Chapter 6: Unexpected Stop

The rain had been pouring down as Shadow walked through the streets of the Pale City with Six in his arms. As the hedgehog walked through the city, he could hear crows wailing crossly, and the wind howled through the rain. Shadow could feel Six holding him tightly as she shivered from the rain.

"H-How are y-you not f-freezing Sh-Shadow?" Six asked.

"I'm used to being in cold areas and rainy areas but I will say that this is very different from what I'm used to." he replied.

"Wh-What do you m-mean?" she asked him.

"Well, It might sound hard to believe but I'm actually from somewhere far away." he told her.

"I-If you're fr-from somewhere e-else, h-how did y-you get h-here?" she wondered.

"It's a long story and after all that has happened on this adventure, I think I remember how I got here," he said. Six asked him if he could tell her the story which the hedgehog said yes and this is the story he told her.

Flashback

It was a bright and sunny day as Shadow was speeding through Lost Valley. After hearing about the recent events with Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles saving the world from Titans and deciding to have a little vacation time on Kronos Island, Shadow was trying to keep an eye out for any evil that might try to conquer the world while they were away.

After going through a loop de loop, he saw a couple of badniks cornering some chao and instantly began taking them out one by one. Once he destroyed every single badnik, all the chao cheered in their little adorable way. Shadow then glanced over at a chao that looked like Amy trying to reach for an apple on a nearby tree. He then walked over, picked the apple the chao was going for, bent down and handed it to her to which she happily began to eat.

Then the hedgehog stood up and began running once again, but he soon stopped after noticing a cave glowing with bright colors. Suspecting it could be an evil force at play, he went in to investigate. Once he got inside, he was surprised to find all seven chaos emeralds together near a strange stone monolith. As he picked up the green emerald in his hand, the monolith suddenly activated and began sucking Shadow in. The Hedgehog tried in vain to break free but he ended up getting sucked in further. In one last attempt, he tried using chaos control to teleport away, but then…Something strange began to happen. Colorful electricity began to spark between all the emeralds close together, the one the hedgehog was holding, the monolith, and Shadow himself. Suddenly after a flash of white, Shadow and all the emeralds disappeared. The last thing Shadow knew before he blacked out, was landing on some grass in a forest.

Flashback ended

"...so I tried using the chaos emerald to teleport out, but when I reappeared…I was here," Shadow said as he finished his story. Six was in deep thought about Shadow's story but was still shivering from the rain. The hedgehog decided that it would be best to try and find a place to rest until the storm was over.

As they walked, they came across a hotel. It was tall but not as tall as the signal tower. It was very busy with guests walking around inside but it looked very forbidding on the outside to both Shadow and Six. Six held Shadow tightly as the two looked on. Shadow was deep in thought as memories of Luigi's tale about going to a hotel filled with ghosts came flooding back. He wanted to go past the hotel but he couldn't as the rain kept pouring down. Reluctantly, they went to the hotel. As they got near the door they were greeted by a tall man. He had beige skin with holes where his eyes would be and was wearing a red bellhop jacket and hat.

"You two look like you need rooms for the night. Well, I've got rooms you'll never forget. Please follow me," he said and turned around and began leading them through the backside of the hotel. Shadow was beginning to question why but probably figured that the guests would go crazy if they saw them. Once they got to their room, they went in and as The Wax Belleman closed the door…he said to himself, "Before the night is through, I'll make them wish they never came to my hotel."

The two had settled in a few minutes later and Six was fast asleep on the bed while Shadow remained awake as he was still thinking about Luigi's story. He looked around trying to recognize all the shapes in the dark. He suddenly heard Six lurch forward from her sleep as she woke up. He looked and saw that she was clutching her chest trying to calm her breathing down.

"What's wrong?" Shadow asked.

"I had a horrible nightmare," she said, nearly bursting into tears.

"Try to.. Take a deep breath, okay?" the hedgehog replied which the girl nodded as she was hugging him tightly.

He decided that it was time to move on and pick Six in his arms and started to head out of the room. As he walked out, he didn't notice a strange figure of a man watching them from behind a mirror from the room.

It was dark as the two walked through the hallways of the hotel. It was all quiet… until they could hear the sound of breathing behind them. Shadow looked back and saw The Wax Belleman heading straight for them! He told Six to try and run while he would try and distract him.

Six began running down the hallway and Shadow began firing chaos spears at The Wax Belleman and began to keep trying to protect Six at all costs. They sped through the hallway and found a sewer nearby sewer hatch and Six slid down it while Shadow teleported to her after firing one last chaos spear at the Wax Belleman and landed a direct hit in the face.

When Six emerged, she found herself in some water deep inside the sewers under the hotel and climbed onto some nearby luggage floating in it. It was quiet for a moment when she entered the next room and she then saw a couple of leeches moving straight toward her. She closed her eyes tightly but as they were about to grab her, she heard them let out cries of pain. She opened her eyes and saw Shadow squishing one the leeches with all the pressure of his foot and did some spin dashes to the rest. After a couple minutes of comforting the girl, he decided they needed to get out of there and helped Six as she climbed up a nearby grate before following her up. As they climbed up, they heard a strange noise echoing around, and the hedgehog could sense that they weren't alone anymore.

When they entered the next room, they saw that the premises were flooded with water which meant they had to swim. Shadow was an excellent swimmer especially since he competed many times with Mario, Sonic and the others during the olympics, but Six was a little bit hesitant about doing this and backed two steps away.

"It's okay. Just take it nice and easy. I'll be right next to you," Shadow said assuring Six. Shadow got in first with Six following close behind… unaware of the figure in the water. The two heard the sounds of something coming towards them, and just as a hand emerged to grab Six, Shadow dove down to try and stop whatever it was.

Six quickly kept swimming, avoiding the hands of the mysterious monster while Shadow was doing battle with it. Eventually, she reached a platform on the other side and waited for the hedgehog to reappear. Soon, Shadow resurfaced and swam to her, having stopped the monster for the moment. The two then continued and came to a large drain and found another group of leeches that had filled the passage into a nearby pipe. After Shadow threw another chaos spear at the leeches and began destroying them all as Six climbed into the pipe. After he destroyed them all, he teleported away to catch up with her.

After Six emerged at the end of the pipe to the end, Shadow appeared using his air shoes hovering in front of her with his hand out for her to grab. Once she was in his arms again, The hedgehog flew up to the top where the two found themselves in a room with a mechanism for raising water. Shadow bent down on one knee and activated the nearby switch, and then pushed the lever in the middle of the room to raise the water level and then they swam into the nearby hole and eventually reached a ladder. The hedgehog then helped the girl climb up to another platform while he activated his air shoes and flew to the platform. They then saw that a nearby entrance was boarded up by some boards, so Shadow told Six to crawl through the nearby hatch behind the metal barrels while he teleported to the other side.

They once again found themselves in a flooded room, where they caught a brief glimpse at the monster that they encountered earlier. Six was worried about being chased for the second time, but Shadow told her that everything would be alright and that he was going to distract it. As the girl was swimming in the water, the monster tried to grab her again but soon got hit by the same thing that attacked it earlier. The hedgehog then told her to jump on the nearby objects in case she got tired before diving back down and continuing the fight. Once the two broke the fight for the moment, Shadow resurfaced and swam to the nearby platform that Six was on. The hedgehog then helped her climb some boxes and then twisted the nearby pulley to pull the bundle of corpses out of the water. She grabbed it and jumped onto the nearby platform made of wood while Shadow flew to her with his air shoes. On the platform, there was a bathtub filled with fish leftovers. Shadow grabbed one of them and threw it into the water and while the monster was eating the fish, they swam away to the next room.

Once they were inside, Shadow helped Six climb on some more boxes and pushed a nearby board onto the rest of the floor, making a bridge for her to cross to the otherside. As Six slowly walked across, the hedgehog slowly flew beside her ready to catch her in case she accidentally fell off. Once they reached the other side, Shadow opened the door and they both jumped to the adjacent platform. Once he pressed the lever, the water began to sink through a drain hole. It soon dawned on Shadow that they found themselves in an apartment of some kind.

They couldn't go through the other door since it was locked and they needed to find a key, so Six broke the jar on the nearby table to try and find the key. They did find a leech sitting with the key and while Six quickly grabbed the key, Shadow squished the leech using all the pressure of his foot.

Once they got to the next room, Shadow threw nearby boxes into the water and made a bridge out of them for Six to cross. He then raised and lowered the water level using the button in the wall so Six would have trouble with the current passed through the torn wire. Once again, he hovered right alongside her as she crossed, ready to catch her at any moment. Once they got to the next flooded room, they saw that the monster was waiting for them. Once again, Six jumped to swim and Shadow dove down to battle the monster once more. Six kept jumping over the scattered things until she got to the other side while the underwater battle kept going. Once Shadow resurfaced again and swam to where Six was , the two then continued into an abandoned room. Once they got to the other side of the room, he helped her climb up some nearby boards in the wall, along which she climbed up onto the broken part of the floor above and picked up a nearby lever. She threw it down to him and he inserted it into the opening on the left side. While she climbed back down, he pressed the water drain button and moved the luggage closer to make it easier for anyone to get over the water just in case anyone else got trapped down there. Then he opened the door with the lever and Six went through the door while he sped towards it before it closed.

In the next room, Shadow pushed the next door to get into the last flooded room, where they saw the monster sitting in a chair and they got a good glimpse of what's been stalking them through the water. The monster's physique was very lanky with long, bony limbs and a saggy neck. Its wrinkled face bears two dark, sunken eyes and a wide, toothy grin full of crooked teeth. Its long dark black hair is thin and sparse, with the top of its head completely bald. Its skin was pale and waxy, and she wore only the tattered remains of a dark brown kimono. Once the monster saw them, she rose up from the chair and dove back into the water. Six began to swim for safety again while Shadow dove back into the water for the final showdown.

Six ultimately came across a grating and began to climb very quickly to get to top as the battle continued. Once she got there, she pulled a nearby lever which turned on a light in the room. After that, she grabbed the lamp, and began to swing and jump onto the remnants of the floor which was barely holding onto a wooden beam. She clicked on another lever and water began to rise in the area. Suddenly, the monster began to break the rest of the floor. Just as it was about to grab Six, Shadow grabbed the monster's arm and dragged her back underneath the water. Six got back into the water and swam to the next wooden platform and climbed up as the fight resumed. She saw a TV turned on when she reached the top and did plan to try and push the TV into the water to electrocute the monster, but she wanted to wait for Shadow.

"Shadow come on", she called out.

He heard her and began to swim up but was soon stopped as the monster grabbed a hold of his leg and began to drag him back. That was a big mistake as the monster was soon met with a kick to the face by the hedgehog which caused her to let him go as he began to swim up again. Once he resurfaced, he began to climb up the wooden platform but just as he reached the top, the monster began to rip at the boards holding it up. Shadow gave the monster another kick and told Six to push the TV in the water. As she slowly pushed the TV towards the edge of the platform, Shadow held the monster off with a few more punches while hanging on the top platform. Once she pushed the TV in the water, the monster got electrocuted and soon sank back down to the bottom of the floor. After that, Shadow and Six then were able to safely get out and leave the danger of the water.

Once they emerged back onto the streets of the Pale City, the rain had stopped and the hotel was nowhere in sight. The two then found an abandoned building and climbed into a nearby bedroom.

"I think that it might be best that both you and I need to get some sleep after going through all that," said Shadow.

"But I'm scared I'll have another nightmare again," Six replied.

"Don't worry. I'll be right next to you," the hedgehog told her as he tucked her into bed before sitting down next to her. Six's eyes soon grew heavy as she closed them and drifted to a more peaceful slumber.

"I promise…I won't let anyone hurt you," he whispered to her before he too fell asleep.