From the room from which all of the before was surveyed, the room had grown quiet. The picture had faded out and the grey static was gone. There was no wind, no voices, no action. No noise of any sort. Apart from one. A single, stammering voice repeating "No...N-No! B-But-..." over and over again. It was of Sunbeam, clutching her head in agony and sorrow, and kneeling on the hard and cold concrete that had sheltered her in the past, now only a grim representation of the crowd behind her who could only watch in confusion. Master, on the other hand, was happily squirming in his chair, now recovered from the electric shock and reveling in Sunbeam's breakdown.
"Hah!" he suddenly yelled triumphantly, "I knew it! I knew I was innocent."
"But...but I don't understand!" Sunbeam yelled, "I...I thought you were the one! I thought you DID it!"
"Handling a large amount of Chronostic Energy will do that to you!" Master retorted back, "I told you, but did you listen? NO!"
Sunbeam stood up again and stared at Master and his bulgy, smug face. Her own began to twist into one of rage and frustration, as if she had tried to end him multiple times in the past and everything had failed. She grabbed a nearby shard of glass from one of the broken windows and began to rush towards him with wild, glass swinging abandon and screaming, "I'm the hero! I saved Amelia from a horrible and slow death. Now my own grandson...granddaughter...THING thinks I'm a monstrosity! And you? YOU got away scot-free! Not even a consequence! WHY WON'T YOU JUST FUCKING DIE?!"
But before Sunbeam could sink the glass into Master's soft, teeth-scarred flesh, there was another "thwump" sound as a sledgehammer flew out of thin air and collided with Sunbeam in mid-sprint. She skidded across the floor and stopped just shy of the machine, streams of blood and sick erupting from her mouth from the collision of the sledgehammer on her stomach. She got up, wincing in pain, before finding herself staring down the barrel of Lowell's revolver. She sniffed and slumped to the floor again in defeat. She began to cry slightly, half out of pain and half out of exhaustion.
"Don't kill me..." she whined in a high-pitched fashion, "I was only doing what I thought would help everyone..."
"Lowell!" Sonya stood up and rushed to his side, picking up the sledgehammer along the way, "There has to be a better way!"
Lowell ignored her and instead stared at Sunbeam. "Alright..." he said, slowly and calmly, "Two things are going to happen. ONE: you are going to shut down the machine and get Master out of it. TWO: you are going to explain what is going on here. I have no idea what's going on and frankly, I don't want to. But the sooner we solve who really killed Amelia, the better."
"...Alright..." Sunbeam said, "I'm just...I'm sorry..." "It's okay," Sonya comforted, "Here, I'll help you," she knelt down and grabbed Sunbeam by her arm and lifted her up. They began to hobble in union towards the console. Sunbeam painfully stretched out her hand and slowly pressed some buttons. The whining from the machine died completely and the restraints around Master's wrists opened with a loud clack. Afterwards, Sonya helped Sunbeam to the makeshift bed in the corner of the room and let her lie there. Frost placed her hands on Sunbeam's stomach and began to channel a small amount of cold through them to ease the pain in her stomach. With that being taken care of, Lowell went to Master, who had flopped onto the floor due to the after-effects of the shock. After a swift kicking, Master was up and walking slowly towards Sunbeam and the others.
"Well..." Spectre said after a long pause, "Now you will BOTH tell us what happened that night. What happened to me? Who killed me in the end?"
"I'll...I'll start," Sunbeam said in a solemn way, "Now, I know what you're thinking...yes, I am William. Or rather, I WAS." "I figured that out somewhat easily," Lowell said, "I'd like to know what happened with you just vanishing in a show of light." "It was a...a nightmare, from before," Sunbeam said, "I was sleeping on the night before the party and I just saw...saw Amelia. I saw her in a cage, in Delago's 'special' dungeon. She was hogtied and screaming for help, as her cold screams were choked by the rippling of the water she was lying in. She wriggled and threw herself about violently...and then she just stopped moving. She was just...dead...on the spot. And there was that Delago...just sitting there, with a box of tissues nearby. Enjoying this brutality!"
"It was only after a little research that I figured out where that dream came from," Master spoke up next, "The year previous, I had been testing a new liquid I had found. It was half of what powered that tear machine. You know the Time Stones?"
"From the Little Planet, yeah," Sonya said, "Useless little things. I wonder what happened to them, 'cause I never saw 'em again."
"I took 'em," Master said again, "I ran them through a processor to see if any interesting things were lurking in it, or if it was just a Chaos substitute. Well, this new liquid I extracted made the whole of time tick. I called it Chronos Energy."
"I thought we already had Chrono Sto-" Sonya began before Lowell swiftly slapped her across the cheek, "Oh, right, forgot. Never mention any Archie things. Sorry."
"...Yes, anyway. I saw MANY possibilities with this new liquid-time," Master said with glee before returning to the emotionless mumbling of before, "But alas, none of the idea seemed to be able to work. I was going to show it at the party, but I forgot. I guess little Jules got to go and took it."
"...I DO remember Jules coming back with a canister of blue liquid," Sunbeam said suddenly, sitting up straight before the pain in her still ruined stomach caused her to keel over again, "I thought it was some sort of new blueberry drink."
"...You DRANK it?!" Spectre said in amazement.
"Well, it didn't taste of blueberry, let me put it that way," Sunbeam said, "That's when the nightmares came. Piece by piece, like clockwork every other night, for the entire year up to the party. That last night pieced it all together. When I saw Amelia in that picture, I saw it as her. And I decided to prevent her end like that. Make it fast."
"And you set up Master to take the fall?"
"He was the closest to hand," Sunbeam said again in a sob-like way, "And I didn't want to endanger Charles; he was my friend. And I couldn't blame Dewitt; I knew he was innocent. And in hindsight, Master is the type of guy that would do something like that. Turns out I was right on the money."
"...Is this true, Mr. Master?" Spectre turned to Master, "Do you think I needed to die?"
"Life is a gift," Master said quickly, his voice wooden and monotonous, "It's given to you to be cherished and respected. But there will always be people who abuse the gift, like a spoilt child with a new toy. All that's left to fix the problem is to take it away. People like Amelia, it's taken away for their own good, lest people take it from them by horrific force."
"...I guess you do," Spectre said, disgusted, "Perhaps you know that your presence has the potential to breed the sort of animal Delago is?"
Master stayed silent that time. He didn't have an answer to that. Sunbeam smirked and continued her story, "And after that, on the boat ride, I saw what would happen at that time. Me, with the gun, vanishing in a bright light. No more, no less. When that time came...well, I did what I had to do and told Charles to make sure Master was punished for his crimes."
"Crimes that he didn't totally commit," Lowell sighed, "I understand. But that doesn't mean I sympathize with either story. You should be BOTH ashamed; Master for bringing Amelia and Delago to the party in the first place, and William for following fate blindly and trying to blame it on someone else rather than try to face up to your actions. I may serve you, Master, but you disgust me."
"...I know," Master said bitterly, "And after that, I guess the Chronos Energy transported William to the future Knight Island and broke down his body, creating the being before us."
"Well, that's settled," Frost said at last, "But what do we do now? I mean, what else is there to do?"
"Only one more thing," Sunbeam said, "I saw one more thing in that dream; Delago here in modern times. Turns out he was in that prison they put him in back in '22 for a long, long time. Ir's He's coming...he's here to finish the job."
Suddenly, there was a crash outside and most of the party rushed out to see what was up. Only Katherine stayed behind to tend to Sunbeam's wounds. Outside, there was a swoosh of flowing grass and crashing waves as some sort of mecha fell from the sky. It was a large, hulking thing with multiple guns on every limb and chest panel. It's rocket thrusters emitted jets of steam and smoke as the flames burst out at periods and seared the grass. And there, in the full-glass cockpit, was Delago. As with Master, time had not aged him and his face was still as scarred and disgustingly weasel-like as ever. The only real difference was some bandages across his forearms and a scar across his chest. And an enraged smile on his face.
"Won't you guys just DIE already?!" Delago screamed, "You're making me look BAD! Who do you think got this entire thing off the ground? All I wanted was my precious Amy-poo! And you ripped her from my hands, like an animal!"
"You don't deserve me, you wank-happy fuck!" Spectre spoke up at last, "Do you see anyone who's just going to bow to you?"
"Oh, Amy-poo, I'm better than that!" Delago wheezed, "I'm not that egotistic and pathetic to just ASK them to bow to me. I've had years, many many years, to focus on that day. All that time to think about seeing you fall to your doom. And lo, I've come to this conclusion; kill you all. Every last one of you! 'Cause as long as you peeps live, I'll never get my beloved Amy-poo. And you lovely ladies..." he edged closer to Becky and Frost, "I'll be sure to treat you right. I only use the softest of silk gags...like that?"
"Fuck you!" Becky retorted.
"Well, I tried," Delago shrugged, "Now then, how about we finally battle? I want to see your blood mix like a Bloody Mary! PREPARE FOR BATTLE!"
The machine's mechanical arms swung about with terrible ferocity, crashing into the ground before the heroes and raising a large chunk of earth into the sky. From there it let out a mechanical shriek and threw the chunk towards the awaiting group, of which most of them dodged with graceful accuracy. Lowell dug out his revolver and fired it's five shots towards the mecha, causing a few bullet holes to erupt in the bodywork but otherwise not damaging the machinery. Becky likewise responded by digging what appeared to be a Howa Type 64 out of...nowhere and firing a few short bursts at the machine. This round of fire managed to pierce the glass cockpit, but beyond that was stopped before it hit Delago in his fleshy head. It just stopped and leviated in the air for a short while before dropping to the ground for a bit.
"Cute," Delago said, smirking wildly, "Anti-gravity shields are always useful in cockpits. Makes me wonder why Eggman never used them in HIS machines. I mean, they're so...CHEAP...anyway, my turn to shoot things!"
Delago mashed a few buttons with very little precision or finesse, but this seemed to activate what attack he had selected. The four miniguns on the chest of the mecha rang out with their songs of gunfire and perforated the ground with hot lumps of brass. The group was forced to run, yelling in shock, and dive into the castle. Unfortunately, not everyone managed to fully escape the bullets and Becky was suddenly hit by one, clipping her left shoulder and sending a lot of blood around the room. As she fell to the ground in agony, the others pushed the doors shut from outside the door-frame, closing them with a tremendous creak and an even more tremendous slam. The bullets started again and almost tore the doors to shreds, but it managed to stay onto the hinges. The guns stopped for a bit and the mecha moved inland, cutting a path through all the shredded ground it had created, and lurched forward with the same sort of majesty of it's pilot (that is to say, none at all). It then began to lift it's giant, oil-stained claw and thrust it through the door-frame, trying to catch the group unawares. It was not successful and retreated to re-plan it's attack.
"...Seems a tad one-sided, doesn't it?" Lowell said at last. Everyone more-or-less nodded in agreement (except Becky, who tried her best anyway). Master didn't seem to be fully aware of the situation, blankly staring at the ceiling and deep in obvious and depressed thought. Lowell sighed at this hideous timing and slumped against the wall.
"If only I had the Chaos Emeralds on me!" Sonya whined, "I could make short work of that thing!"
"Anyone got any ideas?" Spectre asked, "I mean, I could probably possess parts of the machine and get them to disconnect or something."
"And I can freeze his guns so he can't use them," Frost said also, "I mean, they're ALL miniguns. If we disable them, he can't cover as much ground."
"Or as much vertical area," Lowell said, looking back at the mecha and then to Spectre, "Spectre, do you know if there's a way back to the labs from here?"
"I think so," Spectre said, "A few trapdoors and underground corridors here and there. Don't see how it'll help much, though. Just wires and cogs and stuff."
"And that gives me an idea. Patch up Becky and get her someplace safe."
Inside the mecha, Delago was starting to get impatient. Whatever his victims were doing, it was taking a VERY long time. Even the thoughts of his hogtied victims wasn't enough to stave off the boredom (the pathetic bastard) and he began to spin up the guns to amuse himself. He hastily pawed at the microphone controls and bellowed out, "OI! Can you hurry it up a bit? I'm getting bored here!"
"Hang on, hang on!" Came Lowell's voice from the castle, "Just trying something! Okay, Frost, could you hand me that screwdriver? No, the other one! I'm not a fan of cocktails. I prefer whiskey." There were a few bangs and whizzes and then they stopped just as suddenly as they started. Sonya's voice rang out shortly afterwards, "Okay, that did the trick! We're ready to go! Frost, you're up!"
Delago blinked confusedly for a few seconds, before becoming brutally impaitent and opening fire onto the castle once more. Luckily, the stone bricks used to create it were slightly more sturdy than the door and the structure of the castle held. From the side came Frost and Lowell, Frost on one low-level balcony and Lowell on another, slightly higher level balcony. From there they ran around the complex wildly, jumping from balcony to balcony, firing ice blasts and bullets as they went. Delago tried to tail them with his own guns, but his mecha was simply too slow. Instead, he could only flail at the controls of his sluggish contraption and scream "SLOW DOWN, DAMMIT! I can't get a bead on you!" before clunking and painful sound brought a look of horror to his realizing face. That sound, the one you hear when ice breaks in large quantities, was enough to tell him that Frost had been lucking with her shots and his guns had frozen completely, making them useless. On top of that, Lowell now had no less luck with his own accuracy and all the other guns were just shot to bits. Not a single ranged weapon was left active on his "powerful" mecha and the problem became worse when it was discovered that the ice had also rendered the mecha inoperable, making it essentially a gigantic metallic brick. Delago screamed in horror and mashed the buttons again in the vain hope that SOMETHING would happen. But his button mashing, rather than doing magic like it does in Hollywood, had completely locked up his controls and left his mecha a sitting duck in a large, target-like pond.
"Well, that was...easy," Frost said, "Still got it!"
"Indeed," Lowell said, "Now for the final attack! Get the damn thing out here!" At the very top of the castle, there was a shudder of wheels against cold aged rock and a few bangs of metal here and there. From the doors came a mechanical catapult, cobbled together from old scrap and what seemed to be a bed, with an even bigger cobble of scrap as it's ammo. There was a yell and a swipe of an arm from Lowell and the catapult fired, throwing it's supply with a distinct lack of grace high into the air. There, it tumbled for a short while before finding it's mark on the cockpit of the mecha, smashing it's glass and denting it's metal to absurd extents. The mecha stumbled around slightly, then began to ease up and fall. Down it fell like a mighty sack of brutally badly written potatoes, before crashing to the ground...
Right near the building with Katherine and William in it.
Lowell's face went from incredibly happy to incredibly "HOLY SHIT" in accordingly short order.
"Wow...that was...pretty easy," Frost said, unaware of the damage, "Is that a lack of challange or just really bad writing?" She paused for a second or two before looking at Lowell's frozen face, "Well what's wrong, Lowell? You look like you've seen a...oh. Never mind."Frost's own face then turned that particular shade of white. She quickly rushed back inside and got everyone up and soon the group was running down the stairs and back into the courtyard. From there, half of the workshop was in smoldering remains, in flames and various unearthly shades of purple. The group looked among themselves, half-confused and half-shocked.
"That..." Lowell began, "Wasn't supposed to happen."
"I hope we didn't kill 'em..." Spectre gasped in response, "I kinda like being a ghost, but I don't need friends like that."
"Katherine should be fine," Sonya sighed, "She's a Hellblood. William probably made some shield or something to protect herself. We Needlemouses always find our way out of tough situations."
"Yes, that's what infuriates me about your kind," Lowell sneered, "But...what about Delago?"
"GOOD...QUESTION..."
Argh Goddammit this was supposed to be the last chapter! AND everything screwed up when I uploaded this thing. Urgh, I need to stop using Notepad for this stuff. Why don't you offer basic structure support for Notepad-based works, , WHY?!
Oh well. Last Chapter coming soon. And this WILL be the last chapter, I promise!
