The Doom Has Come!

This is a Sonic fan-fic sequel to Omega Encounter and adaption of Shadow the Hedgehog in the Archie universe. Copyright owned by SEGA, Sonic Team, 4Kids Entertainment, Archie and Dic.

Author: Fairfieldfencer FFF

Crashing the party

It had been over a month since Eggman had been defeated, the celebrations were seemingly never ending. And the citizens of Mobius had even more to celebrate about. The Dark Legion had finally made amends with the last of the Brotherhood of Guardians, (with quite a few exceptions), and Sonic the Hedgehog had finally asked Princess Sally Acorn to marry him. The big day was getting closer. They both wanted it to be done as soon as possible. Eggman may have been defeated, but they were still not without enemies. Sally had insisted that the event be held in New Mobotropolis so NICOLE could be a brides maid. Bunnie Rabbot would be Sally's maid of honour, and Tails would be Sonic's best man.

They all gathered in on the day. Shadow was with Rouge, who was wearing her best pink dress. Topaz was also invited. She was wearing a lilac silk dress when she entered accompanied by a man in his late fifties. He was over six foot tall, wearing a GUN commander uniform with more medals than Rouge could count, dark skin, grey crew cut hair, and mismatched blue and amber eyes.

"Is he the best you could get on short notice?" Rouge whispered.

"Rouge, he's Lionel Westwood! GUN's highest ranking commander." Topaz whispered back. "He asked if he could here with me. He said he didn't want to miss such an important event."

"Westwood? Is he Captain Westwood's father?"

"Yes. He inherited his eyes. That's why he wears those sun glasses all the time."

"Oh. I thought it was just a pathetic attempt to make himself look cooler."

Sonic was waiting for Sally to come up the aisle. Elias was going to accompany her to the alter. Sonic was incredibly nervous, and was tapping his foot like crazy.

"Calm down, Sonic." Said Tails.

"I just want to get this over with before something happens." He replied.

"But nothing's happened in a month."

"Exactly. Something is going to happen today. I just know it."

"I think you're getting a little paranoid, Sonic."

"It's not paranoia. It's experience."

At that moment, Sally came walking down the aisle with Elias holding her arm. NICOLE, Bunnie and Julie-Su coming behind them. She was wearing a white wedding dress with a flower lined veil and carrying a bouquet of yellow roses.

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in the spirit of joining two beings in the bond of matrimony." Said the priest. "Do you, Sally Alicia Acorn, take Sonic the Hedgehog-"

"Excuse me." Said Sonic's father Jules. "I think you mean Ol-"

"Dad, it's been taken care of!" Said Sonic hurriedly.

"Sorry."

"To be your lawful spouse." Continued the priest. "Until death do you part?"

"I do." Said Sally.

"Do you, Sonic the Hedgehog, take Sally Alicia Acorn to be your lawful spouse. Until death do you part?"

"I do." He said.

"Then by the power vested in me, by the city of New Mobotropolis, I hereby pronounce you husband and wife."

Sonic dashed towards Sally, kissing her.

"Err... You may now kiss the bride." Said the priest, somewhat unnecessarily.

Everyone clapped for the newly weds. All except the commander, who kept staring at Shadow. It was all very touching. Vector the Crocodile was even in tears.

The reception was beautiful. Mina Mongoose was providing the music for the occasion. Commander Westwood still hadn't taken his eyes off Shadow. It was starting to make him nervous. Well, the staring wasn't. But the fact that the commander had his hand very close to his pocket, which had a bulge very similar to that of a Sig Sauer, certainly was.

Omega was talking with NICOLE near the buffet table. The two had recently begun a relationship. Omega had joined the Freedom Fighters allies, GUN, so they were seeing a lot of each other. NICOLE was enjoying the music and they were discussing that. Omega could see her glancing at the food every so often. Eating wasn't one the functions NICOLE had so she couldn't try any.

"Ah, you must be Omega." Said a middle aged blue hedgehog. He had thick grey bushy eyebrows along with a moustache to match, and was wearing a Council of Acorn uniform.

"Hello, Chuck." Said NICOLE. "I didn't see you at the ceremony."

"I was late." Said Chuck. "I had some very important work to do. But I made it for the most important part."

"You are Sir Charles Hedgehog?" Said Omega.

"Please call me Chuck. I was wondering if I could ask a favour of you, Omega? It's a very important matter. Could we discuss it in private?"

"Certainly." Said NICOLE.

As soon as NICOLE was gone, Chuck continued talking. "What I want you to do is give me some of your information about Robotnik."

"I don't see why this needed to be in private." Said Omega.

"It's a surprise for NICOLE and my brother, Jules. The Freedom Fighters found some very interesting technology that they brought to me. Robotnik has been using it for years. I think NICOLE and Jules would like it a lot."

"What is it?"

Chuck leaned in to where Omega's ear would be, and by coincidence his sonar was there too.

"Can I see it?" Said Omega.

"Certainly. Follow me."

Shadow was getting some wine for Rouge, when he overheard Omega and Chuck's conversation. Shadow liked Chuck. He hadn't actually met him, but from what he heard he was a lot like Professor Gerald. It was quite interesting. Strange how intriguing a few short sentences can be. Shadow was trying to ignore the fact that the commander kept staring at him. According to Topaz, the he had requested to be moved to GUN Base 56. The base where Shadow, Rouge and Topaz were stationed. The commander was currently stationed at GUN Base 1, all the top agents were sent there. Shadow thought about Rouge. He knew it was a mistake dating her. He was immortal and Rouge wasn't. He'd outlive her. He already lost one person he loved, he wasn't sure if he could go through it again. But Sir Charles might have an answer.

"Excuse me." Said Shadow. "Could I go as well?"

"May I ask why you want to come?" Said Chuck.

"It's a personal matter."

"Very well. This way you two."

Shadow had picked the perfect time to leave. For at that moment, devastation broke loose.

The sky had turned red, lighting and thunder came in to vision, and the clouds were swirling to make a city sized hole in the sky. The people of New Mobotropolis weren't worried about this. The same thing happened the last time the "Fire in the sky festival" took place 50 years ago. But then, enormous black creatures descended from the sky and landed on the reception. They crashed through the roof and immediately began attacking the guests.

"I just knew something like this was gonna happen!" Said Sonic. "Time for the old spin-dash."

Sonic charged one of the creatures, but it used a shield to stop him. The creature then used a strange weapon and sucked Sonic in to it.

"It's got Sonic!" Said Sally.

Everyone turned their gaze to where Sally was pointing.

The black alien was running towards a strange winged creature. They were all after it in a heartbeat.

The black creature ran towards the other creature and them jumped on it. They flew off with Sonic, towards a blue space ship that had just appeared.

"Sonic!" Cried Sally.

Eggman's escape

"This is all your fault, Ivo!" Said Snively in his cell.

"Oh, shut up, Snively!" Said Eggman "They may have won the battle, but the war goes on!"

"I think you'll find that they've won that too."

"Or so they think."

"What do you mean?"

"I still have a few tricks up my sleeve."

There was suddenly screams of terror coming from the wedding.

"Is that one of them?" Said Snively.

"No." Eggman leaned towards the tiny window in his cell. "My oh my, it certainly does sound like quite the party. It also sounds like the ideal diversion."

Eggman pressed one of the golden buttons on his suit. There was suddenly a high pitched screech that made the cell doors explode.

"Now to make our escape." Said Eggman.

"What about the guards?" Said Snively.

"What guards? NICOLE is the only one here who watches the prisoners and she's at the wedding."

"What if she comes back?"

"That will be all the more likely if we don't get out of here now."

He pressed another one of his buttons. Within a matter of seconds, the prison doors were vaporised by laser fire, with Eggman's Eggmobile being the cause.

"Here's our transport." Said Eggman, walking towards the craft. "Did they honestly think they could keep my technology under lock and key for long?"

They took off. Eggman was about to shout out "Goodbye Freedom Fools" in triumphant glee. But then he saw the Black creatures. His features could have been etched in stone.

"Are you alright sir?" Said Snively.

"No. No I'm not alright. It appears we have some competition." Said Eggman, snapping back to reality. "I knew these creatures were coming, but I didn't expect anything like this. We must go to Iron Jungle. Is the Death Egg ready, Snively?"

"I don't know, sir. It should be."

"Were the added features of space travel finished before we were captured?"

"Yes, sir."

"What about my new mechs?"

"Fully operational, sir."

"Excellent. We must be ready to take on our visitors."

Sonic couldn't understand what had happened. He tried to take out one of the creatures and he'd been sucked towards it by a strange weapon, and then darkness. The same darkness he was in now. He tried escaping using his spin dash, but nothing worked.

Then, light appeared. An odd purple light. He was then tossed out of his prison. Before him stood an odd figure. Well, you couldn't say stood since it was floating five feet off the ground. It had a very menacing appearance. It, unlike the rest of it's species, had three glowing red eyes, was wearing a worn robe, and various golden chains decorated with star symbols along with gems like Sonic had never seen before.

"You idiots!" The creature roared with a booming and terrifying voice, despite the lack of mouth. "You've captured the wrong hedgehog!"

"Who are you?" Said Sonic.

"That is no concern of yours!"

"I demand to know who you guys are! If you are guys."

"We are the greatest and most powerful species in the universe! We come to Mobius after a fifty year long wait to retrieve what is rightfully mine!"

"Fifty years? Wait a minute-you're Black Doom aren't you? And these are the Black Arms. I remember Gerald talking about you!"

"Such knowledge for a being in his adolescence. How do you know of Professor Gerald?"

"I saw inside his diary. Now what do you want!?"

"Your planet. We are fighting a war, and my soldiers need energy. The humans and mobians provide just that. These beings are perfect for our needs."

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Sonic tried to attack Black Doom, but he couldn't move.

"Say all you want, hedgehog. You can't move with my special weapon. This gas, once released, is quickly absorbed in to your blood stream, paralyzing you. We have a more lethal version of this, but I think you could come in useful. Secure him in one of the Black Arm holding cells next to Ceneca-9009."

"Ceneca-9009? How'd she get here?" Asked Sonic.

"She was handed over to us by the Bem to make sure their planet wasn't destroyed. She was going to be sentenced to death for illegal use of a deroboticizer." Black Doom chuckled. It was an unnerving sound. "That's where I remember you from. The security footage we stole from the Bem. You helped Ceneca-9009 escape. You're Sonic the Hedgehog, aren't you?"

"I'm also know as the blue blur, hero of Mobius, supersonic hero and one stylin' hedgehog hunk."

"Quite an arrogant creature aren't you? What are you waiting for? Imprison him already!!"

Back at the wedding, the guests were fighting for their lives. The Black creatures were too strong for them. NICOLE tried to capture them using her nanites, but they broke free from their prison as if it were sugar glass.

The Commander was firing like crazy until he ran out of bullets. He then proceeded to go hand to hand. All credit to him, he held his own as if he were thirty years younger.

Multiple Freedom Fighters were trying to hold back the attack.

"We've got to regroup!" Said Lupe. "Whatever these creatures are they're too powerful for us. We need reinforcements!"

"I'll go." Said Rouge. "I'm the fastest flyer here. And I know a few manoeuvres."

Rouge ascended in to the air with remarkable speed. She dodged every laser fired at her, which is harder than it sounds while wearing a dress.

Then a huge black figure, about fifteen feet tall, used a giant club to knock Rouge to the ground. She was flung in to a wall and rubble trapped her wing. The giant moved in for the final strike.

"Help!" Rouge yelled.

As if on cue, Chuck, Omega and Shadow came bombing in. Omega was about to unleash his arsenal on the creature, when Shadow stopped him.

"I'll take care of this. You help the others."

"Affirmative." Said the robot.

Shadow took a look at the creature. It was mountainous. He certainly wished he had a weapon. Then he spotted a suit of armour, complete with lance and flail. Perfect.

"Back off pal!" Said Rouge.

The creature roared. It was an incredibly terrifying sound. It was too much for Rouge's sensitive ears, knocking her out cold.

The creature was about to crush Rouge with his club, when he was hit in the back by a spiked ball. It looked behind itself to see Shadow in an ancient suit of armour. Or at least half of it. Back in Mobius' medieval times, knights were roughly five feet tall. Which is quite big compared to the average mobian.

"Back away from the bat, ugly." Said Shadow.

He swung the mace at the giants head, making direct contact.

The beast took a few unconcious steps backwards, trying desperately to gain back its balance from the assault.

Shadow was after the beast in under a second. He moved so fast that he looked for all the world like a silver and black blur. He attacked every inch of the creature's body he could find. Until finally, it fell to the ground unconscious.

Shadow went over to check on Rouge.

"Rouge? Are you okay."

It took her a moment to realize it was Shadow as he had his visor closed.

"Fine. Now, do you mind telling me what the Lancelot outfit is for?"

"You always said that you thought the love of your life would be your knight in shining armour." The hedgehog replied with a smirk.

Omega was driving back the black creatures with his weapons. "Omega Machine Gun!" The robot said while firing a hail of bullets at the aliens.

Thay all scattered, unprepared for the oncoming assault.

"We've got them on the run!" Shouted Sally.

The creatures fired on Omega, but his armour was too strong and their laser fire bounced right off him.

Then Shadow came in with Rouge.

"May I?" Said Shadow to Omega, raising his flail.

"Certainly."

Shadow spun on the spot. He used the spiked ball to knock back the creatures. Then, he abandoned the mace altogether, diving for one of the strange alien weapons. He lifted what looked like a gun and started firing.

The aliens went down one by one. A few were armed with shields that stopped the lasers.

"Retreat! Retreat!" Yelled out one of the creatures.

All of a sudden, all of the creatures were teleported out of the castle.

The commander wasted no time in contacting headquarters.

"GUN Base 53? This is Commander Lionel Westwood. We have just been attacked by black aliens. I want a satellite operational immediately to locate these creatures."

"Yes, sir." Said the GUN agent on the communicator. "We'll send our best-"

"NO! You'll send my best. Contact Paladin Team Sigma Alpha-1, ASAP. Topaz, you'll escort me back to GUN Base 53. Team Dark will stay here and investigate." Team Dark was the nick-name the GUN soldiers had given Shadow, Rouge and Omega after they were assigned to become a group to combat some of the more tougher enemies.

"Yes, sir." Said Topaz.

"Sir, with all due respect, we need everyone we can get here." Said Sally.

"Why?" He responded.

"My husband just got kidnapped! He could even be dead. And I need everything we've got to help find him."

"I didn't say I wasn't going to help. If these creatures are aliens then they've come from space. My best troops and I are going up to the ARK to see if we can learn something of these creatures."

"They're the Black Arms, sir." Said Shadow. "They came to Mobius fifty years ago. Their leader, Black Doom, helped to make me. I have no proof, but there is not a doubt in my mind that they were after me. They must have thought Sonic was me. I mean it has happened before."

"It is true that Sonic has been mistaken for you, and by some of the best. But why they kidnapped him is not the priority. Stopping them is."

Knuckles came walking in at this moment before Sally started yelling at the commander.

"Hey! Shadow knight! King Arfur wants a meeting at the round table."

"This is no time for jokes." Said Shadow.

"Well somebody has to keep the moral up since Sonic isn't here."

NICOLE came towards Sally, she appeared to be in a state of shock.

"What's wrong NICOLE?" Said Sally. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"S-Sally." The AI stuttered. And when an AI stutters, you know it's bad. "I just went to check on the holding cells, and Eggman has escaped."

Shadow was so shocked he dropped his flail, which wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't landed on Knuckles' foot.

Doom's reckoning

Eggman was in the Lava Shelter, below Iron Jungle.

"I don't see why you couldn't have told me about this." Said Snively.

"Because my dear nephew, the only way to have a secret base to make back-up robots-IS IF IT'S A SECRET!" Said Eggman. "Now, keep your eyes on the radar! I want to be aware of any extraterrestrial activity on Mobius."

Snively walked back over to the radar.

"Then let me make you aware of this. Extraterrestrial activity in the Great Canyon."

"The Great Canyon?"

"Glyphic Canyon to be more precise, sir."

"Excellent. Ready the rebuilt Egg Pawns and Egg Fleet."

"But the Egg Fleet hasn't been installed with space travel components yet."

"Then we won't go in to space then! Just drive them off the planet!"

"Yes, sir."

"What!?" Said Sally. "What do you mean were not going after Sonic!?"

"These 'Black Arms' and Eggman must be dealt with first." Said Elias. "The council has made up it's mind. We cannot take any action without a plan. We know little of these creatures. They could even by allying themselves with Doctor Eggman. Our priority is to make sure our citizens are safe."

"What's Sonic then?"

"I didn't mean it like that, Sally. Sister, you're clutching at straws here. Accept the fact that Sonic is-"

"Oh be quiet you complete idiot!" Piped up Dimitri. "Shadow says that they must have mistaken Sonic for him. And Black Doom thinks that Shadow is his weapon. The key to conqering this planet. Not exactly something you'd take likely and kill. I grant you that he may be dead, but so far almost every decision this council has made has been a mistake. One of your first acts resulted in the death of my nephew. Or have you yet to realize that you're probably as much to blame for Locke's death as Dr. Finitevus?"

All of the council members were silenced by this.

"You have no control over my people." Dimitri continued. "And I intend to find Sonic. Everyone thought he was dead for almost a year. He's been through far too much to die that easily. I shall order my people to help find Sonic. Anyone willing to come with me may do so."

"Now hang on-" Said Elias.

"Don't even try to stop me." Snapped Dimitri. "Otherwise you'll get a few flame swords in the back from my legion."

He hovered outside, quickly followed by the Freedom Fighters. Sally came up to him.

"Thank you, Dimitri."

"It was the least I could do for the help you've given my people. And it is the least I could do for Sonic after all he's done for Mobius."

"But how will you find him?"

Dimitri let out a sigh. "I don't know. I'm clutching at straws here myself."

Suddenly, NICOLE appeared in front of them.

"Sally! There's some unknown black army in the Great Canyon. Satellite footage confirms it's the Black Arms. They're heading to an ancient ruin called-"

"Glyphic Canyon." Completed Knuckles.

"You know of it?" Said Sally.

"It's a pretty famous ruin among us treasure hunters. The ruins there have ancient writing that can't be translated. Archaeologists have been trying for centuries to decipher it, but it doesn't match up to any language on the planet. It's long suspected of being alien."

"Centuries?" Said Sally. "But the Black Arms only came to Mobius fifty years ago."

"As far as we know." Said Julie-Su. "Knuckles told me about these ruins. They're supposed to be at least two thousand years old. If these ruins do belong to the Black Arms the question we should be asking ourselves is 'why did they leave them here?'"

"You actually listened to that?" Said Knuckles sounding surprised.

"Yeah. Believe it or not, I like history."

"This is no time for fooling around!" Snapped Sally. "Shadow! Can you use Chaos Control to take us to Glyphic Canyon?"

"Well, usually I'd need an emerald to transport this many people. But if I use Omega as an energy beacon he can increase the power and take us all there." Said the hedgehog. "Omega, if you please?"

The automaton stepped forward. "Everyone form a circle around me."

They obliged. Shadow jumped on top of Omega's head and began to summon his energy until his hands glowed a bright green. Omega lifted up his arms and extended them to their full length at his sides. His torso then began to spin but his head remained in place. He spun faster and faster until he was covered in green energy.

"Chaos Control!" Said the robot, and they all disappeared in a flash of green light.

Mammoth Mogul was in his casino playing blackjack with the customers. He was really trying to find out if one of them was cheating. The man had got three blackjacks in one go. Surely nobody could be that lucky? But a cheating customer was the least of his worries when a small army of black creatures came charging in.

A huge one crushed the tables as it went by them.

The customers were desperately running for anywhere to hide or escape.

'Humans.' Thought Mogul. 'They're all the same. The moment something they can't explain appears, the fool-hardy ones begin attacking, and the cowards start running like crazy while screaming their heads off like banshees.'

The creatures were now advancing on Mogul.

"Badniks attack!!" He roared.

Scratch and Grounder were the first to attack with SWATbots right behind them. They attacked with laser fire but the alien's shields easily deflected them. The huge one used a giant club and knocked them out of the way.

"I really need better security." Mogul commented. The Black Arms surrounded him now, but that didn't worry Mogul. In fact, it was exactly what he wanted them to do.

"Take this!" He roared. Green energy surrounded the mammoth and then struck the creatures with the force of an atom bomb. They were hurled against the walls and knocked out cold. Because of his mastery of Chaos energy, the customers and furniture were unscratched. Then another creature came in. It was quite different from the others. It was smaller, had tentacles, and red markings around it's single golden eye. It was floating right towards Mogul, when a burst of light erupted from it's eye. Another black creature appeared. It was transparent, giving it a rather ghostly appearance.

"Hand over the Chaos Emerald, Mobian, and I will spare your life." It said with a voice that sent shivers down Mogul's spine.

"Never! I shall not take orders from some unsightly monster such as you!" Said Mogul.

"As you wish!" Black Doom launched what appeared to be meteors at Mogul, knocking him to within an inch of unconsciousness. Black Doom was levitating towards Mogul, when Ixis Naugus appeared from out of the shadows, literally. Naugus hissed at the strange creature who had incapacitated his master.

"Foolish beast!" Said Black Doom and he swiped his hand through the air and Naugus appeared to have been hit by an invisible cannon ball. He was knocked against a wall right next to his master.

Black Doom reached out a three-fingered hand to Mogul's chest and pulled out the Chaos Emerald. He then placed both his hands on the mammoth's and Naugus' heads.

"So now there are only seven Chaos Emeralds." He said. "That explains why none of them were on the planets we left them on. Now they're in a place called the Special Zone. I will send my troops to collect them." Black Doom turned to Mogul and Naugus. "Now, I shall take you two back to the Black Comet. You have a remarkable amount of knowledge about Mobius and this Special Zone. That may keep you alive, for now." He levitated the Chaos Emerald so it was now above his head. "Chaos Control!" There was a bright flash of light, and the Black Arms, Mogul and Naugus disappeared.

Our heroes ungracefully landed on an ancient ruin far above the ground. Shadow was the first to get up.

"We definitely need to work on your landings, Omega." He said. Shadow walked over to a nearby ledge to get a better look at all the ruins. He saw hordes of Black Arms going through them. They seemed to be looking for something.

"Hmm...there's definitely something going on out there. There are dozens of Black Arms all over the place."

"Then we'd better not waste any time." Said Lien-Da.

Shadow and Knuckles walked on ahead with the others following close behind them. Sally stopped when she saw strange writing on the walls of one the buildings they entered, it had giant statues and a massive green gem secured by stone that seemed to be used for providing light.

"Is this the ancient language you were talking about, Knuckles?" Said Sally.

"Yep, that's them. Countless scientists and archaeologists have been trying to figure it out. The most recent of them is William Le Duck, the famous adventurer, who actually made some progress." Said the Echidna.

"How much did he decipher?"

"Two words. 'Death ships'. Possibly in the same sentence, but nobody knows how these aliens use words in writing. It could be like Human Latin where 'is' is left at the end of a sentence."

Sally took another look at the writing, then got an idea. "NICOLE, have you finished that scan of Sonic's alien implant that allows him to understand other languages?"

"Yes, Sally. Why? Oh, I get it. You think I could translate using the implant." Said NICOLE.

"It's worth a shot."

"But I thought that only worked on languages that someone said." Said Bunnie.

"It does, but Sonic said he could read alien languages as well."

NICOLE began to scan the ancient writing on the wall and converted it into English. "Translation complete, Sally." Said NICOLE.

Sally began to read the Black Arms message on NICOLE's screen, and the more she read, the worse the look of terror on her face became. "Oh, my gosh! These ruins are-" She was cut off by the massive earthquake that had just struck as the ruins began to levitate.

Eggman was aboard the flagship of his rebuilt Egg Fleet heading to Glyphic Canyon, when Snively informed him of something.

"Sir, these ruins that we're heading to, are suspected of being alien." He said. "These ruins could belong to the Black Arms."

"I know that!" Eggman replied. "I'm not a genius for nothing you know. And I'm also aware that there is an ancient language that can't be read by Mobians. But I've thought of a way around that. In fact my Egg Hackers are in the process of doing it now."

"Doing what, sir?"

"Breaking in to the Bem's mainframe. I've managed to translate their language already. What I'm looking for is a basic translator for the Black Arms language on one of their computers. It's hardly going to be protected."

A computer monitor came to life with big neon green letters saying "Translator aquired."

"Finally. Now let's see if we can shed some light on what these Black Arms are up to." Said Eggman while walking up to the monitor. He selected a file that held scans of the alien language and began to decipher it. It read "Beware those who enter upon these monuments, for they are the carriers of death and destrucion. They are some of our greatest weapons, known as 'Death Ships'. We bring them to this planet so we may salvage it for our purposes, so we may destroy threats and most importantly, so we may annihilate this world when our tasks are done. You may try and warn your fellow species, but it will do no good. No one can escape the wrath of the Black Arms."

Eggman read this aloud so Snively could hear, but he was more focused on the monitors surveying Glyphic Canyon.

"Sir, you've got to see this!" He said. "Glypic Canyon is-is"

"Is what!?" Said Eggman impatiently.

"It's taking off."

The Freedom Fighters and allies shook violently as the ruins left the ground. The ancient supports that had made Glyphic Canyon so high above the rest of the land, began to crumble. Sally and the others were knocked into wall after wall and were badly bruised when the shaking stopped. They exited the room they were in and found another black creature hovering above the ground.

"It appears we have a few stowaways." It said. "And all stowaways must be punished. Begone!" A ring of black clouds appeared around him and then sent out meteors knocking most of the heroes out, one by one. Shadow, Bunnie, Omega, Dimitri, Sally and Lien-Da were the only ones left. Shadow used a spin-dash, but Black Doom caught him with his hand and threw him against a wall.

"So this is my ultimate weapon."

"I'm no weapon of yours, Black Doom." Said Shadow before releasing a Chaos Spear. Black Doom used a similar attack, but red instead of yellow. Shadow got knocked back a few steps. "Is that all you've got." He said before falling to the ground.

"My attacks are even more powerful than you think." Said Black Doom. "Now, all traitors will be met with no mercy." He summoned a purple energy boomerang and was about to decapitate Shadow with it, when a huge blue and yellow spiked ball closed the gap between them. Black Doom looked up to see a giant metal mech. It looked like a enormous, bulky, red and blue Egg Pawn with a spiked ball for a right hand, and Eggman sticking out of it's head.

"Sorry to ruin your fun, but I'm the only one allowed to destroy these miserable mammals!" Said Eggman. "But what do you say to another little game with me?"

Black Doom let out a laugh. "If you think that a pompous being such as yourself can defeat me, then you have no idea what you're up against."

"Those are fighting words, and I say 'bring it on.'"

Finding of forefathers

Eggman struck first with a deadly uppercut from the right hand of his mech, which was brandishing the spiked ball. Black Doom was knocked five metres into the air by the blow. He countered by firing meteors at the mech knocking it to it's knees in seconds. He hovered towards Doctor Eggman, who was lying unconscious.

"Now, I'll take care of you before I destroy these other worthless Mobo-Sapiens." He said as he reached out a hand towards Eggman. He grabbed him by the collar of his uniform, or he tried to. His hand kept going straight through the doctor's neck.

"Did you really think I'd attack an unknown and extremely powerful force in person? That's what remote controlled mechs and holograms are for!" Said Eggman with glee. The mech then jumped up into the air and tried to smash Black Doom from above. "Lights out!" Yelled Eggman. Black Doom teleported away moments before the Egg Breaker crushed him.

"Where'd you go!?" Said Eggman. Black Doom's reply was a swift attack of Chaos Spears.

"Don't think I'll be that easy to take down." Said Eggman. "Snively, ready the Egg Dealer." Another mech appeared in a flash of blue light. This robot was orange with a face similar to Eggman's, it had four rigid legs which it stood on, along with slot reels on the front of it's body and a cockpit on the top. "Handy things my Egg Teleporters." Said Eggman.

Another Eggman appeared in the cockpit of the second robot. "Now behold the power of my latest and greatest creation, the Egg Dealer!"

The robots attacked. The Egg Breaker fired laser beams from it's eyes that Black Doom had to swoop to avoid. It then spun it's torso and electrified orbs with Eggman's face appeared around the automaton from nowhere. "YOU know what they say, the more the merrier!" Said Eggman.

Black Doom fired meteors at the orbs, effectively destroying every one of them.

The Egg Dealer then set it's slots running and circled Black Doom. All three slots landed on the missile.

"Get ready for a real blast! It's time for Missile Fever!" Said the holographic Eggman.

Missiles fired from around the cockpit where Eggman sat and homed in on Black Doom. He used his teleportation ability to avoid them.

The reels went again, this time landing on Egg Pawn.

"Pawn Fever! Prepare to be skewered." Said Eggman.

Egg Pawns of all sorts came out of nowhere and started attacking Black Doom. He called upon more meteors and destroyed all of them in seconds.

"Ohh, that's it! Now you've asked for it!" Said Eggman. The slots went rolling, this time they landed on Shadow's face.

"Shadow Android Fever! You and your army shall now be exterminated by the power of my new Auto-Automatons!"

The Shadow Androids attacked Black Doom with missiles fired from their hands and homing attacks, a few were also equipped with Egg Lasers and other weapons of Eggman's design. They used their hover shoes and flew off into the air. Black Doom couldn't resist gloating.

"Your androids seem defective." He said.

"No. They followed my orders perfectly. They'll destroy your ships much quicker than my Egg Pawns." Said Eggman.

"Enough of this playing around!"

Black Doom hurled more meteors at the Egg Breaker, giving so many holes it looked like Swiss cheese. He then conjured up an energy boomerang.

"En Guarde! Swift Strike!" A massive, purple energy boomerang was launched at the Egg Dealer, effectively cutting off it's legs.

"Onward Badnik horde! Vanquish all in the name of the Eggman Empire!" Said a tinny voice through a golden Egg Leader Pawn. All of Eggman's robots were advancing on the Death Ships and were trying to locate what kept them in the air.

A huge Egg Pawn kept knocking away all the Black Arms giants, called "Black Oaks," from the the other pawns with it's giant mallet. The Black Oaks were using their alien clubs and bazookas to try and take it down, but it's armour was too strong.

"Attention, Egg Leader Pawn." Said the voice of Snively through the robot's communicator. "I've used the scanners and detected strong magnetic fields coming from around five gems on various ships. One of them is in a small room on a ship close by. I believe them to be the ship's power sources. Destroy them at once!"

All the ships containing gems were now highlighted in red through all of the Egg Pawn's eyes.

"Aye, aye, sir." Said the Egg Leader Pawn. "Forward Badnik horde! Board that ship!"

The robots activated the booster rockets on their feet and flew towards the ship. There were a few Black Arm foot-soldiers when they arrived, but a few shots from their lasers easily dealt with them. One Egg Pawn wielding a bazooka blasted down the ancient stone door that stood in their way. Black Oaks immediately ran towards them, but two giant Egg Pawns quickly defeated them. The Egg Leader Pawn located the jewel powering the ship. It was the same jewel the Freedom Fighters had seen earlier. The Egg Bazooka Pawns and Egg Gunner Pawns launched their weapons on it, but had no effect. The gem seemed to be protected by a shield.

"Egg Hammer Pawn!" Said golden robot. "Destroy that gem!"

"Affirmative, Egg Leader Pawn!" It replied in a booming voice. It lifted it's hammer above it's head and struck the gem, shattering it. The ruins started to shake the moment the gem was smashed.

"Badnik Horde evacuate!" Said the Egg Leader Pawn, flying out of the ship.

Explosions were forming around the centre of the other ships as they fell towards the ground. The Egg Pawns and Shadow Androids had been successful in their mission.

Black Doom was furious. His most powerful ships had been destroyed by a bumbling Overlander scientist. He turned towards the hologram of Eggman in the Egg Breaker.

"You shall pay for this!" Said Black Doom.

"Resorted to making threats now, are we? How the mighty have fallen." Said Eggman.

Black Doom summoned meteors around himself once more. He hovered higher into the air to get a clear shot at Eggman's flagship, the same one that Eggman was in.

"Now you shall learn what happens to those who defy the Black Arms!" He said. He was about to stike the ship when Shadow used a spin-dash to knock him in the head.

"No one lays a hand on the doctor except me!" Said Shadow after he landed.

Black Doom was about to attack Shadow when the Egg Fleet opened fire on the ship they were on.

"We will settle this tomorrow, Shadow, then all shall be revealed." Said Black Doom before teleporting off.

There was no time to lose. Shadow rushed towards Omega and leapt atop his head. Everyone circled in. Omega was about to start spinning to activate Chaos Control and go back to New Mobotroplis when Shadow said "Land on Eggman's flagship!" The automaton obliged and started spinning, faster and faster until they disappeared in a blinding light.

Topaz was with Commander Lionel Westwood in the loading bay. He had let her come along as they needed a tactician of her level on the team to think fast should things go south. He was giving a pep talk to Paladin Team Sigma-Alpha 1. They were some of the biggest and bulkiest men Topaz had ever seen. All of them carrying their standard issue weapons. Their boots shone and their uniforms were clean and well done. The spitting image of a disciplined soldier.

"Soldiers, no poor sap ever won a war by dying for his planet." Said the commander. "He won it by being all that he can be. Darn the torpedoes, or give me death! Eternal vigilance is the price of duty. And, to the victors go the spoils. So remember: you are the best of the best of the few and the proud. So ask not what your planet can do for you, only regret that you have but one life to live! The war against the Black Arms will be won! Guardian Units of Nations, let the first shot be fired! Search out the Black Arms and frag 'em all!"

Topaz couldn't help but think she'd heard that somewhere before.

"What's our first move, sir?" She said.

"We shall go to Space Colony ARK." He replied. "The ARK was equipped with special technology to locate alien life forms. Also to detect weaponry on alien ships if any appeared. We're going to use the GUN rocket so they can see us to go to the ARK so they think we're going to scan their ship for weaknesses, but we're actually going to use the ARK's space transporter to sneak into the Black Comet."

"Why would we want to go into the comet?"

"The last time the Black Arms showed up was fifty years ago, the same time as the Black Comet. Plus, Black Arms, Black Comet. It was named by Professor Gerald who worked with Black Doom. The connection is obvious."

Topaz had to admit he was right. The commander was smarter than he looked, although no one could possibly be that stupid.

"Well that went well." Said Eggman sarcastically.

"What are you talking about?" Said Snively. "We destroyed their ships, you beat their leader and we didn't lose a single soldier."

"True. But we haven't done significant damage!"

"How do you know that?"

Eggman turned on one of the monitors. "This is how!" He said. The monitor showed a red haired woman in her early thirties with a burning city in the background.

"This is Scarlet Garcia coming to you live from downtown Westopolis. Barely a month after the city is built it is attacked by black aliens of unknown origin, they have already destroyed most of the city and GUN officials are doing their best to try and keep the situation under con-"

Eggman changed the channel. It now showed another woman in her thirties but with blonde hair and blue eyes.

"This is Susan Baxter live from Central City, the newly created capitol for Humans, Overlanders and Mobians to try and make peace between the three. It is under attack from black creatures with G.U.N. trying to stop this catasrophe-"

Eggman turned the monitor off.

"The Black Arms are striking the new cities that have been made to unify the citizens of Mobius." He said. "I can think of two reasons why. One: they're trying to scare all dominant species by destroying a significant amount of each one. And two: these cities have proclaimed fervently over the past month that there isn't a man, woman, child and apparently even alien that doesn't know about them. That way everyone takes more notice instead of all the towns and cities that have been left in the dust. Quite ingenious. And coming from me that's saying something. We're dealing with a powerful enemy, Snively. We will have to resort to plan B. Is the Death Egg ready?"

"It will be soon, sir." Said Snively. "Twenty minutes maximum."

"Excellent. No doubt the Freedom Fighters will come along to save the day as well."

"Sooner than you think, doctor!" Said Shadow.

"Shadow! How did you get in!?" Asked Eggman.

"I'm not a GUN spy for nothing."

Eggman ran for it with more speed than one would think possible from a man of his physical structure. He leaped off of the control deck of the Lava Shelter and down into the engine room that supplied all the lava, (that was really melted down robot parts ready to be turned into new ones), to his secret exit. Before he could get to it, Lien-Da jumped down to stop him.

"Come quietly, Eggman! There's no way you could get past me!" She said.

"I beg to differ!" He replied. He charged at Lien-Da, knocking her away with a blow of immense strength.

She recovered quickly and ran after him. Eggman had a significant advantage over her with his longer legs, but Lien-Da was fitter, which evened the odds in her favour. Eggman ran towards some safety railings, grabbed them with his hands and heaved himself into the air with the ease of an experienced gymnast. He landed himself expertly on a flat section of the engine.

"How in Aurora's name did you do that?" Lien-Da said, not believing what she was seeing.

"The Bem may have taken away my robotic body but a few of it's abilities stayed with me. Such as strength, speed and agility no matter what condition I'm in." Said Eggman.

"When I'm through with you you'll be in a critical condition." She leapt towards Eggman, but he jumped on to another part of the engine. Lien-Da kept chasing after him but Eggman was too fast. She then noticed a pipe and had an idea. She took out her whip and grabbed the pipe with it with a "crack". She took a step forward and her legs left the ground. She was rushing towards Eggman and when she got close enough, extended her legs and kicked him in the head, knocking him on to the metallic pathway.

Omega grabbed Eggman in a bear-hug before he could get away.

"I should have blown-up all you cursed Echidnas with those bombs I planted in your cybernetics when I had the chance!" Said Eggman.

"Yet another thing you can thank Omega here for, along with his magnificent omni-sensor." Said Dimitri. "He jammed the signal with it."

"So that's why they didn't work."

"Now, tell us why you attacked the Black Arms."

Eggman smiled.

"Do you honestly think I'd let someone else destroy the world I wish to conquer?"

"True. How much do you know about them!?"

"Very little, though I believe I know where their base is."

"Where, doctor?" Said Shadow.

"I figured you'd want to know more than anyone else. I did read my grandfather's diary before you got hold of it." Said Eggman. "It's the Black Comet, discovered by my grandfather Gerald Robotnik. It says that's their base."

"I thought his name was Kintobor, yours is Robotnik." Said Lien-Da.

"Lots of Kintobors called themselves Robotnik, it was the family nick-name. My grandfather usually credited himself as such because he thought it sounded better." Said Eggman.

"Why should we trust a crazy dictatator like you?" Said Sally.

"For the record, only you and forty seven psychiatrists think I'm crazy." Said Eggman.

An alarm suddenly went off at the control desk.

"What's that?" Said Knuckles.

"It's the alarm for my new device." Said Eggman. "I used my Egg Hackers to crack the system of the Zone cops. I'm using their surveillance equipment to see if the Black Arms enter any other zones." Said Eggman.

Tails walked over to the control panel.

"You seem to be short of one spiny blue hedgehog." Eggman commented.

"The Black Arms kidnapped him. We think they mistook him for Shadow." Said Sally.

"Interesting. That could come in useful." He replied.

"Aunt Sally." Said Tails.

"Yes, Tails?" She replied.

"Black Doom's in the Special Zone and he's attacking Feist."

Feist was holding out a strong fight against Black Doom. The panda was omnipotent in the Special Zone, but this new force was incredibly powerful and more than a match for him.

The black creatures were easily defeating Feist's army of goblins, so no help there.

He'd have to go against their leader face-to-face. He was about to go out and confront their leader, when the hologram of Black Doom came towards him. He spoke with a voice Feist was sure would haunt him to his dying day.

"Hand over all six Chaos Emeralds and your life will be spared." Said Black Doom.

"The Chaos Emeralds?" Said Feist. "I shall not just hand them over to you, you must earn them by completing a challenge. A simple game of treasure hunting. Locate all six emeralds through the Special Zone and you may have them, but you'll have to get through my minions and traps first. Good luck." And with that, he disappeared.

"Black Arms, search every part of this zone for the Chaos Emeralds!" Black Doom commanded. "Do not rest until you find every last one!"

"This is bad. This is very, very bad." Said Tails.

"Tails is correct." Said Omega. "But to unleash the full power of the emeralds you need all seven, according to my databanks."

"He's right. The last one belongs to Mogul and he'd never give it up." Said NICOLE.

Eggman chuckled.

"Well, not willingly." He said. "I took the liberty of hacking into all security cameras on the planet to monitor Black Arm activity. I've been preparing for this moment ever since I learned about them in grandfather's diary. I originally thought of them as no threat, but I thought it a good idea to keep an eye on them. A wise move after seeing them at the wedding, and an especially wise move after seeing Black Doom take down Mogul."

"He took down Mogul?" Said Tails.

"In only a few minutes. You've taken longer than that with super forms and an army."

Sally sighed, "This is going to take everything we've got. We've got to stop this menace before he gets all seven emeralds."

"Very true, princess. And very uplifting, but you don't stand a chance against them, without me." Said Eggman.

"Are you suggesting an alliance?"

"I'm not about to let a world I'm trying to take over be conqered by a pathetic excuse for E.T.. I've got the genius, you've got the powers. What do you say?"

Eggman extended a hand. Sally shook it.

"Deal. But I'll be keeping a close eye on you!" She said.

"Very well. There's nothing worth betraying you for anyway. Now, the first thing we'll need is some back-up from Knuckles' ancestors. Their knowledge of Chaos will be very useful." Said Eggman.

"No go. The Brotherhood of Guardians has disappeared." Said Knuckles.

"And I know just where to look for them."

"What? You do? Where are they?"

"A little place called the Twilight Zone. I believe your cousins are familiar with it."

"How did they wind up there?"

"Beats me. I may be a genius, but I'm not clairvoyant. Since we're in a rush, I'd recommend someone who's been there before, but obviously it needs to be someone we can trust, given the Dark Legion's history with the brotherhood."

Lien-Da stepped forward.

"I'll go. I know the Twilight Zone better than anybody." She said.

"Thank you, Kommissar." Said Knuckles.

"I wish to accompany Lien-Da." Said Omega. "My sensors will help us find the brotherhood faster."

"I don't mind it." Said Lien-Da.

"We'll use the prototype dimensional transporter I made to send you to the Twilight Zone. I've been trying to make a functioning dimensional transporter to go to the Anti-Verse for a while now, most of the prototypes are here." Said Eggman. "There's got to be at least one of them can get you to the Twilight Zone."

"You don't know." Said Lien-Da.

"I've been trying to get to Anti-Mobius. Other zones don't interest me. I always send my robots in there to do the job for me, so I'm not sure if a flesh being will survive it. Oh, well. Good luck!" Said Eggman.

"Thanks for the confidence booster."

Black Doom was thinking over tactics for the upcoming battle. The new threat would be tough to deal with. They were certainly "on par," as the Earthlings called it, with the Black Arms. His train of thought was interrupted by a Black Arm soldier. He had with him a little green alien girl who seemed to be made entirely of plants. She wore a long-sleeved green and white dress with a red amulet in the centre, green slippers and golden wristbands/bracelets on her wrist, and flower buds on the side of her head. Black Doom had seen her before. She was the messenger that his new enemies sent after they had secured a date for a battle. She walked up to Black Doom with the unmistakable look of terror in her eyes.

"B-Black Doom, sir." She said. "My people wish to do battle in seventy two Galactic weeks."

"Tell them it can be done in forty eight if they wish." Said Black Doom.

"Very good, sir."

"Also tell them that they might need all seventy two Galactic weeks to try to figure out how to destroy my new weapon."

"Yes, sir. May I ask a question of my own?"

"Yes."

"What is this weapon?"

"The Ultimate Life Form, Shadow the Hedgehog."

"What can he do?"

"Your leaders shall see soon enough. Now, report to Dark Oak."

"Yes, sir."

Lien-Da and Omega were waiting for Eggman to finish putting in the coordinates for the Twilight Zone. He had used a special computer program to find which one was capable of going to the Twilight Zone. Good thing too. Even if he did know which one could go to the Twilight Zone from memory, it would take ages to find because they were all Star Posts.

"OK, you're all set." Said Eggman. "All you need to do is locate the brotherhood. They're the only living beings there so they'll be easy to find with Omega's sensors."

"You're not going to trap us in there, are you?" Said Lien-Da.

"In front of all these Freedom Fighters? Why that's pure genius!"

"Can you blame me for being suspicious after what Omega and I did to you?"

"Good point. Just recover the Guardians and I'll pull you right out."

Eggman got ready to activate the machine.

"OK. Here we go." He said and pushed the activation button and a portal appeared between the Star Posts.

Lien-Da and Omega jumped into the portal. They were experiencing the same effects as they had when they entered the portal to Anti-Mobius. They exited in what looked like the middle of space. Lien-Da remembered this place. It was a never ending wasteland of emptiness.

"Detecting five Mobian heat sources." Said Omega.

"Five? There are only four in here. Are they all Echidnas?" Said Lien-Da.

"Affirmative."

Lien-Da grabbed the pipes that embraced Omega's waist to make sure she didn't get thrown off.

"Go full speed ahead towards them!"

"Affirmative. Omega Boost!"

Omega took off like a bullet from a gun. His rocket boosters were going at their maximum speed. Within a few seconds they were at the location of the heat sources. It was easy to tell they were there from the huge flashes of green light coming from Chaos powered attacks. Lien-Da and Omega could see two Echidnas fighting, one in a cloak and helmet, and another in a blue uniform with a red M on the front and a yellow cape on the back.

"Grandfather Moritori?" Said Lien-Da. "How did he get here? And how does he know how to use the Chaos Force?"

"Questions can wait. We must stop them before they kill each other." Said Omega before racing towards them.

"A robot with a sense of right. Just as I was beginning to like him." Commented Lien-Da.

Spectre and Moritori Rex, for of course it was them, were fighting to the death. Spectre had broken off from the rest of the brotherhood just to find Moritori. He attacked with Chaos Spears and Moritori did the same. You could see they were getting tired, both far beyond their prime. But Spectre's hate fueled his actions. He was about to deliver the final strike, when a metallic hand, twice the size of his own, grabbed his entire upper body. It came from a red robot, who had extended it from his arm using rope from his hand to his arm that appeared to be made enierly out of piano wire. Spectre tried using Chaos Energy to destroy the hand, but the metal was too strong, obviously made out of solid Mobibendum. Moritori ran for it.

"Let go of me! Before he gets away!" Said Spectre.

Omega caught Moritori the same way he caught Spectre. He then reeled him in, Moritori cursing all the way.

"Grandfather, are you OK?" Said Lien-Da.

"You! What are you doing here!?" Said Spectre.

"I came to rescue you and your relatives."

"Why would you do that?"

"We are family aren't we, Spectre?"

"Like I'm going to believe that!"

"I shall explain everything once we've got everyone out of here."

As if on cue, the other members of the brotherhood came rushing forward.

Thunderhawk's muzzle was such a deep purple because of his anger that it matched his fur.

"Release him at once!" He commanded.

"With Moritori within a hundred miles, I'm not so sure that would be a good idea." Said Sabre.

He took a look at Lien-Da, then Omega.

"Started making robots have you?"

"No. Omega here was made by Doctor Eggman." Said Lien-Da. "But luckily for us he's quite rebellious."

Despite his complete lack of facial features, Omega somehow managed to give Lien-Da a look that said "If I had an eye brow, I'd raise it."

"We must exit the Twilight Zone immediately." He said.

"Why the rush?" Said Sojourner.

"Mobius is under attack from aliens." Omega replied.

"What!? Again!?"

"Yes, again. This time from aliens called the Black Arms." Said Lien-Da. "They were fighting the Xorda, the same ones that tried to destroy us nearly a year ago, and managed to defeat them. We need all the help we can get."

"So, you only came here to rescue us so we could act as mercenaries!" Said Spectre.

"Listen, do you want to get out of here!?" Lien-Da snapped.

"Yes." Said Spectre.

"Then shut up and follow us! Omega, get us out of this place."

The robot obliged.

"Lien-Da, grab hold of the left side of the pipe around my waist." Omega said. "Echidna in cloak and helmet, grab hold of the right side of the pipe around my waist. Purple Echidna, grab hold of my left shoulder. Red Echidna, grab hold of my right shoulder. Brown Echidna with monacle, grab on to Lien-Da. Brown Echidna with mechanical eyes, grab on to Echidna in cloak and helmet."

"I'd like to switch!" Said Moritori.

"Very well. Brown Echidna with monacle, switch places with Brown Echidna with mechanical eyes."

Omega then charged up his boosters and took off.

Visions of Maria

The six echidnas and one robot came out of the portal and landed with loud "thumps" and one "clang."

Knuckles was overjoyed to see his family. They'd put him through a lot, but after his father's passing, he yearned to see them.

"Ancestors! You're OK!" Said Knuckles.

Spectre got up first; he did not look happy.

"You've allied yourself with the Dark Legion!" He said. "Locke would be ashamed of you-"

"Locke allied himself with us long before Knuckles did." Cut in Dimitri.

Sabre took a look around.

"Where is my son?" He said.

"I'm afraid he's dead." Replied Dimitri.

Sabre looked to be in a state of shock.

"No. That's not true."

"I'm afraid it is."

"What happened to him?"

"He sacrificed himself to save the world from a great evil. The evil that started the war between our family."

"Enerjak!" Exclaimed Sabre. "You killed my son!"

"I was not Enerjak. A new Echidna took my place."

"Who? Who is the one that murdered my son!?"

Dimitri risked a glance at Knuckles.

"He had no idea what he was doing. He had been under the control of an albino Echidna by the name of Doctor Finitevus."

"Who was it!!"

"It was me grandfather." Said Knuckles with his head held low in shame.

"You became Enerjak?" Said Sabre. "Why?"

"Doctor Finitevus tricked me into using the power of the Master Emerald. He told me that Eggman had wiped out ninety per cent of the Echidnas. I wanted revenge. I was going to use the Master Emerald's power to do so. But Finitevus placed a hex on it so that anyone who tapped into the emerald's power would be loyal to his views of destruction."

The Guardians looked at Knuckles with utter disbelief. The one being they believed could save them all, one who many looked up to as the fabled Avatar, had turned into the menace of Enerjak.

Eggman came up towards the Freedom Fighters.

"Eggman!" Said Spectre. "Apparently you're the main cause of my descendants treachery."

"I had nothing to do with that! I even tried to stop him." Said Eggman.

"You're the one that killed thousands of Echidnas. The reason why Knuckles used the Master Emerald's power!"

"Stop this!" Said Sally.

"Saved by the princess." Eggman commented.

"There's a new threat to Mobius that must be dealt with." She continued. "We need your help. Now more than ever."

"First, I'm sure we'd all like one more thing answered." Said Spectre turning to Moritori. "How can you use Chaos energy?"

"Like I'd tell you!" Said Moritori.

"Maybe not me, but what about my new friend Omega here?"

Spectre winked at him. Omega got the idea. He retracted one of his hands revealing a machine gun. Spectre hadn't expected him to. He thought he'd just grab him in his metallic hands and threaten to crush Moritori, but Omega's strategy worked much better.

"I watched the fire ants teach Spectre how to use it. And I watched Tobor being taught from the Twilight Zone." Said Moritori. "In the zone I can see the people of Mobius but they can't see me."

"Interesting. Perhaps I should have gone to the Twilight Zone sooner." Said Eggman taking notes.

"Don't even think about it!" Said Knuckles.

"All's fair in love and war, as a cocky blue rodent once said."

"What we need now is a good solid plan." Said Sally.

"I've got one ready and waiting." Said Eggman.

"You came up with a plan while they were the Twilight Zone?" Said Sally, impressed.

"No. I came up with a plan just before you miserable mammals tried to capture me. My plan is this: we use my new Death Egg to go to Space Colony ARK to use the unique technology specially designed to scan alien ships and any other known alien means of attacking Mobius. All we have to do is find weaknesses in the ship and that's where we strike with some explosives after we get inside using the space teleporter up there. All we need is my Death Egg, my genius, a few Badnik Hordes and some Eggman Bomboms. I'm sure you two remember those from the last time we went to Prison Island." He winked at Shadow and Rouge.

The two gave Eggman death glares, but he'd had more of these than he had plans wrecked by Sonic and easily shook them off.

"The Death Egg is also equipped with state of the art weaponry, which, naturally I designed myself." Continued Eggman. "We can use it to attack the comet from the outside as a last resort should things take a turn for the worse."

The Brotherhood of Guardians were now thoroughly confused. Knuckles caught sight of this.

"I'll explain on the way there." He said.

"Satellite footage I stole from G.U.N. Shows the Black Comet isn't too far away from the ARK, so we'll get there quick once we're at the space colony. We've only got one shot at this. It's either we win, or the destruction of Mobius. No pressure." Said Eggman. "Let's move out!"

They followed Eggman to a shuttle dock where Eggman's Death Egg was being made, along the way there were various labs, robot building machines and the occasional window showing the Iron Jungle base outside.

"Error." Said Omega "Unable to determine how a base this size has gone undetected. Error."

"I just used a little bit of cloaking technology." Said Eggman. "This base is my ace in the hole if my army is ever destroyed. As it was. Here we are. Behold my latest and greatest creation: the Death Egg."

"Well I'll be heavens to bunny!" Said Bunnie.

The Death Egg was a huge grey and black ship with red lights forming a circle on the bottom, separating the colours with a rocket booster in the centre. It had two blue eyes resembling Eggman's glasses, a brown metal moustache like Eggman, and the small nose the last one had was replaced by a long pointed one like the Eclipse Cannon.

"That is my Final Egg Blaster!" Said Eggman, noticing Tails' surprise at the change from the last Death Egg. "It's the main weapon. Not very powerful though."

Sally wasn't convinced.

"So we use this to go to the ARK?" She said. "This isn't one of your best plans."

Eggman let a "hmmf" slip past his lips.

"I needed a simple and quick plan to fend off these aliens. The last time we fought extraterrestrials they had a weapon that could suck up a whole solar system with time to spare. A complicated plan is the last thing you need when the world as you know it is about to be destroyed!"

"Good point!"

"A quick plan is hardly going to be of any use if we're too slow to put it into action." Tails said. "As Sonic would say, LET'S DO IT TO IT!"

Tails' words put a little extra determination in Sally, and she spread it quickly.

"Come on guys! We've got aliens to beat and a hero to save."

They all rushed into the ship at the same time, except for Eggman who was giving Snively some last minute orders.

"Send a Badnik Horde to the Special Zone to get back the Egg Grapes there." Said Eggman.

"Shall I dump the bodies in the Special Zone?" Said Snively.

"No. Leave them in there. I might as well get a little prize out of this, and what better than the first victims of my Egg Grapes."

Even Snively was appalled by this notion, but he hid it well.

"Yes, sir." He said.

Tails had got everything set before Eggman came in.

"Quite a clever little fox, aren't you?" Said Eggman. "Starting up main engines."

They could feel the ship vibrating as it readied for take-off. A scarlet timer came to life on the controls. Ten seconds until lift off. The tinny robotic voice of the ship's computer then commenced final countdown.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, four, three, two, one, zero. Lift off!"

The Death Egg launched itself into the air, slowly at first, but then it started to quicken. Within minutes they were miles off the ground. Hurtling towards space.

"Exiting Mobius' atmosphere." Said the computer.

Shadow looked of the giant window that was the Death Egg's "eye." He could see the familiar look of Mobius from space. The clouds encircling the planet, all the countries and oceans that looked so beautiful from this high up. It would be years before he could see all the wonders up close, and by that time he was no longer interested. Only revenge enticed him then.

"Welcome to best view of Mobius off Mobius." Said Eggman, unbuckling himself. "We'd better get ready! I, of course, already have a few little something’s for combat situations."

Eggman pressed a button on the main control board, opening a small, hidden armoury behind a wall. Inside were various types of bombs, guns and lasers on weapons racks along with Eggman's Egg Walker that he used during the first time he'd visited the ARK.

"Oh, Daddy missed you my baby!" Said Eggman, rubbing the machine fondly. He then walked over to a nearby black and red laser rifle on one of the racks and picked it up. Amy Rose recognized it immediately. It was the same weapon Eggman had threatened to kill her with on her first trip to the ARK. Eggman caught her eyeing the weapon.

"I see you recognize Matilda here." He said raising the rifle. "This baby will come in very handy against those Black Arms. It can tear through any material on Mobius!"

"But the Black Arms aren't from Mobius!" Amy pointed out.

"It's a figure of speech!"

Meanwhile, the older members of the surviving brotherhood were all looking out towards space while talking, Sabre noticeably less than the others. Knuckles couldn't hear what they were saying, but he knew deep down that his treachery was the main topic of discussion.

Julie-Su was sitting closer to them and heard most of what they were saying. They thought Knuckles had betrayed the Guardian's cause, but he'd managed to do more good than they'd ever done, and she was going to point that out. She got up and walked towards them. The older Echidnas saw her coming and ceased their conversation immediately. Heads soon turned, ready for the obvious show to come.

"I heard what you said about Knuckles!" She said, in a quiet but forceful tone. "You're accusing him of being a traitor. So what if he turned into Enerjak? He helped Mobius more than you ever could. He reunited the Echidnas, he crushed Doctor Eggman's city, he stopped the Dingo take over! What have you done to compare to that?"

The Guardian's were taken aback by this, but remained deadly silent. Knuckles had actually brought more good to the rest of Mobius as one of the world's greatest evils, more than they ever had fighting the Dark Legion.

"I thought so!" Said Julie-Su after they failed to reply. She then walked over to Knuckles and sat down next to him. Knuckles had heard everything and laid a hand on her shoulder and gave her a kiss on the cheek as a thank you.

Almost everyone had witnessed that little scene except Eggman, who was now focused on the ship's instruments.

"We'll reach the ARK in about-WHAT!?" He said as the floor vanished beneath him.

They were now in the middle of space, as if the Death Egg had become invisible and they could see right through it.

The others screamed but Shadow couldn't hear them. It was like someone had put them on mute. Then, Black Doom appeared out of nowhere.

"Shadow, you seemed troubled." He said.

"You!"

"Look." Black Doom pointed a three fingered hand towards what appeared to be half a meteor with technology along the bottom of it with a giant point in the centre. Shadow recognized it immediately.

"That's the..."

"Yes, that's right." Cut in Black Doom. "The Space Colony ARK, 50 years ago."

"The ARK? 50...years ago?"

Shadow then saw two figures through a glass tunnel on the side of the ARK, a black and red hedgehog and a young girl in a blue dress with about a dozen uniformed figures racing after them.

"That's...me and Maria! Huh."

"That's right. This will remind you what the humans did to you." Said Black Doom. "Never forget that horrifying image!"

"Don't listen to him, Shadow!" Rouge tried to scream out, but she couldn't make a sound thanks to Black Doom's powers.

Shadow then vanished as he became a part of his own memories, reliving them through the eyes of the past Shadow.

He and Maria were running for their lives with the advancing GUN soldiers catching them up every step of the way. They turned a corner into a part of the ARK they were forbidden from in case they hurt themselves by messing around with the dangerous machinery.

They kept running, and went to a special blast door in the hopes that the GUN soldiers wouldn't follow. Shadow pressed the "Open" button next to the door and ran inside with Maria, but it was a dead-end. The GUN soldiers had them cornered.

One soldier cocked his pistol and readied to fire at Shadow. There was an incredibly loud bang and a flash as the weapon was fired. In a desperate attempt to save her friend's life, Maria stood in front of Shadow and covered him in her arms.

She loudly moaned in pain from the shot.

"Humans, willing to sacrifice their own when overcome by greed." Said Black Doom in Shadow's mind. "They...are a foolish race." Black Doom had decided that Shadow was ready to be turned and tried to stop the memory from going on, but something stopped him. It was Shadow. He wanted to see the rest of this memory. It was the most emotional one he'd ever had, and had guided him for almost his entire life.

'This is interesting' Black Doom thought. 'Shadow is using my powers for his own needs to keep this illusion going. Perhaps there is more to him than meets the eye.'

Professor Gerald had tutored Shadow in medical treatments for all sorts of different injuries. He needed to get Maria to the hospital bay to save her from the gunshot wound. Shadow lifted Maria up in his arms and shoulder-charged the front GUN soldier, sending the rest toppling down like pins. He raced towards the hospital bay, but Maria then said something to him.

"Shadow, we need to get to Grandfather." She said weakly. "Take us to the emergency evacuation room. There's a secret shortcut there that we can use to get to him without being found by the GUN soldiers."

"No, Maria! We need to get you to the hospital bay!" Said the hedgehog.

"Please Shadow. I need you to go there now. Grandfather is the only one that can help me."

Maria looked the hedgehog in the eyes. Shadow let out a sigh and set off to the emergency evacuation room.

He made sharp turns and several times had to make diversions because of GUN soldiers who immediately followed in hot pursuit. Finally, he managed to get to the emergency evacuation room with the letters E.E.R. above the doorway.

Shadow quickly closed the door and activated the lock.

"That should keep the GUN soldiers out for a while." He said.

"Shadow. Please put me down." Said Maria.

The hedgehog obliged.

"Where's this secret-HEY!"

Maria had pushed Shadow on to an escape pod platform and the hedgehog was immediately trapped in the emergency escape device. Maria then entered instructions to the computer telling it to launch Shadow. GUN soldiers were trying to force their way in by smashing down the door during this. Maria had just finished entering all the instructions when she collapsed. Her life was almost over and she knew it, but she wasn't about to go without telling her best friend her last words.

"Please, Shadow...I need your help! Everyone's fate depends on...YOU!"

"Maria!!" Shadow cried as he was launched towards Mobius, with tears in his eyes. Shadow then ended the illusive memory and turned to Black Doom, still with tears in his eyes.

"I made a promise to her to help the people of Mobius!" He said in a broken voice but with steel in it. "I intend to keep that promise and there's nothing a bloodthirsty tyrant like you can about it!" And with that, Shadow ended the illusion completely and they were all back on the Death Egg.

No one knew quite what to say or do after what had just happened, so they just stood there silently. Then Rouge went up to Shadow and hugged him and the hedgehog returned the hug.

Black Doom's voice broke the silence.

"We are the Black Arms. We are here to take rule of this planet." He said. "Any attempts to resist are futile and will result in death. You Mobians are weak and cannot hope to stop us. Your human allies are just plain pathetic and will be the first ones to be part of our ritual. As of today...this planet is MINE! Now we will begin to exterminate all of the world's leaders who resist."

Sally's thoughts immediately went to her brother Elias.

"Annihilation for this planet is near." Continued Black Doom. "It is time to embrace the dawn of your demise and despair."

Alarms began to go off as they sensed energy building up in some sort of weapon. Eggman went over to the controls and saw that the energy was coming from the ARK. That could only mean one thing.

"Initiating emergency manoeuvres!" Said Eggman.

"What's going on!?" Said Sally.

"It's the Black Arms. They've taken control of the ARK."

"How can you tell?"

Eggman pointed out the window towards the ARK.

"That's how!"

Sally could see the Eclipse Cannon charging up and was aimed in their direction.

Eggman stepped on the gas and zoomed out of the way of the Eclipse Cannon's laser. The blue energy beam missed them and was now heading to Central City. The laser hit and a pulse of energy could be seen going throughout the city, destroying it. This was immediately followed by maniacal laughter from Black Doom.

"I can't believe it." Said Sally. "He killed all those people."

"Not really." Said Eggman. "I intercepted someone from GUN ordering it's soldiers to evacuate the city. Although the president might have still been there."

The president of the United Federation had personally looked over the building of Central City and he had decided to live there in a recreated version of a historic building called the White House, which had long since been destroyed and only existed in ancient photographs and DVDs. He thought that if he lived there with the Mobians and Overlanders it would strengthen their alliance somewhat.

"Let's just hope he wasn't." Said Sally.

"If we're going to proceed with my plan we're going to have to fight the Black Arms. There's bound to be a small army at the least in the ARK. But I'm sure you Freedom Fighters can take them. We just need to make sure they don't send any reinforcements, so I suggest we send someone into the Black Comet early to distract them."

"Are you nuts? Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot who I was talking to."

"Hear me out, will you? I was just going to suggest we send one of my more powerful robots in." Eggman turned around to look at the passengers. "Preferably someone with a lot of firepower."

Omega realized who Eggman had in mind and so had Sally, who turned pleadingly to the robot.

"Please, Omega. We really need your help, and it would be a great opportunity to prove that you are actually the 'ultimate E-series robot.' And I'll even get you a can of motor oil as a bonus."

Omega searched his databanks for excuses but none came that wouldn't affect his pride. So the robot just had an out-of-character moment and said "Me and my big audio system."

In the main cannon control room, Eggman was prepping Omega for his departure.

"Eggman, you never input your chosen method of my boarding the Black Comet." Said Omega, earning a few confused looks from some of the younger Mobians.

"Or in other words: You didn't say how you were going to get me on the Black Comet."

"Oh, stop being such a baby." Said Eggman. "You're only being shot out of a cannon for Aurora's sake. And you'll have my Egg Pawns as back-up after I've fired you."

Eggman had made a special cannon to the Death Egg before he was captured specially made to fire Omega and his other robots at the comet. He thought it was the perfect surprise attack move.

"This baby uses a highly explosive gas to propel you towards the comet. All you have to do is start up your boosters to ignite the gas and it will send you flying. Your armour should survive the explosion."

"What do you mean, should?" Said NICOLE, who was getting slightly worried.

"Well... Omega's armour was never actually tested for those sort of conditions, but he can withstand a great amount of heat so he should survive." Said Eggman.

"I wish you'd stop saying should."

Eggman walked over to the cannon controls.

"Readying cannon. Get ready to fire up your boosters, Omega. This baby's about to blow! Initiating countdown. 5, 4, 3, 2,1, 0, FIRE!"

Omega activated his boosters and was launched out of the cannon the very second the flame ignited. He was heading toward the Black Comet at high speed and launched his drill missiles at the comet's surface to make a hole for him to get through. They made a hole all right, but not big enough. Omega went crashing through what remained of the comet's crust and landed ungracefully on it's floor.

"I had better receive at least three extra cans of motor oil for this mission!"

"Now that Omega and my Egg Pawns are in the comet, we can set the rest of my plan into action. Follow me." Said Eggman.

The Mobians followed Eggman through the Death Egg until they reached a spot close to the end of it's side with a circular, iron door. Eggman went over to a control panel and put in some commands.

"I'm extending the boarding tunnel so we can get on the ARK." Said Eggman. "The Death Egg's too big to get close to it."

A long, tube like tunnel was extended towards the space colony and the iron door opened and they all raced in to get to the ARK. When they reached it, they were surpirsed to hear gunfire and laser shots.

"Looks like we've got company." Said Shadow.

They went towards the sounds of the battle to see the Commander and Topaz with Paladin Team Sigma-Alpha 1 fighting the Black Arms. There were about ten Black Arms and one Black Oak.

The Commander and Topaz were firing at the Black Oak while the three humans of Sigma-Alpha 1 were taking care of the soldiers.

"CHARGE!" Eggman yelled.

He ran towards the Black Oak with his gun raised, jumped forward and skid across the floor of the ARK, going underneath the creatures legs and turning around to shoot it in the back.

"Go get him, Shadow!"

Shadow leapt up and performed a spin-dash in mid air, striking the creature on the head, causing it to land on three of the other Black Arms.

Seven were left firing at the new enemies. Knuckles ran towards one nearest him and took him down with a few punches. Rouge used her Screw Kick at one and sent it flying back.

"Time to finish this." Said Shadow.

The hedgehog jumped into the air and was immediately covered in an aura of red light.

"Everybody down! He's gonna blow!" Said Knuckles as they all rushed for cover.

Immense amounts of destructive energy were charging inside the hedgehog. Soon it would be too much for him to take and he'd have to release it.

"Chaos-BLAST!!!" Shadow yelled as the energy was unleashed around him, having the same effect on the Black Arms as if they had just stood around a hand grenade. The really explosive kind.

Eggman let out a low whistle when the blast was over.

"Ho ho, Shadow. Save some for the rest of us why don't you?" He said, but was quickly silenced by the gun barrels that were being pointed at him.

"Dr. Ivo Robotnik, you are under arrest for acts of dictatorship and homicide." Said the Commander. Eggman just started laughing maniacally.

"Is this old aged G.I. Joe serious?" He asked Sally.

"Watch it! Insulting a superior officer would only add to your sentence. Although I'm pretty sure it's either a sentence of life or death." Said the Commander.

"Oh, really? Well you and your G.I. Joe Team here will be losing the only chance you have of beating the Black Arms. My army and my genius are the best and only weapons available to you. Besides, the Freedom Fools here are my allies for the moment and would defend me since I'm their best chance of saving the planet. And what do you mean superior officer? As I control most of the world, I'm your superior."

"Stop it!" Sally yelled.

"You've actually allied yourself with this scum? And what are you two doing here?" Said the Commander, spotting Shadow and Rouge. "I told you to investigate about the Black Arms back at New Mobotropolis!"

"With all due respect, sir, you never specifically told us what to investigate. So we're investigating Sonic's disappearance." Said Rouge.

"I'll have your uniforms for this, soldiers-"

"Hey! The ARK happens to belong to me, so you're violating the orders of the law here." Said Shadow.

"What do you mean it belongs to you? You live at GUN base 53."

"Since I joined GUN. Before then I inherited it from Gerald's will when he left me everything he had."

"QUIET!" Said Sally, cutting off the two of them. "The Black Arms are the problem here. My husband is on that comet and we're going to rescue him. And you're going to help us. Once we've found Sonic we'll set up some explosives inside the Black Comet and detonate them once it's safe."

"By using the space transporter stationed here to get on the comet. That's our plan too." Said the Commander.

Rouge shot Eggman with a look of amusement.

"Well I already said I needed an idiot proof plan, and any idiot could have come up with it." Eggman said in his defense.

"We shouldn't be standing around arguing. We need to get on that comet." Said Sally. "We just need to fire up the space transporter."

"There are a few things we'll need first." Said the Commander.

He walked over to the GUN shuttle and opened up the side air-tight doors on it, revealing a small arsenal inside. Including bazookas, missile launchers, laser rifles, many different types of automatic weapons and what appeared to be a red battle robot that hadn't been activated yet.

"My, my. You certainly did bring quite an arsenal of destructive toys, didn't you?" Said Eggman.

"These aliens aren't to be underestimated." Said the Commander. "Lock and load before departing for the Black Comet, soldiers. We'll need to be ready for anything."

Shadow reached out for a gun, but the Commander blocked him off.

"Save the weapons for the ones who need them, son. You've already proven you can manage greatly on your own." He said.

Once everyone had some sort of device that could cause some serious damage, they headed off to the ARK's space transporter. It was a large, grey, round platform with big green panels inside it.

The Commander indicated to the females of the group to step on the circles.

"Ladies first. Then the Echidnas, then the rest of us. Only three on each of the panels. I'll stay here so I can get back to headquarters and help out against the invasion on the planet." He said.

The nine girls jumped on to the three individual panels in groups of three. The Commander input the location into the control panel, then purple rings appeared around them and they vanished.

Then the six Echidnas and three of the boys went on. Then another nine boys, until it was just Shadow, Vector, Charmy Antoine and Eggman. Vector, Antoine and Eggman all went on the same platform while Shadow and Charmy were left on there own. Charmy had acted a little bratty and insisted on having his own panel. The four boys disappeared, but Shadow remained where he was.

He stood there wondering what was going on for a moment, then he heard the sound of a safety being taken off a pistol.

"It's been a long time...Shadow." Said the Commander.

"Huh!? What are you talking about?" Said Shadow.

"I know you...Shadow the Hedgehog! You killed everyone I loved...my family...Maria. I've been waiting all my life for this day!!"

"I don't understand."

"Maria was like a sister to me. She was the only family I knew! My real family were all so busy trying to create you that I barely got to see their faces! And because of you...they were killed! I witnessed it all...that plan to create you, you horrifying evil creature...I saw what the black creature and that insane professor who unleashed it all had made!"

"You saw the professor create me with Black Doom?"

"You don't fool me!" The Commander snapped. "It's not just about Maria. Thanks to you everyone I knew and loved was killed when the ARK was destroyed! Worst of all, MY family! Finally...Justice is served!" And with that, he fired at Shadow. But the hedgehog had seemingly disappeared.

"I am no weapon." Shadow said behind the Commander. "Maria was deathly ill. The professor was forced to work with Black Doom to create me to save her. She was the only family I had too. I understand what you're going through. For most of my life all I've thought about was revenge."

"But then I remembered a promise I made to her. That promise was to help the people of this planet anyway I could. That's why I joined the organization responsible for her and everyone's death, because I thought it would have changed since then. And looking at you, I can see that it hasn't. Keep actions like this up and soon what happened to you and your family will happen to someone else. You're the highest ranking commander of GUN. Devote yourself to Maria's promise and help save this world."

The Commander was speechless by what the hedgehog had said. He just walked over to the control panel and activated the space transporter.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" He said.

Shadow walked over to the transporter and vanished in the purple rings that surrounded him.

The Commander walked back over to the GUN shuttle and went into the control deck. He was about to fire up the engines and head back to Mobius when inspiration struck him. He activated the specialized crane that the shuttle was equipped with, took out the giant red robot from the armoury and put it on the ARK's floor. He could still help out the others back on Mobius and redeem himself for what he almost did.

Black Arm Assault

Shadow landed on the comet's floor after coming out of the teleporter. The teleportation sequence from the ARK to the comet wasn't all that different from Chaos Control, so he wasn't phased by it.

He took a look around and saw that there were large lake areas with strange black and red liquid in them, there were odd pylon objects made out of stone with alien symbols on them. This place was incredibly weird. The walls and floors of the comet were especially strange.

They were a purple colour with giant tentacles coming out of them. What was stranger still was that the tentacles were moving. This comet was alive.

"Shadow!" Someone whispered to him.

The hedgehog looked around for the source of the call to see Rouge standing there.

"Over here!" She said before walking off.

The hedgehog followed her and soon found the rest of the group.

Eggman was taking charge and was explaining the plan to everyone.

He looked up when he heard Shadow coming.

"You're late. Something hold you up?" He asked casually.

"There was some slight trouble with the space transporter." Said Shadow.

"Since you're here now I'll explain the plan. We go into three groups around the comet: The attackers, the bombers, and the hunters. The attackers will make a diversion so the other teams can do their jobs. I'll be leading the attackers. The bombers will go around the comet and place bombs at all of its weak points. GUN found them, using the ARK's technology. The hunters will be the ones searching for Sonic. And with a little help from NICOLE, I can make their job a lot easier."

"What do you want NICOLE for?" Sally asked, worried for her friend.

"To act as a tracker. I know about Sonic's alien implant that allows him to understand all sorts of different languages. It'll be the only Bem technology in this place. All NICOLE has to do is track the technology and we've found Sonic. I trust she's already scanned it."

"She has."

"Then we're all set. Although there is one thing. Some of us should head back to the ARK and find out more about the Black Arms in the data files. My grandfather's diary had a lot of information in it, but there could be something in the ARK's system that could help us out a lot. I'd recommend those three."

Eggman pointed to Vector, Espio and Charmy.

"They're not as powerful as the rest of you, so they want be a huge loss."

"Watch it you moustached moron!" Said Vector.

"Watch it you overgrown handbag!" He retorted. "You three do know a few things about hacking though. I've seen you do so in some of my bases. You'll probably be more useful on the ARK than here. I'm sure the Brotherhood of Guardians can teleport you back to the ARK."

"Three we can manage." Said Sojourner. "But if you want the entire group on the ARK in an emergency, that'll be a problem."

"Well there's one escape route that can be scratched off. Now, if you please."

Spectre, Sojourner and Thunderhawk summoned their Chaos energy and engulfed the three members of the Chaotix. Then they disappeared.

"Once we've met up with Omega and my Badnik hordes we can put the rest of my plan into action." Eggman continued. "I'm sure NICOLE can track him as well."

"You bet your Eggmobile on it that I can." She said.

She began searching the comet for signs of Eggman's machines. She quickly found Omega along with the Egg Pawns.

"Go one hundred metres to the left and we'll be at their location in no time."

They raced off to find the automatons. It wasn't long before they heard what sounded like laser and gun fire.

Omega and the Egg Pawns were locked in a firefight with Black Arm soldiers. Some of them they hadn't seen before. Like the armoured Black Arms that were teleporting themselves in different places at will. They were armed with large red lasers that bounced off walls when they hit.

The giant worm-like creatures that fired even smaller worms from their mouths and went for enemies like homing missiles.

Omega was firing like crazy at all of them. The Egg Pawns were firing at some of the Black Arm soldiers, similar to the ones at the wedding.

The Freedom Fighters, GUN operatives, Guardians and Eggman charged at the aliens.

Topaz and Sigma-Alpha 1 were firing with lasers at the armoured Black Arms that kept disappearing. After a few missing shots, they managed to defeat them.

The Freedom Fighters were fighting the worm creatures known as "Black Annelids."

They kept leaping out from the ground trying to strike the Mobians while worm missiles kept heading towards them from the Annelids. Sally then used grenades and threw them at the spots on the ground where the worms were about burrow. Explosions suddenly came from beneath the ground and the worms were quickly dealt with.

Eggman and the Guardians charged at the other Black Arm soldiers who were busy firing at the Egg Pawns. Eggman fired some shots from his Egg Walker. Sabre, Spectre, Thunderhawk and Sojourner combined their Chaos powers together to form an almighty sphere of green energy, then launched it towards the small group.

There were just four Black Oaks left now and Omega was taking care of them personally. He fired bullets at one of them and it immediately began to flee. It was concentrating so much on the bullets that it ran straight into a wall. Obviously, these giants were all brawn and no brains.

The robot then fired a missile that fell short of one of the beasts but the force knocked him on to the ground, unconscious.

He then used a flamethrower to scare one of the giants away, and it worked successfully. The last one didn't seem phased by all this and just watched Omega.

"Who do you think you are!?" It said.

"I am Omega." The robot said and readied his gatling guns.

"The ultimate E-Series robot!" He completed and fired.

The Black Oak was down in seconds without any visible damage. Obviously their skin was made out of tough stuff, but it still hurt and the alien collapsed from the pain.

"Very impressive, Omega." Said Eggman. "But that is to be expected from one of my creations. Might I recommend you install one of those weapons from the fallen aliens? They should come in handy."

Omega had recently learned of all the destruction and pandemonium Eggman had caused and had grown to loathe him, but the doctor had a point, so he grabbed an alien pistol of some sort and retracted it into his arm, ready for use at another time.

"Say, Eggman. How did you manage to get all that weaponry inside Omega?" Asked NICOLE.

"HA! As if I'd tell you the secret! Hahaha!"

After a few looks from the others, Eggman cleared his throat and began to give instructions.

"Human GUN soldiers, head out to all the weak spots in the comet and plant the bombs. Mobians, head out and find Sonic. I'll take my Egg Pawns towards the soldier complex and cause some havoc."

Sally put her hand out in front of her and the others did the same while forming a circle, but it took a few stern looks at Eggman for him to comply. With that, they wished each other good luck and set out to complete their missions.

The President of the United Federation sat in his emergency escape pod that resembled a jumbo jet. He had barely made it out of his home when it was hit by the Eclipse Cannon.

He was now heading to a secret base codenamed: GUN Fortress: The safest stronghold in the world.

The pod came down in the landing bay and the President walked out and was greeted by Commander Lionel Westwood. The Commander took the President to the main control room and sat him down in his chair.

"Sir, are you alright?" The Commander asked.

"Never mind me...What about the people of Central City?"

"No need to worry, sir. Orders were issued yesterday and everyone has been evacuated to the safe zone."

The President let out a sigh of relief.

"Very good...Commander."

A small alarm suddenly sounded. That was the signal that a soldier was about to enter with important news.

"Now, what's going on?!"

Commander Westwood's son, Captain Westwood, came in.

"Commander. The invaders. Estimated over a thousand inbound. They've penetrated our outer perimeter!"

"What?!" The Commander and President said in perfect unison.

"And we have no reports from the team sent to the Black Comet. We can't contact them."

The Commander knew in his gut what had to be done, and proceeded to do it. He walked over to the tannoy system and gave the orders.

"Attention all command units! Mobilize all mech battle sections. Prepare all weapons to strike incoming vessels. Mobilize 'Diablon.'"

"But, sir..." The Captain interrupted. "It's not ready yet!"

"I don't care! We have NO other option! We must protect the President and the planet, at all costs!"

"Yes sir!"

The Captain then ran off to assist with the counter-assault.

"It's been fifty years..." The Commander muttered to himself. "justice will finally be served!"

Sally led the Mobians towards Sonic's signal. Eggman's idea of using NICOLE was working brilliantly.

They walked down a wide hallway with walls that glowed a light pink colour. They exited to find strange pods that looked like huge plant seeds. The seeds blew up, emitting green poisonous gas. Omega reacted quickly and gave them all air masks from his arms. Eggman had equipped him with these for emergency situations against his enemies.

Everyone breathed in deeply except Shadow. The gas didn't have an effect on him. They could see moving figures beyond the gas. Obviously, they were Black Arm soldiers that would finish the job if the gas didn't work. Shadow took the laser gun that Rouge brought with her and dropped when the gas got to her. Luckily, the safety was on. The hedgehog looked at his allies and simply said "Stay here. I'll be back." Cue Terminator 2 theme.

Shadow walked straight through the gas to the other side where the Black Arm forces were waiting.

When they saw the outline of the hedgehog in the haze, they immediately opened fire, but the lasers bounced right off. They then saw the reason for this. Shadow was glowing a bright red. This was caused by a destructive aura of Chaos energy that came before Shadow released a Chaos Blast. In this state he was temporarily invincible.

Shadow then released all the energy and the Black Arms went flying. But he failed to hit those in cannons on the upper levels. But that's why he brought the laser gun.

He lifted the rifle at the turrets and opened fire on them. The laser blew the turrets up quickly with help from the explosive ammunition it had.

Soon all the Black Arms were gone and a clear path was left for the heroes of Mobius.

The gas had passed now and the other Mobians came down the hallway up to Shadow. Sally didn't seem at all pleased with the way Shadow handled the soldiers.

She returned to her priority and looked at NICOLE's monitor. Just down two hallways and around the corner and they'd be at Sonic's location, according to the tracker. 'This is going to be easy.' She thought, then 'Why did I have to think that?'

They turned the corner to see a gruesome figure that appeared to be some sort of mix between a dragon and a maggot. It was huge with a single green eye and red and black skin. The monster let out a tremendous roar when it saw the Mobians. 'Looks like this won't be so easy after all.'

The GUN soldiers were going throughout the comet trying to locate the specified points and place Eggman bomboms there. Topaz was leading them with her computer map which resembled a PDA. They'd left three bombs out of ten already. They needed to make sure they were on schedule. Too late and the planet could be destroyed, too soon and everyone would be killed. Once all the bombs were in place, there was no changing them. This was a literal life-or-death situation.

The creature unleashed a tremendous breath of fire at the Mobians. Spectre issued a strike with Chaos energy to try and stop the creature, but it proved of no use as the attack was absorbed by its blubbery body.

Bunnie launched herself up into the air with her jets and kicked the monster in the head. That too proved ineffective.

The Mobians ducked and took cover as the monster used its fiery breath on them again.

"We can't hurt this thing!" Said Sally. "It's got to have some sort of weak point."

She took a look at the creature to see if there was anything that could help them. And she spotted it. A single green eye in the middle of the monster's ugly forehead.

"It has a single eye. Maybe if we blind it we'll be able to hurt it."

"Leave that to us." Said Shadow, indicating towards Rouge and Omega.

"You've got a plan?"

"Yeah. A foolproof one."

Shadow leaned over towards his teammates and told them the plan.

"78% success rate." Said Omega.

"I'm liking those odds." Said Rouge.

The three of them charged at the monster, but before attacking, each of them jumped into Omega's hands. He retracted them both into him and the two became living weapons, with Shadow acting as a buzz saw and Rouge as a drill.

Omega used his jet engines to boost himself towards the eye of the creature, then propelled Shadow and Rouge forwards.

The creature let out an enormous scream of pain as it felt the impact of the bat and hedgehog. It kept on moving in random directions and let out spits of fire nowhere near them.

The Mobians were after the creature in a heartbeat. The Guardians used their Chaos powers on the beast's head. Julie-Su did the same with her proton gun and Bunnie used her laser.

Knuckles lunged at the creature and delivered a Chaos charged punch to its jaw.

Shadow then delivered the final blow with a Chaos Blast attack right at the monster's eye.

Within a short while the creature fell to the ground, unconscious.

"The Chaos Force is strong with that one!" Spectre commented, impressed with Knuckles' handy work. The old aged Echidna then took a look at his relative and started searching about in his robes for something. He pulled out a cowboy hat with stars on it. Not that you'd think such a thing was in there. Spectre had enchanted his cloak with Chaos energy years before so it would hide objects in it without being noticed. That particular function in the cloak had saved his life dozens of times.

"This should probably be left for later, but I'd better do this before I change my mind." He said and gave Knuckles the hat.

"Hawking's hat? I thought it was destroyed along with my cave." Said Knuckles.

"No. I took it from your cave when I saw you with it in Haven. My father wore this hat after his father gave it to him. I took it because it was one of the few things I had left of my real father. Now I'm giving it to you."

Knuckles was quite touched by this and put the hat on.

"I shall wear it always."

They then continued with their mission of finding Sonic. While doing so, Spectre remembered the joke of a curse his mother told him about the hat as a child.

"Be careful when wearing that hat, Spectre." He remembered her saying to him. "For he who wears it is doomed to an unlimited amount of cowboy jokes for all eternity."

They came to the end of another large hallway. Unfortunately it was a dead end. There was only a large piece of wall that was coloured differently from the rest.

Sally checked NICOLE's tracker twice. Sonic was only a few metres ahead of them.

"NICOLE, search for alternate roots to this location." Said Sally.

"But Sally, there aren't any. This is the only entrance into that room." NICOLE replied.

Sally couldn't believe this. They'd come all this way for nothing.

Shadow stepped forward to Sally to suggest an idea, when the odd part of the wall suddenly opened. Inside was a room with large greyish-blue pods housing different species of aliens inside it.

Sally checked NICOLE's tracker again and ran to Sonic's location. She stopped when Sonic was right in front of her, and she had to step on her toes to see Sonic inside one of the pods.

"Find a way to get him out." She told everyone.

"Allow me." Said Knuckles, brandishing his namesakes.

"Be careful."

Knuckles jumped on to the pod and secured himself on it with one hand while pulling back his other. He punched through the glass-like material on the pod, making it shatter. He swept away the loose glass and pulled Sonic out. The water-like liquid in the pod stopped the glass from going far and the shards didn't even scratch Sonic when Knuckles punched through it.

He cradled Sonic in his arms, but the hedgehog was still unconscious.

Omega walked up to Sonic and put an oxygen mask on him to help him back to consciousness.

Sonic came to quickly and let out a few coughs to clear the liquid out of his lungs.

Sally hugged him the second he opened his eyes and Sonic did the same.

"Long time no see, Sal." He said with his trademark smirk.

She just smiled back, glad that he was OK.

Sonic caught sight of Knuckles in his new hat. The hedgehog's trademark grin suddenly changed to a mischievous one.

"Hey there, Knux Cassidy!" He said.

Almost everybody let out a short laugh at Knuckles' expense.

"Perhaps there was some truth to that curse after all." Thought Spectre

"Come on." Said Sally. "We've got to get you out of here."

"No way, Sal." Sonic replied. "I'm not leaving without getting her out of here."

"Her?"

"Ceneca-9009. She's imprisoned here."

Sonic then started searching through the containment pods trying to find Ceneca. It wasn't hard. She was only a few rows down. And right next to her were Mammoth Mogul and Ixis Naugus.

"Mogul and Naugus!? How'd these guys get here?"

"The Black Arms captured them while trying to get Mogul's emerald." Said Sally.

Sonic wasted no time getting them out of there. He used a spin dash and turned his body into a living buzz saw and cut through the pod and released them.

Omega then awoke them with his oxygen masks.

All of them looked pretty shaken up, but they had to move quickly if they wanted to live.

The Mobians took them out of the prison room and were running to the rendezvous point, but then things went down south as a hundred Black Arm soldiers appeared from out of nowhere to confront them.

In the rows of soldiers they could see Eggman and the GUN agents being held at laser point. Their plan had been thwarted. They were doomed.

Ritual of Prosperity

The heroes and villains of Mobius were led to Black Doom. They walked through long corridors at gun point with about fifty Black Arm soldiers behind them. Eager to strike. Eager to kill.

They were brought into a large room, in the shape of a pipe. It was remarkably tall, with platforms holding hordes of Black Arms, like some sort of stadium, but not as wide.

In the centre of the floor, Black Doom was waiting for them.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the brave heroes of Mobius." He said gloatingly. "I trust, by now, you have learned not to do battle with the greatest race in the universe."

"Oh no. In fact we’re just having a little break before we start kicking your butts again." Said Sonic.

"Silence! This day shall be your last. And tomorrow will be your planet's. Once the ritual is complete."

Black Doom indicated to seven glowing gemstones being held by a Black Arm soldier.

"Have you collected all of the Chaos Emeralds?" Black Doom asked.

"We managed to locate five in the Special Zone, but there was another in a different zone we managed to obtain." Said the soldier.

"Perfect. All of the pieces of our destructive puzzle are here. All we need to do is put them together at the right time, and your planet will exist no more! But before my soldiers start destroying your people and cities, I think they should have some entertainment in the form of an execution. Your execution. You shall all die now, although, I am willing to spare a single one of you, if you agree to join me."

Black Doom indicated towards Shadow, but the hedgehog just gave Doom his best evil grin.

"I will never join the likes of you."

"Then your fate is decided. You shall be executed by me, after a bit of physical torture. You shall have to fight for your lives against our Black Bulls. The same species of creature you defeated outside of the prison room. Even if you defeat the creature like you did last time, your pathetic energy levels will be near depleted."

Black Doom turned to the audience of aliens.

"Let the-"

"Black Doom!" Another Black Arm soldier suddenly came running in. "Emergency. Someone has got into the comet and is heading straight for us."

"Who?"

A small explosion suddenly came from one of the upper levels, and a large hovering red robot flew down. The same robot that had been in the GUN shuttle.

It landed right in front of Black Doom.

"YOU! You're the reason that the ARK was destroyed and everyone was killed. It's time to settle this once and for all!" The robot said.

It took Sally a moment, but she realised that that was the Commander's voice coming from the robot.

Black Doom let out a small chuckle.

"Do you think a mere being made of metal can stop me?"

"I'm much more than just a 'being made of metal.'"

Diablon's rocket engines stirred into life and the Commander soared into the air. Cue Ride of the Valkyries.

Diablon began attacking Black Arms left and right with a laser on its head.

"I love the smell of laser burns in the morning!" The Commander said.

"Morning? It's almost midnight." Thought Rouge. Strange what goes through your head in dire situations.

Black Doom was furious. Someone actually had the nerve to go against the Black Arms head on. This was outrageous. His pride for his people and ego would not allow such a thing. So he flew through the air and took on the Commander.

The Commander saw him coming and struck, just as Black Doom did. Doom prepared an energy boomerang attack, but the Commander grabbed Doom and forced him against a wall.

"Shadow! Get the Chaos Emeralds. I'll keep 'em busy." Ordered the Commander.

Shadow then saluted his superior, earning a few confused looks from those who knew him. It was incredibly rare for the hedgehog to show signs of respect to anybody.

"Sir, yes, sir!" He said, and raced off to find the Black Arm with the emeralds and the others followed suit.

Not long after they left, Black Doom grabbed the robot from behind and tore it apart with his bare hands. He expected the Commander to be inside, but all he found were wires, machinery and micro chips.

"I'm really starting to loathe these 'remote controlled mechs.'" He said before vanishing.

A lone Black Arm was running to a security area where Black Doom kept some of his more valuable objects. Like treasures from other worlds that he'd stolen.

The alien was holding all seven Chaos Emeralds in his grasp. Unlimited power to those who use it. Temptation came to its mind for a moment, but ultimate power was not worth the risk of Black Doom's wrath.

Another Black Arm waited outside the security area. Obviously a guard.

"I have treasures that must be protected from the invaders." Said the lone Black Arm.

The guard looked at the gems and said "Give them to me. I will see to their safe-keeping."

The Black Arm handed the other alien the gems. He then ran off to join the battle, when he realized that guards had never been put there before. Black Doom's eye was always close to it when Black Doom wasn't here.

The Black Arm turned back and was about to attack the Black Arm as soon as it saw the alien. But he didn't see anyone. Then he suddenly heard someone yell "Chaos Spear!" and something similar to yellow lightning struck him.

The Black Arm appeared out of time and space and said "Chaos Transformation!" Where the figure of the guard once stood, now stood Shadow the Hedgehog, surrounded by an aura of Chaos energy that soon disappeared.

Sonic and the others then came out of hiding. The blue hedgehog let out a low whistle at what he'd just witnessed.

"Nice move, Shad."

"What? No witty comments?"

"Laugh it up while you still can. I'm not going to be fatigued forever, you know."

"Come on. Let's get out of here."

They ran down a wide hallway, only to be stopped by the presence of Black Doom who was rising from out of the floor.

"Well done, Shadow... Our ritual can now commence as planned, since you've brought me the power needed for it. Give me the Chaos Emeralds."

"Never! We know you're trying to destroy the planet." Said Rouge.

"Hahaha... Ignorant fools. We're here to save the people of this world from their own demise. We offer... salvation." Said Black Doom.

"What?" Shadow exclaimed.

"Their greed, thirst for power and affinity for betrayal has them on a path of self-destruction. Their actions will lead to the extinction of all species on Mobius. We're here to save them from themselves... with our perfect order... allowing them to live through their desperate lives in peace. The Mobian species are a great energy source for us... they will be well kept."

Our heroes all let out a gasp as they heard what Black Doom finished said.

"Let us begin our Ritual of Prosperity!"

Black Doom summoned the Chaos Emeralds come to him and he yelled "Chaos... Control!"

On Mobius in the ruins of Westopolis, a thousand eyes were watching the Black Comet as it was the best night to see it. It was the one sensational moment of this day, as all the people who stood there were refugees.

They had been lucky enough to escape the attack of the Black Arms, but their homes had been destroyed. They gazed at the comet while waiting to be taken to other cities to be rehoused.

They all stared at the Black Comet in wonder at such a beautiful sight. From there the comet looked like a red shooting star. They were all enjoying the view when suddenly, the Black Comet disappeared. It wasn't long before the wonder of where it went was over, for the comet appeared right in front of them in the middle of the ruined city.

Tentacles made of ooze appeared out of the comet and bored into the ground. They wrecked some of the still standing buildings as they made their were way into the floors of the city. People screamed and ran as fast as they could, away from the alien comet.

"What was that? What just happened?" Amy asked.

"Those black creatures just warped the comet down to the surface using Chaos Control!"

"No! That's impossible!" Said Rouge.

"That's why you needed the Chaos Emeralds!" Shadow realised.

"Hahahaha... precisely. The comet's velocity isn't powerful enough to pass through another planet's atmosphere." Said Black Doom. "The emeralds amplify the space-time control powers of Chaos Control. We need them to charge to full power. It's the perfect plan. That's why I needed Professor Gerald to help me..."

"What!?" Said Shadow, not believing that his creator would do such a thing.

"That's insane!" Said Eggman, also appalled at the notion.

"The professor was in development of the ultimate life force but he needed my help. So we made a deal... I helped him and he promised to deliver to me ALL the Chaos Emeralds of Mobius. That's how you were created, Shadow. You would help us do both." Black Doom explained.

"Me!? I can't believe it!" Said Shadow, and he collapsed on to the floor from shock.

"That can't be! He betrayed his own people for research!? For Black Doom?" Said Eggman.

If this were any other situation, everyone would have given Eggman looks and raised eyebrows since he had done almost exactly the same thing to them.

"Big deal... We can't just stand here doing nothing!" Said Sonic.

"Yeah... let's do this!" Knuckles agreed. "I'll crush this cosmic rock ball!" Knuckles attempted to attack Black Doom, but suddenly felt himself freezing all over.

"Knuckles! What's wrong!?! Ughhhh!" Said Sonic, who suddenly froze himself, as did everyone else.

Omega wasn't affected and charged at Black Doom, but was thrown back by one of his meteors and knocked off line.

"This is the other version of my special weapon I was telling you about, Sonic." Said Black Doom. "This gas, once released is quickly absorbed into your blood stream. In a moment, total paralysis will hit your nervous system. The end is near, now. Hahahahaha..."

Black Doom then stared down at the ground, where pulsating purple blobs with horns and one eye in the middle of their bodies, were moving towards the heroes of Mobius.

"Ahhh... my dear offspring... Eat and devour these savoury dishes!" Doom then let out a barrel of maniacal laughter at what was about to happen to his prisoners.

The blobs known as "Death Leeches" moved towards our heroes. They yelled at the creatures in the hopes that the shouting would scare them off, but the effort was in vain.

Shadow was still on the floor, thinking over the professor's words that were in his diary and what Black Doom had said. Was he created to help the people of Mobius or to be Black Doom's puppet?

Shadow didn't care what he was made for anymore. He only knew that he needed to defeat Black Doom. Summoning all the willpower he had, the hedgehog forced himself to move and he got up off the floor and stomped on the nearest Death Leech.

"What?" Black Doom exclaimed.

Shadow looked Black Doom straight in the eye and said "I am Shadow the Hedgehog. I've left the past behind me. No one can tell me what to do now! I will destroy you, Black Doom!!"

"I gave you life and THIS is how you repay me! The irony of it all is... I gave you life... NOW I'll take it back! Hahahaha..." Black Doom then floated away and Shadow ran after him.

The others all watched him go after Black Doom.

"We came all this way and now we're going to be eaten by blobs because that hedgehog couldn't spare five seconds to save us!?" Exclaimed Julie-Su. Then she heard the sound of clunking and was glad to see a back online Omega standing over her.

"Remain still. I will annihilate the alien spawn and get you to safety." He said.

Omega then used his machine guns on the Death Leeches and began to carry everyone out of the comet.

Shadow was racing through the comet chasing Black Doom. Hundreds of Black Arms, armed to the teeth (if they had teeth), tried to stop him, but nothing could hold Shadow back now.

Hallway after hallway, Shadow ducked, swooped and dived to avoid laser blasts from the aliens, determined as ever to catch his prey.

After about twenty minutes of fending off Black Arms, Shadow found Black Doom on his platform. It was a small floor perched on rock high above the rest of the comet that allowed Black Doom to watch all of his soldiers. He was standing there now with all seven Chaos Emeralds hovering above him.

"Well done, Shadow. You've gone further than I expected... I'm impressed!" He said. "But you still don't understand, do you? The future we offer is the only option for these Earthlings."

"I've heard enough! You're boring me to death, Black Doom! You're going down!"

Black Doom merely chuckled. "Such bravado for a little hedgehog! I thought you were different from the rest... but maybe not. We are more alike than you think... the same blood runs through our veins."

"This can't be... Uugghh..." Shadow suddenly clutched his head as overwhelming pain shot through it. He fell to the floor from the agony. "Just... who are YOU?"

"Don't you know? You were created from my blood..."

"Wha... what!?"

"That's right... You are a part of me... do you feel that? I can control you... You cannot escape me... nor can you escape you past! Hahahahaha..."

"Darn you! NO, it's not true!"

Back on the ARK, Vector, Espio and Charmy were searching through files, oblivious to the pandemonium going on around them.

Espio was working his fingers to the bone hacking into the system for secret files. It wasn't easy. The ARK had incredible virtual security systems. Espio was surprised he had managed to make in this far.

"Espio... are you in yet??" Asked Charmy.

"Quiet, Charmy." Vector told him while placing his hand over the young bee's mouth. "Espio, we need you to focus 'cuz if we don't hurry all the data we recovered will be lost."

"Easier said than done." The chameleon said.

Charmy then managed to break free of Vector's grasp just as he had a very foolish idea.

"That's it... I'll do it... get out of the way!" Charmy then flew back a few feet and was about to charge the computer console.

"Get back here you idiot!" Vector yelled, but he was too late. Charmy rammed the console and had actually managed to break into the files.

All three of them looked at the computer screen, which was showing a fuzzy old man with a huge moustache and a white lab coat.

"Hey it's working!" They all said in unison.

"Shadow, my son." A voice said while echoing through the comet.

Shadow recognized it immediately.

"Professor...?"

"What is this!?" Black Doom yelled. All around him, holograms of Professor Gerald Robotnik showed themselves. It was the secret transmission frequency Black Doom used to keep in contact with Gerald fifty years ago.

"If you're listening to this... then the worst has happened... you need to know the truth." The recording of Gerald continued. "The government plans to shut down this research facility. The government plans to cease all our research and imprison all who know about you. I made a terrible mistake, Shadow. It's all my fault... making contact with that comet."

"Now, listen very carefully... In fifty years the Black Comet will return... they plan to harness its power to destroy this planet! The only way to stop them... was to develop a way to use the very power they intended to use against them. Shadow... it's up to YOU and only YOU can stop them!"

"I developed the Eclipse Cannon... it's the only weapon that can destroy that Black Comet. Shadow, you are the only hope... to save our world as we know it. The future of this planet depends on... YOU!"

"Don't worry, grandfather." Said a young girl who just walked into view. It was Maria Robotnik. Shadow's "childhood" friend.

"Shadow and I will protect this planet." She continued. "Right, Shadow?" And with that, the fifty year old message ended.

"Gerald... you fool!! Shadow is already in my control... what's this?!" Said Black Doom.

Shadow had broken free of Black Doom's mental influence and stood up before him.

"Well, well, well... seems like you're immune to my mind control."

"You have no control over me, Black Doom!" Said Shadow. "I now understand why I am here... I made a promise and I'm here to keep it! Today, I put the past behind me!"

Shadow then jumped into the air and attempted to strike Black Doom with a Chaos Spear, but the alien leader vanished without a trace in the middle of Shadow's attack.

"Have it your way, Shadow." Said Black Doom's voice. Shadow looked upward to see Black Doom in a new form. He was now a monstrous creature with two heads on either side of its torso in the image of a gargoyle.

"So be it... be prepared to meet your maker! Your past, present and future ends here... TODAY! Prepare to die! Say goodbye Shadow as you witness my true wrath." Devil Doom then disappeared in a bright flash leaving the Chaos Emeralds behind.

Shadow then summoned the emeralds towards him and they then began to spin around him, building up energy and sending it into Shadow. After a few moments, the hedgehog was engulfed in a bright light and his black fur turned golden. He had now become Super Shadow. He flew up into the air, outside the comet, ready to defeat Black Doom.

Doom for Doom

In the ruins of Westopolis, people we're fighting for their lives as Black Arms came out of the Black Comet. Among the fighters were the heroes and villains of Mobius, minus Shadow.

The Black Arms out numbered them a thousand to one, but they still fought hard.

Some of them thought of their ally still inside the comet, but that was soon driven out of their heads either by a charging Black Arm or a laser blast.

A enormous roar suddenly filled the air and Black Arm and Mobian stood stock still by the terrifying sound. They looked up to see a horrific two-headed monster flying out of the comet. The ghastly creature was soon followed by a gold streak zooming through the sky. The person appeared as a golden star among the red sky. After they had regained their senses from the sight, the two warring factions soon re-launched the great battle that was taking place.

Super Shadow and Devil Doom were flying high above the skies. Shadow looked straight into the eye of the monstrous beast. This was not going to be an easy fight.

"Give it up, Black Doom. Your armies will be defeated. The inhabitants of this planet outnumber your army a million to one." Said Shadow. "There's no way you can win this, especially after I take you down!"

"I gave you life, and yet you defy me? So be it!" Said Black Doom. "You shall pay for your ingratitude with relentless pain."

Shadow flew toward Black Doom at top speed. He tried a homing attack on Black Doom at every spot he could reach, but Doom's skin had become near impenetrable.

Black Doom took swipes at Shadow with his razor sharp claws, but Shadow was too fast for him.

"Burn!" Black Doom unleashed a barrage of fire from where his mouth would be and engulfed Shadow in the flames.

Shadow used this to his advantage. The flames didn't hurt him, but they could hurt Black Doom. He began to spin again with the flames around him creating a blazing spindash.

It still proved ineffective, until Shadow struck him in the eye. Black Doom screamed in pain at the attack.

He summoned glowing meteors around him and they unleashed lasers aimed at Shadow.

"I'll shred you to pieces."

The hedgehog swooped and dived to avoid the oncoming assault.

Black Doom then suddenly stopped the lasers and charged at Shadow. He was thrown back a fair distance but quickly regained his composure.

Black Doom then summoned objects from the ruined city below and they began to swirl around him, before being launched at Shadow. Cars, street signs and rubble were thrown towards Shadow.

"Die along with these foolish humans!"

Shadow was hit a few times by some of the debris, but he used a Chaos Blast to destroy the rest.

Black Doom wasn't holding anything back. But Shadow wasn't about to let that stop him. He would defeat Black Doom.

He tried a homing attack again, but Black Doom shielded himself with one of his wings. Shadow then began spinning while charging up energy. This would be an attack Black Doom couldn't possibly stop.

Shadow flew towards Black Doom like a pebble out of a sling-shot. He was feet away from Black Doom, when he suddenly yelled out "Chaos Control!"

Doom disappeared right in front of Shadow, and then appeared a few metres behind him. He was trying to make Shadow lose his energy, but Shadow wouldn't let him have that opportunity again, or maybe he would.

Shadow began the move again and launched towards Black Doom, but before he could use Chaos Control, Shadow used it creating a counter force.

Black Doom went hurtling back from Shadow's attack. He was quite astounded by what the hedgehog had done.

"I see... I seem to have underestimated the true power of the Emeralds." Said Black Doom. "No matter! I will destroy you all the same."

"No chance!"

Shadow then summoned Chaos Spears all around him and launched them at Black Doom.

They struck all around his body, but only his eye seemed affected.

Suddenly, his eye shot out of Doom's socket. But it wasn't just an eye. It was a purple creature with tentacles and red markings. He recognized it from the security footage from Mogul's casino.

That creature was Black Doom's third eye. His weakness, and a perfect opportunity.

Doom's eye flew from out of Doom's one head to the other for safety's sake. But no matter where it hid now, it wouldn't be safe from Shadow.

Shadow used Chaos Control to warp towards the head Doom's eye was in.

He summoned Chaos Spears around him and prepared his Chaos Spin Dash attack again.

"This is the end of you, and the end to my cursed past!"

All at once, Shadow launched himself and his Chaos Spears at Black Doom. He screamed in pain as every attack hit. His power was decreasing. He could fight no longer. He was defeated.

"Im... impossible! I am the supreme being that rules this universe! I am the immortal life from! I am the ultimate power! Gaaaah!" Black Doom was so weak that he could no longer fly and just fell like a massive boulder towards the ground.

Shadow landed on the Black Comet. GUN and the others had managed to force the Black Arms back inside. This would be the final step in shaking off his past.

"Only one thing left to do..." Said Shadow.

He flew beneath the Black Comet and grabbed part of the rock.

"To put the past behind me!! Chaos... Control!"

Shadow and the Black Comet disappeared in a flash of golden light. The Black Comet had reappeared back in space, but Shadow was in the ARK, in the Eclipse Cannon control room.

He supplied the Eclipse Cannon with enough power to destroy a small planet, which he proceeded to do. He locked the targeting device on the Black Comet and with a moment's hesitation, fired.

The "nose" of the ARK opened up to reveal a giant laser. Green energy was surrounding the cannon, before being unleashed straight at the Black Comet. The comet was blown into nothingness. Rubble of the comet scattered all over the space outside Mobius and all on the planet let out an enormous cheer.

Technology overcomes all obstacles

Among the roaring crowds cheering at the destruction of the comet, stood the heroes and villains of Mobius together.

"YEAH... He did it! The Black Comet is destroyed!" Yelled Tails at the huge explosion in the sky.

There was a big flash nearby, and they saw a black hedgehog pushing through the crowd to the others. They all gathered around Shadow to congratulate him.

"Shadow... that was SWEET!" Said Sonic.

"Are you OK?" Asked Rouge.

"I'm- Hey! Doctor!"

Everyone then turned around to see Eggman trying to escape.

"Well, isn't that just typical. I help save the planet without any sort of backstabbing of any kind, and now you're going to send me to jail, aren't you? I'll only escape again. There's nothing you can do to stop this bad egg."

Sonic grinded his teeth, but Eggman had a point. They had more important things to take care of. Besides, they'd already taken back a significant amount of his empire.

"OK. We'll let you go this time. But you're empire has become a lot smaller. Including your New Megaopolis."

"Fine by me. There are plenty of other cities and bases I can use. In fact, I think I'll work on making a new capital. I think a country should do the trick. I think I'll call it Eggmanland. Yes, that'll do quite nicely. Since you're being so kind and sporty to me my little blue rat, I'll be kind and do you a favour."

Eggman leaned in close towards Sonic's ear.

"Turn around now and start congratulating Shadow again. And do it quickly. Those GUN agents are bound to finish their report to headquarters soon, and the United Federation would be very interested in knowing that you let me get away."

Not too far away, Sally was holding the Chaos Emeralds in her grasp. The gems could cause real trouble should they fall into the wrong hands, but maybe there was one wrong hand that could be trusted this one time.

"Mogul? I want to talk to you. And it's going to be straight to the point without big words."

"What is it, princess? I imagine you want something from me in exchange for something else that is extremely valuable to me, otherwise you would have been a tad more polite."

"I need you to open a portal to the Special Zone for ten to twenty minutes in exchange for your emerald."

"I believe the commoners would say I was 'Right on the nickel'"

"Indeed they would. Now, if you please."

"Very well, but I'll need the emerald first."

Sally handed it over to him. Mogul placed the grey gem in his chest and quickly opened the portal.

"Omega? Take all these gems back to Feist. They belong to him and he'll keep them safe."

"I must object. One of these emeralds is GUN property." Said Omega.

"Really? They never told us that."

"I shall now enter the Special Zone and dispatch the emeralds."

"No need." Said a booming voice.

In the portal was the face of a giant panda. Feist must have changed the portal into a magic video phone.

"The emeralds are to stay with you. I said I'd give them to you should you pass my tests. Defeating the Black Arms is a greater test than I could ever come up with. They are your burden to deal with now."

And with that, the portal closed.

Commander Lionel Westwood and the President had been watching the destruction of the Black Comet via satellites.

The GUN agents at the base were roaring with triumph at Shadow's victory.

The Commander just stood there thinking. For years he had become GUN's best through his want for revenge. But he didn't have that anymore. It was time he made a change in his life. Revenge wasn't a part of him anymore. He'd be the best of the best to help the world by some other means. But what would those means be? Perhaps for him to be a great role-model for his grandson would be a goal worth fighting for.

The President walked up to the Commander and put his hand on his shoulder.

"How ironic... After the way we treated him, he saved us all in the end. We were all wrong about the professor." The President said. "Let us pay homage to Professor Gerald. Let's work to ensure peace and prosperity for a brighter future! What do you say, Commander?"

"Excellent idea, Mr. President."

Suddenly, Captain Westwood came running in again.

"Sir, the Freedom Fighters just reported in saying that Eggman has escaped."

"It looks like our goal of 'peace and prosperity' has been made a little more difficult." Said the President.

Back in Westopolis, the Freedom Fighters sought out transportation to New Mobotroplis.

While looking, Tails peered into a crater that had been made. Presumably it was caused by a piece of the comet. But inside laid Black Doom, looking up to him.

"Aah! It's Black Doom! He's alive!" He warned everyone.

Shadow, as quick as a flash, confronted Black Doom with raised fists.

The Black alien floated out of the crater and chuckled at the sight of Shadow.

"Put your fists down. I have no desire to fight you again, my son."

In all the years Shadow had been alive, nothing had made him more angry than Black Doom calling him "son."

"You have defeated me and earned my, and the Black Arms, respect."

"Respect?"

"Indeed. You have proved yourself to be the great weapon I wanted you to be. You are a being worthy of my bloodline. My Black Arms shall never set foot on your planet again."

"What Black Arms? They've all been destroyed."

"The ones in that ship were, indeed, destroyed."

"Ship? The Black Comet was just a ship?"

"Correct. Our home planet has the resource of living rock that can sustain us in space. Now, I shall bid you goodbye as I have another war to fight. And I shall soon send at least one Black Arm to collect you for your new purpose."

"What purpose?"

"The purpose of Black Doom. Goodbye. Chaos Control!"

The Freedom Fighters had just returned to New Mobotropolis where a party was waiting for them.

They all welcomed their new resident, Ceneca-9009. She was sure to be a great asset with her remarkable technological skills.

The next day, Sir Charles Hedgehog asked Shadow, Rouge, Sonic, Sally, Jules, Bernie, NICOLE, Omega and Dimitri (accompanied by Lien-Da).

"I have gathered you all here to announce my latest discovery, which could not have been possible without my new mechanical partner, Ceneca-9009." He said. "As you may recall, Sonny boy, inside Eggman's city we found old robotic bodies. The same as Eggman used when he first became Eggman."

He walked over to four humanoid objects being hidden by a white sheet, and pulled the sheet off.

Standing there were bodies similar in appearance to both Eggman and Robotnik, minus a muscular one with a square jaw.

"We believe Eggman somehow managed to take these out of Robotropolis before it was sealed off. If these bodies were able to accept Eggman's mind and imitate a living being, then I can make new ones for all of you."

"You can?" Asked Dimitri, thrilled at the thought of having his body back.

"Well, I'm pretty sure, since I've already made them."

Chuck then pulled off another sheet nearby, revealing robotic bodies of Jules in his youth and NICOLE.

"I'm also working on some limbs for Bunnie, but I'm not sure it will work."

"When can we use them?" Jules asked again, not believing what his brother had done.

"I'm afraid you and Dimitri'll have to wait about a week so I can prepare you, but NICOLE can try it out straight away."

Chuck then took the computer that was NICOLE from Sally.

"All I gotta do is upload you into the body and... there!"

NICOLE's body then opened its eyes and came out of the sleep it appeared to be in.

NICOLE stepped forward and stumbled a little at first. But she soon got the hang of it. She walked up to a mirror and looked at herself in it. She was astounded and so glad.

"Oh thank you, Chuck." She went over and hugged him.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

You could see the air leave his lungs as he was hugged.

"NICOLE, you should be aware that this new body gives you enhanced strength."

Meanwhile, Shadow took Rouge over to another part of the lab.

"Mind telling me where we're going?" She asked.

"I want to show you something."

There was yet another humanoid object under a sheet that Shadow quickly pulled off. Underneath was a replica of Rouge.

"Err... It's nice looking."

"Rouge, this body will allow you to live forever. I've lost the only two people that were close to me already, so I made this so we can spend all eternity together. After all there's nobody I'd rather spend it with."

Rouge was completely and utterly touched by this.

"Shadow, that is incredibly sweet of you. Creepy, but sweet." She then kissed Shadow, before he ended it swiftly.

"GUN's going to be here to examine Charles' discovery. You know the rule about not dating colleagues."

"I know."

Before going with Shadow, Rouge took a look at her new body, then noticed something.

"Shadow? Did you make some changes to my body?"

"Err..." Shadow was looking a little nervous, but then his gaze fell on Lien-Da.

"Lien-Da? Are you alright? You don't look so good."

She did indeed not look good.

"I'm fine, just a little ho-"

She never got to finish her sentence, as at that moment she fell flat on her face.

"Lien-Da!" Said Dimitri. "Lien-Da! Wake Up!"

THE END