A glowing orb grew visible to my eyes through the blood red sky which could only be the sun; staying longer in the forest would only make telling day and night difficult but I was sure no light could pass through the thick clouds above the town. My sleeping Rose lay nestled with a thick blanket in between the tree roots and I decided the search the arena for any unusual activity.
I trudged through the snow as I admired the new power bracelets Rose had given me last night; I had forgotten it was Christmas night. I remembered the night I had tried to sacrifice my life to save Earth and although Sonic tried to find my old bracelets, they were lost forever in space. They shone brightly in the weak light and they were delicately carved with tribal patterns. Guilt ran through me at times, remembering that Rose's gift was lying on my bed ready to be presented. Until disaster hit and her heart was set to help liberate the north; I saw the new woman she had become that night. She had saved me multiple times; on the ARK and from the searing pain in my head like a knife was cutting right through my brain. With each other, we have a better chance to survive through Eggman's mad plan; I made myself vow my life to bring Rose home safe.
I stopped beside a rather tall tree and decided to get a better view of the north from its height; I carefully climbed, using each branch to my advantage to jump higher. The crackling of the branch and breaking brake echoed as I crawled along and finally reached a decent higher and was taken aback by the scene before me. The buildings reminded me of the dark trees around me but they reflected a red glow from the sky and were twisted, blackened and contorted to unnatural shape. Fires broke out on almost every highway; homes crumbled erupting large clouds of debris and heavy robot personnel patrolled the streets. Although I see the robots, I don't see any sign of Eggman or Sonic; could it be possible he could be hidden in one of the contorted buildings along with Sonic and the others? Were they hostage? What else was most surprising was it was completely open; there was no force shield.
I dropped and skidded down the tree on to the soft snow covered ground to save my legs from more damage and jogged back to our camp. I found Rose beginning to stir and began to pack our gear into our travel bags.
"Back on the road, I guess." she yawned and stood up.
We threw on our bags and continued through the red lit forest; it was silent and cold. Luckily the town was close by but we needed to be prepared for the unexpected. I tossed a small rock from hand to hand while I thought about how we were going to get past the guards.
"Shadow, you're really quiet. Is something wrong?" Rose said, invading my thoughts.
"Rose, what I saw over those trees makes me believe that Eggman is more than a sick, mad man." I said.
She stopped and looked me dead in the eye, "You saw the town?"
"It's almost in ruins. I didn't see Eggman or Sonic and the town is heavily guarded with his empire so we have to keep our eyes wide open." I replied.
"I can only imagine how the town looks." she said as I skipped the rock across the snow.
Our eyes widened to the sudden flickering black from the swirling fire erupting a few feet away from us and quickly extinguishing itself. We looked at each other stunned and confused. I picked up a rock bigger than the previous and hurled it over into the empty space where it was consumed by the black flames again.
Rose was speechless with a look of hopeless in her eyes; I took her in my arms as she stared towards the north and I began to consider a possible weak spot in the shield.
How were Sonic and others able to get in? It absolutely no sense unless they were fooled by Eggman's invisible shield and were consumed into the inescapable shield.
It finally dawned on me.
Consumed? Inescapable? We were fooled by Eggman's antics.
"Eggman may be a smart egg but his talent of deceit can come in handy." I replied as I picked up another rock and threw it over on to the shield, "Remember when Rouge said that it was a shield that can never let anyone out? Well, there is a way we can get in."
Rose's eyes begin to widen, "How can you come up with such a crazy idea?"
"If Sonic and the others were able to get it, it was through those flames." I said.
"What if Eggman's not been bluffing his invention and it does kill you?" asked Rose.
"I'll be the judge of it." I said, tipping my head to her with a smile as I began to turn away.
I felt a hand grab my shoulder and spin me around.
"You sure that fall didn't just make you go crazy? If it kills you..." she said before I cut her off.
"Like you said and I quote "I'd do anything to help the others." I said and turned around towards the shield.
I slowly raised my hand as I came closer and suddenly I felt like I had been frozen stiff and felt the black fire wrap around me and begin to pull me in as it quickly extinguished; rushed footsteps followed behind me. I felt my feet hit the ground roughly and the stiffness began to slow release from my muscles. I turned to see Rose finally emerge from the pool of fire and drop to her knees, dazed.
"What a sensation!" she exclaimed as I helped her up.
I looked around to see the horrific sight of the city as I had seen it from the trees but it towered up through the fog into the fiery sky. I don't know what Eggman had done to the city but he surely contorted it to be his in a matter of a few days; the home of a mad man. It was silent and too silent it was which brought an eerie atmosphere and the smell of gasoline sent a shiver through me.
"I don't understand! The front of the city should be heavily guarded right, Rose?" I asked.
She did not speak. I turned to find the empty forest but no sign of Rose; I felt a scream about to give way from my chest but instead as it creeps upwards, it catches hold of my throat and gasps of air are taken in. Suddenly I hear the snap of a gun, no.
Guns.
I turned to see the loaded guns pointed to my head, ready to put a bullet through me. A twist of fear jolted through my chest before I felt a sudden pain to the back of my head; Rose was tangled in the arms of a robot.
I felt the cold stone floor under my body and felt shocks of pain ache through me. An evil cackle echoes through room and the clanging of metal decreases from my ears.
"When she's awake, bring her to me." I heard a male voice speak.
I don't intend on waking up anytime soon or hopefully at all. I could only remember the sudden ambush of robots upon us and horrible grip of the enemy that left bruises around my wrists and body. I hoped Shadow had escaped and had taken refuge in the city and found Sonic; I prayed that he wouldn't come back for me; Eggman would not spare Shadow for betraying him years ago or would he? Shadow did possess a Chaos Emerald and Eggman always intended to use Shadow as his weapon; I'd tell Shadow to run far from here with the others if I had the power but I only had hope.
I felt my eyes slowly open to the darkness around me and let them wander around only to find no light in the room. I choked on the lack of air in the room and began to crawl to find the door; I was as blind as a bat. A sudden pang of the metal door echoed and the room was alit with white light, blinding me again. Large metal arms grabbed me by arms and began to drag me out as I struggled and yelled for help, unable to see where they were taking me.
"Let me go! Let me go, you ugly things!" I yelled but was only dragged harder.
I was thrown onto the floor but the painful grip of the robots still held onto me.
"Now, that is no way to treat our guest, Emeridge 60, release her." said a familiar male voice.
I looked up to see the marvellous iron built room of tall columns , large computer screens with colourful buttons and a large padded chair where an obese man seated upon it.
"Eggman." I whispered.
"It's wonderful to see you awake, my dear." Eggman said with a smile.
"I see you're trying another useless attempt to conquer the world again, Doctor. I pity the lack of sense you have." I spat with venom.
He gave a dark chuckle, "You're just as naïve as I left you, Miss Rose. I don't think you even have a clue of my plan."
"Enlighten me." I replied.
"You must be familiar with G.U.N's mission to track my activity through the years but what they did not realize was that I had completely abandoned my base in outer space and had taken refuge on Earth and built an underground bunker off the coast of Antarctica. With whatever inventions I had, I concocted a plan that would take the world by storm. I would travel to America and claim one of the states to myself. Of course, Sonic would step in to save the day but I did not know that he would bring those other infernal Mobilians but I noticed that three were left out of the picture; Shadow, Rouge and you. Luckily I detected you before I could get the front field guards to come back to base." He said.
"You still haven't told me the interesting part."
"By interesting you must mean your little friends. You'll be happy to know that Shadow is alive and well." Eggman spoke politely as my eyes followed his out stretched arm to the right.
The door hissed open and there he was, shackled by his wrists and ankles. He was weak and bloody, his eyes were dulled down from a brilliant red to rust; he had been tortured.
"What have you done to him?" I exclaimed.
His eyes locked onto mine at the sound of my voice, widened and blazed, he began to pull away from the shackles.
"Don't you dare lay a finger on her, Eggman." he yelled with fury.
"I won't have to, Shadow. My army will." he said with a sickening smile crawling upon his face.
The robots pulled me up and back down with powerful force that I heard something crack as my body hit the ground and before I could prepare myself, I was kicked across the room to Shadow; I wheezed out in pain and gasped for air. I felt the soft arms of Shadow wrap around me protectively as I slipped in and out of consciousness. I could catch glimpses of his eyes; determined, murderous and loving but it was mainly fear that filled his eyes.
If I could only stay in his arms a little longer but I pushed myself away from him before he could get hit and I pushed myself up to my feet and let my broken arm hang by my side as I readied myself to attack. The robots lunged at me and I whipped out the knives towards them in fury; the knives plunged into the first robot and the cross wiring led it to explode. Unfortunately for me, the explosion had distracted my attention and the second robot was able to get a hold of my arm and a painful stab was inserted into my arm; a syringe froze me. Suddenly I felt around stab but this time in my stomach. Once again, I was thrown down before Eggman and screamed out in pain as I landed on my broken arm.
"Now I can tell you the best part of my plan, Miss Rose. We are at the moment where one the three Obscure Towers that will lead my plan into action, these towers aren't your ordinary towers but hold extraordinary power to make conquering the world much easier for me. The contorted and blackened forms of the towers were formed from no one other than Shadow's blood." Eggman spoke.
Shadow hid his face in shame and I understood that this plan was not like any other plan Eggman had devised.
It was impossible that Shadow's blood had all the potential to create such an image; although Black Doom's blood runs through his veins. Eggman could have easily altered the blood cells to potentially hold dark powers because Shadow's creation was from the blood of Black Doom.
"The bottom of the towers will dig down to the core of the Earth and from the reaction of the dark blood, the core will not be able to control itself and the Earth will be infected from the effect of Shadow's blood and every hour of every passing day, a city will die out, thus ending the human race." he cackled.
I felt the breath knocked out of me, time had frozen around me; fear began to overwhelm me to a heart racing rate; I was suddenly taken by the throat by Eggman and was face-to-face with him.
"Now I want you to tell me where Sonic is." he said calmly as he began to tighten his grip around my neck.
"Stop, Eggman! She knows nothing!" Shadow yelled.
He does not know where Sonic is.
I felt a heavy burden lift off my shoulders and a smile stretch across my face. If he didn't know where Sonic was, he was probably hiding in the city with the others ready to spring an attack and better than that, they were alive.
"Where is Sonic?" Eggman yelled, loud enough to snap me out of it.
My smile stayed.
"Over my dead body." I said smugly.
Disbelief was held in both Shadow's and the doctor's eyes but soon a gun was planted to my forehead.
"No, Rose!" Shadow yelled again.
"Don't you dare attack so smart with me! I'll kill you right here, right in front of Shadow!" yelled Eggman as he pushed the gun harder at my forehead.
A sudden burst of light followed by a series of explosions consumed us; smoke and bright lights travelled everywhere. Eggman's grip was loosened from my collar and I fell to the ground as the sounds of strangulation were covered by the explosion; haunting to my ears. The smoke became transparent and I looked up to see a large gaping hole in the roof; I looked to the walls for Shadow an saw nothing but broken shackles.
If my eyes were not fooling me, I could swear I could see multiple coloured orbs of gold, purple and greens glowing in the distance zipping around especially multiple beings flying through the smoke. The explosions continued, the fires grew faster, Eggman's army began to pile in and I was dying. Three magnificently gold figures walked to the centre of the room and suddenly shot up towards the roof; I tried to reach out for someone, to help me, to get me out of here.
"Grab the vile and Chaos Emeralds and we need to get out of here!" instructed a female voice.
That voice…could it be?
"Heeeeeeeeeelp!" I screamed.
Everything was happening so fast, I wasn't sure what was happening; finally unable to drag myself and handle the pain from my body, I gave in and fell into unconsciousness.