Here's the next chapter for you all to enjoy and ...do some other word that also starts with 'en' so that it rhymes.
Oh man, I just have to say - you guys are going to HATE me for this! Why? You'll see.
You read fic now.
Disclaimer: Authoress does not own Sonic
Claimer: Authoress owns (among other things) Raven, the Fount of Light, Eclipse, and a mega-sized pile of manga
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Tails had never been to the Colony Control Room - he'd attacked the power generators when Sonic had been heading there, the first time they'd been to the ARK - but he wondered if it didn't look too different in real life.
There were several big doors that opened to the room - the shiny things right outside were definitely non-ARK material - and there was a central pillar thing where the controls were located.
To get to said controlling pillar, one had to traverse the many suspended platforms over the otherwise floorless room.
Below the platforms, several large, 2-D holographic maps circled the center of the room. They all seemed to be maps of a planet from space, but otherwise they weren't really displaying any sort of data.
But that wasn't the strangest part.
No, the strangest part was that standing right by the keyboard was a small figure. A familiar figure. And one that Tails only just now realized had been missing from their group for a while now.
Little Shadow.
The young hedgehog's expression was mild, almost uninterested. Even as the nasty black monster of darkness entered the room through another of the doors - and when Sonic and Big Shadow burst in through a third - the dark gray hedgehog barely seemed to notice his visitors.
-"What the heck's goin' on here!" Tails heard Sonic demand as he spotted Young Shadow waiting for them.
"Is this the last pathetic defense you fools thought to stop me with?" the monster of darkness hissed, clearly amused.
"Oh no," Sonic snapped, changing from shocked to determined in a split-second, "I won't let you dribble even the littlest bit of your booger-ness on those controls!"
Shadow moved to stand with him, even though the black hedgehog was already tired and sore - not to mention really confused by what his memory/self was doing here ahead of them.
Growling in delight, the monster lunged for them.
There was a shout, from a doorway behind Tails. And the voice sounded suspiciously like -
"FLY, RAVEN!" Knuckles bellowed, whirling around and hurling the white - not to mention crazed - hedgehog in question at the monster like a champion discus thrower.
And that's just what Knuckles was, apparently. Raven curled into a spinning ball, increasing his speed in midair as he impacted the icky monster head-first.
In slow motion, the spinning ball of white-and-silver quills dug into the monster's gooey body, cutting it almost in half.
"You think I will fall for this trick twice!" the monster roared, and jerked itself around.
Amazingly - not to mention unfortunately - Raven was thrown clear of the body while the wound melted away again. Just like all the other times Tails or any of the others had injured it.
"When is that THING ever going to run out of energy!" Knuckles growled.
Tails twisted his tails around and took to the air, just in time to avoid a stray black tentacle smashing into his previous position. Things looked even worse with the bird's-eye-view, though.
The monster was batting away all attackers with its tentacles before their attacks could hit. It wasn't making any attacks of its own - aside from the odd attempted-tentacle-smashing of anyone who wasn't moving fast enough.
"That jerk," Tails said to himself, "He's waiting until we get too tired to defend ourselves before he finishes us off! Oh, if there was only some way to fix this…"
The kitsune's eye landed on the controls.
…Well, didn't the ARK have internal defense systems?
Going slowly so that the darkness monster wouldn't take notice of him, Tails flew over to where the controls stood, completely deserted - except for Little Shadow.
And when Tails had almost reached the pillar, he hit an invisible wall. It blocked the entire pillar from the rest of the control room. Landing, he tried to push through it but got nowhere.
Not even the sudden addition of Knuckles' fist to his pushing did any good.
Little Shadow, meanwhile, barely gave them a glance before turning back to watch the unfolding battle.
"Hey!" Tails cried, "Can you hear me in there?"
Upon realizing that he was being addressed - which took another minute - Little Shadow looked at him.
There was barely any recognition on the young hedgehog's face.
"Of course I can," Little Shadow replied, his tone cold.
"Okay," Tails said, "Um, so can you help us get past this wall that's here?"
"…I could," Little Shadow said.
"And will you?" Knuckles inquired.
"No."
"But why not? We need to use the controls to try and save our friends," Tails protested.
He got a blink in response. Then…
"You don't deserve to get any help."
"What do you mean by 'deserve', you little -" Knuckles began.
"You're all insignificant," Little Shadow interrupted, "Even them. Even HIM. I will learn more from watching you destroy one another than from anything else."
"…What are you?" Tails gasped.
"Don't you know?"
Little Shadow looked quite amused now.
"I suppose not…but I believe your kind calls me something like, 'The Fount of Light'."