Fanfiction» Fanfics» Shadow Forever

Chapter 14

Underground

"CHAOS CONTROL!" Shadow kept his hand pressed to Knuckles' shoulder as the Echidna tunneled his way underneath the brawl on the streets--Tails and Gamma, fighting alone against a sudden upsurge of GUN robots and officers, but under the influence of Chaos Control, the sounds of the fight had come to a halt. Big, with Froggy riding on his shoulder, and Fang, followed behind Shadow, making sure to keep contact with him and each other as to not be left out of the effects of the Chaos Control.

"Nhh," Shadow grunted.

"How much longer can you hold out?" Knuckles asked, not turning away from his tunnelling.

"A few more minutes," Shadow replied.

"It won't be enough," Fang said from behind Big, peering around the cat's massive arm. "We'll get far, but not that far."

"Then what we'll do..." Knuckles muttered, "is we'll switch up. I can use the Chaos Controll too; if I do that while you dig, Fang, we'll manage to get far enough away."

"...feck. Alright," Fang muttered, falling back into step behind Big. "If Ah'd known that Ah would'a stuck with th' robot..."

"Hoohee!" Big said.

Mystic Ruins

"Well, boys, this is a good place to start, if any," Vector said, crossing his arms and grinning. "Espio, you said Metal Sonic attacked you near the Echidna temple, right?"

"Yeah," Espio said, stepping up next to Vector. "And the ruins of Tails' Lab are down near the tunnel."

"This sounds like a classic case of Scooby Doo-itis," Mighty said. He put on a fake grin and said, "Okay gang! Let's split up!"

"Espio and I will take the forest," Vector said, ignoring Mighty. "Charmy, Mighty--the lab is all yours!"

The Chaotix split up, Espio leading Vector towards the ancient Echidna temple. Charmy buzzed over to Tails' lab, Mighty following from the ground, rushing up the stone steps and out on the flat area marred by charred rubble and speckled with shards of metal and stone.

Charmy looped around Mighty's head and the Armadillo planted his hands on his hips. "Well, this looks pretty, don't it?"

"Pretty, pretty!" Charmy sang.

Mighty stepped over the perimiter of the lab and began digging through the rubble. Casually, he said, "Of the four of us--excluding Knuckles--Vector can read people and can see hidden catches in the way they act. Espio has the ability to spot subtle clues, and you've got a natural thing for following hunches. But me, I don't have any of that...which is any wonder why I missed our last adventure before this whole mess with the Master Emerald and Tails-the-blue-fox started..."

"You're not stupid, Mighty!" Charmy said, zooming into Mighty's face, looking worried. "You're not! You're fast, and...uhm...and really smart!"

Mighty grinned. "I wasn't gonna say I was stupid, Charmy."

"Oh, okay then!" Charmy perked up and did a backflip.

"I was gonna say that I compensate for just knowing a lot of stuff. I guess. That's what Vector says, anyway. Unhh--help me lift this big metal plate, would ya?" Mighty had his fingers dug under a twisted, burnt piece of metal twice as large as him. Charmy landed and got his fingers underneath it, and together they managed to heave the chunk of metal over, revealing a wooden floor covered with burn marks and something that looked an awful lot like dried blood.

"Hnn," Mighty muttered, bending down and examining the floor. "Blood..."

"It's all dry and crusty," Charmy said, making a gagging sound.

"Yeah. It's old, too..." Mighty rubbed his fingers along the dark, brown-red pool on the floor and frowned. "I'd bet anything to say this is Tails'. Remember, Knuckles said he found Tails in his own blood before he turned blue?"

"Yeah," Charmy said, nodding. "Kinda."

"It's been a while since that happened, but not as long as it's been since this place went down." Mighty pointed at a section of the puddle that was darker than the others. "These burn marks were caused by some kind of explosive--you can see how the floor's splintered not too far away. If it were done by a laser, then the holes would probably have been very neat, almost perfect."

"Right," Charmy said, nodding as if he understood. Mighty sighed.

"You see how the wood's all burned, right?" He said, trying desperately to make Charmy understand.

"Yeah, I see it, but I'm not sure I understand where you're going..."

Mighty stood up and popped his back. "The floor's burned, but so is the blood. If the blood had been fresh--say, if it were Amy's blood--then the blood would have boiled instead of burning. And Tails said there was no sign of Amy in her cryogenic pod..."

Charmy caught on. "So Amy didn't die here!"

"Right!" Mighty grinned. "So we can assume she's still alive, somewhere."

"And it took all that explaining just so you could restate the obvious?"

Mighty sighed again. "We're looking for clues."

"For what, though?"

"For--" Mighty stood up and glared into the sky. "What the..."

Charmy shivered and turned his attention upward. Just beyond the mountains, a dark, looming shape crawled across the sky, slowly, silently blanketing the ground in shadow.

"I don't like this," Charmy whispered. "Run."

"What?"

"Run!" Charmy shot up into the air and swooped towards Windy Valley. "Get under cover!"

Mighty glanced left and right, then shot towards the train station. "Vector, Espio! Emergency--some kinda big aircraft is coming this way--hide--" Mighty missed a step and stumbled, rolled over the stairs, and landed on his back.

The shape--a gigantic ship, baring spikes and claws and guns--went under the sun, eclipsing more of the field. Charmy stared at it from the entrance to Windy Valley with narrow eyes; it seemed to be slowing--stopping--a green light appeared on the underside--

"Oh, no..." Charmy whispered. The light extended to the ground, a tube of neon green, landing on top of Mighty, too stunned to move--he disappeared and the ship continued on its way, trundling its way across the sky.

"Charmy!!"

Charmy turned to see Vector and Espio emerge from the Echidna temple area of Mystic Ruins--he buzzed out of his hiding spot, eyes wet with tears.

"They--they took Mighty!" Charmy cried, grabbing Vector's arm and tugging on it. "We need to go after him--save him--"

"Shhh!" Espio held up a hand and looked around. "I've got a very bad feeling about this..."

"What, you mean beside Mighty being abducted?" Vector whispered. "What is it?"

"GUN is here..."

"As if things could get any worse," Charmy murmured. "What do we do?"

"Leave, as quietly and inconspicuously as possible," Espio said. He narrowed his eyes and began walking towards the train station. "Come on."

Charmy and Vector nodded and followed Espio--they made it to the base of the steps before a G-SISD appeared, landing with a clank halfway up the wooden steps.

"Scatter!" Vector yelled, leaping away. The G-SISD fired at them, bolts of yellow energy scorching the air. Vector opened his mouth wide and sucked in Charmy--who had jumped to the same side he had--and shot the bee at the G-SISD, making it explode.

More G-SISDs dropped down, surrounding the three remaining Chaotix, complemented by some spotlight-weilding hover robots. Espio hurled a large shuriken, decapitating the bots between him and the other two members of the Chaotix; Vector and Charmy ran towards him as Espio cleared the way with a series of homing attacks, leaving a gap for them to fit through. They got into the small room underneath the train station and dropped down the ladder, landing on a small wooden raft. The raft carried them away on its own accord, the GUN robots firing laser shots after them until they were out of sight.

Station Square Hotel

"You're fuckin' crazy, you know that, right?"

Sonic loomed over Tails as the young fox continued to work on Gamma one-handed, his other arm in a sling. Tails grunted and shrugged Sonic off, leaning in closer to Gamma with narrowed eyes.

"You should be at the hospital--Chaos Emerald person or no! You just got eaten and spat up by the King of Spooky Doom, then you go and get your butt whupped by a bunch of lame robots!" Sonic crossed his arms over his chesed and winced as one of his new claws dug into his side. "We can get someone else to fix robo-head!"

"I don't trust anybody else with him," Tails murmured. "Maybe Mighty or Vector, but they're not here." He tried blinking the bandage on his head out of his eyes. "Gamma took a lot of damage and I think I can work my way through his systems--the construction seems familiar--and without him, our numbers go down even more. We don't need that, not now."

Sonic sighed and turned his gaze to the sea, sparkling just beyond Tails' hotel room.

"Besides, you're the one who should still be in the hospital. With those metal claws and all that." Tails glanced up at Sonic with a look of forgetfulness on his face. "Oh, wait, that's right--I totally forgot who I was talking to here! The invincible, indestructable Sonic T. Hedgehog! Forget hospital time, he doesn't need it. It makes him look like too much of a pussy!"

Sonic glared at Tails and scowled. "What, is this what I get for caring for you? That's hardly fair!"

Tails hesitated for a second--Sonic had been right, but...

He remembered Amy in Eggman's clutches four years ago--and Sonic's bullheaded arrogance--and flared back up.

"Get out of my room," Tails said loudly, on the verge of shouting. "You selfish son of a bitch--get out!"

Sonic narrowed his eyes and tried to stand up straight--his knees wouldn't stop shaking. He didn't feel like arguing now, not on this scale. Turning on his heel, Sonic marched out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

"Thank you, God," Tails murmured, turning back to the broken and burned project before him.

Mystic Mansion

In a forgotten tunnel of the gigantic, haunted mansion--too fast for anything around to hear--something scraped against the stone floor from below. The scraping sound happened two more times before the floor exploded outward, and Fang leapt from the hole, panting and sweating. He sat down hard, and flopped onto his back with a groan.

Knuckles came from the hole next, looking similarly exhausted. Following him were Big, Froggy and Shadow, the rotund purple cat and his poliwog pal looking completely fine.

Time sped up again. A grandfather clock clanked away in the next room, just barely visible around a dirt-walled corner. A pumpkin-headed ghost faded into view and gave a high-pitched, ghastly laugh; Big smashed it with his fishing rod, and it disappeared with a low whining sound.

"This place is haunted," Big said, sniffing the air. "Lotsa ghosts around. We'd better be careful..."

"Just--hnn--cover us so we can catch our breath," Shadow said, gritting his teeth. "I suppose we did make it far, didn't we?"

"No foolin'," Knuckles agreed. Fang grumbled under his breath.

After a few minutes' rest, the foursome picked back up and pushed their way through the mansion--through haunted areas and decrepit, yet active Eggman robots, even an area with a bobsled--Big, behind the wheel, steered while Shadow acted as a propelling wheel and Fang used his rocket pack to jump. Knuckles clung to the side, crying out each time they came too close to a wall or jumped over a pit.

Eventually, they emerged from the haunted castle--a little bruised and a little weary--onto a warm, sun-baked, stone-brick platform. With a grin, Knuckles sat down and leaned back, staring up into the sky.

"Ahh. Warmth, finally."

Shadow hiked an eyebrow and allowed himself a smirk. "I guess we deserve a rest, don't we...haunted castles..."

Fang rolled his eyes. "Jeee-sus. If we take anymore breaks today, we'll nevah find anything we're lookin' for..."

Big sniffed at the air again and perked his ears; he turned around, glancing in the direction the others had their backs too. A giant, angular shape appeared over the horizon, blanketing everything below it in darkness.

"Guys," Big said, shaking Shadow's shoulder. "I think we're in trouble..."

Station Square PD

"He's in the very last cell under extreme security." The door leading into the prison block whooshed open, and Sonic stepped through, the words of the police sargent echoing off the cold, metal walls. "Be careful, Mr. Sonic."

"Thanks," Sonic murmured, his shoes clanking against the iron, rusting panels. He could see Eggman's cell from the opposite end of the hall, flanked by three rigid SWAT police, each one holding a rifle with both hands. When Sonic got close enough, he waved to them and flashed them a grin before stepping between them and glaring at the chained and bound form of Dr Eggman inside. The SWAT members cleared out, so Sonic and Eggman could talk in privacy.

"So, you've come to torment me, have you?" Eggman said, giving a bitter smile. "On top of my pride shattering and the Eggman Empire being forfeight, my old enemy Sonic comes to throw some dirt in my face. How...touching."

"Spare yourself the pity, Doc," Sonic said, leaning against the cold bars seperating the two of them. "I heard through the grapevine that you were here, so I came to pay you a visit."

Eggman's smile turned into a snarl. "If you're planning on helping me escape, Hedgehog--"

"No," Sonic said, standing up. "I've done the run-from-the-law thing before. It's not fun. What I am here for is to ask you what the hell is going on."