Tails the Fox
Chapter 21 - The Depths of Chaos
Stages 11 & 12 - Chaos Shrine
Boss 14 - Shadow Chaos

Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA and 
Sonic Team. You knew that, right?

Having obtained two Chaos Emeralds, Copter was now ready. Eggman had explained to him earlier that with two Chaos Emeralds, he would be able to obtain a great power. It was located deep in the Mystic Ruins, and since Copter needed to get there quickly, Eggman gave him a black and red plane he had been working on. It was called the Hurricane. As much as Copter hated flying in planes, he was in a hurry, so he took the Hurricane and set out for the Mystic Ruins.

It wasn't long before he found the place he was searching for. A small, golden shrine, hidden deep in the Mystic Ruins. A few stone steps led up to the large, gold door. Copter tried knocking. Nothing happened. "It was worth a try..." he thought. Turning around, he noticed two statues that resembled Chaos, with their hands held out. On closer inspection, the hands were carved in such a way as to be perfect for holding Chaos Emeralds. Copter placed the red emerald, then the blue one, into the hands of the Chaos statues. Suddenly, the emeralds flashed with bright light, and the door to the shrine slid open! "Welcome..." came a voice from behind Copter, "to the Chaosss Sssshrine!"

Copter turned around to see a black, two horned chameleon. Copter jumped into a defensive position. "Who are you?"
The black chameleon's expression remained serious. "I am Vortex. Who are you?"
Copter, realizing that Vortex wasn't interested in fighting him, lowered his guard. "I'm Copter."
Vortex wasted no time. "I ssssuppossse you are ssssearching for sssomething here? May I be of assssssssisssssss....assssissss....err... Can I help?"
Copter shrugged his shoulders. "Do what you want. I doubt I need help, though."
The two of them entered the Chaos Shrine together, Copter being unaware that Vortex was Experiment 5.

The inside of the shrine was also covered in gold, though this gold was more tarnished. Despite being covered in gold, it was oddly cavernous. It seemed fairly small from the outside, but just accross from the entrance was a staircase leading deep underground. Copter and Vortex climbed down the stairs for what seemed like hours, though it was less than one hour. The stairs stopped at the start of a long, wide hallway. As they stepped down the hall, Copter noticed the statues that were placed along the wall. They looked like giant jellyfish with tenticles acting as feet. An eerie glow seemed to come from their heads, appearing to be three red eyes...

"Wait a minute..." Copter thought, "stone statues can't have a glow coming from within..."
Halfway down the hall, Copter and Vortex found that the statues in fact were not statues. The light stone shells that had covered them crumbled away, revealing the Chaos Guardians of the Chaos Shrine! They were blue squids made of pure chaos, much like Chaos himself. Their tenticles concealed sharp stingers, and Copter realized that these things might be tougher than the losol. "I don't have time for this!!" he muttered, and took off through the army of guardians, avoiding them in order to make it through the hall. Vortex simply chuckled at this developement. "I sssssuppossse you're on your own, Copter! Don't worry about me. I can handle thisssss!"

Copter soon found his way to the end of the hallway and reached a pair of large stone doors. These, however, were unlocked. They were heavy, but Copter managed to pull them open and step into the chamber, which the guardians seemed unwilling to enter. "Right! You better stay out!" Copter said.

The chamber was a large room with a stone pedistal in the center. Accross from the door was a mural with ancient heiroglyphs printed all over it. Copter tried to read the text, but he couldn't. "I sure hope there's nothing important written there..."

Just then, a huge, black drop of water dropped from the ceiling in front of Copter! "Yuck! What the heck is that?!"
The black substance began to move and take shape. It looked just like Chaos 0, with glowing yellow eyes. This creature, Shadow Chaos, was apparently the boss of the Chaos Guardians. Copter's expression turned aggressive. "You're nuts if you think you're gonna stop me!"

Immediately following Copter's threat, Shadow Chaos attacked, flinging its arms at him, much the way the real Chaos would when fighting. Copter jumped to get out of the way, but was hit by a second attack and knocked over. "So, you have a better aim than your buddies, eh?" Copter noted. Shadow Chaos ignored him and continued shooting its arms at Copter, who was forced to run. Attack after attack was launched, making it difficult for Copter to counterattack. Soon, Shadow Chaos got smart and shot an attack ahead of Copter, nearly hitting him. Copter stopped abruptly and grabbed the arm, so he'd be pulled back with it to Shadow Chaos. As he reached the creature, Copter let go and spun around, letting the momentum carry him the rest of the way to Shadow Chaos and smashing his tails into the monster. Shadow Chaos exploded into little pieces, only to re-combine with the pieces and emerge unharmed. "Aw, now that's just cheating!" Copter groaned. "Let's see how you handle this then! Chaos Whirlwind!"

The cyclone of chaos energy surrounded Shadow Chaos quickly, but Shadow Chaos was unaffected, simply stepping right through it and launching another punch, hitting Copter in the jaw. Copter fell backward a bit, but stopped his fall quickly. Now he was mad. "All right, smart-alec! Take this!" Copter launched himself from where he stood with terrible force, plowing right into Shadow Chaos, exploding the beast once more. Once again, it simply re-formed itself. "There's gotta be a way to beat this thing..." Copter growled. Then, he noticed something.

Shadow Chaos was standing more shakily than it had been standing before. "This creature's no ghost." Copter thought, "It's using up energy every time it regenerates itself! Since it's made of chaos, my chaos attacks are useless. But physical attacks still work!"

Copter took off after Shadow Chaos again, but this time the monster leapt over Copter's head, flipping over in midair and giving Copter a nasty smack with both its arms and its feet! Copter was flung into the wall, and fell to the floor in pain. "That's it! You've asked for it!" Copter snarled, struggling to pick himself up. Shadow Chaos ignored him, and charged at Copter. As the Chaos doppleganger approached Copter, it jumped at him. This time, though, Copter simply dropped to the floor, causing Shadow Chaos to smash into the wall, splattering against the mural.

Copter dashed out of the way as Shadow Chaos dropped to the floor and reshaped itself again. This time, it looked far too tired to continue. It dropped back to the floor as a mass of black chaos, and slithered past Copter and out the door. "Yeah, slink away, you coward."

As Shadow Chaos dissappeared from the room, an object on the pedistal in the center of the room flashed with a bright golden light! Copter approached the pedistal and looked down to see something that wasn't there when he came in. It was a pair of golden rings, with intricate patterns etched in them. Copter smiled triumphantly. "Here they are, just like Dr. Eggman said! The Tailbands of Chaos!"

To be continued...