(Sorry for the late post. I was at a sleepover. While others sleep over at friend's houses, I sleep at my grandma's. I've been depressed about that… Reminds me of how few friends I really have that I haven't met on the Internet. :(
I think this may be what I was trying to remember in the last chapter! But most likely not. Oh well, I'm just going to say it now. What would you guys think if I did one or two Epilogue chapters showing what Sonic was doing while he was being controlled? Sorta as a side-story. My mom gave me the idea from 50 Shades of Gray. Think I wanna try it. And what do you think of my whole changing perspectives thing? Please review, greatly appreciated!
Oh, and this chapter contains minor swearing. Just a warning, but you can expect that with Shadow.
Last time on In the Dark…
Sally and Amy have traveled across their town of horrors to find Shadow the Hedgehog, someone who may have a clue as to how to change everything back to the way it was before Dark took control. Shadow explained that if they go back in time to the last mission they went on as Freedom Fighters, they could stop Tails's death, therefor preventing Dark from ever manifesting in Sonic and resealing the Exe dimension. They travel to a building that guards a Chaos Emerald needed to time travel, and were confronted by a horde of Dark's and Sonic Exe's servants. In an attempt to save time, Shadow removed his Inhibitor Rings and blasted a path to the Emerald. As the enemy closed in, the three of them teleported away just in time. Little do they know that the grip of Darkness is everywhere...)
I felt like I was tumbling through nothing. It was similar to when Sonic, Amy and I were being teleported to the Exe dimension, but this felt smoother and less terrifying. I kept my eyes closed, but I could see bright light behind my eyelids. When it finally faded, I landed on something hot. I jumped to my feet with a yelp and ran away from the hot-spot. Only then did I opened my eyes and look around. Where I had landed was a thin part of rock on a platform beside a river of lava. A few seconds after I hopped away from the spot, a spurt of lava erupted from the red-hot ground. Amy moaned a few feet away, and even Shadow had collapsed. I helped Amy to her feet and went to aid Shadow, but he waved me away.
"I'm fine," he said in a slightly strained voice. "Just…give me a moment." I noticed he was breathing hard and stepped back.
"That happens to him after he removes his Inhibitor Rings," Amy told me quietly. "He releases a great amount of his power and loses energy fast. He used to pass out from it," she looked back at him, "but I see he's gotten a bit stronger."
I nodded and looked around a bit more at my surroundings. Slabs of rock floated on the lava river. A waterfall – or should I say "lavafall" – flowed down a wall of granite. We were inside an absolutely huge cavern, so big I could barely see the other side. Looking up – way up – was a small hole, letting in light from the outside. It wasn't daylight, though. It looked like nighttime. My guess was we were in a volcano. But one thing was certain; this definitely wasn't where we were intending on going.
"Shadow!" I called. "Where the heck are we?"
He looked up and looked around. (Younger viewers, skip a paragraph. Then again, you probably shouldn't be reading a T-rated story anyway.) "Damn!" he cried, pounding the ground once with his fist.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Not the place we meant to go to, I'll tell you that," he growled, standing. I tossed him his Inhibitor Rings, which I had grabbed before we teleported. He snatched them out of the air and clipped them back onto the black cuffs of his gloves.
"How do we get out of here?" Amy asked.
"Behold," Shadow announced, his voice echoing. Jets of air shot from the bottom of his shoes, and he floated a few feet above the ground. "I can fly!" (XD Reference, anyone? Review if you know what that's from!)
I smiled a little, a bit amazed that he even had a hint of a sense of humor. Abruptly, he grabbed our hands and took off, soaring towards the top of the volcano. As we flew, a low rumbling filled my ears. I looked down in time to see the lava rapidly rising.
"Uh, Shadow? Think you might wanna speed it up a bit…" My voice was shaky.
He did as I said. The lava also sped up. Shadow glanced down, and with a burst of speed, we shot out of the volcano. Seconds later, the lava followed as the volcano erupted, a spew of hot magma following us. Shadow eventually landed many miles away from the volcano, barely missing the splashes of hot orange lava. He let go of us and turned to watch the volcano, with rivers of magma running down the sides of it. After a few minutes, my panic died down and I lost interest, turning around to see where we had ended up.
We were standing on the edge of yet another burning city, but this city wasn't nearly as terrifying as the one in Exe. This one was in ruins and almost completely engulfed in flames. I frowned.
"Guys, do you have any idea where we are?" I asked.
Amy turned and examined our surroundings. "No idea."
"It looks somewhat familiar," Shadow replied. "But I can't place it."
"I wonder if anyone lives here," I thought aloud.
"Let's go," Shadow replied. "Maybe we can find someone who can tell us where we are." Without hesitating, he skated off ahead. Amy followed, and I limped after them both.
We walked for an hour or so through the endless city. All we saw was ruined buildings up in flames, but they looked centuries old. Most of the windows were broken, and flames licked the sides of the buildings and burned debris in the roads. We had to hop over piles of ash, rubble, and even a fallen lamp-post that were cluttered in the street. So far, we saw no one, and the walk was relatively uneventful. That is, until we noticed the flames weren't staying in one spot.
They seemed to crawl from window to window, following us. The tongues of fire burned down the sides of buildings and all met right in front of us. We stopped walking to watch. As more and more of the strange flames gathered in the center of the street, a wall of fire soon grew in front of us. In under a minute, the wall of flame towered over us. Then, it came down on us like a wave.
"Run!" Amy cried, and we ran back the way we came. Seconds after we had escaped, the wave crashed down where we had been standing, scorching the ground, but it wasn't done. As we ran, it followed, rolling like the fiery lava we had seen earlier and quickly gaining ground. Shadow leaded, and bolted down an alley. We followed, but so did the flames. The alley led to a large clearing, which seemed to be a large paved city square with the ruined skyscrapers surrounding it. Before we could run down one of the adjoining streets, the blaze surrounded us, blocking any means of escape and closing up the top. We were trapped in a dome of fire, which was gradually closing in. I closed my eyes, feeling the heat against my skin and braced for the burning death I would surely meet, but it didn't come.
There was a large gust of wind that nearly knocked me off my feet. I shielded my face and dared to open my eyes. The fire had been driven back against the edges of the square and wasn't advancing. Looking closely, I could see a pale bluish-green aura against the orange glow of the flames. With another gust of wind and a burst of teal light, it quickly receded and disappeared. I looked at Shadow and Amy, the look on my face clearly asking who had helped us. Amy shrugged, but Shadow paid no heed. He was looking up, so we followed his gaze. Floating down to the ground from above us was an anthro hedgehog, much like Shadow and Sonic, surrounded in a teal aura. When he landed, I got a good look at him.
He was pale gray with brilliant golden eyes, lined in black. He wore gloves with gold cuffs, which had a glowing teal band around it and strange symbols on the front and back of his gloves. He had on knee-high black boots with the same gold cuffs. A white stripe ran down the front of his boots to the toe, which was turquoise. He had chest fur, like Shadow, but it ran all the way around the back of his neck and down his chest. His quills very much resembled a marijuana leaf, with two spikes at the back of his head and five fronds at the front. He wasn't any older than Sonic, to be sure. Now, he looked at us skeptically.
"I'm guessing you guys are new here," the strange hedgehog spoke up, putting a hand on his hip.
"M-maybe," I stuttered, still trying to recover from the shock of being attacked by fire that was alive. "Who are you?"
"My name's Silver the Hedgehog," said the hedgehog. "My companion should be here soon, her name's Blaze the Cat."
"Oh, well hi there," I said. "My name's Sally Acorn, and this is Amy Rose."
Amy waved enthusiastically. Shadow crossed his arms and looked away.
"And you are?" Silver urged to Shadow. I noticed a gleam of recognition in his bright eyes. Did he know Shadow?
"Shadow the Hedgehog," he huffed.
"Shadow…?" Silver repeated curiously. His eyes narrowed a little, as if trying to remember something.
"Yeah, got a problem with it?" he snapped, keeping his eyes closed.
"No, no, it just sounds familiar, that's all," Silver said quickly. "So how did—"
He was cut off.
"Silver, he's coming!" a female voice called from a rooftop. I looked up to see a purple anthro cat looking at us with the same gold eyes Silver had.
Silver looked up. "Open the safe house, Blaze, we have some new guests!" he replied.
Blaze nodded. She grabbed the edge of the building and nimbly swung in through a shattered window.
"C'mon," Silver said, and led us toward the entrance of the building. The three of us followed, Shadow somewhat reluctantly.
"Wait, who's coming?" I asked as I jogged behind him.
"Mephiles!" Silver answered. "I'll explain later."
Once inside the abandoned building, Silver led us down a set of steps to the basement. Blaze, surprisingly, was already there. The floor was coated in dust except for a line of footprints. The only things in the basement were a flickering light-bulb and a bookcase. Blaze tilted forward several random books, and the case slid aside, revealing a spiral staircase leading down. She bounded down the steps, and we followed. At the bottom, there was a locked door. Silver made his way past us and put his hand on it. It glowed with a teal aura and opened.
"After you," Silver said to Amy and I, gesturing inside. I blushed lightly at his kindness and went in, followed by the others. The door slid shut behind us.
The room we had stepped in was large and looked old. It had cracked concrete walls, and a large steel table surrounded in mismatched chairs; there was a plush couch, a rocking chair, recliner, steel stool, and so on. A clock hung on the wall, but it had broken down. The time it had stopped on was 20:83. Several bookshelves were bolted to the walls, holding thick volumes that looked like atlases and history books. There was also a map hung on the wall, which I guessed was a layout of the city. It had a number of red and purple dots on it in certain areas. Silver walked over to it, picked up a red pen, and added a red dot to a cluster of them in the scale station square.
"Have a seat," Blaze said. We obeyed, Amy and I sitting on the couch and Shadow sitting on a wood stool with a ripped cushion on the seat.
"So where are you guys from?" Silver asked, sitting across from us.
"How do you even know we're not from here?" Shadow asked, surprising me by him being the first to speak up.
"If you were from here, you'd be in the large underground safe house," Silver replied matter-of-factly.
Shadow said nothing.
"Actually, we're not even from this time period," I started to explain. Shadow shot me a glare, but I ignored it. "We were trying to time-travel to a time in the past, but I think we got transported to the future instead…"
"I've done a bit of time-traveling," Silver replied, looking interested. "I guess I should change my question. When are you from?"
"We're from the year 3237, Day 77," I said. "When is it now?"
Silver frowned a little. "This is the year 3437, Day 77. You're 200 years in the future."
My eyes widened a little. Then I turned to Shadow. "How'd we end up 200 years in the future? We meant to go, like, two weeks in the past! How do you make a mistake like that?"
Shadow remained calm, his eyes closed. "I don't think I made the mistake. I felt some sort of interference when we transferred timelines. Someone was messing with my Chaos Control and must have sent us here."
I sighed heavily. "Probably Dark. Though how he could've known is beyond me."
"Wait, did you say Dark? As in Dark the Hedgehog?" Blaze suddenly spoke up.
I looked at the purple cat. "Yeah, why?"
Blaze looked down at her hands. "Some of his accomplices destroyed my dimension years ago."
"Oh…I'm sorry," I said sympathetically.
"You're from a different dimension?" Amy inquired.
Blaze looked at her. "Yes. I'm the princess of the Sol Dimension. I also protect the Sol Emeralds. But unfortunately, both were destroyed."
"You're a princess?" I asked. "I'm a princess, too. Heir to the throne of Mobius."
Blaze smiled a little.
"So what was that fire thing that attacked us earlier?" Amy asked.
"That is a creature known as Iblis," Silver explained. "Also known as the Flames of Disaster. There are two entities currently terrorizing this dimension, both released by Dark from your timeline; Iblis and Mephiles, who is the literal shadow of my father."
"What do you mean by that?" Shadow asked, glancing at him.
"Well, he manifested from his shadow and is now his own being," Silver replied. "That simple."
Shadow nodded once.
"What kind of powers do you guys have?" Amy questioned.
"I have psycokinesis," Silver answered, "and Chaos Control. Blaze has pyrokinesis, meaning she controls fire."
"Cool," I commented.
There was a long silence. I was pretty much out of questions. It was broken by none other than Shadow, who said, "That's all good to know, but we best be going."
"I'm afraid you can't do that," Blaze said simply.
"Why not?" Shadow snapped, standing abruptly.
"No need to get angry!" Silver said with a hint of panic in his voice. "I just mean all time portals have been closed. No one's going anywhere."
"How do you know?" Shadow growled, glaring at him skeptically..
"Before I helped you guys get rid of Iblis, I was trying to teleport to the time when Dark lived to see if I could stop him from destroying different dimensions. The time portal didn't open, so I tried several others. None of them worked. So I figured all of them were closed. It must've closed right after you guys got here."
"So…what do we do?" Amy asked, sounding worried.
"Guess you're stuck here until we figure out a plan," Blaze replied, sounding lighthearted for the first time since we met her.
(Bleh. Couldn't come up with a good ending for this chapter. I'm already at, like, 2,700 words. I'm gonna have a lot to proofread and change, since I kinda kept getting distracted and this chapter took me DAYS to write. My parents kept taking me away from typing it. Again. BLEH.
Oh, random concept I wanted to throw out that I didn't use in the story. (I HAD TO CUT THE PART OUT CAUSE IT GOT CONFUSING.) I like to think of Sonic as pretty much immortal, more or less, but he can age, but somewhat slowly. I mean, how many times does he die when you're playing his games? He comes right back! Regeneration! I dunno, hard to explain. Long story short, I think this whole video game regeneration thing would prolong his life. Plus he just keeps coming back to life even if he's SUPPOSED to be dead! THANKS, ELISE. Shadow could use the Chaos Emeralds or something to bring him back if he dies from some unprecedented event. I dunno. I'm not making sense. :P So I was going to have Dark/Sonic still be alive, along with Sonic Exe, but…too much work. I'm lazy, what can I say?
COOOOOMATOSE. No. It's COMMA-TOSE! For us writers here. :) Sorry, listening to Skillet. LOVE THEM. Random statement.
Review what you thought of this chapter and what you think will happen! I don't wanna blow the 3,000 word barrier just yet, so GOODBYE TO YOU ALLS.)
~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd