Chapter 23
Link, Samus, Shadow and Sonic were penetrating deep into the Factory's bowels. The trek to the central building had been lengthy and difficult at best. Nightfall had come and gone and it was dark all around the massive facility. The Black Arms had been coming nonstop and the group was now exhausted beyond belief.
However, now that they were inside the Central Building, things were a completely different scenario. The interior of the main building's main room, the "lobby", you could say, was silent, silent and still. Not a noise could be heard, and even the chaos outside did nothing to disturb the deep, penetrating silence within.
It was so quiet, you could have heard a pin drop from a mile away.
Shadow was the first to break the group's silence. "I don't like this," he growled softly, "It's too quiet in here...way too quiet. Something's wrong, here, it can't be this easy."
Link agreed. "With Black Doom, it never is. He must have some serious shit up his sleeve to allow himself to be completely unguarded. Even Gannondorf had guards stationed when I first fought him."
Samus confided, "He's trying to lure us into some kind of false sense of security. By having no guards, he makes it a straight shot to him, and gives us a chance to be fully prepared to fight him. It's what Ridely did when I first fought him. Black Doom wants us to go to him. He even expects it."
Despite the solitude of the group, they were only speaking in whispers, cautious of the calm that prevailed in the building. They all exchanged grim glances before edging forward. A large metallic clang echoed through the room, and lights ignited throughout the hall, giving the group an unobstructed view of where they were. Blood red carpeting adorned the floors, embroidered with the personal insignia of Dr. Eva Robotnik, with foreboding black walls stretching to a ceiling over 35 feet above them. The building was dimly lit by red iridescent lights that lined the walls every 20 feet for so. There was no sound save the tired panting of the four fighters cautiously and quietly edging through the room. There was an imperiously alien formality to the room, stark in contrast with the massive machinery outside.
The group cautiously made their way to a massive staircase, stationed at the very back of the room, several hundred meters in, that curved down into the blackness of the lair below. There were no other routes available to reach the Black Lord of Chaos. The elevators had been completely removed, and there were no doors in the hall, save the one they had entered through. The four exchanged grim glances, unsure of whether they ought to continue on. This was the decisive moment. If they went on, there was no going back. The four fighters exchanged one last glance, nodded, drew one, final, decisive breath, and began cautiously descending the colossal helix, each soft footstep feeling like the ring of a sledgehammer in that dark and deep silence.
Several floors down, Sonic contacted Shadow telepathically. I don't like this, Shadow. We've infiltrated suspiciously calm places before, but this is different. There's no doubt now that Black Doom WANTS us to go to him. That can only mean he's gotten stronger than before. what do we do if that's the case?
Shadow mentally sighed. You have a lot to learn, Sonic, if you believe that an increase in strength is all it takes to win a rematch with one whom you've already fought. You must learn from that fight, use what you've learned in that fight, use the weaknesses you discovered in that last fight against him. Black Doom is no simpleton. He knows this.
Sonic was silent for a moment, then went on. So...in other words, the fight will be harder for us whether we want it to be or not.
Exactly.
Sonic fell silent. Even he was tense.
Finally, they reached the bottom stair, and found themselves in a dark room strikingly different from the room hundreds of feet above. This room was distinctly alien, like the surface of another planet, and almost hive-like. Yet it was like a throne room as well. It was long, high-ceilinged, and the far end was swallowed up in darkness.
As they edged onward, a deep voice reverberated through the room, one that seemed to have several others speaking in unison with it, as though every soul of this voice's victim's were forced to cry out with it.
"Welcome, Shadow. And you, Sonic. Samus Aran, Link...All of you. I've waited a long time for this."
It was so sudden that all four of them jumped. Sonic and Shadow exchanged grim looks. They knew that voice all too well. They themselves had heard it when they had faced its source in the G.U.N. headquarters all those years ago.
As if in answer to their realization, Black Doom himself emerged from the floor 10 feet in front of them, his massive, floating figure towering over them all. His previous rage had subsided, and now Doom regarded his opponents as a lion would regard a mouse.
"So...you have come. I expected you would. How could I not? You have followed the clues as I thought you would." Black Doom's voice was disdainful. "What do you expect to accomplish by coming here? You are nothing. Nothing to me, the Lord of all Darkness, who created the mere lab rat that has come here with you. How pathe-"
Before Doom could say more, Shadow's rage exploded and he launched himself at Doom, preparing to punch him directly in his third eye the way he'd punched Dark Link. Black Doom merely moved aside and slammed his fist into Shadow's back, sending him to the floor with a sickening thud. Shadow sprawled on the floor, stunned. Black Doom wasn't this fast the last time he'd fought him.
Sonic, seeing his friend down, attacked immediately, hoping his speed would catch Black Doom off guard, but Doom was too fast and saw it coming. He turned, caught Sonic by his foot and slung him, one handed into a wall 40 meters away.
Doom turned back to Shadow, closing in to deliver a fatal blow, his own suppressed rage at the black hedgehog boiling in anticipation as he prepared to finish him. Before he could, however, a small bomb exploded directly behind him, knocking him out the air, and before he could catch himself, a missile struck his chest and sent him rolling several meters away. Following up with her missile, Samus charged her arm cannon to maximum power, aimed at Black Doom, and fired. The force of the blast leveled the alien flora around them, and the high-energy beam hit Doom square in the face, flattening him against the back wall. As Samus's power suit began to fall off piece by piece, destroyed by the magnitude of the blast, she and Link tensed, prepared for retaliation. Black Doom picked himself up and brushed himself off, as though the attack had been nothing more than a casual bump-and-bruise. He then responded with a well-aimed blast from his left hand that the group barely managed to avoid, and Sonic immediately came seemingly from nowhere, slamming full force in Black Doom's face. Black Doom batted Sonic away as though he was doing nothing more than swatting a fly and sent another blast at Link and Samus, missing by inches. Link groped in his bag, trying to find something, and found one last cloaking device.
Taking it out, he whispered to Samus, "Cover me, I'll take him from behind" and activated it. Samus took out her blaster, and, taking advantage of her added agility, began raining blaster fire on Doom, turning his attention from Link, who had gotten behind him in moments. The Master Sword flared with energy as he launched himself in the air. The move caught Black Doom off guard, and Link trapped Black Doom in a triangular vortex of energy that held him in place as Link rained blow after blow on Black Doom. Link brought back his sword one more time and struck, the resulting impact sending Doom rolling.
Even the TriForce Slash seemed to have no effect on Doom, and he merely floated back up again, not a scratch on him. Link was dismayed. They were definitely in trouble now. Link took cover as Doom retaliated with another blast of energy. Link and Samus hid as deep into the room as they could, trying to avoid the lethal blasts of energy.
As Black Doom prepared to strike once again, Shadow appeared out of nowhere and pulled them to safety. Samus held close to Link, shaking from the amount of energy surging around them. Shadow peeked around the rock that they were hiding behind, and then turned to his two friends. "You two had better get out of here. Find Snake, Raiden, and Zant, and help them find the prison area, and get the rest of SSB out of here. Sonic and I will take him ourselves."
Samus stared at him and began to protest but he waved her off. "You two won't be much use here. I'm sorry, but only Chaos energy can stop him now. You saw yourselves that even your most powerful weapons are no use against him."
Link started to protest, but closed his mouth and nodded. He knew Shadow was right. As Samus started to protest, he placed his hand on hers, shaking his head. He knew that they would only get in the way of the hedgehogs in this fight. The fight was not for them, and had escalated to a superhuman scale. They would only prove to be dead-weight in this fight. Link looked at Shadow and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You be careful over there. We may not be able to avenge you if you're killed."
Shadow grinned. "I've got some tricks up my sleeve. So does Sonic. We can take care of this sonofabitch."
Link grinned back. "Show that three-eyed motherfucker why no one messes with SSB, Shadow."
Shadow returned the grin. "I'll cover your escape." As Link and Samus edged back to the stair case, the only escape route, Sonic and Shadow attacked Black Doom from opposite directions, slamming into him full-force with their homing attacks and disorienting him. As Black Doom attempted to swipe at a retreating Shadow, Sonic again hit him from behind, landing five hard punches in the seconds it took for anyone else to deliver one. As Black Doom turned back towards Sonic, Shadow, now holding a Black Arms blaster that he had scavenged in the fighting outside, came from the left and hit Doom with multiple homing attacks, firing the blaster in Doom's eyes, temporarily blinding him.
It wasn't until Samus and Link were well up the stair case when Sonic and Shadow stopped their attacks and landed directly in front of Doom. Doom was enraged.
"You..." he snarled, "You really think you're going to defeat me a second time? I've become far stronger since we last fought."
"We don't think. We know. And we also know that strength isn't everything." Shadow retorted, "A lesson you obviously have not learned."
Sonic concurred, "And strength may not be everything, but if it's strength you want to fight, then you got it." Nodding at Shadow, the two of them rose three feet in the air and began drawing on their inner power.
Seven giant emeralds appeared and began rotating around them. A massive aura of energy appeared around the hedgehogs as their fur began to glow, Sonic's golden-yellow, Shadow's gold-white.
A halo of energy exploded outwards from the hedgehogs and Black Doom covered his eyes, blinded by the light. When he regained his composure, Sonic and Shadow floated before him. Shadow was now white-gold and red, and Sonic was now vividly golden-yellow. They had gone into their Super Forms.
Before Doom could strike, Super Sonic, with an enormous burst of speed, slammed into his chest, knocking him clean out the air, and before he could hit the ground, Super Shadow caught him under the chin and sent him up, following through with a powerful roundhouse kick that sent him flying across the room. Black Doom floated back up, dazed, but enraged, and began raining blasts of energy on the two enhanced hedgehogs. Super Sonic was too fast and began repeatedly slamming headfirst into into Black Doom, giving him no time to recover as he hit Doom repeatedly at near lightspeed. Black Doom, now hurt but not incapacitated, caught Super Sonic in the face with a punch that sent him flying back several meters. Super Shadow gave Doom no time to continue and unleashed Chaos Control, slowing everything down and raining multiple blows on Doom. As he released the slow motion ability, he landed a blow on Black Doom's chest that sent him sprawling into the wall. As Black Doom began rising once again, Super Shadow began charging his chaos powers, focusing it all in his hands. Sonic, seeing what he as doing, got a good distance away before releasing his Super form.
Super Shadow focused his energy and aimed.
"Chaooooooooooooooooooooooooooos...BLAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAST!"
A massive blast of blood red energy fired from his hands, focused into one massive beam that hit Black Doom full-on in the chest. Black Doom caught it with his hands and began trying too push it back at Super Shadow, using his own Black Energy, trying to resist the blast as much as he could. The two Energy Beams fought with one another, and Black doom seemed to make progress against Super Shadow.
Until...diiiiiiiiiing. One of Super Shadow's limiter rings fell to the floor. Black Doom realized what happened a split second before the increased power of Super Shadow's Chaos Blast splintered Black Doom's attack and slammed into him full-force.
Black Doom howled once; only once; and was incinerated in the blast.
Shadow dropped to the floor, on one knee, his super form drained, and took a moment to catch his breath before looking towards where Black Doom was. Nothing was remained of the great overlord.
Black Doom- the Alien Warlord responsible for Millions of deaths and the Lord of Chaos himself -was gone.
Shadow fell to floor, exhausted, shakily sliding his limiter ring back onto his wrist as he recovered slowly from the blast. Sonic approached his friend and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Shadow. We're not out of this yet. We have a team to save. And...what was that you said about how it doesn't take an increase in strength to win a fight?"
Shadow, tired, but not devoid of a little bit of humor, retorted, "That wasn't an increase. I just removed a limit of my strength. And besides, we didn't just beat him with strength."
Sonic laughed. "True, but we beat him all the same. But we're not out of the woods yet, Shadow. We have to get the rest of SSB out of here before we melt down those nuclear reactors."
Taking one last look at the remains of his now-vanquished and long-hated enemy, Shadow nodded and got to his feet.
You were stronger than before, Doom, that is true. But as before, the Chaos Emeralds were too powerful for you. I expected more from you. I would have thought you'd learned that from our last encounter. But like everyone else whom I've fought, you didn't learn from your mistakes. Then again, you ought to have known you couldn't afford mistakes. You can't make any mistakes when the choice is life or death.
Rest in Pieces, Doom. May you rot in here forever. Our enmity is settled.
Shadow inhaled, gathering his strength, and followed Sonic up the staircase.
There was still one hell of a fight to be had, and Shadow knew that the battle was far from over.
SSB was still captive, and the entire Black Arms Army was still to be reckoned with.
WHOOHOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!
DOOM IS DEAD!
I hope you all enjoyed that battle scene!
I had to rewrite this chapter cos the original battle scene I came up with was too short. I wanted to make it more interesting this time out. I hope that this battle scene is more satisfying!
Plz Read and Review!
It's almost over!