~Darker Shadows: Chapter 4~


Shadow walked down the street, beat up and bruised. Everyone he passed was staring at him. He didn't care, he was looking for Sonic.
A few stubborn reporters were still following him. One of them came up just behind him and he shouted, "Shadow! What are you going to do?"
Shadow didn't even bother to look at the reporters, he just flicked them off, and continued his search for Sonic. The reporters stumbled back some, but kept following him. He looked up ahead, and saw Sonic and Tails running out of the mall.

Sonic and Tails ran out of the mall, both looking around to see what was going on.
They notice that there are still people watching the news on various TVs, but a lot of people were looking out ahead of them, startled about something.
"What's going on out here?" Sonic stopped and looked around a minute, a little confused at the chaos. Tails turned to look when Sonic spotted him. "Tails! Look! It's Shadow!" He pointed to Shadow who was steadily walking in their direction.
Shadow stopped and stood there, breathing heavy but slow, and very pissed off.
Sonic ran up to him, "Shadow?! You're alive!" He paused and took a good look at Shadow ... seeing how badly beat up he was. "What happened?!"
His eyes narrowed as he pulled back his fist, and rammed it into Sonic's face.
Sonic fell back to the ground and blinked up to Shadow, staring unbelievingly.
"Shadow..." He rubbed his jaw a bit, "what's wrong with you?"
He growled at Sonic, "you let me die..." All the reporters stopped dead in their track and started to record what was happening. They were all too shocked to do anything else. Shadow leaned over him, and grabbed his neck, lifting him into the air, squeezing tightly. "You let me fall to Earth..."
Sonic struggled to get free. He kicked Shadow in his gut as hard as he could, trying to break his hold, but Shadow didn't even flinch. Sonic tried to speak while gasping for air, catching his breath, "Shadow...I didn't...I couldn't...I made it back..." He gasped. "I thought...you were..."
"And it's all...," Shadow began, "your... FAULT!" He threw Sonic into the ground hard and then kicks him in the side.
Sonic winced and got up, stumbling a bit. "I thought you were..." he coughed "behind me!"
Shadow just said calmly, "sure you did."
He couldn't believe his ears, he looked up to Shadow, "I did! When I got there, you didn't come back... I looked for you outside ... but it was too late ... that's when I thought... I thought you had died!"
Tails, who had been watching in shock, finally realized Shadow was going to pound Sonic. He gasped and flew into the air, flying behind Shadow and uses both his fists to ram into his back. "Yes!"
Shadow took the hit, and flew forward, somersaulting as he went. Tails, who was still flying in his direction as he rolled, was about to get a rude awakening. He reached up, grabbed his tails and stood. Shadow then swung him around and threw him easily into a building.
Sonic narrowly dodged Tails as he flew into the building. The crash knocked him out. "TAILS!!!"
Shadow was still after Sonic though. "You will pay for this..."
He turned and growled at Shadow, "back to old times, huh faker?"
Shadow didn't seem to pay too much attention to Sonic as he pulled out the green chaos emerald and shouted, "Chaos... CONTROL!!!" He disappeared and then reappeared directly above Sonic, slamming into him with his feet.
Sonic has a moment to utter a couple of words, "oh ... blast..."
Shadow flipped backwards, landing behind Sonic. He then runs forward, slamming his fists into him, knocking him into the ground.
"Ah!" Sonic yelled, and tried desperately to kick Shadow away, but to no avail.
He quickly grabbed his neck, and threw Sonic into the same building Tails was now unconscious in front of. Shadow crossed his arms and put his emerald away as he watched Sonic crumple to the ground.
Refusing to give up, Sonic gets to his feet, growling, "no... WAY!" He summoned all his energy, and rushed forward, knocking Shadow to the ground.
Shadow grunted as he fell, unprepared for Sonic's attack.
But Sonic wasn't finished. He picked him up, and swung him around, then throwing him into the same building. "See how you like it!!!" The effort made him stumble to the ground, and he stood again. "You haven't changed a bit!"
Shadow, being just as determined as Sonic, if not more so, ran up to him, grabbed him, then ran to another building, dragging Sonic with him. He slammed up against it, then proceeded to punch him over and over again. Once he tired with the punches, he started to kick him.
All this time, Sonic tried to block the punches, succeeding most of the time, but when the kicks came, he was unprepared, and doubled over.
Shadow smirked evilly as Sonic's breaths were harsh and ragged for a few minutes. He tried to catch his breath before Shadow started in on him again. But Shadow didn't give him much of a chance as he grabbed his neck, pulling him up into the air and slamming him into the building once more, as hard as he could, sure it would finish him off.
Sonic started to see spots of light in his eyes as he starts to black out, still gasping for air, and making his finally plea for Shadow to understand. "I didn't..." he gasped, and his voice got weaker, "leave you to..." another gasp, "die..." He grabbed at Shadow's hands, trying to break his iron grip.
Shadow just says nothing as he watches the life fade from Sonic.
And the cameras keep rolling ... the reporters too shocked to do anything else more sensible, like run.
He dropped Sonic on Tails, and walked away, through the crowd of reporters. He doesn't even look at them. Just ahead of him, he saw his statue on a patch of grass. He blinked a moment, then growled loudly as he pulled out his emerald and shot a small green beam of power at it. The statue shuddered and blew up. Smoke covering the area, everything was dark. When it did clear, bits of rock and other debris were still falling to the ground. He mumbles as he walked away, "just did that so they think they liked me when I came back ... pathetic mortals."
Sonic opened his eyes a little ... and he saw the remnants of the statue. He couldn't fathom what happened yet. Shadow obviously ment to kill him, and thought he was indeed dead. He might as well have been. Too beaten to do much, even think, Sonic finally blacked out completely.

Tails slowly opened his eyes. His vision faded in after a few minutes, and he stood up weakly, looking around. There were rocks everywhere, reporters scattered about, smoke in the sky, blood on the ground, burnt trees, and a few holes in various buildings.
"Oh my gosh . . . What happened?"
Sonic was laying beside him, still out. He'd taken the worst of the beating, and he was bleeding from several cuts, some deep.
He could hardly remember anything. He didn't know where any one was. All he could remember was seeing Shadow ... and then he and Sonic... He looked at the statue of Shadow. Or rather, the remnants of the statue of Shadow, all beat up, black, and sharp. An ambulance rolled finally onto the scene and pulled up, the crew jumping out.
"Oh no..." He suddenly remembered ... and he looked down and saw Sonic knocked out next to him. "Sonic!!" He knelt over him, seeing how badly he was beaten. He began to drag him over to the ambulance.
The reporters were no longer rolling, and were just standing around shocked. Some muttered quietly, but none came to their aide.
Some of the men from the ambulance ran up to Tails, and brought with them a stretcher for Sonic. "Are you alright, son? What happened here?"
"Shadow came back, and attacked Sonic and I... He knocked us both out."
One of the men asked, "Shadow?" They took Sonic and put him carefully onto the stretcher.
Just then, Amy Rose rushed out of the mall, carrying all her bags, looking around angrily. "SONIC! WHERE ARE YOU?!?!" She huffed and started into the disaster area ... and soon dropped her bags gasping. "Oh my gosh! What happened?!"
She saw the ambulance and Sonic on the stretcher. She ran over, her eyes getting watery. She began to wail. "Sonic! What happened?!"
Tails calmed her down as best he could, and quickly explained.
Amy growls, "Shadow, I knew he was no good!"
Sonic began to wake up a bit, and he moaned, blinking some, but for the most part, he kept his eyes closed. Amy and Tails stood over him, worried.
The medics strapped him up and put his stretcher in the ambulance. They turn to Tails. "Son, you don't look to well yourself. Come with us, and we'll fix you up with your friend."
Tails sighed, "alright." Both he and Amy hop into the ambulance with Sonic, and they close the doors, the ambulance rushing off, sirens wailing.