Author's Note: Wow! This took me a while to write. With so many set backs and delays, I thought I'd never get this chapter finished! At nearly 6,000 words, this is by far the longest chapter and I'll try to write faster for the next one. Okay, enough with my excuses, here's chapter 10.
(In the last chapter, Sonic was getting very depressed. But in this chapter, his depression will be at full tilt and he will even try to act upon it. A few fairly major events take place here. I was thinking of splitting this chapter in two, but too many related situations take place here. Splitting the chapter could complicate things).
Chapter 10: Depression Kicks In
After watching the doctor leave, Knuckles, Rogue, and Tails all watched Sonic almost helplessly. He seemed to be getting emotionally torn apart, though he also seemed to have calmed down slightly. They were all afraid that if they leave him like this, he could do something that they would all regret. After several minutes, Rogue broke the silence.
"I'm going to check on Amy." Rogue quickly walked back into Amy's room.
Knuckles and Tails noticed that Sonic was still fighting back tears. Knuckles then decided to say something next.
"You know Sonic, I've never seen you like this. Heck, I never knew that you were even capable of being like this. Why are you acting like this? If I know you well, then I know that you would actually be happy that all of this is happening to Amy. After all, she does annoy you a lot and you probably want this more than anything."
Sonic instantly snapped out of it and almost yelled at Knuckles. "Are you INSANE!?"
Knuckles nearly jumped back from how quickly Sonic reacted.
"Of course she's annoying. She been a nuisance for years and I've always wanted her to suffer at least once for all the trouble she's caused me. Maybe get a broken arm, or better yet a broken leg so that she doesn't chase me around anymore."
Sonic then pointed into Amy's room, "but this . . . . this is going way too far! I've never asked for anything like this!"
Tails was very surprised that Sonic is now acting like THIS!
Sonic continued, "In our past dates, she's been a living nightmare almost to no end. I always tell her to leave me alone. I even told her to DROP DEAD or go jump off a bridge a few times and she still ignores it. I guess I'm now getting what I've been asking for . . . and now . . . it doesn't feel right."
"So how do you feel towards Amy right now?" Knuckles asked very curiously.
"Honestly," Sonic answered, "I don't really know. I don't know if I should be celebrating because Amy's finally getting what she deserves, or if I should feel sorry because she's getting way more than I asked for. I mean, she seems to be suffering a fate worse than I could imagine."
Knuckles and Tails were starting to be very worried about his words. They were afraid that he could talk himself crazy if this continues.
Sonic continued, "I still can't believe how stupid I was than night when this all started."
"Stop blaming yourself like this!" Knuckles was starting to get fed up with Sonic accusing himself repeatedly, "this is not your fault. You never suspected that any of this could happen."
"You just don't get it do you?" Sonic replied very bitterly, "you weren't there. You didn't see how careless I was. You didn't see me when I stopped the car in the middle of the highway and jumped out. The least I could have done was park the car on the shoulder and then ditch her. But no, I had to stop the car right in the middle AND during a very thick fog. I might as well put up a sign saying: HIT THIS CAR AND WIN A PRIZE!!"
Knuckles and Tails just stared in disbelief.
"You know, We've all been trying to get this off my chest for a while but, what were you thinking!?" Knuckles practically screamed, "I mean, were you even thinking at all!?"
Tails spoke next, "I can't believe this! How . . . how could you?"
Knuckles continued, "I'd never think you would do something stupid like that. The Sonic I know would never be so foolish and careless. Do you realize how much danger you would've caused that night? What if other people got hurt besides just you and Amy (actually a few other people did get hurt at the accident, but luckily they weren't seriously injured at all). Were you willing to put other people in danger just because of your own personal vendetta with Amy?"
Sonic just sat there and took in all of the yelling. He almost looked like he ignored it all. Because of this, Knuckles became very frustrated, "HELLO!? Did you hear anything I just said?"
Knuckles grabbed Sonic and quickly stood him up. And then he practically yelled right at his Sonic's face! Sonic still seemed to ignore him, so Knuckles decided to knock some sense into him, literally. He then punched Sonic right in the gut! Though it wasn't his hardest punch, it still completely knocked the wind out of him!
Knuckles just blinked in surprise, "why . . . why didn't you try to avoid that? That was a slow punch."
Sonic coughed a few times then a few seconds later he got his breath back. "Because, I deserved that. And yes, I did hear everything you just said and all of it isn't new to me. All of that is in my head right now and it's tearing me apart."
"This is weird," Tails thought to himself, "it's like Amy has taken all the physical damage, but it seems that Sonic is taking all the mental damage."
Sonic starting feeling sick again, "I . . . I got to go. I need some air."
He quickly ran down the hall nearly crashing into a few nurses. He then rushed down the stairs, out the hospital's main door, and down the sidewalk. Tails was about to run after him, but Knuckles grabbed his shoulder to stop him.
"Let him go. Sonic needs some time to cool off," Knuckles said reassuringly.
"If you ask me," Tails replied, "I think he needs some psychological help. I'm just afraid that with all the problems he's facing right now, he could do something that we'll all regret."
"Let's just hope that it doesn't come to that," Knuckles replied. (Unfortunately, that's exactly what will happen!)
A few seconds later, Rogue walked into the hallway, "hey I just heard some yelling. Are you all fighting again? Wait a minute, where's Sonic?"
"He left to get some air and to cool off," Tails answered.
"Right now I feel like doing the same thing," Knuckles also replied.
"Well I hope he doesn't get into trouble," Rogue said, sounding almost worried.
Rogue then remembered something, "hey, just before the doctor left, I overheard the intercom saying something about another hedgehog. I also heard the word black."
"You know, that's weird," Tails replied, "he just told us that he has another patient. He didn't say anything about another hedgehog."
Rogue continued, "you . . . don't suppose that . . . it could be -"
Knuckles knew where she was getting at, "I know exactly what you mean, and there's only one way to find out. Let's follow where that doctor went."
"I also overheard something about going to the admittance room," Rogue said, "but we don't know where that is."
"Don't worry," Tails said, "I think I know what that means. There's some maps of the hospital all over this place. I can read them pretty well to find where he went."
"Wait a minute," Rogue protested, "we can't just leave Amy all by herself."
"Don't worry," Tails replied, "remember the doctor said that he called some nurses."
"Where are the nurses then?" Rogue asked.
Almost immediately, as if on cue, a pair of nurses finally arrived and entered Amy's room.
"Great," Knuckles said with satisfaction, "now let's go see what's up."
Meanwhile:
Dr. Carbana finally rushed into the trauma center admittance room. He quickly noticed the patient and asked a few questions from the other doctors in the room while putting on some gloves.
"All right," the doctor stated while looking at all the doctors and assistants in the room, "which one called me through the intercom?" A young doctor and his assistant raised their hands. "Good, can you tell me the diagnosis of the patient?"
"Okay," the young doctor explained, "we've done some simple body exams. Surprisingly, the patient isn't as badly injured as we thought. There's a fractured right leg that we took an x-ray of, and a very mild concussion. But there doesn't seem to be any serious internal bleeding or any damage to internal organs. The only internal damage found was a couple of broken ribs. However, the burns seem pretty extensive. I mean, look at the patient, the whole body is black. It must be covered with third degree burns if not worse!"
Dr. Carbana took a very close look at the patient. He didn't see very many blisters or anything that would indicate severe burns, but decided to make perfectly sure. He carefully ran his gloved hand over the body and was expecting to have some charred flesh rub off onto his glove like charcoal, but instead it felt like fur! Though it was a bit coarse and kind of spiky. He looked at his glove and saw no charred flesh or anything stuck to the glove. He also noticed that some of the chest fur has been burned away and could see the bare skin under it. The bare skin did have a few minor burns.
Dr. Carbana turned to the young doctor, "didn't you say that he was burned black?"
"Well we didn't exactly check his burns thoroughly," the young doctor answered, "we wanted you to do that since you have much more experience."
"Okay that seems rather careless," Dr. Carbana replied, "there are other trauma doctors besides me you know, however I'm already here. Anyway, this may sound strange, but this patient isn't BURNED black, it IS black."
The doctor's and assistants seemed somewhat shocked.
"A Black hedgehog?" The young doctor seemed rather confused and fascinated.
"Why not?" Dr. Carbana replied, "there's already a pink one and a blue one. I guess it's not too surprising to find a black one."
The doctors just stared in bewilderment. How can three hedgehogs end up in the exact same hospital? Is this fate, or just a strange coincidence?
Dr. Carbana continued, "are the MRI and CAT scanners ready?" They all nodded. "Great, first let's get some snapshots for reference." He then got an instant camera from a nearby shelf. (In case you're wondering, some pictures were taken of Amy as well. This will be explained later on in the story).
Knuckles, Tails, and Rogue all set off towards the admittance room, reading the hospital maps here and there and asking for directions so they don't get lost. After what seemed like hours, they finally found the room. They found the entrance to the admittance room, but before they got to it, Dr. Carbana opened the door and walked out of the room. They almost bumped into each other and they were surprised to see each other here. Dr. Carbana quickly shut the door, they didn't get a chance to see what's inside.
"Hey, you're not supposed to be here," The doctor said, almost complaining, "that room is only for doctors. What are you doing here anyway?"
Rogue answered first, "we were just curious about your new patient. I overheard some stuff on the intercom you were speaking to earlier."
The doctor was somewhat surprised, "huh? You heard all that?"
Rogue felt slightly insulted, "hello! I'm a bat. I have pretty good hearing you know. Anyway, we have a hunch that we know who your new patient is. We want to take a quick peek to find out for sure."
"Sorry, I can't do that," the doctor protested, "that room is for authorized doctors only, it's very easy to get in the way. However, I can show you these. I took a few pictures while the patient was being sent to the body scanning room."
The doctor took the photos out of the envelope he was holding. He was going to make copies for possible future reference and data use. They all took a good look at the photos and they were all overjoyed.
"Yup, that's definitely Shadow," Tails said first.
"Oh my lord," Rogue said, very shocked and concerned, "what happened? How is he?"
"So far, he doesn't seem to be as badly injured as we thought," the doctor replied, "but he's about to receive some thorough body scans to make perfectly certain."
They all looked at the photos some more and the doctor asked for them back to make some copies. He was just about to walk away when another assistant rushed through the door and called Dr. Carbana over.
"Doctor! You've got to see this," the assistant seemed very hysterical, "this is just getting weirder and weirder!"
"What's going on?" Dr. Carbana asked while everyone stared curiously.
"You may not believe this," the assistant replied, "but the patient is . . . well . . . he's awake and . . . and he's walking around! And he's not even stumbling or anything!"
"What!?" Dr. Carbana was very shocked and almost doubtful, "what are you talking about?"
The assistant answered, "we just finished the MRI and CAT scans and then a few seconds later, he just got up!"
"Okay, this seems very weird," Dr. Carbana replied, "I better look into this."
Dr. Carbana rushed back into the door and towards the body scanning room just past the admittance room. Knuckles, Tails, and Rogue just stared and blinked in confusion, barely understanding what just happened. And then a huge realization hit them.
"Hey, wait a minute," Tails spoke first, "didn't Shadow fall through the sky a few years ago? What's he doing here NOW, at this time?"
Knuckles seemed to have a solution, "when he was falling through the atmosphere, he must have activated the chaos control and ended up time traveling to now."
Rogue seemed a bit lost, "wait a second. You mean he vanished from one time period and reappeared in this time period?"
"It's very possible," Knuckles replied, "as far as I know that's got to be the only way that this happened."
Tails was very amazed and very excited, "wow! Wait till Sonic hears about this. He'll freak!"
"Speaking of Sonic," Rogue realized, "we'd better look for him before something happens to him. Hopefully he's back at the apartment or else we'll have a VERY hard time finding him."
Dr. Carbana and the assistant arrived at the body scanning room. What he saw made his jaw drop through the floor! Shadow was indeed walking around, however he was still in a daze and was mumbling to himself. The doctor noted that he was walking around with no sign of a limp and so he decided to investigate. He carefully walked up to the ebony hedgehog and asked as calmly as possible.
"Uh, hello there. Could you please tell me your name?" (The doctor already knows his name from Tails. This is just standard procedure).
Shadow groaned a few times. He still felt very lightheaded and dizzy and also had a pounding headache. All this made it difficult to answer back.
"S-Shadow, my name is Shadow," he managed to blurt out.
"That's great," the doctor replied to himself, "at least knows his name." The doctor pulled out a chair and asked for Shadow to have a seat before he falls over and hurts himself further since the hospital bed is a bit too high for him. Shadow agreed and stumbled over to the chair and sat down. The doctor decided to check his leg if it is truly healed. He asked Shadow to slowly raise and lower his legs. Shadow explained that he felt almost no pain in his legs.
The doctor then took out a small rubber hammer and tapped his left kneecap. He noted that Shadow's leg kick up as a reflex. He then tapped the right kneecap (the leg that's supposedly broken) and it too kicked up. The doctor then seemed very creeped out. He looked at his watch and noted the time and was completely shocked.
"But . . . but how? This can't be! It's only been fifteen minutes since he arrived here." He looked at the young doctor, "do you still have that x-ray of his right leg?"
"Of course," the young doctor answered then held up a large envelope, "it's right here."
Dr. Carbana carefully examined the x-ray and immediately noticed the fracture in the leg. He then looked at the results of the body scans and noticed to his surprise that the fracture had completely healed!
"WHAT!? H-how?" The doctor was almost speechless, "this is impossible! How can a fractured leg completely heal in only fifteen minutes?" After looking through the body scan results, no major internal damage was found. The broken ribs have almost completely healed as well! Dr. Carbana and all the other doctors were utterly dumbfounded. This hedgehog seems be defying medical logic!
After searching for several hours, Tails, Knuckles, and Rogue were all very surprised to find Sonic right at the apartment asleep! He didn't go very far at all!
"Well that was a waste of time," Knuckles complained.
They also noticed a few holes in the walls shaped like a fist. Obviously Sonic has been busy redecorating the walls with his fists!
The following is a tad graphic. Although you're probably used to that by now!
Over the next few days, Shadow made a complete recovery and was going to be discharged very soon. But in Sonic's case, his nights have been torturous. Almost every night, he would have nightmares very similar to the one he had after the accident. Before, they would only come once every week or so, but now it's happening almost every night.
Each nightmare had a few specific differences, but they all had the same idea. In one nightmare, a bunch of monsters took a large drill bit and impaled it through Amy's head. In another nightmare, a long cone shaped spike was stabbed through her head. But since it was cone shaped, it would get wider as it passed further through her head until her head completely split open!
Finally there was one nightmare that was completely different, but it still involved Amy. In this nightmare, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Rogue, and a few other people were gathered at a funereal for Amy. When Sonic looked into the casket, it totally creeped him out. Not all of her body was in the casket. Instead, about three-quarters of her body was in the casket. Basically, it was Amy's lower half of her body and the upper left part of her body. Her head and upper right part was missing!
"Hey, w-where's the rest of her, what's this all about," Sonic asked everyone at the funeral.
Tails turned to him and answered, "this is the part of her body that's dead. The rest of her is still alive, therefore only the dead parts of her body are being buried. If you want to know where the rest of her body is, then just look over there."
Tails pointed at a large group of people that were all gathered together. When Sonic ran up to them, they all moved out of the way, revealing what was behind them. Once again, he was completely freaked out by what he saw. It was indeed the rest of her body. Sonic then realized what he said earlier, about how most of Amy's body is "dead" and only a small part of her was still "alive."
What he saw in the casket was the obviously the "dead" part. But what he's looking at now is the only remaining "living" part of Amy's body. It was only her head and the upper right part of her body including her right arm! The whole thing was floating in a large tank filled with a strange fluid. There were also tubes and wires connected in order to keep this only remaining part alive! Sonic finally woke up after seeing all this and he was sweating like a rainstorm.
"THAT'S IT!! I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!!" Sonic yelled so loud that everyone in the apartment woke up.
Knuckles sprung up from his bed, "Hey! What happened? What's going on?"
He and everyone else noticed Sonic sitting up in his bed and holding his head like he was going crazy or something.
"Hey Sonic, are you all right? What's wrong?" Tails asked in a very concerned and slightly worried tone.
"N-nothing," Sonic answered reassuringly, "it was just a bad dream." (That's quite an understatement!) "I'll just go for a walk. I need to clear my head." He quickly dashed out the door before anyone could say anything else.
Rogue just blinked in surprise a few times and looked at the clock. It was nearly five in the morning. It was actually still dark outside and sunrise wouldn't arrive for at least another hour. "Why would Sonic go out for a walk this early?" Rogue asked to herself, "I mean, most people are still asleep right now."
Since Sonic did a rude awakening for everyone, they all decided to pay another visit to Amy and see how she's doing. Visiting hours at the hospital isn't until seven in the morning, so they still have to wait two long hours.
Rogue asked her question again, this time out loud. "What would he be doing going out at a time like this?"
"Beats me," Knuckles replied, "I got a good look at his face and it was nothing short of terrified. Most likely he had another one of his nightmares. I guess he's just out so he can get some fresh air and help calm himself down. If you ask me, I think he needs some serious help, although I doubt that he'll admit it."
After running around town for nearly an hour and nearly crashing into various objects due to the poor lighting (even the street light weren't good enough!), Sonic finally slowed down to a walking pace. He started contemplating about all the nightmares that he's been constantly having and that weird nightmare about Amy's funeral. Finally, he decided that if he could at least have a long talk with Amy, maybe the nightmares would go away. He figured that it was at least worth a shot.
After walking around a bit more to calm himself down, he checked his watch (Tails designed a watch for him so he doesn't always have to ask about the time). It was only a few minutes before visiting hours started, so he carefully rushed towards the hospital.
At exactly 7 AM, the visiting hours opened and Knuckles, Tails, and Rogue entered Amy's room. When they arrived though, there was already somebody in there, and it was Shadow himself!
Knuckles spoke first, "hey, what're you doing here? Aren't supposed to be in a hospital bed or something?"
"I just got discharged from this hospital a few minutes ago," Shadow replied, "I also heard about Amy's problems from some of the nurses. It seems that Amy is a celebrity here. Anyway, I decided to pay her a visit as well."
He also explained to them how he used the chaos control at the last moment to time travel. However, he had trouble concentrating while falling through the atmosphere, but it just so happens that he appeared at this time period anyway. Rogue giggled slightly since Shadow looked a little silly with most of his chest fur burned away. The bare skin was almost the some coloration as Sonic's belly. He told them that his chest fur should grow back in a few weeks. They were all very amazed that Shadow made such a quick recovery.
Tails decided to visit Dr. Carbana's office (with his permission of course) and started occupy himself by reading some of the health and doctor's books. (He's been doing this out of curiosity for the past few days). Meanwhile, just a couple blocks away, Sonic was leaning against a light post and started thinking about what he'll actually do.
"What am I going to say," he asked himself, "I can't stop this lingering guilt inside me and these nightmares are getting out of hand! I don't care if she can understand me or not, but I've got to at least give her a long talk, maybe I'll feel a little better after that. If not I . . . I guess I'll have to swallow my pride and find some help. I'll do anything to end these nightmares!"
Sonic almost arrived at the main doors of the hospital. Since visiting hours have just barely opened, there was hardly anyone outside or around the hospital, and it was relatively quiet. That all changed before he took another step, he heard some yelling from behind and noticed a man carrying a bag and a gun! He also noticed two policemen in the distance that were yelling and chasing the man. Sonic wasn't exactly in the mood to play hero right now, but decided to do something anyway.
Sonic noticed a small trashcan next to him and he hid behind it. When the man ran by the trashcan, Sonic quickly stuck his foot out and kicked the man's legs and tripped him. When the man fell over the gun flew out of his hand and landed in the trashcan. Some trash covered the gun, so it was hidden from sight. It was done so fast that the cops didn't even see what exactly happened, they thought that the man just tripped and fell on his own.
When the cops caught up the man (he turned out to be a simple ordinary thief, if there is such a thing), they quickly cuffed him up and took him away. (Surprising, they didn't notice that his gun was missing). Sonic stayed hidden behind the trashcan, he didn't want any attention to distract him right now. After they all left, he got out and looked around. There still wasn't anyone around!
"Wow," Sonic said to himself, "I never noticed how dead it could be around here at this time."
Just then, a strong breeze blew by and removed the trash that covered the gun. Just before he turned around to continue towards the hospital, he noticed the gun in the trashcan. He felt inclined to leave it alone and just continue on, but the gun almost seemed to call his name. Sonic just stared at it some more and an almost evil grin appeared on his face. Moments later, Sonic got a really STUPID idea.
Meanwhile, in Amy's room, everyone tried talking to Amy including Shadow. A few seconds later, Dr. Carbana entered the room and greeted everyone, including his former patient.
"I'm sorry that I have to leave right away," Dr. Carbana said suddenly, "my shift is over right now. Normally I work on the evening/night shift, but there were some problems with some incoming patients so I had to work a little overtime. I least I get to say good bye to all of you before I go home."
He then waved good bye and left the room. He then almost forgot about Tails and he quickly went back to his office. Knuckles also left the room to go to a nearby liquor store and buy some ice cream for Amy (he wanted to do something nice for once, and he wasn't very comfortable with the hospital cafeteria food).
Rogue heard some commotion out the window and noticed a man being taken away by two policemen. She then noticed Sonic coming out from behind a small trashcan and was just standing on the sidewalk.
"Well it's about time Sonic arrived," she said to herself, "I thought he wasn't even coming. And why's he staring at that trashcan for? Did he forget or lose something in it?"
(Too bad that she has no idea what's about to happen!)
Sonic stared at the gun in the trashcan and sort of studied it from where he stood. It was a simple semi-automatic pistol, but it also had a suppressor attached. So now if the gun went off, it would make very little sound. Sonic's grin just got wider after seeing this (too bad he's facing away from the hospital, otherwise Rogue would have seen the look on his face). Sonic slowly reached for the gun while Rogue was wondering why he's digging in a trashcan like a bum. She actually found it slightly amusing! He finally held the gun in his hands (his body is still blocking Rogue's view) and eyed it like a child staring at candy in a store. He looked around and noticed that there was still nobody around.
"Yes! Now's my chance," Sonic thought almost desperately to himself, "no more nightmares and no more feeling guilty."
(OH NO!! He's not thinking straight again!)
He didn't bother to hide, they would eventually find his body anyway. Besides, he wanted to end this right here and right now and didn't want to waste time finding a hiding spot. (The trashcan could have been one hiding spot, then again he's not thinking properly anyway.)
Meanwhile, Dr. Carbana got Tails out of his doctor's office. Tails wanted to walk with the doctor while he leaves the hospital so he can talk to him a little about Amy's condition. The doctor thought it was okay, since it was just until they reach the hospital's main doors. While walking towards the main hospital doors, they noticed that Knuckles had just barely walked through it ahead of them.
(Knuckles POV)
Knuckles walked outside the hospital main doors to go to the liquor store. He spotted Sonic was about to wave at him when he noticed a gun in his hand! Also, to his horror, he raised the gun to his head! He quickly rushed at Sonic to stop him, being careful not to startle him or else he might pull the trigger before Knuckles reaches him.
(Back to Sonic)
Sonic quickly put the gun to his right temple and tried to pull the trigger. But for some reason he hesitated to do so. He began to reconsider what he's doing, but his stupid mind has been made up. So he closed his eyes tightly and was about to pull the trigger for real to end his life.
But before he could, he heard a familiar voice speaking to him. "You know, that's the most selfish thing I've ever seen you do."
Sonic opened his eyes and saw Knuckles staring right at him. He became so tense that he couldn't move his finger to pull the trigger.
"I always thought that you were a hero," Knuckles continued, "but I never knew that you were this cowardly. So you're trying to take the easy way out, huh? Do you realize how we'd all feel if you killed yourself. Well, what do you have to say for yourself?"
Sonic just stared in disbelief. "Uhh . . . um . . ."
That was all he could say at that moment. Seeing that he was distracted, Knuckles took advantage and tried to snatch the gun away. Unfortunately, he was a bit too slow, but at least Sonic moved the gun away from his head before the gun went off. Since the suppressor was still on, no one heard the gun shoot, except for Rogue. Despite the gun being suppressed, her superior hearing picked up the sound anyway. She looked out the window again and saw Sonic and Knuckles wrestling each other with a loaded gun in hand!
She quickly opened the window and jumped out to ambush Sonic (she can fly and glide of course). But before she reached then, the gun went off again and the bullet went through her left wing, disabling it. She still managed to land on the sidewalk using only one wing, but she landed flat on her back and bruised herself badly. "Well that didn't go very well," she thought to herself.
Meanwhile, Tails and Dr. Carbana reached the main door. Before they walked through, Tails decided to ask a question first.
"Um, doctor? In your opinion, how is Amy doing so far."
The doctor didn't even hesitate, "it's hard to say at this time. It's like she's getting better and worse at the same time. But overall, I believe she's getting better which is quite fascinating."
They continued and walked through the main doors.
"What do you mean she's getting better and worse?" Tails asked curiously.
But before the doctor could answer, they both heard some struggling nearby. To their horror, they saw Sonic and Knuckles struggling with a gun! They also saw Rogue getting up, being slightly dazed and with her left wing bleeding!
Tails ran towards them and was about to call out Sonic's name to at least distract him or make him stop. Dr. Carbana was about to go and call security. Before any of this happened though, an unlikely action occurred.
Knuckles made the mistake of holding onto the gun's suppressor to get a good grip. The suppressor broke off and the gun's barrel rested right on Knuckles shoulder. The line of sight for the bullet was just perfect to "hit THREE birds with one stone."
This time when the gun fired, it made a loud bang since the suppressor broke off. The bullet went STRAIGHT THROUGH Knuckles right shoulder. The bullet continued and hit Tails' right ear, completely blowing it off in a spray of flesh and blood. Finally, the bullet continued and hit Dr. Carbana in the right chest just barely missing his heart.
Knuckles grabbed onto his injured shoulder, "AHH, you . . you son of a -"
"S-sonic!" Tails interrupted, "w-why!?" He grabbed onto his now nonexistent right ear. (Or where it used to be!)
Sonic was so dumbfounded by what just happened that his grip on the gun finally loosened. In fact the gun completely slipped out of his hand and Knuckles grabbed it (with his good arm) before it hit the ground. Knuckles emptied all the bullets into the trashcan, then carefully placed the gun on the sidewalk. He then stomped on the gun so hard that there was a footprint in the concrete and the gun was completely flat!
Knuckles then did something rather desperate and somewhat dumb, but he had to do something to stop Sonic in case he tries something else. Seeing that Sonic was totally shocked and distracted, he took advantage of this. He then grabbed Sonic and head butted him very hard! So hard that he knocked him out cold! Unfortunately, he forgot that Sonic's head is also quite hard and he almost gave himself a concussion! (Wow, I wonder how Sonic is then.)
The loud bang quickly captured Shadow's attention and he raced down the steps (not bothering with the elevator). His jaw just dropped from all the carnage in front of him. "Hey! What's going on? WHAT HAPPENED!?"
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My goodness! It seems like everyone is getting hurt in this chapter. Don't worry though, none of them are too seriously injured.
Also, I'll try to be swifter with the next chapter. I've already got the main ideas for the next chapter in my head right now.