Chapter 43: Shadow's Return
"Tangle's log,
Heyo! Me again! It's… well it's been a bit! I think we went to… two separate planets since the last time I wrote in here? So yeah! Let's get you up to speed, eh Mr. Journal?
First off, was Planet Breezy. Once we got the Radar working, we used this warp… thingy that Tails put into the ship to basically TELEPORT THERE!
HOW DOES HE DO THESE THINGS?! HE'S NINE!
Anyways, we warped to a Planet we THOUGHT was where a Chaos Emerald would be. Of course, the Metarex were already there, and stole the Planet Egg. Not only that, they had the Emerald.
Luckily, I was given the opportunity to show off a new move I've been working on!"
"Here they come!" Sonic shouted, pointing at a group of Metarex approaching the Tornado.
He quickly leapt into action, spin attacking a group of them, with Knuckles jumping up and punching them.
Chris also got in on the action, shooting a bunch of them out of the sky.
And Tangle… was stretching.
"Ok… here we go!" She said before jumping up.
She then began spinning forwards rapidly, her tail sticking out and spinning with her.
She hit the first Metarex with her tail, causing her to launch herself upwards.
She then began pin balling around the group, tilting her body to adjust where she would be launched when she hit an enemy.
Sonic noticed this, and was amazed.
When the group landed back on the Tornado however, he quickly noticed that she was very dizzy.
"Whoo! Ok! Note to self: get used to spinning like that!" Tangle said in a daze, before falling on her back.
Sonic laughed at this, and helped her back to her feet.
"Was that a spin attack?" He asked.
"Kinda!" She said excitingly. "While training, I noticed that I could use my tail to launch myself if I hit something hard enough, so, I asked Tails for some advice on how to do a spin attack, but with my tail! I guess you could say I put my own spin on it!"
Knuckles groaned at the pun.
"So, I call it the Tail Spin!" Tangle said. "I'm also working on a more on land one, you know, for big crowds… and by working on it, I mean I want to do it, but don't know how…"
Sonic gave her a thumbs up.
"Sounds sweet! Looking forward to it!"
"If you told me a couple of years ago I'd be adapting Sonic's move to make it my own, and that he'd find it cool, I wouldn't believe you… but here we are!
Anyways, it was a bit of trouble (mainly because the Metarex was made of some REALLY solid ice) but we did retrieve the Planet Egg and saved the planet! The plants started growing back by the time we left!
… And then Rouge stole the Chaos Emerald… HOW DID SHE EVEN GET IN SPACE?! Are spaceships just common now?! Or did she hitch a ride with Eggman? Cause she sure ain't on OUR ship! I wanted to hang with her dang it!
Well jokes on her! THAT EMERALD WAS A FAKE! HAHA! I mean, I guess it's probably bad that the Metarex are making fake Chaos Emeralds, but we can deal with it!
But enough about that! TAILS AND CHRIS MADE SONIC A HOVERBOARD! IT LOOKS LIKE AN EXTREME GEAR! I! WANT! ONE! AND GET THIS! TAILS SAID HE'D MAKE ME ONE FOR MY BIRTHDAY WHEN WE GET HOME! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!
… Ok, let me compose myself… HOO!
Next up was some jungle planet, long story short: Sonic got sent down to the planet cause some retrieval system for the giant cannon we fire him out of is not working yet, so we went down to find him.
Jewel and I stuck with the other girls, meaning Amy, Cream and Cosmo, and we got caught up in some hijinks, before trashing the monkey Metarex, saving the Planet Egg and finding a Chaos Emerald in the process! Oh! And Eggman was there!
Cosmo also seems to have some kinda… Vine Power or something. When she grabbed the Planet Egg, she summoned a bunch of vines that kinda got us all tied up. She can't control it, like, at all… but something is there. So that's cool!
I've been trying to get her to practice it with a potted plant we have (don't know why Amy brought a potted plant, so don't ask) but she can't get it going… Tikal thinks she needs practice controlling her energy or something, but she doesn't seem too willing to do that… I think what happened on that planet kinda spooked her so… yeah.
Finally… ugh… the dumb detectives swung by…
You know, the guys that thought Sonic kidnapped Cream back in Chris' world? Yeah, those creeps got a space ship… We thought they were Metarex at first, so I clobbered them. So that's cool!
Turns out they were here to bring a bunch of stuff that was sent over from Chris' world. Guess his family realized he might need some stuff now that he's here or something. Kinda missing the gang from his world right now to be honest…
Kinda… makes me think about Shadow too for some reason too… would he have stayed there or come home with us if he was still alive? I guess he was created there… but then again, Eggman was apparently also born there…
If he stayed, it probably would of been because it was the Planet Maria wanted him to protect.
I dunno, really makes you think.
Anyways what's left… oh yeah, the Chaotix tried to kidnap Cream… Yup… REALLY wanted to clobber them again for that, but Sonic worked it all out, so I GUESS it's cool.
Now I am just chilling in the Engine room, hanging with Knuckles… and I am bored… Later..."
Tangle put her notebook in her backpack and began swaying her foot around.
"I am so… so bored, bored straight out of my brain…" Tangle started singing. "If I don't… die first, betcha I'll go insane! Cause I've got nothing else to do… I'm stuuuuck here wasting time… but just wait, oh Chaos Emeralds… I'll be back on the road… and make you mine…"
Her song was interrupted by the sound of laughter.
Looking over, she saw Sonic standing there.
"Hey there, nice song!" Sonic said. "Kinda funny too!"
Tangle laughed at that.
"Just something I made up on the spot." Tangle said.
Sonic laughed as well.
"Yeah well, we detected another Chaos Emerald, so I guess it's back on the road with us!" Sonic said.
"FINALLY!" Tangle shouted, jumping off the couch she was laying on.
The bag she had on her stomach fell to the floor, and the contents spilled out.
"Ah shoot!" Tangle said, frantically putting her things back in her bag.
Sonic noticed something… a familiar looking bracelet.
"Hey, is that Shadow's?" Sonic asked.
Tangle looked over and smiled fondly.
"Yeah… I keep it with me as a good luck charm." She explained. "Feels like he's watching over me with it around, you know?"
Sonic laughed at that.
"He'd find that annoying." Sonic said.
Tangle laughed back.
"True!"
The two shared a laugh at that.
"Anyways, we better get going." Tangle said, grabbing the bracelet and reaching to put it in her bag… but for some reason, she wanted to keep it close today, so she decided to wear it.
"A little big… but eh, it'll be fine." She said before leaving.
And with that, they were gone…
"Thank goodness… her singing was annoying me…" Knuckles grumbled out.
"Ok, so the three of us are going to check out that wreckage, while you guys find the Emerald?" Tangle asked, standing by Chris and Cosmo.
"Yup, see you later!" Sonic said before him, Amy and Knuckles began walking towards the large building in the middle of a lake.
Tangle took a look around while the three of them were walking to the wreckage, and sighed.
They were pretty quick to figure out that the Planet Egg was already taken from this planet… and everything was already dead as a result.
"We'll get it back… we have to…" Tangle said to herself.
She really didn't like seeing so much death around her… it was flat out terrifying to think about… especially since if they were unsuccessful, this is what their own home would turn into as well…
Regardless they marched on, going into the mechanical wreckage ahead.
When they got inside, they noticed how dark it was.
"Good thing we brought flashlights." Chris said, pulling out his.
The two girls nodded, and pulled out their own before they began walking around.
"From the looks of things… I think this place might be the remains of some kinda space colony…" Chris analyzed.
"Like the Ark?" Tangle asked.
Chris nodded at this.
"Hopefully it didn't have a planet destroying laser on it then…" Tangle said with a groan. "Then again, if it did it probably wouldn't of gotten so wrecked…"
Cosmo just looked at them confused.
"Uh…"
Tangle smiled.
"I'll tell you the story while we look around." Tangle said.
"Make sure you keep an eye out for any kind of records for the colony." Chris said. "Maybe we can find out what happened here."
Tangle gave him a thumbs up, and the two began walking.
However, before Tangle could start retelling the story of how they met Shadow, Cosmo tripped on some scrap, dropping her flashlight down to a lower level.
"Oh shoot… I got it!" Cosmo said before jumping the railing and floating down slowly.
"… Geez, that must be nice to be able to do…" Tangle said, watching Cosmo spin as she landed safely on the ground level.
Cosmo grabbed her flashlight, but in the process turned on some kind of projector.
"Huh?" Tangle asked. "Hey Chris, think that might be the records for this place?"
Chris took a look and nodded.
"Yeah, a good of a bet as any." Chris said. "Lower me down?"
Tangle nodded, before wrapping her tail around him and lowering him down to Cosmo slowly.
"Geez, I didn't say anything on Hydo, but MAN did you put on weight!" Tangle said.
Chris laughed at that.
"Well, I did pretty much double in size the past six years!" He said as he reached the ground.
Tangle smirked.
"Still don't believe you on that!" Tangle said. "Like seriously, it's been six months dude!"
"Inter-dimensional travel is tricky! I don't even know how to explain it!" Chris said. "So basically: believe what you wanna believe!"
Tangle smiled.
"That is good enough for me!" She said as she lowered herself down with her tail.
When she was about to reach the bottom though, the railing she wrapped her tail around broke off, falling and hitting her on the head…
She didn't even flinch.
Cosmo and Chris stared at her for a moment.
"Uh… ok?" Cosmo said.
"Hard head." Chris said. "She had a building fall on her once and turned out alright."
Cosmo's eyes went wide at this, and turned to Tangle.
"Wow! That's amazing!"
Tangle looked away bashfully.
"Oh, it wasn't that big of a deal… could of done without the broken leg… especially after… you know, let's end that train of thought!" Tangle said. "Chris! Get that thingy working!"
Cosmo found Tangle's behavior odd… but respected her wish to not talk about whatever that was anymore.
Chris however was worried… he still remembered how Tangle used to blame herself for Shadow's death, but he thought she was over it…
Reality was, while the guilt from not being able to help that day was gone, Tangle still was sad about Shadow's fate… and mostly just wished she could have done more.
She wasn't going to dwell on it… especially now that Chris loaded up a video from the Colony, showing what LOOKED like a Mobian, but certainly wasn't…
The person they saw went into detail on what happened to the planet, about how the Metarex came and destroyed everything, before taking the Planet Egg.
They had hoped the Space Colony would allow them to come back one day, and have the planet revived… but it was destroyed by the Metarex too.
Cosmo watched this with great sorrow…
"They… are extinct now…" Cosmo said sadly.
"Yeah…" Chris said.
Tangle was sad as well, but decided to try and bring up the spirits.
"Hey! Just another reason to go and kick their butts!" She said cheerfully. "Come on! Let's meet up with Sonic! I bet he found that Emerald already!"
Cosmo nodded, determination filling her eyes.
As they exited, Tangle and Chris looked back at the Colony.
"… So what was this about an Ark?" Cosmo asked.
"Oh man… well… I guess you could say it was where Shadow was born…" Tangle explained.
That confused Cosmo even more.
"Shadow?"
Tangle nodded.
"A hedgehog like Sonic, he was created to be the ultimate life form… and to cure a little girl's illness." Tangle explained. "He… died trying to prevent the Space Colony Ark from crashing into Chris' world…"
Chris smiled at the memory.
"I wonder… what he'd think about all of this… the fight against the Metarex." Chris said.
"Dunno…" Tangle said.
Shadow could want to destroy them… she wanted to believe that… but at the same time, maybe not… Shadow was just like that, you could never get a read on what he really wanted.
At that moment though, Chris was getting a call on his communicator.
"Bad news! I lost contact with Sonic and the others!" Tails said when Chris answered.
"WHAT?!" Tangle shouted.
Cosmo took a look at the building the others went into, and began pointing.
"LOOK!"
When Tangle and Chris looked over, they were shocked to see that the building looked like it was fading out of existence.
"… I uh… think that might be bad…" Tangle said.
"YA THINK?!" Chris and Tails shouted.
Tangle put her hands up defensively.
"Ok! Sorry! Back to the typhoon to get a tornado and save their butts! GO!" Tangle said before running towards the typhoon, Chris and Cosmo following close behind.
Things were not going well, not at all.
Sonic and the others were thankfully able to break out of the… whatever it was that they were stuck in, however the Metarex was one step ahead of them.
Turns out, they were using a Chaos Emerald as bait, planning on luring Sonic and gang in for a trap.
Sonic and Knuckles had just broken through a steel wall looking thing using a (what Tangle thought was incredibly cool) combo attack.
"SONIC!" She shouted from the wing of the Hyper-Tornado, which Chris was piloting.
"Yeah?!" Sonic shouted back.
"WE! NEED! A! COMBO! ATTACK!" Tangle shouted. "LIKE… RIGHT NOW!"
Sonic gave her a thumbs up, signifying that they'd work on it.
At that moment, a bunch of lasers shot at the metal wall, causing it to be destroyed.
"DANG that ship has some firepower!" Tangle shouted.
And then, the most bizarre thing yet happened…
A giant set of floating teeth appeared.
"WAH!" Tangle screamed, falling over in surprise. "WHAT THE HECK?!"
"Did you really think that would work? Like… really?" The Metarex asked. "That was pathetic!"
Suddenly, a rain of energy spears began falling down, with everyone scrambling to avoid them.
Tangle did her best to deflect as many of them as possible by spinning her tail in the air, and thankfully between that and Chris' piloting skills, they managed to avoid taking any severe damage.
"Yo! Any ideas kiddo?!" Tangle asked, turning towards the Typhoon.
"Hold on! Working on it!" Tails responded.
After a moment, Tails had it all figured out.
"Ok, we need to destroy his core! The Chaos Emerald is there too!" Tails explained.
"GREAT!… WHERE IS IT?!" Tangle asked.
Everyone just pointed up.
Looking up, she saw what was a very core looking object, barely visible in the clouds.
Putting her hand up to her chin in a fist shape, she nodded.
"Yeah, that looks like what we're looking for alright."
"Alright, time to test out the Ring Road!" Chris announced, before shooting a pair of shoes towards Sonic.
This confused Tangle.
"… Ring what now?"
Suddenly from underneath the Hyper Tornado, a giant road made of rings were shot out, heading straight towards the core.
"WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Tangle shouted, her eyes literally turning into stars.
Sonic then went into the Ring Road, and shot towards the core…
Tangle was freaking out about it the whole time.
"… She's really excitable, isn't she?" Cosmo asked Jewel.
"You have no idea…" Jewel said with a slight chuckle.
Suddenly, lightning shot out from the core, knocking Sonic out and sending him flying towards the ground.
"SONIC!" Chris shouted, before flying over to try and catch him.
However, a rain of spears came down, and destroyed one of the wings.
"AH SHOOT!" Tangle shouted.
She was so focused on Sonic, she forgot to protect the plane.
The plane began to spin out, falling to the ground and launching Tangle off of it.
"WAAAAAAH!" Tangle screamed as she began falling.
Suddenly, the bracelet on her wrist fell off… and began glowing.
"What the…?" Tangle said, suddenly forgetting the fact that she was falling.
"CHRIS! TANGLE!" Sonic shouted…
And suddenly, a streak of light shot past him, right towards Tangle.
"AH!" Tangle shouted, before shielding her eyes.
She then felt something grab her, before she began moving at incredible speed.
Suddenly, there was a massive explosion, and when Tangle opened her eyes, she was on a roof along side Chris.
"What the…?" Tangle asked herself. "Chris? You good?!"
Chris didn't respond though, and simply looked up.
Tangle followed his gaze, and couldn't believe what she saw.
"… No… way…"
Shadow.
Standing at the top of the building, and with two Chaos Emeralds floating around him… Shadow was here.
Shadow was ALIVE!
"SHADOOOOOOOOW!" Tangle shouted before using her tail to spring herself up towards Shadow, eager to give him a hug…
He barely acknowledged her presence, briefly glancing at her before saying…
"Chaos Control."
And just like that, he was gone, with Tangle hugging the nothing that remained and tumbling down the other side of the roof.
"RUDE!"
However, that was just like Shadow, and she knew that.
She got up and stared at where the hedgehog once stood.
Then, she smiled.
"Good to have you back… Shadow."
Next time… they'll talk. She was sure of it.
End of Chapter 43
A bit of skipping ahead here. Sorry if you liked the episodes we didn't cover. Fact of the matter is, I couldn't really think of much to write for them. It is how it is.
That being said, I HAD to write a Chapter all about Shadow's return. Wouldn't have felt right if I just skipped over it!
We will be once again skipping ahead a bit for the next chapter, to what I consider the midseason finale! That was… quick honestly.
Don't think this means we'll be taking a break after the next chapter though. It just means we are about halfway through Season 3… coming a bit close to the end!
Also, you might of caught a little song Tangle was singing at the beginning.
That song is from Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth of all things, sung by Yuffie… I had the idea of throwing that in there when I realized that Yuffie's voice works REALLY well for Tangle! Yup! That's it! That's the whole reason! :)
So, see you all next time!