No Brotherly Love 2: Echoes In Time
Chapter 2: Must Be A Shadow…
'This isn't possible. None of this is possible.' I think to myself as I follow Metal through the abandoned metallic hallways of the space station. 'I mean, all this talk of time travel and such, it's insane! Why can't I just go back to fighting egghead like I used to?' Before I can continue my little mental ramble, I feel Metal's robotic hand touch my chest, signalling me to stop.
"What the hell, Metal?" I ask him, in a more hostile way than I meant to.
He holds one of his finger's to his 'mouth', shushing me. He then uses the same finger to point at something down the hall. My eyes follow the direction of his finger, and I see what he's pointing at. A short distance away, crouched on the floor and overlooking a dead, bloody body, was a little boy. The sound he's emitting would at first make you think he's crying, but when I listen carefully, it's actually quiet laughter.
'Christ,' I think to myself, 'This kid reminds me of a certain little girl back in a hospital.' I quickly shake the horrific memory from my thoughts and ask Metal, "So, what are we gonna do?"
Metal gives me a long, serious stare before pointing his finger at something once again, this time, whatever it is, it's above us. I look up, and see that he is pointing to the station's vents.
I look back at Metal, with half lidded eyes and sarcastically say, "Oh, yippee."
It's not long 'till we're both in the ventilation system and making our way to God knows where. Metal was lighting the way with a torch that was melded onto his shoulder.
'Man,' I think, 'Metal sure had some work done.' Inevitably, he and I eventually come to a junction.
"Great, where to now iron butt?" I ask, knowing he'll have an answer (of sorts). He looks at the palm of his hand and, suddenly, what looks like a hologram of the entire space station pops out of his hand. I'm kinda taken aback by how calm he's acting, after all, it wasn't long ago since we saw a demonic Cream and a cannibalistic child. Metal was doing rather well, given the circumstances. I, on the other hand, was terrified. I had never felt a more powerful feeling of dread than now. It's impossible to shake the feeling that something bad is gonna come around the corner, and hopefully not the next one Metal takes me to.
After a long look at the hologram, Metal turns to me and gestures me to follow. "This way." He says calmly. I start to follow him, but when I hear something behind me, I can't help but turn around. I see nothing but the small, cramped space of the vents and the complete darkness that's in them.
'Must've been nothing.' I reassure myself, but when I turn back around, Metal is nowhere to be found. I crawl a bit further to see if I can see him or his torch, but there's no sign of him. I start to panic and look frantically around.
'God dammit! Why'd I have to lose him, especially here? Man, this is bad! This is really, really bad!' I cry out in my mind. To make things worse, my surroundings start to disappear again, like in the hospital.
I then hear a distant voice calling, "Sonic…" The voice was weak and almost silent, but I could just hear it. Unfortunately, I can't see anything anymore, so I'll have to rely on nothing but my hearing. I start to follow the voice, hoping to find the source of it soon. I pursue it for who knows how long, but each time I move forward, the volume of the voice becomes louder and louder. It eventually becomes so loud that it's nearly a scream.
"SONIC!" It screams, making me clasp my hands around my ears in pain. I quickly loose my balance as my surroundings start to reappear. But with my amount of misfortune, I have to lose my balance at a downward slope in the vents.
"Oh crap!" I shout as I fall down the metallic 'slide'. I eventually stop falling, but not without rolling painfully for a few seconds. I gather my thoughts and see that I am still inside the vents. It's also then that I notice a pair of red eyes staring at me.
"Ah!" I jump. Whoever these eyes belong to is a little too close for comfort. I look a bit closer and realize it's my good ol' buddy Metal. If he had facial expressions, I know it'd be one of irritation. He frustratingly signals me to follow him again, which I do so.
When we finally leave the ventilation system, I see that we're in, what looks like, a tram station.
"Metal," I ask, "Why are we here?"
Metal switches of his flashlight and turns to me. "We're here because we need to get to the government sector." I give him a puzzled look, which he clearly notices because he starts to explain why. "We're going there because there's someone who can help us, an old friend."
"Who?"
Metal laughs jokingly and answers, "You'll see."
This immediately makes me feel uneasy, and I start to question whether or not I should follow Metal. But I do, and after messing with a few consoles, he manages to bring in an empty tram for us both to ride in. We get onboard and Metal says he has to go to the front car and set our destination. I nod at him, giving him the okay to do so. When he goes, I find myself daydreaming while I look out of the window. I haven't the slightest idea how long we'd been moving, but it felt like forever.
'I can't help but think about what happened in Station Square.' I think to myself. 'All that about Amy, Alicia, Shadow, everyone…even my daughter.' I start to see memories in the window I'm looking out of, memories of Station Square and what happened. I cringe when I think about the little girl in the hospital, scared when I think of the big thing that once attacked me, and want to cry when I think of Amy. I then see something else in the window, but…I've never seen it before. It looked like someone, but someone who'd been…mutated, someone who now looked like a sort of giant scorpion but with their spinal bones sticking out of their back, acidic saliva dripping from their mouth, and the corpses of whoever they had eaten hanging from their stomach.
'Wait…am I finding time to describe this thing?' I look into it's eyes, which are glowing a pale yellow. I let it know it's there by giving it a slight wave, which it does reply to. But with this being a scary creature, it does the typical thing and smashes it's tail through the window.
"Whoa!" I cry as I jump back, landing on some seats, just centimetres away from the stinger at the end of it's tail. "Metal!" I shout, hoping that he hears me. I try to make a run for the next car, but the creature's tail smashes me off of my feet and I fall on my back with a loud thud. Before I have time to get to my feet, the creature smacks me to the other end of the tram, causing the tracks to break. It's not long before the car I'm in starts to disconnect from the other still moving cars. I start to jump from seat to seat, trying to reach the door that Metal went through while also avoiding the creatures tail.
"C'mon…" I start. "C'mon…c'mon…c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, C'MON!" I make a final jump for the door, which, with perfect timing, Metal opens to offer me his hand. I reach for him, but fail to even touch his fingers. "No!" I shout.
I start to fall again down the car, hitting almost everything on the way from broken glass, flying seats, the sides of the car…well, you get the picture.
"Sonic!" Metal calls helplessly. I fall through the door at the end of the tram and start to drop hundreds of feet.
"Holy crap!" I shout. As I spin uncontrollably, I can make out buildings, fires and torn down old shacks. I eventually start to hit planks of wood on the side of the buildings, which were, I guess, this high up because people were trying to repair the buildings, or at least cover the windows. It's not long until I eventually land in the street.
'If I haven't broken any bones, then I'm one fortunate bastard!' I think while my body's in immense pain. My vision starts to go black, and I look at my hand. My glove was torn, my blood was stained on the once clean material. I laugh bitterly. 'I guess falling through glass, shrapnel, flying seats, an enemies killer tail, acidic saliva, doors, wood and landing on a street causes this, huh? Who'd have known?' I think sarcastically. 'C'mon,' I think to myself, 'No way this is how it's gonna end. This…can't be…the…' I start to hear voices in the distance. First it's only mumbling and then it turns to shouting. My vision goes black and I fall into a deep slumber (if you could call it that). '…end…'
Well, here it is. Again, sorry it took so long. Every time I think I'll have free time, something comes up. I'm going to be having a break in a few weeks, a chap will be up by then, and I'll be writing, writing and more writing. I'm also writing my own story on FictionPress, so when the links up, feel free to check it out. I hope you enjoyed this chap, it was a bit rushed, but the story starts to pick up now and get a good pace, not as rushed as the first stories plot. Hope you enjoyed it, peace out! J