Welcome back, I guess? Sorry for the really late update… I mean, it's only been a couple of months…. Right? Well, I did say that you shouldn't expect frequent updates. Anyway, I hope you're excited about someone's possible murder! After all, who wouldn't be? Riiiiight? Anyway, enjoy this rather Blaze centered chapter!
Before I forget, Thanks to sonicspeed6ro, and TheCrazyClan for reviewing! Also, thanks to the 9 followers, and 6 favs I have received so far. It's honestly a lot more than I was expecting…
"Finally~. A little more excitement!" Blaze responded, readying the knife in front of her.
"EXCITEMENT?! I'll SHOW YOU EXCITEMENT! AS LONG AS EXCITEMENT INCLUDES YOUR BLOOD SMEARED ACROSS THE FLOOR!" Shadow screamed, throwing his spears in a frenzy.
"Ha! Your status doesn't scare me!" Blaze yelled, somersaulting through the air and skillfully avoiding whatever Shadow threw at her.
"STAY PUT!" Shadow yelled, his attacks losing accuracy but gaining in power.
"What kind of idiot do you think I am? Who would actually stay put? Tsk tsk, c' mon Shadow, try a little harder! I'm already disappointed!" Blaze responded, leaping over a chaos spear. She landed gracefully behind Shadow, leaning in to whisper into his ear. "And I'm sure Maria would be too~."
"WOULD YOU STOP BRINGING HER INTO THIS?!" Shadow shouted, spinning to elbow her in the stomach, but failing to do so. It didn't take a genius to figure out that they needed to end this fight.
"How about you both deactivate your abilities?!" Amy intervened, her hammer popping into view and her eyes shining a fuschia pink.
"I'll pass." Blaze simply replied, kneeing Shadow in the gut.
He doubled over, right before springing back up again, delivering a roundhouse kick to the head. Blaze only growled in response, rubbing her head briefly before lunging towards him again. However, Shadow teleported away and grabbed Blaze's hand, twisting it until Blaze yanked it away. But in the process, her knife clattered to the floor, its blood smeared surface still glistening in the sun. Then, Shadow swiftly grabbed it and was about to stab her until a certain blue streak blocked the way.
"Yo, you need to chill man! Take a chill pill! Oh, wait… no one says that anymore. Whatever! Point is, you need to stop being insane!" Sonic shouted.
"Not to mention rather sadistic…" Amy muttered.
"And that!" Sonic agreed while giving a sideways glance to Rouge.
The white bat didn't need another signal. She knew too well what that meant. As Sonic continued to contain Shadow, Amy tried to contain Blaze. And in the background, Rouge was digging into the feline's mind. She felt the familiar sensation of the world blurring. The sounds slowly disappeared, and her vision was entering the mind of another's. Once she was in, she decided to look around. But after a second, Rouge had her face scrunched up, and her glowing eyes squinted.
"What..? Why can't I see… anything?" Rouge thought, trying her best to decipher what she was seeing in Blaze's mind. And by that, I meant absolutely nothing. Rouge was currently staring at nothing but white. There was nothing to be found in the pyrokinetic's mind. Blinking rapidly, Rouge returned to the real world, the sounds of fighting returning to her ears.
"What did ya see?" Amy asked, backing off from the fight for a while.
"Nothing. Just plain white." Rouge answered her, shaking her head. She glanced at the ongoing battle, watching as Sonic tried to contain the fight. "Can I assume you guys couldn't calm them down?"
"Yup. Sonic did manage to bring Shadow down a notch. Now he's not screaming at the top of his lungs, but he's putting up a better fight. Not to mention… the psychotic side might have been lowered… but the other side…" Amy reported, letting Rouge survey the fight.
"I can't wait for the time when you'll be all over the walls! I can't wait to hear you SCREAM!" Shadow shouted, laughing slightly as he teleported away from a burst of fire.
"Ah. I see. Doesn't that make our job a lot easier?" Rouge complained.
"Just be glad that he's usually boring and dry instead of trying to break every single bone in your body." Amy said.
"I guess. But y' know the author. She loves to type these kinds of lines. I don't know if something's wrong with her brain, but we should probably expect more of this." Rouge stated.
"Fairpoint." Amy shrugged.
"Hello, guys? Kinda dealing with something here! I'd be nice if I had some help!" Sonic interrupted, leaping over and landing on his hands. He immediately pushed off the ground again, his feet finding their mark on Shadow's face. Growling, Shadow dodged the next kick, grabbed it, and sent Sonic flying towards Blaze.
"Okie Doke!" Amy replied, blocking a burst of fire. Sonic, meanwhile, landed on his feet, just to push back off afterwards. He attempted to land a hit on Shadow, but he swiftly dodged.
"You men don't know how to do anything right." Rouge said, leaping into battle.
"For once, I agree with her!" Blaze agreed, sending a spiral of flame towards Rouge.
"You say that as you try to kill me…" Rouge muttered, flying up to dodge and attempting to land a hit on Blaze right after. But Blaze swiftly dodged and blasted more fire, which Rouge just barely dodged.
"Grr…. you IDIOTS! Hands off my prey!" Shadow yelled, choosing this exact moment to be fed up with his classmates' interference. He teleported away from Amy's piko piko hammer, and reappeared behind Blaze, kicking her in the head. He only got a hiss in response, and that was all he needed to know he wasn't quite done yet. Shadow put Blaze into a choke hold, a chaos spear appearing in his hand.
"I guess I should return the favour, huh?" Shadow growled, pushing Blaze against the fence. Then, in three swift movements, Shadow stabbed her thrice, in the exact same way she did to Shadow.
Blaze winced, clutching her stomach and biting down hard on her tongue. She'd do whatever she needed in order to not scream. However, this, of course, brought Shadow's attention, and he was quick to exploit it. "Aw, C'mon, SCREAM for me. Let out that little girl scream." Shadow said, receiving a hard, cold glare. His ears flicked backwards, hearing footsteps.
"Don't think about it Sonic." He said, causing said hedgehog to stop. He'd stand down for now. For now. "Back to the little damsel in distress." Shadow continued, smirking as his eyes locked onto Blaze's. He narrowed his glowing eyes, looking deep into the cat's. Something wasn't right. Something seemed off. They looked plain and empty, almost as if they had no life in them. They were devoid of the fear that Shadow expected. Shadow craved. So to fix that, he slashed the cat again. Shadow noticed Blaze's teeth bite down harder. Blaze squirmed a little but stopped soon after.
"Why aren't you scared? You need to be, you SHOULD be. But you aren't. Do I need to smash your head against a wall and watch as you slowly fall down, leaving behind a trail of blood? Do I need to stab you over and over, just until you die of blood loss?" Shadow asked these things, his smirk widening with each suggestion. "Or how about I cut off your tail… and force it down your throat?" The reaction he got was not what he expected. He thought the last one would make her shiver in fear. But it didn't. It had the opposite effect. Blaze was laughing, tears of joy coming from out of her eyes.
"Ha! You say that like you can actually do these things. You say them like I won't BURN YOU ALIVE!" Blaze screamed, a burst of fire erupting from her hands. "Sad, isn't it? If only Maria was here to see just how much of a failure you are. Tsk tsk. I expected better." And just like that, the roles were reversed. "If only she were here to see you DIE!" Blaze laughed, an uncharacteristic chuckle escaping her mouth.
"If only…" Shadow muttered, his face pressed against the tiles of the floor. "If only you were alive to see your mother's disappointment. IF ONLY YOU LIVED TO SEE ANOTHER DAY!" Shadow screamed, kicking Blaze and sending her to the ground. With a foot on top of Blaze and a chaos spear raised, Shadow was ready to rid the world of another cat. "SAYONARA KITTY!"
Blaze flinched, expecting the spear to crash through her heart any second. She waited and waited, but it never came. Slowly, she got up, realizing Shadow's foot was no longer on top of her. She watched as Shadow screamed, dodging a kick from Sonic. It was then she realized, at the very last second, Sonic had attacked Shadow, preventing him from ending Blaze's life. Or who they thought was Blaze. Her mind was blank, her face was expressionless. She had completed her mission, she no longer needed to exist. As she watched Shadow fall unconscious, her body grew lighter, as she started to fade away. In the next second, the only thing left of her was a shining red cube, until it too, disappeared.
(Infirmary)
"What happened here?" The school nurse, Cosmo, asked. The room was filled with beds (One of which contained Shadow), and blue curtains separating each bed. There were tables here and there, each with a different flower in the middle. The nurse had her own table, filled with liquids, documents and plants. The room gave off a calm, peaceful vibe, complete with the fresh smell of the many flowers.
"Eh, royal stuff." Sonic said, responding to her question with a shrug.
"Oh my! You need to be healed up yourself!" Cosmo said, taking note of Sonic and the others many scratches and bruises.
"We're fine. Don't worry about us!" Amy added.
"Oh no, it's my job to take care of you! Why don't you sit yourselves down at the table over there? I'll go get something to help with your injuries." The kind nurse said, scurrying over to her own table.
"Don't you guys think she's a little too young to be a nurse?" Rouge whispered as they took a seat.
"Definitely." Amy agreed. They watched as Cosmo sat down on her chair, positioning herself over an empty flower pot. Her eyes shined their leafy green, as a plant slowly rose from the flower pot. After plucking a few petals, she waved her hand, and the plant coiled back into the soil. Soon after, another plant started to grow, and she plucked the seeds off of that one. The process continued until she had the correct ingredients. Putting them into a wooden bowl, she took her matching wooden stick and began mashing them until they turned into one of the many liquids on her desk. After making another mixture, she brought a bowl over to Shadow's bed and began tending to his wounds. Dabbing a cotton ball into the liquid, she softly rubbed the ball over Shadow injuries, just until she ran out of the liquid. She used another bowl for the rest, and she proceeded to do the same thing to them, just with less liquid and less care.
"All done!" Cosmo exclaimed, washing the bowl in the sink.
"Wow, I feel better already! Thanks a bunch!" Sonic complemented.
"It's nothing. You'd be surprised just how much practice I get from tending to other people's injuries. Anyway, you can leave now, I'll watch over Shadow." Cosmo said, earning nods from the Royals. They walked out of the room, talking about their crazy day, and what landed Shadow in the infirmary. This, of course, Cosmo couldn't help but overhear.
(The next day)
"Hmm… the second period's over, so I guess I have to head to geography now…" A certain lilac cat muttered, walking through the halls with her books. As she walked, she couldn't help but notice the whispers among the students. The students all huddled in little groups, whispering with their hands hovering around their mouth. Her ears flicked forward, trying her best to figure out what was being said. As she was doing so, her friend, Cream, bounded over to her.
"Blaze! Blaze! Have you heard?" Cream shouted, causing her to shake her head.
"No, I've been trying to find out." Blaze responded, now curious.
"It's Shadow!" Cream exclaimed.
"The King? What about him?" Blaze asked, her head tilted to the side.
"He just walked out of the infirmary." Cream said, her childish excitement shining through.
"Who was he visiting?" Blaze asked, earning a sigh from Cream and a shake of her head.
"He wasn't visiting anyone, you dolt! Shadow was the one with a bandage on his head!" Cream explained.
"S-someone sent Shadow to the infirmary?! Who has the ability to even do that?" Blaze yelled. Oh, the irony.
"I don't know. That's what everyone's been trying to find out. Look! Here he comes!" Cream yelled, pointing at the hedgehog. The crowd was splitting up, leaving a walkway for him. Nobody dared ask the golden question, but it was obvious everyone wanted to. Sure enough, Shadow walked by, with bandages on his head and a death glare to match. His eyes scanned the crowd, presumably looking for the one that hurt him so bad. Oh wait, that was Blaze, who was standing among the crowd right at that moment. Amazing.
"Woah, that's some serious third-degree burns… but I thought I was the only one who had pyrokinesis… right?" Blaze thought, inspecting Shadow's injury.
In the next second, Shadow's eyes spotted the familiar hue of purple. The purple he so wanted to take revenge upon. His eyes narrowed, which people took notice of immediately. "Did he find the one he's looking for?" , "The mobian is standing among us, right now?!" , "Oh, he's not looking at me, right?" Similar phrases swept among the crowd, as they whispered and gossiped to their friends.
"Hey, you! BLAZE." Shadow growled through gritted teeth. The crowd gasped collectively, right before bursting into more chatter. "BLAZE?! She wouldn't hurt anyone!" , "Blaze is up there in the ranks, but she can't possibly beat Shadow! Or else she would've been Queen a long time ago." , "Blaze wouldn't hurt anyone! Unless somebody is hurting others…" , "Blaze? Really?". After the long period of whispering, Blaze finally brought up the courage to answer him, thus, silencing the crowd.
"Y-yes, Shadow?" Blaze asked, struggling to keep her composure. Although form the outside, she seemed relatively calm, it was a different story on the inside. "W-wait, me?! I didn't do anything, I swear! Oh nononono, He's gonna try and kill me, isn't he? Uh- Alright Blaze, calm yourself. You're just making it worse."
As Shadow crept forwards, everyone parted away, including Cream. But when Shadow stepped in front of her, Blaze's eyes darted towards Shadow again, her eyes hiding their fear well. But all that fell apart when Shadow picked her up and slammed her into the locker.
"You better hope the janitor is in a good mood today." Shadow growled, his voice slightly above a whisper but still audible to the silent crowd.
"Can I ask why?" Blaze asked, regaining her composure in a heartbeat. She returned Shadow's glare, attempting to hide her fear with her ferocity.
"Because he'll have to clean your body off the floor." Shadow threatened, shocking the crowd.
"Hrmph. Look, I respect your power as King." Blaze responded. She was always the best at hiding emotions. "But what I don't respect is threats without a reason to them. So back off!" An explosion of fire blasted out, pushing Shadow back, and shocking the crowd even further.
"What do you mean, no reason?!" Shadow asked, landing safely on his feet. He pushed off the ground, eyes glowing and a chaos spear in hand. "Who here tried to KILL ME?!"
"Oh for Chaos' sake! Shut it, Shadz!" A familiar voice yelled, spindashing Shadow and thus stopping the attack.
"Stay back, Faker!" Shadow growled, shooting the blue blur a glare.
"Not until you leave my roomie alone!" Amy yelled, smashing the floor with her hammer. Shadow looked around, seeing Rouge fly in. Just like that, all the Royals were present.
"Hrmph, give me 10 good reasons." Shadow said, aware of the thousands of eyes that were trailing him. He would have to word things carefully. He had a reputation to uphold.
"Because her mind says she's innocent." Rouge stated, eyes still glowing.
"What?! Didn't you see- but-" Shadow sputtered. It took him a second to remember the crowd was still there. "Alright. What do you see?"
"I'm surprised myself you know. I drew a blank yesterday. But today…" She took a glance at Blaze, re-entering her mind. "All her thoughts contain confusion and fear. Some things like anger and regret are thrown in here and there, but that's it. Shadow, leave her be."
"You heard her." Amy said, her hammer resting on her shoulders. Shadow took a look around until he landed on Sonic's victorious smirk. He knew they had already won. He was right, too. They couldn't break out into a brawl in front of all these people. Sighing, Shadow came up with the next best thing.
"Fine. But we're discussing this later." Shadow said, glaring at Blaze, before lowering his voice to a whisper. "Don't think you're free yet."
(End of the day)
Blaze wandered the halls, hugging her books closer than she usually did. She felt glances all around, as people kept whispering about her. Her eyes darted left and right, looking, but not quite finding. She couldn't help but notice the people staying out of her way. It was like they made a path for her, but was not quite sure if they should make it. Either way, it unsettled Blaze. Shadow might be used to it, he might like it, but Blaze sure didn't. She needed someone to talk to. Someone who wasn't currently gossiping about her.
"Why hasn't anyone talked to me? Did I do something to offend them? I mean… I don't recall doing so. Cream hasn't spoken to me since the incident, and the others have been avoiding me all day! What in Chaos' name is going on? Why is Shadow accusing me of attempted MURDER?!" Blaze thought. "I'm going to find one of them. Find out what's been going on. If I'm correct, Silver should be walking to his dorm now… aha! There he is!" Blaze rushed over to Silver, still creeped out by the path that had opened in front of her.
"Hey! Silver!" She shouted, causing the hedgehog to jump. Oddly, he was wearing a sweater that day.
"Eep! Uh… hello, Blaze." Silver said, turning around to face her. Upon seeing her, Silver pulled down his left sleeve a little more.
"Is there anything wrong?" Blaze asked, raising an eyebrow.
"N-nope! I'm fine! Why'd you ask?" Silver stuttered, although, he was anything but. Silver was rather apprehensive of her, in fact.
"Well… you and Tails have been avoiding me all day… even before the incident. Did something happen yesterday?" Blaze asked. The question obviously startled him, since she was the reason he wasn't fine.
"U-um… no?" Silver said, quite unsure of how to approach this.
"Don't lie Silver. You can tell me anything." Blaze reassured him. Silver studied her eyes. He may not have mind-reading abilities like Rouge, but he wanted to find something inside her head. In the instant they locked eyes, Silver found her eyes calm and soothing. Welcoming, and warming. Nothing like the cold, ruthless ones he saw at the meeting. She was genuinely concerned, he could tell that much.
"Fine… it's about our meeting yesterday." Silver admitted.
"Hmm? Meeting? We didn't have a meeting yesterday." Blaze responded, hiding her confusion.
"B-but- you were there, I'm sure of it!" Silver yelled.
"How do you know for sure?" Blaze asked.
"...You burned me." Silver whispered, rolling up his previously pulled down sleeve. There, underneath the cloth, was a burn mark. What was shown was only a little, Blaze could only assume it stretched across his entire arm.
"But, I wasn't there!" Blaze protested., her hands going up in the air. "Whoever burned you, it wasn't me!"
"Then where were you?" Silver asked, struggling to hide his curiosity.
"Didn't I tell you?" Blaze asked, receiving a shake of the head in response. "As soon as school ended, I went to my mother's house. It was my cousin's birthday. We stayed up late, so I slept at her house. I only came back this morning."
(Rouge's dorm)
"Hmm… perfect." Rouge said to herself, holding a recently polished diamond to the light. She placed the gemstone back down along with the other pieces of jewelry, humming to herself. She lightly tapped the diamond, remembering the way she acquired it. Let's just say… it took a little…. Convincing. She moved on to another one of her treasures, this time fingering a golden ring.
"This one's from the local museum… oh, and this one too." Rouge said, picking up a silver tiara.
But before Rouge could reminisce any longer, her sensitive ears picked up on a shout. Reacting quickly, she opened her window and flew out. Feeling the breeze against her face, she tried to locate someone who might've just screamed. Soon enough, she found them. Lightly touching the ground, she hid behind a building and spied for a bit. It took her less than a second to recognize the mobian, who turned out to be none other than Blaze.
"Silver!" She shouted, looking frantically for the hedgehog in question. "Silver, where'd you go?!"
Running out of options, she blasted fire towards the ground, pushing herself up. Blaze soon spotted Silver, flying through the city. Close behind the streak of cyan was a red one, tackling Silver every now and then. Blaze started towards the two blurs, before getting tackled herself by Rouge. Kicking her towards the ground, Rouge knocked the feline unconscious.
"Sleep tight, kitty. I don't trust you entirely yet…" Rouge whispered, before flying off in the direction Blaze was about to go. She too quickly noticed the two flashes and set off for them. Just as she was about to reach them, Silver skid to halt, noticing he wasn't being chased anymore. Rouge landed quietly behind a wall, watching as Silver looked around. Oddly enough, Silver never walked in Rouge's direction, which alarmed the bat. She was about to dig into his mind when Silver was suddenly yanked backwards.
"Mrph!" Silver screamed, his mouth covered by a hand.
"Hush now~." A masculine voice said. "I need you for a little experiment. Rumor has it, your psychokinesis is unrivalled… maybe you could help us tear down the hierarchy?"
The only response they got was Silver's glare, as his eyes shined bright once more. However, something was horribly wrong. Shouldn't his captor be flying towards space by now? Silver struggled a little, his cyan aura flickering on and off, before stopping completely. Silver powered down, panting despite his covered mouth.
"Don't bother. This space nullifies abilities. All abilities but mine." The kidnapper said. Although Rouge couldn't see them, she could almost feel the smirk the kidnapper wore.
"No wonder I can't enter anyone's mind!" Rouge growled, trying to enter the mystery person's mind.
"Quite useful indeed, especially against onlookers." They said, startling Rouge. "I love seeing them helpless to do anything…" With one swift movement, Silver was knocked unconscious, and soon thrown to the floor.
"Come out, I don't bite… I kill." They threatened, suddenly appearing before Rouge. Rouge immediately noticed the mask on the attacker, and then the gem right afterwards. But that was all she could see before she was on the ground screaming.
"Night, night! You better hope somebody finds you… or else you'll be trapped in your own illusions… screaming…
for an infinite amount of time…"
Soo….. there you go! Villain reveal, whoo~. Hopefully, it wasn't too early… I mean…
Anyway, again, apologies for the extremely late update. When was the last time I posted? Oh right, 03/06/19…. And today is 05/07/19. So… it has been 2 months and 1 day. Wow uh…. That's a long period of time. But, you should expect this, I don't update frequently at all. Whelp, see you next time, possibly 3 months in the future!