A Shadow Drenched In Blood
Chapter 2
A Shadow Beneath The Waves
Dark Fire flicked her tail impatiently. 3 days searching and there was no sign of the target. She sighed and recalled the Master's exact words to her.
"His name is Shadow, but he is also called the Ultimate Life Form. He's fast, and he can use a variety of energy attacks. I want him, preferably alive, but dead if necessary. You know what to do, Dark Fire."
Dark Fire sighed again. Sonar was next to useless in this situation. What she really needed was something that could detect a specific mobian. She sighed. It looked like they were never going to find him.
"There's something come up on the sonar, Commander! Looks like it's got a definite trace of life, too!" One of her soldiers, a male rat, raced up to Dark Fire in excitement.
"I'm on my way!" Dark Fire dashed to the sonar room on the submarine. She skidded to a stop just outside and schooled her face into one of casual unconcern. A commander had to look cool at all times, after all. She entered the room and asked the sonar operator what was on the screen.
"Commander, there's something radiating the same energy the target does. It's bigger than the target, and round in shape. It seems to be anchored to the seabed." Dark Fire licked her lips in anticipation. The target had been found at last!
"Dive to it. Prepare the suits. Gather the divers," she ordered three young recruits in one breath.
Her tail flicked back and forth. Soon, she could return to the Master with the target and claim her reward. She felt the submarine begin a steep decent and smiled happily.
Shadow drifted in and out of consciousness. His leg had healed some time ago, and his chest barely stung in the salty water. Suddenly, Shadow felt something. Sonar! They found me ! Shadow was still fighting the effects of the tranquilizer and couldn't physically escape. Instead, he slowed his heartbeat until it stopped, and he no longer had a pulse. He hadn't breathed since he'd fallen into the Crimson Sea, which now lived up to its name. Hopefully, if anyone managed to break the barrier, they'd think he had died. With that in mind, Shadow drifted back into sleep.
Dark Fire slipped into her wetsuit like a glove. She fastened the oxygen tank securely and dove through the open hatch into the scarlet waters below. The divers hit the water just after her, always staying just behind her. After all, a commander must be first. She could see quite clearly without a mask, and the wetsuit was simply there because she had no desire to get her pretty orange fur wet. Dark Fire looked at the glowing barrier with interest. Is this really where he's been? She wondered. And if it is, is he even alive after all this time? All the waters in this sea are red with blood now. If he isn't the Ultimate Life Form, he'll be long dead from blood loss and being shot. Dark Fire signaled one of the divers to come forward.
"Try to break it physically. If it doesn't work, I've got a backup plan." She spoke through the communicator that they all had in their helmets.
"Yes, Commander."
The divers gathered and began to test the barrier, then throw themselves at it. The barrier stood firmly against their efforts. Dark Fire watched with a growing frustration.
"Stop." She ordered finally. "I'll have to try something else."
The divers backed away gratefully, wincing at new bruises. Dark Fire swam forwards until she could touch the barrier, and lightly tapped it. Nothing happened. She reluctantly opened the small diving bag she'd brought with her and took out five metal objects, one much bigger than the others. She lightly touched the large one to the barrier. For a moment, the barrier flamed high, then it flickered and vanished. Dark Fire recoiled in surprise. She had not expected that to work, and yet it had. As she put the objects away, she made a mental note to revise her opinion of magic. Dark Fire swam into the area the barrier had been protecting. Her keen eyes scanned the sea bed, searching for a black shadow. There it was. Dark Fire dove until she was less than a foot away from the motionless hedgehog lying half curled on the sea bed. She studied him carefully. The leg that had been broken was whole again, and all that remained from the bullet wounds she'd inflicted was a light scratch. He wasn't breathing, and when she reached out to him, she felt no pulse. The water must be interfering with the readings, Dark Fire thought, rolling her eyes. He has no pulse, he's not breathing, that barrier meant he couldn't have moved for 3 days, and the scanner says he's alive. It must be broken.
She reached out to grab him and stopped suddenly. His eyes were slit open, and they gleamed with what could only be hate. According to her scanner, he was beginning to reach for chaos power.
"Now, now, we can't have that, Shadow. Settle down and go back to sleep," Dark Fire murmured. His red eyes seemed to mock her.
"Why do you always choose the hard way?" she sighed and removed a syringe from her diving bag.
She carefully inserted it into a vein and watched as his eyes shut and he went limp. A strange emotion took hold of her. Somehow, he seemed vulnerable and exposed like this. No wonder he rarely slept. It seemed to strip away the years from him, revealing the child he had been before G.U.N. had come. Dark Fire shook her head, shoving those emotions away. She took out the metal objects, and snapped the small ones around Shadow's wrists and ankles. The larger one she fastened securely around his neck. As she carried him back to the submarine, she mentally reviewed the various damages to the target. Backlash shock, internal bleeding, two different tranquilizers, oxygen deprivation, and who knows what else. The target should be able to recover in the time it'll take to get to the master. Dark Fire surfaced in the open hatch and climbed out wearily.
"Stop fussing and help me carry him!" she barked sternly, pulling at the unconscious Shadow.
He was heavier than he looked. As she peeled off the wetsuit, Dark Fire had to wonder at the difference between waking and sleeping on his calm face.
"We found what we came for. Let's get back to the Master," she ordered, trying to throw off the strange feelings that the sleeping target had evoked in her.
I thought I was rid of them years ago. How did he bring them back? No matter, I'll just get rid of them again. She knelt over the target and fasted chains to the shackles she'd already fastened on his wrists and ankles. She left the collar unchained for the moment, as the target was still unconscious. Dark Fire turned and watched as a shadow opened in the water in front of the submarine. She smiled with delight as the submarine entered the shadow, vanishing from Mobius. The shadow shrank and faded behind the submarine, leaving nothing to suggest it had ever been there at all.
