SONIC ADVENTURE 2: SHADOW

Disclaimer: I do not own the Sonic characters, only Kumori.

Chapter Seven: Existence

After the extensive battle on Prison Island, Shadow used Chaos Control to teleport the team to Space Colony: ARK, the birthplace of Shadow and Kumori. In the medical bay of the ARK, Shadow was lying inside a sleeping pod with red wires attached to him. By the pod was Kumori, staring at it depression at watching Shadow lie there, like he was dead. Kumori looked around the room and remembered the many times she was brought here by Professor Gerald's granddaughter, Maria.

Eggman walked in to see Kumori still standing over Shadow's pod, just like she has for the past four hours. Kumori saw Eggman enter the room and asked "Is he going to be alright?" "Shadow is a strong hedgehog; he is only suffering from minor exhaustion. In a few hours, he should up and running again." Eggman said as he walked in and stood near Kumori. Eggman took the time to look at the healing Shadow and the worrisome Kumori, which had surprised him.

Eggman decide to confront Kumori with a question that had been bothering him lately. "Say, Kumori, you said this is the place where my grandfather created you, right?" Eggman asked. "Yes." Kumori said quickly, curious at what Eggman was getting at. "Well, I found my grandfathers old journal and I did a little research on you, Kumori. Apparently, you were an emotionless monster of great destruction. But that all changed when Shadow was created. Care to explain?" Eggman interrogated. Kumori gave no reply and just walked out of the medical bay.

Kumori walked into the viewing room, which showed planet Earth and all its natural beauty. Back when she once lived on the ARK, 50 years ago, this would always be her favorite place to spend her free time. She remembered the times she used to spend here with Maria and Shadow, gazing at the world they hoped to visit one day. "The doctor is right. I was supposed to be built as a heartless weapon of destruction, so why do I feel this way?" Kumori asked herself. Her mind then drifted to the memories of her life, 50 years ago.

---Flashback---

"Alright, Kumori, this is a simple exercise to test your power. Are you ready?" Professor Gerald said over the loudspeaker. "Yes, professor." Kumori said, emotionlessly. The walls started to open up and several prototype G.U.N. beetles came flying out. "You're joking, right?" Kumori said, insulted by her lack of competition. The beetles shot at the female hedgehog, but were dodged very easily. Kumori jumped into the air and used her own version of the homing attack to finish them off. In the control room, the professor had finished reading Kumori's data and told her "that is enough for today, Kumori."

Kumori was in the viewing room, staring out into the world in front of her. "It's beautiful isn't it?" Came a female voice from behind. Kumori turned around to see a young, blond girl wearing a blue dress. The girl was Maria Robotnik, professor Gerald's grandfather. "I guess, but I can't help wonder what it is like down there, on planet Earth." Kumori told her. "Don't worry. I am sure we will visit the planet someday." Maria assured here. Kumori did not show it, but she was proud at how Maria did not give up on her dream to see the bright blue planet.

Weeks have passed and Kumori found it strange that the Professor did not call her for any tests. If fact, the professor has kept himself hidden away from everyone on the ARK until. "Maria, Kumori, please come to the training room. I have something special to show you." Gerald said over the loudspeaker. When Kumori and Maria arrived at the control room, they saw a black hedgehog standing in the middle of the training area. "Who is that?" Asked Maria. "Watch." was all that the professor said.

The walls opened and over a thousand beetle prototypes flew out. Kumori was surprised that the professor would send that many robots on him, when even she couldn't fight that many. But the black hedgehog made no move. Instead he just raised his hand and snapped his fingers, shouting "CHAOS SPEAR!" the robot then exploded in a ray of yellow light, causing his watcher to gasp in shock. "Behold, Shadow the hedgehog, the ultimate life-form." Gerald announced.

Hours after the training exercise, Shadow decided to explore the ARK until he heard a faint cry coming from one of the rooms. Shadow opened the door to the viewing room to find Kumori sitting on the floor, holding her legs to her chest, crying. Shadow felt sorry for her and walked up to her saying "What's wrong?" Kumori made no reply. "If don't want to tell me, then I won't ask." Shadow said as he walked away. "I'm useless." Kumori said suddenly. Shadow looked back at Kumori as she stood up and looked at Shadow, with tears still shooting from her eyes.

"What do you mean?" Shadow asked. "That's what Professor Gerald said. He said that since I couldn't use chaos magic like you, I was useless to him. He said i no longer have a purpose. Sometimes I wonder why I even exist." Kumori told her as she cried even more. Shadow walked up to Kumori and grasped her shoulders tightly, forcing her to look at him directly in the eyes. "Never say that, understand. You're not useless. You are important to many people aboard the ARK, including me, you got that. Never think like that ever again." Shadow told her. Kumori was shocked by Shadow's speech and had stopped crying almost instantly. "Thank you, Shadow." Kumori said with a smile.

---End Flashback---

Ever since that day, Kumori had been receiving new emotions and this most recent feeling was confusing her. "I don't know what this feeling is, but I know it has something to do with Shadow. How do I figure it out?" Kumori asked herself as she placed her hand on her heart. Then and idea popped into her head. There was only one person she knew that could help her figure out this mystery.

Amy was waking up from her injures and was blinded by a ray of light. Amy's vision soon cleared and saw that she was in a hospital room. She looked at herself and noticed that there were no bandages or medical needle on her, as if she had never been hurt. Amy heard the door open and saw her best friend, Cream, enter the room with her pet, Cheese. "Oh, Amy, I am so glad you're awake." Cream said in happiness as Cheese gave a small 'Chao'.

Cream walked over to Amy's bed and was questioned almost immediately. "Where am I?" "You're in the hospital. Tails and Sonic brought you here. It is amazing that you have no injuries, especially after that fight you had." Cream told her. "No injuries?" Amy questioned. "Yeah, it's a good thing Sonic is always there to save you, when you get into trouble." Cream said cheerfully. Even though Cream didn't know it, her words struck Amy hard. "It's true. He does always save me." Amy thought as she remembered Kumori's words. 'In all of Sonic's adventures, you always play the role of the hostage.' "I think you still need more sleep. Let me close the curtains for you." Cream offered as she walked over to the curtains. She was about to close them until she noticed an object heading straight for them.

In Sonic's room, Sonic had just finished explaining everything he knew about Shadow and Kumori. "So it was this 'Shadow' guy who is the going around stealing the chaos emerald and blaming you for it?" Tails asked. "That about sums it up." Sonic said. "I knew it wasn't you. Now the only problem is to figure out how to get everyone else to believe too." Tails explained. Sonic and Tails tried to come up with a plan to stop Shadow from whatever he was doing until the heard a scream from another room.

"AAH!" "That was Cream!" Tails proclaimed. Tails and Sonic ran out of Sonic's and straight to Amy's. When they opened the door, they saw glass on the floor along with Cream. "Cream!" Tails shouted as he quickly ran to her side. Sonic became angered when he saw Kumori holding a scared Amy. "What do you want with Amy?" Sonic questioned. "I need her questioning. But in the meantime, why don't you play with some of Eggmans new toys." Kumori said. Then a series of white fighter robots (like the ones in Sonic 2006) appeared flying outside the broken window and aimed their rifles at the small group. "Fire." Kumori said as her and Amy disappeared, thanks to Kumori's super speed.

The white robots began to open fire and shot at everything in sight. Sonic quickly jumped to Tails and Cream, knowing they were directly in the robots line off fire. The robots soon ceased fire when the room was covered in a layer of smoke. As soon as the smoke cleared, they saw that Tails and Cream were unharmed and Sonic was missing. The robots looked around quickly to find the speed demon until the heard a faint buzzing noise from above. The looked to see Sonic use his spin dash to ride along the building and slice through the robots white armor. Sonic jumped out of his spin dash and in front the broken wall that was shot by the robots. Sonic prepared to leave until "Sonic, where are you going?" Tails asked. "That witch has Amy. I have to go save her." Sonic told him as he ran out the wall to begin his search.

Sonic had been running around Station Square for six hours and has still not seen any sign of the two. "Hmm, maybe they left the city. Only one way to find out." Sonic said. Sonic then ran out of the city and kept running until he found himself in Mystic Ruins. With luck, Sonic spotted Kumori leaning on a tree but Amy was not with her. "Where is she?" Sonic demanded her to answer. Kumori moved from her spot and stared directly at Sonic. "If you're looking for Amy then don't bother." Kumori told him. "And why not?" Sonic asked, nervous about her answer. Kumori coldly replied.

"Because…she's dead"

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