Cf96: I'm glad you liked that part! XD
SonicSonic54321: Well, as this chapter is Chapter 30, there's now three more chapters until the end.
werewolf lover 99: I will let you know the moment such a need arises. :)
Chapter 29: To Just Be Myself
~To be Ignorant of the Past~
I was truly on my own now.
Following the ominous trail Black Doom left behind, I figure that he planned to exit the comet via somewhere at the bottom. I fell from higher up, descending into an area that was far darker, and the only light was made artificially by some of the pillars and whatnot scattered around the area.
But, there was no one to see it with me.
"I suppose I just have to do this myself," I stated, grinding down a rather long trail of alien slime, hoping it would lead me right to Black Doom.
I just hoped that I could get to him before it was too late for the gang…
As I quietly mulled to myself on the abrupt turn of events everything took, I heard a sudden crackling noise that threw me off my guard. However, it had only been there for a fleeting second, so I proceeded to ignore it.
"Shadow? Can you hear us, Shadow?"
"What…?" I trailed, looking around. I'd thought I'd heard everyone, but…there was just me in the area. But then I remembered my communicator, and abruptly attempted to turn it on. "I hear you, I hear you!"
"…he hears us!" I heard Amy rejoice.
"How are you able to use your communicators if you can't move?" I asked.
"It's partially a hands free device," Tails explained. "It's got voice activation features!"
Well, that was nifty.
"Anyway, Shadow, listen up!" barked Eggman. "Black Doom has got to still be on the inside of the comet!"
"Use Chaos Control to catch up with him!" added Sonic.
"Shadow, I believe in you!" That was Tails, gifting me with much wanted praise. "You can do it!"
"Don't you dare give up!" Knuckles bellowed. "Remember what we said at Glyphic Canyon!"
"Please, hurry," Amy begged, sounding distressed. "I don't know how much longer we or the world can last…"
"You're strong enough," Rouge assured. "I know you are!"
"You guys…" I trailed, staring at my watch as the trail of slime finally came to an end and dumped me onto the proper path. Glancing ahead, I narrowed my eyes in determination. "…if for no one else, I'll do this for you. Except Eggman."
Eggman huffed in the background as the others wished me luck, and we cut off connections. I needed to really focus to make my way through the area…
The area that was the last way.
Last Way-
Red and black tendrils of sorts shot up out of the ground by the walls, waving around like they were debating on grabbing me or not. I just put my jet shoes on the max and hurried along the path, reflecting on everything that had gone down, and everything that had happened…
Maybe Sonic had been right, because within the first few moments, I didn't want to think about it anymore.
However, I wasn't going to completely avert my eyes, either. Knowing what happened was going to make moving on from it easier…you can't just go on claiming something didn't happened. If it did, you accept it, and you carry on.
"Yah!"
I leapt off a particularly large edge, springing down to an open area below that was absolutely crawling with Black Arms and contained many crisscrossing paths…and here I was, about to plunge into all that confusion.
But Sonic told me to use Chaos Control to find Black Doom…although the Chaos Emeralds were no longer with me, I could still utilize it…but I was going to need to draw on a lot of positive energy.
And what better way to do that than beat the heck outta some aliens?
"Come on!" I yelled, grabbing the attention of all the aliens in the vicinity. "Your leader is about to be vanquished! This is your last chance to get a piece of me…which will be the last choice you ever get!"
Mindless as ever, the aliens advanced on me rapidly. They were too close to shoot with my rifle, so I took a page out of Sonic's book and used my speed as an advantage. They were too slow to even land an attack, so I teleported into the air and started taking them out by spin dashing their heads.
I felt my positive Chaos Energy increase by the second- and how ironic for Black Doom, with me getting the energy I needed to use Chaos Control from his own servants.
"Keep on coming at me!" I order, rushing through the fray by kicking, punching, and spinning into everything that got in my way. "Doom always said to obliterate anything that got in my way…maybe his advice wasn't so empty, hmm hmm…"
Eventually, I'd built up enough energy from fighting foes that I was glowing blue just from the overload. Right before I tapped into all that energy though, something flew in from above my head and landed a ways in front of me, turning and getting ready to fire.
"Great, an alien gunship was the last thing I needed…"I trailed, taking out my rifle and aiming at it. "This should make quick work of it."
A few rounds from my rifle was enough to set it aflame and send it careening out of the air, but I didn't have the time to stick around for the aftermath. I leapt back into the air myself, calling upon the Chaos Energy I had stored up.
"Behold, my true power!"
With a loud boom trailing after me, I took off, warping through space and a little bit of time as I tore through the comet, natural instinct telling me I was going the right way.
. . .
In the next leg of my trek, I came across a long gap that would probably prove deadly had I managed to fall. Luckily, a Black Volt was lingering around where I was, so I took advantage of the given opportunity and climbed onto its back.
"If only I liked these things…because otherwise, it'd be a pretty convenient way of travel," I told myself, controlling the avian alien around stalactites and other hazards up ahead. The Black Volt was pretty indifferent about my presence, given that it hadn't tried to toss me off or anything plus I was taking out its brethren with its own ammo.
However, I wasn't the only one firing- another gunship was tailing me from behind, launching blue lasers in my direction. I tightened my grip on the Black Volt and gritted my teeth, making the alien take a nosedive to avoid the unfriendly fire.
"It's not going to get me with tactics like that," I grunted, veering to the right and steering well out of the gunship's range. That still didn't stop it from trying though, as it started firing aimlessly at the walls of the comet, causing large chunks of rock debris to fall into the abyss below.
"Knuckles could punch through those easily, or Amy could at least batter them away…"
But I did not have such luxuries, and as such, I was forced to weave and dodge the old fashion way.
It didn't help that I had to focus on not connecting with midair mines either, especially since I had to detonate the majority of them beforehand. The Black Volt just followed my commands like it had nothing better to do with its life….that, or it was ready to go down and take me with it.
"Well, I don't need you anymore anyway," I claimed, standing on its back before leaping off and freefalling. Once again, it was still indifferent, simply flying away as I alighted on the comet floor.
Riding some slime to reach the next area, I ended up on a path that spiraled downward into the comet, with was naturally filled to the brim with more Black Warriors. Making a face, I curled into ball form and charged up some power, proceeding to cascade down the path like a wrecking ball.
Aliens were completely bowled over just by touching me, sending them flying either into the wall or over the edge entirely. I plowed on through, making for speedy travel and an effectively enemy dispatcher.
"I guess I understand why Sonic rolls around so often now…"
When I reached the bottom of the slope at long last, some shorter aliens were perched on high up ledges, and even from far away, I could tell that they had rifles in their hand and were waiting for me to walk obviously into the open. However, I had only spotted them because I'd heard one shift position.
Therefore, I took them all out from where I was and carried on.
. . .
At some point during my trek, I had activated Chaos Control again, sailing through doors, escaping through higher areas, and covering far more ground than I could at my normal speed. Black Arms were sent spiraling in many different directions, and I continued on my way without even receiving a scratch.
And yet, it was still getting hard to adjust to the fact that there was no one here with me…Doom's Eye wasn't peering over my shoulder at all times (which I was grateful for), and Eggman wasn't even around on his monitor (which I was also grateful for)...
Still, being lonely was a strange thing, especially when you were about to run into the biggest battle of your life.
Just then, a stray laser struck the side of the wall again, with one of the pieces hitting me and sending me falling into a lower area. I landed on my bad arm –again- only to look up and find another Black Arms gunship, and it was approaching me fast.
Activating my jet shoes, I skated off, with the gunship tailing after me, blue lasers being fired in every direction. I was moving just fast enough to be out of range, but one slip up from me, and I could've been vaporized.
"These things certainly don't know when to give up…" I grunted under my breath, breaking to a stop as it teleported in front of me and locked onto me. It fired all too instantly, with me hardly able to scramble for cover. I had ducked behind a rock, until the rock itself had been compromised and burst into several pieces. Huffing, I started running again, this time toward the gunship.
Eventually, I managed to find a place to hide under a bridge, easily blending in with the shadows it casted. An alien was also apparently hiding there, so I took it out quickly and pushed it out where the gunship was, in an attempt to distract it. Sure enough, I heard gunfire, so I took off again, hoping I had better luck up ahead.
"…this is a dead end," I hissed, following the path all the way to nothing but an intricately designed wall. "The only way to get through is with Chaos Control…and I really hope the gunship doesn't find me again…"
I glanced around, trying to determine the right way to take. I saw an opening that lead deeper to my upper right, so I turned blue and hovered in midair, taking off and flying off to the right. The way forward led into a long luminescent purple path, just like the many I'd seen before. It almost seemed kind of dreamy at the speed I was powering through it, which only served to remind me that I hadn't slept in quite some time…
"Maybe I have no need for sleep," I questioned to myself.
Chaos Control had given me a major advantage and allowed me to take a huge shortcut, ending up completely on the other side of the comet. Chaos Control wore off again, leaving me to rely on my jets and natural ability to get through the next cave.
A strange purple substance was in the air, and to be sure I was avoiding the same fate as the rest of the heroes, I kept my mouth and nose covered the whole time I ran through the tunnel. It hadn't looked like the paralyzing gas Doom had used, but who knew what side effects it was capable of giving to me?
I ran over a boost pad and skidded around a corner, only to run into another dead end already, and I most certainly didn't' have enough energy to warp myself too far of a distance at the moment. I was going to have to take on some more black Arms, and luckily for me, a whole pack of them descended from on oncoming gunship.
My lucky day. I'm so blessed.
"I don't have the time to keep it clean," I stated, taking out my rifle and awaiting the opportune moment to strike. Ideally, destroying the aliens in sets of twelve was usually effective, but it would be more interesting to take down the gunship…which in turn would take out all the aliens at once. "…yeah, I'm liking plan B a little more."
Taking aim at the gunship, I fired at will, blasting a hole in its side and doing massive damage to it. Quickly, I hid behind a stalagmite, just in time for the gunship to descend from the air and crash into many unsuspecting Black Arms, and the resulting explosion finished off even more. When everything died down again, I poked my head around the rock and frowned.
"How I manage to draw positive energy from that…I'll never know."
I just turned blue and took off again, hoping that I wasn't getting myself ridiculously lost…
. . .
When I finally started moving on my own accord again, I was skating down a hall that looked suspiciously similar to the one that Sonic and I had traveled through. The only reason why I was sure it was different because there was extra slime oozing in every crevice.
"Disgusting. At the very least, you'd think they'd clean up a little…"
"Shadow, was that a joke?"
"What the-?!"
I glanced down at my wrist to see it had been on, and it had been Sonic that had called out the question.
"How long has thing this been on?!"
"Hey, don't get your quills in a bunch- we just redialed and we happened to catch your bad stab at humor," Sonic scoffed. "It's really boring just standing around here, and my nose itches and I can't even scratch it…"
"Well, hang up! I've almost caught up with Black Doom, and if he knows that you all are still alive…well, that'll be changed pretty quickly."
"Shadow…" I heard Amy whimper, and I frowned in return.
"Sorry, I'm just being realistic…after all, this planet is apparently just a huge buffet to the Black Arms, and as soon as the resources have exhausted out, destruction will reign…"
"You…you're going to stop it, right?" Tails asked meekly. I was quiet for a moment, but eventually I nodded.
"Of course. I'll do everything in my power to save everyone…and to atone for the mistakes I've made." I lowered the watched and started into the darkness that rested up ahead.
"And besides…I promised I'd come back, didn't I?"
The watch's connection timed out, leaving me without a proper response. Taking a deep breath, I kept going, following the path at my top speed. Eventually it began to slope upwards, leading to an altar of sorts…and housing Black Doom right in the middle.
I froze for a moment ducking back down so he wouldn't see me right away.
"There he is; I've found him…" I trailed, my breath becoming heavy.
I knew just as well as Black Doom did that he could destroy me whenever he wanted, but he was only keeping me around to string me long and torture me constantly, bit by bit… Perhaps now I had outlived my usefulness and would be crushed beneath Doom's might…
Or, you know, not.
Because there was absolutely no way I was just going to roll over and die on Black Doom's command…he was going to do that for ME.
I know, kinda short and boring chapter, but NEXT TIME...
Shadow's final showdown with Black Doom begins at last...but even in Shadow's darkest hour, the bright light of a miracle arrives...and maybe he'll finally find those answers he was looking for.