Shadow Adventure: Chaos in Time
Disclaimer: I don't own the Sonic the Hedgehog game series.

Chapter One: Escape From the City

What Shadow the Hedgehog wouldn't give for a Chaos Emerald right then, as he and Vector the Crocodile were running for their lives from an insane amount of water that was coming from the sewers, the building, and even the sky.

"We have to speed up, we're going downhill now!" exclaimed Vector. Shadow scowled. It was true, in a few moments, the two would be going downhill. There was no way they could possibly survive. Unless…

Shadow looked ahead of them. Right before the leap, were two remained, unexploded manholes. It was almost too perfect. Shadow had a fleeting memory.

"Shadow, looks like there was a fork in the river of evil green goo! Hey, you went the wrong way!"

"Charmy, the disk is right there."

"But that way looked like a water slide!"

"Vector, as soon as you get to the manhole cover, stay on it!" yelled Shadow, activating the air shoes and speeding up to get to the manhole ahead of Vector, who was bug eyed.

"Are you NUTS?" yelled the crocodile, staying on the manhole cover nonetheless. He closed his eyes and waited to be consumed by the water as he heard a loud crash… Instead, he felt a flying feeling. Looking down, Vector realized he was in the air, on the manhole cover, and steadily heading down to the top of the surface of the flooding water.

"Hah!" Shadow soon joined Vector in the air, both manhole covers falling towards the water. "I hope you know how to not fall off."

Vector didn't reply, as his manhole cover hit the water and he was trying to keep his balance, using his tail when he almost lost it. Shadow, meanwhile, was on his manhole cover and having no trouble at all. Of course, he had experience.

"So…" muttered Vector, having gotten himself positioned in a way so that he wouldn't fall off. "This is just great. I don't remember any floods like this… Well, except that one, but Knuckles told me that Super Sonic was there, and I don't see him so…"

Shadow had no response. He wasn't freed from the military base for another month from the time he was in now, he wouldn't know about anything from a past where he hadn't been released yet. To the outside world, he did not exist.

'… Could I stop Eggman from freeing me?' mused Shadow. He immediately disregarded the idea. 'No, if I did that, no one would fight the Biolizard, which would find it's way to life even if I wasn't there, and Super Sonic wouldn't be able to take down the Biolizard's second form without me even if he did beat it…'

"Shadow, watch where you're going!" yelled Vector, interrupting Shadow's thoughts. The black hedgehog looked up and nearly hit a streetlight post, but thanks to experience, he managed to barely dodge it. Shadow sighed in relief and Vector chuckled. "That was a close one Shadow! Be more careful!"

Just then, a golden… Something, flew past Shadow and Vector, not looking back. This caused the two to almost topple of their manhole covers, but at that moment another manhole cover landed in between them, which they both grabbed as the water began to slow.

"That… Was Super Sonic." said Vector breathlessly, looking back as the water lowered. Pieces of road and buildings were sticking out of the water in odd places, and the manhole cover Vector and Shadow were on was heading for some broken road.

"So this is that flood you were talking about?" asked Shadow, getting onto the broken road and shaking the water off him in one quick shiver, like dogs did. Vector just got out of the water and looked at his furry companion.

"Yeah… Which means the Chaos Emeralds are probably nearby…" murmured Vector.

"Don't forget, those won't be our Chaos Emeralds." replied Shadow darkly. "Our Chaos Emeralds were tainted by that other emerald Black Doom threw into the Chaos Control."

"Oh… Right." replied Vector, looking in the distance, over the water, where some sort of giant form of water was battling Super Sonic. But something odd was happening. "Shadow, we should get out of here."

"Why?" asked the black hedgehog, looking in the direction Vector was looking in. He didn't see anything wrong.

And then the tentacles came. Hundreds of them, of the same liquid that the creature facing Super Sonic was made of. They began flapping around, hitting the remaining buildings and causing destruction. As Vector turned to look behind him, a tentacle shot up from underneath the ground, directly under Shadow.

"Shadow!" exclaimed Vector, eyes wide as Shadow was flung into the air and began falling into the water, when another tentacle hit him, throwing him uphill, towards the monster and Super Sonic. Vector dove into the water and began swimming.

---

A lone figure ran as if it's life depended on it. Well, it's life did depend on running right now. It ran down the sidewalk of Night Babylon, to be exact, regretting it had ever stepped foot inside the wretched city.

'How did this happen?' the figure yelled inwardly. 'I was just looking for Ray and…'

He looked in both directions.

"Ray? Where are you?" he called. No response. And then, the flashing. Bright lights, bright RED lights, coming from an alley. He went to check it out, and there was a small asteroid, and out of it, a red and black creature came.

"Scout13 has arrived." the red and black creature said into some kind of device.

"Good. Find a specimen and kill it." replied a voice, one coming from the device. "As it dies, use the Ultima Emerald."

"Of course, Lord Doom." replied the red and black creature, putting the device inside the comet and looking up, meeting eyes with him. "Well, this will be easy."

"W-Wait…!" he spluttered. "Hold on a second!"

"No. I don't think I will." the red and black creature laughed, a truly sickening sound, before pulling out a weapon. "You hold still now."

And he ran.

"There you are!" yelled the red and black creature. The figure looked back from his thoughts and ducked, barely avoiding a blast from the gun.

And then he kept on running. He even moved off the sidewalk, in hopes of a car crashing into his pursuer. But it was pouring all over, and he was running out of places to run. But Mighty the Armadillo had no plans of giving up.

---

Shadow coughed as he stared at the sky. He had been drifting in the water for a good two hours now. His arms and legs had managed to get caught in some kind of plant, a tree with thousands of long thin branches. He had seen them before, but they had never caused him remotely as much trouble as this one had.

"At least I'm not drowning." muttered Shadow sarcastically, glaring up at the sky. Looking a little lower, he saw the battle, coming to a close. The monster that Super Sonic had been fighting was finally giving in, but Super Sonic was just fine. Shadow knew the blue-turned-gold hedgehog only had the Chaos Emeralds to thank for that.

But what now? Were he and Vector simply going to hide themselves until the time came when their selves of this time would go back in time, and they would take their place? While that made sense, it also seemed much too easy…

"Shadow…"

Shadow blinked and looked around. That voice… Black Doom… But was he here? No, impossible…

"Soon Shadow… Soon…"

It was Black Doom. But it didn't sound like he was talking to him, to someone else maybe? But there were no other Shadows… Well, there were, but they were poorly made robots that couldn't really do anything besides shoot missiles.

"… Soul… Power… Ultima…"

Shadow wasn't understanding what was being said anymore, and soon the voice trailed off into incoherent mumblings, the likes of which he had never heard of. An alien language perhaps?

"Shadow! Shadow!" Shadow rose his head slightly and saw Vector, swimming towards him. Shadow tried to move, but unfortunately, he couldn't still. He only needed to wait a few more minutes, and then he'd be out of this damned tree.

The monster collapsed and it's body, it's liquid body, exploded. Liquid flew everywhere, like the flood was starting all over, except instead of ground, was more water. Shadow stared as he felt one of his arms become free, then the other. But before Vector could free his legs, the water crashed on top of them.

---

Shadow opened his eyes and almost took a breath in. However, he realized it would be suicide, as he was underwater. His legs were still caught, and in all honesty, things were really starting to look hopeless. Vector should be fine at least, but knowing the crocodile, he was probably trying to find a way down to Shadow.

Then something drifted by Shadow that would have made his jaw drop. Somehow, the red Chaos Emerald of this time had been flooded from where it was and right below Shadow's foot. It was so close, so very close…

Swimming now, Shadow used as much of his leftover energy as he could. Just to touch the emerald, and his life would be saved. All he had to do was grab it, and he realized his lungs were starting to burn. He began kicking as he continued to lower, and with one last push his legs came free and he grasped the Emerald.

"CHAOS CONTROL!"

End Chapter