-Writer's Note-

Shadow the Hedgehog has been a complicated character since his first appearance in Sonic Adventure 2, he was a vengeful hero who turned good, then in Sonic Heroes he was an amnesiac anti-hero and then he had multiple paths in Shadow the Hedgehog and, finally, his arc ended in Sonic 06 with him as a hero.

In his next many appearances, his characterization from the previous games didn't stick as he seemingly reverted back to being an arrogant edgy rival to Sonic, plus he was characterized as a villain in Sonic Boom. In Archie Sonic, Shadow's characterization was consistent mostly thanks to writer's such as Ian Flynn.

Unfortunately, with IDW Sonic, things seem to be off. You see, while SEGA has permitted Ian Flynn and the other writers to write characters such as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles the way they want to write them, SEGA has been very restrictive on the characterization of one character in particular and that's our pal Shadow the Hedgehog.

An example of this? During the course of writing the zombot arc, specifically issue 19 with part one of the Crisis City two parter, Ian wanted to have Shadow unlock his inhibitor rings and go all out against the zombots before becoming fully infected. However, SEGA flat out told him not to do so as they want him to be written as an overconfident edgelord rival to Sonic.

Shadow's showing while fighting the zombots really upset a lot of Sonic fans, I wasn't too concerned, some things out of our control just happen and we can't help ourselves. However, what if Shadow wasn't written the way he's been written? What if he acted differently?

Prepare yourselves, folks. We're diving into an IDW Sonic AU and I'm giving MY OWN take on Shadow's fight with the Zombots. I know a few others online have probably done so, but I wanna give my take, especially with Shadow going all out against the zombots.

Lets do it too it...

He slammed on the pedal, going full throttle as he sped across the bridge, plowing through hordes of infected Mobians. Shadow knew what to do, people needed help, his comrades needed help. Shadow made it to the other side and into town square, well near the Gold Flicky Hotel where Sonic, Rouge and Omega were waiting.

'Luckily, I didn't run anybody other than the zombots over.' Shadow thought as he stepped out, the partially infected yet still ok Sonic came forth to greet him. "There you are, Shadow." The blue hedgehog said, "Been waitin' for you, so what happened?" Shadow held up his hand. "Not now, blue hedgehog. Time and a place."

"C'mon, Shadow!" The blue hedgehog protested, "I'm trying to be optimistic here."

Shadow gestured to the chaos around them, "All of this could've been avoided if we took care of Eggman back in Windmill Village, Sonic. I did try to warn you, but you refused to listen. I know you didn't mean for this to happen, but its slightly your fault."

"Some creep named Doctor Starline made Eggman evil again!" Sonic defended.

"So I've heard somewhere, nothing but excuses in my eyes."

"I'm trying to handle the whole thing, but I'm infected too."

"So? You take care of it. I'm not the one infected."

Sonic noticed that the spread of metal virus goo was almost everywhere, starting to consume him... again. He ran off, but not before giving some advice to Shadow, "Don't let the zombots touch ya, man. If it happens, run, assuming you're as fast as me."

What's he talking about? Shadow thought and, no sooner than Sonic was out of sight, he said to himself, "There are alternatives to running." Ready to face the zombots and ensure that the evacuating civilians got to safety, he approached Omega. "Omega." He said.

"I await orders!" Omega replied, he was at work blasting away at zombots. Shadow gave him one as Rouge climbed atop the roof of a truck, "Destroy Eggman's army, keep the zombots away from the truck and the citizens. Use any means necessary, I will do my part in keeping the zombots at bay and make sure no harm comes to anyone."

"Roger that," Omega buzzed, "Orders received, eliminate all Eggman robots, obliterate zombots. Exterminate, annihilate destroy!" The wayward Eggman robot let loose, hovering all over the area and launching missiles while firing a massive amount of ammo upon the Zombots despite their heavy resilience and the fact they couldn't be destroyed.

Shadow noticed what was going on even as he warped to the east wing, finding himself surrounded by zombots within seconds. "Very resilient." He commented, prepared for battle, "But so am I, I'm the ultimate life form and I'm immune to any viruses, Eggman's pathetic metal virus can't infect me. Bring it on, zombots. CHAOS SPEAR!"

The dark hedgehog attacked almost without any mercy, martial arts kicking zombots left and right and sending chaos spears in various directions. From afar, Rouge watched with disbelief as she instructed evacuating citizen after evacuating citizen to get inside the truck. She knew the man she loved was a strong and powerful fighter, but was he acting a bit too... reckless?

All of Sunset City seemed to be on its last legs, at this point, there were thousands upon thousands of zombots everywhere and many citizens trying to evacuate and those trying to help were getting infected by the metal virus. Smoke filled the sky as buildings burned and were torn down by the infected Mobians, all the life in the city seemed to be just... gone.

"Chaos... BLAST!" Shadow yelled and a miniature explosion encompassed the perimeter, knocking back several Zombots. He wasn't tiring out, he was strong and powerful. Maybe, there was a chance that Shadow could ensure the crisis was manageable?

But then, as a trio of zombots approached, Shadow punched one aside, picked up another and tossed the zombot into a nearby wall. He felt something on his hand and looked at it, gasping in horror when he saw silver metal goo covering his gloved right hand.

"Impossible!" The black hedgehog muttered in horror, even worse, the goo was spreading and more had appeared on his left hand and had made its way to his wrist and knees. "SHADOW, RUN!" Rouge yelled, observing with concern, "WE'LL HANDLE THE SITUATION!"

"As previously noted," Shadow began unlocking his inhibitor rings, an idea forming as more zombots surrounded him and attempted to hold him down, "There are alternatives to running." His limiters fell to the ground and, in seconds, he was surrounded by an aura of Chaos energy.

"SHADOW, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Rouge yelled, watching with surprise as she watched the Ultimate Life Form's transformation into Chaos Shadow. "Sensors indicate a spike in Chaos energy from Shadow." Omega reported.

From inside the back of the truck, a green dog named Aaron and a yellow cat named Ian watched with astonishment and shock as Chaos Shadow went all out against the zombots. "And I thought he was an overconfident edge lord guy." Aaron commented.

The super-powered ultimate life form ran around the area, attempting to get rid of the spreading Metal Virus, attacking zombots left and right and going wild with his Chaos powers. At that same time, Sonic had just returned from a run, still covered in metal virus goo.

"Check your fire, Omega!" He shouted, trying to avoid getting hit by Omega's bullets. Rouge was on the communicator with Amy, contacting her and letting her know of what was going on as more and more zombots closed in and surrounded Shadow.

Despite everything he tried to get rid of the metal virus, the black hedgehog found himself consumed by darkness as the zombots overwhelmed him and he too became one of them. The very last thing he saw and heard were metal virus infected Mobians and Rouge screaming...

The End

Note: That was crazy, huh? Well, hope you liked it.