"EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY!" an alarm wailed full-pitch throughout Dr. Eggman's base, "Strange botanical life forms have worked their way into the base! Extreme system damage beyond repair! Evacuate immediately! Repeat: evacuate immediately!"
"What is going on?!" Eggman suddenly screamed as he turned to face the red, glaring lights and blaring alarms, "A botanical life form? A plant? What is the meaning of all this?!"
"Sir!" the tall chicken-like robot, Scratch, announced, "We have to escape quickly, sir! The base is being choked by giant weeds, sir!"
"Weeds?" Eggman glared, "What could've caused this?!"
"Eggman," the tall, handsome robot Eggman himself just completed stood and spoke, "It might be best if we run for now, and live to fight on another day, right?"
"Yes, yes… that'll probably be best for now," Eggman conceded, "Let's go," The fat doctor and his assistants all made quick tracks to the Egg-o-Matic hovercraft and they all made a quick get-a-way just as the base collapsed in on itself. "What sort of plant has that sort of power?!" Eggman exclaimed, "Well, this is just a minor set-back! I have many other bases and we'll simply deal with this problem later,"
"Uhm, sir?" the timid-sounding tone of the short, turquoise drill-robot, Grounder alarmed Eggman into listening, "That plant destroyed most of the robots in our force down there… what if it follows us?!"
Eggman stopped in mid-thought and wondered if such a thing were possible, "No, I don't think it can. It must've been… some sort of… mutant or something like that. You're worrying over nothing, Grounder! So don't be ridiculous!"
"A plant with that sort of destructiveness can't be just a freak accident, Doctor," Ishnt, Eggman's newest creation, disagreed, "I think there's more to it that just that. It grew too fast to have just been a mutant,"
"Perhaps you're right. When we arrive at my pyramid fortress, I'll set some of my robots to research that freaky fern," Eggman decided, "The more we know about our enemy, the better off we are," Time wore on and eventually, after they arrived at the pyramid base, Eggman got the report and read it aloud, "Apparently what we're dealing with is a bit bigger-and more convenient-than originally anticipated. It's one of the elder members of the Shadow Series! A plant-lady named 'Ivy'. How fitting for such a pest! I suppose we're doing Shadow a favor by destroying her and reclaiming my underground base?! Hahaha~"
"I don't think we can take her alone, Doctor," Ishnt commented, "The plant is apparently fire-resistant and can crush steal and stone with very little effort. Rather than take her on ourselves, why not work with Shadow against Ivy?"
The bad doctor contemplated his options but then laughed, "What a splendid idea! Play our enemy against our other enemy! Shadow wants to be rid of the evil in the world and I want my fort back! Excellent! I'll call him up!" Eggman then sat down at his computer desk and tapped on his keyboard for a moment and a sign marked 'VOICE ONLY' popped onto his computer monitor as he heard someone on the other end pick up.
"Hello! Hedgehog residence- Shadow speaking!" the cheerful voice announced.
"Greetings, my old friend!" Eggman happily replied, "How are you this fine day?"
Shadow immediately turned defensive, "Eggman! What did you do now?!"
"Now, is that any way to talk to me? I thought we were past those hostilities, Shadow!" Eggman smiled devilishly.
"Last time I trusted you, you tricked Knuckles into giving up the chaos slab and tried to imprison Flam and Emerald!" Shadow retorted, "Give me a good reason to trust you!"
"Oh, posh!" Eggman exclaimed, "Come now, Shadow! I have a very interesting arrangement for us both!"
"What is it, Egghead?!" Shadow demanded.
"Simple! Your big 'sister' invaded one of my bases! A gardener's nightmare, if you know what I mean, Shadow!" Eggman explained.
"You mean… Ivy?" Shadow gasped.
"That's right, hedgehog!" Eggman told him, "Ivy invaded my fortress and destroyed most of my fleets! To stop her rampage, I'm… I'm going to need you're help now,"
Shadow paused and sighed before saying, "Are there Chaos Emeralds involved in this?"
"Not as far as we know," Eggman admitted, "But if she does have one, it would have to be far underground for my sensors not to detect it by now. And as little as I like to admit it, there's no way I can beat her. Her body is immune to fire and my robots wouldn't stand a chance against her. Please, help me out,"
Shadow had to stop and think before replying, "All right then, Eggman. I'll help you. We'll meet outside the ruins of your old base-where is it?" Eggman promptly gave Shadow the directions and the spiky, black rodent replied, "Great! No tricks, Eggman, or else!" and then he hung up.
"'Or else' he says!" a sudden, female voice echoed out as the petit, feminine bat, Rouge, walked in, "Or else what, I wonder?"
"And where have you been?" Eggman demanded.
"Impromptu holiday!" Rouge smiled, "So, what did I miss? Did you miss me?" she then took note of Ishnt, "And who are you, big boy?"
"Well, the more the merrier, I suppose!" Eggman sighed, "Very well then! Come along, we'll explain it to you on the way!" Eggman, Rouge and Ishnt hopped onto the Egg-o-Matic once again and they flew their way back to the old base, where Shadow was waiting for them.
"You're earlier than I expected, Eggman!" Shadow grinned, "Oh, hi, Rouge!"
"Hey there, Shadow!" Rouge flirtatiously greeted him.
"Who's the new guy?" Shadow asked, still smirking.
"I'm Ishntknew. You can call me Ishnt for short," he explained.
"Okay then," Shadow then looked onto the ruined base, "So; Ivy did all this, huh?"
"That's right!" Eggman exclaimed, "Without being provoked, she ran roots and vines throughout the base! We barely escaped with our lives! And to retake it, I need your help. You do want to stop the Shadow Series from causing harm, don't you, Shadow?" Eggman grinned mischievously.
"Don't lecture me on morality, Doc!" Shadow snapped at him, "I do want to find all the Shadow Series and try and save 'em, if it's possible and practical… but I can't let them go around destroying things… but are you sure she wasn't provoked?"
"Absolutely not!" Eggman defensively protested, "I was putting the finishing touches on Ishnt ever since I left the sea-battle!"
"I remember," Shadow distastefully recalled, "Okay, I'm going to give you the benefit of a doubt this time, Eggman, but you're going first!"
"What?!" Eggman gasped, "Me?! But if I go down there, I'm chowder! I don't have any weapons!"
"You don't expect me to go alone, do you?" Shadow glared.
"I didn't become a genius by doing illogical things, Shadow!" Eggman shook his head, "That's why I brought Ms. Rouge and Ishnt along! They'll be aiding you!"
"What?! Me?!" Rouge mockingly imitated Eggman, "I have better things to do," she winked at the fat doctor who nodded to her, and she suddenly ran off.
"What's she up to?" Shadow demanded.
"Irrelevant!" Eggman declared, "You and Ishnt need to figure out what's going on in there and stopping your sister from ruining everything!"
Shadow paused and looked towards Ishnt, who nodded trustingly, before he said, "Fine. Let's go then," Shadow then turned and walked for the ruined entrance with Ishnt by his side. The inside of the base looked as if it had been wrecked for years upon years, with water dripping from the roof and roots on every wall, ceiling and floor. A dark, dank, pungent cave awaited them as they silently walked through the dimly-lit hallways deeper into the old base.
"He won't admit it," Ishnt suddenly said, surprising Shadow, "But Eggman is grateful for your doing this. As a brand-new model, he didn't want to send me in here alone, even as powerful as I am,"
"Sorry, but I don't want to get too chummy with you," Shadow admitted, "I get the feeling you and I will be enemies after this,"
"Probably," Ishnt shrugged, "But basically, thank you for doing this for us,"
"Yeah," Shadow nodded, "No problemo," The two resumed walking in silent darkness until they came upon what once was the central control room but now was a massive hole into a dark abyss. "Suggestions?" Shadow asked.
"My sensors say that Ivy's core brain is down there," Ishnt told Shadow, "If we're going to stop her, we'll have to go down there. Are you up to it?"
"Always," Shadow smiled. The two then gripped the vines growing prolifically on the wall and used them as a ladder all the way down to the bottom, where they were both knee-deep in strange, green water. "I feel her… she's near by now, isn't she?"
"I think so, yeah," Ishnt replied, cautiously peering around the round, darkened room.
"Shadow~" a wispy voice came into the room like a gentle breeze, "Younger~ brother~"
"That's Ivy!" Shadow gasped, "Where are you?" As Shadow asked this, a large, thick vine rolled forward like a snake, then sat upright and slowly shifted into a woman's torso, then arms and fingers shaped, then finally, a neck and head. A tiny slit of a mouth appeared just above her tiny chin and pupil-less eyes opened with a strange, glazed-over appearance. She had no nose or ears and had long, green photosynthetic hair.
"I… am Ivy, ~" her tiny, calm voice told them, "And you… are my brother. Why are you here? ~"
"I came here to ask why you destroyed this fort," Shadow asked, even though in his mind, he guessed he probably would've done the same.
"Eggman… is a human. ~ All humans… harm me…~ and the plant life… of Earth," Ivy told them.
"What are you talking about?" Ishnt asked, "Eggman is pretty good about keeping his base tidy and he really couldn't care less about-"
Ivy interrupted him, "All humans~ are evil. ~ My kind has struggled… for years~ to survive with them~. They burn us~ eat us~ slash us~ trample us~ smother us~. Evil~ yes. Evil~,"
"But you can't say that!" Shadow told her, "Not all humans are evil! And not all humans harm plants!"
"You're kind~ is no better than theirs~," Ivy told Shadow, "Furries~ humans~ all evil~ they just want us~ to be used for their~ advancement~ before they~ cut us down~ and burn us away~"
"You're wrong!" Shadow declared, stomping his foot back into the water again, "You have no idea what humans or furries are like! I have friends in both groups, and I know they are wonderful people who would not do those sorts of things!"
"You're a Shadow~ Series member, aren't~ you?" Ivy asked, still whispering but now apparently gasping for air, "Why do you~ sympathize for wea~ weaker… species than us~?" She began to cough.
"I am not like the Shadow Series!" Shadow declared, "I'm different! I know how life is in the real world! And if you intend on harming my friends and family, I'll whack you, weed!"
"You stand for evil~ you are evil~ Shadow, traitor! Perish!" as she exclaimed that, massive thorns jutted from every inch of her body except her head and the vines on the walls began to slide around like an army of bugs. Even the floor beneath the water (which was clearly covered in vines too) began to shake under Shadow and Ishnt.
"There's no way we can win in here!" Ishnt shouted, "She has us surrounded! We walked into a trap!"
"I'm not going down without a fight!" Shadow then dove his hand into the pouch on his side and brought out the red chaos emerald.
"You have that the entire time?! Use it! Quick!" Ishnt exclaimed.
"Chaos Spear!" Shadow screamed as yellow bolts slammed into Ivy's head, and blew half of it away.
They looked, assuming her to be dead, but just as quickly, her face-reformed. "Why do you~ think that you~ can beat me, Shadow?" Ivy asked, "You cannot kill me~ I am immortal~ I will heal~ and I do not feel pain," As she said that, vines from the floor viciously shot up and grappled Ishnt and Shadow and violently slapped them, struck them, whipped them and bashed them into walls. "You are like the evil ones!" Ivy began to scream in a strange, demonic way, "I'll destroy them all!"
Shadow held up the emerald and a large, orange blade formed on it as he cut his and Ishnt's restraints, "Now! We attack again! Hold nothing back!"
Ishnt held up his right arm, which turned into a large cannon-like feature which he aimed and fired with the words: "Ishnt Buster!"
Shadow leaped up after the blast and brought his sword through Ivy as many times as he could but more vines hurled both of the fighters back into the water below and as they sat up they heard Ivy announce, "I will destroy… EVERYTHING!"
Just as suddenly the entire building began to collapse, "Ishnt! Come here!" Shadow ordered and as he placed a hand on the robot's shoulder he cried out, "Chaos Control!" and in a bright flash of blue light, both vanished from Ivy's sight and re-appeared outside the base-just in time to look and watch it fall in on itself completely.
"Oooo~ hooo hooo!" Eggman laughed maniacally, "Oh! Yes! You got her, didn't you? You destroyed her?!"
"No!" Shadow announced, rising to his feet, "She almost killed us! It was a set-up and we just barely escaped!"
"Neither of us would have lived had Shadow not brought with him a chaos emerald and warped us out!" Ishnt explained, "But where will she be going next?"
"She promised revenge on everything, right?" Shadow shrugged, "The closest place to here where she could cause the most death and destruction would be the city! Starmen.netville!"
"Well then!" Eggman sighed, "We'll have to go to the city and cut her off quickly!"
"Easier said than done, Eggman," Shadow stopped him, "She doesn't feel pain and none of our attacks fazed her! We even blew off her head!"
"He's right; we'll need a good plan for this!" Ishnt told him, "How are we supposed to stop her, though?"
"The longer we wait here and wonder that, the further along she gets to the city!" Eggman announced, "And if she ruins it, there'll be nothing left for me to conquer! Let's get after her, pronto!" So Shadow quickly executed the Chaos Control again and the trio appeared on top of a high tower, "Why here, Shadow?"
"We're so high up, if something big happens, we should be able to see it!" Shadow explained.
Ishnt stepped up and peered over the edge, "If Ivy wanted to kill as many innocent people as she could all at once, where would she be able to go to do so?"
Shadow rested his chin in his hand and thought about it before he gasped, "The baseball diamond! There's a big game today! The Star Men vs. the Foppies! And Fiona and Kindar are at that game! C'mon! Let's go! We'll have to hurry-the turf is real and she can use it to her advantage!" Another Chaos Control and away they were- the once-enemies were then on the stairs in the midst of the bleachers in the middle of an amazed crowd.
Shadow's red eyes quickly shot around frantically scanned the field to check if he was right or not and just as he was about to assume a temporary safety a large tree-like root jutted up in the middle of the field. "We have got to stop her here and now before people get hurt!" Shadow declared, running down the stairs with Ishnt just behind him.
"How do you intend for us to do that?" Ishnt asked.
"I don't know, but we can't just stand by and do nothing!" Shadow grunted. As Shadow and Ishnt arrived on the turf and Ivy's body formed on top of the massive root as she had before, "Ishnt! I got it!"
"What? Mind sharing?" Ishnt asked.
"What we've been attacking isn't Ivy's true form! She's a plant! Her true form is her roots! We've gotta get underground somehow!"
Ishnt gasped, "That's brilliant, but she'll notice if both of us go underground! I'll stay up here, you go down under and try and break up her root system, okay?"
"Works for me!" Shadow then held his chaos emerald over his head and charged energy, then curled into a ball and slammed hard into the ground and burrowed down into the dirt below.
"Hey!" Ishnt called out then aimed his Ishnt Buster gun at Ivy and began firing randomly at her, "Follow me! C'mon! That's right!" The first few hits brought Ivy's complete attention to the robot-man who easily hopped over and around the oncoming roots and vines as he silently wished Shadow would hurry.
Below them, Shadow finally slammed through a wall and entered into a massive cave system, surrounded by pulsing roots, moving like veins through the cavern. His wild, crimson eyes quickly scanned the area for where to begin until he saw something that unset his stomach: there was a large brown and yellow ball where the roots and Ivy's main body stem met in a giant heart. Shadow then noticed something strange and out of place among the dark, earthy colors as inside that 'heart' shown the purple chaos emerald. "Jack pot!" Shadow declared aiming his own emerald towards it.
He then formed his chaos sword and leaped for it and with one hard slice, a strange green, water-like substance gushed out of it. Shadow nearly gagged when some of the foul-tasting liquid splashed into his open mouth but he knew he'd survive when the purple jewel fell into his free hand. Just as suddenly, the head body of Ivy rocketed under ground to face him, screaming like a banshee, "Why?! Why?! Why did you do this?! Why did you side with those who kill?!" she screamed as she 'bled'.
"I'd sooner stand with those who have both good and evil in their population, than that of a heartless creature who has no true mind at all," Shadow growled, "But I don't need to explain myself to you," he declared as he brought his blade through her, slicing her in half. Then, her entire body withered into a tiny, crinkled brown pile of dead plant matter. Shadow sighed and then skated back up the dirt tunnel he created slowly and began to wonder about his own life and how easily his could be harmed as well and wondered if what he was doing was worth it.
At the surface he witnessed Eggman speaking with Ishnt and he walked over to them. "Eggman," Shadow began, "Ivy is gone. How many members of the Shadow Series are left now?"
"Three," Eggman informed him, "Darkness Metal, Ruby the Mouse, and that Gizoid. But you'll be amazed as to what I learned while you two were battling!"
"What?" Ishnt asked.
"I used my Egg-o-Matic computer scan and I found only two existing Shadow Series on earth!" Eggman announced, "You and Ruby! But what else I found was amazing! The Space Colony ARK: supposedly destroyed 50 years ago… is still intact!"
"You're joking?!" Shadow gasped.
"No," Eggman replied seriously, "The Space Colony where my grandfather worked and created you and others… it's still there… hidden in the form of an artificial asteroid orbiting the planet,"
Shadow nodded, "So… that's where the last members are?"
"Yes," Eggman informed him, "And my scanner has detected they are both inactive there. If you move quickly… you can stop them now!"
"You have a plan for that?" Shadow asked hopefully.
"Yes, yes I do," Eggman told him, "Come with me to my base and I will set up a device that will teleport you there. I advise you bring your chaos emeralds because if they do wake up, you'll need them!"
"I have no choice but to trust you on this one, Eggman," Shadow sighed, "So I'll follow your plan on this one,"

To Be Continued…