Hey guys! I just saw some reviews and I'm surprised that you all still like Last Stand! With the end coming closer I have a pretty good feeling about the next few chapters that will start coming in, and I'm also debating about whether or not to have a sequel to this. I probably will since I would miss writing about Illusion and Charcoal very much. So who knows? For now though enjoy this next chapter of Last Stand and bear through the annoying disclaimer thingy!
Disclaimer: Dark-Illusion-Detective does not own any of the Sonic Characters nor does she own Sega. She does however own her OCs: Illusion the Cat and Charcoal the Cat.
With that taken care of, I present the next chapter to Last Stand.
Chapter Thirteen
For once in Espio's life, he was scared of what could happen next. He had always been able to admit that things happen when they happen because that's how fate planned it; but to think that perhaps fate had a different future for Illusion made him toss aside his old way of thinking and keep running alongside Charcoal. The chameleon was scared of not making it in time, not saving Illusion… he even began to question himself if he could even make it.
"Where exactly are we running to?" Charcoal asked as he struggled to keep at the same pace as Espio.
That's when Espio wanted to hit himself over the head with a katana; he didn't even bother asking which way Illusion had gone. He stopped and grabbed Charcoal's tail before he could run into the lamp post.
Charcoal meowed and snatched his tail out of Espio's grasp, "What was that for?"
"I didn't want you running into anything. Sorry for actually caring."
The dusty black cat sighed as he looked around, "That's just great, we have no idea where we're going… that's just great."
Espio ignored Charcoal's remark and looked around. He knew they were already about half a mile away from the Chaotix building and he had to stop and think; where would someone go if they were running away from the police? Charcoal must've been on the same wavelength as he looked at the chameleon with excitement.
"They went to someplace abandoned!" they both stated at the same time. They blinked before grinning.
"So if they went to somewhere abandoned… where would have they gone?"
Espio started to think of all the possible abandoned locations in Westopolis only to realize there were ultimately three locations they could try but they didn't have that many tries, they at most only had two.
"Well there's an abandoned store, an abandoned train station and I think there's an abandoned apartment somewhere here," the chameleon replied after giving about three minutes of thinking.
"Three places?"
"Unfortunately yes."
"Isn't there a way to destroy one or two of the choices?"
"I can't think of how to eliminate the choices on this one," Espio stated.
Charcoal sighed as he said, "Well there's a 33.3 percent chance that we'll get to the right place… I think those are pretty good odds."
The chameleon nodded, not really caring what the percentages of finding Illusion were. He then said, "Might I suggest splitting up? You investigate an area, and I will investigate an area, if we don't find Illusion then we'll head to the remaining place."
"I'll check out the abandoned apartment if you'll check out the abandoned store."
Espio nodded and darted off swiftly as Charcoal mirrored the chameleon and darted off toward the abandoned apartment. The chameleon could only pray that he picked the right place.
---
The silence that lingered in the old train station was enough to make Charmy think that perhaps this was one of the major reasons why the train station was soon shut down. Vector on the other hand knew that the silence wasn't the reason… but the effect of being left isolated from the rest of Westopolis. When the duo first arrived to the abandoned train station they were shocked to see that no one was there, and at first Vector believed they were already too late.
So why were they still sitting in the shadows of the old station, waiting then? None of them were too sure themselves as they just sat, wondering whether Sherman would come back with an unconscious Illusion and hold her up for ransom. Of course that option seemed very unlikely but they sat on the dirty ground just waiting.
"Vector I think they're not coming," Charmy said in a tone that shattered the silence and Vector gave the honey bee a look that motioned him to stay quiet. In a much quieter voice, Charmy repeated himself.
"I heard ya the first time."
"Why are we still here then?"
"I have a feeling that-"
Charmy flew up to Vector's mouth and hugged it, shutting Vector's mouth… and for a good reason. As Vector glared at Charmy for cutting him off, they heard metal skidding across wood and they knew that someone had finally arrived.
As the duo peered out of their hiding spot they saw the dark cloaked raccoon running away from a blinding white light that darted past the duo, attempting to catch up with the raccoon. The duo darted out of their hiding spot and Charmy caught up with Illusion.
"Illusion!"
"Charmy? I thought I told you I would handle this!"
"You did but we just found out something major that could-"
Illusion avoided hitting a lever switch and kept running; Charmy however wasn't so fortunate and slammed into the lever switch at full speed. The hyperactive bee slid to the ground, grabbing the lever in the process and fell to the ground. Charmy's antennas twitched as he heard metal moving against metal and he looked at the switch; what the heck did it do?
There was a blast of air that sent Charmy back to hovering in the air and the bee saw a large, fast moving object moving on the tracks. Charmy noticed of the tunnel that Sherman and Illusion had ran into and that's when his eyes widened and as Vector approached, Charmy grabbed the crocodile's hand and dragged him toward the direction that the train went.
"ILLUSION!!" Charmy screamed at the top of his lungs.
---
As the duo ran into the tunnel, the raccoon knew that he was slowing down, he felt his breath come in like short gasps and he felt his heart pounding so hard against his chest that his body shook every time he took in a breath. Suddenly he heard metal scrapping against metal as the tracks moved slightly under his feet and made him trip. That's when Illusion caught up and stood beside him, looking down at him as he propped himself up by his elbow.
"Got'cha," Illusion smiled as she stopped glowing.
"Was the glowing thing to impress someone?"
Illusion tilted her head and shook her finger at him, "I'll never tell… but I know one thing you will tell me."
"Oh really? What does my favorite niece have to know?"
"Where is my brother Charcoal?"
Sherman raised an eyebrow at this as he questioned, "Why would you want to know the location of your half brother?"
Illusion smiled, "Because I want to hear him say that you corrupted him."
The cat felt confident in herself for saying that but the confidence died as she heard her once beloved uncle laughing hysterically at Illusion's sentence. Her green eyes narrowed onto the dark cloaked raccoon as she crossed her arms.
"What's so funny?"
A loud high pitched noise entered the tunnel and Illusion felt as if her eardrums had exploded. She grabbed her ears and covered them as the small tunnel began to rumble and shake.
"An earthquake?" Illusion thought until the rumbling got worse and she lost her balance, and was dragged onto the tracks by Sherman. The raccoon shot up to his feet and kept moving from his left foot to his right foot to avoid falling.
The roar of the high pitched noise made Illusion scream with pain as her ears started to ache. She looked toward the noise but that's when she felt like her heart stopped beating. It was a train, and it was coming right at her.
Sherman laughed as he spread his arms out and two copies of him appeared. The raccoon copies ran over to Illusion and held her down on the tracks and that's when Illusion remembered an old movie she watched with her mother once. About how a young, pretty woman was tied to the train tracks and was saved.
Illusion watched as the train came closer and closer to her, then for one moment she thought she heard Charmy and Espio scream her name. The white cat screamed as she struggled against the copies and somehow she managed to get free of the duo copies' grip… but it was just a little too late.
---
"ILLUSION!!" both Vector and Charmy were crying out as they approached the tunnel.
They saw the train hit two things that instantly turned into dust and the powerful wind that whipped from the train blinded Vector and Charmy momentarily. When they rubbed the dust out of their eyes, they saw Sherman the raccoon leaning against the tunnel laughing like a complete psycho and on the train tracks was nothing.
"What did you do with her!?" the crocodile snarled at the raccoon.
Sherman regained his composure as he smirked, his eyes gaining a slight little glint to them.
---
Espio and Charcoal had explored the other two locations and had met half way to the train station. As Charcoal ran with Espio he stopped and read the headlines of one newspaper and caught up with Espio.
"Yo Espy! Check this out!"
The dusty black cat shoved the papers into the chameleon's hand and Espio's gold eyes scanned the paper only to stop running.
Train Station Back in Business?
Tonight in Station Square, the old train station might be used as a shortcut for a train that's behind schedule. The time the train arrives is unknown but those who are true train lovers will want to go there.
Espio dropped the paper, grabbed Charcoal and ran as fast as he could toward the train station.
"Please no… please no!" was all that raced through Espio's mind as he kept running until he started to outrun Charcoal.
The old train station was in sight though they were about a quarter a mile away but they saw the large train flying on the tracks. Espio heard the whistle blowing and he screamed out Illusion's name along with Charcoal.
Then silence filled the air until it was disturbed by hysterical laughing. Espio cringed at the laughing but followed Charcoal toward the tunnel only to see Vector growling at Sherman and Charmy crying hysterically. Charcoal saw the raccoon he once called an uncle and for the second time in his life, he felt ashamed that he considered him part of the family.
Vector didn't seem to notice Espio and Charcoal as he snarled, "What did you do with her?!"
Sherman stopped laughing and looked at Espio right in the eyes, the strange glint crossing his eyes and that's what made Vector turn and see Espio, Charmy flew over to Espio crying, and made Espio's eyes widen.
"You… She…" he fell to his knees, and the ninja code no longer applied in this situation as his crystal tears flew from his eyes and he started crying just like Charmy.
Charcoal took out his gun and started firing at Sherman with a murderous look in his lime green eyes. The raccoon easily predicted that move and simply just duplicated himself and was about to kill them all until a bright light filled the tunnel, blinding everyone until a familiar giggle filled the light.
The chameleon found that he was unable to cry and instead he looked toward the source of the blinding light. When the light died everyone froze and stared at the lone figure that stood on the tracks as though a train had never crossed there in the first place.
"Look Uncle, we're both illusionists!" Illusion the cat said happily with a large show off smirk plastered on her face.
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Hey guys! Here's the chapter for Last Stand and as usual I hope you guys enjoy it and please tell me what you think of it.