#AdventSolaris | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

seizethecringeofproduction · 3 years ago

Text

Flashpoint 2: Advent Solaris - Chapter 8

Mephiles…

Who is he?

What is he?

What is he planning?

Does Commander Goode have anything to do with this?

Those were Shadow the Hedgehog’s first thoughts as he split off from Barry, Rouge, Wally and Omega and went off on his own. Unlike them, he needed no vehicle to leave the Kalinske, instead all he needed was the pair of hover shoes he nearly perpetually wore over his feet. With little more than his thoughts they activated and allowed him to leap off the edge of the ship’s deck and skate across the waters of the sea, heading directly back to Soleanna’s New City district. All of this being done without so much of a word, as he had little reason to speak with the various soldiers and crew members walking around the ship, he came across literally nobody of any serious note.

Nor did he have the time for it, either.

He had far more important things to worry about.

Upon arriving at the nearest wooden dock of Soleanna’s New City, Shadow wasted no time in walking towards the steel, brick and mortar forest of high rises, apartments and the occasional skyscraper. The only thing of note about his immediate surroundings were the various docked boats - ranging from small sailing boats to fishing vessels, all of them forced into port by the blockade. Shadow paid them much mind - a delayed fishing season was hardly a price to pay for the safe return of their duchess.

He still found it hard to believe that the New City district was a properly functioning city; the main section of it was designed like any ordinary metropolis, though completely banned automobiles as if solely to justify the large green doors used to separate it from the Castle Town. While it was true that the Western Half of the city allowed Automobiles to be used and even housed a highway system, Shadow wasn’t concerning himself with it as none of his current business had to deal with that section of the island. The Train Station was located on the far side of the Eastern half of New City, and as such that was where he headed.

None of the city really interested him on this short yet tedious quest of his.

None of the buildings stood out from the other, all of them blending into a scene of standard, rectangular architecture with seldom any actual cultural influences at all. When it came to the historic Castle Town, there was at least traditional Soleannan styling - yet here, everything was dreadfully bland that it appeared as if none of those in charge of construction even bothered spending a single cent towards being aesthetically pleasing at all. It was all just a repetitive sea of brick, mortar, steel, asphalt and concrete. The only unique areas would be the warehouse district in the far north, the docks in the far east, and the train station in the center - where he was headed towards.

As a whole though, the appearance of such a dull metropolitan location was enough to turn a relatively short walk into an hour long slog.

It didn’t help Shadow feel any less irritated about having to spend any extended period of time here. However, he was not one to complain about things such as aesthetics or architecture much - at least, not openly.

Even Westopolis is more lively than this place, and that city is a crime infested cesspit.

Shadow huffed, though there wasn’t much else to say about Soleanna.

He assumed, perhaps correctly, that New City wasn’t the part of Soleanna that the tourists actually came to see. Especially not with everything currently going on.

It wasn’t but a few moments after those thoughts crossed through his mind however that something was able to catch his attention and change his expression from his usual indifference to one of moderate surprise. Just as he reached the wide asphalt road that led him directly towards the train station, all he could see were the remnants of what appeared to be a battle.

What happened here?

He asked that mentally, though the surroundings told their tale ever silently.

There were scorch marks decorating the area in various small bursts - be they along buildings, the road, or even the walls of the mountain which the station was built directly into. It’s light, stone and metallic built terminal was mostly intact though the entrance sported notable black marks denoting an explosion or burst of flame had severely damaged it. Further decorating the place were a large number of Soleanna royal guardsmen; all of the men were scattered around the place as though they had been violently thrown about without much rhyme or reason. Some of them also sported burn marks across their exposed faces - while others sported no doubt broken limbs or worse due to being slammed so violently against the nearby palm trees or the concrete sidewalk around them. The small tunnels that made up the the terminals heading into the greater underground portion of the terminal had no barriers keeping one from entry - seemingly they had been ripped straight from where they were and used was weaponry against the guards, based on the fact that some of the groaning or unconscious men had horrendously bleeding gashes fitting for something of that shape and size being tossed at them.

Shadow counted at least twenty guardsmen in the immediate area as he walked his way towards the terminal. All of them either groaning in pain, unconscious, or perhaps even worse. Most of them did well enough to ignore him, though just as he was about to step foot in the entrance of the station one of the men grabbed at his leg.

Shadow was caught off guard, but looked at this man nonetheless. He was quite pathetic - sporting cuts from broken window glass across his face, and his dark green uniform was polluted with ash and soot. Judging by how he only used one of his arms and neither of his legs it was evident he had either broken or sprained those respective limbs. The man’s voice was just as weak to come out of him as Shadow had expected, he was practically speaking with a stutter:

“You...you need...nobody...is allowed...in the station...it is...closed…”

Shadow closed his eyes and shook his head, before tugging his leg easily away from the man, turning to him and asking him in a stern voice:

“What happened here?”

The man however, in perhaps typical Soleanna guardsmen fashion, only responded with:

“N-N-None of your business!” he managed to exclaim, “T-The S-Station is closed! G-G-Go back the other way! N-Now!”

Flabbergasted by this response, though quickly rolling his eyes, Shadow decided to pay the man absolutely no mind and instead continue on his way. His thoughts echoed his sentiment of having absolutely no regrets:

I don’t have time for this.

However, the guardsmen, despite having to drag himself with only one useable arm, still tried to keep hold of the black hedgehog’s attention:

“W-w-wait” he continued to stutter, trying his best to weakly shout in Shadow’s direction, his voice still managing a minor echo, “The s-s-station is is-closed! Y-y-y-you can’t go in there!”

Practically rolling his eyes though not stopping his movement, Shadow merely said to the main rather bluntly:

“I’m a G.U.N. Agent. I have business to be here. You’d do best to call for medical treatment immediately while you’re still alive.”

With that, he ventured into the underground terminal and left the guard to his own devices. While he knew his handling of that situation wasn’t precisely heroic, he had honestly heard about the corruption and attitude of the Soleanna guardsmen - and if they were honestly still going to be so ignorant with him after whatever had just happened to them, frankly Shadow cared very little for them.

Still, the thought of what might have caused damage did fill Shadow’s mind. As he walked down a set of stairs and was staring down a hallway of white tiled floors, columns holding up the building, and a combination of concrete and metallic walls and ceilings alike - mostly with usually spotless white painting, he only saw more of it.

More black explosion marks of ash, and pieces of technology ranging from computers and their monitors to even weapons the guardsmen themselves had been holding, all of it was strewn throughout the station in a pathway of what appeared to be chaos and destruction. There were more guards as well, littered across the floor of the entire station alongside the remnants of contemporary technology, trashcans, destroyed remnants of crates, and the various pieces of garbage that once resided within the latter. All of it now scattered across the once spotless white tiles. In some spots, the corners and even segments of walls still had alit flames from where the bursts had struck them - denoting this damage as recent.

Thankfully, from what Shadow could tell there were no pedestrians caught in this mess - only a small horde of injured guardsmen. He would have felt more sympathy if it had been civilians.

However, there was one injured figure that stood out from the rest. He rested beside a column just before the empty train tracks where the respective vehicles would travel to and from, clutching a bleeding arm while he took deep breaths, trying to recover. His presence explained to Shadow why some of the projectiles that impaled the walls and floor were shurikens, for it was a familiar purple chameleon:

“Espio?” Shadow asked, his eyes widening as he approached the lizard, kneeling down to his level once he was close enough for conversation. Looking up at Shadow, Espio returned the sentiment, though was too sore to stand up despite his best efforts. After hissing in pain, he gave up the attempt:

“S-Shadow” he said as he looked up at the hedgehog, “Long time, no see.”

“What happened here? Why are you here?” - Shadow was not one to waste time, and to his credit neither was Espio:

“I was here to help Sonic and Knuckles” Espio explained between breaths, “I managed to save Elise from Eggman, though she was recaptured not long afterwards. Here, I caught back up with Sonic, not long before two hostile figures arrived on the scene.”

“Hostile figures?”

Nodding, Espio did his best to elaborate on those who had attacked him, in between minor coughs of course:

“A lavender cat, and a white hedgehog” he explained, “The cat seems to be pyrokinetic, and the hedgehog seemed to possess some form of psychokinesis. I tried to hold them off so Sonic had time to chase after the train, but their combined power was too much for me. They’ve already proceeded on after Sonic.”

Curious about these mysterious figures, Shadow had but a few more firm questions pertaining to them before he planned on taking off on his objective:

“Do you think they’re working for Eggman?”

“No, if anything they are or are working a third party” Espio said as he shook his head, “I think, one of them mentioned something about a ‘Mephiles’ character, before they took off after Sonic….I’m not sure who that is, though.”

Shadow stood back up after he heard Espio say that last line. It was all he really needed to know. Having already a decent grasp on the situation, Shadow looked towards the train tracks and the tunnel that they tapered down, knowing exactly what it was that he had to do. Espio took silent note of this reaction, though didn’t address it. Perhaps he swiftly caught on that Shadow knew more about what was going on than he did. Before he even took another step though, he was sure to ask Espio but one final question:

“Are you going to be alright?”

Though it pained him, making him let out grunts and hisses alike, Espio still managed finally to stand himself up onto his feet - albeit he still was hunched over and clutching his burnt, bleeding left arm as he looked over Shadow before saying to him with a nod:

“I will need time to recover, but I should be able to take care of myself. Sonic will probably need your support, however.”

Nodding in agreement with that statement, Shadow wasted no further time and left Espio to find medical assistance while he himself raced down the metallic rails and wood paneling that served as the train tracks - skating now at full speed as he raced to confront both Eggman and whatever beings seemed to be hunting down Sonic. If his hunch was correct, the same reason that brought him and Barry into meeting each other was likely the reason these two were so hostile.

Hopefully Sonic can take care of himself long enough for me to handle them.

The tunnel that Shadow was skating down proved to be wide, dark and lengthy. For a human being, it would have been at least an hour of walking through the damp, blackened abyss to cover the distance the ultimate lifeform did, though for the hedgehog himself these kilometers of distance were covered in mere minutes.

With as quick as Shadow was, about as fast as a speeding train itself in all honesty, the long tunnel of stone, brick, metal and mortar swept by him just as fast it would for any actual train worth travelling on.

The tunnel did not last very long however - though Shadow had been expecting a straight journey along the tracks until he found either Sonic or where the train was, instead all he found was a massive pile of rubble, dirt and debris - the ceiling of the tunnel completely caved in right before his eyes in what appeared to be an abyss of metal, wire, cables, wood and various forms of stone and rock. Needless to say, he was quite irritated at the sight, though looking around he found another tunnel along one of the walkways - it’s only defense being a door that was already burst clean open, with the yellow-black caution tape once enveloping it since torn into halves and strewn along the floor.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Shadow was quick to begin walking towards this opened pathway - though he was distracted and jumped into his battle stance when he overheard ruffling coming from beneath the rubble, culminating when a large chunk of it burst open like a pipe when pressure builds up high enough. However, from the cloud of dust came no enemies - only Knuckles and Tails, both of them being covered in the dust of the rubble they were beneath, and having some scrapes and bruises from some unseen altercation though otherwise seeming to be just fine. Knuckles too was ready to fight Shadow when all he could see was the Hedgehog’s silhouette, though once the two saw each other clearly they both let down their fists. Tails of course, was quick to exclaim:

“Shadow!” he said, “You did make it back to the present!”

Shadow only nodded in response to that, before getting immediately to the point:

“I’m assuming you had a confrontation with the cat and the other hedgehog too?”

Knuckles scoffed at the mention of their name before responding:

“Yeah, we met them alright.”

“We tried to hold them off so Sonic could focus on saving Elise” Tails further explained, “Some of Eggman’s robots got involved too, though I think it was the white hedgehog that made the ceiling come down onto us!”

“I’ve never seen someone pick stuff up with their mind like that” Knuckles commented, “I couldn’t tell if he was using a chaos emerald to do it or not, but either way I think they did have one on them.”

Shadow nodded as he processed this information, putting together in his mind what happened before his arrival. Once his mind was finished, he quickly asked the two one important question:

“What direction did they, and Sonic, run off too.”

“Sonic left down that way” Knuckles gestured his head towards the pile of caved in rubble, “O’course, that was before it caved in.”

“The other two headed off down that tunnel, towards the abandoned mines” Tails explained as he pointed towards the path Shadow was just about to go down. Shadow, looking that way, said to them without looking back:

“Thanks” - however, just as he began walking towards it he could hear the sound of Tails’ twin tails going off, signaling that the young fox was using them to fly in the air towards him. Shadow however was swift to turn around and tell him sternly, “It’s best if you stay back here and wait for Sonic to return.”

“What? No way-”

“Based on what I’ve heard, these two are easily capable of overpowering you” Shadow explained, “I’ll do best to handle them on my own. Besides, Espio might need help of his own in recovering from his fight with them.”

Neither Tails nor Knuckles liked that, though while Knuckles silently nodded and left to presumably see about Espio, it was Tails who stayed in place and looked on in silence as Shadow skated away down the dark abyss of a hallway towards the mines. While in the end Tails opted to not follow Shadow, it was mentally and emotionally a difficult choice for him to make - he only made it in the end because he knew Shadow was correct about the two assassins being far too powerful for him to be on the field against them.

As such, with Tails and Knuckles both heading back and outside of the terminal, it was Shadow and Shadow alone who persevered ahead.

Despite what he had been told about what he was heading into, it did not deter him whatsoever:

I’m curious to see who these two ‘assassins’ are.

First Barry and now these two.

I wonder how many others Mephiles has to do his dirty work for him...

When Shadow finally did manage to re-enter the outside after but a few moments of speeding through a dark, wooden pathway at full throttle, he was greeted not by the city but instead by a long abandoned mine - though what it had once been mining was not known to him.

What greeted him when he burst out of the darkness and into an area actually coated by the light of the sun was a long, rounded wooden tunnel supported primarily by wooden beams beneath it and the sprawling mountains of a wide open canyon beside it - the other side sporting various wooden pillars that made way for the rays of sunlight to peer their way through. Through those pillars and beams there could be seen a tall bridge that sported the train tracks Shadow previously found obstructed, held up high above the waters that flooded the bottom of the incredibly steep and magnificently large canyon that the entirety of the mine was built around.

Unfortunately, just as Shadow found himself exiting the tunnel and skating on grass and dirt for but a few moments before reaching a separate, entirely wooden platform that itself had a massive gap between itself and another - he found that the train he was looking for was indeed a good distance ahead of him, though in the distance he could hear the sound of its whistle as well as it driving along the tracks. It wasn’t far, though in this cluttered location it was difficult to actually see how far away it truly was.

What he wasn’t too late to encounter however was the horde of robots Eggman had deployed all across the canyon, with Shadow having to face two white-armored gunners and one red-armored ‘stinger’ for a few moments when they descended onto the ground right in front of him. Unphased by them, he made short work of them - the machines hardly had any time to fire at the ultimate lifeform before single punches and kicks completely destroyed them where they stood - Shadow using one of them coupled with his shoe’s hover system to get just enough air so that he could grind along the darkened ropes suspended above as support for the damaged bridge he had just been on.

Pathetic Robots…

With how fast he was going, it wasn’t long before he reached another obstacle. The rope he was grinding on found itself cut into pieces and was swiftly destabilized when two bright blue laser streams sliced through it as if it were a slice of a freshly baked cake.

While in the air after having jumped to avoid a brutal fall, Shadow noticed that a barrage of at least eight or so missiles were simultaneously launched in his direction. Not yet seeing the source of these attacks, he curled into a ball and hurled himself violently at these missiles - destroying them each in a manner of seconds before finally landing himself onto the ground, this time on a large square platform made entirely of old, rusted metal that gave it a hue of worn out red and brown. He wasn’t able to tell what metallic resource was used to construct it, but either way he was too busy focusing on his attacker.

It was, of course, a robot. Though it was much larger and more durable than the weaker ones that he encountered before. It was about ten or perhaps eleven feet tall and bulky enough to boot. Painted mostly white that faded into blue, it’s feet and arms were topped with golden drills, and it had a single white circular eye in the center of it’s rounded head. While it sported joints in it’s legs, it’s arms lacked any articulation at all.

Despite the machine’s size however, he was not deterred. In fact, he snarled at the machine with irritation - not intimidated by it in the slightest.

The robot, though it moved it’s body with horrendously slow speed, had mighty weapons to make up for that lack of mobility. It immediately fired a full barrage at Shadow the moment it realized he was in front of it - two burning hot lazer beams along with launching at least eight missiles at once at him all from point blank range. Shadow however, was far too fast for the mechanical behemoth and slid under its body the moment before the missiles could have even hit him. Jumping into the air and looking down upon his foe, all it took was the launching of a single chaos spear at it to render it a series of burnt chunks of metal scattered along the ground.

Omega is right about these ‘consumer’ models, they are worthless.

Without even landing, Shadow then jumped onto a tall brick pillar that was nearby, sprouting from the waters miles beneath. Letting himself skid down it only for a second, he leaped from it onto another, taller one, and used the latter to land on another abandoned and ruined cliffside structure. This time a concrete room of a forgotten purpose directly beside the train tracks, with grass slowly conquering the concrete and all of the walls appearing as though something had aggressively blasted through them.

As to be expected however, upon landing inside of this abandoned mining building, Shadow was quickly surrounded by another grouping of hostile robots.

The group was not intimidating to Shadow in the slightest of course, being compromised of a single individual of the larger, drill-armed class, two red-armored ‘stingers’, three white-armored ‘gunners’, and at least seven white machines with a painted bronze trim that sported saucer-like heads, two hover engines underneath, and mounted machine guns in between their engines in a manner highly reminiscent of G.U.N.’s own beetle machines.

Despite the absolute barrage of missiles, lasers and rapid streams of bullets immediately flying towards him however, Shadow was not deterred by these toys at all. He leaped in the air to avoid the bullets and lazers, and with a sweeping kick destroyed at least four of the fake beetles and one of the gunners by literally sending the missiles back towards them. Evading the rest of the missiles, the rest of the weaker robots went down within a matter of seconds, the ultimate lifeform merely having to violently ram himself into them with either punches, kicks or spinning into them while curled into a ball - each hit of course coming with insanely fast speed and perfect precision. Yet again, the bigger one hardly had tme to aim at Shadow properly before a chaos spear sealed it’s fate.

With that minor obstacle dealt with, Shadow persevered on his way, noticing behind the clearing smoke and metallic remains lied an open doorway leading to the area behind the building. Rushing down it, he found a metallic path that while rusted to appear a fine red color actually formed a spiral around the train tracks he was following, before sending him to a wooden platform at the end of a long series of conveyer belts.

Perched on this platform was a blue armored ‘gunner’ type robot, which had a lazer gun rather than missiles, though it was taken out within a matter of seconds - one dodging of the lazers followed by a well placed chaos spear directly through its head.

Even the Black Arms were more effective.

With that having been done, Shadow looked out onto the conveyor belts that were connected to the platform he was on. They each had two lanes, motioning in opposing directions. Despite the mines being abandoned for quite possibly years, they still turned on albeit the lights along them would flicker and signal a flipping of their directions.

The ‘belts’ themselves formed a series of straight pathways progressively gaining in height as they went along, though not via being built at an angle, rather by having one built higher and being accessible from the lower ones via cargo lifts - none of which seemed to be in operation.

Observing this, Shadow traversed this section skating along the belts themselves - thanks to his shoes’ hover ability, the direction the belts motioned in did not matter so long as his shoes were active. With that in mind, Shadow approached the lifts by leaping into the air and jumping between the wooden beams supporting they higher levels, acrobatically leaping onto the belts themselves when he was high enough. It was the type of skill that few others could possibly pull off, and saved him a high amount of time.

Unfortunately, Shadow did have to repeat this process at least one other time before he was skating along a wooden platform without anything to push him back. There was greeted by a trio of two gunners and one yellow-armored Egg Buster - featuring twin missile launchers, though with more rapid and dangerous missiles than the red ‘stinger’ variants.

However, as before these machines had flown right into their doom as Shadow dispatched them with these - one kick to the abdomen sent the gunners crashing into crane lifts in the distance, while a chaos spear impaled and decimated the yellow buster.

It was not the last however, as when Shadow took notice of a damaged wooden platform to his left that would allow him to move to another damaged building, one of the busters charged directly at him, seemingly from nowhere. However, considering that he quite literally plowed directly through it just as quickly as it appeared it is safe to state that it posed no immediate threat to him.

With it destroyed, Shadow navigated with carefully timed leaps across a series of two cranes, each of them perpetually carrying a heavy cargo of dark blue metallic beams, large enough for him to walk on at the cost of his weight gradually pulling the crane’s delicate ropes down - necessitating leaping to the next. Only after this obstacle did he reach his destination, at least his immediate one, that being yet another damaged, practically wide open building.

This must have been some kind of terminal when it was active.

He deduced.

It’s impossible to know for certain though, nor am I sure how they ever got any work done here.

Just as he stopped dwelling on what this location looked like however, he was greeted yet again by a small swarm of robots - and yet again he was about as amused by it, or lack thereof, as he had been with each previous machine. This time, it was at least seven gunners, two stingers, and ten ‘beetles’ that surrounded him, along with two of the large drill robots that remained in their flying mode; folding their legs and keeping their arms straightened to maintain a more compact appearance.

It didn’t save them.

Not a single one of them.

Within mere seconds, yet again did Shadow make short worth of the doctor’s disposable metallic foot soldiers. Mighty punches, swift kicks, slides to evade missiles and bullets, jumps to evade lasers, and well timed chaos spears resulted in the robots exploding into various pieces of metal that fell to either the ground or to the ravine miles below.

As the smoke cleared and Shadow made sure that none of them remained active, the hedgehog scoffed:

Useless machines.

Honestly not even worth my time.

Choosing to not waste any more time, Shadow was about to continue on his path when his attention was distracted by a sound coming from just a few feet away - from the direction of an open pathway leading to the area behind the building he was in. He could hear someone shout:

“IT’S NO USE!”

Before the sound of various robots being destroyed at once entered his ears as well, with some of their parts managing to roll all the way to Shadow’s own feet.

Deducing very quickly who generated the sounds, Shadow was tempted to take one step further, though the sound of the train’s whistle from a distance reminded him of his other goal - confronting Eggman himself. Seeing as how he didn’t hear Sonic’s voice at all, he decided to ignore the ‘assassin’ and jump directly on the train tracks; speeding along them in full pursuit of the train itself.

He didn’t bother to get a good look at the assassin, nor see if the latter got a decent look at him. With how fast Shadow was going however, it was more than likely he would’ve been nothing more than a black blur.

As long as the robots keep them distracted, it’s not worth my time.

What Shadow was greeted with as he passed through the lengthy curved, stone tunnel that he had heard the sounds of the train can’t be described as anything other than a beautiful, wide open vista.

Essentially, he was rushing down a long, narrow canyon; zooming through the occasional stone tunnel that rested between either side of the steep, mountainous walls. The plateau that housed the train tracks only took up roughly one half of the canyon itself, with the half being occupied by a steep ravine populated by rapid moving water and dangerously placed rock formations. All along the route of the train tracks were not only occasional tunnels and draw bridges, but also mining buildings that rested on the edges along the top of the canyon. Whether or not they were abandoned couldn’t be deduced.

Nor did Shadow spend much time thinking about them though, as with the train’s whistle closer to him than ever before only one thing was on his mind:

Lets. Get. Moving!

Expecting to see Eggman’s train shortly, Shadow was quite surprised when he saw not only what he anticipated but also something that he didn’t:

Far in front of him was the train itself - a snake-like, streamlined, metallic vehicle made primarily of darkly painted metals and deep red tinted windows, speeding along the tracks as if there truly was no tomorrow, as well as featuring enough cabins behind it’s cockpit and front engine to carry hundreds of passengers - or in this case two passengers and a horde of armed machines. Behind the train was a familiar blue hedgehog, Sonic, speeding after it. However, the reason Sonic had not been able to catch up to it was because he was joined by a ‘purple’ wind: a cat. A cat with lavender colored fur - four plumes of it tied into a high ponytail, wearing a pair of pink heeled shoes and two puffs of white ‘fluff’ by the wrists and ankles, as well as a purple tailcoat with dark pink trims, a golden collar and what seemed to be white leggings. What made this feline dangerous however was the fact that fire seemed to burn within her soul like the fire in her golden eyes, which is to say she appeared to be literally attacking Sonic with the power to manipulate fire to her whim.

However, Sonic was fast - just as fast as she could fire a fireball or lunge at him while encasing her body in flame, he was swift enough on his feet to dodge it and then attempt to fire back at homing in on her in ball form. Though not only would she always land on her feet when knocked back, but she could rush to catch up to him and resume the fight - at least from what Shadow was able to see.

Shadow didn’t waste time thinking about who this was - he already knew. Or at least he knew what her purpose was. Seeing as how they both were in the way of his objective, he may as well lend his support to the one who needed it.

Noticing how the two were cutting each other off at various intervals, with Sonic still repeatedly dodging scorching blasts of blames from the cat he was fighting with, Shadow timed his entry carefully.

He waited for a moment just after the cat had dashed at Sonic while encased in an aura of flames, with Sonic having dodged it. Just as the cat let down the flames surrounding her, she received an aggressive ramming from behind courtesy of Shadow - his elbow slamming into her back and sending her falling to the ground with a gasp and subsequent grunt, accompanied by a hiss.

Not having the time to stop, Shadow did not waste any time and instead kept his speed. Managing to maintain it as roughly equal to Sonic’s own, it wasn’t long before Sonic turned to him and with a bit of a cocky smile commented:

“Thanks Shadow, but I had that situation under control.”

“Hmph” Shadow huffed, almost thought about rolling his eyes as well.

Didn’t look that way to me.

Shadow simply had to ask at this point:

“So what exactly is going on here?”

“Heh, why don’t you go back and ask her that?” Sonic remarked, “I’m just trying to save Elise! Said something about how destroying me will save the world, as if that makes any sense!”

“I see…” before Shadow could say anything more, he noticed from the corner of his eye that the cat was rapidly and aggressively approaching them from behind, having gotten up from Shadow’s blow to her. Sonic of course saw this too and before he could even say anything, Shadow said firmly to him: “Focus on saving Elise, I’ll handle this.”

Sonic for once didn’t say anything, only nodded and increased his speed to move ahead of Shadow, who maintained his in order to better prepare himself for the incoming fight.

Waiting for just the right moment, it was when the cat was just about to charge at him with ramming speed her flame aura active that Shadow launched his first attack - a chaos spear aimed directly at her face. However, the cat’s reflexes proved quick enough for her to dodge it with only seconds to spare, instead it exploded on the ground behind the two of them. Now on Shadow’s left, the cat proceeded to quickly retaliate by turning her aura into a stream of fire blasted right at him like a beam of rage. Shadow managed to evade it by swiftly shifting himself behind it, though had to evade yet another one that came for him from behind all but immediately after.

Once they were neck-and-neck with one another, the two were very quickly exchanging death glares; the cat in particular was quick to confront her opponent with a commanding tone:

“You’re not Mephiles...who are you?!”

“Hmph” Shadow huffed, replying with an unamused and disinterested tone, “I can ask you the same question.”

Rather than responding with words, the cat instead gritted her teeth and hissed with fury as she lunged herself at the Hedgehog, only for Shadow to jump over her and end on the opposite sides - thus accomplishing very little beyond them switching places as they continued running ever forward. The cat, still infuriated with her adversary, fired a stream of fire from her left hand aimed directly at Shadow’s head - though he dodged it by ducking and from there entered his spinning ball state.

Briefly stuck behind her, it was a mere matter of moments before he rammed himself towards her. Though she had enough time to dodge as he came near, the stream of fire she launched at him itself was also evaded, and being in the air gave Shadow an opportunity to launch a chaos spear directly towards her chest. Seeing it and widening her eyes she had just enough time to encase herself with a shield of fire before it struck her. However, the explosion from it’s impact with the shield itself was still enough to send her falling to the ground covered in ash, and not only that but for once she landed on her back.

Shadow did not waste any time in standing by only to hear her groan and hiss while on the ground, instead he only stayed long enough to ensure she was seemingly incapacitated and promptly sped off to catch up with Sonic and the Train.

The cat though proved far from finished.

Getting back up and wiping blood from her mouth with an angry glare, she swiftly sped up after Shadow and just as swiftly caught up with him. For once she managed to catch him off guard as he was just barely able to turn around before she pounced on him with the claws of her hands retracted. Both of them had also of course tumbled onto the ground though, which forced the two to a grinding halt.

The cat landed on her feet and entered a proper battle position, practically about to yet again pounce onto her target. Shadow, though he had to get up first, entered his own battle stance as well - his fists curled up and legs apart in preparation for her next move. With both of them ready for more and glaring each other down silently, the cat chose this opportunity to speak in a blunt, clear voice:

“Blaze. I’m Blaze, just so you know the last person you’ll be seeing.”

“Shadow.” the hedgehog responded, undeterred by her threat, “Shadow the Hedgehog.”

It was but a few moments after that when they charged at each other but one final time. Blaze leaped into the air with intent of yet again pouncing on Shadow, while the ever focused ultimate life kept his eyes on Blaze as he swiftly approached her.

Ultimately it was with expert precision that Shadow leaped into the air mere moments before Blaze and her now literally fired up claws made impact with his body again, and with a swift sweeping roundhouse kick directly to her abdomen sent her flying off into the cliff to his right - accompanied by a loud crashing noise and the subsequent crumbling off rocks as a dust cloud briefly appeared from the small crevice her impact had created.

With Blaze now truly unable to so swiftly return to fight, Shadow offered only a single ‘hmph’ before yet again speeding along in the direction of Sonic and Eggman’s train, this time managing to go on his way uninterrupted.

With how fast Shadow’s shoes were able to carry him, it was only a small amount of seconds before he was able have Sonic within his sights, though a side effect of his speed was that he missed on the series of metallic debris scattered along the way, and only when he had just caught up to Sonic did both he and the blue hedgehog have to dodge an explosion of fire and debris when one of the train’s cabins suddenly exploded just before they could have passed by it.

After they dodged both the explosion and the ensuing debris, Sonic noticed Shadow running next to him again and with an elated tone he exclaimed:

“Guess you took care of that ferocious feline, eh Shadow?”

“Yes, I did” Shadow remarked, though he was quick to bring attention to what needed it most, “Now we have to deal with this train.”

“Heh, tell me something I don’t know!” Sonic remarked, “Every time you get close to it, Eggman starts detonating the cabins!”

“Hmph” Shadow huffed, bluntly stating to the blue hedgehog “Then we need to move faster than the speed he detonates them, take out the wheels, and infiltrate the train.”

“You sure are good at saying these types of things like they’re the easiest things in the world.”

“Do you have any better suggestions?”

“Well, no, actually.”

“Then let’s just do mine and get this over with” Shadow said sternly, “We don’t have the time to keep chatting about it.”

Sonic had nothing to say that, his mouth remaining closed as he answered not with words but with a nodding of his head. The plan was not a guarantee of success, but it was certainly more effective than doing nothing.

The primary obstacle in their path was, as stated before, the fact that every single time the train detected their motion from behind it would detonate the cabin closest to them just before they could even hope to pass it up. Despite their speed, it appeared that Eggman’s machinery was capable of timing these explosions near perfectly; as though he had indeed fully anticipated the potential for them to attempt this very plan. This was a problem as not only would the explosion itself force them to run backwards away from it’s fire and smoke, but it would also send various pieces of metallic debris their way as well. That’s not to mention that the explosion being so close temporarily nulled their ability to hear the sound around them, forcing them to only hear high-pitched ringing for at least a few painful moments before their hearing properly returned.

Shadow chose to ignore the judgmental look that Sonic gave him. As this realization hit rather hard.

There had to be a way to somehow stop the train, or at least board it.

It was then that Shadow remembered something that in hindsight, he should have thought of much sooner. Despite being somewhat embarrassed about waiting so long to think of it, he still turned towards Sonic and said to him:

“Grab my hand, I’m going to chaos control both of us on the top of the train.”

“Heh” Sonic smirked, taking the time to remark: “You didn’t think of that first?”

Shadow almost growled when he heard that, though in the end decided to instead offer only a silent scowl before demanding:

“Just do it. Now.”

Though Sonic still smirked and chuckled just a bit, he still complied with Shadow’s command and extended out his hand. Grabbing hold of it with his right hand, it was with his left hand that Shadow held out the green chaos emerald and shouted aloud:

“Chaos Control!”

And just like that the two speeding rodents were sounded by flashing green lights and pulsating surges of energy, enveloping them within a matter of mere milliseconds. Within just as much of an instant, Shadow could feel his own thoughts turn into power as it was them which guided him and Sonic to their destination; the very location which Shadow chose, the roof of the train itself. Or at least one of it’s cabins.

There was hardly enough time for them to just stand idly however, for before long they heard from beneath them an ominous beeping sound.

Knowing precisely what was incoming, the two looked to each other and nodded before dashing off at their top speed mere moments before the cabin exploded. Successfully outrunning it, they proceeded to outrun a slew of more explosions as they went on to speed along the roof of the train; the wind rushing past their faces and quills, while the ferocious sound of metallic chunks exploding to bits behind them repeated within spans of mere seconds, spewing fire and debris every which way behind them. All the while the hedgehogs themselves remained stone faced, even Sonic, as both of them grasped well what it was they had to do and how serious it was.

There was no discussion, not but a single word was said.

Their actions spoke louder, about as loud as the explosions trailing behind them.

Thanks to their sheer speed, it didn’t take them very long at all to reach the front cabin of the train. As their feet clanged along it’s rounded black metallic roof, neither of them wasted any more time before spinning into their ball forms and ramming themselves onto what to them was just a cold hard floor. Sawing through the iron like blades through wood in a lumber mill, they soon found themselves bursting into the very cabin the doctor himself happened to be residing in. They landed expertly onto the cold, steel floor and gazed down the stainless white walls to see an ominous egg-shaped office chair; the doctor of course remained seated in that same chair, not even facing the two.

Instead, he was too busy looking at the bright monitor screens laid before him. A series of graphs, text, live security footage in and around the train, and various other irrelevant information that such a high-tech vehicle would have.

Looking at all of these screens, it was without even turning around that the doctor uttered:

“Wouldn’t the door have been easier?”

As Eggman turned into his chair to casually face them, they remained ready with their fists up and clenched; their faces locked in angry, battle-ready glares. As though Eggman knew what they wanted already, an automated system could be heard forcing the train to slow down into a stop - it was felt when a jolt made its way through all three figures in the room to signal that the vehicle had completely stopped. Shadow turned his attention to Sonic, though without turning away from Eggman, as he said:

“Go search the remaining parts of the train for the duchess, I have my own business with Eggman.”

For once Sonic was able to keep his mouth shut, as he only replied to Shadow with a silent nod before dashing off behind him. Barely a second passed when the sound of the metallic door closing could be heard in the sake of Sonic so quickly taking his leave.

Though Eggman was clearly unhappy with yet again losing the princess, his smirk only vanished for a fraction of a second - merely twitching as though his confidence not yet being defeated. Still, with one foot crossed over the other he casually turned his focus to Shadow and in a disinterested tone befitting his demeanor asked:

“So, what do you want now?”

Shadow responded with another question, though he put himself and his voice into a more commanding tone:

“Who is Mephiles and why are you trying to capture him?”

Though the doctor did drop the smirk from his face and the ‘casual’ attitude he had to his demeanor, he replaced it with a more irritated frown as he stood up from his seat, waving a hand at Shadow with a huff as he turned towards the screens. Even his tone was one of annoyance as he answered:

“If you want to know, why don’t you go and ask him yourself?”, placing and cupping his hands behind his back the Doctor continued on in a return of his casual if not sarcastic demeanor from before, “But here’s a hint, it’s all linked to the Soleanna disaster ten years ago.”

Shadow became less commanding and more inquisitive at that moment, some of the pieces now beginning to come together as he replied:

“The Solaris project.”

“Indeed” Eggman remarked, twirling his mustache as he paced around for a bit, turning towards Shadow and approaching him as he placed his hands behind his back again, saying to the black hedgehog; “When you capture Mephiles, you must bring him to me. Then I’ll tell you the truth about Solaris.”

As Eggman casually took a seat back in his chair, resting his hands on the armrests as if silently awaiting the Hedgehog’s answer, Shadow himself honestly did contemplate the offer. He recalled the times he’d worked with Eggman before:

When I was first releases from G.U.N’s facility, it was him who released me, and who I aligned myself with first...

Though, I wouldn’t call myself proud of what I had done back then…

He also ended up on the side of us and G.U.N. though during the Black Arms invasion, albeit for the reason of wnot wanting anyone else to conquer the world.

As much as I have my own questions and doubts about G.U.N. at times, I doubt anything good would come from a being such as Mephiles being in Eggman’s custody. Even if I do decide to capture him instead of destroy him.

Ultimately, Shadow’s response was a resounding:

“I’ll deal with Mephiles how I see it, Doctor.”

“Hmph” Eggman huffed, though it was in a manner both irritated by and having seemingly expecting that response, given by what he said next - “Suit yourself, Shadow. Just remember that G.U.N. aren’t the only ones to have access to my grandfather’s diary.”

That was admittedly not something Shadow had been anticipating to hear. However, it was true. It was after all how Eggman knew about Shadow in the first place.

As much as Shadow glared at Eggman, truth be told he had no idea what to do as his next move. Eggman, for his part, seemed to know this as the look on his face was just slightly shifted into the most confidently arrogant of smirks. Finding out the full truth behind his origin was one of Shadow’s top reasons for joining G.U.N. in the first place, so that mere fact alone gave Eggman significant leverage in this exchange.

However, things were cut short when a loud explosive sound erupted from outside, a booming blast like that of a lazer discharging into the ground.

Looking up at the hole in the ceiling of the cabin and then back at Eggman, still maintaining his glare, Shadow ultimately decided to investigate the sound rather than the Doctor any further. There wasn’t much point to, he already knew what the Doctor was trying to do and going to say. He had more pressing matters to concern himself with.

Out in the open, it could be seen well that the train had stopped in a wide open gorge. Lush green grass with patches of dried brown dirt littered the flattened ground, with the train in between two steep canyon walls on either side east to west, a massive stone wall with accompanying concrete tunnel to it’s north, and of course the vast swaths of land previously travelled to it’s south. Littered around the gorge itself were plenty of wooden and steel crates alike as well as large rectangular containers placed on or near sloped conveyer belts or crane lifts leading to the plateaus above where another set of train tracks formed a bridge overhead of where Shadow was standing.

Scanning these surroundings quickly, it wasn’t long before he discovered the source of the commotion:

Sonic had managed to find Elise and carry her to the outside of the train, but was stopped in his tracks by the other remaining assassin; a white hedgehog with two prominent quills sticking out from the back of his head and a series of at least five styled to extend from his forehead almost like the leaves of a marijuana plant. On his wrists and ankles were golden metallic cuffs with creases of cyan lights horizontally down the middle, with similar marks on his gloves. His amber eyes wre set on Sonic with a piercing angry glare as Elise herself kept herself at a distance behind Sonic, there being nothing she could do as the white hedgehog shouted at the blue hero:

“This time there will be no more interruptions!” he pointed at Sonic as he angrily exclaimed, “The Iblis Trigger must die!”

There was hardly any time for anyone to react when the white hedgehog launched from his hand a green energy blast directly at Sonic. Though Sonic did manage to jump out of the way and evade the attack, the explosion caused by it hitting the ground was still enough to make Elise hold her arms up to protect herself and her eyes while also shrieking as she backed herself further away quickly.

The sound of Elise’s fright unfortunately distracted Sonic though, as the moment he was standing up again the white Hedgehog held out a hand and trapped him within a psychic hold; a green aura surrounded Sonic and held him in place while all he could do was grunt and hiss, and all that Elise could do was hold her hands together to her chest and watch in anxious suspense.

Watching this, Shadow was preparing to intervene. The only thing holding him back from doing so immediately was the fact that he knew attacking someone with such psionic powers would be foolish if they saw him coming; planning his entry was key.

His initial plan of attack was to dispatch the assassin from a distance using a chaos spear while he was distracted with Sonic. That plan was however curtailed when a sudden blast of jet engine speed hurled it’s way just off Shadow’s right side, throwing the black hedgehog off balance and stopping him from an immediate attack. As Shadow readjusted his balance and kept himself from being pushed away by such a fast gust of wind his first thought was:

What the hell was that?

This small moment of confusion would until a familiar, sinisterly snarking voice called out to Elise from above:

“So how was your little walk, duchess?”

Before Elise could even respond, she was grabbed from behind by the cold hands of the robotic speedster, Metal Sonic, as he blasted at blazing speed from the direction of the train and swept her into the air. Where of course, Dr. Eggman was occupying the same aircraft he’d been using before. Elise could do little but scream out as this occurred in such quick succession, Sonic of course turning to see Eggman and the blue robot hedgehog swiftly flying away from the scene with Elise in tow.

However, trapped by this assassin Sonic was unable to do anything about it save for watch.

Shadow had of course been watching as well, though knew that for practical purposes saving Sonic so he could save Elise while Shadow himself dealt with the greater threat would be for the best. As such, Shadow focused all of his attention on Sonic’s predicament.

“Elise!” Sonic called out, though as if not seeing the duchess as important the white hedgehog grunted and emitted a psionic pulse which caused his trapped prey to jolt and converse with pain. As Sonic hissed and groaned in increased agony at this predicament, the white hedgehog only went on:

“It’s time to end this!”

Thankfully for Sonic, this moment of dire circumstances when Shadow seized his chance to intervene.

Launching a chaos spear directly at the feet of the white hedgehog, Shadow was able to send the hostile assailant back by at least a foot as well as break his psychic hold over Sonic. By the time the white hedgehog focused back on his target, Shadow was now standing in-between the two with his arms crossed and glaring directly at him. Sonic meanwhile was adjusting himself after what he had just been subjected to; as Sonic recovered, the white hedgehog couldn’t help but look at Shadow with a look and tone combining fury with confusion:

“Who?! Mephiles?!” he exclaimed, “Why are you getting in my way?!”

Shadow, maintaining his glare and dominant stance, was quick to correct this new foe of his :

“I’m Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog.”

The white hedgehog, intimidated, glared angrily at Shadow as he realized combat was imminent. Shadow meanwhile took the time to turn his head to Sonic behind him; Sonic had just gotten up and onto his feet when he looked and saw the nod Shadow gave to him. Running off after Eggman and Metal Sonic just as Shadow turned back to his opponent, he did not witness the rest of the confrontation.

The first thing that the white hedgehog attempted to do, guided by instinct, was to attempt chasing after Sonic. However, Shadow swiftly jumped in front of him and attempted to perform a kick directly to the hedgehog’s face. To his credit, the lighter hedgehog dodged it by bending himself as though he was breakdancing, before using his psionic powers on Shadow.

Trapped within an aura of green psychic energy, all Shadow could do is groan in agitated pain before he whisked directly into one of the large rectangular containers near the canyon side. Of course, due to Shadow’s physical strength he actually burst straight through the metal of the container itself and instead slammed directly into the rocky canyon walls. Fortunately, though he had the wind knocked out of himself he was more than capable of making a quick recovery as he stood up and cleared the dust out of his immediate vision.

So he really does possess psychokinesis…

Was he born with it? Or was he created like me?

I’ll have to look into this sometime later.

Indeed he would, as for the time being he had a much more pressing concern. As once he regained sight of his opponent he could see well that he was gathering up a series of projectiles to use. Barrels, tree branches, crates, small fruit and pieces of train debris were all gathered by the white hedgehog as he fixated his sight on Shadow. Both him and his weapons surrounded by his psychic aura, he let out his signature battle cry as he prepared his attack:

“It’s no use!” he shouted, “TAKE THIS!”

Widening his eyes before making a determined dash away from the onslaught of weaponized objects, Shadow proved just fast enough to dodge nearly all of them. The metal barrels which burst and spilled oil and fuel all over the ground, the crates that shattered to pieces upon impact, the fruit such as apples which also became quite smashed upon impact, and everything else that this white furred assassin threw at him. Shadow ran a distant circle around the rodent and yet managed to perfectly evade a single hit from his projectiles.

He was also fast enough to outrun the white hedgehog’s focus as well. Seeing a window of time just after the last object shattered itself onto the ground, Shadow swiftly launched a silent chaos spear at his opponent from behind; Shadow was ultimately unsuccessful in his plan as the hedgehog seemingly sensed the incoming projectile and flew up into the air using his psychic aura to evade it.

Growling with increasing anger, the white hedgehog proceeded to fire an energy projectile of his own at Shadow using the advantage he had of being so far above him. However, using his chaos emerald Shadow was able to utilize chaos control to teleport away from it’s impact he immediately. This served to make his foe angrier, resulting in four more failed attempts at this same attack. After that fifth failure, the hedgehog even balled his hands into a fist and slammed them down in the air; his patience was fleeting.

He’s getting more irritated the more he fails to strike me.

Pathetic.

But also good for me, he’s going to be easier to deal with.

Shadow was unable to fully anticipate what his enemy was going to do next however. Tried with his repeated failure to strike him with small scale attacks, the white hedgehog channeled all of the psionic energy that he could muster in order to craft and attack that in his mind was sure to end the battle shortly thereafter. Shadow processed what he was doing when he saw the doctor’s train fly into the air, being forced into a crunched state with it’s metallic body and inside making horrifically loud cracks and screeches.

What’s more, the bridge that had previously been overhead of it began undulating as the white hedgehog’s powers forcibly ripped it from it’s hinges an foundation along with all of the cranes and assorted mining machinery that was nearby to it. All of it joined with the doctor’s train in a symphony of nightmarishly loud, ear piercing sounds of various industrial materials crashing and collapsing onto one another until a vaguely ball shaped mass of them was formed; psychically lifted above the white hedgehog’s head as though he was lifting it.

Having seen all of it, Shadow for once was awestruck, though it didn’t take long before he leaped into action as soon enough this massive mass was hurled directly at him.

Any other being would have surely been done for in this situation, and they certainly wouldn't have have made the ambitious move to jump straight for it. Shadow however, was no regular being. Moments before he made contact with the massive ‘ball’ he made sure to curl himself into ball form and surround himself with an aura of flashing chaos energy, making a grunt just as he made impact.

The energy burned through all that stood in his way, and the velocity of his ball form helped cut through it all like a knife through butter. He couldn't stop the ball’s actual movements however. The moment it hit the ground it created not only a loud crashing boom just like that of a building collapsing but it also kicked up about as much dust and dirt as such an event would have.

It was the latter which served to help Shadow put an end through the fight.

Plowing through the other side of the giant ball just as it made it’s impact, Shadow dissipated his chaos energy aura and hurled himself directly at the white hedgehog just as the dust from the crashing impact occurred. It served as excellent cover, for just as his enemy waved a cloud of it away from himself did Shadow come seemingly out of nowhere and land a sucker punch directly to his face.

Within an instant and with a sharp whine of pain, the white hedgehog fell from the sky and collapsed onto the ground below just as the dust from the mess he created began to clear. Shadow let himself fall as well, though he landed on his feet rather than his stomach; all without moving his eyes from his opponent at all.

With the white hedgehog stumbling to his feet, it was mere moments before the two were exchanging both glares and repeated breathes at one another; both of the two combatants being exhausted after exerting themselves to such great extents.

Despite his tiredness though, the white hedgehog still raised his fist in anger before letting out a cry of frustration; foolishly, he made the decision to charge at Shadow.

Unimpressed, Shadow merely thought:

Pathetic.

Before holding out the green chaos emerald and uttering:

“Chaos control!”

Just like that, the white hedgehog and everyone else around Shadow became slow enough so that from the black hedgehog’s perspective it was as though his foe was frozen in place. Taking advantage of this moment, Shadow casually walked up behind the white hedgehog and leaped into the air in order to deliver a sweeping roundhouse kick directly to the back of his enemy’s head.

The time warping effects of chaos control wore off with the kick, causing the white hedgehog to collapse to the ground with both a thud of his body and an ‘oof’ from his mouth. Looking at Shadow from the ground now with anger seething in his eyes, he hissed at his foe:

“Y-Y-You!”

As the white hedgehog tried to stand up onto his feet again, though in his fury he was quick to turn towards his enemy once more, ready for more. Shadow was quick to hold out to his adversary his chaos emerald; saying to him:

“Don’t bother. With a chaos emerald’s power, I control time and space. You can’t break free.”

Still kneeling on the ground, the white hedgehog looked to his hands and to the ground as he spoke aloud to himself, figuring out for himself how he was going to handle this situation:

“I won’t give up!” he exclaimed, “It all depends on me! Can’t lose...not when I’m so close!”

That was when the white hedgehog revealed something that actually did manage to surprise Shadow, as he pulled out the blue chaos emerald and held it high into the air while emitting yet another battle cry to the heavens. Charging at Shadow with the blue emerald firmly in his hand, Shadow naturally returned the favor; this resulted in the two clashing, the cuffs of their hands ramming into one another as the emeralds began shining intensely as the two in unison spoke the ‘magic’ words:

“Chaos control!”

With those words being said, the two backed from each other just as a similar portal - to Shadow at least - opened up. A swirling blue and white vortex tearing straight through the fabric of space ad time, just like what he and Sonic had created to escape the hellish future they had been trapped in before. Though impossible to see where it actually led, Shadow assumed it’s destination based on the perod of time he had been thinking of; the saying was after all that the emeralds turned ‘thoughts into power’. Still, Shadow couldn’t help but be bewildered at how this newcomer seemed so capable with a chaos emerald.

He’s more peculiar than I thought…

“You, you induced chaos control.” Shadow commented, showing both his state of being moderately impressed for once as well as his confusion about the turn of events.

“I won’t let anyone get in my way!” he replied, “I’ll change the past and save the world!”

Just as Shadow shook his head in response at the naivety of what he had just said, the two were joined on the field by a third, feminine voice approaching them quickly:

“Silver!”

It was Blaze, calling out to the white hedgehog just as she stopped herself by breaking. Assuming a battle ready stance as she stared down Shadow, it was evident that while still showing signs of their previous battle she had in fact recovered from the ordeal. It also told Shadow the name of his adversary, Silver. Presumably Silver the Hedgehog.

“Silver, are you alright?” Blaze asked, not breaking her eye contact with Shadow for a second.

“Yes” Silver nodded, resuming his own battle stance as well, “I’m fine. Now that he’s dealing with both of us, he doesn’t stand a chance!”

Shadow chuckled a bit as he continued shaking his head. He admired their bravery, though. Still, he looked towards the portal before back at them, stating to them bluntly:

“Mephiles isn’t trying to help you two create a better future. He’s the one who ruined it in the first place.”

Both Blaze and Silver let down their battle stances and looked at Shadow attentively when he uttered those words, even looking to each other in silence before looking back at Shadow. Still, as to be expected such a pill wasn’t swallowed immediately as Silver’s immediate response was a confused:

“What? What are you talking about?

Still, it was clear that a two-on-fight wasn’t so assured, allowing Shadow to continue on in response, shaking his head more as he calmly approached the two:

“To discover what actually happened” he said, “It appears we must discover what took place ten years ago. Follow me if you want the truth.”

Without any further hesitation, Shadow jumped into the portal and let the cold yet invigorating sensation of travelling through time and space flow across his body like an autumn breeze. Though Shadow had left before they did, ultimately both Blaze and Silver did jump in after the black hedgehog after what clearly wasn’t a very long - if any - discussion at all. Hopefully, they would be convinced by whatever the trio would soon discover locked away in the past.

With the bright flash of a blinding light and the act of travelling through the space time continuum for what was an impossible to truly perceive amount of time. When their short journey was finished the trio found themselves greeted with the sound of their feet clanging against an entirely metallic floor. Looking around, they could see that they were in an entirely metallic hall. The walls, ceiling and floor were all entirely compromised of pristine, stainless floors of polished metals. The halls were well lit enough for them to see clearly, though besides repeated metallic doors and winding corridors there proved to not be much to see. The only clue as to where they were was that they could hear from a distance the echoes and majestic songs of sea creatures; specifically the likes of whales and dolphins. Repeating through the halls, these eloquent songs easily presented to the three that wherever they were it was likely underwater.

However, all tree of them had little to no idea of where this location was. Of them, it was Blaze who was the first to actually say as such:

“What is this place?” she asked, “Are we still even in Soleanna?”

“Yes” Shadow answered, “We should be in the Soleanna underwater labs beneath the original palace complex, in the year 1996.”

“1996” Silver commented, looking around the place in amazement, even gazing at his reflection in the floor as if it was the most amazing thing in the world for his eyes to witness “The floors here are so clean, and those sounds are so beautiful.”

“We’re underwater” Shadow explained, “Those sounds are from pods of whales in the ocean outside of the base.”

“Whales?” Silver asked, ”What are, whales?”

“In our time, we don’t really have what you’d call an ‘ocean” Blaze was swift to explain, “Unless oceans of lava count. We only know of the actual sea from reading about it.”

“Yes” Shadow remarked, nodding, “I saw what your future looks like. I’m hoping to prevent it from happening, as are the two of you.”

“Then why did you let the Iblis trigger get away?” Silver asked, turning to Shadow in a confrontational manner, “He’s the one responsible for causing the disaster that destroys the world!”

“I told you” Shadow stated, “Mephiles was lying to you. I can not tell you why he wanted you to kill Sonic specifically, but I can tell you that it had something to do with however he caused the very future you are trying to prevent.”

“I don’t get it!” Silver replied, “Why would Mephilies lie to us like that?”

Blaze, ignoring Silver’s question and looking directly to Shadow, asked a somewhat more sensible question:

“What exactly are we supposed to be looking for here?”

Shadow though, didn’t really know how to answer that question. Having never been here nor in this period of time before, he was unsure of what exactly was going on here. He did however, scan his eyes around the hall until he located a door that seemed to be ajar; blocked from closing by what appeared to be a dropped plastic box. The sound of the door repeatedly hitting it as it tried to close was heard clearly in Shadow’s ears and is what drew to him to the door, with Blaze and Silver both following after him.

Upon reaching the door, Shadow was careful to first touch it with his hand and shove one of it’s two halves into the wall it came out of, followed by kicking the box into the room and doing the same to the other. The force of his push actually managed to break the door’s ability to close properly, though that wasn’t his concern. As he promptly walked into the dimly lit room the other two impromptu companions of his followed.

The room they had entered was an office of sorts, judging by it being spacious though contained. It only contained a series of shelves housing numerous books, a rounded section of couches upon which to sit and read said books, and a desk containing a desktop computer sitting on top of it and an entire wall of filing cabinets behind it. The room itself was styled in a very stainless and pristine look, as if it was a setting in a science fiction film; a very idealized futuristic style, made for the place to seem more high tech than it truly was. If the room’s lights were turned on it certainly would have looked far more white; though it was with them turned off that the large glass wall showcasing the ocean cast over it a veil of deep blue instead.

Silver and Blaze were mesmerized by the view of it. The vast abyss of the deep blue sea, with the light of the surface glistening calmly from above. The colorful vibrancy of the coral reefs that were home to all walks of ocean life be they various schools if diverse fish, to crabs and lobsters treading along the sea floor, to roaming sharks and slithering eels. The sea turtles silently swimming by the scene ever slowly, minding their own business. The dolphins playing about, every so often just grazing the window itself as if to say hello to those inside. The pods of massive humpback whales singing their beautiful mesmerizing songs far off in the distance.

To tell the truth, even Shadow found himself a bit awestruck by the scene. Though he had to break from soaking in the beauty to see if this room had any information about what was going on in this place. Turning to the computer, that was the first thing he thought to look into. Blaze followed him, though Silver was too hypnotized by the beauty of the ocean to do so.

Shadow ignored him though.

Leaning over the desk, Shadow flickered the mouse until the computer’s screen went from black to being visible - though progressing beyond that proved difficult as to regain access to the actual computer her would need the password.

Damnit.

Frustrated, Shadow couldn’t help but pound a fist to the desk - creating a hole in it in the process of doing so.

“Silas Stone” he heard Blaze’s voice say, looking up to see that she was reading from a series of files that had been left on the desk.

“Hm?”

“That appears to be the name of the scientist who works in this office” Blaze explained, “Silas Stone. Does that name sound familiar to you?”

Shadow thought about it for a minute, though despite his own lack of knowledge about his past that was not a name that even felt like it meant anything to him in particular. As such he shook his head and said:

“No, it doesn’t.” he then directed his attention to the files Blaze was holding in her hands, “But what do the rest of those files say?”

Blaze then proceeded to silently read through the files. At first her reactions to them seemed to give the impression that what they said were standard scientific jargon. However, within a matter of a few short moments her face appeared more intrigued and also more alarmed as she continued reading through the pages. By that point even Shadow was concerned, and Silver was finally walking over to the two as well. Blaze read through at least seven pages of information before looking up at Shadow and Silver - the former asking her:

“Well?”

“It appears Dr. Stone here is one of the head researchers, second only to the Duke himself.” she explained, “The project itself seems to be an effort to create a new, eternal energy source for the country if not the world; using the dark energy from the scepter of darkness and the flames of disaster as a ‘controlled’ energy source.”

“What?”!” Silver exclaimed, expressing fright as well as confusion, “No way! Why would they need to do such a thing?”

“Science isn’t known for knowing when to quit, Silver” Blaze was quick to explain, “Besides the desire for an energy source that lasts forever, there isn’t any reason given. Not here, anyway.”

“Does it say anything about Solaris in particular?” Shadow questioned, “Or Mephiles?”

“It doesn't mention Mephiles by name” Blaze replied, “But it doesn't mention Solaris as the country’s patron deity and the namesake of the project. There’s also this.”

She then handed Shadow a paper that had clipped to it three images; photographs. These photographs were mostly black and white, though gave Shadow an ominous feeling down to the pit of his stomach. One of them was seemingly from an ancient temple, judging by the appearance of ancient echidna carvings in the shot. In the center of it was a crude drawing of 52 circles surrounded by countless echidna skulls, all of them engulfed in the flames emitted by what appeared to be a massive sunbird situated above them all. The second was of another engraving, an ancient echidna mosaic mural presumably in one of their ancient cities or temples - though this one depicting what appeared to be two large humanoid demonic beings fighting while in the middle of them seemed to be a bright circle, a portal perhaps. One of the beings had hair, horns and four eyes while the other was bald and sported only two. The third and final image was the least nightmare inducing though the most curious, sporting only a closeup of a particular set of echidna hieroglyphics. Being what they were, they did not say anything clear, merely being a series of shapes related to the echidna’s civilization and the surrounding area, though Shadow could tell they spelled something out.

Perhaps Rouge will know what this says.

Shadow then looked on the paper they were clipped to. Even though he figured it would mostly be jargon related to the energy project, he still read it attentively:

SOLARIS PROJECT REPORT #667

DATE 1995/04/21

PERSONNEL ID: DCCP26101980 DOCTOR SILAS S.

Excavations at the Regal Ruin archaeology site in the Bialyan Desert have been completed; not much of note was found. The ruins were still flooded due to Bialya’s 74 year old R’as Dam, hindering research in the area. Not being allowed deeper into Bialya’s ruins also provided an obstacle to finding anything substantial, though three peculiar pieces of ancient Echidna artwork and hieroglyphics were found and the photographs of them processed - attached to this file. I do not know precisely what they say, though one of them bares a striking resemblance to Solaris. Another appears to prophesize or archive some sort of battle between two, what I presume, deities that the Echidnas perhaps had worshipped. Though they are perhaps particularly ancient gods, as they do not resemble any of the Echidna’s traditional gods and goddesses. Copies of these - especially the third one solely containing hieroglyphics, I have sent to Professor Helena Sandsmark in Grand Metropolis. I’m hoping to hear back from her regarding the translations of the latter soon, and perhaps insight as to the meaning behind the other ones. I determined these findings peculiar due to the relation they appeared to have with Soliars; whether or not they contain any secrets pertaining to the ancient Echidna’s methods of utilizing chaos energy as a fuel source is yet to be determined though I do believe such knowledge is within grasp.

Unfortunately, the Bialyan Government has refused to renew our license to excavate in the area, leaving us with only 4 more days to wrap up our research and then return to Soleanna. It’s possible political tension is brewing between them and Soleanna. I wouldn’t know.

In regards to progress on the project, isolation of the flames has been achieved though the strange energy force emitting from the scepter of darkness has still been resistant to extraction. Most machinery used in such endeavors seem to malfunction on contact, implying whatever is powering the scepter has powerful electro-magnetic capabilities. I worry it may shut off power to the entire complex. Am still looking into a way to extract and isolate the dark energy, which is not easy with how headstrong Duke Arturo is about getting this done soon. He is convinced that this energy project will save Soleanna’s ongoing crisis.

That is all relevent information for now, will make another report should things change.

Reaching the end of the report, Shadow placed it down on the desk where it had first been laying. He took the three photographs for himself though, still figuring that perhaps Rouge would later be able to decipher the hieroglyphics. For the time being though he turned to Silver and Blaze to summarize what he had learned:

“It appears that some sort of economic or energy crisis spurred the Duke of Soleanna into starting this ‘Solaris Project’ in the first place. Based on these notes, it seems we’re not long after they managed to isolate Mephiles from the scepter of darkness; for the first time.”

“Okay” Silver interjected, “But what about the accident? What happened here, or is going to happen here, that started all of this in the first place?”

As if on cue, that precise moment was when it happened.

From outside the three could all hear the sound of a loud, bellowing boom. The unmistakable sound of a loud explosion echoed through the halls of the base, bringing a rumbling tremor in it’s wake. Looking to each other and then to the door, the trio nodded before bolting in it’s direction. Darting Running into it they soon learned they were on an upper level of the facility, as they were looking down on the lab from the view of a now shattered window into it. Jumping down onto the floor below, they saw that it was a rounded, circular room that was enclosed save for two entrance doors and entirely devoid of windows - the only lights had been the monitors of the various computers lying about the room. All of which were now destroyed and subsequently offline. Just like the rest of the room, they were covered with resiude of the explosion’s flames. Speaking of which, they could see various humanoid bodies lying lifeless on the floor; the scientists who had been working in the room. With thick suits and helmets on it was impossible to know their identities, though one of them appeared to have been shielding something, as his body was curled up against something in a protective manner.

Blaze, Shadow and Silver went to attend to these injured people only until something else caught their attention. In the center of the room, where remains of two now shattered glass tubes rested. An ominous hiss churned from the shredded glass as a pool of what looked like black tar bubbled and poured from the destroyed machine and onto the floor as a roaring ball of flame hovered above it. Looking at these things with functioning eyes, it did not take long for the three to discern what these things were. Blaze and Silver even exclaimed in unison:

“Iblis!”

“And that black mass” Shadow remarked, “Is Mephiles’ original form.”

Iblis and Mephiles seemed to ignore the three however. Iblis, in the form of a levitating mass of crackling and blistering hot flames, began motioning his way rapidly towards one of the entrance doors with Mephiles slithering his way just as quickly towards the other one. As all they seemed to do in regards to communication at this point was growl and hiss, it was impossible to know what either of their intentions were. Such things were not a concern of the trio though.

“They’re escaping!” Silver shouted, with Shadow quick to respond:

“You two go after Iblis” he said, “I’ll take care of Mephiles!”

Silver and Blaze both only nodded once before charging swiftly after Iblis, determined to stop the beast responsible for their hellish future. Shadow was going to do much the same in regards to Mephiles, though just before he took a step he was stopped by a frail and winded voice:

“Wait….”

Turning to the source of this voice, he saw that this voice came from a man he recognized from photographs as Duke Arturo of Soleanna. A fair skinned, middle aged, grey-haired man with deep blue eyes and a fully formed beard across his face. With him being dressed in a thick, heavy lab coat, Shadow could see that he had he was present and had been shielding a five year old Elise when the explosion occurred. The latter being evident by her being unconscious beside her father. The Duke meanwhile, though shaking and injured by what had happened, still had enough strength to hand Shadow the scepter of darkness as he weakly said:

“Seal it with this…”

Shadow nodded as he took into his hands the scepter, and left the Duke to tend to his daughter while he himself chased fully after Mephiles.

Chasing Mephiles thankfully did not prove to be a particularly lengthy endeavor, in spite of the speed at which Mephiles’ dark cloud form slithered across his surroundings. With how long the undulating being was, Shadow was easily able to track him down each winding hall and corridor by his tail end - his personal speed proving to be very effective at keeping pace with him. This journey down various corners, halls with either nothing but lab doors or at least one side a view of the ocean was tedious though necessary. Ultimately though, as Shadow anticipated it was not quite as easy as merely catching up to Mephiles and using the scepter.

Just as Mephiles had reached an elevator lift to the surface, Shadow made his move and attempted to leap to position himself in front of the black mass. However, Mephiles growled and turned various spots of his cloud-like ‘body’ into whipping tendrils that swiped at Shadow. Maneuvering both in the air and on the ground each attempt Mephiles made to grab him or worse, Shadow retaliated with a chaos spear right at what from his perspective was Mephiles’ ‘head’.

Within seconds, Mephiles’ form splattered across the floor as though a massive bubble of ash black tar had just popped. Shadow was unscathed, though with Mephiles quickly regaining his form and growling of extreme anger he knew well that he had no time to waste.

Holding out the scepter into the air with his emerald in hand just as Mephiles regained his form and lunged at him, Shadow called out:

“Chaos control!”

And like that, Mephiles was frozen in place.

However, the sensation of being stopped in his tracks by Chaos Control was enough for Mephiles’ sinister voice to emerge. As one would expect, his tone was not pleased at all:

“You will regret this” he threatened, “You have no idea what you are meddling with.”

The scepter now glowing a bright white as it levitated itself into the air, with the light increasing with intensity once it was positioned high above Mephiles, who spoke with angered bewilderment:

“Who, who are you?”

Shadow gave him the answer he wanted:

“I’m Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog.”

The scepter then began doing it’s job, pulling the black and purple shadowy mas that was Mephiles back into it. His form turning into spiraling streams as he was pulled in yet as he continued speaking to Shadow his voice remained calm; as though this wasn’t causing him any real pain at all.

“Shadow” he said, “Your face, your form, I will remember. Your death, certain. When our paths cross again, I shall kill you myself!”

Within a few moments after that final word of his, the scepter had finished sucking his form completely into itself; shining brightly one final time before falling to the ground, the scepter show radiated the same black and purple aura it had prior to when the demonic being was released from it in what was currently the future. Letting his arms down and putting away the chaos emerald, Shadow approached the scepter and kneeled down to pick it up.

Silently inspecting it, Shadow couldn’t help but leer his eyes inquisitively at it knowing full well what now rested inside.

What does this all mean?

What exactly is Mephiles?

Why does it relate to the Ancient Echidnas? And How?

What exactly was going on down here?

Just what kind of being am I dealing with here?

Knowing he wouldn’t get any answers just standing in the middle of this room, Shadow turned his direction towards the elevator lift Mephiles had been heading towards. Seeing as how all of his business was done here all he had left to do was head to the surface and wait for Silver and Blaze to join him.

Though it took a large and quite tedious amount of time, Silver with Blaze at his side eventually was able to catch up with the fast moving vortex of blistering flames. Rather than a room with an elevator lift however, the pair caught Iblis in a room that ended with a dead end - a metallic wall with a flat marble table before it.

Rather than question why Iblis was cornered so easily, instead they knew to get straight to work. Blaze stood back as Silver managed to stop Iblis in his tracks with a psychic grab, though the fire demon was not so easily held in place. He growled with intense rage as well as hatred. Though he remained vigilant and kept his ground, the strength it took both his body and mind to hold the flames in placed caused Silver to let out grunts and hisses as though he was performing the hardest of all exercises as a mere beginner; which, in a mental sense, he essentially was.

Blaze stood at the ready, emitting flames of her own as her hands in preparation for if Iblis broke free from Silver’s hold.

“Silver!” Blaze called out, “Do you know what to do now?”

“I don’t know” Silver admitted, “But we have to find some kind of way to take him out!”

Silver then noticed that Blaze’s eyes were fixated on something other than him, and turning to see what she was looking at he saw a sight which absolutely flabbergasted him. It was Duke Arturo, cradling his five-year old daughter Elise unconscious in his arms. The man was standing beside the two anthro beings in front of the flames; Elise remained in his arms, alive though completely unaware of the scene happening around her. Seeing this man and his daughter was enough of a shocking scene to elicit shouts from Silver:

“Hey! What are you doing?! Get you and your daughter out of here!”

Unyielding and now slowly approaching the flame, still carrying his daughter, the Duke responded with a determined, if not bull headed, tone while fully keeping his eyes fixated on the flames:

“I have my duty” he spoke, “This living flame has been entrusted to the royal family, the flames of disaster will awaken if nothing is done! That, must not happen.”

Silver and Blaze both watched as the man slowly made his way towards the marble table - placing his daughter gently down onto it. Brushing her short auburn red hair softly, he then motioned for something that he had been carrying in the back pocket of his soot covered lab coat. Judging by his motions, it was clear that he was sustaining a degree of injuries or from some health condition that perhaps was lung or heart related.

Regardless of his increasing weakness, the man still managed to pull out the white chaos emerald. There was little to no time wasted with fanfare as he held it out and sent it to levitate up in the air. It was only once it stopped rising that he spoke with his eyes focused completely on it and the flames of Iblis:

“Eternal Sun!” he exclaimed, “The living flame that has been entrusted to the royal family! Fall into slumber with a royal soul!”

Silver and Blaze watched in solemn awe as the flames of Iblis began to seemingly calm down, looking down to see that instead the being of fire and destruction had been absorbed into the chaos emerald. Silver released his psychic grip at that point, looking to Blaze briefly before a sound came from the emerald. Looking to it, they witnessed a red beam of light streaming directly to Elise’s heart. The young girl only moved around but a bit, remaining asleep through the entire ordeal, which all in the scene would agree was certainly for the best.

No way!

Silver thought, in absolute amazement as well as horrified confusion.

Iblis...Iblis is being sealed inside of that girl?!

Indeed he was right. Not only was the color of the beam a dead give away, but once it had finished and the emerald fell to the ground, the first think that the Duke did was slowly make his away over to his daughter. Kneeling before her as his strength began to finally fade for good, he brushed her hair as a soft smile found it’s way onto his face and a single tear fell from his face.

Though he knew he was in his aching moments, he still found enough strength and willpower to scoop her into his arms one final time, turning to Silver and Blaze and approaching them just as he yet again collapsed to his knees. They approached him, their brows curled into a state of concern as he said to them both:

“I’m sorry, but, can you take her to a safe place?”

Silver nodded as he quietly took Elise into his arms, him and Blaze watching as the Duke with another soft smile noticed that one of Elise’s arms was hanging in the air. He lovingly picked it up and placed it on her chest, before brushing her hair with his hand again. Knowing well that his time was coming, he said what would be the last words he ever said to her:

“That’s a good girl, Elise. Remember, be brave. Don’t cry, no matter what happens. Otherwise your tears will call forth the flames inside you. Become a strong duchess, who doesn’t cry no matter what happens. And...live...happily.”

The Duke’s life faded not long after his final word. His eyes closed slowly just as he collapsed onto the ground, the muscles in his body relaxing once he had hit the ground as if he was entering a deep sleep - though it was the kind without breathing. Silver and Blaze both were at a loss for words at what they had just witnessed, both of them unsure if anything would even be an appropriate thing to say at all. Ultimately, it was Blaze who turned to Silver and softly said:

“We should go, Silver.”

Nervously, the white hedgehog nodded with only a slight stutter in his voice:

“Y-Yeah…”

Shadow had been waiting outside of the original Soleanna palace for Silver and Blaze for what felt like some time. Though in the present the original palace remained in ruin, during this time period when it was in use, it was far more an impressive sight to behold. Standing in the middle of a courtyard, he had to admire how massive and practically imperial the palace was, situated in the middle of a lush valley with steep canyon walls on either side while a deep and pristine bay sat at the bottom. During this time period, all of the stone and marble construction work was much more polished and clean, and all of the bridges scattered throughout the assortment of towers, spires and actual castle structures were in useable condition. The only vegetation growing were from well maintained and controlled gardens, such as the one in the courtyard he was standing in.

The stone path was clearly visible, the shrubberies and grass were an ever vibrant shade of green that glistened in the light of the sun, and the trees around him housed singing birds and small scurrying rodents alike.

There was great peace all around him, though as he gazed upon it he knew full well that none of this beauty was going to last. Inevitably this place would soon be abandoned and replaced, left to it’s own devices as it was left to the whim of time. Still, as the small birds chirped around him and large eagles soared through the air and perched on some of the towers and spires, even he decided to at least breath in the fresh air. After all that he had been through, it was refreshing to take it in.

“So, did you do it?”

When he heard Silver’s voice behind him, he turned to see him and Blaze approaching him. Silver of course carrying the still unconscious Elise in his arms. Though Shadow was curious, it was something his mind easily figured out for itself as he answered:

“Yes. And you?”

Shadow noticed Silver take a bit of a breath before he responded, though there was no lie detected in what the hedgehog said:

“Yes. The ‘flames’ are properly sealed. It’s done.”

Shadow then observed as Silver walked towards a nearby oak tree, and gently placed Elise down at the base of it’s trunk. The girl murmured and moved around to herself just a bit, though remained completely asleep. Shadow took the opportunity to approach the two as well, kneeling down beside them and gently placing the scepter of darkness at the young girl’s side.

This was a move that surprised both Silver and Blaze, with Blaze addressing it:

“You’re leaving it here?”

“But what about Mephiles?” Silver added, at which point Shadow calmly explained himself to the two:

“Messing with the past is dangerous. I can already see that if it weren’t for our actions here, the end of the world would have likely come even sooner.”

Though Shadow could tell they both had misgivings about his decision, both Shadow and Blaze nodded in agreement with what he had said. Seeing as how there was not much else for the three of them to do here anymore, Shadow turned to Silver and held out the green chaos emerald with one of his hands.

Silver complied and held out the blue one, the two of them both holding their emeralds out to the sky and shouting in unison “Chaos Control!”, influencing another time portal to open up before them. This one, set to return them to the present time they had previously left. Shadow wasted no time in jumping into the portal just as he did the previous one, knowing that both Blaze and Silver would follow after him. Though also knowing that they would be separated upon reaching their respective destinations.

Seeing as how when he landed in present day Soleanna’s New City district that neither of the other two were present, Shadow could tell his assumption was right.

The first thing Shadow did upon re-entering the New City was survey his surroundings. From the get-go he could tell that it was a different time of day to when he had left, seeing as how now the sun was just about vanished beneath the horizon giving way to a state of twilight as it remained a fading light in a sky of black and blue. He assumed that he would be able to see the twinkling stars above if it were not for the now activated lights of the city streets and buildings. At the very least he now had the luxury of feeling that cool night time breeze that always felt good on his skin and fur.

He would have liked to enjoy it’s sensation more if he didn’t have such serious work to do.

Now, to settle things with Mephiles here.

Shadow wasn’t even able to take one step forward however, before he was greeted by a fast yet familiar red blur rushing towards him and stopping just before hitting him. Stil, having the Flash rush towards you was still something to make one jump back a bit. Barry wasn’t one to waste any time in getting to point, and getting to it fast:

“Shadow! There you are!” he said, a look of relief on his face. Shadow looked to him as well, taking note of what he said:

“Barry? What’s going on? Did you get healed of your condition?”

“Oh yeah” Barry smirked, giving Shadow a thumbs up with one of his hands, “One hundred percent”, but then his voice became a fair bit more serious, “But something happened when we reached the Angel Island.”

Noting the tone shift in Barry’s voice, Shadow listened carefully and asked only one question:

“What happened?”

“We were ambushed by the Furies. I didn’t see them in the previous timeline, but they were some of Darkseid’s top warriors. They ambushed us just as we got to the Master Emerald. We wouldn’t have been able to fend them off if it weren’t for Chaos showing up…”

“Chaos got involved?!”

“Yeah, but he was helping us this time” Barry was quick to alleviate Shadow’s concern, or at least try to. Shadow was now concerned enough to grab Barry by the collar of his suit and practically shout:

“Barry, tell me what happened!”

“For the most part we all made it out fine, but Rouge is in the infirmary on the ship!”

Shadow let go of Barry, though the look of both surprise and intense anger didn’t leave his face, seething with it enough that his eyes even twitched. He wasn’t angry at Barry, not at Rouge. He wasn’t sure who he should be angry at for this, but he knew well who it shouldn’t be.

Whoever’s responsible for this, Mephiles or otherwise….

I’m making them pay.

#AdventSolaris #flashpoint 2: advent solaris #dcamu #sonic #fanfiction #fanfic #Soleanna #shadow the hedgehog #Silver the Hedgehog #sonic the hedgehog #Sega + DC Crossover #Sonic vs the Flash #justice league dark: apokolips war #continuation fic #time travel #there's no DC characters in this chapter #this is basically episode Shadow

1 note · View note