I took a day off school today, seeing as I had no exams, and used some of the time writing a nice long chapter for u all to enjoy!
Chapter 21
Knuckles was slowly coming round. He blinked as his vision began to focus. He groaned and could taste the blood in his mouth.
"Aaaaw man…" he said to himself, slowly pushing himself up.
There was a slight pain in his back and around his side. He looked there and saw that quite a large bruise, similar to Ray's, beginning to show. As he felt the pain he remembered what happened.
"Damn you Eggman!" he cursed.
He put his hand on the cliff wall for support and began to lift himself up to his feet. Just then he felt something lodged in the cliff. Knuckles blinked and turned his head to see what the thing was.
He gasped as he saw that it was the last abandoned chaos emerald.
"An emerald!" he thought. "I have to get this to Shadow…"
He took a hold of the gem and pulled. His cliff was no match for Knuckles' strength and bits of the wall, around the emerald, began to chip away. Eventually, the emerald was pulled free.
"Alright!" Knuckles whispered to himself.
He turned to see if he could spot Shadow or Ray but what he did see gave him a shock.
He saw the Egg-Destroyer 3000 just a few feet away. It had Sonic in its grasp but Knuckles could see that Sonic was unconscious.
"Where are you Shadow! Come out come out wherever you are!" Eggman was yelling through the loudspeakers, in an insane tone of voice.
…
Shadow lay helplessly, unable to move without Ray. He frantically carried on trying to wake up his son.
"Come on Ray! Wake up for me!" he said in Ray's ear.
He rubbed Ray's back quicker to try and bring out any remaining blood. Just then, some of the trees that were sheltering the two hedgehogs broke apart. Shadow quickly looked up and saw Eggman with his humongous machine standing there. The Egg-Destroyer 3000 was holding back the trees with its free hand.
"There you are!" Eggman yelled in a dark tone.
He laughed maliciously.
Shadow snarled, trying to keep on a brave face.
"Stay back Eggman!" he yelled a little shakily.
"What can you do Shadow? You're left all alone now! There's nothing to stand in my way of killing both you and your weakling of a son right here, right now!" came Eggman's sneer of a reply.
"Oh yeah!" came a voice from the woods.
Shadow blinked as he saw Knuckles jump out from the trees. He threw an almighty punch down on the Egg-Destoryer 3000's foot, yelling to get his anger out of his system. The punch was surprisingly powerful and dented the robot's foot quite a way.
The robot staggered back a little, obviously feeling the damage.
"GAAAAH! Fool! How dare you!" Eggman yelled.
Just then Ray suddenly began to cough again. Shadow blinked and began to rub Ray's back.
"Ray can you hear me?" Shadow said.
Ray gagged and coughed up a small amount of blood. Shadow lifted him up a bit and saw him nodding slowly. An urge to cough in Ray's chest had woken him up.
Shadow sighed.
Knuckles stood just in front of them, breathing heavily. He began to wave the pain from his hand.
"That armour's strong…" he said.
"Thanks Knuckles. Are you alright?" Shadow said.
"Apart from the pain in my hand I'm fine!" Knuckles replied.
He turned to Shadow and held out the emerald.
"By the way, look what I found."
Shadow took the empty emerald.
"The seventh emerald!" he said faintly.
Just then the Egg-Destroyer 3000 began to loosen its grip on Sonic. He was dangerously high up and already had injuries to his chest so a fall would most likely kill him.
Shadow blinked.
"Wait here!" he said and quickly jumped up. He threw the emerald to Knuckles and ran. Sonic began to fall toward the ground head first.
Eggman laughed again.
"I guess Sonic will be the first to go!" he screamed madly.
As Sonic was falling, Shadow zoomed out of the trees and jumped high in the air.
"What!" Eggman yelled as he saw Shadow soar.
Shadow grabbed Sonic's body and landed safely on the ground.
"No one's going anywhere Eggman!" Shadow yelled and ran back into the trees, carrying Sonic in his arms.
Eggman's yells of frustration could be heard as Shadow reached Ray and Knuckles.
"Follow me. We'll have to sort ourselves out a bit first before we can get rid of him." Shadow whispered.
He ran, with Sonic, deeper into the forest. Knuckles quickly picked up the rest o fthe emeralds and, along with Ray, hastily followed.
They disappeared from Eggman's sight, moving further and further into the forest. Eventually, they reached a small yet secret clearing.
Shadow lay Sonic on the ground whilst Ray and Knuckles caught up. Knuckles put the emeralds on the ground, just behind Shadow.
"Sonic can you hear me?" Shadow called.
Shadow noticed terrible bruising around Sonic's middle. He also had blood around his mouth. He groaned as he was beginning to come round. His eyes opened slowly and Shadow could see that they were bloodshot. Sonic took hold of Shadow's shoulder and used it to push himself upright.
But as he did so he yelped harshly in pain and grabbed his middle. However he ignored this pain and didn't lie down again.
"What…What happened?" Sonic said quietly and sounding quite dazed.
"That robot thing almost crushed you to death." Shadow answered.
"Then he dropped you. But Shadow saved you." Knuckles said.
Sonic's eyelids fluttered as he tried to figure out where he was. Ray sat down, slowly so that he didn't have another coughing urge.
"What are we gonna do now? We have the emeralds but we can't fight like this!" he moaned.
"Yes I know…" Shadow said.
He sighed and looked at the emeralds behind him.
"You're…the only one…" Sonic spoke quietly.
Shadow turned around.
"I can't…do it Shadow…and…even if Ray could…he's-"
"in the same boat as you." Shadow finished.
Sonic nodded.
"It's…up to you…" he said.
Shadow looked a little perplexed. Last time he'd used the emeralds he'd lost all power and nearly died.
"But…I can't do this alone!" Shadow insisted. "I only just made it last time. I don't know why I lost my powers back then but…what if it happens again? None of you would be able to help."
"It won't…" Sonic answered. "All of…the power will…be used by…you. I'd already…used the emeralds before…we met-"
"Back when we were fighting Chaos." Knuckles said. "He used the emeralds then in pretty much the same way as you'd do now."
"Right…" Sonic said. "I was more…used to their powers…so I had no problems…"
Shadow began to understand.
"So know I'm more used to their powers, I should be able to withstand and control them!" he said.
Just then the ground began to shake slightly and explosions could be heard from the distance.
"I'll find you tyrants! You can't hide from me forever!" Eggman yelled from afar.
The Egg-Destroyer 3000 was destroying all that lay before it, in order to help Eggman find Shadow and the others quicker.
"He's getting closer!" Ray yelped.
Shadow closed his eyes and sighed.
"Alright Sonic…I'll do it." He said.
The emeralds began to shine and glow, their colours returning to them. The each began to hover into the air.
"Their powers are back!" Ray said.
"It's Shadow's courage." Knuckles explained. "Even though he fears defeat he's willing to battle Eggman to the death. That takes a lot and it's enough positive feeling to revive the emeralds."
Shadow stepped back slightly from Sonic, who was still sitting on the ground, and closed his eyes, letting the emeralds come to him. They began to circle Shadow's body. They soon span faster and faster and as they did sparks of colour danced. Shadow could feel the sheer power flowing into him.
A golden aura slowly encapsulated Shadow.
Shadow clenched his fists as the aura become brighter. Then the light flashed extremely brightly. Ray and Knuckles shielded their eyes and Sonic closed his eyes and moved his face away from the blinding light.
As the light dimmed, Ray moved his arm away and gasped as he saw his father in, literally, a completely different light.
Shadow hovered just before him, now a beautiful golden shade. His fur flew in the wind and he looked magnificent with power.
Super Shadow saw the bewildered look on his son's face and smiled.
Then in a flash of bright light and sparks, Super Shadow disappeared.