Hello again!
Chapter 3 is here! I hope you're all enjoying this so far! It's nice to be back writing for you all again! Be sure to keep reading and reviewing! Enjoy!
Ciao! xx
It's somewhere around two or three in the morning, the smoke was finally starting to clear and the stars were starting to twinkle again for their last few hours of the night before the sunrise began to hide them. The city was nothing more than piles of burning embers now, small trails of thin smoke slowly making their way towards the sky. Everything was silent and dark, nothing but the slight glow of the embers and the sizzling of ash until footsteps grew louder and louder down the main street of the city.
'Not a Mobian in sight, my love. All either dead or fled to the forest, and they can't survive long out there.' Fiona smiled from behind her King.
'Hmm,' Scourge shrugged as he kicked some rubble out from beneath his foot, 'I didn't get them all, though.'
'Don't be too greedy now, babe,' Fiona began as she came up behind him and started rubbing his shoulders, 'We'll get who we came here for. After all, we've already taken out six of them? That mother rabbit was a huge success, it'll mess with more of them than just Cream.'
'I suppose you're right,' Scourge sighed, a smile spreading across his muzzle as he turned around to face her, 'Even I have to admit, we've never come this far before. When all is said and done, Fiona, I will rule this entire universe... With you, as my rightful Queen.'
He rarely used her actual name, especially with such a genuine smile plastered across his face. It almost confused the vixen for a moment, until the sap hedgehog dug out a box from his jacket pocket and knelt to one knee. Her eyes widened in shock and awe, having given up hope on a real proposal from her love. She was almost sure it wasn't real, but then again, after everything that had happened in the past few hours, it would be hard to put him in a better mood to do something such as this.
No one thought he had this kind of affection in him. No one thought it was possible for Scourge the Hedgehog to even muster up a smile that wasn't sadistic or even sarcastic. Fiona knew, though. Well, she hoped anyway. She had to admit, she had started to lose faith. This had turned it all around, though. Seeing the one man she knew she loved truly and unconditionally, turning everything he had ever said about ruling together into actions.
'Fiona Fox,' Scourge began as he opened the box to reveal the most stunning of diamond and gold rings, 'Will you be my Queen? My love? My friend? My wife?'
'Yes, Scourge,' Fiona smiled, biting back the happiest of tears, 'Forever and ever, babe.'
The green hedgehog genuinely chuckled a little as he slid the ring on Fiona's hand before getting to his feet, cupping her face in his hands and kissing her forehead before holding her in his arms. It was only brief until they heard more footsteps coming their way, breaking off their happy moment. They turned their heads to see the rest of their 'team' and one addition walking towards them in the near distance, causing them to pull away from each other to just holding hands loosely.
'We didn't find any stray citizens,' O'Nux began as they drew closer, 'they're long gone into the forests now.'
'My guess is about half of them are too injured to even survive the night, the rest won't be able to find fresh water and will be struggling in the next couple of days.' Prower added on.
'Good,' Scourge nodded, his usual demeanour slowly coming back, 'and those side peasants on Sonic's side are definitely gone?'
'There's no way the Rabbit and Coyote could have survived what we put them through, but yes, we made sure.' Alicia smiled as she shared a glance with Patch.
'We ran past the Chaotix, too. Two of them, anyway. Definitely not coming back.' Patch snickered.
'Where's the other one?' Scourge raised his voice, his grip tightening on Fiona's hand. She tried to fight it, but her heart was sinking into her stomach, wishing that she had had just a few more seconds of the Scourge she knew was possible before he went back to this. Not that she would dare let on to anyone that she was thinking that.
'The Ninja? Turned transparent before we had a chance to kill him. Coward, ran off. Like the rest of them, he won't survive-'
'No!' The now enraged King cut Patch off, 'He can survive a lot longer than an average citizen. Long enough to find Sonic and the rest of those brats!'
'Scourge.' Fiona stepped in, caressing his hand with her thumb, 'If he finds Sonic and the others, it'll make it that much easier for us to kill him with the rest of them?'
'Hmm,' Scourge considered this, knowing she was right, before his regular smile returned to his face. 'How about the bombs? Dr. Eggman?'
The grossly obese doctor was standing behind the others quietly before being pushed to the front by Rosy and her hammer, the pink hedgehog twirling it around in her hand, fighting off the temptation to use it further on him... again. Eggman, usually upbeat and lively when he was carrying out his dastardly deeds, now stood slightly shaky before Scourge, beaten and bruised beneath his dirty uniform. He took in a subtle breath, shaking off him nerves before looking at his new ally in the eye.
'Thanks to Prower, my bombs have been enhanced at full force, as you can see just from the city.' Eggman began, 'We located the Sonic team leaving Knothole and tried to hit them directly but managed to destroy most homes and land around it…including Tails and Sonic's home and workshop, Cream, Cosmo and Vanilla's home and also Amy's home.'
'Fine, alright, not bad. Next time, though? You'll hit them head on. Otherwise,' Scourge snickered, 'Rosy here will show you the price you pay. It'll be a little like the one when you didn't want to work with us originally!'
'Rosy, smash!' The insane hedgehog giggled crazily as she swung her hammer.
'It won't be a problem.' Eggman sighed, knowing from here on out… there was no choice for him.
'I don't care what I have to do, I will have my way.' Scourge smirked, pulling Fiona into his side before they turned around and walked away.
As soon as the sun rose, everyone awoke. Barely two words was said between the entire gang, the events of the past day or so finally starting to set in. It didn't take long for them to gather their possessions, slinging their bags over their shoulders and start to walk. Walking, walking, walking, until their feet started to drag along the ground. No one spoke unless necessary, such as when Tails instructed everyone to turn in a different direction, or Shadow and Silver helping everyone over a shallow river bed.
Hours passed before the sun started to set, and who knows how far away they were from home now. Tails managed to tune into a few news stations that hadn't been exploded into rubble, seeing if anyone else they knew had met their end, or if any of the other's homes still stood upright. They knew about the garage, but now Amy knew about her home, and Cream and Cosmo knew about theirs. Now knowing that Vanilla was… really gone.
'It's going to be dark soon, this'll be a good place to set up for the night.' Knuckles sighed, dumping his bag by the edge of the water before sitting down next to it.
'We'll go find some wood.' Silver said as he nudged Manic's side, who nodded in agreeance.
'It's beautiful here.' Tikal said, making light of the situation and trying to fire up the first actual conversation of the day.
No one said anything, just looked around, starting to see what the peach echidna was seeing. The sky was littered with different shades of pale blues, pinks, purples, oranges and yellows. They finally stopped in an open field, surrounded by an abundance of trees, bushes, hills and a mass of what was luckily fresh water. Manic and Silver came back, dumping the firewood and starting to get something going. Some of the girls walked around, seeing if any of the bushes could be a source of food, while the boys started to set up what little sleeping equipment they had.
'Here, let me help.' Blaze insisted quietly, flashing a small smile before lighting her palms on fire.
'Thanks, Blaze.' Manic smiled in return as the pile of wood started to burn.
'The nights are going to get colder,' Tails began as he, Shadow and Sonic started setting up a few blankets, 'none of us will be able to come out the other side of those nights without getting hypothermia.'
'We should be able to find some places to hide out in along the way, maybe even some people who've gone into hiding that we can stay with temporarily.' Sonic told him, staying as positive as possible.
'We can't bring any other people into this,' Shadow snapped a little, 'We don't know who we can trust and we can't risk anything until we work out how to defeat them.'
'Speaking of working out how to defeat them,' Rouge stepped in, Cosmo, Sally and Sonia by her side, all with assorted berries and nuts in their hands that they had found from bushes around the area, 'why did it never occur to anyone to even try to use the Chaos Emeralds? Or even the Master Emerald?'
'Sure, it was a long shot when we take into account Scourge's new found powers, both what we've seen and what I'm sure we haven't, but it was worth a shot?' Sonia added.
'I hid the Master Emerald when we heard battle was on the way, it's in a safe place. You'd have to ask Sonic about the seven emeralds, he had the in the safe. Right?' Knuckles cocked a brow in the blue hedgehog's direction.
Everyone turned to face Sonic, watching him intently and more curiously the longer he didn't answer. He and the young, twin-tailed kitsune next to him exchanged a nervous and knowing glance before avoiding any eye contact that tried to wriggle it's way in. They could hear Knuckles take a few steps closer, Shadow taking a step behind him for caution. Something was wrong, and whatever it was, it was going to result in a huge fight…
'Sonic? Where are the emeralds?' Cosmo asked, breaking the silence.
'If any of them had found where we lived, they would've swept up those emeralds all too easy.' Sonic began, making an effort to start looking at everyone. 'Same with the Master Emerald, if they'd found it, we'd all be six feet under by now.'
'What did you do?' Sally asked, gently coaxing the answer out of him.
'I sent them away.'
Silence…
'ARE YOU CRAZY?! You finally had all seven together and you threw them away?!' Knuckles screeched, Shadow pulling him back despite how much the ebony and crimson hedgehog wanted to join him.
'I had to! I pooled them with the Master Emerald anyway. Wherever they are, they're all together, or at least very close. If we find one, we'll find them all.' Sonic insisted.
'They could be anywhere, Blue! Even then, we don't know how they're going to help us! It's just another thing that's going to take even longer to do!' Rouge joined in.
'What choice did he have?!' Tails backed Sonic up.
'We'd all be dead by now if Scourge had found those emeralds!' Cosmo added.
'We don't know what he's done to the Anarchy Beryl in order to manipulate its powers that way. Until we work it out, we can't let him anywhere near them!' Sally reminded them.
'Then why couldn't we have taken them?!' Shadow spat, finally breaking.
'Because that would have been all the more reason for the Anti-Mobians to hunt us down even faster and more brutally!' Sonia explained.
Half of them were on one side, half of them on the other. Doing nothing but going around and around in circles. If they started to yell any louder, it's be all too easy for Scourge and the others to hear them from anywhere in Mobius and come and find them. Amy and Cream had still been absent-mindedly looking for sources of food when they came in near the beginning of the conversation, Amy insisting on leading the young rabbit away to the water side.
'Don't worry about them, Cream. They'll calm down soon enough, they're all just tired and-'
'I'm not a child, Amy. Not only that, I haven't seen anything less recently than them, if not more. I don't need you to patronize me.' Cream snapped, causing Amy to nod and fall silent.
'I'm so sorry,' Cream breathed out shakily after a few seconds silence, 'you've lost everything I have, including Mama. I shouldn't be so cruel.'
'I don't blame you. I don't think I've even wrapped my head around any of this. Who would've thought we'd ever end up here?' Amy smirked sarcastically.
'You got that right.' Cream returned.
'I know this is probably a stupid question but, how are you feeling? With all this?'
'Well… tell me about the worst time Sonic had ever hurt you.'
'W-What?' Amy looked at her strangely.
'Just do it.'
'Alright? Well, it was a while ago, and he did end up apologising of course. At the time though, he had had an awful day I think, and we were supposed to hang out, but yet again he had stood me up for a carefree run with the wind. I'd had it. I finally confronted him with as much love as I could, remaining calm and confident. He lost it almost immediately which was strange in itself. He told me I was a stupid, immature little girl that not just him but no one wanted to be around. He told me to leave him alone forever, never to talk or even see him again. That amongst other awful things.'
'Sounds brutal.' Cream interjected.
'Of course it was. When I got home, I didn't know what to make of anything. Everything was a blur, I was sure I was going to be sick but I could swear I couldn't feel anything in my body. I thought I might pass out but I was sure my brain was trying to process anything too fast to even think about passing out. Everything felt weird, numb. It felt like I was- oh…'
'Paralyzed.'
