It is now.
Chapter 5: Tales of Mobius
Sonic carried Raylina as he sprinted through the woods, leaping from tree to tree. As they moved further from the centre of the woods, the trees grew smaller and smaller, until there were none at all. The terrain grew wetter and more boggy, until finally they stopped in what Raylina recognised as the Marshes of Awakening. The water was a funny brown-green colour, and giant lily pads grew in it. The ruins of twenty year old Robo-Pirate structures protruded from the marshes, close to collapsing.
Sonic set her down on one of these lily pads. She noticed that he was quite small, shorter than her.
Sonic gazed around. “Another Emerald is near. I can feel it,”
Unknown Position, Near Vastfall Woods
Shadow and Mr. Dark did not appear where Shadow expected.
They materialised just beyond the borders of the Vastfall Woods, on a wide, grassy plain. They could easily make out the enormous trees in the distance.
Surrounding them were hundreds of the egg-shaped robots.
The instant they appeared, a burst of laserfire knocked him and Mr. Dark from the bike. Both Dark’s and Shadow’s Chaos Emeralds went flying. The red one flew through the air in a graceful ark, landing...
In Doctor Eggman’s gloved hand.
“How nice of you to join us, Shadow,”
The Doctor hovered above them in his round flying machine, with two laser cannons attached to the sides. Both were aimed at Shadow.
The Hedgehog snarled and leapt at the Eggmobile, but Eggman dodged to the side and fired the cannons into Shadow’s chest. Shadow was thrown to the ground, groaning.
Mr. Dark stood, a flaming sword in his hands. “Who are you?” he asked angrily. “Give that Emerald back!”
Eggman turned to him. “Ah, so this is the infamous Mr. Dark. I have heard of your exploits,”
A blue energy beam lanced down from the Eggmobile, immobilising Dark. He struggled against it, pushing with his mind, but to no avail.
“I know that you and I are alike. Both villainised by so-called ‘heroes’. Both living on the fringes of society, our hunger for power never satisfied,”
Eggman tossed the Chaos Emerald in his hand. “Join me, Mr. Dark, and not only will we be saving this world from these freaks that call themselves heroes, but you will gain the power that you so long for!”
Shadow shook his head and looked over at Mr. Dark, knowing that Mr. Dark was not foolish enough to be swayed by those words. But when he saw the glint of greed in the dark Ray’s eye, Shadow knew that Mr. Dark was lost. “No, Dark! You don’t know Eggman! He doesn’t seek to save this world!”
“Silence, hedgehog!” Eggman fired his cannons at Shadow again, but Shadow rolled away and ran at Dark, trying to pull him from the force field Eggman held him in. But he was reflected by the semi-translucent barrier and knocked to the ground yet again. The robots trained their weapons onto him.
Dark bowed his head. “If you explain to me what is going on, then I might join you,”
Eggman smiled.
Shadow was on his feet again.
“You’re a fool, Dark,” he said, raising his Chaos Emerald. “And you’ll pay,”
Eggman pointed at the black hedgehog. “Stop him!”
The Eggbots fired at Shadow, their machine guns chattering away. But it was too late.
Shadow glowed with red energy, his arms to his chest.
“CHAOS... BLAST!”
A wave of red energy radiated outwards from Shadow. It swept through the squad of robots, destroying them where they stood.
Eggman crouched inside his Eggmobile, sheltered by the strong metal that it consisted of. When he looked up, his robots were wasted, blasted apart. Dark was unconscious, still inside the force field.
And Shadow was gone.
The Marshes of Awakening, near the entrance to The Cave of Bad Dreams
Sonic and Raylina were exploring further into the Marshes, following Sonic’s vague sense of the Emerald’s presence.
“So...um...” said Raylina with all the awkwardness of a teenage girl talking to a teenage boy. “Why are you and Shadow here?”
Sonic grinned. “Ah, now there’s a story,”
FLASHBACK: Guardian Units of Nations (GUN) Headquarters, Mobius
Shadow the Hedgehog stepped into the central vault of the GUN headquarters, Rouge the Bat alongside him. His face betrayed nothing of his surprise as he noticed Sonic, his old rival, was also in the room, standing next to the GUN commander. Tails ‘Miles’ Prower, Sonic’s loyal double-tailed fox sidekick, was also alongside him. The GUN commander nodded to Shadow, and he nodded back. “You called, Commander?”
The Commander nodded again. “Did you bring the Emerald?”
Shadow tossed it in the air once, catching it with ease. “Of course,”
“Now that we’re all here, why don’t you tell us what’s going on, Mr. Commander?” Sonic asked with a grin.
Shadow shook his head. Sonic never seemed to grasp the seriousness of any situation.
The GUN Commander seemed to agree with Shadow, frowning.
“Recently, each of the three Chaos Emeralds in our possession have been disappearing. They were all held in high-security vaults, guarded by hundreds of our bots. And nobody seems to have broken into these vaults. No-one was caught on camera, and there are several trained on the Emeralds themselves. There is absolutely no evidence of fingerprints, points of entry, or tampering with the cameras. We did, however, find minute samples of an alien substance within the vault. Our scientists are having trouble identifying it, but it does give off a unique radiation. We have rigged a device which allows this radiation to be tracked,”
“Then why haven’t you already caught the culprit?”
“Because...ah...it keeps disappearing and reappearing across the globe. It would appear that he or she has the benefit of Chaos Control. Which is where you and Sonic come in. We need you to hunt the culprit down and take the Emeralds back,”
Unknown Location, Mobius
“
Alright, Shadow, I’m in position now,” Sonic’s voice came from Shadow’s communicator.
“Good. Stay there until I give the signal,”
Shadow lay crouched in the bushes, at the edge of a clearing. In the centre of the clearing was their Chaos Emerald.
After days of following the culprit’s trail, they had arrived here. They knew that he must be nearby, so they had decided to set a trap using the Chaos Emerald as bait.
Shadow rested his chin on a sniper rifle, looking at the Emerald through its sight. The GUN Commander had given them permission to use deadly force if necessary, but that he would rather they took the culprit alive. Which was why the sniper was loaded with knock-out darts.
A flicker of movement caught Shadow’s eye, and a dark being emerged into the clearing, the likes of which neither Shadow or Sonic had ever seen. It’s hands, feet, and head floated separate from its’ body.
”What the hell is that?”
“Just be ready to take that thing down,”
Shadow took aim at the creature’s chest as it approached the Emerald, and pulled the trigger. The dart flew through the air, thudding into the creature’s body...
And passing straight through it.
Shadow’s eyes widened.
The creature turned to the source of this attack, raising his fist. But they had been prepared for the dart to fail.
Sonic leapt into the clearing, running at the speed of sound headlong into the dark creature. The thing fell onto its back, but flipped quickly over and stood in a battle-ready stance.
“Now, Tails!” said Shadow into his communicator.
With that, a large net flew from the trees, wrapping itself around the creature. It fell to the ground, struggling. Tails emerged from the forest in his transformed Tornado plane, which had just cast the net at Dark Rayman.
Shadow approached them, only to see Dark Rayman break through the net and strike at Sonic. Sonic flew backwards, not expecting this attack. Tails fired at the Ray with the Tornado’s cannon, only to be blasted away by a wave of dark energy.
Dark Rayman threw away the remains of the net and picked up the Chaos Emerald. Shadow could only watch helplessly as it, as well as the other six, formed a ring around the creature’s body.
“Who are you?” it asked Shadow in an almost resentful voice.
“Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog,”
Shadow charged at Dark Rayman, but the Ray cried “Chaos Control!” and disappeared in a bright flash of light.
Along with Shadow and Sonic.
The Marshes of Awakening, near the entrance to The Cave of Bad Dreams
“Dark Rayman accidentally brought us along with him when he warped to this place. The Emeralds were scattered, and me and Shadow have been trying to hunt them down. We found two, and Shadow gave one to you to take to your dad. We heard about him and thought it would be safe to give the Emeralds to him. Obviously, we were wrong. Dark Rayman has also been hunting the Emeralds, and as far as we know he has none,” Sonic finished.
It was that moment that Shadow chose to appear, materialising in front of them. Raylina jumped in fright, then blushed as Sonic grinned at her.
“Bad news. Eggman is here,”
Sonic nodded. “So that’s where those robots came from,”
“Yes. And it gets worse. Mr. Dark has been captured by the Doctor, and Eggman has turned him to his side. He also took the Emerald I gave to you, Raylina,”
“What!?”
“Yes. Now Eggman has one Emerald, and we have two,”
“Well,” said Sonic. “We have one piece of good news. Another Emerald is dead ahead,”
And they walked up a big tree root, walking into a fold in the tree. As they turned the corner, Raylina saw three more of the bouncing eyes, staring at her, Shadow, and Sonic.
And behind them was a one-eyed being wearing a top hat.
The Heart of the World, the Fairy Council
Polokus, Betilla and the Grand Minimus stood in discussion in the chamber of the World’s Heart. The large room had been repaired after the destruction Rayman in the Grolgoth and the Queen Xenomorph had wreaked upon it. There still remained in the room a small sample of the Alien’s cocooning material, hanging from the roof as a reminder of what had once been.
I have felt a dark disturbance in the world recently, said Betilla, lowering her eyelids.
Something is loose here that is not meant to be,
Polokus nodded, speaking in his gravelly voice. “I have felt it also. The Dark Spirit, Veurtoya, has been unleashed from his prison in the Land of the Livid Dead. He is held there for now by the barriers the Griskin Teensies placed there, but will be freed by his servant soon enough,”
“Can’t you do something?” came the Grand Minimus’ squeaky voice, his crown slipping off his head.
Polokus shook his head. “I am powerless against this being. This is what the Ancients created the Heroes for. It is down to Rayman and his counterparts to stop this hazard. And the worst part is, by the rules set down by the Ancients themselves, none of us can interfere,”
While I'm here, can I take the oppurtunity to promote my YouTube account? I currently have ten music videos, all made by me to various songs. One of them is a Rayman music video to Extreme Ways! To watch them, go here:
www.youtube.com/Lachimax
