Shadow's Rebirth
A/N: More inspiration. I'm proud of this chapter myself. Warning this gets very bloody
Chapter. 24: And I know
Present Day: United States, Washington D.C
"And this is the last known photo of Kennedy." The Tour guide said. "He's my favorite because of his famous lines, The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Now moving on..." The tour guide and group went down the hallway not realizing that one had stayed behind. It was a person cloaked in a black trench coat and wide brimmed black hat that hid the face partially. Through the jacket one could say he was a priest. What hid the person's features even more were the huge mirror shades that block their eyes. The person looked around and snorted in amusement before vanishing in a cloud of black smoke, no sound was heard marking their disappearing.
The figure reappeared in another part of the White House, this time in a corner. The figure walked to the next hallway seemingly to be exploring the place. A guard noticed this and walked up to him. "Excuse me, are you lost?" The person looked at him and smiled, not showing any teeth yet, but otherwise did not respond. The guard, feeling nervous for some reason repeated his question, this time placing his hand on his firearm. "Sir, I will have to ask you to rejoin the tour group."
The figure mumbled something that the guard couldn't hear. "Excuse me?" The person leaned close. "For the glory of the empire" The guard didn't have time to respond when he suddenly found something buried in his chest. He looked down to see a claw exiting his chest. His last act was to press the alarm and cough up a chunk of blood before dropping to the ground dead.
Alarms began ringing all throughout the White House and the Secret Service moved into two fractions. One to protect the president and another to confront the intruder. The figure chuckled darkly as smoke began to drift out the dead agent. The smoke formed into a ghostly appearance of the man dead on the floor, only his face contorted in confusion and horror. The figure only chuckled louder as the ghost of the guard went inside his body. More smoke surrounded the figure and it disappeared, leaving behind the dead body of the agent.
More agents were filling the hallways when one saw something pass him through the corner of the eye. He got out his walkie talkie. "We got visuals. Figure in black clothing, considering armed." He didn't get a chance for a response when he suddenly found himself cut in half. The now legless agent only looked at his detached twitching legs until he died. Again a smoke drifted out the corpse into the assailant before the figure faded away again in a poof of smoke. More agents came across the dead bodies and were now worried. "Help m-" Came out the walkie talkie as an agent yelled before being cut off.
Another poof of smoke and the agents found someone descending from the ceiling. They raised their guns and fired only to find the bullets passing through the smoke shrouded figure. The assassin landed on the floor and rebounded past another agent as it ran down the hallway. As he past, the agents head disappeared in a shower of blood and a smoky substance flowed out the dead agent into the cloaked attacker. "Fools" It said at the agents' attempts to kill it.
Whenever an agent would fire a shot, the figure would have just turned to smoke and the bullet would past through. The figure jumped, twisted and landed on the ceiling. "You can not stop the holy empire" It said as it began running along the ceiling as the agents below would fire their shots in a futile effort. Soon the figure got annoyed with his attackers. It stretched out its arms and began to just grabbed anything it could and crush it in its strong arms. Every body the figure killed, a ghost would flow into his body.
"Boring. I thought you were suppose to protect your leader. All you are good for is feeding me." The attacker said as the whole ceiling turned into smoke and he sunk into it. The ceiling now resembled storm clouds only instead of lightning coming down, spikes and more spikes rained down from the ceiling to impale the agents. They didn't even get a chance to scream before dieing. The cloud reformed into the figure and it took in the ghosts of the agents it killed.
It continued walking on the ceiling towards target, finding it amusing that the agents running through the hallways didn't look up until it was too late. It finally got to the room where its target was suppose to be, only to find it full of agents wielding guns. One looked up and screamed and the figure just teleported behind the agents. "Nice try" It said as it attacked the group from behind. The first to turn around got his heart ripped out.
The figure teleported again, this time behind another agent, it grabbed the agents head and kicked out. The body spun one way while he held on to the head. He teleported before the sickening crack was heard and the dead agent smashed into the wall. He appeared only to kick an agent in the torso, caving in his chest before teleporting again. He appeared in time to kick the flying dead man through the window. By then the agents got over the sudden attack and let lose a wave of bullets. The figure teleported, grabbed an agent and teleported back where he proceeded to use the agent as a human shield. His shield jerked as waves of bullets ended his life.
The attacker chuckled as he shoved something into the corpses mouth and threw it towards the group. The group scattered but a couple didn't get far enough when the corpse exploded into a black fireball. Some of the agents freaked out and started running away. "What are you!" one asked as he fired more shots. The attacker only teleported inches from where he was, completely dodging the bullets. His ammo ran out and before he could reload, the figure appeared in front of him. "Your damnation" It said before teleporting, this time with the agents arms. The limbless agent let lose one scream before his head was blown off by a black energy blast. The figure kept the blast up as he swept his arm through the room and soon he was alone. The ghost of the agents floated out their bodies and was sucked into the figure's body in a funnel of energy.
He laughed as he concentrated on a wall. "So that is where you were hiding." He turned to smoke as it went through the wall and into the hidden room. There were even more agents there, all pointing their guns at him. At a signal the agents fired, but before the bullets could hit, the figure turned to smoke, and yet the smoke didn't reappear in another place. No with a scream many agents fell to the ground as their own bullets slammed into them. The president watched in horror as his protectors were slain and what appeared to be their souls taken. The figure turned and smirked. "And here I am, face to face with the leader of this great nation." His disguise fell away as the trench coat morphed into a black cloak and the hat reformed over his sunglasses that had changed to where only one lens were in the sunglasses and that revealed his head for the first time. He had long brown hair that had a red tint in them. The eye that wasn't blocked by a lens had red triangles at the corner while the pupil itself was golden. The president, freaked out by this, backed up; trembling in horror as he looked upon his vicious attacker. "Who-What are you?"
The person grinned. "Your death" The president screamed as his flesh was turned to ash. His attacker lowered a strange golden gun that reformed into a gold cylinder that covered his arm. The president's soul looked in shock at the remains of his body. "For the empire, I the Black Wind will make sure the empire will achieve our goal with the aid of this Demon Gun" The soul screamed in silent torment as its soul too was taken. The Black Wind looked around and smirked before disappearing in a poof of smoke heading for his next target.
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Usagi stopped in what she was doing and turned towards the horizon. Her companions looked at her with worry. "What's wrong Usagi?" Amy asked. "I don't know, I just got this feeling of something major just happened." Lara patted on her back "Its okay, Usagi" Usagi smiled. "Yes it will be. Things will turn out better as long as I have faith."
The three women continued walking down the road they were going on. "So what next? The next chaos fragment is at least a couple days away." Lara asked. Amy shrugged. "We did get a lot after we defeated that loser Naraku." Usagi giggled. "What kind of idiot walks around wearing baboon fur on his head. All Amy had to do was flip it around to blind him while I used my Heaven's Wrath move" Lara laughed as she remembered Naraku's dumbstruck expression. "He was just a head floating in the air after that attack." Usagi giggled. "Well he was a demon bent on killing us, kind of hard feeling bad about hurting him."
All three nodded at that. "But I wonder, you haven't changed into Sailor Moon yet, but you could use those massive attacks easily." Usagi paused. "You know I wonder about that too. It seems that Sailor Moon was a seal of sorts that limited my attacks, I would always get new attacks when I needed them or I would have tux-dork save me when they wouldn't work. Shade showed me footage of me possessed and I was surprised to be using high powered attacks, but I could see in my mind how they worked."
Amy looked thoughtful for a moment before snapping her fingers. "I got it!" Lara and Usagi turned towards her and waited. "I think it was the massive amount of chaos energy you were exposed too. I figured it helped unlock your potential." Usagi smiled sadly. "I'm really sorry about that" Amy nodded. "I know, I know. I'm glad tux-dork was taken care of, but I'm also have a question? What did you do to him? Shade well, he explained what he did, but what you did seemed really bad."
Usagi frowned briefly at remembering him. "I removed his connection with the Earth. All the Senshi have spiritual connections with their planets where they can draw power from, no matter how many times we are reborn, we will always have that connection, but there was more. Like me, Tuxedo Mask had an alternate power source, like me with the Silver Crystal his was the Golden Crystal. So I took that too as well as cutting his connection with the Earth." Lara smirked. "Then that bastard got what he deserved." Usagi nodded, but still had her sad smile. "I try not to look at what I did. I basically took away one of his senses and ripped something out his soul. Even if he did deserve it, I wished I wasn't the one to do it."
Amy took the depressed Usagi into a hug and Lara joined her. "Its okay Usagi, he can never bother you" Usagi sniffled but her mood improve. "Thanks, I needed that" The others nodded as they resumed towards the next town, their moods somber. That quickly turned to horror when they got to the next town. "So many dead" Amy muttered. Lara pulled them into a nearby bush. "Shhh Look" She whispered pointing. A pack of wolves just ran by, most of them had muzzles covered in blood.
"Who would do something like this?" Usagi muttered as a white glow began to outline her body and her hair began to make that familiar transformation to silver. Amy had to drag Usagi back down. "Calm down Usagi!" She whispered fiercely, not wanting to see her friend hurt. "Here the killer comes" Lara said and the two refocused their attention back to the town. A man that was dressed in furs came into the center of the town. He had pointed ears and a tail. "I can't believe none of the people in this town had a Shikon Shard." He shrugged. "Oh well more food for my wolves. I'll just go to Kagome and see if she can find some for me"
Usagi growled at hearing this. "Lara hand me your gun" Usagi demanded in a tone that scared the two. Lara did so, though she was hesitant. "What are you doing?" Usagi grinned as she took the gun, it wasn't a nice grin. "Making him pay." She blurred and jumped to the tree above, none of the wolves nor the man saw them. Lara and Amy watched as the subtle glow went from Usagi's body to Lara's gun and caused it to change into something else. It was now a glowing white sniper rifle that was longer then Usagi herself, but she managed to hold it up with the help of a white bar of energy that extended from Usagi herself.
"You'll pay" She muttered as she fired. A glowing white seal appeared in front of the barrel before a white glowing bullet was fired from the barrel. The man turned to see the bullet coming at him and blurred dodging the bullet, but Usagi's arms blurred as well as she readjusted her shot and fired again, and again and again. The man blurred to dodge the first shot, only to get a bullet in both shoulders. He mad a whimper like a kicked dog and ran away, but Usagi wasn't done shooting.
Another shot went out and clipped the escaping man on the leg, and a wolf took the shot Usagi fired after that. He howled in pain as another shot took the tip off his left ear. "Usagi aren't you overdoing it" Amy said as her next shot took off his tail and he stumbled from the lost of balance. "He killed so many people" She said as she took another shot that planted itself in the exact same spot in the shoulder he was first shot in, forcing the previous bullet to be painfully forced out the front of his body. His scream of pain followed that shot. "Um...Usagi, can you just bring them back with the Silver Crystal?"
Usagi blinked and paused from her firing that was taking down the man and many of his wolves. "Oh yeah, I kinda got so mad I forgot" Then she fired another shot right into his but. Amy and Lara sweat dropped. "What was that for?" She asked as Usagi dropped to the ground. Usagi grinned as the glow receded from the sniper rifle and it turned back into Lara's gun. "Spite" She said and chuckled.
She waited until the wolf youkai retreated before pulling out the Silver Crystal. Her clothing said the same but her hair turned silver and the golden crescent moon appeared on her head. "Heaven's Kiss" She whispered as she kissed the Silver Crystal and pointed it towards the town. A wave of energy similar to Shadow's Hyper Chaos Control went out, only it was white and engulfed the town. Buildings were repaired instantly and blood flowed back into the people as flesh mended or was replaced with brand new flesh. With gasps of breath, the whole town came back to life. Usagi smiled, and passed out. "She used to much energy" Amy said as Lara picked her up. "Lets get to the town and stay at an inn while Usagi rests" Lara replied carrying Usagi
The two women kneeled in front of a table while Usagi slept in the other room. Their chao were keeping watch over her in case any of the villagers got any stupid ideas "That was really impressive, what Usagi did I mean" Lara said. Amy nodded. "I almost feel sorry for that Wolf Youkai, the emphasis is on almost." Both giggled. "So what next?" Lara asked. Amy shrugged. "I really want to do is either find Shadow or at least Shade." Lara nodded. "Because Shade is connected to Shadow and can track him down?" Amy nodded. "That's it exactly. I got the feeling that that Naraku guy is planning something big and I heard some rumors that the four major TaiYoukai are going to meet in the northern lands and I remember one of the leaders is called NekoTachi" Lara gasped, she had heard the story about the Neko-Ken. "You think?" Amy nodded. "We're going to pay this 'NekoTachi' a visit. If it isn't Shadow, we just run away." Lara laughed. "Agreed"
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"Run" Ami repeated to herself as she and Rei dashed through the abandoned castle. "Run faster you mean" Rei corrected as she slapped wards on the walls as she passed. The walls crackled with fire briefly and returned to normal, but it guarantied that the Youkai following them would have some trouble following. "How many barriers, have you set up" Amy asked as she fired one of her ice attacks and froze the ground behind them. "Twenty-Five. How many more layers do we have till we get to the surface. I didn't expect the castle to be this big underground." Rei asked as she slapped another ward on the wall.
Ami took her computer out from subspace. "We got two miles." Rei muttered a curse. It would have been completely dark, had Rei's chao, Fira, not illuminated the hallway. "We need to hurry." Ami nodded as she put away her computer and took out her transformation wand. "I'm getting tired. Lets hope this works." She pointed her wand at her partner Frost. "MERCURY POWER!" A beam of ice blue shot out her rod and hit her chao and it shifted to it's alternate state. It was a massive polar bear, bigger then any one Ami ever seen in her books appeared. It was mostly white, but it had shades of blue. Ami jumped on and grabbed Rei as the two hurried through the hallways. "I'm glad that work, but do you think Msu Tsu is okay?" Ami asked. Rei looked back briefly. "I don't know"
Down many layers, Mousse grinned as he held two machine guns and fired nonstop. His normal bladed weapons won't work this time. It was his desperation move. Behind him in Ghost's detached floating arms, laid the downed form of the miko trapped in this nightmare castle. In front, waves upon waves of Youkai rushed towards him with no intention of stopping. He didn't bother reloading his guns, he just dropped them and pulled out two more out his sleeves. "You dumb demon fucks aren't going to get to me" Mousse growled as he backed up, still firing. Him and Ghost were backing up slowly through the place the Senshi escaped. Mousse grinned as a wall of fire suddenly appeared when the Youkai tried to rush him at a point. "Thank you Rei" He said to himself, but he could see that the wall of fire was only slowing them down, not stopping them.
"Stupid mortal. Do you honestly think that you are going to escape, even with your strange but powerful weapons." A voice said echoing through the hallways. Mousse smirked as he pulled out another set of machine guns and started to fire again as he walked backwards through the hallway. "I think so, and the women is coming with us. Your demons are to stupid to defeat me." The voice growled. "I WILL HAVE KIKYO!!!" The wave of demons increased three fold as they tried to overtake Mousse. They easily broke through the first set of wards. Mousse fired, but saw that the bullets weren't slowing them down that much any more, even with the blessed bullets he has been using.
"I guess I have to try out Tails's new invention. Yami-100 Series activate!" Machines began growing out his robes as he dropped the machine guns and ran. In front of him Ghost was ahead, just far enough to turn back if his partner needed help. Soon the metal formed over his hands into to huge black barrels. Over his hands, now were massive hand cannons. Mousse turned around and triggered his new weapon with the mental commands Tails said he perfected. The barrels of the hand cannons glowed black and unleased a massive ball of black energy. The Youkai charging him were turned to ashes. Mousse's grin grew wider as he released more shots as he retreated.
With hi new weapons equipped and the wards Rei had set up, it was getting easier to retreat through the mansion. "YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE!!! GIVE ME THE MIKO" The voice yelled, powerful enough to shake the walls somewhat. Mousse ignored him and kept firing as he kept on moving. That was when an idea came to him. He held the trigger in his mind for both his weapons, but didn't release it. Both hand cannons began to glow black as he felt a charge coming up. He waited until he felt that was enough and let go of the mental trigger.
Rather then a ball of energy, this time was a massive ray of energy that cleared the hallway of all the Youkai, even going as far as cleaving a massive hole at the end way that tunneled into the earth. "Well, I be damned." Mousse muttered as he turned and ran. More Youkai would come, but for now he had time to escape. He was thankful for that upgrade he found in the Treasure Search. He didn't need his glasses anymore as it allowed him to see in any condition. So what if it give his eyes a weird appearance, most of the girls commented it looked cool.
"Come on Ghost keep running" Mousse shouted as he and his partner headed for the exit. Never in his life, Mousse imagined he would be here. After all the Miko in Ghost's arms had tried to kill him after all and steal the souls of the Senshi he was traveling around with. She had sensed something special about Rei and Ami and had tried to take it, only the four of them were caught off guard by this Naraku demon and was captured. He had learned of her story and just felt sorry for her. "Being dead must suck" Ghost looked at him and laughed. "You do know that is the understatement of the year?" The miko said awakening.
Mousse chuckled and shrugged. "It's true though" The miko rolled her eyes and then glared at Mousse. "Why did you save me. I attacked you. If the situation were switched, I would have no trouble leaving you with Naraku." Mousse paused for a while and didn't answer for a while. Both him and Ghost traveled in silence as they seeked to escape the castle. "Well?" Kikyo said. Mousse shrugged again. "I'll tell you one day. So stay alive-dead-whatever." She glared at him briefly, but he ignored it.
"Why is Naraku obsessed with you?" Mousse asked as they raced up another set of stairs. "His last incarnation was obsessed with me as I nursed him. He had some idea of corrupting me to see me at my 'most beautiful' so he sacrificed his soul to Youkai and became the shape shifting Hanyou Naraku. He then tricked me and my last love to hate each other. He killed me and I sealed him for fifty years. I was brought back when a Youkai brought me back to use my powers to collect the Shikon shards, but she didn't realize that I would be independent of her orders." She sighed as she looked at her bones. "This body is nothing but ashes and dirt. I don't even have a completed soul thanks to it being in my reincarnations."
Mousse nodded. "Sucks to be you" Kikyo gaped at his comment for a while, her jaw was dropping and her eyes wide. That comment was so rude that she started to laugh. It was that stupid. Mousse and Ghost chuckled too. "You are an idiot" She said as they kept running. "So I been told" He replied taking notice of the small smile on her face. He swore to himself that if he made it out of this alive, he'll make it his goal to make that smile bigger.
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Shadow growled as he typed away at his laptop. Numerous wires were connecting from Shade's Wrath to the labtop. "I almost figured it out" He muttered. On the screen was a picture of Tetsusaiga. Numerous readouts where displayed on the sword. "I just can't figure it out." He said to himself. Him, Vash and Alucard were resting at a inn on there way to the Northern Lands. Alucard had said something about meeting some girls for a dinner date. It had took Vash half a hour to realize what the vampire mean and had ran out to make sure the girls don't get killed. He may destroy some Youkai, but only the ones that can't be knocked out, so he still doesn't like to see people killed. He'll most likely get there in time to stop him from draining them completely.
Shadow's hands blurred as he typed into his computer as he tried another way to trigger the wind scar using his technique. Seconds later, a giant red X appeared over the stimulation, signaling that it failed. "Damn it!" Shadow muttered as his test failed again. He detached the sword from his sensors and stood up. "That's it! I need that sword if I want that technique." He left a note for Vash and Alucard, telling them he'll be back in a day or so and left the town. When outside he searched with his senses for the familiar aura of Inuyasha and formed a line of golden rings that went off to the distance all the way to were Inuyasha was. "Chaos Control" He muttered. With the Chaos Emerald in his possession, he no longer knew how long he could hold Chaos Control, all he knew that is was very long. He stepped into the first ring and the world blurred, even faster then usual when he's using the Light Speed Dash as time around him is frozen.
When he hit the end of the rings he took in his surroundings. They too were frozen According to his senses, Ryouga and Chaos were off in a nearby hot spring in the process of having a good time. He was surprised to find Inuyasha and his group traveling with them. They themselves were around a campfire talking about something that he couldn't hear of course since Chaos Control was still activated. Shadow paused in his thoughts. "I could just challenge him for the weapon like last time....nah. I'll just take it just to piss him off."
Shadow grinned as he walked up to Inuyasha's frozen form and simply took Tetsusaiga. He left behind a business card that said 'Shadow was here' balancing on Inuyasha's nose and formed another line of rings back to the inn. He was about to leave when he got one more idea. He walked over, pulled Shade's Wrath and cut off one of Inuyasha's claws, the pinky claw to be exact. He didn't remove the digit just the claw. He put the bone fragment in a bag and placed it in a zip bag. He was about to leave again when he got another idea.
He laughed evilly as he took Inuyasha's clothes off, threw them into the woods and drew on his body with a marker a bunch of modern cuss words in as many languages he knew. Inuyasha is going to be raving mad. Shadow though to himself as he put makeup on Inuyasha face. He shrugged and buried his morals. He took out a camera and took several photos before leaving back towards the inn via Light Speed Dash. He didn't even need to leave the note for Vash and Alucard. Now he can get some real work done on refining his new mode for Shade's Wrath, soon everyone will meet his fang along with his claw.
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Inuyasha paused in the conversation when he felt something was so very wrong. He looked at his friends and saw them gaping at him. Kagome had turned scarlet and turned away. Sango blushed but she was on the floor laughing her ass off with Shippo. Miroku chuckled. "Well Inuyasha that is some trick." He looked at them in confusion before looking down and turning beat red. With rage or embarrassment, it couldn't be told.
He reached his hand to his side, were he expected to find his weapon. That always calmed him down somewhat. That was when his hand passed through empty air. His eyes jerked to the side and confirmed it. Tetsusaiga was gone. "What...How did this happen." He said, not believing his fathers legacy was gone. In his shock, Kagome had saw his clothes and recovered them. He was getting dressed, still stunned. "What happened?" He muttered as he looked for his weapon. That was when Shippo found a little card.
"Kagome! I found something. What does it say?" He asked as he ran to her, holding the card. Kagome bent down and took the card and read it. "It says 'Shadow was Here'. " It then came to all of them. "SSSHHHHAAADDDDOOOWWWW!!!! I'm going to KILL you!!!!!!"
Ryouga and Chaos heard this just coming back from their 'bath.' Chaos turned to Ryouga. "You know, it is really amazing how Shadow can get so many people pissed off." Ryouga nodded. "Its a gift of his. Should I stop Inuyasha from stomping off after him?" Chaos nodded and Ryouga moved to restrain Inuyasha, who was just about to go berserk and turn Youkai. "I SWEAR!! I'M GOING TO KILL HIM AND PISS ON HIS GRAVE!!!!"
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Shadow sneezed back at the inn, where he was now examining Tetsusaiga, Shade's Wrath and the claw of Inuyasha. He grinned as he wiped his nose. "He must be foaming at the mouth" He said. If he was there watching the chaos he just caused, he would have been right. He shrugged and went back to his computer. On it was a display of the transformed Tetsusaiga. "I'm going to get this, now with the Tetsusaiga." He paused. "Should I give it back when I'm done....nah. I'll just give it to Sesshomaru." He chuckled as he went back to work.
At a nearby bar. Alucard and Vash were drinking and having a good old time. Vash turned to Alucard and saw his strange drink. "Hey, Alu, what are you drinking?" Alucard grinned. "A Bloody Mary. It's my favorite." He then chuckled. Vash was too buzzed to pick up on this. "So what are your plans when you stop traveling with me and Shadow?" Alucard shrugged. "I'll return to England. I heard some guy named Hellsing was searching me out to challenge me" He grinned as he took another drink. "I'm interested, so I'll go. What's the worse that could happen?" Outside thunder rumbled, but Alucard was too drunk to take in this omen.
The two men's good time was interrupted by the next arrival in the bar. Vash grinned as he recognized the people who came in. "Setsuna, Michiru, Haruka! What's up!" The three Senshi stopped, slightly surprised that someone knew them. They didn't recognize Vash outside his Ericks disguise. Setsuna, curious at this walked over. She took a seat next to him. "Do I know you, sir?" Vash grinned and nodded. "I'm so hurt Setsuna! How could you forget me." Haruka rolled her eyes. "Come on, he's just a drunk."
"He knows our names." Michiru replied adjusting her miko robes slightly. Her's looked like a regular one, only the bottoms matched her hair. Haruka wore a males Yakuta while Setsuna wore a more modern offit of slacks and a blouse. Vash grinned. "Of course I know you all. Especially Setsuna. I'm appalled that she would forget the person she danced with at the cafe!"
The three were floored. "Ericks!!!" Setsuna yelled recovering. "What are you doing wearing something like that?" Vash grinned. "The name is Vash, that's my real name. As for the clothes..." He wiggled a finger. "That is a secret" Setsuna sweat dropped at his drunken behavior, so she looked past him. "Who is your friend?" Vash grinned and was about to speak when Alucard did so himself. "The name is Alucard" He was about to say more and Vash whapped him in the back of the head. "There off limits" Alucard, showing that he was a jolly drunk, pouted but nodded. Vash turned to Setsuna. "You don't want to know."
Setsuna nodded. "Have you ran into anyone else?" Vash grinned. "Shadow is at the inn working on a project. We've been heading north for a meeting of the TaiYoukai that rule." Setsuna nodded, trying her best to ignore the fact that Michiru and Haruka just ran off into the direction of the inn. She figures that they are going to justify it by saying they're just checking up on Tails and Hotaru even though Shade is watching them. That made her pause. She's pretty sure Shade would have sensed Shadow's presence, but she put it to the back of her mind as she continued to chat with the man next to her.
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Shadow was still working on his project to upgrade his weapon when the door opened forcibly and he was tackled by a huge moving object. He looked up into a smaller Tiger Shade as he growled at him. "Hey Shade. Nice seeing you" Shade rolled his eyes. "Is that all you can say after disappearing in thin air? I suggest you don't say that when Amy catches up with you or I'm pretty sure she'll kick the crap out of you.
Shadow grinned as his partner got off of him and let him to his feet. "You think she would react that badly?" Shade nodded, "I'm a hundred and twenty percent sure." Shadow chuckled and scratched the back of his head. "So, who have you been traveling with?" Shade walked over to the bed and laid down. "I've been with Hotaru and Tails at first but we met up with Rouge and several of the Senshi." Shadow nodded as he went back to his computer. "Shouldn't you be watching them. I figure Tails and Hotaru would fall for each other like a stack of bricks."
Shade smirked. "They did. I had to leave when they started to make out. Boy was I surprise when I sensed you one floor above us." Shadow grinned. "Its a small world. So where are the others that you traveled with. I sense the Senshi at the bar, but no Rouge." Shade nodded. "She stayed in Orochi's forest. She claimed that she was looking for Knuckles." Shadow nodded...then paused. "You were in Orochi's forest. With your luck, Orochi was probably there powered with chaos fragments." Shade nodded, not even surprised that he figured it out so fast.
"Yeah, that thing was scary. Hotaru was the one to take it out though" Shadow looked up from his computer. "Is Maria okay?" He asked, worried about her. "Oh don't be such a worry wort. She fused her planetary powers with her chaos energies." Shadow sighed in relief. "That should have been enough for her to safely control her powers." He leaned back from the computer and sat against the wall. "Sometimes, I really worry about her when both her father and I are away from her." Shade nodded. "She's really growing up. She and Tails may get together you know?"
Shadow nodded. "Professor and I may just have to give him the 'talk'" Shade sweat dropped at Shadow's raising battle aura. "You know he's a gentlemen. I would have eaten him if he wasn't. You know that." Shadow chuckled and Shade joined him. "I missed you friend." Shadow said. Shade nodded. "Me too, Me too. So I heard you've been pretty ambitious, Lord of the Northern Lands."
Shadow chuckled. "You know. I've been around" Shade grew a glint in his eye. "Are there any cat girls to service me?" He asked with a hint of drool at the edges. "You pervert" Shadow said chuckling. "What!! You shouldn't be surprised, you know me!" Shadow nodded. "I do know you, like how you put that barrier up to keep the horny Haruka and Michiru outside my door?" He said, pointing to the open door where Michiru and Haruka were giving him the saddest pouts. "I'll talk to you later" He said. They nodded and left from the door.
Shadow turned to Shade. "So how fast is your second form" Shade smirked. "I bet I can beat you" Shadow grinned as he put everything away back in subspace. "Lets go, I've haven't had a good run in a long time." Shade nodded and the two jumped out the nearby window outside. Shadow pointed to a mountain off into the east. "All the way up the mountain and back." Shade nodded as his form grew until he was just as tall as Shadow. Shadow stretched and got into a running position. "You ready?" Shade nodded. "GO!"
Both blurred as they took off. Moments later a sonic boom hit the village, shaking many buildings. Shadow grinned as Shade was easily keeping up with him, so he increased his pace and pulled ahead again. "I feel so free!" He yelled running a head through his hair. "Feeling the wind pass through my air and the surroundings blur past me" Shadow was saying this mainly to himself, because they were going so fast, Shade couldn't hear him. "No one can catch me!" Shadow yelled as he increased his pace again when Shade started to push his speed.
His spiked fur began to turn into crystal and angle back, and his form grew compact in order to run through the wind better. Shadow noticed this and increased his pace again, wanting to see how Shade would further change. Soon both run off a cliff, but that didn't bother them. Both Shadow and Shade began running down the massive cliff, their footprints leaving indentations in the Cliffside as they continued running.
By this time most of Shade's fur was a black and red crystal shape slanted back. Shade's fangs grew longer, making him look like a saber-toothed tiger. His tail was now solid living crystal too as it whipped against the surroundings. At the speed he was going, it was putting massive craters in the ground. "COME ON SHADE PUSH IT" Shadow said as he pushed his speed, no longer running on the ground but along the cliff face next to them. Shadow leapt from his spot, and grabbed a vine from a massive tree. His speed was enough for the vine to wrap around the tree and whip him forward like a shooting star.
"You got to become one with your speed. You got to know that you are speed. Nothing can catch you once you do this." Shadow yelled as he increased his speed again, surprisingly, he wasn't destroying anything like Shade was. "Nothing can slow me down, like it is you" Shadow said as Shade went through several trees. He was unharmed, but all that extra resistance was slowing him down. Shadow would just gracefully dodge around the objects, even at times running up the tree trunks, grabbing a vine and whipping himself forward to speed up. He was free like the air and flowing around things like water. At times, Shadow was like his namesake and disappeared within the Shadows.
Shade had changed again, trying to boost his speed. His crystallized fur was no longer spiky but rather it seemed like it was his coat. His stripes were replaced with spots and the fangs disappeared as Shade became smaller, like a cheetah. This change did though, allow another boost of speed. That was when a huge Cliffside came out of nowhere and Shade didn't have enough time to move himself. He slammed into the rock hard enough for cracks to run all the way up.
"You lack control. You let the speed control you" Shadow said easily turning and running ahead. Shade growled as he got up and began running again. "What? Did you think that running is all there is to running. You got to know your surrounding, you got to know how to move, you got to know where you're running too" Came Shadow's voice from ahead. The two came to a dead end, but Shadow just ran up the wall, not even slowing down the last. Shade tried that, but fell back to the ground in a heap.
Shadow looked down from the top of the cliff, having stopped after all this time. "You need to focus" Now that he stopped, it appeared that Shadow went under some changes too. His face, hands and it was assumed that all his body was covered with fine black silky fur. His canines were a bit longer. The TaiYoukai tattoos, where still present on his face though. Shadow was a little shorter, a littler thinner, but the big difference was his hair. His pig-tail had exploded and his hair now looked like Sonic's only black with red highlights, but the difference between Shadow's hair and Sonics was that Shadow's hair was now razor sharp. It even reflected light off of it.
It was nighttime by now, a full moon was out in the sky, and it highlighted over Shadow's profile. The metal of his gloves and shoes caught the moonlight and it made the image of his arms and legs glowing. In fact his whole body was glowing with the moonlight. "Get up Shade and do it again" Shadow said as he waited on top. Shade got to his feet, breathing heavily from all the energy he's been using, running and changing. He tried again, but fell down the Cliffside again and onto the ground. He hissed as he got to his feet and tried again and again. Shade went through another change the further up he went.
The red spots faded away on Shade's black body and again were replaced with red stripes again, only these weren't vertical, but now horizontal. They weren't purely horizontal as they moved across Shade's body in a spiral pattern as if the red was the wind moving in a tornado pattern. "DAMN IT!" Shade roared as he ran up the cliff again. This time he made it all the way up, and launched into the air past Shadow. The cliff shattered into peaces as an even bigger sonic boom impacted the Cliffside. Shadow grinned as Shade went past him and continued running, easily catching up to him. "You're beginning to learn" Shade only responded by upping his speed.
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Akane growled at her savior. She hated him with a passion, but even with the battle dogi, he easily kicked her ass. She was still in the damn Orochi's forest. Every time she would leave the campsite, she would always end up at the same campsite. "Its your fault I'm here" She growled as she snatched a bowl of food away from him. After almost starving to death, she decided to help him get rid of the food. The werewolf sitting across from her only cocked an eyebrow and continued eating
"Its not my fault, you can't find your way out of Orochi forest. You just get lost very easily." She growled again, not scaring him one bit. "You could show me the way out, aren't you worried about the Orochi coming for us??" She yelled. He smirked as he finished his blow. "Oh shut up. The Orochi was defeated several days ago. Its sealed in a nearby lake. After all the damage it took it won't be waking up for a long time."
Akane only stared at him. "You knew, and you didn't tell me!! You bastard!!" She charged him only to see darkness again. She woke up on the ground as he sat in a tree above her, craving something in his hands. "Your skills get worse and worse every day. You don't adapt" She growled as she kicked the tree he was at, the tree shook with her massive struck, but it didn't knock the werewolf off his post. "You see. You lack control too"
Akane's face turned red with anger. "Shut up! I'm a martial artist. You can't do anything I can do!" His smirk only got bigger as he jumped out the tree, his fist heading right for Akane's head. Her eyes widened as he fell towards her, but she got her senses together to jump out the way. "EARTH TSUNAMI!!" The werewolf yelled as his fist hit the ground. In every direction, the earth rose out the ground, like a real tidal wave and engulfed everything for miles. Akane tried running, but she too was swallowed up by the earth. The last thing she heard before darkness hit her was the werewolf's laugh.
She awoke to find herself buried up to her neck in the ground. Her anger dead a painful death when she looked up to find a massive hole in the ground that appeared to go for miles. "He did this with one punch?" She shuddered when she realized that had he hit her like this, she'll most likely be a bloodstain on the ground. Her thoughts were interrupted when a shadow appeared over her. She glanced up to see the werewolf staring at her with a neutral expression.
"This is my strength. It comes from my heart. Its power allows me to hold the world one handed where Atlas would struggle. My strength, my power all comes from my heart and my heart is invincible. Can you say that your heart allows you the same strength? Do not say you are strong, because you are weak. Do not taint my strength by saying you have the same. You need to grow up girl and learn what it means to be truly strong" With that the werewolf dug his hand into the ground and easily pulled Akane out the ground before walking away. Akane stared at the massive hole in the ground as it began to fill with water from an underground stream. She took one last look before turning and following the werewolf.
Read and Review
A/N: The plot thickens, eh. Oh yeah. Go read the Evangelion Story "Speed" I heard it was based off of mine. It involves Shinji Ikari as Shadow and Cream as a romantic interest. Many people have asked. Where the hell is Eggman? I only have to say, not yet, not yet. A cookie goes to the people who can tell what series, The President's Killer comes from. Oh and you've been given a major clue as to who the werewolf is.