(Static)…and now the puzzle shall be solved…(static)
"Rouge!" She was lying on the floor, shivering, sobbing, and bleeding profusely. Rushing to her side, Shadow wondered just what had happened to her. 'I'm going to lose her,' he thought worriedly as he lifted her head. 'Just like I lost Maria.' Suddenly, Rouge wrapped her arms around him and continued weeping on his shoulder. Returning the embrace in the hopes of comforting his injured friend, Shadow considered asking her what happened. Spotting the scalpel and the device that lay on the floor across the room, he quickly realized what she had been forced to do. Gently lifting her, he left the room to search for an exit. Turning a corner, he bumped into Amy.
"Eek! Don't hurt me!"
"Calm down, it's just me."
"Shadow? What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same question."
"I don't want to talk about it. Is that?"
"Rouge? Yes. I don't know what happened, but I'm not going to stand around and chat while she bleeds to death. You can tag along, but don't get in the way."
A few forks, dead ends, and wrong turns later, they were getting frustrated. Then, Amy peered into a room and saw a particularly gruesome sight.
"Shadow!"
"What!" Between the seemingly endless hallways, Rouge, and the pink hedgehog's frequent distractions, the ultimate life form was losing his patience. "How are we supposed to get out of here if you keep stopping every ten minutes!"
"But it's important! I think that's Knuckles in there!"
"What?" Not wasting another second, Shadow ran into the room and almost dropped Rouge when he saw what was left of the echidna. Everything between his shoulders and knees had been blown apart, his innards spattered all over the cluttered room. His head was the only part of him that was still intact. "What on earth did he do to deserve this?" Rouge, who had been listening the whole time, squirmed her way out of Shadow's hands and stumbled over to the remains of her former rival. Picking up his head in her hands, she broke down completely; Amy soon joined her. As the two girls mourned the loss of their friend, the former caressing the head in her arms, Shadow looked on, wishing that he could have done something.
'I didn't know him that well, but Rouge—huh?' His thoughts were cut short when he noticed the cassette recorder lying on the ground. It was slightly charred, but still intact. Shadow quickly rewound the tape and pressed the play button.
"Rise and shine, Knuckles…you are the last of your race and have sworn to protect the Master Emerald from harm…but if you're so intent on protecting it, then why do you let it slip through your fingers so easily? A treasure hunter who can't protect his most valuable treasure, how sickening…" Upon hearing the garbled voice speak such words, Rouges grief turned to anger. "Let's see if you value your pitiful life as little as you seem to value that gem…the belt you're wearing is loaded with explosives…find the key before time runs out, or your body will match your temper…" Then, as if on cue, a small object fell from Knuckles' tattered dreadlocks. The key had been there from the start.
After Rouge finished cursing at—and stomping on—the cassette player, the three of them resumed their search for an exit. Shadow carried Rouge, who had refused to leave without Knuckles' head, while Amy tried to comfort her. As they walked, Shadow paused at a room that still had the lights on.
"Shadow, why are we stopping?" asked Amy. Rather than answering, Shadow quietly opened the door and peered inside. The room was littered with numerous video monitors, papers, and a few contraptions that he couldn't even begin to identify. "Shadow?"
"It looks like he's gone, for now." He answered, while sitting Rouge in an armchair. "Amy, see if you can find something to set Rouge's wing while I try to find a map of this place." While Amy busied herself with Rouge, Shadow started flipping through the various papers that were lying around, occasionally glancing at the monitors. One of the pages that he picked up had a blueprint that looked similar to the device from the room where he had found Rouge. 'No way,' he thought as he studied the print more closely. 'That explains Rouge's wing, and if this is here…' he furiously rummaged through the various prints and notes until he found the ones for his own trap, as well as that of Knuckles, 'the wires connecting the explosives ran through the belt itself, and since none of the junk in that room was touched, that would mean…damn.' Then he found one that was designed for… "Amy, come take a look at this! I think Sonic might be here too!"
"Sonic? Where?" Within seconds she was standing next to him with a hopeful look in her eyes. The blueprint in question portrayed two rooms, linked by what looked like a sewer pipe. There was also a power module linking the inside of the pipe to one of three large buttons in an adjoining room…"Wait a minute, that's the room that I woke up in! And if that was connected to—Oh my god, I could have killed him!"
"Or yourself; you're lucky that you didn't hit that one with the exposed wire sticking out of it."
Suddenly, Rouge pointed to a monitor and shouted, "Guys, come here, I think I found him!" The two hedgehogs rushed over to see what she was pointing at. On the screen, Sonic was sprawled on the floor and was about to inject himself with a syringe, when his head drooped and he went unconscious. Just before the syringe clattered to the ground, the blue blur uttered the word "antidote". Shadow looked around until he found a pair of cellular phones.
"I'm going to look for him, but I need one of you to direct me there," he said as he handed one to Rouge, since Amy was in tears. "If you hear someone coming before I get back, hide." And with that, he dashed out the door.
After a few minutes, Shadow found the room where Sonic was trapped. Forcing the door open, he ran to sonic and put a hand on the blue hedgehog's forehead. 'He's burning up!' Pulling one of Sonic's arms over his shoulder, Shadow hoisted him off the ground, stopping only to answer his cell phone.
"Shadow! The pipe that sonic swam through was filled with poison!"
"Rouge, Sonic said something about an antidote before he passed out."
"Hang on," There was a rustling noise, and then Rouge continued. "The antidote is in the syringe!"
"Got it!" Shadow picked up the syringe and injected Sonic with it. 'Don't die on me now, Faker.'
When Shadow finally got back, Sonic was still unconscious, but his forehead was no longer hot to the touch. Amy found some blankets and spread them on the floor for Sonic to rest on.
"Is he going to be okay?" she asked with watery eyes.
"I don't know," Shadow hung his head. "I think I should tell you guys who did this to us…"
"…And that's about as much as I know." While Rouge and Amy paused to let Shadow's words sink in, Sonic stirred. Amy was the first to notice.
"Sonic?"
"Ohhh…wha, what happened?"
"Sonic!" Before the blue blur knew what hit him, Amy's arms were around his neck. "Oh Sonic, thank goodness you're alright!" She was about to kiss him when Shadow yanked her away. "What are you doing? Let me go!"
"Amy, Sonic was literally swimming through poison. Unless you have a death wish, I suggest you try to restrain yourself." While Sonic regained his senses, as well as the ability to move his limbs, the others filled him in on what had happened. It wasn't until they finished that Sonic noticed Knuckles' head.
"Um, guys? What's that?" Rouge turned away, tears forming in her eyes. "Wait a minute, that looks like—"
"It is," Shadow said, cutting him off. "Or was…"
Watching the four of them on a monitor, John chuckled to himself.
"Time for the final test," he said, and started pressing buttons on a keypad.
As the four friends rested, the lights, monitors, etc. suddenly flickered off. As they looked around in confusion, one of the monitors turned back on, showing the ventriloquist's puppet from before. Turning to them, it spoke in a voice that was all too familiar.
"So, you have managed to survive…now you must face one final challenge…find a way out of the labyrinth…there are ways to win this…hidden all around you…but watch your step…hurry, you have until six on the clock…let the game begin…"
(Static)…and so they play right into his hands…Read and Review…(static)