(HIYA! Florida. Was. Da bomb. I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but I LOVE Harry Potter. I went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and oh my gosh it was (as Pastrinator64 says) FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC! But enough of my rambling. I wrote half this chapter in my notebook at school, and now I get to complete it. Here it is…
Last time on In the Dark…
Sally, Shadow, and the survivors of an attack-and-retrieve group returned to the safety of the Refuge with the sixth Chaos Emerald in hand. Amidst the mourning of fallen tributes, Shadow leaves to find peace. His absence was not unnoticed, however, and Sally went to find him and talk to him. Later that night, Sally had a strange dream that she was chasing the final Chaos Emerald. However, in the dream, she encountered a panic-stricken Sonic, who then changed into Dark, who attacked her right before she woke up. When she awoke, she realized that the dream had brought to her the knowledge of the location of the last Emerald needed to overthrow Dark and bring Sonic back into power once and for all.)
The next morning became a bustle of activity. I had told John and Shadow about my dream and where I thought the last Chaos Emerald was. A meeting had been called and nearly everyone had volunteered and been accepted for the mission. This, as John put it, will be our last stand.
"Be ready in five minutes!" John called over an intercom. "Meet in the Rest Area."
I prepared myself by taking a blaster, a handgun, and bullets specialized in doing different things on impact: exploding, electrocuting, netting, grappling, and paralyzing were just a few. I also put on protective clothing and brought first aid. And, of course, even though I couldn't use them, the Chaos Emeralds would always be close at hand.
Five minutes later, a majority of the Refugees were gathered in the Rest Area. It was a tight fit, what with all the bunks and about four dozen people packed into it. John stood a few rungs up on the ladder leading to the apartment building above. He raised his hand and called for silence. Once the excited murmurs quieted down, he spoke.
"Here's the plan. We will split into groups of six. You know your groups. Shadow, Sally, Antoine, Bunnie, and Rock will be with me. When I call your group up, come to me for instructions. Then you are free to go. Everyone ready?"
Everyone cheered in response.
"Note that you can't back out once you exit the Refuge. If you have changed your mind, please raise your hand."
No one did.
"Alright then, if Joel's group will come up…"
Six people went to the front, and everyone started conversing quietly among themselves. Bunnie found me in the crowd, when Joel's group was heading up the ladder and John was calling out, "Carol's group!"
"Ah heard you were the one who figured out where the last Emerald was, is that right?" Bunnie asked me in her country-girl drawl.
"Yeah," I replied. "I had this weird dream…" And I told her about it. As I did, Carol's group left, Flame's group came and went, and Rose's group was called. Three groups left before ours.
"Oh mah," Bunnie said when I finished explaining. "Scary like half the cattle not coming home! Do ya think it was some sort of warnin'?"
I shrugged. "Could be, but what for?"
"It seems to me that since Dahk appeared in your dream, we maht have a run-in with him during the mission," she suggested.
"Maybe," I said. Jocelyn's team was called up. "This could be our final battle with Dark. We could get Sonic back." The hope was prominent in my voice.
"A final boss," Shadow snorted from beside me. I ignored him.
"Maybe," Bunnie nodded. "Ah miss the way things were. The weird new atmosphere makes mah gears ache." She rubbed her mechanical limbs to prove her point.
Jocelyn and the other five members in his team left and Maurice's team was called. Our team was the only one that remained.
"Do you think we can bring him back?" I asked, just worrying myself.
"Why, of course, princess!" Antoine joined the conversation. "We 'ave not failed yet!" He kneeled before me and kissed my hand. I blushed.
"And besides, ah'm sure we have the sugah-hog on our side," Bunnie added encouragingly.
I smiled gratefully at their supporting words. Just then, our group was called. The five of us went up to John. The room was otherwise mostly empty, excluding a few kids chatting and playing tag, and John's wife, Gina, watching from the sidelines.
"What's our plan?" Rock asked. He was a pale red echidna with great strength and combat, also a former Freedom Fighter.. He was also arrogant…and Knuckles's cousin.
"The plan is," he said in hushed tones, "that most of the other teams are clearing a path for us, getting any Exes or other dangers out of our way. Maurice's group will join ours once we get to our destination. Our two groups are going to go after the Chaos Emerald." From the inside of his coat, he produced a small hand-held computer, much like Nicole, my own portable computer. After typing in a few commands, a holographic map of the city was projected between the six of us. There were tiny, multicolored and labeled blips moving around the map, each in bunches of six. "This is color-coded according to team. We can track where everyone is at all times thanks to their comlinks. Most of the teams are taking to the rooftops. Rose's team will be making sure we can get across them safely." He indicated the route with his finger. "Once we get here, we take the streets. We'll be one block away from Dark's and Sonic Exe's base, called the Fortress. We can enter through the storage room of the building and make our way to the treasury. If we have time, we'll attack Dark directly. All clear?"
"Yes!" we chorused.
"Alright, after you," he gestured up the ladder. Shadow, Rock, Antoine, and Bunnie went up through the trap door one-by-one. As I followed, my bag slipped off my shoulder and fell to the floor. I sucked in my breath and jumped down to retrieve it. The contents had spilled all over the floor; my guns had skittered across the room and several of the Chaos Emeralds were gleaming in the light of the Rest Area, unscathed from the fall. As I bent over to pick everything up, Gina, John's pregnant wife, came up to him and hugged him.
"Be careful, sweetheart," I overheard her say.
"You know I will," John replied with a smile.
"Yes, but…you haven't done anything like this. I need you. Make it home safely."
"Don't worry." I saw him kiss her cheek, his hand on her bulging stomach. He pressed his forehead to hers. "Keep our child safe."
"I'll do my duty, you do yours," Gina smiled.
The affection between the two made me smile. I was reminded of Sonic. If he had a wife, I had a feeling he'd treat her the same way. Then I remembered what I was doing and went back to picking up. John ascended the ladder. When I finished, I stood up, slinging my bag over my other shoulder and across my chest so it wouldn't fall off again. As I climbed the ladder, I looked over my shoulder at the safe haven I was leaving behind. I couldn't help myself – my eyes landed on Gina, who gave me a fleeting but encouraging smile. I knew that she knew that I had overheard them. I returned her smile and left the safety of the Refuge.
Several minutes later, we had climbed a fire escape to the roof of the apartment. Most of the buildings in this part of the city were adjoined; if not, they had narrow, graffitied alleyways between them. In these sections, planks of wood were set out between the buildings and bolted into place. I relied on my Freedom Fighter training to get me across; I didn't look down, and kept my arms outstretched to keep my balance. It seemed that no one in my group seemed had forgotten their training either; we all made it across each one easily. John even surprised me by creeping across the planks with ease, no better or worse than any of us.
As I crossed one of the alleyways, I thought of something that almost made me slip; streets. Twenty feet across to the next building and forty feet down to roads crawling with Exes. Lucky for us, it turned out that someone in a previous group could control stone and earth; the buildings' bricks had been extended into a bridge strong enough for us to cross one at a time. No problem.
It took us nearly two hours to get to Green Hill Avenue. The street sign had been changed; Green had been crossed out and Hill had been written over. In blood-red letters, the street sign now read Hell Avenue. We climbed down a corroding fire escape to the streets below. This street was clear, it seemed.
"From here, we can use the streets to get to the Fortress," John said quietly. "You can see it above the rest of the buildings."
Sure enough, Empire Tower, the centerpiece of the city, raised high above the rest. However, it had been transformed; its spires at the top touched swirling black clouds in the red sky, and it seemed to have been painted black. Once and a while there was a flash of red and white lightning, making it look ten times more ominous and evil. The whole building seemed to be cast in a shadow, though nothing was taller than it in the city.
"Enough gawking," Shadow snapped. "Let's get moving." He set off down the street, followed by the rest of us.
John hadn't lied; the streets were deserted, though littered with the grotesque bodies of Exes other teams had shot down. As we walked, John explained more of the plan, though he was so quiet we had to walk in a tight bunch.
"When we get there, Maurice's team will be waiting for us in the back. Two other teams should have shut down security and cleared the path. Once we get the Emerald, we hand all seven to Shadow, who will switch places with Krypton from Flame's group. Then we will meet up at AJ's Jewelry across the street and plan if we should attack Dark or not."
By the time he finished, we had approached the building. Now I could tell that the lightning was not coming from the clouds, but from the antennas of the Fortress. There was a surprising lack of Exes to guard it. I supposed the other teams had done their job. We stayed in the shadows and rounded to the back of the building, where it received shipments to distribute to shops around the city. As promised, Maurice's group was waiting, hiding in the shadow of the building. When we approached, they raised their weapons at us, and we put up our hands.
"Oh," Maurice, a deep blue hedgehog with brown eyes, said. "We thought you were Exes." They lowered their guns.
John pulled up the holographic map. But the only blips on the map were the blue ones of our team and the green ones of Maurice's, as well as a few red, purple, and yellow blips in the building, very spread out from one another. John looked concerned and tapped a few buttons, but nothing changed. He sighed and put the computer away. "I was afraid of this…" he murmured to no one in particular.
"Afraid of what?" I asked.
He looked up. "Nothing, never mind. Let's go." He gestured toward the building's back door and the twelve of us headed inside, John leading.
The hallways were mostly dark. The only light was a flickering ceiling light every few yards. The halls seemed like they had been without care for years, not months; grime coated the walls, wallpaper peeling away and there was strangely colored stains on the walls. It smelled heavily of things rotting and mold. I kept thinking I was seeing movement in the shadows. Sometimes we passed bodies, too mutilated and decomposed to discern them as human, anthro, or Exe. As we traveled down the hall, I noticed a lumpy shape in the wallpaper. I called out to John to slow down, and he did. We passed cautiously by. Nothing happened…until John accidentally brushed past it. The wallpaper peeled away and a body fell on me. I screamed as the dead-weight knocked me down, my heart skipping a beat and then speeding up. It was the body of Carol.
Shadow grabbed the back of the corpse's jacket and tossed it in a corner. I scrambled to my feet and looked around at the shocked faces of our team.
John's face was unreadable. "Let's keep moving" was all he said.
A few yards from the first body, I recognized another body as another member of her group. My throat tightened and I looked away. I heard some of the others make noises of disgust or horror behind me when they saw the corpse. Afraid to look at anything too closely, I continued on. Soon we reached the first of the hall's intersections.
"Which way?" I whispered.
"Right," John said without hesitation, causing me to raise an eyebrow. However, I didn't question it as we took the right path. This happened at several more intersections. Right, left, center, third, right, right, left…I lost track. All directions were designated without hesitation. How did John know his way around so well?
"How do you know where to go?" Shadow asked. I wasn't the only one who noticed.
"I used to work here," John said simply. Something about him seemed…agitated. As usual, I didn't bring it up.
Soon, we approached a locked door. John typed something into a code box next to it. I tried to read what it said, but the numbers were blocked out by asterisks. Then he twisted the wheel on the door and it swung open, revealing the treasury.
It looked almost exactly like my dream. However, the tunnel was shorter, and either side was lined with bags of cash and jewels. I stepped inside and started walking. The glow of the final Chaos Emerald was visible at the end of the tunnel, a light blue against the walls. Soon, I started running.
Suddenly, the tunnel opened up to a large room, about as long and wide as a football field. It looked like a ballroom, with a second level set off by railings for people to look down on the dance floor. However, without the chandeliers and candles, it looked dark and formidable. The Chaos Emerald sat on a podium on the far side of the room, providing the only light. I looked over my shoulder to see where the others were. Most of the group was hanging back, gawking at the treasures. I noticed the door to the treasury closing. Shadow was running towards me, shouting something I couldn't hear. Suddenly, two giant doors that separated the treasury from the ballroom were slowly closing, creaking on their hinges. Shadow sped up and spin-dashed into the room just before they slammed shut, someone with their hands on the door, having closed it themselves. When the person turned to us, I gasped.
John had locked us in.
Cold laughter rang throughout the hall, sincerely evil. I whirled around. There was a shape of a hedgehog silhouetted by the glow of the Chaos Emerald. It was the very person who now haunted my dreams. His very name left a bitter taste in my mouth as I spoke.
"Dark."
(I apologize. This chapter was EXTREMELY rushed, I know, but I'm lazy, and to be honest, I'm just excited to finish this story. Two chapters left, and then I will be doing bonus chapters and multiple epilogues. These chapters are open to suggestions, based off readers' opinions on what is happening in the background and what will happen next. For example, what happened to Sonic when Dark took control? What are other characters' points of view on certain situations? I already have several ideas from users, I could use more! And you will be credited for the idea. Please review if you have one, it's greatly appreciated!
Until next time…)
~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd