CHAPTER 5
Shadow and Infinite both opened their eyes when the bright white light around them was beginning to fade. Without releasing their grip from each other, they both realized they were in a large old abandoned warehouse it had appeared. Before the light could completely fade, they were both startled by a male brown owl that dropped from the now speck of fading light that was above them.
With a shriek escaping him, Nell's small body launched down onto the cold floor of the warehouse they were now in. While his face was still planted onto the floor with his notebook and pen landing beside him, he let out a small, "...ow..." from under his breath.
Shadow turned his head to the brown owl that lied there on the floor behind him in shock that he somehow got caught up within his Chaos Control. "...Nell!?"
While he saw Shadow being distracted by Nell being there as well, Infinite used his strength and shoved Shadow out of his grip and used his foot to kick his body away from him. He watched as Shadow fell to the floor next to Nell, "You might want to worry about yourself, Shadow!"
"Wha? What happened?" When Nell saw Shadow fall next to him on the floor, they both had sat up alongside each other while exchanging confused looks. He adjusted his large round glasses and glanced around the strange large warehouse they were both in. He had let out a panicked gasp. "H-How'd I get here?"
Shadow's eyes narrowed over at him in annoyance, "Yeah, Nell! How the hell did you get here!?" He asked in an sarcastic tone.
Nell clearly knew that Shadow wasn't happy about him being there with him in the crossfire between him and Infinite, but he honestly didn't mean to get dragged into the Chaos Control. "H-Hey! Don't get mad at me! I must was standing too close to your body when you did your Chaos Control!" He had then heard a frustrated sigh coming from the black hedgehog.
"You really are attached to my hip aren't you?" He let out a heavy sigh as he shifted his eyes away from him, "Fuck me..."
"Hey! I said this wasn't my fault!" Before he and Shadow could say anymore to each other, they both heard a familiar feminine voice calling out.
"Nell? Shadow? Is that really you?"
The both of them paused and turned to where they heard the voice. Their eyes widened when they saw a white bat woman with a silver heavy metal chain wrapped around her body. The chain was hanging her body from a large silver hook from the top of the balcony above them.
While his mouth hung open, Nell stood from the floor with Shadow by his side. He had to adjust his glasses again to make sure he was actually seeing what he thought he saw. She was okay from what he could tell and clearly very much alive. "Miss Rouge!"
Rouge looked back at the black and red hedgehog with tears of relief swelling in her eyes. "Shadow!" She hated to admit that she had some doubt that Shadow wouldn't come to save her but there he was. Looking back at her with relief that she was still alive.
Shadow took his eyes away from her and flashed them over to Infinite in anger. "Let her go, Infinite!"
"You want her? You want to save your beloved wife?" He spoke loudly as he began to step towards him with his hand held out in front of him exposing the sharp fingertips that was through his black gloves.
When Shadow saw Infinite stepping closer towards him, he braced himself as he was about to fight with the demon yet again.
"Then show me your power and fight me!"
Nell had a feeling that something horrible was going to happen if Shadow and Infinite continued to fight each other, but he knew there was nothing he could possibly do to stop them. He looked up at Shadow in worry, "Uh, Shadow..."
"Don't worry about me, Nell", he spoke without taking his eyes away from the jackal who was approaching him.
His eyes shifted back and forth between the two demons as he continued to worry about how the fight between them would go. "But..."
"Do you want to get killed?" He angrily shouted with both his fists clenched by his sides, "Do as I say and save Rouge!"
"...Okay..." With a small nod, he slowly stepped back from him nervously. "Just...just don't die!" He shouted before he bolted away from him.
When Infinite saw him making his way to where Rouge was, he held out his hand and struck the strange dark purple aura of energy from his hand towards him. "No you don't!" When he was sure that the dark energy had hit him from behind. It was blocked by a green aura of energy by Shadow who had stood in front of his attack. He stopped in his tracks when he realized that Shadow had stopped him from attacking Nell.
When Nell saw the blast from the corner of his eye, he spun around and saw Shadow standing in front of him with his hands directed toward where Infinite tried to strike him. He knew Shadow could've let him die from Infinite's attack but he didn't. He thought that deep down through all of Shadow's harsh comments about him, he still really did care about him. "...Shadow..."
Shadow's red eyes glared coldly over at the jackal after his attempt to attack Nell had failed. "Your fight is with me, Infinite! So leave the little snitch out of it!"
Infinite lowered his hand down beside his waist, "You threw yourself in front of my attack..." He slightly tilted his head to the side as he gave him a look of confusion. "And for what? For the sake of that good for nothing mortal boy?" He continued to slowly step forward towards him with both of his fists clenched tightly. "Perhaps being the halfbreed that you are has confused you. Mortals are the enemy", he growled.
"Yeah? Well from where I'm standing, you're the enemy here. No one hurts my friends and family. Not while I'm still standing", he growled back at him.
"Oh?" He unclenched his right hand from his waist and had a mist of dark purple energy form around his hand until it took the shape of a sword.
Shadow's eyes widened when he saw the shape of the sword take the form of an actual sword that was being held tightly in Infinite's hand. From the handle down to the blade, the sword was crimson red and the blade was curved.
"Then I will make you kneel..." Infinite had pointed the end of the blade towards him, "In pieces!"
'Holy crap! Where'd that sword come from?' Nell's eyes widened when he saw the sword suddenly appear in Infinite's hand. Before he could try to do or say anything, he had then remembered what Shadow had wanted him to do. When he looked back up at Rouge who was still chained on the balcony above him, he pushed himself and kept running towards her. 'I have to save Miss Rouge! Shadow can handle Infinite...I hope...'
When Shadow saw Infinite charge at him, he quicky dodged the blade of the sword when he swung it towards his neck. While he kneeled down, he used his fist to strike him hard under his chin which caused him to step away from him.
When he stepped back, he swung the sword at him again. This time the blade of the sword had sliced him in the side of his face. When he saw that he had sliced him with his sword, he tried to slice him towards his neck again but Shadow had held his wrist back preventing him from swinging the sword again. While he held his wrist, he used his foot and kicked his body away from his forcefully.
When he saw Infinite fall back onto the floor and drop his sword, he charged at him with his fist clenched that had the green aura surrounding it.
Infinite saw him launching himself at him and caught his fist just in time before he struck him in the center of his face with his punch. While he held his fist back from him, some of the blood from the cut on Shadow's face had dripped onto the side of his mask. He used his other hand and clenched it into a fist to use it to punch him multiple times in the side of the stomach to get him off of him. Before he would allow him to fall back from him, he quickly stood from the floor and clenched onto Shadow's fist tightly before throwing his entire body across the large room with ease it appeared.
Before Shadow could hit the floor, he used his hand that already had the demonic aura around it and shot multiple blasts of green energy towards him. "Chaos Spear!"
Without moving his body, he held out his hand and used a dark purple colored energy shield to block his attack.
'Damn!' He couldn't believe that he had managed to block his attack with some kind of shield. When he fell to the floor, he knew he had no time to rest as he didn't know what other tricks Infinite may had in store. When he sat up, he saw him turn the shield he had made into a multiple spear like attack and aimed it towards him. Before the attack could hit him, he jumped out of the way making the attack strike the concrete floor which now had a large crack from where it had struck. He looked at the cracked floor in disbelief and then back at the demonic jackal who was charging towards him. When he quickly stood from the floor, he tried to embrace himself for his next attack, but then unexpectedly lost sight of him when he suddenly vanished. He glanced around him but didn't see any sight of him. "...What the hell?" He was then forcefully struck from behind with a kick and knocked back down to the floor. Before he could try to get up, he heard evil laughter coming from the jackal who had reappeared before his eyes with strange mini red energy cubes that surrounded his whole body.
One of the red cubes hovered in the palm of his hand while he showed it to him, "You see, Shadow? I have a unique way to teleport myself as well. However, it's far better than your Chaos Control", he chuckled menacingly.
With his fists clenched in frustration, he stared at the strange red cube in disbelief. 'This...this demon! What the hell is he?'
Nell paused while he was climbing up a ladder towards the balcony and looked down at Shadow and Infinite fighting. His mouth hung open as he witnessed Infinite vanish and then reappear. 'Holy crap! He can do Chaos Control too? No...only Shadow can do that...right?'
Rouge who was still struggling to get herself out of the chains had paused and couldn't believe what she had saw as well. She didn't want to believe that Shadow would possibly lose the fight, but Infinite was managing to take every attack Shadow was throwing at him and reflect it back at him with something else. She kept telling herself not to worry but she couldn't hold back her worried thoughts. "...Shadow..." she murmured lowly.
While still on the floor, Shadow tried to think of a way to try to get the advantage over Infinite. 'Damn it! He's vanishing and reappearing! I don't have a choice. If I don't use Chaos Control, I'll die for sure...' He quickly extended his hand out towards him and shot multiple green energy spears at him. "Chaos Spear!"
When he saw him try to attack him, he quickly stepped out of the way to dodge them. By the time he turned back to Shadow, he saw him standing on his feet ready to confront him once again.
'Now's my chance', he thought. With his eyes angrily locked onto his, he yelled out, "Chaos Control!" There was a moment of silence as Infinite, Nell, and Rouge realized that nothing had happened once Shadow had tried to teleport himself. Shadow had the exact same look that everyone else had on their face. Nothing had happened. He wondered what went wrong. 'What the hell? Did...did I say it wrong or something?' He attempted to try it again, "Chaos Control!" There was a pause and again they all witnessed nothing happening. While Shadow was trying to pinpoint what was exactly going on, he heard an amused laugh slipping from Infinite.
The demon jackal placed his hand on his hip and formed an evil smirk towards the confused hedgehog. "What's the matter, Shadow? Does your powers not want to cooperate?"
He nervously looked down at his hands and kept wondering over and over what was happening with him and his demon powers. 'What the hell? It's been working all this time! Why isn't it working now? Is there a limit or something? Goddamn it! I don't have time for this!'
Rouge bit her lip as she watched Shadow struggle with trying to teleport himself. She lowly spoke under her breath, "...What's going on?" She was then slightly startled when she heard a voice approaching her.
"He can't use his Chaos Control?"
She turned her head and spotted Nell rushing over to her on the balcony. "Nell! Oh God am I glad to see you!"
When he got to her, he kneeled down beside her and made a wide and relieved smile, "I'm so glad you're okay, Miss Rouge!" When he saw her look back down at Shadow and Infinite, he looked as well.
"Nell", she spoke. "What's exactly going on?"
He paused and then thought that Rouge hadn't witnessed Shadow performing Chaos Control without being in his full demon state yet. Which he could understand why she seemed so confused. "Well", he began. "Shadow discovered he can use Chaos Control without being his super evil self."
She looked back over to him with a face full of disbelief, "Wha? That's impossible..."
"Yeah but...he's done it. That's how we both ended up here."
Rouge was still kind of confused on how Shadow could do Chaos Control but even she saw it happen before her eyes. So it had to have been true. "Well", she spoke when she looked back down at Shadow and Infinite. "If that's the case, what's going on with him now?"
Nell didn't know what was happening and he was sure Shadow didn't know either. He just hoped that Shadow could figure it all out before it was too late.
Infinite continued to evilly chuckle while he observed Shadow's confused expression on why he couldn't teleport. "How pathetic. Maybe you weren't as strong as I thought you were..."
Shadow looked away from his now glowing green hands and locked his eyes back with Infinite. "You'd wish you never said that, demon!" He had then blasted multiple energy blasts at him. The more the blasts were hitting him, the more it kept knocking Infinite back until his back had met the wall. With speed, Shadow took this opportunity and charged over to him to use his energy covered fists to repeatedly punch him in the face. He was hitting him so much, he didn't give him a chance to move his body. He was pinned and had him where he wanted him. When he saw his body go limp, his head had lowered with blood coming from under his mask. He figured he was unconscious or perhaps even dead. He had gripped tightly onto the white shirt he had on underneath the red tailcoat he wore. "You shouldn't have underestimated me, demon", he growled under his breath. His eyes slightly widened when he suddenly heard him talking.
"You were right, Shadow. I shouldn't have underestimated you. After all you're a halfbreed..."
Shadow flinched when he felt his wrist being painfully grabbed by his. When he tried to use his other hand to free himself, Infinite had used his other hand to grab his other wrist to make sure he couldn't move his body from his. No matter how much he tried, he couldn't struggle out of his grip. Even after all of that, he still had a lot of power left in him. It was like nothing could weaken him. When he looked back at him, he saw his lowered head slowly rising back up. When he did, Shadow watched as the metal mask he wore suddenly split completely apart from the middle. Both sides of the now broken mask had hit the floor next to their feet. When Infinite made direct eye contact with him, Shadow's heart skipped a beat as he witnessed seeing his face for the very first time. Not only was his face almost covered in blood but he noticed that his right eye was red and his left eye was yellow. He also had a cut across his right eye.
He had gotten so close to him, he had his forehead pressed against his while he flashed his fangs as he spoke. "...And us halfbreeds should never be underestimated..."
Shadow's body froze as he stared into both of his eyes while he felt Infinite's blood running down his forehead. "...What...what the hell are you?"
He made a small deep laugh, "Isn't it obvious, Shadow? There's a reason why you and I are so close in power with each other. You see..." He took his tongue and playfully licked the side of his mouth from where the blood was running down his forehead. "You and I are both half demons!"
"...What? A half demon?" An instant flashback had came to him when he had met Infinite for the first time in the G.U.N. prison. 'You're just like me.' Now what he had said back then was finally starting to make sense and the reason why he was so obsessed with getting close to him.
Just witnessing Shadow's shocked expression was giving him the utmost satisfaction. Honestly it was just as he'd imagine it to look like. He continued to chuckle deeply, "What's wrong, Shadow? Shocked that you're no longer the only special one?"
He had then caught sight of his red eye suddenly start to glow. It appeared that he wasn't looking at him when it had glowed. Before he could attempt to get out of Infinite's grip once again, he had suddenly felt a forcefully and sharp stab going into his back and through his stomach.
Nell and Rouge gasped in horror as they saw the red sword Infinite had hover off from the floor and suddenly charge its blade through Shadow's back.
"Oh no!" Nell shouted out in worry as he saw blood gushing from Shadow's back from where the sword was stabbed into.
Rouge couldn't believe what she had just witnessed as well. Shadow was taken down and so quickly. As she stared at the blood from his wound, tears started to swell in her eyes. "...Shadow?"
The smirk on Infinite's face widened as he watched blood being coughed up and spewed from Shadow's mouth after he had just been stabbed. He pulled his limp body close to his as he whispered into his ear. "It's a shame really. I was actually looking forward to meeting you, Darkness..." He grabbed the end of the blade and pulled the rest of the sword completely through his body before he forcefully shoved his unconscious body down onto the floor. He stepped over his body that laid there in a pool of his own blood and formed a devious smirk. "Looks like I was the strongest after all..."
In The Next Chapter...
Rouge: Shadow, no...
Nell: He can't be dead! He can't!
Infinite: There can be only one!
Shadow: You want to see real power? Then that's what I'll give you...
