Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Framing the Shadow ❯ Escape ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: No I don't own these characters.

Framing the Shadow: Chapter 2

Another piercing tremor tore through the ship, causing it to rattle ferociously as another section of the ark disappeared into the depths of the atmosphere. The aftershocks were powerful enough to roughly cause the ring of escape pods attached beneath the ship to nearly break apart. "Jeez!" Sonic shouted, being rocked by the shocks and tremors. It was at this very moment that he was grateful to Eggman's grandfather for inventing such a sturdy and insanely secure "safety seat". Looking up towards the small cubed window of the pod, Sonic frowned. The vibrations were getting worse. And on top of that, neither Knuckles or Rouge have come back yet.

Sonic paused as his brow furrowed in thought. The reason he had indirectly made Knuckles go back to the ark solo because Sonic wanted him to be the hero for a little while as he rescued his alluring damsel in distress from danger. But from the way things were looking now, Sonic had quickly regretted making that choice. "What was I thinking?" he uttered to himself.

Things were getting too dangerous for even for Knuckles to handle. Concerned for his comrade and for Rouge, Sonic skillfully undid his safety "restraints" in pure contrast to how he had comically struggled with them earlier, and stepped towards the pod's door. Upon contact, it automatically opened in front of him and he had to quickly grab onto either sides of the doorway to brace himself against the tremendous currents of air pressure beneath him. "Sheesh!!!" He shouted as he struggled against the intense force of pressure blasting upwards into his face. There was so much of it, he wondered how Knuckles handled it with such ease. 'Show-off…' Sonic thought to himself while trying to look for a stable place on the walls of the collapsing ark to jump onto. Looking a bit to the right, he could see the small but deep indentations made by Knuckles' smashing attempts to climb the wall. Bracing himself to jump, Sonic had just leaned back a little to build up enough strength to make the jump, when the ark shook with such a fatal vengeance, it sent the hedgehog tumbling backwards into the pod.

"Ow!" he grimaced as he rubbed his head. But another fierce tremor made his actions null and void as he got thrown over to the opposite side. Laying in an upside-down curled position with his back against the wall of the pod, Sonic disgustedly crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. Warily, he looked over at his seat and suddenly, all those insane looking belts made sense to have and looked very inviting to him. Carefully, he rolled over onto his side and proceeded to crawl over to his seat on his belly to avoid being knocked around again. Suddenly, the sharp sound of static was thrown around inside the pod. "Sonic!!" called Amy's frantic voice through an intercom placed somewhere in the pod, "Sonic are you allright?!!"

"Amy…" Sonic uttered as he looked around for the intercom. Upon finding it, the minute he picked up the receiving end, Tails' voice rang through the device. "Sonic! Can you hear me?"

"Yeah!" he replied, still laying on the floor. "This ark isn't taking any prisoners with it from the way the atmosphere is tearing it apart! Are you guys okay?"

"Yeah!" Tails replied "I managed to cut into the system's old controls and -Amy!?!"

"Step aside Tails! Sonic! Sonic is everything allright? I thought we'd lose you from that last tremor!" Amy cried.

"Don't worry, Amy, I'm---" Just as he spoke, he remembered about Knuckles and Rouge and immediately cut the small talk. "Amy, put Tails back on!"

She gasped in shock. "But Sonic--!"

"Now, Amy! There's no time!" Sonic commanded, trying not to sound too demanding.

A few seconds later, Tails was back on the line. "What's wrong, Sonic?"

"Tails, Knuckles and Rouge are still in the ark."

"What!?"

"Listen, if you can I want you to find a way to connect the pods' intercom system with the ark's internal system!"

There was a pause. "I could do it, but, I'd need a direct line from the ark itself to connect it to the system solely used for the pods!"

Lowly, Sonic uttered a word of disgust. It looked like he had to go back out into that murderous air pressure after all. He was hoping that Tails could have used the intercom system to contact the ark to alert Knuckles and Rouge to come to the escape pods on their own. So much for that idea.

Again, he spoke into the receiver. "Tails, can you hear me?"

"Yep."

"Allright. …I'll go out and get you a line. You stay ready near the door…but don't get too close, understand?"

"Got it!"

"Allright, I'm going. …..And uh….take care of Amy…okay?"

With those words said, Sonic placed the receiver down and carefully got back to his feet. Stepping over to the door yet again, Sonic took in a deep breath and inched closer to it. The second it opened, Sonic leapt out of the pod and blindly grabbed a hold of one of the grooved imprints left by Knuckles' fists. Relieved, he exhaled and quickly looked around for a loose line from the deteriorating space colony. By pure luck, he found one dangling not too far from him. Carefully placing himself on the wall to reach for it, he missed a few times before finally grabbing hold of it. Silently cursing the oppressing power of the air pressure, Sonic pulled the wire from the ark in a way similar to how one would lift up the roots of a tree from out the ground. He then moved himself until he was in front of Tails' pod.

**

"I'm really worried about him out there." Amy said, looking down at her shoes. Tails, who sat directly across from her in their pod, directed reassuring words to her, but kept most of his attention on the small window on the top of the pod's door. "Don't worry so much, Amy. I'm sure Sonic will make it."

Looking up at him with uncertain eyes, Amy frowned a little and crossed her arms, amongst all the safety belts. "He'd better…for his sake."

Tails grinned at her. "Come on. Sonic's the type of guy who loves this kind of adrenaline rush! Something small like this won't even phase him---hey! I think I see him!"

"What? You do?" Amy questioned to Tails, who had already unbuckled his safety belts and carefully went over to the door beside her. Not getting too close, he stood on his tippy toes to get a better look out the window, and just as he said, Sonic was right across from the door waving the wire in his hands. "I'm going to open the door, Amy. Hold onto my tails and don't let go!"

"Got it!" Amy said, firmly taking hold of his tails. Stepping directly in front of the door when it opened, Tails struggled to steady himself as the currents of the wind outside nearly blew him backwards, but he quickly grasped the doorway of the pod and waved to Sonic. Seeing that his target range was clear, Sonic tossed the wire to Tails, and the young fox leaned out, barely catching it. Amy, who felt Tails nearly losing his balance, pulled with all her might on his tails and forced him back into the pod.

"Owww!!" he cried "You didn't have to pull them so hard!"

"Well, it was either that or your life." Her eyes narrowed and she haughtily crossed her arms. "One of these days you'll be grateful when a beautiful young woman pulls on you a little hard."

Tails gave her a puzzled expression. "What?"

"Nothing!" Amy shot back. "Anyway, can you get that thing hooked up?"

"I'll try."

"Good…" Amy said, her mind drifting. " I sure hope Sonic will be allright."

**

Irritated, annoyed and nearly wiped out, Sonic finally reached the top of the space colony's wall. Because of the immense currents of air ascending between the gaps where the ark and bay for the escape pods were connected, the exhausted hedgehog was unable to use his speedy feet to run up the wall. Instead had to hover and ride the current using his Figure 8 move, then climb the rest of the way using the holes Knuckles made as footholds. Panting, he stood to his feet and looked around. The colony looked like it had been hit its hardest from the last two tremors. Sonic shook his head. It was an utterly disastrous and sad sight to see. But thanks to his struggles with that accursed air current, Sonic had begun to sympathize with the ship as he felt almost the same way it looked.

Even though his whole body practically ached, he pushed his pain aside and proceeded to carefully zip across gaps and holes in the ark while making his way down each and every battered hallway in search of his missing teammates.

**

Emotionally unable to leave the same place he was when Rouge disappeared from his very sights, Knuckles became overwhelmed from his inability to help her and slowly sulked to his knees. "...No..." Knuckles uttered, his voice thin and shaken. "No….NO THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!" he roared, clenching his fist with a murderous force and ramming it through the floor of the ark. Unable to hold back his anger and confusion, the enraged echidna continued to drive his fierce fists through whatever was within his range---his rage matching the pulse of each racing thought. Why would Rouge just leave so suddenly and put herself in vital danger? Why hadn't she told him anything?

Dejected, his tangled mind began to torture him with visions of his passionate crush---her smile, the alluringly smug way she looked at him, the lush and sensual tones of her erotic voice…

All of it gone in a matter of seconds.

His heart ached at the thought of never seeing her again or never getting the chance to tell her, or show her, how he felt…

"AHH!!…TROUBLEMAKER!!!" he vociferated, leaping to his feet and blindly forcing his fist into the glass that surrounded the pod Rouge had left in-shattering it completely.

Trembling from his explosion of anger, his breath was heavy, as his eyes, aimless and wild, fleeted around the room at the damage he had done. Muttering a curse under his breath, he dropped his destructive fists down to his sides and hung his head, chest heaving.

"….Rouge…"

Remorsefully, turning to leave, he nearly lost his balance from the space colony being torn apart even more.

"Knuckles! Knuckles can you hear me?"

Intensely, he looked around. "Tails…?"

"I'm calling you from the colony's escape pods!", the young fox's voice called through the intercom, "The colony's being ripped apart! We're entering the atmosphere!"

"…You don't say…" Knuckles grumbled under his breath as he finally sought the deteriorating ship with his own eyes. He had been swimming in his thoughts the whole time that he was oblivious as to what was going on around him. "$#!+ !!" he uttered, running out of the room "I have to get out of here…!"

"There you are!"

Spinning around, Knuckles had met face to face with Sonic. With a smug expression, he shook his head and for a moment, set his rage aside. No matter what was going on, Sonic always had to show up at the last minute and have the last bit. 'Show off.' He thought and tossed a mocking look at the hedgehog. "What are you doing here… besides playing the hero until the final curtain falls?"

With a playful scoff, Sonic crossed his arms. "Just saving the support actor's butt, as usual. And speaking of which, where's the leading lady?"

"…She…" Knuckles began, rapidly feeling his anger starting to rise. Not wanting another delirious outburst like before, he clenched his fists tightly and looked away from Sonic. "…She's…not here…"

"What?!"

At that moment, the ark gave a loud and torturing screech as large chunks of it were torn apart barely inches away from them---and were steadily traveling to the only pathway that lead to the safety pods beneath the ark.

"$#!+!! Sonic---!!"

"We can talk later! Let's get out of here!" Sonic shouted, quickly grabbing Knuckles by the wrist and speeding out of harms way in an instant.

It seemed almost as soon as Sonic passed a section of the deteriorating ark, the ship began collapsing upon itself. There was no turning back.

Finally reaching the pods, Sonic rushed inside, tossed Knuckles in and locked the door.

"Whew! Finally we made it!" Sonic panted, leaning against the door on his hands and looked to Knuckles over his shoulder. " That was close." He looked again " ...Huh?"

Wordlessly, and paying no attention to the hedgehog in front of him, Knuckles grimly hung his head and began to tremble. Awed and speechless, Sonic started to take a step towards him, until he saw the vigorous clenching and unclenching of the fiery echidna's fists. From seeing that, he stopped dead in his tracks, and softly called to him. "…Knuckles…?"

There was a pause before he finally spoke.

"dmmt…shs…gne" Knuckles mumbled low and incoherently. "wy…s..it…so…pnful…"

"What..?" Sonic rhetorically asked, unaware of himself speaking.

"Getting…moody over this…" Knuckles continued bitterly, slowly lifting his voice as well as his eyes, but didn't give much attention to the concerned and confused hedgehog before him "It just hurts so much…"

"Knuckles…"

Roughly, Knuckles shook his head. He knew Rouge wouldn't do anything too daring for no reason…..unless there was something else going on that he didn't know about…

Even though he and Rouge weren't an item--yet-- Knuckles still felt angered when she kept things from him. But now, more than ever, did Knuckles realize that Rouge was upto something behind his back and he knew that she wasn't working alone.

"Dammit Rouge!" , he spat, "Why do you always do this to me!"

"Um Knuckles…" Sonic cautioned, gesturing to him to keep his temper down.

"DAMMIT!!!" he roared, blindly crushing his fist into the titanium of the pod's wall, causing it to shake.

Sonic jumped at the thundering vibration. "Jeez! Knuckles, calm down!"

Angrily, Knuckles turned to Sonic with an annoyed gesture. "And how do you expect me to do that?!"

Sonic scoffed. "Idiot! You…." He trailed off, suddenly looking up.

Annoyed, Knuckles made a gruff sound and glanced up, yet saw nothing. "What's wrong with you?"

"Quiet…" Sonic whispered. Reluctantly doing what was requested, Knuckles paused and listened. As the two of them stood unnaturally still, the faint sound of a mechanical screech was heard. Knuckles shrugged. At first he thought it was just the ark falling apart----that is until the pod started to tilt at an acute angle.

"What the…" he wondered, looking to Sonic, who had slid over to his side of the pod with no effort at all. Eyes narrowed, and arms crossed he glared at Knuckles.

"I hope you're happy…"

Knuckles blinked. "What?!"

At that very moment, there was another machine bending sound as the rusted bay that was holding the pods broke apart---sending the ring of pods free-falling from the ark and plummeting to the planet below.

--Man, was this a lengthy chapter or what! There was so much going on…and it was angsty too. Oh well.

Another chapter done. Onto the Rouge and the Shadow!! Yeah, what happened to her anyway….?

^^ Later

-Mel