Chapter Eight – Ambushed
Max awoke the next morning, immediately knowing something was wrong. He didn't know what or how, but his instincts were just screaming at him. He sat up his bed. It was unusually quite for the time of the morning. None of the usual clatter around the house and outside from their parents. He got up, got dressed, and looking around, wondering into the kitchen. He quickly found the girls, as they wondered down for breakfast, also confused by the apparent silence.
Rouge would greet them for breakfast.
Always. Pearl frowned.
"Mom?" She called. Nothing. Both Scarlet and Violet also looked confused. They to also called.
"Aunt Rouge?" they said together, looking around the house. Suddenly, they ran into Zooey, carrying a very tearful Amber. She outright panicked.
"I can't find Tails anywhere!" She cried. Suddenly, both Scarlet and Violet vanished, looking for their respective fathers. Shadow normally spent every night in his reading corner, his nose in a book, as he rarely slept, and Knuckles usually was found sleeping at the top of the alter, in front of the Master Emerald. Neither father were where they should have been. Both were back, shaking their heads, sniffing hard. Suddenly, Zooey remembered the event from the previous night. She grabbed Max.
"The camp fire." She stammered. The kids were aware of the late night campfire. They'd had one themselves, a week previously. Now it was their parent's turn. They all immediately vanished, Violet leading the way, until they exploded out on the clearing. The campfire area is completely empty of people and had been trashed. Logs had been rolled over and the fire itself, the ashes were spread out over a wide area. There doesn't seem to be a struggle but a lot of people have pass through here. There are footprints everywhere. Violet frowns deeply.
"What happened here?" She asked. Everyone shrugged, but it didn't feel good at all. The ominous setting was very foreboding indeed. Looking around, it could been seen, traces of where the campfire goers have been sitting and then sleeping. They all spread about across the clearing, looking for clues, until Max screamed at the top of his voice had his found something, deep behind one of the logs. He spots the gothic horror book, but tosses it aside. With Sukko around, Max always found those books everywhere, but not what he was looking at. He cried his heart out.
"Dad!" He screamed, desperately pulling at something long and black trapped underneath one of the logs. Violet ran over, and immediately tried to push the log out of the way, but it was the Echidna strength of Scarlet who actually moved the log. Once free, Max immediately gathered it up in his arms and hugged it, as if the world depended on it. His eyes streamed with tears.
"Daddy." He whimpered, but Violet just started at it. The long, black, beautifully lined material, had an air of familiarity about, plus it's heavily ingrained scent was unmistakable. She blinked.
"Hey, isn't that your Dad's coat?" She stammered. Max just nodded, but Pearl immediately rounded on Max. She gulped.
"Whoa. Your Dad was on the island?" She gasped. She, like everyone else, hadn't seen him coming. They all just stared at the stunning leather coat, but to Zooey, something just didn't make sense. She heaved.
"Max, every time I've seen your father, he'd been either wearing the white coat of a Doctor, or this black one." She informed. Max nodded.
"The penguin." He smiled. "That's what Uncle Sonic called him." He giggled. They all smiled, but Zooey just deeply frowned.
"So Max, if your father literally lives in a coat, then why, suddenly, take it off?" She wondered. But Max just howled in tears. He knew why and they was the reason he was crying. He sniffed and hard.
"Dad leaving his coat behind is his 'calling card' for when something bad happens." He heaved, and suddenly, he filled his lungs and screamed at the top of his voice.
"Dad?" He cried. "DAD!" He yelled.
They all waited, but after several minutes of silence, nothing.
No answer.
Now all of them gulped, and hard. They had seen Max call his father like this, and every time he answered. With the mighty Sorcerer not responding to his son, now they all knew something was wrong.
But as they looked around, not only Sukko was missing, but all their parents were. Tails, Knuckles, Rouge and to Violet's utter horror, Shadow. She frowned. How did they jump him? He was not an easy Hedgehog to take down, but when, in looking around, she accidentally kicked a tranquillizer dart, she frowned. She knew what one was. Her father taught her the ways of a G.U.N. agent, to prepare her for exactly times like this. Now, she knew how it was done. How their parents were kidnapped but the question was, why? But regardless, she was frightened.
What was going on?
Tails came too, in the most uncomfortable bed possible in a huge amount of pain. His body ached all over, like he's been hit and kicked extremely hard, and his head was spinning. He opened his eyes, to extremely bright lights, to a distance voice, trying to talk him up.
"Come on, Foxboy. Up you get. Easy, Cutie." It smiled. Tails heaved. He knew the voice as well as the stupid nicknames.
Rouge.
But she wasn't helping him up. Why? When his head stopped spinning, and his eyes finally adjusted to the light, he immediately realised why? He was in a jail cell. Surrounded on all sides by bars, the cells appeared to be in a circular room, running along the outside wall, leaving a small clearing in the centre. The prison had only one entrance and exit door, and each cell had a sturdy solid metal door, was a window slot. Tails's cell was right next to this door on one side. Suddenly, his temper exploded as he pushed against the door and hard. It didn't move an inch. Bur Rouge, in the cell next door, called out in panic. She squealed.
"Easy, Foxboy. Been there, done that. Those doors, in fact this entire prison, is Chaos-Reenforced. It and we, are going nowhere." She heaved. Tails finally calming down, looked at her. She looked battered and bruised but largely alright. He heaved.
"What happened? Where are we?" He heaved. But Rouge growled.
"I don't know." She admitted, looking around the prison. "It looks like they jumped us while we were sleeping after the camp fire last night." She hissed. "But as to who 'they' are, no idea? I have seen no one, since I woke up here myself a while ago." She admitted. But Tails frowned.
"We were ambushed?" He gulped. "But how did they jump us? It should have woken somebody up?" He wondered, but Rouge looked down, looking at the rather large, needle hole, in the upper part of her chest, just above her unitard line. There was also an injection mark there too. She sighed.
"A tranquillizer dart." She growled. "I have been darted before, especially working for G.U.N. but to dart people while they are already sleeping, is not advised. They were lucky not to kill or seriously injure someone." She gulped. Tails looked down, and quickly found is own dart injury, also a mild pain in his arm, from what looked liked an injection. He nodded, sniffing hard.
Suddenly, there was a crash the other side of Rouge, as someone proceed to violently roll off the bed and onto the floor, groaning hard. Knuckles. She ran over, squealing in pure delight, fearing the worse. The thrusted her arms, out towards him through the bars, but couldn't reach. She beamed.
"Knucky." She sniffed. "Knucky-poo's, over here." She cried. Knuckles, upon hearing his wife's calls, tried to get up, but his head was spinning so badly, he just crashed back to the floor again. Tails, looking across, through the bars, from the far cells, immediately called to keep the mighty Echidna where he was, when he noticed something. He growled.
"Knuckles. Listen to me. Stay put. You've been tranquillizer darted, twice from the looks of it. We all have. It's why your head spinning so badly. Please stay still until everything calms down." He ordered. Knuckles, who is horrendously confused, just nods and curls up into a ball. But Tails and Rouge watch and wait, as finally, after about ten minutes, to their utter relief, he uncurls himself, absolutely fine. He shakes himself off, and gets to his feet, and very wobbly walks over to Rouge who hugs and kisses him though the bars. He gulped.
"Where are we?" He frowned. Tails from the opposite cell, just struggled.
"We don't know. I've just woke up myself a little while ago, Rouge too." He nodded, indicating his wife. Knuckles growled, loosing his temper.
"If they've hurt you." He hissed, but Rouge just shut him down. She scowled.
"Oh, shh, Knuckles. I'm fine. I've been darted before, working for G.U.N." She spat. But Tails frowned.
"But why though?" He wondered, but Knuckles roared with anger, flexing his knuckles, on both hands. He made a beeline for the door of his cell.
"Well, I don't care. I'm out of here." He hissed, and before anyone could stop him, he ran forwards, throwing a fisted hand backwards. Suddenly, he thrusted it forwards, and hard, straight at the door.
But the solid steel door, didn't give a nanometre, but for the first time ever, Knuckles's hand did. The force of the almighty charge completely bounced off the door and straight back into his knuckles, leaving him screaming in agony. He was extremely lucky not to shatter any bones in his hand. His eyes filled with tears, and his gentle held his painfully, throbbing hand. Rouge screamed.
"Knuckles?" She cried, but Knuckles, violently shaking just looked back at the door. He gulped and hard.
"My Super-Strength, it's gone." He stammered. "Like from within." But Rouge frowned.
"But that's impossible. You can't remove a Chaos Power from someone without killing them, in the process." She whined, but Tails frowned, deep in thought.
"Actually you can." He hissed. Immediately he got stared at. "Well, temporally anyway. There are two ways you can do it. Technology and drugs. Knuckles, I can see an injection mark, on your forearm. Me and Rouge have one too. Thankfully, your power loss is only short term. You'll get your Super Strength back, when the drugs wear off." He smiled. Knuckles nodded, somewhat relieved, but annoyed. He looked around the prison.
Himself, Tails and Rouge were all in cells adjacent to each other, but around the circular room, but the cell the other side of Knuckles was empty. Beyond that, the following cell was occupied. Facing him, lying on his side on the cell bed, completely out cold, his jet black and red striped features were unmistakable. Knuckles went white. He gulped.
"Shadow?" He stammered. But Rouge nodded.
"Yeah, I've been keeping my ears trained on him. He breathing but he's taken one hell of a beating. Three tranquillizer darts and two holes in his arm, from injections, I think, from what I can see, just to take him down." She stuttered. Knuckles gasped.
"Holy Chaos." He heaved. But Rouge nodded.
"Yeah, I know. He's that strong." She nodded. But Tails frowned.
"But wait, hang on, if he's here with us. Then it wasn't 'him' they wanted." He stammered. That was extremely unusual. Shadow was always the scapegoat in these capture situations. So if not him, then who? But Rouge and Knuckles just looked at the Fox. The Echidna frowned.
"What do you mean, Tails? Would they really kidnap all of us, for just one person?" He hissed, but Tails just nodded.
"To prevent a possible rescue, yes. It's plausible." He gulped, but Rouge just outright cried, putting a hand over her mouth.
"A rescue?" She squealed. "Oh no, the kids." She cried, tears rolling down her face. But Knuckles grabbed her through the bars. He comforted her, smiling.
"Look, our girls are strong, reliant. They can look after themselves." He beamed but Tails to also nodded.
"Plus Zooey is with them. She wasn't at the campfire last night, so I don't think she's here." He heaved, sighing in utter relief. That meant his daughter, Amber, too, was safe. He growled "But I'm getting the impression that our ambush was opportunistic. A classic smash and grab." He added, throughly unimpressed. But Rouge shrugged, wiping away her tears as she calmed down. She smiled.
"And Max too. His father was with us last night." She sighed. Suddenly, she, Knuckles and Tails, go absolutely white as they all whirled around the prison, desperately looking for someone who clearly wasn't there. Apart from the four of the them, all the other cells were empty. Tails swears and hard.
"Where's Sukko?"
Max was still crying his heart out into his father's coat. Never had he been abandoned like this before, but regardless, he just ended up staring at it. The fact that it was here and his father was not, meant something.
Something incredible importantly.
He immediately wiped his eyes, gathered the coat, and went to find the others who had scattered, looking for clues. He quickly found Violet, who had some sort of dart in her hands. Equally as shaken as each other, they both panic at each other.
"They've been kidnapped." They said together to the utter shock of the other. Both Max and Violet just gulped. Both presented their evidence as in others joined them, having heard the commotion. Scarlet, Pearl and Zooey were all shocked and confused. But Pearl rounded on the Hedgehogs. She growled.
"Kidnapped? Are you sure?" She hissed, shaking with fright. But Max heaved, holding up Sukko's coat. He heaved.
"This is my Dad's. As you know, he never goes anywhere without it. So him leaving behind means only one thing. He's in trouble." He heaved. But Violet nodded violently, holding what was in her hand. She hissed.
"I also found this. It's a tranquillizer dart. Papa taught me what they are. They are used to knock people out so that they can be transported somewhere." She growled. Between the two pieces of evidence, yes, their parents had indeed been kidnapped. But Scarlet just cried.
"But where have they gone and why?" She sniffed, but Violet just growled.
"The where, I have no idea. That's up to us to find. But the why?" She smirked, looking directly at Max, and knowing just how powerful but sneaky Sukko was. "Our fathers will work that out, the other end." She smirked. Max looked and he too smiled. He agreed wholeheartedly. But Zooey just smiled, holding her toddler daughter, Amber, in close.
"Look, you go. I'll stay here and hold the fort here until you get back. I've had a quick look round. The main house and surrounding area are untouched. Whomever it was, is now long gone. Not on the island anymore. We should be safe." He nodded. Suddenly, she got hugged, but everyone. But she sniffed. "But please, be careful." She added, and looking around, she pointed to the trees behind her. "I can see disturbed vegetation over there in the woodlands. I collect herbs here regularly, and that wasn't like that, yesterday morning. It's a place to start, I guess." She smiled. "Good luck." She added.
Finally, it was time to go. The two Hedgehogs stuffed their items into their quills. Max gently rolled his father's coat as small and as tight as it would go and placed into the quills in the back of his head. It only just fit, but finally secure, he was ready to go.
With a fond farewell to Zooey and Amber, the two Hedgehogs, Echidna and Bat, dived for the woods and in hot pursuit of their parents.