CHAPTER 2-1

While Shadow was unconscious on the floor, he felt like he could feel something inside of him. He slowly got off the floor and started to cough a bit in his hand. When he took his hand away from his mouth he saw blood all over his white glove. He took his eyes off the blood and saw something arising all over his arms. He stared at it and then started to scream.

Shadow quickly got off the dusty floor and looked at his arms and sighed, "It was only a dream." He touched his neck trying to feel the mark of the needle, but he couldn't find it. "Maybe that weird dream I had, wasn't a dream at all." He heard something beeping, so he reached in his pocket and took out his communicator.

Cream showed up on the monitor worried, "Shadow? What happened? I haven't heard from you for hours."

"I'm sorry I got you worried like that. I wasn't feeling that well so I fell unconscious."

She raised an eyebrow, "Shadow, I have a feeling something is wrong with your body."

"I'm all over it. Maybe I'll run into the blue hedgehog again. Maybe he can tell me what's wrong with me."

"Blue hedgehog?"

"Don't worry about it. Did you find out anything new?"

"I found out that something called the plagas, is something that is inside of the villagers."

"Plagas?"

"Yeah, it's hard to describe them but they look related to an insect somehow. They appear on the head of those ganados. It's hard to tell when the ganados will do that."

"Thanks for the information, Cream. Well, I'll proceed on with my mission." He turned off the communicator, placed it back in his pocket, and faced the door of the cabin. He went through the door and the sky had turned to nightfall with rain, thunder, and lightning in the sky. He saw torches lit everywhere. He spotted a sign pointing towards a door ahead of him. The sign read, 'Waterfall.' He decided to go through the door. Once he went through the door, he saw two villagers approaching without weapons in their hands. He smirked and took out his handgun and shot the two villagers in the head.

Both of their heads exploded into pieces which was a surprise to Shadow.

Shadow looked at his handgun, "Am I using the right gun for these guys?" He looked back over to the villagers and saw them still walking towards him. "What the-" He then saw a new head growing in place of the old head.

The new head had two bulge eyes on each side of the head and an axe like weapon swinging from its head.

Shadow took his handgun and started to shoot at it everywhere on its body except for the head. He stopped shooting at it and leaned against the door. "Damn, how am I suppose to kill that thing?" He took his gun and pointed it at its head and shot it making the head explode. "That's it. Its weak spot is the head." He pointed his gun at the second ganado and his head came off but the head with the axe like weapon was swinging around. He shot another round to head and he died with his body melting into the ground. "I guess those things were the plagas", he said as he reloaded his gun with more bullets. He began to walk down the path until he came across a huge stream of water. The only way to cross it was to jump on the three wide wooden boards in front of him. He jumped across them and ended up on a cliff. He walked to the end of the cliff and looked down seeing that he needed a way down somehow. He then finally found a rope near it so he could climb down. He used the rope and started to climb down it. Once he reached the bottom, he saw a waterfall along a bridge. He walked on the bridge about to go through the waterfall until three villagers came out of it with axes in their hands. Shadow backed away from the group and then bumped into another pack behind him. Soon he was surrounded by them. He clenched his fists, "Come get some."

One of them tried to hit Shadow with a flaming torch, but missed.

He took the torch out of his hand and took the fire and shoved it through his neck.

The ganado screamed in pain, ran off the bridge, and jumped into the water.

Shadow ran up to two ganados with a hatchet in each of their hands and kicked them both in the face making them drop their two hatchets. He picked the two hatchets off the ground and stabbed the two ganados in their chests with them. After when they died, he took the two bloody blades out of their chests and turned to the last remaining four ganados.

They looked around a bit and started to run away.

Quickly Shadow took one of the hatchets in his hands and threw it at one ganado and stabbed him through his stomach and the one in front of him was killed as well. Shadow took the second hatchet and did the same. Shadow smirked, turned to the waterfall again and started walking over there, "That's what they get for messing with me." While he was walking towards the waterfall, he kicked one of the corpses of the ganados into the water. When he got to the waterfall, he walked through it and saw a narrow passage ahead of him. He started to walk down the passage until he came to the end. On the wall he saw a round object in a hole with an insignia in it. "Is this it?" He took the round object out of the wall and then the wall arose towards the ceiling. "A secret door?" He walked through it and soon he was in a cave with water and bats everywhere. He spotted a motor boat ahead of him. He got in it and rode in the direction where the boat was turned. Soon he came to a spot in the cave with a blue light surrounding that spot. He stopped the boat where the stairs were and walked up the stairs. He started to look around the room until he saw a green crocodile. He sighed, "What are you? Clones?"

"Want to buy something, stranger?"

He clenched his fists, "Quit calling me stranger! It's so fucking annoying!"

The merchant remained calm, "No need to get angry, stranger."

He gritted his teeth in anger and just turned around looking at the corner of the room which was probably the way out. He glanced back at the merchant, "I'm out of here." He walked behind the corner and saw a ladder. He climbed up the ladder and saw a door ahead of him. He went through the door and was back at the where the giant door was that was making all those weird noises, but this time it never made a noise which made Shadow suspicious. He started to walk towards the door that lead to the church, until a giant gate was let down in front of him and another one was set from where he had came from. "What the hell is going on?" He then looked over to the giant door and saw it finally open with many ganados coming out of it with rope all around a giant troll like creature. Shadow raised an eyebrow at the sight, "What the fuck?"

The ganados were tugging on the rope but the creature was too much for them.

The giant creature jerked the rope away from them making them fall to the ground. It yelled in anger and picked up a ganado squeezing it to death with his blood dripping all over the monster's hand. He threw him at another ganado killing them both. The creature kicked and punched the rest of them out with their blood flying in the air. After when it was done killing the ganados, it had its attention over to Shadow. He walked over to him trying to punch him, but Shadow jumped out of the way. The creature was frustrated and started to yell once again.

Shadow reached for his magnum, "I'm going to need a bigger gun." He pointed the gun at the creature at its arm and shot at it.

The creature yelled in pain and held its bleeding arm. It glared at Shadow, took a boulder from the ground and threw it towards Shadow.

Shadow jumped out of the way and watched as the boulder smashed into pieces. He took his gun again and shot it in its leg.

It kneeled to the ground for a bit but quickly got back up and confronted Shadow with his fists clenched.

Shadow stepped back while trying to think of a strategy. 'Damn...why did I have to die here. I was so close to saving Amy and I let her down.'

Then a white dog came out of nowhere and confronted the monster. He started to bark at it making the creature come after him.

Shadow sighed with relief, "It's that dog." He watched as the creature left him and came after the dog instead. "I understand now. That dog is trying to distract it." He pointed his gun at the creature's back and all of a sudden a plagas had came from his back. His eyes widened, "A plagas."

The creature yelled in pain, kneeled to the ground, and didn't get up for a while.

Shadow took out his combat knife and ran up his back. Once he made it to the plagas, he cut it with his knife. He quickly jumped off his back and watched as the creature yelled more.

With blood scattering all over his back and all over the ground. He just collapsed to the ground making the ground shake a bit. Afterwards his whole body melted into the ground.

The white dog ran around Shadow still barking probably with happiness.

Shadow stood there and watched as the dog it, "Thanks you were a big help."

The dog then runaway from where he came from.

Then all the gates that were blocking the doors were lifted and now Shadow could go to the church.

Shadow started to run towards the door and went through it. He was back on the bridge and no ganados were standing there. He ran across the bridge and started to go up the small hill until he heard growling coming from the top of the hill. He walked closer then out of nowhere he was tackled to the ground by a white wolf.

The wolf got on top of him with its drooling sharp fangs appearing from its blood covered mouth. Clearly it had already bitten or killed someone.

Just as when the wolf was about to bite into his chest, Shadow used his feet and kicked the wolf off him. He quickly got off the ground while noticing there were three of the wolves ahead of him.

The wolves growled and then plagas started to arise from their backs. The plagas started to act like whips.

He took out his magnum, aimed at the plagas on their backs, and shot all three of them.

The wolves' dead bodies also melted into the ground just like the rest of them.

Shadow quickly took his mind off of the wolves and walked up to the church door. He spotted the large hole in the door and inserted the round object into the door. It fit perfectly. He turned the doorknob and went into the door. Once he went into the church, he saw a box of more money on the altar ahead of him. He ran up to it and took some gold coins out of the box, "Why are these people leaving money around? Doesn't matter I gotta buy more bullets to my guns." He took his mind off the money and looked up at the ceiling and noticed a second floor above him. "Amy must be up there somewhere." He began to look around the room until he found a ladder behind a corner. Once he went up to the ladder, he looked ahead of himself and saw a door, but it had bars all around it. He couldn't get through it. "Amy must be in there, but how am I suppose to get in there?" He then saw a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. He thought maybe he could jump on that and jump over to the other side. He stepped back and ran towards the chandelier and jumped on it letting the chandelier swing back and forth until it was the right time for him to jump off. He finally jumped off it and landed on the other side of the second floor. He looked around him and saw the door again, but it still had bars all over. He looked another way and saw a strange looking device. "What is this thing? Does this open that gate?" He pushed a button then lights came from the device and shone on a large insignia, but it wasn't right. The design of the insignia was way out of order. The lights that shone on the insignia were red, green, and blue. "Great another puzzle to solve. I'll just push buttons maybe I'll get lucky." He began to push any button and once he did, the large insignia started to move. Shadow then began to get it, "Wait a minute I get it now. Red goes there, blue goes in there and, green goes there." The large insignia formed the right insignia symbol. Shadow watched the bars rise away from the door. He smiled and ran over to the door. He didn't know who or what would be in there with Amy so he took out his handgun and loaded it with bullets. He turned the doorknob slowly and went into the room. He just saw a pink hedgehog with a long metal pipe in her hand.

The pink hedgehog threw the pipe at Shadow but fortunate for him, she had missed. "Get lost!"

Shadow placed his gun back in his pocket and tried to calm her down, "Hold on!"

The pink hedgehog leaned against the wall scared to death, "No! Leave me alone! Don't touch me!"

He walked towards the pink hedgehog trying not to frighten her more, "Amy, don't be afraid. My name is Shadow and the president sent me here to rescue you."

Amy smiled and clasped her hands together, "My father?"

He nodded, "That's right. Now I have to get you out of here. Come on."

Amy now started to trust Shadow, "It's about time someone came here to save me. Those people are crazy." She noticed Shadow taking out a weird device. She leaned over and looked at it, "What's that?"

"It's just something to contact the government with."

Soon a tan rabbit showed up on the monitor.

"Cream I successfully got the subject."

"Great, I'll send you a chopper over right now. Just head to the extraction point of the village."

"Got it", he shut off the communicator and faced Amy, "Lets get out of here." He opened the door and they both went through it. Once he went out the door, he saw a ladder below them. He climbed down the ladder and afterwards waited for Amy. He looked up at her while accidentally taking a quick glance up her dress.

Amy saw him looking and placed her dress down to her legs. She angrily blushed, "You are such a pervert!"

He quickly looked away while she was climbing down the ladder, "I'm sorry!"

She got off the ladder and stomped on his foot as hard as she could.

Shadow let out a yelp and held his foot, "I'm sorry! How many times do I have to say it?"

"You will be when I tell daddy about this!" She crossed her arms and started to walk out the church with Shadow behind her until they both saw a silver hedgehog with a weird looking staff in his hand.

"Do you two really think you're going to escape this easily?" He asked.

"Who are you?" Shadow asked.

"I am Silver the Hedgehog, the founder of this magnificent church and also this religion."

Shadow thought back to what one of the villagers said, "Lord Silver?" He muttered. "You're behind this aren't you?"

He nodded with a sinister smile.

"You kidnaped Amy. Why?"

"So we could share our culture with her. Is that a crime?"

Amy stepped back, "No", she said softly. She thought back to what happened to her. She was laying on some kind of table while she was unconscious and these strange men wearing black robes injected a needle into her neck. She touched her neck, "Shadow, I think they shot something in my neck."

He gritted his teeth and faced Silver again, "What the hell did you do to her?"

"We gave her a little something to carry around so she could spread it throughout the world." He began to laugh bit, "Don't feel left out, Hedgehog. We gave you the same gift."

"I was unconscious."

"We kidnaped her only for that then after when we were finished with her. We would send her back from where she came from. Oh there's going to be one hell of a party when she returns home to her loving father", he began to laugh.

Shadow clenched his fists, "You son of a bitch."

The door behind them opened and two men with black robes stood behind them with a crossbow in their hands and flaming arrows were inside of them. They both pointed them at Shadow and Amy.

Shadow looked back at Silver and all he did was made an evil smirk. He quickly took Amy's wrist and they both started to run towards the window.

The two men shot their flaming arrows at them, but missed and hit the support beam instead.

Shadow and Amy had no choice but to jump out of the window. They jumped out of the window, shattering the glass into many pieces. They fell on the ground and were outside again with the rain still pouring from the sky.

Shadow got off the ground and helped Amy up, "You okay?"

She looked up to Shadow in sadness, "Shadow, what's going to happen to us?"

"Don't worry everything will be all right. I promise."