Chapter 10- The Game

It took Scourge all of two seconds to push me back onto the ground.

I yelped, but I couldn't really register it myself, as Alicia was making enough noise for Mogul to hear from the casino. I quickly sat up looked towards where the two of them were duking it out.

Alicia still had the upper hand at the moment. She had Scourge pinned to the ground and was trying her best to get his face in between her teeth. He had his hand directly over her eyes and was trying to get his feet under her stomach, but the way she was clawing and kicking at him didn't do him much good whatsoever.

"Charolette, get outa here!" He shouted to me through clenched teeth.

"The hell I will!" I shouted back to him as I stood up again. "HEY! Alicia!"

She stopped and looked back towards me, her eyes… hungry…

It was at that point -when looking certain death in the eye- that any form of intelligent thought fled from my mind in a frenzied panic.

"Frack." I said backing up, as Alicia's stare bore into my own. Scourge attempted to get up, when she backhanded his face, sending his person flying to the ground.

"Scourge!" I yelled.

Alicia made another blood curdling yell-something between the screech of a night owl and the roar of a lion- and lunged at me.

My knee gave out, sending me straight to the ground as she flew over me, landing a few feet away with even more anger in her gaze as her prey (me) was not clenched inside her maw.

I revved my feet against the ground and ran towards Scourge, sliding next to him as Alicia pounced on my last location.

"Are you all right?" I asked him, shaking his shoulder, looking back at Alicia who was shaking her head in confusion. "Scourge, talk to me."

"Yeah, I'm fine." He grumbled.

"Good. Then plug your ears!" I shouted as Alicia jumped.

She was air born. Her crazed eyes were focused on me, and her mouth was opened in a maniacal rage. She began her descent. Hands open, ready to catch me and tear me apart.

I screamed.

"MII-!"

In front of me I heard Alicia land, and saw her writhing on the ground, holding her ears and making a terrifying, unearthly sound of pain.

I smiled at her misery.

"Come on," I said, standing up to walk away. "She won't be able to hurt us now."

I felt him grab onto my shirt, and pull himself up.

"Not now, but once she gets over your blast, she'll be up again. And now she's got our scent. She'll follow us back to the castle, you can count on that, Babe." He said, looking down on her squirming body.

I saw him wince.

"I'd hate to be on the receiving end, THAT much I know." He murmured.

"Really? I'd think you'd be able to take her down no problem." I said.

"Oh, I know I could. It's just the part of her being a mindless wreck for the past couple months makes me less willing to do so."

"And that's the only reason she hasn't found the castle? Because she's mindless? Well, she certainly recognized you, and there's no doubt in my mind that if she saw anyone else she'd jump at the scent of them too. "

"True that. But Boomer's been feeding her raw meat. That overtakes his scent which is covered at large by his metal bits. She's been happy with that."

"And you haven't dealt with her since she left?"

"Obviously not." He said, sarcasm dripping from his voice as he motioned to the ground.

"Then maybe we should just, do what you guys should've done a while ago?" I asked him. From the corner of my eye I saw him slowly look over at me in complete and utter disbelief.

He shut his widely open mouth and looked back down at Alicia, now whimpering.

"If she was as much of a problem as you said she was, then we should take care of her." I said. "No one would have to deal with her anymore. Am I right? And, she'd be at peace."

Before he could utter a response, I saw Miles land just behind Alicia. His normally smoothed over gray hair was slightly askew and his eyes were wild in worry.

"What's going- ON!" He shouted, then spotting Alicia on the ground.

"Nothing. She just tried to jump us while we were taking a walk." I said motioning to her shaking body. "What should we do with her?"

Miles looked down at his ex-lover apparent in what appeared to be a look of fear, confusion, and mild horror. Even I could still see the blood from the raw meat on her hands.

He stayed like that for a few moments, pondering over her fate when she began to sit up and looked over in his direction.

I saw fear flash in Mile's eyes as he took a step back.

Fear? Goodness, wasn't that new for the Moebians…

"M-miles?" She stammered, crawling hesitantly towards him. Her mouth rolled over his name as she tried to remember the memories to go along with it. "Mmmiles?"

"Alicia." He said, covering his mouth with a gloved hand. "I'm so sorry."

"Yuuuu. G-one." She said, pushing herself onto her knees. "Yuuu, lef-tuh."

His eyes closed tightly and a small tear dripped from his eyes.

"Miles. GONE!" She screamed, standing up swiftly, crouching low.

Well, she was back…. That was short lived…

Miles opened his eyes as she was about to pounce, waiting for his just deserves, when Scourge spin-dashed her to the ground, baring his own fangs against hers.

"Knock it off." I heard him growl. "This isn't you, Alicia. Snap out of it!"

"Miles, leave me!" She screamed in beautiful, harmonious, heart wrenching agony. "Miles, lie me!"

"Get off her, Scourge." Miles said, sternly. "This is my problem, and I intend to deal with her accordingly."

"Your funeral dude!" Scourge said, rolling off her.

Almost instantly, Alicia sprung up and charged towards Miles, who took the impact and landed on the ground with all her fury on top of him.

She clawed him, bit him, ripped his fur, spat in his face, and cursed his very name by screaming it to the Heavens.

Eventually, when he successfully looked like he had just made it through the Vietnam War, he put his hands on her stomach and flung her up so he could roll out and stand.

"Now that I've repaid, I'll fight." He said, putting his hands up into a guard.

That was new… I'd never seen Miles attempt to fight anyone except verbally. He didn't have as much muscle definition as Scourge at all, which in this case might've been a good thing. Alicia had been surviving in the wilds for a while, and she had not only muscle, but raw energy and revenge on her side.

Miles was in for it.

Beside me Scourge guffawed and broke down laughing.

"Dude! Miles, are you joking? You can barely open a jar of pickles, let alone take on your rabid ex-girlfriend!"

"Don't test me hedgehog." Miles said, flying into the air and kicking Alicia's face. "You may be next."

"I'm quaking in my boots." Was his response.

While Miles was doing his best to get any sort of edge on his ex, I could tell Scourge was right. He didn't stand a snowball's chance in Hell.

I took a few steps forward and kneeled down as Miles' body slid right up to me.

"Do you require some assistance?" I asked, looking down at him.

"Potentially." He groaned, with a furrowed brow. "MOVE!" Pushing on my knees, he made me land on my butt as Alicia landed on the ground directly in front of me.

"Would you like it now?" I asked, tucking my knees up casually to my chest, and leaning forward. She wasn't out for my blood as of now, as she had already turned her attention back to the fox who was spider-crawling backwards across the ground to get away from her attacks.

"No, I'm good!" He answered rolling to one side and standing up.

He feigned to one side before bolting behind her. She turned the other way, and round kicked him right past my face. He landed with a contenting 'THUD' against a tree branch. Calmly, I walked over to him as Alicia began to stalk closer.

"You want to change that? You'll be dead before the afternoon is over." I stated.

He glanced up at me with cold, tired, icy blue eyes.

"Fine." He groaned.

I smiled and looked back to Alicia. She certainly was ticked at him, that's for sure. I could use that alone for my advantage. The Wedding Singer aught to work, though…

"You thought you had the kind of love
You'd find in fairy tales." I sang, looking into her eyes. She stopped dead in her tracks. I put my hand onto Miles' chest.
"But then your boy ripped out your heart
With his sharpened hard on nails.
So if you know the kind of pain
This looser's singin' of
Well, let me hear you say it-
You're just a casualty of love!
Just a casualty of love!"

"I'm just a casualty of love!" She sang/shouted back to me. She looked a little confused as to why. That was normal. Boomer still wasn't used to it.

"Well I know why you do it.
You're a casualty of love!" I pushed off Miles and walked towards her.

"You're just a casualty of love!" The two boys joined in, both following me to her.

"Just a casualty of love."

"Just a casualty of—love!"

"We're from different walks of life,
And different points of view.
But we come together now"

"Through our hatred of you!
Cause you're a casualty of love!" We sang together.

"Love's a trick, love's a trap.
Love's a hot chick with the clap.
Love's a hoax, love's a tease.
A pinata full of bees!
Love's a joke, love's a scam.
A Sargent Slaughter body slam.
Love's a wound, watch it bleed
Love's the only thing I..." I sang, dancing around the various creatures present. I could feel Alicia's, Scourge's and Miles' life forces giving up to me. I felt, stronger. Powerful… Dangerous.

"You'll end up just like him,
Cause, trust me, love always ends." Scourge crooned, motioning towards Miles.

"You'll be fat, divorced, and broke
While she makes love with all of your friends." I said to Miles. His eyes flashed, even under my spell, from the words. I could feel his energy too, now.

"You'll be a casualty of love.
Love's a trick, love's a trap.
Love's a hot chick with the clap.
Love's a wound, watch it bleed.
Love's the only thing I need!
I need!" I sang, pushing the fox towards his slowly dying ex.

"No one's ever gonna love,
A casualty of LOVE!" Miles finished strongly.

As the last preverbal note left his mouth, Alicia dropped like a ton of bricks to the ground. I took a deep breath and inhaled as she wheezed out gasps of slow, short breaths.

"Well, that was fun." I said, breaking the silence. Miles shook his head, and I spotted some yellow Chaos Emerald essence fall from his person as he realized what state of being Alicia was in.

"Oh my God!" He shouted, crouching down next to her, holding her close.

"What happened?" Scourge asked groggily, holding his head.

"She's dead, that's what happened!" Miles yelled, glaring at me.

"She's not dead. She's just…. Temporarily out of service. She should be good as new in a little while." I reasoned. "I mean, she was hardly out when I hit her the first time!"

"But you didn't use us then, either." Scourge said. "That was all you. This time it was the three of us."

"Well, can't we take her back with us? Finitevus might want to study her or something. You never know. And then you can take care of her." I pointed out the two of them.

Alicia's breaths were now far and few in between.

What if these were here last breaths? I thought to myself. What if I took too much of her energy and she dies?

These were the sort of things I didn't want to be bothered by. I mean, not too many kids my age had to worry about the murder of another person—or 'being' in this case—on a regular basis and I didn't really feel like starting said hypothetical statistic. Not really on my to-do list.

"What do you think, Miles? Want to take your ex back to the castle?" Scourge questioned with a big grin on his face.

The poor fox, with his torn uniform, messed up hair, and bloodied fur looked up at the two of us with forsaken eyes.

"Yes. I do, Scourge." He said, picking her up carefully. "If you'll go back now and tell the Dr. I'll be bringing her back shortly?"

Scourge rolled his eyes.

"Why not? You coming, Charolette?" He questioned.

I looked back to Miles and figured he'd like to be left alone for a while.

"Sure," I said, jumping onto his back again.

He wrapped his arms around my legs.

"Just no more 'Titanic' moments please?"

"No worries." I responded, grabbing my wrist from around his neck.

As he sped off, leaving Miles in the dust, I couldn't help but feel the wind pump my already churning blood through my body even faster. Not to mention all the Chaos that pulled in Miles', Scourge's, and Alicia's energy that was added even on top of that.

I felt great.

Lively.

Wonderful.

All physically anyway.

But, all I could remember was how Alicia fell to the ground because of my gain. And that deep down inside of me, I was fine with it.