Chapter 6: Outpost Delta
The large group carefully walked out of the back exit of the catacombs sending them up through the sewer about 10 ft away from the alleyway. Shadow looked around and tapped his foot as the rest climbed out and checked for any sewage.
"If this paper is right we need to head out of Gate Delta." Shadow grumbled while staring at the tattered sheet of paper.
"That's a little far." Larez commented.
Knuckles crossed his arms and seemed to wait as the Espio, Larez, and Shadow gave him a look of pure confusion; Knuckles suddenly leapt high up and drove his fist into the face of a man driving one of the large hovercrafts. Knuckles watched as the man flew back about 35 ft. Knuckles grinned and landed on the vehicle and waited for the others to jump up. Shadow jumped up first and climbed into the driver's seat, he lowered the craft to ground level and waited till everyone had taken a seat. Knuckles had claimed the passenger seat and no one dared to try to take it from him. With Espio and Larez in the rear, Shadow pressed down on the gas. The hovercraft rose up to normal flight height and shot into the distance. Everyone watched in wonder as the craft sped through the airways weaving through the sea of hovercrafts. Shadow laughed as the vehicle went faster and faster through the crowded air, the other hovercraft turned to get out of the way of the speeding craft the group stole. Knuckles' jaw dropped as the bright lights, loud noises, and streaking colors of the city flew back in a flash, before he knew it they were at the gate. Shadow pulled the lever down and the craft quickly dropped till it was just over the ground, Shadow pulled out the card key and grinned as the gate slowly opened for them.
"LAND!" Larez screamed as he dove out of the vehicle and onto the dirty pavement.
"Move with caution once outside, its best we don't get into an encounter with the Quaro." Espio stated.
"We can't drive that outside?" Knuckles asked.
"The craft are a part of the magnetic field the city gives off, it's useless outside." Espio answered acting like Knuckles' question wasn't stupid.
"Time to go on foot. The Outpost is straight ahead. About 5 minutes run. Think you can keep up with me?" Shadow said with a grin.
"Stupid question not even worth answering." Knuckles said pushing Espio aside.
Shadow smirked and began to take off across the field dead grass, with Knuckles right by his side, Knuckles gave Shadow a dirty look as Shadow continued to accelerate, the dead grass began to turn into a blur as they raced ahead with Espio and Larez closely behind. Knuckles grinned and began to run by Shadow, Shadow scowled and sped up to catch up with the red echidna, the world around them was all a blur as they ran across the field and down the hill, up the ramp and down the loop which was connected with the side of a hill, they ran across the side of the hill and down the spiraling rock formation and back up another hill and through the field of blackened grass. A large camp of sorts was at the end of the field of dead black grass. Billows of smoke spewed out from the metal complex that was still under construction. Knuckles and Shadow skid to a stop as they came up on the complex faster than they would have liked, the continued to skid as Espio charged by them and threw 2 small daggers that twirled in the air and nailed the Guards at the entrance lean in the throat causing them to fall over and lie in a pool of their own blood. Espio stopped and grinned as the rest of the group walked up to him and carefully looked through the gate.
"What would you do without me?" Espio happily chuckled.
"Was that really necessary?" Larez moaned.
"That's two guards we won't have to worry about. Works for me, now what's the plan?" Knuckles asked.
"We get to the reactor and hit it hard; if we are lucky the facility will blow sky high." Shadow said.
The group dashed across the metal plated floor towards the big metal building with Guards stationed around it, Knuckles spun around and smashed his fist into the Guard's neck cracking it mercilessly as Shadow curled up and slammed into the other guard taking his head off in 1 blow, the body crumpled to the floor as Espio scratched up the floor with his daggers while Larez busted the door open with a solid punch. A loud clang filled the hallway as the metal door slammed into the floor, Espio dove forward and vanished into the air as the others dashed down the hall, the screams of guards and blades ricocheting echoed down the hallways and through the doorways, Guards began to swarm out of the doorways in front of Shadow, Shadow unleashed his ancient light attack and dove through all the guards leaving only a big hole through the whole crowd, the guards fell back and soaked the floor with their dark red blood. Running down the now blood soaked stairs, and down the corridor guards began to charge forward as they armed their weapons, Knuckles dove forward and snapped them in half one by one with his powerful punches, the chaos finally slowed down as they made it to the last room…
"Finally!" Shadow sighed.
"Looks like we won't have a hard time getting out." Knuckles chuckled.
"Shadow…do your thing." Espio said with a hint of malice in his voice.
Shadow nodded and curled up and spun around as he body began to glow, suddenly he began to bounce all over the room breaking countless machinery while cracking the Reactor's container. As Shadow stopped the reactor began to pulsate causing the room to glow an eerie green.
"Oh boy…I didn't mean to damage it that much." Shadow gasped.
"Gotta Run! Gotta Run!" Larez yelled!
The group instantly turned around and darted back up the long blood soaked hall as the outpost's alarm sounded.
Computer: Reactor unstable…approximately 8 seconds till explosion.
The hallways filled with corpse rushed by as the wind howled in their ears as they ran through the hall as the countdown commenced. Shooting out of the entrance, they continued through the outpost and out of the gate, time seemed to slow as the group of 4 ran top speed as the outpost started to imploded, burst of fire began to shoot out its windows and smoke began to scatters, they all jumped into the air as the massive explosion took place behind them, they slide against the ground and covered their heads as the flaming shockwave passed over. Each of them turned around to find a smoldering pit where the outpost once was.
"I'd love to see the heads roll when Robotnik finds out about this." Shadow chuckled.