revan blackheart - Thanks! ^^

petite-dreamer - Yeah, it was pretty graphic -_-', but it won't get any worse than that. ^^

M2 - Close enough I think. ^^


Escape

Tails, Knuckles, Vector, Cream and Victoria stood quietly in a consultation office just off the Station Square hospital lobby. Vector's wounded arm and Victoria's head had been patched up; though the crocodile had noticeable difficulties in using his right arm, and Victoria had a growing lump on the back of her head. Trying to ignore the cries of the hospital security and staff telling the patients to return to their rooms rather than stampede through the corridors, they discussed what to do in the wake of Amy's kidnapping,

"It's simple." Victoria said firmly, adjusting her beret, "Seeing as the assailants were Molochites, this is a G.U.N matter." Tails opened his mouth to say something but Knuckles beat him to it,

"Hey!" he growled, "You're forgetting Amy's our friend! We've been through worse than this messed-up cult!" Victoria stared at him coolly for a moment before speaking,

"Worse than raining blood? Worse than flaming clouds? Well, I won't stop you. But I can't promise the Commander won't try to." she said quietly, a slight smile - perhaps simply the lighting - appearing to dance on her lips. At that moment, a huge explosion ripped through the hospital walls, shredding them like paper. Cream gave a shrill scream, clutching Tails. They all ducked beneath the table as debris began to fall. Once the remains of the hospital wall had finished falling, Vector slowly looked out from under the table.

There was a huge gash in the wall, looking much like some unearthly creature had cut through it with claws, further on, the wall ended in a large hole, from where...whatever it had been had hit it. Outside, more debris fell into the pools of blood as the hospital begun to collapse, sending plumes of blood into the air.

Letting her military instincts take over, Victoria shot out from under the table, her voice calm but authoritative,

"We need to get out of here. Now!" Instinctively obeying to the clear voice, the group pushed themselves out of the crumbling hospital.

Outside, the city was a scene of carnage. From one street the dark and threatening shape of a tank was trawling up through the road, turret swivelling round, shooting inanely at various buildings. Cream, huddled behind Tails, asked in a very quiet voice,

"Why are they attacking the buildings?" Knuckles slammed his fists together,

"Never mind!" he snarled, "We'll show them!" Victoria held an arm out to stop him,

"Don't. There must be an entire army out there. The best thing we can do is escape." No sooner had she said these words that the tanks swivelled round towards them, they all threw themselves to the side as the war machine fired, throwing up a huge plume of blood that covered the group. They pushed themselves onto their feet hastily moving down an alleyway, Cream on Vector's shoulders like an infant toddler. As they left the alley, a Molochite soldier, wielding a gun with Dr. Eggman's trademark moustached logo printed on it, saw them. Before he could call any more soldiers or shoot them, Knuckles threw a spiked fist into him sending him crashing into a pile of debris where he didn't get up again. The heroes continued on their way, keeping away from any groups of Molochite soldiers, tanks or even the odd bipedal mech. After ten minutes or so of navigating their way through the treacherous, debris-filled roads of the city, they stopped to catch their breath. Victoria took this moment to attempt to call G.U.N. Her calls over the transponder went without answer thought, and she grimly put the communicator back into her breast pocket,

"No answer, can't be good. If they've struck here, then it's very possible they've attacked Central City, or other cities." she said quietly, barely audible over the sheer noise that pervaded the air.

"What I want to know is how some cult managed to get bloody tanks, guns and robots!" Vector panted, holding his wounded arm, which had begun to hurt again as the painkillers stopped their work, all too soon.

"Didn't you see Robotnik's logo on them? They must've got them from one of the Doctors bases." Tails replied, sitting haphazardly on a chunk of stone from some environing building. Knuckles, breathing smoother than the others, spoke quietly, somehow managing to be heard over the roar of the gunfire,

"We should move." The others nodded, getting up from their resting positions.

It seemed like they were in those ruin-littered roads for hours, though it must only have taken them an hour, an hour and a half at most, to reach the outskirts of the city. Most of the Molochite soldiers were fighting G.U.N troops in the centre of Station Square, but even so, they had to make their way slowly, keeping to the sides. As escape from the hellish nightmare beckoned they moved out of the alleyway they were in, going out into the road.

There, sat like a meditating monk on a rock, was a red hedgehog, wearing a simple white mask with a bloody hand imprinted on it. The hedgehog looked up at them the moment they saw them,

"Welcome." he said, with all the suave of a host greeting his guests. Despite the soft tone of his voice, it somehow managed to seem like it had been shouted, all while staying soft like a whisper. The hedgehog stood up,

"I am Moloch-Ba'al, most blessed of all." Victoria levelled her weapon at him, gazing at him cautiously, "Would you kill a god?" Moloch-Ba'al asked, his voice amused. He held out his outstretched palms, like a peaceful gesture; Victoria's pistol melted, dripping down into the blood below. He closed his left palm into a fist, and the building to his left made a hissing noise, and the stone melted into lava, falling into the red liquid below where it cooled. The supposed god looked at each of them in turn, before speaking,

"I don't want to kill you, your antics have given me much amusement, and I have need of your blood. But I ask you to surrender, to save yourself the pains of capture, my soldiers can be overzealous." No one spoke, Moloch-Ba'al sighed deeply, "Very well." he moved out of the street, moving down an alleyway, before entering the alley he turned back, saying one final thing before leaving them,

"If I ever find you again I shall have no recourse but to kill you."


Dramaticness!