p class="p1"span class="s1"Chapter 14/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "How do you know about this place anyway, Sticks?" Silver panted. They'd been walking for hours, and the sky was just beginning to betray a hint of sunlight. Amy had never seen this part of the woods before./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I was exploring one day. Came across the place, thought it might make a cool new burrow," Sticks shrugged, leading the way. "Then, you know, something started throwing knives at me, so I figured maybe nah."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Sounds like fun," Shadow grumbled./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Maybe not, but it definitely sounds promising," Rouge reasoned. "If there wasn't a chaos emerald in there, do you really thing there'd be knives flying?"/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Fair," Shadow conceded. "I suppose that means I'll be going first."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Just because you can't die doesn't mean you can't be impaled," Amy pointed out. "We'll all go in."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Well, better gather yourselves," Sticks pointed, "because we're here."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" The team looked up at the cave. It was much bigger than Amy expected, towering fifty feet over their heads. It looked fairly unremarkable, grey stone carved into the hillside, covered with decades' worth of moss, ivy, and packed mud. But there was something about it…/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Shadow?" Sticks asked. The dark hedgehog had frozen, narrowing his gaze at the entrance of the cave./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "It's definitely here," he affirmed with a short nod. "Far off. But here."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Then let's get started," Amy replied, pulling her knife back out./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" The rest of the crew followed suit. Silver clenched his fists, waves of blue energy radiating off of them. Sticks pulled her kali stick off her back and wielded it in front of her. Rouge pulled her crossbow from her backpack, a dangerous, lethal-looking weapon that Tails had rigged up for her the night before. And Shadow clutched the fifth chaos emerald, hanging from his neck by a circular piece of twine, ready there for him to use Chaos Control./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" The five entered the cave, cautiously, but armed with the incentive that they needed to solve this puzzle class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" The floor was slippery, almost wet. Handprints in black paint lined the wall, which Amy found unsettling./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Shadow? How close is it?" she whispered. Talking at normal volume in the scary death cave seemed like a poor idea./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I don't know. A hundred feet? I definitely feel it, but we're not right on top of it," he whispered back, eyes narrowed, leading the way./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" The group continued down the darkened caveway, until Silver suddenly stopped./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Do you hear th-" His eyes widened as the ground beneath his feet crumbled suddenly. Sticks grabbed Rouge and rolled both of them out of the way, Shadow was out of range, and Amy threw her body backwards, just far enough to escape being sucked into the chasm. Silver, however, wasn't so lucky./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Silver," Sticks screamed as he felt himself free-falling through the air. It took his mind about half a second to process the situation, and another half a second to remember, "Oh, yeah, I have telekinetic powers."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" Concentrating hard, he managed to bring a field of blue energy around him, stopping his fall and leaving him floating in midair, just inches from the bottom of the pit, which was littered with lots of extremely sharp wooden spikes. His eyes widened with the realization of the fate he'd just barely avoided./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I-I'm okay," he called, doing his best not to sound shaken. He managed to maneuver himself out of the hole and over to the side, where he finally allowed his telekinetic energy to dissolve around him, dropping him to the floor./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Holy Mobius," Amy breathed. "No offense, Silver, but I'm glad it was you to trigger that one. You know, because you can levitate and all that."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Me too," he exhaled. He could feel his energy was drained from the effort he'd had to expend, using so much to lift his body./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "We need to move. Try not to kill yourself, kid," Shadow quipped, raising an eyebrow and earning an angry snarl from Silver before turning around. "We're close."/span/p
p class="p1"span class="s1"* * */span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "It's really cold," Rouge murmured. "Anyone else notice that?"/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" Shadow nodded. "Be on guard. Something isn't right."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" Amy narrowed her gaze, stopping suddenly. The rest of the group halted behind her. "Wait," she hissed./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" The cave floor under their feet had begun vibrating, almost imperceptibly. Shadow was shocked that she had even noticed./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" That was when everything happened at once./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" A strange, purple cloud began growing from the base of the cave. The group backed up into each other, all five of them in a circle, as the gas began to surround them. Amy felt her feet begin to tingle./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Nerve gas," Shadow ground out. "Black Doom's doing, I'd bet. Don't let it touch you!"/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" Amy, with Rouge and Silver following close behind, leaped as far as she could over the cloud of gas. It hadn't risen very high, but it was still beginning to spread. The three of them managed to clear it, save for one of Amy's feet, which immediately fell asleep, but when they looked back, Sticks had collapsed at the center of the circle./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Sticks!" Amy yelled, moving to run back in to save her friend, but Shadow shook his head furiously at her./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I have her," he demanded. "I'm immune to the stuff."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" He quickly sprinted back into the cloud, grabbing Sticks up like she weighed nothing, and holding her up as high as he could as he made his way out of class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "No time to rest," Amy indicated. The nerve gas was spreading out with every second. "We need to find a way to seal this off!"/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "That's where I come in," Silver offered, motioning everyone else to back up. Concentrating hard, and using every last ounce of energy he had, he willed the ceiling to crack. Then shatter./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" Dark grey rock fell around them, the impact of it both blasting the cloud of nerve gas backwards and sealing them off from it. Silver collapsed from effort, his legs crumpling underneath him like noodles./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Silver," Rouge exhaled, running over. "Are you all right?"/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I'm okay," he assured her unsteadily. "Just tired. Two minutes and I can keep moving."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Amy," Shadow began, looking down at the badger. Amy came dashing over./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Sticks, are you okay?" she asked. Sticks was blinking rapidly./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I think so," she ground out. "But I can't feel anything below the waist."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "It's temporary," Shadow explained. "She's in a lot of pain, but that'll stop after a while too. I can carry her."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Shadow, are YOU okay?" Amy asked. The dark hedgehog was grimacing in pain./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Fine," he nodded curtly. "I may be immune to the stuff, but it still hurts like a bitch."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Shadow," Sticks demanded, getting his attention. "You may be kind of grumpy sometimes, and you may not like squishy stuff, but thank you for saving me."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Eh. You could have saved yourself," he waved her off. "I just took all the credit."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" Sticks sighed. "I'm trying to say a serious thank you here. The least you could do is accept it."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" Shadow's cheeks reddened, an extremely rare occurrence. "Fine. You're welcome. And when we get back, you owe me three hardcore training sessions."br / "Deal," she replied, grinning. "Jesus, that stuff is no joke. I think my legs are on fire."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I hate to interrupt the moment, but I think we have company," Rouge started, lifting a manicured finger towards the path in front of them, where a large… something had appeared./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" It was tall, easily 20 feet in height, with a double-horned helmet and one red, glowing eye. It wore tattered black garments, but Amy found the scariest thing about it to be its legs. They almost looked like they were made of wood, dark, stiff, and cracked. But the way he moved… he was too graceful./span/p
p class="p2" "I'd so hoped I wouldn't have to finish you off myself," the thing chuckled, its voice raspy and deep./p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "How do you know about this place anyway, Sticks?" Silver panted. They'd been walking for hours, and the sky was just beginning to betray a hint of sunlight. Amy had never seen this part of the woods before./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I was exploring one day. Came across the place, thought it might make a cool new burrow," Sticks shrugged, leading the way. "Then, you know, something started throwing knives at me, so I figured maybe nah."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Sounds like fun," Shadow grumbled./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Maybe not, but it definitely sounds promising," Rouge reasoned. "If there wasn't a chaos emerald in there, do you really thing there'd be knives flying?"/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Fair," Shadow conceded. "I suppose that means I'll be going first."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Just because you can't die doesn't mean you can't be impaled," Amy pointed out. "We'll all go in."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Well, better gather yourselves," Sticks pointed, "because we're here."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" The team looked up at the cave. It was much bigger than Amy expected, towering fifty feet over their heads. It looked fairly unremarkable, grey stone carved into the hillside, covered with decades' worth of moss, ivy, and packed mud. But there was something about it…/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Shadow?" Sticks asked. The dark hedgehog had frozen, narrowing his gaze at the entrance of the cave./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "It's definitely here," he affirmed with a short nod. "Far off. But here."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Then let's get started," Amy replied, pulling her knife back out./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" The rest of the crew followed suit. Silver clenched his fists, waves of blue energy radiating off of them. Sticks pulled her kali stick off her back and wielded it in front of her. Rouge pulled her crossbow from her backpack, a dangerous, lethal-looking weapon that Tails had rigged up for her the night before. And Shadow clutched the fifth chaos emerald, hanging from his neck by a circular piece of twine, ready there for him to use Chaos Control./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" The five entered the cave, cautiously, but armed with the incentive that they needed to solve this puzzle class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" The floor was slippery, almost wet. Handprints in black paint lined the wall, which Amy found unsettling./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Shadow? How close is it?" she whispered. Talking at normal volume in the scary death cave seemed like a poor idea./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I don't know. A hundred feet? I definitely feel it, but we're not right on top of it," he whispered back, eyes narrowed, leading the way./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" The group continued down the darkened caveway, until Silver suddenly stopped./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Do you hear th-" His eyes widened as the ground beneath his feet crumbled suddenly. Sticks grabbed Rouge and rolled both of them out of the way, Shadow was out of range, and Amy threw her body backwards, just far enough to escape being sucked into the chasm. Silver, however, wasn't so lucky./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Silver," Sticks screamed as he felt himself free-falling through the air. It took his mind about half a second to process the situation, and another half a second to remember, "Oh, yeah, I have telekinetic powers."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" Concentrating hard, he managed to bring a field of blue energy around him, stopping his fall and leaving him floating in midair, just inches from the bottom of the pit, which was littered with lots of extremely sharp wooden spikes. His eyes widened with the realization of the fate he'd just barely avoided./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I-I'm okay," he called, doing his best not to sound shaken. He managed to maneuver himself out of the hole and over to the side, where he finally allowed his telekinetic energy to dissolve around him, dropping him to the floor./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Holy Mobius," Amy breathed. "No offense, Silver, but I'm glad it was you to trigger that one. You know, because you can levitate and all that."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Me too," he exhaled. He could feel his energy was drained from the effort he'd had to expend, using so much to lift his body./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "We need to move. Try not to kill yourself, kid," Shadow quipped, raising an eyebrow and earning an angry snarl from Silver before turning around. "We're close."/span/p
p class="p1"span class="s1"* * */span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "It's really cold," Rouge murmured. "Anyone else notice that?"/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" Shadow nodded. "Be on guard. Something isn't right."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" Amy narrowed her gaze, stopping suddenly. The rest of the group halted behind her. "Wait," she hissed./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" The cave floor under their feet had begun vibrating, almost imperceptibly. Shadow was shocked that she had even noticed./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" That was when everything happened at once./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" A strange, purple cloud began growing from the base of the cave. The group backed up into each other, all five of them in a circle, as the gas began to surround them. Amy felt her feet begin to tingle./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Nerve gas," Shadow ground out. "Black Doom's doing, I'd bet. Don't let it touch you!"/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" Amy, with Rouge and Silver following close behind, leaped as far as she could over the cloud of gas. It hadn't risen very high, but it was still beginning to spread. The three of them managed to clear it, save for one of Amy's feet, which immediately fell asleep, but when they looked back, Sticks had collapsed at the center of the circle./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Sticks!" Amy yelled, moving to run back in to save her friend, but Shadow shook his head furiously at her./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I have her," he demanded. "I'm immune to the stuff."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" He quickly sprinted back into the cloud, grabbing Sticks up like she weighed nothing, and holding her up as high as he could as he made his way out of class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "No time to rest," Amy indicated. The nerve gas was spreading out with every second. "We need to find a way to seal this off!"/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "That's where I come in," Silver offered, motioning everyone else to back up. Concentrating hard, and using every last ounce of energy he had, he willed the ceiling to crack. Then shatter./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" Dark grey rock fell around them, the impact of it both blasting the cloud of nerve gas backwards and sealing them off from it. Silver collapsed from effort, his legs crumpling underneath him like noodles./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Silver," Rouge exhaled, running over. "Are you all right?"/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I'm okay," he assured her unsteadily. "Just tired. Two minutes and I can keep moving."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Amy," Shadow began, looking down at the badger. Amy came dashing over./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Sticks, are you okay?" she asked. Sticks was blinking rapidly./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I think so," she ground out. "But I can't feel anything below the waist."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "It's temporary," Shadow explained. "She's in a lot of pain, but that'll stop after a while too. I can carry her."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Shadow, are YOU okay?" Amy asked. The dark hedgehog was grimacing in pain./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Fine," he nodded curtly. "I may be immune to the stuff, but it still hurts like a bitch."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Shadow," Sticks demanded, getting his attention. "You may be kind of grumpy sometimes, and you may not like squishy stuff, but thank you for saving me."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "Eh. You could have saved yourself," he waved her off. "I just took all the credit."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" Sticks sighed. "I'm trying to say a serious thank you here. The least you could do is accept it."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" Shadow's cheeks reddened, an extremely rare occurrence. "Fine. You're welcome. And when we get back, you owe me three hardcore training sessions."br / "Deal," she replied, grinning. "Jesus, that stuff is no joke. I think my legs are on fire."/span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" "I hate to interrupt the moment, but I think we have company," Rouge started, lifting a manicured finger towards the path in front of them, where a large… something had appeared./span/p
p class="p2"span class="s1" It was tall, easily 20 feet in height, with a double-horned helmet and one red, glowing eye. It wore tattered black garments, but Amy found the scariest thing about it to be its legs. They almost looked like they were made of wood, dark, stiff, and cracked. But the way he moved… he was too graceful./span/p
p class="p2" "I'd so hoped I wouldn't have to finish you off myself," the thing chuckled, its voice raspy and deep./p