Apocalypse: Prologue

Shadow's POV

My heart pounding in my chest and the slightly faster pace of my breath was all I heard as I sat beneath a broken window, one that had been shot out not even a moment earlier. A nearly empty handgun was clutched in my left hand. It was the only kind of protection I had left.
Of course, I could Chaos Control to safety, but I had to be here. My friend's life was at stake.
"Agent Shadow, hand yourself over and neither you or your friend will get hurt." A voice demanded from some hidden place in the other room.
I didn't know exactly where he and the others were seated and I couldn't check either. Last time I tried, a piece of my left ear got shot off. It hurt and bled like hell! This was one of the times I was happy to have been created with my advanced healing. Soon enough there will be nothing left of the wound. However, right now I was stuck with one aching ear.
"Damn." I cursed as I used my sleeve to wipe the blood away from my eye. Ever since it had begun pouring out of my wounded ear, it had continued to blind the eye beneath it. That was a real pain in the ass since I needed that eye just as much as the other one.
Having not heard any other voices for quite a while now, I dared to take a peek into the room. When I came to the conclusion that it must be safe for now, I attempted to sneak out of the room. I wanted to get past them, find Rouge without any more additional trouble and Chaos Control home. The ammo I currently had wasn't enough to last me for much longer.
I managed to reach the hallway again, but that was about as far as I could go before this loud bang reached my ears and pain erupted at the back of my right shoulder.
"Argh!" I screamed in pain as I was unable to contain it. My body was thrown forward and onto the floor because of the impact.
"Damn..." I growled as I placed a hand on my injured shoulder.
Damn it. I hadn't even found Rouge yet! And the bullet didn't go all the way through, it was still in there. Which meant my wound wouldn't heal until the bullet was removed, even despites my advanced healing.
And what else did that mean?
No Chaos Control until the wound was healed or I acquired an emerald.
From now on, most of my Chaos Energy would go to the wound in an attempt to heal it and keep me from bleeding to death. However, I needed most of that energy just to perform one Chaos Control.
Fortunately, the place I was hit was not all that dangerous. So if I was careful, I might get to Rouge and back without losing conciousness.
"You damn moron! You heard what the Commander said! No harm should come to agent Shadow!" One of my attackers whispered in anger to his colleague.
I wasn't to be harmed? I might've found some comfort or advantage in that order if I hadn't just been shot.
"Damn..." I winced as I pushed myself up on my knees. My shoulder quickly began to pound painfully and blood poured out of it faster than I would've wanted, coating my arm and some of my back. Already a small pool had gathered beneath me.
Okay, maybe I wan't going to do as well as I had originally though. In fact, I should probably hurry up.
My attackers, who were just with two for now, quickly came running to me as they believed I was harmless now that I was injured. I proved them wrong by using my uninjured dominant arm to aim in their general direction and shoot. It wasn't even remotely close to either one of them, but atleast that terrible shot got them to hide and bought me some time.
I jumped up to my feet and began to run down the hall, wanting to get away from those two. I only took a moment to relax when I was another hallway or two away from them. Not the best course of action when one was ignorant of possible hidden enemies, but I wanted to try and find a nice spot to take care of my wound in.
This wasn't a nice spot and neither did I have the means to take care of a wound I couldn't even see. As I realised that running towards this place was not only a stupid move but one in vain aswell, I could just slam my head against the wall in anger of the sheer stupidity I had just committed. This wasn't like me.
"Let me go, you prick! What the hell do you bastards want with Shadow anyway?! He's done nothing wrong!"
So it wasn't as in vain as I had previously thought.
I got near the room the yelling was originating from and checked my gun's magazine. I mentally cursed. There were only two more bullets left. That and my injured shoulder equals a great disadvantage for me.
Damn it. Being at a disadvantage was bad enough as it was, but my friend's life was at stake here.
Carefully I peeked into the room. There were only two people in the room. And Rouge! She was tied to the chair she sat upon with her wrists tied to the arm rests and her ankles tied to the legs. They looked tight, but the real reason she hadn't gotten out yet was the firearms her two guards held.
Two bullets. Two guards.
I took a deep, silent breath as I mentally prepared myself. I couldn't afford to make a mistake now.
I don't want to lose my best friend again.
I burst into the room, catching the three of them by surprise.
"Shadow!" Rouge called my name in relief, glad to see that I had come to her rescue, but I think I can see a bit of worry in there aswell.
One shot and one of the guards fell down to the ground lifelessly, his blood coating the wall and window behind him.
Next I aimed at the other guy, but unlike his buddy, he had fast reflexes and pressed his gun against my partner's head.
"Put your gun away, agent Shadow." He demanded, trying not to glance at his dead colleague's face.
"I swear to Chaos, if you dare pull that trigger I will not hesitate to blow your brains out!" I shouted back, my gun aimed right between his eyes.
The guy knew me well enough to know that I was serious. He keep that gun aimed at her, he's dead. He shoots her, he's dead. He shoots me, he's still dead. He had only one other option and that was giving up now that he was still alive.
And it wasn't like he really wanted to shoot Rouge anyway.
"Good. Now drop the gun, step away from her and face the wall with your hands on your head." I ordered as he lowered his gun.
With an audible metalic thud the gun fell to the floor before he kicked it towards me and followed my order.
I released a sigh of relief as I lowered my gun aswell and put it back in its holster to instead grasp my aching shoulder.
"Shadow, you have to get out of here now! This is a trap!" Rouge shouted, concerned as she obviously noticed blood pouring from some unseen wound and drip onto the floor.
"I know it is, why else would they kidnap you and bring you to such an obvious place? If they really wanted something from you, they would've tried harder to hide you. And besides, I refuse to leave without you." I stated, trying not to wince as my shoulder was killing me. I wanted to take a moment before undoing her restraints.
"Unfortunatly, you won't have any other choice." I heard a fourth voice say as I felt something prick me at the side of my neck.
"What the-" I said as I jumped away from him and looked back at him, my hand pressed up against the spot.
About four more people joined us in the room, guns raised and aimed at me. They had found me through the trail of deep red drips my blood left behind. The front man was holding a syringe in his left and a gun in his right. He injected something into me, although I doubt he was a doctor.
"What... What did you..." I don't know what he forced into me, but it was strong and fast. Already I felt my mind become hazy and my body grow weak. It must be a strong narcotic.
"Sorry, agent Shadow, but you gave us no other choice." He said. He wasn't smirking. None of them were smirking. I would've expected them too. But instead, he just looked like he pitied me, but tried so hard to hide it.
The last time I had seen that look was before they put me to sleep in suspended animation for fifty years.
Was that what was going to happen? Were they going to put me away again? Why?
"Catch him." The front guy, who seemed to be the leader, ordered and this one soldier approached me right when my legs gave in beneath me. He managed to grab my arm and give me some support before my legs had absolutely no strength anymore.
Unfortunatly, it was the blood soaked one that was attached to my aching shoulder. I winced as nearly all my weight hung on that limb. It hurt. Badly. Ah well, atleast I was ruining his clothes with all that blood. A little bit of a revenge, no matter how childish and needless.
"Let him go, you bastard!" Rouge yelled and tried to tug at her restraints with all her might, but they didn't budge.
"R-Rouge..." I slurred as I reached for her, but I didn't get very far before blacking out completely.
The last thing I remember was Rouge's face contorted in panic, her lips moving as she demanded I stay awake, though I couldn't hear a thing anymore.