Chapter 9 - Infiltration

The echidna tightened his fingers to inshore that he keep a strong grip on his metal weapon as he shifted his feet into a more comfortable stance. His eyes constantly fixed on the every move of the ebony hedgehog and the lighter brown wolf that stood only a few feet away. Still Shadow remained still, not daring to move in fear that he may provoke the threat to his allies.

"Please!" Cass begged as she felt the cold metal of the barrel press firmly against the side of her head as she did all she could to stay calm. But the echidna had other things on his mind.

"I don't know what the hell you are, Hedgehog. Or how fast or powerful you may seem. But I doubt your fast enough to catch a speeding bullet." He taunted with a slight smirk as he began slowly backing away deeper into the alley. As much as Shadow hated it, he had to admit to himself that the echidna was right.

Instead of trying to reason with Knuckles, he decided to try a different tactic, he slowly began walking forward. The echidna noticed this, and it kind of surprised him that he would try something foolish such as that. No matter to him, he immediately made up his mind and didn't hesitate to fire towards the hedgehog. The bullet impacted his chest with force causing him to have to take a half-step backwards to keep his balance. Cass screamed slightly as she closed her eyes tightly in hope that the gun had not been fired towards her, but soon realised that she was indeed, still alive and unharmed. She soon realised who he had hit as she eased her jade eyes open.

"Ok. That hurt." Shadow coughed as he felt the bleeding hole in his chest with one of his gloved hands. Once found, he buried his gloved index finger into the small wound and carefully pulled out the bloody casing that was imbedded in it and tossing it aside. The echidna's eyes widened at the sight as he took a step back.

"What's the hell?" He said directing the gun towards the hedgehog once more. "What are you? Some crazy loon that escaped from a mental hospital?"

"You idiot Knuckles, he's a vampire." Rouge pitched in as she glared at Knuckles, now at her feet. His once confused and slightly shaken form quickly relaxed as he took his eyes away from the hedgehog's glowing red ones.

"Right, so your telling me this hedgehog is a living, breathing, bloodthirsty demon killing machine from hell." He said with sarcasm as he confronted Rouge beside him, her expression and tone suggesting that she wasn't kidding.

"Well, not exactly living… or breathing for that matter." Rex ruled as he compared facts. Shadow rolled his eyes as he licked the blood off his fingers, the other four figures in the alley too into their convocation of the supernatural. The metallic taste making him feel slightly at ease as he felt himself calm down, and the small wounds start to immediately heal themselves. He had long gotten bored of Knuckles and every one else talking and preferred to just kill the echidna and leave, but he had his limits and rules like any other.

"Please Knuckles, just let her go. All I am asking is for your help here." Rouge begged. "We can talk about this, I'll explain everything just please don't hurt my friends." The bat spoke as she held her hands out for the scared fox. Knuckles had to think about this for a moment. He had always trusted the decisions that she had made in the past, and she was usually right. And he didn't want any harm to come too Rouge so he felt he should listen to what she had to say for now.

"Ok Rouge, Just as long as that thing stays away from you, you can tell me what this whole thing is about." He explained, casting a glare towards Shadow as he carefully let go of the fox. Cass quickly ran to the arms of Rouge as the echidna put his weapon away.

"Lets go back to the Brighten Café and I'll explain everything." Rouge assured as she looked back at knuckles, who nodded in agreement.

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"So… who are these three and what is all this about?" Knuckles questioned. His arms folded firmly as he leaned back on his chair awaiting the answers that he needed to hear. Rouge took a quick sip of her coffee before turning to the three behind her.

"Well, That lively young lady is Cassandra." She said pointing over her shoulder at the grey vixen sitting with Rex and Shadow at the bar.

"Call me Cass." She smiled waving back slightly, still unshore about the echidna. Knuckles simply nodded as Rouge moved on.

"Next to her is my old friend Rex." Rouge continued. The wolf nodded with a slight smile as he lifted his hand in the air, soon dropping it back to his side. "And next to that is Shadow." The hedgehog did nothing but fold his arms and look a different direction. That alone was enough, after all Knuckles and him had met before.

"Shadow is in a bad mood lately." Cass explained as Knuckles narrowed his eyes at the hedgehog but not so much that any one would notice. With a deep sigh, Rouge continued.

"And guys, this is a close friend and former team mate of mine, Knuckles the echidna. He also works at GUN HQ as a private officer." Rouge smiled looking back over to the trio.

"Awesome." Cass smiled back as she sat herself up. The crimson echidna allowed his eyes to examine the three sitting at the bar. They seemed friendly, but over the short period of time his impressions of them remained in his mind like a stubborn stain. But not wanted to upset Rouge, he allowed himself to listen to what they had to say.

"So… what's the story behind you three?" The echidna questioned after thinking. Cass cleared her throat as she thought of where to start, after all it was a long story. "Rex and I go far back, we and our two sisters used to travel around the world." She explained after pinpointing a place to start. "We went to Rome for a few weeks, that's where we met Shadow. But he wasn't pleasant and calm like he is now, he was quit literally a 'bloodthirsty demon killing machine from hell.' As you said before."

"He just suddenly decided that he wanted to be a good bloodthirsty demon killing machine from hell one day then?" Knuckles sarcastically asked as he shook his head. "I just cant believe I have to believe this shit." Rouge sighed heavily.

It took a while for Cass and Rex to try to think something up to say to the hot-headed echidna that would make him understand as it seemed he wasn't going to make any attempt to understand anyway. So Rouge decided to step in.

"Knuckles, you know the Ambrose diamond that the general keeps locked up on the top floor?" Rouge questioned. The echidna nodded in agreement. "Well it's a long story, but we need the crystal to stop Shadow from having his little killing slips every now and then, and possibly stop an evil dark lord from taking over Mobius while we're at it."

Rouge didn't need to say anymore as knuckles smirked to himself. He expected that there was probably some crazy evil person wanting world domination some were in this story. He sat himself up and looked over to the Hedgehog. "Ok, so who or what exactly is this evil lord?"

"Hominus Nocturna." Cass spoke out confident and clearly to Knuckles as she watched his puzzled face unfold before her, almost making her laugh if not for the seriousness of the situation. Cass realised that he would never be able to understand what she had said without an explanation, something greatly appreciated by the echidna. "A Vampire, same as Shadow." She said plainly so he could understand.

Knuckles nodded after a brief moment, looking again back over at Shadow; his blood-red eyes made him feel nothing but hate and fear towards the hedgehog. He didn't know why he disliked him, or feared him for that matter. After all he reminded him slightly of his old friend Sonic, but he was completely the opposite.

"And how exactly did Mr. happy over there get to being a… homin--nocto whatever anyway."

"2 week summer holiday in Transylvania." Shadow smirked sarcastically as an attempt to silence the questions of the echidna, whom for a second believed him before realising the expression on his face. The ebony hedgehog only angered Knuckles more as he released that confusing him was the hedgehog's intentions.

"A 900 year old vampire bat after the crystal also. His most common name is Drake, an evil dark lord vampire that wants to rule Mobius. So you can call it no big deal."

"So… Drake an evil 900 year old vampire-bat, the 1st bloodthirsty demon killing machine from hell anda dark lord wanting to take over Mobius along with his vampire buddies… no big deal, huh?" Knuckles restated as he thought back to everything that had been said in the last 5 minutes or so and placing it all into one sentence. Shadow sighed as he rolled his eyes and clapped faintly after he was finished.

"Wow. Give the spiny anteater a medal." He spoke sarcastically as Rouge shook her head in the fact that she knew the two together wasn't going to be a good idea. Shadow didn't have time to be concerned with this echidna. He had plenty of tasks to complete and fighting Knuckles wasn't on his list, but he couldn't help but dislike the attitude and personality of the echidna towards himself. Still, he couldn't just go around picking fights with people who he disliked or who had angered him, and that was a lot of people. Then his chain of thought was broken again.

"You see, with Shadow, when ever one particular emotion is heightened for too long, his eh… darker vampire side, will do anything it can to either embrace or reject that emotion." Rex attempted to explain as best he could to the echidna. "That's the reason Shadow seems grumpy and serious all the time. If he feels pleasure, affection or excitement then his darker side will attempt to ruin those moments by embracing his anger, sadness and jealousy. We need the Vampire crystal to stop that."

"Talk about a slip personality…" Knuckles thought to himself. Cassandra then speaking.

"I still think we should consult Drano or Frazer about this before we do anything. Things have gone wrong once, it can happen again." She thought aloud as tapped her finger on the counter surface making a soft thumping that seemed to almost echo amongst the group.

"Grate. And who are they? More vampires? or do you have the werewolf and ghost friends too?" Knuckles huffed as he stood himself up. Shadow growled in his throat at Knuckles' sarcastic tone and wasn't sure if he was taking the whole situation seriously enough for his own good. Personally, he didn't care what that crimson furred pest thought about him, he wanted to just to simple reach over the small oak table and snap his neck like a useless twig, and listen to his last pathetic breath, wanting it to be a terrified scream of pain…

"Don't ask, it's a really long story." Rex almost laughed, again taking Shadow out of his wonderful daydreams as he turned his gaze towards the window, not quit realizing that he had zoned out. The sun had set a short time ago as the sky had faded to a purplish black making the remaining clouds look silver-ish pink. Then Rex spoke again. "We can start to make our way now. Shadow your with me. Knuckles, Cass and Rouge, I want you to go to the roof to try and get a better transmission." The wolf suggested as he turned towards the group who nodded confidently.

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A few minutes later, Cass, Knuckles and Rouge where on the roof of the small café, where it wasn't exactly cold, but the gentle breeze cooled the air around the two making it seem colder than it was. Rouge took her laptop from her bag and a few other devices that Rex had in his, and had Knuckles help her set them all up whilst Cass had found that the Café, and the large building opposite, shared the same power supply and phone cables. Locating the power box at the other side of the building was easy and she was connecting a long black cable of her own to the power lines.

"All set." Rouge called as looked back over her shoulder to the fox. Cass lifted the other end of the black cable and a smaller yellow cable and quickly made her way over to the ivory bat and the computer.

"Right, lets connect this power cable to the sync cable and we should be free to use the main power supply as we wish…" She explained as she connected wires and cabled here and there to the larger black cable via a sort of plug. Knuckles sighed and nodded as the fox continued to babble on about how the cables worked. "…And the connective cable to the system's main cable to get control--"

Rouge and Knuckles went really listening to anything that Cass was saying as she worked away. The white bat was thinking more about how the two males where going to cope together on the mission with just the two of them. She wanted to send Knuckles to go with them but she felt that Shadow had left him with a bad impression. Knuckles just sat for a moment nodding to everything Cass said, his mind was also else where. His deep violet eyes exploring the slim toned figure of the bat in front of him, from her perfectly shaped ears to her well looked-after boots.

"Rouge." A voice called beside the bat. Rouge quickly turned to face an ebony hedgehog sitting on the edge of the roof beside her.

"Shadow? Why aren't you down with Rex?" She asked as stood herself up and walked over to him, getting the attention of the fox and echidna.

"You're the only one who can read your map." He smirked slightly as he waved it in the air. Rouge smiled. Knuckles' eyes narrowed to the hedgehog as he watched the bat take the hedgehog's hand and jump down off the roof.

Back down at the building entrance, Rex peered threw the glass of one window. The place seemed quiet and empty from what he could see but he knew other wise. Cameras in each corner of the room and the occasional armed guards pacing the building showed that this was going to be tough.

"Ok, we need to find a way in. Have the girls and the echidna got the security offline?" Rex questioned as he turned to face Shadow but he wasn't where he had thought he was. "Damn it Shad." He sighed as he then realised Shadow and Rouge heading back towards him.

"I though I would tag along to keep an eye on you two." Rouge advised as she brought herself to a stop.

Rex laughed to himself as he turned to inspect in tall building. "So, Rouge do you know of any other way in? The front door seems to be locked with some sort of scanner." He explained. Rouge thought carefully as she looked up and down the building. Rouge thought for a moment, when her thoughts where interrupted suddenly by every light in the street shut off leaving the trio in dark apart from the remaining purplish light of the sky and the soft red glow of Shadow's eyes.

"We could always use the front door." Rouge smiled as she turned towards the door and easily opening it. Rex smiled and nodded as he quickly stepped inside. Shadow rolled his eyes as he too made his way inside, forgetting the fact that the two could see it.

Rex and Rouge quickly managed to hide behind a desk as a few guards walked past, Shadow on the other hand managing to use his speed to slip past them with ease. He checked the hallways too make shore the coast was clear before signalling with his hand for the others to follow him over to an empty room and closed the door.

"Ok, we're in. Nice work Cass." Rouge commented as she spoke threw a small device that she had hidden in her glove. Her call was then replied by the sound of the grey vixen giggling a thanks back at the comment causing Rouge to smile also. "We need to be quick." Rouge then set out the map on a table and marked off where they where as she looked around the room they where in for anything that could aid them. Rex spotted something.

"Vents?" Rex pointed out as he positioned himself on top of a desk and removed the gate to the vent, peering inside, scanning up and down though not shore what he was looking for. Rouge too jumped up silently onto the desk and scanned inside.

"It has plenty of cracks in the metal." Rouge pointed out. The wolf wondered what she meant by it. There was plenty of space too fit a inside as the bat attempted to lift herself into it. "If there are cracks in the metal that must mean that this isn't used for poisonous gas or lasers." Shadow and Rex paused for a moment and stared at the bat.

"And you didn't mention that why?" Rex questioned with a slight uneasiness.

"It must of slipped my mind." She smiled. "Besides, the lasers probably will be offline seeing as the power is off. Just avoid sealed off vents and you should be safe from the gas."

"Your going to have to hurry, there are more people coming." Shadow commanded as he moved himself away from the door and towards the other two. Rex quickly hopped up into the vent and Shadow soon followed, replacing the gate as if it had never been moved.

"We have to find a way to get too the top floor, any ideas?" Rouge questioned. Shadow and Rex thought in silence for a moment as they continued to crawl on threw the cold metal vent, the faint light from a tiny torch key ring, (one of many key ring gadgets Rex had attached to his belt) lighting the way.

Until Shadow got an idea. He listened carefully, there was nothing but the sound of people mumbling to one another and there footsteps on the metal-tiled floors. "A building this big has to have elevators, right?" Rouge nodded confidently. "Cass switched all the power off, and I hear no sign of them working so I'm guessing that means the elevator shafts are going to be rather clear."

"I love your ears." Rouge laughed quietly as they came to another gate. With luck, it happened to lead into another empty room, and from the looks of it, a rather empty storage. Rouge managed to pull the gate off and jump down onto the metal plated floor.

"We should spilt up to see what we can find." Rex suggested as Shadow too managed to pull himself from the vent. "Shadow, stay with Rouge. I'll keep searching the vents and I'll give you a call on your radio if I find anything." Rouge and Shadow nodded as Rex once again disappeared into the vent. The ivory bat looked around them at the many boxes and useless materials that had been left in the dark room, spotting a small door.

She slowly opened the door and peeked out, revealing a long corridor with many strange glass doors and viewing windows each labelled with a number. Though due to the darkness that was cast upon the building by the power cut, it was unclear what was behind them. On the wall read 'B block' engraved onto a large metal plaque, and just below that was another smaller plaque that read 'B-213' marking the cell door that lay below it. The pattern of numbered plaques and glass doors increased as Rouge and Shadow progressed down the corridor in almost silence.

"What do you think are in those cells?" Shadow questioned to brake the eerie silence that danced among them. Rouge shrugged in response.

"To be honest, I'm not shore I want to find out." Was her almost fearful reply. Then they came to a room that had a different door, but it was obvious that it wasn't a room at all. It was an elevator.

Shadow had no troubled pulling back the doors as the power was off and nothing was stopping it from opening, only to then reveal a long shaft, which Rouge almost walked in on if not for the ebony hedgehog stopping her.

"Wow, The building looked shorter from the outside." Shadow indicated as he pointed towards the top and bottom of the shaft, which at the moment was none existent from what he could see. "We have to get all the way to the top of there?" He groaned as he released that it would harder that he had first predicted.

"Stop complaining and grab the cable." Rouge spoke hovering herself beside the cable with a few wing flaps. Shadow growled to himself.

"Easy for you to say, you can fly." Shadow huffed under his breath but Rouge easily herd it and folded her arms.

"Shadow. If you want to use the stairs that's fine by me." She spoke calmly to try and convince him, and it seemed to work. The hedgehog shrugged and leaped over to the metal cable that emerged from the darkness far above him and grasping a firm hold of it. The line swung slightly before steadily coming to an almost stand still.

--

Meanwhile, currently on the roof of the café, Knuckles was lying on his back on the cold quiet roof watching Cass, keeping a close eye on security of the building to make shore the group hadn't been found out.

"So, I know the details about Shadow, what about this Drake person? I mean is he really that bad?" Knuckles had questioned, his mind still adjusting to the supernatural sides of the story. Cass nodded immediately after a moment of her mind processing the question.

"Oh yes. He turned Shadow into a bloodthirsty killer as a part of his 'night warriors' plan. Drake held possession of the Soul crystal, and used its power to create a new vampire minion for his little clan every so many years when he got bored, making a total of 5 in the years he had the crystal before it was destroyed, Shadow being his last and most feared, the '2nd night hedgehog' in the group." The Fox explained as she zoned out for a brief minute or two, imagining what it must have been like to see it all take place.

Knuckles almost did the same but as soon as she stopped talking he was brought out of his imagination. "What vampire minions did Drake create then?" He inquired

Cass had to ponder the question at hand as a light silence that seemed to be brought along with a cold wind set among them. "2 hedgehogs, a cat and two wolves."

Knuckles nodded as all was quiet again. Knuckles closed his eyes as he tried to imagine what Drake and his minions may have looked like; until a muffle noise that sounded like a quick flap of leather and a cold wind swept his face. Opening his eyes and sitting himself up he didn't see much in the dark except Cass, sat down and watching the screen same as she was before, a soft glow of blue swept across her face.

Cass yawned with a slight cough as she directed her attention back to knuckles. "What?" She inquired after she noticed him staring either at, or passed her. Turning around to see what it was and spotting the dark figure that stood behind her only a few feet away.

Both of them froze immediately as two glowing blue pupils watched them with interest, a sharply curved smirk lining it's muzzle as it paced itself slowly towards Cass and Knuckles, the light that emitted from the laptop screen glistening it's short yet sharp teeth that lined it's smile while a long black-hooded cloak was placed over it's figure.

"Hello Cassandra." It laughed in a deep tone.

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"Finally!" Shadow growled with happiness as he reached over and pulled the doors open, nearly ripping it out the wall in the process. They had reached the top floor at long last. Smirking at his achievement of his goal, the ebony hedgehog proudly walked into the current room they resided in. It was a rather plain room, not much other than a few security cameras locked on the door and two strange statues either side of the door.

"Behind that door." Rouge hinted as she pointed towards the door at the other end of the room. Shadow turned and nodded confidently, his smirk widened.

"Yeah.. I can feel it there."

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Well… longer than most chapters but yeah. I had a lot of help with this one from my sister to my awesome friends, (note that detail isn't really me.. oo) but at least we got there eventually.