Hero
By Formerly Known As
Chapter 6
…Into Darkness
"Shadow!" cried Sonic, his confusion increasing. He took a step towards the
black hedgehog. "You're…I thought you were…how did you…what are you…" Sonic
trailed off, realizing how stupid he sounded. "We thought you were dead," he
finally whispered.
Shadow leapt off the cat walk and fell towards the ground. At the last second,
he activated his air shoes and slowed his descent, landing smoothly. "The
evidence would seem to point to the opposite, hedgehog," replied Shadow, walking
towards Sonic.
"Uh, yeah, I guess so," said the blue hedgehog, looking away in confusion and
embarrassment. Shadow continued walking until they were face to face with each
other. Sonic looked back up at him slowly. He seemed frozen in indecision,
trying to figure out what he wanted to say. "How…How did you survive?"
Shadow continued to smirk his unreadable smirk. "That is not important, Sonic."
Sonic gave Shadow a look that said 'yeah right.' Shadow remained silent. Sonic
moved onto the next question. "What are you doing out here, Shadow?" Sonic
asked, waving around vaguely to imply everything from the factory to the Dikes
to Station Square itself.
"Oh," answered Shadow, "I have a few things I need to do here. But first I
needed to talk to you, faker."
Sonic was taken aback. From the look in Shadow's eyes, Sonic wasn't sure
whether he ought to be flattered or scared. The tone of Shadow's voice seemed
to imply the need to be scared. "Me? You needed to talk to me?" Some of
Sonic's cockiness returned. "Well, of course I'm sure you wanted to talk to me!
Everyone wants to talk to the fastest thing—"
"I need to make you an offer, hedgehog," Shadow interrupted Sonic's bragging.
Sonic paused, absorbing this. He looked at Shadow. He looked at Shadow the
Hedgehog, enemy, adversary, rival…friend? Sonic looked at the guy he had
thought dead for so long. He looked at the hedgehog that was so like him and
yet so different.
All factors considered equal, Sonic was confused. He didn't know what to think.
Before Sonic stood the only other person who had truly stood, in Sonic's eyes,
as his equal. While Sonic respected Knuckles's fighting abilities, as well as
his keen intelligence and hot temper, Knuckles stood in an entirely different
league from Sonic. Sonic was a runner. Knuckles was a fighter. They just
stood on different grounds. That and Knuckles wasn't even close to being able
to catch up with Sonic.
Tails was a slightly different story. He was fast, nearly as fast as Sonic.
But his true strengths lay in different areas. Tails was fast. But he was also
unrealistically intelligent. And he could fly. In Sonic's mind, Tails also
fell into a different category. Also it was difficult for Sonic to fully
separate the older, stronger Tails from the little fox who had followed Sonic
all those years ago.
Shadow, on the other hand, was equal to Sonic in every respect. They were
equally fast (though Sonic only admitted the fact in his head). Any move Sonic
could pull off, Shadow was equally strong in. Shadow could even go Hyper,
staying once again equal to Sonic in every respect.
When Shadow had died, Sonic had been both relieved and saddened. The sadness
outweighed the grief, but the relief had remained none the less. Sonic had
never before found a true equal to himself. In Shadow, Sonic had seen both a
potential companion and rival. During the entire ARK incident, Sonic had feared
that Shadow was better than him, stronger than him, faster than him. When he
had seen Shadow's Chaos Control, Sonic's fear had risen. That fear faded
somewhat when Sonic realized that he too was capable of Chaos Control.
But it wasn't until Shadow had showed up, deep down inside the ship, with his
confident air, and told Sonic and Knuckles that he would take the Biolizard,
that Sonic's fear began to change into hope. Because in that moment, Sonic
realized that Shadow didn't have to be his enemy. Shadow was helping them.
They could be friends.
Sonic realized that the two of them, no matter what, would always be rivals.
But Sonic would rather be friendly rivals than enemies with the black hedgehog.
When Sonic watched Shadow plunge helplessly towards the earth, he had been grief
stricken by the loss of a potential friend. He had been relieved at the loss of
a potential enemy.
But now Shadow once again stood before Sonic, all smirks and darkness. It was a
like nothing had changed. Well, almost nothing. Before the finale of the ARK
incident, the two would have been ruthlessly attacking one another. Now they
stood before each other, talking and not attacking or even threatening each
other. At least, Sonic didn't think he was being threatened. There were times
it was hard to tell with Shadow.
The bottom line was that Sonic didn't know how to react to the situation. He
didn't actually know where Shadow stood right now. He hoped it was friend, but
the two had been foes for so long it was hard not to consider the possibility
that Shadow was merely stalling for time till Robotnik showed up. After all,
Shadow had attacked him in that alleyway. That damn smirk on Shadow's face
wasn't helping any, either.
Enough stalling, Sonic thought to himself. He looked at Shadow, to find the
other hedgehog was lightly tapping his foot, once again mocking Sonic. Sonic
gritted his teeth. It was time to discover just what was going on. "What sort
of offer?" Sonic asked suspiciously.
Shadow smirked a little bit more. "A simple offer really." Shadow unfolded his
arms and walked away from Sonic, drawing out the tension. Sonic glared at the
other hedgehog's back. Who was stalling now? Shadow jumped up onto an old
piece of machinery left from the boom time of the factory. Shadow faced Sonic
and began speaking again. "I'm offering you, Sonic the Hedgehog, the chance to
join me in a rein of darkness and terror." He smiled. "Together we can spread
chaos like no one before us could ever perceive."
************************
Author's Note: MUHAHAHAHAHAH!! I seem to be getting this whole cliffhanger
thing down…
Well, I'm not too sure on this chapter. Just not sure it's quite right…Needs
work, I think. Not only that, but the silly thing got me up early because it
was one of those lose the sleep or lose the story situations. I once again went
for the story…
Some comments to make…First of all, I must thank Stoney for the awesome review.
ALL HAIL STONEY, THE GOD OF GIVING CHARACTERS PERSONALITIES!
Err…Sorry about that. But I for one am very impressed with all of Stoney's
work. Particularly his Crossover Saga. Why? Because every character has
personality. And not just the heroes. The bad guys have just as much
personality. So, if you're looking for something to read, check out Crossover
Saga. It's one of my favorites.
To Master Link: Err…sorry about the lack of action. There might be some
later…Then again there might not. Maybe I should change the genre I have this
thing under…I'll think about it.
To SonicFan#1: Glad to hear you're writing! Writing is such a good thing…To
post chapters on FF. Net, you must first register. Don't worry, it's not all
that hard. Then after you've registered, it'll take you to a page with some
information on it. On the left side of that page, there is a blue box with all
these links. One of them is labeled Read Me First. Take the link and it should
tell you everything you need to know about creating stories, adding chapters,
and so forth. If you still have questions…I'll attempt to answer them! Good
luck! I look forward to reading something you've written real soon!
Oh and YAY! YOU LIKE MY STORIES!!!! WHOOHOO!
Okay, I'm done now….Peace out yo and see ya next chapter!