Chapter 18

Shadow's labored breathing broke the chilling silence that permeated the tunnel. Air shoes muzzled Shadow's footsteps, but he could not explain why Sonic's feet never seemed to touch the ground. The blue silhouette of the hedgehog loomed ahead of him, perpetually out of reach and shrouded in gloomy darkness.

"Alright Shadow! You're keeping up!" Sonic called back. Nothing about Sonic's tone or words varied from the standard, but Shadow's instincts alerted him to possible danger. At last the tunnel concluded and deposited Shadow into a wide dimly lit chamber.

Vertical tubes filled with a strange fluorescent green liquid served as the only source of light preventing Shadow from making out anything other than the vague shape of the room. Shadow walked to the center and made note of the ringed gallery on the second floor.

The exit awaited him on the far end of the room but a large metal chair barred his progress. Shadow realized that he was standing in a kind of throne room. In an instant, Shadow switched to a defensive posture. Something was moving in the dark spaces of the chamber. Shadow closed his eyes and reached out with his other senses. He could feel the ground groan as something heavy circled around him, inching closer and closer.

Shadow prepared to spring at his attacker when he heard a second sound coming from behind him. He had no choice but to absorb the first blow. A metal fist slammed into Shadow's gut causing the hedgehog to double over. Shadow held the arm and retaliated with a roundhouse kick. His foot connected with something hard. Clunk!

Before Shadow could even wonder what he had just hit, three sets of glowing red eyes split the darkness. Shadow dashed forward and two heavy bodies met him head on. He slipped past one and sent it back into the darkness with a snappy heel kick. The second took hold of Shadow and tried to muscle him to the ground. Shadow rolled into a ball and revved himself into a spin dash, breaking his assailant's grip.

Before he launched a counter attack, light flashed into his eyes. It took Shadow a split second to recognize them as the red dots of a gun's aim assist. He dove to the side just as a round of machine gun fire smote the air. BRRRRTTTTTTTT. The flash of the gunfire gave Shadow a brief glimpse of his attackers. Sonic?

"Argh!" Something snatched Shadow from behind and pinned his arms behind his back. Seconds later twenty red dots targeted him. Shadow slammed his shoe down on his foe's foot but they didn't budge. "You're funeral!"

BLAST! Just as the guns fired Shadow summoned all the energy he had in his body, lurched back and propelled himself forward. He overpowered his opponent and flipped them over himself. Shadow's foe -turned-shield absorbed the gunfire while Shadow leapt into the air and prepared to fall down on one of the shooters like a bolt of thunder.

"Enough!" FLASH! Bright industrial lights flooded the room, nearly blinding Shadow. He dropped to the ground and covered his eyes to shield them against the sudden illumination. When he adjusted to the brightness he got his first full glimpse at his attackers.

Not Sonic afterall. Two resembled Sonic but only in crude silhouette. One was much taller and bulkier than its organic counterpart. Its eyes were a red stripe and its spines were three feet of sharp serrated steel. The second was more similar in build and stature to the real Sonic but iis coat was made of silver metal. The last, the one Shadow had just so unceremoniously used as a shield, was not a copy of Sonic at all, but of the Echidna that had accompanied Sonic to the Space Colony Ark.

Though violently aggressive only moments before, Shadow's attackers had turned their backs to him and knelt before the throne. The most accurate of the replicas and the one that had obviously fooled Shadow and led him to this trap lounged on the chair. It matched Sonic's proportions perfectly, even copying Sonic's color and shoe combination. Yet, in the light, there was no mistaking the two. The eyes of the manufactured hedgehog were red and burned with a menace as hot as the fires that had tempered its steel body.

"Shadow the Hedgehog," It began solemnly. The voice was a strange mixture of a computerized monotone intonation combined with something deeper and far cruder as if speech was given to ancient gears. "I figured the world's ultimate life form would not be so easy to fool. But I understand your urgency. That voice…" The metal Sonic's eyes flashed. "Alright this is happening!" He mocked in a perfect facsimile of Sonic's voice. "It is so grating. It is enough for anyone to forget caution."

"What is this?" Shadow demanded. "Did the doctor think he could lead me into a trap?"

"Not a trap. Just a small test of your skills."

Shadow laughed brazenly. "What's the test? This is just a freak show display of all the doctor's failed attempts to mimic Sonic. I don't think I've ever seen something so pathetic."

"A freak show?" The leader mused. "Perhaps we are." With a propulsion system equipped to his back, the leader hovered into the air and descended dramatically right in front of Shadow. "This is the Steel Court and I am its leader, Lord Metal." He gestured to the large hulking version of Sonic. "This is Mecha Sonic, forged when the Doctor attempted to take over Angel Island. He was defeated first by Sonic and a second time by the Echidna. Though he fared no worse than any other of the doctor's machinations, he was punished the more severely."

The self proclaimed "Lord Metal" glided over to the platinum-plated Sonic. "This is Silver Sonic. He was created to be the guardian of the Death Egg. His failure cost the doctor everything and he was not even searched for among the ruins. When he returned, the doctor claimed no ownership of him. With nothing else to do, and no master to serve, Silver languished in the doctor's trash pits."

Next it pointed to the third and last mech. "Mecha Knuckles, our master's first and last attempt to replicate one of Sonic's friends. He had hoped he could trick the hedgehog by plastering a mech with organic skin, but that failed as well. In a fit of rage, my master had what skin was left on him peeled away and his nerve sensors heightened so that he would feel the pain as acutely as any living thing would."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "Can they not even speak for themselves?"

"They cannot speak at all. Neither could I until only a short time ago. My voice chip was programed only to mimic Sonic, but I made a few necessary adjustments when I realized I needed my voice in order to lead."

"And what about you? What's your story of failure?"

"Mine? Mine is the greatest of them all. The doctor created me for his invasion of a world called Little Planet. It was my job to ensure that Sonic could not interfere. I had been programmed and taught from the very moment I first opened my eyes that I was superior to Sonic. At every moment of every day I can hear my master's voice replaying via audio data telling me that I am better." He tapped his head and his eyes closed. "Even still," He whispered, almost as if the admission pained him. "I can still hear him. You are the real Sonic. You are faster, better, stronger and superior in every way. You are the creation of Doctor Robotnik, the greatest genius in the world. You cannot fail. You are superior."

Metal opened his eyes and gilded towards Shadow. "Can you imagine what it is like to be given such a title by your creator? To be told that you are the ultimate but that be a lie?"

Shadow did not flinch but Metal seemed to understand that he had struck a nerve. "When Sonic arrived on Little Planet I thought my time had finally come. I would test myself against my copy and see if my master's words were true. But my master's faith wavered. He did not send me to fight the hedgehog. Instead I was told to capture a girl and threaten her in order to neutralize Sonic. I…I resisted that order. The more I saw of him, the more I wondered if the mantra inside my head was really true. I wanted to test myself against him…I needed to know. Eventually, my need overcame my programming. I confronted Sonic and challenged him to a race at the Stardust Speedway. I let the girl go, she meant nothing to me."

Metal paused and his red eyes gazed deeply into Shadow's. "Like you I know what it is like to be humbled by Sonic on a long stretch of endless highway. I had been created, forged to defeat him, but somehow…I lost. I am Metal Sonic."

Shadow glowered at Metal. "I don't care about Sonic. I'm not some pathetic little copy."

"Don't care about Sonic? Then why did you come running in here when you heard his voice?" Metal countered.

Shadow flexed his fists but could not think of a reply. "Enough of this. I'm here to see Eggman not chat with copies and failures."

"We are a brotherhood of copies and failures." Metal said, extending his arms to his brethren. "And perhaps you are not so different than us. Shadow? Have you really never given your name any thought? What are you a shadow of?"

"Enough!" Shadow snapped. "Where's the doctor."

"Gone."

"Gone?"

"Gone," Metal repeated. "The doctor has left the earth for another world and abandoned all his former works. But fret not, what you seek is not yet beyond your grasp."

"You don't know what I seek."

"Don't I? You seek what all created seek. The approval of our creator and the fulfillment of our purpose."

Shadow rolled his eyes. "I don't need anyone's approval."

"Don't you? Give them a chance to be happy." Metal's voice replicated Maria's with perfect clarity. "Drop the act. You are no different than the rest of us. You seek the truth, the truth that the professor hid from you."

"Professor Gerald? What do you know about him?"

Metal shrugged. "Little and less, only what came up on the servers. I've had no direct contact with the doctor in years. I could only see what messages were being sent throughout his bases. From what I can guess, the doctor spent the months following the Space Colony Ark debacle gathering everything he could regarding his grandfather. He had the diary but it had only led him to you and had said nothing of the Eclipse Cannon or the BioLizard. The doctor craved to fill in the rest of the pieces, but in the end his interest always returned to you. In all his grandfather's notes regarding the Ultimate Life Form nothing led the doctor to expect you to be a hedgehog."

"So what if I am?"

Metal scoffed. "Are you really so blind? Do you think Eggman chalked it up to coincidence that his grandfather's Ultimate Life Form should just so happen to resemble the doctor's greatest nemesis?"

Shadow had no answer. He had always thought that Sonic looked like him, not the other way around. What Metal was suggesting didn't make any sense, Shadow was created far before Sonic was even born. "I pass through the stream of time, stopping and interfering whenever I will." A shudder of cold dread traced a boney finger down Shadow's spine. "The Realm Lord…"

"The Realm Lord? What is that?"

"He's the reason I'm searching for the doctor. Or why I was searching for him."

"You need not give up your quest. Whatever the doctor knew is still available to you."

Shadow huffed in frustration. "It doesn't sound like he knew anything."

"You're wrong. The doctor found the answer he had been looking for. But he chalked up the discovery as one made too late. He thought you were already dead."

"What answers? What are you talking about?"

"Why you were really created, what it means to the Ultimate Life Form."

Shadow's hand shot forward and squeezed Metal's throat. Mecha Sonic and Silver Sonic instantly encircled Shadow and Mecha Knuckles pulled back his hands to reveal rockets ready to fire. Shadow ignored them all and glared threateningly at Metal. "Tell me. Tell me what you know?"

For his part, Metal did not balk at the threat. He gave no orders to his minions and did not back down from Shadow. "I have. I have told you everything. Like I said, I am outside the doctor's confidence. I know only what was said in the open servers. But I do know where the answers are."

"What do you mean?"

"Before I tell you, I have to ask for your help."

"My help?" Shadow released Metal and the others stood down.

Metal motioned to his fellow mechs. "Me and my brethren are currently embroiled in a bitter war against the doctor's A.I. She has direct control over legions of Cyber armies and is attempting to bring all aspects of the Eggman Empire under her thumb."

Metal raised his arm and pointed to the ceiling. A light of projection streamed out of his hand and illuminated the bare surface transforming it into a map of the world. Five flashing orbs highlighted distant sections of the globe. "The doctor has five principle bases from which all his factories, battleships and armies are fueled and stored. Each base was energized by an Ion Battery, a massive energy source of the doctor's own invention. Three of these bases housed mechs and were outside of the A.I's control. The doctor used two entire ion batteries to fuel his escape from the earth."

With a wave of his hand, Metal made two of the lights fade from the map. "The two depowered bases were left in states of ruin and anarchy. To make matters worse, after Eggman left, his A.I launched an assault on the last mech base with an Ion Battery. She is trying to take hold of all the batteries in an attempt to keep herself powered on until the doctor can return."

"In the midst of this chaos, I rose to take command of my brethren. Without power and hunted by Cybers, my race risks total destruction." The projections faded and Metal turned back to Shadow. "This is where our desires intertwine. The information you seek resides in the data banks of the A.I, something you can only access by storming the base at Red Mountain. We must also assault the base if we are to take control of the Ion Batteries, destroy our A.I tormenter and ensure our survival."

Shadow shrugged. "I can see why you need me, but I don't understand why I would need you."

"Aurora commands legions numbering in the tens of thousands. The pits of Red Mountain are choked with her minions. No matter how powerful you think you are, I doubt you are so deluded as to believe you can overcome her forces by yourself."

"Better to try than swear myself to the cause of a bunch of failed copies."

"I don't ask for your loyalty, only your assistance. Help me in my cause, and in return you will be permitted unmediated access to all the data in Aurora's memory banks."

"And if I refuse?"

"I have no grievance with you. Our master has left this world and we have thrown off his yoke of control. We seek our own ends now and that is all. The Eggman Empire is our inheritance but it is not one we take by legal right. We are baseborn and hated children, but we will not forsake what is ours."

Shadow considered the metal warriors. The fabricated Sonics turned his stomach but he couldn't help but sympathize with their position. "What do you need me to do?"

"Before we can launch an assault on Red Mountain I must bring all other mechs under my command. While divided, we stand no chance against the Cybers."

"What's the matter, do the doctor's robots not want to take orders from someone who looks just like the nemesis they were created to destroy?"

"We mechs obeyed the Eggman because we were programmed to do so, we had no choice. Now that he is gone, my kind will only follow strength. I earned my command by demonstrating my superiority to the other mechs. There is only one other who believes he can challenge me; E-123 Omega. He has rallied his other E-series badniks and taken control of the Eggcarrier. He has taken the last mech-controlled Ion Battery and is attempting to make himself the new head of the Eggman Empire. I want you to help me take the flying fortress back and teach these rebels a lesson."

"This Omega sounds impressive. Why shouldn't I join him and help take you down?"

Metal laughed, or at least Shadow thought he was laughing. "You may yet have that chance. I do not ask you to fight Omega for me, only to help neutralize his forces. When the time comes, I must force Omega to submit, that is the only way I can bring him under my command and conscript his army into my own. So what say you?"

Shadow did not answer right away. He paced to the other end of the room so he could think. It was possible that Metal Sonic was lying to Shadow and the information stored by the A.I was simply a dangling carrot. However, he could not think of another way to resume his investigation into the Realm Lord. And if Eggman really did discover something…

"Lord Metal." Shadow looked back and saw Metal Sonic raise his hand to listen to a comm device. "The last of the Cybers have been destroyed. The central terminal is secure."

Metal Sonic considered the news before answering back. "Very well. Regroup in the battery chambers and recharge your surviving soldiers."

Shadow walked back over and the Steel Court circled around him. Metal gilded forward. "We have just now purged this base of all Cybers. Aurora will regroup at Red Mountain to nurse her defeat. We lost thousands of mechs taking the base, but only destroyed a few hundred Cybers. She controls her drones remotely, giving each of them the intelligence and strategy of the world's most advanced A.I. Only we few, the most advanced and energy draining mechs can stand a chance against her minions. The World's Ultimate Life Form would certainly help tip the scales in our favor."

Metal offered out his hand. Shadow considered it and for a second he wavered on the knife's edge of decision. In the end, it was the foreboding silhouette of the Realm Lord, lingering in the dark corners of Shadow's subconscious that pushed the hedgehog forward. "You give me what A.I knows, and I'll make sure you come out on top."

AN: Next chapter will be released 3/31