Chapter 16
The giant Chaos Meteor attack that Eclipse had released drew closer and closer to Amber and Shadow as they both pushed their bodies forward and tensed their muscles. With one loud boom, the attack and the hedgehogs made contact.
Shadow and Amber both pushed back with all their strength as their energy barriers surrounded them. Brilliant golden sparks danced off Shadow's body as Amber's gave off a bright violet array of energy sparks.
By now, the attack had been pushing at the two for at least a full minute when Shadow slowly found his body and strength giving in. Amber noticed this and managed to turn her head towards him. "Come on Shadow!" She yelled, "Give it all you got!"
Shadow looked back at his sister and nodded. In a burst of light, Shadow gave of some of his own energy to push the attack back. Amber looked at him again, but this time with a worried expression.
'Damn, we're not making any progress! If this keeps up, the attack will break through!' Amber thought. But just then, an idea hit her. She turned to her struggling brother. "Shadow!"
The dark hedgehog turned his head and looked at her. "At this rate, the attack will break through, but I have an idea to stop it."
Shadow nodded at his sister as she began to loosen her grip on the giant energy attack. Shadow's eyes widened and Amber caught his expression. "Don't worry, trust me."
Shadow reluctantly nodded again as Amber completely let go of the attack. At first, the force of handling the attack alone pushed Shadow back some, but he regained his composure after some struggling.
Behind him, Amber began charging up an attack of her own. She put her hands in front of her as six violet energy orbs appeared in a perfect circle. The energy orbs began growing and were soon each the size of Amber's head. The orbs then started spinning in a vertical circle and charged more energy.
Amber pulled both of her hands back as the attack also moved back with her. "Let's see how you like this Eclipse! CHAOS BLOSSOM!" With one push of both of her hands, the spinning circle of energy orbs was released and flew straight past Shadow and into the Chaos Meteor.
As soon as they collided, an array of energy sparks flew from the point of encounter as the Chaos Meteor was pushed back. Shadow slowly let go of the attack as the Chaos Blossom continued steadily pushing Eclipse's attack back.
Up above, Eclipse's smirk disappeared when he saw the Chaos Blossom being launched. "IT CAN'T BE!" He shouted in disbelief.
Back with the two struggling attacks, Amber called her brothers name while panting heavily. "Shadow, launch an attack to push the Chaos Meteor away!"
Shadow looked back at her and nodded. He turned back to the two struggling attacks and began charging up one of his own. "CHAOS SPEAR!" Shadow shouted as the attack was released and shot into the Chaos Meteor.
That was the breaking point as the attack was completely launched back to its origin at twice the speed before with the Chaos Spear and Chaos blossom still steadily pushing the attack. Eclipse began to ready himself to hold the attack off. "WAIT A MINUTE, WHY SHOULD I WASTE MY STRENGHT?"
The giant hedgehog smirked as the attack began to close in on him more. When it was just about to make contact, Eclipse simply warped out of harm's way, with the attack blazing past him.
Amber and Shadow both looked on in disbelief. "He didn't even try to stop it!" Amber murmured.
"I guess he's smarter than we thought." Shadow told Amber.
Amber looked down at Shadow's hands for a moment to see that his left glove's palm was completely burned off, exposing his soft fur underneath. His right glove was completely gone due to the fact that he didn't have a bracelet there to try and secure it.
Amber faced him weakly. "Shadow, I'm kind of getting low on strength."
Shadow thought about this for a moment before coming to a conclusion. "Alright, give me the rest of your Chaos powers and I'll continue. You go and rest."
Amber nodded and floated over to Shadow, placing a hand on his golden chest. Amber closed her eyes and crunched up her face as the energy started transferring. Shadow also closed his eyes. The violet energy seemed to flow out of Amber's body and disappeared within Shadow.
Shadow's eyes shot open as his fur blazed from gold to silver, and then to ice blue. His eyes also changed from a fiery red to a cold blue. Amber's face relaxed as her fur turned back to normal and she started falling down.
In one swift move, Shadow caught his sister and warped back to the others who were a little startled at their sudden appearance. Shadow gently lay Amber down next to Knuckles as the Echidna faced him with a worried look.
Shadow smiled. "Don't worry, she's just knocked out."
Knuckles breathed deeply as Shadow warped away again.
Once again high above the sky, Shadow reappeared about ten feet away from Eclipse. "HMPH, FINALLY READY TO GET THIS OVER WITH?"
Shadow smirked at him." Of course…"
In one burst of blue light, Shadow charged for his monstrous brother.
Shadow came at Eclipse with a straight fist first. Eclipse easily dodged and sent a hook towards Shadow. The dark hedgehog also dodged and, with incredible speed, planted a round house kick right across Eclipse's giant face.
Eclipse growled but ignored the minor pain, charging for Shadow again. In one swift move, the giant's tail lashed out as he tried whipping Shadow with it. The blue hedgehog was too fast however, and ducked out of the way.
In the blink of an eye, Shadow caught the tail before it retreated. Eclipse's eyes widened slightly as Shadow smirked. The dark hedgehog's hand began to glow a bright blue as he charged up his attack.
"Chaos Spear!" Shadow shouted as the attack was launched. Eclipse tried to dodge, but Shadow firmly grasped onto the tail every time he tried. The blast hit Eclipse as a scream echoed through the air, followed by a cloud of smoke.
Shadow didn't stop there however, as his free hand began to glow again. "Chaos Barrage!" Shadow shouted as the hundreds of energy blasts erupted from his hand and towards the smoke cloud containing Eclipse.
Shadow could feel the tail wiggle almost uncontrollably in his grip as he continued blasting at Eclipse. More screams filled the quiet sky as the small cloud grew to abnormal size. Shadow fired one last blast and stopped the assault.
But once again, Shadow was not through, as his hand began to glow a violet color. "Chaos Nightmare!" The dark hedgehog shouted as the violet energy ball was launched at the smoke cloud. Shadow knew it made impact when he heard a loud crash, followed by a blood chilling scream.
Shadow smirked, obviously satisfied, and released Eclipse's tail, which had now become completely motionless.
With the Others
Sonic was totally wide-eyed from Shadow's ferocious assault. "Man, loot at him go!" He almost shouted.
Rouge was also highly impressed by Shadow's display of power. 'He can go beyond THAT? That's insane!' She mentally yelled.
The smoke cloud above started clearing as everyone's attention shifted from their own thoughts and back to the battle.
With Shadow
The tail of his monstrous brother loosely dangled back into the cloud of smoke, where it disappeared. The smoke started to clear as Shadow squinted his eyes a little to see the image of his brother better.
The smoke finally completely cleared to show that there was almost nothing left of Eclipse. All that remained was the tail of course, and what looked like a giant bloody spine. Shadow cringed slightly at the sight but began charging up another Chaos Spear.
Just then, the bloody mess that was called Eclipse started to glow as the entire colossal body of the monster reformed in less than a second.
Shadow gritted his teeth. 'This is getting ridiculous, he keeps reforming!'
The battle had taken its toll on Eclipse too, however. He was breathing very raggedly and buckets of sweat drenched his fur. Recovering so many times, although it didn't seem like it, was hard work in itself.
Shadow was about to launch his now charged attack when something caught his attention. He looked down to see all the pieces of the ground that Eclipse had ripped out of the ground falling out of the sky and back down to the ground.
Shadow's eyes widened. "Rouge and the others!"
With the Others
The entire group could felt heir small piece of solitary land begin to rumble.
"W-What's going on?" A bewildered Amy asked.
Sonic, who had recovered a little, looked at her. "Eclipse must not have the energy to hold these in place anymore."
"That means we're gonna fall!" Amy practically yelled.
Sonic smirked. "Not if I can help it!"
Sonic suddenly stood upright and raised both his arms into the air. The Master Emerald, which had regained its power, floated over to him. Sonic placed his hands on the top of the emerald and closed his eyes.
The Master Emerald started glowing as the small island stopped rocking. Sonic opened his eyes and sat back down. He faced Amy and Rouge. "Sometimes it's good to listen to Knuckles."
With Shadow
Shadow smiled when he saw what Sonic had done. He looked back at Eclipse who was now facing him with a angry look.
Shadow smirked. "Finally decided to give it your all huh?"
Eclipse cracked his neck several times before responding. "YEAH, SINCE I WAS USING A FOURTH OF MY ENERGY TO HOLD THESE THINGS UP, I DECIDED IT WAS TIME TO LET 'EM GO."
Shadow's eyes widened. "A fourth of your energy?"
Eclipse laughed. "OF COURSE YOU DIDN'T THINK THAT WHAT YOU SAW WAS THE LIMIT TO MY POWER?"
Shadow backed up slightly. "No way…"
Eclipse laughed again. "OH SHADOW, WHERE DID THAT WILL TO FIGHT GO? I KNEW YOU WERE NOTHING BUT A COWARD!"
Shadow, even though insulted, kept from responding. In a flash, Eclipse was right in front of Shadow and kicked him right in the face. The ice blue hedgehog was sent flying back and miraculously, crashed on the only small piece of land left.
Shadow's impact was harder than before, as he turned back into his normal form the second he touched the ground.
Rouge, Amy, Sonic, Knuckles, and the now conscious Amber all ran over to him. Knuckles and Rouge helped him up by the shoulders while Rouge and Amber supported his back.
"Are you alright Shadow?" Amber asked concerned.
Shadow looked at her weakly. "Yeah…I'm alright."
"HOW TOUCHING! I HAVE YOU ALL IN ONE SPOT. THIS WILL BE SO MUCH EASIER!"
The group, much to Shadow's displeasure, whirled around to see the giant Eclipse hovering near them, his giant wings softly flapping.
Shadow pushed all of his companions away. "Leave them out of this Eclipse!"
Eclipse shook one of his clawed fingers. "WHY SHOULD I? I LOVE WATCHING YOU SUFFER! AND I KNOW JUST THE WAY TO GET TO YOU SHADOW!" He said while smirking and looking at Rouge.
Shadow followed his gaze and saw he was looking at Rouge. "No…" Shadow immediately tried to dash for Rouge to protect her when Eclipse beat him to her. Rouge didn't even have time to scream as Eclipse lifted her with his left claw and elevated himself far enough so the rest didn't reach him.
Shadow looked totally despaired and Eclipse loved every second of it. Shadow watched in horror as Eclipse held Rouge in his tight grip. 'No! It can't be!' Shadow thought. It was all just like his nightmare.
"THIS IS WHY YOU WILL NEVER BE A TRUE ULTIMATE LIFE FORM SHADOW" Eclipse bellowed at the horrified Shadow. With these words, the beast took one of his claws and stuck it forcefully into the white bat's stomach.
Blood erupted from the wound as well as the bat's mouth as Shadow watched on in horror. The beast let go off the bat with a smirk plastered on his face. A primal scream echoed through the sky. Shadow then realized that it was his own. "ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUGE!"
