werewolf lover99: I have the concept of a sequel planned, but it has no fancharacters. If you want a story that is a sequel to this game and has a fancharacter (of sorts), then you should check out The Countdown by Rev897. It's one of my favorites and is the story that got me interested in Shadow's character. ^^
Cf96: Glad I could clear things up, then!
SonicSonic54321: Yup, Shadow is finally a hero at long last! Took him long enough. ;)
Chapter 27: All Hail Shadow
~The One Whom Maria Entrusted~
Our little race finally led us to the center of the comet, which led to an arena of sorts. The walls had veins of red-black space slime oozing between the cracks, with rocks wedged around and inexplicably illuminating the area.
And waiting ominously in the very center of it all was the source of all the world's problems and more than likely most of my own, Black Doom.
"So, we meet again, Black Doom…" I began, feeling like I was treading on thin ice that wasn't even there. Sonic was right next to me, ready to put an end to this menace just as much as I was.
Black Doom just floated in front of us in all of his hideous authority, even going so far as to chuckle under his breath.
"Hmph, I suppose you've done well, Shadow…" Doom began. "I'm very impressed that you've made it this far…"
"Enough with the false flattery, Black Doom!" I yelled, casting my hand forward. "Your rule ends here, and it ends NOW!"
Sonic stepped forward, the previous cheerfulness from his face gone and replaced by serious determination. He stared up into Black Doom's three eyes and smirked confidently.
"So, you're the one behind all this…it's an honor to finally meet you up close and personal," Sonic stated, clenching his fist. "However, I do believe you took something from me that doesn't belong to you, and I'm here to get it back!"
Black Doom seemed to narrow his eyes as Sonic, as if trying to figure him out or something. Eventually, he just simpered devilishly and spread out his arms.
"Fools…you both have no idea what you're up against…"
"We both know very well!" Sonic called, raising a fist to the sky. "We're about to take you down and rid this planet of your vile race! Like it or not…the game's over!"
"The Black Arms are more than superior…" trailed Doom, sounding offed by Sonic's claim. "We…are perfect! We have the most ultimate power in the universe! Do you really think you have any real chance of defeating us? Mwahahahaha…!"
His echoing laugh reverberated all throughout the arena. Sonic just watched him carefully, in case Doom was set to make a surprise attack, but I just thought about my time with Doom. All the things he coerced me into doing, the lies, the empty threats, the things he wanted me to believe…and the way he somehow had control over me…
It was him that needed his just desserts; not Sonic, not GUN, not even Eggman…
Gathering myself, I raised my red gaze to meet his, scowling unceremoniously.
"You're the one who should be scared, Black Doom," I finally said, maintained locked eye contact. "I made a promise to Maria to save the planet she loved so much…and I WILL!"
"What about the promise you made to me?!" Doom roared, and the winds inside the comet began to stir. "You owe me the Chaos Emeralds…and you will give them to me!"
I narrowed my eyes and got into a battle stance. "You'll have to kill me first."
Black Doom raised his arms, and the temperature in the comet seemed to drop.
"Then get ready to die!"
He suddenly started to glow, rising up to hover well out of our reach.
"Now, I will show you just how pitiful you inferior life forms are!"
Doom started drifting around the arena, and I anticipated some sort of strange attack. I hadn't seen him fight directly before, so I wasn't entirely confident on what to expect. Sonic had no idea either, but that didn't stop him from hopping around and trying to get a perspective on Doom.
"This is it, Shadow!" he exclaimed, still jumping about. "Let's end this once and for all!"
I nodded and started running for Black Doom, but he suddenly surrounded himself with six purple portals of some sort, with meteors flying out of them and going in all directions. Sonic dodged to the right and I avoided to the left by ducking behind an outcropping in the ground, but Sonic afterward felt the need to retaliate.
"Bring it on, buddy!" Sonic scorned with as much of a hiss as he could manage, rolling up in the middle of the area and charging light. After that, he shot off the ground and propelled himself at Doom, but when he struck his body, Sonic just glanced off without doing any damage. Doom chortled as Sonic uncurled in the air, doing a backflip and skidding a landing.
"Take this!"
Doom started throwing real fire at our direction; I sidestepped it easily while Sonic's tail got caught in the mix. He winced for a moment, putting it out on the spot before turning back to Black Doom.
"Great, like we needed another problem…attacking his body won't work!" he exclaimed. "…can you still fight, Shadow?"
"Of course," I huffed, cracking my knuckles. "After all, we just need to find his weak point then, don't we?"
Sonic nodded. "Right!"
He started running around Doom, hoping to pick up on some kind of weakness, but I already had an idea of what it could be…
He did seem pretty partial to his eye, after all…
I knew I was going to need some higher ground if I wanted to shoot at his eye, so I started climbing onto one of the nearby platforms. I was almost at the top when an abrupt tug took place at the back of my head; invisible ties pulling me right back down to the ground.
"Argh…what the…?"
"Forgot already, Shadow?" Black Doom asked, creeping over me with his hand raised. "You can't do anything to step against me…"
"R-Really?!" I asked, writhing in pain but refusing to show it. "I wouldn't…have gotten this far…if I never went against you!"
Black Doom didn't even reply- he just roared and hurled me across the room, sending me skidding on my side. I hissed in pain, but in the brief time he removed his hold on me, I ran at him, fury burning at my very being. Doom just sneered and held out a hand, and I stopped in mid run.
"Let's see how you fare against your pathetic friend there," he growled at me, turning my body against Sonic, who was stunned in the middle of the room. I tried moving, but it was no use; Doom had intensified his hold.
"Get out of the way, Sonic!" I yelled, feeling myself being tossed across the room. Sonic barely had the time to blink before whisking himself out of the way, just in time for me to crash into an unfortunately placed rock.
"Sorry!" Sonic called. I groaned and peeled myself off the rock.
"No problem…ow…"
I felt myself rising off the ground again and being tossed about in the air like a ragdoll. Like some sort of morbid ghost, I had started chasing after Sonic, due to no fault of my own. Sonic yelped and started sprinting around the arena, before turning around and bopping me in the head.
"Ouch!" I howled. "What was that for!?"
"I thought that maybe Doom could feel what you feel…guess I was wrong, heh heh…"
I glared at him, until I was tossed upward and spun around in the air. Sonic could only watch helplessly as Doom commanded me like a lifeless puppet, and I dangled helplessly in Doom's impossible grasp.
"Enough games!" Doom roared, and I followed the gaze of his eyes…which were apparently aimed at a particularly sharp rock. "Shadow, you have disobeyed me for the last time…maybe this will teach you what happens when you defy the greatest being in existence!"
Still with his hold on me, he plunged me down from the air, face first and aimed to impale on the rock. I blanched completely, and I admittedly never felt so helpless.
But, I guess I wasn't entirely helpless…
"You let him go, you creep!" Sonic howled, having sprung into an air with his arm pulled back over his shoulder. Doom turned to acknowledge him, which was when he brought his fist forward and punched him in his three eyes, which apparently caused him enough pain to release his hold on me. I took the chance to teleport back to the ground, and also avoid the horrendously sharp rock.
"That was way too close…" I panted, pushing myself off the ground to see what was going on now.
Sonic was going absolutely crazy against Black Doom- Doom kept trying to hit him with projectiles, but Sonic avoided them easily, before curling up and throwing himself at Doom's eyes. His quills sharpened as he spun in the air, making for a more devastating impact when he connected with Black Doom.
"Hmph, I see…perhaps I have underestimated your inferiority as life form…" huffed Doom, reeling from the attack. Sonic just rubbed his nose.
"Damn straight, pal. Next time, maybe you'll think about the potential of others before bullheadedly taking them on!"
"None the less…you will be destroyed by my hand!" Doom roared, smacking Sonic out of the way. Sonic snorted back; flipping in the air, landing on his hands, and pushing himself upright again. He wasted no time in getting back on his feet, flying at Black Doom with previously unseen rage. Doom held out his arm to deflect Sonic, but Sonic grabbed it, using it to propel himself into the air in order to bring a kick down on Doom's head.
Doom recoiled once again, with Sonic beginning to run around him and creating a blue whirlwind. I finally managed to get off the ground, grabbing the back of my head which was throbbing with unnatural pain. I saw what Sonic was trying to do, so I rushed over and threw myself into the cyclone too, adding my strength before Doom could take it away again.
When Doom stopped tending to his eye, he found that he was completely surrounded by a blue and black wind. He tried to force his way out of it, but the rampant wind closed in on him, trapping him more and more with the passing seconds and creating a huge elctric charge in the air.
"Grr…what is this infernal thing?!" Doom huffed, trying to see through the blend of color. Eventually, he managed to catch Sonic standing a small ways away from the tornado, glaring at Doom contemptuously. I watched him carefully as I kept the funnel going, wondering what he was going to do next.
"You've done many horrible things in your lifetime, Black Doom…" Sonic began, raising his hands. "But this is the beginning of your end!"
"You don't even know the half of it, child…" Doom seethed, clenching his fists. Sonic just frowned and shrugged.
"Perhaps…but I certainly know enough, that's for sure!"
With that, he clapped his hands.
In that instant, I jumped away, just in time for the whirlwind to cave inward before expanding outward, sending Black Doom hurdling into the air with a horrendous scream. Sonic ran in Doom's direction while I took the opportunity to jump onto the platform, this time with no chance of falling off.
"Get over here!" Doom roared, returning back to the ground and swooping at me. He threw some purple energy at me, which I jumped over easily. This offset me a bit, but I still had nothing to worry about, because Sonic latched onto the fiend's back, grabbing his horns and yanking his entire head backward.
"Now's your chance, Shadow!" Sonic cried, struggling to keep Black Doom at bay. "He can't do anything to you…as long as I've got him…so hurry!"
I nodded, calling on the power of the Chaos Emeralds stored safely in my quills. Doom fought fruitlessly against the grip of Sonic, who made sure that Doom couldn't do anything funny anymore.
"Behold, Black Doom…the ultimate power!"
My aura turned blue in that instant, making Sonic smile and Doom recoil away.
"No…no! I told you to never use the Chaos Control-!"
"And I'm pretty sure I told you that no one tells me what to do!" I cried back, time itself starting to distort. "Chaos CONTROL!"
Doom howled in agony as the comet's colors inverted and time slowed down for everything but me. Sonic had Doom in the ideal position to expose his vulnerability, so I took out my Shadow Rifle and grinned deviously in the alien's direction.
"I bet you regret giving this to me now, don't you?"
Even as time returned back to normal, I fired every shot I could into Doom's Eye, the very thing that had followed me everywhere, always watching me, making me doubt, leading me down a path that wasn't my own, annoying me endlessly…
Oh, how long I've waited for this moment…
I remember Maria dying again, and I remember the promise I made to her before she departed from this world…I had protected it once, and now, the time had come to protect it again.
Time returned back to normal, with Sonic letting go of Doom and running somewhere safer as I continued to finish him off. Now conscious of the pain, Black Doom's bellowing howl ricocheted through the halls of his very own comet, letting any of his remaining warriors know that their own leader was on the verge of defeat.
"Grah…th-this…is not…over…" Black Doom said scathingly, slowly falling to the ground with some sort of liquid dripping from his eyes.
"Maria loved this planet…" I trailed, walked over to Black Doom as he slumped dramatically to the ground. He lied almost completely lifelessly, which was fine by me, because it allowed me the pluck the seventh and final emerald from his person. "…and I will not let you destroy it!"
"Yeah, you go, Shadow!" Sonic cheered, holding up his hand again. Sighing, I obliged and gave him a high five.
Now he was super happy, marching around and yelling to the heavens above.
"Bow your heads low; All hail Shadow!" he whooped with his arms held high, singing words of my praise in the background. I just shook my head and turned back to Black Doom.
"Shadow…" Black Doom seethed at me, staring at me with a deadly look in his damaged eyes. "This isn't over yet. The Black Arms will rise again…"
I just blinked, relatively uncaring of his current condition. "I made a promise I intend to keep…and that promise was NOT to you!"
"With the power of the Chaos Emeralds, you and your army are finished!" Sonic chirped. "You know what they say: the bigger they are, the harder they fall!"
Sonic was obviously pleased that we had vanquished Black Doom, but there was a nagging feeling in the back of my head…
And it told me that there was no way that Black Doom would ever go down that easily.