Well, I'm back with another chapter! Thanks for all the reviews!
Oh, and just to let y'all know, I've made it a little easier to read the transitions between the story and the parts with Sonic and the kids, and Sonic's narrating will either be in italics or quoted, depending on what part of the story it's in.
And finally, here's the new characters!
Grounder (from the old cartoon): the Albino
Nack the Weasel: Yellin(the prince's lackey(Sponge requested that I cast Nack in this role, and I gladly agreed.))
Espio: The old woman who said "Boo!" (please, don't ask why. I was just desperate to find Espio a role.)
Enjoy the fic! (I onw nothing. STOP HOUNDING ME!)
Shadow woke up to find himself strapped to a table in a strange dungeon/laboratory-like room.
He saw a short robot with a drill for a nose roll up to him on treads. The robot began to clean Shadow's wounds.
"Where am I?" Shadow asked.
"In the pit of despair." Grounder replied in a raspy, creepy voice. "Don't even think—Ack! Ahem!" Grounder coughed and cleared his throat, returning his voice to normal. "Don't even think about trying to escape. And don't go hoping someone'll rescue you. There's only one way in and out of here, and only the Count, the Prince, and I know about it."
"So I'm here till I die?" Shadow asked.
"Till they kill you, yeah." Grounder replied, continuing to tend Shadow's wounds.
"Why heal me then?"
"Count Metal always like his victims to be healthy before they're broken."
"So it's to be torture?" Grounder nodded. "I can cope with torture." Grounder shook his head. "You don't believe me?"
Grounder shrugged. "You survived the Fire Swamp, so you must be very brave. But nobody withstands… the machine."
Meanwhile, Amy wandered sadly around the castle.
Antoine and Metal watched her as she walked down one of the many corridors.
"She's been like that ever since the Fire Swamp." Antoine explained. "It's my father's failing health that's upsetting her."
"Of course." Metal replied, not believing it but not caring anyway.
The king died that very night. And before dawn, Amy and Antoine were married.
Antoine once again stood on top of the castle tower.
And at noon, she met her subjects again. This time, as their queen.
"My father's final words were…" Antoine began.
"Wait, hold on a second!" Said Charmy.
The scene switched back to Sonic and the kids as Sonic put the book down.
"You read that wrong, didn't you Sonic?" Tails asked. "She doesn't marry Antoine, she marries Shadow, I'm sure of it!"
"Yeah." Cream agreed. "After all Shadow did for her, if she doesn't marry him it wouldn't be fair."
"Who said life was fair?" Sonic asked.
"We're telling you," Charmy almost shouted. "You're messing up the story! Get it right!"
"Do you want me to continue?" Sonic asked threateningly.
"Yes." The kids replied meekly.
"All right then no more interruptions." Sonic picked the book up and began to read again. "Okay… at noon she met her subjects again. This time as their queen…
Back in the story Antoine finally finished what he was saying. "My father's final words were, 'love her as I loved her, and there will be joy.' I present to you your queen. Queen Amy."
The crowd turned to see Amy step out of a doorway, dressed in the royal gown of a queen.
As they saw her, all the peopled kneeled. That is, all but one.
"Boo!" A purple chameleon dressed as an old woman shouted. (Espio will probably kill me for this, but oh well.) "Boo!"
"Why do you do this?" Amy asked.
"Because you had love in your hands," Espio replied. "And you gave it up!"
"But they would have killed Shadow; there was nothing else I could do."
"Your true love lives and you marry another!" He turned to the crowd. "Love saved her in the Fire Swamp, and she treated it like garbage. And that's what she is: the queen of refuse! So bow to her if you like. Bow to her, the queen of slime, the queen of filth, the queen of putrescence! Boo! Boo! Boo!"
Suddenly, Amy bolted upright, her heart beating fiercely. She looked around to find herself in her room.
It was all a bad dream.
She got up, grabbed her robe and walked out.
"It was ten days till the wedding," Sonic narrated. "And the king still lived, but Amy's nightmares grew steadily worse."
"See, we told you she'd never marry that creep Antoine!" Charmy said smugly.
"Yes, you're very smart. Shut up."
Amy walked into Antoine's room to find him talking to Count Metal.
"It comes to this:" She said. "I love Shadow. I always have. I know now I always will. If you tell me I must marry you in ten days, please believe me when I say I will be dead by morning."
Antoine was stunned at first, but looked kindly at Amy.
"I could never cause you grief." He said. "Consider the wedding off." He turned to Metal. "You returned this Shadow to his ship?"
"Yes." Metal lied.
"There, we will just send for him." He turned back to Amy. "Are you certain he still wants you? After all it was you who did the leaving in the Fire Swamp. And pirates are not known to be men of their words."
"My Shadow will always come for me." She replied.
"I suggest a deal. You write four copies of a letter. My four fastest ships will each take one in each direction. Chaos is always nearby this time of year. We'll run up the white flag and deliver your message, and if Shadow wants you, then bless you both. If not…" Antoine took Amy's hands in his own. "Please consider me as an alternative to suicide?"
Amy thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.
Later, Antoine and Metal walked through a grove of trees.
"Your princess is really a winning creature." Metal commented. "A tad simple perhaps, but her appeal is undeniable."
"Yes, the people are quite taken with her." Said Antoine, as they walked up to a tree covered in knots. "You know, when I hired Eggman to have her murdered on our engagement day, I thought that was clever. But it will be so much more moving when I strangle her myself on our wedding night. Once Hollow Bastion is blamed the people will be outraged and demand to go to war."
Metal nodded in agreement and turned to the tree. "Now where is that secret knot?" He asked himself, as he tried to push knot after knot. "It's impossible to find…" Finally, he pushes the right knot and a door in the tree opens up, revealing a staircase. "Ah, there it is. Are you coming down into the pit with me?"
"Metal, you know how much I love to watch you work," Antoine replied. "But I have my country's five hundredth anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder, and Hollow Bastion to blame for it. I'm swamped."
Metal put a hand on Antoine's shoulder. "Get some rest. If you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything."
Metal turned and walked down the stairs, where Grounder set up "the machine."
Metal walked up to Shadow, as Grounder hooked him up to the machine.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" Metal asked, referring to his torture device. "It took half a lifetime to create. I'm sure by now you've discovered my interest in pain. I'm writing a book on the subject, so be honest and tell me how the machine makes you feel." Metal walked over to a dial with the numbers 1 through 50 on it. "Since this is our first try, I'll put it on the lowest setting." Metal turned the dial to 1 and the machine began to work.
Water flowed onto a large wheel, turning it and thus powering the machine.
Suddenly, Shadow begins to grimace and growl in pain. He tried desperately to break the restraints, but in vain.
Finally, Metal turned the machine off and Shadow gasped for breath.
"As you know," Metal explained casually. "The concept of the suction pump is centuries old. That's really all my machine is, except instead of sucking water it sucks life. I've just sucked one year of your life away. I may go as high as five someday, but I really don't know what that will do to you, so let's work with what we have." Metal picked up a pen and some paper. "Tell me, what did this do to you? And remember, this is for posterity, so be honest. How do you feel?"
Shadow's face remained hard for a moment, but he finally broke down.
Shadow the Hedgehog, believe it or not… cried.
"Interesting." Metal said casually, and began to write.
Later, in Antoine's quarters, Antoine was looking over some papers at a large desk.
A purple weasel with a Crocodile Dundee style hat walked in and bowed.
"Nack," Said Antoine. "As chief enforcer of Station Square I trust you with this secret." Nack walked over and knelt next to Antoine's chair. "Killers from Hollow Bastion have infiltrated the Thieves Forest and plan to murder my bride on our wedding night."
"My spies have heard no such rumor." Said Nack.
Amy walked in and the two stood up.
"Any word from Shadow?" She asked.
"Too soon my angel." Antoine replied. "Have patience."
"He will come for me."
"Of course."
Amy gave Antoine a cold look and walked away.
Antoine sat down again and Nack knelt next to him. "She will not be murdered!" He said. "On the day of the wedding I want the Thieves Forrest emptied and every inhabitant arrested."
"Many will resist." Said Nack. "My men may not be enough."
"Form a brute squad then! I want the Thieves Forrest emptied before I wed!"
"It won't be easy my lord."
"Try ruling the world sometime."
The day of the wedding arrived, and the brute squad had their hands full carrying out Antoine's orders.
Nack rode up in a cart and looked down at one of his men. "Is everyone out?" He asked.
"Almost." The man replied. "There's an echidna giving us some trouble."
"Then you give him some trouble." The man nodded and Nack rode on.
Meanwhile, sitting in front of the hut he'd been living in all this time, was none other than Knuckles.
He sat with the Emerald sword in one hand and a bottle in the other.
"I am waiting for you Doctor." He said, loudly and drunkenly. "You told me to go back to the beginning, so I have. This is where I am, and this is where I'll stay. I will not be moved!"
The man who had been talking to Nack walked up and shouted "Ho there!"
"I'm not budging. Keep your 'ho there.'" Knuckles replied, uninterested in whatever anyone had to say.
"But the prince gave orders."
Knuckles pointed his sword threateningly at the man. "So did Eggman. He said if a job went wrong we should go back to the beginning. This is where I got the job, so it's the beginning, and I'm staying!" The man called one of the brutes over. "I am waiting for… Eggman…"
Knuckles felt someone put a hand on his shoulder… a big hand. "You sure are one drunk man." Rhymed a familiar voice.
Knuckles looked at the large hand, then smiled up at the large face it belonged to. "It's you." He said happily.
"True." Big replied. The man, after watching all this, got impatient and went to club Knuckles. But instead he received a hard uppercut to the jaw from Big. Big looked back down at Knuckles. "You don't look so good." Knuckles exhaled heavily, causing Big to cringe. "You don't smell so good either."
"Perhaps not." Knuckles slurred. "But, I feel fine."
Big smiled and patted Knuckles on the back, causing him to fall over.
A little later, Knuckles sat at a table while Big fed him some stew as Sonic narrated. "Knuckles and Big were reunited, and as Big nursed his inebriated friend back to health, he told Knuckles about Eggman's death and the existence of Count Metal, the six-fingered hedgehog. Considering his life-long search, Knuckles took the news surprisingly well."
After hearing about Count Metal, Knuckles fainted and his face fell right into the bowl of stew.
"Big took great care in reviving Knuckles." Sonic narrated, as Big dunked Knuckles' head into a tub of cold water, then a tub of hot water, then cold, then hot, then cold, etc. Don't ask me why, cause I'm not sure.
"That's enough!" Knuckles shouted, pulling himself away from Big. "Now tell me where this Count Metal is so I can kill him."
"He's in Station Square Castle with the prince." Big replied. "But the castle is guarded by thirty men."
Knuckles kicked the tub of cold water in frustration, hurting his foot but not enough to interrupt his train of thought.
"How many could you handle?" He asked.
"I don't think more than ten."
"Knuckles counted on his fingers for a moment. "That would leave twenty for me. At my best I could never face that many!" Knuckles sat down and rested his head in his hands. "I need Eggman to plan for me. I have no gift for strategy."
"But the Doctor is dead."
Knuckles sighed, but sat up as an idea struck him. "No, not Eggman…" He said slowly. "We need the Hedgehog in Black!"
"Huh?" Big asked.
"Think of it! He bested me with the sword, he bested you with strength, and he must have out-thought the doctor! And anyone who can do that can plan my castle onslaught any day! Let's go!"
"Where?"
Knuckles ran to the door. "To find the Hedgehog in black, where else?"
"But we don't know where he is."
"Don't bother me with trifles Big. After ten years my father's soul will be at peace. There will be blood tonight!"
Well, there it is! The next chapter will be up...
right after this one, actually!
Wow, being inspired to write is fun!