Welcome to the next chappie of the Shadow vs. Perfect Chaos rewrite! :D Maybe I'll just delete the original version once I've finished the rewrite, it's an idea. :) Anyhow, thanks to Solar Tonatiuh (again), I'm updating this story sooner than I might have, thanks a lot Solar! ^_^ And Solar's discussions with me have given me ideas for the story, thanks for that too!
Disclaimer: You know who owns who so far... *watches Shrek 2*
The doorbell rang. While Knuckles continued to grumble over their most recent argument, Rouge got up and answered the door. "Oh hello boys, you got him." She walked into the living room, leading Shadow, Omega, and Gamma. Knuckles glared at Shadow, who raised an eyebrow and smirked. "So... you two aren't fighting, why?" The robots told Rouge that their weapons had been disconnected. She frowned. "And who did that?"
"I did." Said Shadow. Knuckles looked incredulous.
"No one I know, other than Sonic, would have been fast enough to disconnect the weapons of one of them even! And besides... you'd have needed to freeze time to do two! And that's quite impossible..." Shadow's smirk grew into a grin.
"Oh really now? Is it so hard to believe that I'm fast, seeing how I escaped from that room you had me locked in, and breaking those chains you put on me? And is it really so hard to believe I can freeze time?" Knuckles' eyes narrowed.
"Yes... yes it is."
"Fine, how might I demonstrate my ability to freeze time?" Knuckles frowned, trying to think of something. Rouge smacked him on the back of the head.
"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!"
"For being an idiot." Said the white bat calmly. Then she turned to Shadow. "You don't need to demonstrate it to us now, if Sonic could warp something somewhere with the chaos emeralds, I can believe they can be used to freeze time. Which one do you have?" Shadow held it up so they could see. Knuckles immediately started cursing. Rouge smacked him again. "How'd you get it?" Shadow shrugged.
"It was on the island, I picked it up on my way off." The bat grinned as Shadow's diving off the island became clear to her.
"You chaos controlled in mid air didn't you?" Knuckles stared, stopping his muttered profanities when he heard that. Shadow simply nodded. Rouge grabbed his arm and dragged him into the kitchen, and Omega surprisingly, Gamma was left to store Knuckles' swear words in his hard drive for possible later use. "Are you sure you wouldn't help me steal the Master Emerald? It would give you an excuse to fight Knuckles, and besides... don't you want to get back at him?" Shadow looked at her.
"What if I kill him." Rouge raised an eyebrow.
"Knuckles is hardier than he looks, you can test him if you want, when I steal the M.E., I'd appreciate your help... either that, or you could form a team with me and Omega, it would be our first mission!" Shadow looked at them.
"I would not like to join a team, however... I shall help you get the Master Emerald off the island." Rouge clapped her hands in delight.
"Thank you! What's your name though? I can't really talk to you properly when I don't know your name." Shadow looked at her.
"I'm sure that if you search you'll find it." And with that, he walked out of the kitchen. Rouge looked favorably on this first meeting of Team Dark.... she had convinced herself that Shadow really would join up into a team with her and Omega, all she had to do was figure out how to convince him. Walking into the living room, she saw Knuckles wasn't there. She looked at Gamma.
"After saying [insert all of Knuckles' swear words here], life-form Knuckles decided to leave." Stated the robot. Rouge raised an eyebrow, and her eyes widened slightly at the listing of all the swear words Knuckles had used.
"Never knew his vocabulary was so big. You coming Shadow?" She headed to the door, he wasn't in the living room. She shrugged and opened the door, only to shriek in surprise, Shadow stood outside, waiting.
"What?"
"You... you surprised me!" Said Rouge, trying to calm down her breathing, she couldn't stop her heart beating as fast as Sonic's running. He looked at her wordlessly.
"Are we going or not?" She smirked and nodded.
"We are."
***
Knuckles looked at the emerald altar, so worn from age and battles... he frowned and looked around at scattered stones, what he wouldn't give to see what the village surrounding the emerald altar had looked like... he still didn't understand the small carved square pool in front of the emerald altar, rain never seemed to fill it. What was it's purpose? He'd tried to figure it out before, but it had just become more puzzling. He sighed and lay back, only to be woken rudely when he was tossed into the air. He hit the grass and sprang up, growling. Shadow and Rouge stood on the emerald altar. Rouge was paying attention to the Master Emerald though, Shadow put the green chaos emerald in his quills and looked at Knuckles expressionlessly. "Damn you hedgehog... and damn you too bat girl." Rouge laughed.
"Damn me? You couldn't damn a fly Knuckie boy, and besides, your fights with my hedgehog friend, not me." She started to attach ropes to the Master Emerald, manuevering it carefully.
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF THE MASTER EMERALD!" He charged forwards, but Shadow blocked him. "Out of my way hedgehog!" Growled Knuckles, throwing a punch at Shadow, but the hedgehog wasn't there. A fist in the side brought Knuckles out of his puzzlement. Shadow cracked his neck and flexed his fingers.
"I wonder how much resistance you'll put up." He said, tonelessly, if he was enjoying himself he sure didn't show it... Knuckles charged at him again, only to receive a kick in the back. "Your attacks are a little too predictable Knuckles." The echidna guardian growled and whirled around, then whirled again and aimed a punch, hitting Shadow in the chest and sending him into a tree.
"If mine are becoming predictable, so are yours." He growled. Shadow smirked again, revealing a fang, Knuckles blinked. Shadow spat out some blood then wiped his mouth with his arm.
"Are mine? I'll have to vary them then." And with that he spindashed at Knuckles, who could only hold his arms up in front of himself in defense. Rouge heaved the emerald up and quickly flew off towards the edge of the island. Knuckles tried to get past Shadow, but he couldn't, now he was barraged from all sides by fists, Shadow's smirk was still there, finally Shadow quickly froze time and delivered a round house kick to the back of Knuckles' head, sending the echidna into a tree. Knuckles slumped to the ground, unconscious. Shadow inspected the blood on his chest, no wounds were evident. "Hmm... I shall have to clean myself up when I have finished." And with that he disappeared.
Rouge jumped in surprise when she noticed Shadow just appear. "Oh! Are you done?" Shadow nodded.
"Knuckles is unconscious." Rouge's eyes widened in surprise.
"He's what?!"
"Unconscious." Said Shadow. Rouge looked at him with awed respect.
"Even I have never managed to knock Knuckles out." Shadow raised an eyebrow.
"Interesting. Shall we?" Rouge grabbed the ropes and pulled, Shadow sat on the Master Emerald.
"Couldn't you just chaos control down?" Shadow gave her a look which clearly said I have my own reasons for doing this. "Oh fine." She lifted the rope. They were almost at Rouge's house when Shadow stood, Rouge steadied her flight as she looked at him. "Why are you standing?" Shadow chuckled.
"I've helped you get the M.E. off the island, now to return it." And with that he chaos controlled away, with the Master Emerald. Rouge sighed and looked at the empty ropes.
"Oh well, next time I'll have to find some way to get him to agree to help me to steal it for keeping... and not have any loop holes so he can find some way to return it to Knuckles..." She gathered the ropes into a ball then flew off towards her house to make a phone call.
When Knuckles woke up he felt quite dizzy. He looked up at the Master Emerald then jumped up, all dizziness forgotten, or almost. He staggered and had to support himself against the tree. The Master Emerald was there... had it been a dream..? No, there was blood on the ground from the wound he'd given the hedgehog... the hedgehog! Knuckles stared in amazement, there, in front of the Master Emerald, sat the black hedgehog, watching him. "Wh... what do you want hedgehog?" He snarled, knowing he was in no fit condition for another fight. Shadow shrugged.
"I came to return the Master Emerald." Knuckles looked confused.
"Return it...? You helped Rouge steal it!"
"Our agreement was that I was to help her get it off the island, the agreement did not say I couldn't return it after it was off." Then Shadow stood. "I have some business to attend to if you don't mind." And with that he disappeared. Knuckles was confused, and slightly ashamed... he'd put chains on the hedgehog, had held the worst sorts of suspicions about him, and he'd locked him up... and yet, the hedgehog had returned the Master Emerald. The red echidna sighed, he'd have to apologize when he saw the hedgehog next.
***
Eggman opened a file labeled "Project: Shadow". His eyes were bloodshot. Metal Sonic was so bored with Eggman's mumbling that he'd gone off to see if he could get upgrades in another of Eggman's bases. "Please say this is it... it's the second last project listed..." And even though he read it, his tired mind didn't properly register it, so he, with his high IQ of 300, decided that Project: Shadow couldn't possibly be the mysterious hedgehog. And in a way, he was right. Shadow was no longer a project. And with that, he opened the last file. "Project: Biolizard".
***
She opened her eyes, something wasn't right. She looked around, or rather, felt around the chaos space around her. She was right, he wasn't there. The emerald must have been shattered... Chaos was loose. She quickly headed towards the distant portal, she just hoped there was a guardian nearby she could instruct.
***
Knuckles looked at the shard of Master Emerald in his hands, hot tears of anger burned from his eyes. He'd only been gone a moment, and one of Eggman's stupid robots had tried to take the Master Emerald... it had dropped... and shattered. The only shard Knuckles had found had been on the ground above the robot which it had shot through. "No... no... how could this have happened..." He felt a gentle breeze and looked up... only to leap back in shock. A pale orange echidna floated in front of him. She looked at him uncertainly.
"Who are you?"
"Knuckles..."
"Oh, did you see Chaos?"
"Chaos?" The orange echidna sighed.
"I am Tikal, Chaos and I were sealed inside the Master Emerald, if he isn't here, then that means his rage hasn't quieted, even after all these years..." She looked around then floated up to the emerald altar. "Has rain ever stayed within this dish?" She asked, indicating the small pool. Knuckles shook his head. She sighed again. "When it does, then his rage will be quiet. Until then... he must be sealed away. Please come with me, quickly." Knuckles followed her in dazed disbelief.
Rouge smiled at Tails, who blushed, he always did that when he saw Rouge... he just couldn't forget the time she'd first met him and done some flirting... it still embarrassed him. Rouge couldn't see why. "H.. hey Rouge!"
"Hey Tails, Sonic there?" Sonic appeared on the screen.
"Hey Rouge, what's up?"
"Come over to my house, I'll show you what's up."
Shadow looked at the lake, and once again focused on his senses, yes, a chaos emerald was definitely down there. He took a deep breath and dove in. He quickly swam to the bottom and looked around. A rather large fish looked like attacking him, Shadow had a simple solution to that. Punch it. And he did, the poor fish didn't know what hit it. With that done, Shadow resumed searching for the emerald. After a bit of time, in which Shadow had swallowed quite a bit of water, he found the emerald, the red one. He smiled, grabbed it, and chaos controlled out of the water. He hardly noticed his dripping fur. "Two down." Taking a minute to focus, he headed off in the direction of the next emerald.
XD I hope you're satisfied! :D The next chapter will only feature Shadow on his emerald hunt, otherwise, the others will all appear as they normally do. Hunting for the chaos emeralds, with the addition of Rouge's surprise, and Knuckles and Tikal hunting for Chaos. :D Fun stuff! ^_^
Disclaimer: SEGA owns Sonic and co. etc. CrazyNutSquirrel only owns Darren and Sally, who shall appear no more..... how sad, I would have liked to scare Darren... oh well.
R&R and tell me what you think! :D