Shadow, Tail, and Knuckles had made it onto the Carrier, ready to do some damage. Shadow zoomed forward in between Knuckles and Tails as Robotnik fired missiles further from the ship. Shadow zig zagged along the hull, dodging the missile as one was heading for Knuckles and Tails. Turing around, Shadow formed up his green energy spear in his hands, throwing it and destroying the rocket.
Knuckles looked on the new gaps in the ship, saying he'd do what he could from the inside but he NEEDED the last pieces of the Master Emerald. Bidding his farewells, Knuckles jumped inside a hole, determined to end his search.
"Let's Go, Tails!" Shadow exclaimed, the two of them heading for the bridge of the ship.
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Mr. Big looked around in his cell, wondering what to do. When he heard a banging, looking over to see Amy with her massive hammer pounding away at her bar doors, but to no avail. She sat back, tired and desperate. Mr. Big tilted his head, looking at the lock on his cell as he thought for a second, forming a fist.
BANG!
He punched the lock at it shattered from his brute strength alone. He went over to Maria and Amy's cell, breaking them out as Maria said they needed off this ship.
"Not without Lily!" Amy stated desperate. The three nodded at each other and ran down the halls of the ship, finally making it outside...and right into the Green and Orange Androids. The group stopped dead in their tracks as they heard Robotnik laugh, telling his creations to get ready to fire.
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Shadow was running along the ship when something caught his eye. Amy, Big, and Maria had been cornered. Of course Maria would find a way here. But what concerned him most were the robots that he saw. They looked like...him. Except for the obvious color swap and the fact their collective left arms were weapons, but it wouldn't matter. They'd all be scrap just the same.
"Miles, you find a way to ground this ship. I'm going after Robotnik." Shadow stated as Tails nodded, ready to do a little destruction.
Shadow spin dashed straight in the middle of the stand off, gaining every ones attention. "Making bad copies of me now Robotnik? You really have lost it." Shadow taunted.
Robotnik chuckled, ordering his androids to fire away. Shadow ran forward, colliding with the blue one before it could get a shot off as Everyone else scattered to go on their own.
Shadow jumped to avoid a rocket shot at him, he wasn't going to dodge the grenade coming his way. Thinking fast, Shadow threw a Chaos Needle into the grenade, detonating it but caught in the blast as he was thrown back. He looked up to see all Three robots standing there before raising their guns and firing away. Shadow ran to the side, keeping ahead of the fire when the Androids when the Green one fired in front of Shadow, knocking him off balance as the blue one rushed up and planted his foot into Shadow's gut. As Shadow was getting up, the Orange Android shot a grenade as it bounced in front of Shadow then detonated, flinging him back and over the edge of the ship.
"Primary Mission: Complete..." They said in unison when they heard a defiant roar, Shadow leaping into the air as he had a red aura around him. Teleporting behind them, Shadow jumped and kicked the Orange Android in the back of it's head, then spin dashed into the blue one as he continued the assault, scraping the Android o the metal. The Green Android fired another rocket as Shadow jumped into the air, the rocket hitting the Blue Android destroying it, with an unheard last "Mission Complete."
As Shadow landed, he went after the Green Android and teleported once again, this time into the air as he formed up his Chaos Spear in hand, throwing it into the chest Android, killing it instantly. "That just leaves you and me..." Shadow said darkly, turning to see the Orange Android. Shadow dodged around as the Android fired away, but it was no use. Finally getting to the Robot, Shadow grabbed it's weaponized arm and broke it, tearing the genade launcher away and fired the weapon.
"Secondary Mission...Completed." It stated before powering down. Shadow powered himself down, heading off to find everyone else when he felt an explosion rock the ship.
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As Shadow left to fight his Robotic duplicates, Amy went after Robotnik himself to Find Lily. While chasing the mad doctor down, Robotnik held up her flickey friend and pressed on the Tablet, the Cobalt Blue Chaos Emerald emerging from the tablet around Lily's neck. Finding no use left for the bird, Robotnik dropped Lily and Amy came over.
"lily, are you ok?" Amy asked as Lily chirped weakly. That's when Tails found her, stating they needed to get off of the ship. Now. That's when an explosion was felt.
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Maria and Big separated, each determined to find Froggy. Maria left for the inside of the ship, searching frantically in every door she could, but found no trace of the frog.
As she searched, an explosion hit the ship as one of the engines blew. Maria ran to get to get back outside of the ship, but ended trapped behind a wall of debris, unable to escape anywhere as more debris fell. If nobody found her, she'd be done for.
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Shadow ran up as the ship started to blow apart when he saw Big the Cat, holding his frog. Then Shadow saw Chaos in a new form, with two other Emeralds inside of his body. This new form had four legs from a blob of a body, razor sharp teeth coming from the mouth under a small mass of green eyes, followed by a tail from the rear. And that's also when he felt it.
Shadow took a step back, feeling like something just shot him in the chest as an emerald green flame enveloped his body, and he felt the rage.
Robotnik also saw Shadow had survived his little fight, ordering Chaos to attack Shadow as he checked a monitor on the screen. He smirked evilly at the results as he flew off, unsure of how everything would fall.
Chaos shot several tendril after Shadow as he was starting to get up, but was slammed back down. Chaos continued slamming Shadow when the tendrils being used started to evaporate, and Shadow turned as his eyes glowed white. Shadow screamed as he let out a mass of Chaos Energy, shooting himself towards Chaos. But Chaos bounced him right back as it opened its maw, and Shadow's energy was being sucked through. Shadow fell to his knees as he felt his life slipping away.
Knuckles showed just in the nick of time, slamming Chaos's mouth shut. "Get back Shadow, you're in no condition for this!" Knuckles warned, running at Chaos.
Chaos shot out more tendril's as Knuckles dodged to the left and right, keeping his arms close. He jumped in, Slamming down on the brain of Chaos and backed off when Chaos brought a tendril out, smacking Knuckles away. Knuckles got up, when suddenly his Master Emerald shards started to glow. Chaos backed up, forming into a puddle and dropped into the ocean. Looking at the shards, Knuckles understood they needed to give him one last piece of information. But now was not the time. He turned back to see Shadow had calmed down a bit, being able to stand up now.
Tails had arrived as the Carrier started to blow apart thanks to a little re-wiring he did on a few missiles.
"We need to get out of here!" Tails yelled as the group made their way to the X Tornado.
"WAIT!" Shadow yelled, grabbing hold of Mr. Big. "Where's Maria!?" He demanded as Big told him she went back inside. "And you let her go...ALONE!?" Shadow demanded the answer but an explosion caught his attention. "Miles, you get everyone out of here! I'm going after Maria!" Shadow ordered, taking off before anybody could object.
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Maria coughed, waving away the smoke that neared her. She kept banging on the wall as sweat poured down her face when she fell over. "This is it." She thought, closing her eyes.
But hope was not yet dead as the wall next to her exploded, producing Shadow as he looked around and noticed her body. He ran over, picking Maria up as he ran down a hallway, the ship combusting around the two as Shadow held Maria in his arms. One explosion made Maria flinch and Shadow tightened his grip, when a part of the ship tore off in front of him. He looked out on the ocean below when Maria pointed to a bit of land in front of them. Yet more debris fell.
"Hold on tight." Shadow warned as he backed up a bit before he shot forward and jumped. Falling through the air, he landed on a piece of metal before jumping off of it. He went through another hollow piece, bouncing off the top and bottom before launching onto what might've been a piece of the wing. Gaining his footing quickly, Shadow bolted up the wing and jumped for all it was worth using pieces of land that jutted out to help. But he didn't make it. He grabbed hold of Maria, keeping her body close when he felt an explosion behind him as it made him fly back up. Seeing land below, Shadow turned his body while keeping Maria's close. He landed, taking the impact as he bounced up and activated his shoes trying to keep upright and stop his momentum. But its was no use as he fell back again, sliding on the grassy until they stopped.
He looked at Maria in his arms as she opened her eyes, looking at him and smiled. Shadow nodded back as they both stood up, watching as the remains of the ship hit the ocean. Shadow sat on the edge, watching the scene as the sun was just starting to set on the horizon.
Maria sat next to him, wondering what to say when he beat her to it.
"I know you want answers. The main one being why I left." Shadow stated. "But know it had nothing to do with you. I ha-"
"No." Maria cut him off. "Don't say that. I want an actual answer Shadow. You don't just GET to leave for five months and come back. "I've had enough of that in my life."
Shadow sighed heavily. "Fine. Do you remember the following week after Chaos Control?" He asked.
Maria nodded. "You just fired off a Chaos Needle at random times...But what does that-"
"It got worse." Shadow stated. "When I did purposefully use my abilities... Maria, I was loosing control." Maria raised an eyebrow, asking why he didn't just stay. "Maria, think about it. What if I accidentally used a Chaos Blast, or accidentally leveled the city? I had to leave to make time, and the only way was to leave. I had to be alone." Shadow explained.
Suddenly, it all made sense to Maria. "Is that why whenever you're around Chaos you...you know..."
Shadow shook his head. "Chaos Energy reacts with other Chaos Energy. Ever since I went "super" I've felt much more powerful. When I'm around Chaos, it seems all of that enrgy resurfaces at the same time." Then Shadow looked at Maria, dead serious. "Maria, Chaos is still out there. And I have to beat him, alone where nobody can get hurt."
"Shadow..." Maria responded. "We will always be by your side, no matter what. Tails, Amy, Cream, me, you have people that can help you. You just have to let them..." Maria explained, Shadow scoffing saying she started to sound like Tails. Maria laughed at that, as she looked on into the horizon. Shadow may be wrong on his thought of being alone, but he was right about one thing. Chaos was still out there somewhere. And with only 1 Emerald needing to be found...he could bring an end to everybody.