Chapter 9- Mephiles' Gift
Mephiles ducked nonchalantly as an ebony and crimson arm darted over him, his features lightened slightly by the Chaos Spear Shadow had intended to drive into his throat. Shadow's eyes widened from the speed at which Mephiles performed and warped away in the blink of an eye, he didn't want to get hit by his counter-attack.
The dark hedgehog reappeared and let the Chaos Spear in his hand wither away, its energy returning back to his body. Mephiles straightened back up as Shadow's eyes narrowed. Why didn't he try and deliver an attack of his own?
"Why aren't you fighting me?" Shadow asked.
"Hm hm hm," Mephiles laughed sinisterly, "Why should a lion use its energy to kill a fly when it can do so with a simple swipe of its paw?"
The ultimate life form's eyes narrowed in an instant, "It isn't wise to underestimate someone like that."
The dark figure chuckled, "You know nothing of wisdom, or power for that matter."
"We'll see!" Shadow shouted, kicking off the ground and blazing towards Mephiles, his hover shoes flaring and spouting out flames like two small dragons at his feet.
The ghostly hedgehog copy moved his head to the side to avoid a punch from Shadow. The dark hedgehog cursed in anger and performed a round-house kick still in mid-air. Mephiles' stoic expression never faltered as he quickly ducked out of the way of the attack.
"A right punch," Mephiles suddenly deadpanned, causing Shadow to tense up, landing on the ground before him.
"Wha-" the dark hedgehog was cut off in the middle of his question when Mephiles' right fist dug into his gut.
Ruby eyes widened out of pain and blood unwillingly left his body through his mouth, splattering onto the grass. The ultimate life form doubled over in pain, and with one eye open, looked up to see Mephiles staring back at him with his head cocked to the side.
"A left kick."
Crimson eyes widened as a black and gray leg, too fast for Shadow to even detect, swept across his face, sending him flying ten feet back into a large tree.
With a scream, the bio-engineered hedgehog' head flew back as he slumped against the tree, breathing heavily with only one of his eyes half-way open.
"Pathetic," Mephiles murmured, beginning to stalk towards Shadow, "I told you exactly what I was going to do and even gave you some time to prepare yourself, yet you were totally caught off guard on both strikes..."
..."You'll never be able to beat him."
He knew in an instant who Mephiles was referring to, his psychotic and homicidal older brother, the one that had killed everyone on Ark: Eclipse.
Something inside of the dark hedgehog snapped.
With a deafening roar, Shadow lept to his feet, ruby eyes now fully open, a Chaos Spear that had been gathered in less than a second in his right hand, for his left was still broken.
Mephiles' eyes narrowed as he suddenly sunk into the ground, mimicking a rock sinking into a pool of water. Shadow instantly stopped, searching for the impostor when he heard a loud whoosh behind him.
Before the ultimate life form could even turn around, Mephiles' left leg came crashing into his broken arm. Hot white pain shot through the dark hedgehog's body as his Chaos Spear instantly disappeared. Grabbing his arm, the instinct took over as he released a thunderous cry of pain.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
The leg retreated back to the ground as Shadow dropped to his knees, blood running from his nose and mouth, his eyes completely void of emotion.
It seemed as a scream was what it took to whirl the other four heroes out of their comatose state and straight back into the real world. Knuckles and Sonic instantly snapped to attention and darted towards Shadow.
Rouge the Bat let forth a startled and fear-filled: "Shadow!" before also leaping to her feet with Amy, who had also called the dark hedgehog's name, although not as powerfully as Rouge had.
Sonic and Knuckles jumped in front of the fallen Shadow, staring down upon Mephiles as Rouge instantly took the dark hedgehog into her arms, trying to calm him like a mother would her child.
"Shadow," she whispered, "It's all right Shadow."
"That's it, you're dead-meat!" Sonic spat, getting into a fighting stance.
"I'm not interested in the likes of you two," Mephiles sneered, pointing at the figure on his knees, "I came for the so called ultimate life form!"
"You will not touch him," Rouge hissed, her eyes aflame with anger.
The phantom hedgehog chuckled at the bat's behavior. He could never really figure out the way females thought and acted at times, completely without rational thought and reasoning.
Noticing Mephiles' stare, Knuckles saw it as an opening and jumped at the phantom, "Take this!"
Mephiles' gaze did not even shift onto Knuckles as he nonchalantly blocked the echidna's fist with the back of his hand.
Both violet and green eyes widened.
"No way!" Sonic shouted as Knuckles jumped back beside him comrade.
"Trash," Mephiles muttered, "Get out of my way, or die."
"Try it," the azure hedgehog sneered, getting into stance to summon the Shining Lance upon an instant's notice.
"Very well."
Sonic and Knuckles didn't even know what had happened. It couldn't even have been considered a blur. It was nothing but in less than a second, they were both face-first on the ground, gasping in pain, Mephiles standing above them both.
How had he been able to incapacitate them both so fast that not even Sonic the Hedgehog could keep up? The phantom sneered in disgust and turned towards where Shadow was, only to see both girls of the group with raised weapons standing in front of him protectively.
Mephiles raised his hand, summoning a wave of dark energy that knocked both females to the side, sending Rouge crashing into the base of a tree and Amy rolling onto the grass.
"Now," Mephiles spoke, putting a hand on Shadow's injured arm, "Let's see at what level you truly reside on at the moment."
The dark one's hand glowed black for a second before he removed it. Shadow's eyes blinked open, the pain was completely gone.
"What...did you do?" Shadow asked in a raspy voice.
"I healed you," Mephiles replied simply, pretending to be oblivious to the fact that he had tried to kill him just a few minutes ago.
"Why?"
"I want to see your true strength Shadow, to see what you are really capable of," Mephiles explained, getting back up.
Shadow smirked, this guy just made a big mistake.
"I should warn you," the ultimate life form hissed, his hands beginning to glow in an eerie yellow color, "You quite possibly won't make it out of here alive now that I'm fully healed."
"Don't flatter yourself," Mephiles deadpanned, "You're nowhere near my current level, half-dead or at full health."
"Cocky, aren't you?" Shadow asked.
"I have every right to be," Mephiles retorted, folding his arms across his chest.
"Shadow!" another voice called, a feminine one.
Mephiles' gaze hardened, "There's no time for these petite little interruptions."
With a wave of his hand, a large dark sphere manifested from the ground and crawled over the air and space surrounding them, completely entrapping both fighters.
Sonic and the others skidded to a halt immediately, "Can you break it Knuckles?"
The echidna nodded, "I'll try."
With a loud battle cry, Knuckles darted forward and drove his spiked fist into the shield.
A few moments of silence past before the shield sizzled and sent a shock wave coursing through the echidna's body, sending him flying back.
"Damn," he cursed, getting up and examining his white glove, which was now completely black and burned at the spot where his fist had made contact with the shield.
"I guess we'll just have to watch, and hope," Sonic muttered, his eyes on the two facing off in the barrier.
'Shadow,' Rouge thought in a long distant voice.
-
"Are you ready?" Mephiles asked, his head cocked to the side.
Shadow smirked, "Are you mocking me, Mephiles?"
"Perhaps," he responded, "Now prepare yourself!"
Shadow nodded, instantly kicking off, "Here I come!"
The phantom hedgehog chuckled as he blocked Shadow's first punch with the back of his arm. The ultimate life form growled in aggravation and flipped over Mephiles, coming down with a side kick aimed at the monster's head.
Once again, the attack was blocked, but this time Mephiles grasped Shadow's caught leg and threw him onto the ground with a powerful slam. The dark hedgehog grimaced as the phantom above him pointed an opened hand directly into his face, "Now, taste true power."
Shadow's horror-stricken face was illuminated by a violent black and purple ball of energy that crackled to life in Mephiles' hand.
"Nightmare Lance," the dark one stated as a beam of energy the same color as the orb erupted from his hand.
Shadow cursed and warped away, the attack only grazing his forehead. The beam had narrowly missed him, instead taking a clean chunk out of the ground. Mephiles' hand came back to his side as he tilted his head to look at Shadow, "Chaos Control? Not bad."
The ultimate life form's eyes widened when Mephiles suddenly sunk down into the ground.
Ruby eyes scanned the area for any signs of the foe when Shadow heard a dark chuckle echoing through the air, seemingly coming from all sides.
"I'll admit your powers are impressive Shadow," the voice, undoubtedly belonging to Mephiles, hissed, "However, you are no match for me or your brother at your current level."
Bloody eyes widened when Shadow heard Mephiles mutter the next few words right behind him, "You're weak Shadow. But...I can change that. I can help you gain power, the power you so desperately chase after."
Blood sprayed from Shadow's mouth as he collapsed in a heap on the floor. Mephiles lowered his hand, after having struck the hedgehog in the back of the head.
"Pathetic, you'll never beat your brother," Mephiles mocked, his eyes changing direction to point up into the sky.
That instant, Shadow's eyes shot open as he leaped up from his fallen state, totally startling Mephiles, "What?"
Shadow smirked as he landed behind his phantom, two yellow orbs glowing brightly within his hands, "You underestimate me, Mephiles!"
Wide slitted green eyes barely made contact with Shadow's form before the dark hedgehog lept forward, pointing both orbs directly into Mephiles' face.
"Chaos Barrage!"
The second the command left Shadow's lips, a sea of energy erupted from the two orbs, flying directly into Mephiles. Smoke immediately burst forward from the attack accompanied by several loud explosive booms.
The assault lasted less than a minute but even in that small time frame, hundreds of small energy shots were fired. The barrage of energy slowly died down and diminished as the dark hedgehog lowered his arms.
"Whoo!" Sonic cheered from behind the shield, "Nice ass kickin' there Shads!"
Shadow smirked again, when suddenly, his eyes widened. If Mephiles was defeated, why was the shield still up?
No sooner had those thoughts crossed his mind, Mephiles bolted out of the smoke, completely unharmed, with something black glittering in his right hand.
Shadow barely had time to register what had happened before the phantom was directly in front of him and thrust the hand with the shimmering object into his ebony and white tinted chest in a wave of black ripples like the ones created when a stone was tossed into water.
The dark hedgehog's eyes widened, his mouth opened in shock and pain, "Uh--"
Sonic and Knuckles' eyes immediately widened as well.
Amy put a hand to her mouth out of shock as Rouge yelled an emotional: "Shadow!"
It was if as time itself stood still, no one in the area dared to move or even breath.
Shadow's eyes were still wide as the frame-like feeling was broken by Mephiles, who removed his hand and jumped back a few feet. As soon as his feet touched the ground, the purple energy shield around the two disappeared.
Without a second thought, everyone darted forward, mimicking the scene from earlier when Shadow got injured. Rouge wrapped her arms around the hedgehog, checking for any blood on his wounded chest. Her eyes widened when there was no gash or bruise whatsoever.
"What did you do to him?" Rouge shot at the dark phantom venomously.
Mephiles chuckled, "I highly doubt that I'm obliged to answer your questions, little bat."
"Then answer me!" Sonic yelled, stepping forward, "What did you do to Shadow?"
Totally out of character, Mephiles shrugged, "Nothing, if you really think about it. All I did was give him a little gift."
"In the form of what?" Knuckles questioned angrily. This shady character was really beating around the bush, and it was starting to piss him off.
Hollow green eyes devoid of any and all emotion turned to the echidna, "An emerald."
Sonic's grass green hues widened, but before he could say anything, Amy beat him to the punch, "A Chaos Emerald?"
Mephiles nodded as his body started to slowly sink into the ground, "Yes, little girl, but not one of which you have any knowledge of. "
"Wait!" Sonic shouted in protest at the disappearing Mephiles.
He chuckled in response, "Do not worry, Sonic, we will all meet again, especially Shadow and I. He will come for me and my promise. After all, I am the key to his brother's defeat."
Then he was gone, leaving a shocked Sonic crew and their black and red injured companion.
Author's Note: Well, that's the end of that one. Anyway, I was thinking about doing something with the characters outside of the story, like them answering reviews for previous chapters or commenting on the events of the chapter. If you want to see something like that, go ahead and specify in your reviews!
Later.
