Chapter 9
Angel Island
Sonic, Rouge, and Amy reappeared on Angel Island in another green flash of light.
The pink hedgehog swayed slightly. "Whoa, is it always like this when you come out of Chaos Control?"
Sonic shook his head. "Nah, it's just like that for people who haven't used it that much."
Rouge looked around, scanning every part of the massive island. She finally spotted what looked like an ancient stone altar with a giant green jewel on it. "Look guys!" She said while pointing at it. "They must be over there!"
Amy and Sonic followed Rouge's gaze and also spotted the altar. "Yeah," Sonic said. "I bet knuckle-head is over there, guarding that stone."
The three started walking towards the altar until they came to the base of it. Rouge stepped onto the first stone step when a red blur tackled her to the ground.
"Get away from my emerald!" A familiar voice barked.
Realizing the red echidna was lying on top of her, Rouge quickly removed him with a slap to the face, sending the red one to the ground. She stood up dusting off her outfit. "Keep your hands off me, knuckle-head!"
Knuckles rubbed his cheek, which was now the color of a cherry, and stood up. "Ups, sorry about that batgirl."
Rouge growled. "Batgirl? No wonder I lost interest in you, you don't know how to treat a lady!"
"Oh, I beg to differ."
Rouge, Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles looked to the source of the voice to see Amber walking up to them. Her usual outfit was discarded and she was wearing a long white dress.
Sonic tilted his head. "Why are you all dressed up?"
Amber sighed as she walked up to Knuckles and planted a kiss on his rosy cheek. "Because, we just got married."
Amy and Rouge's eyes widened. "YOU WHAT?"
Knuckles nodded. "Yeah, we just got through with the marriage when I sensed someone else on the island."
"But why didn't you invite us?" Amy asked.
"Because," Knuckles answered. "We got married using the ancient ways my ancestors used to use. It was only supposed to be us two, and no one else."
"But," Amber interrupted. "Since you're all here, let's celebrate!"
Sonic, Amy, and Rouge looked down on the floor. "Actually Amber," Rouge said. "We're here for a different reason."
Amber cocked her head. "What's that?"
"Well," Sonic began when Rouge interrupted him. "Please Sonic, let me tell her."
Sonic nodded as Rouge spoke. "I was on another jewel heist in a G.U.N. laboratory when I accessed a computer." Rouge paused slightly, collecting herself. "I hacked into it and came across a file labeled Project Shadow. I skimmed through it and at the bottom of the screen it said…" Rouge paused again while a tear rolled down her cheek. "That Shadow has been captured."
Amber's eyes widened. "CAPTURED?" She screamed.
Rouge nodded. "Yes, he's being held at G.U.N. base Alpha at the Sandstone Canyon."
"But," Amber said in disbelief. "He's the ultimate life form!"
Sonic sighed. "Amber, I know Shadow is pretty strong, but you don't know what G.U.N. is capable of. They could be experimenting on him right now and that's why we need to rescue him!"
Amber nodded. "Yeah, we have to get to him right away. But, where is Sandstone Canyon?"
Sonic smirked. "Don't worry about that, I've been there before and I can bring us there with Chaos Control!"
Amber nodded. "Alright, let me just change."
Sonic nodded as Amber went back into the woods. She traveled through the lush green forest until she came upon the house Knuckles and she had recently built. Going inside, the yellow hedgehog went up the stairs to her room and to the closet, picking out her usual attire consisting of black pants, a red tank top, and her black hover boots. She slid on her gloves properly and tightened the outfit over her body and headed back towards the group.
"You guys ready?" She asked.
"Whoa, I forgot something!" Knuckles shouted.
Sonic sighed. "What now red?"
Knuckles glared at him. "Well, what are we going to do about the Master Emerald?"
Sonic rolled his eyes. "The same thing you always do when you can't take it with you, let Tikal and Chaos guard it!"
Knuckles snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that!"
The red echidna ran up to the altar and placed his right hand on the top of the Master Emerald and closed his eyes. "Tikal, Chaos, we need your help!"
The emerald started giving off a bright green color before two figures materialized in front of the echidna. One was a lavender female echidna and the other was a water creature.
The peach colored echidna turned to the male in front of her. "What do you require assistance with, guardian?"
"Well," Knuckles began. "I have to help save a friend of mine and I was wondering if you and Chaos could watch the Master Emerald for me."
The female smiled and nodded. "Of course we will guardian; you need not worry about the safety of the emerald, go and aid your companions."
Knuckles smiled at the other echidna. "Thanks Tikal."
The female smiled back. "Do not thank me; it is my duty, now go!"
Knuckles nodded and ran back tot eh group. "She said she'll handle it."
Sonic smiled. "All right, you all ready to go?"
Everyone nodded.
The blue hedgehog closed his eyes as Rouge, Amy, Amber, and Knuckles all put their hands on his shoulder.
"Chaos Control!" Sonic shouted as they disappeared in another green flash of light.
Sandstone Canyon
The group reappeared on a giant windy boulder, sitting just on the edge of a giant canyon that dropped miles below.
Sonic looked over the edge and whistled. "Boy, that's a long way down."
Rouge looked at the sea hedgehog and rolled her eyes. "Come on Sonic, we have to focus on finding the base!"
Sonic snapped out of his trance and faced the albino bat, nodding. "Yeah, sorry 'bout that."
Rouge looked at Knuckles. "Knuckles, do you have any idea where he could be?"
Knuckles gave her a confused look. "How the hell am I supposed to know?"
Rouge gave him a questionable look. "I thought you were supposed to sense Chaos energy or… something like that."
Knuckles kept looking confused. "Um…no."
Rouge threw her hands up in the air. "Great, now what?"
Sonic interrupted. "Uh…Rouge?"
The bat snapped to face him. "What?"
Sonic cringed back a little. "Well, I can sense Shadow's energy; after all, we did fight together on several occasions so I know what it feels like."
Rouge smiled. "Great, can you do it now?"
Sonic nodded. "Yeah, I'll try."
The hedgehog closed his eyes. His consciousness separated from what was going on around him. He only looked for an energy signal, any kind of signal, one that gave him the slightest idea where his counter part was.
Suddenly, a faint burst of energy struck through his mind; he knew where Shadow was…
The blue hedgehog opened his eyes only to gaze into the anticipating faces of Rouge, Amy, Amber, and Knuckles.
The hedgehog jumped back slightly before speaking in an excited tone. "I know where he is."
Amber gasped. "Is he still alive?"
Sonic nodded. "Yeah, but barely. His Chaos energy is so weak; I can barely pick it up."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Rouge yelled. "Let's go!"
"Wait a minute!" Sonic interrupted. "We can't just go blazing through into G.U.N.'s main base! We'll all get killed!"
Everyone looked at him wide-eyed.
"Sonic just said something smart!" Amy mumbled.
"Yeah," Rouge agreed. "What's up with that?"
Sonic glared at the two females. "Hey, I'm not an idiot!"
Knuckles looked the other way and whistled.
Sonic looked at the echidna. "Shut up Knuckles! At least I didn't get tricked by Eggman fifty times!"
Knuckles looked back at him with a sly smile and lowered his eyelids. "Yeah, that may be true, but at least I got a wife!"
"Yeah…well….you…smell bad!" Sonic retorted.
"GUYS," Amy shouted. "We're getting off track. Let's go find Shadow!"
Sonic looked at the rose hedgehog, remembering why they were all here. "Oh yeah, come on, follow me guys!"
Sonic waved his hand as the rest of the group followed him. They all climbed multiple boulders and went past huge crack in the stone, ones that would surely seal their fate if they fell in. Finally, the group climbed over a rather large boulder, only to see a large hanger standing on a flat area of the rocky environment.
Rouge raised an eyebrow. "This is it?"
Knuckles chuckled slightly. "You can't be serious Sonic."
The sea mimicking hedgehog looked at the rest of the group. "Guys, I'm completely serious, I sense Shadow's energy in there!"
Amber nodded. "He's right guys, I sense my brother in there."
Knuckles punched his hands together. "Well, then let's get going!"
The rest of the group nodded and headed down to the hanger, which was no more than the size of a small mall. Sonic spotted a small door on the right side of the hanger and pointed to it. "Look guys, we can get in over there!"
The rest of the group followed his gaze and also spotted the door, heading down to it with the blue hedgehog in the lead.
The blue hedgehog now stood before the door and put his gloved hand onto the knob when he stopped and looked at the others.
"Do any of you have a Chaos Emerald by any chance; it would really help boost our chances." He asked.
Amber and Knuckles shook their heads while Rouge pulled out the white Chaos Emerald. "Yeah, I got one. Shadow gave it to me before he left."
Sonic nodded and pulled out the golden Chaos Emerald. "Cool, now we have two emeralds, which should help us out a lot."
The rest of the group nodded as Sonic turned back to the door.
With a deep breath, Sonic opened it…
G.U.N. Base Alpha
Shadow was running, running through a long metallic hallway, ignoring the shouts for surrender by the soldiers chasing him. His only concern was focused on the small blonde girl that was holding his right hand.
"Halt or we'll open fire!"
Shadow looked back and growled at the soldier following him. With his free hand, the hedgehog launched a small Chaos Spear, knocking the soldier to the ground. Finally, the duo made its way to the escape pods in a small room.
Shadow let go of Maria's hand and sealed the door. Immediately, loud pounding sounds and gun fire could be heard on the other side, obviously from the soldiers trying to break in.
The hedgehog turned to his companion. "Maria, we have to get out of here!"
The young girl nodded. "Alright Shadow, you stand over there!" She said pointing to a small lighted ring. Shadow did as his mother told him and stood in the center of the circle.
The young girl pushed some buttons and put her frail arms upon a lever when the door burst open, with at least twenty heavily armed soldiers all pointing their guns at Maria.
"Don't do it girl!" One of the soldiers warned.
Maria's face tensed up as she looked as Shadow. "Shadow, I beg of you!"
The dark hedgehog's angry gaze switched from the soldiers and to Maria, where his face immediately became softer.
Maria continued. "For all the people on that planet!"
Maria's arms tensed up as she pulled the lever and a large glass tube fell over Shadow. The dark hedgehog's eyes widened in shock as he pounded on them. "Maria!" He shouted.
"That's it girl!" The same soldier from before shouted as he pulled out a small handgun.
Time seemed to freeze for Shadow as a single bullet was fired from the gun. Maria didn't even have time to scream as the bullet pierced her fragile chest.
Time sped up again as Maria fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Shadow's eyes widened in anger and frustration.
"MAAARIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
With her last bit of strength and will power, Maria raised her head up to face Shadow. "Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog.
And with those final words, her head fell lifelessly to the ground.
The soldier who had shot her turned to him. "Now that that girls done for, it's your turn!"
Shadow faced the soldier with a dark, sadistic look. A dark aura started to surround him as his eyes gradually glazed over from ebony dotted crimson to a complete black.
The soldier who had shot Maria turned to one of his colleagues. "What's he doing?"
A bead of sweat ran down Shadow's forehead as his fur blinked to complete ebony, matching his new eyes. A loud black explosion rocketed the entire space station as the capsule Shadow was in burst in a huge black inferno.
The soldiers backed up out of instinct as the black light cleared, revealing the transformed ultimate life form. Every part of his body save the white fur on his chest and his muzzle was now completely black.
The soldiers backed up in fear.
Shadow's deadly gaze locked onto the soldier that had shot Maria. "You!" He spoke, his voice totally abnormal from what it was before. He now sounded like some kind of demon.
One of the soldiers raised his gun and fired a shot at the hedgehog. Shadow didn't even bother to notice as the bullet bounced right off.
The soldiers backed up slightly as Shadow advanced upon the entire group. An evil smile made its appearance on his face as two black energy orbs surrounded his hands.
The demented, hell-bent Shadow spoke again. "Welcome to oblivion!"
Then everything went black…
The Commander smiled as he looked upon a screen that allowed him to actually "see" all the flashbacks Shadow was going through. "Ah, so that's his Chaos form huh?" Well, once he transforms into that, he'll be the perfect killing machine."
"But sir," One of the scientists spoke. "Why did he transform into that form when the girl was shot and into another when we monitored his fight with 001?"
The Commander smirked. "Well, after this little incident, Professor Gerald knew that he could be a danger to the entire planet but instead of destroying 003, he set up a multiple number of sub-conscious blocks in 003's mind to prevent the form from surfacing again. Somehow though, 001 managed to destroy these blocks, so now the form is once again free to be unleashed."
The scientist looked back at the screen, where Shadow was slaughtering the G.U.N. soldiers with a multiple number of black energy blasts. "Sir, what if we can't control him?"
The Commander snapped to face him. "I will control him, you can be sure of that!"
The scientist nodded nervously, as of not to endanger his employment.
"I will control you, 003." The Commander whispered.
If he only knew how wrong he was…
