SONIC ADVENTURE 2: SHADOW
Disclaimer: I do not own the Sonic characters, only Kumori.
Chapter Eleven: Last Hunt
After Knuckles had defeated the stone golem, the hero team took off into one of Eggman's rockets. The rocket had breach the stratosphere and was slowly heading towards the direction of the Space Colony: ARK. A little too slow for Sonic's taste. "Come on Tails, can't you get this thing to move any faster?" Sonic complained. "It's going as fast as it can. Unless you have a plan, then be patient." Tails told him. "We don't have time!" Sonic said as he began pressing random button. "Sonic, no!"
As Sonic kept pressing buttons, the rocket suddenly stopped. The sudden halt of the rocket caused everyone to be pushed forward and land in a pile. "Nice going, idiot." Knuckles said. "Shut it, knucklehead." Sonic returned. "Can you two stop arguing for one second, geez?" Mach said as he tried to stand up. But while Mach tried to get back on his feet, he accidentally pressed one of the buttons on the control panel. "MACH!" everyone shouted.
"Egg Shuttle detachment sequence initiated." The computer stated. "Is that a good thing?" Mach asked. Lucky for him it was, the entire rocket began to break off and was replaced by a smaller red egg-like spaceship. "Wow Mach, you managed to transform the rocket into Eggman's fastest ship!" Tails exclaimed. "Always happy to help." Mach replied.
Thanks to Mach's accident, the ship was flying at a much faster pace and would soon reach the ARK in a matter of minutes. While heading towards the ARK, the gang notices several asteroids with steel construction sites on them. "What is Eggman doing with the asteroids?" Cream asked. "Asteroids contain special metals inside that Eggman could use to build even stronger robots." Tails explained. "Well, that gives us one more reason to stop him." Sonic said.
While everyone else was talking about Eggman and robots, Knuckles had felt the presence of the Master Emerald coming from one of the asteroids. "I can feel it. The emerald shards are around here somewhere. But where?" Knuckles thought. Knuckles vision soon landed on a white bat sitting atop one of the steel towers of the asteroids. "Rouge, I have to get to her." Knuckles said out loud.
Knuckles went back into the cargo hold and opened the hatch, getting ready to jump off. "Knuckles, what are you doing?" Mach asked. "I'm going to save Tikal and Chaos!" Knuckles shouted as he jumped out. Once he jumped out, Knuckles realized he wasn't going make it far enough. Knuckles then jumped back onto the side of the ship and pushed himself off to reach his destination. Unfortunately, Knuckles push caused the ship to go off course and headed straight for the ARK's wall.
"KNUCKLES, YOU IDIOT!" the group of heroes shouted as their ship crash through the steel wall. When the crash had ended, Sonic rubbed his throbbing head and asked "Is anyone dead?" his reply was three groans, meaning everyone was alive. "Well, that's good. After picking themselves up, the gang opened the hatch and jumped out of the ship to get a look at their new surroundings.
"Where are we?" asked Cream. "I remember. I read about this place. This is Space Colony: ARK." Tails explained. "Space Colony: ARK?" Sonic questioned. "It was once the most advanced research facility of its kind. But 50 years ago, something happened and the entire colony was forced to shut down." Tails explained. "So Eggman reactivated it and is now using it as a weapon." Mach said. "That's what it looks like." Tails said.
Tails walks back into the ship and begins to access the ARK's blue prints from the cockpit computer. "It would be impossible to destroy the weapon from the outside. So we have to destroy it from the inside instead by using the fake chaos emerald." Tails looked at the small television he had and gasped in surprise at the timer on it. "Oh no, we only have six hours to stop Eggman." Tails said. "But how?" Mach questioned.
"Time moves faster in space then on Earth." Tails explained. "Then we better work fast." Sonic said. "Right, Sonic, you and Mach take the fake emerald and try to lead Eggman away with it while me and Cream try to find the power supply" Tails told him as he handed Sonic the fake emerald. "Alright, we're counting on you, Tails" Sonic said as he and Mach ran off.
Meanwhile at the asteroid, Rouge was sitting on top of the steel tower, looking at the laptop on her lap. "Hmm, tricking the doctor was a piece of cake. Now to get to work. M-A-R-I-A, Maria." Rouge said as she entered the password to access the ARK's file. She clicks on a file called Project: Shadow and all the data opens up. "Hmm, according to this, Kumori was the second prototype of Project: Shadow. Hold on…second prototype? Then, who was the original? Who is the real Shadow?" Rouge said as she continued to search through the data.
As she was looking through the data, her ultra sensitive bat ears caught something that sounded like metal hitting against metal. Rouge quickly closed the laptop and jumped to her feet to see Knuckles standing only a few feet away. "Hey, Knuckie, long time no see." Rouge flirtingly said. "I have no time for games. Now hand over the emerald shards." Knuckles demanded. Rouge holds up the bag of emerald shards and says "You want them? Come get them." Rouge challenged.
Knuckles jumped at Rouge, who used her wings to fly out of his way. Once Rouge was high enough, she started spinning in around at fast pace to perform her signature move. "SCREW KICK!" Rouge shouted. Knuckles decided to counter her attack with his own signature move. "HAMMER PUNCH!" Knuckles shouted as he threw a powerful punch. The two attacks collided with Knuckles attack dominating.
The hit from Knuckles punch sent Rouge flying to a thin steel beam that was hanging over a large vat of lava. Knuckles dropped down and prepared to end the fight. "It's over bat-girl." Knuckles stated. Rouge knew she was beaten, but then remembers that Knuckles was extremely gullible. Rouge grabs her side and pours out false tears from her eyes shouting "Oh, it hurts" hearing Rouge's cries, Knuckles went to her side to offer his assistance (Three times in a row. Can you believe it?).
"Hey, are you alright?" Knuckles asked. Rouge turns over a tries to kick Knuckles in the head, but narrowly misses. Knuckles jumps back as Rouge got back on to her feet. "You tricked me." Knuckles stated. "Well there's a surprise." Rouge said sarcastically. Knuckles was fed up with Rouge's constant trickery and lunged himself at her. Knuckles rash thinking caught Rouge by surprise and was tackled to the ground.
Knuckles and Rouge tumbled across the narrow beam, fighting for dominance of the battle. Knuckles tried to take control by using several headbutts at Rouge and sending occasional jabs to her stomach. Rouge tried to counter by biting Knuckles with her sharp fangs and kneeing him in the gut a few times. Knuckles pushed Rouge off him and they both jumped back onto their feet.
They were both panting from exhaustion as the fight took its toll. "Stop fooling around and give me back my emerald!" they shouted at the same time. "You have some nerve, attacking a lady, shame on you!" Rouge said. "Trust me, you're no lady." Knuckles replied. "Why I ought to…" Rouge was cut off as she tripped and began to fall off the beam.
Rouge thought that it was the end of her until Knuckles grabbed her hand and pulled her back up. When Rouge got back on to her feet, she stared at her savior with a loving expression and Knuckles stared back. But the moment was ruined when Rouge looked down to see they were still holding hands and swatted his hand away.
"Keep your hands to yourself!" Rouge said. "That's the thanks I get for saving your life?" Knuckles said, confused. "Save my life? Yeah, right. You just wanted to hold my hand, you creep." Rouge stated. "You wish! I was only saving the Master Emerald!" Knuckles shouted. "Whatever." Rouge said flatly. Rouge then tosses the Master Emerald shards from her bag to Knuckles, who looked confused. "Take them. I owe you for saving my life." Rouge told him. "Thanks." Knuckles said to her as he collected the emerald shards.
Knuckles forged the energies together to change the Master Emerald back to its original form. "Finally." Knuckles said in relief. Both treasure hunters looked to the side as they saw two balls of light transform into Tikal and Chaos. "Thank you Knuckles. Because of you, Chaos and I can live in peace once more. Now we should return to the temple." Tikal said. "No. I am still needed here. But when this is over, I shall return." Knuckles told the spirits. "Very well. We hope for your safe return." Tikal said as Chaos used chaos control to return to the Master Emerald temple.
Knuckles stood there for a second after Tikal and Chaos disappeared before beginning to walk away. "Wait!" Rouge called out. Knuckles looked back at her and asked "What do you want?" "You want to help your friends, right? Well, if you come with me to the main control room of the ARK, then I could find something that might help." Rouge said. "Why should I trust you?" Knuckles asked suspiciously.
Rouge turned to Knuckles and her most powerful technique: the puppy-eye stare. "Please, Knuckie." Rouge said with a small pout. Knuckles was helpless to the power of the puppy-eyes and gave in. "Fine." Knuckles said. "Alright, lets go!" Rouge said as she grabbed Knuckles by his shoulders and flew off to the ARK.
On board the ARK, Sonic and Mach had reached the control room of the Eclipse Cannon, where the found the other six chaos emeralds in the generator. "Alright Tails, we're in the control room." Sonic said into his radio. "Great, now put the emerald…" he was cut off when Eggman's voice came through instead. "Listen well, Sonic. If you want to see your friends alive, then I suggest you come to research facility at once." Eggman told him.
"What, Eggman?" Sonic said in surprise. Sonic was about to leave until. "Sonic, what about the chaos emeralds?" Mach asked. "No time, come on." Sonic said as he ran off. Mach looked back for a minute before following Sonic down the hall to save their friends.
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