkness flowed from his hands and slowly climbed up his arms. The same happened from his feet until what seemed like a cloud of pure darkness had completely engulfed him.
When the black smoke began to fade away, Shadow could see a pitch black figure hunched over inside the cloud. "Sora?" he hesitantly asked, keeping one fist clenched and the other holding the still shine-less Chaos Emerald. The black creature turned it's head and revealed large, glowing yellow eyes. Shadow's own eyes widened when the darkness subsided and he got a full look at what became of Sora.
Everything on him was black; from his skin to his shoes and his clothes to his hair; they were all as black as night. His aqua blue eyes had changed to glowing yellow orbs, and his brown hair became black, knotted and wild. His nose and mouth seemed to have disappeared. The darkness still flowed from his hands and feet, and what looked like claws had formed on them both. His posture changed from upright to hunched over, like the Shadow Heartless, and he had his arms all the way down so they were also touching the ground. Sora, if the creature could still be called so, cocked his head sideways at Shadow and simply stared. If it hadn't been created from pure anger, rage, and hate, it would have looked somewhat innocent.
"Sora? Are you there at all?" Shadow asked again, hoping for a response. It cocked its head the other way. Shadow blinked and the creature was gone. He quickly looked around and saw nothing, but when he straightened his head forward, Sora's Anti-Form was inches away from him. He picked Shadow up by the neck, did the fastest spin Shadow had ever seen and experienced, and within milliseconds he was face down on the ground.
Shadow pushed himself back to his feet and coughed out dirt. He turned around and saw Anti-Sora somewhat galloping down the mountain to the clearing that the Egg Dragoon had just left. "Could he really have turned into a heartless?" Shadow uttered to himself and watched while the creature stopped moving and looked into the air. Sora let out a scream that sounded more like a demonic roar, and the dark clouds above seemed to condense even tighter.
It started raining darkness again, but these dark "raindrops" were even bigger than before. The dark pools that formed when the globs hit the ground gave rise to what at first looked like Shadow Heartless. However, when they rose even higher from the darkness, Shadow could see the difference. They were as black as Sora had become, but were more stretched out than the Shadow Heartless. Their torsos were broader, with longer arms and legs than their smaller counterparts. The claws on their hands had become knife-like, and the antennae on their heads had grown tenfold and zigzagged backwards and down almost to the ground.
The Neoshadow Heartless increased in number as Shadow stood at the peak of the mound, watching down. He knew he couldn't do anything until he got his Chaos Emerald back to power, which meant he needed patience. Anti-Sora didn't let him have that, because he used his impossible speed to appear right in front of Shadow again, grab his arm and spin laterally. After the fourth spin Sora released and shot Shadow into the heard of new Heartless below. For the second time in minutes, he was face first in dirt.
When Shadow had picked himself up again, he was surrounded by Neoshadows. He glanced up and saw Sora standing where they both stood only a second ago. The Heartless directly in front of him jumped with a speed much greater than the original purebloods, and Shadow just barely dodged the attack sideways. He saw several others jump into the ground, creating a dark puddle that appeared to move on its own. Two more Neoshadows lunged at him while the puddles approached. Shadow jumped over the two Heartless, and landed right in the middle of a dark ring.
The submerged Neoshadows darted from the pools of darkness at the same time, and in the process created powerful shock waves that collided with Shadow from every direction. The force of the impact shot Shadow upward, where Anti-Sora had conveniently jumped and slashed him back into the ground with his dark claws. Another Neoshadow sped under him and kicked him into the air, back towards Sora, before he could land. The dark creature clutched Shadow's arms, and somehow propelled itself down at an intense speed.
Before the two smacked into the ground, Sora shifted his weight, placed his feet on Shadow's torso, and kicked himself off, boosting Shadow's impact with the ground. Sora did a back flip in the air and landed amidst the Neoshadows, who seemed to do nothing against him. The heartless jumped at Shadow again, but they seemed to come at every possible direction. Just as they were about to strike him all at once, Shadow felt a warmth in his hand. Without moving he called out, "Chaos Control!"
The Neoshadows landed on the ground and simply stood, waiting for their next potential target. Shadow watched from the top of the mountain as Anti-Sora and the Heartless looked around for their disappeared foe. He leaned on his knees and coughed blood. "Sora..." He said to himself, "Did you really turn into a heartless?" Shadow tried figuring out possible alternatives to what happened to Sora. He has different forms, He thought, Could this be one of them? Why doesn't he recognize me?
Shadow transformed his Chaos Emerald into his Keyblade and looked down at it. He then looked up to see more Neoshadows falling from the pitch black clouds. "There's only one thing I can do. Sora, Heartless of not, I'm going to have to stop you somehow!" He used Chaos Control to teleport into his rematch.
A/N: I hope you liked Part 1. The second part is coming soon! Don't worry, it'll be sooner than it took for this chapter to come up! Don't forget to review! It's the only way I'll know what you think of it all!
