A/N: Remember to vote on the ending poll as we are only THREE (not including this one) chapters away from this stories end, I NEED A DEFINITE DECISION! I have separated endings in mind for both. I would implore you ALL to go to my profile after and vote on which ending your would like to see, after you review of course. On with Chapter 12.
Theo pulled up outside a small diner in a tiny village, 65 miles outside Spagonia, it had been heavily raining earlier and now the road shone with a crystal sheet along with his sand blasted bike. He cut the growl of the engine and got off, he had ditched his coat and other clothing a few days ago and had replaced it with thick brown trousers, black armour shoes that crunched like snow on the pavement, a brown, buttoned up jacket, its elbows torn and fraying and a beige cape tied around his neck, he has custom made a balaclava so that his quills could fit inside it, it covered all of his face and head apart from his eyes which he covered with a pair of brown, heavily tinted goggles. He got off the bike and walked towards the door of the diner, head down, trying not to make himself noticed too much.
A small bell rang as he entered the diner, a few people looked around but no one took much notice, a lot of strange people from foreign lands must have past through here, so he wouldn't be any different. He walked over to the counter and sat on stool opposite, he looked around; the diner was packed with people, all young families or workers on a lunch break. Theo sighed, his voice had altered over the past week, it had become deeper and much more sinister, more fitting for a demon,
"Great" Theo thought, "I'm the only stranger in this place, I guess that everyone else in here are just common citizens from around". A waiter walked to the opposite side of the counter,
"May I take your order, sir?"
"Yeah, whiskey, on the rocks"
The waiter walked off and Theo turned his attention back to the diner at large, a large TV hung from the corner of the room, displaying a news report, he sat there and listened to it, it was barely a whisper in the babble of the diner but he could just here it. The screen cut back to the studio,
Our Breaking News today, Spagonia is experiencing temperature fluctuations of over 25oC, the greatest in recorded history. Seismographs have also recorded earthquakes up to a magnitude of 3.5 on the Richter scale, however these seem only confined to the city.
"Turn it up" Theo grunted at the waiter as he brought the small glass of whiskey, drenched in ice,
"Pardon?" the waiter asked, confused,
"Turn the fucking thing up," He growled, darkly. The waiter obeyed, startled. Theo pulled the balaclava off and rested the goggles on his forehead, his features were now so altered that he didn't think anyone would recognise him, his fur had darkened another shade, but his skin was now almost paper white, amplifying the black veins that coursed the length of his flesh, his red iris's had brightened, so they looked like they were constantly in the sun, dark circles had formed under his eyes from lack of sleep. He placed the glass to his lips and drank, his eyes fixed on the screen.
Weather surveys also suggest that storm systems may also be starting to appear towards the evening, the Mayor of Spagonia has issued a statement saying that evacuation operations are underway, world hero Sonic the Hedgehog along with fellow Freedom Fighters are now en route to help with evacuation of citizens.
"See I told you!"
Theo turned to see a small beaver arguing with his brother on a nearby table, their mother looked embarrassed and tried to shush them, his brother began to argue, picking up one of the action figures scattered on their table, which Theo noticed to be a smaller, plastic version of himself, complete with coat and his pure white fur, if only that kid could see him now.
"I prefer Theo, he could beat Sonic any day" The beaver's brother said, throwing his hand up and pretending to unleash a lightening bolt, and making a explosion noise with his mouth. Their mother now looked annoyed,
"I've told before, Simon, Theo's not a very nice man, he used to be, but not anymore"
"But Mum, he's awesome" Simon said, his brother picked up a Sonic figurine and began to argue with his brother once again. Theo chuckled and turned his attention back to his drink. Staring into the alcohol, Theo suddenly thought of something, he looked around the diner and saw a person on his laptop; he got up and strode towards the person, with out asking, he snatched the laptop off him,
"Hey! What the hell?" the man yelled at him, getting up and chasing after him,
"Stuff it" Theo muttered, pushing the man back with one hand, while balancing the laptop in his arm, he began to type, hacking into GUN's mainframe, the business plans on screen disappeared, instantly replaced by fast moving documents appearing and disappearing on screen as Theo searched, his fingers moving as quick as lightening. He was searching, examining all of the weather forecasts for Spagonia and the surrounding regions, and comparing it to demonic omens that had been recorded over thousands of years. After a few minutes, he tossed the laptop back to the annoyed businessman, he fumblingly caught it, glaring at Theo, but Theo simply stared at him, his dark red eyes piercing his.
The businessman shivered and turned away, with out a word, Theo smirked and walked away picking up his drink and draining the last of it, as he swallowed he banged the glass down onto the beaver families table, startling them, then with a small spark he melted the figurines that lay on the table, reducing them to a bubbling heap of plastic and resin. One of the children on the table began to cry but Theo took no notice, he simply walked out of the diner and onto the street, he looked into the distance, in the distance he saw black clouds on the horizon over towards the direction of Spagonia, there was a bright flash of lightening in the distance, followed almost a minute later by a distant rumble of thunder. He pulled the balaclava on and pulled the goggles on, he straddled the bike and kicked started it, the engine rumbled then roared as Theo pulled off and speeded towards the stormy horizon. The weather patterns and atmospheric readings had all suggested one thing compared with the omens; a mass demonic gathering, and where there were demons, Mephiles may not be far behind…
Shadow was sat in the back of a large military van, along with Sonic, and the other Freedom Fighters, the van was speeding along a half-empty highway towards Spagonia; the journey should only take about six hours from New Metropolis, and they had been travelling for about half that time. Shadow picked up an assault rifle from the pile at the back, and began to examine it,
"Why you using that thing, Shads?" Sonic asked, eyebrow raised, Shadow, tugged the barrel down and checked the ammunition.
"Well, you can't be too careful" Shadow muttered, not looking at him, Tails frowned
"Its only an evacuation mission Shadow, not a assassination" Shadow chugged the gun back onto the pile and lent back, eyes closed
"Well, I don't know" Shadow said. Rouge playfully punched him in the arm,
"Is that your intuition playing up again, Shadow?" Shadow opened one eye,
"I'm not god damn, Sherlock Holmes; its just…a feeling".
"Yeah, yeah; whatever Shadow" Knuckles muttered, brushing some of his red dreadlocks out of his eyes. Shadow reached down and picked up a small net book from a back next to him, he flicked up the screen and looked at the weather patterns flickering across the map on the screen,
"Looks like the mother of all storms is coming" Shadow muttered, Amy looked out of the window at the ever-growing storm in the distance, a mixture of fear and determination in her light green eyes,
"How long until we arrive" she asked,
"I guess about, three hours" Sonic said, Shadow moved the weather patterns out the way and opened a file, Rouge looked over his shoulder and sighed when she saw what it was,
"Not the Arcreus case, again Shadow" She whined,
"I need to find that bastard, he killed a whole battalion and almost killed me" Shadow said through gritted teeth,
"So that's why you're on the painkillers" Knuckles said,
"You try having your insides shocked with all the static electricity around you".
"Oh yeah, how's that Chaos girl" Silver asked, head resting on his hands
"She's ok, she's still at GUN, I asked her whether she wanted to help but she refused" Rouge said, as Shadow was still engrossed in the Arcreus file, A earpiece began to ring next to him, he snatched it up and placed it in his ear,
"Yes?"
I've found something that could be of interest to you, my friend, it was Levinski, he sounded grim,
"Right patch it through"
I think you better show this to everyone, especially Ghost and Luna
Shadow frowned "Why?" There was a beeping noise as the file got transferred to his netbook,
It concerns the Legacy Gene,
Shadow turned to the group at large,
"Hey, Levinski's found something" He turned the netbook round to face the group, at the back, Ghost, who was snoring softly and Luna who was thinking deeply to herself, both snapped out of what they were doing, at Shadows call.
"What is it?" Ghost grunted getting up and moving closer to the screen, balancing himself of the wall "I was trying to get some god-damn shut-eye", Shadow placed the earpiece next to the netbook and switched it onto loudspeaker so everyone could hear.
You and Luna better pay attention, anyway, as some of you know, the Legacy Gene has been around for quite awhile, the Kingdom of Acorn have been experimenting with it for years, hoping to use it for weaponry. However, a few months ago it broke out and infected 89% of the population of Neon City, Ghost, Luna and Theo along with a small group of soldiers were some of the only people to get out of that place alive.
Luna shivered slightly
"God, don't remind me" she uttered, the screen showed a slideshow of pictures and aerial photographs of Neon city after the infection had been eradicated, bodies littered the streets, some buildings lay in ruins and others had been completely obliterated.
"My god" Silver muttered, his previous tiredness now replaced with the cold stab of horror and disgust "How many died?"
Around 2.6 million, but GUN kept it all classified, but no computer system can stop me.
The image now changed to a view of one of the infected corpses, its skin was tight and ripped, soft pink flesh oozed from the gashes, one of its eyes looked like it had popped, the gooey residue clung to the eye socket in strands, a stream on blood was trickling down the pus filled face from the wound. Sonic swallowed and turned away, he had been in the most battles out of all of them, but he had seen nothing like this.
When the virus infects you, you don't become a zombie, you're not slow, or weak or stupid, on the contrary, you become much stronger and faster than normal, and you know exactly what you're doing. But they aren't immune to bullets, several good shots will kill them Levinski continued, But if the virus runs its course, within five years the infected die
"Why are you telling us this?" Shadow asked,
Because about half an hour ago, a lab, containing the Legacy Gene on the west coast was broken into, when reinforcements arrived, they found that the virus had escaped and everyone in the facility had become infected, only two people got out and now its spreading rapidly, GUN forces are desperately trying to contain the threat.
"No" Ghost said, his eyes wide with shock "That can't be"
I'm sorry but it is, I'm going to a strong hold in the south with GUN, but your mission still stand, get everyone out of Spagonia. Out
Shadow said nothing, he simply put the net book down and tossed the earpiece away, The van suddenly swerved, making everyone move violently inside, Tails was visibly shivering with fear,
"How far away from the west coast are we?" he asked, his voice trembling,
"Well….oh shit" Ghost said
"What?" Luna asked,
"Well if we are on Highway 15, then we are on the west coast"
"Then that means" Amy muttered, as the realisation dawned upon them all
"They-
Ghost was then interrupted by a scraping noise, the van slammed into something, throwing everyone towards the front of the van, Shadow could hear yelling and gunshots outside, he untangled himself from the bundle of bodies,
"Is everyone alright?"
Sonic groaned, "Never better"
"Yeah I'm ok" Luna said, standing up and brushing her clothes down, Shadow straightened up and walked towards the doors,
"Where are you going?" Knuckles asked,
"To see what happened" Shadow grunted, picking up an assault rifle from the buckled metal floor; he grabbed a few magazines from the benches and attached them to his belt. He smashed open the doors and jumped down from the van and onto the road. They had crashed into a cluster of abandoned cars, one of few that now littered the road ahead of them, walking round to the front of the van, he found the driver dead, his chest impaled by a piece of wreckage that stuck out of one of the cars. Then he heard a wailing yell, he looked up the highway and saw in the distance, people running towards him, on closer inspection he saw, the infected, their diseased faces bloated and disfigured and they were heading straight for them.
"Guys" He yelled to the van "Grab some guns and get the fuck out here"
He slotted a magazine into its slot on the gun and locked it with a click
"To the end" he murmured, before firing at the horde of infected streaming towards them…
A/N: Remember to vote on the poll and leave a review about your thoughts on this story. Peace out!