Destructive Lust Reborn
By TrebleX
Chapter 6: Hedgehog Rivalry
The blue and black streaks dashed towards each other in mid-air, both extremely focused on their opponent. As Sonic thrust right fist forwards, Shadow twisted his body slightly and caused the fist to merely graze his cheek. With that he then brought his heel to smash down against Sonic's spinal chord, making the blue hedgehog collapse heavily onto the metal floor. The black hedgehog then leaped down to him, throwing another fist downwards towards Sonic, though he quickly lunged up in return and knocked Shadow backwards a little, before he also moved back and got into a cautious fighting stance.
Without a word of warning, Shadow quickly lunged forwards again and powered his fists up with chaos energy, making them move faster and hit harder. Sonic in return reared up a fist, getting ready to hit Shadow as soon as he was within striking range. This idea was cancelled out however, as just before entering his striking range, Shadow seemingly just vanished into thing air. Chaos control was easy for him to carry out now, so he re-appeared behind Sonic and unleashed a flurry of punches into his opponent's back. Sonic cried out in pain, each hit seeming to echo out a crack of the bones, before the final hit was delivered, sending him reeling forwards and smashing into a wall.
Sonic was already greatly weakened, and he could only conjour up the strength to get to his hands and knees. Shadow narrowed his eyes at this futile attempt to get back up, walking over and raising his foot into Sonic's stomach. The blue hedgehog groaned in pain as he was launched aside, before landing in a heap a few feet from his original place. "Hmph, pathetic faker. You're just as easy as that echidna was to kill." Shadow stated, still a dark grin playing upon his lips. Sonic's eyes widened immediately at this statement.
"Echidna...killed? You...you killed Knuckles!?" Sonic yelled out angrily, turning his head to glare at Shadow as his spines flared upwards.
"Yes, I think that was his name. Why, have a problem?"
"You...why you!" Sonic growled, yellow streaks beginning to form in the center of his spines before spreading outwards. This rage was effecting him, he was turning super without even having the chaos emeralds in his grasp. Sonic's eyes gained a dark crimson hue as a yellow flame surrounded him, completing the transformation as he slowly got to his feet once again.
Shadow furrowed a brow, hoping that now he might get a little more entertainment out of the other hedgehog. With a simple snap of his fingers, a golden flame surrounded Shadow as he became hyper using the chaos energy stored with him. With a sudden burst of power, he launched upwards through the roof and tore a hole straight through it, hovering high up in the air as he awaited Super Sonic to follow. Super Sonic did so, also tearing a hole straight through the roof of the base with great ease before stopping and hovering opposite Hyper Shadow, about level with him.
"I hope you're ready to die, faker." Hyper Shadow said darkly, dashing forwards.
"You'll pay for what you did to Knuckles!" Super Sonic yelled back, his voice full of anger as he also launched himself forwards with amazing velocity.
The two of them collided powerfully, sending out a wave of pure power from the collision. The seemingly fireballs of gold and silver continued beating against each other heavily, the silver slowly beginning to show it had the upper hand. Super Sonic was slowly but surely being pushed back by this amazing force Shadow had, how was he supposed to beat him? For now he didn't know, so he continued trying to send Shadow back instead, sweating a little from the effort. Shadow smirked a little though, suddenly retracting his right hand and then smashing it into the opponent's stomach. Super Sonic was winded and suddenly exhaled heavily, sent reeling away a little. Using chaos control yet again, Hyper Shadow vanished and re-appeared behind Super Sonic as he was still flying backwards from the force. A moment before the two of them would of collided, he rose slightly and brought a heel down onto Super Sonic's chest, and then another, and another. He did it repeatedly, beating down on Super Sonic's chest and bringing him down to the ground. When close enough, he delivered the final kick which sent Super Sonic through another wall of the pyramid and into yet another electronic filled room. The searing pain caused him to fall out of super form, and he returned to his normal blue self, laying there barely able to move. Hyper Shadow flew in after him and landed a few feet away, about to finish him off when something happened.
When Sonic had been knocked into the room, he must of hit a switch of some sort, as a recorded video message appeared on the screen. "Maria..." Shadow whispered to himself, returning to his normal dark furred self as she appeared on the screen.
"Shadow, I hope this message can somehow get through to you. I beg of you Shadow, protect the people of the planet, and let them be happy, it's all I ask of you. I'm sorry we won't be together anymore Shadow, but I'll always love you." Maria said to the camera, before there was the sound of bullets firing and the camera turned itself off.
"Maria...no..what have I done?" Shadow whispered solemnly, raising his hands before himself and looking at them. "I'm sorry, Maria...but, but I'll put it all right. Just watch me." With that, Shadow raised both of his hands into the air, and the chaos energy sparked violently from between them. To grant Maria's wish, he was sacrificing all the power he had gained. Suddenly a garish beam shot upwards from him and began to spread into a large sphere, slowly crossing the entire world. "Chaos Reverse!" Shadow called out, this was like Chaos Control, but it didn't transfer where he stood. No...this could turn back the hands of time, which it did.
Yes, it had worked, and only two people could remember that future which now was the past. Himself, and Sonic because of the rage he had felt. They were back at the point just after the ARK had been stopped from colliding with Earth, and Shadow was once more falling through space. Perhaps he was going to be left to die again, but he had completed his mission, so he would allow it to happen if necessary. That wasn't though, because Super Sonic still with his ability raced downwards as fast as he could. He didn't want Knuckles to have to die, and he just about managed to catch Shadow in his arms. Yes, he was weakened terribly, but he would survive. He'd guessed the reason for all that killing before was that Shadow felt betrayed, being left to die, so he didn't make that same mistake again.
Super Sonic once more flew up to the ARK, landing on the deck and walking in with Shadow in his arms. The others crowded around quickly. "Shadow...will he, be okay?" Rouge asked with some concern, raising her gaze from Shadow's flagging body to meet with Sonic's eyes.
"I hope so." Was all that Sonic replied with, not mentioning about what would of happened if he left Shadow to fall. The black hedgehog amazingly though, already managed to shift a little and open his eyes weakly.
"I'm...alive?" Shadow asked curiously, slowly moving to his feet as Sonic let him down. Rouge suddenly ran forwards and wrapped her arms around Shadow.
"You're okay!" She exclaimed happily, but then quickly stepping back a bit and blushing, realising what she was doing. Shadow gave a slight laugh and then grinned a little at Sonic, who returned the grin. They both remembered all that had happened perfectly, but neither ever spoke a word of it to anyone else.