A/N: A new OC will be in this chapter. Remember if you want a character in this story (they will have a small part mind you), just send their profile:
Name
Age
Fur Colour
Eye Colour
Weapons/Powers
Backstory (Must tie in with the Arcreus Series)
Alignment (Good or Evil? + Views on Theo)
A harsh autumn wind whipped across the near-deserted street, picking up small pieces of litter and sending them spinning across the cobbles. The loose edges from the Rapture posters flapped in the breeze, slogans proclaiming that 'A New World is Here!' were faded from the sun that cast no warmth in that bitter evening. Shadow was trying to keep under-the-radar so to speak, he hadn't left the safehouse in days and he and Blaze had been changing their phones every week or so along with credit cards, each linked to a false or stolen account. The wind tossed his quills mercilessly as he walked head down, avoiding showing his face to anyone, from his right hand hung two plastic bags each filled with general groceries that he had been out to fetch. In his head, he was still trying to come to terms with what had happened over the past few weeks, an armistice know as Rapture had begun, funded by multiple businessmen and Heathen, and which now had support from the Freedom Fighters and most of GUN, which included his friends like Cynder, Rouge and Carmine; all of whom had turned tail and joined with this crusade. It was strange, not only had they made that rather rash decision but their personalities seemed to have changed as well, all had become secluded, not talking, not even when they were working together; then there was their eyes, cold, lifeless, blank; almost as if someone had torn the soul from them.
Bad had gone to worse. They had become aggressive towards him and any others that didn't act like them, which were few and far between; until a couple of days earlier, he had been attacked by them and the others like them, the fight had been hard, he had hurt friends, comrades people he liked; but in the end it was this weakness that held him back. They had destroyed his quarters and his possessions, burning them until they were nothing but ash, Blaze had fought valiantly by his side but in the end, they were too many, they fled during the chaos of the inferno. Eventually, after hours of lumbering through the streets, bloodied and beaten, they had found a safe house, a block of backstreet, decommissioned apartments, coated in graffiti and in a poor state of neglect; a place where they wouldn't be noticed or found. Over the past few days they had made their squalor their new home; purchasing the various goods with fake credit cards that he had made for himself years earlier when he had lived off-the-grid; they even found a ripped and frayed sofa upon the vast trash-heap that made up the area behind the apartments. With a glance at the occupants of the street, Shadow slipped away into a backstreet, his ebony fur concealing him in the darkness; he had to get back quickly, every second longer he spent out in the open, the more he put himself in danger. He and Blaze were now wanted fugitives, every police force in the country were looking for them, and Station Square, despite its bold metropolitan heart was succumbing to the new threat.
Shadow turned sharply left, wandering down a severely overgrown path, which led away from the austerity of the concrete jungle, litter bins overflowed either side of him, polluting the air with the unpleasant aroma of rotting vegetation and waste. Shadows nose wrinkled at the smell, causing him to walk more briskly in order to vacate the area as soon as possible, he stepped onto an old wooden bridge that crossed a lifeless, grey river, it surface sparkling in the evening sun. His feet slipped a little on the oncoming frost that was already beginning to coat every open surface, steadying himself on the railing, he continued his walk over the bridge. Occasionally, he'd here something and turn around sharply, his hand reaching for the inside pocket of his winter coat where a small revolver was hidden, but his paranoia would be quenched when he saw that it was only a stray cat or just a strong gust of wind. He left the bridge and onto a footpath, but instead of following the path right, he instead, continued walking forward and began to ascend the steep hill ahead of him, looping the shopping bag around his wrist and using both his feet and hands to ascend the hill, scrambling over the thick vegetation that offered no respite. His foot suddenly slipped on the wet mud, causing him to fall flat on his front before he slid downwards by a couple of metres, a sharp thorn rushed past him and cut his cheek, causing him to grunt in pain; he dug is knees into the mud to prevent himself from falling further, causing the skin atop them to become grazed.
"Right" Shadow thought "I'll take this slower".
He quickly checked the grocery bag with mud-encrusted hands, checking that he hadn't lost anything, when he was satisfied, he began to scramble upwards once more, taking the route a lot slower than he had mere seconds earlier. Finally, with a sigh of relief, he scrambled onto the apex of the hill, his feet sliding in the clay-like mud. Ahead of him lay their new humble abode. A small, dingy block of apartments that stood of a plinth of decaying concrete; its shell encrusted with year of graffiti and all windows boarded shut with think rotten boards. Around it was a wire mesh fence topped with rusting razor wire, whist a sign strapped to the mesh proclaimed a destruction date of three years earlier. However a corner of the metal mesh was loose near the bottom and it was just big enough of an average sized mobian to slip under, which is exactly what Shadow did. The grass became larger and thicker as he moved towards the dead building, the cracked concrete underfoot giving way to springy moss and grass. The door lay ahead, its face covered in the remains of peeling green paint and years upon years of natural neglect; Shadow placed his hand against it and gave it a slight push, the door budged by a millimetre but no more, due to the swollen wood of the door. Shadow sighed, before slamming his shoulder into the door, causing it to burst forth, revealing the cold, concrete staircase that rose up to separate landings, lit by flickering service lamps screwed into the wall at intervals.
"Honey, I'm home!" Shadow shouted upwards, as if he was going to be greeted by the warm sight of a loving wife and children, but instead he was greeted by the dull echo of his own voice. Shadow grinned slightly; he'd always wanted to say that rather clichéd line but he'd barely had a chance to. He began to ascend the flights of steps, two at a time; his eyes scanning the desolated and deserted apartments; each of which had long since been abandoned. As he got higher and higher, the sound of crackling fire became more prominent in the air, he slowed, each footstep echoing of the walls and high ceiling. He reached the next landing and opened the door straight ahead of him.
Instantly the coldness of the weather outside was overwhelmed by the warmth of the fire in the room, which was contained inside a large steel drum in the centre of the room, surrounded by wooden desks, ripped and discoloured chairs and a large sofa, on which Blaze lay, snoring softly. Around half a dozen laptops were placed on various desks and stools around the room, each displaying something different, weather forecasts on one, GUN mainframe stats on another and even Raptures website on one. One of the sofa chairs was an old flickering black-and-white television displaying a news report on the celebrations for King Elias birthday in New Mobotropolis. Images of children, their faces brightly painted smiling at the camera, waving the acorn flag delightedly in the air as if their lives depended on it. The screen cut back to the reporter and suddenly the presenters face became cold and unforgiving.
"And finally, Violence in and around the area of New Mobotroplis has escalated over the past 24 hours with over 12 separate cases of looting and 3 separate cases of riots. Mark Klilcov, co-founder of the Rapture movement had this to say…". Shadow placed the groceries silently down on a nearby desk and sat down on a free chair, his eyes locked on the screen from over the rim of the barrel. The screen cut to Mark, dressed in an exquisite red and black suit, standing in front of a stand on which, hundreds of microphones each emblazoned with a different new network logo. Cameras flashed and whirred in the background as Mark lent forward and began to talk into the microphone, in the background stood Sonic dressed in a sombre black suit, his arms folded, head down as if he didn't want to be there,
"This mindless violence demonstrates something which me and my co-founder Sonic the Hedgehog have been insinuating for weeks now" He slammed his fist against the podium, "The time for Rapture is now! Bring in the armistice and we can end this insanity. Don't send in Riot Control, using violence makes violence after all" Marks face became sincere and he turned and beckoned Sonic to the podium, Sonic shook his head weakly. Mark turned back to face to podium and the camera,
"That is a thing that we all learned the hard way when Theo Arcreus's reckless and insane actions lead to the death of Miles Prower" His face suddenly became flushed with anger, "And that it is what Rapture will prevent, another meaningful loss at the hands of weaponry!".
"Oh shut up" Shadow muttered, he whipped round and snatched a pistol from the desk behind him and without thinking fired one shot through the screen, causing it to explode in a shower of sparks; silencing the slanderous lies. Blaze sat up at the noise, alert, fire roaring over her fists; her sudden anger was quenched when she saw Shadow, gun still raised at the now dead television, she sighed and flopped back onto her back, her amber eyes gazing at the peeling ceiling,
"Great, now we have nothing to watch"
Shadow walked by each desk, one-by-one, checking there displays,
"Relax, I'll go out tomorrow and get us another one"
Blaze sat up suddenly and turned to Shadow,
"No you can't, you do realise that every single time we leave here, we're in more and more danger?!" Shadow grunted and pulled a large bottle of scotch whiskey out of the shopping bag, setting it down on the desk with a loud bang. Blaze frowned when she saw it,
"I hope that's not the only thing you got?"
"Nope" Shadow said, like a magician pulling rabbits from a hat, he pulled out two big bundles wrapped in grease-proof paper and tossed one to Blaze, who tried to catch it but missed, causing it to tumble into her lap. She gingerly unwrapped it as Shadow walked over with his bundle under one arm and the whiskey bottle in the other, and sat down on a free chair near Blaze. She finished unwrapping the package and smirked when she saw its contents,
"Chips, I never thought I'd be eating these on the run".
Shadow opened his bundle of chips and was greeted by the warm delicious smell of them; for a while they did not speak, they simply ate in silence, the occasional spit or splutter from the fire interrupting them. Then Shadow broke the austere silence.
"Has anything happened since I've been out?"
Blaze nodded, unable to respond due to her full mouth, she lifted the portion of chips of her and placed them on the seat next to her; she reached over and pulled a laptop off the floor, which was displaying Raptures website; she moved it over so Shadow could see as well.
"Something really strange happened about twenty minutes ago." Shadow leaned over and looked at the website,
"Seems pretty normal to me"
"Well look at this" Blaze clicked on a tab on the website labelled 'RALLIES' and waited for the page to load. After a couple of seconds the pages loaded and they were greeted by the message 'NO PLANNED RAPTURE RALLIES AT THIS TIME'.
"So you point is" Shadow said, rotating his hand as if waiting for an answer,
"My point is that a few hours ago, Rapture had six planned rallies scheduled for the next eight months, now there's nothing". Shadow frowned,
"And the news isn't reporting anything on this. Not even a small bulletin?"
"Well, I wouldn't know, since you shot our TV. Why did you do that anyway?" Shadow sighed and took a large swig from the whiskey bottle, causing some of the amber liquid to dribble down his chin.
"I saw a Rapture conference on the news. Y'know more of Marks 'We need to save the world' bullshit"
"And you shot our TV?"
"Yeah" Shadow said, putting a few more chips in his mouth "What of it?". Blaze gave him a stern look that he would have expected to belong on the face of a teacher or a parent, Shadow performed its anonym and grinned like a child. Blaze rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the laptop,
"Anyway, if all their rallies are gone then that means-
"They've got what they wanted" Shadow finished,
"Yep" Blaze said "The question is, what do they have? But-"
"But what?"
"Rapture have also moved" Blaze said, opening up a world map which had a number of red circles on it "To apparently 'quell the violence in a non-forceful way' they've placed representatives in every major city across the continent, Empire, Pyana, Liberty. And you know what?" She opened up another tab and leant back, proud with herself,
"Those weird symbols have been appearing in the same cities Rapture have deployed themselves in".
Shadow frowned and plucked the laptop from her, the new tab showed pictures, of the new symbols all massive and all in clearly visible places, in Empire, the symbol was engraved in the chest of a great statue of a green woman, proudly holding aloft a torch, built by the humans before the age of Mobius. Shadow studied each one closely before holding his chin in thought,
"You think they're connected?"
Blaze nodded,
"Well what other explanation can there be? I mean, first Rapture moves then the symbols appear, it can't be just coincidence".
"But we don't have any proof" Shadow concluded, his ruby eyes still fixed on the screen "Buts there's one thing that still bugs me"
"What?" Blaze asked, placing another chip in her mouth
"If what Theo said was true, that this is a code possibly of demon origin, then why put it in plain sight? Surly you'd want to put it in a place where it would go unnoticed, so why draw attention to it?".
"Well maybe-"
But Shadow cut her off, by placing a hand over her mouth, his body now alert, his ears twitching at the slightest noise. Over the crackling of the fire and the whirs of the computers, footsteps could be heard ascending the steps outside. Instantly, Shadow was on his feet, pistol in hand waiting to hear any other noise; he turned and nodded towards Blaze, who acknowledged this by getting to her feet and waiting on one side of the door while Shadow took the other.
The door slowly open and a figure shrouded in shadow walked in, they could only make out a few details, the black combat clothing, the white dreadlocks, the golden eyes and, most prominently, a long katana, glowing a bright blue and emitting a strange air of coldness. The figure turned and looked round the room, his elaborate sword raised, he then moved forward towards the sofas slowly, his eyes surveying the scene like an eagle's. Shadow didn't know for sure what it was that made him stop and turn, maybe it was the fact that the chips were still steaming on the sofa, or that he heard one of them breathing, but before Shadow knew it, the mysterious figure turned and saw him. Shadow fired the pistol but miraculously, the assailant seemed to do the impossible, he swung the katana downwards, as if deflecting the bullet but instead, the bullet froze in mid-air before falling to the floor where it shattered like glass. Shadow fired three more shots, all aiming for the figures head but the mysterious intruder merely spun his sword at an almost inhuman speed, freezing the bullets before they even came near him. In frustration, Shadow threw down the pistol and launched himself at him, fists raised; the assailant laughed and caught Shadows punch in his free hand. In this second long struggle, Shadow felt a sudden wave of cold run through his arm as if his blood was freezing in his veins. The assailant looked at him and smiled,
"Oops"
He gripped Shadows wrist and threw him across the room, causing him to slam into the boards that covered the windows, he dropped to the floor with a thud, his back throbbing in pain. The figure advanced but then there was a loud sizzling noise and the figure screamed in pain and fell to the ground, his back smouldering, Shadow noticed that the unseen body of a 50. Calibre sniper had completely melted into two. Behind the body stood Blaze, her hand coated and flame, Shadow put two and two together and worked out that Blaze must have burnt his back. Shadow grunted and got to his feet, walking over to the wheezing body of the intruder, he turned him over with his shoe, causing the figure to groan in pain as he put pressure on the burn; the white echidna scrabbled for the katana, but Shadow stood on his wrist, preventing him from doing so. The echidna glowered at Shadow,
"Who are you?" Shadow asked, his fists charged with chaos energy, the echidna grimaced, his golden eyes searching Shadows,
"Lieutenant Phallix Blackstar, of Station Square's GUN division. And I know who you are" he turned his head and looked at Blaze "Both of you".
"Go on, who are we?" Blaze asked "Murderers? Traitors?"
"No" Phallix uttered, he grimaced in pain once again "Listen, can I just get some ice on this? Please, it's hurting me like hell".
"Hell N-
But Shadow was interrupted by Blaze,
"Sure, hang on" she walked over to the refrigerator and opened it up,
"Wait, wait, wait, you burnt him now your offering him aid?"
"But he's in pain"
"Not for long" Shadow pointed the gun at Phallix, cocking the gun, preparing to fire. Blaze snatched the gun off him, removed the magazine then threw the empty carcase on the floor,
"Stop playing around" she snapped, Shadow growled then moved his foot of Phallixs chest, pulling the echidna to his feet as he did so.
"Thanks" Phallix said, bitterly. Blaze returned with a bottle of antiseptic and a large ice pack, Shadows expression smouldered as Phallix removed the remains of the sniper rifle from his back along with the tattered wreak of the black GUN jacket. He leant over the head of the sofa, bracing himself against the pain that was inevitably going to follow. Blaze dripped some of the antiseptic onto an old rag and placed it on the echidna's red and blistered back, Phallix groaned loudly in pain, which turned into harsh and ragged breathing through his teeth.
"Sorry about the burn" Blaze muttered, sheepishly,
"It was my fault" Phallix admitted "I shouldn't have burst in like that"
"Why are you here anyway?" Shadow asked "You doesn't seem like you're one of the others?"
"You mean a psycho?" Phallix said "No. In fact, that's the reason I'm here, I was attacked by my fellow agents, I think I fought a few off, but most of my kit was trashed. I'm homeless. I'd heard that the subjects of the 'eviction' had fled into the city, so I went to find you"
"So that's what they called it" Blaze chuckled "I would have named it 'Attempted Murder'"
"Yeah it seems that way" Phallix said "Any idea what's got into them?"
"Well we think" Shadow glanced at Blaze who nodded in approval "It might have something to do with Rapture".
"Rapture? Seriously?!" Phallix winced as Blaze removed the rag and strapped the icepack to his back,
"There. That should hold"
Phallix murmured his thanks then turned back to Shadow,
"So why do you think that anyway?"
Shadow grabbed the laptop Blaze had been using off the sofa and placed it on the head of the sofa so Phallix could see,
"Over the past couple of hours, Rapture announced that they were moving representatives to new cities across Northamer"(A/N: Northamer is North America on Mobius in the Archie comics) he pointed at a few places on the map "Empire, Liberty City, those sorts of places. Then by 'sheer coincidence', the seals that appeared in the Kingdom of Acorn have appeared in those cities as well. Some even appeared here too, which ain't good". Phallix grunted slightly as he bent over and picked up the glowing katana that still lay on the floor.
"But didn't Theo Arcreus say that it was a code or something?" Phallix asked,
"You know about that?" Shadow asked, Phallix chuckled as he placed the katana in the scabbard on his belt,
"Everyone in GUN knows about Theo, the soldier that turned into a maniac. Quite ironic really, he became the thing that GUN fought since the beginning. It's also a shame really; he could have really helped us out with this".
"But he gone" Shadow stated bitterly "We don't know where he is, but it's most likely that he's dead".
"Then we'll have to try and get the truth out then, show everyone what's happening" Phallix said, he looked at the two for support but his opinion was outvoted in mere looks,
"Look, Phallix-
"Please don't call me that" the echidna said, brushing some of his white and black dreadlocks out of his eyes.
"But it's your name. What do you want to be called 'Your Majesty'?" Shadow retaliated,
"No, just Skull thanks"
Shadow let out an exasperated sigh,
"Fine Skull, what I was going to say was that there is no way we could go up against Rapture, their the third most popular political party in Northamer and they are even starting to get connections in Downunda and Eurish (Australia and Europe respectively), so why don't you just go out there to the 73 million people in this city and say 'Y'know Rapture, the peace-loving, pacifistic, flag-wavers, yeah, well they are bent on global domination. And don't know how'".
"So what do we do?" Blaze asked, Shadow sighed,
"We lie low, keep an eye on Raptures activities, and think of something" he looked at both of them "I know it's not the greatest plan, but it's the only one we've got". Skull sighed and jumped onto the sofa and snatched up some of the still-warm chips from next to him,
"Great. Let's get started"
A/N: Apologies on the delayed updates, that's mainly because the novella that I'm writing has real started to flesh itself out, I've also had to change the story about a Nonillion times, but I've now got a time and setting that I think will work.