Thorax flew out of the opening and looked around, landing next to Shadow as his mouth fell open. He was stunned; he'd never seen so much white in one place before. He looked up at the endless white void where the sky would be and asked, “Where are we?”

Shadow had been looking down at the talisman again when the changeling spoke up. He glanced over at him and remarked, “I was hoping you could tell me.”

Thorax looked at him and spoke, “Me? Well, uh, I guess if I saw something I recognized…” They heard a whooshing sound behind them and they looked to see the theater and some of the surrounding area regaining color. “Wow! How did that happen?” Thorax asked.

Shadow turned to him and explained, “It seems there are openings around this city that lead to locations in my world.” He looked at the theater again, “I've only been in one other such opening, but the same thing happened when I returned here as well. Somehow, going through them restores color to this world.”

Thorax looked back at him and said, “Okay. That's kind of strange, but I guess if it happened already…” They both heard a noise echoing off the walls of the building and turned to look down the street. Omega was rocketing down the street towards them. Thorax gasped and leapt behind Shadow, exclaiming, “What's that?!”

Shadow looked down at him, “Calm down. That's Omega. He's with me.” He turned and stepped off the curb into the street, waiting for Omega to slow down. Thorax followed, though he continued to peek out from behind him at the bulky robot.

Omega lowered his feet to the ground as he cut off his boosters, his footsteps thudding loudly as he came to a stop in front of Shadow. “SHADOW,” he started, but then he noticed Thorax. He pointed with his right hand, “WHAT IS THAT THING?”

Shadow looked back at the changeling as he answered, “That’s Thorax. He’s a changeling, and as far as I can tell, those holes in his legs are normal.” He looked back at Omega, staring at him for a moment before adding, “And I don’t know about the rest of his hive, but he’s off-limits. You may not maim him.”

Thorax stared at him, “Maim?!”

Shadow glanced back, “That’s one of his favorite words. ‘Destroy’ and ‘destruction’ are a few others.” He looked at Omega, “Do you have new information?”

Omega nodded, “INDEED. IT SEEMS THERE WERE SOME EQUINES IN THAT FIRST BUILDING YOU RESTORED. MOSTLY THEY WERE SCREAMING OVER NOTHING, BUT I DID HEAR A NAME. IT SEEMS THIS CITY IS CALLED ‘MANEHATTAN’.”

Thorax spoke, “Manehattan? We're in Manehattan?”

Shadow looked back at him, “You know it?”

Thorax replied, “Some of the changelings in my hive talked about this place. I remember them saying it would be an easy place for a changeling to blend in with the ponies that live here, but it wouldn't be a great place for a lone changeling to live. I guess it would be difficult to stay fed here? I don't know.” He looked off to the side, “If we just changed some things, I wonder if that would still be true.”

Shadow eyed him for a moment before turning back to Omega and asking, “Anything else?”

The robot answered, “MY SCANNERS HAVE DETECTED SONIC’S PRESENCE IN THIS WORLD.” He turned and pointed in the direction of the bridge Shadow had seen earlier, “HIS SIGNAL IS COMING FROM WHAT APPEARS TO BE A SMALL TOWN ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BRIDGE. IT WOULD APPEAR HE IS FOLLOWING A SIMILAR PATH AS YOU IN ATTEMPTING TO RESTORE THIS WORLD, THOUGH LIKELY NOT FOR THE SAME REASON AS YOU.”

Shadow replied, “Hmph. That's fine. If he got dragged here by that creature, then I'm sure he's focused on defeating it, which means I can focus on finding Black Doom in the meantime.” As if on cue, the talisman in his hand began to shake. He looked down at it for a moment before looking back up at Omega. “Omega, I need you to track this,” he said while holding the talisman up towards the robot.

“WHAT AM I, A CANINE?” Omega asked.

Shadow rolled his eyes and explained, “Black Doom’s Eye dropped this. The last one I got from him flew off somewhere, and it looks like this one is going to do the same. If you can follow its signature, it should lead to his location.”

Omega focused on the talisman and Shadow and Thorax heard low beeping sounds coming from him for a few seconds. He stood up straight afterwards and said, “OBJECT’S ENERGY SIGNATURE RECORDED. TRACKING WILL BEGIN AS SOON AS YOU RELEASE IT.” Shadow let go of the talisman and it immediately shot up into the air and flew off behind the theater once it was above the buildings. Omega then said, “IN THE MEANTIME, I HAVE DETECTED ANOTHER TEMPORAL ANOMALY. THIS ONE IS DIFFERENT FROM THE PREVIOUS TWO.” He turned to his left, “FOLLOW THIS STREET. YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SEE THE OPENING. SCANS INDICATE YOU MUST BE GOING FAST IN ORDER TO ENTER IT.”

Shadow replied, “Well, that won’t be difficult. I’ll investigate.” He turned and started to walk to the middle of the road.

Thorax spoke up, causing him to stop, “Hey, wait! What about me?”

Shadow looked back at him, “You said you wanted me to show how to get out of that castle. I did. There’s no reason for you to stick around, is there?”

Thorax replied, “Well, I didn’t know Equestria was stuck in this… white space! I don’t think I can even get anywhere near back to where I was before with everything like this! What am I supposed to do?”

Shadow answered, “That’s up to you. If you don’t have any ideas, maybe you can look around the city and see if what your hive told you is true. Or maybe you can keep Omega company.”

Thorax looked up at Omega and the robot said, “I AM VERY GOOD COMPANY. WE CAN TALK ABOUT YOUR HOLES AND HOW I ENJOY PUTTING HOLES IN OTHER THINGS. AND THEN WE CAN TALK ABOUT THE BEST WAYS TO CAUSE DESTRUCTION.”

Thorax stared up at Omega for a moment, his face turning pale at his words. He shot over to Shadow and wrapped his forelegs around the hedgehog’s legs, the rest of his body lying on the street. “Please, let me come with you, Shadow! I prefer your company! And I’ll do better so I can help you! Please!” he cried.

Shadow looked down at him for a moment before saying, “I’m still not slowing down for you.”

Thorax replied, “That’s okay! I know how to keep up with you now! I won’t fall behind!”

After a few moments, Shadow said, “Well, this one time, I’ll let you hold on. Might want to hold on elsewhere, though.” Thorax got what he was getting at and let go of his legs. He stood up and wrapped his forelegs around his torso, Shadow moving to the middle of the street afterwards.

He got into a running stance and Thorax briefly noticed the black swirls appear around his hands as he got ready. He then had to focus on holding on as Shadow shot down the street, his feet lifting off the street after they passed the first two blocks, an orange aura forming in front of him. They started to notice the air around them undulating as they went, an image slowly appearing and coming into focus in front of them. Shadow kept going as fast as he could even though they were running out of road, the water coming into view beyond the image of a city with a red sky that they were seeing. Just as they were about to go over, they both heard a boom and a shattering sound and they suddenly found themselves in the city they saw, falling down between an open spot between four large buildings.

Thorax started flapping his wings and Shadow brought his shoes down and ignited them to slow their descent more, their shared efforts causing them to soon to a stop, hovering in midair. They saw a way out nearby and Thorax flew through it. They both looked over the flames and rubble inside the building they flew through, Thorax wincing and looking away when he noticed splotches of red during the short flight through while Shadow seemed unfazed by it. They saw a road down below when they came out the other side and flew down towards it.

After they landed, they looked around at the damaged buildings and burning rubble. “What happened here? Some sort of invasion?” He lowered his head slightly, “Is this what Canterlot could’ve looked like if Chrysalis’ invasion was successful?” He looked up after a moment and turned to look at Shadow, only to find he was gone. He looked around; the only ways to go were back up the way they just came or continue down the road. He figured the latter was the more likely option, so he flapped his wings and flew up above the road as he looked for Shadow. It only took him a minute to spot the hedgehog walking down a raised-up section of road while looking around. He flew down and landed behind him; as he trotted after him, he asked, “Hey Shadow, what gives? Why’d you disappear without a word?”

Shadow didn’t stop looking around, but he responded to the changeling’s question, “Something’s not right here. This is Westopolis, but I don’t see any Black Arms around. Where are they?”

Thorax asked, “Black Arms? What are they?”

Shadow grunted, “Aliens. Invaders. This wasn't the only place that was targeted by their last invasion.”

Thorax mused, “Oh, so that's why you…” He glanced around, “We can't be the only ones here, can we? There has to be…” He paused when he caught sight of something by an overturned bus nearby and turned to look. “Who's that?” he asked.

Shadow turned his head to glance back at Thorax, but then he saw who he was looking at and he paused. It was a bipedal robot that was mostly tan in color with light brown hands. The arms and legs were light brown as well and there were spots of orange as well, including the fin that went up between its blue eyes. There was a raised tan spot on the fin that he knew was a third eye, but it wasn't open at the moment. He turned around completely and asked, “Emerl?”

Thorax could feel a whirlwind of emotions coming from Shadow as soon as he saw the robot, and it stunned him for a moment. He turned to the hedgehog and asked, “Is he your friend too?”

Shadow started to say, “He…” before cutting himself off. He walked over to the robot and asked, “Emerl, is it really you?” He received no response, so he spoke, more normally than before, “Emerl, it's me, Shadow. Do you remember me?” Still the robot said nothing.

“He's not giving off any emotions, but I couldn't feel anything from Omega either. Maybe I just can't sense anything from robots?” Thorax wondered.

Shadow ignored his words, his shock giving way to irritation. He needed to know if this was really Emerl, and he remembered something that might confirm it. “Gizoid, I command you, bring hope to humanity!” he said.

That seemed to have an effect as, after a moment, Emerl began to tremble. Shadow and Thorax stared at him as his trembling became stronger. Suddenly, his blue eyes changed to dark red and his third eye opened, revealing it was also dark red. He then spoke in Black Doom’s voice, “It is useless for you to oppose me. Give in, Shadow.” Emerl then moved, crouching down and then making a massive jump over the two, landing near the other end of the street and turning to look back at them.

Shadow stared at Emerl in surprise for a moment before he narrowed his eyes. “Give him back!” he growled before he shot forward, Emerl turning and making another massive leap away. Thorax hesitated for a moment, surprised by the sudden surge of anger he felt from Shadow, before flying to catch up with him.

Shadow followed Emerl down the street, which ended with a steep drop below ground. There were two tall buildings close together on the sides of the drop, so while Emerl leapt all the way over the hole to a smaller building on the other side, Shadow jumped towards the building on the left and ran along the side of it, jumping to the other building to maintain his momentum. When he got to the end, he used Chaos Control to cover the rest of the distance, punching Emerl in the face as time returned to normal. He reeled from the hit, but quickly recovered and leapt away again.

As Shadow jumped up to the raised part of the rooftop, he finally encountered resistance, but it wasn't what he was expecting. Instead of Black Arms dropping out of the sky, he instead found several Gizoids dropping to block his path. They looked exactly like Emerl, complete with blue eyes instead of red eyes, but after a moment, they each drew a glowing blue blade out of their right hands.

Thorax flew up behind him after a few moments and, upon seeing the Gizoids, asked, “Hey, are they your friends too?”

Shadow answered, “No. I didn't know there were more active Gizoids out there somewhere.” Before the changeling could ask, one of the Gizoids lunged towards Shadow, thrusting its blade. The black hedgehog used his right hand to push Thorax back and then moved to the side to avoid the thrust. He then dropped down and spun around in a kick, knocking it off its feet and then stopping and kicking it in the chest when he spun around again. This prompted the other Gizoids to move to attack him.

Thorax continued to flap his wings as he came to a stop a good distance away and watched Shadow engage the Gizoids. As he watched, a strange sound above and behind him caught his attention. It sounded like the sound his wings were making, but it had a metallic quality to it. He turned his head to look and his eyes widened; there were two more Gizoids swooping down towards him, but they had wings like his on their backs. He turned and flew towards Shadow while crying out, “Shadow, look out!’

Shadow leapt back to avoid the blade of one of the Gizoids and glanced back to see what Thorax was crying about. He quickly pieced together what had happened and turned back to the Gizoids in front of him and tapped into the new powers that Black Doom had awakened within him as he unleashed a red Chaos Spear at each of them, sending them flying backwards into a wall. He then jumped up and turned to do the same to the Gizoids pursuing Thorax, knocking them out of the air. The changeling had reached him by the time he landed and he said, “I need to catch up with Emerl! Get a move on!” He then turned and shot off, wanting to get away from the Gizoids before they recovered.

Thorax was able to get into Shadow’s slipstream and catch up with him after a couple of seconds as he was dropping down to another section of road. He was able to get close enough to be within talking range as Shadow started running again and he asked, “They fly too?!”

Shadow grunted, “With enough time, a Gizoid can copy nearly any ability it witnesses!” Hearing this, Thorax realized they had been watching him and that’s why their wings looked almost exactly like his.

They turned and went down a slope. As they reached a part where it became flat for a moment, Emerl suddenly came shooting out from their right, slamming into Shadow and pushing up against a building that had small fires burning around it. The sudden attack threw Thorax off and he flipped over and flailed in midair, landing on the road and nearly sliding off the flat section down the next part of the slope. Thankfully, he slid to a stop before he went too far and turned to look at Shadow after a moment. The black hedgehog was currently engaged in a hand-to-hand fight with Emerl, their blows and movements going so fast he had no chance of keeping up with either of them.

After a minute, Shadow landed a solid punch on Emerl’s face, but instead of the robot reeling back, the air around it cracked and shattered like glass, Emerl vanishing into thin air afterwards. Shadow relaxed his stance, looking down at the ground as he realized what was going on. “It’s not him. This is all Black Doom’s doing,” he realized. He looked up a moment later and saw a large Gizoid with a big wheel instead of legs and a polearm had appeared and was rolling towards them.

Shadow grunted and ran towards it, firing a Chaos Spear at it before jumping at it with a Homing Attack. The Chaos Spear did nothing to it, though, and it easily knocked him away with its polearm before his attack could connect. He slid back to the curb behind him upon landing, but before he could attempt to attack again, he heard a sound to his right and turned to look. The two winged Gizoids from earlier were flying down towards them, and they had been joined by more Gizoids, some of them sporting wings as well. He growled; there were too many of them to deal with and protect Thorax at the same time, so he turned, grabbed the changeling, and shot off down the street.

Thorax was surprised by Shadow’s actions, but decided upon seeing the Gizoid horde that it was better not to struggle and simply let himself be carried. As he was looking back over Shadow’s shoulder, he could see just how big and menacing it was as it pursued them. “I bet this is what it was like for Twilight Sparkle and her friends when they were trying to run,” he thought to himself, noticing another one of the large Gizoids pass by out of the corner of his vision as Shadow maneuvered around on a broken section of street.

Not long after, Shadow leapt onto what was once part of an overpass and, after a few seconds of running down it, he let out a grunt, causing Thorax to turn to look. He’d found the fake Emerl again, the red-eyed Gizoid hovering above the ground ahead of them. He shot away suddenly and came to a stop in the middle of a cluster of buildings ahead of the overpass. Shadow kept going and leapt after him, getting above him and kicking him downwards. He then let go of Thorax, the changeling quickly fluttering his wings after he was thrown up, and skydived down after him. He proceeded to deliver another swift series of punches and kicks before knocking him away. The fake Emerl vanished after a few seconds, but this time, a new opening appeared behind where he had disappeared. Shadow continued falling into it and Thorax flew down after him, the opening closing after they were both through.

Shadow soon saw the end of the space between the portals coming up and could see what looked like solid ground on the other side, so he flipped himself over and landed safely on his feet. He stood up and glanced around as Thorax exited and landed next to him, the changeling seeing the pieces of machinery, the orange-yellow liquid in the middle of and around the circular floor they were standing on, and the shrine across from them in the back of the room. Thorax had no idea what he was looking at, but Shadow almost immediately knew where they were. “The Eclipse Cannon’s core…” he uttered.

Thorax turned to him, “The… what?” Before Shadow could answer, he noticed the machinery hanging above the shrine started pulsing, almost like a heartbeat.

Suddenly, they heard a voice say, “All of you ungrateful humans who took everything away from me will feel my loss and despair! All of you-” There was a scratching sound that cut off the voice for a moment and when they heard it again, it continued, “-everything away from me will feel my loss and despair!”

As the voice repeated itself again, Thorax asked, “What’s going on?! Who’s saying that?”

Shadow noticed a cyan aura come from the machinery followed by an orange orb forming and floating up in the middle of the floor. “Get ready!” he said as an orange light began to shine inside it and something inside caused it to get bigger.

After a few moments, the orange light in the orb began to switch to cyan and back. After several switches, it remained cyan and the orb burst, a massive creature appearing out of thin air and dropping down. The impact from its landing pushed them back and sprayed drops of the liquid on them. They looked up at it; it was a giant lizard with two legs, a big glowing machine on its back, and bits of machinery replacing parts of its anatomy. Shadow knew it was the Biolizard, the prototype of the Ultimate Life Form. It looked down at them and let out a loud roar at them.

“Aaaaaahhhhh!” Thorax screamed as he looked up at it. He had already been scared when it had appeared; now he was terrified and panicking.

Shadow picked up on this and placed his left hand on Thorax's chest, pushing him back as he ordered, “Stay back! I'll handle this!” He then threw a Chaos Spear at the Biolizard’s head, catching its attention. It lunged its head at him and he leapt to the right while Thorax flew further back. Shadow turned back to it and said, “You tortured soul… I'll end your suffering.”

The Biolizard turned to him and began snapping at him with its mouth. “You can't keep pace with me!” Shadow grunted as he skated away from it. It kept snapping at him for several seconds, however, until it had turned all the way around. It was at this point that it began shooting dark purple and orange spheres from its mouth at him. With the way it was positioned, Thorax found himself having to weave around the spheres after they missed Shadow, so he decided to fly up higher to get out of their way.

After a couple of seconds of this, it dropped its head, resting it against the ground as the cables that ran from its head to the life support machine on its back began to glow. “Still easily tires out. I need to destroy the life support rig to put an end to this,” Shadow thought as he ran towards its head, jumping onto one of the cables and grinding up it to the machine, which was glowing brightly as it restored the Biolizard’s strength. He leapt up to the dome in the center and unleashed a flurry of blows on it. A small explosion came from it after a few seconds and it blew Shadow off.

The Biolizard swung its head around to look at Shadow after he landed and it raised its left leg to stomp the ground. Suddenly, long tentacles made up of tubing and wiring erupted from the sides of the life support system, a roar coming from the giant lizard as it raised the tentacles up. Pink eggs formed around the tentacles, the eggs at the ends forming the vague shape of a five-fingered hand. “Huh. That’s a new trick. Some sort of mutation?” Shadow thought as he looked up at it. The Biolizard slammed its tentacles down and stared directly at him, the hedgehog commenting, “You think those will stop me? I already know your weaknesses!”

The Biolizard slammed its right tentacle down and Shadow leapt back from it. The tentacle came down too hard as it got stuck in the ground and it struggled to pull it free. Shadow took this opportunity to attack it, the tubing and wiring exploding after several seconds and retreating back into the life support system. “I knew it would pop,” Shadow remarked, looking up at the eggs floating around him. He used a Homing Attack on two of the eggs to get high enough in order to attack the machine again.

Thorax was still watching the fight from up on the ledge he’d flown up to and while he was amazed at how well Shadow was doing, he was still worried about him and he summoned the courage to stand up now. “I have to do something!” he told himself. He flew down as Shadow was blown off the Biolizard’s back again, bumping into the other tentacle as he flew and landing hard on his side. Thorax saw this and flew down faster, tapping into his magic as he neared the ground. He turned into Shadow as he landed and, seeing the Biolizard regrow its destroyed tentacle, he raised his ‘arms’ and waved them as he called, “Hey, hey! You looking for me?! I’m right here!”

The Biolizard swung its head around to look at him and thought he was actually Shadow, so it turned to him and swung its tentacles down at him. Thorax let his wings come out of his back so that he could better jump back from the resulting slams. Shadow had already gotten back up at this point and was staring at him. “Thorax, what are you doing?” he wondered. On its third swing at the changeling, its tentacle got stuck in the ground again. Shadow shot forward at this and attacked it again, getting another chance to attack the life support system.

He made a much better landing this time and turned to Thorax, but before he could say anything, they both noticed the Biolizard shift and turned to see it jump up. When it landed, the impact lifted them off the ground. Thorax looked first at the Biolizard, then at Shadow, and then had an idea. He turned back to normal, flew over, and grabbed Shadow before flying towards the Biolizard. The black hedgehog quickly caught onto what he was doing and used his Air Shoes to give him a speed boost. Once they were close enough, Thorax let him go and he used Chaos Control to teleport close enough to deliver another series of blows.

For a second afterwards, it seemed like the Biolizard was finished, but then it reared up again and, with a roar, slammed the ends of its tentacles against the ground like fists, propelling itself up into the air again. This time, it went towards the wall and planted its feet against it. Four tubes came out of ports in the wall and attached to the life support rig, causing the dome in the middle of it to start glowing brightly again as it roared at the two.

“Stop struggling. You cling to a crueler fate,” Shadow said. Thorax looked over at him for a moment, but then the Biolizard let out another roar and created many floating pink eggs around it. Shadow had a feeling he knew what it was going to do and told Thorax, “Stay back. I’ll show it which of is the true Ultimate Life Form.” When the eggs started coming towards them, he began skating around while firing off Chaos Spears, destroying them. It started throwing more, but he was able to keep them from hitting him or Thorax.

After a minute, the Biolizard brought its tentacles close together and created a large pink sphere between them. It then threw it at the platform. Before it hit, Shadow used Chaos Control to stop time and then jumped up towards it, rapidly punching and kicking at it for a moment before jumping and then shooting towards it to deliver two more powerful kicks that sent it back at the Biolizard, using Chaos Control to follow it up. Time returned to normal afterwards and he used the pink eggs that had appeared from the resulting explosion to attack the life support system again.

He jumped back onto one of the eggs and then jumped to deliver one last punch that destroyed it, pieces falling off of it that rained down around the core and the rig almost seeming ready to come off as the tubes detached and it fell down onto its side. Thorax was motionless as it slid towards him, but Shadow appeared next to him and grabbed him before teleporting away again, both of them reappearing a short distance away from the creature that had stopped moving.

Shadow and Thorax turned to look at the large lizard’s body, the former saying nothing as he looked at it, his face showing a small bit of pity for it. Thorax looked at him after a few moments and started, “It was… so full of pain… so much hurt and anger that was fueled purely by that pain… It’s like that was all it knew…”

Shadow nodded softly and said, “Yes. That life support rig on its back was the only thing that kept it alive. The amount of experimentation done on it in pursuit of the Ultimate Life Form left it as this. It never would have found peace as long as it lived.”

Thorax asked, “Is that why…?”

Shadow turned to him, “Yes. Some things just can’t be fixed, and attempting to fix them only makes things worse in the end. Sometimes, you have to do the cruelest thing to do something right.” They both heard a sound and turned to see an opening had appeared nearby. Shadow glanced back at Thorax and quietly said, “Let’s go.” The changeling nodded and they both ran into the opening, which closed afterwards, leaving the Biolizard alone in the cannon’s core.

Unbeknownst to them, after they left, a portal similar to the one the creature that had started this mess opened in the middle of the room…

Shadow and Thorax found themselves deposited on one of the buildings near the theater. When they looked up, they saw that where once there had only been empty white space before, more of Manehattan was appearing as a glowing white wave swept across it. Many of the buildings were still white, but it seemed that this little venture had restored more of the city back into existence. “Maybe other parts of this world have been restored as well?” Shadow wondered as the wave came to an end.

Thorax, naturally, was amazed by what had happened. “Wow! Did that restore the whole city? I heard it was big, but… Isn’t this a great view, Shadow?” He heard the black hedgehog let out a huff and turned to see him walking away. “Where are you going?” he asked.

“I don’t have time for sightseeing,” Shadow said. He continued walking without looking back.

He didn’t get very far when he heard a familiar voice say, “Shadow.” He paused, a surprised look on his face, and turned to see Black Doom’s Eye across from him making a projection of the leader of the Black Arms. He looked exactly as Shadow remembered with his hanging chains and necklaces and black clothing, and it made him tense up. “You have made excellent progress. I would expect nothing less from my finest creation,” Black Doom commended.

Thorax looked at Shadow as he responded, “‘Finest creation,’ Black Doom? I destroyed you once. I will do it again.” He shot forward and punched the projection, causing it to fade, before turning his attention to the Eye. Thorax could only watch as it floated around, surprised by how easily it was avoiding Shadow’s attacks.

After a few seconds, the Eye flew created Black Doom’s projection again and he gave a low laugh before saying, “You defeated us, but the Black Arms live on. And this temporal anomaly has accelerated my plans to revive my forces and consume the world. And so too will this other world-” He was cut off when Shadow launched a Chaos Spear at the Eye, hitting it directly in the center. While it was stunned, he got up close and delivered a series of blows to it with a shout. It flopped down onto the roof afterwards and faded away surrounded by green and purple mist.

Both Shadow and Thorax turned when they heard a noise a moment later to see the Eye had flown up next to the roof. “Enough of this! Show yourself; we’ll finish this here and now!” Shadow said when the projection reappeared.

Black Doom responded, “You are not ready yet. WE are not ready yet. Once you have been perfected, then we will have our reckoning.”

Shadow growled as the projection faded. “Get back here!” he said as the Eye turned to leave. He ran to the edge and leapt up to do a Homing Attack, but it flew up out of his reach so he ended up going over the edge. Fortunately, he was able to Boost across to a tall building across the road and run down the side of it to reach the ground. He clenched his fists as he growled, noticing the black streaks forming around them.

A sudden scream from nearby broke the still air and snapped him out of his anger. He turned his head to the right; it sounded like it had come from around the nearby corner. He skated past several buildings and looked; three Black Warriors were chasing someone down the middle of the road. He gritted his teeth and his eyes glowed a light red before he ran after them.

Whoever was being chased evidently lost their balance and fell as the Black Warriors came to a stop after a few seconds, the lead Warrior raising its right hand to slash with its claws. Before it could, Shadow appeared from Chaos Control directly underneath it and kicked it straight up into the air. He teleported up after it and kicked it into the side of one of the nearby buildings, the Black Warrior breaking down into nothing before it even hit the ground. Shadow then swiftly dealt with the other two before they could figure out what was going on, taking them both out with a single kick. Shadow reappeared a short distance away from the individual, remaining on one knee for a moment as the glow in his eyes faded. He then stood up and turned to face them.

He had been expecting to see that the one being pursued was one of the equines of this other world, but instead he saw a young, blonde-haired woman wearing blue clothes on her knees in the middle of the road. She must’ve sensed the danger had passed since she raised her head up after a few seconds and turned to look. She gasped when she saw Shadow and, after a moment of staring at her, his eyes widened in shock. Of all the things he was expecting, he was definitely not expecting this. “Maria?” he breathed.

The woman gasped again, this time in joy, and she ran over to him, wrapping her arms around him as she exclaimed, “Shadow!” The black hedgehog stood stock still for several moments. He could hardly believe this was actually happening.

The shock faded somewhat when they both heard another voice, a familiar voice, exclaim, “Maria!” Maria let go of Shadow and looked behind her and he looked past her to see Professor Gerald running towards them. He looked slightly out of breath, but he stood up straight as he came to a stop near them and said, “Thank you, Shadow.”

Shadow took a step back, still surprised. He looked down at the street as he thought, “They’re both here…?”

Maria turned back to Shadow and asked, “Where did you learn to fight like that?” Shadow looked at her for a moment before looking away again, still thinking about how this had happened.

“They must’ve been pulled from a point in time before the ARK disaster,” he reasoned. He looked up and his thoughts were cut off when he noticed someone else behind Professor Gerald. “Thorax?” he asked, causing both Gerald and Maria to turn and notice the changeling standing behind them.

Thorax currently had his eyes closed and his head raised up like he had smelled something delicious and was savoring it. He lowered his head after a moment and opened his eyes, looking a little sheepish as he noticed the looks he was getting. “Sorry, I… I couldn’t help it,” he admitted.

“My word!” Gerald exclaimed.

Maria looked at Shadow and asked, “Who’s this, Shadow? Did you make a new friend?” She stood up and ran over to Thorax, looking ready to hug him. Before she could reach him, his eyes narrowed and he lowered his body down, letting out a hiss at her that caused her to stop and both Gerald and Shadow to flinch.

Thorax realized they were staring at him after a few moments and he blinked. He quickly stood up straight and cried out, “I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to! I…” He lowered his head, “This is all new to me…”

Maria smiled after a moment, “Oh, that’s all right. I’m not upset.” She held her arms open, “May I?” Thorax looked up at her and it took him a few seconds to figure out what she was asking him. He hesitantly nodded and she wrapped her arms around him. He stiffened up at this, but he was able to keep his changeling instincts in check this time.

Professor Gerald, meanwhile, began to walk around Thorax, taking a look at him. “Very intriguing…” he remarked as his right hand adjusted his mustache. It was clear the academic in him already wanted to know all there was to know about this new creature.

With a moment to himself again, Shadow returned to his thoughts. “They don’t know what’s coming, what their fate is. But being here in this world…” He glanced off to the side, “Perhaps I can change their fate.”

He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard Maria ask, “Shadow? You look grim. Is everything all right?” Shadow quickly nodded so she wouldn’t think anything was wrong. “Well, come on, then! Let’s find a nice place to sit down so you can introduce us to your new friend!” she said.

Shadow blinked at this. “‘Friend?’ Hmph…” He decided to just let that one slide and walked over to Maria, Gerald, and Thorax. Perhaps he did have time for a short rest.

Author's Note

Meant to have this one done a little sooner, but it's such a big moment that I wanted to make sure I got it as right as I possibly could. I hope you all think I did.

Yes, the Biolizard is more or less the same as it was in the game. It's too important to Shadow's history, and I knew having it show up would help connect this story to the events of FiT, which it is now more properly synced up with.

Regarding the entrance to Westopolis, I decided that since Black Doom is orchestrating the events of "Shadow Generations" that things like the boss gate entrances would be a little different as a way to gauge Shadow's progress/evolution. If Shadow couldn't break the barrier on his own, then he wouldn't be ready to continue on the path that Black Doom has set him on. The Emerl illusion and the Biolizard are all part of that path, so there's no collaboration here.

It won't be long now before you get to see something you didn't get to see in the original story. Also...

THEY FLY NOW!