(Last time on In the Dark…
Sally, Shadow, Silver, and Blaze have set out in search of the Dark Emerald, a one-of-a-kind gem that can control time to reopen the time vortexes. They were drawn into a building on the verge of collapse by strange energies caused by the Emerald. However, upon their arrival, the fire being Iblis appeared and began attacking the building. Short on time, the four friends searched for an escape and barely made it out. Once they were safe, they realized that Silver physically seemed to be fading. Blaze explained that Dark was destroying the past rather quickly and causing it to become unlikely that Shadow and whoever Silver's mom is will ever meet; thus, Shadow's son is beginning to get erased from existence. Now, it's up to Sally and Shadow, with the help of their futuristic allies, to retrieve the Dark Emerald and return to their own time to set things right, before the only son of Shadow dies and the future becomes even more ruined than it already is.)
It felt like we were walking for hours. I kept glancing at Silver, while Blaze did so even more frequently than I did. He was looking slightly more determined to help us, despite the fact that he would flicker a couple times every few seconds. I wondered what it felt like to slowly fade from time, but I suppose I don't want to find out. After quite a while, I looked at Shadow, who was leading us at the moment.
"Are you sure you know where you're going?" I asked.
He didn't answer. Instead, he froze in place for a moment, looked down the street, and took off around the corner towards whatever he was looking at.
"Wait!" I cried, and ran after him, already far behind. Silver and Blaze followed.
I watched Shadow as he skated ahead. A few meters ahead of him was a figure that looked exactly like him, only his colors were faded. The distance between the stranger and Shadow was quickly narrowing.
"Mephiles!" Shadow cried, and then shot a Chaos Spear at him. The Spear hit the figure in the back and made him stumble and fall, and immediately Shadow was on top of him, pinning the struggling hedgehog down.
"What do you think you're doing?!" Mephiles cried. "Do you know who you're dealing with?"
"Give up, Mephiles," Silver said as he landed beside me. "It's over for you."
Mephiles turned his head and looked at him. "Looking a little pale, are we?" he taunted.
"Shut up!" Silver cried. He lunged at Mephiles, and on instinct I grabbed him and held him back. However, he flickered and fell right through my arms and fell to his knees at the sudden lack of support. Acting unphased, he got to his feet again, but stayed put this time. But his angry glare never left Mephiles's face.
Mephiles started laughing. "You really think that this little rag-tag team can stop me? A fading naïve kid, my big-egoed origin, a flame princess, and a little girl with no weapons or special skills whatsoever. We took your little hammer girl, yet you still decide to take me on. Pathetic."
I clenched my teeth and fists in anger. "What did you call –"
I was interrupted by Shadow. "I believe that you're the one that's being pinned down."
"Pheh." Suddenly, there was a wave of purple light, and I turned away. Something heavy hit me, – hard, – and knocked me off my feet and back into a building. I heard four screams, including my own, and maniacal laughter. When I looked back once the light had faded, Shadow was lying on top of me, Blaze had flown back halfway down the block, but Silver still stood his ground, shielding his face with his arm. Once he had recovered, Silver moved his arm from his face and glared at Mephiles.
"You're heavy!" I cried, pushing Shadow off of me.
Mephiles had changed. He looked even less like Shadow, and now looked like he was made of crystal. His nose had disappeared, and his eyes were red with acid green pupils. His quills were extra spiky. His feet were nothing but purple smoke, and he was hovering a few inches off the ground. In his hand was the very thing we were searching for; the Dark Emerald. He was staring down at Silver.
"I will not let you hurt my friends!" Silver cried, and prepared to attack. In that moment, I immediately knew I had been wrong, and that I could trust him. However, Shadow had lost his temper. With a shout of anger, he lunged at Mephiles. When he was close, he drew his hand back and cried, "Chaos Spear!" But before he could throw it, Mephiles stopped him.
"Chaos Control," he said, and Shadow froze. At that moment, Mephiles threw a punch at his gut and sent him flying backwards. Shadow didn't move.
"Shadow!" I cried. I grabbed a large chunk of concrete from the cracked sidewalk and chucked it as hard as I could at Mephiles. It hit him in the side of his head, but had little effect.. He growled and turned to look at me. Only then did Shadow leap to his feet and throw the Spear that was still in his hands at Mephiles. Distracted, he shifted his glare back to Shadow, giving Silver time to attack. Using his telekinesis, he picked up several steel and explosive boxes stacked on the corner and flung them at Mephiles. The first steel box hit him and knocked him to the ground, the other steel and explosive boxes breaking on top of him. Mephiles groaned and sat up, beams of metal and wood falling aside. He fixed his glare on Silver, who glared back, ready to attack.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Mephiles shouted. "Sink into darkness!" Another wave of purple light, though dimmer, shot from his body and across the square, making us skid back a couple of feet. The ground where we stood turned into a strange, waving indigo liquid, though it felt like we were standing on soft ground. From the liquid around us, strange shadow-like creatures, not unlike the ones that roam the streets back home, rose from the ground, letting out strange, high pitched and creepy laughter. Was this where the shadow minions came from in our timeline…?
Silver immediately went on the attack, capturing the shadows in his telekinesis as they lunged at him and flung them at Mephiles, who had gotten out of the rubble. Other shadow monsters latched onto me, Shadow, and Blaze, pinning us to the ground. However, any shadows that got close enough to Silver either latched on but soon slipped through or just went straight through him. As he continuously pummeled Mephiles, I noticed the deep purple Emerald laying on the ground, just a few yards away. If only I could just get to it…
I started to army-crawl towards it. The weight of the shadows pushing me down made it hard to move in the soft shifting ground. Not only that, but more were piling on me, and one was trapped underneath me, making it very uncomfortable. It took an enormous effort to move an inch forward. The going was slow, but when I thought I was close enough, I reached out a hand to grab it, but I wasn't quite close enough. My fingertips were grazing the edge. I tried moving forward even a little bit, but I was just too exhausted.
Just a little more, I told myself. Just a little more…
Finally, a shard from one of the boxes Silver had thrown knocked the Dark Emerald toward me, and I grabbed it, holding it tightly to my chest. At the same time, Shadow had taken out one of his two Chaos Emeralds. He had more shadows on him than I did. Caught in a dog-pile, I heard his muffled shout.
"Chaos Control!" There was a flash of red light, quickly spreading from Shadow all the way across the block, sending the shadows flying off of us and making them disappear once they hit the shade casted by the buildings. The ground also returned to normal, and Shadow glowed red with energy. But the blast had taken me off-guard and made the Emerald fly out of my hands and all the way down the street.
"No!" I cried, and tried to run after it, but the ground reverted back to the dark, thick liquid and even more shadow creatures flew out of the ground where I was standing and attacked us, several of them pinning me against a wall.
"For every shadow that falls, ten more take its place," Mephiles said as he used his Chaos Attacks to ward of each of Silver's blows. "You cannot break free from the –" He was cut off. Silver had frozen him in his telekinesis while he had been talking.
"You have one weakness," Silver said angrily. "You have trouble fighting more than one opponent while defending objects. You get distracted easily, and that's my chance to attack."
"You're not…as dull as you…look, hedgehog," Mephiles retorted, the psycokinesis making it difficult for him to talk.
Silver let out a shout and threw Mephiles at a building with all his might.
"Shadow, now!" he cried.
Shadow nodded. "Chaos Blast!" he shouted, and a large, white energy blast shot from his palms and hit Mephiles in the chest. He sank to the ground and melted into an oily black liquid. As he did, he spoke weakly.
"I am…forever. You…cannot defeat…the darkness…" And then he was gone, sinking into the ground before it changed back to the normal paved street, the shadow creatures fleeing into the shade and disappearing.
Silver sighed with relief and fell to his knees. "Man," he said breathlessly. "That took up all my energy."
Not only that, but he was looking even more transparent than before. I could clearly see the street through his faded body when he flickered. Blaze walked up to him and laid a hand on his shoulder.
"You did well," she said. "I think you were the only one who could fight him anyway, in your condition. His attacks went right through you, but you can attack him with just your mind. That may have saved all of us a ton of trouble and probably our lives."
He looked up at her and smiled weakly.
While they talked, I turned and walked toward the purple Emerald still lying in the street and picked it up. Power surged through my body as I held it, but I turned around and went back to our group.
"Hey, Shadow," I said. "Look what I have."
He turned and looked at me, then down at the Dark Emerald in my hands. "Hm, not bad." He looked back at Silver and Blaze. "Looks like we can go home."
Silver got to his feet, though stumbling a little, and nodded. "Yeah, you should do that."
"Thanks for everything," I said genuinely, then looked down and scratched my ear, slightly embarrassed and blushing lightly. "And uh…sorry for not trusting you in the beginning. I thought you were going to let us get captured."
"Don't worry about that," Blaze replied kindly, a smile playing on her lips. "You must've trusted us more than you let on, because you came back to base with us, didn't you?"
I looked up and smiled, knowing she was right.
"We better get going," Shadow said to me. I handed him the Emerald. He took it in his hand, held it above his head, and shouted, "Chaos Control!"
A ripple went across the sky and a time rift opened up behind us; just a large, swirling, light blue, purple and white vortex.
"Good luck on getting your friends back," Silver told us. "And on, well, everything."
"Thanks," I responded with a small smile. "We'll need it."
"You need to beat Dark," Blaze said, the seriousness in her voice noticeable. "For the sake of the future and the past."
Shadow nodded. "We will."
"I would shake your hand, but well…you know." I noticed Silver was blushing lightly as he said that.
I smiled sympathetically.
"Hang in there," Shadow told him.
Silver looked at him and smiled. "See you in about 200 years…dad."
Was Shadow smiling? Did he actually smile? I didn't have time to confirm what I thought I saw, because he jumped through the portal. I gave a small wave and followed. After a long and strenuous journey, we're finally heading back to face the horrors that lie at home, and hopefully to put an end to the darkness that has overcome our world.
(Has anyone noticed how incredibly USELESS Sally is? Or is that just me?
I guess that's all I have for now. Hope you all enjoyed! Please review what you thought, how I can improve, and so on, and I'll (hopefully) see you next time on In the Dark!)
~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd