Chapter 10 – Dark Thorn
A/N: Hey everyone, things have been pretty stressful for the past couple of weeks with my midterms and projects so I had rough time getting this chapter done. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. It's gonna get intense in this one!
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A week ago
Flint put the last thing in his bag, sealing it shut.
"Are you really serious about this?"
"You saw what happened back there. We don't know what they might do to him. We need to-" Flint was grabbed by the shoulders before he could finish and was forced to face the hunter.
"Are you out of your mind? You're going after those agents and risking yourself just to save that maniac?"
Flint faltered and his ears drooped at that.
"Just forget about him," another older jackal said, leaning against the wall of the house. "He's been nothing but a traitor to us for a long time. We were doing just fine before he showed up,"
"That's rich coming from the same cowards who fled and left me alone in the middle of a mission!"
Having his own words mirrored back at him stung to say the least. Flint honestly didn't know why he was doing any of this, but he didn't feel like he could just go back to the way things were before Zero returned, pretending that none of that ever happened.
They were sitting on the roof. Zero had permanent scowl on his face and trying to look unfazed despite the terrible state he was in.
Zero was a great leader, always thinking of what's best for the squad and pushing them to be stronger and better. His absence had affected them in more ways than they would like to admit. Nothing felt the same after he was gone. Flint would be lying if said he didn't feel torn about what happened during the night of their last mission in the past, but now he felt more so than ever before.
"Tell me…was it right for us to leave Zero behind during that night?" he asked quietly, genuinely wanting an answer.
The jackals around him looked surprised, but he got no immediate answer.
"W-well, it's like we could've done anything anyway if we stayed. We had no way of beating that hedgehog!" one of them snapped back.
Flint looked down. "Then how does that make us any better than Zero? Looking back on it…it doesn't look like we gave him any reason to come back here," he said and silence fell over the room.
"And what about everything else he-"
Flint tightened his grip on the strap of his bag and walked past him before he could finish. "I'm going to find Zero and bring him back…wherever he is," Even if it's too late for it now; I want do something this time.
With that said, he stepped out of the house. Their hideout was still in bad shape after the attack and many houses were damaged. It will take some time to get everything back to the way it was. He won't be here to witness that though.
He glanced back at the other mercenaries murmuring among each other and tilted his head. "So, are you guys coming with me or not?"
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Infinite growled, baring his teeth as he was strapped to a chair next to some machinery and a computer screen. Once the man was done with the straps, he gave a thumbs-up to the captains who nodded and left the van.
Infinite began struggling against his binds.
"Make sure he doesn't get out," the woman at the computer said, the light from the screen reflecting on her glasses.
"Got it," the man said.
After several minutes, Infinite spoke up just to break the silence. "Do I at least get to know what I'm in here for?"
"You already know why you're here. Just let us work," the woman said curtly before picking up a wired helmet and holding it out. "Here, put it on his head,"
The man took it and went over to the jackal. Infinite moved his head left and right to prevent that. "Get your junk away from me!"
The man forced the helmet on his head and stepped back. Infinite tried shaking it off. "Ugh, what is this?!"
"Yes, we're ready," the woman murmured in her earpiece ignoring him once again and began typing on her computer again.
The machine beside him began to hum ominously and before he could process it, a sharp jolt traveled through his head. He gritted his teeth as the pain there intensified and his chest felt like it was on fire.
Images bathed in red flashed in his mind, of a cliff over a lake, a forest in the mountains near the city. Words upon words poured inside his head that he couldn't make sense of followed by mechanical screeching. He kept his mouth shut to prevent himself from crying out.
The two humans were talking in the corner, but he could barely hear what they were saying. He was certain though he heard her mutter, "-ere! We found him!"
The machine suddenly stopped and the pain coursing through his body slowly subsided. Infinite lurched forward, panting. He felt completely drained. Eyes drooping, he barely felt it when the van began moving.
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The resistance was standing outside the city limits, waiting for a call from G.U.N.
Sonic was pacing back and forth. His gaze turned to the resistance members present. Knuckles and Silver were discussing something together. Victor and Espio were passing supplies to the other members who agreed to help with the rescue. Sonic also knew Team Dark will be there with the G.U.N forces to back them up. He looked around at the surrounding area, the cloudy sky, anything to keep him busy while he waited and waited for that call-
"Sonic,"
The hedgehog jerked away from the hand on his shoulder and turned to Knuckles. He had his shovel claws on and was looking at him in concern. "O-oh, did you say something?"
"No, but I can see how anxious you're getting all the way from my spot over there," Knuckles sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Look, it's not really that big of a deal. This isn't the first time we had to save someone. It won't be much different from any of those times,"
Sonic blinked and stared at the echidna who was rubbing his neck awkwardly. It wasn't like Knuckles to try to be reassuring this way. That was definitely something Sonic would say at a time like this, but the hedgehog himself didn't feel at ease with this mission at all. No matter how many times he told himself that it was irrational, that everything was going to be fine, there was no shaking the cold feeling creeping at the back of his mind.
Still, he needed to pull it together. If Knuckles noticed it then everyone else probably will. "I know, I know. I'm just…worried I guess," he replied eventually.
"Well, if you're gonna put your energy into something then it should be making sure that jerk is sent flying straight out of Mobias," Knuckles grinned, patting his shoulder lightly.
Yeah, of course. He thought with a new sense of determination. Right, this wasn't just about saving his little brother but about stopping Noise once and for all.
"Sonic?"
The hedgehog took out his walkie-talkie at a startling speed. "Yes, Amy?"
"They found Noise. He's somewhere in the west, about twenty miles from where you are. I'll be sending you the coordinates right now,"
"Okay. Thanks, Amy!" he replied.
"Be careful out there, and teach Noise a lesson, for Tails and I," Amy added fiercely.
Sonic smirked. "You got it!"
The two exchanged a nod and Knuckles turned to the group. "Alright, everyone. Let's head out!"
"Hold still," Silver hovered over and picked up the other members with his powers, dashing through the air after Sonic and Knuckles.
Hang in there, buddy. Sonic thought.
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Shadow sighed after taking a swig from his bottle, wiping his mouth with the back of his fist. He glanced back at the edge of the forest warily, his ears trying to pick on any sounds coming from there. There were none. He then turned to their forces. Many cruisers, vans and soldiers were standing about. They were all heavily armed, but Shadow wasn't sure if it will help considering who they were dealing with.
G.U.N, despite all the power and resources they had, didn't last long against Infinite in the war and now this guy seemed to be even more dangerous than him according Sonic and his friends.
Speaking of which, he narrowed his eyes when he saw the members of the resistance coming their way.
"Hey, Blue. Glad to see you guys made it," Rouge said, hopping off a crate and walking over to them.
"Took your time," Shadow grunted.
"Hey!" Victor growled from the back of the group.
"Ignore him. He's just grumpy about the mission," the bat muttered and he sent her a glare.
"It's fine," Sonic replied. He sneaked an uneasy glance between them. "Where is….you know,"
"They're keeping him in one of those vans. I don't know what they are planning to do though," Rouge answered. Some resistance members looked relieved. Shadow was a bit surprised when he saw Sonic's posture relax at that, but refrained from mentioning it.
The captain suddenly called. "Alright, since everyone's here it's time for us to head in. Once were there, hit him with all you got. No holding back, got it?" he said. They all gave him an affirmative. "Then spread out,"
Immediately, they all started venturing into the forest. Shadow kept his eyes peeled while dashing through the trees.
"Any sign so far, agent Shadow?"
"Not yet," he replied and jumped onto a tree branch to scan the area. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he was actually quite paranoid about this. Their enemy could manipulate their surroundings as he pleased. Anything could be a threat and all it will take was to walk right into it.
Suddenly, he felt a whoosh of air behind him and jumped off the branch just as a robot slashed it off with its blade. It had a knight-like design with sharp black and red armor. It had a thick sword in one hand and a canon for the other.
A robot? So Eggman's involved in this? Shadow thought, though in retrospect this shouldn't come as such a surprise.
Air burst from the knight's back jets and it dashed toward the hedgehog while they were still in the air, aiming the end of its sword at him. Shadow quickly teleported down to safety and it impaled the ground instead, causing a strong shockwave in the process.
Shadow huffed. "Oh, so you're Eggman's new fancy toy? He's going to be so disappointed when I send you to his doorsteps in pieces!" he taunted with a scowl, bracing himself before charging at it.
He leapt into the air without stopping and swung his leg at the side of its head, but to his surprise, the robot phased right through him. In midair, Shadow felt the end of a canon aimed at the back of his head and teleported away just as it fired.
Panting, Shadow eyed it warily. What's going on? Since when Eggman's robots were this strong or this smart even? Something was completely off about this one.
Dust blew behind the knight as it charged at Shadow and began slashing at him. The hedgehog tried his hardest to evade its attacks, but it still managed to leave a cut on his side.
Wincing in pain, the hedgehog turned and jumped onto a large rock. Close-range attacks didn't seem to be working on this robot. He needed to keep as much distance possible from it.
"Chaos Spear!" Several blades of energy materialized over his head and he wasted no time launching them at it, but the robot once again phased through the barrage like it was nothing and fired a charged blast at him.
Shadow jumped down just in time, but the attack was strong enough to blow up the rock and knock him off the air, sending him crashing into the ground with a grunt.
Shadow raised his head to see the robot aiming his gun at him again. He gritted his teeth. I didn't want to resort to this so soon, but I have no choice.
Gathering energy all around him, he exclaimed. "Chaos Blast!"
And just like that everything near him evaporated immediately. The robot tried escaping the blast, but ended up getting caught in it eventually.
The red glow faded and Shadow was left breathless momentarily. He was surrounded by a large circle of scorched earth, but the robot was nowhere to be seen.
Finally. He straightened up and touched the area where his wound was, flinching from his own touch. He probably shouldn't move around too much like this.
But now that his attention wasn't fixed on the knight anymore, Shadow suddenly caught on to the sound of gun fire in the distance. Alarmed, he rushed through the forest as fast as he could until he made it to a clearing.
His eyes widened. There, at the edge of a clearing was a colossal armored robot. It had six legs, a massive circular saw for a right hand and a canon poking out of its mouth. Right in front of it, Silver was struggling to keep it trapped in his energy field. The white hedgehog's powers seemed to be the only thing keeping it from tearing through the place.
Down below, their allies seemed to be dealing with problems of their own. Some were firing at the giant mecha's legs and body, but their weapons didn't seem to be doing much against its thick armor. Robot drones meanwhile were flying all around the battle area, firing down at the soldiers and resistance members. They had sharp appearances to them and long white tendrils, giving them an almost alien look.
Nothing I've seen Eggman create before…Shadow thought, beyond confused at this point, but then his eyes widened when he realized what they were firing.
Phantom cubes.
He looked over to a soldier, lying unconscious in the grass. It made sense now. While he was slightly relieved that they weren't physically hurt, he knew what the nightmares those cubes conjured could put someone through. He experienced it firsthand. If Eggman had joined forces with Noise then this only spelled disaster for them.
His attention returned to the battle. He saw Espio running through the clearing, flinging ninja stars at any enemy coming his way. Three drones tried surrounding him. He dropped a small ball on the ground and it released a big cloud of smoke, concealing him from sight. The drones started shooting haphazardly into the smoke until ninja stars struck them out of nowhere and they exploded instantly.
Espio turned visible again while broken pieces of metal fell all around him. A robot suddenly him came rushing behind and smacked him away. It began approaching him threateningly when massive hand grabbed it from behind by the head.
"I don't think so!" Victor growled, slamming it into the ground with all his might.
Shadow frowned, reaching down for his wound. He knew he shouldn't strain himself in this state, but he needed to help. He took out his emerald and cried out. "Chaos Control!"
With that, everything came to a halt. The firing ceased and the battlefield went completely still. Wasting no time, he rushed over to pick up a fallen gun and fired at every drone in his sight until it ran out of ammo. The bullets, of course, froze in time the moment they left the gun, but that changed nothing.
Feeling his power draining, he undid the Chaos Control with another cry and the shots tore through every drone the second time returned to normal.
Shadow gritted his teeth, touching his temples in exhaustion. He already spent so much of his power and they didn't even face Noise yet! This wasn't going according to plan. They needed help.
Reaching for his walkie-talkie, he tried calling for backup, but he got no reply. "Come on! Not again!" he shook the thing in frustration. Why won't it work now of all times?
"Don't bother. We already tried," Espio said beside him. "Something must be messing with the signal,"
Shadow growled under his breath and put it away.
"Guys! I-I don't know how I long I can hold it!" Silver suddenly called, voice strained. The giant mecha was now fighting harder against his invisible grip, an eerie red glow shining through its visor. It looked down at the Mobians below and started charging its canon. Silver gasped. "LOOK OUT!"
Everyone barely had a chance to move out of the way as a powerful beam cut clean through the clearing, leaving a molten trail on the ground. The force of the blast was enough to knock everyone off their feet.
Shadow coughed and looked around at the destroyed area. He could see some recovering, some unconscious and others trying to help their fallen companions.
Thinking it over for a moment, he turned to Victor and Espio. "You two, get everyone out of here. Silver and I will hold them back!"
Victor looked ready to protest, but Espio held his hand out to him. "He's right, boss. The enemy has the upper hand right now. If we stick around then we'll be putting their lives in danger, especially the ones who are under Noise's influence right now. We need to get them all to safety,"
Victor looked conflicted, but gave in with a growl. "Fine, let's go!" the crocodile picked up two unconscious Mobians and started carrying them away. Espio nodded at the hedgehog before running off to help out too.
While Silver was busy keeping the giant heap of metal at bay, Shadow readied his emerald as more robots emerged from between the trees.
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Sonic dashed through a long line of bots, the air current surrounding him sending them flying back. A rather larger one stood in his way, ready to swing his weapon.
Sonic slid between its legs just in time. In that moment of distraction, Knuckles came leaping through air and smashed its face with his fist.
Sonic glared up at Noise who was watching them from above gleefully. "Enough of these games! Where's Tails?" he demanded.
"Do you just like repeating yourself?" Noise asked, frowning. "I told you the little fox is somewhere playing with a big friend of mine,"
That did little to calm Sonic down.
Knuckles meanwhile was trying to land a hit on a robot, but he was growing frustrated as it continued making an effort to block his hits. "What's up with these guys? We used to take down punks like them all the time!"
"You like them? I had the good old doctor design them just for me so I can channel my power through them as I please. They're not just incompetent machines anymore," Noise said, floating down and placing a hand over a robot's head. Its blank red eyes flashed brighter in response.
"So that Egghead is behind all these!" Knuckles growled.
"Yeah, took you long enough to figure it out," Noise replied with a roll of his eyes and the echidna fumed.
"Give him back!" the hedgehog lunged at him. Noise swiftly moved out the way, but Sonic wasn't letting him get away. He bounced off a robot and launched himself back at him again.
The villain was caught off guard this time and barely managed to block the blow. He made a mock pout. "Hey, that wasn't fair!"
"Says you!" Sonic snapped, landing on the ground. "Now tell me where he is!"
Noise cackled. "Well, I might give you a hint if you show me how well you deal with this," He waved his hand and all the robots backed off from the two. He then gathered dark energy in his hand and let out a massive energy burst; knocking the two several feet back into the air.
Sonic cracked an eye open to see a phantom clone appearing beside Knuckles and before he could warn his friend, it kicked him directly in the face. "Knuckles!"
He looked over to see Noise charging with a glowing claw aimed at his injured friend. Quickly, Sonic ran in and kicked the villain's hand away. "Back off!" Using his momentum, he drove his other foot into Noise's chest.
"Alright, how about this!" Noise snapped his finger and the phantom clone appeared next to him, its empty gaze locked onto Sonic. Without hesitation, the duo charged at the hedgehog at once, their glowing claws tearing through the air.
Sonic did his best to survive as the attacks came at him from every direction. There was no opening for him to land his own, so he focused on evading theirs. Eventually, they were too much. The clone managed to get behind him and slashed at his back, making him cry out in pain and fall on his knees.
He raised his head to see Noise giving him a jagged grin, phantom cube in hand. "Enjoy,"
Sonic didn't have the time to get out of the way and collapsed on his back, his mind desperately trying to fight off the red hue consuming his vision, but it was a fight he was meant to lose. His mind went completely dark.
"Now that he's out of our way, it's the red one's turn-…wait, where did he go?"
The echidna was nowhere to be seen.
Noise smirked, thinking the idiot left his friend in his hands when the ground began shaking suddenly. Before they could react, Knuckles burst out from underneath them, his fist colliding hard with the clone's jaw.
Panting, Knuckles glared at Noise while the clone disappeared. "Thought could get rid of me that easily?" he glanced back to his teammate. "Sonic, you okay?"
The hedgehog didn't respond.
Sonic blinked as his surroundings stopped bending and warping around him. He was in a dark place, almost like a chamber of some sorts. Water filled the entire room, but it wasn't deep enough to reach his knees. He was slightly grateful for that.
"Knuckles?" he called out. He didn't remember how he got here, but he did however remember being with the echidna before this. His voice echoed through the room, but he got no reply. He squinted hard and spotted something far ahead, red lights. They were distant and faint, but something felt ominous about them.
As soon as he took a step forward though, giant barred gates slammed in front of him. It almost looked like….
He swallowed hard and tried finding another way to go, but it was locked off the same way as well.
Sonic backed off as more and more gates appeared around the room. He felt trapped, almost suffocated by them. He didn't know where to go.
Panicking, he turned away from the bars and his breathing then hitched. A masked figure bathed in red was standing in front of him.
"Run…now,"
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Knuckles whipped his lip as he stood protectively in front of Sonic, glaring at Noise's minions with scratches all over his body. He glanced back to his companion who was still struggling violently in his sleep. He considered carrying the hedgehog on his back and getting away from here, but he knew that wouldn't work, especially with Noise around.
Come on, Sonic. Wake up! A robot lunged at him. He jumped onto its shoulder and slammed his fist on top of its head. He then hopped off while the robot staggered with sparks shooting out the newly punctured hole in its head. More robots stepped in.
"You can keep breaking them, but I've got plenty more. We can do this all day!" Noise called lazily from his spot above.
Knuckles opened his mouth to snap at him only to stop when a robot nearby suddenly exploded. He looked over in surprise to see another blow up and then another. He only caught glimpse of a dark blur passing between them before an entire row was eliminated.
A figure suddenly landed in front them, swaying briefly. His fur was pitch black with dark particles coming out of it. A deep growl escaped his gritted teeth.
"What?" Noise muttered with a raised brow.
"Sonic?" Knuckles said, taking a step back.
Cold, pale eyes glared back at him.
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A/N: Dark Sonic has finally made an appearance. There has a lot leading up to this moment, with Sonic's time in Eggman's prison and being separated from Tails again.
Anyway, this chapter turned out much longer than I expected and the next one will probably be just as long. The end of this story is not far now. I would say there are three chapters left.