Fanfiction» Fanfics» Shadow Forever

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endless void

pit without a bottom

cold so cold

someone help me

please

im afraid im dead

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Knuckles hid inside the large castle that took residence inside Twinkle Park, his breathing heavy and loud in the darkened corridors. His sunglasses helped him see--ironically--through the murk, and the place was littered with old Badniks and pitfalls. It was dangerous and creepy enough in this place without knowing the fact that King Boom Boo had somehow managed to get in here with him.

He refused to admit to himself that he was afraid. Boom Boo hadn’t been anything more than a hassle in the Death Chamber, but that was when he had a weakness to exploit. Now without any way to be offed, the King of Spooks was invincible, and Knuckles knew when his match was met. He was frustrated at himself for running, but what choice did he have? And then there was that fear of turning a corner and coming face-to-face with that unbeatable monstrosity, the fear he refused to accept the existence of.

Creepy, slow, tender music wafted through the air, the kind that made it feel like spiders were crawling up and down his spine, thousands of spindly, prickly legs picking at his bones and nerves, making him shudder. Somewhere deeper inside the castle, Boom Boo laughed, and Knuckles turned in the opposite direction the haunting sound came from.

A burst of blue flame! Knuckles jumped back, and Boom Boo appeared from a left turn ahead, and chuckled. Knuckles stared with wide eyes, turning tail and running back in the opposite direction heedlessly. He jumped, glided over a pitfall, and emerged into a hall of mirrors, Boom Boo taking his time chasing him. Knuckles began to run, and stopped suddenly as one of his feet slipped. He began to fall through the floor--it was a hologram! He grabbed onto the ledge before he fell too far down and hauled himself up, and took a quick glance at the mirror to his left--it showed a pit where the floor should have been.

So, his sunglasses couldn’t see everything, he thought bitterly. He jumped and dug his knuckles into the mirror, and began to climb-walk sideways as fast as he could, crossing one fist over the other. Boom Boo stared at this amazingly ridiculous sight from behind the first pitfall, and burst into raucous laughter.

"Oh, shut up," Knuckles grumbled, jumping and gliding the rest of he way through the hall and into another door way. Boom Boo laughed again and continued its chase.

Station Square Hotel

Shadow sat in a chair near the pool behind the hotel in Station Square, his eyes closed and his breathing still ragged. In one hand he clutched the Chaos Emerald, and the other, his chest. He wasn’t relaxing--he actually wasn’t even supposed to be here. He’d broken in, desperate for a place to rest, and found the first convenient chair at poolside.

Fang wasn’t there--he’d stopped in the lobby, collapsing into a sleep. Shadow didn’t have the strength to move him and hoped nobody would find him.

The sound of the water lapping on the beach nearby...the cool air...he could get used to relaxing like this. But a painful, sick feeling settled itself in his stomach, and he realized that, until King Boom Boo was bested, Amy was saved, and Eggman was put out once more, there wouldn’t be any rest. A scowl crossed his face, and he wished that his life could be simpler.

A light, cooling rain began to fall, pattering down on his aching face and sore, tired body, refreshing him. He shivered as a chill bit into him, the unnerving feeling of being watched rising too rapidly up his throat. He sat bolt upright to be greeted by a pair of glowing green eyes.

Lightening flickered over the distant horizon. Shadow and Chaos stared at each other without blinking for some minutes.

"What are you?" Shadow asked finally.

Chaos’ gaze traveled downward, and Shadow followed it--he was staring at his hand and the brightly-glowing Chaos Emerald it clutched. Shadow gasped and held it up between himself and Chaos.

"The Emerald is reacting," Shadow murmured in awe. "There must be a large amount of Chaos energy nearby! Tails might still be alive!"

But Chaos shook his head slowly, and Shadow was crestfallen. No, he remembered...Gamma had already proven it with the Emerald. Tails wasn’t alive anymore.

Now that water monster’s holding an expecting pose, Shadow thought, eyeing Chaos suspiciously. He tucked the Emerald away into his pocket, and Chaos emitted a strange, underwater-like howl. He lunged at Shadow, watery fist extending far, but Shadow jumped out of the way and landed off to the side, his legs nearly buckling beneath him.

"Damnit," he muttered. "Still too exhausted!" Chaos came at him again, and he Spin Dashed past him, went out of control, and landed in the pool, face-first. He choked, clambered above the surface, coughed, and clung onto the edge desperately. The rain’s falling speed increased, and Chaos advanced hungrily to Shadow.

"Chaos, stop!"

A streak of blue shot out suddenly--Chaos’ charge came to a quick halt as Sonic stood between him and Shadow. His pants pocket had a glowing bulge in it, the orange Chaos Emerald reacting with Chaos and the silver Emerald.

"Chaos, Shadow’s not going to do bad with that Chaos Emerald," Sonic said coldly, clenching a fist. "You have to trust me on that."

Shadow stared up at Sonic and Chaos in awe, his mouth slightly agape. It was all coming full-circle, now that Sonic was back! He let a smug grin crawl across his face and heaved himself out of the pool.

Chaos made no verbal response to Sonic’s plea, but he gave one last glance at Shadow and a slight nod. His structure collapsed, and he slipped away through the hotel again and out of sight.

"You okay?" Sonic asked, turning to Shadow and helping the waterlogged hedgehog up to his feet.

"No," Shadow said, coughing slightly. "But that’s not important. Sonic, King Boom Boo is back!"

"What?!"

"It gets worse," Shadow murmured. "He got the jump on a few of us at Pumpkin Hill. He...he killed Tails, Sonic."

Sonic’s eyes went wide and his neck went limp, blue hair dangling down and blocking those white orbs from view.

"Knuckles is leading King Boom Boo through Twinkle Park," Shadow continued grimly. "We lost Gamma somewhere between Pumpkin Hill and here. Fang and I nearly died swimming through Aquatic Mine, too. Knuckles told us to get out so he could handle Boom Boo alone. The power in the park isn’t on, though; Knuckles is blind in that darkness."

"That sounds like our typical Knucklehead," spoke a voice from nearby--Shadow glanced towards the beach, where the Chaotix were standing. Vector had spoken, and was wearing a croc-like grin on his face. "That dawg’s always been a loner like that. What do you say, boys? Let’s go bust some ghost heads for our main man!"

"You don’t understand," Shadow cut in as loudly as his hoarse voice would allow. "Boom Boo’s only weakness is natural light. We don’t have any way to create it, so we’ve got to keep that spook occupied for two more hours without him killing anyone else! Once the sun rises, we can lure him outside and take care of him!"

"So, we’re technically playing a demented version of Cat’n Mouse, huh?" Espio said, wearing a smirk. "I think we can handle that, right boys?"

Mighty, Charmy and Vector voiced their agreements, and the four gave their thanks to Sonic before charging off towards Twinkle Park.

Shadow gave Sonic a hard stare, but couldn’t penetrate the thick, wet clumps of hair in the way of making some form of eye contact. "You can’t change the past, you know."

"Shut. Up."

Shadow snarled, and resisted the urge to slap Sonic. "Please. I learned a lot from Tails while we were traveling, looking for you, Knuckles and Gamma, and I don’t think you’ve made the best of your years, Sonic. Your attitude from the old days has warped and made you an arrogant jerk. You abandoned Amy and Tails."

"They abandoned you," Sonic growled. "They stopped coming to the ARK to pay respect."

"They moved on, that’s what separated them from you," Shadow said, walking back over to the chair he’d been lying in before and flopping back into it. "And now look, they’re both gone. What are you going to do now, Sonic?"

Thunder rumbled dimly in the distance. Sonic didn’t say anything as the cool rain slapped his fur, adding extra weight to his clothing, a physical burden to add to the mental. Wordlessly, he marched past Shadow and through the hotel. Shadow cocked an eyebrow before closing his eyes again and beginning the path to recovery once more.

Twinkle Park

"YEEEEEEEEHAW!"

Vector tore down the brightly-light, very alive highway through an outer-space setting, fast-paced techno music blasting from the stereo in his hover-bumper car. Espio snuck up behind the croc in a purple car, then dodged around him, flipping the middle finger and smirking.

"Aww, damn you, Espio!" Vector shouted, punching the gas and shooting after the chameleon. Mighty and Charmy were close behind, trying to get ahead of Vector and each other. They shot off a boost ramp one after the other, tore down the home stretch, and each got ejected from their cars and launched down a chute.

Espio landed first, followed by Vector, Mighty and Charmy in that order, but none of them could register the end of the first ride before the second began. The high-powered rocket tram blasted along it’s course at a dizzying speed that made Mighty loose his lunch over the side.

Twinkle Park was dazzlingly bright, and carnival-like music was dancing in the cool breezes. Espio looked around quickly, and growled.

"Something’s not right about this," he called back to the others. "Shadow said the power was off!"

"What do you think it means?" Mighty asked, throwing his voice over the wind. "Maybe Knux found the power box or something!"

"I don’t like it," Espio shook his head. He stood up on the rocket car, and a flash of white caught his eyes--he could see King Boom Boo in the courtyard outside of the castle, chasing Knuckles around the pool. The guardian looked exhausted. With a yell, Espio pushed off the rocket car and fell towards the ghost and the guardian. He landed, rolled, and came up in a crouch, slightly dizzy, but his timing had been perfect--he landed right behind King Boom Boo, and shifted to invisibility just as the Ghost King whirled around to face him.

"BRAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Boom Boo screamed, lunging at the life force without a visible body--but Espio danced out of the way, ran at Knuckles, picked him up, tossed him over a shoulder, and headed for a spring pad nearby.

"Espio!" Knuckles cried, startled. "I thought you were with GUN!"

Espio gave him an invisible smirk, but didn’t say anything. He got to the spring pad, jumped on it, and landed on top of the castle. King Boom Boo screamed in fury and came after them--just as Mighty, Charmy and Vector landed in the courtyard! Confused by the sudden appearance of more life-forms, Boom Boo roared and screeched, and chased blindly after the newest three. Espio took this chance to cloak Knuckles with his invisibility as well, and run farther into the park.

"How did you get away?" Knuckles asked.

Espio replied in his usually cool voice. "Your blue-furred friend helped us out. We were expecting you to get us, though, so I’ll admit I was surprised."

Knuckles scowled. "I called that one, all right. I was on my way after you all, but I got side-tracked by Tails, Shadow and King Boom Boo. He just freed you guys to one-up me."

"You and he are having an argument?"

"Sonic’s having an argument with everyone."

"Ah. Knuckles, Shadow told us that the power wasn’t on in here."

"It wasn’t until about five minutes before you came, then the park just got blazingly bright and annoying. Someone turned it on, and it wasn’t me."

"We didn’t do it, either."

"I think I know who did," Knuckles murmured. Espio was now inside a tall spire that had four windows. Two of the windows had paths connected to them. His muscles were beginning to ache, and he set Knuckles down on the cool stone, allowing the invisibility cloak to dissipate.

"You’ll be allright here, won’t you?" Espio asked.

Knuckles sat back against a narrow wall with a frown on his face. "I shouldn’t be running from him like this. He killed Tails, and now I’m letting you guys do my job."

"Shadow and Fang are recovering in the hotel," Espio pointed out. "You can’t go on forever. You look wasted, and I’ll bet you’ve hardly slept all night. The rest of the Chaotix and I are pretty well-rested, so we’ll be able to hold out until sunrise."

Without another word, Espio vanished again, and Knuckles heard his footsteps going back towards the courtyard.

Vector sat crouched against the stairway, his headphones in hand. Charmy and Mighty were leading Boom Boo around for him, and Espio was making tracks with Knuckles. He’d gotten a plan, but needed time to get it ready. He popped a tape into his Walkman after rummaging through his available collection--the rest had been pilfered by GUN, unfortunately--cranked the volume up to max, and jumped out in front of Boom Boo. He smirked.

"Hey, Spooky!" he called, aiming his headphones towards the ghost. "Lesse how you dig these ghastly vibes!" He hit play, and Grace&Glory from Jet Set Radio began to screech and wail through the air loudly enough to cause Boom Boo to jump back and cover his ears. Vector laughed, and Charmy took cover in a bush to avoid being blown away by the sound waves.

"THAT SONG IS PURE EVIL!!!" Mighty shouted, jumping in and planting a hard punch in Boom Boo’s right eye. The ghost king screeched and hit Mighty away, sending the armadillo crashing hard into the castle’s wall with a grunt. With another roar, he struck out at Vector, knocking him down and sending his headphones flying into the pool in the center.

"Shit!" Vector yelled, scrambling away from Boom Boo. Now sure that he was free of obstacles, the ghost advanced slowly and greedily on the vibrant life-force laid before him.

Then something on his back exploded.

Boom Boo and the Chaotix turned to where the explosion had come from, and standing on the roof of the castle, looking extremely pissed off, was Gamma. His cannon arm was aimed at Boom Boo, but it had been modified slightly--now below the laser cannon was a slightly larger micromissile launcher. Behind Gamma stood Sonic, arms crossed over his chest and a hateful glint in his eyes.

Espio landed in the courtyard in a crouch, standing up quickly and staring at Sonic and Gamma.

"That robot’s the one that turned the power on," he muttered, grinning to himself. "Go figure."

Sonic and Gamma dropped down from the castle, the latter firing two more micromissiles at the Ghost King. Boom Boo saw them incoming, and jumped across the pool before they hit him, instead exploding against the ground.

Sonic landed, and marched towards King Boom Boo slowly, with a purpose.

"You," he growled, pointing an accusing finger towards the giant ghost. "How dare you kill my best friend...how dare you commit such a sin!"

Boom Boo glared down at Sonic from behind his big blue lips. Undaunted, Sonic continued forward, his fists clenching and unclenching, his teeth gritted together.

Chaos appeared beside him suddenly--he had been in the pool, waiting for the right moment. He held out a watery claw, blocking Sonic from going any further.

"Braaaaaaaaaghhh..." Boom Boo said, understanding the unwavering gaze that Chaos was giving him. The God of Destruction moved in front of Sonic, his body tensing with power; he launched at the Ghost King, shooting one claw at him and into his stomach. Boom Boo roared in response, but Chaos sent an electrical pulse through the ghost, stunning him. Chaos held his claw in place, and lashed out with the other one, clawing out one of Boom Boo’s yellow eyes, it falling away and evaporating. Boom Boo screeched, gathered a deep breath and exhaled a wall of flames--Chaos withdrew his claws, grabbed Sonic and ran, jumping into the pool. Gamma and Charmy flew up into the air, Espio clung to a wall and began to climb, and Vector, without any other option, followed Sonic and Chaos into the pool.

Without waiting another second, Chaos swam out of the pool and back out into the courtyard, and began contending with the Ghost King again, Boom Boo throwing blue fireballs in a blind, screaming rage, Chaos avoiding each one and firing out his claws one after the other.

"CHAOS!" Gamma shouted. Chaos looked up at the robot, who had in one hand a Ring Bubble good for forty rings. He tossed it and Chaos caught it, popping it open. The rings in the bubble became one with him, powering him up. He jumped out of the way of another fireball, then looked upward and howled, launching a blue ripple of energy out towards King Boom Boo. The Chaos Strike hit hard, dazing the ghost and knocking him backwards.

"So, King Boom Boo has more than one weakness after all," Gamma said, frowning slightly. "Not even the King of Spooks can stand up to a God!"

Chaos’ eyes glowed a brighter green than normal, and very suddenly held his rapt attention on Boom Boo’s large tummy. An ethereal blue glow was emanating from deep inside the Ghost King, and everyone saw it. That wasn’t the shocking part, though; what was shocking was the phantom screaming of a tormented, dying person. Boom Boo himself seemed startled by this, and he stared down at himself with his one eye in fright. A bright ray of light erupted from his open eye socket, and he roared, throwing his claws up.

The phantom scream, at first distant, became closer and clearer. It was obvious that it wasn’t just a scream anymore--it was someone shouting words.

"ENDLESS VOID, PIT WITHOUT A BOTTOM, COLD, SO COLD, SOMEONE HELP ME, PLEASE, I’M AFRAID I’M DEAAAAAAAAAAAAD....."

Chaos attacked King Boom Boo again, feeling alive and reinvigorated as the blue glow washed over him, his watery form bursting with new power. He clawed holes in his milk-like body, his front, back, top, bottom, ripping out a part of his lips, making so many more holes, so many more places for the blue light to shine forth from. King Boom Boo shrieked and fell forward, his back exploding once again.

Sonic and the rest stared with wide, wild eyes, not believing what they were seeing at first. It was impossible! King Boom Boo was shrieking more now, bathed in an extreme blue light that was not artificial.

Tails was floating in the air, about a foot off the ground. His muscles were tensed tight, his fists and jaw clenched. His eyes were pure blue now, and giving off a bright glow. His entire body was surrounded by blue fire.

"No more," Tails growled angrily. "No more will I be a pawn for Life and Death! Never again will I suffer like this!" He screamed, exploding light forth, making Boom Boo screeched and bury himself in the ground, his shadow escaping along the ground. Mighty dove forward and dug into the ground, pulling the ghost up to the surface, now much smaller than he was before. Gamma aimed, locked on, and fired a laser shot, harming Boom Boo at last. The ghost fled, only to be confronted by Vector, who lashed out with a tail attack. He turned away again, Charmy dive-bombing him with a flurry of stings. Espio delivered a powerful high-kick to its face and Chaos hit it from afar with his claw. Sonic climbed out of the water, blocking the Ghost King’s path, charged up a spin dash, and released with a Light Speed Attack, homing in on Boom Boo and landing the final strike. Screaming in pain and terror, Boom Boo collapsed at Tails’ feet.

"This time," Tails hissed, "You won’t come back."

Boom Boo whimpered, closed his eye, and dissipated, his ectoplasm spreading out along the ground and evaporating.

Tails stared hard at the spot Boom Boo had disappeared from, his eyes returning to normal. The fire surrounding him gave out, his eyes rolled back into his skull, and he collapsed face-first on the ground.

Final Egg

Rouge looked over the files and data that were popping up on the screen tensely, not being able to shake the feeling that she was being watched. She wanted to find out about Knuckles, and get the hell out of this place, fast.

Metal Sonic’s eyes lit up from behind her, and took the first heavy footstep towards her. Rouge whirled, gasping when she saw the ominous metallic figure coming her way.

"Oh, shit!" She cried. Metal Sonic lunged.