Chapter 13: Too close

Sonic was on the ground with a sprained ankle and Shadow pointing a chaos spear at his throat. Link and Fox were out cold as were his other colleagues. He was completely at Shadow's mercy.

Strangely, a figure came behind Shadow and said, "Good job, my apprentice."

It was none other than Concolor. His smile showed his massive canines and his eyes glowed in the moonlight.

"Kill him." Concolor barked.

Shadow glared at Concolor and then back at Sonic. Sonic's eyes widened and his eyes screamed betrayal. Strangely, Shadow winked at him.

"Prepare to die!" Shadow growled.

In a sudden move, he turned around and fired the Chaos Spear at Concolor. The spears buried themselves in Concolor's arm and the cat recoiled in surprise.

He recovered and screamed, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? TRAITOR!!!"

Shadow scowled and informed, "Traitor? I never worked for you in the first place. I knew that if I followed you, you would lead me right to Sonic."

Concolor leapt at Shadow, but the black hedgehog snapped his fingers and everything froze in place. Shadow caused Chaos Control and momentarily stopped time. Shadow then gathered everyone and went to the safety of Kokiri Forest before the cougar-man came to. On the way, Shadow spoke to Sonic in a rather calm voice even for him.

"Sorry I attacked you. I had to make Concolor buy it."

Sonic rolled his eyes and sarcastically said, "No harm done."

Link's eyes fluttered in and out of focus and saw a heavily bandaged Sonic peering at him.

"Finally! You've been out all night." Sonic said with relief.

Link sat bolt upright and saw Sonic and Shadow looking at him. Without warning, Link's arm shot forward and his fingers wrapped around Shadow's neck. Shadow was caught completely off guard and was losing air. Link's teeth were gritted with rage and he continued to squeeze, but suddenly Sonic spoke up.

"Link! Stop! It's okay! Shadow's with us!"

Link looked at Sonic and said, "Yeah right. You saw him try to kill us!"

Sonic then added, "He was tricking Concolor. Trust me!"

Link looked at Sonic, his eyes still narrowed and reluctantly dropped Shadow. Unfortunately, Mario got up from his unconscious state.

He then began chasing the black hedgehog all over the place all the while screaming, "I'm going to kill you, Shadow! I'll bury you, then I'll dig you up and clone you, so I can KILL ALL YOUR CLONES!!"

Sonic got in the way and tripped Mario. Sonic proceeded telling the story and Mario's eyes were as wide as dinner plates. Luckily, Sonic told everyone the whole thing when they came back to reality.

"So you decide to tell us AFTER you try to kill us?!" Vector shouted.

Shadow made motions for them to stay away from him and said, "I said I was sorry."

Espio got up and said, "Well, 'sorry' doesn't exactly make me feel better. Hey, Donkey Kong, why don't you come over here? I'm sure Shadow's in the mood for a rematch."

The mighty ape got up and cracked his knuckles. Shadow's idea hit him before he even thought of it.

"Well, what if I said I knew what Concolor is up to?"

Everyone froze and Link asked, "You do?"

Shadow smiled a rather evil grin, and said, "If you do want to kill me, My knowledge dies with me and Hyrule is doomed."

Everyone sat back down and Pikachu simply egged, "What? WHAT? WHAT'S KITTY LITTER UP TO?!"

Shadow's story begins here.

"I came here and I learned that Concolor is actually a minion of a man named Ganondorf who claims to rule Hyrule. He's using a spell to try and bring him back from the void of the Sacred Realm. It includes a dimensional portal. Unfortunately, for someone of that power, he needs to bring people here until it's strong enough to bring the King of Evil here. When he has enough magic, he'll cast a spell on the Master Sword and reverse the portal. That means Ganondorf will be freed and he will try to kill Link and someone by the name of Zelda."

Everyone's eyes were wide open and they didn't blink during the whole story.

"We can't let this Ganondorf return. Let's get--" Fox began, but Link cut him off.

"Fox, my Interdimensional scale's acting up again!"

It had just gone up to a large amount just when a guard burst through the door. Link recognized him as the guard at the drawbridge.

"What happened?!" Link asked in a VERY worried tone.

The guard coughed and said, "Three…things attacking Hyrule Castle Town. They're after Zelda…"