Last time on Pokemon Super Sonic Boom: Kyurem's Mysterious Dungeon, Basch, Nuzleaf, and Diggersby stopped Mark and his friends and issued a challenge, a three-on-three Pokemon battle against a trio of Pokemon under Darkrai's control, Chespin, Mudkip, and Cyndaquil, otherwise known as the Roll-Away Trio. Froakie was up first against Cyndaquil, but lost against the Fire Mouse. Next, Treecko was up against Mudkip, and during the battle, Treecko learned a new move, Hidden Power, and was able to beat Mudkip in the battle. Finally, it was Mark against Chespin, but it suddenly turned serious when Mark lost control of himself when the ability, Primal Blaze, suddenly went active and he firing his Fire-Type attacks randomly in different directions. Treecko and Froakie managed to snap Mark out of it but their Chimchar friend lost consciousness and the Roll-Away Trio, who snapped out of Darkrai's control, worked together as a team to put out the fire Mark unknowingly caused and rolled off. Now Sonic and the others continue on their way to the Village of Fire to hopefully get the next crystal.
Shadow's Last Stand
Sonic and the others were walking along the path to the Village of Fire with Amy and Tails taking another look at the map while Mark was still unconscious so Hawlucha was carrying him on his back.
"Okay guys, according to the map, we're almost at the Village of Fire." Amy told her friends.
Treecko suddenly panted as he wiped off some sweat from his face and asked, "Speaking of which, is anybody else feeling hot?"
"Is anybody else feeling lost?" Sonic asked while looking around.
"Is anybody else wishing they brought more peanut butter?" Sticks suddenly asked as they stopped walking for a bit.
"Yes." Knuckles answered Treecko's question, "Yes." then he answered Sonic's question, "And you read my mind!" Knuckles answered Sticks' question while pointing at her.
"Well maybe if you wore the tinfoil hat I gave you, THAT wouldn't have happened." Sticks replied while the others, besides Mark, looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
"Come on guys, focus. There'll be time for peanut butter and tinfoil hats later." Pikachu told the badger and echidna seriously.
"He's right, right now let's just focus on getting to the Village of Fire so we can get the next crystal before Darkrai or his goons get to it." Froakie added.
"Right!" Knuckles nodded, but then he pointed at Froakie and Pikachu and told them, "But I'm holding you two to the peanut butter and tinfoil hat promise."
Tails sighed and shook his head, "Let's just keep going."
"Couldn't have said it better myself." Hawlucha agreed as they began walking again.
Later the ten heroes finally made it to a village surrounded by lit torches, small pools of lava, a statue of a Pokemon that's kinda like Raikou and Suicune, and somewhere in the distance of the village was a huge volcano with smoke coming from the top, but they also saw that it looked like some battles have already happened around the village.
"We made it, we're in the Village of Fire!" Sonic exclaimed while looking around until they finally took a look at the statue.
"I bet that's the founder of the Village of Fire." Treecko said while pointing at the statue.
"That's Entei, the Volcano Pokemon. It's said that Entei was thought to have been born in the eruption of a volcano. It sends up massive bursts of fire that utterly consume all that they touch." Amy explained to the group, none of them were aware that they were being watched by three pairs of eyes.
"Well, from the looks of things, it looks like Basch or somebody else beat us here and are probably looking for the crystal as we speak." Tails said while looking at the damage done to the Village of Fire.
"Then we'd better get to work finding the crystal first." Hawlucha said still carrying Mark's unconscious body on his back.
"Right." Treecko nodded, then he looked at the big volcano, pointed at it and suggested, "I say we start by looking there."
"That big volcano? Are you kidding me!?" Knuckles yelled while looking at the volcano.
"Well, Grandpa Ampharos said that it's Mt. Flare, the biggest volcano in the world, and during my training, I've heard Charizard tell Feraligatr and Serperior rumors that Mt. Flare is like a fiery labyrinth on the inside, and that in the deepest part of it is something big and white like some sort of dragon. But no one knows because no one has made it that far in the volcano." Pikachu explained to his friends while the three pairs of eyes turned to Sonic.
"Well, there's only one way to find out for sure. Come on guys, we're going to Mt. Flare." Sonic told the others who nodded, but before they could take another step.
"NOW!" someone shouted as three Pokemon jumped out of nowhere, one a pig Pokemon, another a fox Pokemon, and the one in the middle was a monkey Pokemon that kinda looked like a Chimchar, only with a blue mask above his eyes and a burning flame at the tip of his tail they were behind Sonic as the three of them fired a long stream of fire from their mouths right at Sonic.
"OW! OW! OW! THAT BURNS! OW! OW! OW! IT'S VERY HOT! OW! OW! OW!" Sonic yelled in pain as he jumped around, that made Knuckles laugh while Amy and Tails looked pretty mad.
Then Mark suddenly groaned as he opened his eyes a bit and asked, "Hey guys, what's all the yelling about?"
"Good to see that you're up." Hawlucha said as he let Mark stand on his feet again.
Mark saw Sonic jumping around with a burning butt, Knuckles laughing at the burning hedgehog and the three Pokemon that attacked as Mark asked, "What's going on with them?"
"We made it to the Village of Fire and then those three suddenly attacked Sonic." Treecko answered with a dull look on his face.
Froakie then got in front of the three Fire-Type Pokemon and asked, "What's going on?"
"THAT HEDGEHOG ATTACKED OUR VILLAGE!" the monkey Pokemon replied while pointing at Sonic who had his back turned while rubbing his butt to cool off the burn.
"Oh... it burns." Sonic weakly said as he kept rubbing.
"THAT HEDGEHOG CAME AND ATTACKED OUR VILLAGE! ME, TEPIG AND FENNEKIN COULDN'T JUST SIT BACK AND DO NOTHING!" the monkey Pokemon kept yelling angrily.
"Calm down Monferno." the fox Pokemon, Fennekin calmly told the monkey Pokemon, Monferno.
"Well, it wasn't Sonic who attacked the village. It was like this when we got here." Froakie told the Fire-Types.
Still very angry, Monferno glared at Froakie and angrily asked, "OH YEAH!? WELL IF IT WASN'T HIM, THEN WHO WAS IT!? WHO CAME AND ATTACKED OUR VILLAGE!?"
"Maybe him?" Sticks suddenly asked while pointing ahead as they turned to see Shadow, but he was moving pretty fast so they couldn't get a good look at his face.
"Shadow!?" Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks asked in shock while Monferno, Tepig, and Fennekin looked a bit terrified.
"That's the guy who killed the Ice Fighters!?" Mark asked in shock.
"That's the guy, I would know that shade of black anywhere!" Treecko answered while Froakie nodded his head.
Monferno, Teipg, and Fennekin walked up to Sonic with guilty looks on their faces as they say at the same time, "We're sorry we attacked you like that."
"Don't worry about it, I've been hit harder than that before." Sonic said with a grin.
"He's heading towards Mt. Flare!" Hawlucha exclaimed while pointing at the volcano, he was talking about Shadow of course.
"Come on guys, we've gotta get the crystal before he does!" Tails told the others who nodded and the ten of them ran off towards Mt. Flare, leaving Monferno, Tepig, and Fennekin behind.
"Good luck travelers!" Tepig called to the heroes.
"Be careful!" Fennekin warned.
"MAKE THAT HEDGEHOG PAY FOR WHAT HE DID TO OUR VILLAGE!" Monferno shouted to them.
Mark, Sonic, and the other eight made it to the entrance to Mt. Flare, but they couldn't go any further since two Pokemon with fire images on their bodies and burning flames at the tips of their tails stood in the way.
"Stop right where you are!" one of the guard Pokemon told the heroes.
"Who are you?" Knuckles asked the two Pokemon in the way.
"We are the Magmar guards, and we cannot allow anyone pass this point!" Magmar 2 told the heroes.
"You two don't understand, we've gotta get in there and get something before some bad guy gets their hands on it!" Mark told the Magmar duo.
"If you wish to get in Mt. Flare, you must solve this riddle first." Magmar 1 said seriously while they got ready for some solving.
"What goes like this, "Magmar 2 began as Magmar 1 mimicked Sonic's earlier scream of pain, making Knuckles chuckle until Amy slapped him in the arm pretty hard as Magmar continued with, "carries two weapons, and has 20 legs?"
The ten heroes began to think hard about the answer to the riddle, then after a few minutes of thinking, Sticks then asked, "All of us?" that made her friends look at her.
"CORRECT!" the Magmar duo yelled out loud, startling some of the heroes as the Magmar duo stood out of the way to let them pass as they said together, "You may enter Mt. Flare!"
And so Mark, Sonic and the others entered Mt. Flare, and just by entering the cave, they looked around to see some small streams of lava in different areas of the cave.
"That was some quick thinking Sticks, how did you get the answer down just like that?" Amy asked her best friend.
"I thought back to when we first got to the Village of Fire, when Sonic screamed in pain, and then I remembered my boomerang and your hammer, and I just took a wild guess." Sticks answered while shrugging.
"Well, it was the answer that gave us permission to enter Mt. Flare, good thinking Sticks." Tails commented with a smile making Sticks blush just a little.
"Y'know Sticks? I think the ten of us make a pretty good team!" Sonic told the badger.
"I heard there's no "I" in teamwork." Sticks said while shrugging.
Mark nodded and crossed his arms, "That's right!"
"Then, how does it see?" Sticks suddenly asked while pointing at her eyes while everyone stopped walking as they turned to her in confusion.
"Uh..." Mark and Sonic didn't know how to answer her.
"What are you talking about?" Hawlucha asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I mean, if teamwork doesn't have an eye, then it's blind, right? How are we gonna find the crystal in this cave before Shadow does without any eyes?" Sticks asked, confusing them some more.
"Uh... I... I..." Sonic and Mark tried to explain, but...
"Oh! TWO eyes! That's plenty enough to find the crystal before Shadow! Let's go!" Sticks yelled happily.
"What just happened?" Tails asked in confusion.
"Teamwork!" Sticks exclaimed happily while wrapping her arms around Amy and Tails before she jumped with joy.
"Yeah, go teamwork!" Knuckles cheered while holding up Treecko and Froakie.
"Um, I think that's what just happened." Pikachu said while sweat dropping a little.
Treecko wiped some sweat off his face as he asked, "Can we please move on and find that crystal? The heat from this cave is killing me."
"You're right, let's go." Hawlucha said as they started walking down the path again.
"We'll find that crystal. After all, how hard can finding one crystal in this cave be?" Knuckles asked as they walked down the path.
Turns out it was pretty hard to find the crystal in Mt. Flare, but it was pretty easy to get lost as they were now in a big area of the cave with some lava waterfalls a good distance away from them while they looked around for the crystal or Shadow, but then they bumped into each other as they got together in a circle.
"OK, it's official, we're lost!" Sonic told his friends.
"You think?" Treecko asked sarcastically with his arms crossed.
"Who knew that caves inside volcanoes could be so complicated? We could be here a while." Mark said while looking around.
"This isn't how I thought I'd go out. I figured I'd go out in a ball of fire." Knuckles said as the others turned to him.
"This is a volcano. It's basically a ball of fire inside a mountain." Tails explained to Knuckles.
"Really? Oh, well, then this is exactly how I thought I'd go out." Knuckles said, then he pumped his fist and yelled, "Sweet, called it!"
"Listen guys, I know we lost Shadow and things look bad, but we'll get out of this. We always do!" Sonic assured.
"How?" Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks asked in confusion.
"Ummmm..." Sonic had a hard time trying to find an answer to that question.
"I'm with you so far." Knuckles said while pointing at the blue hedgehog.
"Guys, keep it down. We're not gonna have time to think is you wake those guys up." Treecko whispered while pointing behind the girls as they turned to see a bunch of lion cub Pokemon sleeping peacefully.
"It's a pride of Litleo." Sticks whispered while looking at the sleeping pride, then they looked around to see some more Litleo surrounding them, all of them sleeping.
"Man, this place is wall-to-wall Litleo." Pikachu whispered while looking at the sleeping Fire-Types.
"Well the last thing we need is to wake them up, so keep it down everyone." Mark quietly warned the others.
"Gotcha." Knuckles nodded as he unknowingly hit a Litleo with the back of his shoe, Amy saw it and quietly gasped.
"Knuckles!" Amy quietly scolded the now confused echidna.
"What did I say?" Knuckles asked in confusion, but then he turned to see the Litleo he hit waking up.
"Now we just need to find the crystal and blow this joint." Tails whispered not noticing the growling Litleo behind Knuckles, until now as they gasped and thought things were gonna get ugly.
"Let's do it quick before they blow on us!" Sonic said before he ran off.
"Let's get outta here!" Amy yelled as everyone but Mark ran after Sonic just before the Litleo let out a roar that woke up the rest of the Litleo in their pride, and boy were they angry.
Mark laughed nervously as he started to talk to the Litleo pride, "I understand if you all are mad, I mean if someone just walked into my bedroom and woke me up, I wouldn't be a happy camper myself." then he quickly ran off after his friends as he yelled, "Guys, wait up!"
Then the Litleo pride ran after the heroes with some of them firing their Ember attacks and some of them running after them with flame surrounding their bodies.
Tails saw it and yelled to his friends, "Look out for their Ember and Flame Charge!" as they tried to dodge the attacks from the Litleo pride.
"There's too many off them!" Treecko yelled as they kept running while Mark and Froakie looked back before they looked serious as they stopped running to face the Litleo pride making the others stop to look at their friends in confusion.
"No there's not." Froakie said seriously.
"Froakie, let's push these guys back with our attacks!" Mark said as Froakie nodded in agreement while the Litleo pride got closer and closer.
"EMBER!/BUBBLE!" Mark and Froakie fired their Ember and Bubble attacks in front of the Litleo pride, startling them as they stopped running towards.
Mark and Froakie stopped their attacks as they smiled at what happened as Froakie said, "It's working!"
"Awesome job you two, try it one more time!" Sonic told the Fire Chimp and Bubble Frog as he gave them a thumbs-up.
"You got it Sonic!" Mark said with a thumbs-up of his own before he and Froakie took a deep breath, ready to unleash Ember and Bubble again, but instead of Ember and Bubble, Mark and Froakie shot out a powerful stream of flames while Froakie shot out a beam of ice, surprising the ten heroes and scared the Litleo pride enough to make them run away in fear as Mark and Froakie called off their mysterious attacks.
"That wasn't Ember and Bubble, what did Mark and Froakie use just now?" Knuckles asked in confusion.
"Well, Froakie just used Ice Beam, an Ice-Type attack, and Mark just used Flamethrower, a Fire-Type attack." Tails answered while Mark and Froakie looked at each other.
"This is proof that our team is getting stronger." Hawlucha said with a smile and his arms crossed.
"Yeah!" Mark and Froakie cheered as they gave each other a high-five.
"This is great! Now, let's go get that crystal!" Amy cheered as they ran on down the path.
Now the ten heroes were standing in front of a gate with a fire symbol in the middle.
"Wow, didn't expect to see something like that in a cave." Knuckles said while Tails was checking his device as he held it in front of the gate.
"It says here, that the crystal behind this gate is called the Crystal of Fire, and it burns any thief that would try to steal it, but it's safe for any person with good intentions in their heart." Tails explained to the others as he put his device away.
"Looks like this is as far as we can go, so let's go in and get the crystal." Sonic said as he walked over to open the gate.
Then Amy pulled Sonic back and told him, "Wait Sonic, since we're in a cave inside a volcano, I wouldn't touch the gate if I were you. The metal might be burning hot."
"It should be safe for Fire-Type Pokemon, so we should let Mark open the gate." Tails suggested, then he turned to the Chimchar and asked, "Do you think you can open the gate for us Mark?"
Mark looked at the gate, shrugged and said, "I'll see what I can do." then he walked over to the gate and grunted as he began to push the gate open, then he stopped to quickly say, "Hey, I'm actually doing it!" then he went on to open the gate fully, once he was done he turned to the others and said, "Okay, we're in!"
Then they walked inside an area big enough for some battling, surrounded by some lava and lava waterfalls, then they looked ahead to see a Pokemon that looked like a majestic white dragon sitting in a huge chair with his eyes closed and his head down like he was meditating, and floating above him was a red crystal with a few flames dancing around it.
Sensing who was in the room with him, the white dragon Pokemon with his eyes still closed and his head still down in his meditating position asked this, "What's this? Mere Pokemon and animals who have ascended and defeated the Pokemon of the cave come here unscathed?"
Then the Pokemon tilted his head up and opened his blue eyes, Froakie was paralyzed after seeing the Pokemon's face as the white dragon looked at them and said, "Very well, I welcome you all to Mt. Flare."
Mark stepped up and asked, "Sir, who are you?"
The Pokemon took a look at Mark, raised an eyebrow, then he answered, "Hm? I am Reshiram, the guardian of the Crystal of Fire. I've guarded it for 200 years. Know this, the Magmar guards you saw outside Mt. Flare, they were the only ones that have ever come thus far. Many others have either met their defeat and left, ran away, or were too afraid to come. You are only the second group to have made it this far."
"Lucky for us." Treecko whispered to Knuckles who nodded in agreement.
"Do you want the Crystal of Fire?" Reshiram suddenly asked.
"Yes sir, it's for an important mission." Mark answered with a serious expression.
Then Reshiram used his majestic wings to fly up as he said, "Ah, such great timing, I was in dire need for a distraction." then he landed and smirked as he told the ten heroes, "I will not go easy on you, hope you can keep up. PREPARE YOURSELF!"
"Look out guys!" Pikachu yelled as they all got ready to fight.
"FALL BEFORE MY EXTRASENSORY!" Reshiram's blue eyes glowed as he got Knuckles and Hawlucha with some sort of odd, unseeable power as they grunted and got down to one knee.
"Knuckles, Hawlucha, are you okay?" Tails asked his friends who kinda flinched a bit.
"My Extrasensory can make the target flinch if it hits." Reshiram explained.
"Okay Reshiram, try that on me!" Amy yelled as she charged towards the Vast White Pokemon with her hammer ready to smash only to have him fly up to dodge the attack.
"Not bad young lady, but try this on for size!" Reshiram yelled as he opened his mouth as purple energy formed inside, "DRAGON PULSE!" then he fired his attack at Amy, but Sonic quickly ran by and carried Amy to safety as Reshiram commented, "Quite quick on your feet blue hedgehog."
"So am I! QUICK ATTACK, LET'S GO!" Pikachu then came and slammed his head against Reshiram's gut with Quick Attack, then his red cheeks sparked with electricity, "THUNDERBOLT!" Pikachu fired some electricity at Reshiram before he jumped off his body.
"Nice try, but Electric-Type attacks don't do much on me." Reshiram said before he used Extrasensory on Pikachu as he grunted at the power he was being hit with.
Then Reshiram got hit with Sticks' boomerang, causing him to stop as he turned to see Tails flying up while carrying Mark with Hawlucha flying next to him, then Tails threw Mark down towards with Hawlucha diving down towards Reshiram as well and the two of them looked like they were getting ready to attack, "DOUBLE KICK!" Mark went first and gave Reshiram a kick to the head and then went down to kick him in the gut, "FLYING PRESS!" Hawlucha was up next and he got Reshiram in the head with Flying Press and then Sonic hit him in the gut with his Spin Dash.
"My my, your team is quite something, but let's how you can handle this!" Reshiram said as he flew up with his tail flaring and glowing red, then a ball of fire formed in his mouth as it got bigger, "FUSION FLARE!" then Reshiram fired the ball of fire at the heroes as Mark stepped up along with Treecko and Pikachu.
"FLAMETHROWER!/DRAGON BREATH!/ELECTRO BALL!" Mark and Treecko fired their Flamethrower and Dragon Breath at the Fusion Flare ball while Pikachu launched a ball of electricity from his tail at the Fusion Flare as well as they got caught in a struggle.
"WHAT!?" Reshiram yelled in shock while Froakie was still a little scared, but the he looked determined as he powered up for a Water Pulse.
"Don't forget about me! WATER PULSE, GOOOO!" Froakie added his Water Pulse to the struggle before the attacks got caught in an explosion as the area got covered in smoke.
Reshiram was in the air looking around the smoke for the heroes, then he heard Mark shout, "NOW TREECKO!" then he saw three figures jump out of the smoke cloud as Reshiram looked up to see Sonic, Mark, and Treecko in the air with Treecko using Dragon Breath on Mark's feet just before Mark and Sonic came down at Reshiram with Sonic using his Spin Dash on his gut while Mark and Treecko shouted, "DOUBLE DRAGON KICK!" then Mark kicked Reshiram pretty good once with the combo move, but missed the second time.
"Nice try! Dragon Pulse!" Reshiram fired his Dragon Pulse at Mark at close range, sending him falling towards the lava, making the others gasp, then Froakie pulled some frubbles from behind his neck and threw it Mark's way like a rope as Mark caught it and Froakie pulled him to safety with Pikachu and Tails' help.
"Just try that again!" Knuckles yelled before he jumped up to punch Reshiram pretty hard multiple times.
"Gladly!" Reshiram got another Dragon Pulse ready, but then Treecko stopped him by getting him good with his Dragon Breath.
"I'm not gonna let you!" Treecko yelled as all the heroes got back on the ground while looking at Reshiram.
"I see, the ten of you seem to be pretty loyal to each other. I'm impressed, as a reward, I shall introduce you all to my most powerful move!" Reshiram said as he tail flared up again but blue fire formed in his mouth.
"Careful guys, Reshiram's about to do something!" Amy warned while Mark and Sonic looked at each other seriously before they nodded at each other.
"BLUE FLARE!" Reshiram fired blue flames at the group as the ground exploded, but as the smoke cleared, he only saw eight of the ten heroes on the ground panting as he asked, "Where are the Chimchar and the blue hedgehog? Where did they go!?"
"DOWN HERE RESHIRAM!" the Vast White Pokemon quickly turned to see Mark and Sonic on the ground behind him with Sonic charging up his Spin Dash while Mark said, "Me and Sonic have a little surprise of our own!" then he turned to Sonic's spinning form, "Flamethrower!" then he suddenly hit Sonic with his Flamethrower and now Sonic was still spinning with flames surrounding his body as Mark shouted, "GO FOR IT SONIC!" then Sonic shot up and got Reshiram pretty good with his fired up Spin Dash.
Due to the damage he received in the battle Reshiram crashed into the ground as he groaned, but didn't do anything else as Amy ran over to Sonic and gave him a hug as she happily yelled, "Way to go Sonic!"
"Well, I couldn't have done it without Mark's help." Sonic said as he and Mark shared a fist-bump.
"What kind of combo move was that anyway?" Pikachu asked Mark in confusion.
"It's just a little something we like to call, the Flaming Spin Dash." Mark answered while Sonic grinned along as Reshiram got back on his feet.
"Looks like you have bested me in battle. I haven't had a battle like that in a long time. You have proven yourselves worthy, the Crystal of Fire is yours." Reshiram said as the Crystal of Fire lowered down to the heroes who were happy with the results.
"Thank you sir." Mark said with a bow, but just as he was about to take the crystal, a metal gloved hand suddenly snatched it as they gasped and turned to see a figure that looks like a black hedgehog dash off with the Crystal of Fire in his hands.
"That was Shadow, he's got the Crystal of Fire!" Sonic yelled before he dashed off after Shadow while yelling, "Stop right there Shadow!"
"Quick, to the entrance!" Mark yelled to the others as the nine of them ran out of Reshiram's room as Reshiram kept thinking about Mark.
"Strange, that Chimchar was not like any Fire-Type Pokemon I seen in the last 200 years. Looks like he's finally made his choice after all." Reshiram chuckled before he sat back down in his chair to meditate.
Meanwhile, Shadow was dashing around with the crystal in his hands, it wasn't even burning him thanks to his metal gloves as he kept speeding around to find the exit as he thought, "The Crystal of Fire, that puts Master Darkrai's crystal collection at two. Only three more to go Master Darkrai, and they'll be yours soon."
"Stop right there Shadow!" Shadow turned his head to see Sonic speeding towards him as he said, "So I see you've finally come out of the... shadows." he laughed a little at his own little joke.
"You inferior being, there are no shadows!" Shadow yelled at Sonic as the two hedgehogs were running side-by-side through Mt. Flare.
"It's a joke. Your name is Shadow. Hiding in the shadows. Get it? It's funny." Sonic said, but then he got back on topic as he said, "Anyway, drop the crystal Shadow, my friends and I need it to save the world!"
"Not a chance! These crystals belong to Master Darkrai! All life on this insignificant planet will perish!" Shadow yelled, surprising Sonic.
"I see, so Darkrai got you too eh? Kinda surprised to be honest." Sonic chuckled a little.
"Silence! Your destruction is inevitable, you will not stop Master Darkrai!" Shadow yelled while firing a glowing spear at Sonic who jumped to dodge as they kept on running.
Sonic smirked, "Challenge accepted!"
Then the two of them began attacking each other as they kept speeding through Mt. Flare while Mark and the others were running as fast as they could to try to keep up.
Then Treecko groaned in annoyance as he yelled, "This is impossible! There's no way we can catch up to those two on foot with their speed!"
"They're probably almost at the exit right about now!" Sticks yelled as they slowed their running down a little.
"There's gotta be some sort of shortcut we could use to get there before Sonic and Shadow." Pikachu said.
"There is." the nine of them stopped to see the Magmar guards standing next to them as they then turned to some sort of secret passageway and told the heroes, "This way!" and ran on ahead while the nine heroes looked at each other before they ran after the Magmar.
Back with the hedgehogs, Shadow just dodged Sonic's Spin Dash attack, "CHAOS SPEAR!" and shot more spears at Sonic who jumped around to dodge the attack.
"I'm kinda surprised that Darkrai got to you Shadow, mind telling how that came around?" Sonic asked as he tried to punch Shadow who blocked the attack.
"That kind of information won't make any difference to you where you're going! The afterlife!" Shadow yelled as he went for a kick that Sonic ducked under to avoid.
Sonic looked ahead to see the exit coming up fast as he thought, "We're getting pretty close to the exit, I've gotta get the Crystal of Fire back before Shadow decides to take it back to Darkrai."
"Why bother wasting your time? Just kick back, relax, AND ENJOY YOUR DEATH!" Shadow yelled as he came at Sonic with one final attack.
"NOT GONNA HAPPEN PAL!" Sonic yelled just as they came out of the cave with Mark and the others already out without the Magmar guards with them while Nuzleaf and Diggersby were hiding behind some rocks and saw Sonic dodge Shadow's punch before he quickly gave him an uppercut, then Shadow landed on his back in front of the other heroes as the Crystal of Fire fell out of his hands and landed on Digersby's feet, that caused him to scream in pain when he got burned by it.
Mark noticed the Crystal of Fire next to Diggersby as he thought, "The Crystal of Fire! I've got to get it before those two take it and make a run for it!" then he ran off to get the crystal while the others were too focused on Shadow as they saw some dark energy leave his body.
Shadow started to stir as Knuckles asked, "Look, he's coming around. Should we knock him out again?"
"No Knuckles, we need to talk to him." Amy said as Shadow sat up and groaned.
"Ugh... What's going on?" Shadow asked while looking around.
"That's what we want to know. Why did you attack us and took the Crystal of Fire!?" Sonic demanded.
"Yeah, we want answers man! Why did you go and kill the Ice Fighters!?" Treecko added as Shadow quickly got back on his feet.
"Back off! You're more annoying than usual Sonic." Shadow growled, but then he began to think back as he said, "None of this is making sense, the last thing I remember I was talking to... Darkrai!" Shadow's eyes widened in realization.
"Darkrai! I knew this sneak was in cahoots with that evil Pokemon!" Sticks yelled out.
"I don't work for ANYBODY!" Shadow yelled while glaring at the badger, then he turned to see Mark running to get the Crystal of Fire while Nuzleaf saw this and tried to grab the crystal himself as Shadow asked Sonic, "Another pathetic friend of yours?"
Just as Nuzleaf and Mark were about to grab the Crystal of Fire, Basch suddenly appeared and snatched the crystal and ignoring the burns he got as he turned to Nuzleaf and Diggersby and yelled, "That hedgehog, the human-turned Chimchar and their meddling friends snapped Shadow out of Father's control! He's of no use to us anymore, dispose of him, I've got a crystal to give to Father." then he began to depart from the area.
"Basch, wait!" Mark yelled as he jumped to get to Basch, but he was too late as Basch vanished with the Crystal of Fire as Mark growled in anger, "He got away with another crystal!"
"Are we really gonna get rid of Shadow?" Diggersby asked Nuzleaf not noticing that Mark was hearing them.
"Don't have much of a choice, let's go!" Nuzleaf yelled as he and Diggersby ran towards Shadow as everyone turned to them.
"Hey, look out!" Mark yelled to try and warn Shadow who just looked at Nuzleaf and Diggersby, snapped his fingers, and then Nuzleaf and Diggersby disappeared, surprising the ten heroes.
"Where did they go?" Tails asked while looking around.
"Don't know, and for the record, I don't care." Shadow said while crossing his arms.
Nuzleaf and Diggersby were looking around the grassy area in confusion as Diggersby asked, "Where are we?"
Nuzleaf turned to see a bunch of Pokemon with big afros and horns sleeping as he gulped and quietly, "Oh boy, we've landed in a Bouffalant cattle. And they tend to get pretty angry when their nap is disturbed, so we have to get out of here quietly Diggersby."
Diggersby quickly turned to see the Bouffalant, and then he let out a loud scream of fear, that woke up the Bouffalant as they turned to glare at the sneaky duo while Diggersby let out a quiet, "Oops."
"That's kinda what I was talking about." Nuzleaf said in annoyance, but then both he and Diggersby ran around the field while screaming as the Bouffalant began to chase them around.
Basch came back to Darkrai's lair with the Crystal of Fire in his hands as he handed it over to Darkrai who took it with a smirk.
"That's the second piece of the puzzle, good work my Son." Darkrai said while looking at the Crystal of Fire just as Nuzleaf and Diggersby came in covered in bruises.
"Those Bouffalant don't give up easy, do they?" Diggersby asked as they slowly walked into the lair.
"Yeah, they're a bunch of hard-heads!" Nuzleaf groaned as he fixed the leaf on his head.
"Father, I'm afraid I have some bad news, that blue hedgehog, the human-turned Chimchar and their friends freed Shadow from your control back at Mt. Flare." Basch told Darkrai who's face was now red with anger.
"THEY WHAT!?" Darkrai angrily shouted as he fired his Dark Pulse in different directions of the lair while Nuzleaf and Diggersby were running around screaming again as they quickly passed Basch like he was a ghost or something as Darkrai shouted, "I HATE THAT CHIMCHAR AND HEDGEHOG!" then he stopped his Dark Pulse.
Nuzleaf and Diggersby were panting like crazy as Nuzleaf said, "Don't put the blame on us, that human-turned Chimchar and that pesky blue hedgehog just keep getting in the way!"
"Yeah, the only thing that could make things worse is if another human came to this world as a Pokemon!" Diggersby added making Nuzleaf look at him like he was crazy, they didn't even know that Darkrai and Basch were smirking as they looked at each other.
"Diggersby, are you nuts!? Of course another human coming to this world would make things worse! It's dangerous! It's unthinkable! It's impossible!" Nuzleaf yelled really panicking at this point.
"It's brilliant!" Darkrai suddenly exclaimed as Nuzleaf and Diggersby turned to him in confusion as Darkrai continued with, "Another human-turned Pokemon on this planet just might be the answer to our problem."
"Huh?/What are you talking about?" Diggersby and Nuzleaf asked in confusion.
"I think it's about time to fight fire with fire in a matter of speaking." Darkrai smirked.
"Uh, will that burn anything down?" Diggersby asked while Nuzleaf groaned and smacked his forehead.
"You inferior long-eared moron! You see you two, Father can also bring someone from the human world to this world, but in a different matter than whatever matter that brought that Chimchar, Mark, to this world!" Basch explained with his own smirk.
"And now, thanks to your big mouths, we now have the perfect solution to our problems!" Darkrai declared before he laughed evilly with lightning dancing in the clouds outside and thunder booming as well.
Back at Mt. Flare, Mark, Sonic, and the others explained what was going on to Shadow and the black hedgehog was anything but happy.
"How dare Darkrai use me as his puppet!?" Shadow growled angrily.
"That's how he is, you're not the first one he controlled." Treecko told the hedgehog.
"Not only that but he's got two of the crystals now." Mark said while holding up two fingers.
"I'll hunt him down, and make him pay for using me!" Shadow growled before he took off to find Darkrai.
"Shadow, wait!" Sonic yelled out, but it was no use, Shadow was already long gone to find Darkrai for revenge as Sonic sighed, turned to his friends and said, "Okay, looks like we can't stay here, we need to hurry up and find the next crystal before Darkrai and his team, let's go!" the others nodded in agreement before they ran off to find the next crystal.
Mark and his friends may have lost the Crystal of Fire to Darkrai, Basch, Nuzleaf, and Diggersby, but they have managed to free Shadow from Darkrai's control and now they're off to get the next crystal on the list! What kind of surprise will Darkrai have in store for them? Will Shadow find Darkrai and get revenge for what he did? The quest for the remaining three crystals continues next time on Pokemon Super Sonic Boom: Kyurem's Mysterious Dungeon!
