Chapter 2 – 'The Darkness is Coming'.

As Amy dropped off and Nack speed-dialled a second number, a familiar Mobian was draping her slim body over a deck chair and adjusting a pair of sunglasses. Rouge let out a contented sigh as she soaked up the sun of the island. If nothing else, South Island was remote, quiet and just perfect for her needs. She'd missed most of the holiday crowd and the complex she now resided in was deserted save for herself and a few others who kept to themselves. All she wanted now was a few days of peace and quiet. Finally, a decent break. Guess my department got a bit more funding this year.

The Mobian had been as surprised as anyone else when the President himself had insisted she take a fortnight off to 'rest and recuperate' as he delicately put it. Well, she reasoned, she had more than earned it; she had recovered vital information that had helped save the world, and had had a hand in dethroning the self-proclaimed Metal Overlord. She shivered a little at that name; she'd done some scary things in her time, but that surely had to top the lot. Over a hundred tonnes of ravenous metal death bent on nothing less than the total and utter annihilation of you and your closest friends. And that was only one arm.

Still, she reminded herself, that was in the past now and the President hadn't asked too many questions about how she and the others had managed to overcome the metal fiend. They were too busy concentrating on tracking down Eggman before he managed to set up another base and give them the slip yet again. Taking a sip of her martini, the well cultured bat gave a luxurious stretch, absently wondering if the others were doing as well as she was. Especially Shadow; she winced as she pictured his bloody body flying through the air as the Metal Overlord had lashed out faster than he'd expected, just before Omega's cannons had finally taken the arm off at the shoulder. He'd needed urgent treatment but luckily had recovered well, or at least his body had.

The bat frowned; the amnesia had a firm grip on his mind, but re-meeting and hanging around Sonic had helped jog his memory. Last she had heard, he was renting an apartment with the blue blur himself and talking with as many of the gang as possible to try and remember. He was still having trouble believing he had survived a drop through the stratosphere though,

"The, stratosphere, b,but I couldn't, I'd, it's just…"

"Hey, chill it Shads. You did it and survived" the blue hedgehog's eyes had sparkled, "though you were still dumb enough to let Eggy catch you, and Rouge fool you into thinking that…"

"Shut it faker!" Everyone had paused at this, Sonic especially.

"What did you call me?" Rouge couldn't help but smile at Shadow's face; he must have thought he'd be getting a slap for that comment, "heh, you said faker didn't you?"

"Uh, yeah, is that bad?" Sonic clapped the black hedgehog on the shoulder and looked straight into his blood red eyes,

"No way man, that's the best thing you've said in a long time". Shadow smiled sardonically,

"Guess I'd better say it more then, faker."

"Right that's it. Tails, mark a course; you're claimed Shadow the Hedgehog!" The two had then vanished into the distance in one of their super speed races; of course, it had been a dead heat and both had returned with almost identical grins on their faces. Maybe the amnesia was a good thing for Shadow, Rouge mused; by forgetting the pain in his past and experiencing a happy present, Shadow would be better prepared for when he did remember. If he ever did. She finished her cocktail and sketched a quick list on the corner of a napkin.

Firstly, she had to buy enough food to last for another couple of days, then she wanted to go sightseeing; the waterfall in the jungle of this island was supposed to be particularly spectacular. She also wanted to send a few postcards, especially to Amy. The hedgehog had agreed to house-sit her Station Square apartment at very short notice and the bat was extremely grateful. She'd judged Amy to be a young airhead besotted with Sonic when they'd first met, but her sheer determination and courage against the Metal Overlord couldn't be denied. She also had a sweet nature and looked out for those she considered friends. The imagery of Amy's face crying prevented Rouge from pointing out any flaws the pink hedgehog might have suffered from. That and she didn't fancy being on the receiving end of the Piko Piko hammer if she could avoid it.

The bat was just thinking of what to send to Sonic and Shadow when her phone rang. Her first instinct was to ignore it; everyone knew she was away and she really didn't want to have to move her arm all of two feet to reach her phone. Just as quickly, it dawned on her that only two people actually knew the number of that particular phone; the head of her department in the President's office and Amy Rose, who had sworn not to ring unless the four horsemen of the Apocalypse were not only at the door but inside the hallway and hanging up their coats. Mind you, knowing the crowd I'm lumped with now, that really wouldn't surprise me; a daredevil hedgehog with a knack for saving the world and his number one fan, a two-tailed foxboy genius and an echidna who couldn't keep a single gem safe. If Rouge's cheeks heated slightly at the memory of the echidna she didn't register it as she reached for the phone and pressed the green button.

"Hello?"

Nack was cursing as the phone rang; he really didn't want to force this on anyone but he didn't have a choice. He had called on all the deities he knew remotely associated with luck that the bat would answer but as the drone continued, he found it increasingly unlikely. Therefore, when a cultured, feminine voice said hello, the weasel nearly dropped the phone.

"Rouge, is that you?"

The bat was instantly on her guard; she didn't recognise that voice and the consequences of that could be severe. Her tone hardened as she spat,

"Who the hell is this? How'd you get the number?"

Nack wet his lips,

"The darkness is coming".

As those words echoed through the phone, to Rouge at least, the sunlight turned cold and the waves she could hear became crashes of thunder. Her breath came quick and light as the implications of that phase sank in – to anyone other than a guild member, it was a meaningless assortment of four words, but to her it was the most dire warning imaginable. Before they had all gone their separate ways, the guild members had devised that code-phrase, only to be used in emergencies, when life and limb were in danger. And as a former member of that guild, she was obliged to honour the call. Voice shaking slightly, she replied uncertainly,

"What did you say?"

"You heard; figure it out. You were a smart girl in the guild. I'm in Station Square, I need to meet up with ya". The voice was male and harsh, but gentler now. Rouge gathered as many of her scattered wits as possible before replying,

"I'm on South Island. I'll be on the first flight back".

"I'll be in the airport, call me with your flight details. Gotta go". The other end hung up.

Rouge slumped back down in her chair, still numb from the emotional shock. Nothing from any of them for over six years, then this bolt from the blue; one hell of a way to be re-introduced to at least one old friend. She quickly regained her senses and headed for her room to pack up, wondering what on Earth could force a guilder to send out that code. It had to be big and probably dangerous, just what she needed right now; another way to try and get herself killed. She sighed; this was possibly the shortest holiday she'd ever had – talk about irony. No wonder Knuckles never had holidays, argh! Even when she was half the globe away, that damned echidna wouldn't leave her thoughts. She swore, when she'd sorted out this guild business, she'd spend the rest of her holiday going after the Master Emerald, just to spite the red menace. Right now though, she had a flight to book.

Nack sat down on his bed, if you could call the shabby mattress and rickety headboard such a thing. Well, that was it, the die was cast. All he could do now was lay low and wait for the bat to get in touch. He hoped that, wherever the others were, they were all safe and that somehow, he'd be able to walk away from this mess in one piece.

Rest was needed. The scouting mission had been successful; the attack had no reason to fail. There would be no mistakes. By this time tomorrow, only a single target would remain.

Nack was up early the following morning; sleep had been hard to come by and what little he'd managed to catch didn't refresh him. He was constantly on guard as he knew better than anyone that one slip may well be his last. He quickly shucked on his jacket and hat, headed for the door of his new dive. The lock was broken, but a couple of second's work ensured that anyone who tried to break in would get at least one nasty shock. He took a lungful of air, sneezing as the cleaner air outside the Pit Stop cleared his trachea like a scouring pad. His bike was untouched, not surprising since the first thing he'd done after buying it was rig up a few extra safety features. He unlocked and reached into the rear pannier. He carefully extracted a fresh packet of smokes and a collection of photos; he'd been on the road for most of his life and carried everything important with him. Flipping through the binder, he quickly came across the one he needed, it was distasteful, but if anything would convince Rouge how serious this was, it was this. Lighting up a casual fag, Nack headed for the nearest take away.

In another part of the city, a second figure awoke and began preparations.

If there were two things Rouge could have avoided, it would have been early mornings and flying. Of course, the irony gods just had to dictate that the next available flight back to Station Square was at the mythical time of half past eight in the morning. All fine and dandy, until she remembered the airport was a three hour drive from her resort. So, at half past four in the God-damned morning, Rouge was busy getting dressed and glancing various curses at her innocent alarm clock. Fully clothed and ready as was possible this time in the day, she viciously yanked the alarm clock plug out the wall socket. Strangely, that felt particularly satisfying.

"Where to miss?" The cabbie was a little surprised to get a fare this early in the morning. He was equally surprised to see, rather than an inebriated teenager with more hot air than money, a suave, attractive bat eased open the cab door and flopped down in the seat.

"Airport please, and try not to talk to me too much".

"Huh?" Rouge turned as dirty a glance as she could at the helpless driver,

"I'm not having a good day and I don't do mornings". She dared the cabbie to open his mouth, but thankfully the human had a decent amount of brains and kept stumm as he pulled off. Wrapping her wings as close to herself as possible, Rouge went out like a light.

There was a buzzing in her ear. She tried to ignore it but it didn't go away, it just got louder. She tried to roll over,

"G'way, s'early". Of course, the volume just increased and eventually, she had to do something about it. Another smack on the alarm clock hastily dealt with that problem as Amy pulled herself upright. She rubbed her eyes and stretched, her arms clicking noisily as she eased herself out of bed and jumped into the shower. The warm water helped her feel Mobian again as she dried off with a pre-warmed white towel. Slipping her dress over her head, Amy quickly popped some bread in the toaster and arranged her Piko Piko hammer so it wasn't noticeable to the ordinary eye. She'd often been asked how she hid such a clumping great hammer on her modest person and the answer was she honestly didn't know how she did it; it was just something she did. Anyway, she had some questions to ask and a bit of shopping to do.

"Hey Sonic", a voice cut through the hedgehog's pleasant daydream, "there's…" The hedgehog flicked an annoyed glance upwards at his friend's hovering form, as always slightly envious of the fox for being able to fly so effortlessly. Tails appeared to be pointing at something, but Sonic really wanted to get back to where he'd left his daydream on pause.

"Oh, give us a minute Tails, I've just got comfortable". Sonic shifted slightly on the bench he'd sat down on, giving the impression of not wanting to move in a hurry,

"But…"

"No, whatever it is it can wait". Miles Prower, otherwise known as Tails, heaved a heavy, heartfelt sigh. Typical Sonic; a hero he might be, but he was just too stubborn for his own good. From his elevated position, Tails could see exactly what was going to happen and masked a smile. Three, two, one…

Sonic let out a happy sigh, in his mind trashing Eggman's latest creation and being hailed as the world's greatest superhero when a crushing weight landed squarely on the back of his neck. Instinct took over and his mind raced faster than even his body ever could. Eggman, still running, Metal, in the junkyard; as he caught a flash of pink in his peripheral vision, he realised with horror it was worse than both of them combined. Much, much worse.

"Sonikku!" Amy Rose squealed as she latched onto her hero with a grip that was the envy of anacondas the world over. Tails fought desperately to try and stop bursting out laughing, eventually succeeding against nearly impossible odds. Well, I tried to warn him he thought fatalistically as he hovered for a frontal view of the action. He chortled despite himself; it was just too funny not to. Sonic was desperately trying to get away, face contorted and arms flailing as he tried to remove Amy from round his neck. The pink horror herself had her eyes shut and an expression of sheer ecstasy plastered on her face, the face she always had when she was attempting to murder the hero of Station Square. Tails caught his friend's eye as he dropped to the deck, grinned broadly and mimed taking a photo. He wasn't too sure, but he thought he heard the choked reply of

"Just, wait" from the blue blur.

"Hey, Amy, let up; he needs to breathe". Amy peered at the two-tailed fox for a second before apparently remembering what her arms were doing. She let out a yike and sprang back, allowing Sonic to heave in deep breaths and massage his throat.

"Air, air good" he manage to say eventually, glaring at Amy as she stood with a butter-wouldn't-melt expression on her face,

"Sorry Sonic, but I haven't seen you for a while".

"All of two days" the disgruntled hedgehog muttered under his breath before turning a hard but not unkind look on Amy, "now what did I tell you earlier?"

"No hugs in public" the hedgehog mumbled, shuffling her dainty feet. Tails felt a little sorry for her; by her standards, that was actually pretty good, the redness round Sonic's neck would probably fade in an hour,

"Don't worry Ames, he's only pretending. He likes you really" the kit piped up, deftly reflecting the death glare Sonic sent his way.

"Really?" Amy had the puppy-dog eyes on, "is that true Sonic?"

Just tell her; go on, look in her eyes and say 'yes'. Shut up, Sonic demanded of the little voice in the back of his mind. O.K. so maybe I just might have some scraps of feelings for Amy, and maybe she aught to know, but no, not now, I'll tell her some other time – coward – I told you to shut up. Man, Tails, you're dead.

Sonic coughed slightly before replying, playing down his internal struggle as he replied,

"Not when you're trying to crush me like a grape I don't. Just, try to keep it down next time okay? Please?" Amy nodded, a little put out before Sonic let up,

"So where are you to in such a rush?" Now that was something she could relate to,

"There's an offer on in one of the malls in town; two for one on the dresses I like" she said animatedly, oblivious to the look of panic passed between Sonic and Tails, "I think I'll go for a lighter pink this time, but anyway", her mind went back to the previous night, "I needed to ask you both something".

"Okay, shoot" Sonic remarked, more relaxed. When she's not in the process of sending me to hospital, she's actually pretty cool. Man, why can't she be like this all the time? Amy smiled,

"Do either of you two know anyone called Nack? Nack the Weasel?"

That was unexpected; Tails scratched an ear as Sonic looked a little perplexed. Glancing across, Tails answered for the pair of them,

"Umm, no, don't think so. Why d'you ask?"

"Someone called last night asking for Rouge, said his name was Nack".

"Nah, I don't know him", Sonic admitted with a shake of his head, "mind you, this is Rouge we're talking about. She's probably got enough connections to have her personal search engine. What's her place like anyway?"

"Oh, it's the best. I'll tell you about it at the mall" Amy offered innocently.

"Sure, I'll", Sonic caught himself just in time. Damn she's crafty. "Hey, you're not catching me out like that girl".

"Aww, so close", Amy gave a fake scowl, "alright, I'll cut you a deal; come shopping with me and I'll make those chilli-dogs you like". THAT caught Sonic's attention.

"You serious?"

"Yep, enough for you, Tails and Shadow. Where is he anyway?"

"He's at the park" Tails answered, "he likes to walk around there, says it's peaceful and quiet".

"He still doesn't remember much, huh?" Amy said sadly. She had spoken the ultimate life-form several times and he'd made improvement, but now it was like he'd hit a brick wall and couldn't remove any more of his mental blocks. She brightened and smiled slyly, "Well, we gotta deal?"

"Your call, Sonikku" Tails affirmed in an annoying tone of voice, cheekily dodging the light-hearted cuff from his elder brother. The hedgehog made his mind up with a dramatically resigned sigh.

"I'll get no peace 'till I agree; alright, you win". Amy let out a cheer as Tails began to sidle off,

"Have a nice time you two, I'll get back to my workshop". He made to leave but was brought to a sudden stop as something seized one of his tails. The fox looked over his shoulder to see Sonic beaming at him and broke into a cold sweat,

"No hope buster, you're not getting away that easily. Besides", he smiled maliciously at Amy who nodded, "we'll need someone to carry the bags".

Nack looked up from his burger; was that a scream of denial he'd heard? Nah, couldn't have been. The weasel wiped his hands on a napkin before pulling his vibrating cell phone out of his pocket. To an observer, Nack just grunted in the affirmative a few times before clicking the cell phone closed; to the weasel himself, though, the consequences of that call were rather more enlightening than that. For the first time since last night, the weasel allowed himself a glimmer of hope that he'd be able to survive this.