Nothing really to say up here this time. A short chapter of Shadow fighting a crazed Mephiles, who is more than a little unhinged after the death of Iblis. Though it's also the second half of a double-update.

Chapter 15 (Shadow VS Mephiles)

Mephiles transformed – Shadow didn't know what to think, exactly, about this occurrence. His dark doppelganger had now taken on a more demonic, crystalline look, the sclerae of his eyes becoming a bloodred color and a dark aura surrounding him.

He raised his hands, summoning dark shadows – Hundreds of them, all of them fixated on one goal – Destroying Shadow the hedgehog.

"Who are you?!" Shadow yelled, ever defiant.

"I am nothing you could comprehend beyond the death of you!" Mephiles yelled. "KILL SHADOW, MY SHADES!" He himself disappeared into Shadow's own shadow. "And I shall weaken you from within! You shall know pain as your life fades, Shadow! Just as humanity caused me pain!"

Shadow did feel the pain, alright. It hurt a lot. But he wasn't the Ultimate Lifeform for nothing. He worked through it, and attacked the horde of monsters with all his might. Homing Attack after Homing Attack, Chaos Spear after Chaos Spear, Spin Dash after Spin Dash.

"And how, exactly, did humanity cause you pain?" Shadow asked, as he took out more and more of the creatures. "And was this it? If so, it seems you're trying to get revenge on humanity for something one human did, that wasn't that much of an issue to you."

"IT IS AN ISSUE!" Mephiles screamed, as the dark creatures suddenly doubled in number. "MY LIFE… MY OTHER HALF WAS TAKEN FROM ME! MY YOU! YOU AND THAT INFERNAL KING! NOTHING GOOD CAN COME OF HUMANS!"

"I beg to disagree," Shadow said, still fighting and refusing to show the pain he was in. "Mario and Luigi-"

"Red and green? Human?" Mephiles laughed, as Shadow destroyed more of his shades. "I think you, of all people, would recognize the truth of those two! But no matter. They shall die, just as you shall!"

Shadow ignored Mephiles, attacking more of the shades as they kept coming endlessly.

"It doesn't matter how many you defeat, you know!" Mephiles called out. "They'll keep coming forever. And you can't go an eternity without sleep."

Shadow kept attacking, considering Mephiles' words. They were true – Though he was immune to age and sickness, plain old fatigue and injury were very real dangers to him. Somehow, he had to cut off these shadow beings at their source… And if that source was Mephiles, and if Mephiles was in his shadow…

Shadow realized what he had to do. He kept on defeating the enemies, but with a new purpose this time. As he destroyed each one, he used his mind to forcibly rip the Chaos Energy making up their bodies into his own, converting it from their negative energy to his own positive energy.

If he kept this up long enough, he'd be able to store enough to force Mephiles out.

"Your inevitable death will be a pleasure! Especially since you're so insistent on continuing this farce of a battle!"

Shadow ignored the comments of Mephiles. Just a little bit more Chaos Energy, and… Now.

Shadow allowed the energy to flow over his body, slightly healing his injuries and – More importantly – Ripping Mephiles out of his shadow. Shadow wasted no time in attacking the dark hedgehog.

"CHAOS SPEAR!" Shadow yelled, sending a pulse of yellow energy at Mephiles. Less than a second later, he was hurtling towards Mephiles to deliver him a kick. Before Mephiles could recover from that, Shadow snapped his fingers to produce a small burst of Chaos Energy right behind Mephiles, flinging him straight into a chaos-infused fist.

"So that's how it's played, is it?" Mephiles asked. "Fine. You want interesting? Your death is now interesting. Pity for you the ending hasn't changed! DANCE, MY SHADOWS, DANCE!"

More and more shades kept appearing, but they only served to slow Shadow down a bit. He was still able to land hits on Mephiles every once in awhile, slowly but surely bringing him down. Unfortunately, that also meant he was running low on Chaos Energy – If he ran out, Mephiles would likely be able to return to his shadow, and he might not make the same mistake twice.

"You feel it, don't you? Your strength sapping away as you fight this useless battle? As soon as your protection vanishes, so shall you! And then your friends! First, the red one, oh how I hate him! Then the green, the fox, and the echidna! And finally, when the time is right, down goes the broken blue hedgehog… And all of the failure will be undone."

Shadow attacked harder, both out of anger and to try and speed up the battle.

"It's pointless to push yourself, you'll just speed up the inevitable. Just give in and die!"

Shadow was continually weakening, but he didn't listen to Mephiles. If there was any chance to protect the world from this… Monster, he'd take it. He'd made a promise to the only family he'd ever had, and he did not intend to break it now.

Suddenly, without warning, a long, red tongue grabbed one of the shades. Quick as a flash, five more were devoured, and yet even more were destroyed by sudden machine gun fire.

"ANHILLATE!" Omega shouted.

"Yoshi! (Let's do it to it!)" His new companion yelled, tossing eggs which exploded on contact at the shades.

"Omega! And…"

"Yoshi!"

"Yoshi… Right."

"ROUGE REQUESTED ASSISTANCE FOR YOU. I AM HERE. YOSHI WAS LOST. WE WILL TAKE IT FROM HERE."

"You'll take it from here?" Mephiles asked incredulously. "A robot and a Yoshi-dragon with a death wish. Star Child or not, little dragon, death comes for you both!"

"INCORRECT. IT IS YOUR DESTRUCTION THAT IS IMMENINT." Omega shot Mephiles again, but Mephiles simply dodged.

"You are nothing more than an insignificant nuisance!" Mephiles yelled, just as Yoshi landed on his head with a ground pound. "Gah! How did-" But Yoshi had already hit the ground, running off to destroy more shades.

"FIRE!" Omega yelled, loading Shadow into his cannon and firing at Mephiles. "ANHILLATION!" He screamed, as he followed it up with a slash from his claws.

"HOW ARE YOU DOING THIS! JUST DIE – " Mephiles was interrupted by an three-foot diameter egg plowing through his shades and into his head, trailed by a rainbow of colors. It broke apart on him, revealing Yoshi, who wasted no time in head-butting him to the ground.

"PERISH!" Mephiles screamed, and the shades chased after Yoshi.

"ANHILLATE!" Omega yelled, firing missiles on all the shades following the little dragon, and one on Mephiles himself.

"WHAT DO YOU EVEN HOPE TO ACCOMPLISH?" Mephiles yelled. "I AM IMMORTAL! I CAN CONTROL THE VERY FLOW OF TIME AND SPACE! I WILL HAVE MY WAY, NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO! WHY DO YOU INSIST ON CONTINUING THIS CHARADE? YOU SHALL ALL PERISH! YOU CANNOT HOPE TO-"

While Omega and Yoshi had Mephiles distracted, and the latter was ranting about the others' total uselessness and the impossibility of them winning, Shadow zipped behind Mephiles as quietly as he could. Standing not two feet from the oblivious demonic hedgehog, Shadow focused all his energy on the emerald he sensed Omega had carried with him.

"CHAOS… BLAST!" Shadow yelled, a fiery explosing consuming Mephiles. When the smoke cleared, Mephiles could be seen down, but not out. The doppelganger stumbled to his feet, staring at the three who had defeated him.

Without a word, he took out the purple Chaos Emerald and used it to create a purple vortex in the air. He jumped in, and Shadow didn't even have time to think of where he'd managed to get the Chaos Emerald before dashing after Mephiles, pulling Yoshi and Omega in after him.

Quick question: Did anyone honestly think I'd forgotten Yoshi was in the future?