Chapter 5: Episode Shadow
Shadow is making his way through north of the headquarters and on his way to Mystic Jungle to shut down Eggman's operation in hopes to stop him and save Silver's future. Filled with confidence, Shadow is sure he'll stop them. But he will not be going easy on anyone who gets in his way. While he is willing to protect the planet for Maria, Shadow sometimes does not share Sonic's act for mercy.
Shadow is dashing towards the jungle, but is nearly shot by a laser and he back flip jumps backwards and slides to his feet. He looks up and he sees Metal Sonic flying down as well as the Jackal Leader jumping down with his squad.
"You! You're that hedgehog who took my brethren and my best commander away from me! It's going to be my turn to return the favor!" The Jackal Leader points his sword at the ultimate life form.
"Hardly even a threat. I've taken down more challenging foes than this." Shadow exclaimed.
Metal Sonic looks at Shadow menacingly in silence.
"You know, Metal Sonic. For many years you have served the doctor. You betrayed him once, and you and I even allied with each other to take down Eggman Nega and the Ifrit. Why try to set your sights on a goal that you can't reach? If I were you, I'd turn away from the doctor and find a new goal in life. Go solo for all I care." Shadow tells Metal Sonic.
Metal Sonic is not just some mindless slave. He can think and he can listen. More importantly, no matter what his programming, there is no reasoning with him. Then Eggman speaks through Metal Sonic.
"I'd figure you would show up, Shadow. You will underestimate me. No matter what you say or do, my favorite robot has a special software that demands battle and conquest. He will be dangerous to all who try to reason with him. Metal Sonic and Jackal Squad. Destroy him!" Eggman ordered.
"Attack, my brothers and sisters!" The Jackal Leader roared.
The Jackal Leader launches at Shadow, but he teleports, causing him to be confused. Shadow comes out of nowhere and kicks him upwards, teleports again, slams both fists onto him, slamming him into the ground and bounces up, allowing Shadow to teleport once more and kick him in the face, sending him into a tree, easily incapacitating him.
Shadow then fires multiple Chaos Spears at three more jackals, stunning them and knocking them down out cold. He then uppercuts one in the chest, sending a jackal far away, slams an eagle kick on one's head, knocking her out and teleports and swing kicks another in the back, defeating him. One tries to stab Shadow with a spear, but Shadow catches the blade with his hands and kicks the weapon in half and knees and punches the jackal across the face, defeating the jackal. Several of them surround Shadow and ready to attack. Shadow grits his teeth in anger and glows red. Metal Sonic sees this and immediately flies back to a safe distance.
"Chaos Blast!" Shadow shouted.
The blast goes in all directions within 20 yards and knocks back every last jackal, gravely injuring them all and knocking them out. Metal Sonic descends back and is ready to face Shadow. Metal lunges at Shadow, who jumps and he dashes towards the Mystic Jungle. Metal Sonic quickly catches up to Shadow. Shadow tries to elbow strike him but Metal dodges and tries to do a claw strike, but Shadow jumps in the air and homing attacks Metal in the back, sending him down. Metal Sonic does not let up as he recovers and kicks Shadow in the chest followed by an elbow strike, sending him down. Shadow gets back up and was ready. He needed to finish this fast so he could complete his objective. Shadow fires a Chaos Spear, which Metal Sonic activates his black shield to deflect it and lowers it again. But Shadow teleports behind Metal Sonic, grabs him and throws him down before teleporting again. Metal recovers as Shadow powers up with chaos energy. Shadow and Metal Sonic boost towards each other.
"Chaos Control!" Shadow said, using his Chaos Emerald.
All of a sudden, time slows down everywhere. Shadow smirks and swing kicks Metal Sonic away, then Shadow boosts forward and rams into the robot, sending him even further back and and does a series of punches and kicks in the air before punching him into a cave. Shadow fires Chaos Spear at the top and seals the entrance as huge rocks bury the only way in and out, trapping Metal Sonic in there. But who knows how long he will stay there.
"Hmph. Too easy." Shadow stated.
Shadow starts dashing his way to Mystic Jungle, determined to complete his mission at all costs. The Jackal Leader wakes up finally and his eyes widened by what he is seeing. His own species, his brethren, brothers and sisters all gravely injured. All covered in bruises and scratches. They may even have some broken bones.
"No. No! My… my squad. My brothers. My sisters. How could he do this to you?! To all of you?!" The Jackal Leader hyperventilates. He tries to shake them awake, but to no avail. He puts two fingertips to one's wrost and senses their pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief that they're alive.
The Jackal Leader gets a call from Eggman.
"What on earth are you doing?! You need to get to that lab ASAP. Shadow is on his way here and I lost contact with Metal Sonic!" Eggman tells him.
"He….. that blasted hedgehog destroyed my squad. He is going to pay for this!" The Jackal Leader reported.
"You can mourn for them later! Get back here now and stop that hedgehog!" Eggman ordered him. He does not sound happy.
The Jackal Leader growls in complete anger, and he closes his fist and holds back tears at the loss of his brethren. He then opens his eyes with hatred and is ready for a rematch against the black hedgehog.
"For my brethren." The Jackal Leader whispered.
The Jackal Leader starts hoping off of stones and pillars and runs, hoping to catch up to Shadow to avenge his fallen members.
Shadow uses his air shoes to dash his way into the entrance of the Mystic Jungle. He jumps and kicks through a brick wall. Apparently Eggman didn't have enough time to set up advanced defense systems. He lands and sets his eyes on many new Eggman robots.
"We got an intruder. Shadow has entered the facility. The Jackal Squad has already been destroyed. All troops stop that hedgehog by any means necessary." Eggman called for all troops.
Shadow was ready. He dashes and homing attacks off of a few Eggman drones before he homing attacks a spring and goes forward and bounces off a few missiles and he grabs one of them, lands behind a robot and throws the missile and destroys the robot. He then homing attacks and zips past several buzzbombers and goes up a level. He bounces off some balloons, lands on long platforms and sidesteps as he dashes towards the facility.
"You really think those will really stop me? Please." Shadow scoffed.
Eggman is watching him with drones and is getting more and more annoyed by his approach.
"Grrr. I went to great pains to get the best mercenaries around and he completely wrecked everyone! SHADOW!" Eggman slammed his fists down on his keyboard, breaking it and causing some circuitry and sparks to come out.
Shadow could not but smirk and overhear the doctor's complaining. He holds the comlink as he listened to his yelling.
"Too easy. Should've hired some defense squads for the defense squad? Ehh, doctor?" Shadow insulted.
As Shadow is running on platforms above the trees, he sees a few robots firing spiked balls at him, but he easily teleports above them and fires a couple of spears at their heads, destroying them. He proceeds to dash his way through many more robots as he starts descending from the platforms before hitting another spring. He sees two paths. One that looks like a half pipe and a loop with a zip line in front. Shadow grabs the zip line and dashes through the loop and dashes from the ramp that comes after to the next session.
"He's getting deeper and deeper in the facility. I'm almost done with my inventions and the computer running the analysis and that data is too important. Will one of you idiots stop that hedgehog already?!" Eggman shouted.
Suddenly more and more robots appear right in front of Shadow, actually surprising him.
Huh. What is this? Looks like Sonic and Silver were not kidding after all." Shadow stated.
One of the robots tries to shoot taser cables from its wrist at Shadow, but he simply jumps over and kicks that robot away. Shadow then blocks a punch and kicks one in the air and it hits a spinning spike ball. Another tries to rapid fire at Shadow, but he teleports behind it and makes it shoot all of the other robots. He jumps off small poles each with two swinging spiked balls in the middle and jumps off a ramp and zooms past few red dash rings and lands in the water as it starts sliding down. He is almost there.
"Still alive?! Well at least I finished analyzing the discovery and made some samples, but NO! I can't let my own work go to waste! Where is that squad leader?!" Eggman annoyingly asked.
Several Motorbugs start making their way towards Shadow. He sees this and spins into a ball and starts doing a spin dash like Sonic. Many of the robots try to ram into him to try to throw him off the wooden halfpipes and into the water, but Shadow was too quick. He jumps on one, destroying it, and another by spindashing into it. More than dozens of Egg0shaped Choppers start dropping bombs onto Shadow, but he spindashes into place and glows bright orange. He dashes off a ramp and within seconds, he zooms past so many of them with a special homing attack ability called the Light Speed Attack. He destroys all of them and lands right in front of the entrance to the lab, but he takes notice on how tough they were.
Before he could proceed, he hears noise and hides behind a pillar. He notices the same Jackal Leader coming in.
Eggman sees this as well and comms him.
"You! You're that leader of the jackal aren't you? Your squad could not take him. Go clean up that mess already!" Eggman ordered before hanging up.
"Yeah, yeah. I got it already." The Jackal leader rolled his eyes. He jumps down and stares at Shadow in anger and hatred. "You! You destroyed my squad! I went easy on you before! But not this time! I'll show you why they call me the ultimate mercenary!"
"You're making a mistake facing me. The Ultimate Life Form. I don't fear you. You on the other hand should be afraid of me. I suggest you back down, or else you'll end up like your so-called squad." Shadow advised him.
This only angers the Jackal Leader even further.
"That's it! Take this!"
The Jackal Leader dives in for a punch, but Shadow jumps back and punches him in the head, elbows him in the chest and kicks him in the chin. The leader flies up before landing on the ground. He is a bit dazed before he shrugs it off and charges in for a kick, but Shadow parries it away and boosts into him, sending the Jackal Leader sliding down into the ground and almost off the edge. The leader is even more angry and yells in anger. Shadow sees this and holds up his Chaos Emerald.
"Chaos Control!"
Time freezes again and Shadow gets behind him and roundhouse kicks him in the head, sending the Jackal Leader down again and into a wall. The Jackal Leader is having a hard time standing back up and pushing with all the strength he has left.
"You! Why you little freak!" The Jackal Leader said. He finally stood up.
"I'm warning you. Don't bother trying to fight me. I can control time and space. Impossible to break free." Shadow warned.
"I am not backing down. I will avenge them all. I can't lose. Not when I'm so close! I must please the doctor!"
"Do you ever shut up?"
"I will be the one to SHUT YOU UP!"
The Jackal Leader draws his red sword and yells, ready to land a killing blow. Shadow's hand glows light green and brings up a Chaos Spear. The Jackal Leader leaps into the air, ready to kill him. Shadow takes a step back and throws his chaos spear and a bright light appears. When the light clears. The Jackal Leader lands on the ground, his sword shattered into pieces and he is yelling in pain, holding his right eye. His right eye is burning as Shadow can see a near diagonal strike that went past his eyelid. The attack must have been powerful enough to cause his right eye to be blind for life.
The Jackal Leader can only see with his left eye for the rest of his life as he stares at the black hedgehog. Shadow remains unfazed.
"Pathetic." Shadow insulted. "Be thankful that you live. Don't ever show your face around me again.
Shadow teleports away to complete his objective. The Jackal Leader's vision is blurry, and it's worse now he lost an eye. The next thing he could see is Metal Sonic flying towards him. Metal Sonic lands on the ground and walks towards the injured jackal. He raises his hand in the air, ready to put him out of his misery.
"No." Eggman stops him. "I want him alive. He may still be useful. I have a brilliant thing in mind. But first, we must save his life. Bring him to me pronto.
Metal Sonic silently nods. His scans the leader's vital signs and sees that he has taken critical damage and he may be dying. Several broken bones, bruises and scratches all over. He picks up the Jackal Leader and flies off. The Jackal Leader stays awake for a little longer, mumbling under his breath. He finds himself shaking. Not out of fear. But out of anger. He finds the strength to close his fists in pure hatred.
"Sha….. Shadow. I…. am… not….. pathetic. I'll show you. I will show you one day. You'll get a taste of your own medicine. You and Sonic both." The Jackal Leader quietly swore.
Note: This part is based off part of the Episode Shadow DLC of the game. Metal Sonic is involved and the Jackal Leader does not shout his infamous "I AM NOT WEAK" line. In the game, he becomes Infinite all because he was humiliated by Shadow after getting beat up within three hits. That's it. I changed it up. Here, he puts up more of a fight, but still loses. He actually loses an eye in this and you'll see how he will become Infinite in the next chapter.