Chapter 6: Crisis City

Truth be told, I expected to wake up in some place different, but I happened to be back in my apartment. Struggling to get together, I pondered over everything that occurred so far; getting beaten up, returning home, seeing Sonic, finding the hole and meeting Elise. I knew some parts actually happened but I was still confused. "What?!"

Pulling myself up to my feet, I took in the familiar surroundings of the living room. "No, no, it can't be! I swear, everything was real! ... Or was it...in my head, the whole time?"

I then snapped back to reality, shaking my head in disbelief. "No, that's just stupid. What am I thinking?"

Looking around, I noticed that the small cupboard next to the sofa I woke up on, had strangely been moved...god knows when. I shrugged and moved it, grunting and struggling as I did so. Behind it was another hole (much smaller) and a paragraph was written on a piece of paper beside it. "That's weird... How did this get here?"

I bent down, picked the sheet up and took a good ol' read, filled with curiosity and interest:

"The faint hope I had is slowly changing to despair. I've somehow managed to tunnel this far, but no matter what I do, I can't get any farther.

The hallway, the windows, the walls... It feel like this room is stuck in another dimension.

Eileen never noticed..."

"This is getting stranger and stranger," I muttered under my breath. Soon after reading that passage, I turned my head and looked into the new hole. The sight that greeted me was an ordinary bedroom. A bright shade of blue draped the walls and two darker shades of yellow and red coloured the carpet and bed. Sitting on it was Sonic and a seventeen year old Tails. They seemed very happy, enjoying each other's company as always.

"So what have you been up to recently, buddy?" Sonic asked.

The two-tailed fox grinned. "Well, I've just been tinkering with the tornado but other than that, not much has happened."

"I see." The blue hedgehog replied. "I'm heading out to meet Amy and Knuckles in the park a little later on, wanna come?"

Hearing this, Tails brightened up. "Sure!"

There was a moment of silence before Sonic turned to face Tails with an evil, mischievous smirk. "I'll race ya."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

Another moment of silence and they both tackled each other to the ground, grinning and snickering before Sonic dashed out of the room shouting: "Bet ya can't catch me!" Tails instantly ran after him, laughing with delight. "Ooooh, we'll see about that Sonic!"

I shook my head with amusement and lifted myself up, turning round as I did so. Since the gap in the hole was pretty wide, I couldn't help but think about how hilarious it would be if I looked in there and Sonic happened to be looking right back.

Wouldn't that be funny?

But then, I suddenly remembered. Elise! She was still waiting for me. I smacked my forehead in annoyance and went over to my bedroom where the hole was. Damn you Megan!

Once again without hesitating, I crawled in.

...

Instead of finding myself back in Soleanna New City, I was in a different city. It strangely looked just like the previous site but it was engulfed in flames. The tall skyscrapers and buildings were rusted and dark orangey-brown, fiery birds which spitted out fire to defend themselves flew all around the city as if they were guarding the entire place. I also saw that in the streets ahead, there were a couple of disfigured and weird-looking monsters wandering around. Where the heck did those things even come from?! The only good thing about it was that there was a decent blue sky, the rest earned a big nope. I pulled myself up to my feet and clutched my pistol tightly.

I gotta find Elise...

"Megan!"

High heels clicked at a quick pace, accompanied by troubled panting. I turned to the right to see Elise running towards me, clutching her bloodied knife tightly in one hand and her skirts in the other. Looks like she was brave enough to take out of a couple of the monsters already. Way to go, girl.

"Elise!"

She eventually stopped and cupped her hands against her knees, gasping for breath. I walked up to her, placing my hand on her shoulder in concern, even though I was slightly confused as to why she was here. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yes... I'm alright," Elise said, after managing to catch her breath, pulling herself up as she did so. "How did you get here?"

I frowned. "By coming through the hole that's right behind me. How did you end up here?"

"It's a long story," My friend answered. "We should probably find a way out."

Nodding in agreement, I released my hand from her shoulder and gestured for her to follow me. "You're damn right."

She eventually caught up with me and that was when our escape started. I ran at a steady pace, turning my head back every so often to check on my friend. She seemed okay so far, slightly disturbed by our surroundings but other than that, perfectly fine. I however, wasn't doing so good. I didn't have that many bullets so if I ran out, I would either have to resolve to using my fists or become an escort mission myself.

Hell no, I ain't turning into that...

I absolutely hated the idea of becoming baggage, so I pushed the thought away and kept my focus on getting out. There were two of the monsters ahead, making me instantly alert. Once we were close enough, I aimed my pistol right at the first one's head whilst Elise quietly snuck up on the second. I took a deep breath, knowing that this was the first time I had ever used a weapon to kill something and shakily pulled the trigger, just as my friend jumped on her target and stabbed it three times, killing it in a matter of seconds. Despite being the prim and proper queen I knew she was, Elise had a different side of her; she wasn't afraid to get her hands dirty. And I kinda liked that.

"Nice one." I said, jogging up to her whilst keeping a firm grip on my gun. Hearing this, Elise gave me a small smile. "You're doing well, yourself."

Looks like this isn't so bad... Heh, heh...

I noticed that there were several more monsters and a small group of fiery birds soaring into the sky. I knew why it wasn't dark and gloomy, because of what Silver and Blaze did at the end of their story. Speaking of which, maybe they were somewhere in my world too.

Continuing on, we remained cautious as we ran past the monsters, taking out the ones that were closest to us. The thoughts that ran through my mind were endless; I wondered what happened to my mother, what Sonic was doing right now and even worse, what if he got caught up in this ordeal with us. I shook my head and aimed my pistol at a nearby monster, firing two or three bullets to kill it. Both Elise and I cringed as the monster let out its' distorted dying squeal before it hit the ground, out for the count.

Just as I was about to aim at another one, a fiery bird swooped down and latched it's claws onto my legs, sending me flying and hitting the ground. This time, I did hit my head. Letting out a groan, I pulled myself up to my feet and noticed that Elise was getting attacked by the monster that I had aimed for earlier. "Oh no..."

The monster she was facing was rather large, practically towering over her. It did have the shape of a human face, mainly female and terribly disfigured. Elise screamed in fright, too terrified to be able to stand up to it. I boiled with rage and went sprinting towards them, aiming my gun at the monster's face as I did so. "No you don't!"

But suddenly, a second fiery bird swooped down and caught me again, this time keeping its' firm grip on my frame and dragging me away. I let out a yell of fury, struggling and squirming to break free and aim my pistol at it.

I kept looking at Elise's situation and my eyes widened in horror.

Oh dear god...

M-E

"Elise, get back!"

Hearing the sound of Megan's voice calmed me down a little, letting me know that she was still there. But as much as I was concerned for my young friend, I had to think about my situation first. I readied my knife, waiting for this...creature to attack and deliver the blow that would end my life. But, it didn't do anything. Just kept advancing towards me as if to let me know that it was a threat.

Okay, I need to take care of this myself...

Even though I was terrified, I reminded myself that Soleanna needed its' queen to be brave, so I raised my knife back and quickly did what I had to do. Stabbing it into its' torso, the creature let out a distorted, but feminine cry as it reeled back, almost losing it's balance. I gasped, thinking that maybe I actually managed to kill it with one single strike. But, I was wrong.

My attacker pulled itself back up to it's feet and sent a blow which did some damage and sent me hitting the ground with a hard thud. I stumbled to and fro, struggling to clear my vision and get back up, but the creature delivered another blow on my own torso which caused a small part of my dress to rip apart and create an injury. Megan had apparently saw this as I heard her let out a furious yell of rage.

Come on Elise, you have to try harder...

I really wished for someone (maybe even Sonic) to show up and rescue us. I knew Sonic wouldn't be the one, since I blew out the flame but I thought...if he somehow would show up, then we would escape this terrible place and once we were back in Soleanna, I would introduce him to Megan. I felt like she deserved to get to know him, I mean... they were both kind and caring, would help me if I was in trouble and most of all, liked to run. They would be like siblings, I was sure of it.

But since it was just me and the young one, I had to take care of things. I pulled myself up to my feet and stabbed the creature again with a grunt. Instead of surviving barely, it let out that same horrifying cry and fell to the ground. I breathed heavily, trying to calm myself down after what I just did.

A troubled scream coming from behind startled me as I turned to see what was going on.

Oh no... Megan...

E-M

"Alright, that's it!" I screamed in anger. I had enough. As much as I loved animals, the fiery bird was going to go down.

Only just managing to wrench my shooting arm free, I aimed my pistol at my attacker and fired. Almost instantly, the bird came crashing down to the ground with me still in its' rough grip and as soon as it hit, I was sent flying onto the roads, letting out a yelp of fright as I did so. Once I landed, Elise came running as fast as her legs could carry her. "Megan, are you alright?!"

With a groan of pain, I struggled to lift myself up into a sitting position. "Not really, but I'll live."

My friend was about to offer me a hand when she noticed something on my arm, and gasped. "You're hurt."

Looking down, I saw that I had been cut and was bleeding pretty badly. What made it worse was that it left another stain on my shirt. "Don't worry about it, it's nothing."

Great. Now this is gonna have to go in the wardrobe for a while. Man, it's my favourite one too...

But Elise wouldn't give in, as she bent down to inspect it. "Don't say that. Here, let me help."

She ripped a small part of her dress to use as a bandage and carefully wrapped it around my arm. I nervously looked around and almost flinched when she touched it. That would be another part of my condition, I'm not really that good with physical contact due to autism, but someday soon I had to get used to it. "..Thanks for, um.. you know..."

All I got was a smile and an "You're welcome." from my friend. After a while, I got back up on my feet with some assistance and soon enough, we were on our way again.

I hope things turn out okay eventually...