The Flames of Hope/Episode Shadow: Heroes Rise Again/Part II

==Chapter 10==
thumb|right|200 px|Return to the Present
“Wake up, sleepyhead.”
Shadow jolted awake at the sound of Rouge’s voice. They were in the middle of Soleanna’s rather simply named New City. Shadow recognised it all too well: it was the city he'd seen in ruins in the future. Shadow stood up and hugged Rouge, something that took her by surprise.
“Whoa, there, partner,” She said “We’re supposed to be professionals here.”
Shadow stopped hugging her.
“I’m just glad I didn’t lose you,” He replied. He was surprised Mephiles had kept his word: what could keeping Rouge alive possibly gain him? “What happened to you?” He continued, “What about Sonic and the others?”
“I woke up back at the computer terminal where Tails was fixing up the time machine. He didn’t see me arrive and I didn’t tell them about Mephiles. Sonic and Knuckles arrived back soon after, and we all jumped back to today. Also, it seems we’ve missed a day: I called G.U.N and they were preparing to mount a search party for us. Omega got the hostages out fine, apparently. I called him back, and he’s making his way here. So, the elephant in the room...what happened with Mephiles?”
“He’s stronger now. He used the crystals in the volcano to empower himself. Summoned and army of black creatures that nearly drowned me. Just as I got the upper hand he escaped and teleported me back here.”
“So, how do we find him?”
“We find Eggman. He knows something about Mephiles: why do you think he had the Sceptre of Darkness?”
“Well, you’re in luck.”
Rouge grabbed a newspaper off a nearby newspaper rack and showed it to Shadow. It showed a picture of a railway line going through some mountains, with Eggman taking up the bottom ¼ of the image.
“Eggman is going to make a train explode unless Princess Elise is handed to him,” Rouge said. “Sonic’s probably on his way there.”
“Perfect,” Shadow replied “Call in my bike, I think it’s going to come in handy. While I’m doing that, look up more information on the Sceptre of Darkness: someone other than Eggman created it, and we need to fill in the blanks on what he doesn’t tell us. With that, we should be able to figure out how to seal Mephiles again.”
Shadow turned around and started to walk away.
“Shadow…” Rouge said “Should I have told Sonic about Mephiles?”
“No,” Shadow replied “We need them to focus on the Doctor’s schemes: they’re the reason we’re able to do what we’re about to. Besides...I want to take down Mephiles myself.”
Shadow started to walk off again, but was soon nearly bowled over by Rouge flying into him and hugging him.
“Actually, yeah, we should do this more often,” Rouge said, leaving Shadow slightly stunned as she walked away “Good luck out there.”
Shadow couldn’t bring himself to say anything out of sheer surprise before he kept on walking.
==Chapter 11==
thumb|left|200 px|Theme of Mephiles
Omega jumped out of the back of the jeep and started to walk down the street as the vehicle drove off. The sight of a giant robot drew the sights of everyone around him, but he didn’t really care. He was used to it now, and even then he wasn’t exactly one for social traditions.
Soon after, though, something seemed out of place. His extremely precise light sensors could tell that it was darker that it should be at this time, the sound of his footsteps were muffled, and the people were now completely ignoring him. That’s when he picked up a massive energy spike coming from behind him. He spun round and his hand was replaced by a gatling gun at the sight of Mephiles: although he’d never met him before, Rouge had made perfectly sure he knew who he was.
“Omega,” The crystalline humanoid said “It’s a pleasure to-“
Before Mephiles could go any further, Omega unloaded the gatling gun. A few bullets ingrained themselves in his crystalline body before he threw up a shield of shadowy creatures that absorbed the impact of the rest. Omega stopped firing.
“I am by no means here to fight,” Mephiles continued “I merely wish to talk.”
“ERROR. BULLSHIT DETECTED. PROCEEDING WITH MISSION.”
Omega jumped forwards and slashed at the wall of monsters, cleaving it in two. It was then he found Mephiles was no longer behind it.
“I am not playing games,” Mephiles said, now directly behind Omega “I do genuinely want to talk. Although, as a being of destruction, you would naturally think only of violence…”
“COMPLIMENT ACCEPTED.”
Omega spun round and slashed at Mephiles again. This time, the shadowy being teleported so he was floating in the air directly above Omega.
“There is much I want to tell you, Omega,” Mephiles continued “I will be going to Wave Ocean to collect an object of great importance to me. Follow me there...and I may tell you a story.”
Omega stopped and actually had to consider his options, something that usually led him to the conclusion “blow it up”. There was no way this wasn’t a trap, but Mephiles was still giving away important information.
“Of course, I assume you will not bring Team Dark with you. Throwing away a chance to prove your worth over Shadow is not something to take lightly. Goodbye, Omega.”
Mephiles vanished and time resumed as normal. Omega looked down to see the bullets he fired were still on the floor but still nobody was looking at him. Now he knew what he had to do: he’d defeat Mephiles himself. It would be no challenge for the Ultimate Android.
Omega started moving towards the seafront, away from Rouge’s meeting point.
==Chapter 12==
thumb|right|200 px|Chasing the Egg Train
The Egg Train trundled along the tracks of the rusting Soleannan Railway, several robots surrounding it to defend their creator from anything that might attack the 4 carriage train, enduring the rain that was getting heavier and heavier. Eggman himself was currently furious. He had set up this fantastic, theatrical hostage situation and made sure Sonic couldn’t save it, only for not only Sonic to launch a rescue, but for the very person he was trying to trade the hostages for to join in on the action!
“What is it with hostage situations these days?” Eggman growled, looking at the screen that gave him a birds eye view of the situation. This, however, was soon not going to be his biggest problem.
Shadow was following the tracks on his motorbike, the Dark Rider. The guttural sound of the engine soon alerted the robots surrounding the train to Shadow’s presence, and they quickly opened fire. However, Shadow’s bike had been upgraded since the Black Arms invasion. He pressed two buttons, both on the ends of the handles, and the machine guns on the sides of the bike roared to life, automatically aiming at the robots and shredding them in a second. The train started to speed up, trying to escape from Shadow, but he just pushed his foot down on the accelerator harder, flames spewing out of the exhaust as he started to gain on the Egg Train, trying to use his machine guns to blast out the rear carriage and failing due to it’s bulletproof nature.
Disk shaped robots flew out of the back of the train, peppering the area with bullets. Another humanoid robot with massive arms jumped down from the roof and tried to swing at Shadow. The hedgehog slid the bike under the attack, standing it back up facing backwards, and shredded the robot with the machine guns. He let the weapons automatically reload as he turned round, swerving in and out of the bullets being aimed at him. The machine guns aimed up and soon shredded those robots too.
It was becoming increasingly clear to Shadow he would have to get in the hard way. He fired the bike up to it’s top speed, catching up with the back carriage but unable to get further. Shadow tapped a few buttons and set the bike to autopilot before jumping up onto the roof. A red robot with a rocket launcher for an arm jumped out of the carriage in front of him and fired a missile, which Shadow caught with his bare hands before throwing it back, blowing him up and leaving a hole in the next carriage. This led to several of the same kind of robot to fly out, more than Shadow really wanted to fight right now. He used Chaos Control to teleport to the 2nd carriage from the front, leaving the robots confused. Soon, they were blasted apart as they entered a tunnel.
Shadow started to walk forwards, but soon a new type of robot jumped out of the hatch to the front carriage: a skeletal robot wrapped in a brown cloak, holding an energy sword. Shadow charged a Chaos Spear, but before he could fire the robot had already punched him in the gut, going for a sword slash to Shadow’s head. Shadow dived under and kicked the robot away, but it was soon back on its feet, stabbing forward with the sword. Shadow dodged to the side and kicked the robot in the head, seriously denting it: it seemed they were made for speed, not strength. The robot slashed again, but Shadow quickly grabbed it by the arms and threw it upwards, making it crash into the tunnel above.
Shadow walked over to the hatch and jumped down, ready to confront Eggman.
==Chapter 13==
thumb|left|200 px|Theme of Robotnik
Shadow jumped down into Eggman’s room, quickly hitting the two robots to the side of him with Chaos Spears before they could react. Eggman was currently sitting on a chair facing away from him, looking at the unfolding events of Sonic’s attempted rescue of the train.
“You really didn’t have to do that, Shadow,” He said, turning the chair round “I would have more than willing to invite you around for a cup of tea.”
“Stop spouting nonsense and get to the point.” Shadow replied sternly.
“Oh, so you’re more of a coffee person, then?”
“You know why I’m here. Who is Mephiles?”
Eggman stood up.
“You know, that is a question I want to answer myself,” He continued “I have an understanding of who he is but I think there’s so much more to him that we don’t know about yet. His powers, for example, are quite unusual.”
“Who do you think he is then?”
Eggman thought for a moment.
“Maybe we could work something out here? How about this: if you give me Mephiles, I will tell you all I know about him.”
Shadow’s quills started to glow red. He was getting tired of Eggman’s senseless babbling.
“You tell me all you know about him,” He growled “Or I blow up the carriage.”
Eggman sighed and slumped into his chair and spun round to the TV Screens. He really didn’t want to have to deal with Shadow right now.
“Fine, fine, we’ll do it your way. He’s connected to the Solaris Project, an underground research project 10 years ago that ended with the flooding of Kingdom Valley. It invo-oh, well, that’s interesting.”
Shadow walked over to Eggman, looking over his shoulder. The screen currently showed a white hedgehog making his way through the old wooden scaffolding that surrounded the mountains the trains ran through.
“I never thought I’d see him again,” Eggman chuckled. He looked at Shadow, “How about this? You bring that hedgehog in and I’ll tell the rest of my story. If you don’t...that hedgehog will kill Sonic.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Do you want to find out or not? Oh look...he’s converging on Sonic’s position due east from here...how completely out of the ordinary…”
Shadow’s quills glowed red, preparing for a Chaos Blast.
“I’m done with your games, Doctor,” He growled.
“And I’m done with your lack of cooperation,” Eggman replied sternly. “Toodles!”
The roof of the carriage split open and the chair Eggman was on rocketed into the sky. Shadow looked up just to see his new Egg Mobile fly away. The hedgehog sighed and teleported onto his bike. He wondered if Eggman was bluffing about the white hedgehog...either way, it wouldn’t hurt to check it out. He revved the bike, making it produce flames once again, and he rocketed off into the distance.
==Chapter 14==
thumb|right|200 px|Rainstorm
The rain was pouring by the time Shadow approached the area Eggman had directed him too. Even the motorbike’s headlights could barely pierce the rain. Even if he couldn’t see right through the rain, he knew where he was going: a bright green glow was radiating from something a distance away from him, and he had a feeling that if Sonic was anywhere, it would be nearest the strange green glow.
Soon Shadow discovered that the area was a pit with train tracks running into tunnels on each side. Metal platforms and pullies dotted the area, and amongst it all was Princess Elise of Soleanna, Sonic and the white hedgehog Eggman had showed him. Sonic was covered in green light and floating in mid air, seemingly unable to move, and the white hedgehog was rasing his arm to the right, preparing to do something that Shadow knew he had to stop.
Both of the hedgehogs turned round as Shadow’s bike flew off the edge of the pit, landing in the mud and spinning round to aim the machine guns at the hedgehogs despite struggling to gain traction in the mud. The white hedgehog looked shocked.
“...Mephiles?” He muttered. Shadow immediately knew what he was dealing with: someone who was also a pawn in Mephiles’ schemes. Someone he had to stop. He looked at Sonic and muttered one word.
“Run.”
Shadow unloaded his machine guns onto the white hedgehog. Green light covered the bullets and they stopped in mid air, but as that happened Sonic broke free, ran over to Elise and scooped her up.
“Don’t we want to help him?” Elise asked Sonic.
“That there is the ultimate lifeform,” Sonic replied, smirking “I doubt there’s anyone better for the job.”
“Damn right,” Shadow muttered to himself as Sonic and Elise dashed towards the tunnel. Soon though, Shadow’s machine guns ran dry, all the bullets now hanging in mid air. They soon dropped to the ground as the white hedgehog flew towards Sonic.
“YOU WON’T ESCAPE AGAIN!” Silver shouted. Shadow got out his Chaos Emerald and activated Chaos Control, flying over to the white hedgehog and bombarding him with kicks and punches before unfreezing time and kicking him into the opposite wall. By the time his opponent got up, Sonic was already clear. He teleported away from the wall, clearly annoyed at this new development.
“Why, Mephiles?” He growled, “Why would you stop me? We had almost won!”
Shadow sighed. He thought his days of being mistaken for other people were over.
“My name…” He replied “Is Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog.”
==Chapter 15==
thumb|left|200 px|Black and White
The two hedgehogs stood looking at each other for a moment as the white hedgehog regained his breath.
“Who are you?” Shadow asked “And why do you want to kill Sonic?”
“You don’t need to know,” He replied, “Just GET OUT OF MY WAY!”
The white hedgehog flew forward. Shadow stood still and held up the Chaos Emerald.
“Chaos Control,” He muttered. Time stopped and Shadow jumped behind the hedgehog and kicked him in the back of the head, knocking him forward into the mud. Shadow’s new enemy was bathed in the green light that had held Sonic and flew up into the air. The mud flew off him and straight towards Shadow. Shadow dodged back and realised too late it was a distraction tactic: the white hedgehog flew over the mud and grabbed Shadow, throwing him into the air before bombarding him with kicks and punches. Shadow was hit by a few but soon started blocking before kicking the hedgehog’s chest. He activated his Jet Boots and rocketed forwards, landing on one of the cranes while his new opponent landed on a crane opposite, although through the pouring rain it was hard for Shadow to see exactly where he was.
“Answer the question and we can solve this peacefully,” Shadow shouted, hoping he would be heard over the rain.
“My name is Silver,” He replied “And Sonic needs to die to save us all.”
“Mephiles is using you, can’t you see? You’re just another pawn in his schemes!”
Shadow didn’t realise that Silver had vanished from the platform. He appeared above his head and flew straight downwards, grabbing Shadow by the face and smashing him through the crane and onto the ground below. Shadow wrapped his right leg around Silver’s head and used his left to push down, putting Silver in a triangle choke. Silver’s hand started glowing, flickering on and off before becoming an almost blinding light as he put it against Shadow’s chest and released a burst of energy. Shadow felt his ribs crack from the force and he was forced to let go as Silver stood up and regained his breath. Shadow jumped back and breathed heavily, every breath feeling like fire. Silver soon dashed at him again and shadow kicked him in the face, knocking him away.
“Chaos Control!” He shouted as he teleported up to Silver, grabbed him, and smashed him into the ground. Silver tried to get up but Shadow jumped back and fired a Chaos Spear downwards, electrocuting him and keeping him in place. He then followed up with a flying kick that knocked Silver into the opposite wall before Chaos Controlling up to him and bombarding the white hedgehog with kicks and punches before grabbing him and throwing him into the muddy ground at the centre of the arena.
“You ready to talk now?” Shadow said. He had to admit, Silver wasn’t a bad fighter, but he came nowhere close to Shadow himself. The white hedgehog staggered to his feet and growled.
“No…” He muttered, “I won’t lose now. Not when I’m so close.”
Silver produced a Chaos Emerald of his own. He smiled.
“I’ll use your own technique!” He said.
“NO!” Shadow shouted as he dashed forward, but he was too late.
“CHAOS CONTROL!”
Silver vanished from view and Shadow felt his whole body stop in place, held by the same green light Sonic was in. He was thrown into the wall behind him before Silver teleported up to him and started to pummel Shadow. Shadow used Chaos Control to stop Silver moving, allowing him to kick the hedgehog away. He used the wall to propel himself forward and he tried to ground pound Silver, but he only heard “CHAOS CONTROL!” and saw Silver vanish before the hedgehog had appeared above him and was pummelling him into the ground. Shadow palm striked Silver and fired a Chaos Spear, sending Silver whirling into the air.
“Chaos Control!” Shadow shouted. Time froze again, but something was off this time: a thin white light covered everything that radiated brightest out of Silver and Shadow. Shadow ignored it and ran up to Silver before axe kicking him and pummelling the hedgehog before unfreezing time, watching as Silver was bombarded by instant punches.
“You can do more than just one punch with this power, you know,” Shadow smirked as Silver jumped to his feet. He growled before using Chaos Control again, teleporting behind Shadow before knocking him towards the crane, which Shadow could now see had been ripped out of the ground while time was frozen and was now falling on him. Shadow used his Jet Boots to boost back, landing on the ground, and activated his Chaos form, firing a Chaos Javelin that shredded the crane in two. He deactivated this form and turned to look at Silver.
“You pick up on things quickly,” Shadow said “I dare say you’re pretty good.”
“I don’t need your praise,” Silver growled “I need you to BURN!”
Shadow and Silver flew at each other. Both prepared their Chaos Emeralds, each with their own tactics. Their arms clashed as they shouted their command in unison.
“CHAOS CONTROL!”
At that point, the world started to alter around them. Shadow looked around as they were surrounded by a bright light. The rain started to turn to steam and what was left of the fallen crane started to melt. Both the hedgehogs looked at each other confused as they vanished in a flash of light, leaving only the wreckage of their battle in their wake.
==Chapter 16==
thumb|right|200 px|The Solaris Project
(Author’s Note: This chapter is word for word the same as Silver chapter 21. If you’ve read that already, feel free to skip this)
The glass cylinder in the centre of the room shone with a bright light and a haunting scream echoed around the circular room. The researchers looked at the light, terrified, except for one man. The Duke of Soleanna glared into the light, manipulating the control panel that surrounded the cylinder with ease.
“Sir!” One of the researchers shouted while looking at a readout “His energy levels are spiking! The probability of the containment tube staying stable is-“
“I don’t care about your figures!” The Duke growled in response “We’re almost there.”
The light subsided, forming into an orb of white flame. Through the flame, a clawed hand formed, slamming itself against its glass prison.
“Who...dares...control...me?” It growled.
“I do. I am the Duke of Soleanna, Solaris. As is the right of the royal family, you are meant to obey ME!”
“I’ve never heard of you, pathetic mortal. I’m above your whims. I am GOD!”
“I know. It doesn’t mean you can’t know pain.”
The Duke pushed a few buttons and Solaris screamed again.
“I’LL SLAUGHTER YOU ALL!” Solaris screamed as lights continued to flash. The researchers looked at each other, horrified by what was happening. The Duke turned around.
“Bring in Elise and the Emeralds.” The Duke said to one of the researchers. “We’re ready to seal him.”
“Sir, there is absolutely no way she’d be able to contain Solaris in this state.”
“I don’t care. It’s now or never.”
The researcher nodded reluctantly and left the room. The Duke looked back at Solaris as the light subsided again.
“Let...me...go…” The godly being growled.
“No one says such an empty threat unless they expect to die soon. But you’re not going to die, Solaris. You’re going to create life. You’re going to bring my wife back and let my country prosper. You will be the lynchpin of a paradise of my creation.”
“You pathetic fool. If we could create paradise that easily we would have done it millennia ago.”
“I don’t care if you think you can’t. I will make you.”
The lights flashed again as the researcher wheeled in a 6 year old and completely unconscious Elise on a surgical trolley. He handed the Duke 2 Chaos Emeralds.
“Good luck, my Lord.” He said as he walked back. All of the scientists stood at the edge of the room. The Duke held up the Chaos Emeralds, standing between Solaris and Elise.
“Deactivate system 348,” He said “Code Epsilon. Engage.”
“Friend recognised,” Elise said robotically despite being completely unconscious. The Chaos Emeralds floated out of the Duke’s hands and moved over to Elise, a thin beam of white energy connecting her and the gems.
“What are you doing?” Solaris asked, finally starting to show real fear.
“This is your prison, Solaris. Elise is going to be this world’s saviour. She will use your power to bring back my wife and create the paradise you apparently cannot.”
“You think a child’s body can hold me?”
“No. Elise is no child. I created her as a vessel for you. She will have no problem bending you to her will.”
The Duke moved away and tapped a few buttons to open the cylinder. Solaris screamed as the glowing light that made up its body was pulled into the Emeralds.
“N-No…” Solaris muttered “How did you obtain such powerful artifacts…”
“We had a few lying around,” The Duke replied. “You’d be surprised how often they crop up.”
“Link stability at 70% and dropping,” One of the scientists said as he quickly checked one of the screens. “Complete extraction may not be possible at this point.”
The Duke had by now opted to completely ignore the cowards he was working with. He pressed a few buttons and Solaris’ Light started to flow through the Emeralds into Elise. The being of light continued to scream in agony.
“Stability at 54%,” The scientist said again “These readings are off...very off…”
“I’ll prepare the secondary container,” one of the female scientists said. She ran out of the room, and Solaris began to laugh.
“What’s so funny, Solaris?” The Duke smirked “I assure you, I’m finding this entertaining at least.”
“You know, I have never met such a callous human,” Solaris continued “Maybe the Endless Gods should’ve considered you for the God of Darkness...when they were still alive I mean.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I killed the gods. They have been dead for millennia and they have been dead for two seconds. I killed them all. They gave me another name, you know…’The Dark Deceiver’ in your tongue.”
“Stability at 10%!” The scientist screamed as everyone except the Duke started to file out of the room “Sir, we have to get out of here!”
“And what is your name in your tongue, pray tell?” The Duke continued. For the first time, a face appeared in the darkness: a scowling grin.
“They called me Mephiles.”
The light that wasn’t being absorbed by Elise or the Emeralds formed a ball and exploded outwards. The computers shattered and exploded, and the walls were blown outwards. The Duke and the scientists were thrown back, smashing into the equipment. Most of them were killed by the impact.
At that point, several corridors away, two hedgehogs appeared.
==Chapter 17==
thumb|left|200 px|10 Years Ago
Shadow and Silver looked around, confused by what happened. They were in a grey corridor next to a T-junction: wherever they were seemed to be pretty advanced. The decor seemed familiar to Shadow somehow, although he was too busy trying to figure out what happened to worry about where he was..
“What did you do?” Silver asked Shadow, his hand glowing green.
“Nothing,” Shadow replied, looking at the Chaos Emerald. “I’ve never seen two people use Chaos Control’s time manipulation against each other…” He looked at Silver again “I can’t be sure of what happened.”
“Liar!” Silver shouted and threw a punch at Shadow. Shadow noticed a woman in a lab coat at the end of the hallway who ran down from the connecting passage. What was more shocking was what she was holding: she was carrying the Scepter of Darkness, the purple orb at the centre being transparent now. Shadow casually blocked Silver’s punch and walked over to her. The scientist looked shocked at the two hedgehog’s appearing.
“How the hell did you get inside?” She exclaimed “This base is more secure than G.U.N HQ!”
“We’re...interns,” Shadow said. He pointed at the scepter. “What’s that?”
“It’s the backup container for Solaris, but something’s gone wrong. There was an explosion! Get out of here!”
She then kept running down the hallway in front of her. Solaris… Shadow thought. That’s the person Eggman was talking about...If he’s connected to Mephiles...
Shadow turned to face Silver.
“Something’s happened here,” He said “And it sounds like they need our help. We can beat each other up later...but I’m thinking that what’s here holds significance for both of us.”
Silver cocked his head and folded his arms.
“This place is somehow connected to Mephiles. If you want to find out about him, follow me.”
Shadow skated down the hallway, quickly catching up with the scientist.
“I told you to run!” She said in shock “Everyone needs to evacuate.”
“I’m not a running person myself,” Shadow replied.
“I don’t care if you’re brave or not, Solaris will kill you!”
“People say things will kill me. They don’t tend to be right.”
Shadow looked behind him and noticed Silver was running behind them a few meters back. Silver scowled at him and Shadow raised an eyebrow in response before continuing to follow the scientist. Soon, they reached a circular room covered in purple and red crystals, not dissimilar from the ones Shadow had seen in the future. Bodies were strewn across the floor, being encased in the crystal. In the centre of the room floated a gold sphere. The scientist stepped back in horror.
“No…” She muttered. Then the gold sphere lashed out, firing a burst of energy at her. Silver stood in front of her and batted the blast away with his psychokinesis. Soon, the sphere broke apart and black liquid spilled out of it, forming a puddle on the floor. The remnants of the sphere were set alight and formed into a bright red flame.
“Wait,” Silver gasped “Is that...Mephiles and Iblis?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Shadow replied “But I can’t help but think you’re right.”
The black puddle floated into the air and shot out into the corridor behind them. Shadow yanked the Scepter off the woman next to him.
“Hey!” She exclaimed, pointing at Iblis, “What about that thing?!”
“There’s another way to seal it,” Shadow replied quickly, skating down the hallway after the stream of black liquid, “Mephiles is mine!”
==Chapter 18==
thumb|right|200 px|The Underwater Lab
Despite being floating black liquid, Mephiles moved incredibly fast. He darted through the complex web of corridors quickly, clearly understanding the base’s layout better than Shadow. As it moved around, the walls were covered in purple crystal like the ones where Mephiles had first appeared. Shadow managed to catch up with Mephiles and raised the scepter to hopefully try and seal him, but he was soon knocked over and the scepter went skidding across the floor. Shadow stood up to find a giant purple worm, very similar to the ones he had fought in the future. Luckily, these ones Shadow was able to punch, and he round kicked it in the head, but it also turned out to be tougher than Iblis’ lackeys and simply took the blow before grabbing Shadow with what he assumed was replacements for it’s lips. The monster opened up it’s mouth and tried to devour Shadow, but he unleashed a Chaos Blast and destroyed the beast’s upper body, turning it into a mess of purple crystals and black ooze as he fell to the ground. He looked around and soon realised he’d lost Mephiles, but he knew he could easily follow the trail of crystals he’d left.
“Mephiles!” Shadow shouted as he skated across the crystals “I won’t let you escape!”
The crystals produced more monsters, but Shadow quickly ducked under them and kept moving: considering how tough that one worm was, it was better not to fight them. Soon, he entered into a huge chamber with Mephiles’ trail of crystals running down the centre. The walls were huge glass windows with fish and even dolphins swimming outside.
“The whole base is underwater…” Shadow muttered. Before he could move further, he heard a rumbling beneath him and barely managed to dodge out of the way as another huge worm jumped out of the ground, trying to swallow him whole. Shadow tried to dash away but another worm sprung up in front of him and wrapped around him like a boa constrictor, trying to crush him. Shadow pushed his arm against the worm and fired a Chaos Spear, hearing the crystals of the monster’s body crack. He fired twice more and the creature’s midsection was blown right open, allowing Shadow to easily escape, managing to outrun the other worm. He continued through corridors of crystals, and soon the emergency lighting came on. Shadow assumed it was Silver or the scientist, but then he heard the alarm.
“WARNING,” The alarm blared “FLOOD DETECTED IN SECTOR C.”
Shadow turned around and heard water rushing behind him: The monsters must have shattered the windows to the ocean outside. He skated away, managing to outrun the flood for the most part, eventually reaching another crossroads. However, a flock of purple crystalline birds formed out of the crystals that covered the walls and dived at him. Shadow managed to duck and dodge between most of them, but just when he thought he was clear one of them hit him in the back. Shadow felt an electric charge run through his body as he became completely paralized. He tried to charge his body with Chaos Energy, fight of the paralysis in some way, but he could barely get his fingers moving. The water was rushing closer, faster than he could fight off the paralysis, and the birds flocked around him waiting to strike again the moment he broke free.
As he heard the water directly behind him, a ball of flame flew across the hallway in front of him. A few moments later, Silver appeared. He glanced to his left as he heard the cackling of the birds, which soon flew at him. However, they were soon all surrounded by a green light and hurled into the oncoming tidal wave. Silver jumped in front of the wave and used his powers to hold back the wave as Shadow finally managed to break free. He looked at Silver.
“I owe you one,” Shadow said. Silver nodded and Shadow skated away, continuing his pursuit of Mephiles across the twisting hallways as the paralysis fully wore off. Eventually, the trail ended in a large circular room with a massive purple crystal in the centre. Mephiles was hanging in the air, seemingly catching his breath after the sudden turn of events. Shadow prepared the Scepter, but before he could do anything the crystal broke open, revealing a massive, headless humanoid golem, covered in rock and crystal. The golem threw a punch at Shadow, but he easily ducked under it and kicked him in the leg, only for his Jet Shoes to crack: whatever this thing was made of, it was tougher than the creatures he had fought before.
The creature turned around and tried to smash Shadow with both it’s fists, but as it did so it’s shoulder moved apart slightly, revealing what looked like a glowing eye. Shadow homing attacked the eye and started to pummel it, discovering that it lacked the strength the rest of the creature’s body possessed. The creature staggered back and fired a laser from it’s eye, blasting Shadow away and knocking him into the wall. Shadow landed with his feet on the wall, pushed off, and flew towards the golem, curving under another eye blast before charging his fist with Chaos Energy and punching it in the eye, making the eye explode and the creature crumble to rock and crystal. Shadow landed, got the Scepter out again and looked back at Mephiles.
“What are you…” Mephiles growled. Shadow pointed the scepter at him and it lit up, slowly pulling the black ooze towards him.
“I am Shadow the Hedgehog. You won’t be free from this scepter for a long time, Mephiles.”
The black slime chuckled as he was pulled towards the Scepter.
“Time is not an issue. Not for me.”
Shadow grabbed the Scepter with both hands as the pull intensified and Mephiles was fully absorbed, the orb in the centre now being black like it was when Shadow had found it. He looked around, checking for any other of Mephiles’ creatures, before grabbing his Chaos Emerald and teleporting away.
Continued in Part III
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