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

==Chapter 19==
thumb|right|200 px|Omega Intervenes
The beautiful Wave Ocean resort had been abandoned for a while due to Doctor Eggman’s recent intervention. However, it was now once again in the grips of chaos: Mephiles’ monsters were fighting Eggman’s robots. On a rocky path across the glistening sea, bullets and lasers flew through the air in all directions as a group of robots robots cleaved through the horde of shadows Mephiles had deployed, but no matter how quickly the creatures died more spawned in their place. Just when the robots seemed overwhelmed, another much more powerful robot joined the fight against the darkness, unleashing a missile barrage that proceeded to destroy both sides.
“WORTHLESS CONSUMER MODELS,” Omega growled as he walked out of the smoke across the rock path. A robot with a rocket launcher got up and tried to attack Omega, but Omega quickly grabbed it and threw it into a rock pillar that quickly broke apart and crumbled into the ocean. He continued walking onwards, his sensors firmly locked onto Mephiles’ energy signature. A worm made of purple crystal sprung out of the ground in front of him and tried to eat him, but Omega grabbed the creature’s jaws and ripped it in two, not slowing his advance at all.
He walked out into a wide island area which was filled with robots and monsters duking it out. A robot with giant hands was in a boxing match with a golem like creature. Crystalline birds and flying robots with machine guns were locked in a dogfight. A bipedal robot was scouring the ground with it’s laser, tracking the worms underneath the sand and trying to incinerate them before they surfaced. The entire island was covered in crystal and robot bodies, and both sides seemed evenly matched. As much as Omega would have loved to turn everyone involved into scrap metal and crystal mush, he knew he had a more important objective: find and defeat Mephiles, no matter what. 
He fired up the boosters on his back and flew into the battlefield. Two of the birds flew at him, but he managed to grab them both and crushed them with his bare hands before those hands turned into machine guns that shredded through the hull of the bipedal walker. He jumped through the robot’s smouldering remains as a robot similar to the one fighting the golem fired a giant hand at Omega, which the mighty android casually backhanded away before turning his other hand into a rocket launcher and firing it at the robot, destroying it easily. Soon, a horde of shadows like the one Omega had destroyed in his initial barrage jumped out of the ground, trying to pull Omega down. Omega was forced to slow to a crawl as he tried to move forward, but eventually realised he couldn’t ignore these things.
“TIME WASTING UNAPPRECIATED,” He blared as his hands turned into flamethrowers, eradicating large swathes of the shadows and forcing them to back off. As they did, Omega charged his hands with energy and chucked it out around him.
“AREA BLAST!” He shouted as the energy exploded, destroying a huge chunk of the robots and monsters near him. Omega blasted out of the smoke before any of the other combatants could act, thoroughly confused why anyone would shout the names of their abilities before performing them, but still in sight of his mission. He shot across a loop of rock before coming to a small cave on the edge of the resort. Mephiles walked out of it holding a Chaos Emerald.
“Welcome, Omega,” He said with glee “I’m glad you accepted my invitation. Now, shall we get started?”
==Chapter 20==
The door slid open and Shadow walked out into the daylight. The area was a grassland dotted with ruined statues. Shadow turned round to see the door was a hidden door embedded into the side of the exterior wall of Kingdom Valley. Silver stood in the middle of the grassland area, facing away from Shadow, his quills blowing in the wind.
“Did you contain Iblis?” Shadow asked. Silver nodded.
“The flames are sealed,” He replied. “The scientist we met earlier is handling it.” Silver’s tone turned to a growl “He...he lied to me. Mephiles said if I killed Sonic, my world would be safe…”
“Mephiles has never done anything but lie. He only cares about his schemes...but now we know what those schemes are. He wants to recombine with Iblis.”
Silver turned around.
“We can stop him,” He said “We can go back to your time and stop him achieving his plan.”
Shadow nodded.
“We should aim for different objectives. You can find the Flames of Disaster, keep it safe. Mephiles is mine.”
“You two sound like you have something personal to settle.”
“You could say that.” Shadow replied, putting down the Scepter of Darkness.
“Wait, are you just going to leave it?” Silver gasped in shock.
“It will be fine,” Shadow replied “Trust me.” He pulled out his Chaos Emerald. Silver stood there in surprise for a moment, but he sighed and pulled out his own Emerald.
“Oh, by the way,” Silver said, “When this is over...we should meet. You sound like an interesting guy.”
“I’d like to fight you again. You seem unfocused, but you’ve got potential.”
“I don’t find joy in fighting. I’m here to save the world.”
“Shame,” Shadow said, as the two hedgehogs put their Emeralds together “You might give me a run for my money one day. You ready?”
Silver nodded.
“CHAOS CONTROL!” The two hedgehogs shouted. A bright light surrounded the area, burning the grass around them. They both vanished, and Shadow felt himself falling before landing on hard concrete, once again in the New City of his own time. He stood up and turned around to see that Silver wasn’t with him. Rouge was there, looking slightly shocked by what had happened.
“Ok, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do,” She said. Shadow explained what he’d done, about the white hedgehog, and about him sealing Mephiles.
“So that’s why he took it so personally,” Rouge said. Shadow nodded.
“We know his aim now, though. He wants to fuse with Iblis.”
“Why didn’t he just do that while in the future?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t think he hasn’t thought of that. Maybe he can only fuse with the Iblis of the present day for some reason?”
Shadow folded his arms.
“And now, a question for you. What did you find about the Scepter?”
“The Soleannan Government was hesitant to release documents on the Solaris Project until I told them that you were asking. I called in some favours at G.U.N and…”
Rouge pulled out the Scepter of Darkness from behind her.
“...They managed to come up with a replica. Works exactly the same way...hopefully. We haven’t tested it, not having a synthetic Mephiles and all.”
“Good. Anything else?”
Rouge paused for a moment, clearly worried.
“Omega hasn’t arrived. He hasn’t responded to my calls, an-”
Before she could finish, Rouge’s G.U.N communicator beeped.
“Agent Rouge,” A voice on the other side said “Omega has been spotted in Wave Ocean. Proceed to location immediately.”
“Understood,” Rouge replied, shutting off the communicator before anything else could be said. The two other members of Team Dark looked at each other and spoke in union.
“Mephiles.”
They both turned around and began the trek toward Wave Ocean, hoping to stop their friend blundering into whatever trap Mephiles had prepared for them.
==Chapter 21==
Shadow and Rouge flew over the surface of the water, watching the battle between Eggman’s robots and Mephiles’ monsters come to a close. While the machines had put up a hood fight, the dark creatures had forced them back. The Doctor was recalling his legions, seeing he’d lost the battle, and the robots were flying away into the sky, taking out any of the crystalline birds that were intercepting their retreat.
“Well, at least we only have to deal with one army and not two,” Rouge commented.
The creatures turned away from Eggman’s retreat and looked towards Rouge and Shadow approaching them. A crystalline bird divebombed Rouge, but she backflipped in the air and smashed it into the water with her heel. Shadow, meanwhile, rushed towards the island and attacked a large golem covered in purple crystal, creating a Chaos Spear and stabbing it into the creature’s skull. The monster toppled over, but soon grabbed Shadow and hurled him away towards a group of crystal hounds waiting to devour him. Rouge flew past the golem and snatched Shadow up before the monsters could, letting him land safely on the ground.
“You’re welcome,” Rouge said as Shadow fired two Chaos Spears that blasted the dogs apart. He ran over to the golem that he’d been attacking before. The creature threw a haymaker that Shadow slid under before kicking into the air, the flames from his Jet Shoes burning through the crystal.
“We don’t have time for this, Mephiles!” Shadow shouted as he landed on the sand again and the golem broke into two “Show yourself!”
Another group of crystalline birds flew towards Shadow, but Rouge through a bomb that blew them out of the sky.
“I don’t think he’s coming out, Shadow!” She said “We’re going to have to fight our way to him!”
“Works for me,” Shadow replied. He grabbed Rouge and Chaos Controlled away from the creatures, teleporting to a stone pillar overlooking the resort.
“Scout the area for Omega,” Shadow told Rouge “I’ll keep the monsters off your back.”
“Finding lost treasures is what I do best,” Rouge smiled. She leapt off the rock and flew over the resort, beginning to comb every detail. As she did so, the monsters realised where Shadow had gone. A flock of birds began to fly towards him, and Shadow retorted with a hail of Chaos Spears, shredding the monsters as best he could.
“Found him!” Rouge shouted to Shadow.
“You work quickly.”
“Omega doesn’t make himself difficult to find.”
As the two talked, Mephiles dodged another rocket from Omega. The android had been blasting Mephiles with his entire arsenal, but Mephiles had mostly succeeded in avoiding all of his attacks. Omega rushed forward and tried to swipe at Mephiles, but the crystal being glided back out of range. Omega leapt forward and swung his fist down to try and crush Mephiles, only for a wall of shadows to come in between him and his target.
“Come now, Omega,” Mephiles goaded “You must have a better strategy than mindlessly attacking.”
“STRATEGY HAS 100% SUCCESS RATE,” Omega replied “CONTINUING MISSION.”
Omega pulled his hand away and swiped at Mephiles with the other hand. Mephiles created a web of shadows between his hands and used it to catch Omega’s swipe. He then let the darkness dissolve and fired an energy spike that struck Omega in the shoulder. The robot casually pulled the spike out and grabbed Mephiles, slamming him into the floor.
“WHY DID YOU BRING ME HERE?” Omega asked.
“I just wanted to talk,” Mephiles responded “Unfortunately, the only language you understand is violence.”
“TRUST LEVELS MINIMAL.”
“You work for an organisation that destroys robots like you. I think I am just as trustworthy as your employer.”
“LOGIC ERROR: THERE ARE NO ROBOTS LIKE ME.”
“I should have known I couldn’t reason with someone so simple minded. ”
Mephiles dissolved into the ground. His shadow drifted out of Omega’s hand and reformed in front of him. Omega tried to fire his gatling gun at point blank range, but Mephiles backflipped over the attack and fired a blast of energy through the Chaos Emerald, vaporising everything in front of him and leaving a smoking hole. He floated to the ground, impressed by the Emerald’s power, only to see Omega standing behind the smoking crater. Shadow and Rouge were standing next to him, having seemingly teleported him out.
“Long time no see, Mephiles,” Shadow said.
==Chapter 22==
Shadow and Mephiles glared at each other for a moment, eyes locked.
“I had hoped you wouldn’t come,” Mephiles said, calmly.
“Why not?” Shadow replied “Because things aren’t going to plan? Because your pawns have a mind of their own?”
“What are you implying?”
Shadow smirked.
“Didn’t you know?” He said “I’ve met Silver. He’s no longer under your thrall. We saw your collapse together, and we sealed you and your other half. He knows what you are, Solaris.”
Shadow could see Mephiles’ anger in his eyes, far from the calm manipulator he was before.
“I don’t need him,” He growled. “We’re too far into the endgame for mere pawns to matter. You made a clever move Shadow, but you are far, far too late. If you thought you could play this game as well as me, you’re wrong.”
“I don’t give a damn about your games!” Shadow shouted. He flew towards Mephiles and tried to punch him in the face, but the crystalline being created tendrils of darkness that wrapped around the black hedgehog dragging him to the ground. Shadow began to be pulled down into the pool of shadow, beginning to drown him. Mephiles was so focused on Shadow that he didn’t notice Rouge sneak up behind him and kick him in the head, knocking him towards Omega, who grabbed Mephiles in mid air and smashed him into the ground. Rouge helped pull Shadow out of the tendrils as Mephiles created a crystal golem behind Omega that pulled him off of him. Mephiles teleported away as Omega turned to the creature and shot it with a missile that blew it to pieces.
“Your friends saved you, Shadow,” Mephiles said, becoming calm once again. “How long do you expect that to last?”
“Stop talking!” Shadow threw a Chaos Spear that Mephiles quickly sidestepped.
“They’re the ones that defeat you at long last,” Mephiles continued. “Your team will lure you into a trap with the promise they’re on your side, that they’ll find a way to talk you out. Then the military ambushes you. You destroy most of them, but Omega managed to bring you low. That’s how you get sealed, Shadow. That’s how the people of this world defeat you: with your compassion. With your friends”
Shadow teleported behind Mephiles and tried to kick him in the back of the head, but Mephiles blocked it with his left hand.
“Silver may have listened to your lies,” Shadow hissed “But you can’t lie to me!”
Mephiles chuckled as he fired a burst of energy from his palm that knocked Shadow away.
“Always self-centred,” Mephiles goaded. “I wasn’t just talking to you.”
Shadow looked behind Mephiles. Rouge looked horrified. Omega smashed his hand into the ground before flying towards Mephiles. Mephiles created a wall of darkness to block the robot, but Omega jumped over the wall and started pelting the ground with missiles, blinding Shadow with sand. When the dust settled, there was nothing but a crater left. The group heard Mephiles laughing and looked around in confusion, unable to see him.
“Seeing as I invited Omega to a game, it’s only fair I give you a chance,” He said."There is a Chaos Emerald in Dusty Desert. You have one last chance to beat me. Naturally, you will all survive: you can’t change the future, after all.”
Mephiles laughed again before his voice faded away. The few monsters that remained broke apart into dust. Shadow looked at the other member of his team. Rouge was still distraught. Omega was still angry.
“I WILL TERMINATE MEPHILES FOR HIS INSOLENCE!” Omega growled. “LOGICAL ERROR MUST BE ERADICATED.”
Rouge and Shadow looked at each other: Omega hadn’t seen the video. They both knew Mephiles was telling the truth, even if they didn’t want to accept it.
“He’s lying,” Rouge muttered “He has to be. There’s no way I’d...I’d…”
Shadow put his hand on Rouge’s shoulder.
“I know,” He replied, calmly “I don’t know what happened in the future to make you do that. But if I still believed you, then I must have still thought of you as a friend...right?”
Rouge looked Shadow in the eyes.
“I’m sorry,” Shadow muttered “I’m not good at this emo-”
Rouge hugged him. Shadow was shocked for a moment, but smiled and hugged her back. They both let go as they heard Omega’s heavy footsteps.
“ROUGE. SHADOW.” He said “IF WHAT MEPHILES HAS TOLD US IS TRUE, I WANT TO TELL YOU…THERE IS NO ONE I WOULD RATHER DESTROY WITH. YOUR ASSISTANCE HAS BEEN GREATLY APPRECIATED.”
“You could just call us friends,” Rouge smiled.
“IF THAT IS HOW YOU DEFINE THOSE WHO ASSIST ME IN DESTRUCTION, I WILL KNOW YOU AS FRIENDS.”
“Assist you?” Shadow replied. “I’m the Ultimate Lifeform here.”
“ERROR. NO ULTIMATE LIFEFORM FOUND.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I think we call that a sense of humour,” Rouge smirked.
Shadow smiled. Despite the nightmare of the future, he knew that his friends would always want to help him. Even if they fought for the fate of the world, they at heart were always on his side. He got out his Chaos Emerald.
“Team Dark,” He said “Are you ready to finish this?”
Rouge nodded and Omega smashed his fists together. They put their hands on Shadow’s shoulders.
“CHAOS CONTROL!” He shouted as the group vanished from the ruined resort, ready to destroy Mephiles once and for all.
Category:Skyblade743