The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that I was on a hard floor and hugging someone who was waaaarm :D. I closed my eyes tightly, not wanting to be awake as I felt sore all over. I snuggled into the person I was hugging who I remembered to be Shadow as that's who I fell asleep hugging. I slowly peeped open one eye and peered up at him. He was staring off into space intently.

"I know you're awake" he mumbled. I closed my eyes.

"No I'm not. I'm just sleep concious" I huffed. I could feel him shift to look down at me but I ignored him. Growling I carefully pushed myself up.

"Fine you got me. I'm up...unfortunately" I said unhappily. Sleep had been so nice . Shadow stood up without a word and walked out of the cave. Obviously he either wanted to be alone or was most likely heading out to scope the area. I winced and got to my feet. I tip toed over various sleeping bodies and rooted through a rucksack. I found a big box with porridge and an opened carton of milk. I found a pot and decided to make everyone some breakfast.

"Mmm smells good!" a voice shouted behind me. I let out a screech and turned to see Charmy, Tails, Espio and Amy were awake. I calmed myself down slightly.

"You scared the ba jeezus outta me!" I scolded the buzzy bee. He just smiled at me and I knew I couldn't stay mad. I handed each of them a bowl and spoon and told them to help themselves. We ate quietly and soon everyone else had woken up and were eating too.

"So what's the plan?" I asked as I gathered the dirty bowls from everyone. They directed their gazes to Sonic. He was about to speak when we heard people running outside. We ran to the cave's entrance and flattened ourselves against the wall before peeping out. Outside were some animals (like people animals '^.^) fighting these weird dark creatures we recognised as Mephiles'. I gasped and was about to spring out and help them when I fell to my knees in pain. A searing hot burning sensation ripped through my chest from when Mephiles attacked me the day before. I felt a hand on my shoulder and glanced behind me to see Amy give me a comforting yet stern smile.

"Don't push yourself. Sonic will handle this" she whispered faithfully. I sighed and nodded. Clearly there are times when you simply have to step aside for the sake of success. This was one of them. Sonic was outside in a flash along with Espio and Vector. They easily defeated the dark creatures and turned them to mist. The animals who were cowering on the floor moments earlier looked up in relief and sprang to their feet to thank their saviours.

"Thank you friend! You have our deepest thanks! Pleases if it would please you, allow us to fight by your side! We know you are freedom fighters and we wish to join" pleaded a toucan. Sonic stood shocked but recovered quickly and stuck out his hand with a grin. The toucan matched his grin and took Sonic's hand in a manly handshake.

"My name is Sonic! Over there is Espio, Tails, Knuckles, Vector..." Sonic went on to introduce everyone in the group.

"Pleasure to meet you all! I am Dango the Toucan. Over there is Cody the Wolf and Carrie the Iguana " introduced Dango quickly. We all nodded at eachother in greeting and acceptance.

"Come. We were just about to discuss what to do" I said calmly. We all made our way into the cave. We sat in a circle. Everyone suddenly broke out into a gigantic bicker about what to do. I was taken by surprise by the sudden outburst and sat there as the noise level grew and grew.

"QUUUUUIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEETT!" shouted Sonic. Silence took over instantly and everyone bowed their heads in silent apology. "Right. The way I see it and with no offense but not everyone here is the greatest strategist. So therefore we will take a select few to discuss a plan. Once its made we will have an open explanation and discussion with everyone. We need to get to know the new group anyway so we will allow them to nominate two people from their group to discuss with us while the rest can get to know us better. Is that clear?" Sonic dictated like a true leader. We all nodded in agreement. "Okay Knuckles, Tails, Vector, ~~~ will join the discussion from our group. Everyone else will stay on the other side of the cave and quietly make friends with our newest members so things won't be so awkward" ordered Sonic. Wordlessly those not named got up and left for the other side. Dango and Cody remained from the newest group. We sat in a smaller circle in this order: Sonic, Knuckles, Vector, Tails, me, Cody, Dango.

"Right. Has anyone got a plan?" I asked bluntly. We were quiet for a moment.

"Well first off we need to know how big the enemies mass of troops is" stated Dango.

"Pretty endless. Mephiles tends to clone himself" I pointed out. Dango and Cody stared at me in shock. I raised an eyebrow at them.

"We also know that he isn't indestructible. We need to hit him and hit him hard if we want to get rid of him. He has allies for now but without them he is weakened" mused Sonic. We nodded.

"Thing is who are his allies?" asked Tails.

"Who knows. But whoever they are, they can't be anyone to underestimate nor to trust" growled Knuckles. I nodded darkly. We sat back and began to think to ourselves.

"Well I'd like to ask if you don't mind, what are all of you like?" Vector asked Dango and Cody. The two looked up and smiled.

"Guess they're not the only ones who need to make friends" laughed Cody.

"In a nutshell Dango here is our leader. He is a great strategist and knows how to make his way out of any tight situation be it with strength or technique. I am one to just fight fight fight! But I know when to control myself. Plus I'm single (here I received a wink and answered with an eye roll). Carrie is our little genius when it comes to technology" concluded Cody. We nodded and I'm sure in all of our heads we were doing cross-comparisons.

Dango- Sonic though more military general like

Cody- Amy but much more violent...so Rosy-ish?

Carrie- Tails but not as cool ( XP )

I cleared my head of thoughts and focused back on the matter at hand.

"Well we need to find out what state the city is in that way then we know what our chances of sneaking into Mephiles' lair is" said Sonic.

"I'll go check out the city" I volunteered.

"Psh. A girl shouldn't be doing stuff that involves serious danger. Plus entering the city would be suicide" said Cody bluntly. I was infuriated.

"Calm ~~~. Don't go doubting my friends wolf. You'll be in for a humiliating beat down my my hands and theirs" warned Knuckles. I smiled gratefully at him.

"I agree with Knuckles there but ~~~ is injured from yesterday" piped up Vector with concern. I rolled my eyes.

"Big whoop! I've volunteered to do it and by god I'm going to do it no matter what you or anyone else says" I said firmly locking eyes with Sonic.

"Hold on lil lady. I won't question your abilities but if you're hurt then I'd advise against taking on such a task" soothed Dango. I admired him for his approach but shook my head defiantly. Suddenly a figure plopped down next to me and I glanced sidewards to see Shadow back from his excursion.

"I think she should go. The city has a patrol but I'm sure she can handle that. She should search for a secret entrance to the lair" Shadow said darkly.

"Who the hell are you?" growled Cody warily. Shadow gave him an indifferent once over.

"I'm Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog" he introduced himself (3 when he says that ^.^ ). Cody seemed to growl at Shadow's superior attitude. Whoa, too much testosterone here. Shadow glared at him and Dango interupted before a fight could break out.

"How about we arrange for a volunteer group to search the city for a secret entrance like this young lad has suggested" he said quickly.

"Yeah. Good one Shadow" praised Sonic and Vector. Shadow 'hmphed'. I smiled at him and got to my feet.

"Weelll who wants to join lil ol me?" I asked happily. The other group came over.

"What's the plan?" asked Amy and Carrie simutaneously. They then smirked at each other. Sonic and Dango quickly explained what was going to happen. The volunteer group consisted of myelf, Sonic, Shadow, Rogue, Cody and Espio. We bid everyone else a goodbye as we connected bracelets that were actually comunicators designed by Tails and Carrie onto our wrists. On reaching the city we noted the streets were torn up and full of rubble. Shadowy figures could be seen floating through the streets, searching for any sign of life to destroy. We ducked behind an overturned ice cream van.

"We'll split up into three groups. One will go east, one west and one up the middle. Mephiles' lair is at the north and this area is the south. We'll search all angles of the lair when we get their. Try not to draw to much attention if you get into a fight. Be careful" planned Sonic. We nodded and broke up. Sonic was going up the centre, Espio and Rogue would go east, Shadow, Cody and I would go West because Cody didn't trust me and Shadow didn't trust Cody '-_-. sighed deeply as we ran silently up the streets. We came to a fork in the road. Three streets, each containing dark creatures.

"Can you fight?" I asked Cody. He gave me a 'duh' look.

"Take a street each" ordered Shadow.

"Shouldn't we stick together?" argued Cody. Shadow looked like he was about to rip Cody's head off.

"No. If we did then the other streets would hear the ruckus, alert others and overwhelm us. This way we assassinate the group and move onward quietly" I explained. Without waiting for a response I sped off to the street on the right, Shadow went straight leaving Cody to go left.

Summoning energy I emitted a blue fire from my finger tips {fyi: blue fire= hottest type of fire}. The dark creatures turned and left out a raspy cry when I slashed through them with my nails. They disintegrated on contact. This continued up several blocks. Every so often when we hit a intersection I'd glance across to see Shadow blasting through with chaos energy and slightly struggling Cody with little exploding daggers O_O.

I ran up the street and noted how it was void of any creatures. A lone figure stood at the end of the street waiting for me. I got a serious look on my face. One of the allies? I thought. I got 5 metres away from the figure and skidded to a halt.

"Scourge?" Ibreathed with a head tilt.

"Hey babe. Long time no see" winked the green hedgehog. I got a blank expression on my face.

"You're in cahoots with Mephiles aren't you?" I demanded softly. He snickered.

"Yup. Old Mephy and me are working with some other bozo to take over this here world. Neat huh?" he gave me his chilling smile. I glared and got into a fighting stance.

"Sorry but I'm afraid I just can't let you continue" I said defiantly.

"Aw don't be that way baby. If you simply allow us to continue without a fight then I'll be sure to keep you alive and you can be my queen. We'll rule our share of this world like no other king or queen has ruled before" he said quirking his eyebrows suggestively. I almost gagged.

"No thanks. I'm not in to monarchy" I shouted dashing forward to strike. In a flash he was behind me and grabbed both my wrists, immobilising me.

"Now now don't be like that" he droned. He rested his forehead on my shoulder and went on to mutter about all the things he could promise me, made several perverted comments etc. But I wasn't paying attention. Across the way, Shadow was standing watching me. He looked like he was about to approach but I softly shook my head so as to not catch Scourge's attention. I then mouthed 'find the entrance. I'll handle it'. He nodded and took off up his street. By the time he was out of sight Scourge had loosened his grip slightly. I felt energy gather in my stomach and sent it to my finger tips. Whipping around I blew Scourge into a building with lightning. Cackling could be heard behind me and I turned to coldly greet Mephiles.

"Good day" I spat.

"And to you" he said with a tone of disinterest before sending a huge blast of energy at me. I had no time or space to dodge and took the hit. I felt like I had been thrown into a volcano. The pain was so immense I blacked out instantly.

6 hours later

A slap to the cheek brought me out of unconciousness. Blood trickled down my cheek as three slashes formed there from vicious nails. Blinking and wincing furiously I opened my eyes. I was chained to a wall by my hands and right foot. I was on the floor and didn't have much lee-way (sp?) to move around my cell much. Mephiles stood over me holding his hand out infront of him. In the hand by his side he held a stiletto knife.

"Now then ~~~. After your little display against Scourge, I hope you realise why I refuse to kill you entirely. So here are you options: join and serve me or remain here as my prisoner and victim to torture until you join me" Mephiles said sadistically. With what little strength I had I spat a mixture of blood and saliva on his front.

"Prick" I growled. His gaze hardened and he sliced into my arm with the stiletto. I screamed in agony as mixed with the burns from the blast the blade slitting my skin was hell. Mephiles laughed and laughed.

"So begins the torture!" he cried wickedly and melted into the shadows. I panted painfully and desperately held my tears back. I refused to shed a single tear that could be labeled 'caused by Mephiles'. I leaned against the wall and pulled my knees into my chest. I shivered violently from pain and dread. How long will I be stuck here for?

An hour later

The door opened and closed swiftly. I raised my head slightly and saw Scourge. I glared hatefully at him. He stared pitifully down his nose at me.

"Look I know you hate what we're doing but look at it as we're the winners now. You could be free of this by joining us. But I'll warn you that serving Mephiles will only free you of the chains, not the pain and torture. Therefore I'm giving you the option of being my girl. It'll be much nicer I assure you. You have til tomorow night to decide" he winked at me and blew me a kiss before slamming the door shut and disappearing out of the dungeons. I huffed. Things can't get any worse right? With that final thought I drifted off into a painfully uncomfortable slumber.