Taismo- Rewritten: ch 1

The setting of this fanfiction begins during Season 3 of Sonic X, with a bit of a change in the plot. It will be self explanatory as to why the plot is different. Unless you've actually 'seen' Season 3, this may be harder to follow. Anyway, enjoy reading…

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Tails was rushing through the halls of the Blue Typhoon with Cosmo in his arms escaping from Shadow, who relentlessly was attempting to kill her, regardless of what got in his way.

"Tails, he's gaining on us!" Cosmo yelled in a fearful tone as Tails heroically picked her up in his arms and flew up into the vents.

"Why does Shadow want to kill me…?" Cosmo cried as the determined fox fled from the rampaging hedgehog.

"I don't know. But I won't let him lay a finger on you." Tails promised as he made his way up the shaft with laser turrets attached to the walls. Shadow, not far behind was flying up after them with his rocket sneakers, the lasers firing at him.

Dodging the lasers on the way up, one of the lasers struck Shadow in the leg causing an explosion on impact. Shadow fell back down a little ways before catching himself with his rocket sneakers again regaining flight. Grunting angrily, he fired a few Chaos Spears up into the shaft destroying the turrets.

Tails made it to the top of the shaft, and as soon as he passed through the doorway, he smashed the emergency door lock switch, shutting the door behind Shadow.

"Hmh… they think a door will stop me, huh?" Shadow grinned to himself, spinning into a ball and launching himself straight into the door. Upon impact, he plowed right through it.

"Ahh! Tails!" Cosmo shrieked as Shadow burst into the room in a spinning ball straight toward them. With no time to run, Tails grabbed onto Cosmo and held onto her to protect her from the blow.

Just as Shadow was about to strike them, Knuckles burst into the scene and leapt in the way of Shadow's target and grabbed him out of the air, stopping Shadow from the assault in his tracks.

Knuckles turned to look at Tails while trying to hold Shadow off, "Get out of here, quick!"

Tails nodded and grabbed hold of Cosmo, and made a run for it. Shadow backed away from Knuckles a bit and growled, clenching his fists.

"Get out of my way. You are wasting my time." He snarled. Before Knuckles could have a chance to respond, they heard a different unfamiliar voice in the background coming from behind Knuckles.

"Always looking for a fight are you Shadow?" The voice said in a gloomy way.

Knuckles and Shadow momentarily stopped their fight and looked for the voice in the depths of the hall. Coming from the hall, approaching them in a walking pace, was a stranger in a torn up cloak with a hood giving his face enough shade to mask his appearance.

"And who do you think you are?" Shadow demanded, standing in a battle position. Knuckles did the same, unsure what to make of the stranger.

The stranger in the cloak didn't bother answering, he approached closer at the same pace until he was not even ten feet away from them.

"Answer me!" Shadow yelled, stepping forward, "I've got no time for delays, I am on a mission here!"

"That's a tough voice you've got there." The stranger mocked as he stood still, "But I wonder… Is your bite worse than your bark?"

Shadow frowned fiercely, beginning to feel the urge to rip him apart. "I will 'kill' you if I have to."

"Oh please do, I would 'love' to see that." The stranger mocked him further, spreading his arms to show himself as defenseless.

Knuckles was beginning to get a little nervous about the situation, and so he backed away a little to see what would happen between the two.

"C'mon." The stranger sneered, "I dare you."

In response, Shadow yelled for war and leaped toward the cloaked stranger. With his built up anger, his fierce attack was to the greatest of his ability, but at the very last moment before he struck him, he was stopped by an invisible force that repelled him onto his back.

The stranger just laughed in a dark voice, and walked toward Shadow, picking him up by the neck, his fingers wrapped around his throat. Shadow was lifted off his feet, looking down at his opponent with fear in his eyes.

From the side, Knuckles was in awe watching this; he'd never seen Shadow look so terrified. Not toward anybody.

"Nope." The cloaked stranger snarled, "Bark is better." With that, he threw his other arm back, and launched a full-forced punch right into Shadow's chest, sending Shadow flying backwards down the hall and into a wall, leaving a dent in the wall. Shadow collapsed onto the ground flat on his belly, gasping for air.

"Woah!?" Knuckles backed away against the wall, fearing the mysterious visitor.

The stranger slowly turned his head toward Knuckles, looking down at the terrified echidna, but kept his body stance in aim with Shadow.

"What do you want?!" Knuckles cried.

"Revenge." The voice growled, looking back at Shadow as he walked toward him. "Shadow's existence must be erased."

Knuckles gulped, scared, but he decided to take a stand and went back to his feet. "L-listen. I don't know what your intentions are in your terms of revenge, but even toward someone like Shadow, execution is not the answer."

"What?" The stranger laughed, "You saw what he tried to do to Tails and Cosmo, right? Shouldn't he deserve the same fate he tried to cause…?"

Knuckles gulped nervously again, afraid of what this stranger might do, and continued, "I-I know… But, it isn't right. Nobody deserves that fate."

"What? You want to cage him? Cage a teleporting hedgehog?" The stranger mocked, "Be my guest, Knuckles."

"Look pal, I don't know who you think you are, or how you know any of our names. But stop playing with us and tell me what is going on here!" Knuckles began to take a stand himself and raised his voice.

In the meantime, Shadow slowly got up to his knees, regaining his strength to continue. Raising his hand and pointing it at the cloaked intruder.

"Chaos… SPE-" Before Shadow could fire his attack, the stranger quickly turned and pointed a weapon at him that he hid in the sleeve of his cloak, firing a bright red energetic blast that struck him and left a loud explosion with a flash of blinding light.

"What!?!" Knuckles quickly turned away from the blinding explosion and shielded his eyes. When he opened his eyes and waited for a moment or so, as his blinding white vision slowly vanished, he saw two golden rings bouncing around on the ground where Shadow formerly stood, and came to a stop. He was gone; vaporized. The only remains were the rings he wore on his wrists.

Knuckles lost his words, and stood in terror. A cloud of smoke rising from the floor where Shadow was, Knuckles turned to the cloaked stranger with wide-eyes, trembling as he backed away against the wall.

"Who are you?!" He yelled in a panic.

The stranger turned back to Knuckles, and approached him. Knuckles moved to the side against the wall, trying to evade the threatening person. The stranger stopped in front of him, and knelt down to him so that he was eye level with the echidna, close enough to make out vague details among his face.

Behind the shadows under that hood was an old, scarred animal, too beat down to even make out its species. Both eyes scratched and blinded shut from battle, replaced with mechanical camera lenses.

"Listen. Knuckles." The stranger breathed in a somewhat deadly tone, "You and everyone else's time is almost up. I've seen things you do not want to see." He stood back up and looked down at his mangled hands, "…Horrible things. Things that can ultimately change a person. So much so in fact, I've lost the desire to use my old name, and threw away my old identity."

"W-what are you talking about…?"

"The Metarex you are facing right now… I know them all too well." The stranger cringed, "They took something away from me that tore me up inside so much greater than you would ever know."

"W-well why did you attack Shadow?" Knuckles questioned, "He was on our side, fighting them as well!"

"Hmm, yes, perhaps…" The stranger responded aggravated, "But sometimes… somebody, needs to take a fall, for others to live on."

With nothing else to say, the stranger turned around and began walking back down the hall in which he came from. "And by the way… They call me Krinj."

With Krinj's back turned, Knuckles stood up and ran up from behind him to attempt a surprise attack. Still unsure about this newcomer aboard the Blue Typhoon, he felt that Krinj was up to nothing good, and wanted to make sure the threat was dealt with.

Throwing his fist toward Krinj's head, Knuckles' fist stopped by an invisible barrier like Shadow's attack did earlier; the barrier sparked in a sphere shape around the opponent, and Knuckles was forcefully repelled backwards onto his back.

"It would be wise if you didn't follow me." Krinj growled as he carried on walking, not even flinching or turning to face Knuckles again. Knuckles wasn't sure what he could do, but he knew that following him was indeed a terrible idea. So without further hesitation, he turned in the opposite direction and ran to a communication device against the wall not far from there.

"Go ahead and warn the others." Krinj boasted, opening the doorway in front of him at the end of the hall in his direction, "I want them all to know I'm here."

Knuckles looked back at Krinj as the door closed behind him. He felt uneasy using the intercom after Krinj made a comment like that, but the others had to know about his intrusion, so without further delay he pressed the intercom button.

"Tails!" Knuckles called, "There is a stranger on board the ship…"

Moments later, Tails responded from another communication device, "A stranger? Good or bad company? And what of Shadow, have I lost him?"

"I really don't know what to think of this newcomer, Tails…" Knuckles panicked as he looked down at Shadow's wrist rings and whimpered mercifully, "And Shadow… He killed him."