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Chapter 9: Captured

DarkFire moaned. She was able to see a very faint light, outlining the silhouettes of three distinctly different figures. "Um... who are you?"

The female voice responded. "I am Amy Rose. The other two here are Silver the Hedgehog and Espio the Chameleon." The room fell silent for a while.

DarkFire looked at the three. Her eyesight was clearing up a little. In the direction of the female voice was a pink hedgehog wearing a red dress with a yellow trim. A figure to her right was a silver hedgehog, with large quills and pale blue rings on his palms and forehead. To the female's left was a chameleon - magenta in colour. "Where are we?" DarkFire jerked her head upwards. "Hm... it looks like we're in a small cell... there's only a really small opening with bars up high..."

The cell was damp, dark and cramped. The four were all tightly packed together in a cell that was too small for all four of them. It was very high, though, the height of a two storey building. Right at the top of the square room was a tiny, barred window.

Amy formed at DarkFire. "What's wrong, Rouge?"

DarkFire looked back down. "Oh, I'm DarkFire the drakehog. Did you mistake me for someone else? And why aren't you making attempts to get out?"

Silver carefully stood up - careful to not fall. "Oh, we tried. We have been imprisoned here for a short time - only a few hours or so."

DarkFire's mind was sent back to the past - only a day ago. She remembered a voice: "No, we will capture his friends first, so there's no-one to help him" She frowned, and lowered her head in shame. "Oh no... I'm too late... You are friends of Sonic the Hedgehog, right?"

Amy nodded vigorously. "What's the matter?"

"Well, I have heard of some overblown scheme to try to kill Sonic and-"

"Oh no... Sonic! We need to help him... Are you sure? Oh, Sonic..."

"I'm really sure of it..."

Amy gasped. "Oh no... And sorry for mistaking you for Rouge"

DarkFire nodded in a subtle way. "That's alright. We really need some light here - it's too cold for me - even with this thick layer of scales." DarkFire focused on the shadows in the room, and lifted a small portion of them. The room was tinted with a faint light. "It's still pretty darn cold" a hovering campfire appeared - floated in the midst in the room. The flickering, crackling flare lit the room.

Silver placed his hand on his forehead, shielding his eyes from the sudden light. He slowly lowered it. "Um... thanks for the light..."

Espio pointed to one of the mouldy brick walls. "There is some text here... it reads 9410. What does that mean?"

"I don't know..." replied Silver.

DarkFire yawned. "I'm bored... I might as well check my fire-breathing skills while I'm here." She pointed her mouth upwards, and shot a stream of flame towards the ceiling of the cell. A small part of the ceiling turned to ash; the ash fluttered down to earth. A rusted metallic dial with numbers was revealed. "Wow, I think we need to simply enter the numbers there. There are four digits to the dial, after all." She kicked off the ground, flapped her wings slowly, and ascended to the dial. "Can someone read it for me?"

Espio glanced at the wall once more. 'It says 9410."

DarkFire turned the dials to match the number. A loud click was heard. The barred cell door creaked opened. "Alright, we'd better get outta here before something really bad happens!"

A distant voice echoed along the dark corridor. "DarkFire? Is that you? It's Kate."

"Kate?" DarkFire walked out of the cell, and looked ahead. There were multiple vacant cells ahead - exactly like the one she just walked out of. Kate was running down the corridor to DarkFire, along with an orangey-yellow female fox wearing a blue top and skirt. Her cowboy boots were sounding though the corridor; echoing as the pair approached. "What are you doing here?"

Kate slowed down, and stopped in front of DarkFire. The fox followed. "Oh, we're here to rescue you. Oh and this fox; she's Crystal I met her on the way here. She volunteered to help after witnessing the kidnapping of Knuckles. We followed a group of kidnappers here."

Crystal stepped forward. "Hi. What's your name?"

"I'm DarkFire the drakehog. Thanks for coming to rescue me."

"That's a nice name."

DarkFire looked back at Silver, Amy and Espio. "It would be a bit hard to escape... Amy, Espio and Silver there in the cell seem to be really tired."

Kate frowned. "Let me have a look" She gently pushed DarkFire aside. "Gee, they don't look all that good. In that case, we need a plan. DarkFire, you're fit to fight along with Crystal and I, right?"

DarkFire nodded. "Alright, we can create a diversion as the others escape. Assuming you sneaked in, and you can remember the path you took-"

Kate turned around. "Espio here says he can help out with the fighting a little bit. He also recalls that there was a pretty vicious looking security system - we seem to need a lot of people to stop it."

DarkFire nodded. "Alright, Amy, Silver, stay back here as we create a diversion and clear the way for you to cross. But for now, I'll need to uncover more about the plot to kill Sonic. There are bound to be a few loose ends I can pick up and trace here. For now, see you later, Amy and Silver. Let's go!"

Kate stepped out of the prison cell. DarkFire, Espio and Crystal started walking out, though the corridor, to whatever may be at the end of this unknown territory.