Bloody Umbrae
Chapter 25.
Sonic's first rescue is a go.
Rouge once again drove her feet, one after the other, into the side of her glass prison, still trying fruitlessly to break herself out. Though, after her ankles had become numb for a second time, she decided to stop.
"Ugh," she groaned, "it's no use, I'm not even making a scratch."
The white bat rested her head against the glass.
"What happened?" she mused, "How did I get here? Where's everyone else?"
With her knees wobbling from exertion, she slid to the ground.
"Shadow..." she sighed, "everyone...I hope they're okay."
Rouge tilted her head upward, squinted under harshness of the bright lights above, and closed her eyes. Her mind flooded with thoughts and images of what already happened and what could happen yet.
Suddenly, she heard a nose, like someone banging against loose metal; she opened her eyes and looked through the top of the dome. She saw a metal hatch fall open and an unexpected person drop from it.
"Sonic!?" Rouge uttered.
"Rouge!?" the blue hedgehog responded.
"How did you get here?" the bat wondered, "What's going on?"
"I got here through some strange teleporting system," Sonic answered, "as for what's going on, that's a long story."
More noise was heard as Eggman, to Rouge's surprise, dropped from the ceiling behind Sonic, though not quite nailing the landing like the blue hedgehog did.
"Dr. Eggman!?" Rouge voiced, "Where did you come from?"
"That's...also a long story." the portly scientist responded.
"Let's get you out of there," Sonic said, "then we'll talk."
"Good luck." Rouge sighed.
After making his way up to the glass prison, Sonic began to look for possible weak points.
"Are any of the others with you?" the jewel thief asked hopefully.
Sonic solemnly shook his head.
"No," he affirmed, "you're the first one I've found."
"Oh." Rouge replied sadly.
"But, it's okay," Sonic said, "because, we know where to look."
Sonic sped around the glass enclosure looking for a way to get her out, pounding on the glass in a few different areas to test the strength.
"Wow, that glass really is strong." he stated.
"Yeah," Rouge said, "I haven't been able to even scratch it."
"Actually," Eggman called, "it may be secured mechanically."
Sonic sped back to the floor below.
"What now?" he responded.
Eggman directed his attention to the panel at the base of the platform holding Rouge's enclosure, which looked similar to one found on basic household appliances. Curious, Sonic dug the tips of his fingers into the top corners of the panel, he felt it begin to give; as he struggled, Eggman dug his own fingers into the side of the panel, allowing it to finally come loose. However, just then, a loud siren began to blare, the lights on the ceiling flashing a harsh red.
"Oh...great." Sonic said dryly.
"Hurry up!" Eggman yelled.
Sonic looked at the open panel and saw square button, as soon as he pressed it, the glass dome holding Rouge split open into four sections.
"Wow," the bat responded, "good job."
"Let's get going!" the blue hedgehog urged.
Rouge dropped to the ground.
"Now, how do we go about getting out of here?" Eggman wondered.
They looked around frantically.
"Oh, I have an idea." Rouge said.
She then ran over to a large pipe bending up from the floor and with one perfect kick, the pipe split open.
"Looks like we should all fit." she affirmed.
Eggman was the first to squeeze himself into the pipe, just barely fitting and being able to slide down, followed by Rouge and Sonic. The pipe seemed to go on forever, like an endless loop of pitch black.
When they finally reached the end of the pipe, they found themselves outside, with the siren still blaring in the distance. Suddenly, a group of armed, humanoid animals appeared, all dressed in armored, full body suits.
"Don't let them get away!" a male weasel yelled, "Especially the blue one!"
"Ugh, we don't have time for this!" Sonic growled.
Just as the armed guards raised their weapons, Sonic to hurled himself forward in a homing attack, bouncing back and forth, taking them all out before they could react.
When it was done, the group of, now disarmed, animals retreated.
"Well, that was..." Rouge started to say.
"A bit...too easy?" Eggman offered.
They went silent for several seconds.
Sonic, winding down from his adrenaline rush, looked on tensely; it did seem odd that his first rescue had gone as smoothly as it did, but, he knew that he did not have time to worry about it.
"Come on, we can't hang around here any longer!" he asserted.
"But, where are we supposed to go?" Rouge questioned.
Sonic thought about it, frantically trying to think of what to do next; between the threat of another ambush and more time lost, going back to the capitol building was not an option.
"Uh...ugh...um..." he groaned, "I don't know..."
"Sonic, remember the map at the capitol building?" Eggman voiced, "If my memory is correct, the closest regions next to us are the desert and the mountain zones."
"Yeah," Sonic replied, "and how do we get to either of those places?"
"Well, I'm sure the people don't just walk everywhere," the human scientist said, "surely we can find a means of transportation in the city."
He pointed to the cluster of buildings in the distance.
"You really think we'll be able to get around the city without calling attention to ourselves?" Rouge wondered.
"Well, we may as well try," Eggman replied, "what choice do we have otherwise?"
Sonic looked at surrounding area, the brightly lit city, and knew that there was no other option.
"All right," he sighed, "let's get going, we can't waste anymore time than we already have."
The three warily began to make their way away from the citadel, with Sonic mentally checking off his first rescue.
"One down." he thought.
Though, in the back of his mind, he knew that it was only going to get harder from there on out.
Finally got another chapter down.
I'm sorry that I've been lagging on this fic, life has just insane for me lately, not to mention I have other fics and projects going on, plus this fic requires a lot more thought, compared to my other fics, so, that's another thing holding it up.
More to come eventually.