CHAPTER 3-2

Shadow walked towards another door down that hallway but he decided to try to reach Cream again. He took out his communicator and still all he saw was static, "Cream, please answer me." Then he heard a laugh and a familiar orange fox appeared on the monitor.

"Heh, who's this Cream that you speak of?"

"You! How did you-"

"We've jacked the line."

"You're one dead kid! Bring Amy back right now!"

Tails began to think for a moment, "Huh? Oh she must have fallen in one of our traps. Looks like we have to get to her before you do. While in the meantime, you can just play with my little invisible insect friends. I'm sure they'll be delighted to play with you." He started to laugh and his communicator shut off.

Shadow placed his communicator back in his pocket and crossed his arms, "I really, really hate that kid." He went through a brown door and saw that he was in a sewer like underground. He walked around while hearing strange noises around him. He saw a long narrow pathway and slowly started to walk down the pathway until he was suddenly knocked down. "What was that!" He got back up and saw nothing but glowing greenish eyes in front of him. He took his handgun and shot at it anywhere in the body. After when he shot it a couple of times, the creature showed its full form and it was a giant insect. Shadow figure that his handgun wouldn't do anything so he took his magnum out and shot at the insect and in one shot it had fell to the floor dead along with melting afterwards. "That was too close." He continued down the pathway and saw an area that was suppose to be full of water but wasn't. He jumped down and he heard two more of the insects. Even though he couldn't see them, he heard them. He started to shoot at where the glowing green eyes were and he successively killed the insects. He saw a ladder and climbed up to the next area. There was another door in front of him so he kicked it down and went through it finding himself in a prison like area. All he saw were dead bodies of the ganados in the cells. He saw another way out but the area he wanted to go to was full of water. "Damn, it looks like I have to drain the water someway." He looked around for a valve that he could drain the water with but he couldn't find one in the area that he was in. He saw another pathway in the back of the prison cells so he went back there and found another door he could enter. He went through the door and saw a valve in the corner of the room. "There it is." He walked towards the valve and turned it making the water that was in that area drain into the ground. Afterwards he walked out of the door and went back to the area that didn't have the water. He jumped down to the next area and another insect came behind him. He took out his magnum and shot it down to the ground killing it instantly. He reloaded his gun and saw another ladder ahead of him. He climbed up and saw another door. He went through the door and saw three huge blades swinging back and forth on the ceiling. "This should be easy." He easily ran pass the three blades without getting cut by the sharp edges. He went through another door and ended up back in the room where the upside down statue of the woman was except this time, he was on the second floor of the room. He started to hear voices from above him so he looked down and saw a lot of men with black robes saying their phrases over and over. He also saw a man wearing a red robe with a mask on his face saying something as well. They were all surrounding a table with something on it covered with blood all over it. The bloody thing had a some kind of dagger shoved in it. Shadow's eyes widened, "What are they doing? Are they performing some kind of ritual?"

The man with the red robe spotted Shadow and pointed at him shouting.

Shadow had hoped that they weren't coming for him.

Instead the men ran down the hallway towards another door.

Shadow was surprised that they never came after him. He wondered why they didn't come after him right then. "Uh that was weird." He looked over to the other side of the second floor and saw a red door beside the merchant, but there was a gate preventing entry. "How am I going to get to that door?" He saw an opening near one of the railings and it led to a chandelier hanging on the ceiling near him. He jumped on the chandelier and swung on it. Then he jumped off it and jumped on the other side seeing the lever for the gates to rise. He activated the lever and walked towards the green crocodile.

The merchant faced him with gratitude, "Those gates had me trapped here for the longest minutes. Thank you, stranger."

Shadow placed gold coins in his hand, "You can thank me by giving me more bullets."

The merchant smiled and gave him more bullets for each gun he had.

Afterwards Shadow went through the red door and was in a very fancy and unique looking room. He walked around the room until he saw another door. When he went through the door and saw a man wearing a mask and red robe pointing at him shouting with other men around him. There was also a huge gun with some type of rapid firing. The other ganados began to come after Shadow. He took his handgun and shot them all except for the one wearing the red robe. "Him! He has a key around his neck. Maybe I need that key to get into the door to find Amy."

The man looked at Shadow then he started to run towards another door.

Shadow smirked, "Trying to run huh? We'll see about that." He began to follow the man around the room until he lost track of him. He was near the huge gun then when he looked from behind him, he saw the man about to operate the gun. He jumped out of the way and saw the man pointing the huge gun at him. He got behind a corner to avoid the bullets and it worked none of the bullets had harmed him. He pointed his handgun at the man without him noticing and shot him off the gun killing him. He ran over to his body and took the key from his neck. Soon he found a green door that had read 'Photo Gallery.' He inserted the key in the keyhole and went into the room. Once he stepped into the room, the room looked very small and no door was nowhere to be found. There was just a lot of pictures everywhere. "There's no door in here. It's bad enough I don't know where I'm going." He started to look around the room again until he saw a strange device in front of horrifying pictures of people getting killed. "What's this strange device for? I guess there's only one way to find out." He began to press a couple of buttons and the picture began to move. "The pictures moved", he pressed more buttons and the pictures started to move again. "I don't get it. Let me try something different. Maybe I'll just press four, three, one, two." The pictures then went in some kind of pattern and the wall they were on moved to the side and a door was shown. He went through the door and saw Tails' shadow on the floor. He looked up to the second floor and saw the orange fox with his two servants beside him.

"What do you know. I really didn't expect you to make it this far, but I'm afraid we need Amy. Not you, Hedgehog."

"If you don't need me then get off my tail, kid...literally!"

"Heh, this may come to a surprise to you but I'm suppose to be twenty years old."

"So you're just like the rest of them? A slave to the parasites?"

"Sure they have those vicious ganados, the plagas are slaves to our will. We have ultimate power."

"Well I sure don't give a shit. Rain or shine I'm taking your ass down."

Then men in black robes came from other parts of the room with scythes in their hands.

Tails smiled a bit, "Get rid of that hedgehog." He turned his back and walked away leaving it to the ganados to finish Shadow off.

The men slowly approached Shadow while murmuring their language.

He took out his handgun and killed them. Afterwards two ganados appeared from a huge picture and had rocket launchers in each hand. He ran under the stairs so the rockets wouldn't hit him. Soon he thought it would be safe to come out because they never fired their rocket launchers again. He walked up the stairs to the second floor and saw a white door with a gate over it. "Great I guess I need a switch or something to lift the gate from this door." He saw beside the door a red button. He pressed it and a small platform came from the floor with a blue chest on it but there was no way to get to it. He looked over to the white door again and still nothing happened, "There must be another switch somewhere around here. I guess I'd better look around more", he began to walk around the second floor more until he came to a green door. He went in the door and saw nothing in there but a big vase. He walked up to the vase and started to look around it, but still he saw nothing. He sighed, "Nothing." He took his fist and punched the vase into pieces, "Where is it!" He looked down at the shattered glass and saw a switch buried under the pieces of glass. "There it is", he pushed the button then he heard more voices outside of the door. He went out the door and saw a way over to the blue chest but the two ganados with rocket launchers were there pointing their weapons at him. Shadow quicky got out of the way making the rockets miss him.

The ganados dropped their rocket launchers to the floor. The rocket launchers must have only held one rocket now they're useless.

Shadow took out his handgun and shot them off the small platform. After when they had died on the floor. Shadow walked over to the blue chest, opened it, and saw a blue stone carving of a goat head. "This must go to that wall with the missing pieces to it." From the platform, he saw that the gate to the white door had risen up. "The gate is up." He got off the platform and went into the door. He was now walking down a long narrow hallway. He saw a door in front of him so he went up to it to open it but it was locked from the inside. He didn't worry much about that door because he saw another door beside him. He went through it and was outside of the castle once again. He went ahead and saw a garden that was in the form of a maze. He took his eyes away from the maze and saw another door near him but it was locked. He examined the door and saw two holes making one in the door. "I guess something goes here." He looked back at the maze, "And that something maybe in that maze." He began to walk towards the maze until his communicator beeped. He took it out of his pocket and saw Tails on the monitor.

"It seems you have ran into my garden. You like it?"

"To be perfectly honest no not really."

"Well it won't matter to you anyway. My pets shall give you another opinion once you set foot in my garden."

He smirked, "Heh, I am pretty good with animals."

"Well can't talk long. Gotta bag a couple rats before they ruin us." He turned off the monitor and so did Shadow.

Shadow began think about what Tails had said, "Two rats? If one's Sonic, who's the other?" He then took his mind off of what he said and went into the maze while reloading his machine pistol. "I guess those two pieces must be in here somewhere. He began to walk around the maze a bit while he also heard some growling not too far from him. He stopped and listened some more, "That growl. I know that growl." He quickly spun around and saw a white wolf behind him with a plagas on its back. "Oh shit!"

The wolf tried to jump on Shadow, but Shadow pointed his machine pistol at him and shot him back down on the ground killing it and the plagas.

Shadow sighed, "What the fuck is wrong with that kid! Wolves for pets? What's he got for me next?" He continued to walk around the maze until he saw a small bridge. He walked up the bridge and saw a statue of a woman drawing water. He studied the statue and saw something on the statue. He picked it up and looked at it, "This must belong to that door." He looked around the maze from the top of the bridge and saw another statue of a woman drawing water. "That must be where the other piece is." He jumped down from the bridge and ran towards the statue. Once he made it to the statue, he grabbed the last piece that went to the door and started to leave the maze. When he got to the exit of the maze he saw about five wolves blocking the exit.

They all deeply growled while the plagas came from their backs. They started to run towards Shadow with their sharp drooling fangs.

Shadow took out his machine pistol and shot at the plagas on the wolves' backs. Soon they all died neared the exit of the maze. He got out of the maze and ran towards the door inserting the pieces in the hole. Then a clicking sound was heard meaning the door was unlocked. He went inside and was stopped because a gun was held to the back of his head.

"Put your hands where I can see them", a female voice said.

"Heh, sorry but taking orders from a woman just ain't my style."

She pushed the barrel of the gun to his skull with more force, "I said to put them up now."

Then Shadow quickly kneeled to the ground and tried to kick her but she jumped in the air making him miss. He saw her face and noticed that she had on dark lens sunglasses to hide her eyes. She was also wearing a long red dress.

She landed on the floor with her hand while doing a cartwheel.

Shadow took out his combat knife and ran up to her with it.

She landed on the floor with her gun in her hand pointing it at Shadow, but he had the blade of his knife close to her neck.

He smirked, "A bit of advice. Try using knives next time. It works better for close encounters." He took the gun away from her hand and threw it across the room while taking out its bullets.

The woman smiled, "Shadow, long time no see handsome." She took off her glasses showing Shadow her eyes.

Shadow turned to face her, "Rouge! It's really you! So it's true."

"True?"

"You. I heard you were working for Eggman."

She smiled slightly and dropped her glasses to the floor, "I see you've been doing your homework."

"Why, Rouge? You could've done anything else you desired but instead you have to work for Eggman. Don't you remember? He was the one responsible for the outbreak in Raccoon City. It was him and Umbrella." He placed his hand on her shoulder, "Rouge."

She faced him with an evil smile, "Sorry, Shadow."

Then the glasses that she dropped on the floor had exploded and made a smokescreen.

Rouge quickly got her gun off the floor and faced Shadow one last time, "Catch you later you sexy hedgehog", she had said in a seductive voice. She then jumped out of an open window.

"Rouge!" He shouted but it was too late. She was gone.

N/A: Uh sorry about the wait. I just got lazier all of a sudden. Well anyway Rouge finally appeared. I just hope that the next chapter gets finished a little quicker.