Chapter 57: A Blast from the Past - Part 3:
I'm Shadow the Hedgehog! The Ultimate Life-Form!
Man, I've seen some shit on my previous adventures, but this
takes the cake for outright weirdness! But my REAL question is:
what is the cause of this sudden déjà vu? Was there a gas inside
that dome that's causing us to hallucinate? Did this even affect all
of us, or is it just me? Because right now, I'm just standing here in
White Jungle, right by the GUN base, even though we both know
that this area was obliterated years ago, and Sonic and Silver are
nowhere to be...huh?! Someone's approaching now! Maybe they
can help me!
It turned out that the mysterious simulation device actually contained a fusion of various locations from Sonic's past, rather than an exact recreation of just one area, for after zooming through the jungles of Mystic Ruins for a while, Sonic noticed that the jungle had turned to forest, and there was now a fog nearly covering the entire place. He had now arrived in Green Forest on Prison Island, despite having not crossed any oceans. Within the next few minutes, the mechanical fortress he was headed for grew even closer, until he was finally just steps away from entering the grassy clearing that surrounded its entrance. However, he skidded to a halt and stepped behind a tree as he noticed that someone else was within the clearing, before realizing that it was Shadow.
"Hey! Shadow!" Sonic called, stepping into the open.
Back in the lair, Dr. Eggman Nega was sitting in his seat adjacent to Dr. Eggman's, rubbing a newly-formed bump on his bald head.
"Alright, can I trust you to press the right button this time?" Eggman asked.
Nega nodded and pressed another button on the control panel.
"There you are! Have you seen Silver?" Sonic continued from on the screen.
"Well, actually I...huh?" Shadow replied, before noticing a small blast of sparkly pink aura (the result of the button press) shooting downwards from the sky.
It bounced along the ground before passing through his chest, causing him to grab his head briefly before starting to glare at Sonic, his irises glowing a much brighter red than usual. The hypnotized Shadow immediately attempted to nail Sonic in the face with a foot-jab, though Sonic dodged it by bending over backwards, retaliating with an upwards kick towards Shadow's extended leg, sending him flipping backwards until he barely broke his fall. Sonic recovered from his counterattack via the same method.
The girls gasped.
"Now I'm not liking this!" Rouge said.
"I don't blame you! I know Sonic and Shadow's former rivalry like the back of my hand...or perhaps even more than the back of my hand!" Amy added, "If they're forced to fight each other, they'll kill each other!"
"I know, isn't it splendid?!" Eggman Nega cheered.
"Indeed! I simply love using my enemies against each other, don't you?!" Eggman added.
"Guys, just...c-calm down." Blaze replied somewhat hesitantly, "I-I'm sure Silver will arrive at some point and...break them up!"
"Hah! I appreciate your confidence, Kitty, but Silver's been sent to a different part of the virtual world, incredibly far away from where those two are! You see, this machine may look like a large dome-shaped room with holographic scenery, but thanks to my most advanced technology..." Eggman began.
"You mean 'our' most advanced technolo-AAH!" Nega added, only to be roundhouse kicked into the wall.
"...this simluator is much different! You can interact with the objects inside it just like in the real world, you can take damage inside of it and come out with the same wounds, and there aren't even any walls...once the simulator's turned on anyway! Where your men are right now, there's as much room as an entire planet - enough to build small civilizations or even bustling cities! Hell, you can even fly upwards indefinitely and you will never hit the roof of the dome!" Eggman finished, much to the awe of the girls.
"Back off, faker!" Shadow ordered, "You have no business on this island! I'm about to infiltrate that prison over there, and I don't need annoying inferiors like you getting in my way!"
"Man, I've been experiencing this case of déjà vu all day!" Sonic said, "Anyway, snap out of it Shadow! We're not rivals anymore! In fact, we were just planning to stop Eggman together, along with Silver!"
"I have no idea what the hell you're talking about, Sonic! But no matter, I'll let you wallow in your own delusions...at least until this island blows up!" Shadow replied.
"BLOWS UP?!" Sonic asked.
"Damn right!" Shadow replied, "Now if you'll excuse me...CHAOS..."
He held up a yellow chaos emerald as he said this, but was intercepted as Sonic homing attacked him in the stomach, canceling the chaos control and knocking him across the field.
"I know you're just fooling around, Shadow! And I'm gonna do whatever it takes to snap you out of this, even if it means beating you into submission!" Sonic said, getting into a fighting stance.
"Well if it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get." Shadow replied, getting into a fighting stance as well, "But only so I can keep you out of my way!"
Shadow then proceeded to launch a series of chaos spears, which Sonic effortlessly avoided by running around the clearing haphazardly. He then teleported towards him, and knocked him into a tree with a punch. However, Sonic managed to kick off of the tree and launch himself back at Shadow, winding up a punch, which was dodged. This time however, Sonic was quick enough and managed to boost into Shadow after he teleported, knocking him across the clearing. He then proceeded to boost towards him once more, though Shadow managed to lift the chaos emerald above his head.
"Chaos, Control!" He yelled, slowing down time.
He then skated behind Sonic and roundhouse kicked him into the tree that he himself was supposed to be knocked into.
"You're too slow!" He taunted.
After cornering him, Shadow then proceeded to close his eyes and generate red energy throughout his entire frame.
"Chaos..." He started, unaware that Sonic was weary of what was happening.
Sonic initiated a spin-dash and zoomed out of the way, making it to the other side of the clearing as Shadow let out the word "...BLAST!", unleashing the lethal attack that caused a blinding, bright red explosion that left the trees on that end of the clearing engulfed in flames, and the grass on that end charred.
Shadow realized his misfire, and proceeded to skate towards Sonic at a moderate speed. Sonic however, jumped backwards and kicked off of the tree behind him, before landing a homing attack right on Shadow's head, knocking him over. Just as he landed, however, Shadow got back up and blocked a punch with his open hand. The two then started to engage in close-quarters combat, though to no avail, as both of them were too fast for each other and ended up doing nothing but repeatedly clashing their fists and feet together.
However, Shadow turned the tables on his blue rival, and unleashed a chaos spear, knocking Sonic up into the air. Immediately after doing so, he started to charge up a spin-dash on the ground. After letting loose and launching himself upwards, however, he was not prepared for Sonic to do the same. The two hedgehogs ended up doing nothing more than ram into each other repeatedly while in ball form, bouncing off of each other, and then rocketing towards each other again. After a particular clash where the two remained pressed against each other for a spell, they separated, followed by Shadow heading back towards the ground as Sonic gave chase.
They proceeded to roll around, chasing each other around the clearing for a bit, only to bring the fight back up into the air by running up along the tree trunks. Once in the sky again, the two hedgehogs then uncurled themselves and as they crossed each other's paths, they struck their iconic pose from Sonic Adventure 2. Immediately after, they proceeded clash spin-dashes with each other a few more times, and briefly chase each other around in tight circles for a short while. Finally, while about to clash with Shadow yet again, Sonic made a bold move and uncurled himself, before landing an axe-kick right onto Shadow, canceling his spin-dash as well, and managing to land his heel right onto the back of his neck.
Shadow plummeted towards the ground, and barely managed to land on his feet. He knelt down and held his neck in pain, as he eyed Sonic landing back in the clearing as well. With no time to react and the excruciating pain in his neck holding him back, Shadow could only watch as Sonic started to speed towards him in an attempt to follow up. Behind him though, he heard the door to the prison mysteriously open, revealing a dark hallway lit by various neon lights. Wasting no time, Shadow got up and fled into the door with Sonic giving chase.
Inside the door however, was not a prison. Instead, the hallway consisted of a narrow metal bridge and many metal structures covered in neon, surrounded by a night-like background. They had arrived in Final Rush. Soon enough, Shadow noticed Sonic following him and pulled out a white pistol, before firing countless bullets. Sonic barely managed to dodge all of them, and pounced on Shadow, tackling him to the ground as they wrestled over the gun. Shadow pulled the trigger a few times, though this did nothing more than fire some stray shots off into the distance, missing Sonic. Eventually, the gun ran out of ammo, and only by a kick to the stomach could Sonic be knocked off of his adversary. Sonic landed hard on the ground, and rolled backwards a little. Holding his stomach, he stood up, and eyed Shadow making his getaway. He boosted after him, and caught up within seconds.
When the two hedgehogs were within a few feet of each other once again, Shadow proceeded to fire off some more chaos spears, which were promptly dodged. Suddenly however, Sonic noticed that Shadow had started to skate considerably slower than he had just been. With a cocky smirk on his face, the black hedgehog proceeded to charge up another attack.
"Chaos, Lance!" He yelled, shooting an even more powerful chaos spear, which flew past Sonic.
Still sprinting ahead of his foe, Sonic was taken by surprise as the projectile whizzed past him and hit the bridge, blowing it up and creating a large gap. Sonic was knocked into the air above the gap via the explosion, and as he was launched, he was quick to see Shadow attempting to homing attack him. However, he quickly grabbed a nearby chunk of debris and swung on it in order to get behind him. When Shadow realized that he had missed, he uncurled himself and started flailing. Sonic took the opportunity to catch up with him, and knock him onto the other side of the bridge by means of a roundhouse-kick to the back of the neck, before jumping off of the falling debris in order to get on there himself.
Upon the moment when his feet hit the bridge once more, Sonic wasted no time, and sped towards the incapacitated Shadow, and launched him into the air with a flip-kick. He didn't let up with his assault though, and jumped high into the air, before ramming through Shadow several times in quick succession while curled into a ball. He ended the move with a downward kick, right in Shadow's stomach, causing him to gasp in pain and cough up some blood. The two hedgehogs then plummeted towards the ground with Sonic's foot still poking into Shadow's abdominal region, about to pin him to the bridge. However, Shadow made a desperate move and grabbed Sonic's extended leg, catching him by surprise. He then swung him around in forward circles, and tossed him into the air again, before following up with a series of punches and kicks. He ended the combo with another chaos lance, which hit Sonic in the back, and launched him face-down towards the bridge, pinning him downwards. He landed hard on his stomach in a large explosion, and became unconscious instantly.
He awoke just seconds later to see a small pool of blood around his face, having dripped from his mouth. He weakly got up onto his knee and saw Shadow standing in front of him, arms lowered with his hands curled into calm fists, and a streak of fresh blood on his muzzle.
"You just won't give up, will you?" He said.
"Don't act so surprised." Sonic said as sternly as he could through his panting, and squinting his left eye (he had gotten a black eye from where he had hit the tree headfirst).
"You're right! I shouldn't!" Shadow replied, "You showed me that same determination during our fun little game of 'Cops and Robbers' back in the city. And unlike most games of 'Cops and Robbers', there actually were cops this time! And yet you disobeyed them. So hell bent on pursuing me, that you broke the law twice!"
Sonic sat there still, glaring at Shadow as he chuckled at his own remark.
"Alright, enough blather," Shadow said, wiping his mouth and stepping forward slightly, "It's time to end this!"
Sonic could only watch as Shadow proceeded to levitate off the ground, staring at him with a wicked grin. He then removed the inhibitor rings around his wrists and ankles, and dropped them callously to the ground, a golden aura immediately surrounding his form.
"Sayonara, Sonic the Hedgehog!" Shadow said, before curling into a ball and flying off into the distance as a golden comet, before looping around and charging straight at the downed Sonic.