CHAPTER 6

THE WAY OUT

It was the next morning and the blizzard was over.

Rouge woke up on the cold ground looking around for Shadow, but he wasn't there. She got dressed and checked outside. There she saw Shadow trying to do Chaos Control with the green Chaos Emerald. It seemed that he was having no luck.

"Damn it!" He shouted.

Rouge walked up to him, "It's still not working."

He shook his head, "No, still not working."

"Maybe it takes a couple of days."

"I hope. I'm glad you're awake now that the storm is over we can travel a lot easier. Lets go."

Later at the Chaotix the gang was around Tonya's computer looking at her tap into Shadow and Rouge's location.

Vector faced Espio, "Nice work, Espio. It's a good thing you planted that bug in Shadow's coat while you guys were fighting."

Espio shrugged, "He didn't even see it coming."

Tonya zoomed in on their location, "Hm, it looks like they're trying to escape the arctic and head into the city."

Vector laughed and cracked his knuckles, "Good, we can get Rouge back and have a rematch with those bastards."

"I'm happy about the getting the Rouge back part, but not the rematch part", Espio said.

"Yeah Vector, remember these demons are powerful", Tonya said.

Vector sighed like it was no big deal, "Yeah, yeah I know."

Charmy rushed into the main lobby, "Boss, I've heard that the military will go out to seek the demons and destroy them."

"But Rouge is with them", Tonya was now worried. "What if they attack her too?"

Espio put his hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry if Shadow said he loves her, he'll protect her with his life."

"I hope so, Espio."

Later in the middle of the arctic Shadow and Rouge were still walking in the deep snow. Little by little some snow fell from the sky.

Shadow looked up into the grey sky, "Looks like the snow's starting back up again."

"God I hope not", Rouge said shaking.

"We just have to keep going." He then heard Rouge yell. He quickly turned to her and saw her in the snow holding her sides. "Rouge!" He ran to her trying to comfort her.

"The pain is back..."

"Hang on, Rouge." Then he felt the ground shake he looked behind him and saw about twenty armored tanks.

The leader was a blue squirrel, he had a megaphone in his hands, "Attention, Shadow the Hedgehog. Surrender and die immediately."

Shadow looked at him with rage, "I so don't have time for these bastards."

"Shadow", Rouge said hoarsely.

He looked back at her.

"My shoulder hurts real bad", she said holding it.

"Sorry Rouge, I can't..."

"Hedgehog, surrender now!" The blue squirrel called.

Shadow looked back at them with annoyance, "What bastards." He turned to Rouge for a short time, "Don't worry, I'll be back for you soon." He faced the soldiers clinching his fists. 'Since the Chaos Emerald isn't responding, I guess I'll have to deal with them in my regular form.'

One of the tanks shot at Shadow.

Since Shadow was a powerful being the blast didn't hurt him. He ran towards one of the tanks and punched the front of it with his fist, cracking the armor that was on it.

Even after when he hit it the tank was still coming for more.

"These bastards must want to die. I'll have no choice, but to use Chaos Blast."

Rouge was still laying in the snow in pain. She noticed that her shoulder was glowing a purple color. While it was glowing a black mark appeared on her shoulder just like Shadow's. Her eyes widened, "What's happening to me?" She then felt more pain than she had before. She began to scream, "Shadow!"

He turned to her quickly, "Rouge?" Before he could get to her a purple light blinded him, he couldn't get any closer to her. 'What's happening to her? What if...' After when the light disappeared, he didn't see the innocent white bat he knew, but a very pissed off demon bat.

The demon's color of her fur was no longer white it was now black. She had fangs, her wings were big and looked pretty strong, she had a long black tail, she had sharp claws, and she last had glowing red eyes.

Shadow could not believe that was her, "She did it. She transformed."

The blue squirrel was stunned, "What the hell? Take that thing down!"

Rouge spread her powerful wings and flew towards the tanks. She started with the blue squirrel. Her hand glowed a purple color. Her claws sharpened ready to rip the tank apart. In only one slice of her claws the tank split in half. It exploded causing some of the tanks around that one to explode as well. Some tanks were still left. She walked up to them, not looking afraid.

One of the tanks blasted at her, even when it made a direct hit she was still standing.

She took her hand and it started to glow that purple color again, "Chaos Assault!" The purple energy that surrounded her hand formed into a purple beam. It scattered and struck at the rest of the tanks creating an even more massive explosion.

Rouge turned to face Shadow with the explosion happening behind her. She then fell to the ground unconscious changing back to her original self.

"Rouge!" Shadow ran to her. He kneeled down to her and shook her a bit trying to wake her up. "Rouge, wake up right now."

She opened her eyes slowly. She stared into Shadow's eyes and hugged him, "I'm so glad you're here. I was so scared."

He hugged her back, "Don't worry, I'm here now."

Later Shadow decided to test his Chaos Emerald again. He held it tight in his hand, "Lets see if this works. Chaos Control!"

A bright green light had appeared from the emerald and warped Shadow and Rouge into the city.

Shadow and Rouge found themselves near the Tech City church.

Shadow looked around a little, "It worked, now we can meet up with Lord Dark." He began to walk in the church. He stopped when Rouge wasn't going with him. He walked back to her, "Something wrong?"

"I feel weak."

"Don't worry about it, I'm feeling the same thing." He took her hand, "You won't die in here, you're safe with me."

Rouge then followed him into the church.