Welp, here is chapter seven. Thanks for the follows people!
To Lost and Forgotten Memories: Heh, thanks! I've been told a few times this story is my best work, and I hope it lives up to expectations :)
I don't own Sega characters
Surfacing Pain
Blaze frowned as she looked around the rec room. Empty.
She had been searching for her teammates for awhile now since she got back from her weaponry restock errand, only to return and find no one in sight.
'Well, they're not in the rec room, and I've checked all the bunks. Where the heck could they be?' she wondered, placing hands on hips in irritation.
Just as she was ready to head to the Commander's office and demand she know where her team was located, the door swung open and Tikal trotted in happily, a light sheer sweat in her chestnut fur.
"Hey Blaze. Glad to see you're well," the charming echidna said as she made her way to grab an apple juice from the fridge.
The lavender feline frowned, "I'm feeling just fine thank you. Why wouldn't I be?"
Tikal furrowed her eyebrows, "Shadow said that you weren't able to come on the mission. We all just got back now."
Jaw dropped in confusion and anger. "Why would he tell you that!? I'm perfectly fine! I was just running an errand, you guys could have waited for me," she growled, causing the younger female to reel back marginally.
"Look Blaze, I don't know what's going on. I would suggest talking to Shadow, maybe he did have a reason to not let you go," she suggested cautiously, not wanting to set further alarm to the steaming she-cat.
"You bet I am," she promised, stalking towards the door with flamed steps.
Sonic popped open the door before she could reach for the handle, a cheeky grin on his face as he gave her a wave, "hey Blaze. Hope you're feeling better!"
Pushing past him she snarled a reply, "shut it!" then disappeared around the bend of the hallway.
The blue hedgehog frowned as to her reaction, turning to the remaining echidna and lifting his shoulders, "what'd I do now!?"
Tikal sighed, "I have a feeling something big is about to go down."
Meanwhile, Blaze kicked open the door to the teams office, causing papers to flutter off the desk, though the dark hedgehog that filled the chair didn't flinch.
"Excuse me Mr. Chaos Lead...I think you have some explaining to do," she mocked his title, crossing her arms and taking heavy steps towards the desk.
Shadow merely folded his hands over his stomach and leaned back in his chair. "What do you want Blaze?" he asked grouchily, already knowing what was coming for him. He had expected as much.
"What I want is to know is why the entire team thinks I was sick, and couldn't go a mission. You guys left without me! We were all assigned to that objective and you know it," she argued.
The ebony hedgehog fidgeted with his thumbs. "You weren't needed, so we went on without you."
Blaze blinked, slightly pinched by his words. "Excuse me? I wasn't needed?" she huffed. "Even if that was true; One, we always go as a full team, and two, what was the point in telling everyone I was sick then when you could've just told the truth?"
Shadow looked down at his folded hands. This was a sign that something was bothering him greatly. Softening her glare, Blaze took tentative steps around the desk and approached with a twitching tail. "Shadow? What's wrong?" she asked concerned.
The ebony hedgehog stood, and abruptly pulled her close.
Forcefully, he pulled up her chin to look at him dead straight, "Blaze...I love you."
Blaze furrowed her eyebrows. This was no news to her, and the sincerity of his voice was clear as usual, but why did he sound so desperate? It was almost like he was pleading for her to except his devotion.
Wrapping her arms around his firm waist, she tilted her head in question, "I know Shadow. And I love you too. But what's wrong? You're never like this."
Shadow didn't answer, only bent his head down and pressed a passionate peck on her lips. He lingered in her taste, shared her air in closeness, before releasing his hold and withdrawing from his stance.
He began making his way slowly towards the exit, leaving a confused and weary lavender feline to puzzle his strange antics.
"I have to go gather the team. We have another Op in thirty minutes," he called over his shoulder.
Ears pricked, Blaze began trotting over to him, "I'm coming this time."
"No!" Whipping on his heel, Shadow snapped loudly, causing the feline to step back in shock, ears flattened against her head.
He had never shouted at her like that, and Blaze felt a dread begin to grow in her heart. Something was terribly wrong.
Upon realizing that his order had come out so vile, Shadow placed his hand to his forehead, closing his eyes and inhaling deeply to calm scrambling nerves. "No, you can't come," he repeated more gently.
Blaze frowned deeply, "why not?" she asked. It was one thing to keep her from missions, but it made the situation all the worse when not knowing why she wasn't allowed to assist.
"Because, you just can't," he replied firmly, giving a curt nod before turning his back to her and turning around the corner, lost from sight.
The violet coated feline remained where she was, distressed in her predicament. Biting her bottom lip in angst, she could still taste the remains of his lips on hers.
Neither knew that it would be their final kiss.
Blaze inhaled deeply, the hard seating vibrating beneath, the sounds of loud propellers whizzing in a circle above her. The AIM agents were all huddled in the helicopter that hovered above the next targeted facility. Radar was shown on the screen, ringlet signals rippling out of their dotted current location.
The factory they were targeting for was shown as a red 'X', and it just so happened that nine orange dots were surrounding the 'X' and slowly advancing toward the center.
"Okay team, here's the plan," Scourge yelled above the engines of the helicopter. "Those GUN scums are advancing on the ground, surrounding the factory and coming in from all sides, completely spread out. Out counter plan, is to fly in above, and drop as a group into the center. Once in, we retrieve the core, we kick those kids to the corner and head back to base." he finished with a fanged grin.
Silver furrowed his eyebrows, "I don't think we should fight them if we don't have to. If we can get in and get out without ever encountering them, it would make it easier."
The green hedgehog frowned, "what I say goes kid," he growled. Scourge was known for his competitiveness, and impulsive reactions. His plans were always based on what would give him the most adrenaline, similar to his blue counterpart, Sonic.
However, Blaze shook her head and spoke up, "no, Silver's right. They have nine, we have five. Don't fight unless absolutely necessary."
Grey nodded and he stroked his chin, "I agree. But as she said, we are outnumbered by almost half. What shall we do if we do end up in an affray?" he wondered aloud in his gruff voice, his bronze eyes glowing as inner gears turned.
Scourge, coming to the conclusion his teammates were right, pondered the ideas. With a snap of his fingers, he beamed proudly, "I have it! Instead of going straight for the power core, Fiona and Grey will scrounge around the factory and put up as many defenses as you can. That should either slow their advance, or cut some paths off completely. That way, if any do reach the power core, myself, Silver and Blaze will be there to guard it. If no one makes it through, then we wait till the other two return and leave with the Diciorum."
Blaze gave an approving nod. Despite his anxious antics, Scourge made an excellent leader when it came time to present.
Fiona grinned, stroking her tail as she winked at the jade hedgehog, "great plan babe."
Scourge returned the gestures, before everyone prepped themselves for the jump off. Fiona and Scourge were parachuting, while Silver flew himself and Grey down. Blaze would simply use her fire as thrusters to lower herself.
The pilot voiced into his speaker that they were in placement and ready to go.
All AIM members flocked to the open sides of the metal machine, timing their descent with precision.
Looking down to the forest surrounding the factory bellow, Blaze saw a flicker of something moving in the distance, bending the branches as it steadily made it's way to the outer wall of the building.
Either her eyes and mind were playing idle tricks on her, or the figure in the distance adorned scarlet streaks upon their head.
Swallowing the forming dread, Blaze jumped into the wave of gravity that pushed her down at high speeds towards the roof of the factory.
Shadow made his way through the forests thickets, every step taking him closer to his goal. So far, the mission had gone well.
All were in place, even Tails and Omega joining the brawl as each agent moved in towards the origin, shrinking the circumference of all their positions.
He only hoped no encounters of the AIM agents awaited his next few hours of a mission.
'As long as Tails keeps an eye on his radar as he advances, then I should be notified in time. And everything is still clear. So far so...'
His transmitter crackled to life, a young fox's voice on the other end, "Chaos Lead!"
'Not good.'
Clicking his responding button to open their link, he spoke quickly, "what is it Brain three?"
Tails seemed to have been running, for his voice came out in ragged breaths with each syllable. "I have a huge movement in the sky. I think it's some kind of plane or helicopter! Five people descended from it and are currently on the roof of the factory!"
'So not good.'
Shadow registered the information, his lips muttering a string of curses. Clicking his Com-link to life, he announced to all agents, "everyone, this is Chaos Lead. We have trouble. Advance faster, but make sure not to get too far ahead as to take on the team alone."
He could here a few exasperated groans from his teammates, obviously they had also wished to skip the encounter just as he did, but luck didn't hold.
"Omega three. I detect mechanical rewiring inside factory. Building defenses are booting up, making approach of target energy core difficult," the robot whizzed mechanically.
Shadow frowned. "Of course they would hack the defense mechanisms. That will delay our teams arrival." he growled to himself, his thoughts filtering through any possibilities to oppose the attack.
"Brains three, can you work through the codes?" he asked, skating over rough terrain at a fair pace.
"Er, sorry Chaos Lead, I don't have the right kind of equipment for such an overload of data." the yellow fox responded sheepishly through the transmitter.
Gritting his teeth, Shadow sighed in defeat, "Fine. Everyone, listen up. AIM agents are in the factory, powering up the factories traps and defenses. Be on your guard."
"Chaos Lead? About the traps you were talking about..." Sally spoke up with hesitance, her sentence trailing off timidly. "I got caught in this metal netting and can't get out. It just suddenly appeared!" she proclaimed.
Shadow replied flatly, "princess three, you'll have to stand by till the mission is done."
"What?! You're just going to leave me here?!" she replied flabbergasted, and obviously not pleased.
"Yes."
And with that, he cut off her connection.
Finally, he broke through the ravine of the forest and approached the tall perimeter wall cautiously. As soon as his foot hit within a five foot radius of its metal hide, an electric tag sprang out and would have clipped to him had he not dodged with expert reflexes.
It fell to the ground in a sparking disarray, and Shadow continued to advance.
"Okay everyone, change of plans. Get in as fast as you can, meet me in the room outside the power core in five, or I'm going in alone."
No one responded.
Taking out his precious green emerald, hidden in his covered quills, Shadow teleported to his appointed place, the room just outside the power core engine.
Standing with a cocky smirk on glossed lips, Rouge stood with hands on hips, her wings folded behind her.
"Well it took you long enough." she prodded, her suave tone edging towards arrogance. "I was beginning to think I would have to do this alone."
Shadow huffed, ignoring her bragging remarks and narrowed his eyes, "where's everyone else?"
"Right here." Sonic called, zipping up beside the pair of co-workers with Amy hot on his tail.
The odds weren't looking to be good, and Shadow frowned in displeasure at the low number of teammates that had made it to the meeting spot. "What happened?" he growled coldly.
Sonic scratched his quills out of habit, Knuckles got caught up in a fight with a hoard of robots, Tikal is frozen in an invisible force-field, Sally is tangled in a net, while Omega was shut down with a dart to his metal hide that gave him a virus, while Tails is working to fix him," he relayed.
The ebony hedgehog glared at his blue copy, "this team is despicable." he snapped. Glancing sideways at the pink hedgehog, who stood close-by, hammer in tow, he gave her a nod in appreciation. "Good job Rose. Glad to see you pulled through."
Amy had always annoyed him greatly, but at times, he almost pitied her for falling in love with Sonic so deeply that it was slowly killing the pinkette inside. She beamed brightly at his compliment and nodded in gratitude.
Emerald eyes eyed them both skeptically from the sidelines, his blue fur bristling as he forced a grin with clenched teeth, "well, lets get in their and kick some booty," Sonic cheered.
With a large slam, the doors were knocked strongly off their hinges as they burst into the main room.
The layout of the factory was the same as the previous ones, with four pillars surrounding the blue luminescent Diciorum battery.
"Well, looks like we get some fun after all," a green hedgehog called through the high ceilings.
Shadow, Rouge, Sonic and Amy all stood prepped and stance, ready for the fight that awaited them.
Scourge stood with his feet planted in front of the blue core, cackling at there 'coincidental' run in.
"I see not all of your cronies made it through the defenses huh? Luckily for you, I had to send a couple of mine off as well. But I'm sure once you get acquainted with these two, we'll have a blast." he punned, waggling his eyebrows.
Silver flew in and hovered to the side with a potent blue aura encircling his form.
Sonic stepped forward, his usual grin stretching on his muzzle as he faced danger, "ha! Four against two Scourge. You'll never win!"
An explosion on the left wall came, scattering debris as the figure stepped through the smoke.
"Scourge, Fiona and Grey said they'll be..."
Time slowed to an intense moment as Blaze halted in her tracks at the green hedgehogs side, her amber eyes dilating on a figure that stood fixated on her across the room.
In a clash of gold and red meeting, they saw each other for the first time in three months.
Her face dropped, becoming empty. So empty, she looked to have no soul to feel emotions with.
Crossing her arms, and lashing her tail, Blaze narrowed her eyes. "I see we have company."