(((cliffhangers are so fun! Ah well, not many people are reading this (or give a shit) anyway, so I don't see the point in it either. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! You BASTARDS for not being nice! Laaaaa!)))
Sonic: someone hasn't taken her Ritalin today... ;;
Knuckles: and I think she needs a nap... ;-;
A: -cries into Rouge's shirt- why is everyone so cruel to me? What did I do to deserve this?
Shadow: you were born.
A: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
Rouge: oh lordy, someone get her a tissue! This was a new shirt once...
!# why are you even worried about whether or not I own Sonic? Worry about stupid president Bush and Iraq. He needs to stop putting that pecker of a nose into places it don't belong. YOU STEAL MY CHARACTERS I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN LIKE A FISH! #!
K: ...how does that make sense?
Sn: I think she means "hunt you down and gut you like a fish"
A: -snarling- I SAY WHAT I MEAN, ARSEHOLES!
All: O.O;; yes ma'am?
Chapter 10- The Cataclysm
Shadow had to admit, he was practically fearless. But there was one thing that made his skin crawl.
The sight of blood.
"Damnit, I have no one else that can do this for me! Now I've already agreed to stay conscious through the whole procedure. I'll tell you exactly what to do. Now, strap me down."
He pulled the wrist and ankle holds shut, making sure they weren't too tight, then looked uneasily back to her. They had managed to sneak into the hospital easily enough, but locking down the OR was somewhat more difficult without someone having to be knocked unconscious. Luckily, the hospital wasn't very busy that day.
"w-... What if I mess up...? Like my hand slips and I-"
"You won't. Besides, we can't afford that, remember?"
"Right..." He grew somewhat pale for a moment before grasping a strap of leather and placing it in her mouth. She bit down, closing her eyes.
"You're going to have to crack the sternum first..."
"The sternum...right... what the fuck is a sternum?" he grasped at his quills in anxiety. "I can't do this. I can't do this."
"Well, unfortunately, we don't have time for you to have an emotional breakdown." Her words were somewhat muffled by the leather strap, but she spoke slowly. "The sternum is the chest bone. In the center of my chest. Make an incision, get that bone saw,andsaw throughthe sternum."
"Ok, ok, take the scalpel and make an incision... Easy..." The instrument quivered in his hand. He stood there, frozen to the spot.
"Do it, for Christ's sake!"
Just then, the locked doors of the OR burst open, the force of which caused by none other than one of the Eggman's robotic monstrosities. Several more filed in suite.
"Oh, lovely." Karpa growled, spitting out the strap.
"I can take 'em..." Shadow, threw down the scalpel, taking stance.
"Not this time, rodent! You don't have a chance against my newest creations!" the doctor said in his most cheesy of villain falsettos.
"Oh, help me, I'm scared." Karpa chuckled. "Shadow, unstrap me and hand me my blouse like a dear, would you?"
He did so, loosing her and tossing her garment in her general direction. She slipped it on, then sneered.
"I don't care who you are or which scrap pile you made those pathetic excuses for weapons from. You're going to feel pain." She then cracked her fists together, causing six long serrated blades to slide from each black glove.
Suddenly, one of the machines spat forth an orb, surrounding the two in a blue shield.
"What in-" she slashed at its surface, but to no avail.
The doctor laughed heartily. "You like it? It's an invention I borrowed from a little fox friend of mine. I know about the Dark Emerald, and I know you know where it is. But let's talk about that when we get home." He chuckled maniacally again as a robot seized the orb-shield and followed its master out the door and through a gaping hole in the hospital ceiling.
(AN- wow, that was too cheesy for my tastes, but you have to consider this is Buttnick. I had to downgrade my material to fit him in. shame. I'm going to need a less retarded villain, that I will.)
Knuckles paced the waiting room floor anxiously. Had she suddenly had a heart attack? Some kind of lung problem? Was she dead? She was breathing earlier, but as he rode with her in the ambulance, he noticed that her mood ring was black. Not just black, but it seemed as if there was an endless hole fixed on her ring. That didn't make sense, and it probably meant nothing, but SOMETHING had to make sense today.
He jumped a little in surprise when his cell rang. He answered it hurriedly.
"What?"
"Knux, have you seen Tails?"
"Sonic, I can't talk right now. I'll call you back.
"Wait! This is important! Tails wasn't in his room this morning. It's not like him to disappear like that! I think something happened to him!"
Knuckles sighed in defeat. "Why does all the shit have to hit the fan today? I don't even have my fuckin' gloves on!" he paced some more, collecting himself. "Listen, something happened to Tarsa. She was having these chest pains or something and passed out. I'm at the fucking hospital, there's nothing I can do."
Sonic sighed as well. "I'll call the others. Hang in there, tough guy."
"whatever."
He hung up just as an announcement came over the PA.
"We're sorry for the inconvenience, but due to the damage done to room 109, there will be a slight delay in operation. All emergencies are being seen to, but there will be a delay in today's schedule. Thank you for your patience."
'Damage?' he strode to the front desk.
"What damage are they talking about?"
"Sir, remain calm. There's nothing to worry about." The mouse in the nurse cap said blandly without looking up from her computer screen.
"What happened?"
The nurse looked at him over her spectacles. "You didn't hear?"
"Obviously not."
"There was an explosion or something. I think it's a terrorist attack, but that's just my opinion-"
"Explosion?"
"Yeah, there's a huge hole in the roof right outside the operating room! Thank God no one was in that section when it happened."
Knuckles gripped the counter. "When did it happen?"
"Oh, not twenty minutes ago! You should have been here, the whole place was shaking and-"
"Ma'am, you have to tell me- where is the hole?"
"Oh, right down those stairs and down the hallway to the left-"
He ran off and down the stairwell.
"BUT THAT'S A RESTRICTED AREA!" she shouted after him.
'Tarsa passed out twenty minutes ago... it can't be coincidence... what am I thinking? The hospital's ten miles from where it happened, but... how could all these things happening in one morning be coincidence?' his mind raced as he skipped down the stairwell.
'It can't be...' he sprinted down the hallway. He screeched to a halt, staring into the center of the rubble. There laid a small black box, seemingly placed for him to find. He stepped gingerly through the debris, lifting the box and retreating to flat ground. In taking a better look at the object, he found it to be a recorder/player of some kind. There was a single square button on it, and without thinking, he pressed it.
"To whom it may concern," began the unmistakablevoice of our despicable Dr. Robotnik. "the emeralds will all soon be mine and it is useless to try to stop me! If you ever want to see your precious mechanic alive again, you will comply with my wishes. That is all."
"I AM NOT A MECHANIC, ASSHOLE!" came the shrill reply that indubitably was Tails himself.
"SHUT UP, WHELP!"
The recording ended.
He sighed heavily, throwing down the device angrily.
"Well, here we go again."
---------------------
"This is interesting. I didn't think the old fart had it in 'im." Vector commented after hearing the news.
"If he has Tails, he's probablyheaded toAngel Island to make him shut down the shield. This is bad..." Sonic concluded, falling heavily onto his couch.
"Do we really need Big and Amy for this one?" he asked Espio.
"We need all the help we can get. Where's Knuckles, by the way?"
"At the hospital. His girlfriend fainted or something."
"The Monotreme Memorial Hospital?" Vector asked, unfolding his arms.
"How the hell should I know? I guess..."
"There was an attack there today! Like...eehhhh, a bomb or a terrorist or...well, something. I don't pay much attention to the news." He said, scratching his head. "But I bet it was Egghead and he was probably after Knux!"
Everyone jumped as Sonic's phone rang. He sprinted over to pick it up.
"Hello?"
"Sonic! Eggman has Tails! And I think he had something to do with Tarsa blacking out, but I can't be sure. I've got a message he left. I'm comin' over."
"What? You didn't run into him?"
"I actually just missed him. Hey, I'll talk to you when I get there."
Sonic then heard the dial tone.
"Well, Knux is ok. That's good. But what was Eggman doing at the hospital if he wasn't after Knuckles?" he asked, looking around the room as he hung up.
All were silent in perplexity.
---------------------------------------------------------
Karpa's cigarette trembled between her lips as she shivered in the cold cell where she had been deposited. Shadow was pacing again, thinking aloud even if incoherently. And that stupid fox kid was sitting in his little dangling cage, playing solitaire on his palm pilot.
"I'd KILL for a red nine right about now..."
"Hey, if you're such a child prodigy, why don't you get us out of here?" she shouted up at him.
He shrugged. "Sorry, lady. I don't even know you and I'm not supposed to talk to strangers. YES! A red nine! And an ACE!"
She growled profanities under her breath, hugging herself more tightly and inhaling the warmth of her cigarette.
"DAMN the fact they took our only hope…."
Shadow sneered bitterly at a wall, yearning desperately for his prized yellow Chaos Emerald.
Tails was now listening to his ipod and singing along.
(AN- he never runs out of gadgets to play with. He hides them in his socks. I guess...)
"You make meh feel like I can fly! So high! El-eh-vay-SHUN! Whooooooohoo…"
(AN- that's part of "Elevation" by U2, btw )
Shadow growled in annoyance, grasping the bars and glaring up at the child.
"Can you PLEASE keep your music to yourself?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry, mister. It's a good song. "
Shadow's frown deepened to that of contemplation as the fox's face was somewhat familiar.
"Haven't I seen you somewhere?"
"I dunno, I don't pay much attention. I didn't get to take myritalin today. "
"Oh. O.o Alrighty then."
(AN- forgive me, I'm going OOC again :D )
--.0.--
"When is he going to execute us or something?" Karpa complained, sucking on her umpteenth cigarette, resting her forehead against the bars of the cell. Shadow hesitantly stroked a comforting hand across her back. She only sighed and ignored him.
Tails, with nothing better to do, began to read aloud from his little digital library, something completely boring and uninteresting:
"The mental features discoursed of as the analytical, are, in themselves, but little susceptible of analysis. We appreciate them only in their effects. We know of them, among other things, that they are always to their possessor, when inordinately possessed, a source of the liveliest enjoyment. As the strong man exults in his physical ability, delighting in such exercises as call his muscles into action, so glories the analyst in that moral activity which disentangles. He derives pleasure from even the most trivial occupations bringing his talents into play. He is fond of enigmas, of conundrums, of hieroglyphics; exhibiting in his solutions of each a degree of acumen which appears to the ordinary apprehension preternatural. His results, brought about by the very soul and essence of method, have, in truth, the whole air of intuition. The faculty of re- solution is possibly much invigorated by mathematical study, and especially by that highest branch of it which, unjustly, and merely on account of its retrograde operations, has been called, as if par excellence, analysis. Yet to calculate is not in itself to analyze. A chess-player, for example, does the one without effort at the other. It follows-"
"Why? Why do you torture us so? It's like he's adding insult to injury…… how cruel…." Karpa slumped, knees buckling as she let herself fall to the cold stone floor.
"You… uh… dropped your cigarette…."
(AN- no more sugar for me tonight. I'm way ooc and I think I'll come back to this when my mind is cleared. Yaa.)
(((Sadly, that's all I had time for today. Work is crunching down on my free time hard... eeeee, well, sorry and I'll update soon. Toodleooo)))