Chapter Forty
Me: Day-mn! Forty chapters, tons of incredible art by ScarletEbon (c'mon people, don't let her hog all the fun!), and lots of reviews (sort of anyway). The latest fanart from ScarletEbon is Shadow's Heroic form…and it's cooler than I imagined! There's also a Sonic x Tahra pic on her Deviantart account.
Shadow: Only she could make me look even more badass than I already am! -badass pose-
Tahra: rolls eyes Anyway, I'm not usually into cute and fuzzy pics, but I take exception to the one with me and Sonic. It screams romance. It evens puts the one with you and Amy to shame, Shads.
Shadow: ….
-- -- -- -- --
"Man, this is taking forever, even with my enhanced speed," Regal moaned as he and Vera ran across the great wasteland, far from the eyes of the hyena army. "Where exactly are you leading me? I'm getting REALLY impatient."
"Keep a lid on it, Regal. We're almost there."
Regal wagged his pointing finger angrily. "You said that very thing twenty miles ago. You better tell me right now or…" Regal skidded to a stop when he saw their destination before them, and his jaw dropped open. A huge golden pyramid rose from the barren ground, glinting in the moonlight. On the front of it was the image of an eye with seven tentacles growing around it.
"Here we are…the Pyramid of Hasyn. Our destination is inside the pyramid."
"Uh…is this where my new boss lives?" Regal asked nervously. He was starting to have second thoughts about this whole evil business.
"Look, if you want to keep your power, you'll have to follow me in."
Vera went up to the pyramid and pressed her hand on a secret switch concealed in the pyramid's outer structure. The top of the pyramid began to glow as Regal came up next to her, watching the glow. A bolt of blue lightning shot out from the pyramid and struck the area where the two were standing.
Instead of killing them, the bolt transported the two to a different area…a different dimension, in fact. The two were on a large island floating in a purple and black void. The island itself was centered by a gold-walled city with buildings glittering from gem dust. The sounds of wild celebration seemed to be coming from the city, as if a party was going on. Regal asked about this.
"This city is on non-stop party mode, Regal…and it's wilder than you can possibly imagine. You might want to avert your eyes. Your soul may not be able to take it yet."
"No party is too wild for teh Regal! I was the Academy's premier party animal!"
"Parties like these in Hasyn would be against the law in the mortal world. Wild sex, endless alcohol, constant gambling and even a little arson and murder is common. It makes Vegas seem like a monastery."
"That does seem like overdoing it a little," Regal said, in a slightly worried tone.
"You'll learn to love it in time. Now come on."
-- -- -- -- -- --
"This is the final leg of our journey, Ames," Shadow said with anticipation as the two flew towards the fortress where they knew the mad chameleon and the dark dragon Kalaran lay in waiting for them. "Once we defeat those two, we can finally get Masamune and Mjolnir…"
"…And then we'll go after the Meteor Parasite."
The two exchanged a smile and a nod just before they spotted the fortress' first line of defense: five elephant-sized black dragons flying in perfect formation. The dragons screeched loudly before moving in to attack.
"Ah, the welcoming committee," Shadow quipped as he prepared to face this first wave. He drew the Chaos Edge and readied it. Amy seemed annoyed.
"Why can't I do that?" she complained.
"You have fireballs and razor sharp claws, Amy…"
"Oh, right. But still…"
Amy was rammed head on by one of the dragons, while barely clipping Shadow. Of course, it took more than that to take Amy down. Using the beast's own weight against it, she rolled off of it, and grabbed one of its wings. The laws of physics were not with the dragon that day, and had its wing ripped off. It tumbled to the valley floor thousands of feet below.
It had to be done…Amy said to herself.
Shadow quickly disposed of two more dragons with a few swings of the Chaos Edge, sending them spiraling to the ground as well. Before Shadow could take on the other two, they stopped and hovered in front of him. Shadow turned around to see Amy holding her hand out, staring at the creatures intensely.
"Dracomancer mojo," were the only two words Amy said to explain what she was doing. She came closer to the dragons, and began to pet them and scratch them. Shadow was still dumbfounded.
"They're on our side now, Shadow. They won't hurt us now." Amy hopped onto one dragon and returned to her normal form. Seeing that it was safe, Shadow mounted the other and did so as well.
"Good thinking…" Shadow complemented. "Now we can save our energy for the head honchos." The two spurred their new steeds onward. But instead of heading straight from the front door, the dragons started to glide around the mountain, toward its backside. When Shadow realized this, he looked at Amy, who smirked and gave a victory hand gesture.
"Showoff…" Shadow grumbled, rolling his eyes.
-- -- -- -- -- --
Going around the back turned out to be a good idea. The alarm set off by the dragons had mustered most of the defenses to the front. There was no doubt that Yanu and Kalaran were baffled. This bought Amy and Shadow sufficient time to reach the main lair of the two masterminds, and it made them wonder just how smart these two were.
As the two made their way around the fortress, a dreadfully familiar voice rang through the halls, stopping Shadow and Amy in their tracks while they listened in.
"Yanu, you egotistical fool! Your lack of competence in managing this fortress has been the last straw. You beg and plead for me to give you power, and yet you fail to use it effectively! I am disgusted with you…"
"No…it CAN'T be him…" Amy said with clenched teeth.
"Lord Ragozine…he's young and inexperienced," another voice came, probably Kalaran's.
Ragozine seemed angry. "Kalaran…I didn't bring you back from the dead to have you defy me as well. Yanu has failed me, and now he must die."
"We were about to mount our final attack on the chameleon and bat domains…"
"You two haveignored my ordersfor the last time! Now you both die!" The sound of a loud explosion came a few seconds later, much to the horror of the two eavesdroppers. Then they heard Ragozine laughing, the insane laugh of true evil.
Amy, now incensed to the point of rage, started forward as fast as she could. That demon was evil enough to take out his own minions as he wished, and she had wanted to save Yanu from the path he had taken. Now it was too late.
"Amy! Get back here!" Shadow called back. "We have no reason to fight him!" Seeing that his stubborn girlfriend was not about to listen to him in her current state of mind, he followed. If she was going to take on Ragozine, at least they should do it together.
Amy stopped just before the doorway and Shadow caught up. Shadow immediately noticed something about Amy's arm…the Mark of Penitence had disappeared from her arm. She didn't seem to notice this, but her rage seemed to be coming to a boil, as her hair was starting to raise itself up. She was going Super again.
"Amy…" Shadow said just before the Super transformation went off. The burst of energy knocked him backwards, but he remained on his feet. Amy finally entered the room where Ragozine was, and the dracomancer turned to face her. He seemed surprised by Amy's Super form, but an idea came to him.
"Well, look what we have here…the little girl's finally got her full power back…perfect for me!" A dark aura surrounded Ragozine and he extended his hand toward Amy, and waited, but nothing happened, much to his dismay. Shadow saw this too, and was relieved.
"Even without the Mark, you can't control me anymore, Ragozine." Amy taunted. "In fact, I'm starting to wonder if you'll even be a challenge…especially when it's two against one." Shadow came in, almost on cue, assuming his Heroic form.
The dracomancer saw that he was obviously outmatched. The demon dragon who he now shared his body with was still recovering from being forced out of Amy's body not long ago, and was unable to help him. Ragozine saw the grave error he had committed by doing away with Yanu and Kalaran, and now started to regret it.
Damn it…I have no choice but to retreat. But I won't leave without dealing some damage…
Ragozine did a back flip, opened a panel in the wall and pressed a button the panel was hiding. Immediately, the entire fortress began shaking, and a siren began to sound.
"It's a pity we couldn't have our little grudge match, kiddies, but I must go now. This place is going to blow the whole mountain sky high in five minutes, and there are still dragons here."
"You'd kill off the very species you swore to protect…how despicable…" Amy said before attempting to stop Ragozine's escape. She failed, of course.
"We'll get him, Amy," Shadow said, "but right now we need to get out of here!"
"What about the other dragons?" she asked. Her concern for them was geniuine. "We can't just leave them here!"
"I agree, but five minutes isn't enough time to save them and ourselves, even with Chaos Control. I'm sorry, Amy. Please understand."
Amy sighed. "All right...let's get out of here." Shadow took Amy's hand, and used Chaos Control to warp back to where the dragons that had taken them. The two got on the dragons with a bit of difficulty, since the great winged beasts were frantically calling for their mates. Amy had to quickly calm the beasts so that they did not panic. Once they had mounted, the two rode the dragons away. Three minutes later, the whole mountain was consumed in a loud and fiery explosion, sending debris flying for many miles. The two dragons had to dodge as quickly as they could, but soon found safety in a nearby cave.
-- -- -- -- -- --
Once it was safe to come out, the two went to a cliff where they could view the collapsed mountainside; which they did with heavy hearts. At the same time, the two knew that their journeys of penitence had finally come to an end. The threat of Kalaran was no more. Now all they had to do was get the Sacred Arms before they could take on Ragozine, Enhillatu and the other fiends threatening the world.
The two heroes did manage to save the two dragons Amy had befriended before, but the two seemed angry. They screeched to the heavens at the sight of the exploded fortress, wailing in mourning. Amy could sense their pain, and she too shed tears for the ones the beasts had lost.
"Mates, friends and young…Ragozine cast them all aside like broken toys," Amy said angrily, tears streaming down her face. "I swear that masked monster will pay tenfold for every dragon he killed so thoughtlessly!" Shadow didn't like seeing Amy like this, so he hugged her from behind, which calmed her.
"Let's take this one step at a time, okay, Ames?"
"I guess I was getting ahead of myself…"
The two dragons now stopped wailing, and once Shadow and Amy had remounted, began flying back toward the chameleon dojo, where everyone was waiting for them.
-- -- -- -- --
"Well, Shaddy, how does it feel to finally have that Mark off of ya?" Nack asked rowdily as he gave Shadow a brisk pat on the back. The whole group was back together and just outside the dojo. "You've got all of your fancy-pants Chaos powers back, and now you can get those Sacred Arms!"
"That's something I'd like to ask," Rouge asked Nack, "where WOULD we go to do that?"
"I suppose you could go to Sylvania," Zeipha answered. "It's the hedgehog capital. They're the ones who keep the keys to the shrine of the Sacred Arms."
"Aren't Sonic and Tahra going to be heading there soon?" Amy asked excitedly. "It's gonna be great to see them again. By the way, do any of you know what Sylvania is like?" At this comment, Zeipha's eyes lit up with eagerness to divulge the nature of the great city.
"It's like a dreamland! It's so ancient, yet it's so modern! It's got wondrous architecture, amazing fashion, and above all, lots of great people! Quadtalia may be larger, but Sylvania is tops! I haven't been there since I was twelve, but I've wanted to go back so much!"
"Okay, we get it! It's a great place!" Ribik moaned. "But she's forgetting something…the residents vary widely in economic status and personality. Most of the rich people are really snobs, because of all their racial superiority and whatnot. The poor are, as a whole, either disgruntled with the world or just plain tired of things. Luckily, the high priestess of the Emerald Light, Elseah, who practically runs things, is a really nice old lady. She's voiced her protest against the caste system, but she can't do jack about it, despite her influence.
"Annoying aristocracy or not, we're going to Sylvania," Espio said. "Agreed?"
"Wouldn't I be asking that?" Shadow asked. "I'm one of the main characters after all…"
Everyone stared at him funny for a moment.
"Uh, never mind…"
