Malicious Momma
Fire.
Fire.
Fire.
Fire.
Fire.
Fire.
Everywhere...
"NO!" Topaz cried.
The flames, it danced everywhere. On buildings, on roads, on grass, on trees, everywhere... This damning vision... it invoked all the memories and thoughts of Hell ever taught. As quick as lightning, Shadow fell to the ground, his air shoes zapping off. Topaz shook and wiggled, and once she broke free of his grip, she ran off for the fire. Shadow remained though, on the city's edge, his ruby eyes scanning everything. It was just... everywhere. It looked so familiar. Just like... Westopolis.
"Shadow! There are people down here!" Topaz called.
He nodded, gridded his teeth, and dashed down to the city streets. Topaz was huddled over some Zihaian citizens, but they weren't moving. She pulled and tugged on some of their arms and legs, but they weren't moving.
"Oh no," she said, her voice growing frail, "not again..."
A light surrounded her body. Her violet eyes dragged up, and she met a blinding yellow light. Like lightning, Shadow dashed to her position and lifted her off her feet. The blinding light formed a ray, and shot down to the earth she once stood at, setting it a blaze with fire and rock. Shadow and Topaz landed feet away from the explosion and were well protected from the attack.
"Are you ok?" Shadow asked.
She shook her head in sadness. Gazing up to his ruby eyes, she looked so... hurt. Her eyes traveled past him, and moving in the black and red sky, a great airship. The air ship opened up slots on the bottom half and aimed cannons toward the ground. Shadow gazed up, and quickly dashed out the way as lasers fell upon the earth. It pelted the ground at high speeds and caused explosions and earthquakes to brittle the land. Shadow had to keep up his speed to dodge the falling maelstrom of fire. The entire earth shook over and over again as each laser fell upon it. Such mayhem, such madness. It was sickening. All of this, it stirred something, something inside of Topaz. Shadow hadn't noticed it at first, until she started glowing a bright and fantastic violet aura. Her face was filled with the emotion called rage and she was ready to release it. Her grip on Shadow grew to near unbearable levels, and once she released it, she pointed her hands toward the air ship and roared out,
"STOP IT!"
From her fingertips, a great violet blast flew skyward. The force of the attack was so great, it stopped Shadow in his run and forced him to fall to the ground. The violet sphere of power kept going though, until it collided with the air ship's hull. The black behemoth erupted into a fantastic explosion, one that forced it to fall toward the sky. Upon crashing, it sent a grave shockwave through the ground, and uprooted dust as well as rock.
For a few seconds, Shadow remained on the earth, before he gained the energy to stand up.
"Topaz," he said to his ally, "what was that?"
She struggled to her feet as the violet aura shined and shined. Her face hadn't lost that rage filled visage. In fact, that rage began to take over her personality. Her violet eyes changed red, and the aura around her body became a wicked fusion of violet and red.
"Make it STOP!" she cried out.
The force of her words blew Shadow away, and caused buildings to crumble around them. But she continued to scream, and this never ceased. It was her Chaos Powers, they were developing at an alarming rate. Shadow knew this and he had to stop her. Getting to his feet, he started trekking off against the force she was blowing toward him and everything. He got closer, and closer, and closer some more, before he felt Topaz's body touch his hands. He leaped forward, arms out and tackled her to the ground, stopping her rampart screams.
"Calm down, Topaz!" he roared.
She continued to scream against his hand, but he silenced them with his own Chaos Powers.
"CALM DOWN!" he yelled.
Her aura started to wave wildly, but ultimately it came to a screeching silence. Her red eyes changed back to the violet ones she was known for. Shadow took in a deep breath and pulled off of her. That's when she started crying.
She covered her eyes with her hands and started bawling, despite the flames that appeared around him. Shadow crossed his arms at the sight before gazing elsewhere. Why was it, that wherever the Black Arms went, death and destruction would soon follow? And why did he share their blood? Was he one with the Black Arms? Was he?
"We need to move Topaz," he said, shaking his head of such thoughts, "we need to hide!"
"No!" she cried, "No more hiding!"
Her violet and red aura returned.
"No, no, no," Shadow stated, "we can't! Calm down!"
Wait... this wasn't right... why was he trying to calm her down? In all honesty, he was right beside her. What they should be doing right now, was destroying each air ship they saw, and kill every Black Alien they found. Then... why was he doing the exact opposite? What did that Chaos Connection do to him?
"I'll kill them all," Topaz said as she got to her feet, "the Zihaians did nothing to them! I'll... I'll get revenge!"
He needed to stop her. He needed to calm Topaz down. She had just learned how to use her Chaos Powers, she would burn herself out soon... or worse...
"Topaz, I know you're mad, but you have to calm down," Shadow said, "if you try to fight them, you'll get tired to soon and they'll kill you."
"How do you know!?" she yelled back.
"Because I've had a connection to the Chaos Force for much longer than you have! If you keep using your powers, you'll run out to soon and faint!"
She didn't have an answer to his question, so instead she growled. Shadow needed to calm her down, how though?
"Topaz... I know you're angry," he said, getting closer, "I understand you, hell, I'm angry!" her growling increased, "But this is not the way. If we try to fight them, they'll stop us. Remember, there's two of us, and a million of them."
"We're stronger now!" she said, "Much stronger!"
"There's no strength in power," he answered, "might is always right..."
Her eyes closed shut, and she began shaking her head back and right. She wanted to kill them all, rip them limb from limb. But... Shadow was oddly right. She couldn't fight them, not now. His hand slid up against hers, causing her head to bend up. He looked at him with soft red eyes, and said,
"Trust me..."
When did she get so cold? Her aura had died down, and she was now as weak as usual. Her violet eyes returned, she took in a deep breath, words came from her mouth saying,
"Let's... try to help everyone..."
Shadow nodded.
"Indeed..." he answered.
A laser fell upon their position, causing the duo to leap away. A yellow beam of power filled into his right hand and he looked up. Another air ship flew over head, and was destroying buildings left and right with its cannons. It had to be stopped.
"I'll provide back up fire," he said, "you save everyone you can!"
Topaz slowly withdrew her collapsible staff and nodded.
"And be careful," Shadow added, "there's some soldiers on the street, I'm sure of it."
Topaz's face brightened up. The thought of revenge, however minor, filled her with happiness. For now, at least.
Getting to his knee, Shadow began to focus. A second later, he leaped forward at blinding speeds. As he flew through the air, he rolled into a ball, and slammed into the hull of the air ship. He had so much momentum, he was able to strike through the walls of the flying vehicle. The force of his entrance was so great, it blew away the soldiers within the ship. He landed safely upon a group of dead Black Arms. He cared not though. Why should he show mercy upon those who don't even believe in it? It didn't matter though, as he stepped off of the dead group, the wind from the hole he made sucked them out. He wasn't even affected by it. Right now, he felt like letting loose. Another squad off Black Aliens arrived, the perfect people to let loose on.
"The Hollow One!" one of them yelled out, "Bring him to Momma!"
Yellow energy in hand, Shadow aimed them at the group.
"How about this instead?" he said, before launching the deadly ball of power toward them.
Once it touched the leading alien, it caused a sizable explosion, one that sent dust through the halls. Setting his air shoes ablaze, Shadow dashed through the smoke and made his way down the halls. There were many aliens within the halls, and he made sure to strike down each and every one of them. He was moving so fast, he became a virtual blur, one that killed all of those it passed. It wasn't until he slammed into the tough hide of a Black Oak that he stopped.
When he first faced the Black Oaks on Earth, they were indestructible, alien goliaths. These were pretty much the same, but had the added bonus of being clad in armor.
"The Hollow One," the Oak said, "Momma wishes to see you!"
"Who is, Momma!?" Shadow roared back.
"How dare you!? Even one as Hollow as you should know who Momma is!"
"Fine then, be that way," Shadow's hand erupted with yellow electricity, "I'll just send Momma a personal greeting card!"
He shoved his energetic hand forward and sent forth a series of lightning bolts. These coursing snakes traveled into the Oak's body and electrocuted him to death. With that open, he started thinking. Momma... why did every Black Arm he passed refer to him as the Hollow One, and who was this 'Momma' they constantly referred to? These were answers he needed to ask of someone, but who? None of the Black Arms would answer him, he was sure of that. Maybe Cotouh knew something, if he was alive, that is. For now, he needed to destroy this air ship and return to Topaz. He was feeling... weak, for some reason.
His body was surrounded in a magnificent red aura, and he released it whilst yelling,
"CHAOS BLAST!"
The entire air ship erupted into a blazing inferno. The sound of the falling ship caught Topaz's attention, as she was busy sneaking around flaming buildings. So far, she had not found one living Zihaian, a fact that made her feel sick to her stomach. To add to that, she hadn't passed one Black Solider. Until now, that is.
In a star pattern, the alien squad trekked among the blazing streets. Their guns were trained on everything, just in case one Zihaian survived. Topaz found this perfect. For now, her mission could wait.
She stalked near them, and elongated her collapsible pole. They hadn't noticed she was following them, until she leaped in their midst. Her pole swinging left and right she struck soldier after soldier, knocking down some and silencing other. For an unlucky two, she swung her pole so hard it crushed the spines in their necks and killed them. However, the other members fell back and quickly recoiled. Their guns aimed at the agent's direction, and fired. Topaz braced for impact, but the attacks never hit her. When she opened her eyes, she found to her surprise, that time had stopped. The flames stopped moving, the bullets ceased its deadly travel, and the aliens remained frozen. A grin appeared on the agent's. She had no idea how she had done it, but she was loving it.
Getting to her feet, she began striking each frozen alien with her staff with as much force as physically powerful. Seconds later, she realized time had remained still. How was she going to get it going again?
"Pffft, you're hopeless." Shadow's indifferent voice echoed from behind
"Shadow!?" Topaz called, "What happened?"
Laying his hands on his hips he said,
"You've induced Chaos Control, the freezing kind."
"So I did do this!" she started leaping up in down in giddy pleasure.
Shadow allowed her to do this for a few seconds before saying,
"That's quite enough."
"But, how do I get time going?" she questioned, ceasing her pleasure dance.
"Normally, it goes back on its own, but you can speed up the process."
"How?"
"Snap your fingers."
She opened her mouth to question his motives, but recanted on her unsaid words. Deciding to listen, she snapped her fingers suddenly. And, just like Shadow said, time began again. Each Black Arm soldier stood tall, before being stricken with a powerful invisible force. Regardless, they stood tall against Topaz's hit.
"Where'd she go!?" one barked out.
Both she and Shadow retreated near a nearby building to get the drop on their foes.
"You're doing good," the hedgehog remarked, "but you can do better."
"What do you mean?" Topaz questioned as she scanned her foes.
"Through our Chaos Connection, you have your own link to the Chaos Force."
"We already know that!" she scolded.
"Yes, but you don't understand the possibilities."
"What are you going on about!?" she inquired.
"You'll have to develop your Chaos Powers," he said, "and there's no better way than action."
Before Topaz knew it, she was tossed into the group of Black Arms. She landed on one, while the others shifted their attention to her. Without thinking, they aimed their guns at her area and fired. Being naturally quick footed, she leaped out-of-the-way, causing the Black Arms to accidentally kill their ally. She landed a few feet away, and quickly spun her staff around in a circle. The aliens were getting closer and their guns were on her position. One of them fired, but this strange aura erupted around her body. The bullet bounced off and did no damage. Both Black Arms gazed at each other, before firing upon her. Just like last time though, the bullets did nothing. Topaz began smiling, pleased with her new-found power, and raised her staff.
"I don't even need a gun for this!" she yelled.
Slamming her staff on the ground, she caused a powerful shockwave to travel underneath, blowing away the aliens firing upon her. They flew toward a flaming building and crashed into the weakened infrastructure underneath. The building wobbled, before falling atop them, ending their evil lives.
Seconds later, her aura died out, leaving her weakened as usual.
"Interesting." Shadow said stepping forward.
"Shadow, you bastard!" Topaz yelled, "You tried killing me!"
"That's not true," he said, "I was merely testing you."
"You fury jerk!"
A brief chuckle left his lips before he said,
"I'm impressed."
"By what?" Topaz inquired.
"By your power," he said, "your Chaos Powers a growing at an alarming rate, probably because you're so close to me."
"That's right," she said, "we... get stronger the closer we are to one another, right?"
"Yes, but even so," he remarked, "that aura around you... it's..." he smirked, "Impressive."
Topaz grinned.
"You really think so?"
Around them, a group of Black Arms surrounded. All of their guns were trained on the two agents. Shadow smiled and faced them, while Topaz faced the others to his back.
"Tell me Shadow," Topaz began, "how strong do you think we are?"
"As close as we are," he remarked, causing a yellow flame to appear in his hands, "ultimate."
"I like the sound of that," she stated, "Ultimate."
Her body erupted into a violet aura. Shadow, on the other hand, set his body a flame with a red aura.
"Hey Shadow," Topaz said, raising her staff, "what is this aura anyway?"
"Chaos Boost," he answered, "or, that's what I call it."
"Huh..."
"Let's not talk about it now... later..."
As bullets rained down upon their invincible frames, they rushed forward to meet their foes. Side by side, they were unstoppable... they were... Ultimate. The Black Arms never stood a chance.
...
"Such inferior walls..." Omega's monotone voice called as his head spun around in circles.
Sonic's green eyes spun to the machine. The two stood in one of the many halls of the Blue Typhoon, as the blue hero lead the hulking robot to the command center. Rouge had sent the Blue Blur on a trip to get the red machine, much to his ire. Honestly, even though Omega was 'reformed', he didn't trust him. He felt like anything designed, created, and manufactured by Dr. Robotnik, still had the propensity to do evil. And if Omega wasn't evil, the Metal Sonic must be a saint.
"Shadow can really pick his friends..." Sonic commented as he turned away.
"Your mission was merely to find me, not to make... small talk." Omega commented.
The Blue Blur stopped at the words, before growing distant.
"Just try to keep up..." he remarked coldly as he dashed off.
To his surprise, Omega increased his speed, and caught up to him seconds later. They zoomed through hallway after hallway, before arriving at the Command Center. Omega stopped first, and immediately found his place at Rouge's side. Sonic on the other hand sat down on a chair and cocked his feet up over the command console.
"So, Tails," he called out a smile growing, "when's lift off?"
"Just give me a few!" he called back, pressing a button on his console as he did so, "Hey Knux, is the Master Emerald in its base?"
"Yeah!" he called out through the radio in the machine.
"Great! Everyone, I hope you're ready for lift off!"
"Tail me fox boy," Rouge asked as she walked up, "how much rations have you packed in for the trip?"
"Enough for a month or two," he answered, I hope we don't have to stay out that long though..."
"Ah don't worry Rouge," Sonic said, springing up, "finding Shadow should be easier than a jog around the world!"
"That being said," Tails commented, "everyone! Get ready for-"
"SOOOOONIIIIIIIIIC!" a bubbly voice roared from outside.
Everyone in the ship froze, while Sonic face palmed.
"Sonic..." Tails said, looking to him, "what is Amy doing here?"
Suddenly on the screen, an image of Amy appeared. She was outside Tails' workshop, as was holding a very shiny purse.
"Sonic!" she called again, "I know you're in there!"
"What is that pink fleshbag doing outside?" Omega asked, his red optics beaming to Sonic's location.
"I... may or may not have told her I'd date her..."
"Why would you do that!?" Tails barked.
"I needed to go get Omega and she cornered me! I said go home, and get ready!"
"Then how did she find us here!?"
"I... told her I was here..."
"WHY!?"
"Don't get mad at me! I figured we'd already be in space by now!"
"SONIC!" Amy barked, "GET YOUR BLUE TAIL OUT HERE!"
"Can't we just go anyway?" Sonic questioned.
"She's on the runway! We can't take off with her own it, we'll hurt her!"
"There's always a problem..."
The blue hedgehog let out a great sigh and cocked his head elsewhere.
"I'll go calm her down..."
"That was never an argument." Omega said.
With another sigh, he dashed out of the many halls, preparing for the eventual ear lashing he would get. It took less than a minute for him to make it outside, and to Amy's position. She smiled, looked at him, and then said,
"Finally Sonic, are you ready to go?"
"Yeah, about that..."
"About what?" she said, her green eyes shooting a crazed glare.
"Listen Amy," he said, "I... I can't... go on a date with you..."
Her glare never lessened.
"Oh? Is that so?" she said, her mouth seeping with venom.
"Calm down Amy! Calm down!"
A mere second later, she struck at him with her Piko Piko Hammer. For some reason, as fast as Sonic was, he was never fast enough to dodge that. It struck him square in the head and forced him to the ground below. Before she got the chance to strike him again though, he dashed around to Tail's entrance.
"Calm down Amy!"
"You promised me a date Sonic!" she roared, "And I'm getting my date!"
"Listen Amy!" he said, growing serious, "Shadow is stuck on another planet and we're his last hope for getting home."
The pink hedgehog shook her head though, and readied her hammer for another swing.
"Nice try Sonic!" she barked, "But not nice enough!"
This time as she swung, Sonic dashed up to her being, and grabbed the hammer by its handle.
"I'm being serious, Amy..." he said, his jade eyes staring into hers.
She shook on her hammer over and over again, before stopping. His serious demeanor... maybe he wasn't lying. Then again...
"This isn't some lie, is it?" she asked, her grip loosening.
"No, Amy... Somewhere in space, Shadow and another agent named Topaz are stuck... we have to save them..."
She kept her glare though, as if reading some invisible message in Sonic's eyes. Strange, they were saying the same thing he was telling her. So, with a sigh, she pulled her hammer away and put in her... where ever it comes from.
"So... Shadow's stuck in space, huh?" she questioned, her eyes softening.
"Yeah, and we're about to head up to save him."
"Then I wanna come along to!"
"No way Amy!" he stated, "It's way to dangerous."
"Like that's stopped me before! Besides, you don't even know what's up there!"
"I don't need to know, to know it's too dangerous!"
"Oh stop being so shrill," she stated, pushing her way past him, "I'm coming and that's final!"
Shoving open Tail's door, she went inside without another word. Sonic ran his fingers through his quills while he thought on the situation. It's funny how things always end up this way.
"Get ready for lift off..." he murmured to himself, before he dashed off into Tail's lab.
...
The ground split open. The sound of bending metal grew loud over everything else, and rumbled through the earth. Trees slid to the side, grass folded away, and the dirt runway slowly opened up, revealing everything to be fake. Inside, a great silver and blue space craft, with a yellow horn at the end. Tails must have had a hell of a lot of time on his hands to develop such a behemoth under ground, and with little money on his hands. It was originally designed to battle Dr. Robotnik's air crafts such as the Egg Carrier, but it was redesigned for space travel. The Blue Typhoon. The King of Space...
Heat from its thrusters began to shine, and it grew into a bluish white. The space craft tipped its bow skyward and slowly started trembling.
Lift off would commence in...
10...
9...
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2...
"Hey, do we have any chilli dogs?"
1!
The Blue Typhoon rocketed skyward, blasted a great torrent of sound in air in the surrounding area. And then, just as soon as it appeared, it was gone. In search of areas unknown...
...
No matter where one is, the sun that rises is always beautiful.
Maybe it was the bits and pieces of Topaz within Shadow that made him realize this. This city was now devoid of life, save for two. The wind blew lightly from east, dusting off the small flames that remained, and cooling off the two agents who had worked all night. Cotouh was right... they had doomed them.
"Shadow..." Topaz's voice echoed from below.
She had spent all night searching for any survivors, and had unfortunately found none.
"Did you find her?" he asked, his head turning over to her.
Violet eyes began to quiver, and she shook her head.
"Analize... is..."
"Don't say it..." he remarked lowly. Though his voice was as indifferent as always, there was a certain tinge of regret in it.
"I... I did find this though..." Topaz added, revealing a small book.
It was children's size, and could fit easily in one's hands. Slowly, Topaz hovered it above Shadow's hands, before dropping it. He only read the title.
"The Tale... of the Sky People..." he said somberly.
"I... I... found this... on... Anal..." Topaz couldn't finish her sentence.
Her hands found her face, and she cried into them. So much death and destruction. No matter what, this is what would follow the Black Arms. In another world, another universe maybe, would they be... better? Maybe... but not this one.
"C'mon Topaz..." Shadow said, standing up.
"Wh-where are we going?" she asked lowly through sobs.
"Anywhere but here... we have a legend to live up to..." without thinking, he put Analize's small book inside of his satchel, "We have to save this planet, Topaz." he added.
"Shadow, how are we going to do that? We're just two people, while the Black Arms have an entire army!" she stated.
"Perhaps..." he said, withdrawing his white Chaos Emerald, "But as the story goes... an army shall fall from the sky..."
"Do you really believe that tale? It was... it was... a children's book..."
"What would you have us do then, huh? We're stuck here, and we can't get our ship flying. So what then?"
Topaz sulked down.
"We have no choice... we have to fight..."
"Against what though? We don't even know where the Black Arms center is!"
"Strange you should say that," he answered, his eyes floating off to the distance, "I... I can feel them... they're everywhere..."
"Shadow, what are you going on about?"
He chuckled.
"You'll see soon..."
Without a second though, he started off, walking for the horizon. Topaz rose her hands in contemplation, before following close behind. And so... their adventure began anew...