I´m really hyped right now. We are already halfway to the ending!
Darkness Shall Thrive
-Chapter 5: No one is Left Behind-
"Silver… I´ve been thinking." Sonic asked when Silver opened the door that lead to the underground base on the destructed Prison Island.
"Yeah?"
"Shadow said he met Mephiles, so it explains why he looks so much like him."
"I guess it makes sense… But right now, we´re rescuing this Shadow, okay?"
"Okay."
Silver entered first. He levitated down and looked around. There was no danger so he announced to Sonic that he could come down. He jumped and landed on Silver´s head.
"Ouch! Move, Sonic!" Silver exclaimed while pulling the blue hedgehog off.
"Sorry! Couldn´t help myself!"
He stood up and saw how the base was really messed up. After Eggman had blown up the island, just a little was left. There were broken pipes that spitted out fluorescent, green chemical waste which flowed through some channels. There were abandoned jail cells and there were no experimental material at all. There were even some dead trees making the background a little darker than it seemed.
"We should get moving." Silver said walking to a table that had a map on it. He grabbed it and started reading it. "Here." He pointed out.
Sonic looked at it and saw that it was a great maze down there. All sorts of rooms were found there divided into more rooms. Just one central hallway was the one leading the distribution of the base. When Sonic saw where Silver was pointing, it was clearly as the file said, in the core.
"Looks like they really thought about this. They had planned it before. If they locked Shadow in the center, it means that they were really scared of him."
"I don´t know, and I don´t care. Let´s go." Sonic said walking past Silver to the main hallway.
As both headed to the core, being leaded by Sonic, they stared at some rusty signs that were above the doors they passed:
"Control Room. Laboratory. Experiments. Secret Files. Main Files. Nursery. Quiet Room."
"Quiet room?" Sonic asked.
"Maybe it´s a room for them to calm down after being put under stress?"
"…"
After several small passages and a long walk, they finally arrived to their destiny. The door which led to Shadow. Above it, it said:
"Center of the Base/Sealer/Power Generator"
Silver cleared his throat and opened the door slowly. He pushed it a little bit and both advanced. It was dark. They couldn´t see anything, for there was no light that could sparkle the place. Sonic tried to find the ON/OFF switch. He did and click it. The entire room lit up in an instant. And there it was… The sealer with Shadow sleeping inside it.
The pink container was floating vertically. Inside of it, it could be seen that the gas was flowing inside it. Shadow´s hands and feet were tied up into some kind of small boxes, making him unable to move, maybe. He was truly there. Asleep. Destined to be sealed away for eternity…
Sonic felt sick. Shadow, being hated by the blue hedgehog at first, then loved by him as a brother... How could this be happening to them?!
Wihtout further ado, Sonic quickly directed to the control panel and started clicking buttons. Silver approached and asked:
"What are you doing? Do you even know how to control this thing?"
Before the blue blur could answer, metallic steps were heard. They approached fast towards them. The heavy noise resounded in the room. Both hedgehogs turned just to see E-123 Omega getting out his machine gun from his hand. He said:
"Targets acquired. Load and FIRE!"
He started shooting from his hand towards the intruders. Both dodged. Sonic homing attacked to it making the robot fall. Silver grabbed him with his telekinesis and threw him to some shelves. It stood up and prepared with his other arm the machine gun to fire once again. Sonic dashed to him and he flew through the room and crashed into the door. Silver grabbed Omega again and lifted him into the air, making the robot unable to move. Silver gave a sign to Sonic for he could get out Shadow from the sealer. As he tried to find a manual on how the control panel moved, Omega was saying repeatedly:
"Power unknown. Cannot proceed. Power unknown. Shooting down system."
Sonic opened as many drawers as he could and found a thick, dusty pale book. He blew the dust and shook it a little bit. He opened it in the first page and the title said:
"CONTROL PANEL: SEALER 3000"
He passed the sheets fast until he found how to deactivate it. He started pushing some buttons in a sequence and the machine started to beep. Silver now was sweating, for he couldn´t hold Omega any longer. He was using too much of his power. The sealer started to lean down backwards and got to a horizontal position.
Sonic pushed a switch off button and the boxes that were holding Shadow opened. The silver hedgehog pushed Omega into the wall, putting on him pressure. He appeared that he was going to destroy himself, for he had said:
"Auto-destruction authorized. Beginning countdown: 60, 59, 58, 57…"
Sonic was concentrated on what he was doing and didn´t pay attention to Silver´s warning.
"SONIC?! SONIC! This place is going to blow up because of Omega! Hurry up, or we´ll have to leave Shadow behind!"
The gas started to flow through the container, and the sealer opened. A dark creature stood up and got out of its cage. Sonic backed down a little bit approaching to Silver, which was still holding Omega. Both stared at how the shadow was walking towards them, until they finally saw Shadow´s crimson eyes. They were in fury, seeming to be screaming in pain.
He launched to Omega and crushed his head with his right foot, making the countdown stop at 23 seconds for the auto-destruction. Sonic and Silver ran backwards trying to avoid Shadow. He witnessed at how these other hedgehogs were afraid of him. Bravely, the blue hedgehog approached to him slowly as saying:
"Shadow? Hi, I-I´m Sonic. Your friend! You must be very confused, but you gotta trust me, we have to get out of here. Shadow?"
He didn´t answer. Instead he slowly was leading to the door. Silver tried to stop him, but Sonic let him know that it wasn´t necessary.
"Silver, you read the file. It causes some sort of amnesia, temporarily… We just need to wait."
The black blur stared at them in confusion. His head began to hurt. He grabbed it and fell to the ground. He groaned as he started remembering. Suddenly, memories came back to him as fast as lighting. Shadow screamed and passed out. Sonic ran to him and told Silver to help him carrying him.
"What now?" he asked.
"We need to get someplace safe, for Shadow to wake up. It must me horrifying all of this to him. It will be an awful surprise to be here." Sonic replied.
Silver nodded. "I know a place where we could stay for a while. It´s a bank building back in Crisis City on the 10th floor."
"Great, lets´ go."
-O-O-O-
Shadow woke up. He opened his eyes and quickly stood up. There was Sonic sitting in a chair looking outside. He approached to his companion slowly and said astonished:
"So-Sonic?!"
Sonic turned to see Shadow safe and sound standing beside him. He stood up and hugged him. Surprisingly, Shadow returned him the hug. They let go fast because it was awkward. Sonic grabbed his head embarrassed. Shadow smiled in relief.
"I-I don´t understand. Why are you here? And…" Shadow turned to see that the city was on fire.
"That´s Central City, Shad…" Sonic said sighing sadly. "It´s… completely destroyed. I come from the present. I was brought here by accident. I am not meant to be in this timeline. But something happened…"
"I…"
"Shadow? Are you okay? I mean, what happened? Why were you…?"
The black hedgehog closed his eyes and a small tear rolled from his eyes through his cheek. He opened them again and explained to Sonic:
"The last thing I remember, is that these soldiers were pushing me into the sealer… It felt cold, and I began to fall asleep slowly…"
Sonic sighed. Shadow continued:
"It was just a normal day. I was standing right next to a tree in the outsides of the city. When suddenly, Omega appeared from behind a grabbed my neck. I managed to escape, but he caught up. I remember that we were now in some kind of tunnel. I asked what was wrong with him, when G.U.N troops surrounded me. It seemed that they had him under their control. I tried to do a Chaos Blast, but Omega didn´t allow me to. Every time I tried to expand the ball of blast energy, he punched me. I had no other choice but surrender. They sealed me away in Prison Island once again. And after that, I recall that I smashed Omega´s head and I fainted…"
Sonic grabbed his shoulder and said:
"Shadow, it was us. Silver and I got you out of there. You are safe now. G.U.N doesn´t exist anymore."
"What do you mean by that?"
"It… It seems you´ve been sealed away for more than 17 years."
Shadow felt how his heart was stopping. He heard his breath and he felt how his throat was closing. He sat down and held his head. Sonic sat down next to him trying to comfort him, but it was useless. Shadow was in shock. He stayed like that for an hour. How cruel it would be to be sealed away for a long time again…
Silver returned for he had checked the underground base again to look if they missed something out. He returned with a folder and tried to say hi to Shadow, but he didn´t even notice when Silver arrived.
"What´s wrong with him?"
"He´s in shock. It was quite a surprise…"
"Geez… So, I think we´ve got the answer."
"Answer of what?"
"I think Mephiles´ companion is this guy." Silver said pointing at the file. Sonic opened it and gasped.
"Oh my gosh…"
Shadow had been searching all over the world to find this Mephiles guy. Maybe he had Sonic locked down somewhere. He found himself in Green Hill Zone. It was the first time he visited the famous place. He witnessed how the environment was happy and the animals were dancing around. The waterfalls brought peace and quiet to it.
The black hedgehog walked through it and found the green Chaos Emerald. He touched it and he was sent flying backwards. He crashed into a palm and noticed that the black liquid was back. When it started to take his shadow and transform fully, it ran away. Shadow followed fast. He thought he lost him, but found him standing above a rock. With his hoarse voice, he said:
"So, decided to void your return ticket now, did you?"
"Why are you here? Did you ruin this world?"
"The answer´s yes and no. Perhaps it´s better to show you. *SNAP*"
Mephiles made the SEALER 3000 appear right next to him, with future Shadow inside.
"Yes, that´s you. After the world was devastated by Iblis´ flames, what do you think happened? A search for the guilty. Who did this you may ask? Humanity wasn´t just jealous of your power. They feared it."
"…"
"They used this incident as an excuse to hunt you down. Come with me, Shadow. Let us punish this foolish world of humanity. It is only fair to give back what was intended for you. You have every right to want justice."
"That´s absurd… Wait, no… Actually, you´re right… Let´s punish the world for what they did!"
"Yes, Shadow! Let´s end with humanity!"
Shadow smirked. Mephiles looked confused at him.
"You really think I would accept and come with you? Ha! How pathetic… Whatever it is you want to do, you can do it alone. I don´t even know what you´re talking about."
Mephiles got angry and exclaimed as he pointed to the sealer:
"You forgive humanity this folly, then?!"
Shadow looked at it and replied:
"I determine my own destiny." He said clenching his fist.
Mephiles was amused. He extended his arms and evolved to an advanced version of himself. His eyes were now shining light green with a disturbing red in the back. His shape was now kind of crystal and his feet were now gone, for they were transformed into pointy glass with a soft purple tone. His quills also ended with that color, making his crystalline form.
Shadow got into a fighting position and prepared for what was next.
Damn those cliffhangers! XDDDDD
And, what do you think? G.U.N is still f*cking with us, goddammit!
Sorry for the language... But in case you´re wondering why the drama... It feels great to make characters suffer, as weird as it sounds.
And the scene from Chaos Madness makes its return!
Review? Questions?