Return of Gerlad's Legacy

Chapter 11: Run Like Hell

The Chaos Control had taken the group to the Prower Command Bunker. Wasting now time Shadow told everyone of what he and the others had seen in the Oval Office. There were many gasp when he told them Umbra had fired off a nuclear warhead.

"How could he get a hold of a nuclear missile?" Lucas screamed. Many of the children were extremely terrified. Shadow couldn't blame them. A nuclear assault was no laughing matter. Whirl, for all his bravery hugged on his mothers arm, petrified. Hurc sat by his mother, Wave, and his father, Jet, to try come up with a plan. Storm was pacing back in forth. He probably had been watching his Uncle Shadow too much. Shade sat next to Knuckles and Rouge's daughter, Emily, holding hands and trying to find strength from each other. Crystal was still looking at her hands silently set that her hands would sprout claws while sitting on a small wooden chair in a corner of the room. And Alana, who had been sick and couldn't come to the meeting, was sneezing yet her eyes showed the fear in her eyes.

The adults weren't taking it much better. Sonic had taken a leaf out of Shadow's book and was pacing like a madman. Amy, as she held her child, looked on the verge of bursting into tears. Cosmo pulled her son into a chair next to her; out of all the woman, she was the calmest, for she had already experienced death and it did not frighten her in the least. Sonia was nervously packing rounds into the magazine of her M-16A. Manic and Sally were at the Prower Commander Master Computer trying to send multiple viruses at the missile to send it to the Sun instead of reentering. Jet, even through his mask of calmness and serenity, showed a thought of never getting to fly again; he ran his scarred hand through his feathers and placed his other hand in the hand of his wife, Wave who had no trouble showing her fear. Espio and Vector were each hitting a punching bag. Charmy and Cream who were now married stood together, trying to kiss everything away. The only one looking entirely calm in the entire room was Omega-123. He had arrived from a recent battle with the Black Arms. Before the war, his job was to design weapons systems and test them for GUN. Of course the testing usually involved him trying to get past the system and end up demolishing it.

Shadow looked around the room to see a certain fox missing. Tails was nowhere to seen. Shadow looked into Tail's room to see the younger fox climbing out an old trap door. "Tails," Shadow said in his deep voice, "what are you doing in an old catacomb when we are about to struck by a weapon of mass destruction?"

Tails only ran to his desk and pulled out a small silver key. "I have a plan for this. I always had a backup plan." He went into the meeting room and snapped his fingers. All the despairing Freedom Fighters awakened from their state of desolation. "Alright, everybody!" the fox called into the crowd. "We're getting out of here and we're gonna we gonna surprise our newly realized enemy." He lifted their spirits ever so slightly. "No one but Omega may know this," he said with a bit of a smile, "but I have a Beta Site ready for our arrival as we speak."

Everyone stood up and approached him; their spirits were now in a symphony of delight. Shadow looked at Tails with a rose eyebrow. "Tails," he said completely ignoring the euphoria of excitement around him, "where exactly did you build this Beta Site?"

Tails smiled a little sly smile. "That will be a surprise. But I can tell you this: you have no idea how much work and money it took to keep it from being discovered by either GUN or Cosmo." He rubbed the back of his head guiltily as he stole a glance at his wife. Her eyes shot daggers at him for keeping the site secret. But still hugged him and planted a big lipstick covered kiss on him.

Tails lead them to his and Cosmo's room; they had already grabbed 'only the essentials', but the things in the vault, which included many of Shadow's things would have to stay. But being in a reinforced lead/titanium 2 feet thick vault they should be pretty safe from the radiation. Of course, Cosmo was embarrassed to have everyone come into her bedroom with a mess like this especially

with the sheets all wrinkled and a bit wet. "It's from sweat!" she spat at Amy who asked and was notorious as a neat-freak. Cosmo turned beat red as she said it though. Tail's opened a trap door. He punched button down in the hole and an elevator platform rose up out of the hole.

"It took me forever to track this tunnel system," said the fox man. He directed Cosmo and Lucas aboard. They stepped on the platform. He pressed a button on the elevator. And Tail's wife and son descended down into a dark cavern. But as they went down lights started to activate. This process repeated again and again until only Shadow and Tails were left in the bedroom to await the elevator to come back up. "Alright, Shadow," General Prower stated monotone, "You're the last. I can fly down. You go." Shadow nodded and stepped on the platform. Tails hit the button and down the ebony hedgehog went into a lighted cavern at least a hundred feet below the base.

Down there he saw his friends and family staring at what looked like a giant platform with mammoth glass dome over it. There was a symbol on it that looked like the symbol of Shadow the Hedgehog. Shadow smiled slightly as he saw the symbol and he knew that sign was driving his brother-in-law crazy. Around the colossal dome were robots that Shadow had never seen before. They were taller and looked like they have more powerful servos in their arms and legs. They did not have the more razor edge look to them like the GERALD class did. They were more rounded with large guns in opposable hands. They looked at the group before them with what looked like mild interest. Shadow landed on the platform with everyone looking at him and then jetting back and form between him and the insignia. "Don't look at me," he said flatly, "I've been gone for thirteen years."

They looked passed Shadow to see a two tailed fox hovering down to them. He walked straight passed Shadow and an agape Sonic. Grabbed his wife's hand nodded for his son to follow and pressed a button on the huge door of the dome. The dome opened and the Prower family stepped aboard. Tails clapped his hands and all the robots formed tow lines to the massive dome, but did not enter. They stood there waiting.

Sonic walked forward his family followed in suit. Soon all the Freedom Fighters, Sharon Eclipse, and the President were aboard the dome. Shadow looked inside it. While it may look simple on the outside, the bottom and the four massive beams that supported the dome were lined with large computers. All the computers seemed to show some form of geography: seismic activity, maps of the world, Black Arms strikes, and much more that Shadow didn't understand. He wondered if this was the Beta Site. A massive dome surrounded by giant robotic guards to protect it. Or maybe this was really the central nerve of the Prower command?

Tails grabbed a chair and stood above them all and spoke with command and authority. "Alright everyone, this is a transport for the trip to the Beta Site. This cavern extends far further than you could imagine. However these caves will also lead Umbra to our new location if he decided to make a house call and finds them. Therefore, as soon as the ARK is out of range, a explosive will detonate and seal this end of the cavern. I have done the mathematics, placed the bombs in the correct manner and placed just enough power in each one so that it will be a clean seal. There will be now damage to the base above us. No evidence that we ever survived the explosion that is soon to come." He pressed a button and the robots entered the dome and stationed themselves at one of the computers lining the bottom of the dome. Tails pressed another button and small cubicles rose up from the floor. "This dome has the ability," continued Tails, "to fit at least three-hundred people either human or anthro. There are small beds for one person each, but they can be stretched for two," he added with a smile.

Everyone took a bed, and the married couples took one together. Shadow, however, stood instead of resting. He would guard with the robots. He felt like he didn't deserve to sleep. How could he have been so blind? The signs were all there. The sadistic nature, the walking on the front

of the feet, the convenient information leaks from the Black Arms? They all pointed to it, but Shadow couldn't see it.

A soft and warm hand was placed on his shoulder and it made his stomach churn. He looked to see Sonia, her emerald eyes gleaming under the lights of the dome. "Shadow," she said in her caring voice, "it's not your fault. How could anyone know? No one can be blamed. If anything, Robert—Umbra—Eclipse, whatever he calls himself should be the one to blame for all this. You have nothing to brood on. Come to bed."

As she said that the massive dome started to move. Sonia lost her footing and fell in to Shadow's arms. It is remarkable how much she looked like a teenage girl when she was embarrassed for her face went beat red.

Just some things never change.

Even if you need to run like Hell.