Three
"Okay!" Mr Stripe bellowed, trying to draw the attention of his class away from the calamity happening outside and to himself. "We're all going to calmly head down to the school's air-raid shelter. Just like the in the drills." But it was no use, the spark had caught and panic tore through the students like a fire blazing through a drought ridden forest.
Sonic was pushed and shoved as the rest of the class, blinkered by blind panic, collectively made for the only exit to the room. There were screams as those too slow were tripped and then trampled by their desperate classmates.
"Manic! Sonia!" Sonic called, struggling against the surging tide of bodies, trying to find his friends.
Several hectic seconds passed until the last of the panicked teens had drained through the bottleneck, escaping into the corridors and chaos beyond, leaving the classroom looking like the proverbial tornado had just hit it.
Desks were overturned and paper was strewn across the floor, blown in the wind that now howled through the shattered windows, shards of glass sparkling over every surface. The flashing light and low rumble continued through it all, as outside the world was burning like a funeral pyre.
"Sonia!" Sonic yelped as he saw her lying on the floor, clutching her leg. Manic was already crouched by her side. "Are you okay?" Sonic asked as he approached.
"I think so," she whimpered. She tried to stand but immediately fell, collapsing back onto the hard floor as her injured leg gave.
"Let me see." Mr Stripe came over and took a quick look at her injured leg. "It's not broken. You've just twisted your ankle, you'll be fine," he said. Then turning to Sonic and Manic, "You two help her walk." The pair did as told and supported her as she stood again, this time more successfully.
Stripe saw to a few other injured students before returning to his desk. He opened one of the draws and removed a small gun. Looking up to face what remained of his class he said, "We had better get to the shelter."
"I always knew that this day would come," the retired Colonel thought to himself as he took a box of ammunition and began to load his old weapon, "the day that the echidnas broke the treaty." For years he had argued against the Ministry of War's dismantling of the military, but they wouldn't listen, as far as they were concerned the war was over.
But now wasn't the time to ruminate over the past, he had his class to protect. Stripe sighed before standing and headed for the door, he paused as he reached the threshold and turned to the remainder of his class. The shell-shocked students all stood in a daze, like statues, just staring at each other. "Come on then," he said impatiently.
He led the group quickly through the near deserted halls of the school, meeting up with the remains of a few other classes as they went, down to one of the entrances of the shelter.
- - - -
Lara-Su screamed, but her terrified wails were drowned out by the pitched battle that was unfolding ahead of them. Knuckles quickly pulled her back the way they had come, down an intersecting street. He peeked back around the corner, the shelter was only a little further up the street but it was now blocked by a dozen of the invaders, cutting them off.
The aliens were being pushed further and further back down the street, towards them, by two bulbous yellow robots with long black leather-like limbs. The robots easily shrugging off the aliens' primitive weapons fire continued firing volleys of emerald green laser bolts in return.
Suddenly one of the great machines exploded as a rocket impacted its hull, showering the street with glinting yellow debris. Mines detonated on the roadside collapsing the remains of a small building on the other, burying the machine in rubble. The dented and half crushed head of the robot hissed before popping open; an echidna soldier scrambling from the wreckage, but he was mercilessly cut to ribbons by the aliens as he attempted to flee.
Knuckles watched, powerless to do anything other than clench his fists and grit his teeth and stay hidden. He had neither weapons nor armour; he'd be killed in a second if he went out there. He also had the girl to safeguard. The inability to do anything to help frustrated the echidna; the Guardian had always said his temper would get him into trouble one of these days.
A shadow passed overhead as two more of the robots glided down on black wing-like arms to land amidst the aliens, catching them by surprise. Their wings folded back into arms in an instant and the robots began to tear the invaders apart, smashing bones and bodies. The battle was brief, leaving the robots victorious.
Standing triumphantly over the shattered alien and echidna corpses that littered the blood stained rubble of the street, their victory seeming more than a little Pyrrhic to Knuckles. As quickly as they had arrived they disappeared, presumably, to continue their seemingly endless mission.
Now, with the path clear Knuckles with Lara-Su, quickly made their way to the shelter. Hundreds of panic stricken people swarmed the entrance of the local shelter, desperate to get in as dozens of guards tried desperately to maintain order and process them through as quickly as possible.
Knuckles approached one of the guards. "G-Guardian." He did a double take at Knuckles' approach.
"I want you to take this girl into the shelter," Knuckles said.
"But, Guardian, I can't leave my post my orders are to…," the guard stammered.
"Now you've got new orders," Knuckles glared at the guard, trying to be as intimidating as he possibly could.
"At once, Guardian," the nervous guard replied.
Knuckles ushered Lara-Su towards the guard. "Don't leave me!" she cried as Knuckles turned to leave.
"Listen, I'll come back and make sure your alright, okay?" Knuckles knelt and said to the girl.
"Okay," she repeated meekly and reluctantly allowed herself to be led away by the guard.
Knuckles stood and watched for a moment as they both disappeared into the bustling crowd at the shelters' entrance before turning and running back the way he'd come.
He pushed thoughts of Tikal that were beginning to surfacing away. I have a job to do, he told himself. She'll be fine without me.
- - - -
The air-raid shelter was already jam-packed when they arrived. It was little more than a cluster of small reinforced rooms under the school, built when echidna air raids were commonplace, and the school was half as large.
Sonic and Manic sat Sonia down against the wall. "Thanks," she said, relieved to be able to take the pressure off her injured foot.
Something had been gnawing away at Sonic's gut and he couldn't put it off any longer. "I hope Amy's alright," Sonic whispered to Manic.
"She's probably already in here somewhere," Manic said gesturing to the crowds already here, trying to cheer his friend up.
"Yeah, your probably right," Sonic sighed. "Listen I'm gonna go look for her. You see if you can find us some water or something." He had to make sure she was alright.
"Sure."
Sonic searched the packed and under lit rooms, but he couldn't find any trace of her. In fact he hadn't seen anyone from her class there. Disappointed and with a growing sense of unease he made his way through the crowd back to his friends.
"I can't find her anywhere," he said as Manic offered him a polystyrene cup full of murky water.
"I'm sure she's okay," he said reassuringly.
"No, I have to find her," Sonic insisted, a determinedness glinted in his eye which made it clear that he wasn't going to back down.
"Ok, I'll come with you."
"No you'd better stay here with Sonia," Sonic said as he turned and slipped through the crowds towards the exit.
"Be careful," Manic said as he watched his friend disappear into the displaced crowds, a look of concern on his face. Everyone in the shelter was too preoccupied to notice a young blue hedgehog leaving it.
Sonic ran down the hallways and corridors of the empty school, save for the handfuls of stragglers. He ran down the large stairs in the entrance hall and out through the huge, ancient oak doors. He raced out of the old building and straight across the grounds toward the school's newer buildings.
He focused all his attention on the door ahead of him, scared to see his home ablaze but as he reached out to open the door something made him stop, his eyes involuntarily pulled toward the blazing city.
The rain of destruction ceased as suddenly as it had begun leaving an eyrie silence in its wake, broken only by faint screams in the distance. The sudden silence was deafening.
Mere moments had passed before hundreds of small black shapes emerged from the ship that hung in the sky. Most of the shapes began descending towards the city whilst the rest of them began circling it, like vultures waiting for their dieing prey's final breath.
One of the ships came in low, flying over the school, forcing Sonic to dive into the doorway. Peeking back around the doorway he saw It hovering above the school. It began to descend, landing in the ashen remains of the playing fields, but only just long enough to disgorge three dozen aliens before taking to the sky again and disappearing.
"What in the god's name's are those things?" They quickly fanned out in groups, of four or five heading towards the buildings that made-up the school, including the one whose doorway he was hiding in.
Sonic ducked through the door and into the reception area. He looked left and right for somewhere to hide. The room was almost barren save for a few potted plants and chairs and the reception desk. There was no time left, he could hear the alien's noisy approach, he dived behind the desk moments before the group of the aliens stormed in.
"Clear," one of them shouted, Sonic was too scared to even peek over the top of the desk. His heart was thumping in his chest so loudly that he was sure they could hear him.
"Okay, I want this doing this by the book," came the voice of, Sonic presumed, the leader. "Round up the natives, don't kill them unless you have to, and smash anything that looks important."
"Yes, sir," the rest of the group replied in unison.
"Move out." There was a sudden clatter of movement as the group of aliens left.
Sonic stayed hidden under the desk though, for fear that they might return. It seemed as if hours had passed before he had built up enough courage to poke his head above the desk, it was all clear. With a relieved sigh he continued, now careful to avoid drawing the aliens' attention, to where Amy's classroom was and as had been promised, she wasn't there. He looked through the darkened room. It was like all the other classrooms in the school, desks toppled paper strewn across the floor and the wind howling through shattered windows.
"Amy," he called, but nobody answered. More than a little dejected, but with a sense of relief that she must be safe in the shelter.
"Sonic!" he heard his name cried and turned to see a slightly dishevelled and bruised Amy, standing in the doorway of the classroom.
"Amy, thank the gods you're okay," Sonic said, relief audible in his voice, as he rushed to embrace her.
"Sonic, I'm so glad to see you." They were frozen there for an age, in each others arms. "I knew you would come."
"We've got to go," Sonic whispered in her ear. "It'll be safe in the shelter and we'll wait until it's all over."
Hand in hand the pair made their way quickly across the school grounds. As they hurried through the halls of the old building, toward the shelter's entrance, they heard screams and shouts and gunfire echoing in the distance. Sonic felt the cold fingers of dread bubble up from somewhere deep inside, clutching at his stomach. "Oh no." He preyed that the other's were alright.
- - - -
Doctor Zachary, an old echidna fur white from age, skulked through the shattered streets of Grand-Metropolis. Battles were raging all around him; he didn't care, for he was already long dead inside.
His destination lay straight ahead, the Grand-Metropolis library. The millennia old repository of knowledge wasn't accessible by the general populace of the city, but the old echidna had access to it, to all bar what he wanted. Amongst the historical and scientific archives lay a vault, a vault no one was allowed to enter. Within, it held forbidden knowledge, knowledge that the Order of the Emerald had locked away long, long ago. That is what he wanted.
Most blindly believe what the Order told them; their emeralds and technology were gifts from the sleeping goddess and that the long dark was a punishment for echidnas' sins of arrogance and greed. That the ancients were the avatars of the goddess and left during the long dark. But others like himself searched for the truth.
After decades of research he presented his findings; the ancients weren't the avatars of the goddess but were simply beings from other worlds. And when they left, early echidna tribes scavenged what was left behind. He was mocked and his work ridiculed, the other too scared to support him for fear of reprisal from the Order. His career was ruined and to add insult to injury the Order ransacked his home and confiscated his research.
Then his family left, and since then, with nothing left to lose he had futilely campaigned to have this 'forbidden' knowledge released, to redeem himself. All he got in return were thinly veiled threats.
He was going to get that knowledge tonight, one way or another. What lay just across the street that had become a makeshift battlefield was the proof that he was right. Vindication.
His heart raced and his pace quickened as he approached the stairs that led to the ancient building. He was about to ascend when he was nearly knocked to the floor.
"Citizen!" came a surprised voice. "You should get to a shelter, It's dangerous out here."
He turned, and saw who had nearly knocked him to the floor. "Oh, Guardian," Zachary stammered, just as surprised and subconsciously tightening his grip on the bag he was carrying. "Er, yes. I was just heading to one right now."
The young red echidna nodded but his gaze lingered on him for several painful seconds before he finally continued on his way, racing down the street. Zachary waited for the Guardian to disappear from sight before he, himself, continued his own journey to destiny.
- - - -
It hurt to move, pain lancing through his body every time he tried.
He lay there on the concrete, in the dust and rubble and darkness, for what felt like hours. It was silent, except for a faint crackling. It was warm and comfortable, almost serene.
Something in the back of his mind, though, urged him forward, pressing him to act and he found that could not fight this instinct. Pushing aside his feelings of content, he forced open his heavy eyelids.
He was greeted by a crystal clear sky. A column of smoke, lazily drifting upwards in the cool, late afternoon breeze, was all that spoiled the picturesque view.
Ignoring the screams of pain his body seemed to make in protest of the movement, he sat up. He found that he lay on the side of a road, in a rubble strewn street.
Directly over from him lay a burnt out truck on its side, half buried into the side of a collapsed building. A logo of a sword and shield with the letters G.U.N. at it's centre, could bee seen adorning its side. A fire was clinging desperately to existence on the shell of the vehicle and its limb-like flames licked a dozen charred cylinders, which had spilled from the back of the truck.
Another cylinder lay open a few feet from him, it spewed a stream of bubbling liquids.
"Where am I?" His mind was a blank. "Argh." His head throbbed as he tried to think. It felt as if something was trying to breakout of his skull.
A flash of memory; people, two of them, were talking. Their voices muffled, he couldn't make out what they said.
He fell to his knees the pain was so intense, it felt like there was a knife slicing through his mind. The pain subsided, and rather than standing back up, he stayed there, crouched and breathing heavily.
Something glinted in the light, catching his eye. Leaning over he noticed that it was a dog tag, its chain broken. He picked it up and turned it over, reading the words engraved in the fragile sliver of metal: Shadow 008.
"Shadow? Is that me?"
The sound of heavy footsteps followed by voices alerted him to another presence, he looked up in time to see two surprised-looking creatures fumbling for weapons that hung at their sides.
Something clicked in his mind and he was on his feet before he knew what was happening. He suddenly felt like he was watching his own actions through a screen, somewhere miles away, as he ran headlong towards the two aliens. They had raised their weapons now, but they weren't fast enough, he leaped towards them and had vaulted over their heads before they managed to fire. He landed deftly behind them, with barely a sound, before they had even realised that they had missed.
He spun and saw a knife hanging at the side of one of them, a heartbeat later it jutted from his back. The other whirled, turning to face his attacker, and was about to fire again before the hedgehog's fist met the alien's face, hard. The creature stumbled back, its nose broken and blood streaming onto the floor. The hedgehog turned and snatched the weapon from the clutches of the slain alien, before turning it on his friend, who fell to the ground a second later in bloodied tatters.
After the threat had passed he felt himself regain control, he dropped the weapon and fell to his knees trembling and breathing heavily. What had just happened? It was like something took control of me, he thought. He looked down at his bloodied hands. "What am I?"
He wasn't given any more time to think about what had just happened, as in the distance, but growing nearer, he heard more shouts. He slowly stood and could somehow instinctively tell how many there were, he gulped before turning to run.
He ran through empty and shattered streets, and as he began to think he had gotten away, a huge aircraft roared overhead. He looked around for anywhere to hide, straight ahead through a pair of old gates an equally old building stood, a refuge.
- - - -
Knuckles leaped through the doors to the emerald Shrine as soon as had they parted. Nearly knocking down an old echidna for a second time in five minuets.
"Ahhh! Guardian." He nearly had a heart attack when he realised who he had almost knocked down this time.
"Hmm, so you've finally decided to grace us with your presence."
"I'm truly sorry, Guardian," Knuckles apologised, he knew there was no point in trying to make an excuse for his lateness.
The old echidna gave his apprentice a long hard stare then he pursed his lips and sighed, shaking his head. "What is this generation coming too," he mumbled as he ambled over to the emerald control panel. "Now that you're here, you can start monitoring the energy output of the emerald. Make sure that it doesn't drop bellow ninety percent."
"Yes, Guardian," Knuckles gave a quick bow then proceeded to hurry along and busy himself with his duties, he didn't want to anger the Guardian anymore than he had already.
As Knuckles adjusted the emerald's energy distribution for the umpteenth time in the past several minutes a console on the other side of the chamber suddenly began to emit a noise, startling the apprentice Guardian. It was a fast high pitch squeal as if the console were in immense pain.
"Carry on with your duties," The Guardian said as he quickly answered its distressed cry.
Knuckles couldn't see what was on the console's screen, or what the Guardian was doing, though not for want of trying. Though whatever it was made the Guardian become sickly pale. "I'll be back shortly," he said abruptly. "I have some urgent things to attend to," the old echidna said, suddenly sombre as he left the room.
He left before Knuckles could say anything. Even though he was worried by the Guardian's sudden mood change, Knuckles continued with his assigned tasks, sure that whatever it was the Guardian would sort it out.
- - - -
Doctor Zachary stood at the foot of a reinforced metal door which hid in the depths of the ancient library. He stood in a section few even knew existed. He cast a glance left and right, it was all clear, the Order's guards must have been called away because of the attack, he assumed.
Removing a small palm sized computer from the bag that hung at his side, Zachary hooked it up to the door of the vault. After a few tense heartbeats the computer shrilled announcing its success, the door parted with a hiss. Stepping over the threshold the old echidna entered the dark, cavernous vault. Contained within, upon hundreds and hundreds of shelves were stacks of ancient scrolls and books and parchments too numerous to count. Everything the Order had deemed heretical.
He searched for what seamed like an age, through the various documents archiving all echidna knowledge of the ancients, through knowledge that had been locked away for generations.
As the piles of discarded documents grew Zachary was beginning to loose hope that he would ever find what he was looking for. Reaching for the last scroll on that shelf he quickly scanned through it.
"Yes! Yes, this is it!" the old echidna announced ecstatically, stuffing the scroll into his bag.
"What are you doing, Zachary!?"
The old echidna, caught by surprise quickly turned to face the source of the voice. "You!" Zachary spat, at the sight of the city's old Guardian, his voice dripping with venom. His hand involuntarily slipping into the bag and around the handle of his gun.
The Guardian looked at Zachary pleadingly, "this is dangerous knowledge, Zachary; it was locked away for a reason."
"And what reason is that? Hmm, to protect us from ourselves?"
"Yes! We nearly destroyed each other once. We can't let that happen again."
"So you settled with destroying my family, my life!"
"It was necessary!" The Guardian's expression became solemn. "It was necessary," he repeated as if trying to convince himself. "You were getting too close…"
"Too close to what?" Zachary raged. "Too close to breaking the Orders hold on the council? Too close to shattering your holier-than-thou image and exposing you for the power mad thugs you really are!"
"I know some of the Orders methods are unsavoury," the Guardian spoke softly, trying to ease the already tense situation. "But if this knowledge were released it would plunge our race into a second dark age," the Guardian pleaded. "You must listen to reason."
Zachary stared at the Guardian incredulously. "Unsavoury! The Order has caused the deaths of millions, and you reduce their actions to a single word!"
"Zachary, please don't do this! If you continue I won't be able protect you any longer."
"It doesn't matter anymore," Zachary sneered. "I have the truth." He raised his bag as if to emphasise this point.
"And what will that get you? No matter how much proof you have, no one will believe you."
"The truth is all that matters!"
"Which truth? The truth that your short sighted obsession is hurting the people around you? Or perhaps the truth that our people are dieing race? The unity the Order has maintained is the only thing holding our people from the brink."
"Unity at what cost? The price which your Order demands is too great!"
They both stood there in the silence looking each other in the eye, neither willing to back down from their belief that they were right.
"I'm going now, dear brother," Zachary spat the words as if they were poison. "Don't attempt to follow me."
"Zachary!" the Guardian lunged forward grabbing the other echidna by the arm.
Zachary spun, there was a flash followed by an ear-splitting crack. The Guardian slumped to the floor, a smoking hole in his chest.
Zachary stood there in a stunned silence. When the gravity of the situation finally caught up to him; it was like a punch to the gut. Trembling, he dropped the gun that suddenly felt as if it weighed a ton. He turned and ran from the vault, ran as fast as his feet could carry him.