Fallen Angel
Author's Note: My brother was watching as I wrote this story and kept on going "Oooh…" each time I mentioned some of the characters sharing rooms. Kind of annoying actually. Oh yeah, none of the characters belong to me except for Riley the Echidna. And, of course, the no-name extras too.
Amy blew gently into the mike testing it for their first performance. Sonic meanwhile was spinning his disks and talking with Tails and Knuckles as they tuned their guitars. Suddenly, a laugh boomed out across the stage. "I am the great Sephiroth! Fear me!"
Amy looked across the stage to where a tall man dressed in black with long silver-white hair stood wielding a sword. "What do you want?" she asked hesitantly, not wanting to aggravate the mad man.
"Want?" he asked and laughed again. "I want to burn you up!" With that he threw a fist full of flaming energy down at the stage and watched as the dry floorboards erupted into a blazing inferno.
Amy screamed and Sonic dove to catch her before the floor beneath her broke through. Knuckles was being flown up by Tails, so Sonic just concentrated on getting Amy to safety. He glanced around again for the mad man, but this "Sephiroth" person had disappeared.
They all made it safely to the grass and watched in sadness as their stage collapsed into itself and proceeded to burn away. Amy sat up on the grass and watched the sparkling sign proclaiming their band, "Freedom Fighters", crash down onto the stage and erupt into sparks. "It's all gone…" she whispered to no one in particular.
Sonic pulled Amy to himself and the small pink hedgehog buried her face in her blue love's shoulder as her tears started to flow. Knuckles and Tails watched the flames leap into the night sky, their faces red with anger. That Sephiroth had made some powerful enemies and he was going to pay for what he did.
"Why the hell did he do that!" Knuckles shouted after they had gotten back to their house in Station Square. Riley, Knuckles' girlfriend, leaned over and touched his arm.
"Calm down love. All you can do right now is rest." She said kissing his neck softly. Knuckles sighed, but acceded to Riley's wishes.
Sonic watched as Knuckles went off to his and Riley's room. It was just him and Tails now; Amy had fallen asleep on the way home so he had tucked her in as soon as they came in to the house. "Tails," said Sonic, turning to the little fox. "What is our financial status now?"
Tails sighed and did a few quick calculations in his head. "We lost a lot of equipment and the stage itself of course. We've got a few extra mikes stashed away, but those instruments were our only ones."
"Damn. How much have we saved?" Sonic asked.
Tails just shook his head. "Not even enough to get me a new guitar. We'll all have to get side jobs."
Sonic sighed and got up to head to his and Amy's room. "We'll discuss it with the others in the morning. Night." He called over his shoulder and walked out of the room.
Tails just sat there for a little bit thinking before getting up and going to his own room.
***
Around 5:00 A.M. the next morning, Amy woke up first and went to sit at her bedroom window overlooking the street. Very few people were moving around that early and Amy groggily watched as a bird hopped around on the windowsill. Suddenly a huge boom was heard that rocked Amy off her window seat. Sonic woke up with a start and came to help her up. "What was that?" he asked.
Amy shook her head and walked back over to the window. Smoke was rising from the Train Station and she turned around to tell Sonic, but he was already gone. Only scattered papers showed his passage out of the room as he ran to see what was going on.
Riley and Tails met Amy as she came down the stairs. "What's going on?" Tails asked. "Sonic just ran down the stairs and nodded at Knuckles. Then they both ran out the door without saying a word."
Amy sighed. "I have no idea, but there was smoke coming from the Train Station. Maybe Sephiroth came back."
Riley looked frightened. "What if he comes here? He seemed really powerful and even more dangerous is the fact that he's insane."
Meanwhile, as Amy and Tails tried to comfort Riley, Sonic and Knuckles arrived at the Train Station. The place was a wreck. People were gathered around staring in shock and police cars had started to gather at the scene. The building had been almost completely hollowed; only one complete wall and a small section of roof and two other wall segments remained. Fires still burned around the area and people ran around trying to put the fire out in an attempt to save the surrounding buildings. A train lay partially in the water of the nearby ocean as if a giant child had flung it aside. Too many body bags were being carted away and the two heroes almost missed the dark shape standing on top of the building surveying the destruction.
As soon as they saw him though, Knuckles dug his knuckles in to the bricks and started scaling the wall while Sonic picked up enough speed to run up the wall. Sephiroth was standing there waiting for them as they reached the top. Now he had one black and one white wing and with his sword glinting red in the firelight he looked like an angel of destruction.
Sonic and Knuckles felt a tremble of fear as they looked upon him, but they tried to hide it. "Why are you doing this?!" Sonic shouted at Sephiroth.
Sephiroth smiled cruelly. "Humans are weak. My inferno shall wipe them out leaving the stronger races to survive. However, if you stand in my way, you too shall burn."
"Monster!" shouted Knuckles and charged Sephiroth. Sonic cried out as the dark angel swung his sword and sliced into the echidna's side. Knuckles fell and Sonic dove to catch him as Sephiroth spread his wings and soared into the sky laughing.
***
Sonic stumbled into the house and Amy screamed when she saw that he was covered in blood.
"It's not my blood…" Sonic reassured his girlfriend.
Riley stepped forward hopefully. "Then it's Sephiroth's? Is he dead?"
Sonic sighed and shook his head. "No Riley," he said looking straight into the female echidna's eyes. "It's Knuckles' blood. He foolishly charged Sephiroth and was hurt badly. Right now he's getting much needed help at the hospital."
Riley was crying now, but managed to stop long enough to ask, "Can we see him?"
Sonic nodded and they all went over to the hospital. It was packed, but Knuckles had gotten special treatment because of his condition and his previous services to the city. A nurse led them to where Knuckles lay asleep. The echidna looked deathly pale in the hospital lights and an I.V. was inserted into his arm. The doctor came to talk to them about Knuckles condition.
"He'll pull through, but he lost a lot of blood and won't be able to do much of anything for awhile. Shortly after you left, Sonic, he woke up and we had to sedate him to keep him from trying to go after Sephiroth." The doctor told them, his expression serious.
Sonic nodded and glanced over at Riley. She was sitting by Knuckles side and holding his hand gently, her eyes locked on his face. "Can she stay here?" Sonic asked the doctor quietly.
The doctor nodded. "Of course. She might even be able to help convince him to rest."
Riley glanced up and nodded to Sonic, Tails, and Amy as they left. Amy glanced back and saw the echidna gently kiss her sleeping lover as they walked out the door. She'd be all right here, she thought and followed the other two back to the house.
***
There wasn't anything they could do until Sephiroth showed up again, so they each got small jobs. Amy didn't have too bad of a time and started singing at a club. Sonic became a delivery boy, while Tails got a job at the same club Amy was singing at as a waiter. Knuckles began to get better, but he still needed to stay in the hospital for treatment (which greatly relieved Riley). Time passed and Sephiroth seemed to have gone away for good.
One day, Amy and Sonic went out to get groceries. With the threat of Sephiroth still lingering, Sonic refused to let Amy go anywhere by herself. Tails stayed at home watching the house.
Amy and Sonic were on their way home when they heard a bunch of people screaming. The two hedgehogs hurried around the corner in time to see Sephiroth build a ball of fire in his hand. Sonic charged forward and knocked Sephiroth to the side. The people wisely took this chance to flee as Sephiroth turned angrily towards Sonic.
Amy crouched down by the side of the building and pulled her crossbow out of her purse as Sonic started to battle the dark angel.
Sonic ran at Sephiroth again, but had to swerve out of the way as Sephiroth brought up his sword again. The hedgehog quickly went for his side attracting his attention away from Amy.
Amy released her first bolt and it hit Sephiroth in the soft spot between his shoulder and his rib cage. Sephiroth screamed in pain and hit Sonic away with his wing. Angrily, he came at Amy.
The pink hedgehog squeezed her finger on the trigger, but the bolt wouldn't release. Screaming, she closed her eyes and continued to try to fire at Sephiroth. Suddenly, there was the familiar twang of the bolt being released and a strangled cry. Amy slowly opened her eyes to see Sephiroth clutching at the crossbow bolt imbedded deep in his throat, his lifeblood dripping to the ground. She looked on in horror as he finally collapsed into a mound of wings and blood; a fallen angel.
Sonic came up to her and helped her to her feet. Amy didn't say a word as they went home and as soon as they came in, she went up to her room and cried for a long time. She had never killed anyone before.
Tails just watched Sonic go up to comfort his girlfriend for a moment. Then with a sigh, he turned back to the T.V. where a reporter was telling about the clean-up going on downtown. A dark angel had fallen there that day.
The End