Storm woke up, covered in sulfur and ash from the ground. He pushed his body off the ground, took a glance left, then a glance to the right, and finally looked straight forward.

The volcano... He felt like there was something important there, but he couldn't put his finger on it. His mind was all... Fuzzy.

The red hedgehog planted his feet flat on the ground, and started to walk in the direction of the large stone object, slightly tumbling to his right every second step.

MEANWHILE, AT THE VOLCANO

The three hedgehogs stood at the base of the erupted mountain, among their many friends.

"Does everybody remember the plan?" Sonic asked.

"Did you ever give us one?" Silver asked.

"I was hoping you did." Sonic said.

Shadow sighed. "Why did I agree to this again? It's the doctor who's the big threat."

"So you suddenly don't care what Mephiles does?" Sonic asked.

Shadow stared at his blue counterpart, his eyes filled partially with rage, yet also with understanding. Then they closed. "Fine. I have an idea."

"What is it?" Silver asked.

"I'll take Rouge and that robot friend of yours with me to go stop Mephiles." Shadow said. "While I'm doing that, you take everyone else to find Iblis."

"No!" a high pitched scream pierced everybody's ears, as they all turned to face Cream the rabbit, as well as Cheese. "I'm going with you an ML!"

"No." Shadow said. "You're too weak. You would only get in the way."

The mention of this fact brought a tear to Cream's eye.

"Shadow!" Sonic shouted, clearly angry. "What are you doing!? She's only a kid!"

"Which is exactly why she shouldn't have come in the first place." Shadow put simply.

"ENOUGH!" Cream shouted, as she brought her fist to Shadow's face, knocking him to the ground.

"Cream..." Sonic said, not knowing how to comment.

Shadow pushed himself off the ground, and ran over to punch Cream back, when something stopped him.

"That's enough, you two!" Blaze shouted. "We're not here to fight each other, we're here to fight the beings of fire and darkness."

Everybody turned to look at the purple cat, as they all noticed that she was right.

"Let's go." Shadow said, as he was followed by Rouge and ML, while Sonic and Silver took Blaze, Knuckles, Tails and Chris.

While Cream and Cheese just stayed behind, sobbing.

"Shadow..." Rouge said.

"Just ignore her, she'll be fine." Shadow said.

"In the middle of an apocalypse?" Rouge asked.

Shadow said nothing, and kept moving.

MEANWHILE, INSIDE THE VOLCANO

"Mephiles, they're approaching." Iblis said.

"How many?" Mephiles asked.

"I'd say about 9 of them." Iblis said.

"Only 9?" Mephiles asked. "That shouldn't be too difficult."

"Wait, there's somebody at the foot of the volcano." Iblis said. "Make that 2... No, 3 people."

"Three?" Mephiles asked, taking a look. "How did that asshole manage to get here?"

"I don't know. He used a lot of power on us. Perhaps it wasn't his maximum potential." Iblis said.

"I suppose that's a possibility..." Mephiles said. "Well, nevertheless, he does not have the power to stop us."

"This is a true fact." Iblis said.

AT THE FOOT OF THE VOLCANO

Storm finally made it to the volcano, where he knew Mephiles was waiting. It was there that he made a sight that he wasn't expecting to see.

"Cream?" he asked, upon seeing the light-brown rabbit sitting alone in front of the volcano... Well, not completely alone. The blue floating Chao, Cheese, was there too, keeping her company.

"Storm?" Cream asked, crying her eyes out. "Is that you?"

"What happened? Why are you sitting here alone?" Storm asked.

"Shadow was being mean to me, and told me that I shouldn't have come!" Cream wailed.

"I'm gonna knock that guy's teeth out." Storm said, as he lifted Cream off the ground, having had some of his strength return. "Come on, let's go find the others."

IN THE VOLCANO

"Is it just me, or are these caverns a little bit quiet?" Knuckles asked.

"Maybe a little too quiet..." Silver said.

"Ah, come on guys. Don't make this so much more dramatic than it had to be." Tails said. "So there's no enemies in sight. I doubt there's gonna be any ambushes before we find Iblis."

"That's the most truthful thing that's come out of your mouth!" somebody shouted from nowhere, before the ground beneatch them caved in, leading to a long round thing foothold, suspended over lava. "Of course, that doesn't mean that my attack won't be of the same magnitude as that of your average ambush!"

Everyone turned their heads, and saw a red hedgehog floating above the lava.

"Iblis!" Silver shouted, clenching his fists as tight as possible.

The floating red hedgehog grinned. "Oh, Silver. It's always a pleasure seeing you, but you should know not to bring uninvited guests."

The white hedgehog shouted a war cry, whilst throwing rock after rock at Iblis.

"Oh, has the fighting begun?" Iblis asked. "Let me change into something a little more... Appropriate."

He flew downwards, landing in the magma, which soon started to glow.

"What's happening?" Silver asked, looking at the magma below.

As if to answer, a large behemoth composed of magma and rocks rose slowly out of the lava.

"It's Iblis!" Blaze shouted. "He's somehow reached his final form!"

"Then we'll just smash it!" Knuckles shouted. "I got dragged away from the Master Emerald for this, I'm not going to let that be in vain!"

"That's the idea, but there's one problem." Silver said. "How are we gonna do it?"

MEANWHILE, WITH THE OTHER GROUP

"Shadow, are you sure that that was a good idea?" Rouge asked.

Shadow said nothing.

"Is something bothering you?" Rouge asked.

Shadow said nothing.

Rouge sighed. "It kills to not have a good conversation here."

"Maybe I can help with that." a deep voice said beneath them.

Shadow and the others stopped dead in their tracks, as they approached a floor area with a black, gooey substance.

At the other end of the area was an exact copy of Shadow (save a few minor details, such as grey instead of red spike tops, and... Well, a lack of a mouth).

"Mephiles..." Shadow said in a very angry voice.

The copy chuckled. "Always a pleasure for you, Shadow."

Before they could run away, stone walls rose from the ground around the 3 animals and the robot, entrapping them all. The walls matched the rest of the area, charred black with some volcanic orange near the bottoms.

"I guess we only have one choice, then." Shadow said.

"Then it's settled." Mephiles said, as he sank into the dark substance.

MEANWHILE, WITH STORM AND CREAM

Storm was using all of his energy just to carry the little rabbit merely a few moments ago, yet something gave him a new source of power.

The red hedgehog bolted off in a direction that he thought was the way to where he wanted to go.

Although he wasn't sure where it was that he was going.

"Mr. Storm, is everything okay?" Cream asked.

"Chao?" Cheese sounded.

"Yeah, everything's fine." Storm said. "I hope so, anyways."

No, he knew exactly what was going on, and exactly where he wanted to go.

A few moments later, and he arrived upon what appeared to be a stone container on a stone bridge.

One of them has to be in there. He thought. He was going to question which one, when he saw black sludge gradually pour out from between cracks in the walls.

The same black sludge he used when he used the power of the Chaos Emerald.

It has to be him. Storm said, as he ran up the top of the tall walls.

There was no roof.

He leapt in, still carrying Cream, and Cheese still following behind.

Inside the walls, he found Shadow, Rouge, and ML.

"Storm, what are you doing here!?" Shadow asked.

"I came here looking for Mephiles and Iblis, then I found Cream outside. She told me what happened, and I decided to look for you guys first." Storm said. "I didn't expect for those goals to coincide with each other."

"Well you're late to the party." Rouge said.

"Speak for youself, I'm the one who punched these guys into this volcano." Storm said, grinning.

Shadow sighed. "Let's do this, then."

"Alright. I'll deal with him under the darkness." Storm said, as his fur turned black, and he drew his sword, which had the end of darkness glowing. "You guys can handle up here."

Shadow and Rouge nodded in agreement, while ML, being a robot, just stood there, while Storm dived into the darkness.

Once inside, he realized it wasn't much different from the darkness he emitted with the Chaos Emerald.

"Do you like it?" a voice asked. Storm knew who it belonged to.

"Mephiles!" Storm shouted.

"It's time, my friend." Mephiles said. "Time for our final battle. And I can assure you, my friend, I will be the victor."

Storm clench his hand around the hilt of his sword even tighter, as he prepared to attack.

Hey guys, thanks for reading this chapter. It really means a lot. So, I'm almost done.

Anyways, sorry this took so long. I can't blame this on anybody else but me... And whoever invented the Digimon anime, which I have been watching since the beginning of March (no, I do not have an excuse for any time before that), but I mostly blame myself.

Anyways, I think it's time for my usual speech.

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this chapter, you should follow, alert, review, etc. If you didn't... Well, then get your friend a vegetarian pizza... Unless they're vegetarian, in which case, get a meat lovers.

See you guys next time!