#finalzone

     It looked different than Silver had described. In the little ways, of course. The sign still said New Soleanna: Residential District in big, bold letters. It hung loosely to one side, barely clinging to the bolts. Large buildings littered in pipes that coughed out black smoke. Torn drapes, empty scraps of metal rolling down sidewalks. Bleak and grimy he’d describe it as, when Silver had mentioned bright skies and bustling lights. The only seemingly advanced technology Sonic could see was beyond the horizon, on the other side of the city. A blue light faded in the distance, humming against the night air.

     He was in some kind of alleyway. A blessing in disguise, since no one seemed to notice the large flash of light. After he’d taken in a good look of his surroundings, he lifted an arm to shove the gem into the mess of his quills, then made steps towards what appeared to lead towards the main street. 

     & they were so silent. A few people scattered about, but once again, nothing like he had expected. He gave it the benefit of the doubt from the back of his mind; it was nighttime. Maybe everyone was getting ready to go to bed. That seemed reasonable enough, but made his job much harder. Sonic only had an inkling of what he was looking for. An apartment? A room, more like. He’d mentioned a large building, with a nice view of the entire city thanks to it’s location.

     He’d start there. A quick tug of his shawl and scuff of his heels before he started his jog through the streets. Known for stubbornness, he figured he would be able to find it on his own with a bit of luck. Maybe a hop skip and a jump through some more alleyways would do the trick, but a half an hour in and he had begun to see otherwise. Forty-five minutes had him pursing his lips, and an hour in, he’d finally cracked and hesitantly approached the friendliest [which wasn’t saying much] face he could find on the streets, considering how late it was.

     The name rolling off of his tongue had been like a sour taste. The wolf scowled. It wasn’t until after much inquiry and apparent distaste for the white hued hedgehog that Sonic was given some vague direction. He hadn’t the time to ask why the mention of Silver left him in such terrible spirits.

     It could’ve been a skyscraper. In nothing but moonlight, the building looked like it could quite literally touch the sky. It was tall and quite large, covered in broken windows and crumbled siding. Finding his way in hadn’t been too hard thanks to the debris, as it was more stumbling his way through various cobwebs & nudging boards aside to find Silver’s room. At this point, he was nothing but boggled. Yet again, Silver had described this place to be quite homey. Anything but falling apart-- it felt like no one lived here. The very fact that he had to elbow his way through everything spoke volumes.

     Eyes fell upon a stained plaque. Squinted at a familiar number. The tip of his shoe was wedged in between the door, since it hadn’t been closed all the way, and once it opened he was greeted by dust. He coughed into red fabric, one eye closing shut.

     “Yeesh...’N’ I thought my room was a mess.” He kept his footing careful as he made his way into the room. The emerald soon removed from the safety of his quills, so he could have some kind of light source. The place was trashed. Boxes, wood. Shattered glass.

@finalzone​

Two hundred years. At least that many. That’s how long Shadow had been trying to chase down the one responsible for countless GUN personnel and officials lives being cut short and further putting the planets future in jeopardy.

Every time he’d finally home in on the instigator, he was too late to apprehend the one who carried out such violent acts: Silver.

Shadow would spend many sleepless nights going over new intel that trickled in on possible whereabouts only to come to a dead-end.

Today would be different, as he finally achieved his goal thanks to a competent GUN squadron that had him surrounded and seemingly ready to be taken in; or at least that’s what he’d been told.

The dirtied uniform donning hedgehog arrived in a spectacular display of chaos fueled light to find a kind of Mexican stand-off between the squad and hedgehog. The remaining soldiers that stood over their fallen comrades looked nervous as they held their guns with shaky hands, barrels aimed square at the enemy,