It had been a long night.
Shadow pushed aside the snow covering the entrance of his hiding place high up the side of the slope, glaring up at the first light of dawn illuminating the twisted terrain of the Hex.
Good thing about being so high. Sunrise was nice and early up here. He'd been on the move most of the night, since Sonic had fallen, and Rouge and that oversized echidna had tumbled after him moments later when the side of the cliff had crumbled away. They'd still been fighting until they dropped out of sight.
That was when the war started.
The two factions, with the loss of their champions, had swarmed Windy Hill, body parts flying everywhere. He'd evaded them, leaping down the shattered earth to cross over to the neighbouring zone, then the next, fighting his way past a Zeti - he had no idea which one they were in the dark - probably wouldn't have been able to tell them apart anyway. They were showing the same mutations as Rouge.
He hadn't even managed to confirm the kill before reinforcements arrived. More than he could shoot, arriving faster than he could kill them. He couldn't even use Chaos Control. Not with Chaos going mad like that. In the end he'd just moved on from there, too. No point in staying. They weren't the source of this invasion. More like a symptom.
And finally he'd found his way here, to the abandoned factory Eggman had built into this frozen zone. Thanks to the Hex's odd movement, these islands both dipped down low enough to accumulate snow and ice from the stratosphere, and climbed high enough for the runoff to provide fresh water to various other islands on the Hex.
Shadow scowled, narrowing his eyes as he glanced across the snow clad slopes broken by abandoned machinery and the fluffy shapes of dozing yetis, round bundles of fur and teeth that stalked the ice, shrieking to alert the larger members of their pack to potential prey.
At least they were natives. He crawled free of the snow, brushing white off black as he straightened. The aliens had stopped following him once he moved out of their territory - or infestation, there wasn't much distinction - giving him the chance to hunker down. He could see more or less well enough by the uncontested starlight here above the clouds to deal with threats, but for navigating the unfamiliar terrain of the Hex safely he needed to see, especially without his chaos powers. Using his talents with both inhibitors had opened a rift, he didn't want to think what might happen with only one inhibitor.
He didn't much want to think about what might happen if this contamination got off the Hex to the world below either. Unless it already had and the world just hadn't noticed, taint buried beneath the snow.
Pointless to think about it. What he needed was to get somewhere with a working communicator, not think about what ifs. Should he jump for it? His jet skates could help propel him between the various islands of the Hex, but without a real aircraft or any way to call for backup he had a real chance of getting stuck up here or falling into the ocean like the others had.
Shadow grunted. Maybe he should just jump for it? Depending on the island, it wasn't that far from shore, he could jet as far as he could and trust his luck and strength to be able to paddle the rest of the way…
No. He was the ultimate lifeform. He couldn't rely on something like "luck". He'd need to figure out exactly which landmass was the closest, then-
Wait. He already knew which was closest.
Angel Island. Knuckles had left it floating a short distance off the "coast" of Silent Forest. If he could launch off the side of the Hex there he had a good chance of making it, and Knuckles had a comms rig he could use to signal for pick up.
The first rays of the sun broke the horizon, shading the sky a deep haze of red and staining the slopes the same. Yetis swarmed in large numbers on the slopes below him, bleating to each other as they woke for the coming day.
And maybe a search party. Shadow frowned deeper. Rouge was strong enough to swim normally, despite her mobian density, her corrupted state likely hadn't changed that. Knuckles was the same, assuming they hadn't killed one another. But Sonic… Hopefully he'd landed over an undersea bubble vent. Uekawa knew the blue hedgehog had all the luck for that sort of thing that Shadow lacked. It was to an extent he'd sometimes wondered if his doppelganger wasn't instinctively applying some low level chaos control to twist probability in his favour.
The bleating below grew agitated. Shadow stared down at a hulking humanoid, crimson and black with huge curving horns. Zavok, at least one time leader of the zeti by virtue of strength and cunning, now even larger, if disproportionate, with overlong, dragging arms that left bloody trails behind him as he moved, gouging deep furrows behind him in the ice with his claws. And his mouth stretching open to ridiculous lengths to accommodate a shrieking baby yeti with a brief crunch.
Zavok turned to stare up the slope to where Shadow stood, a gaping grin on his bloody jaws as he gave a little wave before snatching another fleeing yeti to devour. The zeti started a slow, plodding ascent towards him, an abnormal, rasping, growl carrying easily over the shrieks of the terrified yetis.
Damn it. Silent Forest was an easy crossing just at the end of the zone, and now the strongest of the zeti stood in his path? Shadow raised his pistol with a grunt.
"I don't have time for this."
Or rings, for that matter. Low on ammo too.
He fired at the ground, bullets piercing the snow before him. The sound of the gunshots reverberated across the zone.
And the snow began to shift. Shadow leapt as his footing flowed away, skates firing to land him on the top of the rumbling avalanche, skating down the mountainside with a hundred tons of snow at his feet.
Zavok's face barely had time to register surprise before the forefront of the avalanche surged over him, dragging him down and under the powdery white wave. Shadow leapt again as he approached where Zavok fell, a long clawed arm erupting from the snow beneath him to justify his caution.
No point in fighting here. Shadow accelerated past fleeing yetis, finally skating past the crest of the avalanche towards the end of the zone, the crimson stained woods zone visible in the distance.
He leapt, jets firing as one to convert his comfortable mach one land speed into a mach one air speed, the edges of the floating archipelago hurtling towards him, dizzying view down to the glittering ocean below him until he slammed down onto the dirt once more, crimson "grass" scorching beneath his skates as he raced onwards, spinning spikes first into a fleshy spider to tear straight through in an explosion of gore and bone.
No time to stop. Better to keep up his momentum and accelerate. A ripple in the water beside him. He lunged to the side, skidding across mud as a giant reptile, more like a red dragon than a crocodile, slapped its teeth down where he'd been skating. He accelerated, leaving the monster behind as he slalomed between grey trunked trees, seeing Angel Island, green and pure, in the distance.
Still close enough.
He could make it.
Shadow bent his knees, ramping off an overturned tree to soar up into the air, wind whipping through his spines as he hurtled once more out across the void…
He landed, skidding to a halt just in time to avoid slamming face first into a giant mushroom, the familiar plants of Mushroom Hill Zone all around him.
Perfect. Now all he had to do was-
A blast of energy erupted from a turret amongst the bushes, blazing across his chest. Shadow stumbled backwards with a grunt, firing his pistol in retaliation.
Another turret fired from behind, then another, crackling energy engulfing him until he finally could stand no more, collapsing to the ground, still trying to aim his pistol.
The last thing he saw before consciousness left him was a pair of black boots striding towards him, a familiar voice cackling after him into oblivion.
