A/N: I chose Cammy's name because it's not one you hear very often and I'm all for something different. Camilla Maria sounds rhymey and well, I like rhythm. Emerald and Aura, those names sound a little cookie-cutter IMO, and I want to try for originality.
Chapter Three
Shadow studied the markings on the walls of the ancient temple as Deiter took a break and nibbled on the rubber bone. The drawings and carvings were old, and were of Chao and jewels and one giant jewel in particular. Also carved in the rock was a strange looking creature, tall and slender. It stood on two legs, had two arms and a conical head. It looked like it was made of water.
"What is that thing?" Shadow muttered. Deiter looked up at him and saw the drawing.
"That's Chaos." he replied. Shadow looked back at him, cocking his head.
"Chaos? Like, Chaos Control?" he asked. Deiter shook his head and pointed at the drawing.
"That's Chaos. A long time ago, in ancient times, he took care of and protected the Chao. He's not around anymore. He went to another zone with Tikal. She's nice." Deiter said and smiled at Shadow, "He's kinda like you! He started off scary-looking, was nice, turned bad, then went back to being nice after Super Sonic helped him. He couldn't be hurt by anything and used Chaos Emeralds for power." Shadow looked a little guilty.
"I wasn't supposed to be bad, but the humans made me so mad, I think I might have been a little crazy. Probably from the professor planting his ideas and will into me." the hedgehog replied, "So this Chaos guy, who made him?"
"Nobody. He came from the water. He was the water." Deiter answered, "Sonic gave him a chance to be nice again. Sonic gave you a chance, didn't he?"
"I guess. I haven't been taking it so far." Shadow muttered, "I don't get it. He irritates me sometimes, and other times I want to be sure he's okay and that he's doing well."
"Like a big brother!" Deiter cheered and giggled. Shadow smiled and laughed.
"I suppose so! Sonic keeps insisting we could be, but we're not related. I'm man-made, he's hedgehog-born. We're too far apart on the life spectrum." he pointed out and continued walking on, calling Omochao's name.
Cammy perked her ears up at the sound of Shadow's voice and followed it, wondering what he could be doing there. Unsure whether to believe what she heard or not, she continued to track the sound until she rounded a corner and bumped into the black hedgehog.
"Shadow!" she exclaimed in surprise as he stepped back and blinked at her. She was wearing a cute outfit, sleeveless turtleneck shirt that hugged her body, shorts and hiking boots, backpack and the Tiki Rod strapped to her leg. Everything in shades of green again.
"Don't you ever get tired of green?" Shadow asked and shook his head, "I mean, Cammy?! Where have you been?! Your team said you disappeared!" Cammy laughed brightly, forgetting the promise to the strange man.
"I got stuck in a booby trap." she explained and smiled. "But now that you're here, you can help me find the treasure of this temple! I'm searching for the secret to Chaos Power." With that, she grabbed his hand and started walking off, leaving him to sputter in surprise and stare dumbly at the back of her head.
Sonic looked down at the burned away trail that led to the Chao Temple. Rouge smiled at it.
"Looks like Shadow got mad at the jungle. He wasn't kidding when he said he hated it." she remarked and laughed. Tails looked down and gulped. He had to go against someone who could do that? Oh boy!
"Well, at least he made a decent runway. Land here, Tails." Sonic replied. Tails brought the plane down and everyone climbed out, running up to the temple. The hedgehog looked around, then looked down at the ground. "Hey! Footprints!" he exclaimed and knelt down, studying them closely. He could make out letters in the imprint, letters that spelled Shadow's name. Shadow's sneakers had his name written on the bottom, Prof. Gerald Robotnik's idea of a prank and a way to ID Shadow's clothes if he happened to throw them somewhere, which he often did as a kid. As a little hedgehog, Shadow liked to joke around and sometimes threw his shoes into the hallway to see if anyone tripped on them. Tired of constantly falling all over the little red and white sneakers and having Shadow play innocent whenever he was asked if they belonged to him, Gerald carved Shadow's name into every bit of clothing he gave him. It soon ended Shadow's prankish streak, but he found other ways of playing around.
"Yep! These are Shadow's prints!" Sonic declared, "He's here!" He stood up and pointed at the temple. "Onwards! To find Shadow the Hedgehog!"
"What about the box?" Tails asked, pointing at the boards on the grass, "I doubt Shadow brought a whole crate of stuff with him. All of Shadow's personal belongings could fit in a shoe box. I think someone else is here." Sonic and Rouge walked up to him, puzzled.
"Really? Who?" Sonic asked and Tails lifted up the board. On it was a picture of Eggman's face. Sonic made a face. "Eggman! That rotten egg!" He suddenly looked concerned. "Wait a second. Eggman thinks Shadow's dead too. If he finds out he's not, what will he do to Shadow?"
"Try to reclaim him, I guess." Tails remarked, letting the board fall over. Sonic looked confused. "Prof. Gerald Robotnik created Shadow. In a way, he owned Shadow. Dr. Eggman is a descendant of Prof. Gerald and since the professor died, logically, his belongings should go to him." Tails explained. Sonic still looked blank. Tails sighed. In some ways, Sonic was worse than Shadow. At least Shadow made an effort to understand what he was saying, but then he would completely ignore his words and formulate his own opinions. With Sonic, the words just flew over his head. "Gerald Robotnik's possessions go to his next of kin. Dr. Eggman should inherit everything and anything Prof. Gerald owned, including Shadow the Hedgehog. Technically speaking, Shadow belongs to Eggman... as property." Tails clarified.
"But Shadow's not a thing to be bounced back and forth between owners!" Sonic griped, "He's his own hedgehog!"
"Try telling that to the military. They wanted possession of him too." Tails pointed out. Rouge listened in, interested.
"That's all very fascinating, boys, but I think we should go in and find the hedgehog we're babbling about." she remarked, bringing the two friends back to reality and the task at hand, "Although the idea of Shadow being Eggman's toy instead of the other way around is kind of funny! Eggman taking orders from Shadow when it should have been Shadow taking orders from Eggman! Ha!" she laughed.
"Stop laughing!" Sonic snapped, "You're the one who told him he wasn't the real Shadow! How could you think the Bio-lizard was Shadow?!" Rouge clicked her tongue at him.
"That's what the results said. Excuse me for only getting half of the information. Shadow kept messing with the computers on ARK." she lectured. "How was I to know Gerald made both at the same time and under the same name, Project Shadow, but only named the primary hedgehog prototype, Shadow?" The three argued about it as they entered the temple, one voting that Shadow was free to do what he wanted, one saying he was Eggman's property, and the third insisting Shadow wasn't Shadow at all.
Eggman wandered the temple after hiding his robot safely. It looked interesting enough, but it wasn't what he wanted in terms of a hideout. The carvings reminded him of the time he tried to use Chaos to take over Station Square, and Sonic spoiled it with his super form. He thought he had a surefire plan to win when Shadow crossed his path, but then Sonic got to him, too, and he joined the blue hedgehog. Eggman grumbled over the loss of Shadow. Ultimate life form or not, nothing could survive getting burned to a crisp by the earth's atmosphere. Shadow's goose had been cooked, so to speak, when he ignored Sonic's order to return to the space colony.
"Easy come, easy go." Eggman muttered, then paused. Something small and black lay on the floor. He walked up to it and picked it up. It was a wallet, dropped or forgotten by its owner, perhaps the green hedgehog? Eggman opened it up and looked through it. Searching the wallet, he found an old dollar and some change, a ticket stub to a recent movie, a grocery list for chili dog ingredients, and a memo to buy more crayons. "This must be Sonic's wallet. He eats those blasted chili dogs as if they were the only things keeping him alive!" Eggman muttered and pocketed the wallet. "His loss, my gain." As he walked back to his hiding place, he heard someone yell from deeper in the temple.
"Hey, slow down! Wait a second, Cammy! I have to talk to you!" a voice yelled, but it didn't sound like Sonic. It was a little deeper in pitch, kind of familiar. Eggman tried to remember where he had heard it as he continued on his way.
Cammy finally stopped to check her charts and Shadow took the opportunity to explain his predicament to her. She listened and smiled, agreeing to help.
"So Omochao is in here somewhere, huh? Well, let's avoid those hedgehog-catching traps and find him. This Robotnik guy sounds like a nasty cookie." she remarked.
"Not all of the Robotniks are bad. Prof. Gerald and Maria were good people." Shadow pointed out coldly. Cammy held up her hands.
"With all due respect to the deceased, of course." she amended. She looked around at the carvings on the walls. "According to all of these drawings, this temple is somewhat related to the one in the Mystic Ruins back home. The same references to Chaos and the Master Emerald, the Chaos Emeralds, and the Chao who looked after them." she remarked.
"How did you get in here anyway? The door only opens when a Chao plants his face on it." Shadow asked, carrying Deiter in his arms. Cammy smiled and dug around in her backpack, pulling out a small relic. It looked like a carved stone statue of a Chao.
"I used this on the pedestal outside of the temple. The weight activated the door and had it open. As soon as they opened, I grabbed the statue and ran in." she replied, "I'm looking for more connections and maybe a little artifact or two to give to the Brazilian museums." She put it up and ran her hands along the wall as they traveled deeper into the temple. "Shadow, have you ever heard of a saying about the Emeralds? It goes like this." she said. "The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power, power is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one who unifies the Chaos." Cammy recited, "I read it on some of the artifacts and temple walls I find. It's written everywhere."
"I've heard a little of it. Sonic's friend said it to the Master Emerald." Shadow replied.
"Well, I think there's more to it. All seven Emeralds serve whoever has possession of them and calls for their power, right? Well, my theory is that if you had one of those Emeralds, and a strong enough heart and will, you could use the weaker power for other things. It all depends on what is in your heart and what you wish." Cammy told him, "That's why I'm researching the Emeralds. We both have one of the Chaos Emeralds. If we could find a way to harness some of their power with our will and hearts without the aid of the other Emeralds, we could have a breakthrough in sustaining energy in the super forms!" Shadow looked back at his pack, which contained the red Emerald. "Think of it, Shadow! A new Chaos Control power, and the ability to keep the super forms we go into for more than a few minutes! You won't have to worry about running out of energy as Super Shadow, and I won't get mine drained out whenever I use Chaos Control!"
"You think we could pull it off?" Shadow muttered, interested in the idea. Cammy nodded and looked around at the carvings. "I'll be able to keep up with Sonic! I'll really be an ultimate life form!" he declared excitedly. Deiter yelped when Shadow squeezed him too tightly. "Oops! Sorry, Deiter." Cammy stopped at one carving and studied it intensely. "Cammy? What's wrong?" Shadow asked, coming to her side.
"This drawing. It looks like Omochao. He's waiting for something. A star shows and brings light with darkness. Looks like this star is very important for Omochao." she explained, pointing out the carvings. Shadow paled slightly.
"How? Why? What's going to happen if he doesn't get that star?" he whispered. Cammy looked back at him and shrugged. "We've got to find him." She studied the carvings again.
"It's a map. Here we are, and Omochao could be here in the center of the temple. If we follow this hall and make a right, we'll enter the main corridor. We follow that to the end and walk through the green doors." she replied, "That's where the central chamber is." Shadow was off and running. With a pout, Cammy gave chase. "Shadow! Wait for me! If you don't slow down right now, I'll call this a chase and activate our deal!" Shadow hit the brakes, slammed face first into a wall, and fell back onto the floor. "Shadow!" Cammy raced to his side and helped him up, "Are you okay?!"
"My face feels like a pancake." Shadow grumbled, holding his nose in both hands as Deiter wobbled about and fell over, still clutching the package. He began to cry, wailing loudly. "Deal with him." Cammy picked up the Chao and rocked it back and forth, cuddling and cooing to the creature. After a while it stopped crying and scowled at Shadow.
"Meanie! Watch where you're going!" he scolded. Shadow made a face at him and twitched his nose to see if it still worked.
"I'm okay, save for what may be a pain that'll linger." he told Cammy.
"Serves you right. Next time, wait for me. I don't have your kind of speed." Cammy scolded him and the two of them ran off for the central chamber.
Sonic flicked an ear every now and then, irritated by a strange humming sound that only he seemed to hear. Tails and Rouge were looking at the carvings, trying to decipher the map. They had already seen signs of Eggman, Artificial Chaos and E-1000 series robots wandering the halls. Sonic and Tails took care of them, Sonic with his Homing Attacks, Tails in the Cyclone. Rouge couldn't attack too well with her wing torn, but she was able to utilize her kicks well enough. If something blocked her way, she gave it a good kick to crack it enough to allow Tails to shoot it.
"You hear that? It's really bugging me." Sonic muttered as Tails copied the map into his computer. Rouge listened and tried to hear the sound.
"I don't hear anything, but I can feel something. Like a vibration, but very slight." she replied. Sonic began to walk off in a different direction. "Hey! Where do you think you're going?" Rouge snapped, "We have to find Shadow and make sure he delivers the component!"
"You find him! I'm going to see what that sound is! Tails! Keep in touch with me! I'll give you a call once I find the source of that weird noise!" Sonic called back and ran off at high speed. Tails sighed and followed Rouge. Great, great, great. If he met up with Shadow now, would the black hedgehog want to start the challenge right away, or wait until after this whole mess was cleaned up?
Eggman listened to one of the robots report seeing a pair of hedgehogs wandering the temple halls, wrecking robots and Artificial Chaos along the way to the central chamber. He clicked off and thought about it.
"So, Sonic must be here with Amy and Tails. My traps should catch them." he murmured and frowned, "But then, who is Cammy? And whose voice was yelling that name?" He stood up and climbed into his walker, traveling back into the halls. "Heheheh! This I want to see! Sonic smashed into bits! Or caught by one of my robots!" Eggman laughed, "Then I can use him as the brain to my Bot!"
As Eggman wandered the halls, the sensors on his walker picked up something strange. An air disturbance was nearby, inaudible but fairly strong. Eggman studied it and began to follow the signal, curious to know what it was.
"What's causing this strange disturbance?" he wondered aloud as he followed the twists and turns of the maze into a chamber. It contained a small machine made of wood and stone, tiny paper wings flapped in a rapid motion to create a hypnotic humming. Eggman entered the chamber and paused in the room, startled. Sonic stood in the center of the room, frozen in place. Curious, Eggman got out of his walker and walked up to him, waving a hand in front of Sonic's face. The hedgehog didn't register it.
"Sonic? Are you playing some kind of practical joke?" Eggman asked gruffly. No answer. Eggman looked up at the machine of wood and stone, watching it spin and the wings flap. He put a hand up to it and felt the air around it vibrating. "Ah, so this is what was causing the disturbance! I think this vibration has a hypnotic effect on hedgehogs!" he mused, "So then, who is the mystery man? The teacher's aide! He had the Chao with the box!" Eggman paced back and forth, thinking.
"Then how did that other hedgehog get here in less than a day? It wasn't Sonic, I saw him on his way here. It's not Amy Rose, she has no speed. And it can't be that green one I sent after the aide. She was already here and had no package." He stopped pacing. "Bah! No matter! I have Sonic in my hands now! I can use him to bring my creation one step closer to completion!" Eggman laughed and scurried back to his walker. He reached in, pulled out a small spray and ran back to Sonic. He spritzed a purple cloud in Sonic's face. It took a moment to kick in, but the knock out gas worked like a charm. Sonic sighed and slumped backwards against the evil scientist. Careful of the quills, Eggman carried him back to the walker, stuck him in the bucket seat, and climbed in. "Onwards! To global domination!" Eggman declared and headed back to the secret chamber.