The Final War

Chapter 10

There was a noise in this darkness. It was a very faint tone at first, but it was starting to crescendo. The more prominent it became, the more familiar it was becoming. A chord of instinct struck within him and Joseph finally managed to open his eyes. The tracker was still in his ear, as its ringing finally silenced. He pushed himself off the grass and looked far into the sky, where he could see the jewel shimmer before it continued on in the distance, too far to chase now. The distance wasn't what kept him, however, it was where the Chaos Emerald was going. It flew through the city- and perhaps beyond it- but Joe last recalled being in a city. He looked around, realizing he no longer was. Around him was lots of grass, topped with a few trees and several bodies: Silver, Nathan, Sonic, and Shadow. Nathan's body stirred, followed by Sonic's who was right next to the former. Shadow and Silver shifted next and everyone arose, trying to awake themselves.

Nathan noticed too that they were no longer in the city, "Something isn't- UMPH!"

Nathan was knocked back onto his rear and Sonic unrolled himself in mid-air to a stand. "You better hand over that Chaos Emerald now! You obviously can't use it any better!"

Nathan didn't want to fight back, as he was still feeling drained from when he was trying to use the Chaos Emerald. He wasn't sure what went wrong there, but that didn't matter right now. He needed to somehow pull himself together to teach this hedgehog a lesson.

"You just don't give up," he grunted, noticing the hedgehogs also seemed to be at full energy, "What the hell do they put in those food pellets of yours?"

"Wait, where are we?" addressed Silver.

Sonic laxed when he realized something was different with his surroundings. He noticed the grass, recalled being in a city, then he found himself gazing out to the city ahead, along with everyone else fixating on it.

"Is it just me, or do those buildings look a bit different?" asked Joseph.

"I don't think this is Westopolis." said Silver.

"Leave it to these goons to teleport us here!" Sonic mocked.

"Hey, it was his first time using one of those things, give us a break!" Joseph defended. "Come on, Nate, I saw it go that way."

"Wherever it went, it's long gone now." Shadow finally spoke.

"How do you know?" Nathan questioned.

"I don't need technology to know where the Emeralds are. I can feel them, and I surely don't feel that other one anymore."

"Ahh, horse-crap. Nate, let's go find our-"

There was a whirring sound coming from above and the grass blades below them were blown in opposite directions. They all looked above and a large black aircraft took form in thin air- or rather, it uncloaked itself.

"-ship..." Joseph finished.

There was no thruster burning and no exhaust fumes coming out from it, just a light wind. This aircraft was clearly advanced, what kept it afloat were two large fan-propellers under its wings. It looked like a large jet, but it was descending as smooth as a helicopter. From behind, several black ropes fell down before it finished landing, and multiple dark bodies slid down from it. Upon hitting the grass, they pulled out handguns from their side and set their aim for the group of five.

"Put your hands in the air and don't move!" barked one militant.

Everyone did as told.

"On your knees!" she shouted again.

This time, Shadow was the only one who didn't abide.

"Stand down sold-"

"On your knees!"