Ash's eyes fluttered lightly as he tried to wake up fully. The smell of gunpowder was still present, but this had a musky feel to it. He tried pushing up to an upright position, but he struggled feeling slightly weak. Soon he pushed himself up, and ignoring the pain and lightheadedness, he got up.

He walked around, he was somewhere unknown, and right next to him was another body, completely covered in blood. Ash walked over to the body, it was faces down, which helped him to feel slightly better. But when he turned the head, it was none other than Mina.

Ash felt his heart skip a beat, but there was a new feeling. It was a strong sense of failure for letting her get hurt. Ash then skimmed over the goriest parts and found about seven bullet holes within the girl, none of them in major organ areas, besides the stomach. Ash knew what he had to do, he quickly removed the top he was wearing and tore it into pieces, covering all wounds with them.

He then tried to remove some of the blood stains off Mina's face using the remaining scraps. The blood was sticky, and hard to get off, causing Ash a slight struggle.

Once all the blood was gone Ash started to realize some things, mainly the fact that he was hungry as hell, and that his hair had grown too long. Mina's hair was curled, with a definite length difference, but parts of it stuck to her back and were covered by blood. Her body had a pale look to it, and her yellow fur seemed to look as I'd it were fading. Was it possible that she had died? He checked her pulse, he could feel it, but it was faint, so faint that he knew she would die by the end of the night.

Ash then got up and checked his surroundings; he was in a jail cell, concrete walls that were easily four feet think, and metal bar cells, that if you touched gave an electric shock. Ash had learned that the hard way.

Ash knew exactly what had happened and who had raided the city. He looked outside the cell, being careful not to touch it. State of the art cameras hung everywhere, but since he was here, he might as well have some fun with the camera. Ash dug in his pocket for something, before realizing that there was nothing there. He then checked his socks and shoes, nothing, all his back up weapons were gone. Of course they would have raided him to make sure that he wouldn't escape.

Ash turned around and walked over to Mina. "Why," he murmured, wondering why she had to run in town. They could've been almost there, or at least much further than they already were. Ash then shook Mina lightly; he couldn't let the girl die. But as he was inspecting Mina he found a ring on her finger. Ash tried taking it off to see what kind of ring it was, but the blood kept it there. Ash decided that he would ask later, when she was better, if she even got better.

Ash perked up when he remembered the fact that chances are the girl wouldn't last the night. He had to save her somehow. Ash then decided he would have to work at breaking the wall; he first though needed to check her breathing. Ash bent his head toward the girls open mouth, and he could hear the girl trying to stifle her breaths. They came out slow and as if forced, she definitely did not have much time left, and Ash knew that sitting still contemplating wouldn't help.

Spy school had helped Ash his strength, but this was definitely way too much. He scaled the wall, looking for any part that might be slightly weak, maybe a crack. He couldn't find one. This meant that he would need to find another way; Ash's next hope was to find an air vent. The male mongoose looked around the wall, nothing there; the air vent was outside, looking at him and making fun of him. Just when Ash thought that he was out of luck he heard some footsteps.

A man in navy was walking through the hall; he had nun-chucks and a taser on him. Ash smirked; this would be interesting, trying to beat someone with more weapons. That was when he heard the click to allow the gate open. The man came to get Ash, but Ash went for a direct punch in the face. The man easily sidestepped the counter and went in for a kick. Ash jumped out of the way, seeing the man pull out his nun-chucks. The man in navy struck at Ash's side, and got a direct attack. The pain seemed to catch Ash quickly, he looked to his side to see the bullet wound bleeding heavily again. The man in navy must've smirked behind his mask because after a while all of his attacks were directed at the same place. But Ash was wise, he already knew that, and dodged them easily. But on an easy dodge Ash took a misstep, and with that the guy pushed Ash back into the metal bars. Ash stumbled backwards and hit the bars; electricity ran through his entire blood stream, before he fell to his knees helpless. "I failed," he muttered under his breath.

The man in navy had a slightly maniacal laugh as he used the taser on Ash, Ash jumped from being struck by electricity twice. He then fell to the ground motionless. His injury had reopened fully, and he was bleeding heavily. The mongoose got dragged out of the room, and was brought into some other place.

Ash woke up, feeling even dizzier from blood loss. His vision was blurred, and even though he was seated he had trouble maintaining his balance. A bright light shone straight in the mongoose's eyes, causing him to squint. Ash turned his head away from the light, to see Mina in the chair right next to him.

All of Mina's blood was cleaned up, and it looked as though she had been brought back to perfect condition, but why wasn't she awake yet? Ash tried to ponder the different reason as to the girl still being out cold, but nothing came to mind. Another thing that started to worry Ash is that sooner or later he would have to explain the whole thing to her, how would she react?

As Ash pondered all these questions, he noticed someone else walk into the room. "So it seems that she has a new bodyguard, now does she?" The man said in a low snarling voice. Ash naturally tensed at the mention of his sworn enemy, Sonic the hedgehog. "Oh so you two still haven't come to even playing grounds," the man then teased. Ash sat still restricted by his chair, but he knew if he ever finished this mission, he would kill the man, especially if Mina died.

The guy could see the stricken look on Ash's face and smirked, c'mon Ash; I'm shocked that you don't remember me. Ash peered into the darkness that filled the rest of the room, he still couldn't make out the body shape of the other man, and it looked to him as if it were only him and Mina in the room. "Poor little Ash, everyone always has to stick up the rut of the litter," the guy continued to taunt. Ash was somewhat surprised; mongooses don't usually live in a group, which meant it could only be his best friend's older brother. "Chris I know that's you," Ash yelled into the darkness. There was a cynical laughter that filled up the room, "Of course it's me wimp, I want revenge," the guy stated much more seriously. Ash was slightly stunned; he knew exactly what Chris meant… it was Ash's fault for his sister's death.

Ash's eyes once again wondered over to Mina, "You want her, don't you?" Ash sighed, would be able to make it out alive himself. "You can always take me, but keep her alive," Ash offered. The guy laughed again, "Don't you think I've thought of that? It would be so much simpler to get rid of you, but where is the true fairness in that? If I take her life instead, then we would've both lost someone important, and we could then both forget this whole incident and go back to being friends," Chris retorted. Ash took all of this into consideration, but one thing really stood out, the two of them were never friends, in fact Chris used to beat him up. Another thing struck Ash also; these weren't the people he expected, which also meant that he had another group of people gaining on him every minute he waited. "No, that's just something I ain't gonna do," Ash answered, an evil smirk on his face.

Chris must've been crossed because he didn't answer right away. Instead, he took some time to ponder Ash's answer. "Well what are you going to do about it?" Chris challenged.

All through the fight Mina seemed trapped somewhere, she was stuck in her own little mind world. One thing she knew though was that she was on a path that ended with a bright, white light. Mina walked slowly, taking in all the beautiful nature surrounding her, she knew what the bright light was, and frankly, she wasn't quite ready for it. Instead Mina strayed off the path and sat under an orange tree. Mina then put her hand up and an orange fell into her palm. Slowly but surely Mina unpeeled the orange and started to eat the orange. How could this be happening? She was starting to lose it, she could even feel herself getting weaker, slowly getting tired, and yet at the same time getting more reckless.

An apple fell from a tree somewhere around and rolled straight toward her. Mina picked up the apple and looked around. How could there be an apple if there were no apple trees? Mina decided to investigate, pushing herself up off the ground; she started to tear through the trees at the hope of finding where the mysterious apple came from. But, this task was much harder then she thought. She was way too tired, and her strength kept wavering. Mina was so close, she knew it, and finally she tore open through what she thought to be the last row of trees and saw…

Author's Notes

Man I have been lazy with my writing, and that was because of writers block. I found a simple solution to it though; all I have to do is put on my IPod and listen to "Papermoon." Well anyways, I guess you guys might be wondering what's going to happen next. I could tell you, but I suggest that you continue reading. I hope you guys didn't think I gave up, because I try to never give up on a story. Well anyways until my next story, please comment, I want to hear from you guys =]