Chapter Thirty-Seven: Uncovering the Secrets
DISCLAIMER: I claim NO OWNERSHIP to ANYTHING shown in this story! The characters belong to their respectful creators/owners.
Avatar Dimension, Somewhere over the Earth Kingdom, 9:00 am
The gang had to get their traveling clothes on before leaving the Fire Nation Capital, but that was an hour ago. Now with Zuko in the gang's journey, they set out to find and stop Mephiles from rejoining with the Flames of Disaster known as Iblis.
Shadow looked over the side, there was a desert below them. "Where are we?'' he asked.
"This is the Shi Wong Desert, we came here before, remember guys?'' Sokka said.
"Don't even remind me, I hated this place.'' Toph responded.
Shadow took one more look, he had a feeling that there was something strange about this desert.
"What's wrong Shadow?'' asked Katara.
"I'm sensing something.'' he replied.
"I'm sensing a feeling in my stomach.'' Sokka spoke up, making Katara send him a glare.
"There's something down there.'' Shadow went on.
"Like what?'' said Zuko.
"Maybe he's sensing the library!'' Katara said.
"Wan Shi Tong's Library? I'm not going back down there with that crazy owl!'' Sokka argued.
"Well too bad, I'm going.'' Shadow said hopping off the saddle.
"Oh he did not.'' Katara said.
Shadow soared down for the ground. He landed on the ground with his fists impaled into the sand. The small sand cloud that he created from landing, vanished into thin air. He took his fists out of the sand and started walking forwards, ironically in front of him was the hole where the library sunk in. Appa landed behind Shadow.
The gang all hopped off and ran to Shadow. "Uhhh, hello?'' Toph said.
Sokka came back, grabbed her hand and ran back to the gang, almost making her trip to the sand. Shadow crouched over the edge of the hole, he jumped in. Shadow walked to the middle of it. The gang jumped in, and stopped behind him.
"How are we going to get in?'' Sokka brought up.
"Watch this.'' shadow said, he made the silver chaos emerald appear in his hand. "Chaos control.'' he spoke the words. The emerald glowed bright then in a second they all vanished.
The gang reappeared in the main pathway intersection. Aang looked up, there was nothing but darkness above.
"Hey, this is the same place we got in.'' Sokka said, looking around.
Shadow looked all directions, four different paths. "Wait! What about Appa?'' Aang exclaimed.
Shadow held the chaos emerald out, it glowed. Appa appeared on the other side of the bridge. Aang hastily ran over to him and hugged his head. Appa looked scared, he was growling, looking left and right.
"Shhhhhh, it's alright, stay quiet, okay?'' Aang comforted the bison.
Appa grunted in agreement. "We need to split up.'' Shadow confirmed "No way! This place is too creepy, not like last time, but now it's way more creepier!'' Sokka argued.
Katara slapped him in the back of the head. "What was that for?!'' he exclaimed, holding the back of his head "Be quiet! You wanna wake up the dead?'' Katara exclaimed in a whispering tone.
"All of you shut it now!'' Shadow exclaimed, indeed making them all shut up.
"We'll split into groups.'' Shadow told "Katara, you'll come with me, Aang you go with Zuko, Sokka and Toph you'll go with Appa and that lemur thing on his head.'' Shadow said. Momo popped up from laying on Appa's head when he heard his name.
"Can we agree on it?'' Shadow asked, looking at each of the kids. They nodded yes to his plan.
"Alright let's go.'' shadow said, making a MP5 appear in his hand, then headed for the walkway in front of him.
Aang and Zuko went on the walkway on the left, Sokka, Toph, Appa, and Momo took the walkway on the right.
Shadow and Katara were walking through a hall, huge bookcases were on the ground, some pieces were missing, sand scattered almost across the whole ground.
"Man this place really bothers me.'' Katara said "Get use to it.'' Shadow replied.
Katara huffed and caught up to him. "Why'd you choose me to come with you anyway?'' asked the young water bender.
"You seem capable of handling yourself.'' Shadow replied.
Katara slightly blushed, "Thank you.'' she said.
"So tell me, what'd you guys find down here the first time you came?'' he asked.
"We met this knowledge spirit Wan Shi Tong, a giant owl.'' Katara responded.
"What'd you do next?'' asked shadow, kicking some books out of his way.
"He warned us not to misuse his knowledge for evil purposes and-''
"You did anyway.'' Shadow finished.
"Yes, we had information about the day of an eclipse, he caught us in the act and chased us all over the library.'' Katara went on.
"Then what happened?'' asked the hedgehog.
"We escaped, but Wan Shi Tong buried the whole library underground, now here we are.'' she finished.
Shadow huffed, "Doesn't look scary at all.'' he said.
Suddenly a skeleton dropped in front of them. Katara jolted, Shadow didn't move an inch. "Hmmm, it's human, whoever tried to come here got one helluva surprise.'' he said, looking at the bones.
"Come on.'' Shadow said walking over the skeleton, then Katara followed, walking over it, trying not to touch it.
The two stopped, shadow looked behind the from the corner of a bookcase. He saw a robot fire bender standing with it's back turned to them. Shadow narrowed his eyes, he held his hand out, his sword appeared in his grasp. Shadow threw it like a spear at its chest. The sword penetrated right through it, the robot fell forwards, the remainder of the sword speared up out of its back. Shadow dislodged his sword from its back, then made it disappear.
"Something's definitely going on here.'' Shadow said.
The two went on down the hall. Up ahead they saw flickers of blue light. When they walked further, they saw a huge archway, with the fire nation Chinese symbol above it.
"That's the room where all the information on the Fire Nation is!'' Katara said, then running, with Shadow following after her.
The two stopped on the right side, they both looked inside, but a robot fire bender was about to walk by. The two retreated back behind the wall, just dodging from the robot's sight. Shadow took another peek, inside all the burnt papers and books were gone. There was more machinery inside, consoles and computers were around the whole room. Robot fire benders were standing guard or walking to other parts of the room.
"Katara, is that Wan Shi Tong?'' Shadow asked.
"Where?'' she asked.
Shadow pointed inside the room, she looked and did a short gasp. There was Wan Shi Tong behind a huge impenetrable glass, metal shackles were wrapped around his wings, feet, and his chest.
"What's going on down here?'' she said to herself.
What could be happening in this ancient library? Could Azula truly be back again to act revenge on the avatar world? Shadow and the gang must unlock the secrets to these plans, for it could help them to find and stop Mephiles from rejoining with Iblis.
Amazon Rainforest, 8:10 am
"You'll never take me alive!'' Whiskers yelled.
He was kicking Omega's legs, Omega stood still then looked down at him. Omega grabbed him by his head and picked him up.
"Do your worst, but you will never get anything out of me!!!'' Whiskers shouted annoyingly.
"Whiskers just shut up! He's a friend.'' Brandy said.
"Affirmative, cease your antics.'' Omega said, dropping Whiskers.
Whiskers crossed his arms and huffed. "Trust me Whiskers, he's one of my friends who helped protect New York, so relax.'' Brandy said, then turning to Omega.
"Why'd you come here?'' she asked.
"Portal sent me here, in search to find Jenny.'' Omega answered "Are you telling me she's been captured?'' Brandy said.
"Affirmative, her coordinates brought me here. Eggman base must be somewhere near.'' Omega said.
"Where exactly?'' asked Brandy.
"His tower base, it's a few miles from our current position, must reach base to save XJ9.'' Omega turned his back to them.
His jet boosters in his back fired up. "Hold on!'' Brandy grabbed his arm. The fires from Omega's jet boosters extinguished, Brandy let go of his arm. He turned towards her.
"What do you have in mind?'' Omega said.
"Are you sure you wanna' go alone?'' she asked.
"Unable to answer.'' Omega replied.
"You're going to need some help in there, we can come with you.'' Brandy suggested.
Omega remained hesitant about her suggestion, should he? Omega could use some help when infiltrating the base. "Agreed, you two will come.'' Omega said. Brandy smiled, Whiskers just dropped to the ground.
Later on, at 8:30 am, the three made their way through the jungle. Omega gave Brandy and Whiskers a shadow rifle he had kept in a compartment in his back. Omega knocked down two trees in front of him. Ahead of them was the huge tall tower, Eggman's tower base.
Omega saw a large arch door over on the front corner of the tower's base. There were two egg fighters standing on the left and one on the right.
"Take them out.'' Omega looked at Brandy and Whiskers. Brandy crouched, aiming at one egg fighter. She fired, the shot hit in the head. Whiskers fired, but it missed. Brandy rolled her eyes and shot the other one in the chest, leaving a gaping hole in it.
The egg fighter dropped to the ground. The three then ran for the door. "How do get in?'' Whiskers pondered.
Brandy went to the control panel for opening the door, but it needed a password.
"It won't open unless we have a password!'' she said.
"Take a few steps back.'' omega said. Brandy and Whiskers backed up behind Omega. His hands retracted inside. A purple glow formed from the inside. He charged it for ten seconds, then…
Inside the base, egg gunners, egg titans, sentries, and egg fighters were either working or standing guard. Suddenly the blasts from omega's laser blast knocked the door forward inside. The door smashed five egg gunners against the far wall. All the robots turned their attention to the smoke at entrance.
A barrage of rockets flew in, heading for any heat signature. The rockets made their hits and caused many explosions. Walking through the smoke was Omega firing his Gatling guns, he shot two egg gunners that were in mid air. He aimed both Gatling guns at an egg titan. The egg titan was shaking wildly from all the bullets that went through it. Running in was Brandy, she jumped behind a group of metal crates. She looked up and fired away. Egg gunners looked to be shot by the powerful rounds coming from the shadow rifle. A group of egg gunners flew at her. She fired and took down two, but the other four fired rockets at her. She gasped and jumped away from the metal crates, the rockets came and bombarded the spot, creating a ball of flames. Brandy lifted her head up, she was on the ground, an egg fighter was marching towards her.
Her shadow rifle was inches away from her. She quickly jumped for it, but the egg fighter swung it's sword down in her path. She jumped back, the egg fighter took the huge sword out of the ground and lumbered towards her. It raised it's sword over her, but suddenly three rounds from a shadow rifle struck right through the egg fighter. The sudden shots caused it to fall backwards to the ground.
Brandy looked and saw whiskers standing there, smoke coming from the barrel of his shadow rifle. Brandy picked her shadow rifle up and ran over to him.
"Wow Whiskers, that was good timing!'' she said.
"Aww, you know, I try.'' Whiskers replied.
The body of a burning egg fighter flew over them. It swept through a group of egg fighters. Omega landed in front of the two.
"Follow me.'' Omega said.
He hovered a few inches off the ground and hovered towards the elevator quickly, with brandy and Mr. Whiskers following. The three got on the lift, brandy pressed the up button. The lift started ascending up to a higher level of the tower. The lift stopped, in front of them was a wide hallway. The three ran down it, then took a left.
"Jenny's near.'' Omega said.
The three took a left and they stopped, omega was standing in front of a door. "Let me see.'' Brandy approached the door.
She pulled on the handle, but it wouldn't budge. "It won't open!'' Brandy exclaimed backing off to the side from the door.
Omega bashed his way through the door, also knocking that section of the wall that was holding the door, down. He walked into the dark room, he saw a single light shining on jenny. Static energy shackles kept her down. Omega approached her, he touched it once, giving him a quick shock. Brandy approached the console.
"There's nothing that will turn off those energy shackles!'' she exclaimed.
Omega looked at her, then back at Jenny. Omega clenched his fists and reached for Jenny. "Are you crazy? It'll probably fry you!'' Brandy exclaimed.
"It's necessary, she's my friend.'' Omega replied.
Brandy looked surprised, but most of all worried. Omega grabbed Jenny's arms, right when he did, the bolts of electricity ran across his body, but he kept pulling. Omega began to feel weak, his circuits were about to be fried beyond any repair. Omega did one more strong tug. He took jenny out of the shackles grip, but was thrown against the metal wall by a static bolt to the chest. Brandy and Whiskers hurried over to him. Omega was nearly scorched with black all over his body.
Jenny began to wake up, she looked up at Omega.
"Omega?'' she said weakly.
"Hello.'' he replied.
Jenny looked up and saw Brandy and Mr. Whiskers. "You guys came to find me?'' she said.
"Well, it was Omega's idea.'' Brandy noted. Jenny looked back at him, she smiled and hugged him tightly. "Your so sweet Omega, thank you.'' Jenny said happily.
Jenny pulled away from the hug and carefully got to her feet.
"You feeling alright?'' Brandy asked "Yeah, I'll be able to fight in no time.'' Jenny said, while stretching.
Omega, however, got up, the noises of machinery coming from him showed the stage he's currently in. Jenny turned to him and grabbed his arm, helping him up. "You have no chance of fighting Omega.'' Jenny told him.
"Affirmative, time to escape.'' Omega said.
Whiskers went over to a console, he pressed a green glowing button, the computer turned on quickly. He screamed in the act. "What's wrong with you?'' asked Brandy.
"I just pressed a button!'' Whiskers protested.
"Hold on.'' Jenny said, walking over to the console, Whiskers moved out of the way for her.
There were schematics of a huge cannon, and a large circular object. Jenny pressed a few buttons. The two images disappeared, another popped up. It was a full view of the super cannon, used for firing Eggman's super nukes.
"You gotta be kidding me.'' Jenny said. Another picture popped up, showing the full scale of a super nuke.
"That's what Eggman shot at New York City!'' Jenny exclaimed.
"The one that killed Sonic.'' Brandy added.
"No…that one was a prototype, this one is the final version.'' Jenny pointed to the screen.
"I gotta' download this.'' Jenny said.
She started typing quickly, she downloaded images and schematics of the cannon and the super nuke. A disk popped out of the bottom of a disc tray of the computer screen. Jenny grabbed it and turned to the others.
"We have to get this to the military, they need to know what the real cause Eggman is up to.'' Jenny said.
"I don't think I'll allow that to happen.'' a voice said.
Omega, Brandy, and Whiskers turned around to the hole in the wall, that omega made. Walking inside was Mecha WereSonic.
"Let's see you try to escape now.'' he said.
This is bad, just when our heroes finally got something that may end this war, Mecha is standing in there way. Can our heroes escape the tower base in one piece? Will they be able to reach the military in time before Eggman fires another super nuke against the world? What is all this leading to? Mephiles? Super cannon? Iblis? Solaris? Azula? Nothing matches up, but that's what our heroes must do. They must find all they can to stop the madness that will arise later on.
Avatar Dimension, Wan Shi Tong Library, 9:20 am
With Sokka and Toph, Toph was sitting on Appa's saddle. Sokka was leading Appa in front. "Anything interesting yet?'' she said.
"That's like the fifth time you asked that! What do you want me to say?!'' Sokka exclaimed, while facing Appa.
"Well, it's a library, and I hate libraries, remember?'' she replied.
Sokka turned back around, muttering to himself. He continued walking, Appa following closely behind. Sokka looked down a hall with those large bookcases on the sides. "Why are we stopping?'' Toph asked, sitting up at the same time. Sokka saw lights coming from down the hall. He went on walking down there, Appa followed him.
Shadow and Katara were keeping hidden, while scanning the huge room. Shadow's ears twitched, he heard something. "Hide quick!'' he said. Katara went behind a bookcase. Shadow vanished with the use of his chaos control, waiting for the source of footsteps to come closer.
Sokka drew his sword, he looked around the area of the bookcases. "Where are we going?'' Toph asked, from Appa's head.
"Shhh, be quiet.'' Sokka replied.
Suddenly shadow tackled him to the ground, shadow aimed his hand at his face, with a golden glow coming from it.
"You? What're you doing here?'' Shadow asked, getting off Sokka.
Sokka wiped the dirt off his shirt, Katara just arrived. "Sokka? Toph? I thought you guys went a separate way?'' Katara questioned.
"We did, but it led us here, that's when we heard and saw these lights.'' Sokka answered.
"Well we saw them and we found that those robot fire benders have this place under control.'' Katara said.
"Have you guys seen Wan Shi Tong then?'' asked Sokka.
"Yup, he's in there, being held captive.'' Katara said.
Sokka wore a shocked face, but quickly went away. "Should we help him?'' Toph asked, jumping off from Appa's head.
"I'm not sure, by what you told me Katara, he seems dangerous, but those robots are holding him prisoner, we have to set him free.'' Shadow answered.
"What about Aang and Zuko?'' Katara said. Shadow raised his hand in the air, suddenly a flash shined, Aang and Zuko dropped in front of them. "Problem solved.'' Shadow said, walking back to the room where Wan Shi Tong was being held.
Aang and Zuko got up. "What just happened?'' said Aang.
"Shadow teleported you here, not too surprising, let's go!'' Katara said, running after Shadow, with Sokka and Toph following.
"But we just got here.'' Zuko complained.
"Welcome to the life Zuko.'' Aang said before running after the others.
Zuko took in a breath of air, then followed after them. The group of heroes, including Appa and Momo, stood outside the huge arch door.
"Now, how are we going to take them all out?'' asked Sokka.
"Maybe one of us should do a distraction.'' suggested Aang.
Shadow was ignoring all the talk going on between the gang. He crouched to the ground, he stuck both his hands out. About twenty grenades appeared. He waved his hands, the grenades spread throughout the room. Then all simultaneously exploded, destroying all the robot fire benders. A wall of smoke came out of the room, making the gang cough, all except shadow who merely walked inside.
The cloud of smoke cleared up. Shadow looked around the room, there meters in front of him was Wan Shi Tong trapped behind the huge glass wall. The hedgehog looked over to the far right, there were computers pointed down at one seat, consoles were set up in front of the seat. Shadow dashed over to it. Shadow sat in the seat and moved closer to the table. He pressed one key, the computer screens retracted back against the wall, they then lit up. Shadow mainly focused on the middle monitor. The gang stopped behind him.
"Whoa…what's this?'' Sokka asked amazingly.
"A computer console, hopefully it will hold some data about Mephiles.'' Shadow said, typing away at the keyboard.
He found one file, he opened it up. It showed different locations, one was familiar to Shadow, Rail Canyon.
"What are these places?'' Aang asked.
"I don't know, but for some reason, Eggman is very interested in them.'' Shadow answered.
Two other pictures showed The Grand Canyon and The Alps. Shadow put a hand to his chin. "What're you thinking Shadow?'' asked Katara.
"These must be where a Chaos Emerald is, I have to find them.'' Shadow said.
He began typing again. A picture showed a huge round space station. "What in the world is that?'' Sokka said.
Shadow widened his eyes, on the front was Eggman's eyes, nose, and moustache, it was the Death Egg.
"The Death Egg, it can't be possible.'' Shadow said.
"What is it Shadow?'' Aang asked.
"Eggman's most dangerous and strongest bases known as the Death Egg, but why is he rebuilding it?'' Shadow said.
"Could it link to what happened at New York City?" Shadow thought to himself.
He continued typing, he found a picture of Sonic's transformation device. Shadow began typing more. The transformation went into exploded view, shadow clicked on the glowing center that was left in the middle. It zoomed in, showing strands of Sonic's DNA.
Shadow hurriedly began typing more. A picture showed sketches of wireframes, they all looked like Sonic, except all metal.
"You gotta' be kidding me.'' Shadow said shockingly.
"What is Eggman up to?'' said Katara.
"That crazed fool!'' Shadow slammed the table.
"He's planning on finding Sonic's transformation device and use his DNA from it to make a whole new line of metals, ones that are exactly like Sonic.'' Shadow said, turning the chair to the gang.
"Exactly like him?'' said Sokka.
"Right down to the smallest detail, they'll be able to go as fast as Sonic, be as strong as him, they'll be able to turn into werehogs, it'll be impossible to stop them all.'' Shadow said.
The gang lowered their heads. "I thought…you hid Sonic from being detected?'' asked Katara.
"I did, Eggman is probably looking for him right now, but that shield around Sonic will keep him safe.'' Shadow answered.
"Then we don't have to worry about it then.'' Sokka said.
"No.'' Shadow responded.
"No? What do you mean no?'' asked a confused Sokka.
"Eggman will sooner or later find him, I don't know how, but he will.'' Shadow said grimly.
"Then what do you suggest we do?'' asked Zuko.
"The Death Egg has to be stopped, by any cost, if it's taken down, it'll cripple any advances Eggman tries to follow through.'' Shadow continued.
"Shouldn't we first get out of here?'' said Zuko.
"Agreed, let's go.'' Shadow said, he turned the computers off and hopped up from the seat, but stopped immediately.
The gang turned around, there was standing about twenty robot fire benders, but what surprised the heroes most was that Azula was standing in front of them all, with an evil grin on her face. From one obstacle to another, how will our heroes escape the clutches of Azula? Can they stop the rebuilding of the unstoppable Death Egg? Will Eggman find Sonic and retrieve the transformation device and create an unstoppable force of Sonic clones? As the war goes on, more will happen, more fights will occur, more secrets to be unfolded, more villains to rise, and especially more surprises.