Chapter 9: Brainwashed Amy

They walked through and it was a dark, spooky place. Chills went down Knuckles' back. This place struck fear into the hearts of men. This place had giant tombstones with doors on them for buildings. They wasn't anyone out at this time.

"Where is everyone?" Shadow asked Zoolon.

"This isn't the ritual hour. Something must have happened." Zoolon explained.

"Maybe they are in their houses." Knux guessed.

"Not today. There has to be something going on. We should visit the Sacred Cemetery of Nightmare City, the capital city of Nightmaronka." Zoolon ordered.

They walked for a few hours until Zoolon told Shad and Knux "We have arrived at the cemetery. It appears that everyone is here. But for what, I do not know."

"Do you have any Nightmarian friends?" Knuckles asked.

"Yes but just one. I say we should find him and ask him what is going on." Zoolon answered.

"Well we should hurry. I'm getting a bad feeling." Shadow told the other two.

Shadow looked at the Nightmarians and noticed they looked weird. They were animals and human but they were like black, grey, and dark, dark red colored but they were kind of larger than Earthly animals.

"There he is. Darkno!" Zoolon called out to his friend.

Darkno didn't turn around. He and the other Nightmarians started chanting.

"Darkno!" Zoolon called again. Still no answer. "Darkno! I'm talking to you!" Darkno still didn't answer.

"I'm getting angry." Knux said.

Knuckles walked up to Darkno and reached from him to pull him up.

"Knuckles! No!" Zoolon screamed at him but it was too late. Knuckles had pulled Darkno up from his chanting.

Darkno was a black fox with grey tails. He had grey eyes but they immediately turned red when Knux pulled him up.

"You have interrupted my chanting! The ritual has stopped! Nightmare has ordered me to destroy you and your friends!" Darkno shouted.

"Wait, Darkno! It is me, Zoolon!"

"But you didn't stop your friend from interrupting my chant. You must be destroyed. Nightmare orders me to destroy you all."

"Who is this Nightmare guy?" Shadow asked Zoolon.

"He was the ancient king of the Nightmarians. He was pure evil and he was sealed away by the Great Heroes. Four Nightmarian wizards that could stop themselves by being controlled by Nightmare. Nightmare, the evil king, can control all other Nightmarians with mind control. But the wizards stopped this somehow. Now all good Nightmarians are now evil. All because of the evil Nightmare. He has somehow been resurrected." Zoolon explained.

"I've figured it out. The doctor kidnapped you to figure out how to get into Nightmaronka and when he did, he gathered the Nightmare Emeralds and used them to resurrect the evil king Nightmare and somehow convinced him to use his power to brainwash Sonic and the others." Shadow observed.

"You are very intelligent, young hedgehog." Zoolon complimented.

"Now we should destroy this dude." Knux said charging at Darkno.

"Wait Knuckles!" Zoolon screamed again.

But it was too late… again. Knuckles had punched Darkno. This distracted every other Nightmarian and they came rushing at Shadow, Knuckles, and Zoolon. But in front of them, Amy appeared. She too, had red eyes.

"Well there is the brainwashed Amy. We should take her out, figure out where the doctor's base is, and go there." Shadow pointed out.

"This is gonna be tough." Knux said.

Knuckles and Shadow started fighting off the Nightmarians when Knux was tackled by Amy. He pushed her off and punched her in the face. He was running in but he was kicked away by a Nightmarian.

"Ow. Crap that hurt!" Knuckles said as he picked himself up. But right when he got up he was knocked away. Another one hit him to another. He was being hit around like Tails in Chapter 4.

Nightmarians swarmed Zoolon. And Shadow, thinking that Zoolon couldn't fight but he was just a weak old man, charged at them and started fighting the Nightmarians. He was getting beat around senselessly.

"Shadow! I'll save you!" Zoolon screamed. "Nightmare Blast!"

A blast like Chaos blast except completely black surrounded the area knocking away the Nightmarians.

"How did you do that?" Shadow asked getting up.

"I have a Nightmare Emerald." Zoolon answered.

"But didn't the doctor get those?"

"When he used them, they flew away. I found two and gave one to the restaurant. I kept the other for myself. Now let's get back to fighting." Zoolon explained.

So Zoolon, Shadow, and Knuckles fought valiantly. They put up quite a fight. But they were overwhelmed when all of the Nightmarians attacked. They got knocked out. Knuckles was the first to wake up. He saw that all three of them were in a dark room each in separate cells.

"Where am I? And why does my head hurt?" Knuckles asked himself.

A Nightmarian hedgehog guard walked in and shot something at Knux. It knocked him out again. The guard opened Zoolon's cage and dragged him off somewhere.

Knuckles woke up again and he saw Shadow awake and out of his cell. Shadow was trying to get through Knux' cell to free him.

He finally did and Knuckles said "Thanks, Shad."

"Let's just continue." Shadow said.

They snuck out of that room and into the next. It was filled with Nightmarian hedgehog guards. They snuck around those and went into the next room. They saw Amy standing next to Zoolon who was tied up to a pole. Shad and Knux walked up and listened.

"Fool! You will tell me where you hid the seventh Nightmare Emerald! Supreme Overlord Eggman needs them again!" Amy screamed at Zoolon.

"I'll never tell you where it is!" Zoolon screamed back.

"Tell me immediately!" Amy commanded.

"NO! I said NO!" Zoolon yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Suit yourself." Amy said evilly. She then pulled out a Nightmare Emerald that was the one Zoolon used in the fight. She pointed it to the throat of Zoolon. Energy released and the next thing you knew, Zoolon was dead.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Knuckles screamed in anger. "I am going to kick your pink hedgehog ass!"

Knuckles ran over to Amy instantly without thinking that it would alert everyone. He punched Amy in the face and made her drop the emerald. He picked it up and tried to use it. But no Nightmare energy would come out.

"How do I work this thing?" Knuckles asked himself frustrated.

But before he could figure it out he was hit with a smack to the face by Amy's Pico Pico Hammer. He dropped the Nightmare Emerald and Amy picked it up again. He shot Nightmare spears at Knuckles which hurt him badly. But what she wasn't expected was to be shot by Shadow's Chaos beam to the back. She fell to the ground and guards swarmed the area. Shadow took them all out easily by jumping from guard to guard. He then walked up to Amy again.

"Now tell me, where is the doctor's base?" Shadow interrogated.

"No."

"Then at least tell me why he needs the Nightmare Emeralds again."

"Go to hell!" Amy screamed as she spit in Shadow's face.

"Stupid!" Shadow got angry but before he could do anything he was swiped by Amy's hammer.

He fell back and Amy got up. He jumped back up and started fighting each other fiercely. Amy gained the upper hand by kicking Shadow in the chin. He fell to the ground and just before Amy hit him with her hammer to finish him, she was clunked in the head with a rock.

"Take that you bitch!" Knuckles screamed.

He ran up to her and asked "Where is Eggman's base?"

"I don't know! He only tells his highest people. We are just teleported to different places. You saw me teleport earlier. Now you can find Rouge because she may know but I don't think so." Amy admitted.

"Now tell me why Eggman needs the Nightmare Emeralds again!" Knuckles demanded.

"I don't know that much. I just know he needs them. Now… uuuuhhhhh." Amy passed out.

"Let's go Shad." Knux said angrily. He was still upset about Zoolon dying and all.

"Yeah let's go." Shad agreed. "Wait! We don't know where Rouge is!"

"We'll figure it out."

To be continued.