I wanna congratulate you people for making it to the last chapter of Not A Toy. Thank you for reading and reviewing, now please enjoy the last chap!
To reviewer Spadehand: THANK YOU! Now I finally know what you guys were talking about... Stupid Chucky thing... Yeah, thanks so much. You explained enough, that's all I needed to know.
To reviewer toonfreak: It's okay, there's no need be. We learn something new everyday!
5. It All Comes Down To This
Rouge's eyes and Cream's eyes were locked, the bat watching vigilantly for the slightest sign of an offensive manoeuvre. Amy was getting heavy in her arms, and the tension of waiting for Cream to move wasn't helping. If Cream didn't move, she would have to. It was now or never.
In a sudden rush of adrenaline, Rouge shot up into the air. She was rising high, and rising fast. Her sensitive ears were popping and with the speed it brought on an excruciating pain. She could hear Amy whine as her ears began to feel it as well. Rouge glanced down, seeing Cream rising as fast as they were, if not faster. It was time for another risky move.
Rouge pulled a backflip in the air, arching her back to the point that her spine made a sharp angle. The sudden thrust hurt her neck, and she groaned as both she an Amy shot back down. Rouge bent her neck forward to her chest to tackle the pain, and saw Cream making a front-flip in the air and heading straight for them. Upon raising her head again, she saw that the ground was now approaching. She twitched her ears—they hurt again, but not because of the air pressure—Amy's shrill screams. Rouge did a barrel-roll as they headed straight for the ground and righted herself only mere inches from it. The nearby bushes followed the gusts created by her powerful wings as they rose steadily into the air once again.
Amy had covered her eyes and was still screaming, but then stopped when Rouge jerked her violently. "Will you stop struggling? You're not exactly lightweight, you know!"
"Yeah? Well, how about not trying to kill me?! What did you think you were doing out there?!" Amy screamed back.
"Stop screaming! My ears hurt because of you!"
"My ears hurt, too! Why'd you have to go so fast?!"
"Stop complaining! Do you want me to drop you? Augh!" Rouge cried as she felt something sharp graze her left shoulder. The sudden shock made her lose her grip...
Rouge watched in horror as the pink hedgehog and the chao plummeted. "Amy!" she called, having stopped in mid-air. She turned around to see Cream gaining on her. She held the Tails Doll in front of her and a small laser beam shot out of the jewel. Rouge was able to dodge it this time. She shot down in the slim hopes of catching the girl, but she seemed to have disappeared.
Rouge scrutinized the ground where Amy should have at least been lying, but there was no trace of her. She glanced around frantically, stopping in the air again. "Oh no...Where'd she go? She couldn't have just disappeared!"
She felt something like a liquid trickle down the arm where she had been hit with the object. There was a deep cut in her upper arm and blood was streaming from it. The skin also seemed to be singed a little. She must have been hit by the laser, yet she had barely felt it burn right through her skin. It had just felt like a cut. With no time to tend to her wound, she was off like a shot once more. All this stopping was giving Cream too much time to catch up.
Suddenly Rouge felt another shot graze her right arm this time. There was a flash of heat, and as she glanced at her arm, she saw that her glove had caught fire from the laser. She immediately panicked, waving her arm up and down and screaming. Then, she calmed slightly and pulled off her glove hectically and let it fall some hundred feet, all ablaze. She winced and groaned deeply and watched the second degree burn on her arm start to blister and boil. She whimpered as she glanced back at Cream, relentless in pursuit. Rouge's wings were beginning to tire. She couldn't flap them forever.
Amy screamed as she dove for the ground with Cheese in her grasp. How could Rouge have let her go? She didn't even give a warning! And now the two of them were headed straight for a broken death. Cheese could save herself, Amy realized.
She stopped screaming. "Cheese, you can fly. I'm letting you go, okay? Don't worry about me!"
Without waiting for any reply, she loosened her grip and watched as Cheese zoomed out of her sight. The tiny chao had taken to the air, and she, Amy, was still falling with no hope of survival when she impacted. She closed her eyes and blinked away the tears. "I'm so sorry, anyone I've hurt..." she whispered.
The ground reached her closer than she had expected, but the ground seemed to cushion her impact and move at a high speed. Was this the express train to heaven or hell? She didn't care. All she knew was that the train was warm and knew her name.
"Amy!"
The train sounded familiar, as well. Maybe it was one of her dead relatives that was the conductor. She opened her eyes to see...
"Sonic!" she gasped. She could barely muster any more. She was so exhausted. "Am I...dead?"
Sonic smiled down at her, continuing with his high-speed pursuit as he held the tired girl in his arms. "No. But that was a pretty nasty fall."
Sonic ground to a halt and set Amy down gently. "You okay?"
Amy wobbled a little, dizzy and in no condition to go crazy over her saviour. "I think... Thanks..."
He gave her a thumbs-up and a wink. "No prob. Now, where'd Rouge and Cream get off to?"
Amy looked to him with a victimized expression. "I have no idea... Sonic...I'm really scared. I had my suspicions about that thing right from the beginning, and I didn't do anything about it! Then, it possessed Cream and now she's trying to kill us all!"
Sonic clenched his fists. "What did that thing look like?"
"Tails...with a red jewel on top of its head..."
"I thought so. The Tails Doll—one of Eggman's old inventions. I had always thought that thing was pretty harmless—guess I never saw its true power... I'd better go find Rouge. Watch yourself, Amy!" he said before taking off.
"Be careful, Sonic!" Amy called after him, now near fainting.
Rouge noticed that her continual flying had brought her to the downtown core. It was a bustling area since it was the middle of the day. Maybe she could use that to her advantage, but she also didn't want to draw other people into the problem. Then she spotted it—the alleyways that riddled the core because of the many buildings. With some luck, she could lure Cream into a trap.
Rouge dove down and kept low to the ground as she travelled through an alley. She took a glance behind her. The Tails Doll wasn't allowing Cream to fall for it. Cream stayed high in the air, not following Rouge down. Rouge then came to a main street and landed right on the curb. She watched the cars whiz past her and glanced upward. Sure enough, there was Cream, but she was just hovering there.
She looked to the street again. She could easily fly over it in a pinch, why did their speed intimidate her? She stared, mesmerized by them, feeling the pain return to her numbed arm as she did so. It was her all alone with this freak of a toy that had possessed the girl. Her wings ached to high heavens, so she should try to conserve what was left of them. What should she do? She wouldn't be able to run fast enough to get away from an airborne enemy.
Suddenly Rouge was blown forward and into the path of oncoming cars. Whipping behind her, she saw that another laser from the Tails Doll had created a small explosion that had obliterated the pavement. Cream landed where Rouge had been standing and leapt forward. Rouge could get up and fly, but seeing a car speed for her paralyzed her. She screamed and covered her head, if one death didn't get her, the other would.
She felt herself being lifted and moved at a high speed. What was happening? She lifted her hands and opened her eyes, seeing Sonic holding her as he headed out of the city.
"We've gotta get out of this area, Rouge. We don't want innocent people getting hurt," he explained, keeping his eyes fixed forward.
He put her down once they reached the desert. "You okay?"
Rouge seemed shocked for a moment, then regained her composure. She patted her clothing. "Yes, thank you," she replied huffily.
They raised their heads as Cream descended and landed in front of them. Again, there was that impending silence and stillness that made them feel uneasy. The Tails Doll was calculating its next move as Rouge and Sonic studied theirs.
"We have to get that doll away from her," Sonic muttered, more to himself than anyone else.
Rouge glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and nodded slightly, feeling herself sweating as much as her body ached. She had a plan—reckless—but a plan nonetheless. Strategy didn't work on this thing, so the only thing left was brute force.
Rouge leapt forward and tackled Cream to the ground. "What are you doing?!" gasped Sonic, standing and staring dumbfounded.
Rouge fought Cream, who struggled violently and held tight to the Tails Doll. Rouge grabbed the tails of the doll in one hand and continued to pull in an effort to take it from Cream's hand. Cream had now resorted to biting and gnawed at Rouge's other hand. Rouge cried out, but only gripped the rabbit's arm tighter. Finally, the doll came loose from Cream's hand. Rouge lifted it high in the air and threw it as far as she could. It landed a couple of metres away.
Cream slowly stopped her fighting back and lay flat on her back, closing her eyes and appearing to be asleep. Rouge slowly got off of her, wary that like some weird machine, she would suddenly start up again. Seeing that Cream was down for the count, Rouge stepped over her and headed for the doll. She stood in front of it scowling murderously as she slowly raised her foot.
"This is for the pain you caused me," she began, bringing her foot down and squishing it under her boot. "And this is for making me work with that crazy girl," she continued, bringing her foot down harder this time. "This is for my dignity," she began to yell, grinding her foot into its head. "And this is for my glove—"
"Rouge!"
She looked behind her to see Sonic briefly, then she hit the ground hard. Something had a hold of her foot, and it wasn't letting go. Sure enough, it was Cream, still possessed by the doll. Rouge looked back to the doll and reached for it. She took it in her hand and placed one hand on the body and one on the head. In one swift move, she decapitated it, splitting it in two and watching the stuffing squeeze out. Rouge laughed and glanced to Cream—she still had a firm grip on her leg.
"What the?" She felt the doll, or what she thought was the doll, begin to squirm around in her hands. There was a sudden jolt that emanated from the doll, making her yelp in pain and drop it. To her horror, the doll began to reassemble itself once it hit the ground. The body crawled over to the head and lay itself beside the neck. The neck began to re-stitch itself, but only half-attached itself before crawling back to Cream's arms.
Cream reached out with her other hand feebly and grabbed the head of the doll savagely, ripping it apart again as she pulled it towards her. Rouge kicked the freakish rabbit from her foot in fear and crawled away as fast as she could. Cream stood up and held the Tails Doll's head in her right hand while glaring at Rouge with her glowing red eyes.
While Cream was preoccupied, Sonic dashed forward and grabbed the Tails Doll's body and dashed in front of Rouge. He locked gaze with Cream.
"Get out of here, Sonic," Rouge prodded. "Take that thing's body with you. Now!"
Sonic turned to see the determined look in her eye. There wasn't much point in arguing, but Cream was unpredictable and leaving the injured bat here to fend for herself may not turn out the best results. But, he could probably save others by listening to her advice. He nodded to her and took off.
Once he was a considerable distance away, he slowed down and made to turn around but felt a sudden immense burning sensation in his back. He hit the ground as a result of the shock and dropped the body. It landed a few feet in front, he could see as he slowly raised his head. He groaned in pain, but then gasped as he saw the doll's body standing up on its own. The head descended, having come up behind him and set itself on the body once more. This time, he watched as an invisible string sewed the head to the body, stitch by stitch.
He heard footsteps and looked to see Cream come up behind him and stand behind the Tails Doll. She reached down to pick it up as the jewel on its head shone brighter than ever. It seemed to be charging up for an attack. Sonic tried to force himself up, but the pain in his back hurt like hell. He closed his eyes, seeing the bright red colour that emanated from the jewel through his eyelids.
An ear-splitting yell, a scream, and the sound of something heavy hitting the dusty ground. The light had disappeared, and Sonic opened his eyes. Where Cream had been standing, she was now lying on the ground, out cold. Right in front of him was a plastic eye and stuffing. He raised his gaze a bit more to see a yellow and red hammer.
"Amy!"
Amy smiled at him. "Hey, Sonic!"
He looked to the hammer again. "What happened?"
She lifted it slowly to reveal a squashed Tails Doll. She rested the hammer on her shoulder and bent down to shift through the pieces. Sonic watched as she picked up one of the jewel shards.
"It wasn't a Chaos Emerald after all..." She looked to Sonic again. "Aren't you going to get up?"
"I can't," he sighed.
She put down the shard and her hammer and lifted him by his arms, placing him in an upright position. She drew back rapidly on seeing the prominent gash in the middle of his back from the blast the Tails Doll had given him.
"Oh my God! What happened to you, Sonic? Are you okay?"
Sonic winced and looked to Cream lying on the ground. "Yeah, I'm alright. Or will be, anyway. What about Cream?"
Amy smiled, having regained her composure. "She'll be okay, too. She'll wake up in a little while. Rouge?"
Rouge staggered towards them, holding her left arm to staunch the blood that was trailing down her arm in small rivulets. She collapsed to her knees just as she reached them. "Don't worry about me. So long as you destroyed that awful thing, I'm fine."
"The Tails Doll is gone for good, as you can see," said Amy as she motioned to the mess of fabric, cotton and red shards.
Sonic looked to the sky. "Man, this has been one heck of a day, hasn't it? I suppose we should really keep an eye on what little kids play with," he relished with a laugh.
Rouge and Amy acknowledged the comment. "I want those jewel shards," muttered Rouge.
"Yeah? Well you can't have them," Amy scolded playfully. "They're not a toy!"
THE END. That took a while. Longer, and a bit of a flop. Wow...swearing...I don't swear...What happened? Nyah... Please tell me what you think, and have a nice day.