SO SORRY ABOUT DISAPPEARING SO MUCH, I JUST TEND TO GET DISTRACTED WITH OTHER THINGS A LOT. BUT EVEN STILL, HERE'S CHAPTER NINE.
Where was he? That was the one thought going through Shadow's mind, because Eclipse should've been back by now. From what he could tell, it was nearly midnight and that opening would appear any minute now. Of course it wasn't that big of a deal because Shadow would be more than capable on his own, but he didn't like the idea of leaving Hope alone with Eclipse for who knows how long. Speaking of Hope, she passed out a few minutes ago on Eclipse's weathered couch and was still sound asleep. As for Shadow himself, he was standing in the living room with his arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face. After Eclipse left, the Husks disappeared somewhere in the house and haven't reappeared since then. Luckily they didn't seem to be causing any kind of real trouble so it didn't really matter if they were near him or not. Then suddenly, the building's front door began to creek open. Shadow quickly looked over to the door and saw Eclipse walk into the living room, a large smile on his face. Shadow furrowed his brow in anger as he said "What took you so long?"
Eclipse shrugged, a little chuckle coming out of his mouth as he did "I just lost track of time, that's all."
Shadow began to stomp over to Eclipse while saying "You losing track of time could've caused you to miss the opening."
The Darkling chuckled a little "Shadow, I trust you wholeheartedly. If I were to miss the opening, then I would understand you going ahead with the mission without me."
Shadow rolled his eyes "It doesn't matter now, we have to get going if we're going to make it there on time at all."
Eclipse nodded "Yes, absolutely! Come, I know a quick way of getting there."
He then quickly spun around before leading Shadow out of the shack, the black and red Hedgehog closing its front door behind him as they did. The two then walked down the now empty main road of the town, there were no lights, no sounds, and there was no signs of life other than Shadow and Eclipse. As the two walked, Shadow looked over to Eclipse and asked "What were you even doing with Vizy?"
Eclipse was silent for a few seconds before finally, and silently, saying "We were discussing.. The possibilities of having.. Hatch-lings together."
Shadow silently stared at Eclipse. He wasn't sure if the idea of Eclipse having offspring was a good thing, or bad thing. And he couldn't decide if Eclipse's bashfulness when it came to talking about his and Vizy's discussion was charming or not. Ultimately Shadow said "You want to have children?"
Eclipse shrugged "I don't really know. Our discussion was mostly centered on the topic of, can we actually do it. Despite the fact I still have a lot of Black Arms DNA in me, I might not be able to have offspring with pure breed Black Arms."
Shadow then looked away from Eclipse as he nodded his head "Alright.."
Honestly, the more he listened to Eclipse talk. The more he heard about him, the more he came to understand about him. Shadow found it harder and harder to view him as a threat, much less someone to be mad at. He then sighed before looking down slightly "Eclipse... I'm not saying I have. But for now, just know that I'm currently thinking about admitting. That I've miss judged you."
Eclipse looked over to Shadow "Uh.. Okay?"
The Hedgehog shook his head "If things continue to go well, I just wanted you to be aware that I've slowly started to view you in a slight different light."
The Darkling nodded slightly before asking "Does that mean-"
"I'm not your brother."
Eclipse shrugged "Baby steps... But enough chatting, we need to get to the drill. While it may have refueled itself at sunset, it takes until after midnight for the machine to power up again."
Shadow nodded before suddenly grabbing ahold of Eclipse's arm "Just us the Hive Mind to tell me where to go."
"Or I could just tell you that it's only ten miles away from where the Low Land's entrance is."
Shadow didn't say anything, instead he teleported him and Eclipse away from the Low Lands, and Charcoal City. The two then reappeared out in the snow, the wind was howling, and the air was cold. Shadow let go of Eclipse's arm as the two saw what looked like a massive submarine sized drill poking halfway out of the ground. Spot lights were trained on the drill's exterior and Egg Pawns patrolled the machine's perimeter at all times. Eclipse hissed out "There it is! And that's not even its full size!"
Shadow looked over to him "What do you mean?"
Eclipse looked over to Shadow "What we're only seeing is the middle of the drill's backside, the spot where the fuel of course goes in. But the machine itself stretches forwards for another few yards or so! Not counting the drill itself, which is actually just a couple hundred inches long."
Shadow nodded before looking back over to the drill "Then this should be fun."
He then began to skate forwards, to Eclipse's surprise "B- Shouldn't we come up with a plan?!"
"Keep up, don't die, meet up at the drill's back end."
And with that Shadow jumped up into the air so he could Homing Attack into an Egg Pawn. Eclipse sighed "Yeah alright."
He then began to run forwards, which wasn't that impressive seeing as how he wasn't anywhere near as fast as Sonic or Shadow. But as Shadow used the severed of an Egg Pawn to fire at other robots, Eclipse's path was blocked by a chrome plated Egg Pawn. The robot aimed its twin arm cannons at Eclipse, but before it could fire the Darkling lunged at the robot and began to tare into its metallic skin with its apparently razor sharp claws. Once he tore out the robot's CPU he looked up and saw Shadow kick the head off of an Egg Pawn before landing on the ground and almost being hit by the energy bolt from a different robot. But what Shadow didn't see was the Pawn sneaking up behind him. Eclipse's eyes went wide before he scrambled up to his feet and began to run forwards "Shadow look out!"
The Hedgehog turned around as the Egg Pawn began to fire, then suddenly Eclipse jumped up into the air and yelled out "Chaos Control!"
And time froze around his nearest surroundings, creating a bubble like effect of discolored and motionless objects stuck in their last positions. Then the bubble effect disappeared as time returned to normal within it. Once time did return to normal, Shadow saw that the once stationary robot was now on the ground destroyed with Eclipse standing over it. Shadow stared at Eclipse, a shocked look in his eyes "Wha- How- What else can you do?"
Eclipse shrugged slightly before he began to walk over to Shadow "If you can do it, then I can too. Only not as well as you can, now let's go. We're wasting time!"
Shadow nodded before the two began to make their way towards the drill. Once at the opening of the ground that allowed the fuel tab be exposed to the outside world, the two jumped down and into the massive tunnel that the machine had created with its equally as massive drill tip. But they didn't land on the bottom of the stone, snow, and dirt tunnel. No, they landed on a series of platforms all attached to the sides of the drill creating ramps for robots to operate the machine and move from one spot of it to another. Speaking of robots, when the two landed an Egg Pawn turned around just in time to get a face full of Shadow's fist. While at the same time Eclipse threw a dark red Chaos Spear at a Buzz Bomber that was attempting to fire at the two of them. Once the robots they were focusing on were destroyed, the two turned to face each other to come up with a much better plan of action. That was until an Egg Walker landed on the platform right in between them. Shadow quickly jumped up onto the robot's back while Eclipse began to tare into its legs with his razor sharp claws. Eventually Eclipse was able to rip off one of its legs and he threw it up to Shadow, who jumped off of the Walker's back and used the robot's own leg to destroy its head. When Shadow landed on the ground Eclipse turned to face him "We work pretty well together."
Shadow rolled his eyes before turning around "The back side of the drill should be the best place to cause a chain reaction to explode the drill at."
Eclipse nodded "Yes, in fact that plan might actually work better then you think! Because this drill is equipped with jet engines to keep its massive weight moving with out slowing down. That's where most of the fuel goes as well!"
The two then began to make their way towards the backside of the drill. Shadow skating along the ramps attached to the side of the drill, while Eclipse climbed across the walls at a fast pace. Still not enough to keep up with Shadow like Sonic might, but still fast enough to not loose his Hedgehog brother. As they were making their way towards their target, sires began to go off which made Eclipse say "It seems they've finally alerted the others."
Shadow huffed slightly "If they know what's good for them, they won't get in our way."
Then suddenly, a massive energy field appeared in front of them stopping their progression instantly. Eclipse came off of the drill's wall and stood next to Shadow "Great.. And it looks like it stretches to the other side as well."
Shadow then looked over to the wall next to them "..We can continue forwards through the drill's interior."
Eclipse nodded "Alright, one second."
He then dug his claws into the side of the drill and ripped out a large chunk of it giving the two an entrance to the drill's interior. The two quickly jumped through the hole and destroyed the Egg Pawns who were simply operating what looked to be ore refinery machines. But they would've gotten in their way despite the robots' jobs on board the drill. Shadow and Eclipse then began to make their way through the inside of the drill heading towards its backside from a new way, the sirens still blaring on the outside and inside. Although the inside ones were much louder. They fought their way through several rooms, some of which looked like ore refineries, and others looked like robot stasis chambers. As they came out of another one of the refinery rooms Eclipse said "Only around three to four more rooms to go!"
They then entered into a robot stasis chamber that had a few robots left in their pods. Luckily they didn't activate to attack the two, but right as the two were about to leave the chamber Shadow was blasted through the wall of the drill and to its outside. Eclipse called out Shadow's name in shock before he turned to face the robot that had blasted Shadow away. But before he could get a good look he was blasted out of the drill as well. Shadow pulled himself up onto the exterior ramps as Eclipse landed on it. The two stood up groaning as they did before they both heard a loud metal thud over by the wall they had been blasted out of. When they looked over to the source of the thud, they saw a robot a few inches larger then the both of them. It looked like a bulkier version of Metal Sonic, while not being as bulky as Silver Sonic. It had large gauntlets, a black visor, and was colored ultramarine blue while its digital slit eye was dark orange red. This robot, was Mecha Sonic. The robot glared at the two of them before Shadow coughed slightly as he tried to say "How many times do I have to destroy Sonic's doppelgangers for him?"
Eclipse got up to his feet and said "Unfortunately Shadow, this is a direct effect of you destroying Silver Sonic."
Shadow clenched his fists "If that's the case, then it'll go down just like Silver Sonic."
Then suddenly Mecha Sonic rose its right arm up and it transformed into an arm turret. The robot then began to fire off bullets at a speed similar to a machine gun's, which caused the two to quickly jump out of the bullet's ways. Eclipse tried to lung at Mecha Sonic while it was distracted with trying to shoot at Shadow, but it quickly noticed Eclipse and spun its torso around smacking him away with the back of its transformed arm. It then returned its attention to Shadow as he quickly dove behind some sort of control console and used it as cover. Eclipse groaned as he picked himself back up off of the ground, which Mecha Sonic was able to hear. So it aimed its left arm at him before transforming it as well. But unlike its right arm, the left fired out a missile that sped right towards Eclipse. Who suddenly jumped out of the missile's way and with the help of the Hive Mind's spacial awareness, he grabbed onto the missile's body. He then aimed it back at Mecha Sonic before letting go and watching as the missile sped towards it. Shadow could hear the explosion of the missile hitting Mecha's body, so he used that opportunity to come out from behind his cover and attacking the robot's body. He Homing Attacked into it causing the robot to lung its body backwards, Eclipse then punched the back of Mecha's head making it lung back towards Shadow. Who jumped up into the air and knocked the robot away with a swift midair spin kick.
Mecha Sonic fell over the guard rail of the ramp the three of them were on, and when Eclipse and Shadow looked over the rails to check on Mecha. They saw the robot speed away towards the backside of the drill curled up in its ball form, which was very similar to Silver Sonic's only smaller. The other two quickly made their way over to the end of the ramp and jumped off of it landing on the ground in front of the drill's jet engines. Mecha Sonic glared at the two of them before using its powerful back jet engine to fly up into the air. It then transformed its arms back into their turret modes before firing at the two of them. Shadow attempted to retaliate by throwing Chaos Spears at it but the robot quickly flew out of the way of them while Eclipse attempted to throw rocks at it. Mecha Sonic then suddenly turned off its jet and slammed into the ground, before curling up and Spin Dashing towards Eclipse. Sadly he was to shocked to react in time so he was like a deer caught in headlights, luckily Shadow jumped in between the two of them and used his rocket shoes to blast Mecha Sonic away. The robot fell onto its side before uncurling and jumping up to its feet. While at the same time Eclipse said to Shadow "Thank you."
But the black and red Hedgehog didn't say anything because Mecha Sonic's chest split open revealing a powerful laser projector similar to Metal Sonic's own. The projector then fired off a wide beam that forced the other two to jump and dodge it. Sadly Mecha Sonic's torso moved on its own as it spun around to follow Shadow while he tried to stay ahead of the beam. Then suddenly they both heard Eclipse yell out "Chaos Blast!"
And when Mecha Sonic turned its head to look at the direction of Eclipse, it was met by a large orange blast that sent it flying towards Shadow. Who quickly spin kicked it towards the drill's jet engines. When its back hit the metal of the drill its robotic spines got stuck in the hard materiel, which gave Shadow an idea. He thrust his hand out and yelled out "Chaos Blast!"
Before sending a sphere of Chaos Energy flying towards the robot. Once the two collided there was a large red explosion that destroyed Mecha Sonic and caused a chain reaction throughout the entire drill. Eclipse quickly ran over to Shadow as the tunnel began to shake from the constant explosions "We have to get out of here! The tunnel's about to collapse!"
Shadow nodded before grabbing onto Eclipse's arm, the two then teleported away from the tunnel and back into the Low Lands while the drill finally erupted into a fiery inferno that made the entire tunnel collapse in on itself. Destroying some robots that were still above ground, or in the drill. Once Shadow and Eclipse both reappeared in the Low Lands they could feel the ground shacking slightly thanks to the explosion they had caused. And so could the Black Arms who had been woken up by it. A small crowd had formed in the street where Shadow and Eclipse both appeared, so it shocked them when they did. Eclipse looked over to Shadow, a smile on his face "I haven't had that much fun since I discovered the Husk's ability to grant powers!"
Shadow coughed slightly thanks to the dirt he had inhaled while down there "We took care of the drill, I've held up my side of our deal. Now it's time for you to do the same. I don't want to see you, or the Black Arms, every again once I leave here."
Eclipse frowned slightly "But.. We worked so well down there, and Eggman is still going to be a threat so long as he has world domination."
Shadow nodded "Which is why I have to be up there, taking down his empire instead of destroying mines and drills."
Suddenly, Hope pushed her way through the crowd and ran up to Shadow "Was that explosion anywhere near my village?!"
Shadow shook his head "No. It should be fine, if not a little freaked out by it."
Eclipse then said "Shadow, I understand why you want to leave. And I'm sure you don't want Hope to be down here for much longer. But please, stay for one more night. It's going to be cold out there, and the wind was picking up while we were in the tunnel so who knows what may be blowing in."
Shadow was silent for a moment, letting the faint murmurs of the Black Arms fill both Eclipse, Hope, and Shadow's ears. The black and red Hedgehog then sighed before saying "Alright... Fine... We'll stay for one more night. But only because I'm concerned for Hope's health."
Eclipse nodded as he smiled widely "Well then, I'll prepare you two a room in my house! As for everyone else, everything's alright you can all head back to sleep."
The Black Arms all began to make their way back towards their homes. Eclipse then turned to face Hope and Shadow "Follow me, please."
He then began to walk down the street with Shadow and Hope both followed behind him towards his house.
