Chapter 12
After the plan was made, our group then proceeded to the entrance to the cooling chamber while Tails and Eggman went to the power modules. And the group that was decided to go to the core of the cannon? Myself, Maria, Sonic, Shadow, Rouge, Knuckles, and Cosmo. Even though she wasn't happy about it, we told Amy it was too dangerous for her, since we didn't want her to be in danger. Of course, it'd take Knuckles a tad bit longer to reach the core, since he'd be the one swimming to the switch to open the door.
Shortly after the doors opened, we then jumped inside of the place and proceeded to have me use Chaos Control to go into the area with the waterfall. I proceeded to fight off the different GUN defenses within (no Chaos robots, thank goodness) and managed to get the switch flipped. I then used Chaos Control to warp back to the gang just in time for the switch to be flipped by Knuckles. Shortly after, the place got filled to the brim with coolant liquid, sending all of us to the top of the place. Once there, Cosmo flew above us and flipped the switch for Knuckles to go down into the drink and get the switch flipped. We waited an agonizing minute before the door then opened, allowing us to go deeper into the cannon's core. We had 15 minutes left, so we had to be quick. We proceeded to rush through the place, with me using Chaos Control in a couple instances to help the others out by slowing time down to a crawl. Shadow assisted with his own Chaos Control powers, all the way to the bottom.
"That must be it! It looks like the shrine for the Master Emerald!" Sonic gawked at it.
"Unsurprising. Gerald Robotnik looked heavily to the history of the Chaos Emeralds and the ancient Echidna tribe when creating Shadow," Maria said, us then rushing forward... only for the giant lizard to literally appear in the center arena via teleportation!
"What's this thing?! It's humungous!" Cosmo gawked at it.
"That's the prototype... the one made before me," Shadow said with a frown.
"Wait, wait, hold up! How do you go from giant friggin' lizard to 3 foot hedgehog?" I asked, him and Maria looking at me with a frown.
"I can answer that later, but for now, we need to get to the shrine! You have the Master Emerald, right?" Maria asked, me nodding as I provided it. I told Knuckles I could probably do the chant, as I was also attuned with the emeralds as he was. He just didn't get the powers for some reason.
"Shadow, Sonic, and Cosmo, you distract the big guy while we go to the shrine!" I said, them nodding as Rouge, myself, and Maria then rushed past the Biolizard while Shadow proceeded to attack its life support machine with Chaos Spear, getting the giant monster's attention. Once I reached the shrine, I placed the Master Emerald in the center hole and proceeded to do the chant.
"The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power, power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos. I implore you, Master Emerald, to assist us in our time of need!" I shouted as I felt my power flow through it, which then led to the 7 Chaos Emeralds shining brightly and then stopping their collision course, falling off their different pedestals and onto the ground by us.
"RAAAOOOOORRRRGGGHHHH! ! !" the Biolizard roared as it then teleported away... and Shadow gawked at what happened.
"Did it just use a Chaos Control?!" Shadow asked in shock... but then, we heard Amy on the radio.
"Sonic! Cheryl! A huge freaky lizard just appeared on the Eclipse Cannon! It looks like it's forcing the ARK to continue the crash-course! It needs to be killed in order to save everyone! It's time to go Super!" Amy said with seriousness, me then looking at Shadow and Sonic and them then smiling.
"Let me guess, time for me to see if I can go Super Cheryl?" I asked, them nodding as we then proceeded to use the powers of all 7 of the Chaos Emeralds, me feeling all of the different elements rushing around me and into me... fire, water, wind, electricity, aura, darkness, emotion... all of them rushed into me as I felt my body overwhelm with power! I then looked at myself in a mirror and gawked at what I saw. My hair was colored like a rainbow and my furry parts on my body were shining a neon purple, which honestly looked cool!
"Time to go and defeat that giant lizard!" I shouted, us then using Chaos Control to go to outside of the cannon and us proceeding to attack the giant lizard's red sores. We ended up doing this for 1 minute straight until we finally managed to slay the giant beast, the whole time collecting rings when we noticed we were getting weaker. And once that was all done, we noted that the ARK was still falling at incredible velocity! We rushed at it and all three of us knew what had to be done.
"CHAOS... CONTROLLLLLL! !" I shouted with the other two, us managing to teleport the ARK back to where it was previously... but I gasped as I saw Shadow falling to Earth regardless!
"SHADOW! NO!" I shouted... and then, after I shouted that, I gasped as Cosmo and Maria started zooming from the ARK down to Earth to chase after Shadow!
"Maria! Cosmo!" I shouted in surprise, but they were preoccupied. I went back to the ARK, hoping they'd make it back okay, me managing to make it inside as my super form and Sonic's wore off... but shortly after, as expected, the Chaos Emeralds flew back to Earth, scattering themselves once more.
"W-Where's Shadow?..." Amy asked as I sensed that Maria and Cosmo had managed to save Shadow... and I then used Chaos Control one more time to warp the three of them to the ARK. And when I did, I was shocked to see that Shadow... was very worse for wear... his body had a lot of metal showing, he was barely moving, and he looked like he was in a lot of pain.
"S-Shadow..." Maria cried when she held him in her hands.
"Ma...ria..." he managed to squeak out as I then looked at Eggman.
"Um.. Ivo? A little private talk, please?" I asked, the others looking confused at me, but Eggman simply followed me to the automatic door and we both went through it and started to speak, but I did give a message to Rouge to not tell anything we said to the others.
"What do you want, half-breed?" he asked, me frowning.
"First, it's actually third-breed, get it right," I said, him frowning at me with angered eyebrows. "But more importantly, I want to ask you for a favor. If you agree, I'll make sure you don't get any repercussions for that stunt you pulled with Sonic or get blamed for the ARK's crashing into earth," I said, him then raising an eyebrow.
"What do you have in mind?" he asked.
"I want you to repair Shadow to who he was before. You're the only one in the world who could manage to do it. And it's not just a request from me, but Maria as well. If not for me, do it for your only remaining family member, okay?" I said, him then looking at me and then at the door.
"Very well, I think I could pull that off," he said, me then speaking some more words to him.
"Okay, but just know that I'm going to be keeping close tabs on you until Shadow is repaired completely. If you do anything else regarding him other than repairs, such as memory tampering or making replicas, I will know about it and I will make sure you get comeuppance," I said, him nodding.
"I wasn't even thinking of that," he said. I simply nodded as we then went back to the others and they looked at me and Eggman with worry.
"What'd you talk about?" Cosmo asked.
"Since he's pretty much the only one who can do it, Eggman is going to rebuild Shadow to who he was prior... in exchange, I'll make sure that he gets no charges for the attempted murder for Sonic or the ARK's collision course... I don't think it'd be easy to get the charges cleared on him being the one to destroy Area 49 or our attacks on the GUN bases to find Shadow and the Chaos Emeralds respectively," I said... and it was then that Rouge got a call on her walkie-talkie.
"Agent Rouge, come in," said the voice of none other than Topaz.
"Um... Agent Rouge here?... I thought we were all fired?" Rouge asked.
"No, quite the opposite. With Commander X going to prison for 30 years for his crimes, that means that I'm now the commander. And my first order was to rehire all of the wrongfully terminated Agents as well as abandon all work on the Chaos Robot program," she said, me gawking at that as Maria handed Shadow to Eggman.
"Please fix him... he's my one true friend.,." Maria said with tears in her eyes... how a robot could cry was beyond me. I'd have to ask her about that at some point. I then decided to join the call with Topaz and ask her something important.
"Hey, Topaz? How're Tikal and Chaos? Are they okay?" I asked.
"Yes, they're currently waiting for the Master Emerald to be returned to Angel Island. I suggest you go do that," Topaz said, me nodding as I then saw that Knuckles had it and he nodded at me after hearing it.
"You ready to get going, Knuck-chucks?" I asked, him looking at me in confusion.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked.
"It's a nickname based on nunchucks, but I said Knuck-chucks," I said, him then frowning at the fact that Tails chuckled and that Amy giggled.
"Just call me Knuckles," he frowned, me nodding at him.
"Fine," I said as I then looked at Maria with seriousness. "You want to join us, Maria? I still need to hear that explanation," I smiled, her then looking at Eggman and then at Shadow.
"Sayonara, Shadow... for now at least..." she said with a sad smile as she petted her hand across his face.
"Sayonara... Maria..." Shadow managed to squeak out as Eggman then took Shadow and proceeded to a different area of the ARK, that being a teleporter that would take him back to the Earth, right to his pyramid base. And once Knuckles and Maria were next to me, I then said the one word that I knew was going to be my most bullcrap ability thus far.
"Chaos Control!" I said, focusing our trio to be warped directly to the Master Emerald shrine, where Tikal and Chaos were waiting with at least 10 different Chao, each one I recognized as being from the experiment on the GUN base.
"I wanted to thank you for saving my children... again... but also wish to smack you for teaming up with that egg-shaped bastard," Chaos said, me sighing at that.
"I only did that because of Commander X trying to harm the Chao and because of him trying to kill Maria and Rouge," I said, her nodding.
"I know, but I still hate that Eggman with a passion," she said.
"Do you have the Master Emerald, Knuckles?" Tikal asked.
"Yes, I do," he said before then walking to the pedestal and placing the emerald down in its socket. And shortly after, Angel Island started to rise once again.
"You know, Knuckles... now that the new commander of GUN is a good egg in Topaz, I'm thinking that we could ask for their assistance in guarding the Master Emerald. What do you say?" I asked, him then frowning at me.
"I dunno... you sure we can trust them after the stunts they pulled on us?" he asked.
"Keep in mind, I made the laws in place to protect Station Square and the Chao, so I can very easily ask for laws to be made to protect the Master Emerald. Besides, I don't want it to be stolen by Rouge either," I said, him then smiling at me.
"Thanks... if you can make it so that the emerald is a national treasure and not to be touched, that should be enough. I may not know much, but I know that stealing national treasures is a federal offense and can get tons of prison time," Knuckles smiled.
"And better yet, since you can sense where the emerald is at, you can hunt down the thieves wherever they are," I smiled at him.
"Too right," Knuckles smiled at me.
"So... um... about the fact that grandfather went from a giant lizard to a hedgehog... what is it that you wish to know about that?" Maria asked, me smiling at her.
"Just wanting to know why he went from a creature that can regenerate limbs to a hedgehog," I smiled at her.
"Simple. The Biolizard, AKA, the prototype was too big and too aggressive... and Shadow was designed to be a life-support system for me. So long as we were close to each other on the ARK, I wouldn't feel any pain from the disorder and the symptoms went away... because Gerald infused him with the power of all 7 Chaos Emeralds as well as some DNA from Cosmo, back when she first arrived at Area 49. I never met her myself until the time at the ARK, but her DNA allowed Shadow to have the effect to heal me when close," she said, me smiling at that. At least that meant that Shadow the Hedgehog the game wasn't going to be canon, since that game said the Black Arms race of alien were the ones to give him his powers.
"I see... well, now that Cosmo's free, I wonder what she plans on doing... after all, she looks exactly like a Mobian, so maybe she'd like to live on the planet with us?" I asked... and my response.
"I'd like to live with you, if you don't mind," the voice of Cosmo spoke. I gasped and looked around before then looking at my shadow to see that Cosmo was actually half in it and half out of it!
"Um... how long have you been there?" I asked.
"Since you warped here. I have a lot of tricky powers in my body, after all," she giggled before emerging and floating in front of us with a smile.
"It's nice to meet you formally, Cosmo... and thanks for helping me rescue Shadow... I didn't expect that he'd lose his Super Form after performing that massive Chaos Control," Maria said with a sigh.
"It's my debt repaid to your friend here. It was very lonely in that facility, being the only alien and not having anyone to talk to that understood my loneliness. I wish to be alongside her until the day I die," Cosmo smiled at us.
"So... are you meaning friendship? Or more than that?" I asked.
"For now, friendship. In the future, who knows? After all, I'm a herma, so we can still ha-" she was about to say before I held my hand up.
"Whoa, okay, that's enough. No need to say anymore... just wanted to let you know that I'm in a relationship with Maria right now," I smiled.
"Well... even so, it's not like we can do anything with children... maybe we could allow her to join?" Maria asked, me sighing with a small smile.
"So... polygamy, huh? Fine, if she agrees to it and you want to, I guess that's 2 to 1. Welcome to the girl clique, Cosmo," I smiled at her.
"Thank you, misses Maria and Cheryl," Cosmo smiled at us.
"Yeah, you're welcome," I smiled... halfheartedly. Because, even if she wasn't technically a Mobian, I was still now in an interspecies relationship with Cosmo... and she had both parts for some reason.