Episode 7: Shadow + rage = BOOM!

Nazo had taken it upon himself to watch the Master Emerald so that Knuckles could go with the others and thwart Eggman's threat. As it was now, Nazo was less concerned with the Master Emerald and more concerned with Shadow, who he could now distinguish from the other just like him, as he had been listening through Knuckles' ears when the other introduced himself as Fatal.

The silence of Angel Island was ended with a green flash and a whoosh.

Shadow the Hedgehog had arrived.

"So you finally come to see me Shadow." Nazo said. Shadow was not in a very talkative mood. He walked halfway up the steps of the Shrine and stopped.

"Who are you?" he demanded. Nazo stepped down from atop the Master Emerald. "Call me Nazo." Shadow grimaced. "Are you another one of those idiots who claim to be a god and need me for some kind of world domination?" Nazo stood, unwavering. "No."

Shadow snarled, his anger rising. "Then why do you try to control me!" Nazo sighed; his eyes seeing right through Shadow as if he was not there.

"I do not try to control you." Shadow tensed, his inner rage fueling every corner of his body with power.

"You try to get into my mind, my last and final sanctuary and dare to say that you are not trying to control me! Before you started hammering away at me, I had finally found peace. But now, you will suffer my wrath!" as Shadow spoke, His form was bathed in a hellish red glow as he drew in power from the Chaos Emeralds on the shrine. Nazo did not move, did not do anything, which agitated Shadow even further.

Shadow could take no more. Whoever this fool thought he was, No one got in his head and lived. roaring savagely, Shadow launched himself at Nazo, dashing up the rest of the Shrine in less than a second.

Shadow was a flurry of black and red around Nazo as he struck Nazo again and again with a furious passion.

Nazo still did not move.

Finally, Shadow stopped in front of Nazo, grabbing Nazo's throat with one hand and pulling back a punch with the other.

Now Nazo moved.

Just as Shadow threw his punch, Nazo lifted his arm faster than Shadow thought possible and caught his fist, holding him effortlessly. Next Nazo grabbed the wrist of Shadow's other hand and removed the hand from his throat as easily as if Shadow had the strength of a newborn child.

Shadow tried with all the effort he could to push Nazo away or to break Nazo's hold on his wrist, but to no avail. His body now was so drenched in the glow of dark Chaos energy that he appeared totally red, putting one of Shadow's most devastating powers to use.

"CHAOS BLAST!" The power released from Shadow, a ball of chaos power expanding from him, and finally pushing Nazo away. Once the blast had subsided, Shadow looked toward Nazo should be. He wasn't there.

Shadow was experienced enough to know what came next. Whipping around, Shadow was prepared for a blow to the head, stomach, or legs.

Shadow was right that Nazo was behind him, but again Nazo stood still.

Shadow was enraged that Nazo dared to taunt him, and powered up a Chaos Spear in each hand. Binding them together as one by clapping his hands together, shadow called on his power again.

"CHAOS SPEAR!" The projectile shot away from Shadow, towards Nazo.

Nazo caught the head of the spear in his hand as easily as he had caught Shadow's fist. Flexing his fingers, Nazo crushed the spear from existence. Shadow bared his teeth at Nazo with a feral hate in his eyes. Nazo floated around Shadow, who turned to keep his eyes on him, and landed atop the Master Emerald and just stood there.

Shadow glared at him for a moment before seeing that all seven chaos emeralds were present in the Shrine, not just the few he was using to fuel his semi-super form. Calling on the power of all the seven Chaos Emeralds, Shadow felt his strength increase by the millisecond, his power growing just as fast. His fur became a bright gold-yellow, and he was bathed in a golden fire that mimicked Nazo's.

Shadow smirked at Nazo. If Nazo had been subject to a chaos blast before, Shadow had a secure victory in his super-form.

Shadow flew up from the shrine and backwards away from Nazo. He hung there for a moment, and then shot forward like a bullet.

Nazo drew back his arms as Shadow drove toward him, coiling for his first and last offensive strike in this conflict. Shadow put out one of his fists, aiming right for Nazo's face.

Just as Shadow came over the last step of the Shrine, Nazo thrust out his hands, jarring Shadow in the chest, just on either side of the tuft of fur on his chest.

A tremendous boom resonated over the air, and Shadow hung at the end of Nazo's outstretched arms, his eyes and mouth open wide.

Shadow's fire faded and his fur turned through darker shades until his super-form had dissipated, and he lay at Nazo's feet.

Nazo hoisted him onto his shoulder and chaos-controlled Shadow and himself to the ThorneDyke's mansion, where he laid Shadow in the room next to the one in which he had laid Volt, and informed the ThorneDyke's maid of his presence. After securing that Shadow could be clearly identified via chaos signature, Nazo returned to Angel Island and waited for the morning.

Fatal had systematically taken out Knuckles, Tails, and the green version of Sonic, so all he had left was Sonic and his robotic counterpart, which would be the hardest for him; Sonic and Metal were vigorously competing with each other, doing more damage to his forces than the other three combined. Fatal decided to create a strategy to eliminate their threat before jumping in on them, one reason that Sonic and Metal were both almost as fast as him, another that Metal could think faster than the speed of light, Sonic at least the speed of sound.

Fatal had just finally come up with a plausible way to separate them when Metal announced to Sonic that they were the last ones standing against Eggman's forces here. Metal quickly convinced Sonic to cut his losses and get their fallen comrades to safety.

Lightning fast, Sonic and Metal gathered up their comrades and escaped in their jet, Metal flying alongside it.

Fatal scoffed at them, how they fled like cowards, and was about to leave when he heard the familiar sound of the Eggart, Eggman's personal go-mobile.

"Excellent work Fatal! You made those little rats run back into the holes they came from on your very first try!" Fatal smiled, being encouraged by Eggman refilled the little of what energy Fatal had used. Fatal jumped up onto the Eggart. Eggman ruffled the quills on the top of his head, ruffling the navy blue and the black together in a strange marble pattern.

"Now that we have a firm establishment on the planet, the true expansion of the Eggman Empire can begin!" Eggman drove his hovercraft off toward the mobile headquarters, meanwhile Fatal fixed his hairdo.

The next morning, Volt, Amy, Cream, Sonic, and Tails were all crammed in front of the TV, watching the havoc of Eggman's army on the news.

France had been completely taken over in one night, and large bases were already being constructed to create still more troops for expansion.

Shadow came into the living room, his eyelids heavy. Amy was the first one who noticed Shadow standing behind the couch, mostly due to the fact that his eyes barley made it over the top.

"Look who's finally decided to wake up." The rest of them turned their attention towards him. He grimaced. Volt jumped up onto the top of the couch, beaming.

"I wanna say that it's completely and totally awesome for me to meet the ultimate life form." Volt held out his hand for Shadow to shake it. Shadow did no such thing, but came around the couch so he could better see the television.

"So what's this? I stop fighting for a few minutes and suddenly all of you forget how to handle a few robots?" Shadow closed his eyes for a moment.

"Fools."

Tails, having experienced first-hand why they had lost, spoke up.

"Actually Shadow, it's not how you think. There was..." his voice trailed off as he saw Shadow staring wide eyed at the TV. The other hedgehog that had attacked them was being displayed on the screen.

Silence gripped the living room save the reporter's monotone voice.

"And just when was I going to be told about this!" he demanded. Sonic stood and walked over towards the kitchen.

"There's plenty enough that you need to be told, Shadow." Sonic stopped and looked back over his shoulder.

"But you'll never find out if all you do is fight with the ones who'll tell you." Shadow knew right away that Sonic knew about the fight between him and Nazo last night. Shadow redirected his attention towards Tails.

"So who is this look-alike serving as Eggman's new stooge?" Tails wanted to get some support from Sonic, but he had already gone to the kitchen.

"He called himself Fatal. He took me out in less than a minute." Not that that's any real accomplishment. Shadow thought.

"I took a Chaos Spear to the ribs, and that was the end of it." Upon hearing that this Fatal not only looked like him, but could make use of his signature attack stirred up his anger.

Only one or two things could have made Shadow angrier than what next was announced on the news however.

"…And so, to meet this threat, the G.U.N. is officially utilizing the space colony ARK, and it is assumed that they will make use of the colony's weapon, the Eclipse Cannon, to decimate Eggman's hold on France."

"How dare they!" Shadow snarled. "No one is going to defile the resting place of Maria as long as I live!" and before anyone could say anything, he was out the door and well on down the street.

Shadow skated out of the city and down the freeway that would take him towards area 99, the G.U.N's main base of operations. Shadow's early days were dark, and the ARK was, as far as he was concerned, sacred ground. No one was getting near it unless he was dead.

Shadow was so deep in his rage that he did not notice that he was no longer alone.

Metal Sonic flew alongside him, the jets in his feet keeping him just off the ground while his primary engine drove him forward.

Shadow bared his teeth at the robot, the second worst person to find following him.

Shadow slowed to a stop, Metal Sonic followed suit.

"What do you want!" he demanded. Metal looked off towards where he knew area 99 lay.

"I'm going with you." Shadow eyed the robot suspiciously.

"Why? Does G.U.N. have some technology you haven't absorbed data from yet? Are you having the delusion that you're getting on the ARK? Give me a good reason to have you along. Because the way I see it, I should just blow your head off right now."

Metal indulged in a few chuckles before looking back to Shadow.

"You can't stop me, for one. For another, no one on this planet has anything that could improve me. Yet another reason would be known to you if you were not so judging and had asked Sonic what he meant."

Shadow paused, stunned. How did Metal know what Sonic had told him only a matter of minutes ago? That aside, Shadow was loathe to admit that Metal was probably right that an attempt to barge in and destroy any means of getting into space was doomed to fail.

"Perhaps I could use your company. I might need a distraction somewhere in the base." Metal did not reply any farther than resuming his flight to area 99. Shadow could not think of how things could get any worse as he skated off to catch up with Metal.

Metal Sonic knew that Shadow could get into area 99 as easily as he wanted to, but Metal also knew that the chances of him destroying the whole place and killing anyone inside of it was also the most likely outcome, and no one else was as capable of stopping Shadow from doing such a thing as Metal.

Shadow came abreast with Metal again. If there was a first step towards changing himself so he could fulfill his need for victory, it was keeping as many of those people in the base alive as possible. However, he did not like the idea of the Eclipse Cannon being pointed at whatever the government decided to blast any more than Shadow.