The orb appears above the transmat device. Shadow the Hedgehog had emerged from it. He looks left and right - "Where am I?" - the computer room looks almost exactly like the one from Prison Island.

Shadow's contemplating gets interrupted as he looks up to the ceiling windows, where he sees a familiar rotound scientist, flying on his Egg Mobile - "Isn't that... Dr. Eggman?" - the evil scientist flees as the robot who followed him gets surrounded by his kind - "And Omega?!"

Shadow remembers his long plight - "Now, Doctor, it's time you and I had a little talk about my encapture in your base." - He gets off the transmat and runs for the room's exit.

Stage 11: Cryptic Castle

Team 1: Shadow; Amy; Tails

Goal 1: Find 5 keys

Goal 2: Light 5 giant lanterns

Skating outside, Shadow examines his surroundings. He recognised them as some kind of Medieval Castle's court painted with Halloween atmosphere.

As black hedgehog head for the tower's entrance a female voice calls out - "Shadow!" - he looks up for the voice's source.

The pink hedgehog with shorter head quills, red headband, dress and boots of the same color, hops off the tower's roofs and lands right in front of the entrance. - "I'm so glad to run into a friendly face inside this weird-looking castle!"

The anthropomorphic girl's flashy appearance clicks recognition. She's that pink hedgehog from the battle against Metal Sonic's transformation. Although Shadow is pretty much convinced he never interacted with her during his reawakening period - "How do you know my name?"

Slightly confusion appears on pink hedgehog's face. - "You don't recognise me?" - Shadow shooks his head. The girl turns back to her high spirits mood - "Then reintroductions are in order! I'm Amy Rose!"

Shadow frowns while holding back his tensive irritation - "Answer my question!" - he spoke with chilling calmness - "How Do you Know, That My name is "Shadow?" - Amy wasn't restraining her annoyance - "Oh, come on! You helped us to save the world once!"

Shadow grits his teeth, closes his eyes and supresses his grunt, while holding his head.

Flashback

ARK's escape pod chamber.

Shadow observed the Earth through the space window.

Present Shadow had recognised Amy's voice calling him out.

- Amy: Shadow, we need you! Please, help us!

Past Shadow keeps his eyes on the window

- Shadow: It's all going according to plan. I've got no reason to help you. Besides, there's no way to save the mankind.

- Amy: There has to be! I know that some people might be selfish like professor said... But other part of them tries their best and never give up. They always have a reason to be happy. That's why we're helping them out. That's a good thing!

Shadow silently humours her argument while Amy continues.

- Amy: Shadow. I beg you, please give them a chance.

Next Flashback

Locked within the escape capsule, Shadow keeps hiitting the glass, calling out Maria's name. Maria had fallen on the floor, after G.U.N. soldier had shot her.

- Maria: Shadow. I beg of you, please do it... for a better future! For all people who live on that planet... give them a chance. Give them a chance to be happy... Let them live for their dreams. Shadow, I know you can do it. That's the reason you were brought into this world."

Back to the Present

Shadow finds himself standing on one knee once the headache passed. Amy and also stood on one knee - "Shadow! What happened?"

As Shadow regained his bearings, he couldn't determine why Amy's green eyes, or more accurately, the way they looked right into his... soul, mind, subconsciousness, and etc. held no prejudice nor covetousness.

The propeller sounds reach both hedgehogs' ears. As they look up at the blue/yellow plane, Amy recognises its design - "Hey look! It's Tails!"

Tails

Two tailed fox leans out, then looks at the radar - "The radar reads 2 energy wave sources located up ahead. I need to get those Chaos Emeralds, before aliens do!"

Whatever had hit the Cyclone, it was strong enough to shake its altitude - "What's this?" - Tails finds himself surrounded by Black Bolts firing their worms at him.

Tails handles his Cyclone to evade enemy's fire, but the rockets were a lock-on tyle, not to mention faster.

Despite scoring some kills along the way, Tails felt a very familiar shaking from his plane - "Nooo! Not again! - The Cyclone starts to descend.

Fox grips the steering wheel and turns towards Chaos Emerald's location inside the closest chamber - "I'M OUTTA CONTROL! MAYDAY! MAYDAY! GOIN' DOWN! LOOK OUT BELOW!"

Shadow and Amy

Soon as burning Cyclone started to fall, it reveals to Shdow a white power gem - "A Chaos Emerald!"

Tails' plane crashes in some unknown far distance. Amy prays - "Tails... please be somewhere within the castle area!" - and runs to the rescue in hopes of him evading the bottomless pits.

Shadow follows - "Guess it's my lucky day!"

The duo enters the tower, containing a fan for floor. The wind wasn't strong enough to lift either of hedgehogs up. Fortunately, Amy had learned a technique to remedy that problem.

She generates her Piko Piko Hammer on her right hand, grabs Shadow's arm with her left and spins around vertical axis while sticking her weapon sideways.

Like a hurricane the duo flies up for the next floor. Shadow sees a giant square stone slab. - "There's a gap between the slab and the ground. I think I can grab onto underside of this and flip it." - Shadow tests his theory and flips the slab over. Under it was the undergroung passage.

Down there Amy points at the flying pumpkin - "Hey look, we can use that balloon to get across!" - Shadow follows her lead.

The duo grind down the rail. They find a very high ledge blocking their road. Shadow sees 2 black Finnish candles standing close to ledge. He goes back to take the torch - "Lets see what happens when these candles burn." - Shadow brings the fire on each candle.

A giant balloon, similar to Jack Skellington's head, appears on ledge. Amy hops onto it - "Useful as springer." - Shadow follows her lead.

Landing on the ledge, both hedgehogs enter the pumpkin chamber.

- Amy: Look at that giant stone lantern!

Shadow throw the torch into lantern, making the fire emerge from the center - "It looks like it's for lightning a fire, but why is it here?" - At the pumpkin's exit another one of Jack's balloon appears.

The hedgehogs spring from it down to the next tower with deceased inhabitants, much to Amy's revulsion - "Eeeeek! I hate ghosts!" - Shadow remains focused on landing gracefully.

Soon they find the exit door not budging from their push. Amy generates her hammer - "I can break this, with no problem!" - she swings her weapon and smashes the gates.

Outside of tower, Shadow and Amy see Egg Pawns having a gun fight with Black Warriors.

- Amy: I guess if Eggman robots are helping drive off the monsters, they can't be all bad...

- Shadow: Then the Doctor must've gone this way!

Hedgehogs grab pumpkin balloon. Much to their dismay, balloon was flying in circles.

- Shadow: We have to pick one of these towers, to jump into.

- Amy: Got it!

- Shadow: On my cue! 3... 2... 1... Now!

The duo jumps into the closest ghost tower withing the branching. From there they grind forward to the spider chamber.

- Amy: Hey hold up! I think I can hear someone's voice!

Amy approaches the wall with spider logo, or more accurately the stone gates attached to it.

Shadow sees a crashed plane at the exit and skates off.

- Shadow: The Chaos Emerald that Tails dropped has gotta be somewhere around here...

She frowned - "When I get my hands on that selfish Jerk, I'll give him a piece of my mind." - her venting was getting more mumbled as Amy kept listening to the small... voices?!l

- ???: Amy?! Is that you?

- Chao: Chao Chao! Chao Chao!

That meek voice belonged to a kid. Amy's relief blends with horror as she moves her head away from the gates. The locked kid happens to be a very familiar rabbit girl.

- Amy: Cream! And Cheese! How did you end up here?

- Cream: That castle was the closest place we could hide from these scary aliens. But soon as we entered this room, the doors shut behind us. We couldn't unlock them ever since.

Amy pulls out a golden key - "Don't worry, Cream, I've got this!" - She plants it inside 1 of the 5 locks and turns it left until the click sound.

Unfortunately she couldn't repeat the process with the remaining 4 as the key wasn't entering. - "Cream, it seems I need 5 different keys to unlock this door. Stay calm and wait for me! I promise I won't leave you behind!"

Cream's fears weren't completely assuaged but Amy's presence minimised them - "Okay, Amy!"

Pink hedgehog ran out towards exit to catch up with Shadow.

Outside

Realising that the Chaos Emerald wasn't in the crashed plane, Shadow skates further. Near the abyss he sees Tails firing from his plasma cannon at the bird like creature, vaporising its body.

Surprised look appears on Tails's face

- Tails: Shadow?! What are you doing here?

- Shadow: I'm looking for the Chaos Emeralds. And I know you hold one of them.

While Shadow isn't Tails' enemy, the fox boy doesn't consider him trustworthy and gets defensive.

Shadow understands hostility when he sees one, but he can't waste anymore time.

- Shadow: Tails, I don't want to fight with you but I need those Chaos Emralds. They hold the secret to my past.

Hearing their discussion Amy runs up and stops between them - "Hey hold up!". Shadow tsked with annoyed at her interruption, while Tails asked - "Amy?! Why are you here?"

With everyone eventually calmed down, Amy told the group about her need to find keys and free Cream who was locked up in spider chamber, she just came from.

Worried for the well being of their common friend, Tails agrees to aid Amy in exchange for help to retrieve another Chaos Emerald.

This topic gets Shadow's attention. Normally he'd have no reason to help them. But since these searches could fulfill his goals, Shadow figures he'd aid them... under the condition that should the black hedgehog discover the Chaos Emerald first, it's his for the take.

Amy beams with excitement - "Then it's settled!" - She grabs pulls in front Shadow's hand and quickly puts on it Tails's hand and her own - "The three of us will make a great team!"

Shadow releases himself - "We're wasting our precious time." - he looks at Tails - "You said that your radar has pinpointed the location of the 3rd Emerald."

Tails turns on the device - "It appears to be on the other wing of this castle. But according to radar's readings, we need to get across the long abyss."

Shadow pulls out his green gem - "Then it's clear what needs to be done! Chaos... Control!" - The group warps away from their position.

The trio finds themselves on the upper left platform.

- Shadow: What a strange castle.

- Amy: I don't like the look of this place.

Tails points at the far corner.

- Tails: There is bright red box. It looks to be guarded by one of the black creatures.

Tails flew towards his target and vaporised alien with plasma gun. His presumption was correct as the box opens, revealing the 2nd key.

Shadow and Amy meanwhile grind on the rail towards the entrance, which is occupied by aliens blobs.

- Amy: Eww! What are those things?! They're disgusting! Go, go, get rid of 'em!

Shadow pullverises the creatures with his hooming attack, while Amy slams her sledgehammer onto aliens.

As pink hedgehog couldn't perform a triangle jump her black teammate, they both jump into the pit and erase more aliens.

At the next door fox reunites with hedgehogs and shows his finding - "Amy, how many keys do we have in total?" - Amy shows her own - "You and I have 2 keys."

Exiting the hall, trio see an alien sink into some red puddle. They observe flow's through the air to the next platform, where alien emerges.

Shadow examines the red ooze and comes up with suggestion - "If I can spindash on top of this slime, it will let me follow along its path." - He curls himsf into a ball with yellow aura and sink into slime.

The following weightless sensation reminds Shadow of his adventures inside the Digital Circuit. Once he emerged onto surface Shadow smirks at his success - "Hm, perfect."

Tails and Amy shooked their heads at each other and gathered up into Flying formatio: While Tails flew in the air, Amy grabbed his ankles. Together they passed the abyss in more conventional way.

Side by side, Shadow, Amy and Tails grab the pumpkin balloon and float by the tower and descend by the wall with 2 Finnish candles.

- Shadow: Alright. Let's add some fire.

Shadow leans the torches onto the candles' tops and wall goes up revealing the passage.

Inside the dead end room Tails points out - "These sections of the walls seem cracked." - Amy's Piko Piko Hammer couldn't break them. Tails' plasma cannon couldn't melt the walls either.

Shadow grabs the red box with the black and yellow line and plants it in the room's center - "I bet we need to detonate this bomb to break these walls."

The trio goes back outside and hide behind the walls. Tails carefully aims his cannon at the bomb, fires the plasma and quickly flies away from the explosion waves.

Amy looks impressed at risky plan - "Shadow, you did it!" - the amnesiac silently searches the secret room until he reveals a golden object to the group - "Is this the key we should be looking for?" - Amy beams - "Yes! Only 2 more remain!"

Up ahead the wall closed the wall was approaching

- Tails: Ah!

- Amy: The walls are closing in!

- Shadow emits a raging blue aura from his body - "Aaahhh... Chaos... Control!"

The trio warps away from the trap.

As the group appears inside the room, where chaos were crawling on the floor, Shadow colapses to the ground, losing consciousness. - "Damn it..."

- Amy: Shadow?! Shadow, what happened?

Shadow layed motionless but with pulse.

Tails theorised - "Could this be the effects of Chaos Control?!"

The blue pudgy creatures crawl towards unconscious Shadow. They were sputing their Chao language, incomprehensible for Tails.

Thanks to spending her time with Cream, who had taught her Chao language, Amy interpreted their banter.

- Amy: Tails. The elder of this pack could help Shadow. But he is trapped under the moving wall on the right room, we need to retrieve and bring him here.

- Tails: Alright, Amy. I'll go bring the Elder Chao, while you watch over Shadow.

Tails headed for the goal, leaving Amy to comment on massive amount of chao - "Hadn't Cheese been locked with Cream, I'd search him among the pack. They are identical.

Later, Tails returns with slightly bigger Chao who flew above Shadow and sprinkled him with his magical dust.

- Shadow: Uh... where... where am I?

The black hedgehog was raising himself up on his feet, while Amy interpreted Elder's spouting - "The Elder was unable to treat your condition, but he lifted its toll on your body."

Unable to pronounce his gratitude, Shadow nods, acknowledging Elder's help.

- Tails: Look at that giant stone lantern!

Tails brings the torch in the lantern's center, lightning the big thing.

The middle gates open a new path.

Amy tunes in another banter with Elder Chao and relays the message - "Something really bad awaits us on our way, so we'd better be careful."

- Tails: Okay!

- Shadow: Hm.

In the north hall, Shadow flips over another slide. Underneath it he finds 3 rails to the underground.

- Amy: It's pitch black. I can't see a thing!

- Tails: Why do I have a bad feeling about this?

- Shadow: If we fall off those rails, that's it.

The lava below makes the sinister room slightly brighter, but it wasn't much relief for the three.

Suddenly a loud screeching emerged from behind. Shadow, Amy and Tails looked back a saw a Spider-like giant monster running at them.

- Amy: Ah! What is that thing?

- Tails: It's catching up with us! Grind for it!

- Shadow: If we jump onto rail with dash rings, they should give us boost for grinding!

Shadow signaled his companions where to jump and these dash rings gave adventures the much needed boost to outgrind the monster.

The end springers launch the trio from the rails to the steel gates. The sinister creature had collapsed at the road's end.

- Tails: (exhales)

- Amy: I think we got away!

Shadow throws something to Amy's hands - "You might need it more." - pink hedgehog recognises the key - "That's 4. Only last one remaining!".

Tails looks at the radar - "The Chaos Emerald must be on the other side of these steel gates.

Shadow tries to push to no avail - "It's locked! And there is not a single keyhole in it!"

Tails steps onto a red circle on the for and its panel emits a green light.

- Tails: That teleporter should transport us back to any point we touched!

- Amy: Great! That way we search the area more thoroughly for the last key!

- Shadow: And we have to find some kind of switch to open this door.

The trio steps onto teleporter. More familiar with technology, Tails pinpoints the first transmat and warps the team away.

AN: Phew. The Stage isn't finished yet as the Alliance is 1 key short. But they'll have some aid from Team 2. I know who are it's members. And you will find out on the next chapter "Cryltic Castle (Part 2)". Or you could try to write down your guesses on reviews.