Sonic Forces (Revision)

Chapter 8: Unexpected Misery

Her wing stung, blood dripping from the deep gnash Zavok's laser made. Her breathing had begun to quicken as she and the red wisp moved silently through the hallways. Worst of all, though, was the sudden rise of badniks that had appeared. It seemed as though the bee bots and egg pawns had come from out of nowhere. The bat and wisp were barely able to make it into the hallway before they showed up. Luckily, they were able to keep the bots at bay with fire and explosives, but the hoard was quite alarming. Rouge had even asked the red wisp if his team had come across any earlier. The little guy just shook his head. It was quite weird.

Right now, the two were trekking quietly down the hallway. They were afraid that one sudden sound would be enough to alert the hoard to their location. The further and further they trekked though, the more and more Rouge felt like she was falling behind. It wasn't even like she was the only one to notice it. The red wisp even stopped a few times to look back and make sure she was okay. Even though it was only her wing that had been hit, Rouge was beginning to feel as though it wasn't the only thing in pain. She was even beginning to stumble. Luckily, the wisp was quite helpful with more than directions and was able to help her get to their destination.

By the time they had reached the end of the long hallway, it sounded as though an entire battle was taking place. Rouge and the wisp exchanged glances, thinking the badniks had found them. Once an egg pawn crashed into the wall next to them, though, the explanation they had didn't seem to match up. The wisp moved Rouge toward the wall so she could use it for support as he turned the corner. He did a little twirl. In his own wisp gibberish, while he made a few motions, he told Rouge to stay by the wall while he checked out the scene.

The bat nodded and leaned into the wall more deeply. Once the wisp rounded the corner though, she pushed herself over there and took a look at the scene. It looked like the rescue team the wisp had mentioned to her and Sonic earlier. The thing was, that same rescue team seemed to be in need of rescuing themselves.

They were stuck in one place, dealing with a large flood of robots. Sure, they were making quick work of it, but the robots kept coming by the swarms. Silver was doing what he could to knock the large metallic machines together and hold back the massive wave. Shadow was delivering powerful kicks to their backs while trying to type something into a computer on the wall. The last was a brown wolf, who appeared to be wrestling with one of the robots.

The red wisp flew over toward the wolf and inhabited her burst wispon. The wolf glanced at the device, cocked her head, and decided to pull the trigger. A flood of fire shot out of the device and caught the robot ablaze. It moved back, giving the wolf just enough room to kick it down. She looked at her wispon, stunned by what had happened. The red wisp popped out of it and flew onto her head. "You came back! I was so worried about you!" The wolf exclaimed.

Rouge just stared at the robot. No flickies flew out of it. Quite strange in her opinion. The strangest thing, however, presented itself when the robot began to disappear. She rounded the corner, taking a closer look at the metal machine as it vanished. "Interesting." She stated. "Guess they don't make Eggman robots like they used to."

The bat's sudden interjection caused a glance from the wolf. "Huh? Who are-?" She glanced at the bat's stature. The way her wings fell down in an unnatural position and the dark markings on her fur caused the wolf to gasp. "What happened to you?!"

Silver glanced back, still holding a wave of robots back with his psychokinesis. "Wendy, what is-" He gasped. "Rouge! You're okay!"

Rouge leaned on the wall more deeply. She took in a breath through her gritted teeth. Her entire body felt like it was being pressed against pins and needles. "'Okay' is an understatement." She looked over at Shadow, who was typing something on the computer. He seemed to be okay right now other than the frustration he was having with the computer. Maybe he was able to break away from that jackal?