Hello everyone!
How're you all?
I've had a rough week (what else is new?). My pet fish, Jak, unfortunately passed away a couple of days ago. I've had that fish for years. Naturally, I got used to the filter that hummed 24/7, even to the point of it helping me sleep. But now, since he was the last fish, the filter is off and it's hauntingly silent in here. I know that some of you won't think of this as a big deal, but I care greatly for all animals. So, having them pass away hits me pretty hard, no matter what kind of animal it is.
Rest in peace, Jak. xx
Moving on, the other two are fine, so no worries there.
I quite enjoyed writing this chapter for some reason. Not that I dislike writing them, it can just be hard sometimes. This one just seemed to come to me as I edited it. I can only hope the next one will be the same way.
Anyway, here you go. Have fun and I'll see you soon!
Arby xx
Shadow took him to the only place he could think of where they wouldn't be found; his old apartment.
"You should take it easy on your Chaos powers. We might need them." Espio warned once they were in the bare living room.
"I will use them to get us to G.U.N., after that, we're on our own." Shadow told him as if his powers were some other being. "Unless it's some kind of emergency." He added.
"What do we do once we get there? The majority of the guards probably have no idea of what's going on." Espio questioned with concern.
"I imagine the 'higher-ups' will be the ones in the know. Sick bastards." The hedgehog spat as both his fists tightened.
"What I do not understand is the reason behind it. What do they want with them? Why go to such lengths just to trap them underground?" The chameleon asked.
"My best guess would be that none of them came out the way they wanted to. You saw that one. Its arms alone dwarfed the rest of its body and it had clearly gone mad. Its legs were so disfigured that I had no idea they were legs to begin with and that's just scratching the surface." Shadow shuddered noticeably. "I'm dreading the thought of what they're keeping down there." Espio placed a hand upon his shoulder.
"Likewise." He admitted. "Back to my original question, what do we do?" The hedgehog thought hard about their plan of action. Shadow had the firearms and Espio had the swords and ninja gear. They both had their strengths, but the element of surprise and stealth were going to be huge advantages.
"That creature escaped from underground, yes?" Shadow asked.
"I would assume so, since no one had a clue about it until yesterday." Espio told him.
"I suggest that we go in the way that thing got out." The chameleon agreed that heading underground would be the safest way. However, he was quick to point out a flaw.
"That would be good, except for the fact that G.U.N. would be all over that by now. They've probably got their best soldiers guarding it." He explained.
"That's true, but they'll also be soldiers that know what's going on and are helping to hide their dirty, little secret. They are the kind of people that deserve nothing more than slaughter." Espio flinched at the thought. He was not a killer by any means, but this was ultimately for the greater good, right? "They're not innocent, Es." Shadow spoke again, as if reading his mind. "They are helping them and would gladly kill us. Yes, we'll be ending lives, but we'll be ending all of this as well, one disgusting human at a time." The reptile thought back to Vector and Charmy. What if they were hurt? He couldn't just stand there and let it continue, for everyone's sake, not just the Chaotix.
"You're right. I know you're right." Espio spoke, with a deep sigh following afterwards. Shadow could tell that a lot was on his mind. A lot was happening, it was understandable. A silence lasted, which made the hedgehog a little uncomfortable.
"You can rest here a little, if you like. However, we should get going as soon as we can." Shadow said before leaning against the edge of one of the broken windows. Espio simply nodded before sitting on the floor to try and meditate.
"This place is a wreck." Shadow thought with annoyance, but he didn't expect anything less. This was the most dangerous part of the city, after all.
Allowing his companion some time to himself, Shadow looked around in case, by some miracle, that the map he had of G.U.N. was still lying around.
Espio opened one eye when he heard the hedgehog moving things. He kept his gaze on him as he dug around his ruined kitchen, but chose not to ask.
"Hmph, what are the chances?" Shadow smirked as he pulled out what appeared to be a big piece of paper.
"Shadow?" Espio questioned, wondering what exactly he had found. The Ultimate Lifeform approached and sat down next to him, crossing his legs the same way Espio had. He rolled out the piece of paper on the floor in front of them.
"This is a detailed map of G.U.N., minus the secret underground level." He pointed to the road leading into the facility. "You can see that the sewer tunnels also lead beneath it. If necessary, I can Chaos Blast a way inside."
"That would be noisy though." Espio quickly informed him.
"I know, but we're armed and ready, should we run into trouble." Shadow reminded the ninja.
"Then it's settled. We should get going, before I change my mind again." The chameleon told him.
"Understood." Shadow hid the map back where he found it, which was in one of the cabinets, hidden behind a panel of wood. Once done, he returned to Espio with his emerald and teleported out of the apartment.
"Oh! It chooses now to rain?!" Sage complained. The chameleon wasn't a fan of water and neither was Zeus. The others simply didn't mind it.
"Come on! It's refreshin' during this time of year!" Vector argued, trying to keep everyone in high spirits despite the situation.
"I agree. However, there's something about being on the run that kinda just… puts a major downer on everything." Charmy spoke, sounding rather depressed.
"It sucks basically." Angel added. Dové shot the younger wolf an annoyed look, but she didn't notice it at all. Charmy merely sighed at her comment.
"So, how's Jak doing?" The bee asked.
"Well, considering that he hasn't woken up yet, I'd say he's doing okay. I will admit though, carrying him is a real pain." Dové told him with a smirk.
"Hand 'im over." Vector spoke. The wolf said nothing as he lifted the Husky onto his boss' shoulder.
"Thanks." He said simply before continuing to walk.
They had travelled a fair distance since they left an hour and a half ago. So far, no one seemed to be following and they hadn't run into anyone since. It was just them and the sands beneath their feet. At least this sudden storm was keeping it cool enough for the desert to be bearable. The reptilians of the group didn't want to think about the condition they would be in if there was no cloud cover.
A silence lasted for several minutes, making the situation noticeably awkward.
"Where the heck are we going?" Angel asked, breaking it. One by one, they all stopped walking and glanced at one another.
"Shit." Vector cursed without a care. "Where are we gonna go? There is literally nothing out here!"
"Okay, okay, let's try and think about this." Dové spoke, hoping to keep everyone calm. The last thing any of them needed was a panic. "We can't go back for obvious reasons." He began. "Are there any cities or towns anywhere near the mountains? We should have enough on us to last a week, maybe two if we're lucky." The rest of the Mobians began to think, but none of them knew the area well enough. It's not as if it was a good location spot. It was a brutal, unforgiving desert with treacherous mountain peaks at the other end. There was only one Mobian that they knew who would go out here at all and he was long gone.
"I'm going to take that long silence as a no." Dové spoke again when no one answered.
"I mean, we don't know. We haven't really ventured out here." Charmy told the older wolf.
"The kid's right." Vector confirmed. "I've only been out here once and that was when-" He cut himself off and gave Charmy a saddened look, which was instantly returned. "Anyway yeah, we really don't have a clue what's out here." The croc finished quickly. The others understood why he was suddenly so uncomfortable and chose not to question it.
"Actually…" Charmy started. "You guys know the side of the city where all those rich people live?" Everyone nodded. "Well, there's no desert beyond that. There's a forest instead." He paused, but continued when the others remained silent. "Well, I know it's no five star hotel, but we could camp out there." Various looks were shared among the group; some seemed confused while others seemed shocked.
"You're kidding, right?" Angel questioned. "Firstly, it's a jungle and secondly, there are more threats there than there ever could be in the city."
"I don't know about that." Sage spoke after staying quiet for the longest time. "I kinda like the idea of being out the wild. The only thing that concerns me is Zeus over here."
"Hey!" The snake complained as he still had himself wrapped around the chameleon. "I'll have you know that I am more than capable of taking care of myself." Sage couldn't help but chuckle at his best friend's sudden bad mood.
"Zeus, pal, I've lost count of the many times you've gotten yourself stuck in something just because you were slithering around without a care. You even got stuck in a window. Three times in one day! The same window as well!" Everyone was now trying to stop themselves from giggling, except for Jak who was still unconscious.
"Anyway, back to the point at hand." Vector said, bringing everyone back to what they were originally talking about. "I know that this idea ain't perfect, but right now, it's literally all we have. So Sage, keep Zeus with you at all times and make sure he doesn't touch anything. In fact, that goes for everyone. Chaos knows what's poisonous and what isn't. We can build some sort of shelter once we get there and set up camp. We can make this into an adventure!" The croc's enthusiasm was certainly unexpected and a little odd, but the others appreciated it.
Without talking about it anymore, the group set off for the jungle. What they didn't know, was that they would never make it there.
"Through here." Shadow spoke as they both navigated the tunnels. They had barely been there thirty minutes and the chameleon was already feeling extremely uncomfortable and made sure to keep his guard up. "We should be on the right level. Now we just have to find something close to a gaping hole."
"That's possibly-no, is heavily guarded." Espio added.
"Like I said, we're prepared for that." The hedgehog told him, clearly the most confident of the pair. "Listen!" The mammal suddenly whispered as he froze. His hearing was vastly better than Espio's, but the reptile tried to listen anyway.
"What is it?" He whispered after a few silent moments.
"Footsteps." He said bluntly. "They're heavy." His voice conveyed confusion. "They're also… below us?"
"So?" Espio asked, wondering what the issue was.
"But… the underground level is on this level. There's nothing below that." Shadow reminded him.
"That you know of." Espio added, causing Shadow to turn to him with a face that conveyed great concern. "You saw that creature. You saw the size of it and the strength. Now that you've brought it up, I do not believe for one second that there is just one floor of these things. They must have labs, quarantine, testing areas and Chaos knows what else if they're creating abominations such as that one." Shadow was speechless. Now that the thought was out in the open, he couldn't help but wonder just how many people had been dragged down here. How many innocent lives had been taken from their families just for this? It made his blood boil.
"We have no time. We need to get down there." He growled before they both went searching for another ladder.
It was nearly another forty minutes later before they finally found what they were looking for. There was an enormous hole in what used to be a solid wall. However, just as Espio had predicted, it was being guarded by two heavily-armoured robots. Each of them was armed with a heavy machine gun on one arm and a laser cannon on the other. They each had a searchlight on top of their heads that was moving steadily back and forth from one side of the tunnel to the other.
"Okay, I have an idea of how to get past them." Espio announced quietly, but before he had a chance to explain, Shadow had lined up a shot and fired a Chaos Spear. It ricocheted off the wall and pierced the two robots with ease.
Espio stared at Shadow with a look that seemed to say 'what the heck?', but the hedgehog was quick to explain.
"Apologies, I just… needed to do that." They stared at each other awkwardly for a few more seconds. "Let's go." Shadow said abruptly before casually walking past the destroyed robots and into the complex.
"… Sure." Espio spoke to himself before catching up.
The mammal just ahead was looking around in shock. It was nothing like he remembered when he came here with Rouge all those years ago. Unless however, Espio's theory was correct and this place was a whole lot larger than just a single, secret, underground floor. It angered him once again, only now he didn't have robots to take it out on. He would hold it back for now and focus on what needed to be done.
They had wandered into a rectangular room with about a dozen empty stasis tubes. The lights weren't red like Shadow remembered and they weren't flashing either. They were a painfully bright blue.
"Dare I ask what these things are for?" Espio questioned quietly.
"I don't want to know." Shadow replied before finally walking to the door opposite them. "Come on, I don't want to be in here any longer than we have to."
"Okay, but now that we're here, what do we do?" The reptilian asked.
"We figure out a way to stop all of this. We need to bring this entire place down before they all escape." He told the other male.
"Without explosives, that's quite a challenge." Espio admitted.
"Tikal told me that there was a way to do this, she just wasn't sure what it was exactly."
"Do you trust her?" The chameleon asked.
"She's been right so far. I trust her enough to go along with this." Shadow concluded as they both walked through the oddly empty corridors.
"I know what you're thinking." Espio began. "Why is there no one down here?"
"You know me better than I know myself sometimes." The hedgehog grinned and glanced back at him momentarily. "But I get the feeling that there's a good reason as to why it's just us."
As he said that, a strange, other-worldy noise could be heard in the room to their left.
"Sh-Shadow?" The ninja stuttered.
"Stay right here." He told him.
"No, don't go in there! That could literally be anything!" Espio argued. He did nothing to hide the fear in his voice.
"Whatever it is, it needs to be put out of its misery. Do you understand?" Shadow asked, earning a soft and saddened nod in response.
The Ultimate Lifeform got his handgun ready with one hand and held the door handle with the other. He took a deep breath before slowly turning it and opening the door. Bit by bit, Shadow peeked his head around the door until his eyes widened at the sight before him.
It was on the floor, only managing to move itself around by dragging itself with its one working arm. Some of its body has been replaced by metal, while other parts had just been removed altogether. Judging by the odd scruffy patch of feathers here and there, it used to be Mobian. Even worse than that was how small it seemed to be. Its eyes were wide with fear as it tried to call out. Whoever it was, was just a child.
Shadow simply wanted to cry. He had more humanity than the humans that had done this. The hedgehog had no idea how much it understood in this state, but chose to talk to it.
"It's going to be okay." His voice was calm and gentle. He, at the very least, wanted to show the poor thing that kindness still existed. "Everything will be alright." He went on, now with a small smile.
The noises it was making stopped and it was now just staring at Shadow curiously, even trying to approach him. The mammal was hesitant, but soon knelt down and extended his free arm. The test subject crawled closer and shakily took hold of it.
It smiled.
"You're going to be okay." Shadow whispered, tears threatening to show. "You will not be hurt anymore." Its grip tightened. It desperately wanted to speak, but it just couldn't. All it could come out with were incoherent noises. "It's alright. Just try and rest, okay?" It gave him the same curious look from before, but then rested its head against the ground, keeping hold of Shadow's hand as it did so.
The hedgehog felt a stab of guilt, knowing what he had to do. He had no choice. Even if he could get the poor soul out of here, there was no recovering from trauma this severe, both mentally and physically. With some hesitation, he moved the weapon until it was pointing to the back of the creature's head. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes.
"Sleep tight." He whispered before pulling the trigger.
