Categories > Games > Sonic the Hedgehog > Ultimate Life Forms
Chapter 10 Eggman!
"I want a, slowed down, replay. Now!" Colonel Schmit said, not taking his eyes off of the screen.
"Yes, Sir." Came his answer.
The images on the screen backed up, a few seconds, and then replayed at one fourth speed.
A yellow blur, came from off screen, and went right threw Chaos's head, and out the back of the building.
"Slower." Schmit said.
The image backed up, again, and replayed at one tenth speed.
The yellow blur came threw again, very choppy this time, but enough to make Schmit smile.
"Soo, it looks like we have a battle of gods on our hands." Schmit thought.
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Sonic did a, split second, 360, his hyper focused eyes taking in everything, for several miles around.
Chaos hadn't shown himself yet, but Sonic was sure that would change.
Sonic looked, zoomed, and stopped to do another 360. He was feeling very hyper, due to all of the Chaos energy running threw him, and was itching for something to happen.
The water below him started to boil.
Sonic moved, just as the water shot up like a geyser, missing him.
Another tidal wave came at him, but he just flew straight up, until he was out of the waves range.
A blast of water sent Sonic spinning threw the air.
Sonic felt his energy diminish, as he righted himself, in the air, and did another 360, looking for the source of the attack.
Chaos had formed himself into a cone, like, body, with his giant, sea monster like, head on top.
Sonic raced toward Chaos, but the giant creature, who had brought his namesake to the city, saw him coming, and purposely lost his integrity, and fell toward the flooded ground like rain.
Sonic stopped, did a quick 360, saw nothing, moved to a different vantage point, and did another 360, still nothing.
Sonic continued to move around, feeling quite agitated. The water had stopped advancing on the City, but it was not receding back into the ocean, which meant that Chaos was still in control.
In the middle of, what was probably, his twenty-fourth 360 he saw Chaos, pulling his new form up out of the water.
Sonic zoomed towards his foe, determined to hit him this time.
Another geyser like spray came out of the water below, only this one actually hit Sonic. It weakened him, and slowed him down a little, but Sonic was still super, and kept coming.
Another wave came at Sonic, from his right. If he took to the sky, where he would be out of reach of the wave, he would loose some of his momentum, and he would give Chaos the time he needed to retreat again. So Sonic moved left, until he was out of the waves reach, and continued on towards Chaos.
Another geyser! But Sonic was paying attention this time, and avoided it without slowing down.
Another geyser, and a blast from Chaos's mouth. Sonic barely skirted around them, and crashed threw Chaos's head.
Chaos's form fell towards the water below, but the flood still did not recede.
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Shadow skated up the side of a skyscraper, and jumped off onto the roof of a shorter one. The building, apparently had suffered greatly from Chaos's attack, because it immediately started to collapse, and sink into the water.
Shadow skated, and jumped onto the roof of a neighboring building, which, upon landing, didn't seem all that stable, but, none the less, didn't collapse either.
Shadow had watched from afar, as Chaos spread himself across the city. And although it had been clear that there was quite a bit of destruction, and that at least Sonic, and G.U.N. had tried to challenge the creature, he was sure of little else, and wanted to come in for a closer look.
Now that he was here, he looked out from his new vantage point.
Some of the buildings were badly damaged, others, like the one he had just vacated, had collapsed, and sunk, still others, around half, hadn't even been touched by Chaos. But there was no sign of the water creature's new, and improved, head.
Water blasted into the air, like multiple geysers. Two large waves crashed into some of the city buildings. A yellow streak flew past.
Shadow's first thought was to try and get out of the way, but then he realized that the waves weren't coming near him.
A horizontal blast of water! Spear pointed by something yellow.
Shadow looked to where the source had come from, and saw Chaos's new head, and his new body. It looked rather cone shaped, large at the bottom, and small at the top, with Chaos's new eel like head looking out over the city.
Another flash of yellow light!
This time Shadow turned to see what the light was. It was Sonic! He had gone super.
Shadow watched, as Chaos sent several watery attacks at Sonic, all of which were dodged. Then Sonic went right threw Chaos's head.
Chaos's body fell to the water below, and the flood receded a little.
Shadow smiled. Yes Sonic could be a pain, but he seemed to be just as much a help to Shadow as he was a nuisance. Maybe taking him out permanently wouldn't be such a good idea after all.
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"Yeah! Go Sonic!" Tails yelled.
Knuckles just watched in silence. He didn't share Tails enthusiasm at all. The welcome surprise, he had felt, when Sonic went super, had worn off, and now he felt nervous. True Sonic, had gone super, and he had hit Chaos a fair number of times, but Chaos had gotten his power from the Chaos Emeralds too, and had managed to score a few hits of his own.
Knuckles had the nagging feeling that Chaos would outlast Sonic. But Sonic had proven himself capable of taking on overwhelming odds in the past. And Knuckles hadn't thought he'd be able to do it any of those times either. And if he voiced his doubts now, Tails would tell Sonic, and they'd both just laugh at him later. So he just watched and waited.
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Colonel Schmit watched the computer screen, as Chaos, and Super Sonic fought. The satellite cameras had been adjusted, to better observe the two combatants, and for the past minute the only sounds that were heard, were the occasional gasp, at the speed and power, being displayed by Sonic or Chaos.
"None of them were there when Gerald created the Ultimate Life Forms." Schmit thought, smugly to himself. "Until now no one, except perhaps Eggman, knew their power."
Schmit was confident as to what the outcome would be. Sonic would kill Chaos, and then Schmit would be able to get back to the real project at hand.
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Sonic was tired. The hyper active energy, that had been coursing through his body, the first minute after going super, had left. Then there had been about a minute of just straight fighting, during which he had slowly pushed Chaos back. And now he was tired.
Being tired when he was super was different, than being tired when he was normal. When he was normal if he was tired he rested, but when he was super he was charged with Chaos Energy, that is quickly being used up. Being attacked, or attacking, or flying, used up the energy faster than if he just stood there. And when he finally got tired, from lack of Chaos Energy, he either needed more, or he needed to let his super form go. The longer he held onto it, the more stress he put his body under. Similar to holding one's breath; you couldn't do it forever.
And now, to top things off, Chaos seemed to be reluctant to come out, and continue fighting. He was down there somewhere in the flooded city, but Sonic couldn't think of a way to find him when he was hiding, he had been counting on Chaos fighting, but now the water creature seemed to be biding his time, and while he was doing that, Sonic's super form became all the harder to hang on to.
A geyser like blast knocked Sonic out of his flight path, and made him strain all the harder to hold on to his super form.
He had to do something before he reached his physical limit. He wasn't taking Chaos out fast enough. He needed to try something else.
A blast from Chaos's mouth! Sonic dodged it, and charged towards the attack's source.
Chaos lost his integrity, and fell towards the city.
Sonic stopped, above the place Chaos had been, and looked away, trying to spot where Chaos's head would pop up next, if it popped up again at all.
Below Sonic, Chaos's form stopped raining towards the city in mid fall, re-formed his head, and hit Sonic with a water blast.
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Knuckles saw Sonic get blasted up in the air, but, more importantly, he didn't see the glow that Sonic's super form gave off. During the whole fight, before hand, Knuckles had always been able to see the yellow light, given off been Super Sonic. Which could only mean one thing; Sonic had lost his super form.
Knuckles may normally have been one for strategy, when there was time to formulate one, but sometimes there was no time to be had.
His feet started taking him towards Chaos of their own accord, at top speed, before he even realized it.
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Chaos saw gravity regain control over the air born Sonic, and he started to fall, but his color had changed from yellow to blue, which meant that Chaos had won.
He would not make the same mistake as last time, by sending Sonic too close to the Chaos Emeralds. This time he would drown the pathetic little blue hedgehog as far away from the Emeralds as possible, and then there would be no one who could stop him.
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Shadow watched, as Sonic fell into Chaos's awaiting jaws. A pain stabbed at Shadow's stomach in response, but Shadow ignored it.
He didn't care if Sonic died.
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Almost everyone in the room gasped this time, Colonel Schmit included. Sonic had lost. Schmit had been sure that the hedgehog that had defeated Gerald's grandson would have been able to handle Chaos.
Now he had no idea what was going to happen, or what to do.
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Knuckles reached one of the few stable buildings, that was close to Chaos, and looked the water creature's, semi transparent, hide over, for Sonic. He saw the blue hedgehog getting pulled down Chaos's body, farther, and farther, by the current.
Knuckles just stood there a second, and went over his options, but he could only think of two. Run, or jump.
He took a deep breath, and jumped.
Knuckles hit the water with a splash, and immediately looked around for Sonic.
He was surprised by how much debris was swirling around in Chaos; pieces of buildings, cars, all kinds of odds and ends that one found in a city. But, luckily, most of those things weren't blue, and he spotted Sonic quickly; the current was pulling him down, faster and faster, but Knuckles was also in the current, and it was taking him in the same direction.
Knuckles shoved his powerful arms in front of him, and pulled himself forward. The gap between him and Sonic shrank. Knuckles repeated the process, again, and again, until at last he had reached his blue rival.
Knuckles rapped his legs around Sonic's waist, and turned back towards the surface. He was worried by the fact that Sonic didn't struggle, but had to put the thought out of his mind, because of a new problem. He was now trying to swim against the current.
Knuckles swung his arms forward, and then pushed them to his side, surging forward, and getting knocked backwards, almost immediately afterwards. Knuckles didn't pause, for there was nothing to gain by waiting, and everything to loose. He pushed again.
He got the feeling that he was going forwards more than backwards, but he was starting to tire from lack of air. He ignored this, and forced his arms to continue moving, and his legs to keep there hold on Sonic, who was doing a pretty good impersonation of a rag doll.
Knuckles continued pushing with all his might. The current seemed to lessen a little, but Knuckles assumed it was only his imagination, and concentrated harder, so as not to pass out under water.
Knuckles was sure he was almost at his limit, because the current seemed to lessen still more, and then, quite suddenly, he popped out of the water.
Knuckles didn't bother to try, and understand it; instead he took a deep breath, threw Sonic onto his back, and glided towards the nearest building.
The building's top was higher than Knuckles glide, and he hit the side, and hung on, with his knuckle claws, but he had forgotten about Sonic, who immediately slid off of his back, and fell towards the water.
"Oh, No you don't!" Knuckles wheezed out, loudly, and jumped down, and caught Sonic, with his left hand, and the wall with his right. He had been falling fast, and Sonic added extra weight, that Knuckles wasn't used to, and his claws weren't designed for, so he slid down, about ten feet, leaving a double scratch on the side of the building, where he had slid.
Knuckles looked down, and saw that Sonic's toes were dipping into the water. "Just great." He thought to himself.
With one arm, Knuckles wrapped Sonic's arms around Knuckles neck, and held them there with his chin. Then he put both his arms to the task of taking them both up the wall. It was slow going, not because his arms couldn't take it, but because he didn't have a very good grip on Sonic this way, and he was afraid of dropping him.
As Knuckles slowly climbed the building he became more and more worried about Sonic. He wasn't breathing, and needed CPR, but Knuckles couldn't give it to him on the side of a building, and he couldn't risk dropping Sonic, by going faster.
Knuckles had been concentrating on his task so hard, that he didn't here the sound of the approach, until the person spoke.
"Hand him over. I'll take him up."
Knuckles carefully turned, so as not to drop Sonic, and saw Tails, hovering right next to him, and Sonic.
Knuckles inwardly praised God, and carefully handed Sonic off to Tails.
Now that he was free of his burden, in the physical sense, Knuckles was able to reach the top of the building a little ahead of Tails.
Once they were both at the top Knuckles pressed on Sonic's stomach. The hedgehog didn't respond. Knuckles tried three times more, and then applied mouth to mouth. The second press after this made the blue hedgehog start coughing up water.
Knuckles inwardly praised God again, as Sonic started to sit up, but then a thought occurred to him. Why hadn't Chaos attacked them yet? Surely they hadn't gone unnoticed, by the big blue water monster.
Knuckles looked out, and saw Chaos, fighting a flying silver light.
"Can this day get any weirder?" Knuckles wondered.
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Shadow put Sonic out of his mind, and searched Chaos's semi transparent body for the Chaos Emeralds.
They were a little hard to miss, being as they were glowing like crazy, and spinning in circles, on the right side of Chaos's body.
Shadow made a guess for what part of the current would take him a course past the Emeralds, and did a jumping spin attack about ten feet above the Chaos Emeralds.
Shadow hit the water, and was amazed by how powerful the current was. He tried to spot the Chaos Emeralds, but when he opened his eyes the rushing water stung them, and he closed them again.
But he could sense the power of the Emeralds, and it was getting stronger.
All at once Shadow felt his body absorb a tremendous amount of energy, and Shadow opened his eyes.
He could see this time, and the water didn't bother his eyes in the least.
Shadow looked up, towards Chaos's brain, and went for it, full speed.
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Once again Chaos felt his brain explode. This time it hadn't hurt as much as the other times, but effect was the same. His body lost its integrity, and he fell towards the flood waters below.
Chaos formed his eye, beneath the waters surface, and looked around for the source of the attack.
He saw the other hedgehog, floating around in almost the exact same pose as Sonic, but he was silver instead of yellow, and he wasn't on fire.
Chaos had an understanding of Chaos energy, and understood what this meant. Either Sonic was more powerful than the other hedgehog, and was strong enough to produce the extra energy that was needed to set one self on fire. Or it was a difference of style. If Sonic was the excitable type, and he seemed to be to Chaos, then he would probably subconsciously channel his Chaos energy in a more erratic and destructive way. Where as if this other hedgehog was the more disciplined type, and he seemed to be to Chaos, then he was more likely to subconsciously save up his energy, so that his super form would last longer, then use it up in a more powerful, but also slightly wasteful, way.
But as far as Chaos was concerned all this meant was that this hedgehog's attacks wouldn't hurt him as badly as Sonic's had, but it would also take Chaos longer to drain the hedgehog's super form of it's energy.
"A fair trade." Chaos thought to himself.
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Sonic coughed up water, sat up, and looked around. Tails and Knuckles were huddled over him, smiling like crazy. But all at once Knuckles stopped smiling, and looked out over the water.
Sonic followed his gaze and saw Chaos snap at a flying silver light, which moved to fast, then came around, and hit Chaos in the back of the head, causing his form to loose it's stability, and fall to the water below.
"Who's that?" Sonic asked.
"Who's who?" Tails asked back, apparently surprised by how fast Sonic had gone from unconscious too the problem at hand.
"No idea." Knuckles answered them both. "He looks kind of like you, when you're super, except he's silver, and doesn't give off as much light."
Knuckles side eyed Sonic, with a mischievous glare and said. "By the way I'm going to kill you when this is all over."
Sonic turned to Knuckles perplexed, and asked. "Why?"
"Because of your rash actions I had to drag you out of the water, and give you mouth to mouth." Knuckles said, with a mock frown.
Sonic immediately spat on the roof of the building, and wiped his mouth with his glove. "Ew grouse. I got echidna spit in my mouth.
Tails just laughed.
"Laugh it up fox boy." Sonic said, with the expression of a child who had just taken a bite of spinach.
"As amusing as this is, I think we need to get back to the problem at hand, namely Chaos." Knuckles said.
"Right." Sonic said, relieved to have an excuse to change the topic. "So, who looks like me, and has a silver super form?"
"The only hedgehogs we know are Amy, and Shadow." Tails said.
"Aw man, Amy!" Knuckles said.
"What about her?" Sonic asked.
"When I heard Chaos start trying to knock over buildings I was with Amy. I thought you might be stupid enough to attack him, and thought I should check, but she wanted to come with me. So I pretended to see you run past, pointed her in the safest direction, she went running, and then I came to find you." Knuckles said.
Sonic smirked and said. "Wish that trick would work for me."
"Sonic! she could be in real trouble." Knuckles said.
Sonic sighed, and thought for a moment, then said. "Okay you two go look for her. I'm gonna go see to our mysterious silver hedgehog."
"That's the smartest thing I've heard you say all day." Knuckles said, as they all went off in three different directions.
Sonic meant to make a snappy come back, but didn't get the chance, because Chaos roared, something fierce, and started thrashing around.
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Colonel Schmit's apprehension was much higher, as he watcher Shadow take on Chaos, than it had been as he watched Sonic battle Chaos.
He had been positive that Super Sonic would pummel Chaos, with relative ease. Now... Now he didn't know what to think. So he watched, and waited.
On the screen Super Shadow attacked Chaos, but this time Chaos didn't fall apart, but rather started thrashing around, angrily.
"Well it looks like, whatever that was, it didn't work." Schmit thought.
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Shadow smiled an evil smile, and stared at his prize.
The fatal flaw in Sonic's strategy had been that he had let Chaos _keep_ the Chaos Emeralds. Shadow wasn't going to do so. He was going to take them from Chaos, and with everyone he took, he grew stronger, and Chaos grew weaker. And when he finally had all seven he would kill the stupid creature that had been a thorn in his side for so long.
Shadow looked back at the place Chaos had been thrashing, and saw nothing. Shadow did a 360, just as Sonic had done before, looking for his foe.
Chaos reformed closer to Shadow than usual. He was apparently feeling very aggressive after Shadow had taken one of the Chaos Emeralds.
Shadow saw, with his hyper focused eyes, the light of one of the Chaos Emeralds, and made a mad, flying, dash for it.
Chaos whipped out a tentacle, that he had been hiding behind a building, and was as long as he was, and slapped Shadow with it, knocking him off course.
Shadow went threw Chaos's body and out the other side; he didn't loose his Chaos Emerald, but he didn't get another either.
Chaos sent a wave, geyser like blast, and blast from his mouth at, and around Shadow.
The wave hit him, and he was slammed into a building, but still he did not let go of his Emerald.
A thought occurred to Shadow, and he smiled. "Chaos Control." He said, and appeared above, and behind his foe.
Shadow quickly planned his trajectory, and went threw Chaos's brain, but not satisfied with that, kept going into the monstrosity's body, and came out with two more Chaos Emeralds.
Shadow clutched the gems in his hand, as their power flowed into him, slowing down the rate his super form expired.
"Way to go Shads!" A familiar voice called out.
Shadow smiled. He knew the sound of that voice. Sonic had survived, and given him praise!
Shadow frowned, as he realized what thoughts, and feelings were running threw his head. They were illogical. He had already established that he didn't care if Sonic died, and he most certainly didn't care about Sonic's praise. But then why did he have these feelings?
Shadow cast his feelings into the deepest depths of his heart, and there he stomped on them. If he cared for anybody on the planet he would be unable to avenge Maria, and besides, he couldn't bear to care for someone else and then possibly loose them too.
Shadow stared down at the gems in his hands. They were the symbol, and source of power, for both him, and his foes.
He couldn't have his vengeance against the people who had hurt him if he didn't have all of the Chaos Emeralds, but carrying all seven, even when he was super, would be risky and dangerous.
"Chaos Control." Shadow said, and appeared over the roof of one of the buildings that was on opposite side of the City. Chaos's flood hadn't even gotten remotely close to this building. Shadow set two of the Chaos Emeralds down, as far out of sight as he could, and then Chaos Controlled back to Chaos.
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Tails sat down, on the edge of a building, for a minute, to catch his breath.
Sonic had run off, in Chaos's direction, to see who was attacking the monstrosity, and see if he could help, and Knuckles was looking for Amy in the area along the edge of Chaos's flood, for the time being anyway. As for himself he was looking for Amy in the parts of the City that hadn't even been touched by the flood yet. After all, Knuckles had told Amy he saw Sonic in the safe part of the city.
On the plus side Amy was pink, and wore pink clothing, which made her stand out. But on the minus side just about everyone in the city was rushing to get away from Chaos's flood, as they should be, but it made for a much bigger crowd that Tails had to look through, and being as humans were taller than Mobians, Tails might not be able to see her, even if she was right under his nose.
Tails started to get up, but as he did he felt a bulge, in his pocket, rub against his leg. He pulled the bulge out, and saw the fake Chaos Emerald, that he had brought with him. In all of the excitement he had forgotten about it.
Tails put the Emerald back in his pocket, and got back to searching for Amy, but even as he put his body to this task, his mind remained on the fake Emerald.
Could he use it as a weapon against Chaos? It would drain him of some of his energy. But Chaos would probably become very suspicious of him voluntarily throwing a Chaos Emerald into Chaos's flood waters. And besides, Chaos already had all of the Chaos Emeralds. He wasn't likely to fall for a fake when he already carried the original. Maybe if they got the real one away from him, and then pretended to drop the fake one where Chaos would get it?
A twinkle of light, just out of the corner of his eye, caught Tails attention. He turned to look, but he didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
He went in for a closer look. At first he saw nothing, and then saw three small glowing lights, as tucked away as was possible on a roof top.
They were the Chaos Emeralds.
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Shadow reappeared, and was slammed threw a building, and out the other side, by a blast of water.
Apparently Chaos was learning to predict where Shadow would appear, based on the energy output given off by activating Chaos Control.
No matter how much Shadow disliked Chaos he had to give him this, he was a fast learner, when it came to Chaos abilities.
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Sonic ran, and jumped from building to building, and watched as Shadow, and Chaos duked it out. There had been quite a few unstable buildings, but none of them fell into the water.
Shadow kept disappearing, and reappearing, and Sonic realized that this was why Shadow kept shouting "Chaos Control!". It must be the password, or something, to using the Chaos Emeralds to teleport. And of course Sonic thought that, that was way past cool.
Sonic heard the water below start rushing. Sonic looked over the edge of the building, and saw Chaos's flood retreating. Shadow was pushing him back!
"Yeah! That's showin him!" Sonic called out.
Shadow turned towards Sonic, but Sonic couldn't make out his expression, because of the distance.
Chaos took advantage of Shadow's lapse in concentration, and grabbed Shadow with his two tentacles.
"Oops." Sonic thought.
Chaos slammed Shadow into the building on his left, and then the one on his right, before Shadow managed to break free.
Shadow attacked Chaos's body, and came out with another Chaos Emerald.
"What's that, his sixth?" Sonic wondered.
"Chaos Spear!" Shadow shouted.
This one was new to Sonic, and he watched with even greater anticipation, if such a thing was possible.
A continuous beam of light came out of each of Shadow's hands, and hit Chaos, at the base of his body.
Chaos's base lost its integrity, and the part of his body just above fell towards the beam being emitted from Shadow's hands, and then the process repeated itself.
Chaos shook his head back and forth, as if he was being electrocuted.
"Ouch." Sonic said.
Chaos's head reached the beam, and was blown apart.
The rushing water just fell, and spread out in all directions. Chaos had completely lost control over the flood waters.
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Knuckles had a problem. He had been gliding around looking for Amy, and then he'd found her. Now he just had to figure out what to do.
Go down to Amy, and escort her to safety? Hardly. She wouldn't listen to him anyway, and though she wasn't the brightest girl he had ever seen, he was pretty sure that she had figured out that he had lied to her by now.
No. Going down was out of the question. Maybe he could wait, and have Sonic be the one to approach her. That would probably cool her down, and would also be a good punishment for Sonic. So, until then, he could just stay up here, and waste his time, by following her around. Yeah, Right.
Chaos's flood was retreating, but Knuckle's conscience wouldn't' let him leave Amy quite yet.
"Why does my life have to be so complicated?" Knuckles wondered.
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Sonic saw Super Shadow reappear, and charge into the rushing water. A second later he came back out, dragging Chaos, in his original form, behind him.
Super Shadow threw Chaos onto the street, well away from any manholes, and hit him with a super powered spin attack.
"Hey! What on earth does he think he's doing?" Sonic thought, as he jumped off of the building, and started running down the side of it.
Shadow hit Chaos three more times, in the time it took sonic to reach the bottom of the building.
Sonic ran over, and hit Super Shadow with a spin attack.
The effect could have been better. Sonic bounced and, and Super Shadow didn't even stagger. But he did turn around, angrily.
Sonic landed on his feet, and stared right back at Shadow, not intimidated the least by his Super form, and said. "Knock it off, or I'll have to knock some sense into you."
Super Shadow stared at Sonic for a few moments, his eyes narrowed, his fists clenched. And then he said two words. "Chaos Control."
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The other hedgehog disappeared, and that left Chaos, and Sonic.
Chaos stared at Sonic, trying to understand him. After all the fights, and almost being drowned, twice! Sonic had come to Chaos's aid, when he had been about to die himself.
Sonic turned away from the spot the other hedgehog had been, and gave his attention to Chaos.
Sonic's expression had been hard, when he had spoken to the other hedgehog, but now it was laid back, and relaxed.
"So, now what?" He asked.
Chaos couldn't speak so he just stared, but unlike the times before, where he had worked anger, and intimidation into his stare, was just simple curiosity, and thanks. Something he hadn't tried to communicate since the first day he had awakened.
He had assumed that all people were like the one's who had awakened him, cruel, and hard, or just plain unfeeling. He had judged all living creatures to be the same, for none had ever shone him kindness, or understanding. But now... Now someone had. And if there was one, chances were there was more, probably many, many more, and if that was so, then Chaos couldn't kill them. And even if there wasn't, if he wanted to try again he would have to fight Sonic again, and he did not know of anything that could make him fight a being of such honor again.
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Sonic saw the thanks, in Chaos's eyes, and decided that, for the time being anyway, Chaos was no longer a threat.
But he still didn't have an answer to his question. Now what?
"Sonic!" Tails called out, as he helicoptered down.
Sonic turned towards Tails, and then back to Chaos. Would Chaos extend his thanks to Sonic's friends?
Chaos's eyes didn't narrow, or show any other sign of hostility. Instead he just sent a glance in Tails direction, and then dropped down into an oblong, shape, and made his way to the nearest drain.
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Shadow reappeared inside the Ark, with the three of the seven Chaos Emeralds.
He hadn't wanted to come with all seven, because then he would have remained super, and risked damaging something. He had already brought the other four, and they were in the next room over.
It was time to make history, or end it.
Shadow hadn't wanted to take a chance with his teleport, since it was such a long distance, and the room where the Chaos Emeralds went had a walkway, with a very long drop. So he had teleported a few rooms away from the one that had the equipment to use the Chaos Emeralds. A simple precaution, that wouldn't cost him no more than a minute.
Shadow walked threw the few rooms, carrying the three Chaos Emeralds, quickly, and quietly. He didn't want his memories of this place to come back. It would all be over soon, anyway.
As he walked his movements became jerky, and less sure. Part of him didn't want to go threw with this. But he ignored that part, and continued walking, until he reached the last door.
Shadow straightened up, and pushed the, open door, button with allot more force than was required.
A wall of steam came out of the dark room. Shadow ignored this, and walked right in. It was a few moments later that he realized that there wasn't supposed to be anything in the room that created steam like that.
Shadow stopped, and looked around, but the room was dark, since the only light source was coming from the room he had just left. Now that he thought about it, the console, he had been approaching, should have been running, with enough blinking lights to make a Christmas tree jealous.
"Bwa ha ha ha." A familiar voice laughed, and the laugh echoed off of the walls, making for a very eerie few moments.
Lights came on, and Shadow turned, and saw the source of the steam, that had hit him when he walked in the room.
Dr. Eggman sat in the center of a rather large rectangular robot, which was hovering over the long drop Shadow had wanted to avoid. There were guns, of various shapes, and sizes scattered all over it, along with missile, and rocket launchers, and two big claws, at the end of retractable tentacles, as well as several sets of vents, dumping gas, steam, and only Eggman knew what else, into the air. Now that the robot was running, it was also making allot of noise.
Normally a very impressive display of weapons, and firepower, but Shadow had just licked Chaos, and felt annoyed, rather than impressed.
"I don't believe that I've learned your name yet." Eggman commented.
Shadow considered ignoring the question, but the part of him that didn't want to go threw with his plan, wanted him to answer, and Shadow decided that giving in on this point, might get the nagging feeling to leave him alone, once he had dealt with the Dr.
"My name is Shadow, the Ultimate Life Form." Shadow said.
Shadow could barely make out Eggman's smile, due to the distance, and lousy lighting.
"Ah a shadow, a product of the night. How appropriate. Good night, Shadow." Eggman said.
Shadow had been watching Eggman's machine for a sign of attack, but he didn't see one; however he did feel a small prick, on his back.
Shadow turned around, and saw a small round robot, hovering in the doorway. Shadow turned back to Eggman, but even as he did he felt his body start slowing down.
He still completed the turn quickly, and saw Eggman's giant machine fade, and Eggman fly forward, in that little hover craft of his.
Eggman had distracted Shadow with a hologram, and made allot of noise, so that his little probe would be able to sneak behind Shadow unnoticed, and then shoot him with a tranquilizer.
As Shadow felt sleep take him, he heard Eggman speak one more time.
"I've got to try this on Sonic some time."
............................................................................................................
Tails landed next to Sonic, and they gave each other a high five.
"So, how'd the fight go? Did you help?" Tails asked.
"The fight was rad, and I did help, although probably not the way your thinking."
"Oh?" Tails asked. Wondering what Sonic meant by that, but also knowing that it wouldn't take more than the simple invitation to get Sonic to tell him what had happened.
"Yeah, Shadow beat Chaos, by taken his Emeralds, and using Chaos Control, that's the password to how he teleports, to disappear, and reappear all over the place. He was able run circles around Chaos, because of it, and he whooped him good. After he took the seventh Chaos Emerald, Chaos didn't have enough energy to keep the City flooded, so he reverted back to his original form, and the water started heading back into the ocean, but Shads was really mad, or something, cause he pulled Chaos out of the water, and started laying into him. Naturally Chaos was no match for super Shads, so I ran down, and hit him the back." Sonic said.
"Wow!" Tails said. "You attacked Shadow, when he was super!?"
"Yup. Bounced right off though, but Shads was really intimidated, or something, cause he split right after that." Sonic said.
Tails was just loving the story, after all it was about his favorite person.
"Then what'd Chaos do?" He asked.
"I think he was grateful that I saved his life, because he didn't attack, or anything. Then when he saw you he just left." Sonic said.
"So that brings us to now?" Tails asked.
"Yeah, pretty much." Sonic said. "I wish we knew where Shadow went, or what he plans on doing with all of the Emeralds."
Tails smiled, as he remembered something. When Sonic noticed, he sent Tails a mock inquisitive stare, and said. "Okay out with it. What's so funny?"
"Shadow doesn't have all the Chaos Emeralds. I saw where he was hiding them, during the fight with Chaos, and I switched our fake with the one that was the same color." Tails said, as he held up the same Chaos Emerald they had hid in the garage last night.
"Tails," Sonic said. "you're a genius!"
............................................................................................................
Eggman had some of the worker bots, that he had brought with him gather up the Chaos Emeralds, that Shadow had been kind enough to deliver, and lock the hedgehog up, in the nearest convenient room.
It was funny. This morning things had been going splendidly, and then Chaos had betrayed him, which should have made for a rather abysmal day, and a grumpy Eggman along with it, but then Shadow comes along, and Eggman easily suckers him into a trap, and now he was almost giddy. In fact he was in such a good mood, he didn't mind that much that one of the Emeralds Shadow had brought was a fake.
............................................................................................................
To Be Continued...
"I want a, slowed down, replay. Now!" Colonel Schmit said, not taking his eyes off of the screen.
"Yes, Sir." Came his answer.
The images on the screen backed up, a few seconds, and then replayed at one fourth speed.
A yellow blur, came from off screen, and went right threw Chaos's head, and out the back of the building.
"Slower." Schmit said.
The image backed up, again, and replayed at one tenth speed.
The yellow blur came threw again, very choppy this time, but enough to make Schmit smile.
"Soo, it looks like we have a battle of gods on our hands." Schmit thought.
............................................................................................................
Sonic did a, split second, 360, his hyper focused eyes taking in everything, for several miles around.
Chaos hadn't shown himself yet, but Sonic was sure that would change.
Sonic looked, zoomed, and stopped to do another 360. He was feeling very hyper, due to all of the Chaos energy running threw him, and was itching for something to happen.
The water below him started to boil.
Sonic moved, just as the water shot up like a geyser, missing him.
Another tidal wave came at him, but he just flew straight up, until he was out of the waves range.
A blast of water sent Sonic spinning threw the air.
Sonic felt his energy diminish, as he righted himself, in the air, and did another 360, looking for the source of the attack.
Chaos had formed himself into a cone, like, body, with his giant, sea monster like, head on top.
Sonic raced toward Chaos, but the giant creature, who had brought his namesake to the city, saw him coming, and purposely lost his integrity, and fell toward the flooded ground like rain.
Sonic stopped, did a quick 360, saw nothing, moved to a different vantage point, and did another 360, still nothing.
Sonic continued to move around, feeling quite agitated. The water had stopped advancing on the City, but it was not receding back into the ocean, which meant that Chaos was still in control.
In the middle of, what was probably, his twenty-fourth 360 he saw Chaos, pulling his new form up out of the water.
Sonic zoomed towards his foe, determined to hit him this time.
Another geyser like spray came out of the water below, only this one actually hit Sonic. It weakened him, and slowed him down a little, but Sonic was still super, and kept coming.
Another wave came at Sonic, from his right. If he took to the sky, where he would be out of reach of the wave, he would loose some of his momentum, and he would give Chaos the time he needed to retreat again. So Sonic moved left, until he was out of the waves reach, and continued on towards Chaos.
Another geyser! But Sonic was paying attention this time, and avoided it without slowing down.
Another geyser, and a blast from Chaos's mouth. Sonic barely skirted around them, and crashed threw Chaos's head.
Chaos's form fell towards the water below, but the flood still did not recede.
............................................................................................................
Shadow skated up the side of a skyscraper, and jumped off onto the roof of a shorter one. The building, apparently had suffered greatly from Chaos's attack, because it immediately started to collapse, and sink into the water.
Shadow skated, and jumped onto the roof of a neighboring building, which, upon landing, didn't seem all that stable, but, none the less, didn't collapse either.
Shadow had watched from afar, as Chaos spread himself across the city. And although it had been clear that there was quite a bit of destruction, and that at least Sonic, and G.U.N. had tried to challenge the creature, he was sure of little else, and wanted to come in for a closer look.
Now that he was here, he looked out from his new vantage point.
Some of the buildings were badly damaged, others, like the one he had just vacated, had collapsed, and sunk, still others, around half, hadn't even been touched by Chaos. But there was no sign of the water creature's new, and improved, head.
Water blasted into the air, like multiple geysers. Two large waves crashed into some of the city buildings. A yellow streak flew past.
Shadow's first thought was to try and get out of the way, but then he realized that the waves weren't coming near him.
A horizontal blast of water! Spear pointed by something yellow.
Shadow looked to where the source had come from, and saw Chaos's new head, and his new body. It looked rather cone shaped, large at the bottom, and small at the top, with Chaos's new eel like head looking out over the city.
Another flash of yellow light!
This time Shadow turned to see what the light was. It was Sonic! He had gone super.
Shadow watched, as Chaos sent several watery attacks at Sonic, all of which were dodged. Then Sonic went right threw Chaos's head.
Chaos's body fell to the water below, and the flood receded a little.
Shadow smiled. Yes Sonic could be a pain, but he seemed to be just as much a help to Shadow as he was a nuisance. Maybe taking him out permanently wouldn't be such a good idea after all.
............................................................................................................
"Yeah! Go Sonic!" Tails yelled.
Knuckles just watched in silence. He didn't share Tails enthusiasm at all. The welcome surprise, he had felt, when Sonic went super, had worn off, and now he felt nervous. True Sonic, had gone super, and he had hit Chaos a fair number of times, but Chaos had gotten his power from the Chaos Emeralds too, and had managed to score a few hits of his own.
Knuckles had the nagging feeling that Chaos would outlast Sonic. But Sonic had proven himself capable of taking on overwhelming odds in the past. And Knuckles hadn't thought he'd be able to do it any of those times either. And if he voiced his doubts now, Tails would tell Sonic, and they'd both just laugh at him later. So he just watched and waited.
............................................................................................................
Colonel Schmit watched the computer screen, as Chaos, and Super Sonic fought. The satellite cameras had been adjusted, to better observe the two combatants, and for the past minute the only sounds that were heard, were the occasional gasp, at the speed and power, being displayed by Sonic or Chaos.
"None of them were there when Gerald created the Ultimate Life Forms." Schmit thought, smugly to himself. "Until now no one, except perhaps Eggman, knew their power."
Schmit was confident as to what the outcome would be. Sonic would kill Chaos, and then Schmit would be able to get back to the real project at hand.
............................................................................................................
Sonic was tired. The hyper active energy, that had been coursing through his body, the first minute after going super, had left. Then there had been about a minute of just straight fighting, during which he had slowly pushed Chaos back. And now he was tired.
Being tired when he was super was different, than being tired when he was normal. When he was normal if he was tired he rested, but when he was super he was charged with Chaos Energy, that is quickly being used up. Being attacked, or attacking, or flying, used up the energy faster than if he just stood there. And when he finally got tired, from lack of Chaos Energy, he either needed more, or he needed to let his super form go. The longer he held onto it, the more stress he put his body under. Similar to holding one's breath; you couldn't do it forever.
And now, to top things off, Chaos seemed to be reluctant to come out, and continue fighting. He was down there somewhere in the flooded city, but Sonic couldn't think of a way to find him when he was hiding, he had been counting on Chaos fighting, but now the water creature seemed to be biding his time, and while he was doing that, Sonic's super form became all the harder to hang on to.
A geyser like blast knocked Sonic out of his flight path, and made him strain all the harder to hold on to his super form.
He had to do something before he reached his physical limit. He wasn't taking Chaos out fast enough. He needed to try something else.
A blast from Chaos's mouth! Sonic dodged it, and charged towards the attack's source.
Chaos lost his integrity, and fell towards the city.
Sonic stopped, above the place Chaos had been, and looked away, trying to spot where Chaos's head would pop up next, if it popped up again at all.
Below Sonic, Chaos's form stopped raining towards the city in mid fall, re-formed his head, and hit Sonic with a water blast.
............................................................................................................
Knuckles saw Sonic get blasted up in the air, but, more importantly, he didn't see the glow that Sonic's super form gave off. During the whole fight, before hand, Knuckles had always been able to see the yellow light, given off been Super Sonic. Which could only mean one thing; Sonic had lost his super form.
Knuckles may normally have been one for strategy, when there was time to formulate one, but sometimes there was no time to be had.
His feet started taking him towards Chaos of their own accord, at top speed, before he even realized it.
............................................................................................................
Chaos saw gravity regain control over the air born Sonic, and he started to fall, but his color had changed from yellow to blue, which meant that Chaos had won.
He would not make the same mistake as last time, by sending Sonic too close to the Chaos Emeralds. This time he would drown the pathetic little blue hedgehog as far away from the Emeralds as possible, and then there would be no one who could stop him.
............................................................................................................
Shadow watched, as Sonic fell into Chaos's awaiting jaws. A pain stabbed at Shadow's stomach in response, but Shadow ignored it.
He didn't care if Sonic died.
............................................................................................................
Almost everyone in the room gasped this time, Colonel Schmit included. Sonic had lost. Schmit had been sure that the hedgehog that had defeated Gerald's grandson would have been able to handle Chaos.
Now he had no idea what was going to happen, or what to do.
............................................................................................................
Knuckles reached one of the few stable buildings, that was close to Chaos, and looked the water creature's, semi transparent, hide over, for Sonic. He saw the blue hedgehog getting pulled down Chaos's body, farther, and farther, by the current.
Knuckles just stood there a second, and went over his options, but he could only think of two. Run, or jump.
He took a deep breath, and jumped.
Knuckles hit the water with a splash, and immediately looked around for Sonic.
He was surprised by how much debris was swirling around in Chaos; pieces of buildings, cars, all kinds of odds and ends that one found in a city. But, luckily, most of those things weren't blue, and he spotted Sonic quickly; the current was pulling him down, faster and faster, but Knuckles was also in the current, and it was taking him in the same direction.
Knuckles shoved his powerful arms in front of him, and pulled himself forward. The gap between him and Sonic shrank. Knuckles repeated the process, again, and again, until at last he had reached his blue rival.
Knuckles rapped his legs around Sonic's waist, and turned back towards the surface. He was worried by the fact that Sonic didn't struggle, but had to put the thought out of his mind, because of a new problem. He was now trying to swim against the current.
Knuckles swung his arms forward, and then pushed them to his side, surging forward, and getting knocked backwards, almost immediately afterwards. Knuckles didn't pause, for there was nothing to gain by waiting, and everything to loose. He pushed again.
He got the feeling that he was going forwards more than backwards, but he was starting to tire from lack of air. He ignored this, and forced his arms to continue moving, and his legs to keep there hold on Sonic, who was doing a pretty good impersonation of a rag doll.
Knuckles continued pushing with all his might. The current seemed to lessen a little, but Knuckles assumed it was only his imagination, and concentrated harder, so as not to pass out under water.
Knuckles was sure he was almost at his limit, because the current seemed to lessen still more, and then, quite suddenly, he popped out of the water.
Knuckles didn't bother to try, and understand it; instead he took a deep breath, threw Sonic onto his back, and glided towards the nearest building.
The building's top was higher than Knuckles glide, and he hit the side, and hung on, with his knuckle claws, but he had forgotten about Sonic, who immediately slid off of his back, and fell towards the water.
"Oh, No you don't!" Knuckles wheezed out, loudly, and jumped down, and caught Sonic, with his left hand, and the wall with his right. He had been falling fast, and Sonic added extra weight, that Knuckles wasn't used to, and his claws weren't designed for, so he slid down, about ten feet, leaving a double scratch on the side of the building, where he had slid.
Knuckles looked down, and saw that Sonic's toes were dipping into the water. "Just great." He thought to himself.
With one arm, Knuckles wrapped Sonic's arms around Knuckles neck, and held them there with his chin. Then he put both his arms to the task of taking them both up the wall. It was slow going, not because his arms couldn't take it, but because he didn't have a very good grip on Sonic this way, and he was afraid of dropping him.
As Knuckles slowly climbed the building he became more and more worried about Sonic. He wasn't breathing, and needed CPR, but Knuckles couldn't give it to him on the side of a building, and he couldn't risk dropping Sonic, by going faster.
Knuckles had been concentrating on his task so hard, that he didn't here the sound of the approach, until the person spoke.
"Hand him over. I'll take him up."
Knuckles carefully turned, so as not to drop Sonic, and saw Tails, hovering right next to him, and Sonic.
Knuckles inwardly praised God, and carefully handed Sonic off to Tails.
Now that he was free of his burden, in the physical sense, Knuckles was able to reach the top of the building a little ahead of Tails.
Once they were both at the top Knuckles pressed on Sonic's stomach. The hedgehog didn't respond. Knuckles tried three times more, and then applied mouth to mouth. The second press after this made the blue hedgehog start coughing up water.
Knuckles inwardly praised God again, as Sonic started to sit up, but then a thought occurred to him. Why hadn't Chaos attacked them yet? Surely they hadn't gone unnoticed, by the big blue water monster.
Knuckles looked out, and saw Chaos, fighting a flying silver light.
"Can this day get any weirder?" Knuckles wondered.
............................................................................................................
Shadow put Sonic out of his mind, and searched Chaos's semi transparent body for the Chaos Emeralds.
They were a little hard to miss, being as they were glowing like crazy, and spinning in circles, on the right side of Chaos's body.
Shadow made a guess for what part of the current would take him a course past the Emeralds, and did a jumping spin attack about ten feet above the Chaos Emeralds.
Shadow hit the water, and was amazed by how powerful the current was. He tried to spot the Chaos Emeralds, but when he opened his eyes the rushing water stung them, and he closed them again.
But he could sense the power of the Emeralds, and it was getting stronger.
All at once Shadow felt his body absorb a tremendous amount of energy, and Shadow opened his eyes.
He could see this time, and the water didn't bother his eyes in the least.
Shadow looked up, towards Chaos's brain, and went for it, full speed.
............................................................................................................
Once again Chaos felt his brain explode. This time it hadn't hurt as much as the other times, but effect was the same. His body lost its integrity, and he fell towards the flood waters below.
Chaos formed his eye, beneath the waters surface, and looked around for the source of the attack.
He saw the other hedgehog, floating around in almost the exact same pose as Sonic, but he was silver instead of yellow, and he wasn't on fire.
Chaos had an understanding of Chaos energy, and understood what this meant. Either Sonic was more powerful than the other hedgehog, and was strong enough to produce the extra energy that was needed to set one self on fire. Or it was a difference of style. If Sonic was the excitable type, and he seemed to be to Chaos, then he would probably subconsciously channel his Chaos energy in a more erratic and destructive way. Where as if this other hedgehog was the more disciplined type, and he seemed to be to Chaos, then he was more likely to subconsciously save up his energy, so that his super form would last longer, then use it up in a more powerful, but also slightly wasteful, way.
But as far as Chaos was concerned all this meant was that this hedgehog's attacks wouldn't hurt him as badly as Sonic's had, but it would also take Chaos longer to drain the hedgehog's super form of it's energy.
"A fair trade." Chaos thought to himself.
............................................................................................................
Sonic coughed up water, sat up, and looked around. Tails and Knuckles were huddled over him, smiling like crazy. But all at once Knuckles stopped smiling, and looked out over the water.
Sonic followed his gaze and saw Chaos snap at a flying silver light, which moved to fast, then came around, and hit Chaos in the back of the head, causing his form to loose it's stability, and fall to the water below.
"Who's that?" Sonic asked.
"Who's who?" Tails asked back, apparently surprised by how fast Sonic had gone from unconscious too the problem at hand.
"No idea." Knuckles answered them both. "He looks kind of like you, when you're super, except he's silver, and doesn't give off as much light."
Knuckles side eyed Sonic, with a mischievous glare and said. "By the way I'm going to kill you when this is all over."
Sonic turned to Knuckles perplexed, and asked. "Why?"
"Because of your rash actions I had to drag you out of the water, and give you mouth to mouth." Knuckles said, with a mock frown.
Sonic immediately spat on the roof of the building, and wiped his mouth with his glove. "Ew grouse. I got echidna spit in my mouth.
Tails just laughed.
"Laugh it up fox boy." Sonic said, with the expression of a child who had just taken a bite of spinach.
"As amusing as this is, I think we need to get back to the problem at hand, namely Chaos." Knuckles said.
"Right." Sonic said, relieved to have an excuse to change the topic. "So, who looks like me, and has a silver super form?"
"The only hedgehogs we know are Amy, and Shadow." Tails said.
"Aw man, Amy!" Knuckles said.
"What about her?" Sonic asked.
"When I heard Chaos start trying to knock over buildings I was with Amy. I thought you might be stupid enough to attack him, and thought I should check, but she wanted to come with me. So I pretended to see you run past, pointed her in the safest direction, she went running, and then I came to find you." Knuckles said.
Sonic smirked and said. "Wish that trick would work for me."
"Sonic! she could be in real trouble." Knuckles said.
Sonic sighed, and thought for a moment, then said. "Okay you two go look for her. I'm gonna go see to our mysterious silver hedgehog."
"That's the smartest thing I've heard you say all day." Knuckles said, as they all went off in three different directions.
Sonic meant to make a snappy come back, but didn't get the chance, because Chaos roared, something fierce, and started thrashing around.
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Colonel Schmit's apprehension was much higher, as he watcher Shadow take on Chaos, than it had been as he watched Sonic battle Chaos.
He had been positive that Super Sonic would pummel Chaos, with relative ease. Now... Now he didn't know what to think. So he watched, and waited.
On the screen Super Shadow attacked Chaos, but this time Chaos didn't fall apart, but rather started thrashing around, angrily.
"Well it looks like, whatever that was, it didn't work." Schmit thought.
............................................................................................................
Shadow smiled an evil smile, and stared at his prize.
The fatal flaw in Sonic's strategy had been that he had let Chaos _keep_ the Chaos Emeralds. Shadow wasn't going to do so. He was going to take them from Chaos, and with everyone he took, he grew stronger, and Chaos grew weaker. And when he finally had all seven he would kill the stupid creature that had been a thorn in his side for so long.
Shadow looked back at the place Chaos had been thrashing, and saw nothing. Shadow did a 360, just as Sonic had done before, looking for his foe.
Chaos reformed closer to Shadow than usual. He was apparently feeling very aggressive after Shadow had taken one of the Chaos Emeralds.
Shadow saw, with his hyper focused eyes, the light of one of the Chaos Emeralds, and made a mad, flying, dash for it.
Chaos whipped out a tentacle, that he had been hiding behind a building, and was as long as he was, and slapped Shadow with it, knocking him off course.
Shadow went threw Chaos's body and out the other side; he didn't loose his Chaos Emerald, but he didn't get another either.
Chaos sent a wave, geyser like blast, and blast from his mouth at, and around Shadow.
The wave hit him, and he was slammed into a building, but still he did not let go of his Emerald.
A thought occurred to Shadow, and he smiled. "Chaos Control." He said, and appeared above, and behind his foe.
Shadow quickly planned his trajectory, and went threw Chaos's brain, but not satisfied with that, kept going into the monstrosity's body, and came out with two more Chaos Emeralds.
Shadow clutched the gems in his hand, as their power flowed into him, slowing down the rate his super form expired.
"Way to go Shads!" A familiar voice called out.
Shadow smiled. He knew the sound of that voice. Sonic had survived, and given him praise!
Shadow frowned, as he realized what thoughts, and feelings were running threw his head. They were illogical. He had already established that he didn't care if Sonic died, and he most certainly didn't care about Sonic's praise. But then why did he have these feelings?
Shadow cast his feelings into the deepest depths of his heart, and there he stomped on them. If he cared for anybody on the planet he would be unable to avenge Maria, and besides, he couldn't bear to care for someone else and then possibly loose them too.
Shadow stared down at the gems in his hands. They were the symbol, and source of power, for both him, and his foes.
He couldn't have his vengeance against the people who had hurt him if he didn't have all of the Chaos Emeralds, but carrying all seven, even when he was super, would be risky and dangerous.
"Chaos Control." Shadow said, and appeared over the roof of one of the buildings that was on opposite side of the City. Chaos's flood hadn't even gotten remotely close to this building. Shadow set two of the Chaos Emeralds down, as far out of sight as he could, and then Chaos Controlled back to Chaos.
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Tails sat down, on the edge of a building, for a minute, to catch his breath.
Sonic had run off, in Chaos's direction, to see who was attacking the monstrosity, and see if he could help, and Knuckles was looking for Amy in the area along the edge of Chaos's flood, for the time being anyway. As for himself he was looking for Amy in the parts of the City that hadn't even been touched by the flood yet. After all, Knuckles had told Amy he saw Sonic in the safe part of the city.
On the plus side Amy was pink, and wore pink clothing, which made her stand out. But on the minus side just about everyone in the city was rushing to get away from Chaos's flood, as they should be, but it made for a much bigger crowd that Tails had to look through, and being as humans were taller than Mobians, Tails might not be able to see her, even if she was right under his nose.
Tails started to get up, but as he did he felt a bulge, in his pocket, rub against his leg. He pulled the bulge out, and saw the fake Chaos Emerald, that he had brought with him. In all of the excitement he had forgotten about it.
Tails put the Emerald back in his pocket, and got back to searching for Amy, but even as he put his body to this task, his mind remained on the fake Emerald.
Could he use it as a weapon against Chaos? It would drain him of some of his energy. But Chaos would probably become very suspicious of him voluntarily throwing a Chaos Emerald into Chaos's flood waters. And besides, Chaos already had all of the Chaos Emeralds. He wasn't likely to fall for a fake when he already carried the original. Maybe if they got the real one away from him, and then pretended to drop the fake one where Chaos would get it?
A twinkle of light, just out of the corner of his eye, caught Tails attention. He turned to look, but he didn't see anything out of the ordinary.
He went in for a closer look. At first he saw nothing, and then saw three small glowing lights, as tucked away as was possible on a roof top.
They were the Chaos Emeralds.
............................................................................................................
Shadow reappeared, and was slammed threw a building, and out the other side, by a blast of water.
Apparently Chaos was learning to predict where Shadow would appear, based on the energy output given off by activating Chaos Control.
No matter how much Shadow disliked Chaos he had to give him this, he was a fast learner, when it came to Chaos abilities.
............................................................................................................
Sonic ran, and jumped from building to building, and watched as Shadow, and Chaos duked it out. There had been quite a few unstable buildings, but none of them fell into the water.
Shadow kept disappearing, and reappearing, and Sonic realized that this was why Shadow kept shouting "Chaos Control!". It must be the password, or something, to using the Chaos Emeralds to teleport. And of course Sonic thought that, that was way past cool.
Sonic heard the water below start rushing. Sonic looked over the edge of the building, and saw Chaos's flood retreating. Shadow was pushing him back!
"Yeah! That's showin him!" Sonic called out.
Shadow turned towards Sonic, but Sonic couldn't make out his expression, because of the distance.
Chaos took advantage of Shadow's lapse in concentration, and grabbed Shadow with his two tentacles.
"Oops." Sonic thought.
Chaos slammed Shadow into the building on his left, and then the one on his right, before Shadow managed to break free.
Shadow attacked Chaos's body, and came out with another Chaos Emerald.
"What's that, his sixth?" Sonic wondered.
"Chaos Spear!" Shadow shouted.
This one was new to Sonic, and he watched with even greater anticipation, if such a thing was possible.
A continuous beam of light came out of each of Shadow's hands, and hit Chaos, at the base of his body.
Chaos's base lost its integrity, and the part of his body just above fell towards the beam being emitted from Shadow's hands, and then the process repeated itself.
Chaos shook his head back and forth, as if he was being electrocuted.
"Ouch." Sonic said.
Chaos's head reached the beam, and was blown apart.
The rushing water just fell, and spread out in all directions. Chaos had completely lost control over the flood waters.
............................................................................................................
Knuckles had a problem. He had been gliding around looking for Amy, and then he'd found her. Now he just had to figure out what to do.
Go down to Amy, and escort her to safety? Hardly. She wouldn't listen to him anyway, and though she wasn't the brightest girl he had ever seen, he was pretty sure that she had figured out that he had lied to her by now.
No. Going down was out of the question. Maybe he could wait, and have Sonic be the one to approach her. That would probably cool her down, and would also be a good punishment for Sonic. So, until then, he could just stay up here, and waste his time, by following her around. Yeah, Right.
Chaos's flood was retreating, but Knuckle's conscience wouldn't' let him leave Amy quite yet.
"Why does my life have to be so complicated?" Knuckles wondered.
............................................................................................................
Sonic saw Super Shadow reappear, and charge into the rushing water. A second later he came back out, dragging Chaos, in his original form, behind him.
Super Shadow threw Chaos onto the street, well away from any manholes, and hit him with a super powered spin attack.
"Hey! What on earth does he think he's doing?" Sonic thought, as he jumped off of the building, and started running down the side of it.
Shadow hit Chaos three more times, in the time it took sonic to reach the bottom of the building.
Sonic ran over, and hit Super Shadow with a spin attack.
The effect could have been better. Sonic bounced and, and Super Shadow didn't even stagger. But he did turn around, angrily.
Sonic landed on his feet, and stared right back at Shadow, not intimidated the least by his Super form, and said. "Knock it off, or I'll have to knock some sense into you."
Super Shadow stared at Sonic for a few moments, his eyes narrowed, his fists clenched. And then he said two words. "Chaos Control."
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The other hedgehog disappeared, and that left Chaos, and Sonic.
Chaos stared at Sonic, trying to understand him. After all the fights, and almost being drowned, twice! Sonic had come to Chaos's aid, when he had been about to die himself.
Sonic turned away from the spot the other hedgehog had been, and gave his attention to Chaos.
Sonic's expression had been hard, when he had spoken to the other hedgehog, but now it was laid back, and relaxed.
"So, now what?" He asked.
Chaos couldn't speak so he just stared, but unlike the times before, where he had worked anger, and intimidation into his stare, was just simple curiosity, and thanks. Something he hadn't tried to communicate since the first day he had awakened.
He had assumed that all people were like the one's who had awakened him, cruel, and hard, or just plain unfeeling. He had judged all living creatures to be the same, for none had ever shone him kindness, or understanding. But now... Now someone had. And if there was one, chances were there was more, probably many, many more, and if that was so, then Chaos couldn't kill them. And even if there wasn't, if he wanted to try again he would have to fight Sonic again, and he did not know of anything that could make him fight a being of such honor again.
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Sonic saw the thanks, in Chaos's eyes, and decided that, for the time being anyway, Chaos was no longer a threat.
But he still didn't have an answer to his question. Now what?
"Sonic!" Tails called out, as he helicoptered down.
Sonic turned towards Tails, and then back to Chaos. Would Chaos extend his thanks to Sonic's friends?
Chaos's eyes didn't narrow, or show any other sign of hostility. Instead he just sent a glance in Tails direction, and then dropped down into an oblong, shape, and made his way to the nearest drain.
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Shadow reappeared inside the Ark, with the three of the seven Chaos Emeralds.
He hadn't wanted to come with all seven, because then he would have remained super, and risked damaging something. He had already brought the other four, and they were in the next room over.
It was time to make history, or end it.
Shadow hadn't wanted to take a chance with his teleport, since it was such a long distance, and the room where the Chaos Emeralds went had a walkway, with a very long drop. So he had teleported a few rooms away from the one that had the equipment to use the Chaos Emeralds. A simple precaution, that wouldn't cost him no more than a minute.
Shadow walked threw the few rooms, carrying the three Chaos Emeralds, quickly, and quietly. He didn't want his memories of this place to come back. It would all be over soon, anyway.
As he walked his movements became jerky, and less sure. Part of him didn't want to go threw with this. But he ignored that part, and continued walking, until he reached the last door.
Shadow straightened up, and pushed the, open door, button with allot more force than was required.
A wall of steam came out of the dark room. Shadow ignored this, and walked right in. It was a few moments later that he realized that there wasn't supposed to be anything in the room that created steam like that.
Shadow stopped, and looked around, but the room was dark, since the only light source was coming from the room he had just left. Now that he thought about it, the console, he had been approaching, should have been running, with enough blinking lights to make a Christmas tree jealous.
"Bwa ha ha ha." A familiar voice laughed, and the laugh echoed off of the walls, making for a very eerie few moments.
Lights came on, and Shadow turned, and saw the source of the steam, that had hit him when he walked in the room.
Dr. Eggman sat in the center of a rather large rectangular robot, which was hovering over the long drop Shadow had wanted to avoid. There were guns, of various shapes, and sizes scattered all over it, along with missile, and rocket launchers, and two big claws, at the end of retractable tentacles, as well as several sets of vents, dumping gas, steam, and only Eggman knew what else, into the air. Now that the robot was running, it was also making allot of noise.
Normally a very impressive display of weapons, and firepower, but Shadow had just licked Chaos, and felt annoyed, rather than impressed.
"I don't believe that I've learned your name yet." Eggman commented.
Shadow considered ignoring the question, but the part of him that didn't want to go threw with his plan, wanted him to answer, and Shadow decided that giving in on this point, might get the nagging feeling to leave him alone, once he had dealt with the Dr.
"My name is Shadow, the Ultimate Life Form." Shadow said.
Shadow could barely make out Eggman's smile, due to the distance, and lousy lighting.
"Ah a shadow, a product of the night. How appropriate. Good night, Shadow." Eggman said.
Shadow had been watching Eggman's machine for a sign of attack, but he didn't see one; however he did feel a small prick, on his back.
Shadow turned around, and saw a small round robot, hovering in the doorway. Shadow turned back to Eggman, but even as he did he felt his body start slowing down.
He still completed the turn quickly, and saw Eggman's giant machine fade, and Eggman fly forward, in that little hover craft of his.
Eggman had distracted Shadow with a hologram, and made allot of noise, so that his little probe would be able to sneak behind Shadow unnoticed, and then shoot him with a tranquilizer.
As Shadow felt sleep take him, he heard Eggman speak one more time.
"I've got to try this on Sonic some time."
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Tails landed next to Sonic, and they gave each other a high five.
"So, how'd the fight go? Did you help?" Tails asked.
"The fight was rad, and I did help, although probably not the way your thinking."
"Oh?" Tails asked. Wondering what Sonic meant by that, but also knowing that it wouldn't take more than the simple invitation to get Sonic to tell him what had happened.
"Yeah, Shadow beat Chaos, by taken his Emeralds, and using Chaos Control, that's the password to how he teleports, to disappear, and reappear all over the place. He was able run circles around Chaos, because of it, and he whooped him good. After he took the seventh Chaos Emerald, Chaos didn't have enough energy to keep the City flooded, so he reverted back to his original form, and the water started heading back into the ocean, but Shads was really mad, or something, cause he pulled Chaos out of the water, and started laying into him. Naturally Chaos was no match for super Shads, so I ran down, and hit him the back." Sonic said.
"Wow!" Tails said. "You attacked Shadow, when he was super!?"
"Yup. Bounced right off though, but Shads was really intimidated, or something, cause he split right after that." Sonic said.
Tails was just loving the story, after all it was about his favorite person.
"Then what'd Chaos do?" He asked.
"I think he was grateful that I saved his life, because he didn't attack, or anything. Then when he saw you he just left." Sonic said.
"So that brings us to now?" Tails asked.
"Yeah, pretty much." Sonic said. "I wish we knew where Shadow went, or what he plans on doing with all of the Emeralds."
Tails smiled, as he remembered something. When Sonic noticed, he sent Tails a mock inquisitive stare, and said. "Okay out with it. What's so funny?"
"Shadow doesn't have all the Chaos Emeralds. I saw where he was hiding them, during the fight with Chaos, and I switched our fake with the one that was the same color." Tails said, as he held up the same Chaos Emerald they had hid in the garage last night.
"Tails," Sonic said. "you're a genius!"
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Eggman had some of the worker bots, that he had brought with him gather up the Chaos Emeralds, that Shadow had been kind enough to deliver, and lock the hedgehog up, in the nearest convenient room.
It was funny. This morning things had been going splendidly, and then Chaos had betrayed him, which should have made for a rather abysmal day, and a grumpy Eggman along with it, but then Shadow comes along, and Eggman easily suckers him into a trap, and now he was almost giddy. In fact he was in such a good mood, he didn't mind that much that one of the Emeralds Shadow had brought was a fake.
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To Be Continued...
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