Espio struggled against the ropes that bound his hands and ankles, as well as the powerful arm of the strange, wolf-like creature that held him. The wolf let out a grunt and shifted its hold, moving a three-fingered clawed hand onto the small of Espio's back, keeping the chameleon pressed against its shoulder.
While this wolf-man walked on two legs, the other three creatures loping by its sides ran on all four. One was a giant brown cat; the other two jackal-like and drooling heavily. Espio scanned back and forth through the dark forest, the dried brown leaves from the trees crunching beneath the monsters' feet. Because he was facing backwards Espio couldn't see where they were taking him - but more disappointingly, he couldn't see anybody coming after him.
Of course, that was no surprise, considering what had happened. The three detectives had been at the after-Halloween fair, everything had been fine…and then they heard a woman's scream from a dark alley. Perhaps because of the music and chatter nobody else heard, but the Chaotix did. They had rushed down the alley, seeing a sobbing woman at the end. Vector had immediately rushed over to her side, but then she vanished without a trace. A dark shadow had then come down on the crocodile. Espio winced, remembering the sound of Vector's head cracking against the cold concrete. The wolf-man he was currently being carried by had jumped down from the roof of a department store four stories high, and the pressure on the crocodile's skull knocked Vector out cold. Charmy had been next, as the cat had leaped out of the shadows to cripple Charmy's wings, but with a quick dodge the bee had escaped with only a deep cut.
Espio had tried to get to Vector, but the two jackals appeared, snarling and snapping at his feet. The chameleon had called for Charmy to get out as the two dogs and one wolf-man jumped him. He had twisted and dodged, moving around the alley and keeping all eyes focused on him, hopefully providing Charmy with enough time to get away. With carefully planned invisibility he had a slight advantage, but these creatures relied on scent more than sight and that was something he couldn't disguise. Despite that, he had only gained two small wounds after ten minutes, but when the cat had returned from chasing Charmy he had been taken. They picked up his scent and had surrounded him on all four sides, and with nowhere to run or climb they stalked in closer and closer until he was completely trapped. The cat had got him first, gripping his ankle lightly enough not to do damage but hard enough to let Espio know that if he moved, he'd lose his foot. The two jackals had each grabbed a wrist in the same manner as the cat, and then the wolf-man had bound him. He was then thrown over the wolf-man's shoulder, and was somewhat relieved to see that Charmy wasn't there - perhaps the honeybee had gotten away, or maybe the cat had done something worse…
The monsters walked right past Vector and climbed back onto the rooftops, taking their captive with them. And so for the past hour Espio had been along for a very bumpy and chilly ride.
A small drop of water hit Espio's nose, making him blink. He looked up to see soft, fluffy flakes of snow beginning to fall from the cloudy sky. His captors would be ok - they had thick fur after all - but as for himself?
Espio shivered and buried deeper into the thick fur of his wolf captor, knowing that he couldn't escape at the moment. He silently hoped that their destination wasn't too far away.
XXXXXXXXX
Being on the same side of the world as home but much farther south meant Shadow had escaped from the chills of winter to the heat waves of summer. While Shadow was made to survive drastic temperature changes, he never liked such extreme weather. Thick snow made it a hundred times more difficult to complete a mission, while hot sun made everything incredibly uncomfortable. Having run thousands of miles in under an hour, the steamy air combined with his higher body temperature made Shadow's fur stick close to his skin in little clumps. The black hedgehog rubbed his arms as he made his way towards the scene, trying to get rid of the odd feeling.
Sure enough, past the small crowd of confused onlookers, excited reporters and silent G.U.N agents were about two dozen scaly creatures. Standing at about ten feet in height with dark green scales, the monsters circled the bases of a number of trees, their large feet smashing all of the mushrooms and flowers to pulp. Their bodies started out like any normal lizard except on a larger scale for about six feet before rising up at the waist, with the upper halves clearly humanoid. Stomping around on four feet while slashing at the trunks with two clawed hands, roaring all the while, they made for a strange sight.
"Shadow!" The black hedgehog looked around, trying to spot the person who said his name, "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be taking a holiday."
Finally spotting the G.U.N commander, Shadow nodded as the human made his way over. "I came on my own accord." The hedgehog then gestured to the lizards, "Why isn't anyone doing something about this? Shouldn't you be trying to take them out?"
As a reply, the commander simply pulled out his gun, took aim at one of the lizards and fired a single shot. Instead of the cry of pain and the squirt of blood Shadow thought would occur, the bullet lightly clicked against the hard scales and then dropped to the ground, harmless.
"What about the eyes, then? Those couldn't be defended by scales."
The commander shook his head, "Same problem - the bullets just reflect off. And it's not just bullets - everything we've tried has had the same effect. They don't even respond if someone goes up and kicks them, luckily for those who've tried." The commander turned to look at one of the soldiers, who turned away with flushed cheeks.
"So what now?" Shadow asked, moving towards the lizards with the commander following.
"They aren't attacking any humans - they just seem to be searching the trees for something. All we can do right now is wait until they find whatever they're looking for."
Shadow nodded and stood still, watching the violent amber eyes with his own vibrant ruby ones.
XXXXXXXXX
The air was thick with a white fog; the warm air difficult to breathe and making Blaze's head feel stuffy. The princess let out a small groan and slowly sat up, leaning back on one elbow while rubbing her itchy eyes with the other arm. "Ugh…feels like a sauna in here," Blaze said, blinking away the last bits of sleep. The world was white all around, the fog looking thick enough to touch - just like the big puffy clouds on summer days. Blaze knew that you couldn't really sit on a cloud due to the fact it was just water droplets, so she was quite surprised when she reached out and was able to take a handful of the cloud. The fog had the same color and texture as cotton balls, only damper. The only space clear of the murk was where Blaze was sitting - and she easily noticed the absence of a certain psychic hedgehog.
"Silver? Can you hear me? Silver!" Blaze called out, but the thick smog muffled her words. Wondering if her friend was still asleep, the cat began walking through the gloom, her pace slowed as if she was walking through deep snow. "Silver! Say something! Silver!" Blaze kept shouting as she pushed her way through the cloud. It was impossible to tell where she was going, and with the ground covered with the fog if there were any obstacles in the way, she wouldn't know until she hit them. The only clear space was where she stood, with a good foot-sized pocket of air surrounding her on all sides.
Yet she hadn't seen another pocket which could belong to her friend.
"I'll never forgive myself if he's hurt because of me…" Blaze whispered to herself as she walked, starting to get a little worried. It was difficult to say how long her air would last, if it could possibly run out, and if Silver was still asleep…he could pass out and be gone within minutes.
The thought made Blaze double her efforts, and she clawed her way through the fog while still calling out Silver's name. After a few minutes, the fog began getting thinner and lighter…until finally Blaze pushed her way into a small clear space about five feet wide. A dark shape was lying on the ground, obscured by the murk.
"Silver? Is that you?" Blaze slowly walked over, and inwardly let out a sigh of relief as she saw the psychic hedgehog's outline on the ground. "Come on, wake up! We need to get out of here!" Blaze lightly kicked Silver's side with her toe, and noticed that his fur was thinner than normal. "Silver…?" The figure on the ground made no signs that it had heard the princess.
Blaze reached down into the fog to grab Silver's hand, grasping his gloved fingers and pulling up with a sharp yank, "Come on, what's with you? Let's go!"
There was a sharp crack, and Blaze's eyes doubled in size as she not only pulled up Silver's hand, but his entire severed arm as well. Scratched bones were showing through the rotting cloth and gray fur, stained with old blood. Pieces of muscle tissue long dried up were hanging from flaps of skin; but worst of all the entire arm was crawling with large white maggots.
XXXXXXXXX
Rouge had left as soon as the ambulance came to take Vector and Charmy to the hospital. A quick inspection of the frightened young bee showed that Charmy would require stitches for the long gash the cat had gave him. But it wasn't the idea that somebody would be sewing him up like a teddy bear that had Charmy scared - what terrified him was the fact that Vector was in a coma and nobody knew where Espio had gone.
"Vector! Vector! Come on Vector, wake up!" Charmy pleaded to his unconscious friend, holding the crocodile's hand and barely staying in the air due to his exhaustion. Vector didn't reply, but one of the ambulance attendants helping to lift the crocodile into the van noticed Vector's heartbeat speed up for a moment when Charmy spoke.
"It's a good sign," the attendant said to Amy as they strapped the gurney down, "It means that Vector isn't in too deep - he seems to recognize Charmy's voice. He's better off than we thought he was. He should wake up soon."
"That's good," Amy said, sighing in relief, "Should I come along?"
The attendant shrugged, "Might as well. Charmy is freaking out, and we could use somebody with their senses with them to sort things out."
"Then I'll go. I just hope Rouge will be ok…" Amy said quietly, looking back at the alley where Rouge had gone as she climbed into the back of the ambulance.
XXXXXXXXX
Shadow scowled at the lizards as his Chaos Spears disintegrated again. Despite his attacks being on a whole different level compared to simple bullets or lasers, they weren't having any affect either.
"Told ya they wouldn't work," one of the G.U.N soldiers said, smirking at the frustrated Ultimate Life Form. Shadow glared back before facing the lizards again and letting out a huff.
"If that damn Mephiles was here right now I'd tear him to pieces," Shadow growled as the G.U.N commander walked up to him, "Where the hell is he?"
"Some of the locals reported a black and ice-blue hedgehog walking around here, but if that was Mephiles he certainly isn't here now. I wanted to speak to him personally." The human crossed his arms and looked at the lizards, still stomping around the same small patch of land and scratching at the ground and trees. The onlookers had gotten bored with the situation and had wandered off. Now only the small G.U.N force remained; only about twenty soldiers, excluding the Commander and Shadow, all except the latter two no longer paying attention to the monsters.
"Is that why you're here?" The Commander nodded, so Shadow continued, "Why would you want to talk with him? Shoot the bastard instead!"
The Commander chuckled, "Sorry Shadow. As long as you're on vacation I'm not saying a word."
Shadow scowled at that, and after looking back at the lizards he growled, "You were quick to fire at me though, weren't you?"
The black hedgehog smiled slightly when he heard the slight bit of discomfort in the Commander's voice. "Yes, well, I was blinded by anger then," the human coughed, "I don't let my emotions get the better of me anymore."
"Sure, whatever you say." Shadow watched the strange monsters trash the small area, slowly letting his mind wander. His thoughts returned to the robot double, and ruby eyes narrowed at the thought of Mephiles creating copies of him, the Ultimate Life Form! How dare he!
With a growl, Shadow charged up another Chaos Spear and launched it at the same lizard monster the G.U.N soldiers had focused on before realizing they were doing no damage. The attack struck the lizard hard in the shoulder, and with a loud crack the invisible red shield that had covered the monster before shattered into a thousand pieces, crumbling to the creature's feet. The lizard whipped its head around, now noticing the angry black hedgehog. It let out a hiss; its snake-like tongue flickering between cracked lips; two sharp fangs showing from beneath the dry flesh. The monster faced Shadow and let out a roar.
"Shields," Shadow snarled, glaring right back into the lizard's yellow eyes, "Of course."
"What are you talking about?" the Commander asked.
"Mephiles has shields on these things. You can't hurt them until you destroy the shields first. It must have been too dark to see them before."
The other soldiers had quickly come over, aiming at the monster. "We're ready to fire on your orders, sir," one of them said.
The Commander placed a hand on Shadow's shoulder just as the hedgehog was about to lunge forward. "Don't get in the fight, Shadow. The other demons haven't noticed us." Oblivious to what was going on, the other creatures kept searching the area. "We can take them out one at a time, without your help."
Shadow shook his head and shrugged the hand off, "I won't get hit by a bullet. And I'm up for a good fight."
"No, Shadow. And that's an order."
"How can you give me orders when I'm on 'vacation'? Shouldn't that mean I'm free to do whatever I want?"
The Commander frowned at the smirking hedgehog, "I'm not going to work with your logic right now. If something major comes up I'll call on you, but right now we don't need your help. Go home."
"No," Shadow replied, glaring back at the Commander. The two continued to stare at each other while the monster hissed and snarled, stomping its feet and looking like it was going to charge. The G.U.N soldiers had their weapons ready, giving each other small glances while waiting for an order, or for the monster to attack.
The two old enemies-turned-allies continued to stare at each other, neither willing to back down. "Fine," the Commander said after a minute of silence, "We'll start attacking the others, and you can take out this one."
"Thank you," Shadow replied with a hint of sarcasm.
"But after these creatures are taken care of, you leave. Understood?"
"I suppose that's the best I'll get." Shadow went into a Spin Dash while the Commander ordered for the others to begin firing at the still-shielded monsters.
XXXXXXXXX
Isis was still staring at the disturbing drawings, refusing to give up before she translated the symbols. They seemed to be more riddle-like than anything else, and with lack of sleep her mind just couldn't coordinate anything.
The sound of the front door slamming open caught Isis' attention, and she looked at her watch and then at the stairs. It was ten past two - who the hell would be up at this hour? Tails had gone to bed hours ago; Sonic was AWAL, so Tails said Sonic's lover had no real reason to be here…
"I suppose the two hedgehogs could have found each other and come back together…" Isis listened carefully, only picking up the sounds of one person's footsteps, "No? Maybe it is Sonic - I'm gonna check quickly just to make sure." Isis quietly padded up the stairs and headed towards the front door. She walked to the entryway and saw Sonic locking the back door behind him, tail tucked between his legs and a metal container by his feet.
"Where the hell have you been?" Isis asked, crossing her arms. "It's two in the morning."
Sonic jumped at the voice but didn't turn around. "What about you?" Sonic questioned instead of answering, "Why are you up?"
"Deciphering a code, although I think I'll have to call it quits for the night. Now how about answering me?"
"I don't have to," Sonic muttered, using his left foot to move the container to his front so he could pick it up, "I'm older than you."
"Are not."
"Are too! You said you were thirteen!"
Isis let out a small laugh, "That's the short form of my age. Try thirteen thousand years."
Sonic almost turned around to look at Isis, but stopped at the last moment and stayed facing the door, "Liar. Nobody could be that old."
The psychic frowned; not because Sonic doubted her age (which was a lie anyways) but because he wouldn't look at her. What was he hiding?
"At least I deserve to be looked at while someone's talking to me. Turn around, Sonic." Isis tapped her foot against the ground while Sonic stiffened, "Well?"
"It's late. I'm going to bed." Sonic attempted to dash past Isis, but the psychic expected Sonic would try something of the sort and had already blocked the path upstairs with an invisible psychic shield. The blue hedgehog bounced off the shield and crashed into her, sending both toppling onto the stairs; the metal container bounced down and rolled back towards the front door.
Sonic quickly got up and snatched the container, still refusing to look at Isis. "What's in there?" Isis asked, pointing to the metal cylinder.
"Tritium. For Tails," Sonic replied, holding the container close.
Isis whistled, "You've got a lot of pull around here, don't ya? That stuff's hard to come by. How much did you get?"
"A lot. Enough for Tails. Now can I go?"
"Why won't you look at me?"
"No reason."
"Now who's the liar? Come on, I don't bite…often."
"I said no!" Sonic dashed downstairs to the workshop, but Isis didn't follow. Instead, she crept quietly to the top of the stairs, being careful not to make the steps creak. She then hid around the corner of the hallway and waited for Sonic to return. It took a few minutes, but sure enough Sonic came upstairs again. He carefully observed the area before attempting to make it to his room before he was caught. The blue hedgehog seemed nervous and kept his head down the whole time he climbed the stairs, scanning the area around him with tired green eyes.
"Gotcha!" Isis whispered, snatching Sonic's wrist and yanking him close to her. She dragged the hedgehog towards the stairs so the light in the entryway would illuminate his features, "I don't see what -" Isis stopped in mid-sentence upon seeing the blue hedgehog's face, ending with a soft, "Oh."
Sonic winced, as he knew what Isis was seeing. Semen, a lot of it still sticky and warm, was covering the hedgehog's face from forehead to chin. A lot of it was congregated around his mouth, but obviously making Sonic swallow the stuff wasn't the other male's intention. It almost looked like someone had taken a cup of melted wax and painted all over Sonic's face.
Isis wasn't quite sure what to say now. She honestly wasn't sure of who Sonic's lover was - whenever the others talked about it, they always described the other hedgehog as something vague (Isis suspected it was because they didn't want the whole thing getting out and then have the couple harassed, as the paparazzi would be sure to do about such a thing) but this also meant she didn't know the gender. Tails had mentioned at some point about Sonic's confusion when she had asked, so it was possible that Sonic was with another boy. But it felt rude to flat-out ask.
The only problem with the idea of the semen being from Sonic's lover was the fact that nobody had come with the blue hedgehog. And what kind of boyfriend would make their lover keep semen on their face when they went home? It was a cruel thing to do to someone you loved.
"Oh…" Isis said softly again, "You were…uh…getting a little action tonight, huh?" Sonic slowly nodded, not meeting Isis' flustered gaze, "Sorry for bringing this up, but…shouldn't you have cleaned up before you left wherever you two were getting busy?"
"No time," Sonic mumbled, scratching behind his ear, "We almost got interrupted, so…"
"I see," Isis replied, her lie detector still on the blitz. "If this thing doesn't fix itself soon I'm going to kill Mephiles." "I guess you'll be washing up now, right?"
"Yeah…" the blue hedgehog looked around nervously, "Is anyone else here?"
"Just Tails, but he's sleeping. You're safe."
Sonic let out a soft sigh, "Good." Isis let go of his hand and Sonic walked past her, heading to his bathroom. He stopped at the door and looked back at Isis, "Um…you won't tell anyone about this, will you?"
Isis shook her head, "Nope. Your sex life is your business. As long as you aren't sleeping with someone who hasn't hit puberty yet I honestly don't care."
Sonic pretended to be offended, gasping and covering his mouth with his hand, "Are you saying you think I'm a Pedo-hedgehog?"
The psychic let out a small laugh, "No, and I'm glad to see you still have a sense of humor at this hour. Get some rest. See ya in the morning." Isis went back downstairs, only stopping to check in Silver's room. The psychic hedgehog wasn't in sight.
"What the hell have Blaze and Silver been doing all day? Did they go to an all-night party or what?" Isis stared at the neatly made bed for a few moments before snapping her fingers, "Oh yeah, they were supposed to go see Knuckles…they're probably trying to work things out with him." Her tired mind easily accepted the suggestion as it was eager to get her body to rest. Isis collapsed on the couch, asleep within moments.
XXXXXXXXX
Sonic pulled off his gloves and kicked his shoes and socks to the corner of the bathroom before getting in the shower. With the hot water on full blast Sonic faced the stream and scrubbed his face hard with a washcloth. This had been the roughest night so far, and his tailhole ached horribly.
He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep this up. If Isis got it into her head to tell someone what she saw, then he'd have a lot to account for, and everybody would be so, so disappointed in him. But this was the best option - hell, he'd only been charging such low prices because he needed Bob's help and it was basically assumed around the planet that he wasn't a virgin any more (which was true, of course, although people often thought that even when he was still pure). If he charged prices too high, he wouldn't be able to find enough people willing to pay. But still, he needed perhaps two or three more appointments…
Sonic sighed and turned off the shower, having cleaned himself off as best as he could. Right now this was working, so he'd stick with it. He'd just need to think of a way to keep Isis quiet.
XXXXXXXXX
Espio let out a small grunt as his chin hit the wolf's hard shoulder, waking him from his slumber. It was late and he was tired; with no other options he unwittingly had fallen asleep on the monster's shoulder. The chameleon blinked sleepily and looked around, groaning when he saw they were still in the forest. They had to have been walking for hours now; with the snow, cold temperature and lack of fur Espio was going to get frostbite soon.
"This walk is never ending," Espio thought to himself, trying to get comfortable on the wolf's shoulder. It was bad enough when he tried to cover his face when the fur was dry - now wet with snow, the wolf-man smelled like a wet dog, but ten times stronger. The stench was starting to get to the chameleon.
"Are we there yet?" Espio asked mimicking what Charmy certainly would have done if they had taken him too; although Espio knew it was useless to try to strike up a conversation. These things were too primitive to talk, but they certainly did understand escape attempts, as the three claw marks on Espio's back clearly indicated.
To Espio's surprise, the wolf-man suddenly stopped in its tracks, and the other creatures gathered at its sides. A bright light shone down from the dark, cloudy sky above, and Espio twisted in his captor's arms to get a better look. "What's going on?"
The sound of chains being dropped down caught Espio's attention, and then he was rudely tossed to the ground. The chameleon cursed before attempting to sit up, just as the wolf-man began attaching a harness around his chest.
"What's going on here?" Espio asked out loud this time, getting no reply other than a snarl. The black harness currently being put on him was just like those of mountain climbers, except his was attached to a long metal chain instead of a climbing rope. Following the chain's path, Espio looked up to see what looked like a giant firefly with the other end of the chain wrapped around its middle. "Don't tell me I'm going for a midnight flight - mmm!" Espio struggled against the black cloth gag being forced into his mouth, "Stumph its! Mmm!" With the gag securely in place a similar dark cloth was tied around his eyes, completely blinding the chameleon.
The wolf-man and other creatures backed away while Espio struggled to think of a reason why he had been kidnapped and then carried hundreds of miles only to be picked up by a giant bug. The buzzing of the giant firefly's wings got louder and Espio felt himself being lifted off of the ground.
"Of all the things I've had to deal with in my life…this honestly has to be the most ridiculous and weirdest of them all," Espio thought, shivering in the cold air as he was lifted off of the ground and flown through the forest.
XXXXXXXXX
Blaze continued to stare at the severed arm, watching the maggots crawl through Silver's tissue and eating bits along the way. The stench of rotting flesh was overpowering, and there were so many maggots on Silver's corpse Blaze swore she could hear them chewing. Too shocked to do anything else, Blaze dropped the arm back to the ground and took one tiny peek at the remains of her friend. She was almost sick - his stomach was torn open and his organs spilt onto the ground, his lower half torn to shreds and each cut filled with little worms. But what really got to Blaze were the large worms and maggots happily dancing inside Silver's now empty eye sockets and open mouth.
"Don't…panic…don't…panic…get a hold of yourself Blaze," the cat thought to herself, breathing slowly in and out, "Your best friend's rotting corpse may be just a few inches in front of you, but that's no reason to panic…deep breaths now…breathe slowly…stay calm…how do I get out of this nightmare?"
Not wanting to see any more of her dead friend, Blaze turned and ran away, pushing her way through the thick fog as fast as she could. "Silver's dead, Silver's dead…I killed Silver because I brought him here! It's all my fault!" Blaze said to herself over and over while she tried to get away from the gruesome image of maggots eating away at her best friend. She bit the inside of her cheek when she felt tears coming; she was not going to cry until she got out of here and out of danger.
Blaze didn't care where she ended up; as long as she was far away from that nightmare it was all good. After endless minutes of digging through the cloud bank Blaze collapsed into another pocket of clean air.
"I'm…I'm sorry Silver…" Blaze whispered, her shoulders shaking with held in tears, "I didn't know this would happen. I didn't want you to die. Please, please forgive me…" The princess squeezed her eyes shut as a few tears finally slipped out of her hurt yellow eyes, trailing down her cheeks and landing on the foggy ground. She sat down in the thick fog, trying to calm herself and think clearly about the whole situation; breaking down with grief was the last thing she should do right now.
"Don't cry, Blaze," a voice said from close by. Blaze gasped and looked up, searching for the source. "I'm alright." Blaze let out a shriek of surprise as she saw the fog on the ground ahead of her move. The rotting Silver slowly sat up and turned its head to look at Blaze; the maggots and worms still crawling underneath his thin pelt. His jaw was hanging loose due to gravity and his skull was cracked open, allowing for his holey brain to show through; tunnels dug by the creatures that now inhabited Silver's body. Silver's ribcage was barely intact and was unable to hold his innards, allowing the organs to spill onto his lap.
Blaze couldn't do anything but stare in shock as Silver lifted up his severed arm with the one still attached and rasp, "But you didn't have to go and pull off my arm."
XXXXXXXXX
Shadow bounced off of the lizard's shield, activating his hoverskates and keeping himself upright just before he would have hit the ground. The monster snarled and stomped, but once again did not attack. A wave of bullets began slamming the creature, and Shadow was forced to back off to avoid being hit. Besides, there were another ten or so other targets he could go after instead.
Due to the power of the shields, the creatures took some time to take down, but once the last one burst into a cloud of dark sparkles the creatures' intentions were revealed. "They weren't looking for something!" one of the soldiers growled, reloading his gun and glaring at the now revealed hole about six feet wide, just behind where the monsters had been making a ruckus, "They were hiding this from our view!"
"Looks pretty deep," another said, peering down into the darkness, "A good hundred feet or more into the ground would be my guess."
"Must have been a distraction to get something done," added a third.
Shadow had to squeeze past two pairs of soldiers' legs to get a look, inwardly a little annoyed about being half the size of some of the soldiers. He looked down the hole and nodded, "Right. I'm going in."
"No you're not!" A rough pull on Shadow's right shoulder made the hedgehog stumble back. The Ultimate Life Form whirled around and was about to protest when the Commander cut him off, "You've been straining yourself for the past few months, and it's barely been a week since you've been off duty. We can handle this without you." The black hedgehog let out a grunt at that, crossing his arms and staring angrily. The Commander ignored Shadow's glare. "Dawn is coming and we all need to rest," the Commander said, now speaking to all of the troops, "A different squad will be sent down and will report back what they find. Let's pull out of here - no one's in danger."
The soldiers shrugged and began packing up, happy to get home and rest. Shadow, however, waited until the hole was no longer surrounded before turning around and heading towards the vertical tunnel.
"Shadow, stop!" a soldier called out, but it was too late. Shadow had jumped down the hole and was gone.
"Damn it all," the Commander growled, glaring at the spot where the black hedgehog had just been standing, "Why must he be so stubborn?"
XXXXXXXXX
While he was falling, Shadow thought to himself it probably would have been smart to grab a flashlight before he jumped, as it was sure to completely black down there. After carefully landing without breaking both his legs with the combination of hoverskates and skill, the black hedgehog was surprised to see that the vertical tunnel now extended in four directions horizontally, and all were lit up by dim lanterns. Large metal pipes were running along both sides of the tunnels, rattling as whatever they were carrying bounced along.
"What the hell?" Shadow whispered, looking back and forth. He looked at each tunnel carefully, but it was impossible to tell if somebody had gone down any of them. The dirt was both loose and packed, although not a single spot looked like tire tracks or footprints from anything.
"Guess I'll take a random one," Shadow decided, choosing the one north of the entrance. After quickly burning an arrow into the dirt pointing down the tunnel he had chosen with his hoverskate, Shadow began to move down the tunnel, keeping a careful eye out for any more monsters.
XXXXXXXXX
"This can't possibly get any more messed up," Espio thought to himself as he felt the plastic tube turning. The firefly had carried him for some time before slowly lowering the chameleon into a large plastic tube and let go. It seemed to be some sort of slide, and if he wasn't tied up, blindfolded and had a large metal chain clattering along behind him Espio probably would have had a lot more fun. As was, he laid back and let himself slide down the tube - it was too steep for him to stop himself while bound anyways.
Minutes later Espio landed facedown on a soft mat, letting out an 'Oof!' as he didn't expect the ride to end so soon. The chameleon heard a dark voice laugh and then utter, "Take off his blindfold."
Long claws ticked the back of Espio's neck before moving up to his head and ripping the thick cloth off. The sudden light startled the chameleon and he blinked rapidly to get rid of the dark spots in his vision. With everything now in focus Espio attempted to look around and study the situation as the clawed creature grabbed his harness and yanked him into an upright position. Espio's heart skipped a beat when he saw all of the strange creatures that surrounded him, as well as a black and ice blue hedgehog - Mephiles, Espio was pretty sure his name was due to the news reports. On the outside Espio stayed calm, but inside already his adrenaline was kicking in and telling him to get ready to fight.
"Now, now, don't be naughty Espio." The chameleon definitely did not like the way Mephiles pronounced that sentence, "You're just a test subject. Just lie back, relax and it'll all be over soon…" Espio growled through the gag, and then gasped slightly as he was picked up by his harness straps. The monster that held him now was a Cyclops, with its yellowed skin puffed up; pus leaking from a few wounds. Espio struggled against the straps as he was carried like a handbag down a long metal hallway. No other monsters followed.
"Did you enjoy the ride, Espio? Quite an interesting trip, I'm sure. Hard to find your way back here if you couldn't see where you were going." Mephiles led the way into an elevator and hit the button for the bottom floor, "With that tunnel now blocked up and set with traps, it'll be difficult for someone to get in again."
"Tunnel? What tunnel? Is there another entrance here that somebody got into? Not very smart on this guy's part…" Espio thought, twisting in the straps that held him. The rough material scraped against his skin, leaving stinging red welts as the top layer of skin was slowly grated off.
When the elevator doors opened Mephiles led the Cyclops and Espio around a tall metal tower, down another hallway and then into some sort of workshop. The strange hedgehog headed straight to an odd machine sort of like a teapot, typed some sort of code into a keypad and walked inside. The Cyclops dropped Espio inside at Mephiles' feet before simply turning and leaving with a grunt. The door then shut, leaving the chameleon trapped with Mephiles. Espio was again grabbed by his harness and yanked to a sitting position. The wall behind the two began to slide to the side, allowing them to enter a different room. The door shut behind them again.
"What's the point of hiding all of this?" Espio thought, looking over his shoulder as Mephiles dragged him into the room. This room was quite large; about the size of a high school gym except with a lower ceiling - only about twenty feet. But instead of painted lines symbolizing foul lines and boundaries for sports there were little sets against all the walls around the room, looking like scenes for a play. Espio stared in confusion at the small kitchen, living room, bathroom and multiple bedrooms, each separated by a small partition. A few more flashy stage sets, such as a back garden and beach, were also set up. The scenes were so well done Espio half expected life-sized dolls to walk in and begin having a tea party.
"Right, I'll just set you right here…" Mephiles dragged Espio in front of the dungeon set while snapping his fingers, "Sonic, get out here, will you?"
"Sonic?" Espio made a small noise in surprise, interrupting his current train of thought about the idea that being carried around was actually much better that being dragged like a child's toy, "What's he doing here?"
A door opened at the far right end of the room, and Espio stared in shock at a ruffled, dirty blue hedgehog slowly making his way over the darker hedgehog. Sonic had his head down and his ears were pressed against his skull in submission. The chameleon couldn't believe it; Sonic the Hedgehog, bowing to this madman, this evil overlord without a touch of fight in him. It wasn't possible - it just couldn't be real. Espio almost bought it, at least until he heard Sonic speak.
"You called, Master?" The voice was incredibly close to Sonic's, but had a slight electric tone to it. Espio's eyes narrowed at the sound, now doubting the authenticity of this hedgehog.
Mephiles growled at Sonic, "What did I say about talking?" The blue hedgehog whimpered in fear, and Mephiles then looked at Espio, "Seems you've already guessed that this isn't the real Sonic, hmm?" Espio nodded, wondering what Mephiles was up to. "Doesn't matter. If this works, you won't have to believe he's real anyways."
The sound of gears grinding together made Espio look to the center of the room. A large, square machine with a ten-foot monitor was rising from the floor, along with a large metal chair. Mephiles dragged Espio to this chair and with a single hand lifted the chameleon into the seat. A thick leather belt was wrapped around Espio's waist and tightened so close that Espio had trouble breathing. The fake Sonic was ordered to come around and hold one of Espio's hands while Mephiles untied the chameleon's wrists and strapped them to the chair. The chameleon's ankles were trapped in a similar manner, nearly cutting off his blood circulation. Once the fake Sonic touched Espio's arm, he felt cool metal instead of cloth and easily recognized that this was a robot. But why bother making one?
"Not much more," Mephiles said, wrapping another thick leather strap around Espio's neck, "You gotta keep looking at the little scene in front of you. I can't have you turning away." At least this strap wasn't too tight. Finally two metal plates came down from the ceiling on a long metal arm. They were placed on either side of Espio's head and pressed against his temples, effectively keeping the chameleon looking forward. A number of suction cups also attached themselves to various parts of Espio's head.
"There we go," Mephiles said, stepping back and looking over the chameleon in satisfaction, "This shall do nicely." He then turned to the robot Sonic, "Get started."
The blue hedgehog sadly nodded, opening a wooden chest against one of the walls while Mephiles went behind the Espio to the computer. All of the lights in the room shut off save for the ones that lit up the scene before Espio and the dull glow from the screen behind. After slowly laying multiple odd devices on a wooden table the fake Sonic walked off of the set and towards Mephiles.
Espio strained to hear what Mephiles was saying to the robot, but the words were too muffled for him to pick out. Instead he was forced to study the strange set before him. This stone dungeon was no more than fifteen feet in both length and width; a perfect square. Against the left wall were the small wooden chest and one wooden table; closer to the back but not quite touching the wall was a larger wooden table. A pair of metal cuffs was attached to the right stone wall, obviously meant for holding prisoners. The walls looked like they had actually been constructed from real stone, but it seemed ridiculous to go to such trouble.
"Right," Mephiles hissed, placing a hand on Espio's left shoulder, "Bring the first one in!"
There was a slight shuffling sound, and then from Espio's right came Knuckles and Shadow, holding onto Charmy's small arms. All three were dirty and exhausted, having no fight in their dull eyes. While the elder two were silent, the little bee was sobbing quietly and let out a small cry when the other two tossed him to the floor.
"Charmy!" Espio cried out in his mind, and just as quickly reminded himself, "No, he's just a robot like all of the others. The real one isn't here. Everything's fine."
"Right now you don't care what happens…" Mephiles chuckled while lifting the robotic Charmy off of the ground by his wings, waving the other two robots away, "But you will be soon enough…oh, you will."
XXXXXXXXX
Blaze wasn't sure what she should do - scream, run, or simply burn the monster in front of her to a crisp. Certainly if the nightmare was anyone other than Silver, Blaze wouldn't even consider the first two for a second. The cat scrambled to her feet while the hedgehog slowly stood as well.
"They got me pretty good, didn't they? Only took a few seconds before I was dead…" Silver rasped, his jaw flapping with every word, "I didn't even have a chance to fight."
"Stay away!" Blaze shouted, allowing her hands to be engulfed in flames, "Come any closer and I'll turn you to ashes!"
Silver slowly shook his head, his neck no longer fully attached to his skull and wobbling from side to side, looking almost ready to fall off, "It doesn't hurt, Blaze. It really doesn't. Just let them kill you, too." The psychic hedgehog took a few steps towards Blaze, "Join me, Blaze. We can be happy here together. We're friends after all, right?"
A cold wind blew and seemed to enter Blaze's head. Her heart began to pound as in her mind a voice whispered to her to join Silver; that he was right and everything would be ok. But with the monster of her former friend slowly shuffling towards her, Blaze paused in taking action to watch the nightmare. His organs were being dragged behind and left a bloody trail on the murky ground. The worms in Silver's skull continued to crawl around, unaware of their living host. With Silver's limbs barely attached to his body, he could move no faster than a two-legged sloth - Blaze could easily get away by crab-walking, let alone running. But the princess knew what had to be done - after all, there was no cure for zombification, or whatever the hell had happened to Silver. She ignored the odd feelings and made her decision
"Go with him, Blaze. It's nice here. Death isn't bad. It's peaceful. It's not painful. It won't take long."
"Sorry Silver," Blaze whispered, taking aim, "But this has to be done."
Two streams of fire shot from Blaze's hands, igniting the rotting corpse. Silver didn't seem to notice, continuing his slow plod over to her, even though chunks of fur and flesh began falling from his thin frame.
"Noooooo…you can't destroy your chance at paradise. Sttttooooopppp…"
"Why are you being mean, Blaze?" Silver hissed, his body becoming charcoal black; the maggots steaming as the heat killed them off, "I thought you were my friend. And friends don't burn each other alive…"
"You aren't alive!" Blaze shouted increasing the power of her flames as the thoughts in her head became more insistent, "You're dead!" Her own mind and the other voice battled for dominance; the strange whispery genderless voice insisting Silver was right while her own mind was forcing her to question why first Silver said he was dead, but now insisted he wasn't.
"Go with him. Everything will be ok, Blaze. Go with him," the voice continually whispered to princess.
"Fuck you," Blaze thought as a reply.
"You're the one who's dead, Blaze. I'm the one who's alive." Silver had dropped his severed arm, leaving the limb to turn to dust, "I want you to come with me."
Blaze stopped her attack, now watching the body of her best friend engulfed in fire and burning before her very eyes while battling the strange thoughts. The stench of burning flesh was so powerful by now that anybody who wasn't completely entranced by the scene before them would have been violently ill. The hedgehog continued on, wheezing his last words to his killer.
"Paradise awaits you. Let Silver take you there - everything you could ever want is there. No pain. No suffering. The world in your hands. Silver and you can rule together, forever…"
"Remember how hard we worked so you could do that?" Silver rasped, the hissing of his flesh almost covering up his words, "Summoning fire from the air and the passion in your heart…we worked on that together, Blaze. We make a good team…" Silver looked at his remaining hand, slowly burning away, "So why must you destroy me, my friend? We can train here together and be happy here." Silver tipped his head to the side; the fire having burned completely through the left side of his neck and allowing his head to dangle to the right, "You're throwing happiness away, Blaze. Stop all of this, for both of us. There is so much here for us."
"There will be everything on the other side for you."
"There is nothing here or 'there', Silver. Not for you, not for me, not for anyone." Blaze spoke slowly as the remains of her friend began to disappear. Her will was too strong to bow down to such petty thoughts and hopes. She knew what lay beyond the grave if she died here - nothing. There was no paradise waiting. Blaze refused to listen to the pleading voice, slowly shook her head and sighed, "I'm sorry."
The voice then stopped insisting, and the cold wind blew again. Silver then began to change - his empty eye sockets still filled with worm corpses grew dark; blacker than black, if that was even possible. The hedgehog was no longer burning to pieces; instead the fire grew stronger as Silver began to control it. He began to grow in size, more than tripling his height in less than a second. The fire began swirling around the pair along with dark shadows, blocking any escape path Blaze once had. Ashes began blowing around in the fiery wind, and Blaze covered her eyes to keep the dust out. The world changed from white and murky to dark and empty, and Silver's lower half became hidden in a small fire tornado. The transformation occurred so fast the place had gone from purgatory to hell in under ten seconds. Blaze watched in shock as Silver began to yowl, the unearthly wails swirling around her with the fire. Silver's corpse continued to stay aflame, yet no longer burned away. Silver wasn't just dead - he was possessed.
"Damn you!" Silver roared, Blaze's ears instinctively folding against her head to block out some of the noise, "Why won't you break? Come with me!" Silver reached out his burning hand to the princess, "Obey me!"
"No!" Blaze shouted back, ashes swirling around the black ground and blinding her, "Get away!" She covered her face with her arms, attempting to stop the ashes from stinging her already sore eyes.
"I will have you! No one has ever escaped me! YOU ARE MINE!"
The wind was intense, sending ashes and shadows swirling all around the princess. The world around her had completely changed in seconds, scrambling Blaze's thoughts and plans for how to deal with the situation. The whole place was just chaos; pure chaos and nothing more.
All the better for the voice's arguments of a paradise just waiting once Blaze died. It had returned with a vengeance, pushing into her mind like a worm into the earth, getting deeper in with every second.
"Come now Blaze, with me…for us!" Silver lifted his remaining arm up, allowing the darkness to infest his body, "Look at my power - you can have such power! It's waiting for us!"
"Please listen, Blaze. The madness will stop. There will be peace. Just let yourself go. Death isn't bad. It's so pleasant."
"No!" Blaze screamed, both at Silver and at the voice, "No, no, no! Get out of my fucking head, get the fuck away from me, and leave me the fuck alone! I will die whenever I feel like it and not a moment sooner!"
The world continued to swirl in chaos; fire and darkness spinning faster and faster; the voice pleading for Blaze to get to the paradise. Blaze continued to fight the urge to obey, screaming out, "I don't believe you!"
Silver gasped, and the urge began to fade for a second before pushing again. Having realized the flaw, Blaze continued to cry out with all of her heart and soul, "I don't believe you! I don't believe you! I don't believe you!"
Blaze continued to shout the phrase at the top of her lungs, forcing the urge out of her head. The firestorm around her began to calm while Blaze recited, and once the world around her was still she cautiously removed her arms from her face and opened her eyes, relieved to see the cloudy world was now back, she was unharmed and there was a lack of zombie hedgehogs in the vicinity. Everything was back to normal, with 'normal' being the land of wet cotton and not drive-by climaxes.
"What…the fuck…" Blaze gasped, the ashes still stinging her throat, "What…is this…place…"
"You tell me," a familiar voice came from behind the princess. Acting purely on instinct, Blaze engulfed her fist in flames, whirled around and quickly smashed the speaker in the face.
XXXXXXXXX
It didn't take long to reach the end of the tunnel, and Shadow honestly wasn't too shocked by what he had found. Another machine of some sort or another, although this one made more sense to the black hedgehog - without a doubt, it was some sort of power generator; probably making power for Mephiles' base. Shadow scowled as he watched the gears go round and the energy bars flicker on the screen, showing the amount of power being generated. This small generator was either very convenient or worked with other generators to create enough power for the place.
"But why the hell would Mephiles even bother creating such a deep hole and allow us to get in?" Shadow muttered out loud, watching the status screen.
Black ears twitched as they heard a soft grunt. The area where Shadow had just been standing exploded as the small mine thrown had exploded on impact. The Ultimate Lifeform was simply too fast for such weapons and was completely unharmed, arms crossed and glaring at the right wall of the dirt tunnel. The dirt began to fall away as powerful arms clawed and smashed their way through the earth and rock, only pausing for a moment to reach for another grenade - a bad idea when up against someone with super speed.
A quick Spin Dash made the unknown target explode in a puff of dark sparkles, but Shadow could hear more monsters behind that one. A rumbling sound came from behind, and with a slight twist of his head Shadow noted that the monsters were coming from the other side as well.
"Of course," Shadow said, a slight smile creeping onto his face as he took a battle stance, "Should have listened to that damn Admiral."
XXXXXXXXX
"You can stop this at any time, Espio…" Mephiles said, smiling at the wide-eyed chameleon. The hedgehog twisted the pliers in his hand, twisting the young bee's wing as well. The robot Charmy screamed as the delicate film tore.
"Espio…make him stop, please…" Charmy begged, looking over at Espio and crying.
"It's a robot, for hell's sake! How can it cry?" Espio took a deep breath, watching the scene playing out before him. Charmy's small wrists were strapped down onto the metal table with thick metal cuffs on three-link chains, allowing for a tiny bit of movement but not enough to really get anywhere. Mephiles had then spent the next fifteen minutes circling around the table and using various torture devices on the robotic Charmy.
If this was all being done on the real Charmy Espio would have been filled with rage and have done anything to break free. Even with the screams sounding perfectly like Charmy's did when he was scared and the whole scene looking like a true torture chamber, Espio kept himself calm by reminding himself that the real Charmy wasn't going through any of the horrors shown to him.
There was a loud rip, and Charmy shrieked in agony one final time before becoming strangely silent. Espio closed his eyes as he winced, and opened them to see Mephiles dangling one of Charmy's wings a few inches from his face.
"He won't be flying anytime soon," Mephiles remarked, chuckling darkly.
"This is starting to get to me. I know it's not real, but I'm getting more uncomfortable with every passing moment. Why won't he just get to the point?"
"Not too impressed, hmm? Let's see what the data says." Mephiles tossed the wing to the ground and walked behind Espio, who instead of being able to look behind him had to watch the robotic Shadow take the seemingly unconscious Charmy away.
"Seems that we're getting there," Mephiles remarked, coming back to Espio's side, "Ready for another round?" Obviously not expecting a reply, Mephiles snapped his fingers, and another robot walked in - Espio didn't even need two guesses to figure out who was next.
Vector looked just as dirty, exhausted and defeated as any of the other robots, but once again Espio knew that the crocodile was just a robot. And as long as that was true, he really didn't give a damn no matter how realistic the torture was.
Mephiles wasn't concerned about Espio's seemingly uncaring attitude. It was the final product that mattered, after all. Mephiles carried on with using his creations, slowly twisting the robot Vector's thumbs in a thumbscrew, a wonderful invention from the Middle Ages. Sometimes the oldest methods were the best ones.
XXXXXXXXX
"Oh fuck," Silver moaned, rolling onto his stomach and then curling into a ball as hedgehogs do, "Fuck…" Silver's spines stretched out and became razor sharp, completely hiding Silver so he looked more like a white sea urchin than a hedgehog.
"Silver! Oh Silver, I'm so sorry!" Blaze knelt down next to the spiky ball, not quite sure whether to laugh or cry at the whole situation. Instead of the decaying Silver from before, the Silver she had punched out had been very much alive - and now very much in pain. Due to instinct Silver was now curled up and his quills had spread out, meaning that anybody who got too close would be cut to ribbons. Blaze had a bit of experience with getting hedgehogs to uncurl; after all if they stayed wrapped up so tight it would prevent anybody from helping them out.
Blaze placed her hand flat against the ground, making a small mental note to later question why the fog had thinned out quite a bit, leaving only a thin layer no more than a few centimeters high. "I'm sorry Silver, honestly. Just uncurl now, come on…" Blaze slid her hand along the ground and carefully underneath Silver's few spines that touched the ground. With her glove and sleeve protecting her arm from being severed (Blaze really didn't want to dwell on that thought) the princess managed to wriggle past Silver's curled up limbs and reach for his soft belly fur. Carefully the cat twisted her arm so her fingers were able to curl up and scratch the hedgehog's tummy.
"It's ok…come on, Silver…" Blaze continued to rub Silver's belly and whisper softly to him, and slowly the psychic hedgehog uncurled, sitting up straight as each individual spike fell back into his regular quill pattern and grew soft to the touch.
"That wasn't very nice Blaze," Silver sniffed, the heat from the intense flames causing his eyes to water, "Even if I did startle you a little."
Blaze let out a small laugh, happy to see Silver's golden eyes, even if they were filled with tears, in his sockets where they belonged, "You have no idea how happy I am to see you!" Silver let out a small cry of surprise as Blaze pulled him into a hug; his face still highly irritated from the fire punch and reacting badly from the contact.
"You're making my tears come out! Let me go!" Silver sat up again, now crying heavily as his burning eyes attempted to rid themselves of foreign matter and the heat.
"I'm just glad you're ok," Blaze sighed, giving Silver's shoulders a squeeze while Silver wiped his wet cheeks with his gloves, "And I'm so, so sorry I hit you."
"Yeesh, give me a little credit to be able to take care of myself!" Silver sobbed, "Why were you so edgy anyways?"
Blaze shook her head, "It's stupid, really."
"I think I deserve to know, considering I've just been punched in the face!"
"Alright, alright! I ran into your corpse, and your zombie self went psycho on me. Happy?"
"What?" Silver's eyes were cooling down, so only a few tears were falling when he looked at Blaze, "I never died, though. I never even got hurt except by you. I'm right here!"
"I know you are," Blaze replied, reaching into a pocket on the inside of her jacket and handing Silver a handkerchief, "But it scared me half to death anyways. And blow your nose - you're starting to drip."
"That would be your fault," Silver said with a touch of annoyance, but he used the handkerchief anyways. "Actually, to say the least you're not the only one who saw some crazy stuff. This whole time someone - or something - that looked exactly like you has been chasing me around, like your zombie."
"What? Another Blaze?"
"Yep - and I thought it was you at first. But I knew something wasn't right because you were shaking and stuttering, and talking about how the only way to escape from here was to kill myself. When I tried to touch you, my hand went through - like you were a ghost."
"I'd really prefer a ghost over…over that image! Your guts were spilling everywhere and those maggots…" Blaze rubbed Silver's arms, relieved to feel the thickness of the fur and muscles instead of rotted tissue, "You are the real Silver, right? No tricks?"
Silver nodded, "And since you don't have sunken eyes, a raspy voice and aren't trying to rip my throat out I think you're the real Blaze."
"Good. If I have to be trapped forever in this cotton ball hell I'd rather be here with you."
The psychic hedgehog let out a small laugh at that, "Just where I've always wanted to be." With that, Silver leaned on his hands but instead of staying upright fell over backwards with a shout.
Blaze looked over her shoulder and rolled her eyes, "Oh come on Silver; I didn't hit you that hard!"
With a gasp, Silver flipped onto his hands and knees and began crawling into the fog, only pausing for a second to say, "Blaze, come on! You have to see this!"
XXXXXXXXX
"Perhaps I should amputate instead?" Mephiles asked the two Chaotix members, picking up a wood saw from the table at the side. Vector was chained to the table by four large metal cuffs wrapped around his wrists and ankles. Already Mephiles had done one body part removal, having scraped a number of scales from the crocodile's stomach. But now the hedgehog looked ready to cut off an actual limb - although Espio doubted a wood saw could slice through metal.
With the sharp tool poised just above Vector's right arm, the crocodile began whimpering as Mephiles glanced at Espio's indifference. "Not caring so much, are you?" Espio simply blinked in response. As much as the torture in front of him was quite realistic, to Espio it was still the equivalent of a child ripping apart their teddy bear - they may be destroying something, but it really didn't hurt you or the child.
Mephiles dropped the saw next to the shivering crocodile and walked over to Espio, bending slightly down to stare with soulless eyes into Espio's calmed yellow ones. "I suppose there's no reason to keep the inevitable from happening," Mephiles chuckled, straightening up and snapping his fingers. The scene in front of Espio went dark and the robotic Vector was silent, while a spotlight from above shone down on the chameleon and his captor. With the whole room pitch black except for the small circle cast by the bright light, Espio was actually starting to wonder if this was all an elaborate play.
The sound of gears turning and a fan starting up came from behind, loud enough to block out whispers but not too strong to prevent normal speech from being easily heard. The robotic Sonic walked up to Mephiles, holding a red glass jar. Mephiles opened the lid and grabbed one of the objects inside, motioning for Sonic to step away.
"If pain on your friends won't make you get there," Mephiles said slowly, revealing a small orange habanero pepper, "Perhaps I'll have to, shall we say, force you to get there?"
"Get where? What's he talking about?" Espio thought, just as Mephiles snapped the pepper in half. The hot juices of the pepper leaked onto Mephiles' fingertips, and the hedgehog chuckled softly as he pressed one of the pieces against Espio's groin. The chameleon jumped in surprise; with his legs bound to the chair legs he was left without any means of defense against the wet insides of the hot pepper rubbing too close to a certain area for Espio's comfort. Espio could barely even move his hips, and his tail couldn't reach around to strike Mephiles away. He was in trouble.
Mephiles squeezed the pepper, letting some of the juice trickle out. The small streams made their way down Espio's lower half and onto his legs…but one particular drop had found a hidden slit. Espio let out a muffled cry as a small part of the juice slipped inside his pouch, burning his sensitive inner walls. The pain only grew worse as Mephiles easily located the slit and pushed the pepper inside. The power of the fruit made Espio's body react violently, as he twisted and thrust his hips, trying to remove the source of his pain. Mephiles just chuckled and pushed both halves of the pepper completely inside of Espio before stepping back and watching the show.
The fire burned so powerfully against his sensitive skin that Espio wasn't sure he could take much more. A flaming stick pushed inside couldn't have been worse. The juice inside the pepper leaked further down, each igniting another stream of fire inside Espio's body. The chameleon was starting to shake with desperation; he had to get that pepper out or he would go insane!
"Shall I remove it?" Mephiles asked after the torture had gone on for a few minutes. Espio attempted to nod, the leather strap around his neck holding him in place so his head barely moved. Mephiles shrugged and stepped forward, forcefully reaching inside Espio's pouch with two fingers and removing the pieces. Espio let out a soft sigh of relief; the pain was still strong, but at least the source had been removed.
"That should do it," Mephiles said, tossing the pepper to the side as Espio attempted to control his ragged breathing. "Although…why not add some more for extra?" Mephiles snapped his fingers once again, and a sharp knife was placed into his palm by the robot Sonic.
Espio's eyes were strained as they attempted to follow the sharp blade. Mephiles casually let the tip touch Espio's chest, lightly dragging the knife to Espio's arm and then down his hand. "You don't really need these, do you?" Mephiles asked, casually tapping Espio's fingers, "Mind if I cut them off?" The hedgehog began putting pressure on the blade.
"Yes!" Espio screamed in his head, curling his fingers up. This guy was insane - there was no telling what he'd do! Mephiles laughed.
"What about here?" Mephiles said, moving the blade to Espio's stomach, "Ever wondered what your inner organs looked like?"
"No!" Espio unconsciously pressed his back against the chair, trying to get away from the knife.
"Or better yet," Mephiles continued, pressing the knife against Espio's throat, "Would you like to see what happens when you die?"
There was a sharp pain, and then Espio's world went dark.
XXXXXXXXX
Espio soon gained consciousness again, although his tired eyes tried to shut the world out. He slowly managed to open them, although it made little difference in the dark room. The world was spinning around as Espio pushed himself to his hands and knees, the burning sensation from his last torture session still present in his groin. They had really hurt him last time - he really should have been more obedient…
"Es…Espio…" a little voice whimpered, and the chameleon looked around for the source. His eyes blinked open slowly, and he acknowledged the now unfortunately familiar surroundings - the small metal cage he had been placed in, lined with itchy straw, damp from his blood and saliva. Other cages, almost identical to his, surrounded the room and were piled high; almost every one filled with a hurt, crying being. Monsters stalked around the room, some like jackals or wolf-men; others like giant fireflies or deformed humans with bodily fluids leaking out onto the floor. Every so often they kicked or growled at one of the captives, and seemed to actually laugh when the prisoner screamed in fear.
"Espio…"
"Charmy…" Espio whispered, recognizing the voice, his aching eyes peering around the room, "Where are you?"
"Here," Charmy whimpered back, and Espio looked up to see Charmy in the cage to the right of his, "They…they…"
"They what?" Espio asked, crawling towards the young bee. The cages they both were in were so small neither could stand up, although there was enough room lengthwise to lie down. Yet crawling across the damp straw seemed to take weeks due to Espio's exhaustion.
Wails and sobbing were coming from every corner of the large dark room, but there was only one cry in particular Espio cared about. Fighting waves of dizziness and exhaustion, he made it over to the side where Charmy's cage was and reached his hand through the bars, trying to touch his young friend. He knew the pain everyone was going through all too well. They had been trapped here for weeks; them and so many others, tortured almost every day, so little food and water…and there was no end in sight. There was no end to their captors' cruelties, so anything could have happened to the honey bee. "Charmy, what happened?" Espio whispered through his dry lips, "What have they done?"
"They…they…" the sick, weak Charmy looked up at Espio, tears streaming down his grimy, hollowed cheeks, "They ripped out my wings!"
XXXXXXXXX
Espio let out a cry, as his gag had been removed so Mephiles could study Espio's responses. The combination of confusion, shock and pain had sent Espio tumbling down into a dark corner of his mind, which was highly influenced by recent events.
"Mm…" Mephiles thought to himself, studying Espio's brain patterns on the computer screen, "This is working nicely…but I want to keep him on his two best friends right now until I know this is programmed correctly. How about a little more pain down below, hm?"
A few quick commands and the unconscious Espio shrieked as his brain registered the feeling. His body jerked around and his brain went haywire, attempting to sort out reality and fantasy and completely unable to distinguish either.
"A little different from normal," Mephiles said coolly, watching the screens as they displayed different readings. Most people accepted the new world as one hundred percent real, but Espio seemed to highly doubt it. Unable to be completely certain his mind instead decided to say 'Fuck it!' and not acknowledge anything as real or fake. Which meant that this plan might not work quite as well as Mephiles wanted.
"Hmm…he won't be asleep too long, and I don't want to waste this energy…" Mephiles got up and paced, the robot Sonic silently watching and the unconscious chameleon growling in the background. After a few seconds of pacing, Mephiles walked towards the Sonic robot and looked up; a grin grew on his face. "Yes…that's perfect!" Mephiles chuckled, rushing over to the computer. He opened a clear window on the screen and began typing away. It didn't take long to get the first part of the scene; he could make up more as it played out anyways. Mephiles then began channeling power back to his base, using the generators he had installed underground to pull in the power of dark thoughts from Espio and all of the creatures nearby.
"Odd; I seem to be getting quite a bit of mental energy from down there. Either those foolish soldiers are congregating around one generator or somebody is holding in a lot of anger. Ah, no worries - they won't even know I'm taking it from them!"
Everything went smoothly, from channeling the power to the scene so he could send it right down to locating his peacefully slumbering target. Mephiles chuckled as he did one final look over before sending out the signal; if this worked out then the possibilities of what he could do would be endless!
XXXXXXXXX
Sonic let out a soft moan as he pulled himself to a sitting position. The last thing he could remember was lying in bed, rolling over onto his tummy, a sharp pain exploding on the back of his head…and then nothing. Now he was somewhere else entirely, and it wasn't familiar at all.
The blue hedgehog sat up and scanned the area. Somebody had trapped him in a cramped metal cage and left him in the center a fairly dark room all alone. The room and cage were tiny; the room being no more than twelve feet across and the cage about three feet. With the cage only two feet high Sonic was unable to stand and instead resorted to sitting on the cold metal floor. The only light came from a dim bulb overhead, and there was a thick metal door to his left. Sonic growled; that somebody who had locked him in here had a thing or two coming when Sonic broke free - hell, all he had to do was use a Spin Dash against the bars and then the door. He was able to cut through powerful mechanical beasts with that move - these one-inch thick bars were toast!
Not wanting to waste any time Sonic tried to get moving, but surprisingly found himself unable to do anything but curl into the spiky ball that was common for his species. Again and again, he tried to make himself spin faster, but all he did was roll a bit around the cage. He couldn't believe it. His Spin Dash wasn't working!
"Am I broken?" Sonic joked, uncurling and looking over his body. He was a little nervous now, wondering why his body wouldn't respond to such a common command he gave it. He couldn't see or feel anything wrong - his quills were in the right place, his feet didn't hurt, there was plenty of room to move…and then he looked at his left ankle.
The hero let out a startled cry and pulled his left leg closer so he could inspect it. "No!" Sonic cried out, gripping his ankle, "It can't be!" Once again, just like all those months ago, around his ankle was a glowing metal cuff, glinting back at him with an evil shine. With that on, all of super powers were gone. Now Sonic was really concerned.
"Hey! Who did this to me!" Sonic called out, feeling his heart pounding in his chest; afraid of what the answer might be. "Please, please don't let it be him!"
The reply was almost instant. "It's about time you woke up, hedgehog." The door to the room began to slide open.
Sonic knew that voice all too well - after all, it had been cursing at him for seven years now. The blue hedgehog turned to face the scientist who had been the cause of a lot of trouble (and fun, Sonic had to admit) for him for so long. "Eggman!" Sonic growled as soon as the scientist entered the room, "What's the meaning of this?"
"What do you think, Sonic?" Eggman said calmly, stepping closer towards Sonic's prison, "When has this happened to you before?"
The blue hero's face went unnaturally pale. He hadn't panicked at the sight of Eggman since he was ten and first starting out on the whole hero business. Now his heart was beating as if he was running Mach Seven, his throat went dry and he could feel himself beginning to sweat. "Did…did…um…" Sonic gulped, "Did Mephiles….?"
"Mephiles offered me freedom from you as long as I caught you," Eggman said in the same calm voice, walking towards the door of the cage, "He also told me what he planned on doing with you."
"He did?" Sonic replied, almost a normal tone although his voice was a little too squeaky for his liking.
"He did," Eggman confirmed, inserting a key into the door.
"Does that mean you…agreed to his offer?" Sonic gulped as the door began to open.
"Well, sort of," Eggman replied. He reached inside the small cage, and with no powers and nowhere to run the doctor grabbed Sonic's wrist and yanked the hedgehog out.
"What do you mean by 'sort of'?" Sonic asked as Eggman placed him on the floor and then began pulling him away from the cage. The scientist tugged him to the metal door, which opened into a short hallway with two doors and lit by five dim lights. It took Eggman only five steps to reach the end and one of the doors; for Sonic it would have been double that many steps if he wasn't being dragged.
"I agreed to give you to him," Eggman said slowly before turning to face Sonic. Sonic shuddered underneath Eggman's gaze…something wasn't right here. The scientist's face was twisted in a cruel and dark manner with a sharp-toothed grin. Eggman's dark glasses sparkled in the dim overhead lights, yet Sonic could tell that behind those glasses the doctor's eyes were just as dark and cold. When something went right for Eggman, he gleefully relished in his evilness, ok fine whatever, but this…wasn't right at all. Sonic didn't like it. He knew something bad was going to happen - his heart and brain were screaming at him to run away but his body just wouldn't obey, frozen beneath that dark glare.
Eggman chuckled at Sonic's worried face and typed in a code to open the door. "I agreed to give you to him," Eggman repeated as the door slid to the side to reveal a room containing only two objects: a wooden chest and a large, king-sized bed, "As long as I got to have my way with you first."
I am very proud to have given everyone their nightmare for the next week. Certainly the computer has been a nightmare for me. Believe it or not, I had finished this weeks ago. "Why didn't you post then?" you ask? Because the stupid computer went ahead and deleted my files before I had a chance to post or back them up. FFFFFFF-!
Since then I haven't been able to get myself to type out everything all over again, but finally I told myself to suck it up, sat down and wrote. Well, it's done! Again! Yippee!