Almost done! We're almost done!
You people should really appreciate all the hard work I put into this fic, you know. Instead of having a job or going to college in the summer, I chose to sit here at my computer and think of interestings things to post.
The air conditioning isn't too bad either. LOL.
Disclaimer: I didn't do it. Nobody saw me do it. You can't prove that I did anything.
We now return you to your regularly schedualed POV.
The way the ground was shaking bothered me. Like there was something I was supposed to be doing...
/Where am I?/
I could see dark corridors stretching out into infinity as we headed further down the stairs. We would pause at each entrance before moving on, heading down, down...down to what?
/What am I looking for?/
Bottom of the stairs. A huge, dome-roofed room with a black pit in the middle. Stuff on the walls glowing.
'Lichen,' my brain supplied, 'Moss that glows in the dark.'
/Why am I here?/
"Pathetic human scum," hissed a voice,"Where did he PUT it?! I must find it..."
Was that my voice?
...
Strange...I don't think it was my voice.
It came out of my mouth, though...
/When did someone else start using my voice?/
"Damnably unefficient and disgusting mammalian body," the voice cursed, investigating the walls for any sign of a hidden passageway.
/Who is that?/
Whoever this was, they were talking through my mouth and using my body.
So, why wasn't I using my own mouth and body?
/Didn't we have a deal?/
There had been a deal...
(("He might as well be unconscious - I've already gone back on the little deal I agreed to make with him and he can't do a thing about it. Any and all equipment for creating a seperate body and sending my awareness into that body has been destroyed...but there's still plenty of equipment left to improve THIS body!"))
...
The deal was...he had gone back on the deal...
/...How come I didn't notice that before now?/
My head was seriously starting to hurt, not really used to holding two seperate and conscious minds at the same time. One of us would have to go to sleep to make the pain go away.
/I shouldn't have to go back to sleep. It's my body. He's had a long enough turn being in control of it./
...Who, though?
The name was right on the tip of my tongue...
"Oh well," sigh the voice, bad-temperedly, "At least I got to kill those annoyances. That was fun. Especially finishing off that pathetic wretch Vox..."
A thunderbolt struck my brain.
Vox.
The deal was that we'd both go after Vox.
Vox, who had been the idiot stupid enough to reawaken Project Cross...
/Cross...it was Cross.../
In a single second, the world snapped into clear focus for the first time in hours.
Everything upstairs had been destroyed in Cross's Scatter Bomb. Vox...all the machines...the others...
'Oh no. No.'
Who knows how long it had been since Cross had first gotten control of my body and taken off. Not knowing about Cross's prescence, they would be concerned about me, and try to find me. The military might have even tipped them off when we stole that hovertank. And now they were...
"Pagh. My own fault for trusting information in a database created by a HUMAN," Cross snarled, "It's the wrong place. Of course! What a waste of time..."
...Well, no matter what had happened, I was not about to let Cross go running around, doing whatever he wanted to do, in my body. These were my hands, my arms, my feet and my head. Not his. MINE.
"This body seems to get even more sluggish the longer I have to use it," Cross muttered as he turned and headed back towards the stairs.
"If you're feeling so sluggish in there, Cross-" cut in an entirely different voice, "Why don't we have a little workout!"
Cross was knocked headlong by a blue blur. One that I had never been happier to see in my life.
"Pathetic hedgehog," Cross snarled as he got up again, "Why can't you just stay DEAD!"
"Don't you know by now that you can never keep a good hog down?" Sonic laughed as he danced easily out of the way of Cross's attack, "Maybe its time you gave up. Don't forget that Shadow lost - to me!"
"So what? That just proves that he is inferior to me - because you are certainly not a threat," Cross growled as he sent another Nightmare Ring at the blue hedgehog.
That one hit a glancing blow. Rubbing the scorched fur on his arm, Sonic abruptly dropped his easy-going facade.
"The army got here right after we did, Cross. And they know how to rip you out of Shadow's head. Really, you'd be better off just cutting loose right now."
Cross paused, before breaking into laughter.
"Oh, you are as clear as glass to me, hedgehog! Clear as vacumn! You don't want to hurt your precious little buddy Shadow. You want to SAVE him! Oh, you are a laugh and a half, blue furbag! I'll kill this body before I let you have it back. That, and anything that might be left of your precious Shadow's mind...not that there would be any by this point!"
"What the heck are you talking about, Cross?" Sonic demanded.
"An unfortunate side-effect of my control," Cross sneered, "Permanent apathy...inability to return to full consciousness...brain-death...take your pick! I have more..."
'...Brain-dead, am I?'
Despite the truly painful way my brain was throbbing by now, I focused all my attention on one of my legs. Just as a starting point. Even as Cross began running, I concentrated.
My leg...it was MY leg...and I...was...NOT...moving.
The jet on my left leg cut out within seconds, and Cross fell flat on his - my, really - face. Sonic stopped too, watching in shocked disbelief at the sight.
"What in the name of...?" Cross began, before realization struck him.
/What do you think you're DOING?!/ he screamed at me mentally.
/Isn't it obvious?/ I retorted, /I'm taking my body back!/
Thus was started a full-blown war for control. While Cross and I attacked each other, mind against mind, our body - MY body - began thrashing wildly, each limb receiving a conflicting pair of commands and attempting to obey both at the same time.
I temporarily regained control of my head long enough to discover Sonic standing right by me with a completely flustered expression.
"Shadow?" he gasped.
"A - little help - please?!" I managed to get out, before Cross shoved me out of the way.
"How am I supposed to help?!" Sonic demanded, not realizing the instant change.
"You - CAN DIE!" Cross shrieked, lunging for Sonic's throat.
The blue hedgehog dodged with a yelp, but by then I had already regained enough control to shove my body away from him, and Cross's attack fell short.
I had a slight advantage over Cross - a better ability to focus on my body than he had - but he had been right about the side effects of his control being harmful to my mind. We were only at a temporary stalemate, one that could swing his way any time...
With all this to worry about, I don't know why I even heard that sound.
It was a faint tinkling sound...made by my Chaos Emerald as it slipped out of my pocket...and bounced towards the huge pit in the center of the room.
Time seemed to slow down as all three of us - me, Sonic, and Cross - looked to see the Chaos Emerald roll to the edge and fall in.
I remember waiting to hear the sound of it hitting bottom...for a while, it seemed, there was no sound whatsoever.
And then...there was a faint 'plop!'.
Following almost instantly by a deep, thundering roar as something shot up towards the ceiling.
Whatever it was, it swept out to engulf the entire room, including Sonic and me/Cross.
The only real impression that I got of it before we were swallowed up was that whatever this thing was, it seemed to be made up of long, whip-like arms...
You people should really appreciate all the hard work I put into this fic, you know. Instead of having a job or going to college in the summer, I chose to sit here at my computer and think of interestings things to post.
The air conditioning isn't too bad either. LOL.
Disclaimer: I didn't do it. Nobody saw me do it. You can't prove that I did anything.
We now return you to your regularly schedualed POV.
The way the ground was shaking bothered me. Like there was something I was supposed to be doing...
/Where am I?/
I could see dark corridors stretching out into infinity as we headed further down the stairs. We would pause at each entrance before moving on, heading down, down...down to what?
/What am I looking for?/
Bottom of the stairs. A huge, dome-roofed room with a black pit in the middle. Stuff on the walls glowing.
'Lichen,' my brain supplied, 'Moss that glows in the dark.'
/Why am I here?/
"Pathetic human scum," hissed a voice,"Where did he PUT it?! I must find it..."
Was that my voice?
...
Strange...I don't think it was my voice.
It came out of my mouth, though...
/When did someone else start using my voice?/
"Damnably unefficient and disgusting mammalian body," the voice cursed, investigating the walls for any sign of a hidden passageway.
/Who is that?/
Whoever this was, they were talking through my mouth and using my body.
So, why wasn't I using my own mouth and body?
/Didn't we have a deal?/
There had been a deal...
(("He might as well be unconscious - I've already gone back on the little deal I agreed to make with him and he can't do a thing about it. Any and all equipment for creating a seperate body and sending my awareness into that body has been destroyed...but there's still plenty of equipment left to improve THIS body!"))
...
The deal was...he had gone back on the deal...
/...How come I didn't notice that before now?/
My head was seriously starting to hurt, not really used to holding two seperate and conscious minds at the same time. One of us would have to go to sleep to make the pain go away.
/I shouldn't have to go back to sleep. It's my body. He's had a long enough turn being in control of it./
...Who, though?
The name was right on the tip of my tongue...
"Oh well," sigh the voice, bad-temperedly, "At least I got to kill those annoyances. That was fun. Especially finishing off that pathetic wretch Vox..."
A thunderbolt struck my brain.
Vox.
The deal was that we'd both go after Vox.
Vox, who had been the idiot stupid enough to reawaken Project Cross...
/Cross...it was Cross.../
In a single second, the world snapped into clear focus for the first time in hours.
Everything upstairs had been destroyed in Cross's Scatter Bomb. Vox...all the machines...the others...
'Oh no. No.'
Who knows how long it had been since Cross had first gotten control of my body and taken off. Not knowing about Cross's prescence, they would be concerned about me, and try to find me. The military might have even tipped them off when we stole that hovertank. And now they were...
"Pagh. My own fault for trusting information in a database created by a HUMAN," Cross snarled, "It's the wrong place. Of course! What a waste of time..."
...Well, no matter what had happened, I was not about to let Cross go running around, doing whatever he wanted to do, in my body. These were my hands, my arms, my feet and my head. Not his. MINE.
"This body seems to get even more sluggish the longer I have to use it," Cross muttered as he turned and headed back towards the stairs.
"If you're feeling so sluggish in there, Cross-" cut in an entirely different voice, "Why don't we have a little workout!"
Cross was knocked headlong by a blue blur. One that I had never been happier to see in my life.
"Pathetic hedgehog," Cross snarled as he got up again, "Why can't you just stay DEAD!"
"Don't you know by now that you can never keep a good hog down?" Sonic laughed as he danced easily out of the way of Cross's attack, "Maybe its time you gave up. Don't forget that Shadow lost - to me!"
"So what? That just proves that he is inferior to me - because you are certainly not a threat," Cross growled as he sent another Nightmare Ring at the blue hedgehog.
That one hit a glancing blow. Rubbing the scorched fur on his arm, Sonic abruptly dropped his easy-going facade.
"The army got here right after we did, Cross. And they know how to rip you out of Shadow's head. Really, you'd be better off just cutting loose right now."
Cross paused, before breaking into laughter.
"Oh, you are as clear as glass to me, hedgehog! Clear as vacumn! You don't want to hurt your precious little buddy Shadow. You want to SAVE him! Oh, you are a laugh and a half, blue furbag! I'll kill this body before I let you have it back. That, and anything that might be left of your precious Shadow's mind...not that there would be any by this point!"
"What the heck are you talking about, Cross?" Sonic demanded.
"An unfortunate side-effect of my control," Cross sneered, "Permanent apathy...inability to return to full consciousness...brain-death...take your pick! I have more..."
'...Brain-dead, am I?'
Despite the truly painful way my brain was throbbing by now, I focused all my attention on one of my legs. Just as a starting point. Even as Cross began running, I concentrated.
My leg...it was MY leg...and I...was...NOT...moving.
The jet on my left leg cut out within seconds, and Cross fell flat on his - my, really - face. Sonic stopped too, watching in shocked disbelief at the sight.
"What in the name of...?" Cross began, before realization struck him.
/What do you think you're DOING?!/ he screamed at me mentally.
/Isn't it obvious?/ I retorted, /I'm taking my body back!/
Thus was started a full-blown war for control. While Cross and I attacked each other, mind against mind, our body - MY body - began thrashing wildly, each limb receiving a conflicting pair of commands and attempting to obey both at the same time.
I temporarily regained control of my head long enough to discover Sonic standing right by me with a completely flustered expression.
"Shadow?" he gasped.
"A - little help - please?!" I managed to get out, before Cross shoved me out of the way.
"How am I supposed to help?!" Sonic demanded, not realizing the instant change.
"You - CAN DIE!" Cross shrieked, lunging for Sonic's throat.
The blue hedgehog dodged with a yelp, but by then I had already regained enough control to shove my body away from him, and Cross's attack fell short.
I had a slight advantage over Cross - a better ability to focus on my body than he had - but he had been right about the side effects of his control being harmful to my mind. We were only at a temporary stalemate, one that could swing his way any time...
With all this to worry about, I don't know why I even heard that sound.
It was a faint tinkling sound...made by my Chaos Emerald as it slipped out of my pocket...and bounced towards the huge pit in the center of the room.
Time seemed to slow down as all three of us - me, Sonic, and Cross - looked to see the Chaos Emerald roll to the edge and fall in.
I remember waiting to hear the sound of it hitting bottom...for a while, it seemed, there was no sound whatsoever.
And then...there was a faint 'plop!'.
Following almost instantly by a deep, thundering roar as something shot up towards the ceiling.
Whatever it was, it swept out to engulf the entire room, including Sonic and me/Cross.
The only real impression that I got of it before we were swallowed up was that whatever this thing was, it seemed to be made up of long, whip-like arms...