Fanfiction» Fanfics» Shadow Forever

Chapter 13

Station Square Hotel Room

"You guys?"

Espio burst into the hotel room Tails should have been lying in, unconscious. Instead, Fang, Vector and Mighty were sitting around the empty, unmade bed, a deck of poker cards between them. Charmy buzzed around near the window, humming happily to himself.

"Hey Espio, you're just in time to join the next round!" Vector called over his shoulder, flashing a fangy grin. "A'course, you could just chicken out..."

"Not now, Vec. Where's Tails and Knux?"

"Yer loss, buddy. Hit me, Might."

"They're being interviewed by the police," Charmy burst out from the corner, doing a small loop. "The fight with King Boom Boo did tons of damage to Twinkle Park and the sewer system!"

Fang rapped on the bed's wooden head with one knuckle. Mighty slid the weasel a card. "They got done with us mighty quick-like. Said they didn't wanna talk to us, like I wanna spend my day chatting with cops. They were most interested in Shadow, Knux and Tails because of the whole fiasco five years ago."

"Thank God GUN can't reach us out here," Mighty said. "I'd worry if Tails' hero status in Station Square didn't provide immunity."

"Well listen, it's all happy and good for you guys," Espio said, "but Sonic, Rouge and Tikal are in the hospital."

Vector closed his eyes and exhaled. "We know, Espio. Whaddaya think we should do on it?"

Espio eyed Vector coldly, his voice sinking to a low whisper. "They've been partially turned into robots, and we almost died when the Final Egg exploded. Big saved us at the last second, thank god..."

Vector glanced up at Espio and frowned. "No foolin, huh?"

"No. Somebody put the two girls into a roboticizing chamber." Espio crossed his arms over his chest. "Plus, the Master Emerald is missing--from the sound of things, the Chaotix Detective Agency is needed. And it's up to you if you want to follow up on things." Turning on a heel, Espio stalked out the door.

Mighty and Charmy exchanged a quick glance, and followed Espio out. Vector hauled himself up using the edge of the bed and wiped his nose.

"Those damn friends o' yers need to learn some respect," Fang muttered. He flipped over the card Mighty had dealt him, and cursed again-and King made twenty-one.

Station Square Streets

Gamma glared up at the sun, a barely visible disk in the sky against the backdrop of frost-layered clouds. A cool gust blew through the city, but the robot didn't shiver; it wasn't part of his programming. Fall was setting in too quickly.

Between his fingers he flipped a small token-nothing of any real value, just a trinket, a coin. To the common person it looked just like a penny, but to Gamma, it held a particularly inclusive meaning.

He'd spent a month perfecting it. He managed to mold Abe Lincon's face into that of Amy Rose's, the girl that had helped him realize, against all odds, his humanity.

Ironically enough, he had been the most human bird in existence for a few days. But the favor had gone unrewarded, and Gamma felt the urge to pay it back.

He stopped flipping the coin and stared at it. Amy Rose's face stared back, plastered down to the exactest fur placement on her body, forever frozen in copper. As the days wore on, the chances of ever finding Amy again seemed to grow slimmer.

With a sigh, Gamma slid the penny away into a slot in his wrist. Things were getting proportionally worse; just hours ago, Big had returned with Sonic and the rest in tow, the Master Emerald missing amongst them. They'd all suffered some roboticization damage except Espio-Tikal's entire body was crawling with wires, and Rouge's lower torso and wings had been turned completely robotic. Sonic himself had the least damage of them all, but that didn't mean anything; his hands and part of his forearms were through and through metallic, his fingers sharpened into claws.

Gamma knew the hardship of being made out of metal because he'd been created that way. The others didn't have the chance to grow like that.

Gamma pushed to his feet and stared up at the sun, and scuffled his soles against the ground. Something felt...odd. Something deep inside his circuitry. His optics swept the horizon, and it took some minutes for him to pick up-and there it was, a black speck against the dull gray, slashing across the rain-heavy clouds like a drunken knife. Gamma narrowed his eyes. The black spot was coming nearer.

At that time, Tails and Knuckles came around the corner of the News Stand. They stopped when they spotted their robotic friend staring out to the sea.

"Gamma? What's wrong?" Tails asked.

"Something's heading this way," Gamma muttered. "I'm picking up odd signals from it...familiar ones...Robotnik?"

Knuckles stared at Tails and shook his head. "You don't think..."

Tails bit his lower lip. "I'm not sure what to think anymore. Get ready for anything."

The black spot-the Eggpod-drew closer, and the four of them tensed, waiting for Eggman to strike. He didn't, and instead zagged overhead and crashed into the street, the metal peeling across the concrete like screeching fingernails. The Eggpod crashed into the side of the building at the far end of the plaza with a metal-crunching boom, and Eggman himself--bruised, bleeding, with clothing torn--crawled out from the capsized Eggpod.

"Holy shit..." Tails glanced at Gamma and Knuckles before running between cars and past Speed Highway, skidding to a stop at the Eggpod. Already, distant police sirens had begun wailing, drowned out by tires screeching and people talking, shouting at each other. Knuckles and Gamma came to a stop beside Tails, and the blue-furred kitsune kneeled down next to Eggman.

"H...help," Eggman whispered, glancing up at Tails--his glasses had gone missing, revealing his eyes, distant and lost. "Oh my God--oh my God..."

Eggman's voice disappeared into the din. Tails glanced up at Gamma, and the robot nodded--he spread his arms wide and clenched his jaw, creating an electric bubble around the four of them, sealing out all noises.

"It's horrible," Eggman said; Knuckles helped him up into a sitting position as he spoke. "She--it--they turned on me," he squeaked, glancing around wildly. "They all turned on me! Their creator!"

"Hold it!" Tails barked, glaring at Eggman. "You're not making sense--what turned on you?"

Eggman's eyes came back into focus and trained on Tails--he seemed shocked, for a second, but his mustache drooped and his brow furrowed. "Oh my God. They know where you are, boy--they'll come for you, kill you. Kill both of us, all of us--they want to be unchallenged. Already, that accursed Hedgehog is out of their way...once they take care of Knuckles, you, and myself, they'll think they're unstoppable..."

"This isn't working," Knuckles said, frustrated. "Damnit, Eggman!"

"I don't believe him," Gamma said sceptically, narrowing his lime-green eyes. He glanced up and said, "the police are here--let's let them take him."

"No!" Eggman wailed, making a grab for Gamma's leg. "You can't let them take me!"

Gamma glanced at Tails and Knuckles--they exchanged a glance, then turned to Gamma and nodded. Gamma crossed his arms and let the shield go; the police rushed in and grabbed Eggman by the arms. Eggman cried out in resistance, but didn't struggle; he was too exhausted, couldn't manage to fight back, so instead turned with pleading eyes to Tails. "Please! You must believe me!"

The police handcuffed Eggman's wrists behind his back and shoved him into a waiting police car, one of them reading Eggman his rights through the din. The cop cars drove off, leaving one officer behind. As the people and the accompanying noises died down, the officer turned to Tails, Knuckles and Gamma.

"We're gonna need to do some more reports on this," the cop said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Sorry."

Tails and Knuckles glanced at each other and rolled their eyes. "Great," Knuckles said.

Station Square Hospital

Sonic stirred in his hospital bed, eyes closed and semiconscious--something didn't feel right. His arms, his hands--he flexed his fingers and got the sense of motion, but...but...

It didn't seem right, like somebody had injected his hand with novacaine--he felt numb. His brow furrowed, and he moved his arm closer to his side; it felt heavier in a physical sense of the word, caused by more than just exhaustion. And when he felt cold metal rub up against his thigh where a glove-covered hand should have been, Sonic's eyes shot open.

"Oh...fuck."

Station Square

Shadow emerged from the Burger Shop to a parade of police cars trundling past in the street, heading for the SSPD--he frowned and walked towards the coast. Part of the street had been sectioned off, the pavement blackened and covered with glimmering shards of metal. The building next to the newspaper stand had a hole punched through it, bricks and dust scattered about--and not too far away stood a police officer interrogating Tails, Knuckles and Gamma, while a tow truck drove off carrying a familiar gray, black and yellow pod--the Eggpod.

Shadow hung back, eyes narrowed; this didn't look good. When the cop left Tails, Knuckles and Gamma, Shadow walked over to them with his eyes focused sharply on them.

"What's all this mess about?" Shadow asked.

The three of them turned to Shadow, none in a good mood. "Eggman crash-landed and got taken by the cops," Tails explained. "He had some nonsense about something turning on him--it wouldn't be the first time. Metal Sonic's done it before, along with a few others..."

Gamma crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm not all that sure I'm comfortable with this...it seems too convenient. We just got off fighting King Boom Boo, three of our allies are hospitalized, Chaos is missing, and I just saw the Chaotix marching off into the train station. We're losing numbers pretty quickly."

"Not to mention that GUN is still lurking just outside Station Square, now that they know we're here," Knuckles put in. "The Chaotix will be alright since GUN mostly wants the four of us and Sonic...but still..."

"And," Shadow added, "we're missing four Chaos Emeralds..."

"Sounds t'me like y'all need a plan, quick-like."

The four of them turned to see Fang approaching, a frown set on his face. Big and Froggy followed him, the former glancing around the city and nodding to himself.

"You thinking of something, Tex?" Tails asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Why wouldn't Ah be?" Fang flashed a smirk. "GUN's waitin' fer ya, right? Then what ya do is you give 'em what they want, loudly and vulgarly."

Gamma nodded. "We distract them."

"Exactly," Fang said, smacking a fist into his palm. "One or two guys who c'n really hold their own in a big fight, wander inna a GUN-heavy area. They'll expect th' rest of us to sneak out the way their defenses're weakest, so what we've gotta do is creep out the same place th' others're makin' a mess."

"Brilliant," Tails whispered. "Absolutely brilliant."

"Hey, a great treasure hunter's gotta know how to secure their goods in the least predictable way." Fang smirked again. "So it all settles down to what we're actually gonna be doin', and who's gonna be doin' th' distractin'." His eyes wandered over to Gamma, and the robot nodded, throwing his arms up.

"Of course it's going to be me. What better than an inexhaustable robot?" Gamma gave a small laugh.

"I'm going with you, then," Tails said, narrowing his eyes. "I've got a lot of Chaos power to draw from. It'll come in handy."

"Are you guys sure?" Knuckles asked, crossing his arms. "I've got a bit more fighting prowess than the two of you, and I can burrow my way through some tough spots..."

"Which is why we need you to help the rest of us get out," Fang said. "We're gonna be goin' subterranian."

"I don't think there's any fish underground," Big said, turning to Fang. "It'll be pretty boring down there!" Froggy chirrupped in agreement. Fang smacked himself in the face and groaned.

Station Square Hospital

"I can kind of remember what happened," Rouge said, frowning. "Vaguely. I know Tikal and I were going there to get some information on Eggman--maybe he knew where everyone else had gone, or what kind of plans he had. That sort of thing. But I dunno what happened to the data pod I had stuck into the computer...anyway."

She took a deep breath and looked up at Sonic, amber-colored eyes dim. "Next thing I know, I'm stuck behind a wall of glass and I feel like someone's shoving icicles into my guts. Cold, painful, eventually numb. It still is." She knocked once on her stomach, resulting in a hollow metallic clanging sound. "It's going to be hard to get action when most of you isn't warm or made of skin anymore. Hell, I'll have to throw out most of my outfits and buy stuff that covers it up."

Tikal listened quietly from the side, her fists clutched in front of her face, her eyes wet. "This is my fault," she whispered. "I could have saved us from Metal Sonic..."

"Don't you start getting angsty on me," Rouge said sharply, narrowing her eyes at Tikal. "You know--Metal Sonic got the jump on both of us, and that's that. There's nothing you could have done."

Tikal gasped and stepped back, but didn't say anything--her eyes grew more moist, but the tears didn't spill.

"Well, listen," Sonic said, closing his eyes. "Metal surprised everyone by pulling that stunt. Espio came out of it alright, and that's one good thing. Big saved all of us, and Chaos is tight on Metal Sonic's tail. Eggman's got to be up to something gigantic, but we can stop him. We always do." He reached over to a countertop and grabbed his green, flannel button-up tee-shirt. "Robotic or not, we always do. When the two of you are ready, I'll be thinking up what we need to get done with Tails and the rest."

In the distance, something exploded--Sonic glanced at Rouge and Tikal before throwing his shirt on, hobbling into his jeans, and dashing out of the room.

Edge of Station Square

Gamma busted through a row of G-SISDs, firing off his tribarrel laser at anything that moved. Beside him, Tails grabbed a Gun Chaos Robot by the head and focused--a beam of blue energy shot out from his palm, making the robot explode and its liquid body splash to the ground.

More GUN robots and soldiers flooded into view, surrounding them, pointing their guns at them--Tails waved his hand and created a shield around himself and Gamma as they fired--the shields disippated when the first bullets hit--the rest hit their targets, throwing both Gamma and Tails to the ground. They climbed back up, grunting, and continued their attack.

A wave of G-SISDs appeared and moved in on Gamma, sweeping past him, surrounding him--Gamma fought back, but they overwhelmed him, pinning him to the ground. "Shit--" he shot off a series of micromissiles, causing some of the G-SISDs to explode, but not enough--

Tails, too, undercame a wave of G-SISDs. He fired off a beam of energy and cleared them away, but another wave fell on top of him before he could react. With a grunt, he squinched his eyes together and realized there was one thing he could do--

"CHAOS CONTROLL!"

Time grinded slowly to a hault, and before the G-SISDs could pin him down, he squirmed out from underneath them and destroyed them with a tail spin attack. He ran over to Gamma and did the same thing, pulling the robot up to his feet before the effects of the Chaos Control wore out. Panting heavily, sweating from the effort of maintaining the time freeze, Tails ran up behind a GUN officer with a walkie-talkie and more decorations on his shirt than any other officers in sight. Time returned to its normal pace as Tails grabbed the walkie-talkie and smashed the officer in the stomach with it.

"Maybe this plan wasn't so brilliant after all!" Tails heard Gamma shout from the center of the action. More GUN robots spilled down the streets, filling them, shuffling between the human officers, firing at Gamma and Tails whenever they had a clear shot. The two continued to take damage--not even five minutes had passed since they first started this assault--and then something exploded up one street, bringing a rain of rubble and dust down with it.

"One of the G-SISDs fired a shot prematurely!" Tails heard an officer shout from nearby. "It hit a gas line!"

Tails surged through another wave of robots, grunting as they dealt more damage to him. One of them swung a giant metal fist, slamming hard into Tails' right arm; he screamed as sharp pain scraped his bones before dissippating into tingling numbness. Gamma let out a pained yell from behind him, too far away--Tails collapsed to the ground as more robots stomped and punched and shot him, blood pouring out of fresh wounds...

"Retreat! Civilians alerted to exploded gas main! All personel, retreat, priority one! Abandon the mission!"

The pain stopped coming, and with the sound of shuffling feet and silenced engines, GUN left Tails and Gamma alone in the street, one bloody and broken, the other damaged and partially disassembled.

With blurred vision, Tails looked upwards to see a flash of blue and green running onto the street. He snorted, laid his head onto the pavement, and closed his eyes. He felt excruciatingly tired...

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Author's Note: Ho-lee shit. Guess what, boys and girls...it's ba-ack...

And no, this isn't a belated April Fool's joke. Shadow Forever really is back, and I plan to keep working on it until I actually finish the damn thing. I guess I ought to explain what happened, though.

When I first started Shadow Forever, I was one of the many Sonic fanboys crying, "NO! SHADOW CAN'T BE DEAD ;___;" but instead of taking my point of view out on message board posters like most of the others did, I decided to write a fanfic about it. Unlike most of my projects, Shadow Forever took off, scoring twelve chapters and actually gaining popularity, something I just seemed to lack everywhere else. That jazzed me up--so I kept going. But then as all things tend to do, I realized...hey...Shadow's angsty and hollow and I'm rather glad that he's dead.

So, I stopped working on SF. Chapter 12 was the only one to come out for a year, and chapter 13 was left partially unfinished. I had other things I wanted to do, anyway--some Jet Grind Radio and Jet Set Radio Future fanfictions, which were generally less rewarding but more fun to write, as well as an original story that I finished writing but never got around to revising. And a webcomic, too--can't forget about that. It's almost two years old now and I still hate the fucking thing.

Occasionally I'd get an email asking if I'd ever continue Shadow Forever and the answer was usually "I don't know." Because honestly, I didn't know if it would--I know I didn't want it too, but it was pretty popular and I did have a few ideas left over for it. But then the first few screenshots of Sonic Heroes came out, way back when--not only would new Team-based gameplay get introduced, but of all things, the Chaotix themselves would be playable--minus Mighty, but that's okay because Mighty's really just a red, black and yellow version of Sonic. But to top things off, another team surfaced--Rouge, an E-100 robot named Omega and of course, Shadow. That's when my decision was finalized. What point did Shadow Forever have when Shadow was in fact alive?

For a while, this remained...but then I got more emails, requesting the story be finished, or at least requesting an answer directly from me--would Shadow Forever be done for? And I took a few days for myself. I thought. And I took everything into consideration--the fans, who wanted so desperately to see the story end. How fun the story had actually been to write, sticking characters into weird combinations--like Shadow, Tails and Fang, or Knuckles, Sonic and Gamma. And how awesome the King Boom Boo sequence had been. I still love how that came out to this day, even if it is a bit Dragonball Z-ish. And now, even though Sonic Heroes had come out, there was still a lot of potential I could harness with this story--I could bring in new characters, or old fan-favorites (much like Fang), and funk a little bit with Heroes' team-based gameplay.

And so I opened my unfinished 13th Chapter and started writing again. The rest, as they say, is history.

Throughout all this, I really want to thank the people that kept pushing me and pushing me to finish this story. It's largely because of you that I'm continuing Shadow Forever, and without you there would be no story. I also want to thank all those Sonic-crazy people in my life--Greliz, Jon "WB" Gray, Crazy Pocky, Shiro, and so many more--you guys are the shit.

Now, let's all get funky! *Afro-headbang*

--Tei