Everyone was silent for a moment until Shadow finally spoke. "Who the hell are you?" he growled.
The bat scoffed and rolled her eyes. "I figured as much," she said. "You're never friendly to strangers are you. Then again I can't blame you. Hard to find trustworthy people anymore. I think Sonic over here was lucky he's cute or you would have let Jet dump him overboard."
"How do you know my name?" Sonic demanded, pointedly ignoring the burning sensation in his cheeks. He looked over at Shadow, who looked insulted as he glared even more intensely at the bat. Did he find him attractive or was that wishful thinking? Wait, that didn't matter, he remembered as he turned his gaze back to the newcomer.
The bat giggled. "Of course, how rude of me," she said. "My name is Rouge. I've been following big blue over here since Martin knocked him out. Been on your ship the whole time. I know everything."
Shadow clenched a fist, Sonic's ears popping as the red energy crackled once again. "You were spying on us," he snarled. "How?"
"Oh, not to worry, Shadow," Rouge chuckled. "I keep secrets just fine. But Big Blue should know Espio, my master, so you should know that I'm on your side."
Sonic frowned, puzzled, before it dawned on him. "Are you one of Espio's spirits?" he asked.
"Bingo," she said with a wink. "Also, you can thank me for nudging you guys towards Mimic. Took you ages to pick up on my hints though. I was wondering if my body was gonna turn to dust before you figured it out."
"How'd you follow me?" Sonic asked. "I didn't see you with Sally and I that morning."
Rouge snorted. "Well what kind of spy would I be if everyone could see me at all times?" she said. "But that's besides the point. You said you want to save your sibs, here's your chance. Sonia and Blaze's camp isn't far from here." She pointed towards the north, into the forest several feet away from the beach. "It won't even take you guys a day to get there," she finished.
Sonic's eyes widened, and his heart raced with anticipation. They were so close. He could see Sonia again for the first time in months. All he had to do was run.
"We're in no position to be rescuing anyone," Shadow said sternly, and to Sonic's dismay Amy nodded in agreement. "We don't have food or shelter. Hell, we barely have suitable clothing. We need to find a place to regroup."
"But Knothole is even further away," Rouge argued, and Sonic nodded in agreement. "It'll take you days to get there on foot. It's almost on the other side of the island."
"And Sonia's waited long enough!" Sonic interjected. "She and so many others have been in there for months! Many of them haven't survived! I'm not going to sit around and let my sister be one of them!"
"Sonic, we can barely look after ourselves right now," Amy said. "How can we take care of any other people?"
Sonic faltered. She had a point. What could they do? The Babylons had dumped them all overboard with nothing. But Sonic would be damned if he didn't try.
"I'll meet you guys back at Knothole," Sonic said after a moment. "Rouge, lead them there. I'm going after Sonia and Blaze."
"I'm coming with you," Silver said, stepping forward. "I'm not waiting any longer than I must to see Blaze again."
Shadow frowned. "What are you doing?" he asked. "This is insane. You could both die trying to get them out, much less getting them back to Knothole if you succeed."
Sonic smirked. "Have a little faith," he said. "I'll see you all soon."
With that, he took off running, Silver flying right behind him. After a moment, he saw a black blur running right next to him, and he gawked as he realized Shadow was keeping up with him. "I'm not letting you go in alone," Shadow growled. "It's suicide, with or without Silver."
"Awww, what a sweet caring gentleman," Rouge's voice teased behind Shadow. Then she pulled ahead of the three of them. "Get ready, boys," she said. "This ain't gonna be a walk in the park."
Once he got past the shock, Sonic smiled and sped up, following Rouge's lead through the forest.
About an hour later they stood near the hulking front gates of the camp, waiting for Rouge to come back after performing reconnaissance. Silver was absently spinning a rock in the air. Sonic kept tapping his foot impatiently, earning a scowl and a light smack to his leg from Shadow. "Stop it," Shadow hissed. "Both of you. You're going to blow our cover."
"Well, tell Rouge to hurry up then," Sonic retorted. "It feels like it's been an eternity for Gaia's sake."
"Silencio," Silver said suddenly. "Guards."
The three of them ducked down to avoid the sweeping gazes of the human guards patrolling the perimeter of the camp. They stayed quiet, Sonic holding his breath for several moments before he felt like he was gonna pass out. Shadow reached over and grabbed his hand, startling him, his quills standing at attention and crossing. "Breathe," Shadow whispered.
Sonic released his held breath and tried to inhale again quietly, pulling his hand out of Shadow's grasp.
A moment later, Rouge finally appeared in front of them again, her expression solemn. "You'd better get in there quick," she said. "They're rounding up all the mages."
Sonic looked at Silver, whose eyes widened with panic. Blaze was a pyro mage; while Sonia was relatively safe, Blaze wasn't. Sonic turned back to Rouge and nodded. "You got us a way in?" he asked.
Rouge nodded and led them carefully away and to a smaller door, tucked out of sight from the front gate. There was one guard standing vigil there, but with a well-aimed stone from Silver, he was unconscious. Rouge passed through the door, then opened it from the inside, beckoning them through and shutting it behind them.
The space was dark and musty, the smell of spoiling food thick in the air. Sonic stifled a gag as they walked through, Rouge and Silver illuminating the storage room with their ghostly glows. Sonic stayed in between Shadow and Silver, though he tried to walk just slightly ahead of them, ready to curl and roll at the first sign of danger.
Finally, they reached another door, and Rouge disappeared with a shushing gesture before peering outside, then opening the door, still invisible, which sent an eerie chill up Sonic's spine. "The rest is on you, guys," Rouge whispered. "I'm gonna rummage in here and bring some food back to the others. Bonne chance."
Sonic nodded. "Thanks," he whispered back. And then he took a careful step out of the storage room, his eyes widening as he saw a flash of magenta quills in a crowd of humans and mobians. His heart began to pound as he heard the first shots of gunfire.
He took off running, desperate to get to Sonia as the image of her bleeding form in his nightmares branded itself in his mind, but Shadow grabbed his arm. "Think!" he hissed. "Do we have a plan?"
"Si," said Silver. "Get in, free the mages, retreat with everyone we can."
"Great, except for all the holes in that plan," Shadow growled, though Silver wasn't listening anymore, leaving a teal streak behind him as he flew towards the chaos.
Sonic yanked his arm out of Shadow's grip. "Sounds good to me," he said, taking off in earnest this time, Shadow swearing as he caught up with him. Within moments he stood next to Sonia, who was shooting at the guards with a pistol, a sword hanging from her belt that was much too big for her.
"Sis!" Sonic shouted, and Sonia glanced at him briefly, her pistol clicking as she tried to shoot another round from an empty chamber.
"Took you long enough!" she shouted. "How 'bout some help, huh!"
Just like always.
Sonic grinned and curled up, revving a couple times before rolling into a line of guards. He knocked them off their feet, allowing his sister and the small group of mobians fighting with her to press their new advantage. He untucked and saw Shadow running and flinging bolts of red energy at the enemy, his teeth bared in a snarl.
A yell sounded behind Sonic, and he turned just in time to dodge the soldier's sword, jumping nimbly out of the way. Before he could launch a counter attack, a bolt of red light hit the soldier's chest, and she cried out as she hit the ground. Sonic turned to find Shadow standing a few feet away. "Watch your damn back, hedgehog!" he yelled, then sped away.
Sonic laughed, then took off, rolling through another line of soldiers like a bowling ball. Still, there were a lot more humans than there were mobians, and fewer and fewer of the latter were still standing. Many of them were heavily wounded. Even Sonia sported a cut across her cheek that was bleeding profusely.
They had to end this fight quickly.
Suddenly, Sonic caught sight of Silver flying into the fray, a familiar purple cat not far behind. Many others followed, and suddenly the earth began to shake beneath Sonic's feet before splitting open, swallowing a swath of soldiers as hundreds of mages reached the battleground.
Now it seemed that the scales were tipping in their favor. Until three of the humans began to change, their forms growing and tripling in size. Within moments three monsters stood in their places; A big burly red one with big black horns, a skinny purple one with a spiky tongue and a sadistic look in his eyes, and a green womanly monster with long, sharp claws. They all dwarfed everyone beneath them, and Sonic's stomach sank.
How were humans doing that?
Even the small army of mages hesitated around him, backing away from the strange shapeshifters. He saw Shadow looking on in horror, and his heart started pounding. Sonic had never seen Shadow afraid before; the captain always seemed to go into dangerous situations with nothing more than a scowl and a drawn weapon.
"Fall back!" Sonia yelled.
"Follow me!" shouted Silver's voice. "We're getting out of here!"
Sonic and Shadow looked at each other once, then joined the army, staying on their flanks to protect everyone as best they could. Shadow threw his magic at the monsters as they approached, and it did have some effect, but they weren't slowing them down by much.
Sonic curled and revved, ignoring Shadow's warning as he rolled and leapt into the air, slamming himself into the big red one's chest. But all he really got was an "oof" from the monster and a hard landing on his ankle as he tumbled out of the air. He curled up again, this time changing his approach. He circled all three giants, digging into the ground with his quills. Seconds later, the monsters were trapped on an island of earth amidst a deep trench.
Sonic jumped from the bottom of the trench and stood, before a twinge in his ankle reminded him of his fall and his leg buckled. A pair of arms caught him from behind. "Are you okay?" asked Shadow.
"I'm fine," Sonic replied. "Let's get out of here."
He forced himself to his feet, wincing as he put weight on his injured foot, but before he could even take another step, a loud crack sounded and Sonic felt something slam into the back of his knee and he collapsed to the ground. A second later Shadow went down next to him with a cry of pain. Sonic turned to find Shadow grimacing, blood soaking through the white of his shirt as he noticed the bullet wound in his back. He looked back at his own leg, and realized with a sick feeling that he'd been shot too, a burning pain beginning to spread from the hole and intensifying.
Sonic bit back a scream as a rough pair of hands dragged him to his feet by the arm, and he found himself tucked under the arm of a human, who lugged him around like a flour sack. He tried to kick free, but just moving his leg sent shooting pain up his body and he hissed. He could barely see around the human's torso, and when he tried to look around he couldn't find Shadow.
The pain was steadily getting worse, mostly in his leg, but a strange sense of numbness was settling into every other part of his body. He felt almost weightless, and he relaxed, his vision going spotty any time his leg was jostled.
He must have blacked out at some point because the next thing he knew he was tossed onto the cold stone floor of a cell, Shadow landing on top of him with a jolt of pain as the iron door slammed shut behind them. The room was dark, save for the little bit of lantern light filtering in through the bars near the top of the door.
A/N: Hey, y'all! I'm going to be working on this story for camp NaNoWriMo, so in order to do that, I have to sacrifice editing these chapters, and that kind of means this has to go on hiatus until August. But I promise, I will resume updates in August, and maybe try and get one chapter every two weeks in July if I can. But thank you to everyone who's been reading so far, and I promise, I'm not dropping this! Regular updates will resume in August!
Love y'all! See you soon! ^^
(Also, I know about the cliffhanger and I'm sorry, that's just how it worked out, I swear I'm not that evil on purpose XD)