Shadow Saves Them All

Chapter 7

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER HAS SOME VERY INTENSE SCENES OF GRAPHIC VIOLENCE. IF YOU ARE YOUNG OR HAVE A QUEASY STOMACH ABOUT THAT SORT OF THING, THEN READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. I WILL SUMMARIZE THIS CHAPTER IN THE NEXT ONE FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DO NOT READ THIS ONE. REMEMBER, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED… SO DON'T BLAME ME IF YOU GET NIGHTMARES!

Hot tip. For maximum effect, read while listening to "Morphogenetic Sorrow," I'll say (Now) when I want you to.

Shadow ran through Station square with robots following him, hot on his heels.

"Dylan! Come in Dylan!" he kept shouting into the communicator in his inhibitor ring. He got no response aside from static and a few words…

"Eggman… Helmet…" He shook off the static and continued to jet through the streets. The robots flew after him and fired rockets and bullets hoping to turn him into a pin cushion. He had managed to grab the teal chaos emerald from a hill just outside of Station Square, and some Eggman robots happened to see him.

A hail of bullets followed Shadow and skimmed off his fur as the robots continued to fire at a faster pace. One managed to bounce off the pavement and ricochet pounding into Shadows head. Luckily it bounced off his head from being thrown off by the ricochet. This was the boiling point for Shadow. He stopped dead in his tracks and the robots surprisingly did the same. Shadow's face was hidden from the robots as he put his hand to his head. He had been bruised and slightly cut, he let the blood roll onto his gloves and then clenched his fist.

He grabbed the teal Chaos emerald from his hiding place and turned around with fury in his eyes. He held the emerald in front of him and shouted; "CHAOS BLAST!"

The power of his Chaos blast was so immense it blew away all the robots in no time, the wave passed right over them and eradicated them. Shadow put the emerald away and relaxed;

"Now that they're gone, I can try to communicate with him," Shadow tried once again to communicate with Dylan, only this time it worked perfectly. Those robots must've been jamming the signal.

…

I finally got the damn device to work and I got through to Dylan. For some reason I heard heavy breathing on the other end, it took me a second to realize it was Dylan, he was beginning to sob. Then I heard a fist pound on something. "DAMMIT!" I heard loudly.

"Dylan!" I said into the device. His voice stopped and he responded with an unsure answer.

"Sh-Shadow?" he asked.

"I finally got through to you, where are you?" I said. His fist pounded into something again and he shouted angrily.

"I'M IN Dr. Eggman's freaking base! He captured me because I was an idiot!" he was taking it really hard, as he should've. Idiots like Silver and Sonic don't win fights, they lose.

"Calm down, I'll figure out a way to get you out of there," I said. I didn't know for sure if I could though, I never make any promises I can't keep.

Well first I'd better get out of here, people are starting to notice me. I boosted out of there and didn't stop until I was safely out of city limits. I checked my watch; 2:22 A.M. still pretty early. I needed one more emerald before I could go after him though. I was sure there was someone else who had one. Rouge had two. I had one, Sonic and Silver both had one, that's five which are all with Dylan. Then there was the teal one which I found, what about the last one…

"Team Chaotix!" they had found the yellow one during an investigation recently. I can only hope those idiots didn't lose it or sell it. I began to run back into the city to the party Cream was throwing, Vector would probably be there with Charmy and Espio. Especially since he like Creams mother.

I made it to their front door in no time at all. I knocked and waited for someone to answer, no response. I had no time to spare, I kicked down the door and ran inside of Creams house… there was decimation everywhere.

(Now,)

The furniture was destroyed and the walls looked damaged. I walked into the den and saw the couch torn up with pillows torn to shreds on top of it. I noticed there was something underneath it, it looked yellow and white. I moved the pillows and saw it was Tails, he had been beaten and bruised. I picked him up and shook him saying; "What happened here? Answer me!" Tails opened his eyes slowly, he was cringing in pain.

"Eggman… Robots… check on… Cream…" Tails faded out. I had no time to spare. I ran to the kitchen and was horrified at what I saw. Vanilla's stomach had been sliced open and an eviscerated Vector laid on top of her. I nearly vomited at the sight. It seemed that they had been attacked so quickly they had no time to react. I looked on the kitchen wall to my left and I saw a large blood splatter on the wall. It dripped down to the ground and there I saw something horrifying. Charmy laid there, his small body squished… he looked absolutely repulsive. I walked over to Vanilla and checked her for the emerald… nothing. The same for Charmy, no dice. I just couldn't go near Vector, his injuries were too much to bear. That's when a drop of blood landed on my hand, I was almost frightened to look up, I immediately regretted doing so.

Espio had been nailed into the ceiling using a nail gun of sorts. His organs were hanging out of the open wounds as the smell of fresh death filled my nose…I nearly vomited. I ran out of the room and headed to the stairs, I ran up them to the equally destroyed hallway. All the doors were intact except for one, Cream's door.

I walked inside careful not step on any sharp pieces of wood and was horrified by what I saw. Cream laid there… dead. She was sitting there in her own little rocking chair with Cheese's bottle in her arms like she was feeding him just when something terrible happened. She had been impaled through her tiny body with a sharp blade. I looked around the room for Cheese and found him impaled into the floor next to the door. His poor body mashed down by the shrapnel, the only thing not covered in blood was his pain filled face.

They were all killed… I couldn't help but feel sorry for them… or even… be saddened by their deaths. What had happened?

"What happened here!?" I shouted clenching my chaos emerald in my hand. That's when the strangest thing happened. The emerald's energy shot out of it and flowed around the room. It flowed out of the doorway and down the stairs, I followed it. I saw it flow through the kitchen, living room, and dining room, as it did it brought color and life back to the building.

The building had been restored to normal and the bodies were gone. What happened? Could a single Chaos emerald do all this? No. That's not possible. All seven maybe but… one? I stood in front of the door when I heard it knocking. I turned around and was about to grab it when something stopped me, I don't know if it was a voice or feeling but something told me not to open it. I saw Vanilla come walking out of the kitchen and walked right into me, except… I didn't feel it. Was she a mirage? Or was I finally going insane? She opened the door and Vector stood outside with Charmy and Espio. They all put on smiles and said;

"Merry Christmas!" Vanilla smiled and said; "Welcome everyone, please come in!"

"Well thank you Vanilla!" Vector said loudly as he walked in. Espio walked in after him with Charmy flying in right behind him. Espio nudged Charmy and nodded his head. Charmy smiled and said; "Ohhhh! Right!" Charmy pulled out a box and gave it to Vanilla.

"Oh! Why thank you little man," she said smiling down at the little bee. Charmy blushed and said; "Awww… it was nothing," He flew into the living room with Espio as they sat down on the couch. Tails was sitting there talking with Cream and Cheese and they joined in. Vector sat down on the couch and Charmy sat next to him while Espio sat down next to Vector on the other side of the couch. They talked for a little until Vanilla said from the kitchen; "I've prepared a little late night snack for you all," Vector took this opportunity and jumped out of his seat and shouted to Vanilla;

"Oh! I'll come and help you Vanilla!" he rushed out of the room and ran straight into the kitchen to see Vanilla was cutting out cookies into Christmas shapes.

"Oh Vector, you really don't have to," she said smiling warmly at him, she didn't want to trouble him. Vector smiled closing his eyes. He could feel himself blushing as he talked;

"Nonsense! I don't mind! It's my duty to help anyone who needs me! And whenever you need me just gimme a call!" he said scratching his head. Vanilla smiled back at him; "Well thank you Vector, if you could preheat the oven please and set the timer, that'd be great,"

Vector stood firm like a soldier and saluted her saying; "Aye aye ma'am!" he got right to work on the oven. He unraveled something he was hiding, and put it in his hand, he turned around and was about to talk to Miss Vanilla, and that's when Cream came in with Cheese as they both rubbed their eyes. Vanilla looked at the clock and saw it was easily Ten after one o clock in the morning.

"Cream darling, I think it's time for you to get to bed," she said to her daughter. Cream rubbed her eyes some more and said yawning; "But I'm not tired," Cheese followed up with a "Chao Chao" Vanilla knelt down to her daughter and said;

"Now run along upstairs and get into your jammies. Be sure to feed Cheese and I'll be up soon to read you a bedtime story," she said with her motherly smile. Cream smiled as her eyes began to droop and said;

"Okay mommy," she turned around and walked up the stairs with Cheese. Espio and Charmy walked in after her and walked up to Vanilla. Espio asked;

"Is there anything we could do to help?" Vanilla thought for a moment.

"Well if you'd like you could set the table for us," she said off the top of her head.

"We're on it!" Charmy said happily, flying into the dining room with Espio following after him. That's when things went wrong. Tails was waiting in the living room when he noticed something outside, it looked weird. He walked over to the door and opened it. Before he could do anything else though, a large robotic dog had snapped it's jaws around Tail's tiny body and was flailing him around. It slammed Tails into the wall and ran into the living room jumping onto the couch. It dropped Tails out of its mouth and began to pulverize him with attacks.

Vector heard the disturbance and ran to the door, he looked over at Tails and was freaked out. He was about to run over and fight the dog when a robot flew at him from the doorway. He jumped back to dodge it and ran into the kitchen.

"Miss Vanilla! We need to go now!" he shouted to her. But she had her own problems to deal with. A robot had broken through the kitchen window and a blade unsheathed and ready to kill. It slashed at Vanilla and Vector shouted; "NOOOO!" he jumped in front of the slice and was cut open. He landed on Miss Vanilla and was unconscious. The robot decided to puree' Vector into a green jelly by slicing at him over and over, while Vanilla could only watch. He had been cut and sliced until there were open wounds everywhere on him and Vanilla. The robot had actually cut through Vector and killed Vanilla.

Espio and Charmy looked at the robot from the dining room and Charmy was traumatized. He stayed there flying in the same spot just staring at the bodies. Espio jumped into action and lunged at the robot, but another one grabbed his left arm and pressed him up against the wall. He struggled but could do nothing as the robot interchanged it's hand for a nail gun and proceeded to nail him into the ceiling once and for all. It started with his hands and feet, then moved on to the rest of his body. It kept nailing until it ran out of nails. The robots looked at Charmy who was now far beyond anyone's mental reach. The robot merely swatted him away like a regular insect. It had hit him so hard however, that it had made him squish against the wall, and slowly dragged down it to the floor.

The robots re-converged at the front door and went up the stairs. They checked all the rooms except for one, Cream's. This was going to be too gruesome to watch. They busted open the door and one robot put a laser sight on and aimed it at Cream's torso. Cream was quietly feeding Cheese his bottle when they busted in so she only just noticed them. She looked at them with fright and said with a quivering lip; "Who are you?" The robot fired a blade on a chain at the poor little girl and it impaled her, killing her on contact. Cheese was mortified and flew up away from her. He flew low by the robots legs so they couldn't catch him, he was almost out the doorway when the dog robot turned it's paw into a sharp piece of shrapnel and impaled him into the ground.

The three robots scanned the room after that and then left. They blasted through the wall in her room and departed. All was silent. The chaos emeralds power receded back into it and the house was once again grey and dead.

"I understand now. That was a vision of what happened here," I said. I felt the tears welling up as I walked down to the kitchen to check on Vanilla and see if she was still alive… nothing. I was about to check on Tails when I noticed Vector's hand was wrapped around something. I opened it and I was amazed at what I saw, the yellow Chaos Emerald! That's when I realized what happened, Vector was going to give Vanilla the emerald, and before he could, those robots showed up and did… this.

I walked over to Tails to see him barley conscious. I picked him up and shook him some as my tears began to be too much. I shouted at him;

"Wake up! You can't be gone too! You can't! Wake up!" no response.

"WAKE UP!" Shadow shouted as he gave way to his tears. He collapsed on the ground and sobbed. So many innocent lives were lost. He didn't care if they were stupid or not, they were innocent! INNOCENT. INNOCENT!

Shadows tears stopped. He clenched his fist in rage and shouted to the world.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"