(You know the drill. Don't own Sonic, never have, never will. Yuji Naka, SEGA, and Sonic Team own him and the gang. On with the story.)
CHAPTER 12
When Shadow's Chaos Control brought him to his foretold location, courtesy of the Prism Emerald, he found himself in what seemed like a cross, between, a metal floored laboratory, and a rocky cave. "So the prism emerald brought me here… I just hope they aren't all captive in many different areas…" The prism emerald began to magnetically point to Shadow's left. He looked towards the direction, and suddenly, his ear picked up voices.
Amy… You know, I never EVER found you annoying during those past years… I was shy, scared, and didn't want you to get hurt... But it looks like I should've admitted my feelings sooner…
Oh Sonic… Don't blame yourself… Whatever happens to us now, I'll be happy just knowing you really do love me. The past night was just so magical for me, because it showed me how much you really do love me…
Amy, that really means a lot to me…
A smile curled Shadow's lips. 'Found them!' He started to speed towards the direction the voices came from. At first, all he saw was darkness, with a few dim lights on the walls, but soon, he thought he could see daylight as he ran deeper into the cave. Finally, when he turned a corner, he could see a light at the end of the tunnel. He heard the voices getting louder, and he could see two forms near the entrance. In one second, he was off. "Sonic! Amy!" He called out.
Sonic and Amy were talking to each other, still in chains, when they heard a familiar voice call out to them, and were suddenly hit with a gust of wind as a black hedgehog passed right by, and stopped in front of them. "Shadow?" They said in unison.
Shadow turned to them, a look of relief on his face. "Thank God… I finally found you two! I had to go through a few Nega-5 members to do it, but I managed to kill End and Sorrow. Ambient and the Chaotix came along, and they're dealing with Fury. I don't know where Pain and Fear are, but that's not important. What's important is, I found you two, so I guess the others can't be very far." Using the power from the prism emerald, Shadow managed to force open/off the restraints that held Sonic and Amy captive.
Sonic and Amy both fell to the ground, both slightly weak from being suspended and stretched for many hours, but otherwise fine, as they were able to stand.
Shadow turned his attention towards Sonic. "Can you still run right now?"
Sonic stretched his legs a bit. "My legs have gone a little stiff, but I think I can manage."
"Me too." Amy agreed.
"Good. Cause we need to find the others, before either Fury breaks loose, or Fear and Pain know we're here." Shadow explained.
With that the 3 hedgehogs backtracked back into the laboratory/cave, right to where Shadow had materialized. Sure enough, when they got there, there was a door, leading inside to the rest of the "base." Shadow turned the brass knob, opening the door; they slipped through with no problem. They started to stroll down the halls, checking rooms, trying to find their friends.
As they passed through a crossroad in the area, Sonic peered through one open door. His eyes widened and he quietly whistled to Amy and Shadow. "Guys… Over here!" He whispered loudly. "I see Tails and Cream! But…" Sonic peeked again. "Pain's there too."
Shadow took out the prism emerald and smirked. "Leave that to me."
Shadow quietly tip toed inside of the room, and from a few feet away he could see Cream and Tails, trapped in a cage, with Pain standing guard. "Too easy…" He said to himself. "CHAOS CONTROL." He said in a whisper, disappearing.
Pain stood in front of the cages. "Ugh… What's taking Fury so long? How much longer do I have to baby sit the brats….?" She griped. "OH well, I wonder what will become of the public, when their heroes are reformatted into agents of GUN…" She smiled nastily, and was about to turn to jeer at her two prisoners, when she felt a crystal-like object jabbed in her back, along with a sudden cold sensation. She had no time to turn or ponder to see who did it as in 3 seconds…
BLAM!
The area above Pain's left bosom suddenly erupted, causing blood to splatter all over the floor. A gaping hole was left above Pain's left breast, for her heart had exploded. Pain's corpse fell face first to the ground, revealing Shadow, who was shocked himself at what the prism emerald had done.
The sound of the exploding organ had awoken Tails and Cream, who had been put to sleep by Pain. When the two awoke, instead of Pain, they found Shadow, standing above the bloodied corpse of Pain. "Shadow?" They exclaimed.
Shadow turned towards them, using the key he had recovered from Pain to open the lock on the cage. "Nap time will have to be cut short if you want to escape this place he told them." Now, with Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Cream free, Shadow knew that he just had to find Knuckles and Rouge now, and then he could get everyone out, before taking care of Fury. Shadow was trying to think of where to find the final two hostages, when he heard a verbal argument going on.
"YOU BITCH! LET US OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW! IF YOU DON'T, I'M BREAKING THIS OPEN AND KICKING YOUR ASS!"
"WATCH YOUR TONGUE ECHIDNA! I HAVE A RIGHT MIND TO COME OVER THERE AND START SMACKING YOUR GRILFRIEND AROUND SOME MORE! THAT LITTLE BITCH!"
"DON'T TALK ABOUT ROUGE LIKE THAT YOU TORTURER!"
Shadow turned to his 4 comrades. "You guys stay here, I'm going up ahead." Shadow dashed towards the source of the screaming, until he came to a dark room. He peered inside, seeing one glaring light, and the verbal abusers. He saw Fear, yelling at captive Knuckles. Next to him, was Rouge looking like someone had beaten her. She had cuts and bruises all over her arms and legs, blood trickling from her mouth, and a harsh looking slap mark on her face. Her eyes were red, as she had been crying, and still was. He growled angrily. 'Fear…that bitch… Rouge was beaten by her.' Shadow walked into the room, casting dark angry eyes at Fear's back.
Knuckles was busy arguing and yelling at Fear. He had been forced to watch her beat Rouge. He cringed every time he heard his girl cry out in pain. Fear had shown no mercy smacking Rouge around, beat her bare arms and legs, and even went so far as to torture her with a knife, cutting her arms and legs. She certainly lived up to her name, for fear is what she caused. He had finally had enough and warned Fear to stop or he'd do something drastic. Fear countered, telling him to shut up or she'd hurt Rouge some more. He was getting angrier by the second. Then he saw the approaching form of Shadow, who seemed to be glaring behind Fear's back.
Shadow tapped the blue echidna on the shoulder roughly.
When Fear turned around to see who was bothering her, she was met with a gloved fist in the face, knocking out a few teeth, and sending her down to the ground.
"Stop right there, bitch!" Shadow said to the blue echidna.
Fear glowered at her attacker. "Shadow… What are YOU doing here?"
Shadow just smirked. "I already took care of Pain, Sorrow, and End, and saved Sonic, Tails, Amy and Cream. I've come to get Rouge and Knuckles, so I advise you stand down…"
Fear glared. "And if I don't?"
Shadow held out the prism emerald.
Fear raised an eyebrow. "What kind of emerald is that?"
Shadow smiled. "One that will kill you, right about…"
SHOOM!
"Now." Shadow said, now behind Fear, who was lying on the ground, in a pool of blood.
Knuckles' eyes were wide. "Woah…"
"Impressive huh?" Shadow said as he freed Knuckles and Rouge. "I'm surprised myself that it can do that."
Knuckles sat up and walked over to Rouge, holding her up, and allowing her to lean on him. "Rouge honey… Are you ok?" He asked softly, kissing away her tears.
"B-Body hurts so much…" Rouge whimpered softly, tears streaming down her cheeks. Rouge had NEVER cried like this, so Fear must have hurt her badly.
Shadow held out the prism emerald. "I wonder if this has any healing." He tried holding it near Rouge. Suddenly in began to glow with a faint light, and Shadow watched as Rouge's cuts seem to gradually heal and seal up. Using this newfound knowledge, Shadow carefully glided the emerald around Rouge's body, healing up any cuts and bruises, numbing the pain, and healing Rouge slightly. "That should do it…" Shadow said.
Rouge winced a bit as she could still feel slight twinges of pain in her body, but she didn't feel as bad as she did a moment ago. "Thanks Shadow…" She said wiping her eyes a bit.
Knuckles kissed his girlfriends once more. "You'll be fine now, right?"
Rouge nodded. "A few aches and pains aren't going t keep me down." She said with her confident voice.
Shadow felt a feeling relief inside. 'I did it. I got to them in time. And the Nega-5 are almost gone. But there's still Fury to contend with. I'll take care of her momentarily. But first…' "Come on you two, let's go. Sonic and the others are waiting for us close by."
Sonic, Tails, Amy and Cream were waiting anxiously for Shadow to show up.
"Damn it…" Sonic muttered. "I should've gone with him… Who knows what's going on up there?"
"Sonic, don't worry. Shadow can take care of himself. I'm sure he'll be fine." Amy reassured her boyfriend.
Sonic sighed. "I know Ames… But you know how unpredictable those Nega-5 creeps are… What if Shadow's having trouble against Fear?"
"What? You don't think I can handle some Ultimate Life Form wannabe?"
"Shadow!" Sonic and the others exclaimed as Shadow appeared, with Rouge and Knuckles.
"In the flesh. Now, it's time to get out of here…" He held out the prism emerald. "Everyone touch the emerald, so you don't get left behind." He turned to Sonic. "Sonic, you can help out with your chaos control too."
Sonic eyed the emerald wearily. "You sure this emerald is safe Shadow?"
Shadow nodded. "Relax, it's only harmful against the enemies I would use it on. Just treat it as if it were a normal chaos emerald."
Sonic gave in. "Ok, I'll do it." He placed his hand on the emerald along with everyone else.
Both Shadow and Sonic began to channel the energies of the emerald, feeling surges of power stronger than that of the regular chaos emeralds, but they held on. Once they pictured where and who they wanted to be near, they activated the ability. "CHAOS CONTROL!" All 7 animals vanished in a flash of light.
TO BE CONTINUED
(Well, Sonic and Co have been saved… but it's not over yet… Next chapter, is the final confrontation…)
