THE NEXT DAY
Shadow had barely slept. He felt horrible. "God, I hate Sunday morning."
"Hey Shadow, still feeling depressed?" Sonic asked, as they walked down the hall to breakfast.
"No, merely wasted."
"One of those mornings, eh?"
"Yep."
"I still can't believe you summoned up the guts to ask Tikal out. You make it sound a lot harder than it really is."
"Coming from the guy who's never had a date in his entire life."
"Shut up."
As everyone sat down for breakfast, Tails reminded them about paintball that afternoon. "Don't forget, we paid a lot of money to get that spot in the woods reserved for 1 p.m., so we won't wait for anyone who doesn't show up." They finished breakfast and went about the things they usually did on Sunday mornings. Sonic and Shadow played dreamcast, Tails was experimenting with chemistry up in the tower of the mansion. Amy was building things in the basement, Dr. Robotnik was watching television, and Knuckles and Rouge…well, um, never mind. They all kept this up for a couple hours. Soon, they left for the woods. The woods, or as they were better known, alpha-17, were on the other side of town. As they were hiking over, they dropped in to visit Josef Linily, the man from the night before. The door was answered by Vincent.
"Oh, hello there. I assume you are here to see the Dr., too. Do come in." Vincent said, in a thick british accent.
"Is there someone else here?" Shadow asked.
"Two people, actually. A Joshua Irving, and a girl about your age, I'd say, named Tikal. We're having tea in the kitchen. Care to join us?"
"Only for a short time. We have a prior commitment." Said Rouge.
"Well, do come in."
They went into the kitchen.
Mr. Irving said, "I see you got my pakage through just fine. Thanks. As you can see, I am feeling much better since my accident. Do you remember anything beyond today, vincent?"
He replied, "No, oddly enough, I can't remember anything before I woke up this morning. It's a bit disorienting, but I'll adapt."
Tikal pulled shadow aside.
"Shadow, ever since I was little I have had premonitions. Sometimes of good things, sometimes of bad things. In a dream I had last night, a threatening voice said to me, 'The Unsung Hero has meddled in forces unseen. He will die for it on the morning of the second of november. And who always played the unsung hero in the games?"
"Tails. Dear god. Meddling in forces unseen, that would be chemistry and whatever else he's working on now. Tails is usually the one pulling all the strings, making things work. I'll keep an eye on him. God, Tails, what have you gotten yourself into? Did you tell anyone else about this, Tikal?"
"No."
"Keep it that way."
"Okay."
Shadow then went back into the kitchen.
"They left? Damn."
Josef spoke up. "Well,if you're going to do paintball, test this out for me."He pulled out a shotgun. "It's a Shotgun equipped for paintball. It has a larger barrel so as to fire a buckshot of paintball pellets. Here's the ammo."
"Thanks. Bye!"
Shadow took off and caught up with the group. They got into the forest and divided up into three teams. Sonic and Shadow, Tails and Amy, and Knuckles and Rouge. Sonic and shadow took up a small base near a stone enbankment called kitty's corner. The base wall formed a triangle with the two intersecting stone walls. They loaded up and flipped a coin to see who got to stay in the base. Shadow lost, and headed out. He had been wandering for a while when he stumbled on a shack.
"That's weird, this was never here before. I'll check it out. Wait a minute, why the hell am I talking to myself? Have I lost it?"
He ventured inside. Except a small walkway leading to a desk under the window, the shanty was filled from wall to wall with what looked like oxygen tanks. He walked up to the desk and took a look at the window. There, piled up against the outside, was tails' fort. He glanced at the desk. There was a sheet of paper laying out. He picked it up. There was a sketch of the shack with the tanks, and Tails' fort. Then there was a sketch of Knuckles lighting his lighter outside the shack (He had a bad smoking habit). The next picture was of a massive ball of flame.
"Holy Shit! This means that Tikal's prophecy may well come true. Wait, what's that sound?"
It was the sound of leaking gas.
"God Damn it! the gas is leaking! I've got to keep knuckles out of here."
He took the sheet and walked out of the shack. Almost immediately a paintball slammed the wall right beside his head. "Knuckles." He loaded the shotgun, and took a shot in Knuckles' direction. From the barrel exploded tons of little pellets of paint. Everything in front of him was coated with paint. He reloaded the gun. Knuckles stepped out of the bushes, covered in paint.
"You got me." He went over and leaned against the shanty, and pulled out his lighter.
"Knuckles, don't light it! oh—"FFFTHHOOOOMMM! A massive fireball erupted from the tiny hut. Tails was engulfed by the flames. The last image he saw he could not believe. Through the flames an angel of radiant beauty weilding a holy sword and sheild floated down and kissed him. he felt a divine light coarse through his body and then all went black.
Shadow and Knuckles went flying. Knuckles was fortunate enough to land in a pile of leaves, but shadow wasn't so lucky. He slammed through the wall of his base, completely shattering it, and smashed into Sonic.
"Jesus Christ!" Sonic exclaimed, as he stood up and brushed himself off.
"What the hell happened?"
"Call an ambulance for Tails and I'll explain on the way. Don't worry, I just need some Gauze or something for this cut."
"Dude, are you crazy? You're gushing blood all over the place. Come on, let's get you a doctor."
LATER, AT THE STATION SQUARE GENERAL HOSPITAL…
"How's Tails doing?" Knuckles asked. "Not too well, I'm afraid. He's fading." The doctor answered.Amy asked, "Can Shadow and I visit him? we're his closest friends."
The Doctor agreed, and they went in.
"Shadow, I know what Tikal told you. She swore to you to tell no one, but she felt I must know. After all, he and I are in love. But I've got a feeling that something's amiss in this prophecy. Either way, we've got to keep an eye on him. I've got something I need to do. I'll see you later."
"Amy, Shadow, don't leave me. Not yet." Tails moaned.
They both rushed to the side of the bed.
"I need you to find me something. Shadow, you know where it is. Bring me the Old book sitting in my room. I will explain when you return."
Shadow nodded and left. Amy stayed by Tails' side.
"Tails, do want me to stay here until shadow gets back?"
"Stay here until tomorrow morning."
"Sure."
Outside, Sonic was pacing back and forth.
"Knuckles. This is your fault. You lit the lighter. You may have killed him."
"Me? You are the one who should be questioned, damn it! Always having strange trucks parked in the driveway, sneaking out and driving towards those woods. I followed you one night. You drove into those woods. You built that shack, didn't you? You set Tails up! You Murderer!"
"Murderer? Last time I was in there, he was alive. You want him dead, don't you? Try to pin your plan on me? I think not, idiot."
"STOP IT!" Rouge Yelled. "Neither of you should blame the other. We don't know why whatever happened happened. Our friend may be dying and all you two care about is some stupid shack?"
Sonic and Knuckles were at Each other's throats all night.
It was very early Monday morning by the time Shadow arrived with the books for Tails.
"Well, It took me to find the book you were talking about. I'll leave them here."
He left the book on the bedside table, and left the room. Outside, he Wandered listlessly to the payphone. Pick it up, he thought, call her. You've got to tell her. Click. Hum. The dial tone was unchanging, plain in his ear. Chink. A dime. Chink, one more. Chink, this time it was a nickel. He nervously dialed her number. He counted, one, two, three rings before she picked up.
"Hello?"
"Tikal, meet me at the hospital. I need a ride home."
"Sure. Why are you at the hospital?"
Amy sauntered overed to Shadow, leaned on his shoulder.
"I need a ride, too."
"I'll explain later. I need to get into Tails's room."
Shadow paced, deep in thought.
Hell, his mind said, what has he done to bring this upon himself?
"There's tikal."
Amy's voice shattered his thoughts like an arrow through a clay pot.
"On, second thought, I'll stay here in town. I have something to look into before noon. Check Tails' room, but I have a reason to believe our problems may only be starting."
The ride was quiet. As he went through the room, doubt filled his mind as to Tails' roll in all this madness. He went downstairs for breakfast. He put some stale cereal into the bowl with the watery milk. He looked at rouge, reading the paper as if nothing was wrong, it was another workday.
"Where's sonic, and knuckles?"He inquired.
"I don't know," she said, changing the page, "they both stormed out of the hospital, ready to kill each other."
"Ahh." A spoonful of his soggy breakfast eliminated his ability to think in all its foulness.
By 9 am, Shadow was asleep on the armchair, a cup of coffee in his hand, The remote on his lap. Rouge was reading a novel, passing the idle hours on the couch.
"What time is it? I remember seeing Knuckles walk off into the woods, then I stumbled home and…woke up just now. Did I miss anything?"Sonic asked, Walking down the stairs from his bedroom.
"No," Shadow grumbled.
Amy walked in the door.
"I have some bad news." She said, her voice icy.
Shadow sat up and took a sip of coffee.
"Is Tails…?" he mumbled through his sip.
"No, I'm fine," Tails Said triumphantly walking in the door with the book under his arm.
"No, what I came to tell you is that Knuckles was shot this morning outside city hall."
Shadow spit his coffee out all over Sonic. Rouge Started to cry. Sonic, had a look of guilt and sorrow cross his face. Tails bowed his head. Someone had died.
THE FUNERALThat day, they buried him under the dead tree on the hill.
"So, he's the unsung hero. We had the wrong person the whole time." Shadow said.Rouge laid flowers on his coffin as it was lowered. The Headstone stood guard over his grave. The Funeral at the mansion was long and sorrowful. That day was Shadow's eighteenth birthday.
Later, In his room, Tails was trying to solve an equation for one of his new inventions. He looked to the graveyard. He saw Amy, standing alone on the hill. She was holding her arms up to the sky. Slowly, thunderclouds started to form in the sky. The wind picked up, Torrents of rain began to fall. The clouds swirled together. She pointed at the grave, And from the center of the storm a bolt of lightning shot out. It came straight down into the tree, fired from it, and Struck the Tombstone. Like a crystal from a chandelier falling to a cold stone floor, the gravestone Shattered into a million pieces.