Chapter 7: To take a life
5:29 P.M. on that calm and hot day, when it felt safe to sit around the streets of Mobius, the citizens were on their guard the whole time. Kids safely locked in their homes, workers carrying around guns, and talking through walkie-talkies seemed relevant at the time. Everyone just waited to see a clown so that they could capture it and beat it like a rag doll until it told them about Amy. The sounds of laughter and mindless conversation Sally use to hear everyday out her window turned into nothing but police sirens and confusing conspiracies about the same woman, Amy. On that same day, Tina the Hedgehog was able to talk to a spokesperson on national Television, hoping that Amy would hear her plea. They even cut off every channel except for the news and aired it on every radio station so that she'll hear her no matter what. It was not ready yet and everyone in the TV station worked like clockwork and made sure it was all set. In the station while Tina reciting her speech she written last night, Rouge was acting like a bodyguard and let n one near her. She felt nervous over the wait, but Rouge told her to calm down, this could be their only chance to reason with Amy before she conjures more mischief. She sensed much tension in the people around her; if it was just a fluke, they might kick her out for wasting their time and money.
During that time at the royal castle, the worried Queen Sally just finished her early bath as she stepped out of the bathroom wearing her pink gown and towel over her hair. She still had a few wet spots on her arms and rubbed them dry completely, she hated still being wet after drying off. She slipped on her pink slippers on the purple carpet and made her way to the living room for a little T.V. It was still turned off from her lonely morning, so feeling a bit lazy, she searched for the remote on the couch. She couldn't find it anywhere.
After seconds of searching the room, her only maid down stairs came up with her dinner. She wore her usual outfit carrying covered silver dish, Sally was too busy to see the maid come in.
"Dinner my Queen?" The maid asked as she slowly entered the room, "The chef made it a specialty this time."
"No thanks Della," Sally answered still not looking at her, "Have you seen the remote anywhere? I swore I put it on the couch."
"...you know, my Queen, pushing the button on the Telly is good exercise," she said getting closer.
"Della, I'm not in the mood, I really need to watch the news," Sally searching under the couch, then the maid got even closer.
"...please my queen, at least eat something," she said, "You need your strength."
"Fine Della, what's the good dish this time?" Sally said as she finally looked up at her from behind, but when she looked at her...it was unbelievable. The maid had on the same dress and hat...but wore white make-up and red paint on her tan and scar-like muzzle. When she lowered her head, she smiled her corn yellow teeth at the Queen and opened the silver dish showing a sloppy chili dog on the plate, with no bun. "A-Am-Amy!" Of all places, of all times, it was as close as the two faced each other in years. In that moment of shock, the clown hedgehog grabbed the sloppy meat with her right hand and held it firmly causing some of the chili to spill to the clean floor. Amy said only these words in that conflict: "Dinner's served!"
*Splat*!
Amy shoved the the greasy meat down the Queen's mouth and caused her to gag. Sally tried to escaped, but Amy held her down while chucking the meat further to her throat. Sally wasn't going to take this, so she took her fist and punched her in the face and made her fall off of her. While Amy was down, Sally quickly got up and puked out the dog gasping for air.
"*Pant* A-Amy you crazy b****!" She yelled as she ran to the closet to get her weapon. She ran a few steps, but-
*Whack*!
A wolf man wearing a clown mask smacked her to the ground with her laser gun from the corner! It was that very weapon she was reaching for. The wolf taunted her by disconnecting the gun apart, leaving her defenseless. Then more wolf men in colorful masks came into the room surrounding the queen with menacing looks in the eyes. As the Queen got up, she warned them that help will come soon, but unfortunately, they were the "Help". At that point, she had to fight.
Meanwhile at the TV, they were about to go on the air and Tina was all dressed and set. She quickly rushed on set and sat in the guest chair next to the host. The host and ancher was no other than Sasha the Cat, a kind and sweet woman in her pale purple suit walking to her seat. As she sat down, she saw Tina looking a tad nervous still. It was going to be all right, Sasha had a hard time convencing her. Soon, the camera crew was ready to air in 5...4...3...2...
The whole interrupting brodast aired worldwide after the red lights turned bright and the introduction was played.
"We interrupt this brodcast for this public announcement," Sasha said, "I'm Sasha Cat at News 11 discussing the current terror in Mobius, a former Freedom Fighter: Amy Rose."
Meanwhile...
*Pow*! *Pow!*
Sally threw punches and kicks trying to fend of the wolves in the room. Each one fell down after another and got back up again. While she put up a good fight, she didn't prove a match for Amy's Piko Piko Hammer.
*Ka-Wham*!
With one swift blow to the back, Sally found herself smacked against the wall. She was in trouble now as the wolf men jumped her and gave her a beating of a lifetime. They punched her, kicked her, and even tore off her robe and towel showing her brown, furry body.
Back at the TV station...
Everyone around the world were listening and seeing the broadcast about the demonic clown hedgehog. Some didn't care, some were worried, and some were shocked to see their pink hedgehog turn into a murderer.
"As you can see, all of us can easily say she is no longer sane or among the good anymore," Sasha said as they showed an obscur, blurry picture of Amy in her clown make-up holding a gun at the upper right screen. "With the addition of two gangs at her disposl, the 'Batlex Squad' and the 'Moonlights', she is as dangerous and well protected as ever. The casualties days ago were catastrofic and unforgivable."
Back at the castle...
When the team had the upper hand already, Amy had to ask them to stop before they enjoyed it too much, so they stopped. Sally looked brutally beaten and could hardly move. She had purple bruises on her skin and had slight nose bleed, to Amy, she looked fine. Giving her time to recover, Amy, put her hammer on the couch and sat in it.
"Hm, so this is what being a Queen feels like," Amy said taking off her maid hat showing her green sprayed fur, "...feels boring. Boys! Bring the woman over here!" Then two wolves came over to the downed Queen and grabbed her by the bruised arms and tried to pick her up, but she pulled her arms away. That made one of the two mad and kicked her in the gut. When the two finally caught her by the arms, they dragged her to Amy and threw her down on the floor in front of her. Amy straightened out her green fur as she leaned towards her. "You know Sally, you do need to hire better help, this happened like, twice already." She then noticed Sally was coughing in misery on the floor, still trying to clear her throat. It was from the beating, but Amy assumed it was from the chili dog. "What's wrong Sally?" She said, "Didn't like the chili dog? I thought you loved having big meat shoved down your mouth."
"Amy, you monster," growled Sally, "You killed my friends, my children, and now you invaded my home!"
"So...which is worse to you?" She said, "A chili dog on the floor or lost lives? Take a pick." Sally struggled to get up, but the far she went was lean on her right arm. She wanted that hedgehog out of here now and Sonic would have been a good help then. Too bad he didn't know what was going on. Once Sally glared at her, Amy decided to sit on the floor with her, eye to eye. Sally didn't bother to fight.
"What Amy?" Sally muttered, "What else can you possibly take from me? The throan?"
"Look, before we get all hasty, I don't want there to be any hard feelings between us Sal," Amy said with a slight grin.
"HARD FEELINGS?" She yelled, "You killed my children!" Then Sally fell on her face trying to attack her, that was really sad. Amy then turned her face up.
"Look, when you, Manik, and...uh..."
"SONIA!"
"Sonia yeah, were being abducted, I was in the C.H.P., the whole thing was out of my hands."
"You can't fool me, this was all your plan. Everything here is your doing!"
"...do I really look like a gal with a plan? I'm just the same woman who chased a blue hedgehog around at 12. I wouldn't know what to do if I actually caught him, you know? I just do things."
"I knew it, this is about Sonic isn't it? Isn't it?"
"...not exactly, I'm not that crazy. Even though I have no home, no friends, doesn't mean I would go on a rampage like this. I just do things. I just want show how pathetic, people control things, like Dr. Eggman. He had plans and I put him in his place, Mogul had plans to take over your kingdom, did you know that? Well I put him down and you had plans too and...look where that got you." Sally got so mad that she tried to to grab her by the neck and Amy tried to calm the angry Queen down.
Back at the TV station...
"The Freedom Fighters tried to keep this maniac contain, but instead, she turned the tables on them," Sasha continued, "Some suggests to take matters in their own hands, but this is the time to think before we act. For this announcement isn't just for Mobians across the world, but for Amy Rose as well. So Amy...if you are watching, we'd like you to listen to an old friend of yours. I present to you: Tina Hedgehog."
Back at the Castle...
Amy stopped Sally and held her arms down on the floor making her face up at the ceiling. Then Amy laid on her chest in an awkward position where she couldn't get up. That made the wolves whistle.
"Sally! I just do what I do best, throwing ideals down the trash," she said with her mouth too close to her face, "You keep a building secure and I turn it into a blood bath. Just look what I did to this city with a few bombs and some bullets. Your city cares too much, that's the problem. Like, if today I say that a policeman will get burned alive or a few Freedom Fighters would get shot, no one panics. But, if I say that little, sick Tiny Tim will die, then everyone goes insane!"
"Because it's children you're talking about! People would die to keep them alive!" Sally said.
"Because it's all part of the plan," Amy said, "To keep all the children safe so that they'll be left to do all the things the parents failed to do. Most children would rather die, than to be with those monsters..."
Back at the TV station...
Tina was about to start her passionate speech to her dear friend Amy Rose to the world. There was a slight pause from her because she get camera shy real easy. A few seconds later after taking a deep breath, she started.
"Thanks Sasha," she said as she turned to the cameras looking at her speech, "P-people of Mobius, I have known Amy Rose for a long time, for I'm a councilor and a personal friend of hers. Ever since she was young, I was the one whom she could keep secrets with. You all may think Amy is doing all this because her somewhat 'proclaimed' boyfriend King Sonic, has married Queen Sally, but you're wrong. I know the truth."
Back at the castle...
While Amy was still taking to Sally chest to chest, one of the wolves in the room got a call from one of the bat girls via radio. It was so serious they he immediately turned to the boss.
"Hey boss!" He said, "Something's happenin' on the tube, it's about you!"
"Tell me something I don't know," she smirked.
"It's, ah, message from a Tina Hedgehog girl," he said. The moment she heard of the name, the smirk on her face turned to a frown, and made her black eyelids drop halfway. She hasn't heard from her in years and she wondered what she wanted with her. She wanted to get back to the Queen, but her curiosity got the best of her. She got up from Sally and stretched a little, delaying a little for a bit. Amy reached in her white bra in the maid costume and brought out the remote control Sally was looking for. It was certainly the last place she would look. Amy pressed the power button and the big TV was on and surprisingly already on the news, not knowing every channel was showing the news. Everyone stood still and watched Tina talk; Sally had to to roll over to see the set straight.
"She is not doing this out of anger," Tina said, "I found her in my backyard crying and revealing her scars that she had all her life. Which brings me to my point, her parents were to blame. They refused to let her leave home and made her suffer as a kid. When she tried to leave, her dad cut her mouth into a smile and the mother just held her down. Later in the years...well, I'll just say she managed to escape home and was free into the world. She was as kind as we use to know her, but now she's turned into something she's not. Even though Sonic's not to blame, marrying Sally somehow triggered her past experience as a child, and is reverting back to the point where she went mad. She is just going through mental distress, you know it too Amy. Amy...Rose...listen to me. It's me Tina the Hedgehog, your friend. You need to stop all of this. You don't have to do all this. Murder, kidnapping, insanity, this isn't you Amy. You are not the sweet and loving girl we use to know, you need help and I can help you. I could lead you to a better life than this. The real Amy Rose is still inside of you, screaming to get out. Please...just trust me and things will be all right."
While she was still talking, the gang and Sally looked at Amy, she looked a bit, strange. She was just looking into space with her eyes staring at the ground. One of the wolves asked if she was alright, but she didn't answer, she didn't even blink. It seemed that she saw the errors of her ways, thinking how could she do such things, that she was blind the whole time, and someone had to open her eyes and made her see the light. As she finally blinked, Sally thought it was so; did she really see the errors of her ways and decided she needed help?
Dead wrong.
"...things will be all right, alright," Amy muttered as she got out her cellphone from the other side of her bra. She then dialed the number of the TV station and was picked up on the line.
*Bing*!
"Oh! It looks like we have a caller," said Sasha, "Hi, what's your name caller and do you have a comment on the Amy Rose story?" As the line was aired, it was someone they didn't expect to hear.
"I had a dream last night, about a world without war, a world that lived in peace and harmony for years," said Amy on the phone, hearing the voice Tina knew it was her.
"Amy? Is that you?" Said Tina looking dumfounded, as for Sasha and the crew, they were all scared of what was going to happen. They have learned that if some maniac called a TV station, it meant big trouble.
"A world where the brave Freedom Fighters took down one baddy at a time," she continued, "And it was so...retarded. I had a change of mind, I'm getting tired of children and killing off nuisances along the way. I don't want Tina running her mouth, but why should I have all the fun? Let the lower class people have a chance huh? If Tina the Hedgehog isn't dead in 7 minutes, then I'll blow up a building full of people of my choice. So I would suggest hitting the streets, now."
*Click*
She hung up.
After a while, the whole city was in a panic of the threat. Fearing that she'll destroy someone's home. They jumped out windows, carried all and whom they could carry,and fled to open spots away from a building. They weren't going to laze around and think she wouldn't blow up their own, if she managed to blow up the Chaotix Holding Pins, she wasn't messing around. As for Tina, after hearing the threat from her old friend, she felt dead inside and didn't move. Everyone in the TV station was in such a panic, they had to cut the broadcast off the air and get out of the building; she might blow it up. Sasha tried desperately to make Tina move, but she looked dazed. So Rouge quickly moved in and quickly grabbed her by the waist to make her move, she wasn't going to let her get killed. While downstairs, there were some bragging their way in passed security to take the hedgehog down.
"...Amy, why did you do that!" Sally said on the living floor looking up at the mad woman, "That was your friend!" The clown hedgehog just smiled at the Queen; the wolves were also shocked, but didn't want to get on her bad side, so they kept cool. She then turned the TV off with the remote control and dropped it on the floor intentionally.
"Correct you are," Amy said, "Was, my friend, because like I said before: I have no friends. Just me, myself, and a load of goons."
"Amy look at yourself! Look what you've become! You're mad!" Sally said, then Amy took a long look at her and got out a small mirror from her bra and looked at herself. Amy saw what she saw everyday when she looked at a mirror, just a hedgehog that likes to play.
"Sal, always so serious," Amy said as she put away her mirror and brought out a small laser pistol from the other side of her bra and showed it to her, "When something like this happens, you always have to be so serious and blame someone near you. Which is normal, because you understand, your kids understand, and that's why I didn't want anything bad to happen to you guys. I like you guys and if it was up to me, I wouldn't try to blow up you three."
Sally had no idea what she was talking about. Her thinking pattern really changed ever since this phase of hers. Amy got down on her knees next to Sally, took her hands, and made her point the pistol at her green furred head.
"Amy?" Said Sally.
"...look, if you start one fire on a mountain with enough trees and grass, it will spread and everything becomes, chaos, " Amy said trying to make the Queen's grip perfect, "But, I'm giving you a chance, to put out that fire, I.E., me. All you have to do, is to pull this deadly water gun with one shot and end it all."
Meanwhile outside the castle, a couple of Freedom Fighters wondered if everyone inside the castle were out, because there was only 3 minutes left. They quickly rushed and instead of jumping in, they knocked repeatedly on the front door. After a few more knockings and thinking of busting in to see the Queen, someone opened the big front door. It wasn't a worker, or a fellow Freedom Fighter that opened the door, it was Amy's toy Omega.
The two saw the big red robot and knew him and thought he was guarding the Queen, ignoring his blue eyes.
"Omega hi!" said one of the two, "Amy's made another threat, she going to blow up a building and the Queen really needs to-"
"PERIMETER SECURE," Omega said to the two mammals, "SCANNERS SHOW 0% CHANCE OF ANY EXPLOSIVES WITHIN 120 SQUARE YARDS FROM THIS AREA. QUEEN IS SAFE. GO AWAY." He was acting pretty strange to them, they have never seen Omega with blue eyes before,
"Uh, Omega, this is serious, the queen and the workers have to get out of here now!" Said the other Freedom Fighter, "This castle might be the target!"
"SCANNERS SHOW 0% CHANCE OF ANY EXPLOSIVES WITHIN 120 SQUARE YARDS FROM THIS AREA, GO AWAY." Omega said getting a bit uneasy.
"Omega, robot or not, Sally-"
"TOP PRIORITY: PROTECT QUEEN SALLY ACORN. ANY INTRUDERS SEEN AS A THREAT WILL BE DESTROYED," Omega said as he summoned his two machine guns from his arms and pointed at the furry creatures, "FINAL WARNING. GO AWAY." Without anymore fuss, the two left the green yard in a hurry, thinking the Queen will be fine with that crazy robot guarding the castle. As the two jumped over the iron fence, Omega thought the fools couldn't be anymore dumb. He then put the guns away, brought out his sharp metallic hands, and closed the door. Amy had it all planned out.
Meanwhile back in the castle, the wolved clowns tried to stop their boss from killing herself in the hands of Sally.
"Boss what are you doing!" A wolf said, but Amy ignored their concern as she gazed into the eyes of the queen holding the gun to her head. With her finger on the trigger, she ever so waned to pull it right then, but for some reason she hesitated.
"...come on Sal," Amy said licking her scars, "Do us all a favor and put me out of my misery. Come on...why are you hesitating? This is what you wanted right? Have me at gun point? There's nothing to fear, I have nothing to live for. Avenge your friends and family. Give me my going away present..."
"...I would love, nothing better, than to blow your head clean off your shoulders," Sally muttered with her finger on the trigger, "But...I can't..."
"What's keeping you?" Amy questioned getting closer to her face, "Decades ago, you kneed a weasel in the nads just for touching you, why can't you just kill the person that planned your kid's death?"
"Because this is too easy," she said, "If I kill you, something will happen."
"Really?" She said, "Sal if you want me dead, I'll be more than happy to pull the trigger for you."
"No! I'm not going to play your stupid game!"
"Come on! Just shoot me you old wuss!" They went on with the life or death situation. Amy forced her and forced her to pull the trigger and kept refusing to let her dead. They didn't know why she wouldn't shoot, maybe it's that she's grown too mature with morals, maybe she didn't want to play her game, or maybe it's because she was scared if she shot her, she might have had a bomb implanted in her head as crazy as she was.
Meanwhile, the TV station was being overrun with crazed citizens trying to kill Tina within seconds. They even got up to the floor where she was being held. Rouge took precautions and locked the two doors with bares through the handles and prevented from entering the room, but that didn't stop them.
*Boom*!
*Boom*!
They were actually trying to break down the doors. Sasha and Tina had no idea what to do. They knew they were trying to save a building, but it wasn't worth taking a person's life. It didn't matter to them; with 1 minute left, they gave it their all to bust through the doors.
"You IDIOTS!" Yelled Rouge, "Have allof you lost your minds?" Looking at the big windows behind her, Tina thought if she could kick the windows, they could escape. That made Rouge look pretty stupid, she could have done that minutes ago...With one kick, she instantly broke the windows into pieces, making a wide open space to fly. Feeling glad, Rouge quickly grabbed Tina, but then-
*BOOM*!
A big, musclebound country bear with a huge, silver shotgun, kicked through the bared doors with his big boot. Rouge and the others looked at him and thought they should get out of there fast. When Rouge and Tina tried to make a run for it, the bear pointed his long gun at the two.
"You ain't getting away from me Hedgy!" the bear said to himself in a silent voice perfecting his aim. As Rouge took flight out of the window with Tina, the bear was about to fire on the two. In a split second, Sasha tried to to stop the bear and-
"NOO!"
*Ka-Boom*!
He fired his gun, but didn't hit Rouge or Tina, instead, he shot the brave cat that stood in the way of fire, Sasha.
"SASHA!" Yelled Tina being carried away by Rouge through the air. It was too late to save her, the bullets from the old gun went right into the cat. Tina only saw her hit the floor as Rouge flew away from the station. The bear didn't feel sorry for the dark grey cat, just felt sorry he didn't hit the green hedgehog. As the angry Mobians down below watched the bat fly away with their target, they knew that one of their buildings will get blown to smithereens. The spy bats above saw that Tina was still alive and time was up.
Rouge and Tina landed near rooftop away from the building and were glad they were away from the madness. Rouge looked at her wrist watch and saw that time was up. She wondered what building was going to get blown up as she looked at the angry mob still in the TV station. The TV station...that thought came to her mind, but before she could act in time...it was too late.
*KAAABBBOOOOMMMM*!
After the explosion was activated, Amy finally made Sally fire that one shot. The wolves were surprised at the results, for the Queen did shoot someone, it was a shame it was one of the wolves instead of Amy. When the beam went right through his body and when he hit the floor getting blood all over the carpet, Sally was disgusted.
"Aghh!" She cried as she pulled away from Amy's gun and started to whimper.
"Oops, lookie what you did Sal," said Amy as she put pistol back in her maid bra, "How are you ever going to get those blood stains off your carpet? Ha! Ha!"
"Shut up! Just SHUT UP!" She yelled starting to stand on her two feet, "What do you want Amy? What do you want?"
"Just...a little smile...hee hee ha ahahah!" She laughed. Sally had enough of her, she just wanted her to leave her alone. Amy smirked and ordered the boys to carry their fellow wolf out of the castle through the back where they entered. "Poor Mike, he was a good wolf, but you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs right?" The boys left the room and got the "Gift" Amy wanted to give Sally. They brought in the big gift that was wrapped in purple wrapping with green polka dotted spots and tied with green silk ribbons. It was heavy when they planted it hard on the living room floor.
Sally had no idea what was in the big box and Amy just smiled at her curiosity and her wobbly legs.
"I'll need a moment with the Queen boys," she said as her boys and the ordered Omega quickly left to the back of the castle, "Like I said Sal, I like you and as I give you this box as a token of your co-operation, I like to say that, Tina was right." Then Amy started to walk backwards away from the room with a sad face, "On the outside, I'm just smiling, but on the inside, I'm crying. Crying my heart out...perhaps you may want to join me, for a Kodak moment. Pfftt! Haha ha ha! Hahah!"
She left the castle in a hurry and was probably the last time Sally would see that crazed woman again...
She wanted to stop her, but she was still too weak from the beating to go that far. All she could do was try and lean on the couch. She looked around the room and it was a mess. Chili sauce on the couch and floor, the lamp was broken, and a trail of blood scattering on the floor, she was going to worry about all that later. The only thing on her mind right was that big gift she left on the floor. Sally carefully reached towards the box and unwrapped it and couldn't help but expect the worse. A bomb, a cruel joke, or a dead body of someone. One the ribbons where off, nothing happened yet. Finally, after taking a deep breath, she opened the box and closed her eyes. Nothing happened, but she did hear, snoring.
She knew that snoring. She opened her eyes in expectation, looked in the box, and it was true. Her children Manik and Sonia sleeping in the box unharmed. The way they were cuddled together on top of a blue blanket made her cry with joy.
"...*Sniff*...M-MANIK...S-SONIA! My babies! MY BABIES!"
