-Chapter 20-
As the morning broke the next day, Knuckles and the Chaotix were already back on their way towards their destination. Vector was still having some trouble adapting to the cold weather. The terrain was rendered very dry due to the wind storm the night before. Crossing a rocky ravine, Knuckles suddenly caught a familiar scent in the air.
"Is that laser fire?" he asked, perplexed.
"Sure smells like it." Julie-Su replied after she herself inhaled the air around them.
"If there's laser fire, then we'd better get movin'." Vector added, a little sternly.
"Vector's right." Espio concurred. "We don't have any way of knowing if Amy Rose is in danger or not."
"Then let's go." the crimson guardian declared.
XXXXXX
"Amy? Is it okay if I come in?"
Amy moaned as she struggled to wake herself up. She couldn't remember the last time she felt this groggy, still feeling like crap from the day before.
"Yeah, sure." Amy croaked.
Larry meekly entered the room and quickly became concerned when he saw the cherry-pink female in the state she was in. She did not look well.
"Um...still n-not feeling well?" he asked softly.
"A little." Amy murmured. "Just keep your distance, okay?"
"Y-yes, ma'am."
He sat a little farther away from her as she dragged herself out of bed. Sitting up made a painful jolt to her stomach, causing her to hold it and let out a groan of pain.
"Are you s-sure, you're o-okay?" the lynx asked again.
"...yeah...I'm fine." Amy muttered.
This wasn't queasiness like before, this was like muscle pain. As if she had a done a whole routine of Pilates after not exercising for a long time.
"I don't suppose the Colonel had found anything..." Amy continued.
"N-no, I don't think so a-anyway." Larry replied thoughtfully. "Though, I-I kinda have to a-admit that I haven't b-been really paying a-attention."
Amy let out a scoff and rubbed the tiredness out of her eyes. Of course, rations should be the least of everyone's worries. Suddenly, Larry's ears perked up, something grabbing his attention.
"What's that sound?" he asked inquisitively.
Amy perked up her own ears in an effort to listen to what Larry had heard. At first, she couldn't pick anything up. Then she found it. It was a whistling noise that was getting louder and louder. Her jade eyes widened in horror once she realized what it was.
"A-amy...?"
"LARRY, GET DOWN!"
The young flower flung herself around him before the entire bunker violently rocked back and forth seconds later. Dust and rubble fell from the ceiling of the room and the lamp swayed back and forth. Both Amy and Larry remained still on the floor until they slowly rose up.
"Are you alright?" Amy rasped quietly.
"I-I think s-so..." Larry shakenly replied.
Amy got to her knees and quickly checked the lynx for injuries before examining herself. Apart from a few cuts and being doused with dust, they unharmed for the most part.
"C'mon, we need to get out of here fast!" she told him.
Grabbing ahold of Larry's hand, Amy yanked him into the hall where they were met with total chaos. Soldiers were running around the bunker trying to find weapons and man their stations with the higher ranking officers barking out orders left and right. Then another explosion shook the bunker to its very foundation making more debris fall from above.
"W-we better f-find Colonel S-sommersby!" Larry exclaimed.
'If he's even still alive after all this...' Amy thought cynically.
XXXXXX
Knuckles and the Chaotix edged closer to their intended point of arrival when they stopped dead in their tracks, from the sounds of bombs dropping and gunfire.
"Oh crap." Vector said. "Sounds like someone just beat us to the punch."
The team cautiously took cover while Julie-Su pulled out a pair of electronic binoculars. Through the lenses, she saw a large group of legionnaires surrounding to what appeared to be a subterranean entrance.
"From the looks of things, it's a strike team." she told the others. "It seems like they've found the safe house we heard about in the Colonel's last transmission. If we're going to get Amy, it's now or never."
"Right." Knuckles replied with a determined look on his face. "Let's go, Chaotix!"
xxxxxx
Sonic was snoozing in a hammock along with Antoine and Bunnie when Rotor came running into the tent.
"Guys, wake up!" he cried.
"Errmmm...was is it, Rotor?" Sonic drowsily muttered.
"I'm getting distress signals left and right." the walrus explained, almost out of breath.
"From where?" Bunnie inquired.
"About twenty miles away from our position."
The Blue Blur made a rather quizzical look.
"There isn't another camp out here with our guys is there?" he asked.
"Vell, zere's za safe zat's outside zee capital." Antoine replied.
"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot about that. Any way we can respond to that?"
"Well, we've got plenty of resources and man power to address the situation but it could be risky." Rotor told them.
"We can't let 'em take the safe house fellas." Bunnie protested. "We just can't."
"She's right." Antoine added. "Vho knows vhat vill happen eef zey get zere hands on compromiseeng Intel?"
A few moments went by as they procrastinated on what they should do about the situation at hand.
"Alright Freedom Fighters, we've got a mission to do." Sonic declared.
xxxxxx
Amy and Larry managed to reach the main control room of the bunker where Colonel Sommersby was supervising a few guards sending out distress calls over the radio.
"Colonel, what the hell is going on?" Amy cried.
"We've been discovered, Miss Rose." Sommersby told her plainly. "We're trying to hold them off until we can evacuate the wounded."
"Anything we can do?"
"Unfortunately not, Miss Rose. If you wish join the evacuation teams, I would strongly suggest you do so now."
Amy seemed to acknowledge him at first but then she recalled all the times she had been on the run and how it turned out for her.
"No, I'm not going anywhere." the sakura hedgehog replied defiantly. "I'm done running."
"Are you certain, Miss Rose? Don't forget you may have a condition."
"I don't care. I'll deal with it."
The pitfall furrowed his brow a little. He had suspicions about her 'health', but without any viable medical supplies available, there wasn't a way to know for sure.
"Very well then, Miss Rose."
There was a pause before Larry made up his mind as well.
"I think...I think I'll s-stay t-too." he stammered while trying to sound bold.
"There's a crate next to the console one the left that contains weapons." the colonel told them. "You'd best go and collect them."
Although Amy was reluctant to even use fire arms because of the Freedom Fighter code, she went for them anyway. As the colonel put it earlier, this was war, full out war and on a more serious note than the one they fought with Eggman. Inside the crate was small pile of rifles. Larry looked as if he had never handled one before and he probably didn't. Amy herself was unfamiliar with the weapon, but she was a quick learner. Another bomb rattled the bunker, now causing ceiling to fall and crash onto the mainframes and consoles. Sommersby rose from his seat and began fumbling into his coat for something.
"Men, we're pulling out." he declared to the guards at the consoles. "There's no more we can do here."
The guards acknowledged him with a nod and departed to join their comrades in the halls. Then, Sommersby pulled out a pistol from within his coat and emptied it on the last remaining console.
"What was that for?!" Amy cried, a little flustered.
"To protect the data within the hard drive." the colonel explained. "A backup of it was already uploaded to the net in New Mobotropolis, so the boys back at home will be the only ones with access to it."
It took a moment for the cherry-pink female to process what he had said before it all made sense. Because it was becoming increasingly clear that the Dark Presence was intent on taking the safe house come hell or high water, they wouldn't be able to obtain any valuable information with the hard drive damaged beyond repair. Both Amy and Larry promptly followed the mobian bull dog through another hall that had rubble littered all over the floor. Sommersby found an intercom mic and immediately relayed a message to his underlings.
"Attention, all personnel!" he bellowed. "Seal all entryways and retreat! Abandon your posts-"
His message was cut off by another bomb landing right above them. Amy quickly grabbed ahold of his arm, and yanked away from the fast descending debris. She and Larry cough and sputtered from the dust that arose.
"Thank you, Miss Rose..." Sommersby grunted. "But I wasn't quite finished.."
"That pile of rocks could've been you!" Amy cried, flabbergasted.
"D-don't you t-think we s-should get out of h-here now?!" Larry exclaimed.
"Of course, Mr. Lynx." the colonel calmly replied. "Follow me."
After collecting themselves, the three headed towards an alternate route in the hallway. It was rather dark because of the failure of the electric systems from damage. They managed to find their way out of the bunker where they were met with a cold, dry wind. Larry shivered right down to his feet from the air.
"Where do we go from here?" Amy asked softly.
"I have received word from our allies that there is a camp not too far from our position towards the west." Sommersby told her. "I've also received a report that we have reinforcements on the way. We will proceed north east."
"...Why in that direction?" Amy asked again, a little confused as north east was almost the complete opposite direction.
"The guardian of Angel Island and his men are on their way from there. I fully intent on entrusting you to them."
Amy bit her lip slightly. Even though she was relatively on good terms with the Chaotix, what was going to happen after that? She greatly appreciated Knuckles vouching for her, but did the Freedom Fighters know anything about this? And if not, would shit really hit the fan when they found out?
The environment around them was eerily quiet in spite of the raid that was in action no more than two miles away. It made Amy and Larry-most especially Larry-anxious and nervous. But they kept it together in order find their way to safety.
xxxxxx
As his strike team relentlessly raided into the assaulted bunker, Shadow watched quietly from a few feet away. He focused an all the entrances his men managed to find, patiently waiting for them to turn anything up. He pulled out a portable tracker to assure himself that his target was in fact here and not just a glitch in the system. Unless his ruby orbs were fooling him, the signal was now two miles away and slowly but surely gaining distance.
'Dammit... ' he mentally growled. 'I've underestimated her. But no longer. '
"Alpha, come in." the crimson-splashed male spoke into a radio.
"Yes, sir!" a voice crackled in response. "We have secured the complex, sir. But Acorn forces have been alerted and their reinforcements are inbound."
Shadow paused for a moment.
"Any useful data?" he inquired.
"Unfortunately not, sir. They've destroyed all the mainframes and I don't think we'll have any time to recover any fragments if any."
'Clever...'
And if there were any fragments left, they're probably weren't worth the trouble.
"Don't concern yourself with it then. Target had fled the premises and it outbound north east."
"Understood, sir."
As soon as Shadow put away his radio, he teleported away. He wasn't going to take any chances with this.