Shadow the Hedgehog: Puzzle of the Past

CHAPTER 7: Revenge and Determination

Shadow jumped out of the way of a GUN mech's bullets. These mechs were large, bulky robots with tank treads as feet and were either armed with rifles, machine guns, missile launchers or cannons. The mech followed Shadow with it's gun, firing it wherever Shadow went.

Shadow pointed his hand forward and launched himself towards the mech. He attached himself to his target and jumped off. While in the air, he waved his hand to the right. Pointed darts of energy formed.

"Chaos Spear!" Shadow said, and fired the sharp energy arrows at the mech. Each spear punctured a different part of the mech and exploded. Robot parts flew everywhere.

"I...remember that attack," Shadow said. "But when was the last time I used it?"

Shadow decided to hold that thought for a while. He landed on the ground and started walking. "I'll find out soon," he said. "But for now, I must destroy these military robots."

He came to a dead end. Any further advancement was impossible, for there was an enormous downhill ramp covered in yellow acid, acidic enough to dissolve skin and bone. Two Black Warriors were stationed there.

"Can you see the threat the humans pose to this planet, Shadow?"

Shadow glanced to his right to see Doom's eye. It looked back at him.

"Shadow, use one of our air saucers." Doom's eye said and fled.

Shadow looked at one of the black warriors and noticed it was occupying an air saucer. He expected a fight, but as he walked toward it, it obediently stepped off and allowed him to use it. Shadow stepped onto the saucer. It was a small, flat and round, with jets around under the platform. Glowing green light came form the jets.

Shadow placed his right foot in front of his left and moved it forward on the platform. The saucer slowly hovered forward. He continued this until he started his descent down the downhill ramp. The saucer hovered over the green liquid, protecting Shadow's body against the burning acid. This form of transport took some getting used to but Shadow got the hang of it.

As the saucer hovered downward, it picked up speed. It was headed for a wall! Shadow moved his left foot to the right but had to do this more forcefully to make the speeding saucer turn. He barely avoided the wall; the side of the saucer scraped against it with a screeching sound. The saucer leaned to the right a little but Shadow was able to make it level once again.

He rode the device down the river of acid. A solid platform was coming into view. Waiting on that platform was one of those bulky GUN mechs. It pointed the red laser from its large missile launcher. A yellow target formed around Shadow's body. He jumped up and off the alien disc and spun gracefully in the air, dodging the incoming missile that had been fired by the mech. The missile missed him by a few inches and destroyed the saucer. The pieces sank into the acidic river, dissolving as they met their fate.

Shadow landed on solid ground in front of the mech. It turned slowly on its tank-like treads, but was eliminated by a group of Chaos Spears before it could face the black hedgehog. Shadow did an about face to see three more mechs traveling his way. He waved his hand to the left, creating three large Chaos spears for each. He fired them off, each of them destroying a different mech as they foolishly kept heading toward them.

"Hmm, this is getting very boring," Shadow said. "How about I just destroy the entire island!"

Shadow jumped high in the air. He moved in a 360, creating huge Chaos spears all around him. There were about 50 of them! He was ready to fire them all off at once when he felt a finger tap him on the soldier.

He turned around at the exact second, sending a chaos spear the person's way. The small person flew quickly out of its way using his clear wings, avoiding an instant impalement.

"Hey what was THAT for!?" asked the angry bug.

"Who are you? What do you want with me? Why are you here!?" Shadow demanded.

"I..I gotta ask you something..."

"What?"

"Well, Vector and Espio need me to find five top secret discs, and I can't find them anywhere!"

Shadow landed on the ground. "Vector? Espio? Who are they?"

"You mean you don't remember us? Some friend you are," the bee said rather inconsiderately.

"Friend? I'm your...friend?" Shadow asked.

Charmy flew up behind him. "Yeah! Remember Metal Sonic? We fought together!"

"Yes, I remember that, but before that I remember nothing. That's why I'm here. I need the Chaos Emeralds."

"Oh. I'll help you! But can you help me find those discs?"

"Fine." Shadow said. He wasn't giving in because he liked Charmy, he was just very annoying.

"Woohoo!" Charmy said. "I'll take the lead!" He buzzed off.

"No, wait! It's dangerous!" Shadow called. He followed the bee to a raised path above the river of acid. There was a group of black warriors there.

"Hey, I think I saw something sparkle over there!" Charmy said, pointing in that direction. A black warrior moved, revealing a sparkling, floating compact disc. Charmy zoomed over as if the black aliens weren't even there. Once there, he scooped up the disc. The words 'Project: Shadow' in bold black letters went unnoticed by him. Also unnoticed by him was a black warrior that pointed its silver laser gun at the bee but was destroyed by a flying punch from Shadow. Charmy turned around, completely missing what happened.

"Yes! Found one!" he said.

"Be more careful." warned Shadow.

"Look! It's those evil creatures!" yelled Charmy, pointing at two black warriors behind Shadow.

Shadow elbowed one in the gut without even turning around to look at his target. The other shot a blast from its laser at him but he appeared behind it and delivered a hand-chop to its back, destroying it.

"Shadow, you're so cool." Charmy said. "Let's go find the rest 'a those discs!"

Shadow felt as if is was going to be LONG day...

The two came to a pathway, both sides lined with jail cells. The jail cells housed sleeping Black Arms. Shadow did not know how they got into the cells, but he knew if the two had been very quiet, they would have avoided waking them.

They would have.

"Hey, look at all the creatures!" yelled a foolish bee. Shadow placed a hand over his (own) face.

A black oak sat in the middle of one cell, Indian style. It was asleep, until he heard a certain bee's loud voice. It opened its yellow, pupil-less eyes, stood up and walked toward the bars of the cell. With great strength, it pulled two bars clean off, and stepped out into freedom. It laid its bright eyes on what woke it.

"Great, now look what you've done!" Shadow yelled. He skated toward the black oak and started punching its leg rapidly. This felt like a tap from a pencil to the oak. With a mighty hand, it knocked Shadow to the side like a rag doll. The black oak continued stomping toward Charmy with footsteps that would have shaken Charmy, hadn't he been flying.

"Easy..easy now.." Charmy nervously said. He turned and flew off but was shortly trapped by the huge hand of the black oak. This was short lived, however, as the oak quickly felt something like a needle poke his hand and let him loose, and growled in pain as there was a swollen red bump on the palm of its hand.

Shadow took his chance. He jumped up to the sore and repeatedly punched it, causing the black monster immense pain. The black creature backed away, trying to escape the black hedgehog. When it had its back turned, Shadow eliminated it with a chaos spear.

"Thanks Shadow, you're so cool!" Charmy said again, restating his admiration with Shadow.

"Whatever. Don't tell anyone."

"Oooookay, hey there's another disc!" Charmy said and flew into the cage of the defeated black oak and picked up the disc. "Only three more!"

Yeah, Shadow thought, three more discs and I'll finally be rid of this annoying creature and will be able to get back on track!

Out of nowhere, three heavy, two legged mechs fell down from the sky. They were color-coded. One was red, the other blue, and the last yellow. They were Big Foots, some of GUN's strongest mechs.

"Who are these clowns?" Shadow charged.

"Shadow the Hedgehog," the pilot in the red one said. "We've finally caught up with you. Put your hands up. You are wanted in connection with the attacks on several cities."

"Yeah, I know," Shadow said, not even bothering to explain how he was innocent.

"Good. Now come with us."

"Nah, that's not gonna happen."

"Fine. Then you've chosen the hard way. Men, get ready!"

"Yes, sir!" the pilots of the blue and yellow mechs said, saluting their boss from inside their cockpits. Machine guns from underneath each of the three robot's cockpits turned to face Shadow. With a flurry of bullets, they attacked, leaving a cloud of smoke.

When the cloud disappeared, the black hedgehog was nowhere to be found.

"Wow," the blue pilot said. "We did it! We totally decimated that guy! We don't know our own strength, huh?"

"Don't be a fool, soldier." the red pilot said. "He's not dead yet. It would take way more than that to defeat Shadow the hedgehog."

"But sir," the yellow pilot added, "he's just a little hedgehog! A rodent! How hard could it be to kill him?"

"He's strong." the red pilot answered. "Just remember, he's strong. He nearly destroyed the whole planet by himself once."

"Sir, how do you know this?"

"Never mind. Just find-"

"Sorry to interrupt your little tea party, but I haven't got all day." came a voice from behind them. Their cockpits whirled around to see Shadow, with three huge chaos spears, each pointing to a mech.

"And now...goodbye," said Shadow, and launched the energy arrows at the mechs. They exploded in a matter of seconds. No trace of the soldiers were left. Three sparkling discs floated down where the giant mechs used to be.

"Yay! The last three!" Charmy exclaimed as he zoomed over and collected them. "Thanks Shadow!" he said and flew off.

"Finally," Shadow said, and headed out of an exit at the end of the path. He walked into the sunlight. A vast ocean separated him and the island from the outside world. But that was no problem for him. Pulling out a yellow emerald, he yelled: "Chao-ugh!"

He fell to his knees. His head ached. The same vision portrayed in his mind. Him in a pod! The headache became intense, and he dropped the yellow emerald. Pulling out a blue one, he yelled, "Chaos Control!" and disappeared.