"I'm impressed. I thought you were bluffing when you said it would be a challenge for me."
"He's the Commander." A particularly irritated Shadow replied blandly as he stepped over the body of a bandit. "Of course his files are going to be heavily encrypted." He reminded his contact as he walked through rows of iron cages, uncaring of the fresh blood covering the dirty floor of the old factory.
Slaves of every race and gender watched him pass with wide eyes, too terrified to call out for help.
"I have the clearance of a G.U.N. General and I haven't been able to access anything pertaining to him. I'm starting to think his information is on a private server." A indignant huff echoed in Shadow's headset. "Whoever set this up really doesn't want anything on Blue coming out."
"How much time will you need to find it?" The Ultimate Lifeform questioned as he walked around a corner, ignoring the calls for help of the few brave prisoners who meekly tried to get his attention.
His voice attracted the attention of the last guard, the man turning away from the cage he'd just finished closing only to spot the black and red creature staring at him with unearthly red eyes. Terror shone in the human's own eyes as he levelled his gun at the weapon of mass destruction, the contraption shaking violently in his unsteady hands.
"H-hey -ack!"
A sound not unlike thunder went off as a brilliant bolt of light surged from the nothingness of the Chaos Field at Shadow's command and struck the guard in the chest. The thorax of the human exploded in a shower of gore, gun loudly clattering to the floor as his owner quickly followed.
"I'd say around four days, darling. A week tops." Rouge purred in his ears, uncaring of the murder shed likely heard through the headset.
"Contact me when you're done." Shadow responded before cutting the call before she could respond. He preferred limiting his time spent talking to the snarky thief.
The prisoners in the cages nearby flinched and backed away, whimpering as they desperately avoided the ruby eyes of the Ultimate Lifeform. Some stared at the dead guard with amazement, their bodies locked in place as their minds debated fleeing from the dangerous hybrid or thanking him for getting rid of their tormentors.
Shadow walked past the grisly scene he'd created, scarlet eyes picking out the rust-ridden stairs that led to the upper section of the building. Checking the ground floor for more guards one last time, he headed towards the end of the building, only to pause as he reached the staircase. The dark warrior forced down a scowl as something he'd thought long dead rose up in his chest, demanding him to turn around and do the right thing.
No. His mind snarled at it, hating the idea of giving in. It's their fault they are here. If they had been more careful, it wouldn't have happened.
(What would Maria do?)
...defeated, Shadow sighed loudly before snapping his fingers.
Multiple cries of surprise echoed across the black market factory as locks burst into golden flames and melted away into nothing. One of the braver prisoners reached out and poked the door of his prison, and let out a strangled keen of relief as it finally opened. Soon enough they were all out of their cages, weeping in each other's arms.
Glancing back, Shadow even saw some kick the dead guards in a futile attempt at revenge.
Mortals' need for violence never changes, it seems.
Not one to partake in the celebration, the immortal walked up the stairs, the damp factory floor disappearing from his sights to be replaced by a more lavish second floor. He stood in front a ornate door, which he promptly kicked open with little difficulty.
One the other side, he was greeted with the sight of a tall, slightly pudgy man frantically shoving a half-naked girl aside while reaching for a gun sitting on the elaborate wooden desk he'd been sitting on.
Which promptly caught fire.
The squeals of pain the wretched human let out as he dropped the weapon almost made Shadow sneer. It seemed as if every day there was a new reason for him to hate the overgrown apes.
The girl ran past him, sobbing loudly as she clutched the tattered remains of her clothes against her bruised skin. Shadow took note of her appearance from the corner of his eyes. Her blond hair was dirty and frazzled, and her skin hung tight against a emaciated frame.
Keeping his expression carefully blank as to disguise the sudden burst of primal rage growing within his heart, the obsidian male did not waste any time talking and walked up the petrified man, keeping his pace slow to savour the terror growing in the vile beast's eyes.
His left hand found its way around the man's throat, drawing a desperate squeak from the snivelling coward.
"Wait-"
Snap.
The crunch of his neck breaking was oh so satisfying for the Ultimate Lifeform. Discarding the body to the side without a thought, he focused his attention on the slightly charred desk in front of him. Walking around it, he began pulling the drawers out, checking for traps and rifling through documents quickly, making a mental note of which to keep for Rouge as he thrashed the room for what he'd came for.
Finally, as he reached the bottom left drawer, Shadow found it to be locked tight with a reinforced metal lock. He paused, eyeing the offending object, before he shrugged and grabbed it in both hands tightly. The snap that followed echoed across the lavishly furnished room as the flimsy metal face away under the strength of the Ultimate Lifeform.
His final obstacle having been overcome, Shadow easily opened the drawer. A shark-like smirk stretched across tan lips as his eyes zeroed on their target.
There you are.
Reaching in, Shadow pulled out a large, shimmering blue stone.
Satisfied, he traced the edges of the artifact as he stood up -but he paused when a stack of paper under where the Chaos Emerald had been stored caught his attention.
It had to be valuable if it was hid in the same place as the mythical jewel. Speckles of dried blood cluttered the edges of the frayed paper, hinting at the fate of whoever had stolen them from their rightful owner.
Interest peaked, Shadow reached in and pulled out the documents, laying them out on the desk. He could tell right away that they were incomplete due to the small size of the stack of papers, but the sheer complexity of what they depicted. This only made him more curious. Partial blueprints were all but useless in the black market: whatever this was, it was important enough to have the same level of security of a Chaos Emerald for the human he'd just killed.
Shadow's ears twitched, making him pause. He could hear the distant sound of sirens in the background from the local law enforcement, but he paid no mind. Any non-military force on the planet with a brain knew better than to stay in his way if they had the chance. The Ultimate Lifeform had spent plenty of years building up his reputation as a unstoppable force. He had plenty of time.
The striped hedgehog lit the desk's lamp and pulled it closer to the documents as he spread them, ruby eyes scanning the strange drawings with muffled curiosity, examine the shallow dips and curves of the sketches and what little writing was scattered between all of them. The paper was frizzled and yellow; he judged them to be at least a month old.
For once his mask broke, a frown breaking through the facade at what he saw.
He knew what he was seeing -the down turned quills and runner form were enough of a clue. There was one key issue however between the neatly drawn sketches and the real life mobian Shadow had nearly strangled to death a few days prior.
For starters, these were schematics of a robot.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
He grimaced as his shoes sunk into the vase, the muddy earth biting down on his feet and threatening to drag him further in. With a bit of extra effort he pulled himself lose onto firmer ground, grimacing at the squelching sound his shoes made upon being freed from the murky swamps.
Despite the time he spent away from the zone, it seemed as if nothing had changed.
The air was thick with humidity, stagnant, the faint smells of metal and gunpowder he'd come to be familiar with in his childhood making his nose wrinkle in distaste. Green eyes looked around sharply, once more trying to remember the route to the encampment.
Just as he was about to double back in case he'd accidentally ran pass the camp, the sound of a plane echoed across the clear skies. Sonic snapped his head up to the sky, eyes gleaming with joy as a bright purple plane looped high above his head with a roar, no doubt following the tracking beacon his brother had place in one of his shoes years ago.
Amused by his little sibling's antics, the Commander reached up and activated his headset.
"You do realize that this is a warzone, right?" The young mobian scolded lightheartedly as the plane continued to dance across blue skies.
"Like you're the one to talk." A child's voice replied on the other end snarkily. "Might I remind you of the time you decided to ride on a missile just to see if you could?"
"Hey, it served its purpose." Sonic joked back defensively. "I've never seen Robotnick so red, I thought he would pop a blood vessel!"
"It served its purpose alright." The boy replied in a deadpan manner. "That hairline leg fracture did too."
"Details." Sonic waved him off, eyes tracking the bright purple plane closely. "Hey Knux, are you there?"
A low, grumpy growl echoed through the communication line. "Of course, hedgehog." The last echidna's voice was deep and strong, much like the rocks the mobian could crush with his bare hands. "What do you want?" Was said more warily.
"Alrighty! So, while Tails is busy recounting in all of the amazing stunts I've done so far, can you be a good third wheel and show me the way to the camp?"
"Fuck you." A pause. Sonic grimaced as he accidentally stepped on a sizeable mushroom, the slick material nearby sending him tumbling into the mud. Dammit, karma. "It's southwest of your position; you can't miss it, jackass."
"Aw, I knew you had it in you!" The sapphire hero purred softly. "Seriously though, 'fuck you'? Is that a confession I hear?"
A terrifying snarl echoed through the line, and the cobalt male quirked a eyebrow as he heard Tails yelp, the purple plane above taking a small dip in altitude before the fox managed to get a grip and steer it back up. Even from here, the speedster could hear the echidna salivating with anger.
"You little-"
Sonic promptly deactivated the headset, humming a happy tune as he spun around and headed towards the desired location. He was pretty sure he'd just earned a beating from his overbearing companion, but eh, that would only happen if Knuckles could catch him, right?
...sometimes he wondered how Mother Nature hadn't offed him already...
And the plot for this first half unfolds. Like it? Hate it? If you think it needs any tweaks, feel free to comment. I was supposed to have pushed out one of the bigger stories' chapters out, but they have been on their way, just not as fast as the smaller stories.
Then again I usually write around 2k for this, Bitter Cold and Caged Time, while stories like Broken Stream get up to 6k per chapter...good thing I only have two big stories right now...