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He thought they disappeared once he’d defeated Black Doom.
Once White Space had crumbled, once the Time Eater had been defeated, Shadow had expected the rest of his Doom Powers to fade alongside them. They were powerful, sure, but he wasn’t eager to have to deal with them moving forward. For the most part, his Chaos abilities were enough to get the job done, and he mostly left it at that.
Much to his dismay, however, the Doom Powers didn’t leave. They instead made themselves painfully obvious over the next week or so.
The first one came naturally. In the midst of clearing out more of Eggman’s Badniks somewhere in the wilderness, he’d prepared to summon a Chaos Spear; ready to feel the raw energy flow through his veins and into his fist. It’d come out, sure, but once he’d fired it, the following trail made him stiffen.
His normal spears didn’t look like that, to name the obvious. The pale yellow of the bolt had turned slightly red at the edges, an undeniable trace of ink trailing behind it as it shot through his target. It pierced through the Badnik like a ship cutting through water, halving the robot before it exploded before shooting through several more that were behind it.
Within a matter of seconds, he’d cleared an entire line of Badniks. With a single shot.
As forceful as his regular Chaos Spears were, they didn’t carry black ink with them as they went. The last time he’d seen his spears do that was back on-
Nevermind. It was a good thing he’d been on his own. He just hoped it wouldn’t become a common occurrence.
Unfortunately for Shadow, he’d just wasted all of his luck for the coming week. It wasn’t enough for it to happen again, but it had to happen while he wasn’t alone as well. Great.
The next time he’d come face to face with his Doom powers, he’d been on a mission for G.U.N alongside Rouge and Omega.
According to Towers, they’d been assigned to intercept an underground transportation of Black Arms technology. It’d gone smoothly enough at the beginning; they’d infiltrated the warehouse, secured the building, and plowed down whoever dared to stand in their way.
That part was mostly Omega. He’d been trigger-happy lately.
As he and Rouge split off to take out a cluster of snipers, Shadow swung his foot back, planning to kick the gun out of the hands of a nearby person. With a swipe, he’d knocked the gunman to the ground swiftly. But as he channeled Chaos Control in order to take out the rest, something felt different. Off.
Unluckily for him, his unsaid questions went answered as he launched another enemy off of their feet. It sent them into the warehouse wall, and Shadow once again noticed the same ink trailing from his shoes as the battle died down around him.
Rouge had landed at his side, her heels neatly clicking on the stone floor as she strolled over. She must’ve finished on her end.
“Did that guy rob your house or something? I haven’t seen you so fired up in a while.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Shadow crossed his arms, looking away. “I feel fine.”
However, she refused to relent, instead pointing out the obvious. “Shadow, I can see the dent in the wall.”
A quick look over to where the unconscious body was strewn across the floor, and Rouge was right. So there was.
“What does that have to do with anything? This is how I usually fight, overexertion or no.”
If Rouge had anything more to say on the subject, she didn’t say it outright. As they secured the Black Arms technology, Shadow couldn’t help but be reminded of the small thought he’d pushed to the back of his mind. He was two for two now. Hopefully that was enough for the Doom Powers that kept trying to resurface to finally stop.
At least he’d gotten back the ones that didn’t change that much of his initial skill set. If he had to deal with reforming into that creature again, he might as well throw in the towel now.
The third power had probably been revealed to him in the most embarrassing way possible.
He’d gone on a run, and ended up slipping forwards. On water. He was very glad to have been somewhat alone for that.
One moment, he’d been skating across a river. The next, he’d felt something smooth and slippery under his feet, rooting him to whatever was pulling him across the water as he lurched forward from the sudden force.
The manta ray hadn’t been there for long, as he’d made it to the other side relatively quickly. The fact that it was even there, however, solidified his suppressed suspicions even further. If he’d recovered Doom Surf, then-
Shadow stilled. There was no use in denying it now. He had to prepare for the inevitable.
When it finally came, though, it still caught him off guard.
He’d been on the phone with Amy one evening, the latter making plans for something and enlisting Shadow’s help in the process. To be honest, he wasn’t sure why she’d gone to him first when he knew she had mutual friends who were free, but he wasn’t necessarily going to complain. Her straightforward energy helped him take his mind off of whatever was bugging it, as well as their conversations making for pleasant idle talk as he went about doing other things.
He’d just opened his mouth to respond to one of her statements when a sharp pain shot through his back quills with a sickening rip. Dropping the phone with a loud clatter, Amy’s words of concern barely reached his ears as he was sent to the floor in an instant.
The top part of his back burned, two unmistakable lines tearing into his skin as he tried not to yell from the sheer agony of it all. He could feel the appendages bursting out from behind him as he keeled over, unfolding themselves neatly from the mangled, inky mess that kept him from standing upright.
He thought he’d remembered the pain of growing the wings correctly. Apparently he was wrong.
The pain continued for a while, his skin screaming as he stumbled to his feet. It hung heavy behind him as he apologised to Amy, brushing off the sudden outburst as he hung up before she could reply.
For a moment, Shadow didn’t think the feeling would ever go away. How had he managed it back in White Space? He couldn’t remember. At least he’d been able to fly with them there.
It took a while for the wings to actually recede, his bones shifting back into place as he attempted to bear the undeniable pain. Stuffing pinions bigger than him back into his body brought a new level of discomfort to his already suffering self as he shoved the dripping wings out of sight. He didn’t want to deal with them. Not now. Unfortunately, since he’d regrown the wings, there was only one more Doom Power left uncovered.
On one hand, he couldn’t ignore the last one he had yet to recover.
On the other, he really wished he could. Just for now.
Sonic had caught him the other day, some time after the rest of the abilities had resurfaced. He hadn’t seen him since his birthday, and even then, they hadn’t talked all that much. He’d asked for a quick spar, and against Shadow’s better judgment, they’d ended up fighting right where they stood. It was a good thing they hadn’t met in the city.
He couldn’t tell if Sonic was getting better or he was just getting sloppy, but Shadow found that his punches were connecting less and less with Sonic’s body. Even when he’d tried to use Chaos Snap, he felt slower. Sluggish. It just wasn’t right.
Even so, he didn’t recognise the shift in his body when something inside him clicked. Changed.
A tentacle extended, shooting forwards to snap around the warped blue form in front of him. This thing was foolish to challenge him, a being of the Black Arms. Who did it think it was, to even attempt to?
He tightened his hold over the struggling figure. He had to eradicate it. Crush any opposition in his way.
“S…s?” Something small, faint even came from the blurry shape. Whatever. He paid it no mind.
Unfortunately for him, it persisted. “Sh…w! Isn’t this a b… much? Like I kn…w we don’t g… along, but—“ A wheeze cut it off as he squeezed harder, a rush of air escaping from the form.
It was pretty chatty for a worthless being. What gave it the right to try and reason with him? He was just about to tear it to shreds, to reassert the authority of the Black Arms, when another shout escaped the form; strained and a little desperate.
“Shadow! Dude, listen to me!”
Shadow. That was his name, wasn’t it? He’d been- he was- what was he doing again?
”Shadow! Come on, it’s me! Sonic!”
His vision finally cleared, allowing him to give a name to the face he was currently trying to murder. With a slight sinking feeling in his gut, — wherever it was — Sonic the Hedgehog was held out in front of him, trying to remove the dark tentacles from where they were trying to crush his chest.
Almost instantly, Shadow dropped him as if he’d burned him, causing Sonic to grunt upon impact. “Didn’t have to drop me that hard, man.”
The pit in Shadow’s gut only grew larger as the rest of his memories came rushing back. This was- they were supposed to be sparring. He didn’t know how, he didn’t know when, but he must’ve transformed sometime during their fight.
A red-tipped tentacle waved in front of his vision. Doom Morph. As if it couldn’t have come back at a worse time.
He watched as Sonic rubbed his back, continuing to talk as if Shadow hadn’t just been trying to choke the life out of him. “You just kind of… stopped mid punch and clutched your head. A bunch of weird tentacles pulled you into the ground, and you came out looking like-“ He gestured to Doom Shadow. “-that.” His tone was slightly uncertain, unsure if he was actually talking to Shadow. “You can hear me, right Shads?”
He had no mouth, no vocal cords that could produce even the slightest hint of whatever Shadow wanted to say. With a bit of a struggle, he nodded.
That must’ve been enough for Sonic, as whatever uncertainty he still had was replaced by a small smile. “Well, the octopus is new. You gonna stay like that forever?”
Ah. Right.
A rush of coal-black, and Shadow could feel the sensation of having hands again. He looked away, a sour feeling festering from within. Was it guilt? Shame?
“I’m sorry.”
A hum of confusion. “For what?”
“I hadn’t expected Doom Morph to resurface now. I must’ve lost control.” He was lying. There wasn’t an ounce of control in his Doom Powers since he’d left White Space. Not in that field of Badniks. Not here.
Shadow hadn’t told anyone much about what had happened with Black Doom; Sonic included. Although he knew a bit — they had crossed paths after all — there was still parts missing where he’d been preoccupied with the Time Eater. Shadow wasn’t all that willing to fill in the gaps for him.
Sonic must’ve noticed, as he sat down next to him with an unceremonious plop. “You don’t have to tell me any further. For what it’s worth, I think it’s pretty cool.”
And there he was.
“I literally tried to kill you.”
“And? You do that every time we fight. What makes this time any different?”
“The monstrous form?” He honestly couldn’t believe this hedgehog. He’d just tried to crush the life out of him, and here he was acting like it was fine?
“Yeah, but imagine if you could use that to your advantage!” Sonic said. “Maybe try to warn me next time, though.”
Shadow groaned.