Chapter Four

Enemy Cave Battle and A Shocking Discovery

Amy found herself getting more and more scared as she and her fellow adventurers went deeper into the cave, her throat felt dry, her heart was pounding in her ribcage harder than ever and cold chills were crawling up her back and neck.

'I'm supposed to be brave and courageous even in the face of grave danger,' she thought, 'but why am I letting my fear get the best of me now? I've pulled through so many intense situations before, Eggman kidnapped me but I got out of there just fine.'

Her teeth were trembling and her moving legs were shaking, at one point, the pink hedgehog felt like she was going to faint from anxiety and fear but holding Sonic's hand gave her confidence to keep going, she couldn't give up, she had to be strong.

The group, despite feeling afraid, remained on guard and kept an eye out for more of those creatures. Shadow made sure that his gun was at the ready, fully charged and at max power. Whatever happened, they had to survive what was coming.

Francois and Dyson were looking at each other, unsure of what to do and how they would keep their calm. The loss of Ann had terrified them enough, but the creatures who'd taken her from them were the stuff of nightmares.

Bright lights shone through the cave on the walls and ceiling, flashing as though the aliens had some advanced light tech. Wait, were those things sentient enough to be capable of using advanced tech, what were they operating on or what were they making?

'Wow,' Sonic thought, 'I almost never even thought the aliens were advanced. They didn't look advanced, they looked primitive and were capable of attacking anyone with sharp clawed hands and razor-sharp teeth filled mouths and those ugly spider scorpion things.'

Loud whirring and low technological beeps echoed through the cavern, something whirred nearby, attracting the space adventurers' attention even more as they wandered into another large area in the cave, finding a room full of creatures and advanced tech.

Sonic, Amy and their companions prepared themselves as the monsters spotted them and gnashed their teeth, roaring battle cries in whatever their bizarre language was before coming straight for them, seemingly outmatching the armed heroes in the hundreds.

Francois tried to fight, punching and kicking several aliens while often using a space gun. While he put up a decent fight, the group of space monsters he tried to take on by himself clawed him, scratching his arm and biting him viciously.

The French wolf astronaut wailed in agony as blood oozed from his injuries and he fell, breathing his last as the aliens tore him apart before they got blasted away by the combined efforts of Sonic and Shadow. Dyson tried to fight as well, shooting many aliens.

After years of target practice, the air force captain had proven himself to be an excellent marksman and he was proving to do so again as he shot down twice as many aliens than Shadow could take down with his own space gun or his Chaos Powers.

"HIIII-YAH!" Amy whacked aside several Xenos with her hammer and bashed one in the head, smashing its skull and taking the alien down, its squashed head in a pool of its own blood. The battle was intense, but in the end, the aliens had been cleared out.

Sonic observed the scene, looking at the destroyed or injured aliens. Something told him that there would be more soon, but at least they had time to lick their wounds and examine the technology the aliens had in their possession.

"I suggest we examine their computer and see what we can find on our new enemies." Shadow suggested, pointing to the extremely advanced computer terminal standing nearby. "Sounds like an idea." Dyson groaned, sitting down as he clutched his shoulder.

"Dyson!" Sonic noticed that the human air force captain looked badly hurt, he seemed to be bleeding. He and Amy knelt down to try and comfort Dyson as Rouge and Shadow set to work on the computer terminal, curious about everything.

"I don't think I'm gonna make it." The man groaned, breathing heavily, "Those things did get me during the fight, their claws are damn sharp and poisonous. I also got bit, ugh, no time left now. I... I can see a light, ah, can't hang on."

Despite trying to find something medical that could help him, Sonic and Amy couldn't save their friend. Dyson's eyes closed and he slumped over, his heart no longer beating. He was now gone, having joined Francois and Ann.

"Looks like we're the only ones left now." Rouge commented, noting that it was down to just her, Shadow, Sonic and Amy. Shadow was preoccupied with the computer, learning whatever he could. "So..." He said, "These things call themselves Xenomorphs."

"What?" Sonic asked, "What are you on about, Shadow? I thought we were dealing with something else right now. Is that what the aliens are called?"

"I'm looking at their data." Shadow examined more of the Xenomorph files, discovering info that greatly surprised them, "The Xenomorphs have an empire that encompass most of the stars, they want to eradicate almost all other life forms in the universe. Wait, what?"

Shadow had stumbled across a file that read PROJECT: AMALGAMATION. He blipped on it and the model of a hideous looking human-like creature came up with text that talked about creating a hybrid. "A Humanoid-Xenomorph Hybrid?" Shadow questioned.

"Why would these Xenomorphs want make something that's a cross between one of themselves and one of something that they hate, handsome?" Rouge asked, "It doesn't make sense, they seem to hate anything that isn't a Xenomorph."

"All of this is somewhat new to us in terms of our dealings with aliens, this is nothing compared to Black Doom and the Black Arms. These... Xenomorphs seem to be even worse than I thought."

The black hedgehog got out a small, portable hard-drive and placed it into one of the computer socket terminals, copying every bit of info on the Xenomorphs before retracting the hard-drive and gave it to Rouge, who held onto it on her person for safekeeping.

"Why don't we get the hell outta here now?" Amy suggested, "I'm getting a bit more nervous about this place and somethin' tells me something's gonna happen between us and those Xenomorphs again in the next couple seconds if..."

Thump! GRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Two bigger and more ferocious Xenomorphs with more bulkier bodies, terrifying faces and sharper claws dropped down from above, emerging from the shadows and accompanied by a few more Xenomorphs who were shorter yet more vicious looking.

Sonic, Amy, Shadow and Rouge prepared themselves, with the two love-bird G.U.N agents backing away from the computer terminal as a Xenomorph started smashing it. The other xenomorphs moving in, snarling and ready to attack.

Amy raised her hammer and Shadow charged up his gun, Sonic and Rouge took up fighter stances, the four of them ready to fight to the end but also ready to retreat and get off the planet, head back to Mobius and figure out what to do afterwards.

"Fight or retreat?" Sonic asked, "I think it's best we get outta here, get back to the ship and get home before any more of us loses a life." Shadow thought about that, "I think a retreat might be in order. I'll take care of Francois and Dyson. CHAOS CONTROL!"

The black hedgehog randomly teleported around the area, warping the corpses of Francois and Dyson away and came back just as one of the Xenomorphs roared and the creatures decided to attack on the group.

"Now's definitely a good time to run." Shadow quipped, "I'll use cover fire, you three run, I'll be right behind you." Sonic scooped up Amy in his arms and zipped out of the cave, Rouge looked worried for what could happen to her love, "Shadow...?"

"Go!" Shadow yelled, "Run!"