Love & War
Chapter 4: Silver & Gold
Silver stared out the window of large flying transport, looked at what was supposed to be the frightening Pumpkin hill. "Not that scary." He said to himself. It was day 3 of the evacuation and neither Sonic nor Shadow has showed up. The transports have all made it through and are hiding in the many of the crevices, canyons, and mountains of Pumpkin hill. Legend has it that Pumpkin hill was created by the devil to send spirits so evil that not even the devil can match their level of evil. And that is how Pumpkin hill was formed. It's said that a man was foolish enough to go in their searching for his wife, his body and his wife's body where found miles away from there. They where mangled as if they where eaten by a shark. Silver sighed and looked down at a sleeping blaze on his lap. Back when the war started, his hometown was one of the first to be hit. It's now a bunch of molten rock and lava. He sighed. "What are you thinking about?" he heard.
"I didn't know my lap could talk." He smiled and looked at a now awake blaze still on his lap. "Nothing, go back to sleep." He said and kissed her on the forehead. He went back starring at the window.
"That's all you do. Stare out the window. C'mon silver we're engaged can't have just a little fun." Blaze said. She held Silvers hand close to her heart. He could feel the thump-thump of her heart. "We're also at war." He looked at the fruit basket on the table and extended his hand towards it. An apple floated up from the basket and back to Silver's hand, "here have an apple." He said handing her the apple.
"You think an apple is going to occupy my time?" Blaze said dropping the apple
"Well I'm sorry, Blaze but we can't-" he was silenced by Blaze's lips forcefully pushed on his own. He was surprised at first but then melted into the kiss. When Blaze broke the kiss, Silver was in shock, "5 years together and I'm still not used to that." Silver said.
"How about we move to the bed." Blaze said.
"Agreed." Silver said, he picked Blaze up carrying her bridal style. He put her gently down on the bed and climbed on top of her. "Better?" he said.
"Yes." Blaze said she put her arms around Silvers neck and pulling him into a passionate kiss. She started to unbutton his shirt she through it on the floor but before they could do anything else, the door slid open and Amy ran through it yelling "Silver, Silver we…" she stopped her self to stare at the two on the bed who, in Amy's words, were totally making out! "Um…am I interrupting something?" Amy said.
"Uh…yes." Blaze said. Silver stood up turned to Amy and said, "can you give me a minute."
"Sure." Amy said and left the room. Silver bent over and picked up his shirt.
"I hate this war." Blaze said.
"If the war never happened I would've been married by now." She added
"If it wasn't for the war you wouldn't have met me and you wouldn't be engaged to me." Silver said and kissed her one more time before going through the door.
"So Amy, what's going on."? Silver said
"Well uh…Knuckles he is uh…. missing." Silver was confused.
"Missing? What you mean?" he said
"That's not all but his ship, the Shadow of the moon, has disappeared with him." she added.
"Have you checked the radars, inferred scanners, sound wave pick up's?" he said.
"Nothing." Amy said. Silver ran down the hall with Amy close behind. He ran into the bridge of the ship he was on. " Where's the Shadow of the moon?" he yelled.
"Disappeared 15 minutes ago." Said a woman from computer monitor.
"Did you check the inferred scanners."? He said.
"There's nothing sir." She said.
"Contact the hanger we need searching parties, tell them to get my Harrier ready." He said and left the bridge. He walked down the corridor towards the hanger. Once he was at the hanger a crew caption (a crew is a group of mechanics) walked up to him saying, "Silver, your Harrier is armed and ready, drop ships are search parties to various locations you instructed but one question where are you going." He asked
"To find Sonic and Shadow." Silver said climbing into his Harrier.
Shadow puffed a cloud of smoke from the cigarette he had. The sun was out and in middle of the sky, the heat radiated downward like it was raining little drops of magma. I hate the heat, Shadow thought to him self. His buggy hummed as he continued his way towards Pumpkin hill. Behind him he could see the troop transports and tanks that will follow him to Hell and back, next to him driving in his own buggy was Sonic who was eating a chilidog. Shadow turned his attention elsewhere this time to the horizon that finally ended the sand's and dunes. He couldn't help but wonder who or what was kicking up the cloud of dust in the distance. The cloud started to increase in size very rapidly until Shadow could see what was making the cloud of dust. The picked up the radio on the dash board and said into it, "EFR tanks incoming, they've found us. Get the Javelin anti-tank missiles ready." He said. He clicked several buttons on the touch screen below his radio and several letters showed up saying 'Auto-control systems activated.' He grabbed a chain and clamp and hooked the clamp on the higher bars of the buggy. He stood up and squeezed by his seat and pulled the flap off of some weapon crates. He opened one of the crates and pulled a Javelin rocket launcher from the crate he loaded a missile into the tube and aimed it towards one of the tanks. The screen on the Javelin light up and locked onto one of the tanks. "Bye, bye" he said and fired the missile, it shot out of the tube and into the air, it rose higher and higher until it was about 100 ft in the air and turned back planet side. It fell to earth and hit it's target with unnatural force. "Boom." he Said and loaded another missile. The sand exploded in front and around his buggy. Hopefully they keep missing and not hit anyone. Shadow thought to him self. A minute later the transport behind him blew up. Spoke too soon, he thought. The radio filled with chatter saying, "We've lost Echo 2." And "they keep coming, there's too many." Damn, Shadow thought as he loaded his last missile into the tube of the Javelin. He aimed and fired taking out one tank. This isn't good, he thought throwing the Javelin off of the buggy. He slid up back to the seat of the buggy and turned off the auto-drive. "Shadow, pick up your radio, we got something headed our way going at high speeds." Sonic said over the radio.
"Is it friend or foe?" Shadow said.
"I can't tell." Sonic said. "We should have a visual soon." He added. Shadow looked out towards the horizon searching for the what ever was coming next. He saw a glimmer, like the sunlight reflected off something metal or glass. Then he saw that the glimmer rose to a squad of hairier fighter jets bearing the Sand Rats symbol. He picked up the radio and said, "all units hold fire, reinforcements have arrived." He said.
Silver looked out of the cockpit of his hairier fighter. He circled around the transports below. He spoke into the radio, "All wings; open fire on those tanks. Our guys need some help down there." The harriers fired their missiles. Boom, the targets on the HUD started to vanish altogether. "Ha ha! Silver, am I glad to see you buddy." He heard Sonic's voice on the radio.
"Glad to see you too." Silver said.
"Ok, get us outta here." Shadow said.
"Drop ships are underway, ETA; five minutes." Silver said.
"What do you mean it just disappeared? A ship that size doesn't just disappear." Shadow yelled. He slammed his hand into the wall, denting it.
"Where's the princesses?" he said, his hands covered his face.
"One is here: on this ship. The other is on Blazes ship." Silver said.
"Good keep it that way. Sonic, you need to get to the other ship just in case something happens." Shadow said. Sonic nodded and left the room. Shadow turned to Silver.
"You have searching parties out don't you?" Shadow said.
"Yeah sent them out before I went out to get you." Silver said.
"Good get my Warhawk ready." He said and exited the room.
Shadow sat in his custom made Warhawk fighter jet loaded AA-19 long-range missiles, AAS-21 fast-tracking swarm missiles and CB-4 combined effect cluster bombs.
"This is Black Knight one requesting permission to take off." Shadow said.
"Control tower to Black Knight one permission granted. Please continue to the runway." The voice said over the radio. I don't need a runway. He thought to him self. He grabbed the throttle and pulled back and the jet started to rise off the ground. Shadow pressed several buttons and flipped a switch and the jet started moving forward. He pressed the throttle forwards and the jet increased speed.
"Black Knight one altitude restrictions are canceled, good luck." The control tower said. Shadow flew around pumpkin hill for hours searching for a hint of the missing ship. He flew by an old church and switched to hover mode once the ship touched the ground he killed the engines, opened the cockpit and got out. He walked down the isles of pews most of which were missing or damaged. He sat onto one of the pews and looked at the giant glass window or what's left of it. He put his hands together and placed them on his forehead. He was mumbling a short prayer when he heard a feminine voice from behind him. "I didn't know you where Catholic." Shadow spun around and drew his pistol but lowered it, staring at the brunette haired girl: Sally. "What are you doing here?" he said.
"Followed you in my own plan." Sally said. That's odd I didn't hear her land. Shadow thought. He holstered his gun and faced the huge broken window. "I'm not Catholic but my…old friend was." Shadow said. He sat back down on the pew.
"Really? What friend?" Sally said and sat next to him.
"None that you know." Shadow said and continued praying.
"Fine! Don't tell me who he is." Sally said turning away from Shadow.
"He is a she." Shadow said.
"Oh so she's a girl friend." Sally said with great interest.
Shadow sighed but ignored her.
"C'mon! Please tell me, I want to know more about my team mates." Sally begged.
Shadow sighed again and said "fine." He turned towards Sally.
"How old are you." Shadow asked
"23, why?" Sally said with a confused look on her face.
"23…peek of your life, me, I'm 79." Shadow said.
"What?!" Sally said.
"Technically I'm 79, if you count the fact that I was trapped in a capsule for fifty years." Shadow said.
"wait, you were trapped in a capsule for fifty years? How did you eat or drink." Sally asked.
"I was frozen; perfectly preserved." Shadow said.
"Shadow, I…I don't understand." Sally said
"maybe I should start with square one." Shadow said.
"yeah, Maybe." Sally said.
"I wasn't born like a normal person." Shadow said flatly.
"wait, what?" Sally said.
"I was born through wires, machinery, and chemicals. I was created, as the ultimate life form." Shadow continued. "My creator was named Maria. She was a brilliant and beautiful scientist. She raised me, taught me, and gave me a reason to think that I wasn't a monster." Shadow said. "I was created on the space colony known as A.R.K. I lived there for a few months."
"oh…so why did you leave." Sally said.
"like it was my choice, some one from earth sent a task force up to the ARK. and decided to turn my life to living hell. I escaped but Maria died in my arms."
"oh I'm sorry…how did you escape?" Sally asked.
"I got into an escape pod and landed on earth but once I landed I was captured and thrown into a capsule. 50 years later a man named Chaos who is the leader and founder of the GAM released me and gave me information on the task force who attacked my little piece of heaven, he handed me a piece of cloth that had your fathers kingly symbol on it. He told me that your Grandfather did this to me, to bad he was dead but his son was in the kings seat." Shadow said. Shadow heard the door to the church creek open, he stood up and spun around, his gun aimed towards the opening but he lowered it. "Knuckles?" Shadow said. Knuckles was hunched over the doorway his hand on his side blood dripped from the corner of his mouth. His eye is blackened and bruised, blood trailed down from his right temple. He took a step forward and tripped. Shadow helped him back up. "who did this to you?" Shadow asked.
"she…she betrayed us…the thief, Rouge, she betrayed us for jewels." Knuckles said and fell into unconsciousness.