Cf96: You got it. ;)
NutCase5: Eggman has the ability to leave us all speechless sometimes, haha. Thanks for reading!
SonicSonic54321: Pure memory loss indeed. And yes, this is the evil slot machine. I hate the evil slot machine with a passion. xD
Chapter 11: A Heart Awoken From Darkness
~Fixing That Which Was Broken~
Knuckles and I might have made it out of the dark cavern by the skin of our teeth, but running into the open purple area wasn't much better…
Especially with Eggman waiting smack in the middle.
From the top of his latest creation, he acted as though he had the upper hand…and while the element of surprise was surely on his side, numbers were not.
"What do you want from me now, Doctor?" I huffed. I was not in the mood to deal with him after what I'd just went through with Knuckles.
"I believe we have some unfinished business left from Cryptic Castle, my dear boy…" Eggman sneered, glowering down at Knuckles and I with a glint in his eye. "Hand over all your Chaos Emeralds to me now!"
"You've got a better chance of me dancing with Knuckles than me handing over my Chaos Emeralds!" I yelled, pointing forward forcefully. Knuckles, on the other hand, looked mortified.
"Don't use me as a comparison!"
"As much as your empty threats amuse me, I'm afraid you have very little choice in this matter…" Eggman continued, his voice becoming more and more condescending as he went. "You were unleashed to find the Chaos Emeralds, you know, and you've been doing such an excellent job…you've done well, and I'll only ask one more time- hand them over!"
I returned the supercilious stare. "Not a chance."
"Have you forgotten what you've already learned, Shadow?" Eggman huffed, large palms pounding on the dash board. "You were made to serve ME! You're nothing but a minion! You're not who you think you are, you know!"
"And that's exactly why I need the Chaos Emeralds, because I refuse to acknowledge your pompous claims," I replied calmly, masking the anxiety he'd just agitated within me. "I need them to uncover my past; they're the only thing I can trust….and they're not going anywhere!"
"You tell him, Shadow!" cheered Knuckles, pumping a fist into the air.
"Well then, we'll just see about that…if you refuse to obey me, then you'll just have to deal with my finest creation yet! Shadow, prepare yourself!"
A loud, annoying, high pitched sound started ringing out; one so oppressive that it caused my ears to press defensively against my head.
"What is that thing?!" howled Knuckles as he brought his hands to his head, but I was too worried about the screeching sound grating against my eardrums. As despicable as it was, it wasn't entirely foreign…like I'd heard something similar before. Eventually as it came to a stop, I could pin the noise to a name.
"That's not a… roulette is it?!"
The pictures scattered about the body of the Egg Dealer had rolled to a stop, displaying a picture of what appeared to be a missile. Eggman was pleased by the development, throwing his hand on a lever and activating his first attack.
"Get ready for a real blast! Time for Missile Fever!"
"…missile fever? Really?" muttered Knuckles.
"Get down!" I roared, leaping next to him and kicking away a missile set to hit us. Knuckles ignored me and pushed me out of the way, directly in the line of fire of the second missile. He stood ready for it, then the very second it was about to hit him he flashed out his palms, caught the explosive, and hurled it back at Eggman.
I had to whistle.
The missile crashed into the Egg Dealer with immense force, and looking at the display, it turned out it had struck a button on the roulette. One of the pictures started rolling once again and stopped on a set of rings.
"Hmm, interesting…" I mused as Knuckles fruitlessly tried punching at the legs. "Um, Knuckles? I think the trick to beating this thing is a little less…direct."
"Oh really?" The echidna scoffed back, jumping away from a well-time swipe. "And what would that be?"
I tossed my quills back and simpered at the Egg Dealer.
"Just watch this!"
Before Knuckles could even comprehend what was going on and before Eggman could deal a counterstrike, I jumped into the fray and targeted the buttons adorning the front of the Egg Dealer. With consecutive strikes, I struck them all, stopping the roulette with three pictures of rings.
"Noooo, my beautiful rings!" Eggman wailed, as if it physically pained him.
I could always arrange that.
"You won't need them anymore!" Knuckles cried, scooping them all up and utilizing their healing properties. He tossed a couple in my direction before throwing himself at the machine, despite my demonstration on the only way to even possibly damage the thing.
"…okay Knuckles, you just keep distracting it," I improvised, skating up to the Egg Dealer again. "…and I'll hit it where it really hurts!"
"Whatever you want," Knuckles replied with a shrug, still wrestling with one of the legs. Eggman was in the cockpit rapidly shaking the controls in an attempt to rid himself of Knuckles.
"Cursed echidna- let go of my machine!"
While that was happening, I leaped into the air and curled into ball form, taking aim and striking the buttons once again. This time, they all stopped on…pictures of my face?
"What the-?"
"No! Not Shadow Fever!" Eggman yelled theatrically, pounding on the dashboard again. "The Egg Dealer's one weakness! Anything but that!"
…why would you install that in the first place?!
Not about to question the doctor's disadvantageous addition to his creation, I seized the opportunity to attack. Knuckles saw me start glowing red, so he quickly backed up out of the way as I let loose.
"Death to all who oppose me!"
Eggman tried to get out of the blast radius, but Knuckles punched him right back in anytime he tried to escape. One he was within reach, I released all my negative Chaos Energy out in massive bursts, charring away at the Egg Dealer's defenses.
"That's it, Shadow! Just keep messing up Eggman's roulette!" cheered Knuckles. I nodded grimly and jumped at the machine again. Eggman tried to conjure up more attacks, but every attempt fell short…especially when I stopped the roulette on Bomb Fever.
"No! Don't drop them here!" Eggman wailed, the whole Egg Dealer tipping forward and dropping a bomb. It subsequently went off, leaving Eggman with ashes dusted all over his mustache. "Oh, that's it! Now you've asked for it!"
"Ask for what?" I snapped back, racing after the Dealer as it rocketed away. "For you to leave me alone? For you to give up on these horrendously thought-out robotic creations of yours?"
"Don't let him get to you!" Knuckles called, rapidly shaking his fists. "We need another Shadow Fever!"
"I know that! I don't see you trying to get one either!"
"I can't spin dash with as much precision as you can," Knuckles huffed. "I'm just here for support!"
Excuses…
Nevertheless, I continued my onslaught on the Egg Dealer, trying relentlessly to match up three pictures of myself. Finally, I managed to match up two, but just as I went for the third one, Eggman managed to swat me away.
"Not this time, Shadow! Oh ho ho ho!"
"Nnrrgh…!"
I toppled through the air, skidding painfully to the ground. Just as I was about to concede Eggman a point, Knuckles came to the rescue once again, grabbing the Egg Dealer from behind and shoving it to the ground.
"What?! No! This isn't supposed to happen!"
I looked up from my spot on the ground, where Knuckles stood over the Egg Dealer and winked at me. He then rolled it over and stomped on the third button, activating Shadow Fever.
But this time, instead of glowing red, I turned blue, and I nodded back at Knuckles.
"Before this is over…witness my true power!"
I teleported over to the Egg Dealer and unleashed a fury of attacks, moving around impossibly quickly with my enhanced teleportation skills. Eggman knew he was done for once again, but still tried to defend himself. However, I easily warped away from his clutches and struck him at every turn, finishing off by punching right through the steel and yanking out several probably important wires.
"I…won't give up that easily!" Eggman huffed, determinedly getting back up again. The Egg Dealer didn't have much fight left in it, but it still had some, and it was going to battle until it was absolutely over.
"Hey, if we can set the roulette to Missile or Bomb, we can give Eggman a little surprise and finish him off!" Knuckles exclaimed.
"Then let's deal out our own attacks, shall we?" I asked, and the two of us threw ourselves at Eggman. We rapidly struck the buttons, but all times we couldn't get a match. Eggman kept heckling our failure, making me start to emanate red.
"Relax, Shadow," Knuckles told me, although he was the last person to be lecturing me on such a thing with how often Sonic harped on him. "Just maintain your focus!"
I decided to heed his advice this one time, calming down and taking a moment to time my strike carefully, finally managing to land a picture of a Missile. Knuckles had hit his button at the same time, gaining a missile as well.
"This is it!" he called, taking aim at the third slot.
"Do it…NOW!"
Both our palms slammed on the button at the same time, successfully winning Missile Fever. We jumped away, just in time for Eggman to attempt to abort the command, but the missiles had already fired, going completely haywire and taking on askew flight paths. In the end, they all turned back on Eggman made contact with the Egg Dealer, finally putting it out of commission.
"What? N-no…GAH! This cannot be!" wailed Eggman desperately as the Egg Dealer started to come apart. I stood over the battered remains and sneered in Eggman's face.
"Never show your face around me again, or you'll regret it…" I threatened, stepping away from the aftermath of the battle. It was a useless gesture though, considering he'd be right back up with some sort of egg-related machine to attack me with.
Once I'd walked away, I started slouching a bit, not even realizing how much of a toll the Black Comet ended up having on me…and looking back, I realized I might not have even made it if it wasn't for Knuckles. I glanced over to where he was standing; he was currently looking worse for wear due to his current injures, but otherwise he almost looked a little thrilled.
"Huh…good job, Knuckles," I panted, hardly able to believe he had been as helpful as he was. Knuckles just looked boastful.
"While this contraption wasn't even that threatening, sometimes a little strength is all you need to get the job done-"
"Okay, don't overdo it."
Sheesh, when Sonic's not around, he's the obnoxious one…
"But seriously, what was Eggman even doing here?" Knuckles asked, shaking his head. "Talk about not being able to get gum off your shoe…"
"Well, by his vague speech at the beginning of this fight, he must've picked up traces of his technology in your communicator when you teleported, and probably also imagined I'd be here anyway so he could take his revenge," I suggested, shrugged. "Otherwise, I don't know. Sometimes he's like a giant space flea from nowhere."
"In any case, we may not have ousted the Black Arms, but at least we know a little more about them," Knuckles said. "We should head back down to the planet and tell the others about what we-"
My face went blank.
"…oh yeah…" Knuckles stated quietly. "…you're supposed to be the enemy."
"…regardless, you do what you need to, and I'll do what I need to," I sighed, glowing blue once again. "I…appreciate your assistance, Knuckles, and I'm sorry…about what happened at Central City…"
Knuckles chuckled a bit and winked at me. "Water under the bridge, Shadow. Even though you were with the Black Arms at the time, I know you never meant me any harm…just following your own way, I suppose, and I can't exactly tell you what to do…"
"…Rouge was really concerned about you, you know," I explained softly. "She got mad at me because of it."
"I can almost imagine," Knuckles nodded, a small smile growing on his face. "She insisted that I didn't even come here, but as long as I'm away from the Master Emerald, I might as well contribute to the cause somehow…"
"I just hope she can forgive me…" I murmured. "Hopefully, they can all forgive me…"
"You just promise me you'll find yourself again, okay?" Knuckles asked. "Make all of this trouble worth it in the end."
A ghost of a smirk crossed my face. "I guess I could manage that. Now, let's get out of here. Chaos…CONTRO-"
Naturally, the pain in the back of my head skyrocketed again, causing me to freeze up, and Knuckles glanced at me just in time to see the look of horror cross my expression.
"Shadow?! What's wrong?"
"K-Knuckles…" I managed to trail out as we slowly started to teleport. "B…Brace yourself…"
Before he could ask anything else, we vanished off the face of the Black Comet, ending up somewhere on the blue planet below.
Black Doom appeared where we once stood, looking angrier than ever but as calculating as always.
"Even as you continue to defy me, Shadow the Hedgehog…you'll continue to play right into my hand…and there is nothing you can do to put a stop to it! Mwa ha ha hah ha…"
Edge of Westopolis-
When I reappeared again, it was in midair, and I found myself falling a good meter or two before crashing into cold, unforgiving pavement. Forcing my eyes open through the pain, all I saw was wreckage of a city…Westopolis no doubt, but in a different area than from where I'd been before.
I was about to ask myself why I'd ended up back in Westopolis, and why Knuckles wasn't with me, but I already knew the answer, and as soon as I stood back up again, said answer was staring me right in the face.
"You deliberately disobeyed me, Shadow…I told you to purge the Black Comet of humans, but instead you've exterminated more than a fourth of my troops!"
"I already told you, you can't tell me what to do anymore," I snarled back, glowering at the alien. "I have my own reasons for doing what I do, and whoever gets in my way gets cleared out! Funny, isn't that what you told me before? Crush everyone who gets in my way?"
"…you REALLY don't understand the situation here, do you?" he grumbled murderously, and I could see the malicious intent in his eyes. I stared back with the own malice. "…perhaps Professor Gerald has done more to your memory than I imagined."
I'd be damned if I didn't stop for that.
"The professor…?"
Had…he tampered with my memory? But…how? When? It contradicted everything I knew for sure so far…
"Hmm…strange that you don't remember your maker."
"What'd you say?!" I dared, trying to press him for as much info as I could. For all I knew, this could've been another trick to bait me into doing his dirty work.
Instead, he just cast an arm in my direction and growled at me.
"SILENCE! The ramifications of your disobedience will be severe!" he roared, swinging his arm in my direction and blinding me.
"Urrrgh!"
Enveloped by vast white nothing, I lost consciousness, and once again, I was forcibly teleported against my will. Black Doom stayed behind a few moments longer, grumbling angrily to himself before vanishing as well.
"It's a shame that you so willing declare that you will stop me…when I've already won, whether you know it or not."
Aaaaand this is the chapter that caused me to put a hold on this story for several months, believe it or not. Writer's Block does do that to a person. :P
But it's all good now, so see ya next week, when we begin Shadow's path in neutral territory...