Luna captures Sally fairly easily, however, she still feels incomplete.
The extra victim is someone that she has a notorious issue with.
Sally could barely raise her head above her shoulders. She tried to stand erect, but every time she did, she stumbled and fell to the ground. It was terrible that this could happen, right under their noses, no less. Sally felt totally unprepared and vulnerable during this time of trepidation. She could slowly feel her strength ebb away as Luna watched her with strong hostility.
Luna turned and faced her. She was standing above her like a towering behemoth ready to devour its prey. Sally felt like a fly being crushed in-between the hands of a dreadful monster. She tried to stand again. This time it seemed as if she was going to stand up and show her what for. She took all of the energy she had and transferred it to her fist. It was all going to happen right here, right now. This stranger was going to go down first. Sally let loose a powerful uppercut punch, but was immediately countered with a strong roundhouse kick to the face. In an instant, she was pushed back against the control panel, being choked by defiled hands of evil. It hurt so much. She was sinking under faster the tighter Luna's grip became.
Luna's eyes were piercing Sally's very being. "Listen very well, Princess Sally. In only a short time, you will belong to me. You will obey my every direct order and command. There will be one very special command that I need you to assist me with," she snickered. "It's going to be so much fun; just you and me. Oh! I almost forgot. There will be others."
Sally tried to speak, but those sweaty hands constricting her tight neck left her with a lack of speaking. Nothing was in order at all. She couldn't talk, she couldn't move; she could barely even breathe because of a giant hand asphyxiating her. She tried to force the large hand off her, but the harder she tried, the tighter the grip became. She was close to tears.
"Aww, are you crying?" she said, sympathetically. "Does the wittle baby need a tissue? Better dry those tears. It won't be long. I promise," she lied.
Then, coming from down the hall, there were rapid footsteps approaching and someone shouting, "Sally! Sally!"
Luna turned her head and growled. That must be the voice of Sally's father. I knew that bastard told me that I was going to have some trouble down the line, but he never told me about an encounter with her father. I wonder what else he kept from me. Never mind. I wonder what took the old man so long to realize that his precious daughter was in peril.
Upon releasing her grip, Sally was finally able to speak once again. She was finally able to breathe again. She slowed down, caught her breath, and shouted, "Father! Help!"
"Well, it's time to go. Goodbye, Sally," she said, then teleported away. The entire place was in shambles. There were wires and attachments everywhere. Electricity was flying through the room. Temperatures began to rise exponentially. The computer was wrecked and malfunctioning. It looked like the entire room was going to explode just by setting off a hairpin trigger. Max dashed into the time bomb of a room and grabbed his daughter, gently holding her with both hands.
"Sally! There you are! I thought I almost lost you."
"Yeah, same here," she laughed.
"Did you find out what the disturbance was?"
Just saying that brought her back to that dreadful time. It was awful. It only happened a few minutes ago, but those few minutes seemed to drag on forever. Every time she thought about it, she felt haunted because it happened so sudden and without warning. "Y-yes, I did."
"Were you able to take care of it?"
Sally just wanted to crawl away and hide in fear. She tilted her head down, and a tear fell from her face, smacking the cracked floor. "Well...I kind of...I mean, I can't...I just..." She could barely say that she couldn't expel her fear. She then pushed herself against her father's chest and cried. It felt like a fluffy pillow. She wished she could live there. "Father, I tried."
"It's okay, Sally," he said, condescending his own fear at this point just to comfort his daughter. "This place looks like it's about to blow. Let's get out of here!"
Later, somewhere above the city of Station Square...
Standing at the top of the tallest building, Luna held her head down and sighed. "I have all that I need, but I still feel incomplete in some way. Some small way. Maybe that extra victim that LRS – 2 told me about should be at the beach today. With the victim count now at six, the number I require, I think that extra victim was someone by the name of Cream the Rabbit. That one small target could very well be the extra push I need to further increase the firepower of my army. It's very vague, but I do remember what he told me. Cream should be arriving at the beach at 3:00 p.m. when the sun is at its highest in the sky," she said.
As she looked at the blue sky, savoring the moment between the point of completion and failure, she focused her attention on the sun's position in the sky. She waited patiently for the sun to land at the top of the world. It seemed that this would take forever, but little did she know that it wouldn't take long at all because it was already exactly 3:00 according to the clock tower behind her. She was so excited; it felt like everything was going to finally pay off. "Hmmhmmhmmhmm. Well, look at the time. I think that it's time to pay Cream the Rabbit a visit. It's back to the beach for me," she said evilly. She took out the controller that activated the switches and held it like a rare jewel. "It's almost time."
On Emerald Coast…
Many people lied on the beach, enjoying the sun and the beautiful seventy-degree weather. The clear, blue waters shone with great intensity as the sun's rays blasted on it. The hot sand felt so good as people squeezed it between their toes and kicked it in the faces of their friends. It was the perfect day to relax on the beach. However, people were not able to comprehend the evil that was approaching. Above the beaches' waters, Luna floated and viewed the immense group of people. Her figure eclipsed the sun. "Hmm, I don't see Cream yet. Where could she be?" she asked herself. She then began to act like a telescope to seek out her victim. Then, she noticed a small person kneeled down on the sand. It was barely discernable who she was looking at, but she could tell at least that they were building a sand castle. She floated down closer to Earth and got a better view of who she was looking at. It was a small cream-colored rabbit with exceptionally large ears and orange markings on the forehead and large ears; the person was also wearing a bathing suit. In addition, she did notice an even smaller blue creature wearing a red bowtie, and a dot on its head. It was jumping up and down in some weird way that made it seem that this small blue creature belonged to this person. Luna smiled. "Ha. It's Cream the Rabbit. That wasn't too bad. Now, the easy part should be luring her in. She is a child so that means she must be pretty naïve," she laughed. "Oh, my! Thank you, LRS – 2, for all that you've done. If only you could hear me right now. Too bad!" she laughed maniacally.
Planted on the hot sand of the beach, Cream the Rabbit was happily and joyously building her sand castle called "Cream's Dream Castle," which she named all by herself. It was a deformed, small little castle with a flag on top of it. She didn't want it to be like this, though. She wanted it to look like a queen's castle. She wanted it to be the best sand castle she had ever built in a long time. In the past, she had made other sand castles, but they were just small little mounds of sand piled on top of one another in order to create a mountain of sand, but not this time. This time, she was going to create a truly amazing castle deserving of recognition, especially by her mother, Vanilla. Cheese tried his best to help to, but every time he did, he knocked off a small part of the castle. This made Cream's job a lot harder and longer, but it was worth it to see what the result was going to come out to be.
As Cream sat and continued to sculpt away at her castle, Luna softly landed on the sand. She peered over to her right and saw Cream building what appeared to be a sand castle. "A little girl…so this is the extra target that LRS – 2 told me about. She looks so helpless with no one here to defend her. Just how I like it," she chuckled. "There isn't much to do here. The whole thing is nothing but child's play. I say that it's time to end it all right here, right now."
Luna knew that if she acted as she did now, Cream would suspect something, so she needed to change her attitude for a split second. She conjured a horrible smile, perked her shoulders up, and stood up straight. She immediately went from an evil, sadistic person to a sweet, kind God-fearing individual. She felt mortified doing this, but she knew that she had to if she wanted to get Cream. Luna walked towards her with open arms and an open heart. It made her want to vomit, but she had to do it in order to adapt to Cream's character.
As Cream was building her sand castle, she noticed a large shadow casting over her castle. She was in a conundrum as to why this would happen. It wasn't getting darker – well, in a technical sense. Cream turned her head and saw a girl towering over her and her castle. Cream, being the person that she is, introduced herself to the girl. "Hello," she bowed. "My name is Cream the Rabbit, and this," she said, indicating Cheese, "is my Chao friend, Cheese. What's your name?"
"Who, me? My name is Luna," she said with this strange neutrality in her voice. One side of her wanted to take her and threaten her with false promises, and another part was willing to suffer. She tried to stick on the suffering side. "Nice to meet you."
"Likewise," Cream said.
"Chao-chao!" Cheese squeaked.
"He sure is cute, isn't he? Now, I noticed that you were building a sand castle. Am I right?"
"That's right! I'm making a sand castle, and this one is going to be the best one that I've ever built!"
"Well, that's a pretty big job, huh? Now, I think that you're going to need some help in that department, because there's no way that you can accomplish that on your own."
Cream laughed softly. "No, thanks. Besides, I already have all of the extra help that I need," she said, pointing to Cheese once again. "Also, how will I know if I don't try? I have to take a stab at it. I won't know unless I try. Thank you for wanting to lend a hand, though," she said.
It wasn't about to end like this. "Wait, Cream. How about a third extra hand? After all, three heads are better than one."
"You're right. I want to make this the biggest and best sand castle ever and we need all of the help we need. Come on, Cheese! Let's go make the best sand castle ever!"
All too easy...
Both Luna and Cream sat down together and began to slowly construct the sand castle as the day lazily ticked away. Luna couldn't believe that she was doing this right now. Why was she suffering through this right now? The only reason that she is staying right now is because her target is right in front of her, but her range was slipping away, and she couldn't wait until it got too far away to catch. It was hard enough changing into something that she wasn't, but now she has to deal with this. What a terrible consequence. She had to crawl her way out of this before she was consumed by her own subconscious. "Hey, Cream. This castle is coming along great."
"Yeah. It is."
Luna decided that it was time to end this before it was too late. "Hey, Cream, there's something that I want to give you," she said. She pulled the final red switch and showed it to Cream. "Do you see this?"
Cream poked at the mini switch. "Yeah, I do. What is it, Luna?"
This was the hard part. She hadn't planned this part out. She was just pulled into it like a paper clip being attracted to a magnet; she was the paper clip. What was something clever that she could call it? All of this pressure was seeping deep into her bones and it was too much to bear. "Well, I, uh...I, um...I just..." Then she broke off and stood up. "That does it. I can't take it anymore."
"What's the matter, Luna?"
"I don't think that you understand me very well, little girl," she said maliciously.
"What do you mean, Luna? You're my best friend."
Luna laughed. "Friend? What, are you kidding me? I don't have any friends. Not now, not ever."
"Everyone has to have a friend in their life. It makes life worthwhile!"
Maybe this little six-year-old girl had a point. But she wasn't on the same wavelength as Cream was, though. "You're right. You know, if you have at least one friend in your life, everything is going to be okay. In fact, I have already made a few very good friends. One of those said is Sonic the Hedgehog."
"You're friends with Sonic?"
"That's right."
"Oh, boy. I'll bet he must be happy to have a friend like you."
Luna had the girl in her clutches now. "You have no idea how happy he was. When I introduced myself to him, he beamed with joy. He was so happy to have made a brand new friend. In fact, he's one of my best friends now."
"It must be great to have all these great friends by your side."
"It sure is," she laughed. "Cream, I have to go now. I'll see you again soon," she said. As soon as she walked away, she nearly forgot something. "By the way, Cream, I want you to have this," she said, handing Cream the miniature trigger. "It's a gift from me, Luna the Badger. Enjoy."
Cream was highly confused about what to do with this small thing. It was just a small dot and nothing more. There wasn't anything more to this small thing. It was just a little trigger that didn't do anything. She decided to ask Luna what the thing did, if it did anything at all. "Luna!" she called. "What do I do with it?"
At this point, Luna just wanted to turn around and strangle Cream. She was getting so annoyed by these questions and that annoying squealing voice of hers that just seemed to drag on forever. She decided to respond one last time. This time, she decided to tell her something that she could actually believe. "Keep it. It's an earring. I hope you like it."
"I do."
Luna proceeded to walk away. She rolled her eyes. "Sure you do."
Say hello to my brand...new...army.
This chapter is finally done. I'm almost done, and honestly, I am going to have a good time with these last few chapters. Chapter 16 coming soon.