CHAPTER 3-1
Shadow and Amy began to walk around until they saw the merchant in a small shed. They went into the shed and confronted the merchant.
"Hello, stranger", the crocodile said.
Amy placed her hands on her hips, "Okay how did you even get here in one piece?"
"I got my ways of entering places such as these", he looked over to Shadow, "Need something, stranger?"
Shadow placed the gold coins that he found in his hand, "What do you have for me this time?"
The merchant started to look through his cloak and took out a rifle. He handed it to Shadow, "This stranger, is a .223 caliber rifle. It's able to shoot faster than an ordinary rifle."
Shadow examined the rifle and smiled, "This is perfect."
The merchant handed a pack of bullets to Shadow, "Use it wisely, stranger."
Shadow and Amy walked out of the shed and saw a door above them. They walked up the steps and went through the door. They still ended up on the outside of the castle, but they saw more ganados and this time they looked different. They were the same type of men they saw at the church. They were all wearing black robes and all they were doing was walking around saying things that Shadow and Amy couldn't understand.
Shadow began to load his new rifle with bullets. He pointed the gun and zoomed in on the one he was going to shoot. He shot one of them and he had died, but the rest of them started to run away. He smirked, "What cowards."
Amy crossed her arms in annoyance, "You heard that crocodile didn't you? He said to use it wisely."
"I was just testing it out."
"Can we please go now?"
Shadow saw more steps ahead of them, "All right just come on."
Once they ran up the steps, they saw a man wearing a mask over his face and was wearing a red robe. He pointed at Shadow and Amy and started to shout. A man wearing a black robe had a huge catapult and it held a flaming boulder in it. He released the boulder from the catapult and it hit the ground but missed Shadow and Amy. There were three catapults that held the flaming boulders. They were on a high lever of the castle surrounding Shadow and Amy.
Shadow took Amy's hand and they both ran into a place that the flaming boulders couldn't reach them. They went into a small room and saw a cannon in the center of the room.
"What's that for?" Amy asked.
Shadow shrugged, "I don't know but maybe I can use it for something. Amy, stay here. I'll come get you later."
She nodded and stayed in the room.
Shadow took out his rifle and confronted the men that were trying to kill him with their flaming boulders. He saw more steps so he ran up the steps and saw a huge door in front of him but it was locked. "No keyhole so maybe I have to blast it open with something." While he was standing there thinking, three more flaming boulders came at him. He quickly ran out of the way and saw another small spaced room on a round platform. He stood on the platform, took his rifle, and shot one of the men that was operating one of the catapults. Another boulder came at him but he dodged it. He took his rifle and pointed it at the man on the left side that was operating the second catapult. He shot him before he could use the catapult again. He pointed his gun at the man wearing a red robe and shot him. He smiled as he shot the last ganado that was about to use the catapult again. He lowered his gun to the ground and sighed, "Thank god that's over."
"Yeah", a female voice agreed.
Shadow was startled by the familiar voice. He glared at the pink hedgehog standing behind him, "Amy! What the hell! Why are you here? I told you to stay and I would come back for you later."
"I know but I get so impatient", she tried to say in an innocent voice. She looked at a crank near them. She pointed to it, "Hey, what's that for?"
Shadow walked to it and placed his hand on the lever, "Lets find out." He started to operate the crank and soon the cannon that was in that room had appeared in the middle of the platform. He got behind the cannon and activated it making the cannonball hit the huge door breaking it apart. He smirked, "Looks like that was our ticket in." He and Amy ran towards a red door and went through it. They were now in some kind of dining room. Shadow's communicator beeped so he took it out and answered it, "Cream?"
"Shadow", she said in a concerned voice. "I'm worried that-" All of a sudden Cream was cut off and the communicator had picked up nothing but static.
"Cream?" He called.
There was no answer.
"Cream, are you there?"
Still no answer.
Shadow shut off the communicator and placed it back in his pocket, "Shit."
Amy faced him with a worried look, "What's wrong, Shadow?"
"I can't get a signal. Something or someone is jamming our communication. Cream can't get through to me anymore."
"I don't like this, Shadow."
"Don't be afraid. I'm with you."
She placed her hands on her hips, "And I'm suppose to feel safe?"
Then the door opened behind them and a man wearing a red robe with two more men wearing a black robe stood beside him. He pointed at Shadow and Amy while shouting. Then the two men started to walk over to Shadow and Amy.
Shadow took Amy's hand and led her upstairs hoping that there was another door. When he looked around a bit, he saw a door but it was locked. He hit the door with his fist, "Damn it!"
Amy pointed at a gold sword hanging on the wall, "Maybe these swords hanging on the wall has to do with something."
Shadow took the sword off the wall and glanced at it. He handed it to Amy, "There was another downstairs somewhere. Come on."
The two ganados confronted them while murmuring their language.
Shadow took out his handgun and shot at them both in their chests killing them. He and Amy went downstairs and faced the man in the red robe. Shadow shot him in his chest but he never fell to the ground and died. Instead his head had came off and another different plagas had arose from his neck.
Amy screamed as the plagas walked over to her.
The plagas leaned back and had came down back at Amy trying to bite her head away from her body, but she had fallen back making the plagas miss her.
She screamed again, "Shadow!"
Shadow took his magnum and shot the head making its insides explode killing it.
Amy got off the floor shaking and ran over to Shadow crying and trembling, "It-it tried to eat my head off."
Shadow patted her back a bit, "You're okay now. Don't worry." He broke away from her and took the golden sword that was in her hand. He replaced the silver sword on the wall with the gold one.
Amy still stood there shaking a bit while wiping away her tears, until Shadow called her upstairs again. Once she got up there, the door was open. She went through the door with Shadow and was outside of the castle again.
"Shadow!" A voice called in front of them.
Shadow smiled a bit as he saw a blue hedgehog running towards them, "Sonic."
The blue hedgehog stopped running and confronted them panting a bit, "Shad...ow..."he said out of breath.
"Sonic, what's wrong?" Shadow asked. "You look exhausted."
"I was running from those bastards again but I guess they did have a good reason for chasing me."
"What did you do?" Amy asked.
Sonic felt around his pants but he couldn't find what he was looking for. He looked back from behind him, "Oh shit! I must have dropped it while I was running away from them!"
"Dropped what?" She asked again.
"The plasma sample. It's something to get rid of the parasites in your bodies."
"A cure?" Shadow repeated. "And you fucking dropped it! You are one clumsy fuck, Sonic!"
"Don't get upset with me! I'm on your side remember? I'll get it back."
Amy walked up to him, "Sonic, I want to come with you."
Sonic gave her a strange look and smiled, "Sorry, but Shadow has to look out for you not me." He looked over to Shadow, "Anyway, have you two been coughing up blood?"
They both nodded slightly.
"Damn it! The eggs have already hatched! Look I gotta go. I'll meet up with you later", he started to go into a different door and left Shadow and Amy behind.
Amy faced Shadow, "Wow, Sonic must be really serious about this."
"Yeah, I guess he is", he walked over to a huge door and tried to open it but it was locked. He saw a keyhole in it meaning that the door needed a key, "There must be a key around here somewhere." He then saw another door not too far away from them. He and Amy went through the door and saw a man with a black robe standing outside of a door looking like he was guarding something. The man spotted them and ran back into the door. Shadow took out his handgun and loaded it with more bullets. He went through the door and saw a pack of ganados in black robes with weapons in their hands. Shadow's eyes widened, "Uh...wrong room?"
One ganado almost hit him with a ball full of spikes all over it but Shadow had quickly closed the door making him hit the door instead.
Shadow sighed thinking he was out of the clear until a flaming arrow had almost hit him in his arm. He looked up and saw a man with a crossbow in his hand. He took his handgun and shot him off the roof. The ganado fell on the ground face first and died with his body melting into the ground. Shadow took Amy's hand and led her behind a corner until they saw two men holding shields with the insignia sign on them to protect themselves. Shadow quickly took out his magnum and shot the wooden shields into pieces. He then shot the two ganados killing them. Afterwards he saw a door and went in it. There was nothing special with the room, but he did see a red chest in a far corner of the room. He ran up to it and opened the chest. He saw a key at the bottom of the chest and took it out. "This must belong to that door."
Amy looked at the key as well, "Only one way to find out."
They both began to leave the room and head towards the huge door that needed the key.
Shadow took out the key and placed it in the keyhole making the door unlock. He and Amy went into the door and heard laughing from somewhere in the room.
Amy looked around the room, "Okay that laugh is getting on my nerves. Who's doing that?"
Soon an orange fox had appeared from the balcony above them with two huge servants beside him, "I was wondering when you would show up, Hedgehog."
"Who the hell are you?" Shadow asked.
"Miles Prower, but you can call me Tails."
"What do you want?"
"Isn't it obvious? The president's daughter is all I need, but you...heh. You're not worth a penny I'm afraid. You can die", the young looking orange fox turned his back and walked away with his servants following him.
Amy glared and faced Shadow, "I'm never going to turn into one of them! Never!"
"Got that right. We'll think of something. Though I hate that kid. He should know better than to threaten me."
Amy began to walk towards the main hallway but a large stone picture blocked the way. She faced Shadow, "Shadow, what are we going to do?"
"Take another route." He pointed at the door on the left side, "Check that door and see if it's open while I check the one on the right.
Amy tried to turn the doorknob but it wouldn't open. She looked over to Shadow, "It's locked."
"This one isn't. Lets check this one out."
Amy ran over to Shadow and went through the door. They were in a room with red lanterns all over the ceiling. While Shadow was looking around the room, Amy spotted a picture of Silver on the wall, "Looks like this Tails kid really looks up to Silver."
Shadow never paid attention to her. He was too busy trying to open an old prison door until he finally gave up. He walked over to Amy, "I guess we better keep moving." He noticed Silver's picture on the wall as well, "That fucker really pisses me off." He knocked the picture off the wall and didn't care if it fell on the floor.
Amy gasped at what was behind the picture, "Look Shadow, more money."
Shadow took the gold coins from the secret compartment and put the coins in his pocket, "There's probably money behind every single picture of him in here."
"Then maybe we should continue."
Shadow had agreed with her, "Right."
They began to leave that part of the room and started to head towards the next part but the next part was blocked off because of two horse statues blowing out fire from the mouths.
"How are we suppose to get through now?" Amy wondered.
Shadow looked around the room and saw something shining on a different picture. He walked up to it and took the shiny object off the picture. He stared at it in his hand and found out that it was a key. "I found a key. It may go to that prison door." Shadow and Amy headed for the prison door and had unlocked it with the key that Shadow found. Once the door was unlocked, Amy was about to follow Shadow in but he faced her with a serious look. "Huh, what's wrong, Shadow?"
"Stay here. Something doesn't seem right and when I mean stay here, I mean to stay here and don't move."
She sighed and nodded, "All right."
Shadow slowly went down the steps and took out his handgun. He slowly walked towards the only cell that was in there and saw a man wearing a lot of armor chained to the wall with blood seeping out of his eye sockets because of the pins that were stabbed in his eyes but he still looked like he was moving around a bit. Shadow's eyes widened at the sight, "Wha-what is that thing?" As he got closer to the cell, the man just broke out of his chains and his hand reached out at the black hedgehog with anger. Shadow stepped back a bit, "Uh I didn't mean to disturb you."
The man didn't listen and just yelled probably in pain because of his bad eyes. Then on both of his hands, a long metal claws had appeared. He ran towards Shadow and tried to stab him with his sharp claws.
Amy covered her mouth and hoped that Shadow would be okay, 'Shadow...'
Shadow turned to him and shot him in his head with his handgun but it didn't work. "What!" He took out his magnum and shot him in his chest which was a place that he didn't have armor on and it still didn't work. It only knocked him back.
The man turned around with his back showing.
Shadow eyed the plagas on his back, "A plagas!" He pointed his gun at the plagas and shot it making the man fall to the floor with the plagas' insides all over his back and floor. Afterwards Shadow panted heavily exhausted from the fight, "That was close." He looked in the cell and saw a lever on the wall. He pulled the lever down and figured that it had triggered something. He ran up the stairs and led Amy back to the where the statues were breathing fire and this time, the statues stopped breathing fire but now more men that were wearing black robes had approached them. Shadow took out his machine pistol and shot at the ganados killing them. Then they saw another door ahead of them. When they went through the door, a lot of ganados were standing in front of them with scythes in their hands.
A man that was wearing a red robe had shouted, commanding them for the rest of them to kill them.
Amy got behind Shadow, "Where did they all come from?"
Shadow took out his machine pistol and shot at the man wearing a red robe first though he didn't die right away. A plagas had appeared from his head and started to approach them, but Shadow had shot it in the center of its head killing it.
The rest of the ganados came towards them as well but Shadow had stopped them by shooting them with his fast shooting gun.
Afterwards Shadow led Amy towards the center of the room but there was nowhere else to go, so they went towards the back of the room and came to a door seeing two huge yellow panels on the floor.
Amy was confused, "What are these for?"
Shadow pointed to the one on the left side, "Amy, stand on that one over there."
She nodded and stood on one of the yellow panels while Shadow stood on the other.
Afterwards they heard a clicking noise and they got off the yellow panels. They went back out to the front of the room and saw that a crank had appeared in the center of the room.
"Amy, you operate it."
She nodded and started to turn the crank making the top floor of the room come down towards the floor they were standing on. Soon the top floor had came completely down. She and Shadow had ran towards the center of the room and saw water everywhere.
Shadow sighed, "Now what do we do?"
Amy looked over to the far side of the room and pointed to a crank, "Look, there's a crank over there." She looked around more, "And there", she pointed to another one.
Shadow and Amy ran over to it and saw that the platform was too high for them to climb. Shadow kneeled to the ground and allowed Amy to climb on his back to get to the top.
Amy climbed up and looked back at Shadow, "Watch out for me okay?"
"I got your back." Shadow stood in the middle of the room and took out his rifle watching Amy. There were some ganados trying to stop Amy but Shadow shot them before they could reach her. After when Amy was done operating the cranks, she called Shadow to come catch her so she wouldn't hurt herself.
Shadow came to her and caught her in his arms. He put her down on the floor and watched as two separate platforms appeared from underneath the water. "Looks like we have to jump across. Can you do that yourself?"
She crossed her arms thinking that Shadow thought that she couldn't do anything without Shadow's help, "Of course I can."
"Okay", Shadow and Amy jumped across from each platform and ended up at another door. The door was open so they went through it and was in a huge room with a statue of a woman faced upside down.
Amy looked around a bit, "What a creepy room."
They started to walk down the hallway towards another door but Amy had slowed down because she was coughing.
She coughed in her hand and then took it away from her mouth noticing blood was all over her hand. Her eyes widened when she saw the blood all over her hands.
Shadow got concerned for her and faced her, "Amy, are you-"
She pushed him away, "I'm fine! Just leave me alone!" She started to run down the hallway.
"Amy, wait!" Shadow almost followed her until a long spike had appeared from the cracks of the floor.
Amy stepped back and another spike had arose from the floor. Now she started to run towards the wall at the end of the hallway and leaned on it still coughing a bit. Then out of nowhere three giant shackles had held her body against the wall.
"Amy!" Shadow shouted.
She screamed as the wall had flipped over to the other side, "Oh my god! What's going on!" The wall had flipped over to the other side and Amy was gone.
The spikes had slowly went back down into the floor.
Shadow ran over to the wall and started to hit on it with his fists but it was no use. The wall wasn't moving and he couldn't hear Amy's voice from the other side so he doubt if she would hear his. He placed his hand on the wall and stared at it, "Don't worry, Amy. I'm coming."