CHAPTER 10

"Go!" Blaze hissed.

Knuckles ran as far back into the forest as he dared and slammed both fists into a small tree, bringing it down with a surprisingly loud CRASH! Blaze ducked further into the cover of a bush as the soldiers standing on the pier ran past her to find the source of the noise. She then ran at one of the search towers, climbing up the ladder at speeds that would put cheetahs to shame.

The guards didn't know what hit them and soon found themselves in the water thirty feet down.

Knuckles ran from the forest to the next closest watch tower, downing the guards inside it as easily has the ones in the woods. That left the final tower, whose occupants seemed to realize what was going on. Bullets bounced off the watchtowers, shattering the small panes of glass. The tower that Knuckles was in was threatening to collapse, forcing him to leave it and run to Blaze's.

"This wasn't suppost to happen…" Knuckles muttered as the firing finally ceased.

"Well, we just have to work with it." Blaze conjured a small flame in her hand, standing up briefly and throwing it at the other tower. It was damp from the ocean spray, so the fire just fizzled out on contact. The shooting began again.

"They'll run out of bullets." Knuckles said, mostly to himself.

"Yeah, and what happens when they call for backup?" Blaze hissed.

"Hopefully they'll have run out of bullets by then." Knuckles muttered.

XxXxXxXx

Shadow lunged for the demon, stopping suddenly when his opponent turned the blade on him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Mephiles warned, still keeping a tight grip on Ginny.

Rouge jumped forward, knocking the knife out of his hand expertly and countering with a chokehold. Mephiles released Ginny, who fell to the ground and coughed. Silver helped her stand.

"Do you really think this is all it will take to defeat me?" Mephiles laughed, staring into Rouge's eyes. "Do you really think someone as powerful as me can be defeated this easily?"

With surprising speed, he had clamped his hands around Rouge's throat and was lifting her into the air. She lost her grip on him and began clawing at his hands, unable to get the demon to release her.

"Rouge!" Silver shouted, running towards her.

Something caught him around the ankle, pulling him to the ground. "No!" Bandit hissed. "She will die!"

Shadow had finally lunged at Mephiles, tackling him backwards. The two began to fight viciously, punches that could break normal bones fired back and fourth. Rouge stood, still unsteady, to see a squadron of GUN soldiers come running from the woods into the broken windows.

"FREEZE!"

Ginny spun around, fist at the ready. The nearest soldier simply deflected her attack, knocking her to the ground with his rifle. He handcuffed her and forced her to her feet.

"Come with me."

Guns were leveled at Silver's head and he too was forced to cooperate. Rouge stood her ground and fought back, earning her a hard blow across her forehead. She fell unconscious, but the guards cuffed her anyway.

"Let me go!" Ginny spat. "You filth! How can you live with yourselves? How much did they offer you to destroy the 'weak' soldiers and take their places?"

They had no answer, simply standing at attention and waiting for orders.

Bandit stood, brushing invisible dust from her suit. "Take them away. But you three …stay. I think you're to be needed when the Ultimate Life Form is brought down."

Silver, Rouge and Ginny were dragged off, despite the stream of profanity and threats that left Ginny's mouth. Bandit turned to Mephiles and Shadow, both of them still viciously tearing at each other.

"End it, Mephiles. We need to get out of here." Bandit commanded.

Mephiles nodded slightly, dodging Shadow's punch and grabbing his arm, twisting it sharply behind his back until he dropped to his knees. He landed a hard blow to the middle of the hedgehog's back and something snapped internally. Shadow still fought, his other arm, whipping around and catching Mephiles on the side of the head. That bought him a second of recovery and the element of surprise. Shadow wrenched away from the demon, panting and gripping at his dislocated arm. His back was to Bandit, and the guinea pig quickly slammed both fists over his head, knocking him to the ground…unconscious.

"I could have handled him." Mephiles growled, kicking Shadow onto his back.

"That needed to be ended. Come on, bring him." Bandit made her way to the door.

XxXxXxXx

"Looks like they're not running out of bullets, Knuckles!" Blaze hissed as another ear-shattering hail of bullets threatened to tear apart the watchtower.

"There's nothing we can do!" Knuckles shouted back.

"Well, if we don't do something soon…" Blaze trailed off as the shots ceased and a loud cry that sounded like it originated from the forest took its place. She turned to Knuckles in horror, muttering, "They've got Tails. And Sonic too, no doubt."

No sooner had she said that then a loud voice echoed around the watchtower, "You in there! Surrender at once and your friends will be spared! This is your only warning!"

"We'll decide what to do later. We've been in tougher situations." Knuckles said out loud, mostly to himself. "But something tells me these guys are serious. Come on, Blaze."

"Knuckles! They might not know that there's more than one person in the tower! You stay here…I'll go with them. That way, you'll be under the radar and able to steal the boat." Blaze said.

"But-"

"If it doesn't work, they'll find you anyway. We've got to try this."

Knuckles nodded and hid himself among some of the debris, watching as Blaze left the tower to join the guards. They asked her something, probably involving any other rescuers, and then lead her, Sonic and Tails away roughly.

Knuckles turned his attention to the boat and began to devise a plan when his gaze settled on a GUN guard's helmet on the floor.

XxXxXxXx

The light was blinding even through his eyelids. Shadow forced himself to squint into the light, trying to find where it began and ended. He was lying on something hard…a table. Thick restraints were wrapped around his limbs, preventing him from moving. His arm was dislocated…no doubt about that.

A horrifying image flashed back into his mind from the other prison…the 'doctors' in their light blue-green scrubs and masks covering their faces. The only thing he had ever seen of their faces were their eyes; cold and merciless as their knifes sunk into his flesh, ripping and tearing and causing unimaginable agony…

Shadow drew in a deep breath and forced himself to block out the memories. He could feel the deepest scars on his back, the ones that spelled out 'DISGRACE', as though they were being cut open again.

"I'm imagining you're remembering the Torture Chamber?"

Shadow quickly turned his head in the direction of the voice, squinting as hard as he could to try to find the speaker. The lights dimmed slightly and he made out the form of his double, green lizard-like eyes laughing.

"Oh, don't worry. You won't relive that again," Mephiles began to slowly walk around the table. "That was barbaric. You could have died a thousand times when you were still needed alive. No, rest assured this place isn't like the last."

He leaned towards Shadow's right ear, whispering in a deadly voice, "This place is even better."

His voice sent chills darting down Shadow's spine. He pulled at his restraints, his dislocated arm sending bolts of pain through his body…but that was a small price to pay for possibly finding any weak spots on the table. "Let me go!"

"I have no intention to." Mephiles laughed. He held something up above his prisoner.

Shadow squinted at the object only to realize it was a syringe with a rather blunt needle, filled with some sickly green liquid. Before he could do anything, the needle's point was imbedded in the center of the white patch of fur on his chest, a feeling of being frozen spread throughout his body from the liquid as the plunger depressed. It was as though his blood were replaced with ice water…

Shadow gave a choked gasp as his muscles tensed up, restricting his breathing and making him spasm at random times. Every beat of his heart was accompanied by a crushing pain that spread along his nerves, seeming to freeze as well as burn his insides. He clenched his eyes shut and stifled a ragged scream that would have surely left him if he were not drawing blood from his tongue with his teeth.

Just as quickly as it had came…the pain left. Shadow was left gasping for breath and shaking uncontrollably, the metallic taste of blood in his mouth almost overwhelming. He coughed a few times off to the side, the pain and fear so close that he nearly surrendered. The only thing that kept him from doing that were the others. They would still need him. They needed to get off the island. If Shadow could keep Mephiles busy...they might just have that chance.

He became vaguely aware of a scientist nearby, studying the effects of the poison. He wrote something down before turning to a group of people near the back. Shadow couldn't hear what they were saying…he couldn't hear anything at all. He could only see the cold hatred in their eyes that burned nearly as bad as the poison. He swallowed the gathering blood in his mouth and struggled to make sense of what they were saying.

"Give him another dose," The first scientist said, filling the syringe with the poison and handing it back to Mephiles.

He laughed as he approached Shadow, letting the syringe catch the blinding light. "Let this be equivalent to the pain you caused the millions on board the ARK." His deadly green eyes that were almost the exact shade of the poison flashed as he dug the dull needle into Shadow's neck.

XxXxXxXx

"There should be one more of you!" Bandit growled at the group in front of her.

"Who?" Tails asked innocently. He, Sonic, Ginny, Blaze, Silver and Rouge were all sitting in simple wooden chairs, hands cuffed behind their backs and GUN soldiers standing behind them.

"One more…where is he?" Bandit hissed.

"I don't know who you're talking about. Unless you mean Shadow…" Silver trailed off as a loud cry tore through the room, seeming dangerously close to them.

"If you continue to play this foolish game there won't be a Shadow." Bandit growled. "Believe me when I say that the soldiers and scientists back there know how to deal pain."

"There isn't another!" Blaze protested. "It's just us! Can't you just listen for once? Let Shadow go!"

"That's not up to me."

No one spoke for a long while. Bandit nodded at the soldiers in the back, and they left without a second's hesitation. "Now…I need you to listen to me. Mephiles…the guy who looks like Shadow…will go to any means to break the Ultimate Life Form. And I guarantee by the time he's done with him…he'll be a whole different being. If you want to stop this before it happens, I recommend telling me where the other is!"

A feral scream of complete agony ripped through the silence, making Tails jump and tears form in the corners of his eyes. "S…Shadow…?!"

"There is no 'other', Bandit!" Ginny shouted. "You have to believe us! There never was, and never will be! It's only us! Call off Mephiles! What do you want?"

Bandit didn't say anything. She just held eye contact with the other guinea pig. "You wouldn't believe me." she said almost inaudibly.

"What do you mean?" Ginny screeched.

"The GUN soldiers aren't planning on letting you go anytime soon. They want to keep you here on the island to experiment on you…to torture you until you no longer know yourselves. I want…" She trailed off. "I want to help you. I know I'm some of the reason that GUN is like this today…but they've gone too far. Killing off the people they saw as weak? No…that was barbaric. And when they brought Mephiles into this…that crossed the line."

She drew a ring of keys from her pocket and freed the group. "I can help get you off the island. But after that…you're on your own."

"Shadow too?" Silver demanded.

Bandit drew in a deep breath. "No. He's your escape ticket. You'll have to leave him behind."

XxXxXxXx

Good Chaos, you guys. I'm not having a very good summer.

According to unconfirmed sources—like my dad— some idiot hit my neighbor's cat, Paul. Well…he wasn't really their cat, in my eyes. The poor thing was so underfed and neglected. He usually came in our yard and I'd hang out with him for a while...

Why are all my animal friends dying?! They're actually some of the only friends I'll ever have…

Well…keep up with the story, guys.

Hasta la Vista, Readers.

Lordoftheghostking28