Chapter 25
Rouge and Nightshade reached the building where the people were lined up to enter. The female Bat looked at it from the top to bottom, shielding her eyes from the blazing sun. It was the place to register for joining the army.
She said, "I wonder if there is a backdoor somewhere."
Her white ears twitched at the sound of a moving metal grate, and she turned to Nightshade who held one and said in joking attitude, "Would this air duct do the trick?"
She shook her head with a smile and went inside with Nightshade's help. Glancing back and forth, he backed into it and closed their entrance. Rouge took slow, cautious movements down the echoing tunnel as she manoeuvred on her hands and knees.
She could still feel her friend behind her as they searched for their next stop. Up ahead was a light shining through another entrance, which she examined. Down below them could be seen everyone registering as ordered.
Nightshade tapped her shoulder and pointed to the side by a wall where someone stood.
He whispered, "That's the Skunk who tried to go after us before. It seems that he is somehow tied in with all of this."
"Well, he is a CIA agent."
The Echidna rubbed his chin doubtfully, "I don't know...I had a nagging feeling that I couldn't trust him for more than the fact that he could just turn us in for being crooks."
"What sort of bad feeling did he give you?" she was becoming curious, especially since Nightshade had a sixth sense about these things, for certain reasons.
"I'm not sure. It's been a while since I saw anyone that shifty. Now what I want to know is how someone like that became an agent. He didn't even have a proper fighting style. All he did was throw his fists."
"Hmm...It seems that he is not the only one who does. You do your fair share of fist throwing at everything."
He smirked, "Yeah, but I have less military training than CIA agents. They and GUN only have the best fighters as their agents. All the others are just soldiers. The Skunk looks like he is wearing something that is too high of a rank for his fighting abilities."
"So," she looked at him thoughtfully, "what do we have here to work with? We had a run in with a possibly fake agent who is also guarding the President, more than half the city is all the way out here, and to top it, the Skunk was obsessed with getting back this blue gem."
"Yeah, that was weird. I have a bad feeling about what might have happened to the President."
It made her turn back to him again after looking at the people, "Like what?"
He shrugged, "Who knows? Maybe he was kidnapped."
"But someone would have had to have ordered everyone to come here," she pointed out to him.
The Echidna thought about for a moment, "True, but someone could have forced him to make that order."
A look of surprise came from her, "Forced him?"
"Yeah, and it's not the first time I have seen something like this," He backed away to go down a different route in the tunnel, "We should take a look for the President, or better yet see what this Skunk is really about. There's something fishy about him."
"Right," she followed him, fully agreeing that something was definitely wrong.
Meanwhile, Sonic was running through the streets, zipping behind and in front of everything and everyone. It was steadily getting on Shadow's nerves, but he tried to not show it. His arms were crossed as he kept a straight face.
When Sonic got within a certain range, he grabbed Sonic's arm and said, "Do you mind?"
"Huh?" the little brother looked at him, curiously.
"Do you have any idea how irritating..." before the Ultimate Life Form finished, Sonic decided to zip around again, leaving a cloud of dust behind.
He left Shadow with a finger up, and Shadow lowered his hand, looking annoyed. Within seconds, Sonic leapfrogged over Shadow's head, holding an ice cream cone. Sally did not think much about it until she did a double take at his treat.
She thought where did he get that?
They then heard someone yell, "Hey you!"
Freezing in her tracks, she thought oh no, what happened?
Sonic looked behind him and saw a woman in an apron hurry over to him.
The lady leant against her knees, catching her breath until she straightened herself and said, "You can't take off like that..."
She walked over to Sonic and finished her statement, "...without another scoop. I never let my customers go without what they paid for in such a hurry. I will have to admit, with all I have seen, I have never seen anyone move quite as fast as you."
Sally blinked thinking so that's what that was about.
Shadow narrowed his red eyes and asked Sonic after the ice cream lady left, "Where did you get that money? Last I checked you were trapped in a gem and came out with an intangibility spell recently." He poked him, "In fact, you shouldn't have been able to get any money at all unless you have a job, which I'm sure you do not have."
"I do?" Sonic asked, blinking. He then licked his ice cream, "There was just something I had found on the sidewalk that said 'twenty dollars,' so I gave it to that nice lady. She wanted to give some back, but I told her she could keep it. She might want to buy herself some ice cream."
Sally smiled and came to him with her hands behind her back, "And how does it taste?"
He took another sample, "It's good."
"Really?" she leant forward, "That's good. Then you are definitely going to like it when we defeat Mephilis."
He stopped for a moment, "Why's that?"
The others looked at her as she explained, "I can't tell you that right now. It's a surprise."
"Aw, come on, I'm bad with surprises. How about a hint?" he looked at her eagerly after swallowing the rest of his treat.
Shaking her head, she said, "Nope. I wouldn't want to spoil it."
He looked a bit annoyed with one flattened ear and another that twitched.
Knuckles walked over there and said, "Did anyone feel that?"
Sonic asked, "Feel what?"
The Echidna's purple eyes glanced around, "That feeling in the air. It's like dark magic or something."
Sonic shrugged, "I don't know. It's not like I could sense the stuff."
Shadow said, "It would be rather simple for me to do such a thing, but even I did not pick it up, tell me how were you able to do that, Knuckles?"
"It's not that hard," Knuckles said, raising an eyebrow, "I guess that means that vampires could sense magic better than werewolves."
"It's possible."
Sally asked, "So what is the dark magic coming from, Knuckles?"
He turned around and motioned to a building, "It's from there."
"But we just walked past that," she said, looking confused, wondering if something bad was about to happen, "You don't think that..." she dreaded to finish, "...that Mephilis could use magic, do you?"
Knuckles stopped for a moment, but then shook his head, "Doubtful that is his magic. It's nowhere near black enough to be his, and it's the wrong building." He walked towards there, "I guess we'd never know unless we look."
Shadow walked behind her as Sally softly asked, "Is it just me, or is there something he is not telling us?"
Shadow silently looked at him walking in the setting sun's rays while Amy said, "I don't know. We did just meet him. Maybe he is remembering something sad."
Sonic ran ahead before he heard them say anything and was trying to pester Knuckles to race him.
Shadow said after a moment of silence, "He is of an extinct race. It's only natural that he'd behave this way."
They went to follow the other two before they were left behind. Knuckles continued on, down the sidewalk, ignoring Sonic and his antics.
Sally thought over what Knuckles could have been sensing that was so terrible, but she could not think of anything or anyone. They hurried over there, and Shadow glanced around carefully at the building.
Now that he was closer, he was able to feel something. It was putting his guard up as he never took his red eyes from the building. Amy closed her eyes, trying to feel something, and opened them looking at the top floor.
She gasped, "It's her."
Sonic looked and asked, "Her who?"
Sally carefully listened, wondering how worried she should be as Amy answered, "It's Fiona. I don't know what kind of magic she is using, but it feels incredibly dangerous."
He snapped his fingers, "That's easy to fix. Back in one sec."
Like a flash, he was gone. Shadow shook his head, feeling that his brother should have stayed a bit longer to listen to whatever else had to be said, such as sticking together because Fiona nearly killed him. In fact, it was Shadow and Amy who saved him.
He ran inside and said, "Who does that idiot think he is? Does he not remember last time we fought her?"
Sally and Amy had to follow as well, Knuckles stayed close to them thinking looks like it is up to me to protect them since Shadow and Sonic are way out of their reach. It's not as though I blame Shadow for Sonic's one track mind.
Sonic ran through the building in record-breaking speed, searching every room until he discovered where Fiona was hiding. That is if she was truly hiding and not waiting for him to stumble on something really horrific.
While he ran, his feet started to not feel any traction, and before he knew it, he was floating in mid-air. A glowing golden shield encased him, and he reached around until he touched the force shield. He hammered on the wall and saw how firm it was.
"Not cool," he groaned as he pushed against it, hoping it would break.
When that failed, he bounced around and tried to spin into it. Nothing worked. He was still in its trap.
His ears twitched as footsteps echoed the hall. He stood up in a protective stance, ready for a fight as the floorboard creaked in the abandoned apartment building. Fiona walked in, wearing a black gown fitting for a sorceress.
The way her blue eyes glared gave them a fiery appearance that could probably set fire to the unfortunate receiver of them.
Her mouth, however, was clearly smiling as the back end of her dress dragged along the ground. Her red hair dangled loosely from her back and swayed with her movements as she approached him. The front side was shorter, but the whole thing was form fitting.
That did change the fact, however, that there was something sinister about her.
"Welcome to my prison, is it to your delight, my precious?" she asked.
He plopped down, crossed his legs and said, "Heh, you call this a prison? The only thing making it torturous is your smell."
"Oh..." she faked a sad face, "Is that really how it is?" Her foot suddenly stepped hard on the floor, "Oh p-l-e-a-s-e! As if everything is all about you. I will have you know, I was never into you from the very beginning. And also, please," she raised a hand to silence him before he began another insulting speech, "don't bother wasting my precious time saying that we were never together. I've got enough smarts to know that."
He looked at her confused, "Then wha—what was that all about with killing that kid because I didn't like you? Fiona!"
She just smirked, which made his hand shake after he banged the shield again, "If I told you that, everything would be ruined." Her smirk grew with some coldness, making it a tab bit on the creepy side, "You just have to sit tight. Who knows?" She placed her hand on her hip, looking at him with a mighty gaze, "I might not be finished with you yet."
The sound of his friends' voices filled the air, and she opened her eyes saying, "Sounds to me my job is not done. Not to worry, I won't leave any of my guests without entertainment." Three monsters appeared, "These guards will make quick work of you if you break free, and that includes anyone is unlucky enough to find you." She covered her mouth as she laughed a bit, "This is all too easy."
As she left, she called out to her magically conjured monstered, "Stay here and make sure he never leaves. If he breaks free, catch him, but if his friends come, you know what to do."
The doors swung closed on their own once she exited the room, leaving Sonic's fate in the hands of the three who were created to do her bidding.
Where Rouge and Nightshade were, they were outside the air ducts, walking around town.
A man walked up to them and asked, "Now what do we have here? The President said any who are able should report for work. It's your duty."
Rouge said, "I don't know who you think you are, but what makes you think you have any right to say things like that? You don't even know us."
"Do I?" the man placed his arms behind his back and narrowed his green eyes.
He walked closer as Rouge took two steps back. She glanced back at her friend who did not move. Nightshade stayed put as he glared at the middle-aged human.
The man stopped one yard away and said, "It appears that you have not changed at all, Nightshade. Still ducking under the government's radar as a common crook I see."
Rouge decided that she did not trust the stranger and stomped her foot saying, "You had better start making sense. Who are you?"
"You haven't heard of me? I'm surprised. Someone like your friend should have surely remembered me, or is it perhaps because he wishes to keep his past buried so deep, not even he would want to dig for it."
She temporarily glanced back at the Echidna, who stiffened and said, "That was so long ago, it doesn't even matter anymore. Leave her out of it, Commander."
"Commander?" she quietly breathed.
The Commander stepped forward again and said, "I know how you work. People like you sign up only once and then leave without letting anyone know where you go."
Nightshade said, in a surprisingly neutral voice, "I was in one of your battles before. While the Robotnic War was raged, I was there, helping everyone gain back their freedom, but this is different. Something is not right with the President. Any chance that you'll help us?"
Rouge shook her head and turned away, feeling as though Nightshade was not thinking clearly. Even though he worked for the Commander before, there was no way that he would get help from him.
The Commander rubbed his chin and said, "Well, it wouldn't be the first time we did something without the President's know-how. I will tell you what. Work for me again for another year, and I will do what I can to check him out. The both of you could be assigned with the mission to take a look, but you will need assistance." He turned around, "Come with me, and I will show you what you need. But remember," the man glanced back, "if you get caught, GUN will wash its hands of ever having anything to do with the likes of you."
Rouge followed thinking this can't be real. The Commander is really willing to go under the radar and do something which is entirely illegal. Well, Nightshade did say that his past was a hard one before, but I never imagined that he fought against Robotnic. It must have been too hard for him to say anything, especially since there was a series of battles against him where there were almost no survivors, save three. He must have been one of those three.