1A/N: You have no idea how bad I feel right now. I tried to post this chapter yesterday, but as soon as I pressed submit document button, it went right to saying, "This page can't be displayed". It disappointed me. Hopefully it will post this time. I'm sorry to keep you all waiting, especially my partner.
Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic & company. They belong to Sega.
Zera, Zeren, & Joey belong to Me.
Well, let's get this chapter started!
Chapter 6
"Zera, slow your roll down girl!" Sonic called out to her. The said female hedgehog slowly came to a stop when she heard her name being called. That gave the others enough time to catch up with her. Sonic kept staring at the back of Zera, worried.
"Zera, do you want to say something?" He asked her cautiously. No words, no movement, was made. Finally, she slowly turned her head to glance at the others.
"I'm sorry...I guess I made a hasty retreat & overreacted.." She mumbled. Tails gestured a small smile. They all knew Zera wasn't always that good with apologizing. But with her, even just a simple 'I'm sorry" is the best thing she could say. In better terms, you can take what you can get.
"It's fine Zera, we know how you can get by now. We've had experience with Mr. Grumpy Stripes over here." He pointed his thumb towards Shadow. This earned him a glared from the red & black hedgehog. He grinned mischievously, then gave him a fake innocent smile.
"Alright you hedgehogs, we have a more serious problem at hand here. Like, finding the restof our team perhaps." Tails said in a sarcastic tone & a glint in his eye. "-Sigh- Hedgehogs..." He thought. The others looked at him, then at each other.
"Your right Tails. How do you propose we find them?" Shadow asked. Tails licked his dry lips in thought. He really didn't have a plan of action at the moment...
"Umm...I was hoping that maybe one of you guys could come up with something.." He said shyly. Sonic had a surprised look on his face. This was very unexpected from the blond kitsune.
"Wow Tails, this is a strange term of events. But, I'm sure we can figure something out.." Zera said slowly. Silence fell over them all as they began to think. Finally after 5 minutes, Zera was up with a light bulb.
"OK, I think I got something. Hopefully the others wouldn't have moved from where we last left them. & if so, we might be able to track their current whereabouts. Do any of you know their directional habits?" She asked the boys. Tails had no idea about that. Despite the friendships he had with the others, he doesn't know a thing about their habits with directions. Seriously, when does that ever come up? Sonic was also at a loss. Shadow, on the other hand, seemed to have a of knowing.
"Well, out of all of those 3, I believe that Espio would lead them to us. As a highly trained assassin, he was always told to follow his instincts. He has a noticeable way of going westward. Is that good information?" He asked, being the only one out of all of them to go on a mission with the purple chameleon. That was definitely useful information. Zera nodded.
"That's great! So all we'll have to is head back there in an all left direction...Does that make any sense?" Clearly that sentence sounded like it belongs to a complete looney bird. Sonic shook his head in disagreement.
"It does sound crazy. But it's normal with us. Maybe we could do something else?" He suggested. Eh, it was worth a shot.
"So, what other possible thing could we do? Just walk back to them?" Shadow asked. It seemed lousy, but no one else was suggesting anything. Zera now shook her head.
"I doubt that they'll still be there. They probably would have moved on to come & try to find us." On & on, Shadow, Tails, & Zera kept battling on ideas on what to do. Sonic only hanged back on his own.
"Hey, wait a minute! Being the sneaky little ninja he is, couldn't we just ring him on his communicator? I mean, he never leaves the Chaotix headquarters without it. It's practically embroidered into his glove. " He asked in an almost shy manner. Everyone looked at Sonic in bewilderment. Tails mostly. He slapped his cheek in frustration. Why didn't he think of that himself?! Finally keeping up with this, he began searching through his pack that he somehow had with him the whole time until he found the device. He quickly dialed Espio's contact number, & all the members huddled around him, waiting. When they finally heard something.
"Espio! Espio, can you hear me? It's Tails! Where are you guys?" Tails asked. It was hard to hear a response from the noise in the background, & some static.
"Guys!?-Espio!-Down the-4 hallways!-Can't hold off-too much-breaking connection!-Requesting backup!-Espio, out." Then the static call ended. No one needed to say what needed to be said: They had to move; NOW.
Quicker than anything, Zera & the guys started running back down the hallway. Surprisingly there actually was a sign on the corner saying '#4'. Only 3 more hallways to go.
That's when the noises started to erupt.
Just as they were in the middle of hallway number 3, little voices of...children filled their ears. And it was creepy.
"You think these guys our messing with our friends?" Sonic asked, his eyes showing caution, & a bit of anger. He felt angered at the thought. Zera shrugged.
"Only one way to find out big blue. We gotta go deeper into the halls, no matter what trap he has in store for us." She stated & they all took off running again.
Hallway number is where things got really creepy. The closer they were reaching the end, the louder & ballistic the sounds got. And that could only mean one thing: Trouble.
"All would be damned if we didn't make it in time...Or we did, but we somehow look like idiots.." Shadow thought. Then, there was a sudden change in sound. Screaming occurred, & it wasn't coming from the mysterious voices.
It was coming from their teammates.
"That was Zeren's scream! I recognize his scream of terror slash war cry anywhere!" Zera exclaimed at this familiarity. For some reason, Tails had to smirk at this.
"And you pay extreme detail to his different screams because you care so deeply about him, right?" He asked with a smirk. For the first time in awhile, Zera had a faint red hue glowing on her muzzle, & was grumbling under her breath in embarrassed frustration. Sonic had to chuckle at this. Even Shadow made some acknowledgement at the joke by letting a ghost of a smile appear.
"That's so cute Zera! Acting like you don't like Zeren when you reallydo." Sonic winked at her which only made the blush intensify. "Your just like Knuckles when it comes to Rouge. They fight all the time, but only because that gives them the excuse to be around each other. That might be your problem-...Wait, do you hear that?" Sonic stopped in midsentence when he noticed something odd.. Well, odder even since they entered this mad place. All of their ear swiveled around to pick up what Sonic was speaking about.
"Faker, are you deaf or something? There is nothing to hear except your stupidity!" Shadow said. Sonic then glared at his counterpart.
"No Shads, that's my freaking point! There ISN'T anything to hear! What happened to all the weird creepy children sounds?" That when the realization began to sink in.
"There's...nothing at all..." Zera said in an airy voice. Hearing nothing is worse than hearing lots of somethings. Especially in this kind of situation. They ran faster than they did earlier down the final hallway, & paused as soon as they saw the sight before them.
Blood was stained everywhere. All against the walls. The floor, stained especially in the carpet..
Especially on their colleagues.
~Fear is your worst enemy. Don't let it over power you.~
There, I hope you are satisfied. I think this was the longest chapter I've made so far. I hope you can still forgive me for being so late.
R&R por favor!