Shadow Saves Them All

Chapter 9

Getting out of Station Square was child's play. I ran as fast as I could to Eggman's base and stopped. I jumped the wall with such nimble ease. As the searchlights scanned the courtyard I quickly checked the time; 4:30 A.M. exactly. The sun would be rising soon and I would be out of here with all the emeralds at that time. I jumped over a large war vehicle parked in the courtyard and landed on the other side, stopping myself from moving. Directly in front of me was a security-robot in sleep mode. If I made any noise then it would awaken and alert the entire base. I slowly walked around it and made my way to the wall of one of the Courthouse buildings. There were irons bar on a window just a little taller than me. I whispered inside; "Maria?"

A blonde haired hedgehog with a blue dress on came over to the window and said; "Shadow?" Maria's blue eyes met with Shadow's red ones. Shadow took the emeralds out of his pockets when Maria asked; "What are you doing here? If my cousin catches you then…"

Shadow interrupted and held the Chaos Emeralds up to her so she could see them. "No time, if I stay any longer they'll find me. I need you to take this to one of Eggman's prisoners. He is tall, has brown hair and eyes and was just recently captured, he's also human," Shadow said, keeping his eyes on a searchlight that was getting gradually closer by the second. Maria took the emeralds and nodded to Shadow. Shadow had known her ever since she had learned Eggman was her cousin, they were really close.

"I've gotta go. Oh, and tell him I'm waiting outside Eggman's base for him," he said about to escape into the ever brightening morning. The moon was setting and the orange purple color of the sky in the east was beginning to spread across the sky.

"Shadow!" she said quickly. He turned to her and asked; "Yes Maria?" She gestured for him to come closer to the bars and he leaned up to her, waiting for her to whisper something to him, that's when the unexpected happened. On his right cheek he felt her plant a little kiss, and then she pulled away from the bars saying; "Good luck, and be careful," she was a light shade of red, as was Shadow. He merely stared at her turn and run for the door and before he knew it she had exited the room. Shadow put his hand on his cheek and felt where she had kissed him, he felt… really good. He turned around and ran through the courtyard. He jumped the wall and landed on the other side, unseen.

"Humph," he said. "Is this what humans call, love?" he thought, he didn't know.

Maria ran through the halls of Eggman's lab. She came to many twists and turns until she made it into the main room, connecting her building to the large skyscraper that was Eggman's building. She looked around cautiously as she walked over to the main elevator. As she emerged from the small hallway into the main room, it looked a lot like the lobby of a new York building or hotel. She walked to the elevator and pressed the up button. As she waited she took the chaos emeralds out of her pockets and looked at them.

"Julian will be really upset if he learns I had these and didn't give them to him. Especially when he already has the other five…" she thought. For those who haven't seen SonicSong182's work Julian is Eggman. Btw, I dunno if that's accurately his real name or not, I just think it's a great idea for his name.

Just then Eggman opened a door entering the lobby. He had the five emeralds in his hands. He looked at them, lost in the promise they held. Maria shrieked and put her emeralds in her pockets. Eggman heard her shriek and looked over at her.

"Maria? What are you doing up at this time?" he asked surprised.

"Oh," she said smiling, trying to keep him from looking at her hands which were still in her pockets, gripping the emeralds.

"I just thought I'd take a walk around,"

Eggman smiled at her and said; "Well, be careful. The radar picked up something in the base grounds. If you see anything, let me know immediately!" he continued to walk off to the hallway she came in through. Just then, the elevator door opened up and she stepped in. she pressed button 22 and the elevator door shut and she ascended. Once on that floor she walked through the halls some more until she came to a room labeled; 'Containment Facility.'

She stepped inside and saw him. A man at the age of eighteen sitting down in a large glass container. The whole room looked like a large stadium, domed ceiling and all. He heard her walk in and said without turning; "Oh WHAT do you want now egghead!?" he shouted in an irritated tone. Dylan was still pretty upset about being captured by Eggman.

"umm," Maria started to say. The outburst had startled her and made her nervous. Dylan heard her feminine voice and turned around. That's when he noticed something incredible.

"That hair…" he thought. "Those eyes, I know I've seen them somewhere before,"

"Who are you?" he said standing up.

"I'm Maria Robotnik the Hedgehog," she said stepping closer to him.

Maria Robotnik. Now he remembered where she was from.

Dr. Gerald Robotnik was a great man, in science and family. When his granddaughter Maria was diagnosed with a fatal disease, he had her placed on the ark. Being up there had helped her condition greatly. It wasn't just the specially made oxygen, it was being with Shadow. He was always with her and protecting her. Shadow and Maria were as close as two friends could be, maybe even more.

But, his care for his granddaughter was maybe just a little too great. I was sent to this a while ago to investigate the Ark. It was potentially dangerous, no one in my organization knew anything about it. I went undercover as a scientist, one of Dr. Gerald's best ones at that. I was on the Ark for about two earth years until he summoned me and a few other scientists to one of the Ark's private science labs.

"Gentlemen," he said to us. The only light in the room was in the center of our circle of four men. It was one light bulb which hung loosely on a wire. In the center of our circle was a white blanket covering something.

"I have summoned you all here for something important. What I am about to reveal to you is top secret, and I trust each and every one of you not to tell a soul about it," we all looked at each other and nodded. He looked down at the blanket and then pulled it off the object. It was a hedgehog, no not shadow, he was already made. This one was different, it was female by the looks of it. It had on a blue dress with a red heart on it, blue shoes, and flowing blonde hair with a blue headband in it. It's eyes were shut, but I think I knew whose eye color it was going to be…

"What… is this?" another scientist asked. His name was Marcus.

"This is what will save my granddaughter," Gerald said.

"as you all know, my granddaughters disease can only be delayed, not stopped. Putting her up here was hopefully going to change that, but I had no such luck. So, I resorted to making this, with it I can transfer Maria's consciousness into a working and safe body. It was made to have the potential to be as strong as Shadow, and immune to any virus, disease, or illness," he said smiling and tapping the glass on the container.

That's when the last scientist in the room spoke, Jackson; "You used money and resources supplied to us by the government and military to build another body for your granddaughter? Has this been approved by the board of research?"

Professor Gerald looked at his creation and bluntly said; "No," The room was silent until I spoke out. "If G.U.N. heard about this they would stop our funding entirely,"

"No!" Gerald said. "It would be worse. It was hell getting them to approve project Shadow, if they learned we had made another being that could be as strong as him without their approval, they would see it as a large threat to the safety of the general public and take action against us…" We were all silenced once again, was the Doctor serious?

"Now I ask you all?" we looked up to him. "Will you keep this a secret?" We exchanged looks of concern and doubt until finally we all nodded. Dr. Gerald relaxed a little and said; "Good, now back to work all of you!" he said pointing us to the door. We all walked out.

…

Three days later, Gun had stormed the Ark. I escaped using my belt teleportation device, while pretty much everyone else was killed. I wasn't surprised at all when I learned Jackson had told G.U.N. I was surprised however that they hadn't found the hedgehog body for Maria. I guess she must've gotten into the hedgehog body some other way.

"Anyway, Shadow sent me. He wanted me to give you these," she said to me. She pulled out the teal and yellow emeralds and my jaw dropped.

"That was fast," I said. I was about to grab them when I remembered I was encased in glass. I stopped then pointed upwards at the giant glass container. Maria jumped a little and said; "Oh! Right," she scratched her head, a little embarrassed at forgetting I was imprisoned. She ran up to the balcony and touched some buttons on the control board. After I heard some clicking, the container unclenched from the ground and rose. I was free. I ran out of the container up to the balcony and stopped right next to Maria. She jumped again when she noticed how quickly I had ran to her. She gave me the emeralds and I thanked her. I stepped back and shouted with both chaos emeralds in hand; "Chaos Control!" I teleported away from the room and was outside of the base at last.

Maria got down off the balcony and walked to the exit when Eggman burst through the door. He said; "Well Dylan, you…" he stopped when he saw the container open and Maria standing there. She had to think fast or else. She ran up to Eggman and said; "Julian! Thank goodness you're here! The prisoner boy escaped from the glass prison! I opened it up to see if he was invisible or something but he's gone! He must've teleported or something,"

Eggman was apparently buying it. He pounded his fist on the wall and grunted; "He must've had the other two emeralds on him, and was smart enough to hide them from me," he said in anger.

"Maria!" he said. She straightened up nervously. "Head back to your room and stay there! With him loose in the base I wouldn't want you to get hurt!" he began to walk away.

"Okay Julian!" she said as cheerfully as she could. After he turned the corner she ran back to her room as fast as she could. She made it inside and locked the door. She took a deep breath and sighed. It was done.

I teleported to the front gate of the base. I landed on the grass and saw Shadow there waiting for me.

"Shadow!" I whispered to him. He saw me and ran over to me, and then he punched me in the face.

"Oow! What was that for?" he looked at me seriously.

"That's for saying I wasn't a good choice for North Pole destruction!"

"Ohhhh, Heh, you heard that?" I said nervously.

"I'm Shadow the Hedgehog, of course I heard it," leaving the topic, I asked him what the plan was. I told him Eggman had the other five emeralds and that we needed them back.

"Hmm," Shadow thought for a minute. "The Doctor has the emeralds with him, no doubt about that,"

"So we just need to lure him out," I said. Shadow snapped his fingers and said; "Yes,"

"And the easiest way to do that would be…" he said to me.

"A full frontal assault on his fortress," I said smiling. I tossed him an emerald and jumped up over the wall with him following me. I let the searchlights hit me and the alarms began to blare.

This is gonna be fun.