Chapter 4

Struggles of a rogue

Here's the next chapter! Please enjoy!

Admirers from above.

Soleanna's southern district was sealed off. It was almost completely evacuated. Very few of the people were left, as the number of mortals dwindled. Mortals would either find safety on the other side of the massive gate, or become pray for the newly transformed ghouls. Some of the stragglers were running for their lives from other transformed people, but sadly stragglers couldn't outrun these creatures. Several of them pounced on the innocent lives gnawing on their necks draining them of their blood, and letting them join their ranks.

Standing on some of the highest points of the city, were three figures that had glowing silver eyes. They looked down and saw the goals slowly roam in the city.

"What a breath taking sight" spoke on the creatures. He was a standing with his arms cross with his wings lowered. "Our servants are growing"

"But those men in black and blue suits keep killing them off. It's so tragic…." One of them was female with metal legs and talon like feet clinging to the tower like a bird.

"I want to open them up and feed them to our poor defenseless servants" the third and last one was also female crouching down with a sharp tooth grin. "Give me ten minutes with those fools, and our servants will feast on their pathetic souls" She laughed manically.

"That will have to wait, my children" The masked mobian, Zarah came hovering down on the highest tower. "For now, I have information regarding the remainder of our lost family and those responsible for sealing them away"

"You found them?!" asked the male.

"Indeed, they are roaming the city now. I want you to find them all and bring them to me. We will give them what they deserve…"

The three bowed at Zarah. "As you wish, mother" the three of them jump from the building going in different directions. Zarah turned and looked down where more GUN troops were stationed.

"How long do you plan to let your minions kill us? No matter how many you kill. More of us will crawl from the darkest of shadows to devour you and your lackeys" she laughed while jumping off the building herself.

New allies from old enemies.

In other parts of the city, the ghouls were hunted rather than hunting. GUN troops were in the city hunting down the transformed mortals, exterminating them on sight. One GUN troop, in particular was fighting for her life. Her gown was torn up, but the hoards of monsters about to pounce on her. She was out of ammo and running out of time.

"S-stay back!" she said holding up her weapon. As one ghoul was about to attack. Two hands suddenly reach out from behind. She was then pulled up into the air, mysteriously and suddenly vanished. The monsters looked around wondering where she went.

On top of one of the buildings. The girl reappeared and dropped on the ground. "Wha…what?!"

"Are you hurt?" said a voice in the distance.

"N-no…but who said that?"

A mobian with long white dreadlocks came floating down to her. The moon light made him look like he was glowing. "Quite an odd look for a GUN troop"

"You?!" She held out her gun after quickly standing up. "Don't move!"

"Or what? You'll shoot me with that empty gun?" He asked looking out at the city. "Quite a mess this is, isn't it?"

"Do…do you know anything about this? "She asked with a suspicious look on her face.

"Of course not. All I know is that several people are being killed and transformed. And these monsters are responsible for killing hidden agents of mine over the months."

"Well….it serves you criminal's right! You people kill and steal from others! And we're here to right the wrong!"

"You call corralling people and killing them off righting the wrong?" the woman grunted and sighed while lowering her gun. "Tell me, where is your commanding officer?"

"I..I haven't seen him since…wait! Why am I telling you this! I don't know how but I'm going to…"

"Now now…" he then brought out a change of clothes. "If you know who I am, then I could kill you if I wanted to, but I'm giving you a chance. You and I have a common adversary, we can either join forces, or try your luck against the monsters. Your choice"

The girl looked at the clothes and scoffed. She then took them and walked over to an inconspicuous corner. "Don't look!"

The echidna turned around. He then spotted a yellow bi-plane flying by. "That's not military grade…it's not one of ours either…."

"Ok I'm ready" the mobian turned around and saw that the girl was also mobian. She was a blue koala now wearing a blue tee shirt and short black pants. She also had two guns hosted on her lower back.

"You look like a real rogue" the mobian said laughing.

"Sh-Shut up!" The mobian said crossing her arms.

"My name's Chrome by the way…what's yours"

The girl looked away murmuring her name. "B…bonnet…"

"That's a…interesting name. For now, your code name is Tanzi"

"Tanzi?"

"Wouldn't want your superiors getting suspicious, would we?" Chrome then handed her what looked like chargers for her weapons.

"Why are you helping me? What's to stop me from turning on you?"

"Staying alive of course. You can either come along, or try your luck with the multiplying monster hoard. Now Try to keep up" the then leapt over to the next building. Tanzi then followed close to him.

"The last radio transmission was in this city. Where could those guys be?" Chrome wondered as he started jumping from building to building.

Old wounds

In the city people were running away from the troopers holding blue weapons and glowing belts tied to their waist. They fired at the running people shooting them down. Each person that got shot instantly turned gray and fell to the ground scattering to pieces like dust in the wind. Suddenly a wall of fire surrounded the guards cutting off the guards from shooting any more people.

"Ey, hey! What's going on?!" The lieutenant leading the group walked up from behind. He was a large human smoking a cigar. "Who's blocking my way, eh?"

The sound of high heels was heard. Through the flames came out a lavender Cramoisi feline with flames emitting from her hands, glaring at the troopers.

"That's as far as you go!" She said

"HEY! No one gives me orders, let alone a little piece of crap like you!" The lieutenant brings out a large glowing machine gun. "How about I put a few holes in that body of yours!"

"Go ahead and try!" Suddenly the man's gun hit him square in the face causing him to fall. Then all of the other troops started glowing green and floating in the air and gasping for breath.

Standing on a nearby statue was an ivory hedgehog holding up his hands. "I've already went through the apocalypse many times. Handling you jokers is nothing!" He then clenched his fist. They both heard cracking sounds coming from the troopers. With his powerful psychic power he cracked the necks of all the troopers. The hedgehog then brought down his hand along with the limp troopers.

"Bit dramatic don't you think" The cat asked walking up to him.

"Ya think. I just thought that I would sound cool, that's all" the hedgehog said smiling.

"You think dis is ovea?" the lieutenant slowly got up getting his blaster ready. "Cos I aint!"

He was suddenly knocked down again with a kick. A black hedgehog came swooping down. He turned over to the man clenching his fist. "Private"

"It's lieutenant now, Shadow" he said getting up. "I've com ta settle a score! I've been waiting to settle this ever since you were created!" he then got out an M-42 aiming it at his face. "See this baby?! It can mow down an entire group of robots in less than a minute. Even for freaks like you, I can turn you into Swiss cheese. It's the perfect weapon to use for such a powerful being such as…GAHHHH!"

Within seconds Shadow punched the man in the stomach before he knew it. Shadow then grabbed the large gun and shoved it in his face. It shattered his teeth and brought him down.

"Were you going to use it, or were you trying to sell me the damn thing?!" Shadow shouted.

Silver then walked up and lifted his hand using his telekinetic powers on the glowing stones around the troops. He then tossed the rocks into a barrel. "I remember doing something like this before….only I did it with apples.

Shadow rolled his eyes turning to Blaze who let down the wall of fire. The thralls slowly walk up to the three looking down at the troops. They started hissing lightly with their mouths drooling.

"Dinner's served" he said to them. The ghouls wasted no time and rushed over to the dead bodies gnawing on them.

"This part is secure" the Blaze said.

"We're not done yet" Shadow said looking at the monster's feast. "If that was just the lieutenant, then there's a general roaming around here commanding the troops"

"Mujkoh" One of the ghouls came up to Shadow holding a dog tag with a purple metal plate on it.

"I see" he took the tag and read what it said. "Thank you" the ghoul bowed and walked away.

"What is it Shadow?"

"Silver, you and Blaze head over to the Damson's glade. I'll meet you there"

"Uhh. Right" Silver said unsure.

"What's going on?" Blaze wondered

"There's no time to explain! Go!"

Both of them nod and take off.

"Let's just see if we can get them out of here"

The biggest rendezvous

In the very center of the Damson district was a clearing. A small but luscious patch of land that was surrounded by the bricked streets of the area. Sonic and Amy made their way looking for the masked mobian. Their search lead them to this park. The entire area as abandoned with not a single soul around. Not even wild life.

"Looks like our masked lady went AWOL" Sonic sniffed around looking for her.

"I can't sense her or anything" Amy said.

Sonic's ears suddenly perked. He could hear a motor of some kind approaching. He and Amy look up and see a hovering bike come their way. It was moving fast up to them. "Is that…..Knuckles?" He wondered.

The bike then turned to a skid and came to a stop after a while. The echidna jumped off along with another passenger. "Damson's Glade! In plain sight! No one would ever think to come here!"

"Unless you scream it to the heavens" Lila said

Amy took a look at the newcomers. "Sonic…" Amy whispered looking at Lila's coat piece. "That woman's wearing the emblem of the shroud"

"Yeah, and…is that an echidna?" He whispered back

"Could he be related?"

"He doesn't look like one…"

Richter looked around and saw the hedgehog couple. "Only two people? Great, now were going to look conspicuous!"

"Cramoisi!" Lila shouted pulling Richter behind a tree.

"Hey! What are you..!"

"Shhhhh!" Lila covered Richter's mouth. "Don't let them see you…."

Sonic slowly walked over to the tree. "Uhh we can see you know…"

"Crap!" Lila tried to look through her person to find something to help fend them off. "Dang it! I wasn't expecting to run into them! We need to plan a means of…." When she turned to Richter, he saw that he was gone. "Richter! No!"

The orange echidna came up to Sonic looking closely at him. "Never seen a person like you" he said staring at his face. "You…you some kind of hybrid or something?" He then grabbed him by the face opening his mouth.

"Hey! What are you…"

"You're fangs are so sharp and your eyes are so…purple!"

"Get off!" Sonic pushed him away. "What's wrong with you?!"

"The world may never know" Richter rubbed his face trying to look cute. "Maybe you can help me. I'm looking for some other guys with sun and moon tattoos on their bodies. You've seen 'em?"

Sonic was curious why this echidna wasn't scared of him the slightest. Richter just kept looking around typing on his phone. "Come on guys! Where are ya'll?"

"I know he's crazy, but he can't be stupid too!" Lila said turning away from him only to see Amy was right in front of her. "GAHHHH!" She fell to the ground slowly backing away.

"He's no smarter than you" Amy said walking forward. "What's a shroud agent doing here? Lost your way?"

"I…I…." Lila was stammering trying to say something, but she was too scared to do anything but back way.

"You think you can come and kill off innocent people? Treat them like some shooting gallery arcade…thing?!" Amy couldn't think of a good comeback as well as Sonic." Don't think just because you're a girl. I won't go easy on you!"

Lila lowered her face getting ready for the worse when someone stepped in.

"Hey, pinky" Richter spoke "Can't you see she's scared? Threating an unarmed woman. Not cool"

"Why is he protecting me?" Lila thought.

"Are you part of the shroud too? Did you leave your bath robe at the cleaners?" Sonic asked with a quip.

"Shroud? I don't know no shroud. Haven't you heard of me?"

"Oh no….he wouldn't…" Lila was thinking there was no way Richter would reveal himself.

"I'm Richter from the house of Solairte, heir to the dusk raiders, one of the twelve most notorious crime families in existence!"

Amy and Sonic's stares tightened as they glared at the echidna. Lila was laying on the ground with sad anime eyes. "We're so dead…."

"Do you stupidly address yourself that often?" Sonic started cracking his knuckles. "A criminal and a shroud member two for the price of one"

"I'm right behind you, sweetie!" Amy smiled getting out her hammer.

"Wait….something about these guys are familiar. But I can't put my finger on it…"

"Richter!" Lila shouted and pointed in front of him. Richter quickly turned around and brought out his weapon that materialized a giant hammer blocking a second one.

"What kind of person is rude and attacks without warning?!" Richter pushed Amy back and brought out his second weapon, materializing another hammer. "You're a fan of hammers too I see. This should be fun!"

"This guy's mental! Does he have any idea…" Lila quickly got up and turned and saw Sonic coming up to her with her claws extended. "Stay back!"

"Or what?" Sonic stepped closer. "If you know what's good for you, you'll tell your general to leave this town!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Sonic in an instant dashed over at Lila. Just a second before noticing, she whispered something under her breath. In an instant a blue shield shrouded her protecting her from Sonic's attack. Sonic kept trying to attack, but his attacks were repelled. Lila sighed in relief behind the shield.

"You can't stay in there!" Sonic kept attacking

"You're wasting your time. I've been studying your kind for a long time. No Cramoisi attacks can make it through"

Meanwhile, Richter and Amy were matching each other blow for blow. They both locked hammers several times.

"You made your grave coming here, criminal!" Amy shouted.

"Cocky little git, ain't cha?" Richter said pressing down, and jumping back. "But I'm just getting started" He then flipped his weapons, retracting the hammers transforming them into blasters. Amy was waiting for his next move, but she didn't expect what to happen next. She felt her hand get shot and her hammer flew right out of it. She saw her hammer fly in a different direction. She then slowly turned over to Richter with her eyes glowing bright. She then snarled running over to Richter with her claws extended. Richter then closed his eyes, breathing softly. He then turned over to Amy as if he could feel her coming. Even with her fast unnoticeable pace, he could feel her presence. He then stomped on the ground. A small tremor started causing Amy to stumble as she was approaching causing her to lose her traction. Richter then used his chance and swung his arm at Amy's face tossing her to the ground.

Sonic and Lila saw the fight. Sonic was enraged seeing Amy on the ground. He came dashing at Richter full speed. Richter was knocked back into a wall and was punched repeatedly super-fast.

"Yeah! Cream him! Bash him up!" Sonic stopped punching when he heard a familiar voice. He turned around and gasped seeing Richter wave at him. "Howdy!" He turned over to the wall and saw he was punching a bunch of rocks.

"What?! How?!"

"Old switch-aroo. I can teach you someday!" Richter then jumped back quickly avoiding another claw attack. He then held his hands in the form of a "T" Time out!"

Surprisingly, Sonic actually stopped. Richter then placed his headphones on. "What are you…"

"Can't have a dance fight without music, can we?" Richter smiled at Sonic. Sonic was more annoyed than angry. "Your move, Blue boy"

"Is this all just a game to him?!" Lila wondered.

"Too bad I got to end this quick!" Sonic ran over at Richter, but Richter dodged the attack as he started dancing. Sonic kept trying to attack Richter, but every move he made was just barely missing him.

"Come on!" Richter said as he kept dancing. "No one can touch this!" He started taunting Sonic while moonwalking, when suddenly he was wacked in the head with a hammer. Richter was then tossed on the ground and his headphones broken.

Sonic saw Amy set her hammer down. "Man, he was annoying!"

"But fun to watch" Sonic then turned over to Richter and saw him groan and slowly get up. He then screamed looking at his headphones.

"Do you realize how much these things cost me?!"

"He's….still standing?! How?!"

"Oh, ho…it's on now!" Richter then got out his blasters aiming at the two. "I was just funning with ya'll but now you done did it now! AHHHH!" Richter was suddenly overcame by branches and vines that suddenly started covering him. He turned around and saw a rather peeved Cosmo staring down at him.

"Nobody hurts my friends!" She said tightening her grip.

"Sonic!" Tails came flying down next to them. "Are you ok?"

"A-Okay, bud" Sonic gave a thumbs up.

"Captain!"

Sonic and the others started covering their ears hearing a supersonic shriek come from out of nowhere. A bat came running over next to Richter trying to free him but she was suddenly overcame by some psychic energy. Cosmo looked above and saw Silver floating down.

"Need a hand, sis?" he asked smiling.

Cosmo smiled while nodding"Thank you!"

Silver was suddenly knocked down by a long fury arm. Scarlet was free. She looked to her right and saw Blade saluting at her.

"You didn't think I'd miss this party?" he asked

Cosmo quickly tried to use her powers to hold down Scarlet, but she flew in the air before she was caught. "Don't even try it, sweetie" she said aiming her blaster at her.

"You mean this?" Scarlet was suddenly taken down from the sky by a pink echidna with robotic implants. She glared at the bat as she was brought down. "You should know who you're dealing with before you threaten my family"

"You got that right, babe!" Knuckles came dashing at Blade with his two fist coming right for him. But Blade managed to hold back his attack with his own large fists.

"Two echidnas fighting against us? The pink one I understand, but why would you…." Blade slowly started to weaken from Knuckles pushing him down.

"I don't really know or care what you're talking about!" The red echidna said pushing him down and kicking him to the floor.

"Scarlet, Blade!" Richter shouted for his comrades.

"Well, well…." Richter looked in front of him and saw Shadow walk up to him with his arms crossed. "I was expecting to see GUN and maybe a general here, but here I found some food for the ghouls instead"

"Agent Shadow?!" Richter questioned. "First the blue boy, and now you! I thought ya'll vanished for good!"

"Agent Shadow is dead. I am Shadow the Hedgehog!"

Richter gave him a blank stare. "Yeah…..not much difference"

Lila slowly tried to back away but she felt an intense heat from behind. She turned around looking at Blaze giving her a cold stare. "Don't even try, shroud scum" Lila's eyes started shaking.

"Cosmo" Shadow spoke. "Crush this fool"

"Yes, brother" She spoke without hesitation. Tails was a little shocked when she did.

Richter started grunting in pain as the grip of the vines intensified. At that moment, Cosmo screamed with a fog of breath escaping her mouth. She quickly clenched her person. Tails felt the same thing screaming in pain.

"Tails!" Amy knelt down looking at her brother.

"So….cold!" he said shivering.

Shadow looked back at Tails, and then when he looked at Cosmo, he gasped at the sight. He saw a white echidna going through Richter like a ghost. As he went through, the vines froze up becoming brittle and lifeless. The echidna then went through Shadow, Shadow then felt the same intense cold run through his body. It was like feeling liquid ice run through your bloodstream. The echidna then stood behind Shadow with his blade out.

Richter broke himself free from the vines, shivering. "Better late than ever I guess…"

"I've been looking for you…" he said swinging his blade close to Shadow's neck. "You're the creatures who have been killing off criminals. You're the Cramoisi, aren't you?"

Shadow grabbed the blade looking right at the echidna. "If you know who we are, you're blade wouldn't be useless"

"Is it?"

"Put it down!" Julie ran over at Chrome about to swing her claw at him. Chrome just stood in place as his body slowly vanished. Julie then accidently tackled Shadow to the ground.

Julie jumped off Shadow and turned back to Chrome who had his blade out. "Y-you!"

"Don't bother" Chrome said becoming tangible. "Your efforts are a waste of time"

"You all have a death wish" Shadow said getting up he then heard a sound of a locking gun. Tanzi came up with her guns aimed at Blaze. "Lady Lila! Are you ok?"

"Bonnet! Get out of here!" Lila ordered

Blaze threw a fireball at Tanzi. She quickly dodged and dashed over to Lila grabbing her and running to the dusk raiders. The dusk raiders stood by each other forming a circle around Tanzi and Lila. The other Cramoisi ready themselves as well.

"Anybody got a plan?" Blade asked

"Would help if the others were here…." Scarlet said "Where are they?"

"I thought they were with you" Richter said

"You don't know where they are?" Chrome asked "Let's retreat for now and find them"

"You want to try and escape the undead monsters? That always works…."

"You are going nowhere…."

Richter turned around and saw ghouls surrounding them from behind and all around them. They then saw Darcy slowly hover from above. The ghouls and Cramoisi bow in front as she stayed airborne.

"Oh…shit…" Blade cursed

"I am Queen Darcy, and criminals are not welcome here. Surrender, or become food for my children!"