Dark red clouds fill the sky
…
A shadowy dark figure approaches
…
…
I try to run but feel stuck
…
It calls out in a sinister echoing voice
"Remember, remember what the humans did to you."
Gunshots and screams ring out
Everything fades away as the sound of rushing wind fills my ears, growing steadily louder and louder and louder until it is shrieking in my mind. That same voice echoing over and over
"Remember, remember, remember"
Silence
The Echidnas eyes darted open, he had finally woken up.
"It's about time" Shadow said "I was beginning to think I did it too well." He said to Rouge and The Colonel.
They were behind a 2-way mirror watching the Echidna, waiting until he woke up; he was sitting alone in the metal room, his hands bound behind the back of the chair he had been placed in.
"That damn nightmare again." He said to himself, though the others didn't hear it because they had left from the 2-way mirror room already and were just about to walk into his room.
He was just beginning to realize where he was, or more precisely that he didn't know where he was as, they entered the room.
"Greetings" Colonel Brockston said as he entered "My name is Colonel Brockston, my two colleagues" he said pointing to Shadow and Rouge "I believe you have already met."
The Echidnas eyes glared hatefully at Shadow and Rouge, but then went back to Colonel Brockston.
"Yesterday, at approximately 0-1700 hours you" he said pointing at the Echidna "Singlehandedly and being fully aware of the illegality of your actions, attacked and saw to the demise of, 54 official GUN security officers, engineers, and technicians. Do you dispute or deny this claim?"
"Who in the what-now?"
"Don't toy with me, this is a serious matter."
"Okay, I'll give an answer just put whatever it was you just said in English for me."
"Did you or did you not, attack the base and kill the people there!?"
"Oh, that's what you're asking, well then yes and no."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I did attack the base, but I didn't kill the people."
"We have a lot of evidence saying otherwise."
"Did you two tell him what I told you?" he asked shifting his gaze to Shadow and Rouge
"They told me what you said, but frankly we don't trust you."
"Well assuming they told you correctly what I said then that's what happened."
"Why don't we get you to tell us again, that way we don't get any "mistakes."
"Oh well of course" he said with mock concern" I simply overheated their suits so the equipment they might be able to call in for help with would malfunction, then I set them on a small boat gave them 2 oars and pointed them to shore, they'll probably get here in a few days."
The Colonel sighed "We will see if they do or not, but for the moment we will believe you." The Colonel then grew a slight smirk on his face.
"So how old are you?" he asked the Echidna
"17" he said
"Wow, 17, that's awfully young to be singlehandedly dismantling heavily guarded government installations isn't it…Flare."
The Echidnas ruby colored eyes shot up and stayed fixed on the Colonel "H-How do you know my name?" he asked sounding slightly scared.
"Yes," Shadow added in "how do you know his name, we never asked him and we didn't tell you."
The Colonel chuckled deeply to himself
"We have known all about you for quite some time know Flare, and our government is very interested in you."
"Just wait a minute here" Shadow cut in "Why weren't we told any of this?"
"Will you excuse us for a moment?" The Colonel asked Flare with the same mock concern he had been given earlier. Shadow, Rouge, and the Colonel stepped out into the hallway.
"What do you mean, our government is interested in him, how do you know his name, and if you know so much why didn't you tell us?" Shadow asked frantically all in one breath.
The Colonel chuckled again "Don't seem so surprised Shadow, this is the military, there's always a hidden agenda, we didn't tell you these things because you had no need to know them."
"Knowing that he could cast fire might have been a little helpful." Shadow pleaded
"I agree with you there, but I told you all I was authorized to."
"Okay, but what does our military want with him?"
"We've encountered fire elementals before, but never this powerful, and they've never seemed to have as much control over their power as he does, if he uses his power to his fullest he is practically unstoppable, can you imagine the possible implications of a force like that?"
"So what do you plan to do with him?"
"The same thing we did with Rouge, offer him alleviation from his past crimes if he works with us."
"I don't think that that's going to work with him."
"We'll see if it is necessary, I'm sure he can be "persuaded."
All 3 of them went back to the interrogation room where flare was being held. He appeared to be dozing off but woke back up with a start as they entered.
"What took you?"
"We were just discussing some things" Shadow said
"Now where were we?" the Colonel asked to no-one in particular "Ah yes now I remember, so you say your 17, so then where are your parents."
Flare again focused his eyes on the colonel, this time with great anger in his eyes.
"Where are your parents, hmm?" the Colonel asked, only increasing the rage in the stare he was receiving.
"Where are they Flare?" he asked in a tone that showed he knew he was tormenting him.
"Are they dead?"
"YOU SHUTUP ABOUT MY PARENTS!" He screamed trying to raise from his seat but couldn't.
"That's right Flare, we know everything about you."
"What do you want with me!?"
"As I said before, our government is very…interested in your abilities; we think you could be a great asset to us."
"So let me get this straight, you send these two over there to kidnap me from my home, the only thing I have left, slicing open my arm putting me into a world of pain as they do, and now you want me to work for you."
"I wouldn't have put it that way but that's essentially it."
"You've got some freaking nerve you know that."
"Trust me, you're in no place to be saying things like that, think about it, were offering you complete alleviation from your crimes, which by the way you would be put to death for, and giving you a job and a home, there are people who would kill for something like that."
"I'd like to see them try and put me to death."
"Do you know why we built the base on Avalon?"
"No."
"I didn't think so, we built it because we noticed a lot of interest from other nations and even Dr. Eggman in that area, so we set up a base there to see what the interest was, are early scouting of the area detected nothing but then we saw you, we'd seen Elementals before but none so powerful, there was something different about you."
"Dr. Eggman?"
"A mad scientist guy trying to conquer the world."
"Really? His name sounds like a joke."
"Yes his name is a little odd but he's very dangerous, anyway what I'm trying to say is that you've pretty much got the best possible deal out of this with us. It's either this or the grave."
"To be honest the prospect of a grave has sounded very nice for a long time."
"Not the way we'll do it if you refuse it won't."
"Colonel if you had gone through half of what I've gone through you would have an entirely different definition of the word pain, there is nothing you could threaten me with that would scare me."
Both Shadow and Rouge looked at each other nervously
"This conversation got dark surprisingly fast." Shadow mentioned
"Yes well I think it's about time were done here anyway." The Colonel said
"Guards!" he called out, soon after 2 men in shiny black suits carrying m50's walked in.
"Escort him to his cell." The Colonel told them
"Yes sir." They both said in unison
They took him from the room and escorted him to a small 10x10 foot room with a small window at the top. They removed the handcuffs from behind his back through the bars and stood guard at the sides of the entry.
"So…what are your guys' favorite bands?" he asked them surprisingly casually but they said nothing.
"Come on you know what a band is right, Aerosmith, The Beatles, that sort of thing."
"First of all those bands are from over 30 years ago and second of all we know what bands are, we aren't supposed to talk to you, stop talking."
"Well, looks like you just broke that rule then." They again said nothing
"Well in that case I guess i'm done here, don't worry I can show myself out."
"You aren't going anywhere" one of the guards said, looking into the holding cell "HEY, what are you doing!" he said as Flare got up and walked over to the wall and placed the palm of his hand on it.
"I think the technical term is escaping." He said as the wall started to glow red hot.
"Hey stop that!"
"You really think I would stop just because you asked me?" As the wall continued to get brighter and brighter red, it continued to heat up until a nice 5 foot in diameter hole melted away and he simply walked out of the building. He saw Shadow and Rouge walking out of the building talking and he walked up behind them quietly.
"Wonder what's going to happen to him." Rouge said
"I dunno, but I don't think they are even going to be able to hold him there very long." Shadow replied
"You got that right." Flare cut in causing them both to spin around
"H-How did you get out so fast!?"
Flare pointed back at the still smoking hole in the side of the wall which now had several people looking out from it.
"You'd think it would be harder to break out of a government installation." He said
"Look, we don't want to fight you." Shadow said
"Good, I don't feel like fighting either." He replied which obviously surprised Shadow
"You don't?"
"No, you heard the Colonel, the government wanted me so they came and got me, if it wasn't you who came for me it would have been somebody else, you're just the ones the orders fell to."
"So, what are you going to do now?"
"Hehe, you know the funny thing is I hadn't thought that far ahead."
"Down on the ground NOW!" a guard in heavy armor carrying a SPAS 12 shouted at Flare.
"Hold that thought." He said to Shadow, then turned around and pointed at the shotgun the guard was carrying, it instantly started to glow red and the guard dropped it shouting in pain at his burned hands. Flare then turned back to Shadow.
"You were saying?" he said as if nothing had happened
"Well you could go back to the island." Shadow suggested
"Nope, after you left as the guards carried me off I heard the Colonel call in for hundreds of soldiers to be deployed to the island."
"Considering what I've already seen you do you could probably take them."
"Well of course I could, but they'd just send more and more until one of them eventually got me."
Shadow couldn't deny that but he just realized all the very strange things about this situation, Firstly he was giving someone who should be his enemy advice on how to escape from the people he worked for. Secondly Flare didn't really seem all that intent on escaping seeing as he was just standing there in front of the building where he had been captured.
"You don't really have anywhere to go do you?"
Flare sighed deeply "No I don't, Avalon was my only home, and now that it's gone I have nowhere to go and no living relatives or friends. I've never really felt so alone."
"Well, it can't be all bad can it?" Rouge asked him
"Yes, it is" Flare said sinking to the ground with his back against the wall "I've lost everybody that I ever loved and my home was the only part of them I had left, you don't know what that's like."
"I might know more about it than you think." Shadow said
"It doesn't matter, and it still doesn't solve my problem, even if I had the kind of money I would need to buy a home with the government after me nowhere is safe."
Shadow and Rouge both looked at each other and quietly talked for a few minutes, Flare not even looking up.
"You can stay with us for a while."
"That would be nice but with you working for the government and all they going to know about it I don't think they are going to like that idea any more than just letting me leave."
"Precisely" Colonel Brockston said walking up to them "The only place you're going is into the maximum security cell with handcuffs on this time."
"Let me take a moment to point out the flaws in that plan, first of all I don't think you're going to be able to get me in handcuffs again and second of all me being handcuffed and in the "maximum security" cell might delay my escape by 5 minutes." Flare pointed out
"Colonel wait" Shadow pleaded walking over to him and talking low enough that Flare couldn't hear "If you let him go with us you'll know that we'll be able to keep an eye on him and stop him if he tries to escape, and plus I think we have him on our side now, i'm pretty sure I can talk him into joining the GUN."
The Colonel thought about it
"I hate to admit it, but he's right, seeing how easily he broke out last time it would only be a matter of time till he got out again. It looks like letting him go with you is pretty much my only option."
"Unfortunately yes, I realize this is a bit unorthodox but don't worry, we'll make sure he stays put."
"Fine, he can go with you two for now, and hey if he joins maybe we can just let him live with you instead of getting him a new home, he won't know how to live in this society without help anyway so this might actually work out very well."
They both turned back to Flare
"We've decided that we will let you go with Shadow and Rouge for now."
"His name is Shadow!?"
"Yes, what does that matter?"
"N-Nothing it, it doesn't matter."
"Are you okay?"
"Yes i'm fine."
"Well then its settled, don't forget that my offer to alleviate your crimes if you work for us."
"I won't, believe me I wont."
