Chapter 9: Shock for Shock

"You monster!" Sonic screamed, charging at Eggman in a fit of rage. Eggman easily repelled him, as his mind was clear for thinking.

"You killed him!" Tails shouted. "I'll never forgive you for this!"

"Pika pikachu!" Pikachu tried to break out, but he could do nothing. What Tails said went double for him.

"You're no match for me, you little brat!" Eggman sneered, blasting him with a small laser.

"Amy!" Sonic called to her. "Go find somewhere safe to hide yourself. Tails and I have a score to settle with this mustachioed maniac."

"Okay!" Amy nodded, rushing out. He turned back to Eggman and curled into a ball, slamming into the evil doctor and knocking him over. The doctor leapt back up and punched him away with his machine. Sonic was on his feet in a moment.

"You're a coward, you know that?" he shouted. "You could have easily punched me with your own fist!"

"That's irrelevant!" Eggman snapped, letting a missile fire at Tails. The smart fox dodged it and fired his own missile at him, but it also missed. Eggman shot at him with bullets, which he dodged, and Sonic attacked him from behind. He turned and attacked him next, while Tails attacked him. This two-pronged strategy worked well until Eggman caught on and let them attack him at the same time, then dodged so that they hit each other instead. They were fazed by that, but they quickly gathered themselves.

"Where'd Eggman go?" Tails wondered aloud. His question was violently answered when a massive weight fell on top of them both, slamming them into the ground. Then two balls flew at them and wrapped around them, tying them up back to back. Tails was squeezed and, like a lemon losing its juice, lost the emerald as it fell to the ground.

"Nice try, you little pests," Eggman snarled. "But I'm afraid this is the end of you!"

Team Rocket had made it back on board; they were in the core of the ARK now, greedily eyeing the emeralds that powered the Eclipse Cannon.

"I guess we should've known better than to make that twerp angry," James sighed.

"No kidding," Meowth seconded that.

"Well, now that we've learned our lesson, let's get ourselves another prize," Jessie smirked.

"Right," Meowth smiled. "So we make off with the emeralds before anyone knows what's happened?"

"That's rather genius," James smirked. "Even I couldn't come up with such a brilliant plan on my own."

"Hold it right there!"

They turned in fright on hearing the sudden voice. Shadow stood right in front of them, hands balled into fists, ready for a fight. "Trying to steal the Chaos Emeralds, are we?"

"Uh, no," Jessie stammered. "We just wanted to make sure the twerps didn't –"

"Don't cover up," he snarled. "I heard everything. You were planning to steal the emeralds all along!"

"No, no!" James put out his hands. "Honest to Arceus, we weren't planning to steal the emeralds! Well, not at first, that is."

"We originally joined up with you guys because we wanted that one big emerald!" Meowth explained. "But we gave up on that just hours ago, so we figured we'd make off with the rest of the emeralds."

Shadow leered down at the scratch Pokemon angrily. "I knew you three weren't really on our side. You were double-teaming for Team Rocket all along!"

"Oh, there's a big surprise!" Meowth retorted. "That's incredible! Why, I think I'm going to have a heart attack and DIE from that surprise!"

Shadow slammed a fist into Meowth's face, knocking him flat on his back. "I don't have the patience or time to deal with you three, but know this: I see no good reason not to kill you three off. If you value your lives, leave the emeralds where they are. Is that clear?!"

"Why should we listen to you?!" Jessie snapped.

Shadow looked at her, fury blazing in his eyes. "You know full well why: because I am the ultimate life form. All other life is inferior to me!"

"Oh, is that so?" James sneered, whipping out some paperwork. "Then how do you explain this? Professor Gerald Robotnik created an ultimate lifeform fifty years ago and documented it here. There's even a picture!" He flashed it before the startled hedgehog's eyes, and Shadow didn't see his reflection. "Are you really the ultimate life form that we must bow down to?"

"You're nothing but a fraud!" Meowth snapped.

"Fraud or not, he's still strong," Jessie admonished them.

Shadow just turned away, hiding his surprise. "I don't have time to ponder your silliness," he muttered. "It doesn't matter. Only one thing matters: my promise to Maria. I will fulfill it, and you will be the first to witness its completion." With that, he disappeared into the shadows.

"As much as I had hoped to erase all evidence of your existence from this universe, I'm afraid I'll have to work this out a little more," Eggman sneered. "Your dead body will be quite the plague to outer space, but that doesn't matter. As long as nobody else knows where you are, they can't prove I killed you!"

"Yes they can," Tails growled. "Everyone knows who you are, Eggman. They won't buy into some cheap story about you not killing us."

"Fool! People are stupid. They'll believe anything with the right amount of convincing, something which I have in abundance."

Unseen by Eggman, Pikachu was listening to everything that was going on. He couldn't figure out how to get out of his confinement, nor could he figure out what was going to happen to them when all this was over. What he could figure out, though, was that Eggman had killed one of his best friend's best friends, and then he had killed his best friend! And now, as if that weren't enough, he was trying to kill his new friends! He had had more than enough of this. With a rage that even he didn't understand, he channeled his electric power through the cage that held him, the sound muffled by the glass, until it burst in an ear-shattering scream.

Eggman turned in shock. "What was that?!" he screamed, but he faltered when he saw Pikachu standing on all fours, fur bristling, face frowning, and small jolts sparking from his cheeks.

"PIIIIIIKAAAAAAAAAAA...CHUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"

He unleashed a Thunder attack on the unsuspecting doctor, completely destroying his machine and frying him. For a moment, there was silence as the smoldering heaps of the pod walker sat there. Then a foot stepped out, followed by the rest of Eggman's body. He looked down at Pikachu, completely shocked and angry.

"Time to stop breathing, little rat," he growled, slamming his foot onto Pikachu's back. Pikachu had the air knocked out of him so suddenly that he couldn't retaliate in time, and he started to suffocate.

"NO!" Sonic and Tails cried simultaneously. Desperate, Sonic used his foot to try to get the Chaos Emerald into his grip but it was no use. "Urgh! Come on!" he growled under his breath.

Suddenly, he disappeared, then reappeared right behind Eggman, free from the bonds that still held Tails, and slammed him over the head with his fists. Eggman fell in a heap, completely unconscious. Pikachu gulped in the welcome air while Sonic freed Tails.

"Did we do it?" Tails asked uncertainly.

Sonic sighed. "I think so, Tails." He looked out the window, his emotions a mix of puzzlement and sadness.

"What happened back there?" his best friend asked him, equally puzzled.

"I don't know," he admitted. "Somehow I think the Chaos Emerald had something to do with it."

"Do...do you think…?" Tails asked.

Sonic nodded. "Yeah. I think I used Chaos Control…"

"Okay," Knuckles muttered to himself as he stole through the corridors of the ARK, dragging the emerald behind him. "Let's get the rest of the emeralds and go home, Sonic." He came across a door with a control panel next to it. "Hm...is this the way?" He punched the panel, and the door shot open. To his disappointment, the room was empty, save for one sole occupant wrapped in a blanket. He raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Hm?" the voice of the figure came, clearly feminine. "Knuckles! Finally, someone came to save me."

"Oh...uh…" Knuckles shrugged. "No, I didn't, but –"

She didn't hear him, as she was too busy leaving her blanket behind and rushing out, hugging him. "Thank you."

Knuckles didn't return it, but he shrugged. "Okay, come on. Let's keep looking for Sonic." They kept moving through the corridors. "Er, refresh my memory as to what your name is again."

"May," she replied.

"Somehow I knew it started with an 'M,'" he muttered to himself. "Oh well. Hopefully Sonic and company didn't get bested by Eggman."

"Oh, don't worry," May smiled. "I know they didn't."

Knuckles looked at her, puzzled. "What makes you say that?"

"Because they're the good guys," she replied. "And the good guys always win."

Knuckles shrugged it off. If only it were so simple… His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden glow blinding them, forcing them to stop. After a few seconds, it disappeared, and they were shocked by what lay at their feet.

May gulped. "Ash?!"

The boy grunted and slowly stood up, confused. When he saw May, he felt his face drop. "It failed, didn't it?" he sighed sadly. "I should've known it wouldn't work. I guess it was still worth a shot."

May was confused. "Ash, what are you talking about?"

He looked at her. "I tried to save myself, but it was a long shot. I just hope Sonic and Tails get out of that in one piece. For me, I may as well get used to the afterlife."

"What?!" May exclaimed. "Ash, don't be ridiculous! You're not dead!"

"Looks like he finally lost it," Knuckles chuckled (I really didn't mean for that to rhyme).

"What do you mean?" Ash asked, even more confused. "I saw what happened to New Island. There's no way you could have survived that." He looked down at his hand. "So how do our new bodies work? Seems a lot like our old ones…"

"Ash, cut it out!" May snapped, somewhat irritated. "You're not dead, and neither am I! I was rescued by that black hedgehog, and he brought me up here."

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Where's here?"

"The ARK, stupid!"

Ash blinked. Was this real? He slowly reached a hand out to May's arm and slowly, gently, and densely caressed it. It was as soft as he remembered it being.

"Y-you," he breathed, unable to finish his statement. "You're alive?"

"Yes, Ash," she smiled. "I'm alive."

His lower lip quivered a moment as this unbelievable truth sunk in. Then he shocked himself – and May – by throwing his arms around her and holding her close. May caught her breath, stunned by her usually dense friend's sudden behavior, but she breathed easy again when she returned the embrace. They stood there for a quarter of a minute, holding onto each other, letting the warmth their bodies gave off soothe their fears and remind them that everything was going to be okay.

"I can't believe it," Ash whispered, a small tear leaking from his eye. "I thought I'd lost you, May."

"It's okay, Ash," she whispered back. "Everything's going to be okay."

Knuckles just stood there, an eyebrow raised. "Ooooookay," he muttered. "This is getting a little awkward."

They parted on hearing this and looked back at him. Ash wiped his eye. "Aw, great," he joked. "I'm leaking."

"What now?" Knuckles asked, forgetting for a moment that they were looking for Sonic.

"We were looking for the others," May reminded him.

"You do that," Ash affirmed them, turning to go his own way.

"Where are you going?" May asked.

"I'm going to stop Eggman," Ash replied. "This is a fake emerald that will knock the cannon out of commission. How much time do we have left?"

"Thirty minutes," Knuckles replied.

"What?!" Ash cried. "But when I got out of that situation, we had two hours!"

May shrugged. "Well, now we know why you look so young after all these years."

"Never mind," he muttered. "May, stay out of trouble. I don't want to lose you again."

"You won't, Ash," she assured him with a smile. "Now, let's go stop Eggman!"

He nodded and looked down at his emerald. "Okay," he muttered to himself. "Let's see if this works again." He closed his eyes, breathed in, and cried:

"Chaos...CONTROL!"

Then he vanished in a flash of light.