Chapter four
True to his word Shadow had stayed in knothole for the next six days. Amy was less than her usual
cheery self today. Shadow was getting a little concerned. Not only was Amy in a sombre mood but no
one had heard or seen anything of who or whatever had kidnapped Tirza. Needless to say Shadow was
a bit edgy today. He and Amy were having a small argument over who would watch Tirza for the next
hour or so when alarms rang out. " What the! Amy go find Tirza and Cream then go to Keira's hut!
Hurry!"
Even with all the panic going on Amy couldn't help but think just how good Shadow looked. Today
she had finnally talked him into not hiding his left arm. She thought it just made him look more tough
and cute. Regaining her senses she rounded up everyone she was supposed to and ran in the direction
Shadow had gone. When she found Shadow her heart nearly stopped. Shadow was facing off with
himself! Amy looked on as the two black and red hedgehogs stayed at a standstill. After looking
closely she could tell wich one was Shadow. The other hedgehog was red where Shadow was black
and black where Shadow was red. His eyes were a bright yellow, unlike Shadow's red ones. She was
amazed, even though it's colors were switched it was easy, even for her, to confuse it with Shadow.
The first thought that had entered Shadow's mind was 'Lord help us, he cloned me.' Now he
was facing off against himself, copied, and had no idea what to expect. He never thought Robotnik
actually could clone him. Back when he fell from space following the ARK incident Robotnik found him
first. The evil, so called 'genius', had entered Gerald's database on Shadow and found that there was
a ninety percent probability of the ultimate life surviving such conditions. Everyone else had given him
up for dead. Robotnik was looking to kill him before he recovered, because one: if Shadow had
followed through with his plan it would have killed Robotnik along with everyone else. and two:
Robotnik wouldn't stand for Sonic and Shadow to be against him. Anyway long story-short Robotnik
and Shadow ended up in a stale mate. If either had taken any more hits they probably would've died.
Robotnik had slowly raised a gun, pointed at Shadow's downed form and made a deal. It hadn't
seemed so bad at the time, a vail of his blood was to dropped of at Robotnik's place in exchange for
Robotnik not pulling the trigger. The deal had been made. Robotnik got the vial of blood when doing so
wouldn't further endanger Shadow's life (meaning when he actually had some to spare.) and Shadow
had found Sonic. How was he to know that ten years later the robotics expert would find a way to
clone him? So here he was facing his clone in the middle of Knothole when Amy comes up behind him.
All of his attention was on the clone, he didn't dare glance back at Amy. He was nervous, he had no
idea what to expect. Would this clone tap into chaos energy like he did? Could he beat it with one good
arm? He slowly called chaos energy into his right hand, as he felt the familiar tingling of it the clone
pulled out a two way radio. There were no douts as to who had the other radio, Robotnik did. Shadow
quickly fried the radio using a well aimed Chaos Spear. The clone cursed as he jerked his hand away
from the remains of the radio. It then took off running somewhere near what Sonic's top speed had
been. Shadow cursed and took off as well, thanking Gerald for the gift of superior speed. He had
always been one step ahead of Sonic as far as speed was concerned and he sure needed speed now.
He had to stop Robotnik from finding out the location of Knothole. A few seconds later Shadow got in
front of the clone causing another stand off. " Very good Shadow, you are as fast as they say. But
then I am you also. Everyone around Knothole seems to fear you. I had no trouble getting in because no
one dares to bother you. " " Who are you!" Shadow shot back. " My name is Daemon. My mission is to
kill you alone. Giving Master Robotnik the location of Knothole Village, primary resistance force and
largest remaining city, is just a bonus. But you don't want me to tell him do you? Or do you not even
care? " Shadow swore under his breath. " You know, since you're a created being like myself I'll
make a deal with you. Frankly Master Robotnik makes me angry, if you agree to a fight with me I will
forget to tell Robotnik the location of Knothole unless I beat you." " Why don't we fight now and get
it over with?" Shadow asked in a deadly tone. " Because if my calculations are correct Sonic should be
showing up today. I'd like to see Knothole's original hero in a duel with Robotnik after I beat you." "
You're willing to risk Knothole still resisting Robotnik even if I lose! " " Knothole is nothing to me. I
must beat you to prove I'm better than you to Robotnik! " Their discussion was interupted as a hole
was ripped through the fabric of time. Daemon smiled wickedly as Sonic fell unconcious at his feet. In
an instant Daemon was holding Sonic with a large knife to his throat. " So what is it Shadow? Leave a
possible defense for Knothole if you lose or should I just kill him now? " " What are the terms of the
fight? " Shadow asked warily. Daemon smiled again. " It is just you and me. No witnesses. The one
left alive wins. " " I agree to your terms. " Shadow said gravely. " Excellent. Be at the Mystic Ruins
field at sundown in one week. I'll see you there Shadow. Don't forget, I'm you, so I'll be around." As
Daemon left Sonic suddenly fell to the ground. Scooping him up Shadow swore again. " I forgot how
heavy you are Sonic. I can't win this fight with just one arm. . . And Daemon knows it." Shadow failed
at ignoring the pain in his roboticized arm and had to lay Sonic on the ground and use Chaos Control to
get them both back to Knothole.