CHAPTER 3

Ok, it starts to get M-ish here…just a warning…

Five minuets and ten punches later, Ginny's cell door had been broken open and she now stood in front of the others. "Thanks. I want to run so bad…"

She had shiny black fur, except for a white streak that ran up the middle of her face and a small spot behind one ear. She wore a tight black suit, more for blending in with darkness than showing off curves. Her eyes were a dark brown, almost reddish. A small communicator was latched in her right ear, but it was shut off. "If I were you, I'd get out of here." She said, tapping the device that refused to turn on.

"We can't leave Shadow. And besides, we have others here trying to find him." Tails said.

"Then that's going to be a probablem," Ginny swiped her tongue over her sharp teeth. "All right, follow me. Don't stray." She ran down the hall, the others close behind.

They came to the stairway that lead deep down into the darkness, pausing for a few seconds.

"Just stay close. Don't worry, no one will bother attacking us. Many of the guards here are terrified of this place and the ones who work down here hardly stray from their 'treatment rooms'. Usually their 'patients' are too weak to try to escape." Ginny started heading down into the darkness before turning and saying, "It comes in handy to listen in on your captors' conversations sometimes. Oh, that guard you knocked out…he's coming to."

Rouge flew back up the stairs and the others heard a sharp crack and a low moan before she came back. "Shouldn't be a probablem any more." She smiled.

The four of them made their way slowly down into the darkness, following the wall. They reached the ground and waited for Ginny to decide what to do.

"Just follow the wall. We'll reach somewhere eventually," She said lamely. "Look for a rectangle of light outlining a door. That'll be where we start."

They went straight for what seemed like forever until a faint yellow glow outlined a part of the wall. Ginny stooped down and in the darkness, slipped something out from one of her pockets. She pressed the unknown object into one side of the rectangle's light, slipping it into the room. The device in her hand glowed; she was holding some sort of illegal spying device.

The look on her face turned from shock to complete horror. She quickly deactivated the device, slipping it out from the door and into her pocket again.

"I'll just say that I'm glad Shadow wasn't in there." She whispered. "This side of GUN has gone completely off their rocker."

"What was in there?" Knuckles asked, dreading the answer.

"You don't want to know. I'll just say it was a long, slow and painful death by a madman."

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Silver lunged out at the darkness, connecting with nothing but the wall. Sonic too threw punches, but only succeeded in knocking Silver to the ground. The cold voice laughed, amused, and then faded off.

"What was that?" Silver gasped.

"It's...just something to keep intruders away. A security system." Sonic said, actually sounding more frightened than he felt. "There's no way someone can just blend in with the darkness, right?"

"Yeah…yeah, you're right." Silver agreed. "But still, that was really scary."

"Let's just-" Sonic was cut off as something hit him in the stomach, sending him crashing into the wall with a loud "Ooof!"

"Sonic?" Silver squeaked before something caught him in the jaw, sending him spinning to the ground.

"Wait! They're with us!" a voice said, this one scared and light, nothing like the evil one.

"Tails?" Sonic coughed.

"Oh, good! We thought you were lost!"

"Who hit me?" Silver demanded.

"My bad," A new voice muttered. "I'm Ginny. Don't worry, I'm on your side. Shadow could be in real danger."

"Tell me something I don't know." Sonic muttered.

"No, I mean serious danger. If my suspicions are correct, he's in one of these rooms. This basement is nicked named the 'torture chamber' for reasons you might find out shortly. I just pray nothing serious has been done to your friend."

On that heavy note, a second of silence answered them.

"So come on." Ginny growled. "Follow my voice. We'll find him sooner or later."

They stumbled onto another glowing rectangle of light. Ginny set up her viewing screen, her eyes growing wide and scared. "Here's just an example of what might be happening."

"Tails, you probably shouldn't see this." Sonic muttered.

"I didn't want to in the first place." Tails said quietly.

The image on the screen was truly out of a horror movie. Sonic watched as the prisoner struggled against the bonds holding him to the table as someone in a white lab coat walked over, a thick knife in his hand that reminded Sonic of a butcher's blade. He shut his eyes and looked away as the screams echoed out of the room, so loud that it was almost like they were standing next to the victim.

"Come on," Ginny put the viewing screen away and they quickly hurried away from the door as the screams turned to blood-choked gurgles and then to nothing at all.

"Would they do that to Shadow?" Tails whispered.

"Kid, Shadow probably got ten times that." Ginny sighed. "Ten times that pain, but not death. Death would be too merciful."

Silence for minuets more. They approached another door, this one's light dulled around the edges. Ginny attached the camera, but even she couldn't figure out what was in the room.

"We'll have to go in." She decided. "Be ready for anything. When I say that, I mean it."

Much to their surprise, the door opened easily. The room inside was dimmed, almost like the twilight before the night. But even in the soft light, everyone could see the blood on the blades and equipment that lay scattered over a stone bloodstained operating table, metal restraints caked with red. The floor around it was also speckled with drops of blood, dried and stale. In one corner, a smashed beer bottle lay, broken shards littering the floor. The metallic smell in the air made the group gag.

"Who could have been put through this?" Rouge asked, trying to comfort a whimpering Tails. "Put though this and survived?"

"We're about to find out." Knuckles pointed in a corner, where a cell-like cage was standing. Something was lying limply in the corner, not moving other than the quick, irregular rising and falling of their chest.

The group cautiously approached. Rouge turned away with a choked gasp, taking Tails with her. It took everyone else a few seconds to realize who they were staring at.

Shadow looked as though he was run over and then ripped apart, patched together so horribly that his limbs were of no use anymore. Thick tubes and wires covered his body from a tall machine in the back of the cage. That was probably the only thing keeping him alive. His eyes were kept from opening by a long strip of duct-tape, wrapping around his head. Stitched up incisions covered his entire body, bloodstained and uncovered.

"What did they do to him?" Knuckles whispered.

"They made his life a living hell," Silver choked out, pointing to the broken bottle in the corner. "I think they cut him open and put glass in his wounds, stitching him back up again. Every movement he makes he'd be destroying himself."

"Oh, good Chaos…" Ginny hid her face in her black-gloved hands.

"We've got to get him out of here." Sonic gripped the cage's door and unlatched the multiple locks, opening it and dropping down by Shadow's side. "I've got a Chaos Emerald…but it won't teleport more than one of us."

Shadow's head twitched slightly, his lips parting and he only managed to whisper in a hoarse voice; a single choked word before becoming still again.

"…M…Maria…"

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He WON'T die!

….yet….

Muhahaha!

So until I update…remember that if I don't get lots of reviews, he will die!

Hasta la Vista, Readers…Muhahaha!

Lordoftheghostking28

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