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Chapter 2: Temple of Doom

Sonic watched Shadow #2 leave at speeds he'd only ever seen himself achieve, and had to clamp down on the urge to follow after him and race. As well as ask him, like, a million questions, because all this was weird even for him.

Unfortunately, they were stuck in a white void, apparently, there was a monster on the loose, and they had a girl who needed protecting. Racing would have to wait until later.

So it was decided Maria would lead them to where her grandfather was hiding to keep themselves safe. And they began walking through the colorless place to find him.

"Why did you separate from the Professor, Maria?" asked Shadow #1 (or, just Shadow without his double here) as they walked.

Maria ducked her head. "I was worried and wanted to find you. Well, my you, but Grandfather didn't want me to. He thought it would be better if we just hid."

Shadow didn't look even slightly surprised. "You snuck off when his back was turned, didn't you?"

Maria nodded sheepishly. "I did. But really, I'm fine," she said. "Grandfather says this temporal anomaly keeps me in top shape. I really want to take this chance to see everything I can with you, Shadow, and, well you know, Shadow."

Sonic wasn't sure what she meant by 'top shape', but could understand her desire to explore.

Eventually, they found what looked like a large well with a rope on a handle that led down that Maria insisted they explore.

"I've never been anywhere like it, and who knows, Grandfather could be hiding in here. It looks like a good place to do so," she said as they climbed in. It was clear she was making excuses, but at the bottom of the well was a gate (that Knuckles easily knocked down) leading into tunnels dimly lit with torches lit just enough to traverse, so they entered it anyway.

Tails, Knuckles, and Maria pulled ahead as she led the way, and Sonic found himself walking alongside Shadow at the rear.

The black and red hedgehog had been cordial with them since the GUN confusion had cleared up, but Sonic could tell that was only because he didn't want to look bad in front of Maria. Still, Shadow #2 had said they'd become friends in his world, so looks like Sonic would have to put in the effort if he wanted the same.

He decided to go with his favorite icebreaker, films (because who doesn't like those, and, no, that is not just because it was his only conversation starter due to his under-developed social skills from years in isolation, shut up), so he turned to Shadow and asked, "So, what kind of movies do you like?"

Shadow shot him a dirty look and didn't answer.

"Come on, don't tell me you don't watch movies," said Sonic. "You said you're from fifty years ago, not a hundred. They had movies in the 70s."

"I watch movies," Shadow said back with more sharpness than necessary, but hey, at least he answered.

"Oh, what kind?" Sonic asked.

"Beware the Alien Freak," Shadow said in a disinterested tone.

"Ouch on that one," Sonic said in mock offense. "Us aliens have feelings too."

Shadow hummed in what might have been agreement, but ahead of them, Maria stopped from where she was admiring their surroundings and looked at them in confusion. "Why do you think you're an alien?" she asked. "Did someone make you like Grandfather made Shadow?"

That caused the others to stop and look at her in confusion, none more so than Shadow. "What do you mean?" he asked. "No one created me." But even as he said that he frowned like he wasn't entirely sure.

"No one created us either," said Tails.

Maria looked just as confused as the rest of them. "If you weren't created, why do you think you're an alien?"

"What, like short fuzzy guys like us are just common on your planet?" joked Sonic.

Maria only grew more bewildered. "But you are," she insisted.

That gave all of them pause as they stared at her.

"I guess our dimensions are even more different than we knew," said Tails thoughtfully. "On our home planet, there are no humans, but we all came to Earth through ring portals for our own reasons, and that's where the humans live. So, while we've got citizenship through adoption, we are still considered aliens."

"And since then the Earth has become our home," said Knuckles.

Maria looked fascinated by their explanation. "So why would you leave your original world?" she asked.

"Well, for me, I never really fit in," Tails said. "Everyone thought I was weird because of my two tails. They made fun of me a lot, and no one wanted me around. Most people still think I'm weird on Earth, but at least there I'm around people who want me."

"Home is not something I'd ever had before," said Knuckles grimly. "My tribe was nomadic and was wiped out years ago, leaving me the last of my kind. For many years I searched the galaxy for something my people had long sought, and upon finding it on Earth, I stayed. With the Hedgehog, Fox, and I, we formed a brotherhood to protect it."

"I was sent to Earth when I was really little for my own protection," Sonic admitted, letting his power show through his eyes and spark around his quills. "I was born super fast and with this power that other people wanted. My old mom, Longclaw, took care of me back there. When we were found, she died protecting me and sent me to Earth to hide. Eventually, I found a new family."

Maria looked sad for all of them, before turning her attention to Shadow. "Why did you go there?" she asked.

"I don't know," Shadow admitted with a troubled frown. "I was found inside a meteor that crashed into the planet. I have no memory of any life I might have had before the lab they were testing me in, which is where I met my version of you. I… didn't even realize others like me existed until today."

"Well I don't know how you'd get stuck in a meteor, but you must have come from our original planet at least initially," Tails said thoughtfully. "You and Sonic look too much alike for you to come from anywhere else. It'd be way too much of a coincidence that some Earth scientist just happened to make an alien hedgehog just like ones on another planet fifty years before one they didn't make was discovered."

"And the power you display clearly bears a resemblance to ours as well," Knuckles added, punching his fists so they sparked and his eyes glowed.

Seeing that, Shadow let his own powers flicker down his spines and a gleam in his eyes, as if testing that they were truly the same.

Sonic smiled and activated his powers again to compare. Given the way his powers crackled down his quills identically to the way Shadow's did, safe to say it looked pretty much the same aside from the color.

"Pretty," Maria muttered under her breath as all three of their quills shimmered red, blue, and rose gold in the dark of the tunnel.

Knuckles nodded at the sight as their powers faded away. "The Blue Hedgehog and I both hail from the same world and both have this power, even if mine is far superior."

"That would increase the odds of you coming from our planet," said Tails. "If people on Earth could just make powers like yours, wouldn't more people have them by now?"

"Eggman would have been a lot less surprised to see me if that were the case," Sonic agreed. "That was totally an 'OMG what is that!' scream he made when he first saw me. He also would have been less obsessed with my powers, because then he could just go get his own."

It was hard to tell with the dark and Shadow's resting Grumpy-Cat face, but Sonic thought he could see a bit of relief in hearing that he wasn't likely a test tube baby.

"Hey, maybe we're related," Sonic suggested with a grin. "You could be my long lost great uncle or something."

"That would explain your uncanny resemblance," Knuckles agreed.

"I could always do a DNA test once we get home," Tails offered.

Shadow looked like he might be considering it.

Sonic shrugged, then asked, "So what other movies do you like?" he asked as they resumed their trek.

"Tarantula, Attack of the Fifty-Foot Woman, Godzilla," Shadow listed off. "My Maria and I would watch them together in her room."

"Oh, I love those ones too," said Maria, glad to hear she and her counterpart had similar tastes.

"Kaiju movies, nice," Sonic said. "You know, Godzilla's got a whole bunch of movies made since the 70s. Some good, some so bad they're good, and some just bad. You've got a lot of catching up to do."

"I bet you'd like Pacific Rim," Tails suggested.

"Do you also have any affection for romantic comedies?" asked Knuckles.

The conversation returned to movies, this time with Shadow actually participating at least a little bit. He wasn't chatty by any means, and definitely still answered more when Maria asked over anyone else, but he was talking to them. It was a start.

So in other words, all was going well in the 'make friends with Shadow' plan. That, and it was always fun teasing Knuckles about horror movies.

"Nothing scares an Echidna Warrior," Knuckles insisted when they were brought up.

Sonic rolled his eyes, "Uh, yeah, remember what happened last movie night?"

Tails winced at the reminder and rubbed the hand that Knuckles had clenched with all his strength while screaming his head off when Casper appeared on the screen. Not that he blamed him, Sonic could still feel his own bruised fingers.

Knuckles turned to walk backward so he could glower at him as he grumbled, "There's no such thing as a friendly ghost."

Sonic was too busy watching Maria giggle at their antics to notice Shadow using his powers to warp behind Knuckles so the echidna bumped into him.

"Boo," Shadow said in a soft, menacing voice.

With his dark colors blending in with the tunnel's dim shadows and his eyes still glinting from the use of his powers, it was a truly spooky sight. All of them jumped, but Knuckles especially jerked back with a shriek.

Then realizing what had happened, the majority of them burst out laughing.

"Pffft, Shadow, that was mean," Maria scolded, but the effect was ruined by her giggling into her hands.

"Are you kidding? That was great!" Sonic disagreed between guffaws.

"I was not scared at all!" Knuckles insisted.

"Yeah right," snickered Tails, and he used his hologram projector to recreate Knuckles' reaction, making them laugh again while Knuckles tried to punch it.

Shadow just took the praise and their laughter with a bemused sort of look.

Knuckles huffed and stormed on ahead, the others still giggling as they followed behind. "I am not scared. Echidna Warriors are never scared. It is ghosts who should be afraid of me," he grumbled under his breath as he stormed on. "YOU HEAR THAT GHOSTS! YOU DON'T FRIGHTEN ME!" He shouted out loud just in case any were listening.

This declaration was quickly put to the test when he turned a corner to find the tunnel had opened up into a large dilapidated chamber set with bricks and large columns with a scepter hovering in the center glowing an ominous purple.

Knuckles froze at the sight of it, having suffered through enough of Sonic's films to know glowing floating objects in big ornate chambers were bad news.

But even as he stared at it, the scepter pulsed, coating the floor with a sticky purple substance, and four twisted one-eyed creatures began crawling up out of it.

Knuckles screamed! Making the others race to catch up to him as best they could through the muck, and arrived just in time to see him punch one of the creatures away.

"GHOSTS!" he yowled.

Suitably freaked out, and not knowing what else the things could be, Sonic said, "Well, good news, looks like you can punch ghosts."

Knuckles did not look at all reassured, but they didn't have time for more banter as the other ghosts all leaped at them. Add to that, the purple gunk on the floor meant they could barely move unless it was to hop from place to place.

Still, jumping was all they really needed, as Shadow kicked one away while Sonic spin-dashed another, and Knuckles clobbered the last.

But more were appearing by the second, and two emerged from the purple slime and leaped at Maria.

The girl screamed, but Tails pulled out his laser pistol to blast one and Shadow plowed into the other viciously.

"Get Maria to safety!" Sonic yelled to Tails as he knocked back another.

The fox nodded and quickly spun his tails to fly and carried Maria up to higher ground and out of the purple gunk.

"The gun!" Shadow called out, and Tails tossed his pistol back down to him. Shadow quickly made good use of it with sharp precision.

"Shadow, be careful!" Maria called as they flew away.

Her warning wasn't just favoritism, the creatures all seemed to be targeting Shadow the most out of the three of them.

"Is it me, or are these guys after you for some reason?" asked Sonic as he bounced off a series of ghosts' heads that were trying to sneak attack the other hedgehog, and staying out of the purple stuff as much as possible.

"It is not you," Knuckles said, sending one flying with an uppercut that had been leaping at Shadow. "They are indeed targeting the more formidable hedgehog."

"Seriously," Sonic squawked at the dig at him even now, before he saw something moving in the purple sludge right at Shadow's feet. "Behind you!" he called.

Shadow leaped away just in time to avoid a new ghost creature that almost looked like a hedgehog made out of jagged crystals with glowing red and green eyes leaped out of the sludge and tried to blast him with a beam of light.

"Shadow," the ghost-hedgehog somehow said without a mouth, "I will defeat you then restore myself to the timeline!"

"Uh, you know him?" Sonic asked, unnerved.

"No," Shadow replied. "It seems my double has made enemies." His eyes then flashed with power, and he aimed the pistol at the new creature's head. "But I won't be blamed for someone else's actions."

"What?" the ghost-hedgehog snarled, dodging the shot and launching itself at Shadow. "Did you forget about me again?"

"Seems you're just not that memorable," Shadow snapped back. With that, he dodged the attack from the ghost-hedgehog and warped up to kick it right in the face.

Sonic and Knuckles exchanged a nod and activated their own powers too to help him.

It wasn't easy, the ghost-hedgehog was fast and could blast things with a flick of its wrists, with all of them stuck being slow, dodging his lasers came down to split-second reactions.

Above them, Maria and Tails watched as the three of them fought against what the ghost-hedgehog called 'the ultimate game of shadow tag'.

"He's going to hurt them!" Maria said worriedly as the creature sent arcs of light across the floor like shark fins, trying to slice them to ribbons.

"Not if he doesn't know where they are," Tails said, activating his holograms.

Suddenly the arena was filled with hedgehogs and echidnas, and the creature howled in outrage when it couldn't discern which were real, and allowing the three to get some good hits in.

Furious, the ghost-hedgehog shifted and grew into a much larger cyclops-like form, and tried to simply hit them all at once with its giant fists.

With a great sweep of its hands, it managed to destroy Tail's hologram projectors and smack the three real fighters into a wall with enough force to leave three large dents.

"Someone get the number on that bus?" Sonic said woozily, rubbing his head.

"Get up!" hissed Shadow, having no patience for Sonic's quips.

Finding them at last, the monster raised its fist and brought it down like a mallet. It took Knuckles catching it and straining to hold it back to keep the three of them from being smushed.

"They'll be crushed!" Maria said, leaning over the ledge to stare in horror.

Seeing his friends in trouble and the creature's lower half still submerged in the purple liquid, on the floor gave Tails an idea.

"The floor is lava!" he shouted down to his teammates.

Understanding what that meant, Sonic spin-dashed the hand to shove it back enough for Knuckles to throw it away, and Shadow to shoot it in the chest.

"The floor is lava?" asked Shadow, not understanding and the monster recovering fast.

"It's a game. You get off the floor as quick as possible and try to move around without touching it," Sonic explained rapidly to Shadow before curling back into a ball and allowing Knuckles to throw him up onto a high ledge before the echidna launched himself at the walls and dug handholds into the bricks.

Shadow spared a moment to give the ghost-hedgehog-cyclops a parting shot from his pistol before teleporting out of the way.

"Cowards!" the ghost-hedgehog snarled as it reached up towards them. "Afraid to meet your fate a second time? I will crush you all!"

"Bold words for the guy standing in lava!" Sonic yelled back just out of its reach.

With the floor cleared of allies, Tails threw a disk into the purple substance.

The second it hit, it sparked and thousands of volts of electricity crackled through the liquid, making the creature shriek.

It collapsed in on itself, before reforming into its hedgehog shape again. "No…" it snarled. "I want… to exist!"

Its eyes darted between them for the easiest target, landing on Tails and Maria. With a snarl, the ghost-hedgehog rocketed towards them.

"TAILS!" Sonic and Knuckles shouted.

"MARIA!" Shadow yelled, but even with their speed they wouldn't reach them in time.

Maria and Tails both screamed at the sight of the monster coming towards them, and the fox darted to shield the girl while chucking his Gizmo Wing at it.

The creature screeched as the little boomerang hit it in the eye, and Tails used the distraction to carry Maria away, and the ghost-hedgehog crashed into the ledge they were on before.

"Insolent mortals!" the ghost-hedgehog howled, righting itself and launching itself after them again.

But this time the other three were ready, as Knuckles launched himself off the wall from the front, Sonic dove down from above, and Shadow warped in from behind. They were all wreathed in storms of lightning and struck as one. Their combined powers caused a shockwave that decimated the entire chamber and beyond.

The ghost-hedgehog howled as it was sucked back into the scepter it had emerged from, taking its purple ooze along with it, but the danger was far from over.

Tails had to weave through the air with Maria as the ceiling above them began to crumble at the force of the blast.

"We've got to get out of here!" he called, flying back to the ground as the place seemed to come apart around them.

Shadow was quick to take Maria off his hands and begin shooting for the exit with her in his arms. Sonic grabbed Tails and Knuckles to follow behind.

They managed to get outside the tunnel just before it collapsed, burying the scepter and the ghost-hedgehog it contained within, and leaving a massive crater where the well once was.

"Are you alright, Maria," Shadow said as he placed her on her feet.

"That was scary," Maria said, breathing heavily and still looking pale.

"Ha-Hah! Take that, ghosts!" Knuckles said triumphantly, shaking his fist at the rubble. "I have now conquered my fear!"

"I'm not so sure that thing was actually a ghost," said Tails, shaking dust from the cave out of his fur.

"Shh, don't ruin this for him," Sonic replied softly.

"Victory!" shouted Knuckles. "As ever my brothers and I are victorious!"

He then turned to Shadow and said, "And you, More Impressive Hedgehog, thank you for fighting at our side."

Shadow shrugged, not used to being thanked. "I was protecting Maria," he said.

"A noble cause for certain," agreed Knuckles. "I knew the moment I saw you you were strong. I now see you are honorable as well. It was good to see it proven in combat. May we fight alongside each other again."

Shadow, very unused to compliments, was taken aback but felt a small smile appear on his face at getting them.

A soft sniffle quickly put a damper on their mood, as they all looked to see Maria in tears.

"We nearly died! Is this what my Shadow has to face?" she asked. "I know he's from farther ahead in time than I am. Is fighting things like that really his future?"

None of them knew how to respond to that. They knew admitting that their own lives were full of a lot of danger wouldn't help the situation.

So Shadow quietly took Maria's hand and led her on, the others trailing behind.

They still needed to find her grandfather and get her somewhere safe.

Meanwhile, the Shadow Maria was worried about stumbled as the force of the shockwave the three had released crashed over him like a tsunami as he fought against Metal Overlord. At the force of it he nearly fell off a grind rail into the water but caught himself with his Doom Surf just in time.

Metal Overlord was not nearly as lucky, as the shockwave seemed to act like an EMP, shutting down all of Metal's systems at once, and sending it crashing into the sea.

On top of Shadow.

Shadow launched himself up and used his Doom Blast to change Metal Sonic's fall trajectory, and send him falling harmlessly into the water.

The Ultimate Lifeform stared at his unceremoniously downed foe and glanced off in the direction the wave had come from.

He recognized the energy of it as belonging to his Counterpart, as well as the Sonic and Knuckles of the same world.

Wondering what trouble the three of them caused, and concerned they dragged Maria into it, Shadow spared one last glance at Metal Overlord before using his Doom Surf to leave and find out.

In a different part of the White Space, two two-tailed foxes were staring down at the older one's portable computer.

Moments ago a shockwave had rocked the entire void, surprising all of them and somehow freeing all their friends still frozen in statues, while simultaneously knocking out all electronics. It took the expertise of both foxes, but they finally got the Miles Electric back online.

"Where did that energy come from?" asked the younger one. "Was it that monster?"

"I don't think so," said the older fox, holding up his computer. "Until now that thing's readings have been pretty consistent. This energy is totally new."

They heard the sound of quick footsteps and looked up to see two blue hedgehogs racing towards them.

"What's going on, Tails?" asked the older hedgehog. "I was about to fight Perfect Chaos when that shockwave happened and he just went nuts like he was hurt and then just kinda melted back into the sea. And Mini-Me was in the middle of fighting Metal Sonic when all of a sudden the tin can just shut down."

The smaller hedgehog nodded, then mimed that something crashed and burned.

"That's what we're trying to figure out, Sonic," the older Tails admitted. "That chaos energy was off the charts."

"Chaos energy? Like maybe one of the emeralds?" asked the older Sonic.

"Could be," older Tails said. "But I dunno. Something about these readings seems different. I have a system for the crazy readings you give when you go super, this was clearly something else. Not as strong Super, but similar enough."

"Do you think Doctor Eggman did something?" asked the smaller Tails.

"Could be," speculated older Sonic. "Guess we better go find out."

Meanwhile, the two versions of the aforementioned doctor were scrambling to get their machines back online so they could properly control their time monster.

Dr. Eggman the older slammed his fist on one of his control consuls when it still remained dead despite his attempts to restart it. "Work, you blasted thing!"

"Oh, it's no use," groaned Dr. Eggman the younger, just as frustrated that nothing was working.

"Oh, don't go talking like a hedgehog," grumbled the older Dr. Eggman as he set about fixing things. "All systems are down. It's going to take a full reboot to get everything back online."

The younger Eggman stopped and looked confused. "Since when would Sonic say something like that? Er, not that I'm… all that used to him talking."

"Ah, those were the good ol' days. Now the little blue rat doesn't shut up. But no, not him, the white one, Stirling, or something like that," said Dr. Eggman the older with a dismissive wave.

Dr. Eggman the younger looked aghast. "There are more hedgehogs."

"As of my point in time, four hedgehogs are continuous pains in my rear, but Sonic always remains the most irritating," said the older Eggman.

The younger Eggman recoiled. "Urgh, not looking forward to dealing with that."

"When we succeed at this you won't have to," said Dr. Eggman the elder, attempting to turn on his machine again.

Still nothing, and he banged his fist on it once again. "Errgh, Sonic is going to pay for this," he snarled.

"Sonic did this?" asked the younger Eggman.

"Who else," the other snapped back.

The younger one mulled that over and decided that tracked. "I hate that hedgehog!" he groaned.

I did say they'd steal some bosses. This one was totally by accident. I thought with the EMP abilities they had, they could really cause havoc against Dr. Eggman's machines. Especially if the doctors aren't prepared to counter it.

Also, Maria saying the temporal anomaly 'keeps her in top shape' is just a headcanon I had that her illness didn't affect her in the void. Mostly because in the cutscenes we see her running around, but she doesn't seem affected until right at the end when Shadow beats Black Doom and time for her and Gerald is returning to normal.

ssssss

Mephiles: *attacks Tails and Maria*

Movie Sonic, Knuckles, and Shadow: So you have chosen death! *Shadow cocks gun*

Game Shadow: My Maria senses are tingling!

Everyone else: What the heck is going on?!

ssssss

POV- Movie Sonic then general

Nicknames:

Movie Shadow- Shadow #1

Game Shadow- Shadow #2, Shadow's Double, Maria's Shadow

Mephiles- Ghost-hedgehog

Game Sonic- Older Sonic

Classic Sonic- Younger Sonic

Game Tails- Older Tails

Classic Tails- Younger Tails

Game Eggman- Older Eggman

Classic Eggman- Younger Eggman