Chapter 22: Awakening of a Project From 53 Years Ago

"What?" Tidus asked first as I stopped, panting.

"Tell us. What it is?" Auron demanded as he grabbed my shirt. I quickly moved away, and tried something new. I used Transform to show a movie clip of what I was told by Bahamut. After having seen this, the group began to get a bit worried. "So, we have 7 days left, correct?" Auron asked me after the movie clip finished.

"Less than that now. But, yes about 7 days. You know how powerful the Eclipse Cannon is?" I asked.

"No. Of course he doesn't. Nor do I. How strong is that thing anyways?" Lulu interrupted.

"I quote 'Strong enough to pierce the stars...'" I said.

"We must move quickly then." Auron said as he began to walk on in the forest. We all looked at each other, and followed.

Soon, we saw Barthello looking around madly. "Hey! You, have you seen Dona?" The musclehead asked us.

"How the hell should we know?" I said.

"What happened?" Tidus asked.

"What's up?" Wakka also said.

"We got separated on the way here. Damn it all! I've got to find her!" The guy began to run around again.

"Calm down." Auron said.

"But, if anything happens to her..." Barthello did a throat slip movement.

"Running around in a panic is not going to help. Right now, you have to keep cool, and search." Auron advised the lost man.

"But-"

"Shut the hell up! Just do as he said!" I yelled, Auron, Ian, and Yuna all nodding.

"Guard your emotions, then guard your summoner." Auron said.

"You're right." Barthyello stopped running around, and just nodded numbly.

"Shall we search?" Auron asked.

"No, I've taken up enough of your time. Thank you... err, who exactly are you?"

"Auron. I'm still just Auron, but in another form." Auron replied, glancing over to me.

"Thank you, Sir Auron." Barthello left our group to find Dona, but in a more calm way.

"Let's go..." Auron said as he began to walk on.

"Sheesh, can't we take a break?" TIdus said as he strugged to keep going.

"And let the world be destroyed?" Ian said. "Dumbass, don't forget about the timer on us."

"Sorry..." Tidus said as he glared at Ian.

We kept walking along until we reached a fallen tree in our way, and Auron cut it down quickly using a single fist. Auron suddenly turned to another fallen tree, and he looked at it with a glance, and he choppped it too, and the wood exploded into thousands of chips and bits and parts of wood. "I know there's something I left here about a few years ago..." Auron muttered as we followed him into the clearing with a oasis.

"Whoa, what is this place?" Tidus said as he looked around at the beauty of the trees and the oasis before him. "Why'd you come back here anyways?"

"I left a sphere here several years ago. It's been about a decade since. The sphere is here somewhere." A blob form rose from the water. "Unfortunately, this place also attracts fiends."

"That's a big one, ya?" Wakka said as he equipped his glove and he punched the thing, and found his fist to not do anything.

"Elements work best I bet." Lulu said as she summoned up a Fira spell at the Spherimorph. The fiend screeched, and retaliated and hit Lulu for the attack.

"Let me try my new weapon!" Sonic, err, Ian said as he got out YOUWILLDIE Weapon and he sliced into the watery substance of the creature. The fiend was a bit more hurt by this than the earlier Fira spell from Lulu.

"You think a grenade'll do?" Rikku said as she fisted a grenade into the fiend's body. We jumped back and the grenade exploded inside Spherimorph. A hole was made in the thing, and I quickly tried to kill it using Tails form. A sword formed in my hands, and I jumped at the thing. "Watch out!" Rikku yelled as the blob fiend opened itself up and I flew into the inside of Spherimorph, and the thing closed itself as I had entered all the way, trapping me in. The sword dropped to the ground, and dissolved before my eyes as I was encased by the fiend's innards of goo.

The blob boss turned a jet black suddenly, and I couldn't see out anymore. 'I don't remember the thing ever turning black!' I though as I shut my eyes and just held my breath, my twin tails trying to move around in the Spherimorph. I felt something else suddenly enter the body of the creature, and I blacked out as the fiend used a gravity spell on its insides, making my lungs instantly run out of air.

---

The next thing I knew was I was suddenly thrown from the blob, and straight into Rikku, and we tumbled over into a tree, and some of the blob's black goo was still on most of my body. I guess you could call me Shadow Tails now... especially since I had the black goo all over my body, excluding my eyes and my mouth, nose, and ear insides. I got up with a stumble and Rikku got up, also now covered in the black goo. I turned around and saw the entire oasis covered in the black goo, including the other fighters around the oasis. As for Spherimorph, it was only having the bottom fourth remaining, and a lot of the rest was covering the place.

Ambience Music is now playing- Geno's Song (SM RPG Remix), SMRPG Music Dev Team, Super Mario RPG, SNES, Remix by Flashburn, http/www . above the remaining portion of the fiend was another form, the source of the blast that decimated Spherimorph's body. I fell to a knee, and slipped nearer and nearer to unconsciousness. "Shadow..." I said as I fell over in blackness.

As I came to, I sat up and still saw the form of the hedgehog still there, now walking near to us. I was only out for about 3 seconds apparently. I slowly got up, and changed back to my normal self, surprising Shadow, since it looked like I was a shapeshifter due to the black goo. "How the..." Shadow said.

"Don't worry, I can just use Transform, that's all." I said as I looked around, trying not to make too much of a big deal that Shadow was there somehow. "But... how'd YOU get here, Shadow?" I asked.

"I... wait, who are you, and how do you know my name? Where am I?" Shadow began questioning me. Just what I didn't want.

"Always a question asker... I'm Adam, I know you because of the fayth telling me about you a bit. You are on the planet Spria. I'm guessing you want a way back on the ARK too, right?" I said, grinning.

"Hey! I thought the ARK was supposed to be top-secret to most people!"

"The fayth again. You can say, well, he's a bit more 'informed' than most people about 'top-secret' things like that." I said.

"Hmm, I see... how do I get back up to the ARK?" The black and red hedgehog began to look upwards. He didn't realize he was forced off by someone who was supposed to be dead.

"I really don't know about that. Hmm... I wonder if... nah, he'll probably just say no to that anyways..." I pondered a question, and I finally redecided to ask. "Hey, uh, would you join our group?"