Chapter 21 is done and dusted.
Mostly character development, as each one is facing a hugh change in their lives.
I've still got a ways to go, but personally I'm not sure if this Fic will reach chapter 30.
More on that at a later date, but right now just read, enjoy and if you feel like it review.
Amy sat down in the lime green waiting room, wringing her hands together in worry and continually looking up at the door through which Sonic, her Sonic was lying, and she was unable to do anything to help. She had been sitting there for hours now, with no knowledge as to what was happening and how it was going.
Tails was pacing up and down fitfully, his hands dug deep into the pockets of his oil stained blue overalls. The young mechanic had been working on his newest design of the Tornado when the hospital had contacted him with the terrible news of Sonic's rush to surgery. He looked over at the sakura hedgehog who had been sitting in silence since he had arrived.
Neither of them had been told how Sonic had been injured so badly as to warrant surgery, and the Doctors and Nurses had almost out rightly forbidden them to see the cobalt hedgehog. Tails was surprised that Amy hadn't pulled out her Piko-hammer yet. The young fox sighed and took a seat opposite her.
"I'm sure he'll be fine." He said after several minutes of silence. Amy glanced up for a moment before returning to staring at her hands. Tails looked down. "He'll be fine. He is Sonic after all…"
He drifted back into a depressing silence as he calculated all the possible outcomes of the surgery. They stayed this way, eyes flitting to the unmoving double doors, waiting, hoping, preying. After several long, minutes slowly dragged themselves by there was motion from beyond the tinted plastic glass of the double doors. Tails leapt to his feet immediately, startling Amy into looking up herself.
A tired looking surgeon stepped through, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. They looked at him, anxiety coursing through their minds. Eventually the surgeon smiled. An intense sense of relief flooded the room and Amy brought her hands to her mouth, tears of happiness glistening in her eyes.
"He is still heavily sedated, and he will remain here for a few weeks before we are confident that he is fully healed. But other than that, he is in the clear for now."
"So… can we see him?" Asked Amy shakily. The Doctor frowned.
"You may. But you won't get much out of him and I warn you, the sight may shock you." He led them through the doors and down a clinical white corridor and stopped before the door to a private ward.
As they entered the darkened room Tails heard Amy's horrified gasp. Lying motionless on a light blue bed covered by a white quilt was Sonic the Hedgehog. He had been hooked up to a ventilator, heart monitor and had two bags of fluid slowly siphoning down clear plastic tubes into his system, one a clear bag of saline and the other filled with crimson blood. He was deathly pale and the heart monitor beep away slowly and quietly.
The curtains were drawn closed and the only light came from the hallway beyond the open door. Amy and Tails were lucky that Sonic had been covered by the quilt, because the cobalt hedgehog's chest had been stitched and bandaged heavily with various dressings to promote faster healing. Tails looked at the tired Doctor, his mouth suddenly dry.
"H-how long is he going to…"
"He will recover in time, but it is imperative that he gets as much rest as possible. He was very badly hurt and any strenuous task could very well reopen his wound." Tails turned back to his idol with a distinct feeling of regret and sorrow.
"Can we stay with him tonight?" Amy inquired her trembling voice almost lost to the hustle a bustle of the hospital. The Doctor frowned and was initially going to refuse, but the look on her face was enough to persuade him.
"It is irregular, but I will allow it this time. Just be careful not to harm him any further!" With that final warning, the doctor left them alone. Amy walked slowly to Sonic's bedside and sat down in the chair next to him, never taking her eyes from his face.
"I need to get back to the workshop." Tails said after several long and unbearable minutes. "Are you going to be alright here?"
She looked up at him, and nodded once before going back to staring at Sonic. Tails slowly backed towards the door, taking one last look back at the two hedgehogs before he left.
The two Agents stepped out into the large concrete car park. Shadow had just finished telling Cassie all about his encounter with the Commander, and the changes that now lay in store for him.
"So basically you're no longer the top Agent, you've been put in charge of the homicide department, and you've still got to solve this murder case." Cassie recounted. Shadow nodded in agreement.
"Pretty much yes." Despite having just lost his high standing within the Guardian Unit of Nations, Shadow found himself in a very happy mood. "And thanks to what you and Knuckles found out, we've got a good head start on solving it."
"There's no we in that Shadz." Said Cassie. The ebony hedgehog looked sidelong at her, a questioning look in his eyes. "When Sally took over the case after you vanished on your mission, she sent Knuckles back to Angel Island and I, sorta withdrew myself from the investigation."
Shadow looked at her, the corner of his mouth quirking upwards in a half-smile. "Well I can't be in charge of team of Agents when I'm the only one."
Cassie smiled back at him. "Thanks Shadow, but it's going to take more than just the two of us to solve this case."
"Agreed. That's why we should get Knuckles back as soon as possible." He unlocked his Landrover. "That said we should also head to the hospital and check in on Sheba and the others."
He opened the passenger door and held it for Cassie. "Aren't you a gentleman. But should you be driving with your arm like that?"
Shadow grinned and closed the door after her and shrugged his left arm out of its sling. "One of the perks being me is quicker healing."
Cassie shook her head with a grin. "Anyway, Knuckles is back on Angel Island. Everything seems to be changing."
"What do you mean?" Shadow asked as he got into the drivers seat and strapped on his safety belt.
"It's… a little different than it used to be." She followed his example and put on her seatbelt. "That's the best description I can give at the moment. I feel like I could sleep for days."
Shadow looked across at her as he slowly drove towards the exit. She leaned back in her chair and stifled a yawn. He glanced down at the clock on his dashboard.
"Maybe we should forego going to Station Square till the morning." Cassie opened one eye and looked sidelong at the ebony hedgehog.
"If you drop me off at the Train Station car park, I'll pick up my car and head home."
"I could always drive you home and pick you up in the morning?" Cassie opened her other eye and focussed on Shadow's face. He kept all emotion from his features as he concentrated on driving through the night.
"Yeah I guess you could." Cassie answered, slightly sceptically. In Shadow's head he was fighting a losing battle of wills against uttering the next sentence.
"Or you… could spend the night at my place?" He muttered quickly, trying hard to keep his cheeks from flushing red to little success. Cassie's ears perked up and her eyes widened. "Unless I… read too much into what happened earlier and… um… I'm just going to shut up now."
Shadow rubbed his face with his left hand before returning it to the steering wheel. He couldn't believe he had just said that, and to someone he hadn't known for very long at all. He didn't notice the look on Cassie's face as he drove them around another corner.
In turn, Cassie couldn't believe what Shadow had just asked her. She thought she had overstepped the mark when she had kissed him outside the Commanders office. True it was only on the cheek, but nether-the-less she had read in his file that Shadow often out rightly refused any approach of friendship, let alone any emotional attachment. She struggled to find her voice and it wasn't long till Shadow spoke again.
"Sorry I uhh… just forget what I said. Um… where abouts do you live?" Cassie mentally slapped herself for becoming speechless.
"No it's um… its fine." She smiled sheepishly, a smile Shadow caught out of the corner of his eye. "I just hope you're a good cook. I'm starving!"
Shadow chuckled lightly, a quirky smile showing on his face as he drove towards his home. A great weight felt like it had lifted from his shoulders, he had been given another chance to live his life, and he was willing to do whatever it took to live to the fullest.
Shade led him into a small chamber filled with great winding gears and technological majesty. The far wall was covered in words and scribbles, the white chalk standing out against the black wall. She dropped to her knee, her head bowed.
"Imperator. I have brought you the intruder as ordered." It was then Knuckles noticed a shadowy figure in the corner of the room.
Stepping into the glowing blue light was a tall albino echidna with three long, thick quills set standing upright, giving him a taller, more sinister look. He wore a long flowing deep purple robe edged with gold and decorated with light blue symbols. A thick golden gorget hung from his neck, the dark metal extensions blocking most of his face from view.
Similar bracelets were around his wrists and ankles, and despite the obvious weight of this ensemble, he was extremely light footed, his footsteps hardly even making a sound. He circled around the Guardian, much like Lien-Da had done so.
"I know every single echidna on this island by sight alone, so the only logical outcome would be that you are not from this island, but a true Mobian echidna." He stopped in front of Knuckles, his glowing blue eyes boring deep into Knuckles eyes as if he was looking for something.
"There is power within you. Something I haven't felt since…" He turned swiftly back to the wall, producing a piece of white chalk from the recesses of his robes. He began scribbling things down in a language which the Guardian couldn't understand.
"High Praetorian." Shade looked up from her knelt position. "I believe this is the perfect opportunity to find out what has changed to our world during our absence. Take the intruder to the dungeons and gather together your best Scouts. You leave immediately."
Shade and Knuckles were both shocked at the Imperator's words, but for completely different reasons. Shade because she would be the first of her clan to set foot into the returned world, and Knuckles because he realised how much trouble he was now in. "Y-yes my Lord Ix."
"You may leave me." The two echidnas left quickly, the crimson guardian wearing an expression of confusion and forethought. When the door finally closed behind them, Imperator Pir-Oth Ix activated a video com-link to his fellow technomage. "We are truly home my friend."
The figure on the screen remained in the darkness, obscuring his face. "How can you certain Imperator?"
Imperator Pir-Oth Ix smiled behind his gorget. "Because I have just felt the power coursing through someone, the power we have lacked for so many years!"
"Chaos…" Even though Pir-Oth Ix couldn't see, he knew that the echidna on the other end of the com-link was smiling. Soon the Nocturnus clan would retake its rightful place as the dominant society on Mobius, and the world would realise why they were banished, and tremble once again to the march of the Nocturn Legions.
Sometimes I just have to hit myself for the amount of plot twists and turns I write down...
Knuckles in trouble, Sonic hospitalised and Shadow facing his new life head on.
Shade about to lead Nocturn warriors onto Mobius soil for the first time in thousands of years, and Ix and his mysterious partner planning something to do with the powers of Chaos.
What could possibly go wrong?
Anyway a quick shoutout to anyone with an Echidna OC: I'm after extra's to be Nocturn warriors, just PM or give me a shout.
Corrupt TE is gone.