Meteor Kid Chapter 17: Malice in the Smoke, a sonic the hedgehog fanfic

A/N: Explanation on how Silver is able to create a portal: with a chaos emerald and much training, Silver can open up a portal (or warp I should have said?) to a different location on the planet using his psychic power, but only in the same timeline. The idea came from Sonic 06's setting with chaos control to open a time warp (that cutscene with two hedgehogs wrist-bumbing while holding two chaos emeralds like they're doing drink cheers)

Chapter 17: Malice in the Smoke

It all happened too quick. The silhouettes with masks appeared without any sign— no sound, no sight, no scent— and surrounded them at once, not even Shadow was able to notice their presence in advance. The next second, as Silver attempted to freeze some closest intruders at his fastest response, they all dodged at the same time, as if they shared one brain. One of them dropped a smoke bomb and the room was soon filled with opaque dim gas, making the vision even blurrier, consuming up the last light source in the entire room, which was Silver's glowing psychic light.

"Shadow! Silver! Run!" Sonic shouted at the other two hedgehogs before he was pushed down on the floor. He couldn't see anything in this fuzzy darkness, and was soon restrained by the intruders, his arms twisted to the back and mouth duct-taped; hands were searching on his body for the alien crystal sample.

"Get off me!" He heard metal clinks and struggle sounds from not far away, sounded like they got Silver too. How was that possible? What tricks could suppress his psychokinesis? More importantly, Who the hell are these assholes? Sonic was confused and upset. How were they able to know Silver arrived here? And chased him down this fast?...Well, any talk doesn't matter now, he only hoped Shadow could safely escape with the crystal sample.

The smoke cleared after a while, the searching hands had stopped and forced him to stay on the floor. In a distance, Sonic saw a dim orange light coming from one intruder's mask. He was staring at Silver, who was forced to kneel on the ground. His eyes were wide open and spiritless. There was an impassive expression on his face, and his stiff body was held by two intruders like a puppet...it gave Sonic an eerie feel, as if his soul was lost in the void and all that left was merely a shell of the body, as if he was...hypnotized. The lights glowing from his cuffs were abnormal: instead of the regular aqua blue, they were in a weird orange-yellow color.

Not for a while, Silver's lips moved, and then he was let go. At the same time, Sonic felt the pressure on his back and repression on his limbs were gone.

The intruders all vanished in a blink, just like how they came in silence.

Without being held by force, Silver fell on the floor face-down and unresponsively.

"Silver!" Sonic struggled to get up and went to him, spending his last strengths tonight to turn him over. He was breathing slowly but didn't show any response to the surroundings. His eyes were still strayed. The orange-yellow lights on his cuffs were fading.

Sonic frowned. So many things happened in such a short time...and so many questions left to wonder.

Wait. He just realized something illogical. How was he able to talk? Didn't they tape him up earlier? Sonic touched his muzzle in confusion. There was nothing on his mouth.

He stood up in silence and gently dragged Silver to the wall, so that he could lean on it and sit up. Seemed like Silver would not be sober from whatever that was in a while...he'd better go and find someone for help— Rouge! Right, he should go and check if she was okay. These gatecrashers broke into his room, they had probably harassed her too for the sample. Damn it.

"Rouge? Are you okay there?" Sonic ran into the ward next door. The lights in this room were off too. Some kind of smoke was fading, and there was a sharp, sweet odor in the air. He instinctively took a step back and covered his muzzle with his hand.

In the dark, he saw someone on the bed. "Rouge?!" Sonic asked again. Then he heard a cough. The figure on the bed started to move. He approached the bed and saw Rouge lying there, half conscious. Apparently, she tried to talk, but her words were inward and indistinct.

"…Ether," finally at the bedside, he could hear what she was talking, "it's anesthetic...go...I'll...be fine..."

Sonic held his breath. He looked at Rouge for one last sight as she gradually lost consciousness and left the room quietly. These bastards meant it, Rouge's ward had no window and they cut the lights out. The gas would not be completely gone for a while, he thought and left the door open.

What exactly are we doing right now? Is it really worth it? Am I putting everyone around me in danger and worry?...

Sonic felt his steps become heavier while he was dragging himself back to his own ward. The short distance across the corridor somehow turned into an endless path in this smoky darkness. At the doorway, he saw Silver struggled to stand up, supporting the wall with one hand.

"My head..." He heard him murmured, "I feel...horrible. It's like they stuffed a hurricane into my head, and then... " Silver's expression suddenly became fearful. "—They knew it. They're going after Shadow! I told them..."

"Don't worry Silver, I'm sure he will be fine…Shadow has 2 emeralds with him. Let's just go and...get some help." Sonic found himself sounded pale. He needed to do something. He had to do something...to get rid of this guilty feeling.

"You are right..." Silver shook his head, trying to shake off the dizziness and headache so that he could focus on his mind. "I heard you go to Rouge's room. Is she okay? Should we take her with us and leave? And what's that smell?"

"No...I mean, don't go in there now." Sonic stopped him from going further. "Anesthetic gas. That's the smell."

"But—" "Let's just go. I don't think your power can protect you from it and I need you to stay conscious with me, Silver." Sonic's voice was low, like if he was not persuading Silver, but himself. He walked away, slowly along the hallway and was finding something, touching the wall. Silver looked at him as his figure gradually disappeared in the dark. He hesitated for a second, and walked to Rouge's ward.

Silver stopped at the door. Instead of entering the room, he used psychokinesis to move Rouge out and transported her to Sonic's room. Even if he stayed out, the sickeningly sweet smell was dazing him, putting his actions slow and his brain foggy. But then, a loud siren broke from the silence and scared him a little, totally woke him up.

He knew it would be Sonic, he was probably finding the emergency alert button on the wall. Thinking so, Silver concentrated his mind and rushed down the corridor to catch up with him.

Nearby the exit to stairs at the corner, he found Sonic and a cat-like stranger talking. The stranger was hurt, a small streak of clotted blood was stuck on his light-color fur on the back of his head.

"...I'm so sorry, for all of these...our security is too old, and I wasn't being helpful at all—" "—It's fine. Don't apologize for it, none of us knew they were here this quick and..." Sonic interrupted him, then he saw Silver arrive. "Silver! This is Flake the Ferret, our guide to Skyline Mountain."

"Hello." Silver greeted. "Are you alright? I saw blood on your head..."

"I'm fine, it already clotted...thanks for caring." Flake awkwardly smiled and touched the wound. "I got knocked down from behind...the invaders, they looked like ferrets but are smaller...if I could get their scent I might tell what they are. I do recognize their equips from GUN."

"Let's get out and call the police. It's getting annoyingly noisy." Sonic said. "I know I shouldn't have hit the button...if Flake as an agent was knocked out, then the others in this hospital probably had been put down too...these jerks. How long do you think they had been in here sneaking on us? If it weren't for my condition, I'd go after them myself."

Shadow stopped in the middle of the woods, where on the local map it was called Snow Sea Forest. In the ambient outdoor, he heard one follower stopped in a haste and hid behind a nearby tree, making a slight noise.

"Show yourself, intruder." He called out. "I know you are waiting for your companions to arrive."

The masked one walked out and stopped in front of Shadow 2 meters away. Then, he took off his mask: "I'm so sorry we have to meet again like this, Mr. Shadow."

"...Presto." Shadow recognized the young face. "You still chose to join them...so it's Blindspot that GUN has sent to go after us."

"Yes. But I'm not going to fight you." The weasel named Presto took a step forward. "Please, don't leave. Kaput wants to talk to you. "

"Whistle?" Shadow looked around warily. This mysterious colleague that he had heard of all the time (since the scandal) but never had met once, was said to be very furtive and vigilant. "He's still alive? I'm not surprised till now."

"Yes...please stay. I promise he will be here before you feel weary...we really need the sample, for curing." Saying so, the teen weasel took off one of his gloves. Several disturbing white spots appeared on his hand and wrist, along with large area of hair loss. "It's spreading among all the members. We are getting weaker, and GUN violated the contract between us."

"You should never fully trust them." Shadow walked towards him to see the symptom, but Presto quickly put this glove back and retreated: "Please don't, Mr. Shadow, it's contagious, and incurable..."

"Presto." A cold voice appeared behind. Its owner soon showed his presence, a grown weasel with mask. The other members came in succession, all masked and covered in full black armor. They surrounded Shadow and Presto in a loose circle.

Hearing their kaput, Presto retreated and joined the circle, with his mask held tight in his hands.

"Good job of tracing, jor. I'm proud of your speed." Whistle the Weasel nodded to him with approval. Then he turned to Shadow and took off his mask, but only showing half of his face.

"I appreciate your waiting, Shadow the Hedgehog. This is not an official command, GUN sent us off-the-record. But we need the crystal."

"Well there's a whole crater of it in the mountain not far away," Shadow said indifferently. "Why after us? I'm sure you already knew it, and through your source you can have any amount you want from there."

"Of course." Whistle sighed and put his mask back. "But don't you understand? Those were raw materials. What we need is the product after a series of dilution and synthesis. Please. I don't want to force you." An orange spark drift out the left eye hole of his mask like a fallen leaf.

"I have my own reason to keep it." Shadow rejected expressionlessly, ignored the hesitation that flickered in his mind. Hearing this, the other weasels except Presto drew their weapons, one or two of them hissing under their masks. Whistle yelled at them in their own language with a pressed voice. The crew urged their impulse and quieted down.

"We can offer help to you on your goal for exchange." Whistle suggested calmly. "I know you are trying to find the kid. Project Fig, Subject XXXY-58-03. I can show you where to find him."

...

(To be continued)

I'm bad at naming. The weasels are named after sound or music related words. Their background may not include in main chapters sincetoo much info is added already (I'm even worse at plotting

Some weasel language vocab I made up from latin and wild imagination (this is hard and I am not going to create a new language): kaput (patriarch, leader), jor (child, kid), pendeka/vej porz (stop), yar (guard, soldier, warrior)