I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of the characters.

Swallowed

Shadow groaned, pushing himself up and looked around. He was in a massive fleshy cavern, which he was relatively certain was Black Bull's stomach, except he didn't remember Black Bull being as big as the cavern he was in, let along big enough for it to be a stomach. His eyes swept around the massive cavern again, surveying what he had to work with. He was kneeling on a chunk of stone, his sword lying in front of him, and there was a green liquid filling the cavern that bubbled once in a while, and that he instantly recognized by the smell as bile. There were other chunks of stone, as well as other types of debris like chunks of buildings, cars, and even a few skeletons, scattered around the stomach, forming something like a city's ruin. However, he didn't see Rouge, Blaze, or Zeta anywhere. He groaned, using his sword to stand as his head spun.

"Rouge?" he called out, looking around. "Blaze? Zeta?"

When they didn't answer, he sighed heavily and looked around for the tallest piece of debris, finding part of a parking garage nearby that stood above most of the debris around him by about one story. It wasn't much, especially given the size of the stomach, but it was a good enough place to start. He began to jump from one chunk of stone to the next until he finally landed inside the parking garage. He made his way to the top quickly and looked around. Still nothing. There was no sign of any of them as far as he could see. He sighed, looking to one of the towers and began to head that way. He moved quickly, and after a few minutes, he reached the tower, quickly taking off into it at the base and using his speed to clear every room on every floor on the way up before reaching the roof and sighing heavily. Nothing. He walked to the edge and looked down, frowning again. Still nothing. He could see more of the debris field now, as well as under the bile, since it was fairly easy to see through, and they were nowhere in sight. He frowned. Did Black Bull maybe have more than one stomach? Or had they escaped when he was swallowed and he didn't realize it? He looked to the other towers. There were three more. He prayed that they were in one of them, but he wasn't very confident. He flew to the next with his shoes and began the same search pattern as before, this time making his way down. Nothing. He made his way to the next building and started back up. Nothing. He flew to the next, feeling what little hope he'd had before die down to the barest hint of existence. Sure enough, as he searched down through the last building, none of them were there. He stepped out of the building and onto a chunk of debris before sighing and pinching the inside corners of his eyes. Breathing in the fumes from the stomach acid was giving him a headache, as was his worry for the three girls' safety.

"Dammit," he sighed. "Where did you three go? If we all got swallowed, you should have ended up here."

He sighed, looking at each end of the stomach before deciding to start with the closer end. He reached the fleshy tunnel and grimaced as his feet sank into the flesh a couple inches with a wet squelch. He was probably going to end up vomiting by the time this was done. And he definitely needed a shower. He followed the tunnel in silence, resisting the urge to start cutting the side of the tunnel open to see what Black Bull would do. That would come later, he was sure. Finally, he stopped as twelve more tunnels all connected to his, all of them merging into a massive tunnel that a skyscraper would probably almost fit through standing on end. He looked around at the others before taking a deep breath.

"ROUGE, BLAZE, ZETA! ! !" he yelled toward the tunnels.

After a moment, a high, piercing monstrous shriek answered, followed by several more. He crouched, waiting, and a moment later, a dozen creatures scrambled out of some of the tunnels, all of them looking like Black Infantry but with eight arms that they were scurrying around on, then their legs replaced by a scorpion tail and their faces replaced by a gaping maw of a mouth that could bite his head off in one go, and several rows of teeth lining their mouths. Shadow grimaced and shot forward, ducking past a tail and sliding under one of the creatures, slashing it along the underside. As he stood, the creature collapsed and the next leapt at him. He launched himself at it, curling into a ball and crashed into it, hurling it backward onto another before he hurled his sword, impaling them both. They collapsed and Shadow launched himself downward with his shoes, curling into a ball before crashing down on another, crushing it. Two of them leapt at him and he jumped, his right shoe's front thruster spinning him into a windmill kick, taking both of their heads off before he used the rest of that foot's thrusters to get out of their bodies' way. however, just as he landed beside his sword and ripped it out of the two dead aliens he'd killed with it, three stingers suddenly stabbed into his back at once. He staggered forward, collapsing, and looked back as the last six slowly stalked toward him. Then, Zeta crashed down on one, blades-first. She ripped her blades out, shifting them back into hands and pulled one off before blasting two of the creatures with ionized energy. She put her hand on as one of the last three leapt at her, only for her to flip backward, kicking its head and flipping the front of its body upward before ionized energy exploded out of her elbow, sending her fist exploding into its underside, sending it crashing into another and breaking that one's neck with a loud crack. Then, she turned to the last one and grabbed Shadow's sword, launching herself forward with ionized energy from her feet before splitting it in half as she fell toward it. She turned, dropping the sword and raced back to Shadow before beginning to inspect his wounds.

"Don't move," she said. "You're hurt badly."

"How can you tell?" Shadow asked sarcastically.

She ignored him, opening the front of her jacket, then pressing a spot on her abdomen. Instantly, her abdomen opened in four pieces that slid out of the way, revealing a chunk of shining green crystal, which was attached to a metal cylinder that led up into the metal roof of the compartment. His eyes widened as she took a steadying breath and gripped the crystal.

"Wait!" he said. "That'll kill you, won't it?"

She smiled. "It's the only way to heal you. I don't mind, if it saves you. I owe you everything. Even when I was trying to kill you, you protected me. Then you saved me after I lost to Eclipse. And you saved me from Mephiles's control, then convinced the others to let me join you. I owe you everything. And even if I didn't, I'd still do this."

"I don't care if the Shadow of your universe created you, I'm not him and you shouldn't throw your life away for me!" Shadow snapped, starting to feel cold, and his head, hands and feet starting to grow numb.

"It's not because of that," Zeta smiled. "I know you're not him. It's because I love you. You saved me, so I couldn't help but fall for you."

"Zeta..." Shadow's eyes widened, but before he could say anything else, Zeta took a deep breath and ripped the chunk of crystal out of her body, a cord that had been attached to it somehow breaking and sparking as the light on the side of the cylinder inside her began to dim.

She pressed the crystal into one of the holes in his back and Shadow shouted in pain before she collapsed beside him, still smiling, but staring lifelessly ahead of herself. Warmth flooded Shadow's body and his back suddenly began to tingle as his wounds sealed. Then, the chunk of crystal fell to the ground. He sat up picked it up, staring at the piece of cable that was attached to it, then at the opposite end attached to Zeta's power core. He reached in, twisting the cylinder experimentally and it turned, then slid down out of the slot it was in, allowing him to pull it out to inspect it. He couldn't see how to open it, but he could see that there was a single, huge wire inside the cable, but he couldn't reconnect them. His eyes widened. Blaze could, though. She could save Zeta. He just had to find her.

"Shadow?" Rouge's voice called out suddenly.

"I'm here!" Shadow called back.

After a moment, Rouge and Blaze both appeared from one of the lower tunnels, both gasping and running over.

"What happened?" Rouge asked.

"I got hurt and she ripped the piece of Master Emerald that was powering her out in order to save me," Shadow said. "Blaze, can you reconnect the cable?"

"I'll try," Blaze said. "But it's not going to be perfect. She won't be as powerful as before."

"That's fine," Shadow said. "Just save her."

Blaze nodded, watching him for a moment before taking the crystal and lighting her other hand's thumb and index finger on fire, holding the ends of the cable together until they had melted together. Then, she let the fire go out and continued to hold them together until they cooled after a few seconds before putting the power core back into Zeta. After a moment, she blinked, then slowly pushed herself up, looking around.

"You saved me?" Zeta asked. "How?"

"Not me," Shadow said. "Blaze melted the cable back together."

Zeta stared at her power core for a moment before pressing on her side, her abdomen sealing before she closed her jacket. "Thank you, Blaze. I owe you."

"It's alright," Blaze said. "I was repaying you for saving Shadow. Besides, you're our ally. Maybe someday a friend."

Zeta smiled, nodding. "I hope so." She looked around. "So, how do we kill this thing?"

"I'd go with the heart," Shadow said. "It should be up, in theory."

"Sure you can't just Chaos Blast it to death?" Rouge asked.

"I'm trying to save my energy for Mephiles," Shadow said. "At least for now."

The others nodded and Shadow retrieved his sword before flying up to the top of the tunnel and carving out a circle, getting drenched in blood in the process before climbing out of the tunnel and looking around. He could see the a huge field of what looked like organs in the distance, but he couldn't tell what was what. he rolled his eyes and beckoned the others up, allowing them to see the problem.

"Well, that settles it," Blaze said, lightning her free hand on fire. "We're destroying everything."

"Yup," Shadow agreed. "Let's make this quick."

They took off, all of them speeding along the outside of the massive flesh tunnel and mass of stomachs they'd been in. The creature, whatever it was, be it Black Bull or something else, was massive. Easily the size of a city. It's mouth could probably swallow half of Metropolis. So whatever ate them either grew a lot afterward, or gave them to something else.

Shadow saw Zeta cutting a stomach open and letting out the stomach acid, and it began to hiss and steam against anything it hit, so he did the same. As soon as he did, Blaze began to follow suit. Then, they passed the stomachs and quickly began to destroy everything else. Blaze used a combination of her fireballs and her sword, Zeta used her arms as blades, and Shadow used his sword and a couple of Chaos Spears, though he tried not to use many. Rouge simply kicked the organs and they burst like water balloons. Finally, after nearly ten minutes, the entire thing vibrated with a roar that was sounded muted to them, then fell, crashing to the ground hard. They all flew toward its mouth and carved their way into its mouth, flying out of it, and saw that the thing was, in fact, Black Bull, just much, much, much larger than Shadow remembered. It had also crushed a massive section of the Black Arms when it fell. Shadow and the others all landed where they could see the others fighting, landing with them.

"You made it!" Sonic said, slashing a pair of Black Arms, then launching himself into a third and sending it crashing backward into more. "Nice going!"

"We thought you were dead for sure!" Knuckles said, splitting one alien up the front and burying his other axe in a second's head, then ripped it back out.

"Not quite yet," Shadow said, then stopped, looking back as his skin crawled beneath his fur, seeing the generals all walking toward them. "They're coming."

"Finally," Sonic said. "Guess they didn't like losing their pet."

"Then they should have kept it on a leash," Shadow said.

"We should go to meet them," Silver said.

"Agreed," Blaze nodded.

"Right," Shadow agreed. "Let's go!"

He sent an aimed Chaos Blast into the Black Arms to clear the way and they all took off, even those not assigned a general, tearing through the Black Arms at the end of the space Shadow had cleared and rapidly heading for the generals. The generals began to move to meet them, the Black Arms around them moving out of their way, and the moment the path finally opened, each of those assigned a general took off.

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