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Ebony and Ivory Chapter 5

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Chapter 5- Shadow Wounded

Shadow awoke the next morning from a pleasant dream to see foreboding grey clouds overhead. He sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes to get the sleep out of them. Abruptly he felt a pang in his stomach, the distinctive bite of hunger.

The professor had designed him to be able to survive without food, but at the cost of depleting his energy reserves. Unfortunately, fighting Black Doom and destroying the Black Comet had left him drained, and he had no Chaos Emeralds to help him replenish. He'd had to expend energy since then as well, first when escaping from the annoying crowd and then when fighting off the transients.

'If I don't either find food or a Chaos Emerald soon, I'll become weakened, and lose consciousness,' he realized, before pondering for a moment where he could reasonably hope to find either.

"Well there's no telling where the Chaos Emeralds ended up. My best bet would be to grab a bit to eat to tide me over."

He stood to his feet, but before heading out again into the city, he took a moment to begin thinking about his long term plans.

'After I lay low for awhile, where am I going to go?'  he mused. 'I have no home, but I can't stay here forever.'

Instantaneously an image of Rouge and Omega flashed into the dark hedgehog's mind.


'Our alliance is over. I got what I wanted; I know my purpose,' he countered, commencing in a sort of "argument" in his head.

'And yet you feel as if you belong with her, as if you should go to her,' the other side told him sternly.

"Oh, don't be ridiculous, she probably wouldn't even take me in!"

'You just saved the entire damn planet. A complete stranger would take you in. It's not a matter of who would tolerate you, but more a matter of who you could tolerate.'

He blushed slightly at his own mental suggestion, and began walking towards the city.

'Alright. But I'm only staying with her until I can find a place of my own better than a tree on a hilltop,' he bargained with himself.

Thunder rolled overhead, and the swirling, dark clouds released their heavy loads in a sudden downpour. Water dripped down his form, quickly leaving him soaked and freezing to add to his misery of hunger.

'And this is why,' he said dryly to himself.

He ventured into the ruined city amidst the rain, hoping perhaps to find a working pay phone and something to eat, although he seriously doubted he'd find either. He wandered down narrow, abandoned streets, the gutters flowing with miniature rivers.

He walked for what seemed to be forever, his teeth chattering and his entire body convulsing with shivers.

Finally he spied forms moving in the distance, and began to move hurriedly towards them. They were a group of the same looters he'd encountered yesterday.

"Hey you! What did you do with Kaigar?" one of them demanded as they stepped menacingly towards him.

He was in too bad of shape to respond immediately, instead glancing slowly and wearily up.

"I didn't do anything. He left of his own accord."

"Only because you brought him to that vixen!"

Shadow stared blankly at them, seeming not to understand either their reaction to him restoring the couple, or the possibility of anyone insulting a lady. Suddenly the meaning of their anger dawned on him, and in turn inspired fury of his own.

"Isaac only wanted to go back with his wife!" he seemed horrified that the gang would have rather had him not reunite the married couple.

"Yeah well now he won't be with us anymore. What are we supposed to do without our leader?" they demanded, pointing an accusatory finger at Shadow as if he had all the answers.

He stared blankly at them for a moment, burning crimson eyes showing no emotions other than disgust and anger. "Get a real life," he scoffed, as he turned to walk away.

As soon as the Ultimate Lifeform's back was turned, he felt a sharp pain in his right shoulder, as a rock collided with him. Although the blow stung, he whipped around with frightening speed, the scowl on his face looking as if it alone could kill.

"Apparently you didn't hear about what happened to that mob of you grizzled bums that attacked me yesterday," he said in a low voice.

"Oh, we heard. But you're not just going to walk away from me when I'm talking to you," the foremost transient challenged. Shadow surged forward, tackling the overconfident looter and pinning him to the ground.

"Just who do you think you are?" he growled. "I'm the Ultimate Lifeform, and you're some unarmed hobo, and you make demands of me?"

Shadow slammed the gangster's head into the pavement, making stars spin around his vision.

"Run! Go for help!" he squealed, blood already seeping from his head and mixing with the icy rain.

The other couple of looters began to run for it, causing Shadow to spring up, abandoning his initial prey to birth twin orbs of crackling golden energy into his palms. The Chaos Spears screamed in anticipation of spilled blood as he hurled them at the fleeing transients.

The first was struck in the leg, incinerating the appendage and burning it clean off, leaving him lying on the ground clutching his wound. Tiny trails of smoke rose from the stump which remained of his leg, as the energy had instantly cauterized the wound when it hit.

Unfortunately for him, the second looter tried too hard to dodge the attack as it came for him, disrupting its trajectory. Shadow had only aimed for his shoulder, but as he moved, the orb of wildly sparking light thudded into his back, knocking him on the ground in an inch deep puddle of water where he soon afterwards drowned.

Shadow stood in the center of the street, his head spinning and his stomach in a knot. He moved towards the men he'd just downed to make sure they were alive, but he stumbled too violently, and finally settled for just standing and trying to regain his bearings.

He'd forgotten about the first transient, who rose up behind the disoriented hedgehog. He scanned his surroundings and quickly picked up a hefty chunk from a cracked slab of cement. Straining to lift the rock, he slammed it into Shadow, knocking the wind out of him and further disorienting the badly fatigued hero.

Shadow had not idea from which the attack had come, but the numbness brought on my his dizziness, weariness and nausea was not enough to keep him from feeling the white hot fire crawl over his body like a swarm of fire ants as the brick hit him. His face slammed down into the pavement, slicing open on the corner of a slab as he fell.

The wound was a large one, and it was gaping, running all the way from his forehead, over his eyebrow, and down his cheek. Blood seeped out of it, allowing the wound to be stung by the merciless frozen daggers that fell from the black sky.

"How is it that this guy beat a whole mob of us, but I alone took him out?" the transient wondered aloud, flipping the barely conscious Shadow over so that he was lying face up.

The Ultimate Lifeform's heart skipped a beat when he heard the distinctive click of a handgun being loaded, and felt the press of a ring of cold steel against his forehead.

"I'll see you in Hell, you bastard," the transient smirked, before pulling the trigger. His eyes widened as Shadow seemingly vanished the moment before the bullet left his gun, the round bouncing off the pavement harmlessly.

"What the-"

-

Reappearing from his Chaos Control, Shadow was back on the hilltop where he'd began that morning, only now his energy reserves were utterly depleted, he was still hungry, he was badly wounded, and his core temperature was well below the normal.

He'd managed to save himself from immediate death at the hands of the murderous looter, he'd expended the last of his energy and perhaps only delayed the inevitable.

"No... I can't die here!" he moaned hoarsely at the bitterly weeping sky. "I still have to..."

Shadow fell limp and cold at the base of his beloved tree, the remains of its leaves protecting him from some of the icy downpour. His eyelids fluttered violently as his body fought viciously to stay alive while being assaulted in every possible way.

He did not have long.

-

A dull clicking sound rang through the air, each rhythmic, monotone sound noting the passing, and subsequent eternal loss of a single, irrecoverable second. It was a maddening, never-ending song that people hated listening to, because it reminded them that their time was limited, and one day, they'd run out.

A beautiful ivory bat paced back and forth in her living room, the static noise of the television droning on in the background repeating the same old information the news stations had been repeating for the last several days: Earth was saved, Shadow was back, Shadow was gone.

'Where is he? Is he alright? What if he needs me?' These sort of thoughts endlessly recurred to her, forming a sort of meter for the percussion of the clock.

She glanced hopefully at the TV as she had many times, but to her disappointment, there was no new information. She took to pacing again, but after that failed to occupy her, she decided to try something else.

"Maybe Sonic has seen him," she reasoned, knowing that the two were rivals, and Shadow may have been to see Sonic to rub his heroics in the blue hedgehog's face.

Excited by the prospect of finally getting somewhere, she held her breath as she dialed the cerulean hedgehog's phone number. It rang several times, but finally the speed demon picked it up. "Hello?"

"Hi Sonic, this is Rouge," she said into the receiver, a look of excitement on her face.

"Oh, hey Rougey. What can I do for you?" the cerulean hedgehog replied, his voice implying that he'd had other plans, and wordlessly requesting she keep it brief.

"Um, I was just wondering if you've seen Shadow since he came back," she stammered nervously, while twirling a lock of her hair between two fingers. She seemed to be able to hear Sonic's grin, and it annoyed her.

"Nah, I haven't seen him since he went up to blow up that comet," he replied in disappointment. 'There's nobody good to race without him around. I thought he was with you.'

"Well I haven't seen him either," she responded quickly, partly because she simply hadn't and partly out of embarrassment that he'd make that assumption.

"Huh. That's not like Shadow to not even stop in at your place. I wonder if something's wrong," Sonic sounded genuinely concerned, which was not a good sign.

"I thought that too... I'm getting worried. I'm going to try and find him," she announced, before continuing on. "Would you mind looking for him for me, Sonic?"

"Sure I will! I'll send him over as soon as I find him!" Sonic's suggestion was clear from his tone of voice, but his words were so innocent that it gave him the air of some sort of devious matchmaker.

"...Right. Thanks Sonic. Bye."

Rouge hung up the phone, a look of clear concern written on her features. She began pacing again, wondering where on Earth she should look, and feeling utterly hopeless to find the most important person in the world to her.

The clang of resounding metal clearly announced the arrival of Omega in the room, his head rotating to look at the ivory huntress. "Sensors indicate that Rouge is emotionally distressed. Please state the cause of your chemical imbalance."

Omega wasn't very good at being a comforter, even more than the typical guy who liked blowing things up, because he was insensitive by his very nature, being a machine. Rouge actually sometimes found it amusing, but at the moment she couldn't be cheered.

"Omega, Shadow still hasn't come back since the Black Comet was destroyed, and I'm getting worried about him," she sniffled, a look of desperation on her face. The robot was silent for a moment before he stared up at the ceiling for a good thirty seconds.

"This unit's readings suggest that the recovery of Shadow is of critical importance to Rouge's emotional stability. Capability to locate Shadow is online."

"Wait a minute, you can track Shadow?" a sparkle of hope gleamed in her eyes.

"Affirmative. Eggman specifically designed this unit to track down and control Shadow in case he ever escaped captivity. He installed a Global Positioning Systems program linked to a computer chip located inside Shadow," he revealed, cause Rouge to leap up in excitement.

"Well where is he?" she exclaimed, practically hugging Omega to death.

"Desist! His location is 49 degrees North, 33 degrees West, also known as Westopolis."

"What is he doing there? The city is destroyed and dangerous. There's gang wars and looting, and G.U.N. hasn't even started the recovery," the hopeful look had fled from her soft features, and was replaced by a look of terror.

"I am not aware of his mission there. However, his vital signs are incredibly weak. Be advised, under current conditions he has a few hours to live at most," he droned, seeming unmoved by the prospect of Shadow's death.

Rouge on the other hand broke immediately into tears, tugging on Omega's arm and insisting that they go to Westopolis immediately to save Shadow.
Shadow's little adventure comes to a close. Enter Rouge!

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