CHAPTER 21

DELAY

Tonya held her arms because of the freezing cold weather. "Geez! One minute it's freakin' hot and the next it's freakin' cold! I wish mother nature would make up her damn mind!"

"Well who says we have to sit here and play around in the snow?" Rouge's eyes were fixed on the huge base in front of them. "Shadow's in there and I won't lose him because of Darkness." She then began to run forth to the entrance of the base.

Vector began to run after her, hoping to stop her from rushing into the base. "Rouge, wait! I don't think it'll be that easy to get in there!" Before he could stop her, he saw her kick down the steel door to the base. He and the rest of the Chaotix stood there not knowing what to say. 'Man, is she serious or what?'

"...Damn, bat girl", Espio said mindlessly.

The bat turned to the group, "Are you just going to stand there or are you going to help me find Shadow?" She then ran into the base.

With a nervous impression on their faces, the group started to follow Rouge into the base.

When the group ran into a huge dinning room, they slowed down for a bit to see if Shadow was in there.

Rouge looked around, hoping to find her lover. "Where is he?" She was then startled when a hand fell on her shoulder. She turned and saw Vector giving her a concerned look.

"Rouge, you must remain calm. You don't have to do everything alone."

"But Vector..."

He didn't give her a chance to speak, "We all want to find Shadow and bring him back to us. He's apart of our family. We must do this together. No one's ever alone."

Rouge then forgot all about how the rest of the team felt and thought that maybe she was too obsessed with finding Shadow and she couldn't do it all by herself.

Then they were all interrupted when they heard a sly and deep voice near them.

"Well, well if it isn't the Chaotix?"

The group looked and saw a black snake slithering on the floor.

Espio rose an eyebrow, "Is that a snake?"

"And did it just...talk?" Charmy added.

The snake hissed and looked up at the group with his glowing red eyes. "I've been expecting you."

Ker looked over to Rouge with a worried look. "Rouge", he said softly. "That snake's a demon and judging by his demonic presence, a very powerful one too."

Rouge wasn't worried about what the snake could do to them and wanted to get straight to the questions. "Look, we know you're one of Dark's servants and we know you've seen Shadow. So where is he?"

The serpent hissed, "If you want to know so badly, you'll have to defeat me."

Espio shrugged, "Sounds good to me. So...who's got the biggest foot?"

The snake couldn't help but to laugh, "You detectives think defeating me will be easy? Well..."

Everyone then watched as the serpent began to change his form by increasing his size until he became as big as the dining room.

"...Think again", the giant serpent hissed.

Espio's mouth hung open as he pointed at the huge snake. "Hey, this is ringing a bell to something."

Appex then pushed the chameleon away from the serpent's tail as he swung it around.

Espio looked up at the porcupine in confusion. He had thought Appex had hated him. "Appex, you saved me."

The porcupine looked away from him, "Well don't expect this thing to happen very often."

Espio formed a smile, "Right." He then took out his giant shuriken, "Well, let's cut off this bastard's head just like all of the rest of the demons we've faced."

The snake raised his tail and swung it at the group, but fortunate for them they all dodged it. The snake then faced Vector and opened his mouth while parting his fangs. He then came at Vector, trying to sink his fangs into him.

Vector held the snake back but it seemed that he couldn't keep it up any longer especially when he saw the venom seeping out of his fangs.

"Hang on, Vec!" Espio came towards the snake with his giant shuriken and threw it at the snake's head, cutting it straight off.

Blood scattered all over the room and just knew that the battle was over.

"We won!" Charmy shouted.

Ker frowned, "No, that was too easy."

Charmy pointed at the headless snake and saw him growing another head. "Uh, guys! It's growing another head!"

"We can't kill that thing?" Tonya asked with panic. "What do we do?"

"If you can't kill a demon one way, there's always another way." Ker approached the snake and took off his blindfold exposing his glowing white eyes. Then a white blast had came from his eyes and struck towards the snake, blowing the large serpent into pieces.

Charmy watched the snake's remains fell to the floor. "Anyone got an umbrella?"

Then everyone saw the pieces of the serpent form back into the snake's original form. They surrounded the weak snake with anger while blood was dripping from their bodies.

The snake looked up at them in annoyance, "Darn! I lost! Lord Dark will skin me for sure!"

Rouge picked the black snake off of the floor and glared, "You think? All right you stupid, serpent! No more games! Tell us where Shadow is and I mean now!"

The snake winced because of his injuries, but he began to speak, "Fine", he hissed. "He's in the underground training area with Lord Dark."

Rouge dropped the serpent on the floor and faced the group, "Hear that guys?"

They nodded and was ready to finally find Shadow.

"Let's go!" Vector then led the rest of the group towards the underground area.

A/N: Hmm, I felt like I rushed in this chap...oh well. The next chap won't be very rushed at all. R&R please!