Shadow the Hedgehog

Hope embraced her back, happy to see her friend alive and well. "I'm fine, nothing but a really painful headache. But these 2 aren't in the best of shape and... what happened to Skye?" she asked in a concerned tone as she saw him limping along in the fog. Shadow dropped the hand he was preparing to strike with. "Good to see you Melody," he said.

Hope heard Melody's calls and was about to reply, when she hesitated. "What if it's one of the nightmares?" she asked. "It's fine. If it is I'll get it with my chaos spear. So go right ahead," replied Shadow as he sat upright and held onto Hope's arm. "Melody! We're over here!" she called.

Hope eventually made it to the figures, revealing Shadow and Rouge as she had hoped. Her feelings of joy were masked by her grimaces of pain. "I see things aren't much better for you either," she said. "No not particularly. An imposter of myself got the better of us. And I'm sure you pushed me into a lake earlier," replied Shadow with a weak smile "Ha. I'd run with that but I don't think any of us are in the condition for messing around. Do you want a hand getting up?" she asked the pair. "No we're fine. No point putting ourselves through the pain now for nothing. Make yourself comfortable, we're waiting for Crowley," Shadow replied, pondering why he settled on giving his counterpart that name in the first place. Hope sat down against a nearby tree as she tried to rest her head.

Hope continued to stumble through the forest, clutching her head. Eventually she tripped over a root, and saw 2 distinct figures on the ground up ahead. She painfully picked herself uo and moved towards them. Crowley noticed the blobs and threw an anarchy spear at one of them, merely causing it to split in 2. He frantically hammered away at the shell before being forced to jump away, falling into darkness to save himself from the blobs.

I should have posted this yesterday. Oh well.

(I see)

Crowley created an anarchy spear in his hand and cut through the stomach, climbing outside of it. He noticed the beating heart inside an armoured shell. He latched on to it and started to bore through. It was a slow process, but it seemed to be working. As he continued cutting through the shell, unbeknownst to him, large blobs of were floating up towards him from below.

(OOC If anything it's my fault. She was being carried by Crowley after all. I got the tornado to pick him, Shadow and Rouge up before I remembered her).

Mina?

*anvil drops on Locke's head* Hmm... it was good, but the timing was a little off. But at least it's a start.

Spare me your life's history. In exactly... 22 seconds it's about to change dramatically.

I never died in the first place. *paints large X where Locke is standing*

I'm not surprised. So much for 'echidna toughness'.

Crowley threw several more spears at the creature to no effective. "Perhaps a different approach is in order," he muttered as he ran full speed at it, diving into its mouth and going down its throat, just avoiding the teeth as it closed its mouth. He grimaced at the stench, but created a ball of anarchy beryl energy in his hand, illuminating his surroundings. It seemed he was inside the stomach. He jumped up and thrust his hand into the wall, so he wasn't standing in acid. The stomach began to convulse as the creature staggered about in pain. Elsewhere, Hope regained consciousness and staggered about when she got up, her head still pounding. Even though it was difficult, she knew she had to persevere and find Shadow.

I'm talking about before the pod. 'Course folks were tougher back then.

Bah that's nothing. Back in my day we had explosive watermelons thrown at us, and we had to walk to work uphill both ways.

Oh stop your complaining. It was just a pinecone. Would you prefer a cactus?

"Should we get up?" askef Rouge. "No. We've earned a rest, and I'm sure Crowley will find us. He is the Moebian versiin of myself after all," said Shadow as he put his hand on Rouge's. Crowley was still dodging the attacks of the behemoth, barely. As the creature paused he ran at it, only for it to wash him back with an endless stream of blood flowing ftom its mouth. "Charming," thought Crowley as he tried to keep his head from being submerged. It was almost comical the amount that appeared. Crowley gave an annoyed groan. "Yes very good, how Freudian. An assassin drowned in blood," he said sarcastically whilst readying himself.

As Shadow and Rouge lay there, in the field Crowley was still searching for the source of this voice. Unfortunately for him, he soon found it. Sitting atop a rock was a behemoth, a monstrosity that looked patched together from various body parts. It's voice was a combination of all those he had slain over the years. Crowley looked genuinely worried as the creature stood up, easily towering over him. He threw some of his anarchy spears at it, to no effect, and just about managed to jump out of the way as it brought its fist down towards him at a surprisingly quick speed.

As Shadow walked back through the cemetery, he found himself inside the forest. Not far away, Rouge summed up all of her strength and booted the nightmare in the jaw, momentarily stunning it. Seizing her chance, she sprinted away, eventually bumping into Shadow, whom she promptly pounced on and started beating. "Rouge what the heck are you doing?" he asked in shock. She didn't have any malevolent look on her face, so this probably wasn't an apparition. As she momentarily paused the nightmarish Shadow appeared behind her. Shadow pushed her aside and leapt at the creature. His attacks were about as effective as a man punching a brick wall, even his chaos spears. It retaliated by grabbing a hold of him and beating him mercilessly. Whilst all this was happening, Rouge staggered to her feet and managed to deliver a drill kick to the creature, knocking it away from Shadow. Not wanting to lose her advantage she then set about kicking it while it was down, eventually causing it to disappear into the mist. Seemingly victorious, she collapsed next to Shadow, who was in as bad a shape as her. "So I go at it with everything I have and do nothing, you kick it a few times and it runs off. That's not right," he complained. "What's the matter, moping because I saved you for a change?" she replied with an air of smugness. "In all seriousness, because it's my nightmare, maybe it only responds to me," she continued "I see. Well for what it's worth, I promise you I'll never end up like that." "Thanks. Can't say I won't have to put you in your place from time to time though," she joked.

Shadow finally made up and his mind, and tried to appease the apparition. "Yes. I did indirectly kill you through my mere existence. But if I never existed, you would have died anyway from your illness. It was only through the actions of the military that I wasn't able to save you. And for that I am eternally sorry." His voice was calm and collected. He had faced his demons long ago and come to terms with the events that day, but it still wasn't pleasant to be reminded of them. Maria walked back into the coffin and the lid slid closed. Shadow turned around; the wall was now gone and he slowly walked out of the mausoleum, relieved to be free of the situation.

The nightmarish Shadow released her and she dropped to the ground. In an instant he was kicking at her, aiming for her limbs so as to drag out the torment. She shrieked at the top of her lungs and struck back with all the force she could muster, but it had no effect. Meanwhile, the real Shadow had reached the mausoleum. He walked inside, the light from the torches flickering on the walls. In the centre was the resting place of Maria Robotnik, according to the inscriptiin. As he walked towards it the lid slowly began to slide open, making him freeze. An arm came out and rested on the side as Maria pulled herself out, looking perfectly alive. She strolled towards him at a brisk pace, backing him into a wall that had appeared where the door had been. "You killed me!" she screeched. "No! I... I" Shadow was lost for words. Maria repeated her herself, again and again, as Shadow slumped down against the wall, torn between his knowledge thst this was just a nightmare, and his rising feelings of guilt.

Rouge looked around for any sign of the others. All she could see in the thick fog were the many pine trees, blocking out most of the light that came from the moon above. She continued her search before something came out of the fog and hit her at high speed. As she picked herself up with a groan she was grabbed by the throat and held into the air. Her assailant was none other than Shadow. Or at least, a nightmarish version of him. The look on his face was a mixture of disgust and anger as he tightened his grip. She futilely struggled against him. "You always had to do things your way!" it hissed in response.

Crowley casually walked up to the final apparition and punched straight through its chest. As he had assumed, there was nothing in it. He pulled his hand out and grabbed hold of the hedgehog before tossing it off of the cliff and returning to Shadow and Rouge. "Well that was a good warm up, though rather lacking in the challenge. I thought this dream was supposed to push the boundaries of our fear. I must say I am thoroughly disappointed in this 'Eggman' and his contraptions," said Crowley. In response to this criticism a small tornado picked the trio up and scattered them across the landscape. Rouge landed face first in a tree, snapping the branches as she fell down. As she got up she realised she was totally alone, and wasted no time in running off to find Shadow. Not too far away, Shadow found himself in an old decrepit graveyard on a hill, at the centre of which was a large mausoleum. Crowley was on an open marsh, with nothing in sight for miles. A voice taunted him through the mist. "Now there is nowhere for you to hide!"