[Heyu]
You know, actually, calling it an army was probably a little hyperbolic. This was a big lab, but it was only, like, maybe the size of a high school gymnasium, and it didn’t even have that high of a ceiling. And while there were definitely a lot of badniks, we weren’t crammed in like sardines. There was plenty of space on the battlefield.
Oh, how was the battle going? Hard to tell that sort of thing while you’re in it.
This lab was toast, though. Fireballs from Gohlas, bombs from Kikis, and just bullet after bullet from those freaking wasp things. And someone was throwing great big spiked mines everywhere.
As it turns out, however those fireballs worked, I was able to catch them like I could Shadow’s chaos attacks.
“Hot potato!” I yelled, throwing one such projectile at the nearest E-1000. The stupid thing actually cut off its firing pattern to catch it, and I was treated to an impromptu comedy routine when it panicked, threw the brightly-glowing ring at the nearest Kiki, who threw it to one of those fake Chaos robots, who immediately started boiling. It handed the ring back to the first E-1000, and they got into a brief tussle over it before it exploded, taking them both out.
I stared at the spectacle for longer than was probably wise, and probably would have kept on doing so if I hadn’t been grazed by a stray bullet.
A few rings popped out of me and I hissed through my teeth. It might not have injured me but it still hurt. “Everyone doing alright?!”
“Emphatic: No.” Iota grabbed a pair of the wasps and bashed them together. “I am having the opposite of fun.”
“Noted,” I said, kicking a Motobug off its wheel to flail around. “Humi, what about--”
A spine-chilling cackle preceded a large explosion, and a portion of the rock ceiling collapsed. When the smoke cleared, I heard a cough and a call of “I’m okay!”
I scowled. “I’d feel a lot better about this,” I said, lying, “if we were having this fight anywhere else.” I eyed the wall of refrigerated cubbies containing disease samples. Was it terribly likely any of them were still viable? No. Did I want to take that chance? Also no.
Iota made a strange distorted sound through his speakers that I realized after a moment was meant to be his version of a grunt. “Observe the… Badnik horde, in its unnatural environment,” he said. “An invasive species, badniks surpass even the mighty beaver in their ability to distort their surroundings to suit their needs, displacing countless species in the process.”
The goodnik withdrew his hands into his arms, and vacuumed up some scattered debris before launching it back at the nearest other robot, knocking them down.
“Hunting season on badniks is year-round, and each head qualifies the hunter for a monetary reward. Keep the population down!”
I snorted. That was a new trick. “I’ve got some new tricks too.”
The Motobug I kicked earlier righted itself and charged at me again. I stopped it by planting a foot on its head. And then I activated my spiffy new Air Shoes; the sudden gust knocked it over again, and this time I finished it off with my Rev Ring.
Another explosion rang out. “Humi!” I called, “Can you possibly pull back on the firepower? We don’t want to wake anyone up.”
The Y-Nought jumped onto a Gohla, snuffing its fire and crushing it under its weight. “No can do, pops! The only settings are Off and Destroy!”
I sighed. With my Sling Rings, I latched onto a wasp and slammed it onto the ground--accidentally destroying a lizard badnik that had been invisible. “Hey, Iota, you got infrared?”
“Indeed.” His eyes flashed from green to red, and then he did a really cool trick where he lifted his leg, spun his wheel up to max speed, and then brought it down onto another lizard. The poor thing got blended.
“Good man,” I said faintly.
My ear twitched, and I turned to see a quintet of E-1000s lining up to fire all at once. I jumped over their spray, hit the ceiling, and fell back down to the floor to scramble out of the way of their next volley.
“Fire in the hole!” Humi shouted.
The air buzzed, and a freaking bolt of lightning arced out of Humi’s biggest gun, jumping from robot to robot until it speared through the line of Gamma copies, destroying them in one fell swoop.
The battlefield stopped and every eye, organic or otherwise--even including the Mobinis floating around in their bubbles from the destroyed robots--turned to look at Humi. Even her pet robot monkey was giving her a cautious look.
Humi, for her part, pounded on her dashboard with a scowl. “C’mon…” The boiler on the back of her boat swiveled, letting her pop open the panel to remove her Chaos Emerald. And then toss it from hand to hand with a yelp. “Yikes, hot!”
“Packrat, please tell me you can do that again,” I asked, not really sure if I actually wanted that.
She closed the panel and returned to her controls. “...No, that was too much power. The tesla coils are burnt out.” She grinned at the surrounding robots. “I don’t suppose we can take five while I repair--”
The battle resumed, with a little more desperation from the badniks.
For a moment, they were focused on Humi, and even without the big guns her firepower was enough to hold them back. And since Iota was moving to assist her anyway, I took a moment to sigh and take stock of the situation.
The lab was a wreck. And to think, this space was once dedicated to curing all the world’s diseases. I wonder how many cures Gerald actually made? Did he focus all his efforts on the white whale that was NIDS, or did he start small and build up to it? I felt like if Professor Robotnik managed to cure cancer or something he’d be more of a household name.
What a waste. And a dangerous one, too; we were way too close to BioLizard for this much nonsense to be happening.
We’d put a huge dent in the badnik forces but there were still plenty to go, and they were getting smarter as they fought. Or, more like… they were being commanded better.
Where was Mecha?
Mecha Sonic was the one leading these guys, but he’d vanished right after the charge. “If we can find him and shut him down, the rest will be easy to clean up. Iota!” I turned. Humi was holding a screwdriver and the Emerald and was bent over Iota’s arm while the Kiki head had somehow moved into the cockpit and was firing without her input. “Uh?”
“There,” Humi said. “Try it now!”
Iota pointed his vacuum cannon at the nearest badnik--another E-1000--and somehow the entire robot that was nearly as big as Iota himself got sucked inside. “Oh, that feels odd.”
“It works! Fire it now!”
Our robot obliged. Pointing at a pair of wasps, Iota fired with a comical shoonk sound and the E-1000 flew into the flying bugs, destroying all three.
Humi whooped. “Y-Iota!”
“Why, I oughta,” he agreed. That done, he turned to face me. “You called, Mister Heyu?”
I blinked, then shook my head to mentally reset. “I don’t know how many more surprises I can take… Iota, do you have any means of telling where Mecha is?”
He beeped, turning his head a full 360 degrees. “...Observation: Mecha Sonic Three is not in this room. Reviewing footage.”
“Take your time,” I said, letting just a little annoyance leak through. A Kiki dropped a bomb next to me, and I kicked it right back into its face.
“Review complete. Mecha Sonic is--oh, no.” Iota turned to face the vault. “He went into the BioLizard’s chamber!”
Of course he did.
-------------------------------
[Eggman]
Doctor Eggman ran into the Core, huffing. He wasn’t nearly as out of shape as his nearly-spherical figure might lead one to believe, but he was still a middle-aged man running at full tilt for… he didn’t even know, a mile? Maybe two? The ARK was massive and the uniform hallways made it hard to judge distance.
The point was that by the time he made it to the Core, he was out of breath. Still, he’d made good time. There were still a few minutes left before the deadline, and he just had to put the last Emerald… in… place.
“Eurgh…” He growled, slotting the yellow Emerald into place with a little more force than was strictly necessary.
Right. In his excitement he’d almost let himself forget. Six. The empty alcove that once held the white Emerald stared back at him mockingly. He could feel the laughter from that thief.
Who could it possibly be? Tails, Sonic, and the pink one were all there in the same room with only the yellow and fake Emeralds, and the echidna wouldn’t have taken only one.
For that reason he could rule out Rouge as well, though he wasn’t entirely certain. Eggman had been expecting her betrayal hours ago, but nothing.
“Where could it be?” Eggman tapped away on the console, but it offered no answers. Some sort of collapse had occurred on a lower level, but he had no cameras down there.
Did he?
Eggman opened a channel to his… ugh… ‘elite’ badnik in the area. “Mecha, do you read me? Answer me, you lousy waste of scrap metal!”
“...LINE BUSY…TRY AGAIN LATER…”
“Line busy? What are you doing, Mecha?!” Mecha should be capable of maintaining dozens of connections at once. For the line to be busy, it would have to be pushing those capabilities to the limit!
…Presumably. He hadn’t exactly tested the experimental Command protocols to breaking yet. Bah, nevermind. As usual, Mecha proved useless.
What to do… “I… suppose… I could just fire it with six. It took a chunk out of the Moon, after all, it’s still a devastating weapon. If I tell them that it’s the power of all seven, who’s to know otherwise?”
It rankled him, but it wouldn’t be a loss… just not as much of a victory as he’d like.
“That won’t be necessary.”
Eggman turned. “Shadow! I thought you were after Sonic!”
“I was,” the black hedgehog confirmed. “He challenged me to a race, so naturally I led him on a wild goose chase.” He smirked. “He’s fast, but not terribly clever. He managed to damage the Eclipse Cannon, but only superficially. I’m sure he thinks he’s won.”
Eggman grinned. “Very clever indeed, Shadow.” The smile faded as he turned back to the Core and gave it a kick. “Not that it will help us. We’re still one Emerald short.”
“I thought about that.”
A metallic tink made Eggman blink, and he turned to see what caused it, in time for Shadow to unclip his other bracelet and drop it onto the floor.
Arcs of electricity began jumping between his quills almost immediately.
“I’m going to be honest, I thought those were part of your gloves,” Eggman noted. His scalp was prickling; if his mustache weren’t so extensively waxed he was certain it would be standing on end.
“They’re… limiter rings,” Shadow said through gritted teeth. He took a step forward, and it looked painful to do so. “They… keep my power in check.”
Stepping aside as Shadow jumped up to where the Emeralds were housed, Eggman watched, rapt, as Shadow held up one hand. Raw chaos energy gathered in his palm. From the look on Shadow’s face, it was agonizing.
“I do this… to fulfill my promise.”
“Wha--” The Doctor stopped, looking at the console’s screen. It was already detecting rising energy levels, and Shadow hadn’t even--done whatever he was going to do.
What he did was this. Shadow roared, and stuck his hand into the empty slot with enough force to deformed the metal, and directed all the chaos coursing through his body into the Core.
The readings on the screen skyrocketed.
“Incredible…” Eggman breathed, looking at Shadow in a new light. “You never fail to impress… Grandfather…”
The Chaos Emeralds were functionally infinite power sources, but in most circumstances there was a limit as to how much could be withdrawn at a time. Usually this limit was determined by how much raw chaos the vessel could handle before breaking. Ivo had gone through many different generator designs before hitting upon one that could maximize energy collection without overloading, and he was sure that there was still room for improvement.
The Eclipse Cannon’s Core pulled energy from the Emeralds at a fixed rate to charge a single massive reservoir that would be dumped into a target all at once.
Shadow was not an infinite source of energy. But by god, he was doing a damn good impression of one. He was depositing energy into the system at more than double the standard collection rate.
And the system didn’t like it. Warnings and red lights danced across the screen.
“Shadow, stop! Or, slow down!” Eggman demanded. “You’re damaging the mechanism! We won’t be able to use it more than once!”
Shadow grunted. “Once… is all… I need…”
…An unusual, and thoroughly unexpected feeling ran through Eggman just then. It reared its ugly head as he continued watching Shadow drain himself; when his fur started smoking, the feeling was amplified enough for the Doctor to become conscious of it, and he dismissed it out of hand.
If Shadow wanted to sacrifice himself over this, then it was no skin off Eggman’s nose. Less power to share in his new empire.
Still. Did he really think they’d only need to fire it once? In his experience people never learned their lesson the first time.
--------------------------------------
[Heyu]
Mecha Sonic was standing there, looking up at the BioLizard. He’d managed to find a light switch we’d missed, and boy… did I wish he had not done that. The monster was hard enough to look at when all we saw of it was through Iota’s flashlight cones. All at once? It was a good thing we hadn’t eaten much or I might have thrown up.
Humi ran in front of me. “Hey, you!”
Mecha turned and stared at us. I think. It was impossible to tell with that visor. “...”
“Listen,” I said, holding my hands up with palms out. “You can see that thing, right? We cannot fight here. If that thing wakes up--”
Mecha scoffed, the sound harsh through his voice box. One arm unfolded into a nasty-looking laser, while the other hand aimed a conventional gun at us.
Humi’s weapons whined, her grip tightening around the controls.
We faced each other in a standoff. None of us wanted to fire, lest he dodge and make us hit the lizard, while Mecha presumably didn’t want to start a fight where he was outnumbered.
Mecha’s head lowered fractionally. “…It’s not…”
My ears twitched. “What?”
He was trembling. “…Why do you get to be--”
“Alarm: Something is happening!”
Iota pointed toward the ceiling, and all four of us looked to see the chaos drives lighting up, brighter and brighter.
I could hear the walls humming, louder and louder. “No, no, no…”
One of the drives shattered. Then another, and another, until they were popping like corn in the microwave.
“Heyu, what’s happening?!”
“I don’t know!”
The tubes on the monster’s body started to… undulate. The cables leading up from the beast’s flesh into the walls and ceiling started glowing, and then snapped.
And the BioLizard shifted.
“...Oh, dear.”
I’m not sure which of us started firing first, but the next thing I knew all three of us were throwing everything we had at the BioLizard. I was shooting rings as fast as I could, Iota was launching anything he could find, and Humi was a storm of ballistic force.
We barely made a dent in its flesh.
The BioLizard groaned. It lifted its head, blinking grumpily. Its crude, clawed forelimbs struggled to support its own weight. Its relatively short, flat tail slapped the ground, shaking the room and nearly tossing us off our feet.
And while we tried and failed to make any kind of difference against a creature that seemed to not even notice us, the station’s intercom system sputtered to life again.
--------------------------------
[Shadow]
This might have been a mistake. He should have just waited; the world would be destroyed just as thoroughly if he took the time to find the last Emerald again instead of doing this. But at least it worked.
Finally, finally drained past his ability to keep pulling it out, Shadow let go of the power coils and let himself fall backwards onto the catwalk with a groan. Everything felt raw, and weak. With all the energy radiating off of the Core now, he’d get back enough to function soon, but for now, he was just going to sit here…
The Doctor tapped away at the controls, growling. “Fat lot of good your party trick did, Shadow. The Cannon isn’t firing!”
…What?
The alarms were still blaring, and Shadow forced himself to sit up to look at the screen. Files were opening themselves. Folders within folders, emerging from deep within the ARK’s systems until a video file presented itself.
Eggman gasped. “It’s… It’s my grandfather, Gerald Robotnik!”
Yes. It was him, alright. Gaunt, pale, a haunted expression just barely visible behind his spectacles. Tied to a chair.
So different from how Shadow remembered him. Exactly like the last time Shadow saw him.
-----------------------------------------
Across the ARK, every intact screen lit up to show the same image of an old man with an incredible mustache, bound and defeated.
-----------------------------------------
[Sonic]
Sonic and Knuckles ran into the observatory room, having met up on the way.
Tails and Amy whirled around at the sound of the door opening. “Sonic!”
“Kept you waiting, huh?” Sonic smirked.
Knuckles rolled his eyes. “You--”
The floor shook underneath them, cutting him off. All four of them struggled to keep their balance. A dull rumble filled the room.
“What’s going on?” Knuckles asked, bewildered..
Sonic’s head snapped to the door. “Hey, wait. Someone’s coming.”
They tensed, expecting Eggman or maybe that black hedgehog--but instead it was the bat.
“Rogue!”
She glared at the echidna. “It’s Rouge. And what did you idiots do?”
“What did we do?” Amy asked, offended. “We’ve been cleaning up you guys’ messes is what!”
Rouge scoffed, but her expression was worried. “We’re in big trouble. I just received a message from my superiors. The ARK is falling out of orbit, and fast!”
Tails spun to look back out the window. Sonic looked too, and saw the beginning of a reentry cone beginning to form at the station’s far edges.
Knuckles’ eyes widened. “Well, w-what does that mean?”
“We’re on a direct collision course with Earth.”
Sonic shook his head. That didn’t make sense. They’d won, hadn’t they? Damaged the cannon? What was going on?
“Hey, what’s that on the screen?” Knuckles said, drawing everyone’s attention.
-----------------------------
“This is a death sentence for every human being on Earth.”
The signal reached Earth with a mere quarter-second’s delay, and most of that was from having to punch through the firewalls of any computer that tried to stop it.
------------------------------
[Angora]
“If my calculations are correct, the Space Colony ARK will impact the Earth in 27 minutes, 53 seconds.”
Devon pulled her close, and Angora buried her face into his chest. Nearby she was vaguely aware of Charlotte and Wilbur doing the same.
Curse her ears, she could hear the gasp of everyone in the streets around them. Every confused murmur, every gasp of terror, and every sob in the face of the inconceivable. Some of them were her own.
This, this was too much. It was too much. Only her husband’s firm grip was keeping her grounded.
“Oh Gaia, please. Wherever my babies are, keep them safe,” she whispered.
Devon pulled her tighter. “Keep us all safe,” he agreed.
------------------------------
Every television, every computer monitor, every radio capable of receiving a transmission was playing the message. The old man’s tone was acidic, equal parts hateful and exhausted.
------------------------------
[Empire City]
“All of you will be destroyed, along with your beloved planet Earth.”
The parrot downed the last of his drink and crushed the can in his fist. He weighed it in his hand before tossing it over his shoulder and standing up.
“Hey, Penny, let’s go for a ride.” He turned the radio off.
“Ringo!” The crow protested, reaching over to turn it back on, but the parrot just pulled the plug. “That was important! Maybe the most important thing--”
“It might also be the last thing,” Ringo said. He walked over to the window and raised the blinds. Out here on the outskirts, they had a pretty good view of the bright spot in the sky where the ARK was falling, just over the horizon. “And I don’t want my last moments to be spent moping in our trailer, do you?”
Penny drummed her fingers on the end table before sighing. “Oh, fine, you’re right. But I’m driving. That was your third beer.”
“C’mon, Penny, it’s the end of the world. Let me drive my bike.”
“I’d like to drive safe, just in case the world doesn’t end,” she said sharply. Then she smiled softly and grabbed his beak, pulling him close. “Besides. I’ve always wanted to drive that chopper of yours.”
Ringo grinned. “Shoot, well, if that’s all…”
They stepped outside, helmets on, and spared a glance at the fireball far off in the sky. Then they saddled up and drove in the opposite direction, away from the city and into the wide open road.
------------------------------
It was uncanny how the transmission worked. In every country, it played in the native tongue. No matter how obscure, it was perfectly translated so that all who heard it might understand the Professor’s vitriol.
--------------------------------
[???]
“I plan to give you a taste of my revenge once all the seven Chaos Emeralds are collected.”
He leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers in front of his face.
Having his studies interrupted like this was most inconvenient, as the old man on his computer screen resisted any attempt to get rid of him. Not that he tried that hard. This was much more interesting than bioelectrical systems or neurally-linked prosthetics. Which wasn’t something he thought lightly.
Such malice. Such control! Even tied up in what was clearly a prison cell, this man displayed not an ounce of fear. He endeavored to one day exude that level of confidence.
Was it any surprise that this man was related to the greatest mind of their age? He thought not.
---------------------------------
Across the world, people watched on in fear.
---------------------------------
[Heyu]
“Once I initiate this program, it cannot be disabled.”
I cursed, only half-able to pay attention to the message playing over the intercom while we avoided that BioLizard. It was awake now, and it noticed us.
It hated us. Oh, gaia.
The machine mounted to its back was big and important-looking. The Emerald was telling me that it was vital to taking down the monster, but we couldn’t get to the blasted thing. The BioLizard was faster than anything that size had any right to be, and kept swatting us or our attacks out of the way before they could hit.
Humi’s bullets only annoyed it. Iota couldn’t do anything at all. Only my ring attacks seemed to hurt it in any significant manner, but healed faster than I could attack.
Mecha Sonic was just standing there, staring. Unable to comprehend. I didn’t blame him, but-- “Look out!”
My shout was too late. The BioLizard twisted, rolling over to properly face us, and in so doing Mecha ended up underneath it, smothered in its shifting flesh. The poor guy didn’t even have time to react.
“This isn’t working!” Humi shouted. The Y-Nought jumped to the side, avoiding a claw swipe.
“Morose: My attacks are thoroughly useless.”
I stared at the Emerald, still in my hand. I really wish I could throw those energy spears Shadow had, chaos energy seemed like the theme here. But I couldn’t… I didn’t know how to get anything out of the gem. The visions just happened, and the rock certainly didn’t seem inclined to give me a hint right now. If I could just…
I shook my head. There was nothing I could do about it right now.
The BioLizard roared, and coughed up an orb of black, crackling energy. Aha. I darted between it and Humi, trying to catch it in my rings to throw back--
Didn’t work. The rings exploded, throwing me back into the Y-Nought’s legs. “New plan! Jump onto the thing’s back!”
Humi looked at me like I’d gone crazy. Frankly, I didn’t blame her. “What?!”
“Closer target for us, harder target for it!”
It wasn’t my best plan, but it was the only one I had right now. Heck, for all I knew it didn’t even matter, apparently the ARK was crashing to Earth in a few minutes anyway…
-----------------------------------
The message was an angry wail into the void, and all would hear it whether they wanted to or not.
-----------------------------------
[G.U.N.]
“All of you ungrateful humans, who took everything away from me, will feel my loss and despair!”
The old man’s voice cracked at the end, as anger gave way to a deep, empty sorrow.
Commander Tower stared at the screen, struggling to rationalize the broken man portrayed there with the Professor he knew when he was a child.
Professor Gerald was a kind man, to Abraham’s recollection. When he played with Maria, Gerald was a constant presence, and always happy to see him if only because it meant Maria would have another child to play with.
Gerald could have a temper sometimes, but he was never as hateful as he was in this recording.
“...Steeple,” Tower said, as the recording fell into a lull. “Can you tell me anything about this? Origin, date recorded, anything?”
The comms officer typed at his monitor. “...Er, it’s coming from the ARK, sir. Judging by the time stamps… It was uploaded into the ARK’s servers one hour before the station was officially declared out of service and the last vessel left.”
Tower leaned onto the railing in front of him. Seeing Gerald in chains baffled him. Where was this? The symbols on the walls looked vaguely familiar.
“...Does anyone recognize where--”
A new voice interrupted him, coming from the message. “Is there anything else you want to say?”
“...No.”
“Ready!”
Tower’s eyes widened. “Wait, is this?”
The video feed went black, but the sound kept going just long enough to catch a single gunshot, cut off.
Alarmed murmuring rose from the ranks. Tower gaped. That was… an execution. And the only authority that could possibly have captured the Professor was…
G.U.N. itself.
Tower’s jaw clenched, and he prayed that Sonic was able to save the day again. Because he had an investigation to do, and it would be an injustice if some answers never saw the light of day.
---------------------------------
[Sonic]
The video looped, leaving them speechless as the old man’s last words replayed.
“What is going on here?” Amy cried. “Who is that?”
“Hey, the shaking is getting worse,” Knuckles announced.
Sonic paced in a tight circle, thinking furiously. There had to be a way to solve this, there was always a way to save the day. He just… didn’t see it yet. They had a tight time limit, no problem. He’d made it through with less time before.
Only, the stakes were never this high before, he didn’t think…
The last voice he wanted to hear right now cut through the buzz in his head, as Doctor Eggman stepped into the room.
“Professor Gerald Robotnik,” he declared, apparently in answer to Amy’s question. “One of the greatest scientific minds in the world, and my grandfather.” Even in a situation like this, he couldn’t help but sound proud as he explained things.
Knuckles growled, and Sonic stepped in front of him to keep him from lunging at Eggman. “I knew it was you! Stop this crazy thing, or else!”
The madman laughed at him. “Ha, I’d have done this a long time ago if I’d had the chance.”
“Oh yeah?”
Eggman scowled at Sonic’s interjection. “I should have known getting rid of you wouldn’t be that easy. Still alive after all, huh?”
“Heh, letting Knuckles pilot the shuttle here was more dangerous than anything you’ve ever put me through, Egghead.”
The Doctor scoffed and proceeded to ignore him, instead turning to Rouge and handing her… a thin data disk.
She looked at it curiously. “What is this?”
“My grandfather’s diary, partially digitized to preserve the original book,” he explained. “It’s what led me to find Shadow, and what set this entire plot into motion.”
Rouge quirked a brow at him, but accepted the disk and went to insert it into the nearest console, where it started up immediately. And she started reading out loud…
And what she read was a man spiralling after suffering a great tragedy. Sonic listened intently, almost able to hear Gerald’s voice himself as Rouge read the journal entries. It started worryingly enough, with Gerald pondering on the fate of his granddaughter Maria, and wondering if he had been right to create an ‘ultimate lifeform,’ even with good intentions.
Then he found out Maria died, and went insane. Filled with rage so great it frightened him even as it drove him to horrible things.
“All I could think about was that I wanted it all to end. Based on my original projections, I was able to complete my project, Shadow. I designed its mind to be perfect, pure. I will leave everything to him. If you wish, release and awaken it, to the world. If you wish to fill the world with destruction…”
Rouge hummed, stepping away from the monitor. “So that’s why you released Shadow…”
Eggman grunted in agreement. “And now, we see what my grandfather’s true plan was: nothing less than the destruction of the Earth.” He chuckled. “And father always told me I should be more like him. Heh, if only he knew…”
Sonic rolled his eyes. Get to the point already…
“...The Core of the Eclipse Cannon is now fully loaded with chaos energy, rendering it highly reactive and explosive. But the cannon itself is now disabled, and without anywhere for that energy to go it will fluctuate wildly! When the ARK impacts the Earth, all of that energy will be released in one huge burst instead of a focused beam.” Eggman grinned. “The result will be untold devastation. Just like my grandfather predicted…”
“Jeez, you don’t have to sound so happy about it,” Sonic snarked.
“I can appreciate a well-executed plan, even if I’d prefer for it not to work,” Eggman said defensively, crossing his arms.
“But…” Rouge furrowed her brow. “I thought you didn’t have all seven Emeralds.”
“True, those pests made off with it. But Shadow improvised.”
Tails jumped up. “We have to find a way to stop the space colony!”
Eggman rubbed his chin. “The ARK’s descent is related to the Emerald’s massive energy buildup. How they are propelling the station isn’t clear, but what is, is that to stop the ARK, we must stop the energy!”
“But how?”
Rouge coughed, loudly, and nudged Knuckles with her wing. He lit up and produced the Master Emerald. “With this! Using the Master Emerald, we’ll be able to neutralize the energy!”
“That could work…” Eggman allowed. “But you’d have to get right next to the source, the reservoir that all of the energy is pooled in.”
Tails ran to the console and withdrew the disk, then pulled up an active schematic of the ARK. “There, if we just go… huh?”
Sonic ran over to look. Nothing on the screen made any sense to him, it was all a bunch of squiggly lines and gobbledygook that vaguely resembled a map. But he knew that that much red wasn’t good. “What does that mean?”
“The chaos energy is moving,” Tails explained, sounding alarmed. “How is that possible?” He glanced at the bottom corner. “And there’s… another one? There’s another active chaos signature in the lower levels. Which one do we go after?”
“Let me see.” Eggman shoved Sonic aside and scanned the monitor. “...Grandfather, you sly dog… The Eclipse Cannon is a massive device, with what I assumed to be many redundant parts. Looking at this now, I can tell that the energy is being sent to a chamber underneath the Core, designed to focus it for an even greater outburst when it impacts. At this rate the explosion might even take out what’s left of the moon!”
Tails pointed. “What about that other--”
“Not important,” Eggman dismissed. “Some sort of siphon, it looks like, but the connection is broken. We need to not be distracted. Here, I’ll chart a course through the quickest path to that chamber. We’ll need to work together to get there in time.”
Sonic gave Eggman a suspicious look, but ultimately decided that there wasn’t time for doubt. They could go back to being enemies when this was all over, but for now it was time to save the day. At the last possible minute, too, just how he liked it.
He grinned and flashed a thumb’s up. “No worries, just leave it to me!”
Eggman scowled at being reminded he was still there, but swallowed his annoyance and nodded stiffly. “Then let’s get to work!”
--------------------------------------
[Shadow]
He was in a fair amount of pain. It was the kind of pain that Professor Gerald might have called a ‘good’ pain, the kind that Shadow remembered usually followed an intense workout. When he was going through tests to determine the limits of his strength, speed, and other such things, he’d get this sort of pain in his arms and legs.
This time it was throughout his entire body, plus another part that was harder to define. Wherever all that energy was stored, he supposed.
Still, with his limiter rings back in place, his batteries recharged quickly enough, so to speak, and he managed to drag himself to a side room to watch the end of the world.
…
The Professor’s final message bothered him. He didn’t… Shadow didn’t remember him saying those things. Gerald was all too quiet during those final days before he went to sleep. Those were the things Maria said.
“Even your memories might not be real, you know.”
Didn’t she?
…
It didn’t matter now. It was all over. All that was left was the big finish. And so Shadow stared out the window at the flames of reentry, waiting for the end.
“...leave me behind!”
Shadow’s ears twitched, but he didn’t turn.
“I’ve really got to stop whining. Everyone is doing their best, and so should I!”
Maybe if he ignored them they’d go away and leave him to his final moments.
“Look, it’s Shadow!”
He allowed himself a quiet sigh as the pink hedgehog approached, her thick boots clicking against the metal floor and ruining the somber atmosphere.
She ran up behind him. “Shadow! We need you! Please, help us!”
He let his arms drop. “This was the plan all along. Why would I help?” He shook his head. “There is no stopping this, regardless. There’s no way to save anyone.”
She stomped her foot. “There has to be! I know that people fight over the most trivial things. Some people might be selfish or cruel, like the professor said, but…” She faltered. Then, with more confidence, she said, “People are basically good. I truly believe that.”
Shadow closed his eyes, trying to tune her out. But almost against his will, memories rose to the surface of his mind, unbidden.
Fighting that hare, who was willing to fight a superior opponent for a chance to find a missing person.
That blue hedgehog, Sonic. The first person to ever give him an actual challenge.
Saving Rouge, and how that made him feel.
That robot, who spoke so passionately about nature and all that would be lost.
Just getting to experience the Earth for himself…
“...they always have a chance to be happy. That’s why you should help them!”
Shadow opened his eyes, banishing those thoughts. She was still talking.
“Saving them is a good thing!” The pink hedgehog reached out, and for a second he thought she was going to grab him. Thankfully she thought better of it. “Shadow, I beg you,” she pleaded. “Do it for them, please. Just… give them a chance!”
Give them a chance.
Give them a chance.
Shadow turned to face her for the first time, eyes wide. “What did you just say?”
Amy blinked. “I said, give them a chance to be happy.”
--------------------------
“Shadow, I beg of you, please do it for me… for a better future!”
“Maria!” Shadow pounded on the glass, unable to get to her.
She hobbled over to the console, holding her chest. The excitement wasn’t good for her.
“For all people who live on that planet… give them a chance to be happy.”
The door thudded. Someone on the other side was trying to get in.
Maria pressed a button, and the escape pod hissed. “Let them live for their dreams. Shadow, I know you can do it.”
There was shouting from the door. Shadow shook his head, pleading.
“That’s the reason why you were brought into this world.”
She took a breath, winded from the exertion of speaking. And then, she looked at him, meeting his eyes at last.
“Sayonara, Shadow the Hedgehog.”
“Maria!”
The pod dropped, at the same time as the door was breached. And as he fell to Earth, the last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was a flash of light in the window back above him.
The next time he awoke, he looked into the face of Gerald, haunted and dour.
And then…
-------------------------
…He remembered.
“...That’s what Maria wished for. That’s what I promised her. That’s… what have I…”
“Shadow?” Amy asked, concerned.
Her fingers brushed his shoulder, and he flinched.
He looked at her, and his face went through a parade of conflicted expression. “I’ve got to go, now! What are they doing?”
“They’re--”
“Nevermind, I’ll figure it out.” He ran for the exit. “I have to make it right, I have to keep my promise to Maria!” He paused in the door. “...And to you.”
He left, as fast as his air shoes would take him.
Back in the room, Amy tilted her head, a faint smile growing. “...I’ll hold you to it.”
-------------------------------------
[Knuckles]
The True Core of the Ark was a… deeply disturbing machine. Even before they arrived, they could hear it, thumping away like a massive metal drum with such a steady rhythm that Knuckles had initially assumed that a song was playing on the station’s intercom.
When they entered the chamber, he couldn’t help but stop and stare. Five round modules surrounding a central column, pointing down, with petal-like wings fanned above. The modules were the source of the drumbeat--or maybe a heartbeat was more appropriate.
For the first ten years of his life, Knuckles hadn’t had much to do with technology. There were some functional ruins on Angel Island, but he lived a simple life, gathering what he needed from the fruit-bearing trees in the forests and the large mushrooms in the hills. He didn’t need advanced machinery, and when Eggman arrived with his robots it only served to reinforce that belief. He didn’t hate tech, and exposure to Tails meant that he could work with it when he needed to, but he avoided it if he could and didn’t really understand it.
But he still knew that no machine should be able to flex like that. It moved more like flesh than metal, and just looking at it made him ill.
So disturbing was the Core, that he almost didn’t notice the room’s other major point of interest until he heard Sonic speak next to him.
“Hey, that looks familiar.”
Knuckles looked at him, confused, then followed his gaze. “What--What’s that? It looks just like the shrine of the Master Emerald!” Exactly like the shrine that was essentially Knuckles’ home. It had the seven pillars for the Chaos Emeralds, the recessed moat surrounding the main structure, and it even looked aged. “Am I seeing things How--?”
Sonic scratched his head. “I’m no expert, but if I had to guess… They probably designed the Core to look like the shrine to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds.”
Knuckles nodded, distracted. Yes, that made sense… as much as anything could. The Shrine served a lot of different purposes; it wasn’t just a place for the Master Emerald to sit. And if you were trying to mimic the shrine’s functions and didn’t know how exactly it worked, someone might just build an exact replica.
“Well, that makes things easier,” Knuckles said. “All we need to do is put the Master Emerald in place, and it’ll take care of the rest.”
“Let’s go!”
They ran for it, along the stone path that was so eerily familiar.
The sound system hissed. “Allyou un-ungrateful hu-hu-humans who took-k-k everything from me me…”
Sonic skidded to a halt. “That recording again?”
“I don’t like the looks of this,” Knuckles said, uncertainly.
“This has trap written all over it,” Sonic agreed.
Then they both froze, quills standing on end, and looked up at the beating heart of the ARK.
--------------------------------------
[Heyu]
This wasn’t going well.
“Alert: This isn’t going well!”
“I know!” I shouted, hanging on for dear life. “I’m working on it!”
“Work faster!” Humi’s mech tried to shift its feet, only to find that it couldn’t. “It’s growing around me!”
I looked at my own hands, clutching the beast’s skin in a death grip, and tried to let go. My glove came away like it was stuck to velcro, and the skin where it had been resting momentarily had a fabric-like texture before smoothing over.
I think I was going to be sick. “Okay, gang, this was a bad idea. Time to cut our losses!”
The BioLizard thrashed, trying to knock us off. Pink orbs floated in the air around us, and Humi shot them down.
“Everyone get ready to jump. We tried our best, it’s time to get out of dodge. On three! One! Two! Thr--”
And then it stopped. All of a sudden it was so quiet that I cut myself off in surprise, and the BioLizard turned it long neck to stare at a corner of the ceiling.
And then the Emerald started glowing so bright that it was leaking out of my pouch, and my headache came back with a vengeance.
“Warning! Warning! Energy levels rising to dangerous levels,” Iota declared. “Situation escalating!”
“Everyone hold--”
-----------------------------
“--on?!”
The room changed in a single flash of light, and the BioLizard reappeared in midair, with all of us still clinging to it. It fell to the ground with a mighty crash, and all of us were torn from it by the impact.
Iota landed with a crash off to my left, and I had to roll aside to keep from getting crushed by the Y-Nought.
“Humi?!”
“I’m fine…” She sat up in her cockpit, a little wobbly but not visibly harmed. With a shake of her head she started checking her mech over for damage, and I looked around.
…Gosh that machine above us was ugly.
I groaned, rubbing my back where I landed on it. I let my gaze wander, since the BioLizard seemed to be temporarily stunned by the fall, and paused on Mecha Sonic lying inactive, arm missing and visor cracked. He must have fallen out from under the monster when it… teleported. I went and gave him a slight tap with my foot, and got a response in the form of a flickering eyelight, but no more.
“Poor sap,” I muttered. My pouch shook, and I opened it for the white Emerald to float over to the bizarrely out of place temple-looking thing.
The other six Emeralds were there, each on their own pillar thing. Okay. I was all out of surprise today.
And then, finally, I looked to my right and saw Sonic and Knuckles looking up at the BioLizard in shock, and nearly collapsed again in relief. Thank Gaia, someone who could actually hurt this thing.
I heard the click of metal on stone, and turned to see Shadow approaching.
“You again,” he acknowledged, a little wary.
I nodded, a little awkwardly. “Me again.”
He looked past me and blinked. “You seem to have found your mouse.” Iota stood up, a little dented but intact, and moved to stand beside Humi. “Is the robot yours as well?”
I waggled my hand back and forth. “Iota belongs to himself, but we like having him around. He’s part of the family.”
“Family…” Shadow shook himself and walked past me, staring up at the BioLizard. “I don’t know what you’re doing here, but you should get to safety. I’ll handle this.” The monster was waking up, and Knuckles and Sonic were readying themselves to fight it. Shadow gave them a complicated look. He turned back to me. “Your name was… Heyu, wasn’t it?”
I rubbed my neck. “Yeah. Hayden, if you prefer, you seem like the kinda guy to not do nicknames.”
Shadow contemplated that, looking like it was something he’d never considered before. “...When we met before, you seemed to know a lot about me. Do you know… anything important?”
Did I? Most of the details I saw from the green Emerald were gone now. But on the other hand…
I fished into my pockets, trying to remember where I put it. “What do you want to know?” I asked. “Think quickly, it’s waking up.”
He hesitated, looking down at himself. “I… don’t know if I can trust my memories anymore.”
I absorbed that, waiting a couple seconds to see if any more was forthcoming, but Shadow stayed silent. So I thought about what I would most want to hear in this situation, and ended up looking at Humi while I thought. And for a moment I was able to look past the harsh lines on Shadow’s face and the mature tone of his voice, and see him for what he really was.
I smiled, and put a hand on his shoulder.
“I know that you’re Shadow the Hedgehog,” I said. “You were born on the ARK, created by Gerald Robotnik to help the world until he was driven mad by grief. You were best friends with a girl named Maria.”
My other hand finally found what I was looking for and pulled it out. I unfolded the paper and handed it to him.
“And she loved you very much.”
Shadow stared at the drawing, looking like the wind was knocked out of him. He placed a hand over the pawprint in the corner, and his face softened so much that he finally looked his age.
He took a deep breath. Folded the paper and tucked it under his glove, on the back of his hand. And then he straightened, new resolve filling him.
“Thank you.”
Without waiting for a response, he turned and ran for the BioLizard, startling Knuckles and Sonic as he kicked the monster’s head at speeds high enough to make the air snap.
Humi and Iota stepped up beside me. “Was that Shadow?” she asked. “I thought he was one of the bad guys.”
I shrugged noncommittally. “Eh. Let’s get out of here.” I turned to leave back the way Shadow came.
“What?” Humi looked at me, then back at the three fighting. “What about the big lizard, and the, the…” She squinted. “Is that my Emerald over there?”
“Leave it be for now, they might need it.” I stretched my shoulders. “Gosh, I’m tired. I’m not built for this.”
“I concur,” Iota said, following me. “This adventure nonsense is not covered under my warranty.”
“You don’t have a warranty,” Humi said, a little sourly. “We built you in a shed.”
“Really? Oh dear.”
-----------------------------------
Behind them, a pile of scrap stood up shakily and hobbled away.
-----------------------------------
[Amy]
After clearing the path for Sonic and Knuckles, the rest of them ended up back in the observatory. Or, the research center. Amy didn’t know why Tails called it that, it just looked like an empty room to her. Maybe what they were researching was space.
No, don’t get distracted. From here, they had a view of nearly the whole of the ARK, and especially of the Eclipse Cannon.
Amy eyes the flames outside worriedly. “You’re sure that we don’t need to worry about the flames?”
Tails nodded. “The ARK is a miracle of engineering; everything is built to survive micro-meteor impacts, this is nothing. Yet,” he added, seemingly as an afterthought.
“We aren’t even in the atmosphere yet,” Eggman continued, eyes locked on the Cannon. “Those flames are the ARK’s own artificial atmosphere burning away as the Earth’s magnetic field interferes with the artificial gravity. Didn’t you notice how we had no trouble breathing while we were crawling around outside?”
“...So is the gravity in danger?” Amy asked, confused.
Eggman waved the question away. “It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”
The door hissed open, and Amy whirled. “Sonic!” She stopped, already halfway to the room. “You’re not Sonic.”
Heyu gave her a lopsided smile. “Good to see you too, Amy.”
Humi pushed past him, riding a walking boat, and cheered. “Tails!”
The fox turned away from the window. “Humi! Whoa, where did that come from?”
“I made it myself! Is that one yours?”
The two of them gravitated to a corner of the room, where they started comparing notes from the past few days, and Amy smiled seeing them relax for a moment, despite everything.
“And who is this?” Eggman asked, moving to loom over the hare.
Heyu, for his part, appeared utterly unimpressed. “We’ve met once before,” he said, then proceeded to ignore him and walk further into the room.
Eggman sputtered. “Wh--Don’t ignore me!”
“Sorry, I’m a little cross with you right now, Robotnik,” Heyu said. “I’m not inclined to be charitable at the moment.”
Eggman jerked back. “Ah, I remember you now…”
“Hey, you!” Rouge interrupted them, stomping across the room before lifting off to hover at eye-level with Heyu.
“Who, me?”
“That was a dirty trick you pulled,” Rouge said. “Confusing a poor, beautiful girl like me as a distraction while you snatched an Emerald right out from under my nose.”
“He’s the one who--” Eggman demanded.
Heyu idly pulled one of his ears, looking bored. “...Mm, no, that doesn’t sound like me.”
Amy watched them bicker, feeling a little lonely with everyone else finding their own conversation partners. A blocky finger tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned to see Iota watching her.
“Query: Are you well, Miss Rose? This has been a trying day for all of us.”
She smiled, glad for the company. “I’m just fine, thanks. Sonic and Shadow are on the case, so I’m sure everything will turn out fine.”
Iota considered that. “Your faith in your friends is admirable. Very well. I will believe in them with you.”
Heyu was grinning now, apparently enjoying bothering the jewel thief. “I don’t know who this Itzmi guy is, but he sounds handsome.”
Rouge’s eye twitched. “Why, you… Why, I oughta--”
Iota bowed to Amy. “Pardon me, Miss Rose. Duty calls.”
The robot inserted himself into the conversation, startling Rouge and making Eggman’s eyebrows arch at the sight of him.
Amy giggled at their antics. The bit was a lot funnier seeing someone else subjected to it. She looked over to where the kid geniuses were talking, and saw Humi showing off the Kiki she had attached. Tails was poking it with a screwdriver, and the poor monkey head managed to look nervous.
She walked back over to the window. From here, nothing had changed as far as she could tell. They were still falling. But…
Amy had absolute faith in Sonic. And in Shadow, come to that. And Knuckles, he was also there. But being surrounded by friends like this wouldn’t be a bad way to go.
The doors opened again, and Amy turned. She restrained herself this time, but it almost didn’t matter. She saw a silhouette that looked like Sonic and already had her arms wrapped around it before she realized that it wasn’t him.
Her next thought was Metal Sonic, but it definitely wasn’t that one. Metal Sonic had an aura about him that this one lacked.
At least she managed to stop herself from blurting out Sonic’s name this time, but when she saw the state this robot was in, she pivoted to concern. “Oh my gosh, are you okay? Obviously not, oh, uh!”
The robot stared dolefully at her, a single yellow optic visible through the broken visor.
She turned to call for Tails, or maybe Humi--maybe even Eggman, wasn’t this his robot? This guy needed repairs--but before she could get a word out, the space colony started shaking again, and she was thrown from her previous train of thought.
Rouge looked around, unbothered by the shaking since she was flying. “Is that it? Have they done it?”
“Oh, they’ve done it alright,” Heyu said, looking out the window. “But we might wish they hadn’t.”
Everyone ran to see what he was looking at, and Amy gasped, covering her mouth. “What in the world?”
“Emphatic: Trust me, Miss Rose, that thing has never been in the world.”
She kicked Iota’s shin. “Will you two stop being vague and tell us what’s happening?!”
“It’s the ultimate lifeform prototype,” Eggman said, shocked. “I didn’t think it was still alive!”
A gigantic, monstrous lizard-thing had torn its way out the side of the Eclipse Cannon’s spire, ripping apart metal as it half-crawled, half-slithered its way out towards the tip of the barrel. They watched, horrified, as its skin was torn apart as it climbed, partially from the reentry and partially from the jagged metal left in its wake. The creature didn’t even seem to notice.
It ultimately planted itself right at the far end of the Cannon, its flesh reforming around it until the two of them were inextricably merged.
Tails raised his walkie-talkie. “Sonic, come in, do you--hey!”
“Tails? What’s--”
Eggman snatched it out of his hands. “Listen to me! The prototype is still alive, and he’s controlling the space colony as it’s falling to earth!”
“Sure, that might as well happen.”
“Silence, long-ears!” Eggman growled. “He’s become one with the space colony, and is determined to keep it on its collision course!” There was no response. “Are you listening?!”
“But wait,” Rouge asked, panicked. “How? I read up on the BioLizard, it’s never been taken off the ARK! How did Gerald manage to program it to do this?!”
“He wouldn’t have had to,” Heyu said quietly. “I got a glimpse into that thing’s mind, earlier. It doesn’t need more reason to want to do this.” He grimaced, rubbing his head. “It hates… everything.”
“Enough philosophizing!” Eggman snapped. “Sonic isn’t responding, and he’s our only chance to--”
“-krrk- Hello? It’s me, Knuckles. Sonic and Shadow just took the Emeralds. They’re on their way!”
Rouge’s eyes widened. “Shadow did…?”
Amy pressed her face against the window. She could just about see two points of golden light, flying into the void.
----------------------------------------
[Super Shadow]
Scant minutes ago, he felt bone-deep exhaustion like a piece of himself had been hollowed out. His fur had been crispy from the surge of energy that taking his rings off had caused. Fighting the BioLizard had been a challenge, and he’d done it, but he felt like he could sleep for another fifty years.
Chaos energy surged through him once more, but it was different. It wasn’t trying to escape, but flowing inside, filling him, making him more. This--this--was the true power of the Chaos Emeralds. This was Chaos in its purest form.
It was like he was… like he was made to do this.
Sonic flew ahead of him, more used to this form. The monster must have sensed him coming, throwing up orbs to shield itself, but Super Sonic’s speed was blinding. He got the first hit in.
And then it was Shadow’s turn. He faced this titan, this mockery to his purpose, this final hazard that stood between him and his goal.
He sped forward, faster than he should have been able to control, and rammed into the FinalHazard’s side eliciting a roar that cut through the vacuum to rattle his bones. Explosions lanced up across the Cannon, and the lizard turned its hateful gaze upon him.
“-krrk- Sonic, Shadow! Can you hear me?”
Eggman’s voice buzzed in his ear. Yes, he could hear him. How, he didn’t know, but when in doubt Chaos seemed like the answer. In any case Shadow couldn’t answer right now.
“He’s very weak without his life support system,” Eggman continued. “He’s sustaining himself entirely on the chaos energy that you three shunted out. It’s causing swelling! You need to hit those red swelling areas to take him down! It will overtax his healing and destroy him!”
Shadow eyed Sonic as he went for one such area. The swollen boil exploded on contact with the Super energy, tearing a hole in the FinalHazard’s flesh that knit itself closed.
“You two are our last hope!”
Only because he brought it this far. True, he never expected this, exactly, but his actions led them here.
“Now, I must make amends…”
Super Shadow dove into the next boil, vaguely grateful for the aura around him that burned away any unfortunate fluids that burst out. The lizard’s wound closed again, too quickly--but slower than before.
“You can do it!”
That was… Amy’s voice, wasn’t it? Cheering him on…
A violet light started on FinalHazard’s back, and Shadow had only a moment to duck under the enormous laser that lanced out at him. His Super energy roiled just from passing close to it.
“Whoa, where is he getting this energy?”
…That was Sonic’s voice. Where was he? This battlefield was huge--ah, there he is, weaving between those pink orbs.
“I’ve never fought something else empowered by the Chaos Emeralds before. Shadow, are you okay?”
Shadow didn’t answer, focused on the fight. With each hit, the FinalHazard’s wounds closed slower and slower, but it just. Wouldn’t. Die.
And he was feeling… tired again. This power wouldn’t last forever.
“Guys, we’re in danger.” Knuckles. “The colony will enter the atmosphere in about 4 minutes!”
Then that’s how long it would have to last. He wasn’t going to let the world end. Not by his hand, or anyone else’s. Even if…
A second laser joined the first. Then the pink orbs stopped being merely a barrier and started throwing themselves at them. FinalHazard was getting desperate.
Sonic was able to control this Super form effortlessly. Clearly, he’d done this before. Shadow… this much power… it wanted to help him, but it was so much…
The prototype glared at him, roaring in challenge even as it fended Sonic off.
Rouge’s voice came next. “Everyone here is rooting for you two. Shadow, give him one for me!”
Shadow destroyed another pocket of swollen flesh. His energy levels were dropping. Maybe it was because he was tired beforehand. But he couldn’t stop now.
“I won’t stop until it’s done. I will fight to my final breath!”
“Worry: Let us hope it doesn’t come to that.”
They could hear him too?
No matter.
“Shadow, are you okay?!”
Keep your eyes on the fight, Sonic.
While the other golden hedgehog took his turn against the monster, Shadow took a moment to catch his breath. The action didn’t help, there was no air out here.
“C’mon, edgehog!” That was the little mouse. He didn’t know her name. “Don’t go back to black yet! Golder is bolder!”
“Golder is bol…?” Ah. His fur was darkening already. He didn’t have much time. “...It doesn’t matter. Maria, watch me… I will fulfill your wish!”
The next blow he landed was right in the center of the FinalHazard’s forehead. Getting there meant dodging lasers, mines, dark energy orbs, and the creature’s own fangs, but he did it. The explosion took a significant chunk of the prototype’s head with it, cutting its roar of fury short. Shadow backed off, watching the flesh beginning to flow back together… slow…
And finally stop. The FinalHazard went limp. They’d won.
All they had to do now was stop the ARK.
Eggman’s frantic voice filtered through. “The ARK is too close, it’s trapped in the Earth’s gravity well! Its own thrusters can’t escape it anymore!”
Shadow and Sonic exchanged a determined look from across the void. They flew side by side to the front of the cone of fire surrounding the ARK, ignoring the FinalHazard being burned away by the force of reentry.
Between the two of them, they had the seven Chaos Emeralds, all the energy the prototype hadn’t already used up, and the determination to save the day.
…It wasn’t going to be enough.
Shadow could sense it, as they started to gather the energy, that it wasn’t going to work. The only option they had was to teleport the ARK back into its proper orbit; it was the only way to both save the Earth and people on board. But he was tired, and losing power fast. Sonic had only ever used Chaos Control once before, on himself and under duress. Granted, this was also under duress, but it was different. Shadow was also new to Chaos Control, and the ARK was so big.
…He could do it. Somehow, he knew. And all it would cost… was a price he was willing to pay.
Keeping one hand outstretched to focus the energy, he reached up with his other hand to snap the limiter ring off of his wrist.
Sonic looked confused. “Shadow, what are you doing?”
Instantly, the power inside him surged back to prominence and his golden sheen renewed itself. But at the same time, that power turned volatile, churning and bubbling inside him angrily, threatening to break through his skin and tear him asunder. That was fine. It only had to last… a little… longer.
Sonic made a face, then nodded, focusing on the task at hand.
One final voice came across the connection.
“Shadow,” Heyu said, voice barely audible through the roar of fire. “Know this. You deserve a chance to be happy too.”
Maria’s voice echoed to him from somewhere beyond knowing, and Shadow closed his eyes.
“...It’s a lovely thought.”
He opened them to meet Sonic’s eyes one last time. And knowing that he was saving the world that Maria loved so much…
Well. Maybe he was happy.
“CHAOS… CONTROL!”
---------------------------------------
Down below, on the surface, the skies turned from red to blue. The ARK vanished, reappearing miles further above where it belonged. Across the globe, people cheered, breathed sighs of relief, and hugged their neighbor. They collapsed into the couches, raised their mugs in toast, and threw hats into the sky. Gave prayers in thanks, and celebrated the new day that they’d all get to see.
Some, if they had a mind to look, might have seen a single shooting star, falling to earth.