NamelessFaceless: Yeah, I try my best to keep Tails in character as much as possible for that very reason. And thanks! Hard to believe this story is around a third over already!

Cf96: Okay, so last chapter's title is mainly aimed at the fact that Tails gave Shadow GUN's last Chaos Emerald, essentially ending any hope GUN had of stopping Shadow...but that's a little hard to see instantly with all that occurs in the chapter. I really try not to be too cryptic but I can't help it sometimes. XD;

SonicSonic12345: Ha, I'm really glad you caught that, because the part about comparing Sonic to Maria was what inspired the oneshot- the oneshot just got finished first, naturally. xD And Shadow DEFINITELY does not need Black Doom- evil alien dictators need to keep their noses out of people's biz. :P

Chapter 10: A Use for a Saved Life

~In Darkness We Find Truth~

"Shadow…the day of reckoning is near…bring all the Chaos Emeralds to me immediately!"

Yeah freaking right.

The whole 'reckoning' thing was still bugging me, but there was no way Black Doom was taking the emeralds from me. Not anymore, and especially not now.

I was still on the Air Fleet, with my three Chaos Emeralds floating around me. The air crafts had landed a while ago, and Tails had left after being contacted via communicator about something urgent, leaving me alone with my thoughts once again.

"Either way…" I mused to myself, watching the Chaos Emeralds orbit my body. "Four more, and then the truth about my past will be revealed. I'll finally know…who I am…"

I probably shouldn't have been thinking about Black Doom, because now I had the honor of being graced with his presence.

"Shadow…" he trailed, his voice devoid of the fury that it had earlier. He probably has some mundane task he wanted me to do. "We seem to have a problem with rats running loose on the base. Head to the Black Comet and exterminate them immediately!"

"The Black Comet?!" I exclaimed, thinking about the comet that was talked about in the newspapers.

Was THAT where the aliens had come from? ...it only makes sense, as anything else would be way too coincidental.

I really didn't want to go up there, since it was crawling with Black Arms, but I decided that I might learn something about the enemy -if not myself- if I headed up there.

Thus, I closed my eyes and conjured up Chaos Control, and the three emeralds transported me to the comet. Whatever was up there, I wasn't looking forward to it, but it couldn't hurt to look, right?

Black Comet-

"Allow me to bring you up to speed…" Doom's Eye boomed as soon as I had taken my first steps on the Black Comet.

Or should I say, inside the comet.

The interior of the crimson-charcoal rock was carved out and hollow, like a hive for the Black Arms to live in. The walls were covered with a vermillion ooze that I was sure was poisonous, and long tentacles jetted out and squirmed out of every crevice.

Only thing I learned about these guys was that they were strange. And that was an understatement.

"The humans are trying to ruin our base!" he exclaimed. "Exterminate those vermin once and for all."

"No," I said flatly. "And how'd they even get up here? The comet isn't even anywhere near the earth's surface yet."

"If I knew, we wouldn't be having this problem!" Black Doom howled. "Now rid my base of the humans or find yourself put into extinction!"

I wisely didn't reply to this, instead optioning to find a way to get myself across the sickening ooze. Surprisingly, Black Doom didn't stalk after me, but I knew he was always watching, and if I made another major misstep, I'd lose control of my body again.

"I really wish I knew how he's capable of doing that," I snarled to no one in particular, rummaging around the comet and looking for a safe way to cross the ooze. "Is it some sort of Chaos Ability, or a psychic hold, or something else? I- wait a second, what is that?"

Smashing a few discarded crates revealed a hideous sight to me, and at a first glance at the deformed thing, I couldn't even depict what it was. After studying it for the longest time, I realized it was some sort of transport platform…which was just what I was looking for.

"Now the question is how do I ride this?"

Taking a cautious step onto the contraption, it instantly buckled forward as soon as all my weight was on it, and I had almost been tossed into the ooze. Cringing and putting myself back in place, I shifted my weight slightly forward, and the spinner started moving along with me.

It was like drifting along a bloody river of horrors, with crimson-tipped tentacles shooting out of the ooze the Black Arms seemed to thrive in, and each appendage reached out in a desperate attempt to seize me. I had no weapon on me, so I did my best to smack them all away without getting a drop of the toxic sludge on me. If the tentacles weren't enough, a few other inhabitants of the comet were crawling all over the walls and any minuscule landmass jetting out of the liquid, and all of them were blasting lasers whenever I drifted within range. I really had no shield for that, so most of my unpleasant cruise trip was spent weaving and dodging and praying not to plunge overboard.

After surviving the onslaught of enraged aliens, I finally reached the other side of the ooze, where GUN soldiers were fighting the Black Arms one on one. Believe or not, how the humans got up here was not the thing that stunned me the most…

It was who had accompanied them.

"Knuckles?!" I yelped incredulously, almost losing my composure upon seeing Knuckles plowing his fists through Black Arms like they were paper- and doing a much more effective job than any of the soldiers' firearms. After hearing his name, Knuckles ceased battling, and sent a quick wave in my direction.

"'Sup, Shadow," he greeted me, taking a few moments to bust up one more alien. Filled with stark confusion, I trudged up to him…and just gaped.

"How did you manage to get onto the Black Comet?" I asked dubiously, trying to control the high levels of surprise on my face. "Last time I saw you, you were pretty messed up, and now suddenly you're on a comet in space busting heads like it's no big deal! And the same for the GUN soldiers- how'd they managed to get up here too?"

Knuckles' eyes furrowed with annoyance, as if he had been expecting the question, and briefly pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Okay, do you really want to know?" he wondered, and the glare I sent in his direction told all. "All right, I'll only explain this once to the best of my ability, but if you want the complete version, go ask Tails. This involves a bunch of scientific terms that are way beyond me."

"I'm sure the abridged version would suffice, Knuckles."

The echidna took a deep breath and started pacing in front of me, wondering where to begin.

"Huh, okay. So after the whole Diablon thing, the gang was gathered in the GUN HQ to determine what to do next, and the President, the GUN Commander, and Tails-"

"-went up in the Air Fleet to take the President somewhere safer from the invasion forces," I interrupted. Knuckles' pupils shrunk as he whirled to face me.

"Wait, wait, wait, that is not what I was going to-"

"I was on that fleet, Knuckles. Everyone up there is fine, thanks to me."

"Sorry, but that's one thing you're not getting me to believe," he grunted, and I curiously cocked an eyeridge. "Once the fleet landed, we received word that the second Chaos Emerald GUN owned was taken, and we all know that you must've pried it from them."

I chose not to mention that Tails was most likely the one to have stolen it from GUN, but even if I had brought it up, I'd probably be blamed anyway.

"…so after the emerald was taken and the President was secured, Rouge called up Tails via communicator, explaining that she had been assigned to find out more about where the alien's leader had made that broadcast before blowing up Central City. She discovered that it came from space, and most likely the comet that's closing in on the planet's orbit. Thus, she told Tails that Amy had seen you teleport into Cryptic Castle through some of Eggman's technology, so he rushed back with a military escort, and somehow managed to reverse engineer it with nothing more than a simple description."

Wow, the kid sure could move fast. I had hardly blinked and he was already halfway back at GUN Fortress, and managed to reverse engineer highly coded technology with only a description of it! Maybe Sonic's speed really did rub off on him.

"Yeah," Knuckles continued, absent-mindedly scratching his head. "When I asked Tails how he could've possibly done all that in such a small amount of time, he threw a ton of big, fancy words at me and totally lost me. So don't ask for details on that part."

"Understood," I hummed, folding my arms afterward. "Continue."

"Um…yeah, Tails managed to utilize the technology for himself, and synchronize it into one communicator, to begin with. We fought over who it should be, but I managed to convince them that I was tired of sitting around and wanted to do my part. I had healed enough to be active again, so Tails put the teleporting technology into my communicator, and I used it to get up here."

"That doesn't explain the GUN soldiers!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms in the air. "Black Doom is going to have them all killed just for their trespassing! They shouldn't have come up here, if they know what's good for them!"

"Hey, they arrived after I did, so Tails must've rigged up some way to transport more people at once," Knuckles suggested. "I don't know all the details, and I don't even know if I can get back with this doohickey. Just gotta have faith in Tails, I suppose."

Well, that was more than I would have ever expected out of Knuckles.

"So, Shadow," Knuckles started up again, using a tone that demanded answers. "Just what are you doing here? Rendezvousing with your boss or something?"

"I am not with the Black Arms!" I hissed, clenching my fist and swinging it in Knuckles' direction. He ducked rather swiftly and landed a counterattack to my chest, sending me skidding across the ground. Glowering, I pushed myself back onto my feet and snarled. "Black Doom was pestering me again, so I decided to come up here and see what had his tentacles in a bunch. Clearly the presence of you and those pathetic shoulders has him concerned, but I'm not helping him out. I'll look around a bit more, and then I'm leaving."

I gave Knuckles a parting warning glance, but he challenged danger and followed after me, not ready to get off my back just yet.

"Shadow, you can't leave! If we take out the Black Arms from the source, we can make this the final showdown, and put an end to this catastrophe!" he pleaded with me, and admittedly he had a point.

But yet, as much as I wanted to cleanse the planet of its alien presence, which would allow me to collect the Chaos Emeralds at a much more leisurely pace, I knew that Black Doom had something to do with my past, and I couldn't just let him walk away carrying a piece of me.

I was going to take it first.

"It can't be that easy, Knuckles," I finally said after an unsettling silence, and I wasn't sure where I was supposed to go from there. "We can't…just get rid of the Black Arms and be done with them. There's something more to them that's beyond anyone, and if it has anything to do with me, I have to find out."

"But that's what dragged you into trouble in the first place!" Knuckles protested with a knowing scowl. "Black Doom tempted you with knowledge and you almost usurped him and destroyed the world yourself! What's your misanthropic goal this time?"

Infuriated to the point of glowing red, I kept marching onward into my unknown destination, but anything to get away from Knuckles' shunning of my morals.

"My 'misanthropic' goal this time is to get my memories back," I managed to grit through anger-strained teeth. "That's what this has always been about, and everyone insists on getting in my way, including you!"

My words stung a bit more than I would've liked, but I couldn't take them back now. Sighing, I started carrying on again.

"Do whatever you need to, Knuckles. I've got my own reasons for being here."

Knuckles had started following me again, and I didn't even have to look back to confirm it.

But I knew that he had stopped following me when his footsteps had slowed, coming to a complete stop, and only the sound of mine were echoing throughout the comet's hollow interior.

. . .

The last thing I had needed was Knuckles lambasting me, but he did shine the light on possibilities I hadn't considered. Was I…being selfish with my desire to regain my memories? Was it so horrible that I wanted to know who I was? Wouldn't anyone give anything to obtain something as precious as themselves?

…but was putting everyone else in the world at risk a worthy price to pay?

"ARGH!"

I vented my anger out by punching the nearest wall, and aside from a killer pain in my knuckles, a reverberation manifested throughout the walls, and I'm quite sure the whole comet shook. I had caused that using only a fraction of my frustration.

On cue as always, one of the driving forces of said frustration sidled up to me once again.

"So the humans have decided to play their hand, have they?" Doom's condescending voice hummed, a sound so close that it was as if he was leaning over my shoulder and whispering in my ear. Just in case, I glanced over my shoulder to make sure he wasn't there. He was hovering above me, but even then he was still invading my personal space. "Go, Shadow, and show them just who they're up against!"

"Hmph, I'm sure they know who they're up against," I sneered back, looking him right in the eye. "I just wish someone else knew that."

"Now, now, Shadow…" He scolded me like I was some rebellious child. "It's in your best interest to hold that sharp tongue of yours, or you just might find yourself speaking your last words…"

I spat.

"I hope that means you're disrespecting the remains of all the human soldiers you've taken out so far, correct?" he challenged with a dare in his eye, and I gave the same look right back.

"No, it was just my opinion of you demonstrated in a single action."

Doom was not appeased with that response, but he didn't wish some threat upon me in response. If anything, it looked like he was plotting something undeniably devious, and if I took him the least bit seriously, I would've been legitimately concerned.

He shockingly left me be after that, but I had a feeling he'd be back to check on my lack of progress on ridding his base of operations from hideous humans. However, this left me alone in this 'world' full of hazards, and without a concrete idea of what I was supposed to be doing.

. . .

"I guess I could've thought this through a little more…" I murmured, starting walking on again, avoiding puddles of ick as I stomped off. "But either way, Black Doom would've seen to it that I was teleported up here anyway…"

Clearly I have no ability to choose my own decision, regardless of what I insisted. Talk about depressing.

I grimaced as I wandered through a door, opening up into a purple hall of sorts with more tentacles poking out of the walls. The walls themselves had a natural glow to them, and in a way it was melancholically pretty, but also very unnerving…

"What goes on in this comet…?" I pondered to myself, bringing me back to the original reason I had even considered stepping foot on the space rock. It wasn't until I found another air saucer and used it to cross another river of gunk did I discover what one of those happenings could possibly be.

"There's something suspicious under the surface…" I realized, watching something slither around just beneath my visibility.

Why it reminded me of a feral crocodile in a certain swampy jungle, I'll never know.

I should've been focused on where I was going, but my crimson gaze was locked onto the red-tinted liquid, straining to make out what was lurking just below.

A tentacle suddenly shot out of the ooze, my arm flying up to shield my face from the potential poison that rained down upon me. It swooped down with a mighty swish, hoping to grab me, drag me under, and possibly have me for a late night snack. I gathered what was left of my bearings and veered away from the spot, willing the contraption I was on to go faster, and far away from the current. The tentacle swayed around distraughtly about having missed a catch, but it eventually returned under the waves, waiting for another opportunity to strike.

I hurriedly returned to solid ground, hopped off my ride, and skated down another glowing hall, and I was really, really hoping that there wouldn't be any more rivers to cross.

"Doesn't get much weirder than this," I murmured under my breath upon entering the next 'room' of the comet.

And with those words, I had been wrong.

In the next area, just about every Black Arms soldier that hadn't been sent to the planet was in that one condensed area, and they were all amassing on something in the very center of the room. I wall jumped to a higher perch to see if I could catch sight of what it was, and as soon as I did, I should've known.

Knuckles.

He was a red blur, fists in a fury and doing an outstanding job of holding his own against the multitude of aliens that had advanced upon him. I had never truly witnessed the echidna's fighting skills prior, but now I was getting the peak of it, definitely. He used the field to his advantage, swiping his fists along the ground, knocking some brutes over, and bowling dozens of them down at once like a set of dominos. But no matter how long he managed to prolong the inevitable, he couldn't hold his own forever. Even with how far away I was, I could tell he was increasingly becoming more exhausted, especially when he went to slug one of the aliens in the face and completely missed.

This proved to be his downfall, as two Black Arms soldiers grabbed his sluggishly aimed arm and hoisted him into the air, and a rare look of fear dashed across his face before he started flailing around in a final attempt to get free. A few faces met with the bottom of his foot, but soon enough, plenty of aliens had restrained all of Knuckles, and he was being constrained so much that even his breathing was restricted. I was only stalled by my pondering of what they had planned to do with him, until I saw the direction they were slowly inching in…

They were edging right for a pool of the ooze.

If Knuckles was tossed in there, he wouldn't survive long- I doubted I even could, since the splashes I had received from the thrashing tentacle earlier had burned off small parts of my fur. Imagine being covered in a whole pool of the stuff…

"You're going to be sorry!" Knuckles had yelled, fighting so hard to bust free.

"Like hell they are!" I shouted afterward, leaping away from my perch and drawing on all the negative Chaos Energy I could. "Chaos BLAST!"

Knuckles ended up gaping as scores of the aliens were blasted away, some of them flying into the ooze, and it was just a shame it wasn't deadly for them. The ones holding Knuckles dropped him back on the ground and started running for me, which was a huge mistake for them.

"Death to all who oppose me!" I howled again, releasing another wave of Chaos Energy away from me. Aliens after aliens expelled away from me, and it was only a matter of time before Knuckles was back in the fight too.

"Well, finally came to your senses, eh?" he huffed with mild humor, swinging a single punch and knocking out five aliens at once. I released a haughty scoff, teleporting all over the place and taking out twice as many as Knuckles did.

"Oh, sorry. I saw you doing such a great job against the Black Arms that I couldn't resist jumping in too to be just like you. I can leave any time you want me to-"

"Hey, if there's anything I've managed to soak up in the last three months, it's that teamwork does have its uses."

Oh great, starting up on teamwork again…I thought Sonic was back at the HQ?

"Never mention it again, and I've got your back," I grunted, and the two of us fittingly went back to back. He was a fighting machine with his fists, and I was getting rather crafty with a combination of my feet and spin dashes.

"I'll take them all out with my bare hands!" Knuckles yelled, thrusting forward with massive strikes. I danced around him in attempt to not accidentally be struck, along with curling up into a ball and bowling several brutes onto the ground. A few of the aliens eventually caught on to our tactics and started leaping at Knuckles from the air, but I quickly teleported in front of their flight path and knocked them back to the ground, hardly sparing them another thought. I crashed my foot down on one's head, using it to send myself back up. A quintet of the Black Arms joined up and approached forward, and as Knuckles burrowed beneath the ground, I alighted in front of them and sent them away with a final Chaos Blast.

"And this one's for the road!" I heard Knuckles yell as he spiraled back into sight, sending all five brutes careening into the air. He landed with a confident flair, and I flashed him a small smirk in return. "That should take care of them for now…"

"I'm still a bit concerned about the ones we tossed into the ooze," I commented, eyeing the pool with an unsettled gaze. "The Black Arms seem to thrive in that stuff, so what if we unintentionally made them stronger…?"

"Then let's get out of here before we find out," Knuckles murmured, folding his arms. "Let's find whatever you're looking for, finish cutting off Black Doom's reserves of soldiers, and get the heck outta here."

"For once, I couldn't agree with you more…" I trailed, and suddenly, I began to glow blue. It was calming, reassuring contrast to the hateful shade of red that usually surrounded me. I grabbed Knuckles' wrist, causing him to flinch a bit, but I simply raised my hand and cried, "Let me show you my true power!"

We flashed forward, the glowing purple walls and blood-red ooze merged together as the colors of the comet around us blended together seamlessly. Knuckles was instantly overcome with the speed as we Chaos Controlled our way forward…

But me? I wasn't filled with destructive rage for once, or anger, or frustration…for once, I felt the exact opposite. My mind was somewhat clearer, able to focus only what was directly in front of me…

And Black Doom had wanted to prevent me from feeling this way.

. . .

Later on, Knuckles and I were hurriedly walking along a path that curved around a misty purple room, with pools of the slime congregating on both sides. More tentacles of the thing that was down below were popping out, but thank goodness none of them could reach us.

I had wanted to use Chaos Control again to get to the other side of the area faster, but I didn't know how much teleporting Knuckles could take. After all, Chaos Energy affected people differently, and even though Knuckles was almost always in constant contact with it, teleportation wasn't a strong point of his.

As proven back in Central City.

However, Knuckles still wouldn't leave for anything, so I decided to see if I could learn anything from him.

"So, Knuckles," I started slowly, turning his attention away from the ooze and back to me.

"Yeah, what's up?"

My eyes narrowed a bit, locked onto the path ahead. "…what was I like before I disappeared?"

We were caught in the maddening silence for a few seconds, hearing nothing but ooze dripping from the ceiling and splashing into the pools below. I waited for Knuckles' answer, although it looked as though he didn't have one.

"I don't think I'm the one you should be asking," he finally stated, looking perplexed. "I wasn't even around for most of that fiasco…"

Fiasco?

"I was busy collecting pieces of the Master Emerald, and I only realized that something was really wrong when I was exploring the ARK and Sonic had Chaos Controlled in front of me, weakened out of his mind and yammering about how he needed to stop you, and told me to go make sure Tails and Amy were okay…"

I tripped over myself with the news, and Knuckles didn't resist snickering afterward. Ignoring his incessant simpering, I sprung back up and leapt in front of him.

"Sonic can use Chaos Control?!" I yelled, in a tone that wondered why that hadn't been mentioned before.

"Um, yeah?" Knuckles stated obliviously, then lurched with the realization. "OH YEAH! You don't remember!"

"Way to figure that one out, genius!" I seethed, shaking my head. "If he can use Chaos Control, how come I've never seen him do so?"

"He only does so in emergencies, plus he's not like you and can do it at will. He has to have at least one Chaos Emerald," Knuckles replied innocently enough. "You have more natural Chaos Energy in you than Sonic does, which is why you don't always need the extra power."

I was still pretty gob smacked, trying to make sense as to why Sonic didn't use his ability to his advantage. When I was fighting him and Diablon, the purple Chaos Emerald was in his possession…

"…so why didn't he use Chaos Control against me?" I whispered my thoughts, but Knuckles had heard me and grimaced.

"That's not the way he does things, and you should know that by now, memory or not."

His tone was stern and honest, as always, but so much more serious.

"All I know of what you were like is that you had been gung-ho on destroying the world for revenge, but then Amy made you change your mind, and you came to help Sonic and I by holding off the Biolizard while we drained the power of the Chaos Emeralds away from the ARK…"

His violent gaze softened, and I felt my own stare loosen up as well.

"I was the last person to see you alive, aside from Sonic…" he explained slowly, his head drooping down. "The last I saw of you was when you and Sonic went Super as a last stand for humanity, the final hope for the world…the two of you left me behind at the Emerald altar, and by the time I had met up with the others again, Sonic came back…but you were gone."

I have a Super form?

"What I'm trying to say is, everyone missed you Shadow, even me, and I had only a few minutes to see what you were like and what good you were capable of, despite your discrepancies…but no one was affected more than Sonic, not even Rouge. No one knows what truly went on up in that final battle except Sonic…"

Knuckles sighed and started stalking off, and I trudged behind him, now weighted with new information.

"If you want to know, Sonic's the one to ask."

I was deathly silent, unable to come up with a follow up to all that Knuckles had told me. When I finally came up with something legitimate to say, doom showed up on our doorstep.

All too literally.

"My base is being destroyed by infernal humans!" Doom's voice boomed as he descended in front of us, his eye rolling down to stare at Knuckles. Knuckles bared his fangs and readied his fists, looking to spring at any moment. "Huh. I thought you had died in the wake of my destruction of Central City…perhaps you pesky creatures are more resilient than I thought."

"Leave him alone," I dared, shuffling in front of Knuckles and glaring at Doom. "You've got a vendetta against me, and it's probably not going to go away anything soon."

"Maybe not," Doom replied, the words rolling off his tongue. "But I can make you two go away very soon."

Neither I nor Knuckles could question the statement, for he suddenly snapped his fingers and instantly vanished away from the scene. The room suddenly began to quake with angry tremors, the ooze began to erupt in waves, and more tentacles that I would have ever liked to see arose out of the muck and started smashing down on the path.

Sections of the stone path went flying in all directions, some colliding with the ceiling and some falling into the ooze, but with only one strike, our way of escape was slowly crumbling beneath us.

"RUN!"

The word flew sharply out of my mouth, and I had started skating on the spot, orange flames steaming out of my jet shoes and propelling forward. Knuckles was a few paces behind me, but undoubtedly keeping up. The monster in the liquid had been agitated, and kept swinging its appendages at us. I swerved out of the way so many times it was a wonder I hadn't wiped out, and Knuckles punched at the tentacles every time they swung by, but the creature had so many that it truly was no use.

"We have to get out of this area!" I called, seeing an end to the ooze on the other side.

"Easier said than done!" Knuckles barked back, the crumbling end of the path quickly catching up with him.

I scowled and swore under my breath, not wanting to slow down to grab Knuckles, because that would put us both in danger, but If I didn't grab him then, he'd be doomed, and then no doubt would Rouge come after me with her sniper rifle, no holds barred.

"Knuckles, grab my arm," I ordered, swinging my right arm back for him to latch onto as I kept running. "I can't slow down or we're both screwed!"

"Well I can't keep up with you!" Knuckles cried, scrambling to run as well as he reached for me.

"ARGH!"

I braked for a split second, snagged Knuckles by the wrist, and flat-out bolted, hardly outrunning the decaying path by two paces. Knuckles was hovering just over the edge, and if I had let go, he'd go spiraling into the ooze.

However, this quickly began the least of my problems as Knuckles shouted something to me, but I had missed it the first time around.

"What?!"

"The path ahead is out too!"

My quills bristled as I took another look ahead- sure enough, the path ahead was no longer in existence, and there were three tentacles eagerly waiting for us. Knuckles' arm tensed in my grip, while I looked about for any sign of hope.

One arrived in the form of an Air Saucer.

Unconventionally throwing Knuckles at it, I sprung after him, the both of us landing on the Air Saucer as the last of the path disintegrated into the ooze. The tentacles were still a problem, so while Knuckles instincts told him to hold on for dear life, I started steering the thing out of the radius of the alien.

Splash after splash were sent into the air, and somehow I had managed to maneuver around them all, without getting drenched or struck by a tentacle. The waves were getting reckless, and if I turned too sharply, we were destined to fall overboard.

And probably be disintegrated alive. Fun stuff.

"Not too much farther, Knuckles!" I assured the discombobulated echidna, eyeing the other side getting closer and closer. The monster was getting closer as well, lurking beneath the surface. I could see its shadow snaking its way under the Air Saucer, so I willed our ride to go just a little faster-

But it wasn't enough.

"YAAAAHH!"

The scream emerged from Knuckles as the creature snapped us upwards, the murky poison ooze flying up and dispersing like fireworks. The Air Saucer had flipped, dislodging both Knuckles and myself from it. Knuckles finally got a grip and started gliding to safety, while I was a sitting duck, and I could almost feel my head making contact with the sludge.

It wasn't pleasant.

The alien was waiting for me below, several tentacles rising up to grab me when I was close enough, planning to wrap around me and pull me under, and this time refusing to allow me to get away.

"Sorry…" I muttered with the last of my awareness, beginning to glow blue once more. "…but I won't allow you that satisfaction."

One of the tentacles skimmed against me and was almost rewarded with my capture, but in a cutthroat moment of time, massive amount of Chaos Energy emitted out of me beyond my control…especially considering chaos couldn't be truly controlled in the first place.

The monster roared in anguish as it had missed me again, as I had barreled forward with Chaos Control in the blink of an eye, moving so fast that Knuckles couldn't even see me. Somewhere during the maneuver, I had snagged Knuckles, and we flew away from the danger zone faster than the eye could catch.

"Shadow, where are you taking us?" Knuckles called to me, hanging on for dear life and never letting go.

"Well first off, I'm getting us away from that nightmare," I huffed, not wanting to take the time to answer sure an irrelevant question. "But, now we're heading to the center of the Comet. I think there may be something we need to check out there…"

"If you say so," Knuckles muttered in return, and he stayed quiet until the warping blessing of Chaos Control came to an end.

We finally landed somewhere in relatively safety from the accursed alien monster, but our troubles were far from over…

In fact, I think they just got worse.

"Well, well, if it isn't one of the punks that stole my teleportation technology, and my dear old friend Shadow…"

The ground shook beneath us, and Knuckles and I suddenly found ourselves face to face with one hideous abomination of a robot mech.

"Doctor?!"