Okay! Sorry for the wait, guys! But, here it is! Chapter 2! So, with-out further…nevermind…

Enjoy

Chapter 2: Step Two, Comondeer an Arena

Shadow continued to ride at speeds of over...well, let's just say, if he crashed, it would end badly. So, at such fast speeds, the police and G.U.N. were no problem, he had left them all way behind.

"This is way too easy." laughed Shadow as he entered the highway. After a few minutes, Shadow began to notice that there were no cars on the highway, "Well this is odd..." then he saw why, "Oh come on! A TANK!?"

Just up ahead, a tank blocked the whole entire highway path, but the barrel was pointed to the side, which was a good thing. Shadow didn't slow down at all as he sped closer the the tank. There was another roadway off to the right and below this one, so he would just jump off this one and take that one. A soldier opened the hatch on the top of the tank, then yelled something into the cockpit below after seeing Shadow. The soldier smiled as the barrel of the tank quickly turned itself to Shadow.

"Okay, they wouldn't shoot at me...right?" asked Shadow to himself, 'I hate asking questions, especially to mysefl, it meakes me feel weak, and a little mental.' Then the soldier pointed at Shadow and yelled something. Shadow was too far away to hear what he said, but he was sure he knew, 'What's worse about asking questions is that I seem to always get the bad end lately.'

Shadow grabbed the Chaos Emerald out of the socket, then hopped to hes feet on the bike, with his hands still on the handle. At the last moment, he jumped off the bike, with a little help from the rocket boots, as the tank fired at the bike. The soldier watched, satisfied, as the bike, along with a small chunck of the highway, was destroyed.

"Alright! Let's go!" shouted the soldier into the cockpit. Just as he was bending down to enter the cockpit, a pair of red a white boots landed in front of him, "Oh shit..."

One minute later...

"Waaa! OOF!" the third, and final, G.U.N. soldier landed on the street after being thrown out of the tank.

"I think you owe me for the bike." mocked Shadow as he entered the tank and closed the hatch.

The three soldiers watched as the tank drove away, and as their careers as soldiers dissapeared.

"Well, this will make things a lot easier." said Shadow as he exited the highway in the tank...and ran over a empty car, "Woops."

Shadow sat with his legs resting on the control panel for the tank, asleep. He was going on a straight path to the stadium, so, he figured that he would just let the tank drive itself while he took a rest. He had destroyed a few lamp posts, crushed a couple cars, and smashed a hotdog stand. All the while, he was asleep.

Shadow was enjoying the time of "peace and quiet" until the tank suddenly jolted and stopped completely., "What the...?" mumbled Shadow drearily as he looked around. after a second, he heard footsteps on the roof of the tank, then he watched as the hatch to the tank was ripped off, and the last person he wanted to see looked down at him.

"Alright, get out of the tank beofre I...Shadow?"

'Knuckles...why Knuckles!?' "Yeah?" responded Shadow, annoyed.

"Why are you destroying the city in a tank!?" shouted Knuckles angrily.

Shadow rolled his eyes, 'I don't have time for this.' Shadow pulled out the Chaos Emerald and tossed it into the air, "Chaos..."

Knuckles realized what he was doing, and reached down to try to stop him, "No, wait! Don't...!"

"Control!" Shadow dissapeared in a bright flash of light as he grabbed the Chaos Emerald, and Knuckles fell face firest into the cockpit of the tank.

"Damnit!" shouted Knuckles as he stood to his feet and climbed out of the tank.

"Now Knuckles," laughed a voice from behind him, "I know you like to break things, but, deastroying the city in a tank? C'mon! That's a little much!"

Knuckles groaned, "You are enjoying this, aren't you Sonic."

The blue hedgehog gave a wide grin, "You bet."

"Well you'll be happy to know that the only other person that is just as annoying as you is the one that did all of this." said Knuckles as he turned to face Sonic.

Sonic seemed to become confuzed by that, "Uh, and who would that be?"

Knuckles pointed to the stadium behind Sonic, so, Sonic turned around and saw Shadow entering the front gate. Sonic seemed to get excited, "Alright! this is going to be fun!" then dased off to the stadium after Shadow.

Knuckles watched him go, shaking his head, "Why is always the fast ones?" then hopped to the ground to chase after them.

Meanwhile, in a secret underground facility, multiple people stood around a large tank in the center of the room. Each one was called there by an anonomouse caller. All that they knew was that they were there to see a new creation.

"Gentlemen," called a voice over an intercomm, "All of you here know about the incident with the Black Hedgehog: Shadow." each of the people there nodded, "I have even dealt with him before, and I knew that, he was a great creation with immnse power, so, I decided to try to recreate him." each of the people there were shocked by what the voice said, "But I failed, so, I have decided to do what what the people that first created him did, and use the blood of Black Doom to create a new, 'Ultimate Life form.'"

Each of the people there watched as a small vial of black liquid raised put of a panel in the ground, then was attatched to a tube that lead to the tank. As the liquid exited the vial, and entered the tank, spreading into smaller tubes that lead to something that was floating in the water. The "thing" in the tank was blury and no one could tell what it was.

"if you don't mind me asking," said one of the people in the room, clearing his throat, "what exactly are we looking at?"

Unkown to the people, there was another person in a separate room, watching them from a camera, that was smiling widely, "What is it, you ask? Well, let me tell you..."

After the entire vial was emptied into the "thing" into the tank, the tubes inside the tank retracted into panels in the top of the tank. Then, yet another panel opened in the top of the tank, and some kind of emerald came out and slowly floated down in to the cnter of the tank, directly in front of the "thing."

"It is the new Ultimate Life Form."

Then, something grabbed the Emerald in the tank. An instant later, a dark purple surge of energy circled the tube before it exploded, the liquid inside splashing everywhere, along with bits of glass. Each of the people in the room ducked under the tables they sat at. Each one slowly peeked over the top of the tables and saw what happened. Now, standing in the place of tank, was a creature. It was on it's knees and holding the softly glowing red Emerald. It seemed to have fur that was a dark purple in color and it wore a skin-tight black jumpsuite with purple stripes along the arms and legs. It had quills protruding from the back of it's head that hung around it's shoulders. There were gold rings around it's wrists anf ankles, and some kind of colar around it's neck. There was a purple stripe on the side of each quill.

It slowly stood to it's feet and looked up, revealing amethyst colored eyes, "Good morning," came the voice from the intercom, "Maria."

With that, the creature's eyes glowed brightly as it yelled, holding the Emerald above it's head as the Emerald began to glow as well. A surge of pruple energy circled from the emerald to the glround around the creature before it dissapeared in a bright flash, leaving all of the people in the room utterly stunned and shocked.

"So," said the voice on the intercom calmly, "Since we seem to be having problems with Shaodw again, what do you say about buying my services?"

Shadow waited in the center of the large baseball staduim. The whole stadium was surrounded by police, military, and G.U.N. troops, but none of them entered, because Shadow had made a speech on the stadium intercom.

"If more than one person enters at a time, I will cause more problems, because my reason for doing all of this is to find someone worthy enough to fight me. So, once I am either defeated, or satisfied, I will repay all of the damage and trouble I have caused."

Fortunately, the troops agreed, and Shadow had so far defeated many humans, Knuckles, and a few robots, with ease. He had refused to fight Sonic, but wouldn't say why, which greatly annoyed the blue hedgehog. Shadow was now awaiting the next challenger, which, according to the G.U.N. troops, would actually be, a challange.

A human entered the stadium calmly. He wore a green cloak with a hood over his head, and carried a sword on his back.

'Hmm, a sword, eh? This will interesting to say the least.' Thought Shadow as he examined the newcomer, "Are you the one that I was told would be a challenge?"

The newcomer nodded.

"Alright, then shall we begin?"

The newcomer removed his hood, revealing black hair that came down to his neck, "Just one more thing before we begin."

Shadow raised an eyebrow, "And what would that be?" The newcomer said nothing, he just pointed up to the sky. Shadow looked up to see what he was pointing at, but saw nothing. After a few seconds, he could see somehting falling. It seemed to be some shade of green, and it glistened in the sun. As the distance between the object and Shadow lessened, Shadow realized what it was, "No way..."

Okay, I just want to say that the "Newcomer" and the object that is quickly approaching does not belong to me, but one of my Friends, Esgaloth. Oh, and, Esgaloth, I did get you r appearance correct, right? If I didn't, please tell me, and I'll fix it. I am going to have fun writing the next chapter...

Till next Time!
Cy