Eggman’s Final Strike

By: Shadow the Hedgehog

Wedding bells filled the air as Shadow stood at the right of Fiona the hedgehog, wearing a black tuxedo that blended against his own jet-black body. Fiona wore a beautiful, radiant ivory-colored wedding dress which brought out her blue sapphire-like eyes even more than her brown fur and spines. “I do” the two announced, and they then turned to kiss and-BUUUUZZZZZ!!!

“What in the--?!” Shadow cried as he fell from his bed onto the floor below, “That same dream,” Shadow sighed, rubbing his head, “Again…” He then rose, shut off the new ‘devil clock’ and walked himself into his dining room and sat down with a cup of hot coffee. Actually, Shadow had been dating Fiona for a matter of years now, and had the ring all ready for her, but it was his own nerve slowing him down. “Who’d have thought that I could destroy my demons of the past, defeat Eggman twice but then choke at the very thought of being married?”

Shadow loved Fiona; there wasn’t a doubt about that much. It was that fact that Shadow feared having to settle down and surrender so much that he enjoyed. Especially coming home late, and sleeping in! He was also financially set via several economically-sound little accounts in his local bank which held more than enough that his family had constantly saved up since the days of his great-great-grandfather in case something were to go wrong. It was only Shadow’s unwillingness to give in his freedom for his love that held him back and he felt like a heel for it.

“I can’t keep waiting!” Shadow told himself, “I gotta tell her how I feel! Then again, I’ve been telling myself this since three years ago…” He sighed and trailed off, then looked out his window at a nest made by two noisy birds. Cardinals, to be precise, sat there and chirped at their new babies who hatched with the spring winds. Actually, it had been only half a year since Eggman’s first defeat and only three months since his most recent, so it seemed to him he had plenty of time to finally propose to Fiona.

“I… need to go clear my head,” Shadow told himself, “That way, if I can get my thoughts in a row, maybe I can finally ask!” He stood up, took his pouch and stuffed the ring into it, alongside the seven Chaos Emeralds. He left his house and skated remarkably slowly for him towards the much-larger city. Shadow thought hard of what he could do to give him encouragement, so he sped on over to Kindarspirit’s house. “Yeah!” Shadow exclaimed, “Kindarspirit knows how to always perk me up!”

Shadow knocked on the door and it was bolted up rather suddenly by a bloodshot, very tense-looking Kindar. “Hiya, perky,” Shadow jokingly exclaimed, “How are ya?”

“You’re asking me to kill you,” Kindarspirit replied, not amused, “You’re freakin’ BUDDY here, keeps me up most of the night!” She then angrily pointed at the disembodied Forte, who sat there, helmet on, but his visor-glasses were clearly blown off in the prior battles.

“I can’t help it,” Forte replied, “Her apartment smells like a dentist’s office!”

Shadow laughed, “I’m going to try again to propose to Fiona today, guys!”

“Yeah,” Forte said, clearly not believing what he was hearing, “I’ve heard that one about a million times before!”

“Maybe so,” Shadow huffed, “But this time I’m actually going to!”

Even Kindar finally laughed, “You’re gonna have cold feet forever, Shadow! Get serious!”

“No! I’m serious! It may have taken me seven years of dating her to do it, but I’m going to!” Shadow sighed deeply, “I’m going to!” He was laughed out of the whole building, so just to spite them (and hurry things along for his own life), skated furiously towards Fiona’s house. “I’m going to ask her to marry me! I’m going to!” Shadow declared to no one at all.

Shadow then decided he’d slow down (what was rushing him anyway, after seven years and all) and got an ice cream cone down on a sunny beach on the west end of Starmen.netville. Shadow then suddenly was startled as the entire sky darkened! Tongue still on his ice cream cone, Shadow peered towards the sky and saw a massive ship hovering overhead! A loud, familiar voice projected from it, “Citizens of Starmen.netville!” the insidious voice of Dr. Eggman could easily be heard for miles around, “All your base are belong to us!” he then broke into hysteric laughter.

“Good grief,” Shadow sighed, “I guess I’ll have to teach this egghead a lesson AGAIN!” he groaned. He quickly stuffed his ice cream into his mouth and charged up the energies from the chaos emeralds and turned to his silver SuperShadow form and took to the air in a radiant blur. “Here I come, egg-belly!” Shadow proclaimed loudly.

“There he is! Fire the beam!” Eggman’s still amplified voice exclaimed. Shadow could only gasp as an enormous green beam engulfed him and he slowly reverted back to his black self, and his pouch was ripped off his side and something shiny plummeted down to the sea below!

“Argh! My ring!” Shadow screamed out, but then began falling too! “No! The chaos emeralds too! I’m in trouble now!” He shouted as he plummeted through the air, which (to him) seemed to last mere moments, but all people nearby saw it in what seemed like slow motion. The water slapped against Shadow’s skin like burning leather, and he almost instantly passed out from it.

Shadow slowly regained consciousness on the same beach as before, just miles southward of where he was before. “Ugh… my head… I felt like I just went through a washer/dryer combo except minus the clean part… ugh…” he whined for a moment then looked around, “Agh! Eggman! He took the chaos emeralds! He must have all of ‘em!” He examined his immediate surroundings, “And… Fiona’s ring fell into the ocean… man… that carried a huge down payment too…” he sighed.

Shadow’s skates, after sputtering water for a matter of moments, lifted him up and carried him speeding down the beach, kicking sand in his wake and decided to scout the area where he fell before to try and find the ring, at least. Shadow quickly spotted a large crowd of people, all wearing black and crying. “A funeral, perhaps?” Shadow wondered. When he arrived, he heard everyone crying, and even saw Kindar, a new-bodied Forte and Fiona in the front of the crowd. “Someone we knew?” Shadow silently wondered as he walked to the front of the crowd too.

A man stood there, “We have lost our dear friend and hero, Shadow the hedgehog and are…”

“No you didn’t,” Shadow proclaimed, surprised. At this every single person in the crowd looked down at our tiny black hero, “I’m right here,”

“Shadow!” Fiona screamed at the top of her lungs and hurled her obese self on top of her spiky black honey. “You’re alive! We searched for a whole week for you!”

“A week?!” Shadow exclaimed, “Was I really out for that long?! Good gosh…” Shadow got up and dusted off, “Sorry I’m not a very fast recover-er.” Shadow said, jokingly, “But Eggman’s the chaos emeralds and-“ At this Shadow looked up and saw a row boat slowly putting by, oars manned by Scratch the chicken robot and Grounder the drilling robot.

“Aha!” Cried Scratch, “By order of Dr. Robotnik we arrest you, Shadow the Hedgehog! Aha-ha-ha-ha-haaa!” Scratch exclaimed in a wailing, irritating laugh.

Shadow leaped high into the air, twirled until his body appeared a black blur and was sent spiraling at their tiny row boat. “Noooo!” Grounder screamed out, “Don’t sink our row boat! We can’t swim!”

Just then, Shadow appeared, uncurled, on the bow of their boat, “Really, now? Why are you jokers out here, then?”

“Well, y’see, Mr. Hedgehog, sir…” Scratch began, “When Dr. Robotnik used his emerald tractor beam he got six chaos emeralds and a gold ring with an adorable little diamond heart, and a smaller emerald heart and ruby heart on either side of it!”

“My wedding ring!” Shadow exclaimed, almost knocking the boat right over, “Where did the seventh emerald drop then? The sea?”

“Yep,” Grounder responded, “Seems that way, doesn’t it?”

“Well, then, knuckleheads…” Shadow smirked, “We’re going emerald hunting!”

“Why would we EVER listen to you, you spiky black hedgehog?!” Scratch demanded.

“Because if you don’t, Coconuts might find the emerald first and you guys will be the ones doing janitorial duty!” Shadow smirked evilly.

“AAAARGH! He’s right!!!” Grounded exclaimed, “Let’s help him find the emerald and we can take him prisoner, and be way higher than Coconuts!”

“Right, good idea, Grounder!” Scratch agreed, “You’re coming with us, hedgehog!” Scratch exclaimed.

“Oh, wow,” Shadow said, obviously joking, “I guess I have no choice then, do I? All right, you guys are too smart for me! I’ll just have to go with you as your prisoner!”

Shadow sat on the bow and looked over his shoulder and waved. Forte suddenly got a face-mask and dove into the water, obviously in some amphibious mode, and Fiona and Kinderspirit remained behind, shocked. “Don’t get any ideas, hedgehog!” Grounder continued, trying to sound like he actually stood a chance in a fight against our hero, “You’re little girlfriends aren’t helping you this time!”

“Oh! Who me?” Shadow said, still playful as ever, “Why would I get THAT idea?!” The three took off across the water, as Forte continued his aquatic dive. The two dumb robots used nets and fishing reels in unrealistic attempts to get the emerald up, but Shadow had a pretty good feeling as who would find it first. Just as the thought ran over Shadow’s brain, the radiant (now dust-free) dark blue chaos emerald flew from the ocean’s waves and landed in his gloved hand.

“Thanks for the lift boys! Now, I gotta date with you boss!” Shadow laughed as he held the emerald over his head, “CHAOS CONTROL!” He yelled and vanished from the boat.

Then, the two robots sat there for a brief while before Scratch said, “I think we got duped,”

“Me too, Scratch…” Grounders sighed. In a flash, miles over the sea, Forte and Shadow appeared in the hull of the massive airship Eggman was previously using.

“Let’s scramble that egg!” Forte declared.

“Right!” Shadow backed him up, “And we’ll teach him to mess with us! Once and for all!” The two set up a long staircase from the cargo bay where they were before and moved swiftly upwards. They took off up an enormous flight of steps and suddenly came face-to-face with the not-so-good doctor. “Eggman!” Shadow exclaimed, “How…”

“Easily, my irritating ‘friend’… I have sensors all across this ship, there was no way to get on board without being detected. I believe you have the remaining chaos emerald?” Eggman laughed, then his walky-talky turned on and the voice of his useless helpers sounded.

“Doctor Eggman!” Scratch’s high, annoying voice sounded, “We-“

“I know Shadow and Forte are on my ship with the emerald, you dolts!” Eggman cut them off, but they went on.

“But we captured the fat hedgehog girl and the blonde!” Grounder persisted.

“What?!” Eggman shouted, surprised, “Excellent! Perhaps I do have use for you bucket-brains after all! Bring them to me, immediately!” Shadow and Forte stared, deadpan, as the doctor continued, “You see, Shadow… I have something you want… and you have something I want. We can strike a bargain!”

“I’ve done enough bargaining with YOU, Eggman! The last time you gave me that cut-corn line, was when you tried to kill me with a robotic re-construct of Kindarspirit! I don’t forget stuff like that!” Shadow exclaimed, “Besides, what ‘bargain’ can you strike, if I kill you before you bring my friends right to me?!”

Eggman felt one tiny sweat bead drip from his bald head, “I-uhm- gotta go!” the fat man then took off at an amazingly fast speed (given his size and shape) and Shadow and Forte made chase.

“Get back here, Fat Man!” Forte cried out, but they quickly arrived in the middle of a gigantic gray room!

“Now, Shadow, Forte! I have a little surprise for you! I’m actually pretty thankful to you for giving me that one precious little week I required to finish this project! I thought you might have had to face the prototype… (Which was a complete flop) but now, meet you match, Shadow the Hedgehog!” With that, Eggman whipped a sheet off of a large metal tube, inside, a hedgehog-shaped silhouette slept, “Do you like him? I named him ‘Midnight the Hedgehog’! He’s a perfect copy of you, Shadow! Except darker, meaner and nastier! You’re aggravating ‘good’ qualities had to be removed… in a rather… unpleasant way!” Eggman cackled.

“Midnight?” Shadow asked, “Another copy hedgehog? What’s up with your family and clones?!”

The tube opened, and Eggman made his get-a-way through a door which then shut and locked! A strange green liquid spilt from the tube as a hedgehog, just barely shorter than our hero emerged. He was completely black, with no obvious coloring, except for a tiger-stripe-esque series of dark purple scars running across his hide. The nude, new-borne, hedgehog stepped forward and opened his violet eyes and focused on Shadow and Forte.

“Ahh, my friendly, neighborhood arch-rivals!” Midnight exclaimed, “You’re later than Dr. Eggman said you’d be! How disappointing!”

“Midnight the Hedgehog, I presume?” Shadow responded, “You’re a little short to be a copy of me!”

“Hmm… how cliché… but, regardless of that, you’ll have to die now, boys!” Then, Midnight broke out in a brief chuckle, and then crouched into a fighting stance. The two hedgehogs squared off, and while Shadow distracted Midnight through combat, Forte successfully opened the locked door (via some usage of his auto-buster!).

Forte arrived in a gigantic hanger of some sort, and in front of him, an enormous humanoid robot towered over him. “Holy rusted metal, Batman!” Forte exclaimed in half-mockery, “What have we here?” The gargantuan machine gave no response until its eyes lit up in a crimson hue and swung its monstrous hand down and swatted Forte like a fly! The impact wound up shattering most of Forte’s armor, and disconnecting him from his left arm, and knocking him face-down into the floor.

Meanwhile, Shadow was gaining tremendous advantage over his under-developed dark ‘brother’. “How… how are you so powerful?!” Midnight demanded, “It’s not possible to be that strong!” and with the word coughed, Shadow struck down Midnight to the floor, in a crippled, bleeding lump. “You’re… strong… and the way you move… is truly inspiring, hedgehog… but one question has been tugging at my heart since my recent birth.” Midnight wheezed.

“What?” Shadow asked, “What question?”

Midnight looked up into Shadow’s eyes and asked, “What do they call you? What’s your name? Eggman never told me it. He just always called you something like ‘that meddlesome hedgehog’ or ‘that black hedgehog’… what’s your name?”

“My name,” Shadow responded, surprised, “is Shadow the Hedgehog!”

“Shadow the Hedgehog,” Midnight repeated, in half-hidden admiration, “How very fitting,” Midnight then laid down his head and breathed on last time, hard, and faded to ash.

“A clone… you were the clone…” Shadow sighed, and felt as if he had just lost a good friend, “Rest easy… ‘Brother’… Midnight…” Shadow trailed off in thought. He then took off, full speed down the hall after Forte and Eggman, only to find a near-dead Forte and the same giant robot who had wounded him, “What on Earth is THAT thing?!” Shadow exclaimed.

The robot looked down and Eggman stood upon its head, “This, Shadow the Hedgehog, is the Egg King! The ultimate creation by mortal hands! Powered by six precious Choas Emeralds, and is very close to becoming the Perfect Egg King when I get your emerald off your useless corpse!” Eggman laughed maniacally, and on a higher platform, Scratch and Grounder stood with Fiona and Kindarspirit in their grasps, “Surrender, Shadow! It’ll go easier on all of us, and I will let your girl friends go!”

“Fiona… Kindar… Forte…” Shadow gasped slowly, “What… do I do? What can I do?”

Forte slowly shoved himself so that he could face his friend and panted hard, “We have many options, Shadow. We can try and fight. But the Egg King has a barrier aura around it from the emeralds. We can run, but that leaves Fiona and Kindar to die. We can give up, but then we both die. It doesn’t look too good, my friend,” Forte moaned in agony.

Eggman shouted downward again, “Oh! And Shadow, here!” Eggman then flipped down the gold ring with all three jewels still in place, “Apparently, I had focused my tractor beam to attract emeralds, and it mistook the ring as a chaos emerald and allowed the other to escape from my grasp!”

“That explains a lot,” Shadow muttered to himself, putting the ring in his pouch, “But what now?!” Shadow then felt a tear go down his cheek, because he knew how hard and long he was forced to fight, just to end up failing because of his own recklessness, and he knew the world would pay the toll only he deserved.

“Shadow,” Forte called to his friend, “It’s time…”

“Time for what, Forte?” Shadow asked.

“To explain something… we synchronize pretty easily, huh?” Forte smiled and Shadow just stared at him, “You see, we’re really both you.”

“What?” Shadow asked, “That doesn’t even make sense!”

“I know, but listen. Gerald created me to carry the Shadow.bat emotion restriction program in case you ever lost it… mentally, so to speak. But I also am the token you require to unleash your true form and potential… but it carries a price… a big one.” Forte explained, “And that price is my very soul being extinguished forever.”

“What?!” Shadow cried out, “No! No! That’s not even an option…”

“I deleted the emotion restriction program, and left but one file left within me, other than who I am. Thankfully, in my being totaled, it was not lost. It’s called the ‘TrueHeart.exe’ program. Do you know what that is?” Forte asked, smiling.

“That sounds… so familiar…” Shadow began to breathe faster, “TrueHeart?”

“C’mon!” Eggman exclaimed, “Quit whispering unless you have something to share with the rest of the class!”

“Hurry!” Forte exclaimed, “He’s getting impatient, take my life jewel and wield it to unlock Omega Angel Shadow form!”

Shadow blinked, confused because of the rush and lack of time he had, “Not Omega Angel… I’ll call it the Forte Angel!” Shadow declared, finally pulling his thoughts together, “Forte Angel Shadow!”

Forte smiled, “How fitting,” Forte then slowly began removing his life jewel, “Good bye, Shadow… you’ll never see me again, except maybe in your dreams!” He then quickly removed it and his arm extended out and froze in mid-air, never to move again.

“For you, my brother,” Shadow sniffed as he claimed the piece that he had been missing since day one, “Midnight… Forte… so much blood has been shed for me to finally figure out who I am… but it makes sense now… c’mon! I gotta save my friends!” Shadow then brought the jewel to his forehead, and felt it embed itself into his flesh, and the black body became over whelmed with a newfound, hidden power!

“What’s this?!” Eggman asked, and stared at the blinding light, “The emeralds are responding strangely!”

Then, Shadow’s black body took on a radiant ivory color, the tuft on his chest, once white, turned golden once again, and the red stripes across his body became a soft tone of cyan. Then, the most amazing of changes occurred, as a large pair of angelic wings extended from Shadow’s back. In this, Forte Angel Shadow had been born: completed.

Shadow opened his compassionate, wild ruby-like eyes and focused on the Egg King. “What is that?!” Eggman demanded, “What is that light?!”

“I think we should go now, Scratch,” Grounder whispered, slowly releasing and backing away from Shadow’s female friends.

“Yeah… me too, Grounder!” The large chicken replied, and they both took off.

Shadow raised his left hand and it began shining radiantly, “Forte Cannon!” he exclaimed, in a loud, echoing voice, and swung his open-palm punch into the awaiting barrier aura about the Egg King; shattering it in a single blow.

“Impossible!” Eggman yelled out, going into his mechanical monstrosity, “Impossible, I tell you! NOT POSSIBLE!” Just then, Rouge the Bat stepped into the room, on a platform parallel (yet behind) our new, super-charged hero.

“S-… Shadow?” Rouge whispered, terrified by his new power and beauty.

Shadow glanced back at Rouge, which allowed Eggman just enough time to swat the angel into a near-by sold metal wall! “That was stupidity in its finest form,” Shadow mumbled to himself as he took back to the air, and began diving rapidly at Eggman.

“Argh!!! Why won’t the aura reform like I designed it to?! Grr!” Eggman growled at his machine’s dash board. Then, Eggman got a new idea, “Who needs an aura?! I have the ultimate defense!” then, the Egg King grabbed Fiona in one of its giant mitts and laughed, “Now, Shadow! Surrender or I pop her like an unwelcome zit on prom night!”

Shadow froze in the midst of the air, his large wings holding him motionless in the air, staring into the eyes of his beloved, scared Fiona. “Let her go, coward! Face me like a man!” Shadow demanded. While outside, Shadow remained stoic, inside he was shaking in absolute horror of what could happen now.

“Her life is in YOUR hands, Shadow! Not mine!” Eggman cackled, “What’s your choice? Give up your life or she submits her own!”

“Oh! Forget me, Shadow! You have a promise you made to Forte! Defeat Eggman and save the world and just forget about me! I’m not that important!” Fiona pleaded in absolute vain, “Please! Forget me!”

“I… can’t…” Shadow slowly descended downwards to the floor, shaking faster and faster as he sunk.

“Fool! You’re making it too easy for me!” Eggman laughed as a giant Egg King foot came crashing down on our hero!

“Shadow!” Fiona, Kindar and even Rouge shouted in unison!

“Yes! Ooooooh, yes!” Eggman laughed victorious, “My chronic hedgehog problems have come to an end! Well, then, Ms. Fiona, you’re usefulness as expired! Good bye!” Then the Egg King hurled Fiona into a near-by wall, and Fiona passed out, and had blood pouring out all over her as Kindar and Rouge rushed to her side.

“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!” an enraged scream wildly echoed throughout the room, and suddenly, a white blur began blowing through the Egg King’s leg, shattering metal and ripping wires and gnashing out screws and gears. Shadow’s true fury had been unleashed! “How DARE you strike Fiona, you spineless, honorless, WORM!!!”

“Oh my…” Eggman gulped, “I do believe I miscalculated how much pressure it would require to dispose of Shadow the Hedgehog! I do believe he’ll be here to kill me any minute! Eek!” Eggman gulped again.

Just then, the Egg King fell to the floor and the six emeralds scattered all around it and Shadow hovered just in front of Eggman’s face. “No more, Eggman!” Shadow declared, “You killed Forte, you sentenced Midnight to die, neither of them deserved it. You unleashed the beast your grandfather tried so desperately to seal away, but here I stand! The ULTIMATE LIFEFORM!!!”

“Shadow! I beg of you! Don’t kill me!” Eggman whined like a tiny puppy, “Please, have mercy!”

“Why should I show you mercy?! Did you show mercy to Forte when you blew him up with the Atma Egg?! Did you show mercy to Starmen.netville when you threatened it with a sky-borne blast?! Did you show mercy to Fiona when you just killed her?!” Shadow screamed, so enraged blood flew from his throat, “DID YOU?! SO WHY SHOULD I SHOW YOU ANY AT ALL?!”

Eggman began chattering and struggling and whining all in vain as Shadow lifted up his right hand, holding him steady with his left, and a gigantic blue blade extended from his right hand. “I didn’t think so!” Shadow drew back to bring the blade into the awaiting fat man, but something caught their attention.

“Stop! Please!” Shadow and Eggman looked towards the origin of the voice, and there, lay a helpless, wounded Fiona, “Shadow… please stop the violence. It’s so useless. Has your new power corrupted the hog I love?” Fiona sobbed.

“Fiona…” Shadow trailed off, then glanced once at Eggman, then tossed him down into the scrap heap that remained from the Egg King and Shadow flew to his wounded beloved. “I’m sorry… I thought you had… I just… I have no excuse, I’m sorry…” Shadow too shed tears for the first time since he became the Forte Angel.

“It’s all right, honey-bunches,” Fiona smiled, “Gimmie a hug!” she then tightly embraced her much-thinner hedgehog honey.

“You’re bleeding!” Shadow exclaimed.

“I’ll be fine, it didn’t hurt that much,” Fiona laughed, “Lots of padding… hehehe, y’know?” she giggled.

Shadow’s eyes softened, and he slowly shifted back to his black-and-red color scheme, but the life jewel on his head remained lodged there, where it was destined to go from the start. “I love you Fiona, will you marry me?” Shadow then, after seven long years, brought out his ring and Fiona began smiling ecstatically and nodded silently, then kissed him.

Within this time, Eggman got up, motioned for his robots and Rouge to follow and took off. Shadow looked down just in time to see the door shut behind them. “C’mon, guys. Let’s get the chaos emeralds.” Shadow smiled and helped up his new-found wife-to-be.

They laughed and shared stories of how they felt within that brief time, moving trash aside to find the jewels, but something bothered Shadow just then. There, in his arms lay only six chaos emeralds. Eggman had taken the red chaos emerald and had escaped. But until they met again…

--The End…?