A soft mist of rain showered down on Angel Island, held in the sky by the legendary Master Emerald. The sole inhabitant of the island, and guardian of the precious jewel, sat on the steps that ascended to the altar that enshrined the beautiful jewel that was larger than a typical car. The guardian was a red echidna named Knuckles. He didn't mind being rained on, as long as the gorgeous Master Emerald remained where it had always been, as far back as his 16-year-old life could remember back to. He softly bit into a peach that he had found in a jungle nearby to eat and so he sat there, in silence and chewed the soft pulp.
Knuckles had been contemplating what had happened on the planet down below Angel Island, as the Master Emerald could detect energies similar to its own and show Knuckles the occurrences of the life below. He was intrigued when a beautiful emerald, like a small Master Emerald, fell onto his island one day while he was napping. He was curious, but he knew that Angel Island and the Master Emerald took top priority. He occasionally glanced skyward as the rain seemed to intensify into a horrid raging thunderstorm. It wasn't the first one to reach the island before but it seemed odd compared to the others.
He softly sighed and stuffed the remains of the fruit into his mouth and spat out the pit and sat under the Master Emerald's edge to take shelter from the harsh rains. He then took up the smaller emerald into his massive mitt and examined it. He had many times before then, but he was still curious about the gem that resembled a smaller version of his own emerald. He sighed and rested his eyes, rolling the emerald between his hands. Suddenly, a loud explosion happened behind him and he was hurled into the hard stone below him. He quickly turned himself over to his beloved Master Emerald shattered into pieces.
"Who's there?!" Knuckles demanded, "Show yourself, coward!" He then rose to his feet and watched as a strange puddle of water lay in the Master Emerald's remains, and slowly slithered out, "Whoa! What was that?!" he exclaimed, "Water that moves?!" he then stuffed the smaller emerald he held into his glove and raised his fists, "What do you want on my island?" The water then rose up and took on a strange form and swatted Knuckles with its massive hand and sent him rolling down the staircase just behind him, leaving him in an unconscious pile. Knuckles suddenly woke up when he felt his island home begin to violently shake, "Oh no!" he gasped, "The Master Emerald is broken! That means the island won't stay afloat for much longer! Oh noooo!!!" he howled as the island fell through the air and crashed down right into the sea below.
At the same time, in Starmen.netville, Shadow the Hedgehog roused from a deep sleep, "W-what? An earthquake? What just happened out there?" he muttered. He leaped from his bed and rushed outside and looked around, "The city looks okay… but that wasn't normal! I'd better go check it out!" he then locked his door and took to the streets in hot pursuit of what made the loud crash. He headed south, towards the epicenter of the quake and suddenly saw an island just off the shore, where the water takes a plunge into deeper sea. "That wasn't there yesterday," Shadow told himself, "I'd better check that out," He then turned up his skates (that just got a new upgrade) and hovered over the water for a spell and reached the island.
"This place is massive!" Shadow told himself, "I bet every terrain on the planet could be found right here! Cool!" He then skated forward and slowly made his way through a thick, dense jungle. He noticed the wide variety of animals hanging around the vegetation but made sure to explore thoroughly and finally found his way through it. He finally got out and saw a massive stone structure, "What ho? This isn't natural!" Shadow told himself, examining the perfectly geometric shapes and slowly walked up the staircase. He carefully swept his eyes from side to side to try and watch himself but he couldn't help but gasp when he saw a massive, shattered jewel, "Whoa! That's no chaos emerald I've ever seen!"
Shadow then looked over and saw a red echidna lying unconscious next to the massive jewel and he ran to his side, "Hey! Buddy! Are you okay, there? Hey! Say something!"
The echidna gritted his teeth as he sat up and looked at Shadow, "Ugh… where am I?"
"We're in the South Sea, pal. Are you okay? Where did this island come from?" Shadow asked.
"This is Angel Island," the echidna explained, "The home of my ancestors… it was in the sky!"
"An island that floated in the sky? That's pretty cool!" Shadow admitted, "What happened?"
"I'm not sure," the echidna explained, finally finding the strength to stand up, "Something weird broke and came out of the Master Emerald!"
"Master Emerald? Is that anything like a chaos emerald?" Shadow asked.
"Chaos emerald?" Knuckles repeated, "What's that?"
"They're emeralds, duh," Shadow retorted with a smirk, "But they're about the size of your fist, and they are power sources. I'm looking for them,"
"Anything like this?" Knuckles asked, drawing his green emerald from under his glove, "I found it about a month ago,"
"Yeah!" Shadow exclaimed, "Hey! Can I have that?"
"Why's it so important to you?" Knuckles asked, "And, who are you, anyway?"
"My name is Shadow the Hedgehog. I need to collect those jewels in order to keep them away from Dr. Eggman!" Shadow explained, "Now, who are you?"
"My name is Knuckles the Echidna," Knuckles told him, "I guard… I did guard the Master Emerald… lightning must have hit it or something…" he said, rubbing his head, "I have no use for this. I guess you can have it, Shadow," Knuckles said, handing it to the hedgehog.
"Thanks!" Shadow exclaimed, but suddenly, a metal arm nabbed it away from him, "Hey!" he shouted, and looked up and in a hover craft sat none other than Dr. Eggman, "Eggman! What are you doing?"
"I'm just borrowing it, Shadow!" Eggman exclaimed, "You and that knuckle-headed echidna don't know what to do with such things!" he said with a laugh.
"I gave that to Shadow! Give it back before I knock that smirk off your face, fat man!" Knuckles declared, bopping his fists together like a boxer, "Now!"
"My, aren't we demanding?" Eggman snickered, "No, I think I rather like this jewel!"
"Eggman!" Shadow demanded, "We're supposed to be on a truce until the shadow series is gone!"
"Really? A truce? Would I ever do a thing like that?" Eggman scoffed, "Well, forget the whole thing, hedgehog! You ARE part of the shadow series! Not to mention one who has stuck his nose in my business one to many times!"
Knuckles blinked a few times, confused, "Mind filling me in, Shadow?"
"This guy is bent on conquering the world," Shadow whispered, "And I've stopped him a good number of times. He and I aren't exactly buddies,"
"I see," the red echidna sighed, "I think you and I, Shadow, would make better partners than enemies. Let's get that… erm… small master emerald back!"
"Chaos emerald," Shadow corrected his new friend, "And I agree!"
"Hmm… I heard echidnas were extinct! I guess I was wrong! Considering you being here and the others I captured!" Eggman laughed.
"Others?" Knuckles gasped, "What others?"
"You didn't know them?" Eggman faked a gasp of surprise, "Oh! But Knuckles, they're female and waiting in my dungeon!"
"You let them go now!" Knuckles shouted.
"Don't listen to that balding idiot, he'd say anything to get you to fall for a trick," Shadow told Knuckles.
"Oh!" Eggman laughed, "This is delicious! Well, Shadow, what if I'm NOT lying? What if Knuckles' ignorance turns out to be the reason they become the next victim of my newest weapons?" Knuckles gasped and growled but Eggman went on, "If you want to see them alive, knuckle-head, you'll give me the chaos tablets!"
"Chaos tablets?" Knuckles asked, "What?"
"You don't know about THEM either?! Are you stupid, echidna? They're the ancient recordings of echidna lore about the ancient water beast!" Eggman exclaimed, "Find them! And bring them to the beach by noon, or the girls die, echidna! And Shadow! You might want to help them if you value a lady's beauty!" he laughed and flew off.
"Eggman!" Shadow screamed out, "That… low-lying creep!" Knuckles then began walking down the stairs, "Where are you going? We should go after him!"
"No," Knuckles firmly said, "I'm going to do what he says. I don't risk hostages' lives,"
"Knuckles! You're walking right into a trap!" Shadow exclaimed, "It'd be best if we stormed his new base and took them back by force!"
"And then we're just risking my people," Knuckles replied, "My entire life I've been alone, and now I have a chance to meet females of my kind!" Shadow sighed and shook his head but Knuckles continued, "Help me find those tablets. Regardless what he plans to do with them, it's best if we just negotiate this time, Shadow,"
"Don't negotiate ANYTHING with him! He's a liar! He tried to kill me by kidnapping my friend and using a robotic double to try and shoot me!" Shadow told his new partner, "But if you REALLY think it's the best thing to do now… okay, I'll help you out," Shadow shrugged, "I guess I want to help them too, so let's find the tablets. Suggestions?"
"Yeah, I think I know what he's talking about," Knuckles replied, "In an ancient city on this island, I saw a stone carving of a massive water dragon. By the way, what is a… 'Shadow series'?"
"It's a long story, Knuckles," Shadow sighed, walking down the stair case with his partner, "I'll explain on the way, you may not get it, though… and Eggman has one of the chaos emeralds, which makes matters worse! I should've attacked him!"
Knuckles shrugged, "What you did was probably for the best,"
"I hope you're right, Knuckles," Shadow sighed, "Let's go," So, Shadow told Knuckles of the battles against Eggman he had endured and the near-death of his fiancée and capture of his friends and the death of Forte and many other things. "So, what about you, Knuckles?" Shadow said, helping his friend move rocks off of some stone path ways towards the ancient echidna city, "What have you done on this floating island?"
"Well, not much," Knuckles admitted, "I just sat and waited. I dreamed a lot, about the world and exploring and stuff… but mostly waiting… I figured everything would be routine for my entire life until I died, but I never imagined that creepy monster would bop me and break the Master Emerald which kept it afloat!"
"Can it be fixed?" Shadow asked.
"Yes, all the echidnas have the power to repair the Master Emerald… but I think the chaos emeralds you told me about have been mentioned in ancient writings too!" Knuckles exclaimed, "Ahh, here it is!" he said, turning over a massive stone mural, "See? A long time ago, a massive dragon swallowed the chaos emeralds and sucked out their evil energies. He then regurgitated the stones up and a girl echidna chanted an ancient spell which used the Master Emerald to neutralize the power of the jewels and empowered three destined warriors. A speedy hedgehog, a flying fox and a powerful echidna. A golden light filled the sky and the evil was destroyed," Knuckles recited the ancient text, "That is what it says,"
"A flying fox?" Shadow asked, skeptically, "What'll they think of next? Giant kung-fu tortoises or something?"
"You never know," Knuckles chuckled as he walked along, "I guess this thing here must be the chaos tablet," he then lifted a massive stone over his head in one hand, "Okay, let's just go to the beach and wait, okay?"
Shadow couldn't help but be impressed by Knuckles' obvious strength, "You want to arm wrestle Fiona sometime?" he joking offered. Some time passed as the two waited on the beach for the return of Eggman, the slab still in Knuckles' massive hands. "What all does that say, anyhow?" Shadow finally broke the silence, "Anything important?"
"Not really. Just some old poem and it shows that old dragon again from the other mural I showed you," Knuckles explained, "I don't know why he wants it so badly," So, finally, dusk came and they saw the round hover craft fly over them. "I got the chaos tablet, Eggman, now; give the girl echidnas to us!"
"Thank you Knuckles! I'll just be taking that!" Eggman laughed as a metal arm took the slab off of Knuckles' tiring arms and he began to fly away, "Later, knuckle-head! Hahaha!"
"No! He's getting away!" Shadow gasped, "Not again!"
"Darn it! You were right!" Knuckles exclaimed, "Now what?"
"Now, nothing," Shadow growled low, "He's too far over the sea for us to get to now!" he sighed and kicked the sand, and something shiny came up with it, "What's this?" he asked, bending down and pulling out a large, jagged emerald shard.
"A piece of the Master Emerald! They must have spilt off the island!" Knuckles exclaimed taking it from Shadow, "Return home!" he ordered and the jewel flew out of sight, back towards Angel Island.
"Wow! Neat trick!" Shadow gasped, "But that's well and good and all, but Eggman still has the echidna girls!"
"Darn it! I knew I shouldn't have trusted him!" Knuckles sighed, "I should have listened to you, Shadow,"
"Yeah, you should've," Shadow scowled, "Any plans?"
"I don't suppose you have something that can move us through time and space?" Knuckles sighed again.
Shadow thought about it for a moment and snapped, "Actually, I do!" He then took Knuckles' arm and took off in his usual 'sonic boom' skate and arrived at his house in a flash and went into his bedroom and slid the blue chaos emerald out from under his pillow, "This!"
"Another chaos emerald?" Knuckles gasped, "How many are there?"
"Seven in total," Shadow told him, "C'mere, I have a plan!"
"Mind sharing this plan?" Knuckles asked as he walked to Shadow's side.
"Well, I've only done it once before, but using the emerald's powers I can move us right to Eggman's base! Since he has something that belongs to you, I can use your essence to warp us right to it!" Shadow smiled, "You ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be," Knuckles said, resting his hand on Shadow's shoulder, "Okay, go!"
Shadow then lifted the jewel over his head, "Chaos… CONTROL!!!" he shouted and a bright green field enveloped the two and they vanished in a flash of light. When they re-appeared they found themselves deep in a strange lab, standing next to the tablet that Knuckles had been tricked into submitting.
"Wow…" Knuckles panted, "That felt weird," he admitted.
"Yeah," Shadow conceded, "Wanna do it again?!"
"Uhh… maybe later," Knuckles offered, "First we gotta figure out where we are, and where the echidna females are!"
"And the chaos emerald!" Shadow nodded, "It'd be best if we split up,"
"Alright," Knuckles agreed and pointed, "There are two ways in. I'll go left, you go right, okay?"
"Works for me!" Shadow grinned and skated off out one of the doors and Knuckles went his own way. Quickly, Shadow found himself in a network of entwining hallways and with a deep groan, he randomly guessed his way through the network of walkways. He finally found what vaguely resembled a dungeon and he slowly tip-toed in and saw none other than Coconuts, hard at work scrubbing the floor. "Well, not much has changed," Shadow told himself, "Time for the fun part!" He walked out confidently, "Heya, Coconuts!" he waved as if to taunt the monkey.
"Hi," he apathetically said, still mopping the floor.
"Uhh…" Shadow blinked, "Aren't you gonna phone Eggman or something? Or call for backup?'
"Nope," Coconuts simply replied, "No use,"
"Uhh…" Shadow wondered what was going on.
"If you beat Alpha Ghost, there's no way I could ever beat you! So, just go on through!" Coconuts offered.
"You're a pretty smart fella," Shadow told the monkey, "Thanks. Oh and sorry your plan didn't work. I guess Scratch and Grounder are just incompetent idiots,"
"It's okay, just don't hurt me," Coconuts replied, moving against the wall and Shadow strolled on by, but suddenly, Coconuts slammed a button on the wall and a huge net grappled around Shadow and dangled him from the ceiling.
"Whoa!" Shadow gasped, "Hey! What's this all about?!"
"I tricked ya, hedgehog! I got you good this time!" Coconuts danced around happily, "I knew you'd come to try and release the prisoners, and I got you! I got you! I got you!"
"Now THIS is embarrassing," Shadow told himself, "HE just made a monkey out of ME!" he grunted, "I suppose I deserve this for getting cocky!" Moments later, Shadow was hurled into a cell. "Hey! Easy! I'm a delicate species!" Shadow exclaimed as Coconuts walked away laughing, "Little punk… I'll show you when I get outta here!" Shadow then looked around at the firm bars and solid brick walls and very little lighting, "IF I ever get outta here…"
Meanwhile, Knuckles found himself with full hands as hundreds of robotic guards rushed him the second he left the lab. His mighty echidna fists flew through the robots like a hot blade through butter and he shattered them like glass. In his anger, Knuckles was putting holes through the walls with very little effort and finally worked his way through into a massive room with catwalks above him. "Eggman!" Knuckles exclaimed, "Where are you? Come out and fight!"
A suddenly clapping filled the room as Eggman entered from the other side, "Knuckles the Echidna! I'm surprised you got past all my guardians! Very impressive!" Eggman laughed, "And without any help? Even better! I suppose you're here for the girls?"
"That's right! And the jewel and stone you stole from me and Shadow!" Knuckles exclaimed, "Now, give 'em up!"
"Not bad, echidna! But I've known you two were in this building since you got here! I have energy sensors all across this building! No one gets in without my knowing it!" Eggman cackled, "So, I've prepared something 'special' for you!" Knuckles raised an eyebrow as Eggman stepped aside and a mechanical reconstruct of Knuckles walked out, with glowing red eyes and large, metal spikes on his hands. "Meet, Metal Knuckles!" Eggman laughed, "My greatest invention EVER!"
"You read the blueprints wrong, Eggman. I look way better than that thing!" Knuckles exclaimed.
"Oh! Looks aren't everything, Knuckles! As you'll soon see, this baby is powered by the chaos emerald!" Eggman laughed, "Have fun!" Knuckles' eyes widened as his metal counterpart flew across the room and brought its fist right into Knuckles' face and sent him flying through the door he entered by, and back out into the lab where Shadow had warped them in. Knuckles angrily rose to his feet and dodged to the side with Metal Knuckles attempted to kick him and he twirled around and delivered a devastating uppercut into his metal foe.
It was too little avail, as Metal Knuckles jumped back, hovered in the air and kicked the organic Knuckles right in the jaw. Knuckles spun around, dazed, but used the inertia from the impact to swing back and hit the robot again and sent it flying back into a wall, damaging its flight systems. Metal Knuckles rushed forward and tried to deliver a straight left, but Knuckles saw it coming a mile off, turned off to the side and brought his fist into the metal back, sending it crashing into a desk, breaking it under the metallic weight. Metal Knuckles hadn't had enough as it rose back up and taunted Knuckles by waving its hand towards itself.
Knuckles became angry and charged at his metal replica, but Metal Knuckles wanted him to do that, so it grabbed Knuckles by the wrist and hurled him into a nearby wall. Knuckles got up from the shot and rushed back to the robot and quickly shot out two left straight punches and as Metal Knuckles anticipated a third, the real Knuckles came out with a right hook and smacked the robot across the face. While Metal Knuckles was stunned, the organic echidna preceded to uppercut it again in the stomach and threw it straight into the ceiling above them. Metal Knuckles then fell from the rafters and crashed to the floor but as it did, the real Knuckles drove both fists into the metal backside and angrily tore the chaos emerald out of its stomach.
Knuckles panted, looking down at the still metal corpse as he noticed a strange red clock, and he bent down to get a better look at it as it counted down from three, and blew up. The explosion hurdled Knuckles back into a wall, dropping him out cold. Eggman took the emerald and threw Knuckles into one of his dungeon cells as well, laughing, "Victory is mine this time!"
Knuckles slowly woke up and saw the two echidna girls in the same cell with him, "You!" Knuckles gasped, "You're echidnas too?"
"Yes," the taller of the two said, who was just shorter than Knuckles himself, and had brown eyes and sky blue fur and quills, "My name is Flam. This here is my sister, Emerald," she gestured to the shorter one who had green eyes and the same color fur.
"Emerald is her name?" Knuckles asked finally finding the strength to stand up again, "That's a nice name,"
"Thank you," she said, shyly.
"What are you two doing down here, anyhow?" Knuckles asked.
"We were traveling," Flam explained, "And Eggman heard about my little sister's gift,"
"Which is?" Knuckles asked.
"She can make emeralds. Hence the name… but they're not REALLY jewels, just fakes. Eggman figured he could use her to make fake chaos emeralds to power a robotic army, but when the process failed he got mad and threw us down here!" Flam explained, "Can you get us out of here?"
"You bet!" Knuckles exclaimed, "Just watch me!" He then reeled back and sent his fist flying into the metal bars, breaking them like glass. "Now, let's get out of here! We have to help my partner and get the real chaos emerald away from Eggman!" He then led the girls down the hall and there stood Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts.
"Hold it right there, Echidna!" Grounder exclaimed in a nasal voice.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaa!!!" Scratch wailed in an annoying fit of laughter, "We have you now!"
"And we're gonna capture you for Dr. Robotnik!" Coconuts finished their thought.
"Wow," Knuckles sighed, "You guys are pathetic," He raised his fist but cringed and grabbed his chest, "I guess that Metal Knuckles got me worse than I thought," Flam and Emerald tried to support Knuckles, both afraid of what the robots might try and do to them when suddenly a voice shouted out from behind them.
"Hey! Tin heads! Over here!" Knuckles peered around the robots and saw Shadow standing there with a grin, "Shadow! You're okay!"
"That's impossible!" Coconuts shouted, "I imprisoned you!"
"And I escaped!" Shadow retorted, "I can do that sort of thing when I hurl my shoulder into the bars at mach 3!"
"Oh! Forget that! Get 'em!" Scratch exclaimed, "Now!" The three robots tried to grab Shadow, but he merely leaped over their heads, "Hey!"
"C'mon, Knux!" Shadow then noticed Flam and Emerald, "These the hostages?"
"Yes," Knuckles told him, "Let's get going now," The four began running to try and find their way out but they were suddenly stopped by Eggman. "Oh no," Knuckles groaned, still having to lean on the girls to maintain balance from his wounded state.
"Oh yes," Eggman mocked Knuckles, "I'm here, and I'm gonna make you pay for your interfering! All of you shall die!"
Suddenly, something caught Shadow's eye that was slowly walking up behind the fat scientist, "Uhh… hey, Eggman," Shadow said, "You might… you might wanna look over your shoulder, big guy,"
"Yeah right!" Eggman exclaimed, "You just want me to look over my shoulder so you can all escape! Well I don't think so, hedgehog!" Suddenly, the shadow grabbed Eggman, "What the--?!" he went silent as he struggled against the obviously strong individual who was grabbing him then.
"We're coming, doctor!" Grounder exclaimed as he and the other two robots rushed past Shadow and his friends, but the assaulter merely struck them once and they all fell to the floor, "Aaagh! Ruuun!" The shady figure dropped the unconscious, near-strangled Eggman and roughly grabbed Coconuts and angrily tore off his head.
"Whoa!" Shadow gasped, backing up slowly, "Who are you?!"
The tall figure rushed passed them and then proceeded to tear apart Grounder and Scratch like they were nothing but tinker toys. "What a psychopath!" Knuckles exclaimed.
"Knuckles, you get outta here, okay?" Shadow told his friend, "You're hurt,"
Knuckles then bent down and searched Eggman's pockets and withdrew the green emerald and handed it to Shadow, "Good luck," he told his new friend as he and the girl echidnas made their swift escape up the stairs.
"Hey!" Shadow called out the shady attacker, "Who do you think you are, anyway?"
Finally, the assaulter walked into the light, and it was a tall, pale ugly girl with massive bat wings extending from her back and down to her feet, with raven-black hair and strange, dark purple eyes, "I… am Vitra!"
Shadow gasped, "Vitra the Bat? One of the Shadow Series?"
"That's right, brother!" Vitra told him smiling devilishly, "And now, it's time you joined the ranks of the dead!" She rushed at Shadow, but he jumped from her reach and bounced off her head and shot up the stairs as fast as his shoes would carry him and finally found a brightly lit room and waited. He realized he didn't have to wait long as Vitra was an incredibly fast sprinter and she, too, was quickly in the room as well.
"Why are you attacking everybody?" Shadow gasped.
"Everything dies eventually. I'm just helping nature along," Vitra told him, "The only thing certain in life is death,"
"You're sick!" Shadow exclaimed, "What about love and hope and dreams?"
"Oh, you sound like a page out of a self-help book!" Vitra retorted, "All is in vain, for death will reign eternal and darkness soon after!"
"Fine," Shadow replied, "Then I'll show you a light brighter than the sun!"
"Try me!" Vitra challenged, "If you think that your 'love', 'hope' and 'dreams' can save you!"
"How did you find this place?" Shadow asked.
"Simple," Vitra said, "I simply followed your presence mixed with the chaos energies!" she snickered, "You're soul has a very… appetizing scent to it!"
"That's just gross," Shadow muttered, "No more talking!" Shadow took out both emeralds, one in each hand and extended a chaos blade from each and readied himself for her. She rushed forward at him and swung her hands, but Shadow used his twin blades to parry her assaults. He swung wildly to try and drive her back but she made no attempt to dodge or even block the attacks as cuts appeared all over her body.
"I do not fear pain," she told Shadow, "Nor death," she still kept the same, strange, psychotic face on the entire time.
"Then embrace it!" Shadow shouted, driving the chaos blade through her chest, "You're history, Vitra!" He then noticed she wasn't cringing, nor even becoming weaker, "What the--?!" She lifted a claw and struck Shadow hard to the floor.
"I have no internal organs, Shadow. I am a husk of life. I am a reanimated body that died before I lived. I am where light and dark come unto a point and exist in the same place at the same time. I am where life and death come unto a point and exist in the same place at the same time. And I am where all the Shadow Series will come together-and PERISH! I am the Shadow Reaper!" Vitra declared.
Shadow shook his head as Vitra roughly lifted him off the floor and hurled him back into a computer, breaking it and trapping Shadow's left leg. Shadow desperately tried to pull away as Vitra slowly made her way towards the hedgehog but she hadn't noticed Knuckles enter the room and lift the green chaos emerald into his mitt and he focused. The jewel shined, and Vitra turned to see what it was as Knuckles ran his fist into the ground, "ROCK CRUSHER!" he declared as the entire building shook violently as the emerald generated seismic shock waves through the echidna's fist.
Shadow used the shaking to rip his leg from the console and began to run to his partner as they gathered the two emeralds and began running up the stairs. Shadow kicked his jets into high gear as he grabbed Knuckles' arm and flew up the stairs in a panicked frenzy. He looked over his shoulder to see Vitra flying just inches behind them, her jaw hanging wide open as if there were neither bone nor joints to restrain its movement. Vitra's face had become that of a banshee.
"Chaos Control!" Shadow shouted, but Vitra grabbed Shadow as he screamed, and he dropped Knuckles from the shock, and the two Shadow series models vanished. Shadow opened his eyes and saw nothing but eternal darkness on every side of him and saw Vitra standing there with him, "Where are we?! Where did you bring us?!" Shadow demanded.
"Every Shadow series model has their own universe deep within their heart and mind. This is mine. Nothingness. I have no heart, nor mind, nor soul, so I exist here in nonexistence. A world which would cause demented psychosis upon the weak-minded!" Vitra declared.
"You don't exist if you don't have a soul," Shadow told her, "Why do you, then, choose to justify your existence by claiming you do nature's bidding?!"
Vitra looked at her sibling in her same look of a strange smile, fangs exposed, "I do not need to justify my existence. My creator did that for me. I am to kill all humans and the rest of the shadow series!"
"You are nothing! To nothingness you will go!" Shadow demanded, "If chaos energies can't hurt you, I know what will!" he extended his right arm as a light blue blade formed, "Life Sword!" he then viciously brought the blade right into Vitra's head, and she howled in a demonic scream and her body was incinerated. Shadow let the blade dispel as he hovered in the darkness for a moment, feeling something. He looked up and saw an apparition. It appeared to be a young girl with large wings and black hair. It was Vitra's very soul, bound by chains in the darkness, crying.
"Release me, and let me go to the other side," she pled. Shadow merely nodded as he raised the chaos emeralds which unleashed the chaos spear, and destroyed the chains that bound her. Finally, Vitra's soul was released and her curse broken. She was gone forever and Shadow felt sorrow as if he had just lost a good friend. He then used the chaos control to return to Knuckles and the others.
After he arrived Knuckles spoke first, "Where were you, Shadow? Are you okay? Are you hurt or anything?"
"No, I'm fine," Shadow sighed, "Vitra is no more,"
"That's good," Knuckles smiled, even though Shadow didn't, "Let's get back now. Can you warp us back?" Shadow then had the four of them join hands and they used the chaos control, and found themselves back at the beach south of Starmen.netville. Time passed as the four talked and had fun. Finally, Knuckles stood up and stretched at the dawn sky, "I'm sorry guys, but I have to find the remaining Master Emerald shards. I can't rest until then, so I'm going on a trip for now,"
"Okay then," Shadow shook his hand, "Good luck. Oh, and Flam and Emerald? What are you two going to do now?"
"We were thinking of moving into this city!" Flam exclaimed, "I bet it'll be fun to see all the adventures you have! And we could help because I have the gift to sense chaos emeralds! So please let me hang around and help!"
"Yeah!" Emerald gasped too, "That'd be real exciting! Can we help fight next time?"
"Maybe when you're older," Shadow winked.
"All right then," Knuckles sighed, "It sounds like you have everything under control here. I'm off. Take care of the chaos emeralds for me, and check on my island occasionally, okay?"
"I promise," Shadow told him as Knuckles walked away, "I'll handle everything,"
Finally, the world was at peace again. Sometime passed into the day, and deep in the dungeon of Eggman's half-destroyed base, Eggman himself woke up, "Wait! Where's Shadow and Knuckles?! Where'd everybody go?! Hey! He took my chaos emerald! AARGH! I HATE THAT HEDGEHOG AND THAT ECHIDNA!!!"

The End… for now…