The Shadow of Chaos

Chapter 1: Impossible Darkness

Midnight. A time when the sky is its darkest, and most people in Station Square are asleep in their beds, in their homes, under the assumption that they are safe. Tonight, they were wide awake and frightened out of their minds, unable to find rest but equally unwilling to venture the dangerous streets. No one was out after sunset anymore, no one but either the very brave or the very foolish anyways.

The streets were dimly lit by a few streetlights scattered across the pavement, creating seas of darkness interrupted by much smaller islands of dim illumination.

A lone figure walked down this street, a light breeze wafting through his quills. The empty blackness nearly consumed his features, but from what was visible, it was easy to see that he was as black as the night around him, and that there were crimson streaks tearing up his quills. Draped over his shoulders was a leather jacket, and hugging at his hips were a pair of pants whose color matched his own.

Bouncing silently down the other side of the street was a female jogger. Shadow looked at her, finding it somewhat strange that she was jogging at this time, considering all of the disappearances that had been happening lately. Just last week, a couple of teenagers were out vandalizing a school, when they simply vanished, leaving only their bottles of spray paint behind to signify that they'd ever been there at all.

The jogger ran into one of the dark pockets, disappearing from visibility. Shadow held his breath waiting for her to emerge from the other side, but to his surprise, there was complete and utter stillness.

A beat passed.

A dark form dashed out of the void, with the woman, seemingly knocked out, over its shoulder.

Shadow began to chase after it, but when he tried to activate his Air Shoes, with a curse he remembered that they had been damaged in his last GUN mission.

Flashback

Shadow rolled to dodge an incoming laser beam, as several others narrowly missed him. He summoned a crackling orb of golden energy into his hand, loosing it on one of the automated turrets that were attacking him with deadly accuracy.

His target exploded in a flash of light, and fell to the earth as a smoldering heap of shrapnel. He had little time to revel in this minor victory, as the next moment another of the beams flew directly towards him.

He jumped into the air in time to avoid being fried, but the laser struck first one, and then two of his rocket propelled shoes, causing him to curse in anger.

End Flashback

'It seems as though I'll have to pursue it without them!' he snarled inwardly as he increased his pace.

The shadowy figure began to climb up the side of a building. Thinking fast, Shadow ran between the two buildings, in order to get to the top. Jumping against the side of one, he propelled himself off and up, spinning in mid-air to contact the adjacent building with his feet. Quickly repeating the process, he scaled the wall and leapt onto the rooftop in time to see the figure attempting to make its escape.

He began to chase after it, running at top speed across the roofs, and leaping from building to building. He began to gain on the humanoid creature, who had noticed him pursuing and increased its speed. Deftly sidestepping any obstacle that entered his path, Shadow growled in anger as he came closer and closer to his prey.

Unfortunately, he couldn't afford to attack it with a Chaos Spear, because with the woman draped over its shoulder, it was possible that he would unintentionally hit her, and she could end up dead. With a smirk, he remembered how much easier it was to be the villain, when the lives of innocents was not a problem.

The beast he pursued showed no signs of stopping, and gradually chose more and more difficult terrain, widening the gaps Shadow was forced to leap over, and elevating the chase until they were nearly up in the clouds.

Abruptly, the creature veered off its course, leaping onto a particularly tall building, and clambering up the wall in an instant. Shadow screeched to a stop, staring up at the imposing shadow of the figure's chosen escape.

He leapt forward, fist thrust out, and crashed through a window, throwing shards of glass in every direction. But the ultimate lifeform paid the dagger-like pieces no mind, not even wasting a moment as he rushed for the staircase.

In mere seconds he was atop the building, prepared to face anything. But when he came out into the air, he didn't see the monstrous figure he'd been following, or the woman it had kidnapped. But there was someone there, hiding in the darkness.

"Shadow... you've finally made it," an icy voice rang forth from the darkness, deep and ominous.

"Show yourself!" the obsidian hedgehog snapped, spinning about to try to locate the source of the voice.

"I'm right here," the malicious presence mocked, as it stepped forth from the night.

The voice's owner was, or at least, appeared to be a hedgehog, who looked vaguely like himself. It's quills were arranged in the same fashion as his, even having stripes on them, however, this phantom hedgehog had different colors than the ultimate one, the main portion of his fur was a very dark, charcoal shade of grey and his stripes were a pale, sickly blue.

The bits of flesh that could be seen on this phantom, in his ears and jaw area, were a much lighter shade of grey then his fur, and although the menacing being was the origin of the voice Shadow had heard, it had no mouth.

"I don't have time to play around with another faker. I need to know where that creature went," Shadow questioned, as he looked the demon over. The demon stared back at him with haunting emerald eyes that never blinked, and floated slightly into the air, a black mist around his feet.

"I'm afraid that I have no idea what you're talking about," he said with a tone that could not be more clear in the fact that he knew precisely what Shadow was referring to. The obsidian hedgehog growled in anger.

"Who do you think you are? Do you have any idea who you're dealing with?" Shadow yelled, while glaring at the phantom.

"I think I am Mephiles… Mephiles the Dark. And of course, Shadow..." Mephiles paused as he stretched out his arms to his sides, crossed them over his chest, and quickly stretched them out again. This seemed to cause a change his appearance.

The main part of his fur was now purple, his stripes were now a much brighter blue and were no longer straight, but now had a design to them.

The phantom's quills now seemed to split at the end and the tips were violet. His eyes were now neon green surrounded by cracked crimson irises. His body had taken on the appearance of being made of crystals and his feet now ended in sharp points.

"...I know everything about you," he explained, the ring of hostility still not gone from his voice.

"I don't see how that's possible," Shadow replied, as Mephiles began to circle him. Raising one hand into the air, the crystalline mocker hissed slightly, as if offended.

"Our destinies are intertwined from beginning to end. I've known you since before you were even created."

This revelation echoed on the winds like the tolling of an iron bell, as Shadow's eyes widened. Instant resentment and disbelief flooded over him, as he realized what this meant.

"I don't know you," he insisted.

Mephiles released a small, cynical laugh. "As I seem to recall, you're a rather forgetful person," the phantom hedgehog scoffed.

"I regained all of my memories after I destroyed the Black Comet." Shadow stared at the monstrous mimicry of himself, wondering exactly who he was, and what he wanted.

"Have you considered the possibility that you've lost some more since then?" There was a long silence, as Shadow thought over this suggestion.

"I don't know. And I don't care. But what I do know is that you will stay out of my way, or I will destroy you," the ultimate lifeform answered with a frown of determination.

"Any attempt you made would serve only as entertainment," the dark one cackled. Shadow's rage overflowed, as he felt the urge to attack growing.

Giving in to his animalistic fury, he formed a brilliantly shining Chaos Spear in his palm, and hurled it at the offender.

A split second before it struck, Mephiles sank into the ground, vanishing in a moment. Shadow glanced around in disorientation, looking for his enemy. The demon reappeared behind him, slamming a fist into the back of his head.

Shadow fell forward, knocked to the ground by the force of the blow. Snarling in anger, he whirled around, another energy attack created at a moments notice. This one flew forward and collided with Mephiles, burning a gaping hole in his stomach.

The dark phantom stared down at his wound, and then began to disintegrate, as if he were made of dust. The wind caught what remained of him, bringing it closer to Shadow.

'Not dust... more like a... liquid!' Shadow realized just as the wind changed directions, bringing the dark matter a mere hair's breadth away from him. He didn't have time to move or even gasp before the remains of the demon were spilled onto him, seeping into his skin.

White hot fire crawled over his nerves as it contacted him, and it felt as if he were being stung by a million hornets at once. The pain was too much to bear, and he fell to the ground, convulsing in agony. His vision blackened, and as the pain began to mount, he fainted on the rooftop, his eyelids sliding shut of their own accord.

And as he lay there helpless, the black, liquid fire continued to spread over, and into, his body.