***Author’s Comments*** A couple quick things to note: the “War of Chaos” fan fiction is to be read under the preconceived notion that all the “Story” chapters occur at roughly the same time and come to the final chapter at the same time. Any time/space discrepancies are unintentional and unplanned, if one of those just so happens to occur between the different story paths, so be it-a wizard did it. Also I’d like to take the time here while I’m at it and thank the closest members of my fandom: the Doctor Eggman and Ishntknew themselves, and my four fangirls, Flam, Elanor, Null-Null and Kay Lynn-Love ya, girls!

He stood before it. He saw a massive shrine encompassed by strategically placed marble pillars and rows of benches which gave a Romanesque feel to it. It had plants growing on it on a few of the corners but… someone had just set it to flames. The entire beautiful structure was burning. In front of it, a young red-furred echidna girl stood staring on in horror. Around her were several wounded and weak Chao lying helplessly there, some of which were knocked unconscious. “This is terrible!” the girl sobbed, “Why? Why did they have to do this? These poor Chao lost their home for this stupid conquest! I can’t believe it!” the girl then turned around and saw a black hedgehog standing there, staring back in awe of the crimson flames, “Who are you?” she asked timidly.
“What’s going on?” Shadow gasped. Just then, he heard a draconic screech fill the air and the silhouette of a massive monster raise up over the engulfed building and lightning struck through the air. He shuddered in terror over the behemoth size of the new, imposing creature, but then his attention was brought back to the echidna girl, “What is that thing?!”
“Shadow!” she cried out, “You must get up! Run! There’s no hope! Get up! Get up!” In a cold flash of sweat, Shadow bolted upright in his bed and breathed hard in the dull, cool air. Shadow looked left and right and found himself alone in his room, with the sound of torrential rain pouring down on the roof over his head.
“What on Earth was that all about?!” Shadow gasped. His breathing returned to normal as he listened to the harsh rains and rested his eyes and tried to get his heart to slow down. “What a creepy dream! I could’ve sworn it all was real! And that… monster! What sort of creature was that?!” Shadow flopped back down, his eyes shut tight, trying to recall the details of his vivid vision until he was shocked back to life by his ‘devil clock’. “Why did I buy a new one?!” Shadow grunted as he forced himself up and went to turn it off, but it had started up on an urgent news message.
“We have live feed now from the scene in front of City Hall where the police have confronted and surrounded a bizarre creature apparently formed of either water or a strange, blue gelatinous substance!” the newscaster exclaimed, “Police are powerless to stop it as bullets don’t faze it and its terrible power is tearing police vehicles to shreds!”
“What the-?!” Shadow exclaimed, “This is bad. Very bad!” he then put on his gloves and shoes and skated out into the horrible rainstorm in order to find and stop this water monster. The spiky black hero was there in a flash and after a quick leap over the police cars saw what the news had tried to describe. It appeared to have large hands and feet like some sort of lizard, a massive echidna-like head and was formed entirely of water and a small brain in the head, “What are you?” Shadow gasped, examining his new opponent.
The water creature reeled back and hurled one of its huge hands towards the hedgehog, but Shadow easily cleared it by jumping high into the air and high-kicking the water beast clear in the head. The beast fell to a puddle but then rose up a few feet away almost as if nothing had happened, “What’s the matter? Had enough?” Shadow challenged. The watery enemy then leaped up into the air and landed on the top of a street light and Shadow had a hard time looking up at him through the pouring rain but saw the beast was shooting its limbs at him like spears.
The nimble black hero hopped from side to side to avoid the on-coming barrages, but then curled into a ball and rocketed into the lamppost, dropping the watery creature down to the ground with a splash. “C’mon and fight you big drip!” Shadow shouted, “You’re not so tough!” The water beast reeled back and attempted to sock Shadow a quick punch, but Shadow wasn’t about to just let him do so, so he curled up into a ball and rolled off to the side and then around behind the slippery goop. “Light speed dash!” Shadow exclaimed. He then charged kinetic energies into his body and then blasted through the air and splattered the water beast and steam rose into the air from the velocity. Shadow looked and the remains of the water monster made a quick get-a-way down a manhole cover’s hole.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Shadow sighed, expecting a little more out of a water-based opponent. The tiny black hedgehog merely skated away after checking in with the cops (no one was hurt, just a little shaken up from the attack) and went home. He got inside, shivering from the cold downpour, so he hopped into the shower and warmed back up and then sat down to a belated breakfast. He finished up his cereal and contemplated going back to bed but he suddenly got a phone call. It was his little friend, Flam the Echidna.
“Hey Shadow! I saw you on the news!” Flam’s excited voice exclaimed.
“Yeah, the water thing? That wasn’t that tough,” Shadow shrugged.
“That was cool, though! I have a present for you!” the little echidna girl couldn’t help but giggle.
“A present?” Shadow asked, surprised, “What is it?”
“Can’t say!” Flam giggled again, “Come on over to my house and I’ll give it to you!” She then said good-bye and hung up. Shadow couldn’t help his child-like curiosity so he was off like a shot through the rain again in order to see Flam the Echidna. He arrived and she invited him in and then presented him with, “A chaos emerald!” Flam exclaimed.
“Whoa!” Shadow gasped, examining the green emerald in her hand, “That’s a real deal emerald! Where’d you find it?”
“My sister and I found it at the beach after you returned from the ARK,” Flam explained, “I was going to give it to you right away but you were busy with Fiona all week,”
“I’ve only been back a week!” Shadow weakly chuckled, accepting the emerald, “Thanks, Flam. This helps a lot! Good to know we already got one back!”
“I do what I can!” She grinned, “Have you seen Knuckles lately?”
“Afraid not,” Shadow sighed, “He must still be trying to get the Master Emerald pieces back,”
“Oh,” Flam sighed, disappointed.
“Don’t worry, he’ll be back soon, I bet,” Shadow encouraged, “I’ve been to the once-Floating Island just yesterday and it looks like he almost has all the emerald pieces now. Any day now, it’ll be fully repaired!”
“That’s good to hear!” Flam grinned, “Well, I won’t hold you up any more! See you later, Shadow!”
“Later,” Shadow grinned as he skated off, palming the first chaos emerald. Shadow then happened to look up just in time to see Eggman’s hovercraft take off over his head, “Eggman!” Shadow gasped, “He’s never in the neighborhood unless he’s up to no good! (Hey! That rhymed!) I gotta go make sure he isn’t up to something!” So, the tiny black hedgehog tailed Eggman all the way to the east of the city to a place called the ‘Mystic Ruins’ where supposedly an ancient echidna civilization used to thrive. Eggman landed up on a low-lying plateau and Shadow quickly arrived too.
“My dear, Shadow!” Eggman laughed as he turned around, “So good to see you again!”
“What are you up to, Eggman?” Shadow demanded, folding his arms across his chest.
“Ahh! Well, since you’ve asked and I’m in a very good mood, I’ll fill you in on my newest plan to flatten that awful city and build my own empire right on its ruins!” Eggman laughed, “Well, I’ve made some new friends! Namely my new pet-Chaos!”
“Chaos?” Shadow skeptically asked.
“Oh! You two already played together earlier today! C’mon out, Chaos!” Eggman laughed, and just then the same water beast from before slid out from a crack in the rocks, “Shadow! Allow me to properly introduce you to Chaos! The god of destruction!”
“Some ‘god of destruction’,” Shadow sneered, “I totally kicked his butt,”
“No, you kicked his weakest form’s butt! Chaos Zero! But watch and learn, fool!” Just then, Eggman tapped a button on his console which quickly shot a robotic arm through the air at Shadow, which knocked the unprepared hedgehog over and nabbed his chaos emerald from him, “Snack time, Chaos!” Eggman laughed as the arm tossed the green emerald into the water beast. A flash of light enveloped the hill and when Shadow looked, Chaos’ right arm had grown larger and now appeared to have a skeletal structure surrounding the freshly-absorbed green chaos emerald. “Ooo-hoo-hooo!” Eggman laughed with glee, “It’s just as the tablet predicted!”
“Tablet?” Shadow gasped, totally in shock.
“The Chaos Tablet I tricked you and that stupid echidna into giving me, you fool! I’ve been studying and translating it while you were away playing games with your siblings! I now have the ultimate vehicle of destruction at my beck and call and I’m going to build my Eggman Empire in no time at all!” Eggman laughed.
Shadow leaped back to his feet, “Not if I stop you here and now, Eggman!”
“Oh! Chaos, you go ahead and look for the next yummy emerald and I’ll handle this furry pest!” Eggman chortled as Chaos returned to a puddle form and slipped back down the cracks where it came from, “Now, Shadow! Mano-el-hedgehog-o!”
“Bring it!” Shadow exclaimed. Just then, Eggman flew away in his craft down over the hill and then returned with a massive armor upgrade with a huge drill on the front and wings, “Whoa! I didn’t say bring that!” Shadow gasped.
“You’re toast now, nuisance!” Eggman snickered, “Meet my Egg Hornet!”
“You need a hobby, dude,” Shadow sighed. Shadow looked up as the Egg Hornet began spewing out a barrage of mini-missiles and the hedgehog boy rapidly dashed and darted around them and then leaped into the air, bounced off of one of the projectiles and struck the cockpit’s glass shielding the fat scientist, which began to deeply crack.
“Why you little--!!!” Eggman growled, too angry to bother finishing his sentence, “You’ll pay for that!” Eggman then brought up his machine and drove it right down at the tiny, spiny annoyance, but Shadow easily jumped from the drill’s deadly path only to watch Eggman’s machine jam its own drill into the stone below, “Oh no!” Eggman exclaimed as the drill malfunctioned and began spinning around the main ship, Eggman and all. Shadow laughed helplessly at watching Eggman twirl around, screaming but then he decided he felt sort of sorry for Eggman. So, Shadow used his spinning assault and shattered the drill, but it hurled Eggman and his hovercraft up into the air, where it eventually evened out.
“I’ll make you pay for this!” Eggman yelled, “A… as soon as I can see straight, we’ll go for round two, but until then, adieu! (Hey! That rhymed!)” He then piloted his ship for the top of some nearby mountains. Shadow laughed but then realized Eggman had basically won that round by having gotten the chaos emerald. If that water creature continued to get emeralds it could become a very big threat, so Shadow quickly tailed after Eggman’s general flight path and found a cave just below it, in the foot of one of the mountains. There he saw a beautiful green stone laying flat atop a grey pedestal. When Shadow pushed on the green stone a massive hole blew open in the back of the wall and opened a wind tunnel jutting right out to the top of the mountains.
“Now this is more like it! I’m on to you, Eggman!” Shadow exclaimed, throwing his light frame into the gusts and being tossed to the top in a heartbeat. At the top, Shadow saw a massive connection of tunnels, paths and floating islands all being supported by enormous blasts of wind, “This must be the Windy Valley I read about when I was little! This looks like a pretty sweet place to test my speed!” Shadow snickered, “And to top it off, I can sense the presence of another chaos emerald here! I gotta get to it before Chaos and Eggman do!” He then leaped up onto a series of stone platforms suspending by the winds and found grate-like paths that loop-de-looped all throughout the area.
Shadow howled with glee as he skated around and around this place as though it were an amusement park but gasped when he suddenly saw a massive tornado form right in his path. “Oh, that’s bad,” Shadow gasped, attempting to turn around. Unfortunately for Shadow, the huge tornado gained strength rapidly and sucked him into it and he opened his eyes to see several pieces of scrap and stone were twirling around it as well. He knew he couldn’t go down, so he decided his only path was to go right up and over. Shadow then began bouncing from one stone to the next on his gradual ascent but something went wrong. One of the stones he landed on crumbled underneath him and he was shot out of the twister like a bullet and crash-landed on a large platform on the opposite side from which he entered. “Err--… yeah, that works,” Shadow muttered weakly pulling himself to his feet.
He then looked up and saw he had crashed right next to the blue emerald so he quickly nabbed it and exclaimed, “Chaos Control!” and warped himself safely back to the cave from which he had entered into the valley. “Great! Now that’s one down, now I gotta find the other emeralds before Eggman does!” Shadow told himself as he skated on towards Starmen.netville and then went to find someone who might have a clue as to the next emerald’s whereabouts. His fiancée, being rich and having contacts all over the world, was his first guess. (Besides, he wanted to see the woman he loved, which was always a good thing, emerald or no emerald.)
When he knocked, she answered the door and tightly embraced him, “Hey! How have you been, honey?”
“I’ve been better! You won’t even believe what’s going on!” Shadow sighed as he began to explain the deal about the Chaos creature.
“I already know!” Fiona interrupted, “I saw it on the news and some archeologist guy said something to the same effect,”
“Okay, that saves me some time, but do we have any leads?” Shadow worriedly questioned.
Fiona told her beloved, “I did find one. The new casino down south of here is holding a pinball championship and the prize is the grey emerald!”
“All right! Let’s get that third emerald then!” Shadow exclaimed.
“My thoughts exactly!” Fiona replied. The two hedgehogs then set off to “Casinopolis” to try and win the next chaos emerald. Once there, they were rushed inside by some of the workers who began to explain how the pinball tables would work.
“This is sort of a promotional thing, you see,” One of the young men explained, “Shadow curls up into a ball and Fiona controls the flippers on the boards. You try to get as many as possible-if you break 400 you win the grand prize, ok?”
“You do realize that if we go through with this, every thing I’ve ever done wrong in the timeframe in which Fiona and I have been together (which has been a really long time) will come back to haunt me through those flippers, right?” Shadow asked, feeling a thin layer of sweat bead up on his head.
The workers laughed but Fiona chimed, “Oh, Shadow! You know I’d never do anything bad like that to you, don’t you?”
“I know you better than that!” Shadow gasped, but he soon found himself in the ball hold, “I knew I shouldn’t have done this. I’m going to be some kind of sore when this is done,” But it was too late as Shadow was launched at breakneck speeds over the arc and the game ensued. Needless to say Shadow’s theory ended up being pretty much correct as Fiona whapped him around for some fifteen minutes and more than doubled the amount needed to open the grand prize vault. Shadow had to limp out of the Casino, and Fiona proudly held the gray emerald in her hand, victoriously.
“We got the emerald!” Fiona happily sang, “See? I told you it wouldn’t be that bad!”
“This is just karma for when I laughed at Eggman,” Shadow grumbled, “No one truly knows pain until they’ve been a pinball under their fiancée’s control,” Just as suddenly as silence set in on the peaceful road they were dive-bombed by Eggman himself. “Hey!” Shadow exclaimed leaping out of the hovercraft’s way. However, the same mechanical hand from before nabbed the grey emerald from Fiona’s once-victorious clutches and he flew off in the sky, leaving a cloud of smoke around Fiona and Shadow, who were both blinded and coughing.
“Just our luck!” Fiona huffed, “Now he has two emeralds?!”
“Yeah, he does,” Shadow sighed, “And we only have one. We gotta even up the score,” He and Fiona began frantically trying to come up with a plan when out of no where, Knuckles the Echidna walked right up to them, holding the red chaos emerald, “Knuckles!” Shadow gasped.
“Hey, Shadow,” Knuckles smirked, handing the chaos emerald over to Shadow, “I just so happened to come across this beauty over in the Icecap on my Floating Island. I almost have all the Master Emerald pieces but I’m still missing a few. I figured you’d know what to do with this better than I would,”
“Thanks, Knuckles! We don’t have time to delay! C’mon, Fiona!” Shadow exclaimed, taking her hand and running in the general direction of Eggman’s flight path, “See you later, Knuckles, thanks again!”
“No problem! Just keep your head on your shoulders!” Knuckles laughed as he stepped into Casinopolis.
“Where do you think Eggman went?” Fiona asked.
“From the looks of it, I’m pretty sure he flew to the Mystic Ruins again. I wonder what he has planned,” Shadow thought out loud. Shadow lifted Fiona into his arms and took off as quickly as he could, speeding on through until they arrived at the Mystic Ruins, and there they saw Eggman drift his hovercraft down into a small walled-in gully. “There! We can get him while he’s parked down there!” Shadow declared, setting down Fiona and confidently leaping into the gully.
“Wait!” Fiona declared, “It’s probably a-,” But too late. Eggman laughed as a weird snare nabbed Shadow by his left leg and dangled him upside-down and made him drop his two remaining chaos emeralds, “… a trap,” Fiona sighed, climbing carefully down into the gully as well.
“Very perceptive but a tad bit late!” Eggman laughed picking up the two other emeralds and tossing them into a nearby lake.
“You won’t keep them from us like that!” Fiona declared.
“Oh! The lake isn’t as calm as it seems! Chaos~” Eggman called out.
“Oh no,” Shadow groaned, still unable to free himself from the snare.
“Chaos?! Again?!” Fiona gasped. As she said that, the liquid beast rose from the water, now with two long arms with skeletal structures around its two respective emeralds and it then sucked in the others as well for a total of four. This time, it grew a dolphin-like tail and its hands became more pincer-like.
“Ooo! Yes! I like the new style, Chaos!” Eggman laughed with joy, “Now, kill that fat girl and her annoying husband-to-be! I have other things to attend to!” Eggman laughed as his hovercraft drifted up into the air, all the while with him laughing in it. Fiona grunted as Chaos dove deeper into the lake and the water began swallowing the entire gully. Then Fiona noticed some large, lily pad leaves floating up to the surface which were large enough even for her to stand on. She readied herself as the water finally evened out and she scrolled her eyes over her new surroundings, preparing for the worst.
She then saw one of the lily pads get ripped in half and Chaos Four came up to the surface, “There you are!” Fiona declared.
“Fiona! Its weak point is that brain thing in its head!” Shadow declared, still trying to snap the rope that held him up. Fiona nodded and leaped onto another lily pad not too far from Chaos Four and she formed her flame sword from her fire rune and stabbed it into its head, causing steam to rise and Chaos to retreat into the lake again. Chaos then shot up right underneath her and tore the leaf she stood on into shreds and dropped her into the water below and vanished just as quickly, but the water only went up to her waist.
“It’s not that deep!” Fiona breathed a sigh of relief, but was a little irked about getting her dress soaked.
“Behind you!” Shadow shouted out. Right as Fiona turned around Chaos Four shot a shockwave through the water, which hurled the plump hedgehog through the air and splashing down into the water below. “Fiona!” Shadow screamed angrily. The fat girl was not so easily vanquished as she got up from the water, soaking wet, and coughing but very much alive as she noticed Chaos’ next movement and she boiled the water near him, forcing him to move away from her. Fiona then climbed out onto a nearby lily pad to catch her breath but Chaos popped up almost as quickly but as he attempted to strike Fiona, the girl got the first move and slashed it through its head, dropping Chaos back into the lake and on the retreat.
“You’re not going anywhere!” Fiona shouted, leaping into the air and stabbing a blue-hot flame down onto the water, sending steam everywhere. The next thing they saw, the lake receded to normal and Chaos made a quick get-a-way through a waterfall overlooking it. Fiona then turned her attention to Shadow and cut the rope by shooting a small fireball at it. However, this did drop Shadow on his head, but he was fine.
“Now they have four chaos emeralds,” Shadow sighed, rubbing his head.
“C’mon! We gotta go after them!” Fiona declared.
“How?” Shadow asked, as he was beginning to lose hope.
“C’mon! My daddy owns a helicopter!” Fiona declared, helping Shadow back to his feet.
“You’re father owns a helicopter?! Whoa!” Shadow gasped.
“What can I say? I’m a spoiled little brat,” Fiona shrugged, “Let’s hurry, though!” So the two hedgehogs moved quickly to a small air hanger near the Mystic Ruins where Fiona’s father kept his air vehicles stored and when Fiona explained who she was and what they were doing there, the guards quickly let them through. Fiona hopped in the cockpit and Shadow sat in the seat next to her as he looked over the buttons and gauges and all sorts of things.
“Can you even fly this thing?” Shadow worried.
“Don’t you worry! I got it all under control!” Fiona grinned. Shadow gripped tightly to his chair praying as Fiona took off into the skies and in no time at all, they saw Eggman’s new flying fortress-the Egg Carrier.
“That’s Eggman’s emblem! No doubt about it!” Shadow declared, still nervously glancing down below them periodically.
“Darn it! I knew I should’ve borrowed daddy’s Black Hawk helicopter! This one doesn’t even have guns!” Fiona huffed.
“You’re old man owns a Black Hawk?! Is that even legal?” Shadow gasped. He gasped again, however, when he saw the Egg Carrier had done a 180 and now the front of it had opened up and shot out a powerful beam of energy that blew off the roof and propeller of the copter and it dropped like a stone. Everything went blank.
Shadow opened his eyes and found himself lying flat on a beach where he had left quite a crater from his fall. “Fiona?” he weakly asked as he forced himself up, “Fiona?” He was alone. It was almost dusk, Eggman had gotten away with four chaos emeralds and Shadow had no idea where his fiancée was. “Oh, I hope she’s okay,” Shadow worriedly skated back towards the city with rather broken spirits about the day’s events. Just then he felt a soft tap on his shoulder. He looked and there was Kindarspirit.
“Kindar!” Shadow gasped, “Hey, what’s up?” he felt slightly uplifted to see a smiling face.
“Nothing much. But that water creature you beat wasn’t dead! It attacked me, but its arms were really big and Eggman called it Chaos Two and… are you okay? You look like you just got run over by a street sweeper,” Kindar went on.
“It’s a long story,” Shadow sighed. He then noticed a small flicky bird sitting on Kindar’s shoulder. “What’s the deal with that?” Shadow asked.
“Dunno,” Kindar shrugged, “I found it after my tennis game and that Ishnt robot tried to kidnap it. I protected it and now it has been following me around all day,”
After noticing a small brown locket around the bird’s neck Shadow shrugged, “Well, if Eggman wants it, we can’t let him have it. He already has four chaos emeralds and we can’t let him have anything more he wants right now,” Shadow confidently nodded and began skating off, with Kindar running right behind him. Shadow then said, “We need to find out where Fiona and the next chaos emeralds are!”
“Right,” Kindar agreed, “But where do we start looking, then?” Shadow shrugged and then Kindar looked over her shoulder and gasped, “It’s Ishnt!”
Shadow twirled around and saw the badnik known only as Ishntknew walking towards them, “I got it, you get going with the bird, Kindarspirit,” Shadow declared.
“And let me guess,” Ishnt sighed, “You’re going to try and stop me from getting the bird, aren’t you?”
“Oh, I’ll give ya the bird all right,” Shadow sneered, making an obscene gesture at Ishntknew.
“That’s not funny,” Ishnt sighed, “Forget it! This is where your meddling ends!”
“Bring it on!” Shadow exclaimed, getting poised for the fight. Ishnt extended his right arm into a sword and rushed at the tiny black hero and tried to bring the blade straight down on him, but Shadow somersaulted around his attacker and leaped up to bring his foot into Ishnt’s back, causing him to stumble forward in surprise. Ishnt then quickly turned around and threw a punch, but fell forward when Shadow had already returned to the ground and delivered a swift kick to his left shin, knocking his best foot out from under him, sending Ishnt into the pavement below.
Ishnt angrily forced himself back to his feet and turned his left arm into a cannon and aimed it towards Shadow and set off a series of blasts but the black hedgehog hopped and danced around the deadly projectiles and quickly closed distance to strike Ishnt in the chest with a flying kick. Ishnt then bunted Shadow off with the flat of his blade and then turned it again to try and slice the hedgehog in half but Shadow fell back, curled into a ball and rolled back out of Ishnt’s range, so the robot aimed his gun and shot Shadow, sending the hedgehog flying down the city street. Shadow crashed down after taking out a trashcan and a mailbox but then stood up and readied himself for Ishnt’s next assault. Shadow then waited for Ishnt to close distance and tried to swing his sword horizontally at him, but as he did, Shadow jumped high into the air and curled up again and allowed his black, spiky body to crash down on the robot, knocking him flat and then used his inertia to bounce off Ishnt and landed a few feet away.
“Had enough?” Shadow mockingly shouted.
Ishnt slowly got up, clearing his head, “I’ll take you apart any day of the week!” Just then, rather bad news for Shadow came up, “But you might want to look over your shoulder, hedgehog!”
“Huh?” Shadow gasped as he quickly peered over and there stood Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts all holding Kindar and her little bird friend captive, “Kindarspirit!” Shadow exclaimed.
“Give up now, Shadow,” Ishnt demanded, “If you do, I promise nothing bad will befall your blonde friend,”
Shadow silently stood in thought. If it were just those three losers against me, it would be a piece of cake. Ishnt, on the other hand, is way too powerful for me to take on while Kindar is held hostage. For now, I guess I’ll just have to be brave enough to run.
“How about it, Shadow? Are you going to take me up on my offer?” Ishnt asked, seriously.
“Yeah,” Shadow sighed, frustrated, “I give, just don’t hurt Kindar,”
“Good choice,” Ishnt smiled and he then walked past Shadow and as he passed he stopped to whisper, “There are bigger things happening now than you and me. We’ll finish our fight another day-but for right now, your friend has something we need,” and with that, Ishnt and the other three robot assistants were taken up via tractor beam from the Egg Carrier that had just arrived overhead and vanished into its red hull. Shadow hung his head and sighed, having to admit defeat once again.
“I have got to do something!” Shadow grunted, “The Egg Carrier is heading towards the Mystic Ruins! Maybe I can head them off?” He then turned on his skates and shot out of the city in a flash. He did his best to keep up with the Egg Carrier (which was amazingly fast, granted its enormous size) and eventually saw it flying by a series of huge mountains which were so tall they almost grazed the Egg Carrier’s hull, “There!” Shadow gasped, “I can maybe get closer by heading up the Red Mountain chain!” He then found a hiking path and blazed up it.
In no time at all, Shadow found himself leaping from mountain to mountain with his unparalleled speed and jumping abilities as he desperately sought out a place to get onto the behemoth airship. “Shoot! C’mon! There’s got to be a way on top of that junk heap!” Shadow growled. He then heard a strange ‘whup-whup’ noise behind him and he skeptically looked over behind him, “Now what?!”
Suddenly, from around a mountaintop, a biplane shot into sight, piloted by Fiona the Hedgehog. “Hey! Shadow!” she called out, waving with one hand, steering with the other. She flew the biplane next to his run path and exclaimed, “Let’s go teach that Eggman a lesson!”
“All right!” Shadow exclaimed as he leaped up on the wings of the biplane and they both went as high as they could and quickly landed on the front of the Egg Carrier. “Let’s get ready to do this!”
“You sure are persistent for rodents!” Eggman’s voice echoed out over the PA system, “I guess I’ll have to take care of that! Get ready for your end, Shadow! Fiona!”
“Give us your best shot, Eggman!” Shadow declared, as he and his fiancée began running down the deck of the Egg Carrier. Just as they had a door in their sights, a platform rose in front of them, with Ishntknew standing on it and he already had his weapons ready. “So, ready for round two, Ishnt?” Shadow declared.
“No!” Fiona declared, “Leave him to me!”
“You crazy?!” Shadow gasped.
“I’m serious!” Fiona growled, “If Eggman attacks, you’ll need to keep your strength up!”
“You’re going to challenge me?” Ishnt snickered, “Fine then, but it’s your funeral, tubby!” Ishnt then hopped down from the platform and got ready for Fiona, who extended a thick fire sword from her rune on her arm and likewise got poised for battle.
“Don’t hang around here!” Fiona ordered to Shadow, “Go on inside and find Eggman! You said he still has Kindar, right? Go save her and make sure Eggman doesn’t get any more emeralds!”
Shadow reluctantly nodded and cautiously skated around Fiona and Ishnt, both of whom let Shadow go by. Shadow easily skated right through the doorway and slipped down a long staircase into the open interior where he saw Eggman, Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts all awaiting him. “Eggman!” Shadow demanded, “Where’s Kindar?!”
“Ahh! Shadow, you’ve come! I’m so happy to see you, but where’s your big-bellied-bride-to-be? Hm? Well, I suppose she’s around here somewhere…” Eggman snickered.
“Where’s Kindar, Eggman?!” Shadow repeated, getting more agitated.
“My! My! Where are your manners, Shadow? No, ‘hello, how are you?’ or ‘Nice day today, huh?’ just barge on in here and begin demanding things of me? How rude! Scratch! Grounder! Coconuts! Teach our guest here some respect!” Eggman laughed. The three robots hesitated only for a second before all rushing at Shadow at once. The black hedgehog was not amused, as he leaped up and delivered a harsh kick to Scratch’s chicken-like head, which sent it spinning on its neck, then punched him in the metallic stomach, hurling him back into a control panel. Next was Grounder’s turn. The tiny teal robot with drills for hands and a nose rushed at the black hedgehog, but Shadow leaped over the frontal assault, gripped the much smaller robot’s treads and tore them vicious off of him.
“Heeeey!” Grounder whined, “Those were new!” Shadow merely growled, reeled back and socked the driller bot in the face, hurling it across the room and crashing harshly into the floor. Then it was the tiny monkey robot, Coconuts’ time to fight the black hedgehog. Coconuts tried to punch Shadow but the crimson-eyed warrior turned the weak straight off to the side and then rushed an open-palm strike to the light bulb on the monkey’s head-shattering it. Coconuts then stood there, totally dazed and Shadow spun around on his air kick shoes and built up speed before unleashing a violent torrent of punches, hurling the tiny monkey back at his creator, forcing Eggman to duck and sending Coconuts into a massive monitor, which he totally shattered.
“Gragh! Hey! Watch it you home wrecking hedgehog!” Eggman shouted.
“Where’s Kindarspirit, Eggman?!” Shadow repeated a third time.
“Oh, she’s around here-somewhere-I’d imagine!” Eggman snickered.
“What did you do with her?!” Shadow yelled angrily.
“My! My! Temper, temper, Shadow!” Eggman waved a finger in the air to and fro, “Your young, blonde lady friend is quite fine, I assure you! You have my word! It’s not really her I was after as much as her little birdie friend…”
“The flicky? Why would you want that bird?” Shadow asked, surprised.
“My sensors indicated that our little, winged friend had a prized item with it-a chaos emerald!” Eggman laughed, “And I was just about to go and get it-and the one your girlfriend has!”
“Fiona?” Shadow gasped. Had she found the emerald and forgotten to mention it to him or did the evil scientist want him to drop his guard?
“Oh, yes, my friend! Your fat fiancée just so happened to fall right on top of the last emerald-and when Ishntknew is done with her, I’ll have six of the glorious gems!” Eggman chortled with joy.
Shadow mumbled as he knew that if he had had the chaos emerald he would’ve made far greater use of it than his hefty hedgie honey, but he figured she must’ve forgotten in the rush to find and stop Eggman, “Well, then! I’ll just have to stop you right now!” Shadow declared. Just as the words left his lips, Eggman’s chair lifted up and, with a large hovering platform beneath it, rose up to the main deck. “Oh! No! Now, how do I get up there?!”
“Need a lift?” he heard a voice shout from the deck. Shadow looked towards the ceiling as a large, round fist broke through it and from the hole he created, emerged Knuckles the Echidna.
“Knuckles!” Shadow shouted in relief, “Thank goodness!”
“Yep! I felt some of the Master Emerald pieces had been gathered up in this ship-so I came for them and lucky me, I found you too!” Knuckles smirked, “Let’s go scramble that Eggman!”
“Right on!” Shadow laughed as he and Knuckles leaped out of the hole that the red echidna had opened only to find Eggman, Chaos 4 and a very weary Ishntknew and Fiona. “Eggman!” Shadow shouted at the round scientist.
“I don’t have time for this!” Eggman yelled into the air as he rushed his hovercraft into Fiona, knocking her flat and causing her to drop her purple emerald and then Ishnt reached into his bag and took out the yellow emerald and they both were fed to the water monster. “Agh! Ishnt! You had an emerald this whole time?! Why didn’t you give it to me sooner?!” Eggman shouted in frustration.
Ishnt shrugged, “It was keeping it as a just-in-case measure, Doc. I was gonna fork it over as soon as we had the other six, but desperate times call for desperate measures!”
Knuckles grunted, “That means your friend, Kindar, has the last one!”
Shadow nodded, “Yeah! But we have bigger issues on our hands!” Shadow then skated over to his tired-out fiancée and helped her to her feet.
“I’ll save Kindar,” Fiona tiredly whispered, “That’ll be easy-you guys need to fight Chaos!” Just as she said that, Chaos had just finished swallowing the two newest additional emeralds and shifted into a massive scorpion-like monster with a massive guillotine-tail and large blade-like claws. “I’m sorry I can’t help more,” Fiona whimpered.
“Get going! Save Kindar and get outta here!” Shadow grunted, pushing her in the general direction of the door as Knuckles and he went after Chaos Six.
“Oh! This is too rich!” Eggman laughed maniacally, “Crush them, Chaos!” Shadow and Knuckles confidently nodded to the other and began moving in towards the hulking monster together. “Where do you two think you’re going?!” Eggman laughed as his chair began shooting out strange bomb-like robots.
“Those things look kind of funny,” Knuckles commented.
“There’s smoke coming off of them?” Shadow wondered aloud, “Wait! That’s not smoke, it’s steam! They must be ice robo-bombs!”
“Ice?” Knuckles thought aloud as well, “Are you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’, Shadow?” Shadow merely grinned as he leaped through the air and grabbed one of the ice bombs in mid-flight and kicked it into the open mouth of Chaos Six, and its entire body froze up.
“No way!” Eggman shouted, “I can’t believe this!!!”
“Now, Shadow!” Knuckles called out loud as both he and his hedgehog companion charged into the ice monster and broke it into pieces.
“No! My invincible Chaos creature got iced out of the picture?!” Eggman gasped, “Noooooooo! I was only a single emerald away from winning this time!”
Suddenly, the entire ship began to shake violently, “Hey! What’s going on?!” Knuckles gasped.
“This reeks of feminine mishap,” Shadow sighed, as he peered over his shoulder towards the door just as Fiona and Kindar (and her little bird friend) came running out of the passage. Kindar was carrying a piece of the Master Emerald, which she promptly gave to Knuckles. “Hey! The last piece! Thanks!” Knuckles grinned.
“What did you two do?!” Shadow grunted.
Fiona grinned innocently, “Well, we got into a little fight down there with Scratch, Grounder and Coconuts-and well, it was near the ship’s generator and…” she trailed off. Shadow and Knuckles stared at them, deadpan.
“No!” Eggman cried out, “It keeps getting worse! The power supply’s going haywire! I’m getting out of here!!!” Eggman turned his hovercraft around and attempted to fly away.
“You’re not going anywhere, Doc!” Shadow yelled out and began viciously skating at him.
“Shadow! Where are you going?!” Kindar shouted out. Just then, the shaking on the ship became all the more intense, so Kindar and Fiona made a beeline for the biplane and Knuckles, with the final shard of the emerald, leaped off the side and used his dreadlocks as wings and gracefully glided away from the falling Egg Carrier. Shadow, on the other hand, was forced to make a large leap after Eggman but missed by only a few inches and fell right for the Mystic Ruins below him.
Shadow then opened his eyes. He found himself tangled in a mess of vines and canopy-growing plants, dangling mere inches above the rough, dry ground below him. He was sore, beaten, battered and worst of all-wet. He then angrily twisted and turned until he snapped his restraints and let his weakened body fall flat on the ground and he rested for a few minutes before standing up again. His fatigue had only just caught up with him after that very, very long day’s events as he replayed them in his mind, he then silently wondered where the chaos emeralds ended up going…
Before he could ponder that one for too long, he looked up and watched Eggman fly overhead. “Where does he think he’s going?” Shadow growled. He skated through the heavily wooded jungle as best as he could until he found himself in front of ancient ruins in the middle of the jungle. “I’ve never been to this part of the Mystic Ruins before,” Shadow commented, “What’s up with this place? I feel like I’ve seen it before though,” he sighed as he slowly skated up the stairs and up to a place he presumed a door would’ve been, but only a massive stone sculpture of what appeared to be a snake’s head. Shadow couldn’t help his curiosity as he examined the greatly detailed work on the snake but just as he was, it lifted up-unveiling a hidden pathway inside of the building.
Shadow looked down and saw a large staircase leading inside the dimly-lit ruins and he hesitated. He was then tempted to turn around and go home but he couldn’t kill his curiosity as he kept peering down the stairs to try and see if there just might’ve been anything down there of interest. After fifteen minutes of arguing with himself (and skating in short circles) he finally said out loud, “Maybe just a quick peek wouldn’t hurt!” He then walked cautiously down the stairs, deeper in the ancient building. Inside, he saw an amazing sight: huge, complex waterways surrounded by undying torches, lush greenery, and beautiful architecture everywhere. “How on Earth could anybody have created such a beautiful place?!” Shadow gasped in awe.
Shadow then began skating through the gorgeous place, examining everything as he slowly hovered through the maze of hallways, corridors and walkways. His heart raced as he saw this beautiful, yet sadly empty, place roll by him. He wondered who had made it, what they did with it, and why its original inhabitants no longer lived in it. He occasionally let his gloved hands feel the texture of the walls just to make sure the ancient, silent beauty he witnessed wasn’t just a fading dream. It was ironic to Shadow as he reflected on it, as the beauty he witnessed had to have been made by someone. An ancient race of furries, or humans, or something had to have created that place-it only affirmed his belief that all beings, great or small in size and power, have beauty in their hearts. This only went to prove that he, himself, though created for evil intents, certainly must have something beautiful like this place in his heart.
Seconds ascended to minutes, minutes unto hours until Shadow eventually stumbled into a large chamber with light pouring down from above from an unseen, unknown source. Shadow walked into the hallowed place and he finally felt the enormity of that place around him, and he felt very small and insignificant almost as though he could see the outer rim of the universe. He kneeled down and looked around him, almost certain the place he was in was a holy, purified place where no evil could enter unscathed. He then looked up and saw a terrifying beautiful mural. He saw a massive dragon, formed of water, with seven colored jewels in its chest raging over an ancient city. He looked on in sadness as it finally dawned on him where he was. He was in the ancient temple of the near-extinct race of the echidnas. His heart was heavy as he looked on, knowing well what that portrait foretold about the water beast, Chaos. That if he were to get all seven chaos emeralds, then the world would be ravaged beyond repair. He felt glad that he and Knuckles finished the job for good at the Egg Carrier.
Then Shadow felt as though another presence had entered the room, so he rose back to his feet. In that sacred place, Shadow’s senses had become quite keen, and he felt a silent hesitation within his new companion so he spoke, “Don’t be afraid. I’m Shadow, who are you?” Silence was his reply. “Were you the one who brought me here? Who are you?”
Then, a light came down from above and took on the shape of a teenage echidna girl-the very same girl Shadow had met in his dream. She then spoke to Shadow, “My name is Tikal the Echidna,”
“You were the girl in my dream. You were trying to warn me about Chaos, weren’t you?” Shadow asked her.
“Yes,” she sighed sadly, “Chaos was once a loving, kind being who guarded over the defenseless Chao creatures,”
“What? You mean that Chaos wasn’t always evil?” Shadow gasped.
“That’s right,” Tikal nodded, “He was once a gentle water sprite, who would protect them from harm, and play with them-and with me as well,”
“Chaos… was your friend?” Shadow asked.
“Was,” Tikal sadly replied, “Then, my father and our clan became greedy for power-and they wanted the chaos emeralds, which, at the time, were at the shrine around the Master Emerald. Chaos wouldn’t allow it, because he needed that power to protect the Chao incase a very powerful evil were to come. Unfortunately, my clan was that evil. Chaos absorbed the emeralds and transformed into a horrible water dragon-Perfect Chaos,”
Shadow gazed up at the mural, “And that was… when this mural was made?”
“Yes,” Tikal looked up at it as well, “Some survivors came here, hoping that our holy shrine would protect them from Chaos’ wrath. They built this mural in hopes to warn the other species not to awaken Chaos. I tried to reason with him, but Chaos refused to reason any longer-and a cloud of evil, hatred and violence consumed his heart. So, I, and some of the echidna high priests, all came together and using our very lives as the catalysts, we sealed Chaos away in the Master Emerald, and removed the chaos emeralds from his body… but a greedy man has awoken Chaos again…”
“Eggman!” Shadow declared, stomping his foot, “He has no idea what he’s up against! Chaos is a monster-and I’ll destroy him before I allow him to destroy my home city!”
“You mustn’t!” Tikal implored him, “There must be another way to get to Chaos’ heart!”
“You mean he’s alive?!” Shadow gasped, having the thought just dawn on him.
“Yes,” Tikal sighed heavily, “When Dr. Robotnik’s air ship crashed, Chaos’ body returned to its liquid state-and took six of the seven chaos emeralds back right away. Only one remains-with a friend of yours, I believe,”
“Yeah,” Shadow replied solemnly.
“Please… we must seal Chaos back in the Master Emerald… before it’s too late!” Tikal begged.
“If I can keep the last emerald away from him, we may not need to,” Shadow said, hopefully, “I’m out of here!” He then turned around and began skating for the door. Before he left he looked over his shoulder one last time to Tikal, “It’ll work out for the better-you’ll see,” he then shot off through the beautiful temple one last time, leaving Tikal alone in the sacred room.
“I hope you’re right, Shadow… the Hedgehog…” she trailed off, and once again looked back to the mural that foreshadowed the return of the ultimate vehicle of destruction: Perfect Chaos.

--To be continued…