I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of the characters.
Mephiles
"He should be back by now," Rouge said, she, Blaze, and Omega all sitting in the G.U.N. HQ waiting for Sonic to get back from going to reinforce Shadow. "With the two of them together, there's no way she could win, right?"
"No, she couldn't," Blaze said. "But maybe..."
"Don't say it!" Rouge said, eyes widening. "You know what that would mean!"
"I know," Blaze sighed. "But Rouge, you know that it's entirely possible."
Rouge's eyes began to water and she wiped her tears away instantly.
"I can tap into a satellite to monitor the battle," Omega suggested.
"Really!?" both women gasped. "Do it!"
Omega turned to the computer, typing on the keyboard for a moment before bringing up a video feed of Metropolis. What they saw made both women's eyes widen and Rouge almost burst into tears, both unable to look away.
Shadow bounced off the roof of a skyscraper before flipping and catching himself, glaring at Mephiles as he deflected and blocked Zeta's strikes rapidly. Then, he flipped, slamming a kick into her and sending her flying. Multi-colored energy began to gather in Mephiles' hand only for a massive wall of blood red energy to explode into his side from Shadow, sending him flying. However, when he stopped himself, he was unscathed. He chuckled darkly.
"Why Shadow, whatever is the matter?" Mephiles asked. "The last time I fought a Shadow, his attacks held more power than mine. Don't tell me you're actually this weak now."
"If my strikes are mosquito bites to you, then I'll keep biting you until you've got no blood left!" Shadow growled, launching himself off the roof with his shoes.
Mephiles laughed, red energy washing over him for a moment as the world around them distorted, flashing red several times, then changed. Massive clouds of blood red squares shot toward them in long trails, and half a dozen Metal Sonics appeared around Mephiles, all of them launching themselves at shadow, who was struggling to keep ouy of the way of the odd red clouds. The first reached Shadow from behind while he was distracted, only for Zeta to reach it, energy exploding out of her elbow and drilling a punch into its head, crumpling it and sending it into one of the red clouds, the entire thing erupting into an explosion of red squares before they all faded, taking the Metal Sonic with them. Shadow spun, blasting two of the Metal Sonics with an aimed Chaos Blast just before two caught his arms and the third crashed into his gut head first, launchign Shadow downward. Shadow flipped, stopping himself just before Zeta crashed into his back. He flipped, catching her bridal-style and looked back, seeing Mephiles holding a glowing purple sphere over each hand.
"Get them," he said, the three Metal Sonics each shooting down at them, gold Chaos Energy suddenly surrounding them.
Shado spun, hurling Zeta at the side of the skyscraper beside them before launching himself at the three Metal Sonics, curling into a ball. He crashed into two of the three at the same time and a Chaos Blast exploded off of him, obliterating the two he hit and hurling the last. Zeta shot past Shadow instantly, slashing both of her blades across her body and bisected the last Metal Sonic up the middle, passing between his halves just before they exploded. She flipped stopping herself just as Mephiles reached her, swinging the two purple spheres at her from the sides. Before they could hit, Shadow flashed up between them, glowing with a white-blue aura, and pulled Zeta out of the way, removing her hand for her and flipping her to face Mephiles before returning time to its normal flow.
"Fire!" Shadow instructed, Zeta instantly unleashing a bolt of lightning into Mephiles' head, the explosion sending him streaking down into the ground.
Before he could hit, a massive cog appeared in the air behind him, darkness swirling inside of it, and he passed into it, a second suddenly in the air above Shadow and Zeta, allowing Mephiles to drop out of it, flipping and slamming a kick into both of them, sending them exploding into the ground. Both stood, groaning, just as three Mephileses appeared around them. Shadow could instantly tell they weren't just shadows and jumped, sending a burst out of his right shoe's front thruster as he linked his arm with Zeta's, Zeta using a blast of ionized energy to copy him, their windmill kicks spinning them in a circle, deflecting the three Mephileses' hands, the purple spheres they were holding speeding away in three separate directions before exploding. Then, the other's foot connected with the three crystal hedgehogs' jaws, snapping their heads around backwards, only for all three to fade before they hit the ground.
Shadow and Zeta stopped spinning and turned to the real Mephiles just as he began to laugh.
"What's so funny, Mephiles?" Shadow asked.
"Your mind is just so much fun to explore, Shadow," Mephiles grinned. "Allow me to give you a bit better a taste of the Phantom Ruby's true power. Not a full helping, but a decent indication."
Suddenly, the world began to distort and flash red again, the air around Mephiles blurring. Then, it darkened and Shadow blinked, rubbing his eyes, which felt irritated all of a sudden. When he opened his eyes again, he was staring at the robot from his nightmare, complete with its dozens of tentacles, machine guns, and the spikes on its back.
"What is that thing!?" Zeta gaped.
"A huge fucking problem," Shadow growled. "How fast can you fly?"
"Very," Zeta said.
"Good," Shadow nodded. "Don't slow down for a second."
Then, he took off in one direction, Zeta in the other. It became obvious, immediately, which the robot was targeting. Shadow swore as he flipped and spun, dodging around the robot's tentacles, fists, and bullets as fast as he could. His feet felt warm and he glanced down at his shoes. He had never pushed them so hard before. He wasn't sure if they'd handle the strain. They weren't exactly built for sustained flight.
He turned back to the front in time to swear, crossing his arms in front of himself just before a tentacle slammed into him, sending him streaking backward. Then, the robot's fist connected with his entire body, sending him exploding into the ground. Shadow groaned, rolling onto his back just as a bolt of lightning slammed into the robot's back, sending it staggering forward one step. Shadow focused, tapping into his white-blue energy again, then pushed himself up, breathing heavily and noticing his wounds healing at a crawl compared to earlier. He wasn't going to be up and about much longer. Once he was healed enough, he took off, speeding along the ground at the robot's feet while it focused on Zeta, who was spinning and dodging around tentacles, slashing them off when she could, only for the air where the rest of it should be to blur, then become clear again, leaving the tentacle reformed.
Shadow jumped, flipping and landing on the side of its leg, speeding up it rapidly, then jumping onto a spike. Just as he landed on it, a bolt of lightning exploded into the robot's chest. Shadow turned to tell Zeta to target its head, only for Blaze and Rouge to land on either side of him.
"No," Shadow said.
"Yes," Rouge said. "We've talked it over and...we prefer a more...living boyfriend. I think I'm going back to flirting with knuckles."
"And Silver suggested a wonderful date," Blaze smirked.
Shadow swallowed hard, feeling his control slipping slightly. He leapt off of the tentacle, grabbing the tip of another and swinging up around it, only for Rouge's foot to explode into his chest, sending him exploding down into another spike before Blaze's foot crashed into his side, flames flying out of her heel. He crashed into another spike just in time for Blaze, now encased in fire, to crash into him, pinning him and grinning wickedly as her flames began to burn him slowly, despite the white-blue aura trying to resist it. Finally, he managed to get a foot out from under hers and slammed a push kick into her chest, throwing her backward before flipping backward and leaping off of the spike. Rouge flew up into his path and he squeezed his eyes shut, curling into a ball and bouncing off of her, throwing her backward into Blaze before he uncurled, landing on a spike and switching to red Chaos Energy, exploding forward at the robot's head. However, before he could get there, Blaze's fire-enhanced kick, and Rouge's own super-strong kick both swung around at him from the front, before he could react, exploding into him and sending him exploding backward into one of the spikes. Rouge instantly crashed down on him with both feet, shattering his ribs, which began to heal instantly, only for Blaze to reach him, beginning to rapidly rain flaming punches down on him.
He couldn't fight back. He had to use all of his strength to control his Chaos Energy. However, before he could worry about it, Zeta slammed a kick into Blaze, then grabbed Shadow and leapt away just before a wall of tentacles slammed into the spike, hitting Rouge and Blaze on the way.
"No!" Shadow shouted, staring wide-eyed at the pair, impaled several times over, only for them to fade, along with the robot itself.
Shadow's eyes widened before he sighed in relief. It wasn't really them. They didn't hate him. Anger flooded him at the thought of Mephiles toying with his emotions. He pushed off of Zeta, taking flight for himself again, just as a Mephiles slammed into each of them, curled into a cannon ball of solid gemstone. Both crashed into the side of a building and a Mephiles again crashed into each of them, cratering the skyscraper still further. Then, the two crystal hedgehogs began to rain blows into the pair rapidly. Shadow's Chaos Energy failed almost instantly, leaving him entirely at the mercy of the Mephiles pummeling him. However, just as he began to dance on the edge of consciousness, a shining ball of fir and energy crashed into his Mephiles, then into the other, launching both, both of them fading before Sonic landed on the edge of the building above Shadow and Zeta, catching both and pulling them up, Zeta standing as Shadow lay helplessly on the ground.
"Man, this guy really is strong, huh?" Sonic asked, staring at Mephiles, now hovering in the air over a hedgehog about Sonic's height with messy blue fur, pointed teeth, claws, fluffy white fur around his hands and the ends of h quills white. "This is going to be a rough one."
"If we beat him here, his plan ends," Zeta said.
"Oh, my plan won't end so easily as that," Mephiles laughed. "Come Sonic the Hedgehog. Let's continue, shall we?"
Sonic's eyes narrowed before he shot forward, sliding under the odd-looking hedgehog's suddenly stretched arm before leaping off the ground directly in front of it, curling into a ball and crashing into its face, bouncing into the air, only for a massive blast of white-purple electrical energy to explode out of a sphere of similar energy Mephiles suddenly had between his hands. Sonic exploded into the side of a skyscraper behind him, shattering the building and causing it to begin to fall. He Shot out of the way, then shot along it, launching himself off of it in a homing attack at Mephiles, only for the other hedgehog to suddenly leap up in front of him, slamming a hand into him and sending him exploding down into the street far below him, Sonic remaining motionless as the dust settled.
Meanwhile, Zeta was struggling to fend off another Mephiles. She blocked strike after strike, barely able to keep ahead of him, before transforming her hand into a blade and driving it up into his side, barely getting a few inches into his crystal body, though it seemed enough, since the Mephiles faded instantly. Then, the other hedgehog's fist expoded into her, sending her spinning out into the open air. She flipped, catching herself, but the flames coming from her feet were sputtering, and as soon as she was over the roof of the skyscraper, she collapsed. The hedgehog shot forward, pulling his claws back, only for Shadow to slam a fist into its side over its kidneys, the shining red Chaos Energy coating his fist exploding into a beam of energy, the beam drilling straight through him before he faded. Shadow sighed, turning to Mephiles just in time for Blaze and Rouge to both punch him in the face before sweeping his legs. He crashed to the ground and they began to pummel him again. He managed to curl into the fetal position, unable to force himself to fight them at all. Then, Zeta stepped up over him, her blades slicing through the two women easily, both fading before Mephiles slammed a kick into her back, blasting her into the roof of the building beside Shadow.
Mephiles laughed just as Sonic flipped over the edge of the roof behind him, rocketing forward in an aura of blue energy, only for Mephiles to burst into a cloud of smoke on impact, the real one crashing down on Sonic's back as a cannonball of crystal before bouncing and uncurling himself, laughing again.
"Look at you," Mephiles laughed. "Mobius's greatest hero, the ultimate weapon, and the ultimate lifeform, all of you laying helpless before me. He spat. You're all pathetic. I'll allow you to cling to your pathetic lives for now, if only to see the despair on your faces as you realize the futility of your struggles when I complete my plan."
Then, he transformed into a cloud of smoke, fading.
"Fuuuuuck," Shadow groaned, rolling onto his back. "We never had a chance. I feel as pathetic as Tails."
"That's a little harsh," Sonic groaned, pushing himself up. "Tails is a genius."
"I think you did great, Shadow," Zeta said.
"Don't patronize me," Shadow grumbled.
"I mean it," Zeta said. "For being half-dead at the beginning, you did exceptionally average."
"I fucking you," Shadow grumbled.
"You two sound like you're dating," Sonic snorted.
"No," Shadow said flatly.
"What, I'm not good enough for you?" Zeta smirked.
"Don't you fucking start," Shadow grumbled. "She comes from a universe where I'm a shit fighter but a super-genius, basically Tails-"
"Again, kinda rude," Sonic said.
"-so instead of fighting, that shadow created a bunch of androids to fight for him, and she was the most powerful one," Shadow said. "Of course, now that she knows I'm an alternate version of her creator, she seems to feel like that gives her the freedom to be a fucking smartass. Fucking androids. Every single one of them have attitude problems."
"Uh, Shadow?" Sonic said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, Sonic, I know that includes me," Shadow said. "Fuck off and go find the Chaos Emeralds so that we can fight Mephiles without dying next time."
Sonic chuckled. "The others should have them all soon. Then Knuckles and I will head to Angel Island and use the Master Emerald to enter Hyper Mode and we'll all meet up wherever Mephiles is."
"Somehow, I doubt it'll be that easy," Shadow groaned, just before Rouge and Blaze landed beside him, both clearly worried. "Hey girls. Glad you're not trying to kill me."
"We would never!" Rouge said.
"I know," Shadow sighed. "Threw me for a loop though."
Blaze sighed, smiling and gently wiping some blood from his lip, then wiping it on the ground. "You look almost as bad as me, now."
"You should have seen me before I healed to fight Mephiles," Shadow snorted. "Speaking of, allow me to properly introduce Zeta, now free of Mephiles' control. Apparently an alternate dimension version of me created her."
Zeta stared at the ground. "I...I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for everything I've done."
"Well, we saw you fighting alongside Shadow, so we know you're on at least his side, now," Rouge said.
"But that doesn't mean you're forgiven yet," Blaze said. "You have to earn that."
Zeta nodded.
"But thank you for keeping Shadow alive," Blaze said, smiling as Zeta looked up at her in surprise.
"We couldn't have bared to lose him," Rouge said. "Thanks to you, we didn't."
Zeta smiled and nodded. "I promise to do anything I can to help and to earn your trust."
Both women nodded and helped Shadow up, the five of them heading back to G.U.N. HQ where the others were supposed to meet them with the Chaos Emeralds.
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