And now we start achieving longer chapters. Nice, very nice...
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Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog
Claimer: Stuff I invented belongs to me
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"Hello... Hey, Shadow! Shadow...I'm talking to you, Shadow...anybody home? Shaaaadooow..."
When that drew no response, Sonic resorted to slightly more drastic measures. Besides, it wasn't like Shadow wasn't asking for it anyway, right? Zoning out on them like this...
"Attention Faker: Earth to Faker, come in Faker."
That drew an immediate glare from Shadow. If there was one thing Shadow couldn't stand, Sonic had learned early on, it was being called a fake. Sonic wasn't certain why this was so, but he wasn't going to strain himself trying to figure it out. It probably wasn't any of his business anyway.
"For the hundredth time, Sonic, stop calling me that. You know I hate it," Shadow growled, emphasizing Sonic's point.
Sonic grinned in response.
"And that's why I keep using it," the blue hedgehog pointed out, unapologetic, "Besides, nothing else was working! I've been talking at you for the last ten minutes and you still look like your brain's a million miles away! Is something up, or what?"
Shadow hesitated, then shook his head. Sonic didn't believe him for an instant. In the interest of speeding up the conversation, however, Sonic chose not to press the issue.
"Anyway, what I've been asking you is if whether you wanted to come out with me and Tails. Tails wants to go pick up some things, and I figured it might be interesting to walk around for a while..."
"You? Walk?"
Their positions had reversed: now it was Sonic glaring at Shadow, while Shadow smirked in response.
"I do walk on occasion, yeah," Sonic said, "Besides, knowing Tails he's probably going to buy something too heavy to carry or fly home, and I'll need to go help out anyway..."
"Hey! That only happened once!"
Tails stuck his head inside the room, frowning, and Sonic shrugged. Shadow remained quiet on the sidelines, watching what was apparently a familiar scene play out.
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Shadow eventually agreed to come along, and the three of them headed out. They had only just gotten into the city when the rumbled underneath their feet. Up ahead, a column of smoke shot into the sky, and the sounds of crumbling concrete and shattering glass were loud in the wake of the roar of whatever had just exploded.
"...What just happened?!"
Before anyone could even begin to think of an answer to Sonic's question, there was a sudden squealing of tires. Sonic, Shadow, and Tails had to leap out of harm's way when car spun off the road and onto the sidewalk right where they were standing. Other cars in the road were also skidding to sudden halts, their drivers veering and screeching and crashing as they tried to get out of the way of something.
The white blur that shot down the road with blistering speed was probably the cause. Almost a minute later, police cars were barreling down the road in its' wake. Only a few of the police cars were stopping to check on the people in the cars that had ended up crashing, but luckily no one on this particular stretch of road was much worse than being badly shaken up.
Sonic shook his head, coming back to his senses.
"Oi! What are we standing around for? We gotta get moving, guys!"
"...You want us to chase...whatever it was that caused this?" Shadow blinked.
"I doubt those police cars are going to be able to keep up with something that fast," Sonic pointed out, "And this did just ruin our entire day, right Tails?"
"We can't let somebody this destructive just run around causing chaos!" Tails agreed, "C'mon! Let's get going!"
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They chased after the police cars, hoping to figure out where the strange blur was going so that they could cut it off before it got much farther away. Sonic neatly solved that problem by inquiring at one of the cars - although he nearly gave the officers inside a heart attack when he knocked on the window to get their attention - and they learned that the police were attempting to chase the mysterious city-wrecker into a trap.
It must have been successful, because by the time that Sonic, Shadow, and Tails caught up, the strange white blur was just entering a wide five-way intersection with large equipment and tanks blocking every exit. Sonic still bolted ahead and tackled the blur to the ground for good measure.
"That'll teach you! Better give up now, before I need to get serious!" Sonic declared as he sprang back to where Shadow and Tails had skidded to a halt.
The blur hit the ground, bounced once - and then jumped to land on the top of a streetlight, apparently not fazed at all.
"Oh, I don't think I'll be giving up anytime soon, fool..."
The blur had turned out to be a hedgehog. And not just any hedgehog...Sonic and Tails openly gaped. This hedgehog looked almost identical to Shadow - the same face, the same set of gear...even the strange hedgehog's quills flared in the same way that Shadow's did. But where Shadow had black fur, this hedgehog had pure white fur. Where Shadow had red eyes and red stripes, this hedgehog had unnatural metallic silver eyes and stripes. And where Shadow had a white ruff of fur on his chest, this hedgehog had a black ruff of fur.
In a weird sense of deja vu, this hedgehog was tossing a Chaos Emerald casually in one hand, much the same way that Shadow had tossed one when he and Sonic had first met face-to-face. This Chaos Emerald, they slowly realized, looked extremely identical to the one currently on display in a museum right in the area of the city that had just been blown sky-high.
The biggest difference, however, was the look on the hedgehog's face. Even when he had fought against Sonic and the others, Shadow had never looked so...so utterly malevolent. This hedgehog had caused a huge mess, hurt a lot of people - and he'd clearly enjoyed doing so.
From out of the corner of his eye, Sonic could just see Shadow's face turn from confusion, to surprise, and then to shock - right as this Shadow-lookalike jumped off the streetlight and came skating over for a closer look.
When the Shadow-lookalike came to a stop a foot in front of Shadow, Sonic found himself noticing that the lookalike was a bit larger than Shadow.
"I did warn you," the lookalike was saying, leaning in closer - while Shadow was leaning away in response, "Don't say that I didn't. Honestly, did you really think that that would have been the last you'd see of me?"
Shadow grimaced.
"...Must have been wishful thinking on my part," the black hedgehog answered after another moment.
In reply, the white hedgehog laughed.
"...Hey! Just who do you think you are, anyway!" Sonic snapped out, trying to get past just how weird it was for this Shadow-lookalike to be here.
The white hedgehog turned his gaze in Sonic's direction. He seemed to be sizing up the blue hedgehog...
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That was about when the tanks started advancing.
"ATTENTION, UNIDENTIFIED HEDGEHOG!" came a sudden voice, projected out from a megaphone, "THE ONE WITH THE EMERALD! DO NOT MOVE OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE! SURRENDER YOURSELF IMMEDIATELY!"
"Hmm? I'd forgotten about these weaklings..." the white hedgehog muttered.
He shot towards the nearest tank without any other warning. The tank barely had enough time to stop before a large, messy hole was torn right through it. In the course of a minute, the remaining tanks met identical fates. And then the white hedgehog was back in front of their group again.
"I suppose that would serve for a decent introduction," the white hedgehog said, grinning wildly and waving the hand holding the Chaos Emerald at the ruined vehicles, "Do you still want to fight me? Do you? Do you really?"
"Grrrr...shut up!"
When Sonic darted at the strange white hedgehog, fully intending to take him down before anyone else got hurt, he certainly wasn't expecting the hedgehog to retaliate using the Chaos Emerald. But that was just what he did: the white hedgehog did...something, Sonic wasn't exactly sure what. Whatever it was, it released a powerful shockwave that sent everything in the intersection reeling - including Sonic.
And while Sonic was on the ground, the white hedgehog stepped over him and walked calmly over to where Shadow was similarly prone.
"I thought...we'd gotten rid of you," Shadow managed as the white hedgehog dragged him back to his feet.
"Obviously, you failed. Not that that's anything new for you...isn't that right, my dear little brother?"
Sonic and Tails could both feel their eyes bugging out at this casual declaration. This guy...was Shadow's brother?!
"Luckily for you, I've been needing someone at your limited level. You are going to help me finish what I started - now won't that be so much fun? Just like old times!"
Before Shadow could answer, the white hedgehog planted his fist into Shadow's gut. Shadow dropped like a rock. The white hedgehog grabbed Shadow's prone form by the arm, turned his head to meet Sonic's gaze - and grinned unpleasantly.
"Lest I forget...the name's Raven, Ultimate Life Form - and don't you forget it!"
With a hearty laugh and a brilliant flash of light, Raven warped out using the Chaos Emerald - taking Shadow with him.
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Ugh...that took longer than I thought to edit...