Section 6: The Attack
Rouge walked through dirty side streets and night had set in, not that it bothered Rouge much. A week had passed since Matt ran off and so Sonic had organised a constant search for him, tonight being Rouge's shift. As she walked through the narrow alleyway she gave a sigh "Why are we still doing this? It's been a week and I doubt he will ever come back. There are so many places I'd rather be than this dingy dump. She turned around the next corner and jumped when she saw Matt and a squad of troops who were fully equipped in suits and weapons "Matt! Hi." "Hi" he said with a smile. But very quickly the smile disappeared and turned into a smirk "Bye". He raised his arm to face Rouge and held in his hand was a sub machine gun. The gun flashed as Matt opened fire and Rouge dropped down to the ground motionless.
Unaware of what just happened; everyone except Shadow was at Chris's mansion watching the television. Everyone was trying their best to continue on with their lives but Tikal found it very difficult not to think about where Matt could be. "Rouge has been gone a long time, do you think we should maybe call her?" she said breaking the silence. Sonic who was sat next to her turned to her and held her hands "Tikal, I know this is tough but you have to be strong. Anyway, did you stop to think that Rouge may be onto something. I'm sure we will find him soon and when we do I'll speak to him and patch things up for you OK" He ended giving her a reassuring wink. Cream suddenly jumped up in front of them "Hey what's happening to the screen!?" The picture was disappearing and being replaced with another image "Maybe it's broken, we never get interference here" said Amy who was trying to make some sense of what was happening. Eventually the image settled and the Fury. Co logo was clearly printed across the screen. Everyone was suddenly transfixed to the screen waiting for what was coming next. A voice came from the TV which was instantly recognisable to all of them "Hello. This is a special announcement" A live feed came through which showed Matt standing in front of the camera still in his casual clothes and with a machine gun slung over his shoulder, red spots splattered across the end of it. The silence continued as Matt started to speak. "Good evening Station Square. I am sorry to report that a critical situation has been alerted in your area. The situation: We are taking over! For too long I've been pushed around and walked over and so now you are all going to do something for me. Hopefully you are going to stay where you are and await further instructions but if you don't like that I do have one piece of advice. Run. Run fast and you may just escape. Thank you all for listening, we will see you in about 5 minutes". The television returned to the program it was originally on, almost as if nothing had happened. Shadow had already walked in while everyone else was watching "I suggest for the moment we take his advice" Tikal rushed over to him and grappled him by the shoulders, tears at the base of her eyes "What's going on Shadow? Why should we run? TELL ME!" Shadow grabbed Tikal's shoulders in retaliation, leaned forward and looked her square in the eyes "Matt's gone Tikal, the Matt we know anyway. I've just seen his entire army including the Virus, Icarus and Rapture heading this way and I don't think they plan on stopping. And if you don't believe me, then do you want me to tell you what happened to Rouge" Sonic ran over and took Shadows hands off Tikal "Where's Rouge Shadow?" Shadow closed his eyes "You don't think that red splatter on his gun was a decorative decision do you?" shock spread across the room as one by one everybody realised what he was saying "I don't believe you" Yelled Sonic with anger "If you don't believe me Sonic then you all may just end up the same way".
Suddenly the windows shattered and a deafening boom echoed. As everyone finally looked outside they saw the tail end of the Rapture's link cannon laser hitting a skyscraper in the city turning it into a towering inferno before it effortlessly crumbled to the ground. A sight too familiar to Shadow, Tikal and Knuckles followed as hundreds of drop ships poured out of the virus, spreading over the city and landing on rooftops and streets to unload troops and attack vehicles. The sound of gunfire instantly broke out and small explosions systematically worked their way across the city. "GET DOWN!" screamed Knuckles as a drop ship descended down meters from the window, machine gunning clean bullet holes through the wall until it had safely landed. Doors on the side slid open to allow a squad of troops to unload. Still laying low Sonic crawled over to Chris "Chris, is there anywhere we can run to? He said assertively "How about our holiday house at the lake? It's pretty well concealed and well out of the city" "Sounds like a plan" Sonic smiled "Well we had better go fast, I think they are trying to get through the front door lock" said Amy as she slowly stood up now the gunfire had ceased, Chris nodded his head "OK everyone, go out the back door, and don't stop running for anything". The group followed Sonics' lead through the kitchen and out of the back door into the garden, getting out just before the troops started to splinter and force open the front door. To everybody's eyes the garden now seemed much bigger now they had to run across it but they started to make their way. They had barely made a few steps before spotlights shone down upon them with blinding white light, drop ships surrounded the area, tanks rolled through the walls and bi-pedal attack walkers took dead aim at the group. But they stopped when one of the drop ships lowered and the cockpit opened revealing Matt piloting it "Ah Sonic and his crew, I've heard so much about you. Partly because I've read our entire files on you, quite impressive I must say" "Why are you doing this? Have you gone insane Matt?" Sonic looked up at Matt feeling more pity than anger "Don't try to act like we have some sort of connection Sonic because I honestly don't care. Now surrender all of you" Sonic now realising that it was a lost cause to try and reach Matt's former self smiled and winked at the others to get set to run "If you really know that much about me, then you should know that I never surrender" In retaliation Matt closed the cockpit and put his voice on speaker "Very well, at least you have a more dignified exit than Rouge".
The ships machine guns pointed to fire but sonic used his spin attack to quickly disable them, knocking Matt's drop ship off balance in the process. "Go now!" shouted Tikal. The group started to move again and were quickly caught in a deadly crossfire of bullets and shrapnel from every unit in the garden. With their super speed Sonic and Shadow easily made it into the woods. The others continued to run across the garden, dodging the bullets, tank shell explosions and walkers attempts of squashing them under their feet. Knuckles carrying Tikal on his back was the next to make it into the woods, closely followed by the Amy, Cream, Cheese and Chris. As they disappeared into the night one of the squad leaders contacted Matt via radio "Do you want us to pursue sir?" "No, but call in the Rapture, I want to show them once and for all not to mess with me". With that he lifted up the drop ship and headed back to the Rapture.
Not knowing what could be behind them, everyone kept running through the woods which were now spread across a steep hillside ultimately reaching a clearing at the crest of the hill where the Station Square could be seen in its entirety. Shadow scanned across the group "Is everyone here?" they were all too tired to respond but were all present. Cream ran over to Sonic and tugged his arm "Sonic look, over there" She pointed the mansion they had just fled. Everyone watched in horror as they witnessed the Rapture, also knowing that Matt would be at the helm, tilting down to point at the mansion before unleashing it's link cannon straight down upon it, the blast still being powerful enough to cause a rumble that sent Chris and Knuckles falling off their feet. All that remained was a flaming crater, the garden set ablaze and some partially disintegrated debris. All of the girls burst into tears while all of the boys looked on in disbelief. In an attempt to restore some moral Sonic softly and heart-warmingly said "Come on everyone, we still have quite a way to go and I am starving for some food" Chris and Cream managed to pull out a smile before turning their backs with the others to head off to the safe house leaving behind the image of a burning Station Square although it took a good few minutes for the sounds of gunfire, sirens and screaming to fade into the distance.