Shadow's Odyssey 2: The Chaos Continues

After landing on Tatooine, Lando explained the plan. "Step 1, Boba takes Sonic to Jabba as a prisoner. Jabba will most likely want to keep you alive for Sidious. Once inside, Sonic will need to make a distraction. While everyone is paying attention to you, Rouge will sneak in and disable the power. The generator should be somewhere around here." Lando pointed to a spot on the map.

Sonic raised his hand. "I have a question. Why don't I just run in, grab the Emeralds and leave?"

"Because we're not just going to take the Emeralds. We're gonna make sure that they don't find them again after we steal them."

"We're going to steal their Emerald trackers too?" Rouge asked.

"Yes, and then we'll replace them with these decoys, so they'll never know when they're close to an Emerald."

"What is my part?" Omega asked.

"We don't know when Sidious is going to show up for the Emeralds, but if he comes when we're trying to steal those Emeralds, we're gonna need you to do your thing."

Boba put a pair of binders on Sonic's wrists and they approached the front door of Jabba's palace. An eyeball popped out of the wall and looked at them. It stared for moment and then retreated back into its hole. The door opened and an alien with tentacles coming of his head was standing on the other side along with two guards.

"You have a lot of nerve to come back here after crossing Jabba."

"I was offered a better deal. Nothing personal, just business. I heard Jabba was looking for whatever this creature is. I'd figured I'd bring it in as a sort of peace offering."

"I'm a hedgehog by the way!"

Boba smacked Sonic in the back of the head. "Quiet."

They were let inside and brought before Jabba.

The giant slug shouted angerly, with his protocol droid providing a translation. "I should make rancor food out of you for what you did."

"How about you feed him this thing instead?"

"Wait, what?"

Jabba eyed the blue hedgehog for a few seconds before opening the trap door and dropping Sonic into the pit. Sonic tumbled out the bottom of the chute and stared up at the rancor.

"Wow, you're… actually not as scary as I was expecting. What a relief!"

The rancor swiped its claws at him, but Sonic easily jumped over them. Everyone watched from above as Sonic zipped in circles around the monster.

Meanwhile, Rouge snuck in through a window on one of the upper floors. She began her making way towards the power generator, making sure to keep out of sight. When she reached the generator, she planted a bomb on it and backed off to a safe distance.

Outside, Lando was keeping watch with binoculars. He saw an explosion come from the side of the building.

"That should be the generator. Only a few minutes now…"

"I have detected multiple unknown ships headed our way."

Lando looked where Omega was pointing and saw multiple heavily armed ships approaching Jabba's palace.

"Oh no."

"Is it Sidious?"

"Worse. It's the Black Sun. And by the looks of things, I'd say they're here to blow up Jabba's palace."

Trying to avoid the claws of a ferocious monster: easy. Trying to avoid the claws of a ferocious monster in the dark: slightly more difficult. Sonic had discovered this after running into the wall for the third time.

"Hey! If anyone wants to get me out of here, it would be very much appreciated!"

The rancor, which could apparently see better in the dark than Sonic could, finally grabbed him.

"Guys!"

The monster lifted him up, brought him closer to its mouth, and stuffed Sonic into its jaws. He flailed about inside the creature's mouth and managed to scrape its tongue with his sharp spines. The rancor flung its head about, howling in pain. Sonic curled into a spindash and cut the rancor's tongue in half.

The monster shrieked and spit Sonic back out. It stomped over to the far end of the dungeon, no longer interested in eating.

Sonic heard Rouge's voice calling from above, "Hey, Sonic! You alright down there?"

"No!"

Rouge flew down and saw Sonic covered in blood. "Holy shit, is that your blood?"

"No, I just need a serious shower."

Rouge lifted him out of the pit and back into the throne room, which was still in a state of confusion. Jabba was yelling for someone to fix the lights as his guards stumbled over each other trying to fulfil his request. Boba had positioned himself by the exit, waiting for Rouge. The heist was going perfectly, all they had to do was meet up with Lando and Omega back at the ship.

Suddenly, holes were blasted into the walls and ceiling of the palace. Rouge and Sonic shielded their eyes from the sudden burst of sunlight. They, along with Lando, bolted outside. They ran for the Falcon, where Omega was still standing guard.

When Sonic realized Omega wasn't responsible for the explosions, he asked, "What's happening?"

"The Black Sun are attacking Jabba's Palace. Hopefully they didn't notice us, so let's get out of here before they do." Lando suggested.

They started to fly away, but the attacking ships took notice and began pursuing them.

"What are they shooting at us for?" Rouge growled.

"They think we're part of Jabba's crew." Boba explained.

"Could you tell them that we're not?" Sonic asked.

"I could, but they'll probably shoot us down anyway." Lando replied.

"Will someone just get on the guns and shoot them already?" L3 said testily.

Rouge and Boba got on the guns and started blasting away at the ships. They managed to the destroy the two ships that were shooting at them and the Falcon flew into space.

Lando activated the hyperdrive, only for it to fail. "Oh, that's just great. Okay, bad news, guys. Those Black Sun slimos destroyed our hyperdrive. We have to go back to try to find a new one."

L3 took the ship back down and landed well away from Jabba's Palace in Mos Espa. Lando left to go buy a new hyperdrive, telling everybody else to stay with the ship.

But Sonic got bored. And he still wanted a shower.

He left the ship and started searching for a place to clean up. He found a fountain in the middle of town. Sonic stuck his head in the water and rubbed at his quills. Multiple people glared at Sonic, but no one dared approach him.

Sonic pulled his head back out of the water. "Can someone look at the back of my head and tell me if I got all the blood out?"

Then a blaster bolt flew past Sonic's head. A hairy giant approached; blaster raised.

Sonic looked and him and back at the fountain. "Oh! Desert! Public fountain! I am so sorry."

The giant shot at him again.

"I'm guessing you don't accept my apology." Sonic ran back to the ship. "Has Lando bought the thing yet?"

Rouge gave him a flat look. "Sonic, you were only gone five minutes. What did you do?"

"I might have contaminated the entire town's water supply."

Rouge facepalmed. "Why do I always have to be the responsible one? Just stay in the ship and try not to ruin anything else."

About an hour later, Lando returned with a new hyperdrive. "Okay, I just need to install this, and we should be good to go." Then he saw a Wookie angerly stomping towards his ship. "Uh, excuse me, that's my ship."

The Wookie looked at him said that there was a dangerous murderer on that ship.

Lando wondered what Omega did while he was gone. "I know the droid has a tendency to… overreact in certain situations, but I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding."

The Wookie just shoved Lando out of the way and continued into the ship. Inside, Sonic was losing at holochess for the twentieth time in a row.

"You're too impatient. You have to think things through before you make a move." L3 advised.

They heard a sudden roar. Sonic looked up and saw the angry, hairy giant again. "How did you find me?"

"If I had to guess, it would most likely be the footprints you left in the sand." Boba pointed out.

The giant started shooting at Sonic again. Boba aimed his rifle at him.

"Wait, don't kill him!" Sonic cried.

"He's trying to kill you."

"I know, but I'm not gonna hold that against him. This is just a big misunderstanding, right?"

Omega put an end to the shooting by grabbing the Wookie's arms and wrenching them behind his back.

Lando came back in. "Okay, I'm sure there's a way we can work this out without anyone dying or blasting holes in my ship. Now could you kindly explain what happened?"

The Wookie furiously struggled against Omega's literal iron grip and roared.

Lando turned to Sonic.

"I just wanted to wash the blood out of my fur!"

"He says your people attacked his home and slaughtered his people."

"Oh, I see what happened here. That wasn't me. You see, you're looking for Shadow. Except, it wasn't him, it was this android who looks like him."

The Wookie roared even louder.

"I don't think he believes you." L3 observed.

"Can we just kill this guy and move on already?" Boba asked.

Sonic threw his hands up. "No!"

"Then what are we going to do with him?"

"Um, do you remember Petro?" Sonic asked.

The Wookie nodded.

"Then we'll take you to him and have him explain everything."