Ch 12: Much Needed Training
"Okay...Listen up. I have decided to show you all, my secret techniques." Shadow is standing in front of Sonic and the others. They all decide to train before they got to the Earth. "Tails? The fake emerald please?"
"Right...here you go." Tails hands the fake red emerald over to Shadow.
"I'm going to show you, CHAOS CONTROL!" In an instant Shadow appears on the other side of the training room. "That's it. It warps time and space around you. There are two types of chaos control, the one I showed you all, Is type 1, or Time stop. It basically makes time freeze around you and you can move freely and even harm your enemies. Type 2, or Spacial warp. It is for getting out of tight situations. You can instantly teleport to any place you've been to. Within a reasonable distance." Shadow walks toward Sonic. "You have used both types of chaos control, right?"
"Uh...yeah I have. I remember fighting you near the Eclipse Cannon. I used Type 1 there. Type 2 was when Eggman sent me towards the Earth in that capsule."
" Since you have used it before, you don't need training yet. Maria...since you are now a hedgehog, you should be able to use it. Here...try it." Shadow gives her the emerald.
"Um...Ok. Chaos Control." Nothing happens. "Chaos Control!" Still nothing.
"Hmm...just hold the emerald, and close your eyes. You need to feel for the energy first. It should be a feeling of excitement."
"Oh...that was the power of the emerald?" Maria blushes. "I thought that was me, heehee. Ok here goes." Maria pauses for a moment with her eyes closed. Her quills start going up slightly, and her bandanna does too. 'This is the energy, I feel it. RIGHT THERE!' The emerald glows a little. "CHAOS CONTROL!" Light starts pulsating from the emerald. Making it become a nucleus in the energy. Then a bright light flashes, and Maria disappears. She reappears two feet away. She's panting heavily on the ground. "I-i-i love you Shadow..." She faints after this.
"Maria!" Shadow runs over to her side.
"No...you can't have any more pancakes Shadow...your getting fat..." Maria is out of it and starts waking up. "Wh-what...hi Shadow...your not fat anymore?"
"You were dreaming...you just used chaos control!" Shadow hugs her. Everyone snickers a little. "Err, well...good job!" Shadow quickly gets off her, and helps her up. "That sure drained you, you better eat before you try again."
"But...I'm not hungry..." Maria's stomach rumbles loudly. "Ok...I'm going up to eat now." She leaves the training room and heads up the elevator. Once in the kitchen she gets a sandwich ready. Right before she eats it she pauses, and runs to the bathroom. "Ah...much better." She looks in the mirror. "Hey Masako..."
"Hey, how are ya?"
"I'm fine, this is like the fifty-third time we've talked right? We're gonna get to Earth in five days. I'm probably not gonna be able to be near any mirrors when we get there. But, I will try to find one A.S.A.P."
"Oh okay, that isn't a problem. Um...I have a question. Do you love Shadow?"
"Well, yes I do. We're best friends." Maria looks away for a second.
"No...I mean romantically."
"Wh-what...I dunno, maybe, but we can't. At least I think we can't." Maria sits down on the floor and blushes.
"What's holding you back? Your the same species now. It shouldn't matter. From what you've told me, your grandfather meant to make him for you, so why not be with him forever? You just need some time alone with him." Maria gets up fast and looks at Masako.
"I've been with Shadow a lot, earlier I snuggled with him. After he got wet and cold though, I was warming him up."
"But that was the only reason. Listen to my words, Maria. You need to spend time with him, for no reason to hide behind. Ok?" Maria is crying a little.
"But what if he doesn't love me. If I try anything, and fail, it would be too awkward to be around him."
"Trust me, he wants you to be near him. He's prolly just embarrassed, around the others. Now just look for an open spot, and shoot for it. I'm done talking now, it'll be fine ok?"
"Ok...it's fine." Maria leaves the bathroom and eats her sandwich.
"Get him Sonic!" Tails shouts from across the room. Sonic and Shadow are battling fiercely. Shadow gets a clean punch to Sonic's stomach. He recovers and spins right into Shadow, knocking him onto a wall. Shadow lands on his feet and launches himself off the wall at Sonic. He tries to hit Shadow but gets beat down.
"Ha, your pathetic. Here take the fake emerald. You need It more than I do." Shadow chucks it at Sonic and hits him in the arm.
"Ow...dammit man!" Sonic picks up the emerald and it flashes. Shadow is instantly knocked back a few feet, he's breathing hard. "How'd you like that!" Sonic vanishes but reappears with his foot held by Shadow, who proceeds to spin around very fast. He lets go of Sonic and sends him flying through the air. He instantly lands behind Shadow. The fake emerald glows blue for a second. "Sonic Wind!" A spinning blue energy saw hits Shadow and sends him across the room. Shadow is stunned, with the air knocked out of him. Then he starts breathing loudly.
"Holy crap, that hurt pretty bad. I've never had that happen to me before. If you fight like that, you'll be fine." Shadow sits down to rest. "But you'll never do this!" Shadow jumps up and glows brightly. Then wind emits from him in a golden blast. His black fur is replaced by pure platinum. Now he is just hovering there, smirking. Sonic has his eyes wide open. In an instant he vanishes. But Shadow punches the air in front of him, Sonic appears holding his stomach, and then he goes out cold.
"Sonic!" Tails runs over to him. "Oh...he's fine." Sonic wakes up after a couple of minutes. "You did pretty good against Shadow. I guess you need training after all, you still need to learn how to do that."
"Yeah...I guess. But...how?" Shadow goes back to normal and goes towards Sonic.
"That's why we have five days, your gonna work hard!" Shadow picks up his fake emerald.
Over the course of five days, Sonic learned most of the tricks that Shadow showed him. He can turn super for a little while too. Even Maria and Cilia mastered Chaos Control. They each made an energy attack, similar to chaos spear and sonic wind style attacks. Kaida trained with May to keep her out of trouble. Even Tails got some training with his powers and sword. Now it is the middle of the last day of training.
"Ready...GO!" May shouts this and the four hedgehogs use an energy attack.
"Chaos SPEAR!" Shadow launches this at one of the dummies that Tails had created. It instantly has a hole in it and is smoking.
"Sonic WIND!" His attack shreds the dummy to pieces. Almost nothing is left.
"Deadly ROSE!" Cilia points her hand towards the dummy and a violet energy vine shoots out and wraps around it. It blooms a black rose on the top. Then it squeezes the dummy until it breaks.
"Angel FEATHERS!" Maria does the same as Cilia. Many white energy feathers shoot out at the dummy making many holes in it. Maria then clasps her hands together and concentrates. Now she holds her hands out, towards the dummy. "Chaos HEAL!" Instantly it is fully repaired. No scratches or anything are there.
"Wow...That was awesome! This training really paid off." Tails proudly walks out of the room. "I'm going to check the cockpit, be right back."
"Good, now we don't need to be worried about you getting hurt." Shadow says to all of them. "If there is any trouble, just Chaos Control yourself to safety."
"Yeah, so just use it to keep yourselves safe." Sonic steps next to Shadow, but gets pushed back towards the girls.
"I meant you also."
"Hey...what do you mea-" Suddenly there is a shaking in the ship. Then the power goes out on the entire ship. "Who turned out the lights?" There is nothing but blackness. "If the power is out, We're gonna DIE!"
"Hey...let go of me..." BAM. Shadow hits someone in the head. "Stupid faker." In a second the emergency lights turn on. The lights are blue and go along the walls. "OH CRAP, I'm sorry Maria." Maria gets up and leaves. You can hear her sniffle.
"Looks like you made her cry, nice one buddy." Shadow tries to run after her, but mid run he comes off the ground and floats.
"WHOA!" Everyone shouts in unison.
"Krshhhh This is Tails, we just hit something...Big. The gravity is off, along with engines and major lights. Oh and the elevator is out too. Krshhhh" Tails said this over the radio.
"This is the worst time for this to happen. I need to find Maria." Shadow is stuck though, with no way to move. 'Ok, can't run...heheh...My shoes.' Shadow puts his feet back and puts his shoes into higher output, like jets. He is going down the hall pretty quick. As fast as a human running. He looks like hes moving like his super form, but much slower. He gets to the elevator. The doors are open, but the elevator isn't there. So Shadow just floats up to the bedroom floor. He makes it to Maria's room.
"Krshhhh The elevator is at the top of the shaft, if power comes back, the elevator will go to the bottom and back up again. So please stay where you are. I'm working on it from here, I got the fake emerald to power the computer. Krshhhh"
"Oops...too late for that. Maria? Please open up!" Maria lets Shadow in. "I'm so sorry I-" Maria puts a finger on Shadow's lips.
"I'm sorry, I'm not really sad. I faked it. I just want to talk with you." Maria closes her door. "Like when we talked back on ARK."
"Maria, Is that all. You could have just asked. I would've joined you."
"But you were training us. We needed It. I'm not selfish. I need to do something, close your eyes." Maria leans towards him. She hesitates, but suddenly kisses Shadow. Shadow is surprised that she did that. He blushes a lot. Maria has a slightly smaller blush than him. Before Maria says anything, Shadow kisses her back. "I know now..."
"Know what?" Shadow looks at her, puzzled.
"That I truly love you."
"I love you too." They just hold eachother while they float. They are upside down at the top of the room. Then the lights turn back on. They fall on the bed. Shadows head lands on Maria's chest. All the doors open in the entire ship. "Um...I-" Shadow is blushing even more.
"OH MY GOD...what are you doing?" Sonic shouts.
"Ahh...nothing, nothing." Shadow gets up quickly. "It's not what you think, blue boy. We were just talking."
"Well, I'll leave you two to your 'Talking'. Heheh." Sonic runs to the elevator.
"Grrr...Sonic is so immature!" Maria yells this.
"Hey, another thing we have in common."
"Krshhhh Ok everyone, the ship is good now. The thing we hit has somehow vanished. Krshhhh" Tails comes back down with Sonic. As Tails passes Shadow and Maria he blushes. "Uh-uh hi."
"That Idiot! Wait til' I get my hands on him." Shadow runs after Sonic. Maria looks at Tails.
"Thanks, nice diversion kid. Oh and don't believe Sonic, we just talked, and WE KISSED!" Maria is jumping up and down. "I'm gonna tell the girls."
"No problem, I'm going to the cockpit now, Meet in an hour. We're almost home."
An hour later...
"We're coming up to the Earth in 5...4...3...2...1..." As they get close enough, their mouths all open in fear. "Is...that the Earth!" Maria has tears in her eyes. "This isn't the Earth I remember..."
"Tails, what are those round things? And that barrier?" May is looking scared.
"If I'm not mistaken, they are-"
"Death Eggs." Sonic interrupts. "That Eggman! He's gone too far this time! I swear...If he did anything to Amy...I'll, I'll kill him!" Sonic has a burning rage in his eyes. He punches the wall hard enough to dent it. Shadow enters the cockpit now.
"Hmm...Seems the Doctor has been busy. He's finally taken over the world." Sonic turns around fiercely.
"NO, HE HASN'T...EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE!"
"What if he has...everybody is probably dead down there, we don't even know if the Earth is livable anymore." Shadow says this calmly.
"NOO...SHADOW YOUR WRONG. YOUR DAMN WRONG..." In an instant Sonic turns gold.
"Sonic, don't be stupid! Your not leaving!" Shadow grabs his shoulder. But Sonic hits him off. Shadow's hand hits the wall, hard enough to break it a little. "AHHH...My $! hand!" Then Sonic instantly vanishes. "Damn him!"
"Sonic!" Tails and May say in unison. They look back at Shadow, and sees he is hurt.
"Maria, heal him..." Tails is looking out the front window. 'Sonic, what are you doing. What if shadow is right, could they all be dead?'
