(Couple of things before we start…
One…3k views! YAY! I beat one of my friends on views. :3 I know it's the reviews I'm after, but…I have no idea how to get people to review.
Two…Thanks to Skye' advice, I'm keeping the title as it is. Don't wanna confuse you guys!
Three…Sorry I haven't posted this chapter yet, I've been kinda depressed about something. I found out someone, who I thought was my friend, stole one of my most expensive and prized jewelry pieces and keeps stealing things from other places. But you can PM me about that if you want to know that story…
Anyway, I'm babbling. ONWARD.
Last time on In the Dark…
The whole of Mobius is being terrorized by beings from another dimension, thanks to the control Dark has over Sonic. Sally and Amy have successfully evaded the mysterious Exes, and have searched out their friend Knuckles for advice on how to turn the corrupted Chaos Emeralds and Light Stones back to normal. However, Knuckles explained that the Light Stones could not be changed back because their power had been completely transferred to the Dark energy. Also, upon attempting to get the Emeralds their power back, all seven scattered. Now the girls have no plan and no way to change Sonic and their world back to its original state. However, maybe a "shadowy" friend might be able to help…)
I woke to the screams of some unworldly creatures and Knuckles fighting. I sat up and realized I couldn't see anything; the Master Emerald no longer aided us with its light. I picked up the branch I used to clean the spider webs out of the place, took out my emergency matches, and lit the cobweb-covered branches. In a moment, I held a torch sparking with brilliant orange flames. I saw Amy sitting up, awake, and looked around for the exit. I found the crawlspace we had used to get in, pushed in the same rune that was on the outside, and the stone door slid open.
It was as dark as night out. There were no stars, and no moon, though my comlink said it was past nine in the morning. The grass was dead, and crunched under our feet. It was unusually cold. At the top of the shrine, our red echidna friend was fighting off a group of Exes. The Master Emerald was shattered and its power had been drained. Without hesitating, Amy and I ran into battle
These Exes were smaller than the ones we saw in the city. A number of them lay unconscious on the ground and on the stairs, knocked out by Knuckles' strong punches. Amy, using a spare hammer, and I, using my own acrobatic moves and martial arts skills, fought off the Exes that were trying to reach the top of the shrine. While I was distracted with one coming dangerously close to the stairs, one that was supposedly unconscious sank its sharp teeth into my ankle. I screamed in pain and tried to shake it off, but it held firm. Blood dripped down my foot and into my boot, and a burning, searing pain raced up my entire leg. I stomped on its hand as hard as I could multiple times before it released me. Hearing the snarling Exe I was fighting behind me, I threw up my fist and my knuckles connected with its jaw. It fell backwards, unconscious. By now, Amy and Knuckles had most of the invaders handled, so I sat on the steps, shoving the Exe that bit me aside into the pool of water below and examined the bite wound.
There were several holes where each of the teeth penetrated, with strange black liquid mingling with the crimson blood. I started to wash the wound using the water from the pool surrounding the shrine, where I had thrown the Exe just a minute earlier. I grimaced and grit my teeth when my fingertips touched the tender flesh and washed the blood and black substance out of the wounds. Without something to cover it, I risked infection, and with the unknown dimension having reached us, I didn't know how quickly it could set in. I ripped off the seam of my teal vest and wrapped it tightly around the wound as a temporary bandage, cringing in pain. As soon as it was tucked in and tied, I tested my injured ankle, putting some of my weight on it. Immediately, pain raced through my ankle and up my leg, and I opened my mouth in a silent scream and shifted my weight to my other leg, relieving some of the pressure. I turned to Amy and Knuckles, who were talking at the top of the shrine.
"C'mon," I said to Amy. "If we're going to meet up with Shadow, we better go now."
She looked down at me, noticed my awkward stance and gasped. "What happened?!"
"Got bitten. It's no big deal, I washed it."
She frowned, and then turned to Knuckles. "Thanks for helping us, despite what happened. Good luck with the Master Emerald." She put her hammer away and ran down the steps to meet me at the base.
"Good luck, you two," Knuckles said. I smiled grimly at him and hobbled off, with Amy's shoulder to lean on.
A few hours of painful walking and one fearsome rope ladder decent later, we were sitting in a small medical center in the middle of all the discord outside. The medical center was just an old underground bomb shelter housing a number of people injured from the Exes, with just a curtain to separate them. The place smelled putrid, like vomit, blood, and disease. The smell brought the taste of bile to my mouth. One of the volunteer nurses that worked at the place led me to an open cot in the back of the room and laid me down.
"We have very little pain-killers left," she said in a sympathetic voice. "We're trying to get more, but this is happening everywhere and we're in short supply."
I nodded and the nurse left to get the supplies she needed to treat me. Amy stood by the cot.
"We can't just stay here while my ankle heals," I said. "Could you ask around for information on Shadow's whereabouts?"
"Sure," Amy said, and walked off.
Hours later, my ankle had been properly cleaned, treated, bandaged, and braced, but I was ordered to stay in bed for another couple of days. I knew we didn't have that kind of time. So when Amy returned, I was forming a plan to sneak out unnoticed.
"Any luck?" I asked.
"Yeah," Amy said. "There was a former military sergeant here who said when they moved to a different military base, Shadow kept insisting he go back to the old one. He always disappears off to there. Maybe we should start there?"
I nodded and told her my plan. She agreed with me and told me we'd rendezvous later.
At 22:50, the lights went out for bedtime. Using a bell by my bedside, I rang for assistance. A nurse came over to me.
"What do you need?" she asked quietly.
"I need to use the restroom, but I don't think I can get there on my own," I asked. "Could you help me?"
"Sure," she said after a moment's hesitation. She helped me out of bed and guided me towards the bathroom.
"I'll wait out here for when you're done," the nurse said. I smiled, feeling a little guilty for what I was about to do, and went inside.
Amy stood in a corner, arms crossed.
"Ready?" she asked.
I nodded. There was a window in the bathroom near the ceiling, and a ledge just below it. Keeping my weight off my injured ankle, I boosted Amy onto the ledge, and she unlocked and opened the window, which had extremely thick glass. She pushed out the screen and it fell onto the grass just below the base of the window. She then took out her hammer and held it down to me. I grabbed on and she pulled me up onto the ledge. One after the other, we crawled out of the shelter and onto the dead grass outside. I closed the window and replaced the screen once we were both out. Now, we could do what we wanted.
The streets in the city were full of Exes and shadow people. We were hidden behind some bushes, currently invisible to them. I took out a small handheld device from a pouch strapped around my leg and spoke to it.
"Nicole," I said quietly. "Locate the former GUN base."
"Locating, Sally," my machine said. A moment later, a holographic map was being projected onto the ground in front of us.
"Alright. So we're here," I said, pointing to a red blip. "We need to get here." I then pointed to a green blip. "Nicole, display all life forms in the area." Immediately, about a hundred tiny, moving white dots appeared on the map. There were clusters of them in certain places, like in homes. With Amy, I plotted a route best to get to the base, most of which were through alleyways. After we had confirmed the route, I checked how many Exes were walking by the bomb shelter. There were about a dozen, and I knew how to distract them. I took out one of my Mobium coins and rolled it down the street. The glint of the coin caught their attention and they chased after it, pushing and shoving, and eventually getting into a brutal, bloody fist fight over it. While they were distracted, Amy and I ran – or, I should say I limped – across the street and into an alley. We followed it out onto the next street, doing similar distractions like rolling something shiny down the street or throwing a rock at a window before running down the street to the next alleyway, and so on. We ran on trouble-free, the holographic map guiding us, for several blocks. It wasn't until we were about halfway to the base. We were crossing Third Main Street (Mobotropolis has more than one main road), when four Exes dropped from rooftops into the road.
"This way," I hissed, pulling Amy into another alley, ignoring the map. The Exes followed. Amy ran ahead, since she was faster, and I tipped over a couple trash cans as I ran. The Exes were distracted by the noise and the contents spilling out of the bins, so they quickly forgot the chase and examined the garbage. Amy and I kept running until we were sure they wouldn't be able to find us, my ankle by now was throbbing intensely. Once we had made it safely into an abandoned building, I doubled over, breathing hard.
"They're dangerous…" I panted, "but they're not very bright."
Amy gave an exhausted laugh.
After we'd caught our breath, we checked the map to see where we were.
"We're about two blocks away from the base," I said. "What now?"
Amy looked around. "I know this building. It's one of the shops in the mall."
Sure enough, though it was dark, I could see racks of clothing and accessories. By the looks of it, it was a children's store, entitled Chao Fashions. Though it was painted and decorated to be kid-friendly, it was out-of-place and creepy in the dark. I felt like something was watching me.
"So what do we do?" I asked.
"These stores connect," Amy said, pointing to the holographic map. "Going to the end of the mall would put us a block closer, which is good considering how big this block is."
I looked at the map and gasped.
"What?"
I pointed out a horde of Exes in the halls, several of which were in this room. "Is there a way we can get rid of them?"
Amy looked around. "There!" She pointed to a fire alarm, and without me having to say so, she stood up, opened the case, and pulled it.
The shrill sound of bells rang out around the mall, so loud we both had to cover our ears. I could hear the screams of the Exes, and in masses of black smoke, they flew out of the doors and windows, desperate to get away from the noise. Keeping our hands over our ears, Amy and I ran out of the store and down one of the halls connecting all of the other stores in the mall until we reached the end. We exited the store out of the emergency exit, which deposited us in an alley. A door to another building stood in front of us. According to our map, there were no more than two Exes in the building. Using a bat I found in the alley, I smashed a window. Amy and I immediately ducked down behind a trash can. Two Exes flew out of the window to investigate, and I threw the bat into the road, which they chased after. Amy darted into the building, followed by me.
This building seemed to be the lobby of an office building. Cubicles with glass doors lined the walls, with a large desk in the center of the large room. Four pillars held the ceiling up. Paper was scattered across the floor, blown by the wind two ceiling fans produced. Most disturbing, however, were blood splatters against the glass doors in the cubicles and behind the desk. I gasped when I saw a bloody handprint on the door of the cubicle closest to us. There was also a dark mass slumped against the door, and I didn't look long enough to figure out what it was, though I already had a troubling idea. We walked across the room to a side door which led to the street. But as we walked behind the desk, a scream escaped Amy's lips. On instinct, I looked.
A human body was slumped under the desk, gored beyond recognition. Its mouth was open in a silent scream, and its eyes had been gouged out. Dried blood stained the side of its head from a split in its skull and blood stained its plaid shirt, which had a large hole in its chest, where its heart would be. I felt like I was going to vomit, and I knew I wasn't sleeping again tonight.
After seeing the body, Amy and I ran to the door. By now, the pain in my leg had numbed from the adrenaline racing through my veins. Outside, a giant building guarded by a barbed wire fence stood across the street, looming over us. The fence was ajar. This was our destination.
Amy and I ran past the fence and to the door. I tried the handle, but it didn't budge.
"Locked," I sighed.
"Leave it to me," she smirked, taking out her giant mallet. With a mighty swing, the door flew open and slammed against the wall. The base, at first glance, was completely dark. It looked abandoned. But it was very similar to the base the military is using now. Then I noticed the faint glow of a TV at the front desk. I walked over to it, hesitantly after what we saw at the office building. There was no body this time, just the TV showing images from security cameras around the base. When it flashed to the General's room, I saw that, sitting in the General's chair, was an black hedgehog, resembling Sonic in many ways. Since the TV was in black and white, I couldn't tell all the details. He looked relaxed, with his hands behind his head, eyes closed, feet up on the desk, frowning. I was almost certain this was who we were looking for.
"Amy!" I called to her. She stopped looking at a statue of the General and ran over to me. I pointed to the screen. "Is that Shadow?"
"Yeah," Amy said. "So he stole the General's office?" I could see a smirk playing on her lips.
I smiled. "Shall we go?"
"Yeah, just be careful. He has a bit of a temper."
I nodded and asked Nicole to pull up a map of the base. Shadow was on the third floor, fourth hallway. I groaned, noticing the elevator was out of order, realizing how painful walking up stairs would be. Amy smiled sympathetically, and we started up the steps.
When we reached the top, my ankle was throbbing intensely, and beads of sweat had formed on my forehead. I didn't want to walk anymore, but I had to. We found the General's office and knocked on the door. There was no answer, so I tested the doorknob. The door opened.
The first thing I saw was an ebony hedgehog with red highlights in his quills pointing a gun at us. Immediately, he fired.
(The only person who knows what comes next is…SKYE! And me. XD I don't have an AN at this point, other than this is the longest chapter so far! Almost 3,000 words! Should I make it 3,000 words? Nah…too lazy. So review what you think and stay tuned for the next post. :)
Bye all!)
~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd