Author's Chapter Notes:
I still do not own Sonic the Hedgehog characters.
Shadow pulled out his emerald at the last possible moment and Chaos Controlled out of the way. The water boats Sonic dreaded so much were not so lucky, but no one was on it at the moment, so it wasn't really much of a loss in the grand scheme of things.
Shadow reappeared right next to Eggman's robot and he spin dashed it. He bounced off of it like he had hit rubber, without so much as denting it.
"Ha! You can't stop me! Not with my greatest creation, the Egg Doom!"
Shadow shook his head to make the little birdies go away and looked up at Eggman, confused. "Hasn't there already been an Egg Doom?" he asked.
"No, that was Doom Egg," Eggman explained. "Easily confused, but when it comes to performance…" Shadow rolled aside as a laser cannon blasted a hole where he'd been only moments before. "…There really is no comparison. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Shadow stood up and turned around, his eyes widening as he saw yet more missiles that he was simply too close to dodge, or even to Chaos Control away from.
"Oh, snap," he managed to murmur, bracing himself just before they hit.
And they hit hard. Shadow gasped as they knocked the breath out of him, throwing him back into the wall of the now semi-demolished pizzeria he'd dined in only a few minutes before. 'Good riddance,' he thought to himself. 'The pizza was lousy anyway.'
"Mis'er Addow!"
Shadow looked up, his eyes widening in horror as he saw Amy sticking her little head out of her hiding place, right in Eggman's line of fire!
"No!" Shadow yelled, seeing the Egg Doom locking onto Amy's little head. He practically threw himself at Eggman's machine, knocking the weapons out of focus and causing them to narrowly miss frying Amy.
"Amy! Get back!" Shadow yelled, trying to hang onto Eggman's robot's arm. It started shaking back and forth harder and harder, until Shadow's grip fell and he flew off towards the pizzeria wall again. This time, he was able to Chaos Control before hitting it, however.
He reappeared in the bushes with the toddlers, Cream, and Cheese, and was immediately tackled by three hysterical toddlers.
"Mis'er Addow, who is dat mean man?" sobbed Amy.
"Attow, wha' if he bwows up da Massa Emered?" asked a wide-eyed Knuckles.
"Sadoe, why he wook wike an egg?" questioned a confused Sonic.
"Cream, get the children out of here while I keep Eggman's Egg Doom busy," Shadow ordered. The children were his first and only priority. The whole wide world could burn for all he cared, but Eggman was not going to harm so much as a hair on these young ones' heads!
In spite of the gravity of the situation Cream frowned and scratched her head. "Didn't he already use an Egg Doom?" she asked.
"No, he claims it was a Doom Egg," Shadow explained just before he chaos controlled back to battle.
Meanwhile, Tails was having a rough time of his own. He'd been furious when he'd finally perfected his formula and called Shadow, only to find that the ebony furred hedgehog was not at home! And after he'd had the nerve to get angry at Tails for not having the formula ready last night, too. Tails just could never figure out that hedgehog. He wasn't like Sonic. All Tails had to do for Sonic was hand him a chili dog and give him a good ego stroking, and Sonic was his best buddy for life.
But one thing was certain: Wherever Shadow had gone, he'd taken Sonic with him, therefore, it was logical to assume that if Tails found the one place in Central City that was currently experiencing the most chaos, he'd find his wayward hedgehogs. At least, that had always worked before, anyway.
There. Smoke was rising from Twinkle Park. Tails raced down there as fast as his helicopter tails would take him.
The battle was not going well. Shadow had tried Chaos Spear, Chaos Blast, had spin dashed every possible joint on the robot, and had even shot it in the back with a dart gun that had been lying on an abandoned game booth. Nothing he had was working, and he was running out of time!
Shadow powered up another Chaos Spear and growled as it showed as much success as the last one. There had to be some way to beat it, if he only had more energy, like…
…Like the energy from the chaos emeralds currently powering the Egg Doom?
Shadow smirked, and started looking for opportunities to steal the Doctor's chaos emeralds right out from under his big, bushy nose.
Well, Tails had found Shadow anyway. There he was, fighting one of Eggman's robots next to the partially demolished pizzeria with a Shadow-shaped imprint in one wall. But where were the kids?
"Mr. Tails, we're down here!"
Squinting down into the bushes, Tails recognized Cream the Rabbit waving at him.
"Cream!" Tails said, landing in the bushes. He saw Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles were with her, looking over to where Shadow was fighting in concern. "What's going on?"
"Eggman's trying to steal Shadow and Sonic's emeralds," Cream explained. "Shadow's trying to hold him off so we can escape, but his new Egg Doom is simply too powerful for him."
Tails scratched his head. "Didn't he already use Egg Doom? No, wait, it was Doom Egg, wasn't it?"
Cream shrugged. Cheese mimicked her from the air (And a safe distance away from Sonic.)
"Well, never mind," Tails said soothingly. "Because I brought something that might help him." Taking out a container full of bright green liquid, he called, "Sonic, Knuckles, Amy! You three come and drink this up."
Now that he had a plan that could work, Shadow was amazed at how easily the doctor decided to make it for him. Every now and then Eggman would do a super laser attack, and if Shadow could dodge it, there was a split second afterwards where he could spin dash into Eggman's open plate chest, which would start to jar loose the emeralds. Shadow was certain that if he could do it long enough, the emeralds would fall out of the robot and into his waiting arms. After watching Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles for two days, it would be a piece of cake.
Apparently, Eggman realized what he was trying to do. "Stop that!" he yelled, as Shadow finished another spin dash. The emeralds were almost completely out. One more spin dash should do it…
There! The chest was open! Shadow chaos controlled away from the laser and then spin dashed the chest plate, feeling a rush of relief as the emeralds broke loose and fell to the ground. He was so distracted, however, that he was unable to get out of the way before Eggman's robot grabbed him by the leg.
"You fool!" Eggman sneered. "Even without the emeralds, I'm more than capable of disposing you! No hedgehog can beat me!"
"Well, then, let's even the odds a little, Eggman."
Shadow looked over to the voice, his eyes widening as a glove covered hand picked up the emeralds he'd freed from the robot.
"It can't be!" Eggman gasped. "I destroyed you!"
"Reports of my death were greatly exaggerated," said Sonic, smirking at him. To either side stood Knuckles and Amy, the former dropping to a fighting position while the latter swung her Piko Piko hammer.
And they were all full grown again.
"It doesn't matter!" Eggman spluttered, throwing Shadow hard against that stupid pizzeria wall again. "I've beaten you once, I can do it again!"
"Just try it, Eggman," Sonic smirked.
Shadow winced and grabbed his red chaos emerald. "Sonic, catch!" he called throwing it.
Sonic caught the emerald in thin air, and it reacted to the other six already in the blue furred hedgehog's possession. They flew around him and a bright light lit up the area. When it dissipated, Sonic's fur was golden, and his grin was even bigger.
"Alright, Eggman," Super Sonic laughed. "Let's dance!"