I do not own sonic the hedgehog or any of the characters from the games, movies or comics but I do own this story and the other characters, I hope you enjoy it.
Things Only Whispered In The Shadows
Ch.18 Pain
I woke up for the second time that night in pain. The throbbing in my back refused to let me be and every time I got up to stretch everything else hurt.
Amy had insisted I go to the hospital, I insisted that I knew myself well enough to treat my own injuries and that it wasn't as bad as it seemed. At this point I wasn't sure if I was depressed or excited.
On the one hand I had been so out classed in the previous fight that I had been the only one in need of actual help. In fact, I felt like I had been nothing but a burden to Shadow during our quest to obtain the last emerald and even though we had gotten possession of it I felt partially responsible for his injuries and fully so for my own. If only I hadn't relaxed my training after I had claimed the mountains as my turf, then I wouldn't be so weak. If only I had called the others before heading into the fortress, then they wouldn't have had to come rescue us. If only I hadn't felt the need to show off in front of Shadow, then I would have been more focused and we might have gotten out instead of getting cornered like that. If only we had broken our cover when we had found that room full of bots and destroyed them while they were still inactive.
On the other it was obvious that the heroes of this world were definitely qualified for the job at hand. Shadow and Sonic alone showed me how much better they were at fighting than those of us from the fragment world. Together they seemed almost unstoppable and now that we had all of the chaos emeralds in our position we were ready to roll. Or at least I thought we were. Turns out we need to let them harmonize or something like that. Tails was adamant that we couldn't do any interdimensional travel until then and even so I had to heal up first. He also said something about a ship but I wasn't paying much attention after that first bit.
Staying in this world for a few more days? Fine by me, as long as I got back to my world before everyone got the idea to leave without me.
My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a soft knock at the open doorway. "Hey."
"Oh, Amy I didn't see you there."
She smiled sweetly at me in the dark, a distant light in the hall making her just visible. "Couldn't sleep?"
I shook my head. "To much on my mind."
"Same. We have a big adventure ahead of us and I'm just so excited." I smiled back at her, she was right, there were still so many places I hadn't been in my own world and I couldn't wait to see them, even if the only reason I was getting to see them was because I was passing through on my way to overthrow an evil tyrant. That's another thing that got me, it seemed that no matter how badly things were going these people kept thinking about how good things were going to be. "Feel like a midnight snack? I have a tub of chocolate ice cream just waiting to be opened."
That's it, my day was made even before it began, "Do I ever."
Morning rolled around and even though I hadn't gotten to watch the sun rise it was already an amazing start to the day. Everything was still very sore but Amy had promised to take me out and show me the sights today and Tails had promised to show me his workshop after. Amy was thrilled about both ideas; I think she just wanted an excuse to go shopping and see Sonic, not that she needed a legitimate excuse to do so but hey, whatever worked.
"Come on, we don't want to miss breakfast at this wonderful little café I found. La louche café." Weird name but if she insisted who was I to turn down free food, especially if it was any good. We half ran all the way there, stopping only for traffic. By the time we arrived I was sore all over again but luckily we hadn't missed breakfast.
To sum up breakfast, delicious. It had been one savory sensation after another. Toast, strawberry pancakes, an omelet and two fruit parfaits because one just wasn't enough. I think I had just found my new favorite dessert.
Afterward we went on a shopping spree. I didn't see the point in owning a bunch of outfits like Amy, however I did see the wisdom in having something clean to change into. After the last mission we had gone on I had been forced to borrow one of Amy's. I ended up in a pink blazer and black slacks. No way was I wearing a skirt let alone a miniskirt which apparently was the only kind she owned. Everything else was either a dress or pajamas. So slacks it was.
Four hours later I had two new outfits and a cell phone, Amy had seven large bags of outfits and a new purse. I didn't know what to expect when we had left this morning but this certainly wasn't it. if I had to hazard a guess, I think the only reason we had stopped shopping when we did was because Amy refused to let me help carry her bags because I was still injured and she couldn't carry any more if she wanted to. Halfway back I suggested we stop somewhere to sit down, maybe find something to eat before going over to say hi to the guys. We ended up at the same café as before.
I didn't mind, the food was good and it was en route so it was convenient as well but something about it was bothering me. like that little voice in the back of your head that keeps telling you to do something but you don't know why until after you should have done it. Right now that voice was telling me we needed to leave asap.
We sat down at the same table as breakfast and Amy ordered for the two of us again. I didn't even get to take the first bite of my parfait before I stopped. This one smelled different from the first ones, like the yogurt had gone bad or something. no longer tempted by the tasty treat I looked around for a waiter and found several people had begun to look a little under the weather. Warning bells instantly went off in my head. not good.
I turned back to Amy to tell her not to eat or drink anything but she had already scarfed down half the food on her plate and emptied her glass of lemonade. I pulled the rest of the plate away from her in what I knew was a futile effort. "No! Amy don't eat anymore! Its drugged." Her eyes went wide as he looked around and noticed the other people nodding off. Some had even passed out by now. Amy started to sway violently as she stood up from the bistro chair almost knocking the shaded table over in the process. I clamored over her bags to catch her before she hit the ground and manage to keep her up but not without a painful reminder that I was in no condition to be playing catch.
"Amy, wake up. No no no no no no no… come on, don't…" there were only a couple of people who hadn't slumped over in their seats yet and of them most were well on their way. One unlucky person who hadn't eaten anything either nearly had a heart attack and passed out anyway and another simply screamed and collapsed next to her date, trying to shake him awake. I needed to get help, but I couldn't leave Amy here on her own, someone had laced the food and I wasn't going to let them get their hands on her. then I remembered, Amy had bought me a phone and programmed the others numbers in for me. I struggled to pull the device from my pocket and had an even harder time remembering how to use the infernal thing. I liked to think I was good with tech but this was well beyond me. when I finally got it to the contacts I punched the picture of sonic and it began to ring.
One ring
Then two
"Hello?" I was nearly sobbing when I heard the familiar voice of the blue hedgehog on the other end.
"Amy's been drugged! We're at the new café she likes café la louche or something like that. she ate the food and passed out like everyone else." I heard movement behind me and turning around I noticed that the couple of others who hadn't lost consciousness were now out on the ground like the others. my mind was racing at a million miles a minute and I was beginning to panic. Was I next?
"Calm down." Calm was the last thing I was at the moment, on the verge of tears and very much in pain I knew that I had to slow down. Taking a couple deep breaths, I could hear the voices in the background as Tails and Knuckles reacted to the news, and Sonic muttered under his breath "I should have paid more attention to where the place was." Of course he didn't know where the place was… nothing like the need to slap someone to get your mind back on track.
There was a muffled exchange before Tails voice came over the phone, "That's ok I know where it is, we may not get there as fast but we will get there as soon as we can. Try to keep things under control until we get there." I nodded before realizing that they couldn't see me.
"Alright, I will do what I can." Looking around some more I realized that the others had been knocked out by a group of men now working their way toward me. "Oh crap…."
"What is it? Whisper…" I backed away just in time to have the biggest of the four knock the phone out of my hand and crush it beneath his boot. So much for my new phone.
"Looks like we have our self a hero." The big guy taunted me as he reached for my wrist. I dodged around the table and gave him the darkest glare I could manage through the grimace on my face. "and a feisty one." I wanted to punch him just to shut him up at this point and I was about to when the skinny one stepped forward around the other side of the table to try and block my escape.
"Not too bad looking either." The scrawny wolf licked his lips and I changed my mind. I wanted to punch him first. The strangest thing about the four was that they were all well dressed and appeared unarmed. Obviously the big guy was responsible for rendering the remaining people unconscious but why were they wearing suits of all things?
"Relax, we don't want to hurt anyone. Were just here to do a little job and then be on our way. If you don't resist, I promise it won't be so bad." Right, like id trust a pack of wolves that just drugged an entire café full of people. I tensed up and feigned backing away further into the corner before I launched myself at the scrawny one knee first. His face made a satisfying crunch as I made contact and I flipped over him to land next to the dark one that had just spoken surprise now written all over his face. I smirked and twirled a kick his way only to find I lacked the strength to do the damage I had intended. I had to settle for pushing him back a few stumbling steps. "change of plans, if you don't want your friend here to get hurt," he let the sentence trail off as he reached over and pulled Amy off the ground where I had propped her up against the chair and held her in front of himself. The other two circled around threateningly and bared their teeth at me with low growls. "Boys, make it quick. I have a feeling whoever she was on the phone with is going to be a problem."
Oh they just had no idea what kind of trouble they were in for, at this point all I had to do was stall for another minute maybe two and they were toast. "why are you doing this, what do you want?"
p"Like we'd be dumb enough to tell you." The big one stalked towards me again and I backed away slowly, keeping just out of his range. Then I noticed it. we were the only ones left at the bistro. All of the other people had been moved while I was busy messing around with these four and now we were the last ones. They were kidnapping everyone there. Question was why. "Now be a good little hedgehog and stand still." The big guy lunged at me again and I dodged again only to get sidelined by the other last one. I let out a scream as my side gave me a warning. I was not making it out of this in good health.
"I swear I didn't hit her that hard."
"Looks like this one's no good then, get rid of her. We have no use for broken things." My heart dropped at that simple command. This scum treated people like things. Things to be used and thrown away. It was officially personal, there was no way I was letting them get away with this. Rage began to boil in back of my mind, pulling its heat from the rest of it as I switched to cold and calculating.
I stood back up clutching my side and, glaring daggers at them, sized them up again. Scrawny had gotten back up and looked to have lost his front teeth including one of his fangs and as satisfying as it was to watch him bleed he and the dark wolf started to leave with Amy. I tried to go around the other two but it was no use, If I wanted past them I would have to go through them. The smaller wolf would have been easy if it weren't for his larger counterpart. To top it all off my head was swimming from the pain and my stomach wanted to excommunicate my breakfast because of it. Still I was determined not to lose this one, no matter what.
If I couldn't beat them with my strength alone then I would need a weapon, since Tails had the emeralds I had to use something else, and that chair looked like the perfect improve weapon. Flipping it around I pointed the legs at the two only to get a snicker out of one and a grunt of disappointment from the other. The smaller one rushed in first and I turned him around and pushed him over easily with the chair and he tumbled into another. I knew I wouldn't have any such luck with the big guy but that was ok, I would figure something out once I took care of his buddy. The smaller guy was no longer laughing as he extracted himself from the other chair he had crashed into. "I don't have time for small fry like you, if you don't want to end up in worse shape than me then get lost." It was a threat I intended to keep. He rushed me again. I jammed a chair leg into his gut and twisted him around again but instead of letting him hit the ground I levered him up and spun him into the nearest table and proceeded to drive the chair into the back of his head, cutting his cry of pain short. One down.
I didn't bother to pick the chair back up, instead I walked over to a coat rack and emptied its contents onto the cobblestone floor below. We didn't take our eyes off of each other the entire time. Hefting the solid iron length was a chore with my injuries, one that I ignored. Not quite balanced but I needed the weight it provided to take this guy in my condition.
The sound of an engine in the distance told me I wouldn't have to wait long for back up, and the wolves didn't have that much of a lead yet. If I could get take this guy down before they got here we could catch them no problem. He was much more cautious than his smaller friend had been, either because he had seen how easily I had dealt with him or because he was smarter in the first place. Whatever the case he was in no hurry to finish this, I was however. I pushed for the offensive and swung wide and hard to catch him off guard. He blocked and I reversed the swing with the other end of the long iron rod. The curve hooks on the end of it caught him in the side and he swore as he took the full force of the second blow. He wasn't bleeding due to the hooks being blunt, it was a coat rack after all, but it he would definitely be feeling it tomorrow. He rolled backwards in an attempt to dodge the downward blows that I rained down on him as I drove him to the ground. Now I had him at my level, and I was going to take full advantage. "P-please, don't."
"You had your chance and you made your choice." I gave it a full swing aimed at his head, and missed as he ducked and tackled me. my makeshift weapon clanged loudly as it bounced away from me, and I was now pinned beneath a very large, very angry wolf. Wrapping his hands around my neck his claws dug in and he cut off my air. I struggled for a little before his grip loosened and he turned his attention to something else.
A flash of blue and the weight on my chest and neck lifted. Hands immediately began helping me up and supporting me as I regained my ability to breathe. Tails had a helmet on and knuckles was on a motorcycle unstrapping his own helmet. Sonic was currently trying to get answers out of the now barely conscious wolf that had been trying to kill me. it took me a moment to realize tails was asking me a question. "You alright?"
"Yeah, or at least I will be. They took Amy and the others, I delayed them for as long as I could. They couldn't have gotten far in two minutes."
Sonic let the guy drop to the ground, "Which way did they go?" I pointed in the direction they had made their escape, and no sooner had I done so than he disappeared in another blue blur.
"Knuckles, we need to follow him." Knuckles handed his helmet to me and nodded. Then he backed up and dove into the ground. I stood there looking stupid for a couple seconds before shaking it off and putting the helmet on and adjusting it. "You sure you'll be fine?"
"Yep. As long as you don't expect me to drive that thing." Pointing to the motorcycle he and knuckles had rode in on. He smiled.
"Don't worry, you can ride in the side car." Now all I had to do was endure the painful ride there and help get Amy back. I looked sadly at our shopping bags and my smashed phone, some things were more important. I readjusted the helmet, climbed into the side car and settled in. This day was getting longer by the second and it wasn't even noon yet.
