• A cold wind was blowing through the snow covered mountains of the Ice Cap Zone. Snowflakes fell down into the vast cold wasteland as three figures moved across the snow. At the front was a black hedgehog that had red stripes. He moved like he was on roller blades from the shoes he wore, which allowed him to hover over the snow and move across. Behind him was a female bat who flew over the snow. She wore a black suit that hugged her figure and had a heart that hid two big secrets from anyone who looked at her. In the back was a large robot that seemed bulky and had an omega symbol on its metal body. The robot was having a hard time keeping up.

    The bat looked back at the robot and asked, "Omega, how are you holding up back there?" Omega looked at her with its soulless lenses for eyes and said, "My circuits appear to still be functional. Still sending warming liquid to most vulnerable areas to freezing." The black hedgehog turned his attention to the bat and said, "Must you always ask if he's alright every few minutes Rouge?" The bat looked at him. "Shadow, you know he's the only one who can break through the obstacles around here. We need to make sure he's in top shape."
    "Hm!"

    As they moved through the blizzard, they soon reached a cave. But there was a thick wall of ice in the entrance. Rouge looked back at Omega and said, "Alright, help us break through this." Both Shadow and Rouge stepped out of the way as Omega came up to the wall. He told them that he was scanning for a weak point. He soon found one and took one of his metallic hands to curl into a fist. He punched the wall and it instantly came crashing down into chunks.

    Rouge smiled at the robot and gave him a pat on his arm. "Thank you Omega!" "You are welcome, Subject: Rouge." Shadow looked away for a second, thinking to himself, "I could have done that myself." They then proceeded to enter the dark ice cave.

    Omega's eyes lit up, providing some light to let them see in the tunnel. Shadow looked at the robot and asked, "So, Omega. Are you sure there's an emerald here?" "Affirmative. My mainframe connected to Eggman's satellite and found energy signatures leading here." Rouge heard the name, Eggman and asked the robot, "Eggman's satellite? Doesn't that mean that he will be here soon?" "Affirmative. Most logical suggestion: Get emerald before Subject: Eggman arrives."

    Suddenly, the group saw something glow with blue light. They all looked to see a blue gem that shined like a diamond and had a glow matching it. It was sitting on top of an object sticking from the wall that looked like a frozen clawed hand. Omega stated, "Emerald in sight." "Wow that was easy!" Rouge shouted as he ran excitedly up at the emerald. Her eyes lit up as she was hypnotized by the gem's beauty. Shadow though for a moment and said, "Perhaps too easy..."

    Ignoring what shadow said, she reached for the emerald. She wanted it so badly that she would hug it and give it a lot of kisses. But, as soon as her fingers curled around it, the clawed hand quickly broke off all the ice and gripped her hand tightly. She let out a scream as Omega and Shadow were getting ready to fight in case of a threat. Rouge tried to pull herself from the claw's grip and shouted, "LET ME GO!!!" She kicked the wall and something fell on top of her as the wall crumbled.

    Felling worried about her, Shadow ran over to where she was. He was expecting the she would have chunks of ice on top of her. But instead he found a white creature sleeping on top of her. It had a body covered in white scales that had a blue hue under Omega's lights. Its head had a frill with horns and lizard-like nostrils. Its hands and feet had sharp talons that look like they could slice up anything. On its back were spines and two large bat-like wings. And its tail ended with a point.

    The creature appeared to be sleeping silently while resting its head on Rouge's "heart". Rouge's face became a little red as she told Omega to pick the creature up. Omega did as requested as they all looked at it. "What is it?" asked Shadow. "I don't know." said Rouge, trying to calm down from the scare. "He looks like a Mobian. What do you think Omega?" The robot looked at the creature and said, "Scanning...... No match with any species of Mobian. Does not compute."

    Rouge and Shadow looked at the creature in confusion. How could there be a Mobian species that no one knew about? Rouge began to walk out of the cave with her emerald. "Well, whatever he is, we still have what we came for." Shadow looked at the creature and asked, "What about him?" "Him? Well I guess we can bring him back with us. Perhaps we can learn something from him." Rouge said with a smile.

    The group exited the cavern with the emerald and creature in tow when a pair of large mechanical feet stepped in front of them. What the three of them saw was a mech walker with a fat man riding in it with an all familiar laugh. He had an arsenal of guns and an army of robots blocking all escape routes. The man stroked his large mustache with a laugh and said, "Well well well! It seems you have saved me some trouble. Now hand over the emerald and no one will get hurt!" The three dropped everything , including the creature, and shouted in unison, "EGGMAN!" Eggman laughed and said, "I'm so glad that you all remember me! Though since you three did help me out a few times before and betrayed me, I thought you would do otherwise."

    Rouge laughed. "You silly man! Don't you remember how I'm like with jewels? I never give them up so easily. You'll have to try harder than this to get it off me!" She gave Eggman a wink as he was getting impatient. He said, "Well then, you leave me no choice! All units! Prepare to open fire!" All of the robots aimed their guns as Omega, Shadow, and Rouge prepared to fight.

    Suddenly the creature woke up and stood. He walked in between the two opposing forces while scratching his scaled body and yawning. They all looked at him in confusion. "Huh? Who is this?" asked Eggman. The robots stood their ground and both Shadow and Rouge watched him. The creature felt a cramp as he grumbled and peeled off his skin. After getting it all off, he tossed it aside and revealed shiny new scales. He sighed with relief before looking at all the robots with guns.

    He then became wide awake as he saw the threat. His blue eyes were wide open as he bared his fangs at them. He had his claws at the ready and looked like he was ready to take them on. Eggman didn't like the way this guy was looking at him and shouted, "Alright! Enough of this! OPEN FIRE!" The robots let loose all of their bullets at the creature.

    Seeing the bullets heading towards him, the creature curled into a ball like Sonic would and let the bullets hit him. With each one hitting him, there was a loud "c***k" sound ringing in the air. The robots stopped firing at the creature in confusion. He stood up and looked at all of the robots with a grin. He didn't have a scratch on him!

    Shadow and Rouge couldn't believe their eyes! How could this be possible? They thought he would be Swiss Cheese in an instant! Omega scanned him over and over again. But he kept saying, "That does not compute!" Eggman's mouth was agape and he was sweating, even if it was cold out. "B-but! How? T-that's impossible!"

    The creature had a malicious grin on his face, seeing that he had the upper hand. He let out a large roar and extended his wings to fly towards the robot army. His flight speed matched that of Sonic's running speed as he plowed through the robots. He used his talons and began slicing each and everyone of them. Seeing that this couldn't be good, Eggman pressed a button to escape. His mech walker discarded its legs as his rocket boosters activated. He began to fly away, but the creature caught up with him and knocked him into a nearby mounted, where there was an explosion.

    Shadow couldn't believe his eyes and though, "I don't understand this! I'm the ultimate life form! How can this guy do more damage than me?" Rouge was impressed! She liked the way this guy fought. Omega was scanning the creature's progress and saw all of the destruction. His circuits came into a conclusion as he said, "Danger! Threat detected!" He suddenly began to approach the creature as if it was an enemy. Rouge and Shadow saw what he was doing and shouted, "DON'T ATTACK HIM YOU IDIOT!"

    It was too late, the creature saw Omega approach him to attack and roared at him, thinking he was one of the robots he destroyed earlier. He took a deep breath and let out a green cloud. It seemed to turn blue in the cold air and shot towards Omega. As each bit of the cloud hit, his body began to freeze. "Warning! Warning! KZZT.... Circuits.... KZZZT.... freezing! Switching to emergency.... KZZZZZT.... shut down! KZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT." Omega stopped moving and tipped over on his side.

    The creature turned his attention to Shadow and Rouge, who were surprised to see this guy wasn't really on their side. He had his claws at the ready and flew towards the two. Rouge extended her wings and flew to the side while shadow rolled out of the way. As soon as the creature came next to her, she tried to give him a kick. But she missed as he quickly moved behind her and tapped her shoulder with his tail. She looked back and he let out some more of that green mist.

    This time the mist did not turn blue and covered her body and got into her eyes. She screamed as it burned her eyes and she fell into the snow. Her suit was also getting eaten away, suggesting that he let out something corrosive. Rouge sat on the ground and looked around. Her eyes turned grey and she could see... darkness. She was blind! She covered herself and shivered in the cold as her suit was eaten away. "Shadow?" she said, wondering what was happening.

    Shadow's face turned bright red as he saw her like this. But he returned his focus on to the creature. The creature then began to fly towards him with his claws at the ready again. Shadow had to think of something to save his skin! At the corner of his eye he could see.... the emerald! That would give him and edge. He used his shoes to skate his way quickly towards the emerald.

    The creature was following behind as he grabbed it. Just before his talons would slice into Shadow's body, Shadow shouted, "CHAOS CONTROL!" He disappeared in a flash and jumped on to the creatures back. The creature widened his eyes in confusion as Shadow held on to him for dear life. Shadow punched the creature's head a few times, avoiding the horns. The reptilian opponent roared and tried to shake him off. But Shadow wouldn't let go and kept punching.

    Eventually the creature took one of his clawed hands and grabbed Shadow's leg. He used all of his might to pull him off and threw him into the ground. Shadow landed on his feet and began skating across the mountain slopes. The creature followed again and let out some frosty blasts. Shadow was able to dodge by using chaos control, but he knew this wouldn't work forever. He could feel his power draining with each use.

    Meanwhile, Rouge was slowly regaining her sight and felt around for something she could cover up with. She found the shed skin from the creature. She wasn't really comfortable about using this since it felt like snake skin. But she had no choice in the matter. She wrapped it around her body and looked out at the mountains. All around, she could vaguely see Shadow and the creature zooming across the snow while fighting each other in mortal combat. She knew she had to find some way to stop this.

    Eventually, Shadow started to slow down from using too much energy. He sent a few blows at the creature. But his punches, kicks, or quills could penetrate the creature's tough scales. The creature took some swipes of his claws at Shadow and he had wounds on his arms and torso. Shadow sat down and looked at the creature to ask, "How? I'm supposed to be the ultimate life form! How could I be beaten this easily? Who are you?" The creature smiled at him to finally say, "I'm Fafnir." He was about ready to send the finishing blow on Shadow.

    Suddenly, something swooped in and hit Fafnir in the belly. He shouted in pain as he put a hand over his belly. Shadow looked over to see Rouge. She kicked Fafnir in the belly again and he let out a cry of pain and a whimper. Seeing that she found his weakness, he smiled and said, "Clever girl." He extended his wings and flew into the dark skies. His voice echoed across the mountains. "You know, you guys gave me a good workout! Perhaps we shall fight again?"

    When everything became quiet, Rouge came over to Shadow and asked, "Are you ok?" Shadow sad up with his wounds and said, "Yeah I'm fine. I just need some first aid is all." He looked up at the sky. "What was that monster?" "I think he was a dragon." Rouge said while looking up as well. "A dragon?" asked Shadow. Soon a robotic voice said, "Dragon does not compute."

    They looked over to see Omega, who was defrosted. Rouge then looked at Shadow and said, "Yes, I've heard about them when I was very young. Though I never thought that one would be like this." Soon she had a mischievous smile on her face. "But I wish I could have had a better meeting with him! He could tell me where he keeps any jewels in his hoard!" Her eyes shined again as she imagined it. "Boys, we have to find him again! Just imagine what we could get from him!"

    Shadow shook his head. "Rouge, we can't do that right now. Our mission is to get all of the emeralds. We have no time for that." "Indeed." said Omega. "Let us not forget that Subjects: Sonic and friends are after the same things as well. Best suggestion: continue the search." Rouge pouted at them. "You two are no fun!"

    Meanwhile, Fafnir was looking down at them from a nearby mountain. He had a feeling that he was going to meet them again some day. Though he wouldn't want that female bat to try to get his hoard. In fact, he didn't really have one. Soon his stomach grumbled and he looked out at the sea beyond the food of the mountains. He flew off in that direction to find himself some fish to eat.