Violet Dreams

Chapter 9: Overcome

"Pain is temporary. It may last an hour, a day, a month or a year, but eventually it will subside."

Location: Outside GUN HQ, Emerald Desert

Heat matched by no other place on the planet Earth beat down on the entire desert, causing intense gusts of dry wind to blow about. In the distance, a devastating sand storm was howling towards the GUN Base. However, the terrain was left untouched around the base until the storm hit.

Standing amongst the few trees found in the Emerald Desert, Shadow clutched a flashing piece of machinery he had torn from the robot which had attacked him earlier. Turning the advanced piece of technology around, the black hedgehog noticed a GPS screen on the back, which had been programmed to go to the GUN Headquarters. Shadow grew curious as to why the Doctor would even try to get inside when he already had the rest of the world pinned down. Glancing behind him at the city that once stood proud, Shadow growled and clutched the cluetighter. As a high-ranking GUN Black Ops officer, it was his duty to stop Eggman.

The sound of intense gunfire and explosions suddenly erupted from the base, and pillars of smoke billowed out of the complex. With adrenaline pumping through his veins, Shadow raced through the dry sand floor of the desert, kicking up a cloud of dust in the wake of his Air Skates. Alarms sounded and additional gunfire ensued as chaos began to unleash on the base. The screams of the scarce soldiers remaining became drowned out by the continuous explosions. Nearing the entrance of the facility, and knowing that the courtyard would be the main battleground, Shadow quickly clutched the Chaos Emerald in his possession, which warped him from the outside and into a sniper tower within. The black hedgehog rolled along the hard steel flooring of the tower and slid against a few sandbags, quickly retrieving a suitable scoped rifle leaning against the wall.

Aiming the scope towards first the horizon, Shadow clocked in the rifle, determining the time before the storm hit. "Fifteen minutes is plenty of time." Shadow remarked, and then angled the sights down into the courtyard.

Where once majestic statues of war and brilliant plant life stood, there was now a battleground for the waging war between Eggman and the world. The few hundred remaining soldiers fought valiantly to secure their base, using whatever ammunition possible: fuel containers, oil deposits, rundown military trucks, anything. Zooming into the far side of the courtyard, Shadow noticed the massive hole that the prison house wall had received. Dangerous criminals scurried out of their cells and into the fray. Some survived, and some got caught up between whizzing bullets of the soldiers. Quickly moving the sights towards the high-security containment house, which had been code named "Block 00," the hedgehog began to fight an overwhelming urge to vomit.

The heads of high ranking GUN soldiers from around the world sat atop flags of Eggman. The sight disgusted him. Seeing his military brothers being slaughtered left and right, his hopes for GUN effectively holding Eggman's forces off began to seem like a wild fantasy. Though, as brutal as it seemed, he still found it quite depressing, as he had grown to know many of the soldiers.

Finally, it hit him. Eggman's plan seemed perfect now that he finally realized it. This war wasn't for world domination at all! He was simply attacking the capitals in order to weaken GUN to the point he could set up a search for the Chaos Emeralds behind the scenes. Now he understood why the mech he had faced outside Station Square had a tracker in it! Eggman didn't care about destroying the cities at all; it was a distraction!

"Damnit!"

Shadow dropped the rifle in an instant and jumped out of the tower, landing behind a remaining hedge. Moving quickly and silently towards the entrance of Block 00. He had to give the Doctor some credit; his plan was brilliant! By declaring war against the nations of the world, the United Federation would be obligated to send out their own troops to assist. With the Doctor's unlimited supply of robotic pawns, it allowed him to take power over the military, and bring the government to its knees! Which left only Sonic and co. to indefinitely scout out the Emeralds once more to try and stop him. Of course, the doctor had already planned for that, Shadow figured, and built more powerful, singular robots to hunt out the Chaos Emeralds.

Something didn't add up though. What did the GUN HQ have anything to do with the war? Shadow remained unanswered however, whatever lay in Block 00 was sure to be his final answer. Rounding the corner of the final hallway, and finding the security checkpoint blown to pieces, powerful amounts of red and yellow energy flared to life within Shadow's hands, ready to destroy whatever got in his way. The high-powered hedgehog sped down the corridor as he descended into the final holding cells of the base. He was entering the only place keeping the world's most dangerous people contained. The black hedgehog quickly burst through one final checkpoint, and sped down the final ramp which led into the central intelligence office.

Block 00 had been constructed like a doughnut of sorts. The central office and armory was located dead center, while the five hundred and seventy two prison cells were configured around it. Separating the prisoners from the guards was a pit filled with toxic waste. Shadow slowed to a jog, and flicked on the checklist computer. His eyes scanned the information that had popped on the screen.

"Cells 1 through 572A have been breached, prisoners either dead or missing." Shadow's heart began to pound as he began to realize what the Doctor was after. "He doesn't want the Chaos Emeralds at all. He must have figured out about that girl."

Intel reports over the past few months reported the appearance of several odd energy signatures around the world, one of which GUN had captured. The five hundred and seventy third prisoner of Block 00. His brain flashed through the tests given to her, showing the intense amounts of untapped energy within her body. Eggman must have figured something out about this energy, and wanted to use it for his own twisted schemes!

The black hedgehog turned off the high tech computer and quickly grabbed an assault rifle. After reloading and cocking the fire arm, the black hedgehog grabbed a small key with a slip of paper reading "572B" on it. Shadow quickly ignited his Air Skates and sped towards the prison cell only the most trusted GUN soldiers ever even heard about. Reaching a gigantic blast door, Shadow inserted the key, which lit up a small glass panel on the door. After he'd punched in a series of numbers, the door retreated upwards, allowing the black hedgehog to dash in before it closed, moments before Eggman's pawns invaded the Block.

Blood and bones littered the descending hallway, as well as scratches and writing on the walls. Shadow knew what Eggman was after. Finally, he reached the end of the corridor, where a glass box big enough to hold a small car sat. Within sat beautiful white furnishings and sitting in the far corner of the box was a girl of about fifteen or sixteen.

She was prisoner 572B. This girl had failed to comply to national guard by not giving up an artifact which was classified as a threat to mankind. Shadow remembered the torture he was ordered to put the girl through, grimacing to the fact he was forced to put an innocent girl through such pain. The government labeled her as an S-Class terrorist and locked her up in a special holding cell within Block 00.

"Crush Moana, under the circumstances of world war, you're being transferred," Shadow directed, walking into the prison cell. "The weapon you possess is of high priority by wanted war criminal, Doctor Ivo Robotnik," The black hedgehog informed bluntly. "To ensure national security, you're being moved to ensure you aren't captured by him."

The young girl snarled, almost like a wild animal. "What more could that man do to me than you hell-bent freaks?"

The girl, Crush, had icy blue fur with specks of white. Her eyes seemed to be a metallic-blue color, which matched the color of her lip, nose piercings and the gems embedded in her black leather wrist bands. Her snow-white hair had been pulled into a pony tail, and she was forced to wear a white shirt and white pants, which concealed her hourglass figure. Her pointed ears signified her heritage to the fox family of anthros. Growling with impatience, Shadow grabbed the girl's hand and yanked her up to full height, where she only came up to Shadow's chest.

"Listen to me you ignorant brat," Shadow barked. "Eggman wants you for something, and that something isn't going to end well! So unless you want this whole damn planet gone, you'll come with me!"

The young girl pushed away from the black hedgehog, and staggered back a bit. "Fine, whatever..." Crush muttered timidly, "but I highly doubt I'll be of any use. I told you I didn't do anythin-"

Before she could finish, the four-foot-thick blast door was blown inwards, sending it hurling down the corridor. Grabbing the girl bridal style, Shadow bounded out of the glass prison cell, and over top of the blast door moments before it smashed into containment cell. A storm of glass, feathers and wood exploded forth. A fleet of Eggman's pawns flooded the hallway, keeping their rifle's sights locked on Shadow. A cloud of bullets sailed past Shadow moments before he landed behind the invaders and sped off along the outer ring of Block 00.

"Now pay attention," Shadow explained, his eyes darting back to the corridor anxiously, "whatever it is that you have is very powerful." Shadow growled and quickly set the girl down behind a bundle of sheets and boxes, allowing him to fire off three Chaos Spears at the oncoming group of robots.

Grunting as the hedgehog picked her up once more, the young girl yelped as the black hedgehog sped up towards a fleet of robots of an even greater number than before. Acting as quickly as possible, the black hedgehog bounded over the robots.

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Of course you don't!" Shadow snapped back. "You don't even know how great of a threat you are to this planet if that man manages to capture you!"

A brilliant and heavenly green light suddenly enveloped them, illuminating the entire Block before it disappeared, taking them with it.

Appearing outside the containment building, Shadow set his prisoner, and the final piece to the puzzle, down on the ground and quickly shot off a Chaos Spear at a nearby GUN vehicle. The force of the small explosion of energy pushed the truck against the opening of the facility, and again Shadow disappeared, leaving the girl alone.

A terrifying, yet warm, crimson light began to radiate against the cracks that the truck hadn't concealed. Steam began to rise out of the truck, and finally high pressured blasts of air tore the military vehicle away, giving way for a brilliant burst of red energy to tear apart the entrance lobby of Block 00, trapping the robots within. Another flash of light appeared as Shadow rematerialized from Chaos Control, and pulled the young fox up once more.

"Hurry up, I need to get you somewhere safe!"

Suddenly, Shadow's eyesight became blurry, and his senses became numb. His mind seemed to seep away from reality, and the only remaining sensation was the agonizing pain in his torso. With fading vision, the black hedgehog grasped his stomach as warm red liquid seeped through his gloves, staining them. Shadow, the Ultimate Lifeform, crouched over in pain, and finally sunk to the ground as a pool of blood began to form beneath him. Crush screamed in terror as Metal Knuckles quickly scooped her up against her will and disappeared.

Eggman was about to win the war.

Location: Neutralized District, Empire City

Walking through the only safe city block of the entire city, Sonic felt an air of relief to see people being given medical treatment and food being distributed amongst the citizens. Glancing down at the small radar in his hand for what seemed to be the hundredth time in the last five minutes, Sonic turned a corner and began to jog down the street, which had been littered with destroyed buildings and burning cars. The blue hero sped past signs warning that if one were to continue, they'd exit the safe zone. The blue hero prepared himself, beginning to block out the sounds of gunfire and eruptions from airstrikes. Dashing and veering through the destruction, Sonic noticed the Chaos Emerald depicted on the radar was significantly closer, giving him a sense of accomplishment.

The blue hero shot through the chaos of clashing soldiers and mechs, doing his best to ignore the dead bodies on the ground. Sonic quickly bounded to his right, avoiding an oncoming GUN tank just before it fired off its cannons. An eruption of fire and smoke swallowed up a cluster of approaching Egg-Pawns, destroying them and scattering their parts over the battlefield. A shell of light flickered to life around the blue hero as he began to speed up towards the curved entrance to the freeway. Sonic wasn't used to this environment; he hadn't seen war before.

Shooting around the sharp turn and onto the freeway, Sonic launched off an upturned chunk of pavement and soared across a hundred-yard gap in the road. Descending in the direction of a guard rail, Sonic's shoes clicked against the steel of the rail and the blue hedgehog slid along the rail as if he were on a snowboard. However, he had failed to notice the bright pulse of light on a collapsed sky-scraper to his left, and took the full force of a shot from an energy cannon. The pulse of energy wrapped around him as its force shot the blue hedgehog away from the rail and into the air. Smoking and dazed, the blue hedgehog failed to soften his landing and smashed shoulder first into the rough pavement, and bouncing across it several times before rolling head over heels into a fallen billboard. The sound of paper ripping and metal tearing added to the sounds of the war taking place.

Sparking and fizzling on the ground beside him, the tracker broke apart into little pieces, falling out of Sonic's hand. Seething and grumbling in pain, the blue hedgehog slowly pushed himself up with his right arm, as his left hung lifelessly at his side, putting an uneven handicap on the battle over the Chaos Emerald in the area. Rock and chipped cement rolled away from the sky-blue hero as he stood up to face his attacker.

"Heh, back for more you bucket of bolts?" Sonic teased as the golden-armored mech landed on the ground.

"Under orders of Doctor Robotnik, I am to exterminate you, and return the Chaos Emerald," the EX Ace explained, its wings powering up behind it.

"You have no idea how many times I've heard that, pal!" Sonic retorted with a grin, despite his broken arm. "Why don't you give up before I break ya'?"

"Negative."

Acting quickly, the blue hero bounded to the left, avoiding a strike from the EX Ace's energy sword. As the hero grabbed hold of an upright pole, he swung around and smashed his heels into the robot, knocking it away into a car, resulting in the vehicle being crushed. The blue hero zipped through the air, quickly forming a rippling orb of blue energy in his useable hand just as the mech unleashed a relentless beam of spinning energy from its torso. Sonic quickly spun to the left as his feet touched the ground, avoiding the beam as it smashed into an oil truck, creating an explosion. Sonic quickly thrust his right arm forwards, driving the mass of energy into the robot.

Three rapid bursts of blue energy erupted from the other side of the mech just as it grabbed the hedgehog's broken arm and tossed him away, seemingly untouched by the attack. Sonic bounced off the ground and smashed into another car as glass crashed to the ground around him. The hedgehog bit his lip in pain as he clutched his arm from the hit, and staggered away from the car. Three powerful thrusts of light erupted from the Ace, propelling it across the four-way crossing with its energy blade extended and ready to strike.

Sonic took in a deep breath, and exhaled. Just before the blade of light collided with his ribcage, Sonic grabbed it with his usable hand, burning his glove and hand, and then kicked off the ground, successfully flipping over top of the mech and landing behind it. The blue hedgehog delivered a powerful roundhouse kick into the mech's head, throwing it to the ground. However, overwhelmed with the pain of his broken arm, the hedgehog stumbled to the ground. The Ex Ace swiftly fired its thrusters up once more, boosting it into the sky, and in the direction of the sun.

With a few grunts of discomfort, Sonic scrambled to his feet and began whipped his arm through the air, releasing a powerful storm of blue wind in the direction of the Ace. Using only a few small blasts of energy the Ace negated Sonic's attack and continued firing at him, forcing him to run.

Zipping across the street in an instant, Sonic jumped off a wall which propelled him into the air towards an opening in an adjacent window, narrowly escaping powerful torrents of energy being fired from the Ace. As he took cover behind a wall to escape the robot's keen vision, he formed another swirling orb of energy in his palm. This time, however, it flattened against his hand forming a razor-looking shape.

"I have to aim this right," Sonic mumbled to himself, attempting to catch his breath. "Or I'm done for."

A split second before energy shots tore apart his shelter, Sonic scurried to his left and after skidding to push himself through the air once more he noticed a small red gleam in the window sill of a building beside him. A small grin etched itself across his lips as he found a small piece of confidence to the battle. The blue hero swung his arm around and released the screaming mass of energy through the air towards the Ace.

Passing the mech the exact moment his attack hit allowed him to jump off its head in order to get a height advantage, just before the razor-shaped mass of light tore into the robot, creating a violent sphere of spinning energy ripping apart its armor, leaving it vulnerable to any other strikes.

Sonic smashed through a window still in-tact and rolled across the floor, covering his eyes from the bright light his offensive maneuver created. Sonic quickly scrambled to his feet once more, doing his best to ignore the raging pain in his arm and stumbled down the stairs, narrowly avoiding a vicious ray of energy from ripping him to shreds.

Debris rained over the streets as the entire upper level of the building he'd entered a second ago blew apart, throwing him onto the asphalt. Sonic quickly regained footing, noticing that the robot had began to ascend.

"Running away are we?" the hero snickered, hoping his guess was true. Blue energy wrapped around his hand, and once more spun into a razor. He thought he might test his luck with it again.

"Energy output at 100%, redirect to central cannon."

The swarming wings of light upon the Ace's back suddenly disappeared as two plate of armor shifted away from a ring in its core. Particles of light began to gather around the central point, creating a black and white mass of compacted energy, overpowering the light of the sun behind it. Determination evident in his expression, he poured more of his energy into the spiraling mass in his clutch.

"Here's what's gonna happen, bolt-brains!" Sonic called out above the sound of charging energies. "I'm gonna avoid your fancy attack, destroy you and then get that Chaos Emerald over there! All in one attack!"

Turning its optic sensors to the left momentarily, the Ace located the Chaos Emerald on the edge of the top floor of the building Sonic motioned towards. Sonic smirked, and just as the compiled mass of black energy fired in a powerful burst of purple and white light, Sonic jumped away from it and towards the Chaos Emerald in a flash of blue. The whir of the attack spinning rapidly in his palm echoed through the city before the powerful sonic boom given off by the Ace's attack swallowed all sound up. Not realizing the true potential of the robot's attack, Sonic collided with the edge of the beam and rolled along the top floor of a house, his attack fading away.

Pushing himself back up and with a mighty jump he soared above the beam of deadly energy, and towards the Ace. Reforming instantly in his hand, the razor-shaped Sonic Wind popped into life. As he swiftly hurled his new attack downwards, the same sphere of blue light erupted around the mech, causing it's circuits to fry moments before its own attack swallowed it up. A brilliant display of blue and purple from the mixture of both maneuvers filled the sky. Several bursts of wind plunged into Sonic from the force of the explosion, throwing him into another building, emerald in hand.

Sonic rolled along the floor, and after smashing into the far wall, he sighed in relief. "Didn't think that would work."

Location: Specimen Containment, Death Egg IV

Violent eruptions of fire and smoke spewed dangerously from the bound figure. His vicious screams of anger filling the air of the blast-proof room, controlling the intensity of the fire around the captive. With a swish of smoke, the blast doors lifted upwards, allowing the overweight scientist, Doctor Eggman, entrance into the containment area. A wide grin spread across his lips as he stood calmly in front of the captured specimen, who looked rather exhausted by this point. Zapping streams of green energy flashed into existence, pulling the cuffs around the figure's wrists tighter.

"As you probably know, you've been captured due to a rare energy source bestowed within you," Eggman stated, standing in front of the enraged captive. "I'll take a chance and assume your encounter with my dear Metal Sonic didn't end up in your favor?"

"Shut your mouth!"

Streams of intense electricity lit up the room like a light, scorching the captive fire user for lashing out at the Doctor. "Now, if you'd settle down and allow me to do my work, this can all be done quickly, and cleanly." The mad scientist moved towards a table to his right, acquiring a remote control.

"Whatever it is you want from me," Gantz snarled, his eyes lit with determination, "just know you won't get it alive. I'm a part of one of the most powerful underground operations on the planet, and I'm one of their top agents! God forbid you kidnap me without them getting revenge!"

"It's a good thing we're not on the planet then," Eggman retorted simply, and then clicked a button on the device he picked up.

Transparent masses of liquidized energy suddenly began to drip down the holding cuffs, melting Gantz's skin as it began to soak into his body, in search of the energy source that had been given to him at birth. Screams of pain and terror pierced the deadly silence of the research lab, awakening another captive. The miserable and disgusting smell of burnt flesh began to waft through the air, causing the barely awakened secondary prisoner-Crush-to vomit. Gantz let out a roar of pain once more as the smoldering hole in the back of his neck began to close. The brilliant flames that once danced around his body slowly died out as his consciousness teetered. His mind began to fade in and out of reality, as a black void slowly enveloped his sight.

"Artifact Twilight Key recovery has begun. Time until extraction: Two hours and fifty-five minutes," a robotic voice conveyed, bringing a wide grin to the doctors face.

"Thank you Eve," Eggman acknowledged his creation, and walked towards his second captive. "Calculate vitals on prisoner 002 and ensure he survives extraction."

A video feed of Gantz appeared on the massive LED screen hanging on the far wall, a green bar present next to the recording. Nodding with appreciation, the Doctor turned towards a hallway just before the lights in the containment room flickered off, leaving the two prisoners alone with the horrific sounds of each others screams of pain.

Location: Hatching Room, Death Egg IV

"Ah, yes." Eggman marveled at the six five-foot metal containers. "Everything's starting to come into place! With the final two keys on their way with Metal Sonic and Metal Knuckles, I'll be ready to activate Project Rebirth, and mark the start of the era of Eggman!"

Steam rolled off the containers as the green liquid within the central pod began to drain away. Within it, purple eyes opened up in the darkness. The Doctor walked out of the room, his laugh audible through the entire sector of the Death Egg.

"A lie is a lie. Just because they write it down and call it history, doesn't make it the truth. We live in a world where seeing is not believing. We live in a world where everything you know...is wrong." ~ Isaiah Hudson, GUN Black Ops Commander; M.I.A, 2009

To Be Continued

Authors Note~ Yes, I got the last quote from Call of Duty Black Ops. I really liked it, and to be truthful, it kinda fits! I really spent a lot of time on this chapter, and look! It was done quicker than last time! Bonus right there! I hope you guys enjoyed this one as much as I did, because we're about to delve into the full story of things! If you guys have any questions, comments, tips or theories, PLEASE leave them in a review! I have a small relation to a movie in the scene with Shadow. It isn't ENTIRELY noticeable, but if you do, give me a shout! It particularly involves Block 00 holding the most dangerous criminals, and having an unknown extra prisoner and blah blah blah! Anyway! If you wanna take a shot at it, feel free to do so in a review or a PM (messages are preferred, since I don't want it spoiled for others). Expect chapter 10 soon!

Another special thanks to my beta-reader, Aspiring Mythmaker, for doing another wonderful job on reviewing and helping me edit this chapter! I truly feel that with him helping me edit, the Dusk series will truly shine this time! Thanks a lot man, I'm really happy with the help you've been providing for the last two chapters!