Chapter 2 The Mysterious Troubled Youth
The mysterious warrior clad in black Gi hovered over the heroes and Eggman them staring at him with mixtures of confusion, shock and anger. Meanwhile the remaining citizens of Spagonia fled to elsewhere. "Awww, you lot might just be the cutest mortals I've come across so far. Tell you what, just stand still right there and I'll make your end nice and swift!" The madman declared for a moment only carrying only playful aggression before immediately revealing it to be deadly extending his hand out and black colored energy started concentrating within his palm. Sonic's face hardens into one of seriousness. The blue blur takes up a starting position and then zooms forwards past his friends towards some wrecked buildings below where the man was floating. "Huh?!" The maniac exclaimed flabbergasted by the hedgehog's tremendous speed. This left him inattentive as Sonic reached one of the tall buildings, jumped up onto a broken wall then zigzagged his way upwards with the stairs and windows of the building finally reaching a flagpole at the very top of it, spinning on it for a seconds before letting go launching himself at supersonic speeds right at the man. With that, Sonic delivered a hard kick to the man's side disrupting his energy attack and sending him flying. "Ahhhhh! Grrrr!" The lunatic screamed and then growled enraged after flying away by a few feet and stopping himself still in the air. "Sorry but standing still ain't never been one of my strong points especially when my friends are in danger" Sonic fake apologized in a stern manner after landing on top of another building. Back with the others all of Sonic's team was staring at their friend and the mass murderer's standoff. This distraction allowed for Dr Eggman to skit and slither away from his captors over to his barely functioning Eggmoblie all while having his eyes on the confrontation too. "How dare you hurt me! Prepare to face the wrath of the gods!" The man screams in a fury launching himself towards the hedgehog readying a powerful punch. He reached Sonic and brought down his fist and it hit the spot but the blue blur was gone. "Wha?! How did he...?" The man questioned bewildered by Sonic's evasion of his direct attack. He looked around in a crazed frenzy in all directions not seeing his prey anywhere until said prey made itself known racing over his shoulders and skitting to a halt a smirk plastered on his face scratching under his nose. "Hey get back here!" The lunatic yelled indignantly repeating his previous attack and just like before it failed miserably with the only difference being Sonic's pose, still smirking but now had his body curved to appear rounder with both his hands pointing at the man parallel to each other. The fight went on like this for a few seconds though to the murder it definitely felt like an eternity as he kept trying to punch, kick or grab the speedster and each time it zipping away unscathed striking a different pose each time including a chill relaxed one, standing with one leg bending to his back slightly and waving his finger and him standing with his hands on the ground and his feet up into the air. "You're too slow!" The cocky hedgehog mocked his attacker chuckling to himself. "Hey! Quit it! You're not supposed to be faster than me! It's not fair! It's not fair!" the manchild pouted and whined disturbingly yet kinda hilariously like a little kid even stomping his feet and flaying his arms around. Sonic as well as his onlooking allies were completely befuddled and taken aback by their enemies childish temper tantrum, most of them being made very uncomfortable by it. Sonic himself on the other found it rather funny. "Ha hahaha! Awww is the big boy throwing a hissy fit! Ha ha ha!" Sonic insulted the manchild laughing his quills off. The delinquent man gritted his teeth snarling and growling at the hedgehog's insults his body becoming enveloped in an aura of black energy. His anger seemed to trigger a minor bodily metamorphosis as his eyes changed color from opsisdian black to a ghostly grey, his already spiky messy hair becoming even more so and most strikingly two fangs grew into his mouth. "Uhhh...ok that's different..." Sonic mused nervously upon witnessing the manchild's change. "This is divine justice! Now die!" The madman screamed in a deep roar as some of his black ki concentrated into one of his hands,began glowing a dark purple and took on a blade like shape. "Ahhhh!" The man yelled lunging himself at the blue hedgehog swinging his energy blade at it, and this time his attack graced his prey's arm. "Gah! Woah!" Sonic exclaimed in slight pain and then panic as the blade despite his speed managed to scratch his arm and then just barely avoided another swing aimed at his head. "Sonic!" Tails, Knuckles and Amy shouted in unison in both shock and concern that the mysterious menace's assault was actually making contact. Shadow stood silent but clearly awestruck as well all while a very frightened Cream and Cheese hid behind him. The lunatic kept swinging and slashing at Sonic, the latter just about dodging the first couple but as the former put in more and more power and ferocity into his attacks more and more of them were making contact and dealing increasing amounts of damage. "Ah! Oof! Ow! Dah!" Sonic cried out in agony with each blow, his body becoming criss crossed with many cuts slicing his skin open and bleeding profusely. The fastest thing alive had been outpaced. Finally the man ceased his assault and smiled evily at his work. "Ha ha ha ha! That's what you insects get for your blasphemy! All mortals who face me are fated to perish!" The madman stated matter of factly in an aggressive manner. Sonic wanted to counter strike but his entire being hurt too much for him to think of one let alone actually attempt one. Laughing manically the lunatic raised his energy blade over his head preparing a finishing strike. Just as he started bringing his blade of death downwards he suddenly felt his body freeze in place and it was also enveloped in a green energy sphere. "Wha?! What's going-!" The murder's inquiry was interrupted when Shadow appeared right in front of him. "Chaos Control!" The black and red hedgehog called out delivering a roundhouse kick to the man's face sending him plummeting to the ground below creating a small crater and a dust plume. "You alright?" Shadow asked mostly monotone but with a hint of concern in his voice as he landed next to his companion. "Yeah ow man that guy got a second wind or something, I owe ya one Shadow" Sonic thanked his ally. "You owe me several but who's counting?" Shadow retorted with his commonly dry sense of humor. Meanwhile the mysterious man was rising from the debris shooting glares at the two hedgehog rivals above. He was just starting to conjure up another energy attack when a hammer came down upon his head disorienting him. "That was for hurting Sonic! And this is for killing all those people!" Amy said furiously having struck the killer with her infamous giant hammer and did so again even harder. "You damn bitch!" The killer replied angrily with his face in the dirt. Knuckles then glided onto the scene roughly landing on the man's back and locking his arms into a full nelson. "Damn yourself you monster! Tails now!"Knuckles shouted urgently to his fox friend. The genius fox exited out of his cyclone and took out his Miles Electric, turned some kind of knob and then fired a ball of electrical yellow energy. Once it made contact with the murderer's hands it instantly morphed into a handcuff like shape around his hands effectively trapping them. "Wha?! You little- hey! Why can't I get out of these!?" The lunatic shrieked in disbelief at his entrapment. "Good luck trying to get out of those! I recently upgraded my Miles Electric! You aren't hurting anyone anymore!" Tails declared proudly blowing away the little bit of smoke coming from his tech with a triumphant grin on his face. Sonic with some help from Shadow grind railed their way down from the building they were on to the group on the ground. "Mister Sonic are you ok?" Cream asked worryingly running up to the blue hedgehog. "Don't worry Cream, I'm still breathing" Sonic reassured Cream, rubbing her head gently which put a relieved smile on her face. Sonic limped closer to the captured villain who was jumping and yanking around trying to get his hands free letting out growls and grunts. "Start talking! Why did you blow up half the city! Who are you!" Knuckles interrogated the deadly stranger standing a couple feet away. "Nghhh! No fair! You cheated! I'm supposed to win! Let me out of this thing!" The manchild whined pitifully still unable to free himself. This second occurrence of rather juvenile behavior from their new foe got most of the heroes to look at each other perplexed and weirdly worried about their new enemy. "Ummm guys...this probably sounds crazy but I don't think this guy is truly evil" Tails hesitantly proposed to his teammates. "Yeah I'm with you there buddy, he kinda sounds like just a big kid" Sonic agreed with his yellow fox best friend. "Should...should we maybe talk to him a little more gently...maybe he'll tell us why he's doing this" Amy proposed pondering at the possibility of playing good cop to get some info. "Hmm I don't know about that Amy, this guy seemed pretty lost in the head" Knuckles pointed out expressing his skepticism. "It doesn't matter if he has the mentality of an adult or a child! He's too dangerous to be kept alive! We have to finish this now!" Shadow argued back determined to fulfill his promise to Maria and keep humanity safe and killing the troubled youth was the best and quickest way of accomplishing that goal to him. "But...what if he's not a bad person? Maybe he used to be a really nice person and he's just be tricked or forced to be bad and maybe we just need to help him to stop him from doing more bad things?" Cream cutely countered Shadow's ultimatum. Shadow looked back and fourth between Cream and the lunatic uncertain, he still believed the man was too dangerous but at the same time he didn't want to upset the little rabbit. She reminded him of Maria and the last thing he wanted was for her to be mad at him so against his better instincts he folded his arms and closed his eyes, wordlessly accepting Tail's gentle probing strategy. By this point the madman had started to tire from his attempts to break himself free, turning his head away from the group's view as he continued heavy breathing and growling. The crew tiptoed a little closer to their captive Tails specifically getting to just beside him. "Be careful bro" The blue blur warned his friend. Tails nodded at Sonic's worry and cleared his throat. "Why do you wanna destroy us? Did someone tell you that we were bad?" Tails calmly asked in a worried tone as to convey his intentions of helping. The man however did not seem to respond to the genius fox, as he still faced away from the crew still groaning and growling though the growling had noticeably become more prominent. "If it's because someone's forcing you too please tell us who it is and will free you from him or her, you can trust us" Tails encouraged tenderly reaching out his hand to touch the man's back. Suddenly the madman flipped over to look at Tails and the others with murderous rage making Tails retract his hand and back one foot away in fright. Shadow scowled at this and pulled a hand to his back ready to pounce with a counterattack should the mysterious youth try anything. "I don't need to tell you mortals anything! You rodents won't stop me or my master from exterminating all of you and ushering in a new era of justice and peace in the cosmos!" The lunatic declared defiantly. "Master? Who is your master?" Amy questioned. The killer just glared daggers at her his growls becoming deeper and more intense making the pink hedgehog sweat beads from fear. "Why does he think the two of you are gods or that killing all of us is justice cause that's a pretty sick idea of justice" Knuckles asked a bit more aggressively getting really ticked off at the attacker's lack of cooperation and his previous atrocities. "It's all worth it to me...to get my revenge..." the man answered quietly with a hiss to his voice. This piece of information caught the Sonic heroes's interest, they finally had a concrete lead. "Revenge? For what? Who?" Sonic questioned somewhat fast, eager to keep digging the metaphorical well of info. "Goku..." the man revealed with venomous intensity. "And what exactly did this "Goku" do for you to warrant all this destruction?" Knuckles pestered the man further. "He...he's responsible...my home...my family...they're all g-gahhh!" The madman seething with anger tried to explain but then abruptly something seemed to snap inside of him and he let out a pained shriek shocking the heroes. "What is it?! What's wrong?!" Tails and Amy questioned frantically seconds apart from each other them and the rest seeing the manchild in pain. "No! No! Stop it! Stay in control! Ahhhh!" The man continued writhing in agony seemingly from some force surging within him. He grew two additional fangs on the bottom row of his teeth, his skin went from a tan color to a sickly gray and when he opened his eyes they had changed yet again, now appearing like soulless black canvases with white glowing centers in the middle. His screams also became more echoing and creepier, sounding as if there was another voice talking through the same mouth. All of Möbius's legendary heroes were shocked and disturbed by this strange unsettling change. They've all seen freaky things before but this was on several different levels. Once the metamorphosis was complete the now demonic looking man let out animalistic shrieks that pierced the ears of everyone around. He resumed his struggle with the energy handcuffs and this time they bend and sparkled under strain and after a minute of violent yanks, pulls and purple energy gathering around his hands he freed himself the handcuffs disintegrating into nothingness. Sonic and his friends rapidly got back into battle stances, Tails raising his Miles Electric and Amy her hammer nervously prepare themselves. After darting around aimlessly for a few seconds like a clueless animal the demon locked eyes with the heroes and a wide vicious grin appears on his face. Staring each other down the two opposing forces wait or one or the other to make a move. "Kai Kai!" The madman exclaimed and then his entire being vanished before the heroes's eyes. "Where did he go?" Cream asks fearfully Cheese floating closer to her both increasingly apprehensive. "Was that chaos control?!" Knuckles asked exasperated as the madman's disappearing act looked like chaos control but the man said different words so no one was sure. "He he beeehiiind youuuu..." the man's voice was heard, behind Cream and Cheese him looking down at the pair who stiffen in terror. Shadow and the others except Cream and Cheese turned around upon hearing the voice. The killer readies a hand cupping his fingers together and pulls his hand back intending to cut the little rabbit's head off. Shadow seeing this jumps forward and pushes Cream and Cheese just out of harm's way right as the maniac swung. Instead of being annoyed by this, the man guy goes full on insane laughing like a demon. Amy angered by Cream and Shadow near death, she raised her hammer and charged at the laughing lunatic. "You'll pay for that! Ahhh!" She cried out in a fury putting all her might into one mighty strike. It hit her target, the crazed psycho's head, and it didn't faze him, to her and the remaining conscious heroes's disbelief the murderer just stared back at her and laughed all while the hammer cracked and shattered into pieces like it had hit the Master Emerald itself. "No way!" Amy cried out in futile denial. "Yes way!" The man retorted appearing right in front of the pink hedgehog and delivering an uppercut punch to her jaw sending her rocketing upwards crashing into one of the many wreaked buildings surrounding them. "Amy no!" Sonic yelled out to his girlfriend hoping she was alright. Tails and Knuckles rushed in on opposite sides attempting to intersect and double team against their monstrous opponent. This proved to be a failure as Knuckles reached the monster first but said monster with lightning fast reflexes caught both of his feet and then used his body to knock Tails with the echidna's head to the ground. Too dazed to resist Knuckles was tossed and turned around viciously as the man's toy that he used to bash Tails around like a golf ball, finally ending with Knuckles being thrown right at Tails sending the two crashing through three buildings and creating a small trench where their bodies crashed through. "Bad idea buster!" Sonic furiously yelled out showing a rare amount of anger. The fastest thing alive tried to go up to Mach Speed but his injuries from the battle's start made his legs hurt too much to reach anywhere close to that speed. The monstrous manchild saw this and with evil glee forged another energy blade. When the blue hedgehog was only halfway towards him he teleported again and reappeared right in front of him causing Sonic to bump into him like a brick wall. Before Sonic could fall completely to the floor the maniac with incredible speed and precision sliced and diced his blade through the hedgehog yet again. The streaks of black energy crisscrossing and going through his body and when the lunatic at last stopped the energy streaks combusted into a powerful explosion leaving the blue blur battered, bruised and broken unconscious. Within less than a minute the four veteran fighters were down for the count and the crazed man stood hovered in the middle of it all laughing with sadistic satisfaction and pleasure like a devil from Hell. Only three beings remained in the devastated city, Shadow, Cream and Cheese. The trio looked on in horror and in the case of the ultimate life form rage at the sight of their fallen comrades. Cream and Cheese looked with teary eyes at their once unlikely ally. "What are we gonna do Shadow?" Cream meekly asked Shadow feeling hopeless. The ultimate life form looked down at his hands and glanced at the inhibitor rings on his wrist and knew what he had to do. "I have one last shot of defeating him, go" Shadow told the adorable rabbit without even looking at her which stunned her. "But... I" Cream tried to argue against abandoning Shadow but she was cut off by Shadow. "Go! Right now!" Shadow screamed at the top of his lungs at Cream and Cheese. The black hedgehog's outburst borderline terrified Cream but in spite of its harsh tone, she could tell it was his way of telling her to get out of harm's way and that it was the only chance they had of besting their foe from the stars. Nodding in sad understanding Cream grabbed Cheese and took flight flying faster than she ever had before just out of sight. The madman having overheard Shadow's scream too saw her take off and laughed dismissively at her retreat. "I guess some of you still don't get that I'm inescapable! No matter you'll learn that soon enough! Ha ha ha!" The man laughed cruelly as he started charging a black beam of ki aimed in the direction Cream had flown away to. Shadow took a deep breath and slid his inhibitor rings off his wrists letting them fall unceremoniously to the ground. Immediately after this, Shadow's expression became angry and concentrated a sudden fiery aura of red energy burst from his body and his pupils whited out. "Huh?!" The lunatic exclaimed in surprise at this development. Shadow's aura rapidly became bigger, more erratic and intense red lightning starting to spark around him. Still building up power Shadow shouted out "Chaos!" Then he all with his aura disappeared for a second before reappearing in front of the manchild, grabbing him his throat then shouting "Blast!". The whole area erupted in a massive red explosion that pretty much vaporized the remaining half of the thankfully now mostly empty city. The ultimate lifeform had performed his ultimate attack. When the energy dissipated, all that was left was a charred landscape, some equally burned building remains and the unconscious bodies of the sonic heroes and the mysterious youth who had finally been neutralized. In the epicenter of the blast zone Shadow stood weakly his energy reserves nearly depleted but still alive. With some difficulty due to his aching body Shadow reattached his inhibitor rings and then stared back at the vanquished villain. "Alright then...now maybe we'll get some real info on you" Shadow said resolutely. "You mean I'll get some real info!" Eggman's voice abruptly bellowed out in the air. Shadow looked up just in time to see Eggman in his eggmobile fly right over him and activate a man sized robotic arm that grabbed the mysterious youth. "Sage I'm returning to base with a very promising specimen! Prepare one of the labs!" Eggman ordered excitedly to his computer program surrogate daughter Sage. "Well done father, I'll have it ready for you shortly" Sage replied affirmatively on the other end of the communication. Eggman shut off the radio carrying the lunatic off to undoubtedly one of his many secret labatories. "Damn it..." Shadow cursed underneath his breath. Under normal circumstances he'd head off Eggman before he even got his prize but he was too weak and injured to do much of anything partially collapsing to his knees. Meanwhile deep inside Knuckles's subconscious, he found himself floating in a black void confused and unable to find a way out. "Hello? Anyone here?" Knuckles's subconscious self called out into the seemingly endless space of blackness. Suddenly there was a bright white light blinding the red echidna. When it dimmed enough to not burn his eyes he saw a familiar figure, Tikal. "Tikal?" Knuckles gasped in surprise and shock at the return of one of his ancestors, he hadn't seen her since the fight with Perfect Chaos in Station Square. She was staring at him with a blank stare for what felt like five minutes before she spoke. "The enemy you face now is not of this dimension and it is also not without reason. It is a monster but one whom you share a connection with and is the work of two devils. One such devil is a master of deception and will appear to you soon, do not fall for his lies or disaster will strike the world and more" she said in a mostly deadpan way but it carried a hint or worry and sadness. "Connection? What connection could I possibly share with that freak? Who even is he? And who is the deceiver" Knuckle's inquired bewildered as to how the crazed psycho and himself connected in any possible way, his identity and who or what would deceive them in the near future. As per usual her premonitions, this one didn't fill in all the details and Tikal faded away and momentarily later Knuckles weakly opened his eyes to find himself being carried by his rival and jewelry thief Rouge The Bat. Great, now in addition to being confused he was in her company now, oh how he wished he stayed home today.
Unfortunately for the guardian of Angel Island, things were only just getting started.