Sonic The Hedgehog - Chaos on Mobius
4th Saga: The Solaris Merger
Episode 94
Previously on Sonic The Hedgehog - Chaos on Mobius...
Blocking Sonic from Silver, Amy revealed herself as Lara-Su to Silver, claiming that she was not the same Amy he'd met the night before. Sonic then found out that Eggman only had Sally captive until Sonic handed over the Time Stone. Travelling to Eggman's base in White Acropolis, Sonic, Tails and TodStar fell into one of Eggman's traps, sending the three of them into another time!
Someone else who had infiltrated Eggman's base was Shadow, and he was on a mission to rescue Rouge, who was sent there to retrieve a familiar-looking rod. When Shadow and Rouge were close to escape, they were attacked by Egg Walker!
Following Sonic the Iblis Trigger, Silver, Flare and Zappy also travelled to White Acropolis, only to get attacked by Egg Falcon! Both Shadow and Silver defeated Egg Walker and Egg Falcon with ease, but Silver found the same Time Stone Eggman had aquired from Sonic!
When has Eggman sent Sonic, Tails and TodStar, and what has he done to Sally? Will Lara-Su return to protect her future King? Where have Shadow and Rouge disappeared to, and what does GUN want with the Scepter of Darkness? And now that he has a Time Stone, what will Silver do with it? Find out in the next chapter of The Solaris Merger!
Chapter Five: The Shadow of Mephiles
Using Chaos Control, Shadow warped himself and Rouge into a geographical chamber of some sort.
"Ahh... I'm glad I'm out of that frozen wasteland!" Said Rouge as she and Shadow looked around. "Although this looks like Eggman's technology to me..." It was then that Shadow gasped at the sight of a Mobian cat that he knew all too well... "Isn't that that Blaze girl you were telling me about?"
"Yes..." Shadow replied, still staring at the portrait of Blaze, before looking back at his Chaos Emerald, and seeing Blaze's face within it. "How does the Doctor even know Blaze?"
"How should I know?" Asked Rouge while shrugging. "I just followed my orders and retrieved this thing..." Rouge then revealed the rod she recovered. "Although, think you could escort me to the GUN extraction point?"
"Sure." Shadow replied. "Where IS the extraction point?" Rouge then pointed to a landmark on a visible map.
"Right there, in the Great Ruins of Mercia."
"Let's get going, then. Chaos CONTROL!" And like that, Shadow and Rouge disappeared.
Mere minutes later, Shadow and Rouge appeared within some ruins, where a green hedgehog and a red fox were waiting for them up above...
"OK Fi, you stay here while I grab the Scepter from those two." Said the green hedgehog.
"Unless you get in trouble, right?" The fox asked.
"Heh, that's only IF I get in trouble." The hedgehog replied. "I'm back to full power now, babe. No one can stop me." After saying that, the hedgehog jumped down to get closer to Shadow and Rouge.
"I hope you're right, Scourge..." Said the fox, looking worried about her partner.
"Hmph. It's not like GUN to be late..." Shadow pointed out, which gave Rouge an idea...
"Y'know, this place used to be thriving with Mobians, until a major accident occurred seven years ago." Said Rouge, getting Shadow's attention. "Since then, no one's set foot in these ruins."
"Accident?" Asked Shadow.
"Yeah. I heard a prototype energy engine failed which caused the accident." Rouge replied. "I think the name of the plan was..."
"The Solaris Project." Said a voice that both Shadow and Rouge recognized. When they turned to find the voice, they found Scourge the Hedgehog literally looking down his nose at them, before he jumped down to their level. "One of the guys behind the thing was Doc Eggman himself."
"You... what are you doing here?" Shadow asked the green hedgehog.
"Relax, Stripes." Said Scourge. "All I want from you is the Scepter of Darkness. If you could just fork it over, I'll be on my way." Rouge wasn't really in a generous mood, so she started flapping her wings and flying above Scourge's reach.
"You want it, pretty boy?" She asked. "Come and get it!"
"Your mistake..." Said Scourge, before Spin Dashing into Rouge, knocking her out and causing her to drop the rod.
"Chaos CONTROL!" Shouted Shadow before he warped in front of Scourge and kicked him in the stomach, before warping below Rouge to catch her.
"NO!" Scourge screamed as the Scepter of Darkness was close to falling to the ground. Scourge tried running to catch it as fast as he could, but by the time he got there, the rod had already hit the ground, and it had somehow paralyzed Scourge. Suddenly, what appeared to be electricity connected the Scepter of Darkness to Scoruge's chest, and eventually Scourge's eyes went blank as an orb of light was extracted from his chest!
"Scourge!" Gasped the fox who was watching from above.
"What's happening to him?" Asked Rouge.
"I'm not sure..." Shadow replied. "But it looks to me like his lifeforce has been extracted from him in the form of that orb." Just then, a black aura came blasting out from the rod, taking the orb with it. After flying high up in the sky, the aura came crashing down towards Shadow, but he evaded it and it dove down into the ground. It was then that Shadow's shadow started to stretch out, before that aura absorbed it and Scourge's lifeforce. Emerging from the aura was a black hedgehog that resembled Shadow, but his quills were black-and-blue instead of black-and-red, his eyes were green and lizard-like, and he had no visible mouth, nor any cape.
"What? Your shadow..." Was all Rouge could say as she and Shadow watched this being laugh with a voice that made the fox hide behind the pillar.
"Oh, how ironic fate can be..." Said the hedgehog. "I would never have believed that I would be resurrected through your shade! I thank you, Shadow the Hedgehog." After saying this and bowing before him, Shadow was startled.
"(That voice...) Who are you? And how do you know my name?" He asked the mysterious hedgehog.
"I'm Mephiles. Mephiles the Dark." The Shadow look-alike replied as he started to slowly walk towards Shadow while keeping his head down. "What? Did you forget me? I owe much to you, Shadow. Oh, yes..." Mephiles then looked up at Shadow with his creepy lizard-like eyes. He then made on dark orb of energy appeared in his hand that made Shadow jump back to stand in front of Rouge. "What you gave to me I now return to you... a one-way ticket to oblivion!" Raising the orb above his head, Mephiles allowed it to grow to surround himself, Shadow and Rouge before they disappeared into it. This gave the fox her chance to jump down to her partner, who appeared lifeless.
"Scourge? C'mon Scourge, wake up!" She said while shaking him as tears formed in her eyes.
That same orb appeared within a ruined city of some sort, but only Shadow and Rouge emerged from it.
"What's this place?" Asked Rouge as she looked around.
"It looks as though we've been teleported to another location." Shadow replied, looking at the severely damaged city.
"Then let's find out where are." Said Rouge before running off, leaving Shadow.
"Mephiles... (Who is he?)" He asked himself before walking after Rouge.
Soon, Shadow and Rouge found a computer database that was still intact and functioning.
"OK, I'm in." Rouge said before she started typing again. "Now all I need to do is pinpoint our location..." After Rouge had finished typing, she and Shadow saw where they were on a map onscreen. "No... that's not possible! We're still in the Doctor's base... but how can that be?"
"Hmm... see if you can discover today's date." Shadow told her. Nodding Rouge started typing again, which made eight letters surrounding two strokes appear onscreen, making her gasp. "It appears we've gone through time... doesn't it?"
"Mmm. About 200 years into the future..." Rouge replied. "Maybe even more, depending on when this database was last updated. That means that this Mephiles character has the power to control time."
"His power feels very similar to my own link to the Chaos Force." Shadow pointed out. "But there's something else about it... something... dark..." Before Rouge could say anything, they both heard screaming from behind them, and Shadow felt a familiar presence...
Not too far away from that computer room, Sonic, Tails and TodStar came crashing down from the ceiling. While Sonic landed on his feet, Tails landed on his backside, and TodStar landed on his head.
"Boy, do I feel dizzy..." Tails said as his head was literally spinning.
"You feel dizzy? Ugh, try landing on your head!" TodStar told the two-tailed fox as Sonic stood up and looked around.
"Where are we?" He asked, before hearing footsteps...
"Well, lookie what we have here..." Said a voice Sonic was all too familiar with. When the boys looked up, they saw Shadow and Rouge looking down at them.
"Grr... Rouge." Sonic grumbled.
"Master Shadow!" Exclaimed TodStar as he bowed before the black hedgehog.
"Long time no see, boys." Rouge said as she waved to them.
A short time later, Shadow and Rouge took the boys outside to see the ruined city. Sonic, Tails and TodStar were all horrified at the sight before them.
"This is the distant future. Far removed from our own timeline." Shadow told them.
"The future?" Asked Tails, to which Shadow nodded. "Then that means Eggman's machine CAN control time!"
"Huh! Eggman's got some nerve droppin' us here..." Said Sonic, before he kicked a rock.
"So... how can we return to the present, Master?" TodStar asked.
"We'll need a space-time rift, but it requires a lot of energy..." Shadow replied, which gave Sonic an idea.
"Chaos Control?" He asked.
"I've already tried..." Shadow replied as he revealed the Chaos Emerald he had with him, but it seemed more stone-like in appearence. "For some reason, the Power of Chaos feels a little... off in this timeline..." As he said that, TodStar fell to his knees.
"That'd explain why I don't feel very strong at the moment..." He said before groaning in pain.
"Exactly. We don't have much time." Said Shadow. "Tails, did you bring your Emerald Radar?"
"I never leave Freedom HQ without it." Tails replied. "Why?"
"See if you can adjust it to search for Time Stones. We'll need at least two in order to get home."
"In the meantime, here..." Said Rouge as she threw a communicator to Sonic. "It'd be best to split up to search for them. I'm with Shadow."
"Fine. Tails and TodStar can come with me." Sonic told Rouge before the five of them went their seperate ways.
END OF CHAPTER